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Christian Network

Contemporary Western culture does not lend itself to the concept of a transcendent and unchanging God. This is evident in theologies that posit a deity that is "evolving" as we in the human race supposedly are. Modernity (and to some extent, Post-Modernity) is built on the idea of change being necessary and progress inevitable. Our culture teaches us to believe that the newest is always the best and that there is no end to human potential. With such a worldview people have trouble knowing how to relate to a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Of course God is not anti-change in the case of finite and imperfect beings like us. In fact he expects us to change, with his help. The creation has change "hardwired" into it. This is perhaps best illustrated by the life cycles that all living things undergo. Nothing is born fully-grown. From the Amoeba to the Blue Whale growth and change is clearly God’s plan for his creatures both large and small. However the One who designed change into the creation is not, himself, subject to it. God is the constant in an otherwise fluid universe. Perfection does not evolve.

Beyond this the change that God does ordain or allow does not necessarily end in something "new and improved," particularly when such change is a product of a cursed and fallen world. Animals grow but they also age. The "center does not hold" in a world like ours and, as author Chenua Achebe told us in the title of his greatest novel, "Things Fall Apart." All we have to look at is a fallen tree or a rusty old car to tell us that all material creations and instrumentalities deteriorate. As for human nature the Bible is very clear that things on Earth will get worse, not better, as the time of the end draws nearer. This is the trap inherent in all human attempts to re-invent ourselves. We can only truly improve when it is the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit doing the improving. All else is a proverbial "chasing after the wind."

The One who is effecting the authentic improvement of his people is doing so for one reason: their ongoing transformation into the likeness of Christ. Once this transformation is completed when we enter in to his immediate presence we will be like God. It may well be that the glorified child of God will be made a perfect creature, and no further change will be necessary for all eternity. This is because we will become mirror images (albeit at a perpetually lower level) of a God who has never had a need to alter himself for any reason.

But if change is the only constant that many people consciously or unconsciously believe in how will they come to know and worship such a God? This is a difficult question and unfortunately may lead to the conclusion that fewer and fewer Moderns and Post-Moderns will be able to enter into right relationship with their Creator as the age we live in winds down.

On the other hand some may be so burned by the empty promises of human progress and "change for the sake of change" that they will be compelled to seek and find an eternal Anchor for their harried souls. What few understand today, but many instinctively know, is that human beings desperately need an unchanging God to find peace, purpose and, yes, positive transformation in their lives. It is our privilege and challenge as believers to lead them to Him.