April 1929
T h e . K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
165
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J 3 yAlvaJ. McClain»>—»■•«—
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Ideal-olatry and th e “Living God” pffi&S^HE God of the Bible is referred to in a number I f e r ' of passages as “the living God.” The use of this striking phrase was no mere rhetorical flour- ish on the part of the writers. Rather it was ¡p y | employed to convey a very definite, simple and 1AAI understandable conception of the true God. The humblest reader needs no acquaintance with the various scientific and philosophical definitions of “life” in order to comprehend this expression, “the living God.” When the Bible writers spoke thus they meant simply that God is able to do things. The context of those passages which refer to God as, “living” almost invariably reveals this meaning. God is “living” because He is able to speak (Deut. 5 :26), work miracles (Josh. 3:10-17), create and preserve the world (Jer. 10:10-13), deliver His people out of trouble (Dan. 6:26-27), save men from sin (1 Tim. 4:10), judge and punish evildoers (Heb. 10:30-31). In the passage from Daniel this meaning is especially clear; “For He is the living God . . . . He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth.” The God of the Bible is not the impotent god of Pan theism (locked in the world). He is not the far-off god of Deism (locked out of the world). Neither is He the stumbling, doddering, decrepit god of H. G. Wells (helpless before the world when we need Him most). He is the living God, the God who can do things,—the things which need to be done, all things. In Old Testament days the “living God” was preached as an antidote to Idolatry. Over against the idol which could do nothing the prophets proclaimed the God who could do something. Now the crude idolatry of ancient times no longer prevails among those peoples whom we call civilized and intelligent, but there exists today a relig ious error even more dangerous because of its subtle appeal and apparent respectability. God, we are told, is the great Ideal. This Ideal has no objective existence. It is wholly the creation of man’s mind. Of itself, it can do nothing. But its value, they say, lies in the fact that man reacts to this Ideal as to a stimulus, and he is thus led to improve himself and be a better man. The worship of such an Ideal is called “A Free Man’s Worship” by a much-admired writer of the cult. It is free, doubtless, because the worshiper makes his own god and, like the savage fetishist, he can throw it away in case it gives him no help. Now all this, of course, is nothing but Idolatry in a refined and more intellectual form. I have named it Ideal- olatry. . The ancient pagan worshiped the work of his own hands. The modern pagan worships the work of his own brain. The Ideal is often very noble and beautiful, created perhaps out of the highest ethical values of the race. Into it there may have entered even elements gleaned from the matchless life of Jesus Christ Himself. But as a religious object the thing is nothing but a “dumb idol.” Even the ancient images were, it should be remembered, often beautiful creations of artistic ability.
The most effective antidote for this Ideal-olatry is, as of old, the preaching of the “living God.” The deepest needs of the human heart have never yet been met by either Idols or Ideals. The Psalmist went straight to the heart of the matter when he said, “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” In the midst of our sin and moral helplessness, in the face of the dread “last enemy,” we need a God who can do something, not a mere beautiful “Picture-god” who exists only on the canvas of the imagination. We need the living God. And we have found Him in Jesus Christ our Lord. “I am the Lord thy God . . . Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness o f anything. . . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them” (Exo. 20 :2 ,4 ). ; ! m The Suicide o f “Science” L OSS of belief in the existence of God, so common-in J our day, would seem to be the utmost limit in the way of skepticism. But now there comes forth still an other form of unbelief. Having dispensed with God, the unbelievers are turning their attention to man. A group of pseudo-scientists, together with their satellites, have abandoned belief in the existence of man. They deny the existence of “man” , in the ordinary sense of that word ; that is, man as a being with mind, personality, free- will and moral responsibility. What we call “man,” they say, is only an animal or ganism which reacts automatically to-outside stimuli; and what we call “thought” is really nothing but certain gland ular and muscular responses which take place somewhere in the region of man’s neck. Of course, it follows that for such a being there could be no freedom or moral responsibility, since all his actions are rigidly determined by the stimuli of his environment. Such, in brief, is the scheme offered by the new cult. Psychologically, it is called “Behaviorism.” And some one, with a sense of humor, has defined a “Behaviorist” as “a philosopher who has made up his windpipe that he has no mind.” The Pope of the new cult is Dr. J. B. Watson; its prophet is H. L. Mencken; and Mr. Clarence Darrow completes the trinity. The worshipers are many. Its popularity may possibly be explained by the fact that it relieves man of all moral responsibility. Man, according to the theory, must do whatever he does. To blame him for his conduct is absurd. And of course, all this is very convenient for these modern souls who always try to do what they want to do. The rise of such a cult should not surprise us. When men abandon belief in the existence of a personal God, how could we expect them to keep on believing in the existence of man as a person created in the “image of God” ? In this theory of man, the so-called “ free thought” has arrived gat the blind alley of self-annihilation. While attempting to maintain its boasted freedom from “theo logical interference,” it has reached the astonishing con clusion that there is no such thing as “ freedom,” and
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