As we view our world today, what conclusion do we draw as to humanity's greatest and imperative need? In this age of scientific discovery old systems of human thought are being challenged, and the cherished beliefs of centuries are being called into question and discarded. This is true not only in the realm of the natural sciences but also in the realm of theology. Human misconceptions of Deity are being discarded, and prominent theologians are saying that the God of our fathers is dead.
May it not be that the human misconceptions of Deity never had life! The God of wrath and retributive punishment, the God who creates both good and evil— the God who creates man and the universe and who is also the destroyer of His own creation, the God of life and of death, the God of love and of hate, fear, lust, greed, and malice, the God made in the image and likeness of humanity, the God of anthropomorphism—never has had life. This human concept of Deity, which has appeared in various guises and has held humanity in bondage through fear, ignorance, and superstition, is no longer accepted widely as a true concept of God.
Ever since Moses' pronouncement, "The Lord our God is one Lord,"Deut. 6:4; there has been emerging in human thought a higher, clearer concept of God. We can trace the emergence of this higher spiritual concept of God through the writings of the Hebrew prophets—a concept of God as one universal, divine ideal, a concept of God that is to be loved as well as worshiped.
