In The Shadows

GEORGE, and his pretty wife Adair, had just crawled out of their overturned automobile. Their two-year old child had been killed in the accident. They stared at each other in grief and hopeless frustration, as well they might. Accidents occur every day. A hundred thousand humans die every twenty-four hours. But for George and Adair there was an additional reason for sadness, and for their bewildered frustration.

Theirs had been one of the increasing number of mixed marriages—mixed, that is, from the standpoint of their religious affiliations. This did not present too much of a problem until their child was born. Then came the heated controversy concerning the nature of the child’s religious training and affiliation. In fact, George and Adair were verbally contending over this when the accident occurred.

They were confused. They appealed for help to his friends, and then to her friends. None could be sure of the child’s future, nor the extent to which its parents might be held responsible for the ultimate destiny of their offspring. Suddenly the whole idea of God and of religion seemed, at best, very uncertain, if not cruel. How utterly worthless had all their arguments been!

This was but one of the almost endless experiences of humans which weaken faith and baffle understanding of how a God of love can permit such calamities to continue. Frequently the innocent suffer while the guilty go unpunished. How often the question is raised, “If there is a God, why doesn’t he do something about these inequities?” The good God of love cannot be identified by millions of persons in the swirling and distressing events which surround us.

Many Gods

NINETEEN centuries ago the great Apostle Paul reminded his readers that there are “gods many, and lords many.” (I Cor. 8:5) This is just as true today; true, that is, in the sense that the peoples of the world have imagined for themselves many and various gods to which they have given names, and before which they bow in veneration and fear.

Our understanding of these gods is governed by what we believe concerning them. Centuries before Christ came to earth certain heathen nations worshiped what amounted to a torment deity named Moloch. The Israelites were enticed into the worship of this false god, and were punished for it.

The outward symbol of Moloch was a metal image with mechanical arms, heated by a fire from within. Infants were sacrificed to Moloch, being cast into the heated arms of this devilish contraption and hugged to its red hot breast. Jehovah explained to the Israelites that such a thing had never come into his mind. And we can be sure that no idea of torment for his creatures has since come into the Creator’s mind.

The people of our generation have witnessed the rise of still another type of god. It is called the “State.” The “State” god of Naziism and communism is also relentless and cruel, as evidenced by the concentration camp, and by the murder of millions who were considered opposers, or in the way.

Here are additional deep shadows of trouble and bewilderment which help to hide the true God of love from sight. Millions wanted to know why God permitted the murder of so many Jews. True, it was a little strange to raise such a question, when probably many who asked, profess to believe that God will torture countless millions of his enemies forever.

And besides, human behavior is little different now from what it has always been. In every age those in power have not hesitated to inflict suffering and death upon those whom they decided were out of harmony with them. And this has occurred in the religious as well as the political field.

Rome threw Christians to the lions, and later those considered heretics by religious authorities were tortured by the Holy Inquisition, and burned at the stake. Michael Servetus was slowly roasted to death through a period of four hours, simply because he disagreed with the established church. Where, you ask, was the true God while all this was going on?

Yes, if we close our eyes and minds to everything but the smile of the mother’s love and the sweet songs of the birds, it would not be so difficult to recognize the existence of God and to know that he is loving and kind. But the very Creator for whom we search has given us minds with which to reason, and reason tells us that a loving God is not revealed in man’s cruelty to man, even when it is practiced in the name of religion.

Failure?

TODAY, pagan religions of various sorts are flourishing in the world to a much greater extent than Christianity. This also casts a hindering shadow on our search for a loving, wise, and powerful God. When Jesus was born the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14) The expectation since has been that peace, universal and lasting, would be established throughout the earth by Christianity.

Now everybody knows that this expectation has failed. Missionary efforts designed to convert the world in our generation have come far short of their goals, and Christian missionaries are barred from many heathen countries. Is the arm of God shortened that he cannot help his people accomplish the work he designed for them to do?

And what about the hoped-for peace on earth that Christendom expected? Instead of that, we have had two destructive global wars in our generation. And now the world is divided into two ideological camps poised for further global strife, a war in which both sides know that they will lose.

Millions of people in America do not know by experience how horrible bomb warfare can be. It is different with the people in Europe and most of Asia. There they know what it means to have the roofs of their houses come crashing in on them, and the family maimed or killed. They know what it is to pray for divine protection and not receive it. They know the darkness that comes over the soul, as it did in millions of cases, in the realization that for some unknown reason the God in whom they trusted had seemingly failed them.

In war and in peace cruel and unexplained circumstances touch the lives of essentially all of us. There are sorrow and tears all around and within us much of the time. We do not blame a loving God for these things, but millions find it difficult for their faith to surmount them. They at least want to know why the God whom they worship permits them.

It will not do to say simply that we are not overly concerned, and content ourselves in the thought that we belong to what we consider to be the best church in town. The many questions pertaining to God are not answered by the statistics which reveal ever-increasing numbers of church members. Nor do beams of light through stained glass windows explain why the world is in its present predicament more than nineteen centuries after the birth of The Prince of Peace.

The stark fact is that now, as never before, millions are pleading for some new ray of light concerning the kind of God they would like to worship and serve. They would like to see the clouds of misunderstanding and doubt dispelled. Moreover, they want to know what part they may hope to have in the plan of a great and Loving God whom nature reveals to them.

In the beginning God commanded, “Let there be light,” and we are told that “there was light.” Is it too much now for us to make this request, saying to our great and loving God, “Let us see the ‘light’ of thy love, and through the clouds which surround us see the joy-inspiring smile of thy countenance”?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |