An Unchanging God

Our world is more subject to change today than it has ever been in Human history. More information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 500 years.

Just recently, one trip of the space shuttle Challenger produced enough information to fill 44,000 books. Ninety percent of all the items in the supermarket didn’t exist 10 years ago. Fifty percent of the college graduates are going to jobs that didn’t exist when they were born. For the most part these new places of employment are due to the age of high technology and especially the computer. Ninety percent of the businesses in the United States were started in the last 25 years.

These kinds of changes are an example of our changing world. One man put it this way: "My great-grandfather rode a horse, but he was afraid of a train. My grandfather rode a train, but he was afraid of a car. My father rode in a car, but he was afraid of an airplane. I ride in an airplane, but I’m afraid of a horse." That’s certainly making a full circle! The rate of change is so great today that we can hardly get ourselves used to the constant upheavals it causes. It has almost totally changed our view of things that are old.

What are 4 bad things about something or someone that doesn’t change?

Out of date

Useless

Out of touch

Old fashioned

There doesn’t seem to be anything that lasts very long because everything has become a fad or a trend. Even things that were solid for so many years are no longer held sacred like marriage. In the midst of our world today, God is an anchor for our soul, and a fixed point of reference for our decisions. He is an axis around which our lives can revolve. In Malachi 3:6, the bible tells us: "I the Lord do not change." These simple words were spoken in a time of great change. Worship had become casual, as people gave only their second or third best to God. The moral law of God was being disregarded. God’s command to tithe was being ignored, and neither the priest nor the people of Malachi’s day took seriously the threat of the approaching judgment of God. It was in that kind of world that God still kept His promises He had spoken.

If you turn to the New Testament you find In Hebrews 13:8 a passage that describes Jesus as "...the same yesterday and today and forever." These words were also written in a time of great change. The old structures were crumbling and new ones were emerging. Persecution was intensifying, and to assure God’s people that He would never leave them, God emphasized the fact that Christ, God’s only Son never changes. Because God doesn’t change, there are at least four other things that will never change.

1. Our Christian faith never changes

The word "faith" refers to Christian doctrine without any additions or deletions. The revelation of God is full and complete in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. That doesn’t mean that our faith doesn’t need to be re-examined, re-expressed, or even re-applied. Every person and every generation needs to do that. Our challenge is always to have a deeper understanding, and clearer expression, as well as a broader application of our faith.

If my father and grandfather understood God’s revelation correctly, then I should believe the same as they did. That’s not being old fashioned! That’s just being smart! One of the glories of the church is that it usually doesn’t change too much or too fast. There is something stabilizing about coming to church and singing "Amazing Grace" and "The Old Rugged Cross"; not so much because it’s the same song, but the truths expressed are the same today as they were when your grandparents sang them. We’ve got to figure out how to stay on the cutting edge (presentation) without being on the bleeding edge of life, and without compromising the message of Christ and the Truth of the gospel. My faith tells me the Bible is true in all its parts. If God never changes, then neither does our Christian faith.

2. Our ethical and moral obligations never change

There is no area of society where change has been more drastic and more disturbing than its ethics and morals. Confusion and inconsistency can be seen everywhere today. All we have to do is point back in recent history to the violence in our nation’s schools to know that confusion and inconsistency is in many homes in North America today. In our kind of world it’s not unusual to be invited to attend a seminar on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, only to have the seminar proceeded by a two-hour cocktail hour. In the last seventy years, movies have gone from silent movies to language that’s unspeakable. And many of our daytime and prime time television talk shows have become centered on dysfunctional people, talking to dysfunctional hosts, talking about their miserable lives. Then, they get on national television and have a knock down fight so the whole world can see the foolishness that’s going on in North American homes today. The odds are now that when a couple walks down the aisle of their church to be married, their marriage won’t last seven years. One of them will leave their marriage before the warranty on their refrigerator runs out.