Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance“(Psalm 33:12). 

 

Is there a rather universal conspiracy to keep God from public life?  Is there a marked contrast between what is actually going on in the hearts and lives of people and what is reported by the media and the secular press?

I’m thinking, for example, of Roger Craig, the fireball athlete who threw a no-hitter in baseball–something that happens very, very rarely.  When asked by a reporter as to what he attributed his success, candidly the southpaw replied, “God!”  So, does the reporter follow up by asking, “Why do you feel God helped you instead of just doing something great on your own?” No!  Instead, there is a stunned silence and the reporter quickly changed the subject, as though Craig had brought up a taboo which should never be mentioned in public lest someone should be offended.

When the 1989 coup in Russia was at a critical stage, Boris Yeltzin didn’t mind being told, “I am praying for you!”  It wasn’t a Sunday school teacher who voiced that, or a little old lady with a babushka on her way to buy potatoes at the market.  That phrase came up in an animated conversation between George Bush and the president of Russia.

Do most people have far more faith in their hearts and more of God in their conversation than the public press acknowledges? Of that, there can be no doubt.  I’ve just been in China for the ninth or tenth time since 1979, and each time I’ve been there, I have talked with a variety of people.  Some are committed believers, others have been raised as atheists, yet all of them openly talk of God and their desire to know Him as a reality.

A young woman in her early 20s whose best friend was gunned down in Tiananmen square on June 4, 1989, told me of her father, who was sent abroad for additional study.  While he was away, he was invited to church and he went.  He had come back to China with a Bible, which he now reads.  Then she said, “He’s different; I don’t know exactly what happened to him but he’s not the same anymore.”

“Of course,” she continued.  “I was raised as an atheist, and I was taught there is no God.”  “Do you ever wonder,” I asked, “if you were given the true facts?”  “Of course,” she quickly replied.  “I would like to know for myself!”

The reality of the matter is that the majority of people in any given country of the world believe in some kind of a God, whether they live in Beijing, Detroit or London. Their concept of Him may be deficient, warped or lacking biblical definition, yet they talk of God and believe there is some kind of a God who rules in the affairs of our world. They will argue and debate His nature and character and even wage wars to prove that they are right and most everybody is wrong; nonetheless, they believe in their definition of God–something which is a marked contrast to what the press would tell us.

I’m not suggesting that the barrier between church and state be removed, but I am saying that there is a universal conspiracy today to take God from public life and replace Him with the tawdry belief that discussing His nature and intervention in our world is taboo or something which the general public doesn’t want to hear or read about.

As Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe disintegrated, revivals of religion have accelerated–something which has not gone unnoticed by the government of China.  As freedom of expression has slowly crept back into the conversations of people, religious expression has gone from the secrecy of the heart to the openness of the market.

As one of the church fathers wrote long ago, “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which can be filled only by God Himself.”  In the interest of truth, let’s recognize that fact!

 

Resource reading:  Joshua 3:1-17