Heavens and Earth Declare: ‘God Is Alive!’
How convincing is their message? Do they really disprove the claim that God is dead?
PROMINENT theologians and clergymen of today assert: ‘God is dead.’ Some believe that he has actually died; that he no longer exists. “The God of the Bible was once alive,” declared Thomas J. J. Altizer, a professor of religion at a Methodist school in the United States, “then he died.”
Other theologians apparently mean that God is absent, he does not see, he has left the land and is no longer concerned with man and the earth. Explained William Hamilton of Colgate Rochester Theological School: “We are not talking about the absence of the experience of God but about the experience of the absence of God.”
Although such ‘God is dead’ views are considered revolutionary, resulting in much discussion and debate, they are by no means original. Over 2,500 years ago, just prior to the fall of the Judean kingdom to Babylon, many were saying practically the same thing. Note how the Bible closely links their ‘God is dead’ philosophy with the immorality and wickedness then practiced: “The error of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with bloodshed and the city is full of crookedness; for they have said, ‘Jehovah has left the land, and Jehovah is not seeing.’”—Ezek. 9:9.
Years later, while Rome was still at the zenith of power, similar views and attitudes were popular among people of that immoral and wicked city. The Christian apostle Paul was, therefore, prompted to condemn the detestable sexual immorality and other forms of unrighteousness practiced by those people. And, at the same time, he argued against their ‘God is dead’ philosophy, saying: “For [God’s] invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.”—Rom. 1:20-32.
DECLARATION OF THE HEAVENS
Is the Bible correct? Do “the things made,” for example, the heavens, with their billions of glistening, jewellike stars, declare that God is alive? Long ago the appreciative Bible psalmist answered, Yes. “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling. One day after another day causes speech to bubble forth, and one night after another night shows forth knowledge.”—Ps. 19:1, 2.
But skeptics may argue that the psalmist David was not a trained scientist and, therefore, was not in position to interpret properly the evidence of the heavens. Yet, one of the greatest scientists to live, Sir Isaac Newton, agreed with the psalmist, saying: “This most elegant system of suns, planets and comets could only arise from the purpose and sovereignty of an enlightened and mighty being.”
Today scores of trained scientists, equipped with far greater knowledge of the heavens, also marvel at the orderliness and precision with which the starry bodies move. Cecil Boyce Hamann, an outstanding scientist and a research participant, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, commented:
“Lifting our eyes to the heavens, we surely must exclaim with wonder at the orderly sweep of the stars. Night after night, season after season, year after year, century after century the worlds of outer space have followed their courses through the sky. They return so regularly in their orbits that eclipses may be predicted centuries in advance. . . . If they were subject to no laws, would men put their faith in them to guide them across the seven seas or through the unmarked paths of the sky?”
Another scientist, Marlin Books Kreider, a member of the American Society of Professional Biologists, reasoned soundly regarding the testimony of the heavens, saying:
“Evidences of the existence of God equally as strong as those often accepted as proof in many fields of rational, scientific thought can be found . . . Our first body of evidence is found in cosmology, in the existence of a universe which is governed by precise forces of Nature and an orderliness which suggests an arranger or organizer. This precision is so great that the path of planets and, more recently, the artificial satellites can be predicted in advance. . . . Such order, according to common human experience, is a result of an orderly mind. Chaos rather than order emerges unless a designing or controlling force is functioning.”
Yet some prominent ‘God is dead’ theorists would claim that this proves only that the “God of the Bible was once alive”; he created the heavens, but “then he died.” They would argue that the heavens declare merely that God once lived. Is this conclusion based on sound reasoning?
HEAVENS DECLARE GOD STILL LIVES
Think about the significance of this for a moment. They say that the One who created the billions of galactic systems with their innumerable stars and organized them so that they orbit in such split-second precision that man sets his timepieces by them—this One died. Is it reasonable that someone so powerful could die? What do you think?
Undoubtedly you will agree with the prophet of old who, under inspiration of God, declared: “Art not thou from of old, O LORD, my holy God? Thou diest not!” (Hab. 1:12, AT; NW; Mo; Ro) Yes, God cannot die! He is immortal, “the King of eternity.” (1 Tim. 1:17) The psalmist Moses exclaimed: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” (Ps. 90:2, AS) It is simply unreasonable, as well as unscriptural, to believe that the God who created this marvelous universe died sometime in recent history!
The law and order that continue to govern the movement of the heavenly bodies testify that God still exists, that he now lives. This is so because, when laws are in effect and being enforced, a sovereign or government must still be operating. Consider, for example, traffic laws that control and direct the movement of vehicles through a city’s streets. What does their existence prove? Why, that there is a civil authority in existence that established and is sustaining or enforcing these laws!
Well, then, is the One who established the laws that control the movement of heavenly bodies still sustaining and enforcing these laws? He definitely is! Every time scientists shoot off a rocket into space they are counting on the fact that these laws will be sustained and perform according to the exact specifications of their Maker. And when a rocket goes off course, it is always due to some human failure, never because the laws governing the universe failed to function consistently. The heavens most certainly declare: ‘God is alive’!
