I would be willing to bet that most of you have never heard the names Parmenides or Heraclitus. Both men were highly influential Greek philosophers in the fifth century B.C. But even though they were contemporaries as to their age, their philosophical presuppositions couldn’t be any further apart. Parmenides promoted a philosophy of permanence, in which he denies the reality of change. He believed that everything stays the same and change is impossible. He argued that all perceived changes are only illusions of reality.

            Contrarily, Heraclitus believed that reality is ceaselessly changing. He argued that permanence is an illusion, except for the ironic notion that change itself is the only thing that is permanent. Heraclitus coined the famous philosophical proverb: “You can never step into the same river twice.”

            As you consider these competing ancient philosophies, which one do you think is right? Does everything essentially remain the same or is everything constantly changing? It is a tricky choice, isn’t it! On one hand, it does seem like everything basically remains the same. Has anybody ever asked you the question, “So, what’s new with you?” You probably responded, “Nothing much! Same old! Same old! It is the same thing day after day!” Or perhaps you run into an old friend and they say, “Wow, I haven’t seen you in ten years; you haven’t changed a bit.” (Personally, I get that response all the time!!!)

            On the other hand, it seems like so many things in our lives change so fast. For instance, technology! This is why I hate dropping money on a new computer; I know that it will be obsolete within two years. But just think about how, in such a short period of time, computers have revolutionized the way we communicate, travel, and watch movies. Consider the history of how we listen to music. In the old days, if you wanted to listen to music, you had to hear it live. Then came the phonograph and victrola, vinyl LPs, 8-tracks, cassette tapes, compact discs, and then digital mp3 players.

            In addition to technology, if you look at a picture of yourself from ten years ago, you realize how much you have changed; and it is usually not for the better. (This is what happens to my father-in-law all the time.)

            Today, I would like to argue that Parmenides and Heraclitus were both correct—that is, that most things in the world are constantly changing, but that there is at least one thing that never changes! Let us consider first some constant changes, the ever-shifting shadows of our world.

 

The Ever Shifting Shadows of our World

            Can you think of some things that are constantly changing? The clock, the calendar, the seasons, and Taylor Swift’s boyfriends! The weather, the stock market, gas prices, and the Obamacare health exchange deadline! Children, family, work, school, church, community, government, politics, laws, and the list could go on and on!

            Some changes bring us great joy, like when you heard the words, “By the authority vested in me as minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the state, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!” Other changes cause us great fear and sorrow, like when you hear the words, “The test results just came back, and they have confirmed that it is cancer. I am so sorry.” Still, other changes cause us joy, fear, and sorrow at the same time. For instance, all of the emotions are evoked when you hear the words, “I’m pregnant! We are going to have a baby!”

            Whenever I think about the topic of change, Winston Churchill’s famous quote comes to mind: “Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.”

            Whether you are a person who likes change or not, we all have to endure the ever-shifting shadows of the world!

The Never Shifting Shadows of our God

            When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe and other novels, was a university student, he lived in a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, who was disabled and could not leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man’s door, and ask, “Well, what’s the good news?”

            The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, “That’s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, THAT is middle C!” The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one “still point in a turning world.”

            For Christians, the one “still point in a turning world,” the one absolute of which there is no shadow of turning, is God! There are many passages in the Bible that affirm God’s immutability, but here are some of the most compelling:

•  Psalm 33:9-11—For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

•  Psalm 102:28-28—In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.

•  Malachi 3:6—I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

•  James 1:17—Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

•  Hebrews 1:10-12—He also says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

•  Hebrews 13:8—Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

            Each of these verses testifies to the fact that God does not change. Everything in the world is constantly changing, but he never changes! His character, plans, purposes, love, peace patience, kindness, judgment, mercy, and grace are always the same.

            Christian author A.W. Tozer observes, “He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure.  To change he would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect, He would be less than God.”

            God’s immutability is not only essential to his divine character, but it is a source of great comfort and peace to us. We live in a world that is constantly changing; isn’t it reassuring that God always stays the same. Like the ancient oak planted high on the hillside, God is immune to the winds of change. Like the solid rock that endures the constant crashing of ocean waves, he is strong, steady, and consistent through the chaos. Because he is immutable, we can trust him and rely on him completely!

 

            I will conclude by sharing an excerpt from a sermon on the immutability of God which was delivered by the great Baptist preacher C.H. Spurgeon on Sabbath Morning, January 7th, 1855, by the At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England:

The substance of mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns, doff their old diadems in summer, in rivers trickling down their sides, while the storm cloud gives them another coronation; the ocean, with its mighty floods, loses its water when the sunbeams kiss the waves, and snatch them in mists to heaven; even the sun himself requires fresh fuel from the hand of the Infinite Almighty, to replenish his ever burning furnace. All creatures change. Man, especially as to his body, is always undergoing revolution. Very probably there is not a single particle in my body which was in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity, its atoms have been removed by friction, fresh particles of matter have in the mean time constantly accrued to my body, and so it has been replenished; but its substance is altered. The fabric of which this world is made is ever passing away; like a stream of water, drops are running away and others are following after, keeping the river still full, but always changing in its elements. But God is perpetually the same. He is not composed of any substance or material, but is spirit—pure, essential, and ethereal spirit—and therefore he is immutable. He remains everlastingly the same. There are no furrows on his eternal brow. No age hath palsied him; no years have marked him with the mementos of their flight; he sees ages pass, but with him it is ever now. He is the great I AM—the Great Unchangeable.

May we find refuge in the one and only immutable God!