House of Faith or Enchanted Forest?. Charles W. Hedrick, Jr.

idea that “our God is eternal” is simply wrongheaded, as history shows. The character and personality of a particular God exist principally in the mind, apart from any existence the God may have as an “objective” reality. For example, the *Protestant God did not exist before the sixteenth century. He was conceived and born along with the *Protestant Reformation. The Roman Catholic God was very different—and still is. God as he exists in the minds of Episcopalians today is essentially different from the God of Protestant *Fundamentalists or Unitarians. The Gods of these groups have different views on required ritual, ethical values, sin, forgiveness, and the future—provided we assume (as each group tells us) their teaching derives ultimately from God. If tomorrow, Fundamentalism (for example) ceased to exist, the God of Fundamentalism also ceases to exist—I mean this: since no group would exist to serve his interests, his rites would no longer be available in the marketplace of religions. To be a force in society he would need to be rediscovered all over again. So it is with all religions and Gods. All Gods share a potential for obsolescence. *Apollo and *Zeus are no longer invoked in the warm language of faith as once they were. Their *oracles are silent. The *Hellenistic Gods, *Mithras and *Dionysus, once possessed the keys to eternal life and graciously bestowed that gift throughout the ancient world. Nevertheless, their altar fires are now cold ashes, their ruined temples are hollow shells, and their rites abandoned. Yet in the day of their popularity, their believers would have been shocked at the idea their God would one day be obsolete.

      How answer the question: Does our God have a future? Clearly belief in a God has a definite future. If history shows anything, it shows human beings as “incurably religious”—even to the point of superstition. Human beings likely will always have a Greater Power they worship and serve, for too many mysteries exist in the universe and our scientists have been unable to answer them all. Yes “God” has a future—although the God we serve today may well not have a future. Only so long as a God has believers will he influence society. Thus a God without temples and worshippers to remember his holy days does not exist—at least not in any practical sense. And this observation raises a more annoying question: Does the demise of even one God foreshadow the eventual demise of all Gods?