ABSTRACT
In the midst of so many changes in the world, it is the unique function of the church to declare by word and deed that there are some things that never change. It is the message that God – the supreme, unchanging, omnipotent Creator of the universe – loves humanity and wants us to know him in a personal way. It is the message that humankind has strayed from God – rebelled against his revealed will, and as a result of sin is alienated from God and from others. God has not changed, nor has the nature of the human heart changed. And that is why the gospel is relevant to every individual in every culture: beneath all the cultural, ethnic, social, economic, and political differences that separate people, the deepest needs and hurts and fears of the human heart are still the same.