DECLARATION OF EARTHLY THINGS
But what about things upon the earth? Do they also declare that God is alive? Do they indicate that he is concerned with humankind and is interested in their welfare?
Yes, indeed! The Christian apostle Paul was moved to exclaim: “God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things in them . . . did not leave himself without witness in that he did good, giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts to the full with food and good cheer.” (Acts 14:15-17) Also, Jesus Christ said that God “makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous.”—Matt. 5:45.
God’s provision of the sunshine, the rain, the delicious foods to eat, and even “life and breath and all things,” testifies that he is alive. (Acts 17:25) Daily he is furnishing things for the sustenance and good cheer of humankind. He is not absent from the earth or man; he is not without witness that he is a living God.
Consider the marvelous way that He feeds and sustains life on earth. All our food comes as a result of His wonderful food-making process that man calls photosynthesis. Although it appears so basic, so simple, the most learned human scientists are amazed at it. Green plants combine energy from light with water and carbon dioxide, and thus miraculously produce food. Marvelous laws beyond human perception and comprehension control the process. Science News Letter of April 6, 1957, describes the steps involved in this way:
“Carbon dioxide in the air enters a leaf or other green part of a plant through minute openings. Once inside, the carbon dioxide dissolves in the water lying between the cell walls of the plant. The solution now readily passes through the cell walls to small bodies within the cells which contain chlorophyll, the substance that gives plants their green color.
“It is here that the ‘deities’ perform their miracle. Sunlight provides energy for the great chemical change, and chlorophyll acts as the ‘switchboard’ that controls the reaction. Under the influence of these two, the carbon dioxide and water now combine to create the basis of all food, a simple sugar. All the numerous fats, proteins and carbohydrates used by plants and animals must be created later from this sugar.”
How incredible! In what a simple, and yet wonderful and efficient way God provides! Consider also that in this miraculous food-making process oxygen is manufactured in the plants and released to the atmosphere. Man and beast take in this oxygen—they require it to ‘live and move and exist’—and, in turn, give off carbon dioxide, a key material used in plants for food-making. What a marvelous cycle in which both plants and animals cooperate!—Acts 17:28.
Many other wondrous processes for the sustenance of life have been provided by God for mankind’s benefit. For example, the nitrogen cycle.
Nitrogen is one of the substances necessary for life in plants and animals. It is a gas that comprises about 78 percent of the air we breathe, but, unlike oxygen, we cannot assimilate it from the air into our bodies. However, in the nitrogen cycle, thunderstorms, as well as certain bacteria, introduce nitrogen into the soil in the form of nitrates that can be absorbed by plants. We then get the necessary nitrogen by eating the plants, or by eating animals that have eaten them. As plants and animal matter decay they release nitrogen to the atmosphere, thereby completing the cycle.
GOD LIVES!
To what does this amazing order and harmony that we see all around us testify? Merlin Grant Smith, a prominent mathematician and university professor, pointed to the marvels of creation that confound skeptics and observed:
“All Nature functions according to fixed laws. New laws are being discovered right along. . . . Shall we accept the theory that they are of material origin? The multitude of them, the harmony of them, the very nature of them, make that completely impossible. These laws are of higher origin than the universe in which they operate. There is, to my ordinary, common-sense mind, but one plausible answer, and that is that these laws demand belief in a Lawgiver, which I again call God.”
Many ‘God is dead’ theorists may agree that God did initiate these laws, but would claim that he is now either out of existence or completely uninterested in mankind. Yet, how could this be? If he is dead, then what force or power is sustaining the intricate laws and incomprehensible food-producing processes? For these laws and processes to continue to function, there must logically be someone enforcing and supporting them.
Although it is popular to assert that God is dead, all the evidence, instead, supports the Bible statements that God lives, that he is “King of eternity,” that he does not die, that he is “from everlasting to everlasting.”—1 Tim. 1:17; Hab. 1:12; Ps. 90:2, AS.
WHY THEIR SKEPTICISM?
What, then, is the reason for the foolish claim that God is dead? No doubt there are a number of factors involved. A prominent one is that such persons do not wish to be accountable to God’s laws. They want to be free to pursue their selfish, independent course without the restrictions that God’s laws would place upon them. Like the wicked immoral peoples of times past, they say, ‘God has left the land, he is not seeing,’ yes, he is dead. (Ezek. 9:9) But in taking this position they show themselves to be fools. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”—Ps. 14:1, AS.
Another factor is that skeptics, in their pride, usually want God to act as they see fit. And when he does not, they presumptuously criticize, find fault with God, and even attack his existence. They are not willing patiently to learn how and when God will remedy man’s ills, in His own time and in His own way. By their lack of faith and Bible knowledge, they reveal themselves to be counterparts of the religious leaders to whom Jesus Christ said: “You know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”—Matt. 22:29.
Yet, no matter how many people may ignore the evidence in the Scriptures and the power and majesty of God so apparent in his material creations, the fact remains, HE LIVES. The heavens and earth do indeed declare: ‘God is alive.’