1–2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before eternal ages When we are told in Scripture that God cannot lie, there is usually associated with the idea the thought of immutability, as for instance, “God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of humankind that he should change his mind” (Num 23:19). The word “lie” here includes beyond its ordinary meaning the thought of change, so that when we read that God cannot lie we understand by it not