"God is an infantile fantasy, which was necessary when men did not understand what lightning was." - Edward Anhalt.

        "God is an idealized superman." - Sigmund Freud.

        "God is the hero of a book called the Bible." - Nelson Glueck.

        We live in a world today that is not only atheistic, but antitheistic: not only non-Christian, but antichristian in its sentiments. The modern world - in general - rejects God and Christianity. Just as in the days of Paul, the great thinkers and intellectual leaders of our age deny God either by attacking Him or by ignoring Him and thereby rejecting the "foolishness" of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18) which is the only path to salvation.

        The Bible gives the basis for this secular attitude when it describes Satan as "the god of this world." 2 Corinthians 4:4. Here the word "world" is more accurately "age" (aion). R. C. Trench some years ago defined the spirit of the age as "all that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it is impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective power." -Synonyms in the New Testament.

        Bengel defined the spirit of our age as "the subtle informing spirit of the...world of men who are living alienated and apart from God."

        The prevailing spirit of our age is humanistic, not theistic. Man makes his own gods and ultimately man, in his own thinking, is god. Erich Fromm confirmed this when he insisted that "God is one of the many different poetic expressions of the highest value in humanism, not a reality in itself."

        Yet it is true that those very men who deny God's existence are often sadly ignorant of God's revelation of Himself, the Holy Bible. Even Christians are sometimes confused about the nature of God. How often have we heard persons remark that the God of the Old Testament is different From the God of the New Testament? Or that God is pictured as vengeful, judgmental and tyrannical in the Old Testament, but loving and kind in the New?

        Such sentiments betray a superficial knowledge of the nature of God as presented in both testaments. There is no conflict or contradiction in the picture the Bible gives us of God. We must realize, however, that the Bible is an unfolding revelation. Beginning at Genesis and building toward Revelation, the Bible progressively reveals more and more of God's character. If we take simply one small part by itself - whether it be a portion of the Old Testament or a portion oF the New - we are bound to get only an incomplete and superficial picture.

        Let's look for a moment at what the Bible tells us about God and see how this agrees or disagrees with modern views about Him.

        The first important revelations of God to man occur, as might be expected, in the first book, Genesis. Here God is revealed as Creator, Companion, Protector, Provider, Judge, and Covenant-maker. In Genesis l4:18 occurs the first of a series of revelations of God as illustrated in His names. Here Melchizedek is described as being a priest of the Most High God (El Elyon), that is, "God the Highest." This title is used in connection with God's character as possessor of heaven and earth and everything that exists. See Genesis 14:22; Deuteronomy 32:8.

How does this compare with Sigmund Freud's statement that God "is nothing other than a magnified Father figure"? The Bible asserts that God is the absolute Highest, above which there is no other and above which it is not possible that there could be any other.

"God is a vengeful, pitiless, and almighty fiend," wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley. Yet in Genesis 17:1 God revealed Himself to Abraham as El Shaddai. This has unfortunately been translated as the "Almighty God," but a more accurate rendering would be the "All-sufficient God." The word Shaddai comes from a root signifying a mother's ability to nurse her children. The idea behind Shaddai is that God not only supplies all our needs, but that He Himself is all we need, just as a mother fulfills the essential physical and emotional needs of her newborn child.

        Can we truly say that the God of the Old Testament is vengeful, cruel, uncaring? Listen to God's own words: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Jeremiah 31:3. "I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Exodus 19:4. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee." Isaiah 54:10.

        Can the God who commanded that we should love our neighbor as ourself (see Leviticus 19:18) be considered an "almighty fiend"?
        
        "God does not exist. . . . We are precisely on a plane where nothing exists but men." So wrote Jean-Paul Satre. But in Exodus 3:14 God identified Himself to Moses as the I AM THAT I AM, the self-existent One, He who is who He is. God has no need to define Himself in relation to others. though He sometimes speaks of Himself as the God of Abraham, the God oF Isaac, etc., illustrating a personal relationship. But this relationship is always initiated by God Himself. "There is none that seeketh after God" (Romans 3:11), yet how fortunate we are that God DOES exist and seeks after us, His lost sheep who have gone astray. See Isaiah 63:6; Ezekiel 34:11; Matthew 18:11-14.

        Of course, we realize that it is in the person of Christ that God is most perfectly revealed to man. If you would know the character of God, look at Jesus, for the relationship between them was such that Jesus could say. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." John 14:9, NASB.

        Christ healed the sick, raised the dead, comforted all who mourned. This same aspect of God is both revealed and predicted in the Old Testament: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young." Isaiah 40:11.

        Now, it is true that justice and righteousness are aspects of God's character plainly revealed in the Old Testament. But it is not correct to assert that they are any less plainly revealed in the New Testament. Jesus, the "meek and lowly" Shepherd, on two separate occasions burned with such zeal For God's house that, exhibiting the same justice and righteousness associated with the Old Testament Jehovah, He drove the traders and merchants from the temple. See John 2;14-16; Matthew 21:12, 13.

        It is apparent to the reader of the Bible that God (even in the person of Jesus Christ) as a just and righteous judge is no stranger to the New Testament. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God." 2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.

        The entire Bible reveals a picture of Cod wherein the ideas of justice, judgment, righteousness, love, mercy, and kindness are kept in careful balance. The God of the Bible is no "almighty fiend"; neither is He an "overly permissive Father." God is both loving (see John 3:16 and compare with Revelation 13:8) and just (see Malachi 3:2, 5; Revelation t9:11). He is significantly different from the concept advocated by modern thinkers and intellectual leaders. Each person in the world must decide: Will I be led by the spirit of the age or the Spirit of God? Whose testimony will I accept concerning the all-important question, Who, and what, is God?

        "I can never know what God is," said Voltaire, to which the Bible replies:
        "God is a Spirit." John 4:29.
        "God is light." 1 John 1:5.
        "God is love." 1 John 4:8.
        "Be still, and know that 1 am God." Psalm 96:10.