When
the Bible says God does not change, those references are talking about
his character - the goal is to inspire confidence, not to reveal some
ontological fact about the divine nature. Logic leads us to assume
another reasonable thing about God's immutability: that he cannot cease
to be God. We begin to get into trouble when we take this father
however, and say things like "God cannot change his mind" or "God cannot
learn something new". Both of these things HAPPEN in scripture, and
when we apply theological assumptions about immutability to these
scriptural scenarios, we have to change the way we read the text to make
them fit. We are changing what the Bible says to fit our idea of God,
rather than allowing the text to change our ideas about God.
To
really know what someone means by making a statement, like "I never
change", you need to know the context into which it is spoken. Here is
an example.Sometimes my fiance will tell me she wants to go home and
change - to which I respond "Don't ever change." The reason I think this
is funny, is because we all know that this expression in this context
refers to clothes and not to character. She is trying to state something
about an activity she wishes to perform, not making threat to become a
different person. What does the Biblical audience need to know in the
context of the statement "I never change" do they need to know that God
is reliable, or that he is immutable?
