Reformed Reflections

Every Saturday at precisely eight p.m. members of the local chapter for the Association for the Advancement of Atheism gather at the home of a member. They discuss or listen to lectures expounding the organization's firm and dogmatic creed, the absolute disbelief in God.

Some years ago a Russian astronaut told the world that he had not discovered either God or angels during his space trip. For millions, God does not exist anymore. Some are sad about this thought. The French philosopher Jean Paul Satre also believes that God is dead and he feels rather sorry about this idea. But not some of our modern theologians. They hail the death of God as something great and new. Theologians write about the death of God, about the God after the death of God. The little book Honest to, God shook the Western world. It was not profound. But a bishop spoke about his doubts! Dr. Dorothee Solle believes that the Death of God is the greatest happening in our modern times. Actually, God did not die but we no longer need Him, and the terrible suffering in this age negates a personal God. God died in Christ and this death of God is the main Christian thesis. It is most remarkable that Mrs. Solle spends so much time writing about a God who is dead and that she seems to know so much about Him.

What happened to Christian theology? Christian theology used to deal with God and the Bible. Modern theology places the emphasis on man rather than on God. The creature has turned against the Creator. The child has rebelled aginst his Father. He has declared himself to be of age and independent of God. God is now bound to the world. This has become quite clear. God has been declared dead because modern technological man believes that he can do without him. Has our world so greatly improved since so many have thrown overboard the old fashioned belief in God? You would think so! We have now a secularized society and we are not better than those in the past. We have seen more of the demonic than the generations before us. We have witnessed what the worship of the state or a pagan ideology can do.

The news about God's condition is quite good. God is alive and manages quite well without the help of the modern theologians. God is doing quite well but man isn't! Today's problems lie with man who is so intensely corrupt and sinful by nature. Modern theologians want to change God instead of man. God is alive! Listen to what the converted communist Andre Frossard wrote, "God exists - I have met Him.." God exists and there are people who still meet Him. And let Christians show that the God of the Bible is alive and that He has an answer for the ills of our day. Let them be courageous enough to say that the God of the Scriptures lays claim to the total life of man and the world in which he lives. Is God dead? The best proof that He is alive is -that we are not dead. Because "in Him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28).

Johan D. Tangelder
April, 1972