Between an impersonal, diffused, and gaseous god, and the God of the
Bible, how great the difference! God's pervading omnipresence is
indeed affirmed in Scripture. There, as much as in any modern thought,
the heavens declare his glory, the flowers of the field are
illustrations of his care, and the influences of his spirit are like
the breeze across the hills. To the ancient Hebrew, heaven and sheol
were the highest and the lowest, but of each the Psalmist says to God,
"Thou art there," and as for the uttermost parts of the sea, "even
there shall thy hand lead me" (Psalm 139:7-10). Cries Jeremiah from
the Old Testament, "Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God
afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not
see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23:23,
24). And Paul answers from the New Testament, "Not far from every one
of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:27,
28). But the God of the Bible who so pervades and sustains all
existence never degenerates into a Vapor. When Egyptian taskmasters
crack their whips over Hebrew slaves, he cares. When exiles try in
vain to sing the songs of Zion in a strange land, he cares. When evil
men build Jerusalem with blood, and rapacious men pant after the dust
on the head of the poor, he cares. He is prodigiously in earnest, and
those who best represent him, from the great prophets to the
sacrificial Son, are like him in this, that they are mastered by
consuming purpose. The God of the Bible is sadly needed by his people.
For lack of him religion grows often listless and churches become
social clubs.
IV
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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