Volume 1 Lawrence, Kansas December 1961 Number 12
Let me quote one of these super-wise (?) men:
The above statement reminds me of Paul's unforgettable remark in regard to certain men, who "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible men"—Romans 1:22, 23. In other words the omniscient God has been whittled down to the size of educated man, and man thus becomes the Lord of the Universe; and will, we are told, be able to manage all the affairs of the human race through the wisdom of his own decisions!
When you look at the world's situation today, you can't help but feel that man has cut himself out a rather large job! Man's intellectual power has enabled him to develop the great nuclear power of inexpressible force that is being made into bombs and space weapons by which the human race stands in the gravest danger of self-destruction: but the job that remains to be done is to so change the disposition of man that he will not be tempted to use such a power for the annihilation of his fellowman. If these intellectual gentlemen have become so wise that they can make the world safe without God, then a delegation of them should be sent to Moscow to reason with the warlords of the Kremlin! Strange that they have not thus far come up with a formula that will influence mankind to beat the swords of warfare into the plowshares of peace.
Be it remembered that the Kremlin rulers, whose policy threatens to overwhelm the world in mass-destruction, are also those who have rejected God. They care absolutely nothing for truth, decency, or honor; but such an attitude is to be expected of those who have no fear of future retribution.
The grim fact is that man's intellectual progress has far outstripped his moral development, and that is why the American crime wave is at an all-time high. More and larger penal institutions are the imperative need as a means of protecting society from these desperate criminals who know no god but the base passion and greed of their unregenerated hearts!
The apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 6:9-11 how the gospel which he preached turned thieves, murderers, drunkards, adulterers, fornicators and liars into humble, God-fearing saints. No other power, other than that gospel, has ever accomplished that great work. Truly the gospel of a sin-forgiving Saviour is "the power of God unto salvation""—Romans 1:16. The only power that leads men to repentance and a change of life, is a knowledge of the goodness of God— Romans 2:4.
Men Need God! Only the divine promise of the resurrection can comfort the broken hearts who bid a tearful goodbye to a loved one called away to that unseen land from which there is no return. Even as David found comfort in the death of his child in the assurance that he would meet it in a land of deathless joys, so untold thousands have comforted their tears with the divine words of love. The Alcoholic, struggling to conquer a fearful enemy who has blasted his life, finds no strength to conquer except in the belief of a power greater than his own. The spiritual minded ones, seeking to purify their lives and raise themselves to a higher plane of living, are encouraged in their strivings with the belief that the "pure in heart shall see God." Robert G. Ingersol, the famed American Agnostic, standing by his brother's casket, broke into uncontrollable sobs as he voiced the hope that in the hour of death "hope might see a star, and listening love could hear the rustle of a wing." Only a belief in an all-wise and all-loving Father can prove a cure-all for humanities' woes.
"The big theological thing now going on in intellectual circles is the demise of God."
The above is the lead sentence on a book review in "The Nation," a very influential magazine, and that statement, anyway you look at it, is very extraordinary. The word "demise" is defined as "the transfer of the crown of sovereignty to a successor either by death or abdication." I don't know whether these gentlemen claim that God has died or has abdicated: at least God has passed out of their lives, and they have declared themselves thoroughly competent to manage their own affairs independent of the Deity.
"Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness by creeping for shelter into the arm of a divinized father-figure, whom he has himself created, nor escape from the responsibility of making decisions by sheltering himself under the umbrella of Divine authority, nor absolve himself from the hard task of meeting his present problems, and planning for the future by relying upon the will of an omniscient, but unfortunately inscrutable Providence."