Change and the God of the Bible

Extract

Thinking how I should contribute, from the biblical perspective, to this discussion of whether there is change in God, there first came to my mind not biblical passages but two quotations from Anglican religion. First of all, the doleful words of H.F. Lyte in his hymn ‘Abide with Me’: ‘Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not abide with me.’ Secondly, words from the first of the Articles of Religion of the Church of England, which speak of God as ‘preserver of all things’.

My reason for mentioning these quotations is not so much because of any inherent theological value they may have but because of the kind of use to which they can be (and have been) put. Lyte’s words about God’s unchanging character are particularly appealing in a world where change is everywhere apparent. The quest for peace, security and a changelessness in God can satisfy the troubled spirit when there seems to be nothing stable in the world in which one lives. That means, of course, that those institutions which bear witness to the unchanging God must themselves be unchanging, a piece of heaven on earth, a reflection of the eternal. Similarly, the words about God being ‘preserver of all things’, heard when an Anglican incumbent entered on his ministry, reinforced the people who wanted to believe that the God whom the incumbent had come to proclaim was a God who changed nothing and preserved the status quo.