If you grew up in church, or even attended Sunday School when you were young, you were probably taught the concept that God doesn’t change. It stems from the theological principles that God cannot increase or decrease or change, because He is already complete and perfect because, He is God. But, what does God’s characteristic of continuity really mean? What are we to do with Scriptures where God seems to change His mind or react to prayer or repentance, or adapt to a decision of man? From an isolated perspective, it might seem that maybe God does change.
Some theologians have developed some rather creative ideas of explaining God’s apparent change. In the later 20th century the idea of Process Theology came on the scene. They claimed that there are parts of God and reality that are in process and organic. That God is not immutable. That God must interact and respond to reality. Open (or Free-Will) theist similarly claim that the future is open and that while God influences, He does not direct man’s future and therefore, must react and adjust to man’s decisions. While these concepts do get the idea of a personal God who interacts with man, they are way off the mark when it comes to what Scripture teaches about God’s constant nature. For instance, what do they do with prophecy, with foreknowledge, with God’s Sovereignty, and His will?
Rest assured, that God is indeed constant and unchanging and He doesn’t simply react to mankind. See, sometimes the Bible uses anthropomorphisms to help us identify with God, but they are not to be mistaken as describing His character. And, sometimes what seem to be changes, are really just new stages in His perfect plan…and, sometimes God appears to change, but it’s really man who has changed and moved into a different relationship with God, like Adam, the Ninevites, and well, modern-day Christians.
God’s Word makes it very clear that we can trust an unchanging God. We can rely on Him and His plan, for He is above all and controls all, He cannot be changed or manipulated. Right theology is derived from Scripture as a whole and understood within a biblical context of God’s characteristics.
While there are many, I want to leave you with a few wonderful Scriptures that give us assurance of a God who is constant.
Psalms 102 records that “They will perish, but You remain…Your years will never end.”
Psalms 33:11 “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purpose of His heart through all generations.”
God proclaimed through Malachi 3:6 that “I the Lord, do not change.”
James wrote that “God does not change like shifting shadows.”
Thank you, Lord, for your unchanging nature!
