Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 14
August 23, 1962
NUMBER 16, PAGE 3

What Is God?

Robert C. Welch

Paul Tillich, in his work entitled Systematic Theology, tells us that the name God is the name for that which concerns man ultimately. Then he hastens to explain what he means by this ultimate concern: "This does not mean that first there is a being called God and then the demand that man should be ultimately concerned about him. It means that whatever concerns a man ultimately becomes god for him, and, conversely, it means that a man can be concerned ultimately only about that which is god for him."

This author is being considered in theological circles as the greatest theologian of this generation. He is an existentialist, and seeks to harmonize existentialism with theology. This is supposed to make "religious existentialism." This is about like saying that we can have "religious atheism," or that it is possible to have "Christian infidelity." Such philosophers scorn the idea of studying and accepting the Bible subjectively. Instead, they want to take Bible terms and things (1 Cor. 2:11-13) and weave them into their philosophy. The only reason for their toying with the Bible in the first place, is that it is a popular book, and they, wanting to be popular, cannot ignore it.

"God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) This statement from God shows that there is first a being called God, also what he is, and that because of this he demands man's ultimate concern. The revelation from God and the philosophy of this theologian are in direct conflict. A man cannot be a follower of Paul Tillich or of his "religious existentialism," and believe what the Bible says at the same time. About the only thing they believe about the Bible is that it exists.

Such philosophers have come no nearer to an understanding of God than those of ancient Greece when they mocked at the things that were said by the apostle Paul as he spoke to their society on Mars Hill They made their gods, for this was their their "ultimate concern." But Paul declared: "The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." (Acts 17:24) He is not that which has become God because men have given him their ultimate concern. "He (God) himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25); For in him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

Those men in the apostle Paul's day thought they were wise in building the images of that which they worshipped and served. Tillich and other modernists of this day think that they are extremely wise when they make God out of anything which is their ultimate concern. Would it not be just as well to build a god out of stone, as to build one out of ultimate concern? Such show of wisdom is declared to be ignorance. All such vain wisdom is taken into consideration in the apostle's indictment and warning: "The time of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent." (Acts 17:30)

The Bible begins with a sentence which annihilates this definition of Tillich's. It asserts that there is God who in the beginning created these things that exist. A man cannot be an existentialist and believe the first sentence of the Bible. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This DOES mean that first there is the being called God; and further teaching of the inspired Scriptures demands that man should be ultimately concerned about him, Tillich to the contrary notwithstanding.

"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thy serve," is emphasized by Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate concern which God demands of men. Men did not have this disposition, and then because of It place it in a book. God requires it of man and commanded it so that man might know to obey it.

The theory of existentialists is that God and the Scriptures are the creation of men through their experiences. But the teaching of the Scriptures is that God created man and gave him the Scriptures by which man is to regulate his experiences. The philosophical existential theory cannot be made to agree with the inspired truth from God.

Unless man accepts God, who in the beginning created him and then told him how to live, as the object of his ultimate concern, there will come an ultimate judgment from which there can be no escape. The same man who told the philosophers of old to repent, told them why, "Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:31)