Christians should be ready for a change because Jesus was the greatest changer in history.

The line frames Christian faith as inherently dynamic rather than conservative in the sense of resisting social transformation. By calling Jesus “the greatest changer in history,” Abernathy links the Gospel to moral upheaval—challenging entrenched injustice, overturning complacency, and demanding personal and communal conversion. In Abernathy’s civil-rights-era preaching, such a claim would function as a theological warrant for activism: if Jesus’ ministry disrupted oppressive norms, then Christians should not fear change when it serves justice and human dignity. The quote also implicitly critiques religious quietism, suggesting that fidelity to Christ entails readiness to be remade and to remake society.