OK, this is going to be short and to the point. We absolutely must get it in our head that God NEVER changes. He’s never going to change, and He never changed.
Malachi 3:6 “For I [am] the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
He did not change between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Mainstream churches teach that, somehow, the “mean God” of the Old Testament changed into a the “loving God” of the New Testament.
Guess what? He’s always been a Loving God! He is the Embodiment of Love.
1 John 4:8 “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
My whole theology and understanding of the Truth that God never changes is foundational to my faith. If I hear that ANY teaching that says my God changed, I don’t listen to it … no matter who it comes from.
When you understand that God never changes, and that His Son was the perfect representation of His Father, there is a consistency in the Word that wasn’t there before. All of a sudden, the more “complicated” doctrines are no longer subject to our opinions and biases … and things (finally) start to add up.
God is the same, His Word never changes, His commandments never change. And, as far as His Son is concerned:
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Flee from any teaching that would take away from the simplicity of the Word.
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One of the simple things that may need to be addressed a little more in depth is this:
The tendency to compartmentalize and or “cherry-pick” scriptures instead of looking at it as a whole and in context. Especially when it comes to the NATURE & Character of God.
Expository/principle based preaching and teaching has largely turned into personal interpretation and private application of scripture.
In order for scripture to be “Truth”, it must agree … always.
Our man-made doctrines, preconceived ideas and interpretational errors can make it SEEM like scripture disagrees (in effect, rendering them false), but the Truth is they do not disagree. If we find scriptures that disagree, it is up to us, with the Honor of Kings, to search out a matter and find out why.
I don’t believe God intended to make the scriptures too difficult to understand, or too hyper-spiritual to where you have to ascend to another level to figure them out. If so, then I’m truly a lost cause. If 1 + 1 does not equal 2, then I’m not buying it.
I’m not sure if you were inferring if I may be one of the “cherry pickers” or not. Personally, I think the unchangeableness of God and the “same-ness” of Jesus is a solid foundation to stand on – you see it throughout scripture. Each scripture that we look at should support that. If that’s cherry picking, it’s a pretty safe cherry to stand on!
No, I’m not coding that you were cherry-picking bro. If I thought that I would come right out and say it. Just a thought as to why or how so many are confused or finding multiple meanings out of the same scripture. The phrase cherry picking was in reference to the fact that some see God as different from Testament to Testament using certain scriptures that support their assumption or misinterpretation.
Relativism has consumed the modern church and ministry. So much of what is preached and taught is based on feeling, emotion, abstract philosophy and popular trends.
That’s cool Monte … thanks! And I totally agree …
yes go ahead and get rid of the middle part. What I love about our thread though is that we speak what we know not as adversaries but as believers who want to know our God and as we come together humbly before the Lord He reveals himself to us. Thank you for your site.
Once again, you are right on!!!
Blessings!
Amen and Amen!
Yes, Our Father has always been and always will be a loving God. Just as he always will be a God of wrath and judgement to any individual or nation that refuses or chooses to not honor him. Tic Toc U.S..
I will say that this is the most basic fundamental belief that should be in every Christians mind. I quite sure that many will agree when you ask them. The wavering so to speak starts when you ask the questions about G-d’s Law and things that are labeled ‘Jewish’. Anything remotely resembling ‘Jewish’ is quickly dismissed as legalism.
kevinC
God Says He never changes and that is true, but whenever someone says that it seems that people pull out the book of Leviticus. However, those who were under that ‘law’ could not fulfill those commandments, meaning all have sinned and fallen short of the ‘law’. The rich young ruler told Jesus he fulfilled the ‘law’, but when he had to make a sacrifice of his riches he stopped wanting to follow Jesus. These ‘laws’ were a part of the covenant which the isrealites broke. So then comes Jesus, the only one to fulfill the law, perfectly, and it is through His perfection that we are redeemed. That is why He says ‘this is the New Covenant in My Blood’ and then He says that the ‘Commandments’ of this Covenant are to Love God, Jehovah, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and Love our neighbor as ourselves; and as Paul said if we do these two things then we are not under the Law, meaning that the ‘new’ heart that God has created in us, already has the Law written on it.
