IS GOD DEAD ?
I
I watched a Christian movie , recently released , entitled ‘ God ’ s not Dead ’. It was a great effort and had some good actors and actresses as part of it ’ s cast but in my view they didn ’ t achieve their goal of proving that God ’ s not dead . In fact , this movie may turn out to be the very hammer that sunk another nail in God ’ s coffin . This notion that we can prove the existence of God purely from arguments , is a false one . All religions have very good arguments . T . L . Osborne told the story of when he and his wife spent years in India zealously trying to convert Hindus to Christianity . When they asked him why they should believe his God is the true God he would say , ‘ See it is written here in the Bible that our God is the true God !’ but they would reply in similar fashion and say ‘ But it says here in our Vedas and the Upanishads ( Hindu religious texts ) that our god is the true god ’. He had no success in converting such religious groups until he was able to demonstrate in real ways that his God was the living God . When God started to touch their lives in tangible ways through miracles , signs and wonders , things their god or doctors could not do , then they believed that his God was
indeed the true and living God .
I had the shock of my life when , in Britain , a woman who was a close relative of a friend of ours , refused prayers . She had spent weeks in hospital and was still undergoing tests in an effort to diagnose what was exactly wrong with her . This came as a shock to me because in the country of my birth even the most notorious criminal would not refuse prayer . Even though they had not made a commitment to the Christian ’ s God , they respected Him and was reverent enough to accept prayers in His name because there was an active witness of the power of God in that society . I therefore , cannot fault this woman because in the main , the God of the typical Christian in developed countries is dead . Why should she frustrate herself with the false hope of a dead religion ? This woman could have more hope of salvation than many who are in church today , because at least she can tell that which is real from that which is not . I would not be surprised if like many of us she too witnessed unending falsehood and hypocrisy as she grew up in a ‘ Christian country ’ surrounded by ‘ Christian ’ fanatics . Who wouldn ’ t
be totally turned off after a lifetime of seeing people who professed one thing while practicing another and praying to a God that never answers ?
The ‘ death ’ of the Christian God is becoming more obvious . Today , when you attend mainstream Charismatic type churches you will quite likely find a euphoric atmosphere created by loud music and singers performing gospel songs but no real demonstrated power or presence of the true and living God . You may even find other performances like people being pushed backwards to the ground ( slain in the Spirit ) or hear strange unintelligible mutterings ( speaking in tongues ) or ‘ testimonies ’ from people who were allegedly healed of headaches , backaches or some other unseen , unverifiable ailment . The ‘ Christian ’ s ’ God is manifestly becoming an imaginary God that is no more than the figment of their imagination . A common thing you will hear among these ‘ Christians ’ today is them ‘ confessing their healing ’, a concept you will find nowhere in Scriptures . This is nothing more than mind manipulation where the person attempts to alter
26 | SHARE | MAGAZINE October - December 2016