THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPTION OF GOD, OR THE GOD OF THE BIBLE AS
DISTINGUISHED FROM THE GOD OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE GOD OF MODERN
PHILOSOPHY
"God is Spirit."—John 4:24.
"God is Light."—1 John 1:5.
"God is Love."—1 John 4:8, 16.
Our subject this morning is "The Christian Conception of God, or The
God of the Bible as Distinguished from the God of Christian Science
and the God of Modern Philosophy." I have three texts: John 4:24:
+"God is Spirit."+ 1 John 1:5: +"God is Light."+ 1 John 4:8,
16: +"God is Love."+ These three texts give three of the most
remarkable statements that were ever uttered and set before us in the
clearest possible way the Christian conception of God as distinguished
from every other conception of God. The Christian Scientists constantly
quote one of our texts: +"God is Love."+ In fact they quote it
more than almost any other passage in the Bible, but they do not
mean at all by +"God is Love"+ what 1 John 4:8 or 1 John 4:16
evidently mean when taken in their connection. By "love" the Christian
Scientists do not mean a personal attribute of God, but an impersonal
abstraction which is itself God. Mrs. Eddy frankly and flatly denies
the personality of God. The Christian Scientists not only say, "God
is love," but they also say, "Love is God." They not only say, "God
is good," but they also say, "Good is God." To say "Love is God" is
an utterly different statement from saying, "God is love." You might
just as well say "Spirit is God," because God says, "God is spirit,"
but all spirit is not God. Or you might as well say, "Light is God,"
because "God is light," but light is not God and love is not God,
though God is love and God is light and God is spirit. What is meant by
"love" in the inspired statement, +"God is Love"+? What is meant
by the statement, +"God is Love,"+ is shown by the definition
or description of love given in the context and in the immediately
preceding chapter—1 John 3:13-18. These verses clearly show that by
the statement in 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16, +"God is Love"+
is not meant that God is an abstract quality, "love," and that the
abstract quality of love is God, but what is meant is that God is a
person whose whole being and conduct are dominated by the quality of
love, that is, by a desire for and delight in the highest welfare of
others. This will be evident to you if I read from the immediately
preceding chapter (1 John 3:13-17): +"Marvel not, brethren, if the
world hateth you. (14) We know that we have passed out of death into
life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in
death. (15) Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know
that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (16) Hereby know we
love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down
our lives for the brethren. (17) But whoso hath the world's goods, and
beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him,
how doth the love of God abide in him? (18) My little children, let us
not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth."+
And from this chapter (1 John 4:7-17): +"Beloved, let us love one
another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of
God, and knoweth God. (8) He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God
is love. (9) Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath
sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through
him. (10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us,
and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved, if
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No man hath
beheld God at any time: If we love one another, God abideth in us,
and his love is perfected in us: (13) Hereby we know that we abide in
him and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit. (14) And we
have beheld and bear witness that the father hath sent the Son to be
the Saviour of the world. (15) Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is
the son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. (16) And we know
and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is Love; and he
that hath abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. (17)
Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world."+
The God of what is called "Modern Philosophy" is "The Absolute," and
by "The Absolute" is generally meant a cold abstraction and not a
clear, definite and warm personality Who loves, grieves, suffers, and
Who works intelligently for others. And oftentimes the God of modern
philosophy is not only "_in_ all things" but _is_ all things and all
things are God. Such a God is no God at all. Whereas the God of the
Bible, as we shall see as we proceed, is a Divine Person who exists
apart from the world which He has created and Who existed before the
world He created, Who bears definite relations to the world He has
made and Who works along definite and clearly revealed lines. So we
come face to face with the question, What sort of a Being is the God
of the Bible, the real God, the one true God, the God of Christianity,
the only God Whom we should worship and love and obey? The Kaiser also
talks much about God and his followers are fond of saying, "Gott mit
uns," but if any one will carefully study the Kaiser's utterances it
becomes plain that he does not mean by God the God of the Bible, the
Christian God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.