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Lecture Hall Bethany, WV

Alexander Campbell spoke these words to his students at Bethany College during the morning lectures that he gave on the Pentateuch.  He delivered the lectures in the great hall which is a part of the historic Old Main at Bethany College, Bethany, WV.  “If a man should have the ear of an earthly autocrat for an hour’s interview, he would tell the honor to his children and his children’s children.  But what is this, to having audience with the King of kings and Lord of lords? Can man conceive of any thing which should so inspire him with gratitude, with veneration and love, as that, upon the throne of his glory, God should hear the prayers of the frail denizens of earth–should listen to their supplications?  There is not, within the lids of the Bible, a presentation of the Divine character, so fascinating as that which reveals Him as a prayer-hearing God.  The idea that God, in his infinite majesty, could condescend to listen to the prayer of an earthly beggar–or that he would hold in abeyance the awful machinery of the universe, as in answer to the prayers of Joshua! What an exhortation to man, to bend his heart and soul in thanksgiving and adoration, to the bountiful Fountain of his being” (Lectures on the Pentateuch, by Alexander Campbell, 264).

     Robert Reymond in his book What is God? makes an astute comment concerning contemporary worship and the concept of the majesty of God.  Here is the quote, “Therefore, it is absolutely esential–indeed, it is a vital imperative for our spiritual health–that we who desire to know what God is like should always listen carefully to God’s description of himself in Holy Scripture alone, submit our hearts to that description without murmuring against it, endeavor to live our lives in accordance with it, and worship him in a way that befits his revealed perfections, that is, with reverence and awe.  And speaking of worship, I want to state categorically that, in my opinion, the intrusion into the contemporary church of superficial, flippant worship styles that abound everywhere today, with their applause for the church’s “performers” and their sappy contemporary music, is not and should never have been regarded as simply a matter of ‘cultural preference.’  Rather, as an infusion of the popular culture into the church it is a symptom of what A. W. Tozer describes in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, as “The loss of the concept of (the) majesty of God from the popular religious mind.  The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be unworthy of thinking, worshipping men…”  (What is God? 48).
     This quote, it seems to me, is targeting the heart of many problems in religion in general and in worship in particular.  Our religion is more about us than it is about God.  We are more inclined to act to please ourselves rather than God.  We pay lip service to Him while ignoring His Will.  A study of God, based upon what the Scriptures affirm about Him, would be beneficial for every person and every congregation of the Lord’s people. We must love God supremely, worship Him only, and serve Him faithfully.

     In the last few years, numerous books by atheists have appeared on the market.  Richard Dawkins wrote The God Delusion (2006) openly attacking belief in God.  Dawkins occupies the Charles Simony professorship for public understanding of science at Oxford University.  In November, 2005, Dawkins was voted one of the world’s three leading intellectuals–a survey that took place in Prospect magazine.  What does this leading intellectual say about belief in God?  He refers to those who believe in God as “dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads” and contends that they are immune to argument.  He defines God as “a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully” (Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 31).  Come to think of it, I don’t believe in a God defined like that either.  Dawkins defines God by attributing to God the sins of mankind.  This is radically false. 
     Other atheistic books recently published are:  Sam Harris’ work, The End of Faith (2004, over 400,000 copies in print) and  his follow-up work, Letter to a Christian Nation.  Daniel Dennett’s book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.  Marc Hauser’s, Moral Minds, explores the non-divine origins of right and wrong.  Lewis Wolpert’s Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast affirms religion as one of those impossible things.  Victor Stenger produced God: The Failed Hypothesis.  Finally, Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s widow, wrote, The Varieties of Scientific Experience.
     This surge in atheistic writings seems to be a reaction to the success and progress of the Intelligent Design movement in America.  Atheists have been and will continue to be met with sound arguments for God’s existence.  The battle is not just for a correct understanding of God, but it is also for an accurate understanding of ourselves.  Victor Frankl wrote, “If we present man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him.  When we present him as an automation of reflexes, as a mind machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drive and reactions, as a mere product of heredity and enviornment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone.  I became acquainted with the last stage of corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz.  The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment–or, as the Nazis like to say, “of blood and soil.”  I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other of Berlin, but rather at the desks and in lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers” (quoted in Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God, 25).
     The best atheists have to offer is meaninglessness, lawlessness and hopelessness.  After considering this alternative, I think I will pass.  “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God” (Psa. 14:1).