We keep the First Commandment when we accept Christ as our Savior, which God commands us to do, meaning that is the beginning of God’s Law under the New Covenant and the fulfillment through Grace by obedience (like when God said that Righteousness was imparted to Abraham becaue He believed) and we cannot fulfill the 2nd Commandment without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God does not change, He has always wanted to commune with His Creation, however without Christ and consequently the Holy Spirit, we could keep all 600 something laws or even the 10 commandments and miss the mark and meaning of Salvation
Lastly (sorry so long), the bible speaks of Judaizers who come in and try to put a burden on the people saying that they are not saved if they do not follow the rituals and traditions of the Jewish Culture. That is where the statement about legalism and being Phariseeic come from. When people try to fulfill the law without accepting and acknowledging the Work of the Holy Spirit, they are acting just like the Pharisees who did not hear from God, but ‘abided’ by the ‘law’ and added their own spin on it, yet when Jesus (Yeshua Ha-Mashiach) came they refused to listen to the Holy Spirit, thereby condeming themselves and those who believed in justification by the ‘law’ to Hell
Hi Jabbar,
I understand that this is what has been taught from pulpits and seminaries for years, but it is 100% incorrect (please don’t think I’m pointing my finger at you specifically). The Word is True …. all the Way through … but our misinterpretations and man-made philosophies have put all sorts of conditions and “Yeah … but’s” in it. Unfortunately, I can’t respond to everything you’ve said via a blog discussion, but we ARE going to be addressing these topics in this blog in posts to come.
In the meantime, think about this. The “Old Testament” ways that God gave to the Jews (His chosen people) were not “Jewish ways”. God said, repeatedly, that they were “My Ways”, “My statutes”, “My Laws”. These rules and regulations were not meant for just the Jewish people only. The Jewish people just happened to be God’s chosen people to receive them first. They were to show the Gentiles HOW to come into relationship with God by obedience to God’s Ways and God’s Commandments and God’s statutes.
I’ll address more on this in the future, In the meantime, I’m building a foundation with these posts. For THIS POST – the Main Point is …. either God DOESN’T change …. or the bible lied. I choose to believe the Bible is True.
The problem was not the old testament laws written in scripture (which is actually the Torah and refers to the teachings and instructions from God on how we are to love and serve him) but that Judaism–which was a man made religion–added to the word with many added laws that were too difficult for men to keep!
Oh, and also the scriptures that say God/Jesus doesn’t change …. come out of Malachi and Hebrews (NT) …. Leviticus doesn’t come into the picture at this point! God bless ….
This comment was actually a reply to Kevin C and not to the post as a WHOLE. God never changed, we did, when we chose to disobey (the first Adam). So I reacted to that comment because whenever I have seen someone talk about God never changing, the next words seems to go back to the Law of Moses (which is what I have heard preached from pulpits). However in Act 15, they were having this discussion about the Gentiles who had come to Christ and the men of Judea who said that they had to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses to be Saved. Also, I have never been to seminary and been out of mainline ‘church’ for awhile now. I just have been on a journey that has caused me to bring all things that I thought I knew into question and finally studying so that I can right divide (discern) the Word of Truth.
No problem Jabbar, we’re all learning. If you want, I can delete this piece of the thread. As far as Acts 15 goes, the sect of the Circumcision … even those who believed had trouble with the “Salvation by Works” mentality. Contrary to what we’ve been taught, Salvation has ALWAYS been by grace alone. Even in the Old Testament. God saved Israel from Egypt purely by grace, they did NOTHING to earn it.
Deu 7:7-10 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the LORD your God, He [is] God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.” <– that’s grace!
It was AFTER their salvation that God gave His Law. Even so now, we are saved by grace, so that we can obey His commandments. I realize that is a loaded statement, just begging for controversy, but it’s true. Do a word study on lawlessness in the End Times … it flies in the face of everything we’ve ever been taught.