Some Things That Will Never Change
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesProgress is a marvelous thing to observe. For example. when computers first became a prominent part of modern-day life in the 1960’s, they were extremely large objects that took up entire rooms. The storing of data was on paperboard punch cards and reels of magnetic tape. It was then thought that this method of storing data would never change.
Today’s Technology
As we fast forward to 2011, we now have wireless computers capable of tasks never dreamed of in the 1960’s. Computer technology is projected to progress at an extremely rapid rate.
Today, an individual can carry in a shirt pocket, a personal digital assistant that holds more information than a 1988 desktop computer. Today’s personal computers have hard drives that process information many times faster than any laptop acquired just four years ago. And even that capability is already obsolete, compared to some of the latest innovations we see in electronics stores.
One of the reasons computer technology has developed so rapidly, while other areas of science and engineering have puttered along, relatively speaking, is that we’ve just begun to realize how much we can accomplish with computers.
Some Things Have Not Seen Dramatic Change
However, progress in other fields has been at a much slower pace. For example, in the field of medicine — smallpox and polio have been eradicated, measles and mumps nearly so, but we still can’t do much about the common cold.
Science fiction writers in the early 20th century envisioned our present age as one of flying cars, lunar colonies and lifelike robots — those things haven’t happened.
The functional basics of an automobile hasn’t changed substantially since the days of Henry Ford. Do we realize that it’s been over 40 years ago since men last walked on the moon? And the only place we”ll see a realistic robot, is at Disneyland and in some industrial environments. Many of the once-predicted advances of science still remain several years away.
Incompatibility of Old Things And New Things
Jesus once spoke this parable to His disciples:
“No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, “The old is better” (Luke 5:36-39).
Sometimes old things and new things are incompatible. For example, a well-worn cloth can’t be patched into new material. New wine, in which fermentation is just beginning, can’t be secured in aged and brittle wineskins. In the computer field, programmers call it “backward incompatibility” — when files from a previous version of a program do not work with the upgraded version.
The fact that something is “new” doesn’t mean it’s better. For example, meat, cheeses, and fine wines are aged to gain character and flavor. Literature and music have their classic compositions that have not been superseded by more recent works. And generally speaking, attempts to update the classics or recast them in modern style are miserable failures at best. Sometimes, the old is definitely better.
“New” Innovations In Religion?
We hear much clamor these days in the religious world for “new” innovations in religion — new methods, new worship styles, new approaches to the Scriptures (i.e., “new hermeneutics”). Now not everything “new” is bad.
For example, there is nothing wrong with framing the lessons of the Bible in ways that people living in our modern society can more easily understand. But we cannot alter the unchanging and unchangeable word of God in an attempt to appeal to the Athenian mindset, which rejects everything “old” and seeks only that which sounds like “something new” (Acts 17:19-21). All too often, the cry for the “new and different,” is merely an attempt to avoid responsibility for the “tried and true.”
The Positive Aspects Of Change
Yes, change can indeed be positive — even necessary at times. Even as followers of Christ, we are challenged to spiritually mature and grow (1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 4:15-16). But there is a difference between growth and change just for the sake of change. Brethren, we must avoid trying to patchwork into the “old” gospel any “new cloth” (Gal. 1:6-12).
Some Things That Will Never Change
There’s no question that time will march on (unless the Lord comes again), and technology will advance — but as Solomon correctly observed, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10).
The sins that condemned men and women to hell in the first century, will still condemn them in the 21st century, and God’s plan of salvation remains the same (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 17:30; Acts 22:16; Romans 10:17; Matthew 10:32-33; Romans 10:9-10; 1 Peter 3:21; Revelation 2:10).
Brethren and friends, as we head into another “New” Year – 2011, there are some things that will never change (1 Peter 1:25; cf. Isaiah 40:8).