“God Is My Copilot”—Is He Yours?
THEY were on a long-planned visit to the United States and were unaccustomed to seeing what Americans see so often—bumper signs. During their trip they discovered that some of the signs were serious in nature, some were simply clever advertisements, others touched on subjects better to be ignored, and some were just for fun!
Being Christians and much interested in religion, they were particularly fascinated by the signs that conveyed religious messages. For example, one proudly proclaimed: “God is my copilot.”
Very possibly the car driver simply meant—if he seriously meant anything at all—that his relationship to God was a very close one, like that of a plane’s pilot and copilot. Up to this point, well and good.
A copilot, as you know, serves as an assistant or relief pilot in an aircraft, authorized, for example, to take over the controls when instructed by the aircraft’s captain to do so, or in the case of an emergency. The copilot serves as second in command, next to the pilot or captain himself. It was in this respect that the comparison seemed inappropriate, because who would presume to claim that, in the relationship between God and man, God is only “second in command”?
Persons who make major decisions in life, not on the basis of God-given principles, but, rather, solely on the basis of personal preference or expediency are in reality relegating God to second place. Perhaps in misguided sincerity they are making him their “copilot,” confident of his help if the decisions they have made go wrong, feeling that in emergencies they can call upon him to take over the controls, so to speak, and rescue them from a possible crash landing.
Many persons relegate God to a “copilot” position by charting a religious course through life without giving due consideration to divine directions as set forth in the Bible. They choose a religion on the basis of its financial or social appeal, its convenience or its traditions, not upon the basis of its adherence to divine principles and laws. So should they expect God to feel obligated to intervene in times of emergency and serve as their “copilot”?
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said that in times of need soldiers on the battlefield would “instinctively turn to God” for help; he claimed that “there are no atheists in the foxholes.” But why do many wait for such an emergency before thinking seriously about God? True faith is based on accurate knowledge, with works to back it up. A “God is my copilot” attitude is not the sign of genuine faith. An English writer, critic and artist of the 19th century, John Ruskin, summed it up nicely when he said: “He who offers God a second place offers him no place.”
To apply the expression “second in command” to Almighty God is to distort the facts. Repeatedly, 50 times in fact, he is referred to in the Holy Scriptures as the “Most High.” Success and happiness in life depend upon a humble recognition of man’s relatively low position in contrast to Jehovah’s position of supremacy.
The example of Abijah, king of the ancient two-tribe kingdom of Judah, bears this out. When faced by the military forces of Israel’s King Jeroboam, and outnumbered two to one, he told his opponents: “Look! with us there is at the head the true God . . . do not fight against Jehovah the God of your forefathers, for you will not prove successful.” (2 Chron. 13:12) It was because Abijah recognized that Jehovah was “at the head,” serving as their heavenly “captain,” that the Jews under Abijah, as his earthly representative, were successful in achieving a victory despite overwhelming odds.
By humbly recognizing our subordinate position, our relationship to God will be close, like that of a pilot and a copilot. But there will never—not for a single moment—be any doubt in our minds as to who is at the controls.