Prayer in a Dangerous World

-
George Arthur Buttrick's book, Prayer (1942) starts with a chapter about the necessity of prayer in view of the imminent danger surrounding us. Prayer for him is inseparable from the belief in the existence of God. If God does not exist, prayer is an act of self-deceit and the worst kind of delusion. But if God exists, which in fact He is, prayer then is the primary task of the children of God. 

He believes that just as the Spirit of God brought order out of the formless and empty condition of primitive earth, only prayer can bring order amidst chaos that characterize modern life. He describes evidences of this chaotic condition through widespread scientific agnosticism, rampant skepticism, suicidal knowledge and skills, and war. Life in modern city and scientific research illustrate such current chaos. 

Life in modern city crushes the spirit of man. His description of city life remains contemporary:

"Steam-heated apartments, sex-heated novels, brick chasms filled with gasoline fumes, the tension of a moving belt in factories, the grotesque disparities of wealth and poverty, the uncertainty of toil, the shadow of hunger, the frenzied pleasures, and the fratricidal strife - these are unfair odds for the spirit of man" (p. 19).

Also his description of scientific research:

"The scientist and his research are under imminent threat from the every weapons he has given...His gases could have been an anesthesia, his bacteria a healing serum, his electricity a light and warmth...But perversely, his gases are also poisonous fumes, his bacteria the pollution of wells, his electricity a leaping death" (ibid. ).
Buttrick's description of the world remains true even he wrote these words more than 70 years ago. Maybe, parts of his analysis are inaccurate, but the dangers he mentioned are more relevant now than ever before. If the church will not respond to the call of God to call upon Him in the most critical stage of human history, we do not know from where solution will come to the present predicaments resulting from man's declaration of independence from God.

Mga Komento

Mag-post ng isang Komento

Mga sikat na post sa blog na ito

Five Precepts of the Modern Mind

-
While doing my devotion this morning, I stumbled with an interesting section in the book  Thinking. Loving. Doing. A Call to Glorify God with Heart and Mind. I am now on the 2nd chapter. I am reading the article written by R. Albert Mohler Jr., The Way the World Thinks: Meeting the Natural Mind in the Mirror and in the Marketplace. I just want to share that interesting section on pages 61 to 62.   Here is its excerpt: In order to understand better the modern mind, consider these five precepts. First, the modern mind is characterized by postmodern anti-realism. There are people in American society who are not sure that what we are talking about is even real. They argue that the terms of morality—statements about what is right and wrong—are merely a language game. The second precept is moral relativism . Although most of the people we know do not actually hold to anti-realism, it has filtered down into the culture as moral relativism. Most unregenerate Americans today are...
Magbasa nang higit pa

The Special Duties of Husbands to their Wives

-
Fulfill your duties to your wife in order to avoid the following unhappy results: Failure of your wife to fulfill her duties towards you Such will cause you much affliction She will be bitter towards you in the end Summary of your Duties as Christian Husbands: You are responsible to undertake the government of your family including your wife. This ability consists: In holiness and spiritual wisdom. An ungodly, irreligious man is both a stranger and an enemy to the most important part of family-government. In due acquaintance with the works of your calling. He that is utterly unacquainted with the members of his family, will be very unfit to govern them. He must be acquainted both with the common temper and infirmities of mankind, that he may know how much is to be borne with, and also with the particular temper, and faults, and virtues of those whom he is to govern. And he must have prudence to give them direction in accomplishing their tasks; and justice to deal with every one as they...
Magbasa nang higit pa

No One is Above the Law

-
No one is above the law, and that includes even the government. If you see a government violating the moral law, what do you think will happen? Will the Supreme Lawgiver keep silent as His law is being trampled by human governments? One example of such violation is now being done by the government of Australia by moving hard left . The policymakers are either blinded by their ideology or they intentionally take for granted the long-term destructive consequences of such tax policy. They are not aware that by violating God’s law on private property, they are actually committing economic suicide. How many governments in the world are following the same course? May God forbid that the Philippine government will choose the same path! 
Magbasa nang higit pa