God Never Changes

    It is a truism that the world is rapidly changing and indeed it is. We have seen this most recently in the dramatic change in attitude toward homosexuality. Same-sex marriage, which just twenty years ago would have seemed like a shocking absurdity, is not legal in thirteen states and several foreign countries. What is the world coming to?
   

Harry Emerson Fosdick

 The natural instinct of the average person in such circumstances is simply to "go with the flow." To get along you have to go along, as they say. We have to adapt to changing times. In an earlier generation this type of thinking led to an entire theological movement called "Modernism." As one of its most vocal proponents, Harry Emerson Fosdick, put it, "Protestantism . . . was formulated in prescientific days. Not one of its historic statements of faith takes into account any of the masterful ideas which constituted the framework of modern thinking – the inductive method, the new astronomy, natural law, evolution." He then went on to say that the "chaos and turmoil" of his day sprang directly "from the impossible endeavor of large sections of the church to continue the presentation of the Gospel in forms of thought that are no longer real and cogent to well-educated minds" (Adventurous Christianity, 1926, pp. 241,242). Hence early 20^th Century "Modernism."
   

J. Gresham Machen

 One of the leading conservatives of the day J. Gresham Machen, noted the difficulty but observed that "the liberal attempt at reconciling Christianity with modern science has really relinquished everything distinctive of Christianity, so that what remains is in essentials only that same indefinite type of religious aspiration which was in the world before Christianity came upon the scene" (Christianity and Liberalism, 1923, p. 7). And so early 20^th Century "Fundamentalism."
    The conflict between Modernism and Fundamentalism was long and bitter, but in the end the liberals won control of most of the major Protestant denominations in America. But conservative, biblical Christianity still survives, and the major underlying issues are still very much alive.
    Does truth change at the whim of the U.S. Supreme Court? It obviously does not.
        "Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
         Before the mountains were brought forth,
         Or even You had formed the earth and the world,
         Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."

(Ps. 90:1,2; NKJV)

    Some things never change. There is order and structure in the universe. Nature proceeds according to certain well-defined patterns. Life and death continue their ceaseless cycle. And human nature remains the same. And above it all is the Supreme Being Who created the universe. He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and is not subject to the passing fads and fancies of human legislation. God did not consult the U. S. Supreme Court before He handed down the Ten Commandments. And long after nations and empires have been swept into the dustbin of history, the throne of God will continue to stand unmoved, eternal in the heavens.
    In the Last Judgment God's opinion will be the only one that counts.