Has God changed?

That question has been addressed by people far wiser and more learned than I. Books on the so-called evolution of God have been popular. The question came back to me in recent sessions of our Disciple Bible Study class. We’re in the early Old Testament—a part of the Bible I dearly love, and feel very passionate about teaching. There are some wonderful and terrible stories about the people of Israel and their God.

The wonderful stories describe God’s love and care for the people, shown in God’s mighty acts of creation and deliverance from slavery, among others. There are some terrible stories in which God commands the people to kill thousands of people--or so they think. And there are some really funny stories in which faithful men (Abraham and Moses) argue with God, finally cajoling the deity into doing the right thing.

People talk about “the Old Testament God” as if that one were a mean, ruthless old man, full of wrath; and the “New Testament God” as one who is loving, forgiving, accepting, and gracious. Sounds as if God evolved and got nicer over the centuries.
I propose that people evolved and got nicer and wiser over the centuries. Primitive people had a primitive understanding of God. As time passed, they learned from their experiences and from prophets and others who had learned to listen to the leading of the Spirit. They began to understand that God was the God of all people, with love enough for everyone in the world, whether or not they knew the right name and the right way to worship. In Jesus we can see the one whose life showed the fullness of God. Jesus showed us that God wanted us to love our enemies, not kill them.

Has God changed? No. Have people changed? Yes—but not enough. There are still places where people want to kill everyone who is not like them. There are places where there is prejudice and discrimination and hatred among people because of differences. We don’t make graven images anymore, but we do have a tendency to make God in their own image, rather than being willing to grow into the image of the God who made them. We tend to look for a God who approves of us and our way of doing things. We have some more evolving to do!