Should Our Ideas About God Change?

In his book, "Jesus and Bicameral Brain", Dr. James Danaher argues that "the nice thing about having a static belief in God is that if God doesn't change ... I don't have to either."

I think this is true.  I know a lot of people would read that and say, "well God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!  God doesn't change, and we must hold fast to the truths we know about God from the Bible and be sure that we don't let the world try to change our minds about God!"

But I think the wording of this quote from Dr. Danaher is key because the point he's making is that although God might be the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow ... we aren't.

Right?

Because as encounter different events in our lives ...

We grow.

We change.

We evolve.

(Or, at least, we SHOULD.)

I've been married for 11 years and marriage has CHANGED ME. I have a 4 year old daughter and when she was born and I held her for the first time, it CHANGED ME. It took me 3 years to get my Master's Degree and the journey CHANGED ME. It took me another 3 years to get my doctorate and it CHANGED ME. 4 years ago my wife and I uprooted out entire universe and moved from New Jersey to North Carolina and it CHANGED ME. When my grandma passed away a bunch of years ago, it CHANGED ME. When I heard that my friend committed suicide over the Summer, it CHANGED ME. 

We change.

We evolve.

We grow.

And so although God doesn't change ... we do, and that necessitates that how we view and understand God changes as well.

Why?

Marriage has impacted how I view God.

Having a daughter has impacted how I view God.

My education has impacted how I view God.

And this is important, this is the way it must be! Because if our beliefs about God never change, if our theologies and all the things we think about God forever remain the same.

Well.

That gives us a really good excuse to stay the same too. 

Right?

When someone says “my mind is made up!” or “this is my truth and you’ll never convince me otherwise!” … they think they are just being faithful to their “god” or their “faith”, but are they? Is refusing to change really all that "faithful"?

OR.

Have they just completely shut down their heart and their mind to any experience or idea about the Divine that might contradict what their tribe has told them is correct, what they think they know to be truth?

From personal experience I can say that that's a really, really dangerous place to be.

I was there once and not only did it cause a lot of inner turmoil as I felt responsible to ward off or correct all the people with differing and "evil" or "devilish" ideas, but it also really impacted the ways in which I viewed “my neighbor”, the people Jesus told us to love and care for.

Why?

Because it’s really hard to love your neighbor when you think the Devil is controlling their lives.  Right?  I was taught to stay away from the Devil, to cast the Devil out, to take a stand against the Devil. And so when I see my neighbor as someone who is filled with and controlled by the Devil … it makes it easy and OK to fully justify casting him/her/them out as well. 

The reality is that refusing the natural evolution of our ideas about God is a refusal to change and, therefore, a license to cast out anyone who does change.

God may never change, but our thoughts about God must.

✌️

Glenn Siepert