The God of Our Fathers: Faith Tested by Modern Skepticism

Our fathers trusted in Thee.—Psalm 22:4

A sermon to young men on the enduring claims of ancestral faith:

The age in which we live is enlightened, yet no man is bound to faith merely because his father believed. However, consider three regulative thoughts. First, the great facts of human nature—sin, mortality, the soul's hunger for God—remain substantially unchanged across the ages. Our fathers' disease is our disease; may not our fathers' cure be our cure? Second, skepticism is not new. Voltaire's raillery, Hume's logic, Mill's bitter questioning—these represent one principle wearing different masks. Almighty God permits such challengers that the Church might remain intellectually vigilant. Third, physical science, though doing grand work, is comparatively young and characteristically headstrong, impatient, and irreverent—often pronouncing judgment on matters beyond its competence.

Now consider the claims of our fathers' religion. First, that our sires trusted in God is sufficient reason the sons should hesitate long before concluding no God exists or that He cannot be known. Reverence for the past—that spirit linking generation to generation—remains one of humanity's healthiest instincts. Second, our fathers proved their faith. What testimony do honest men preceding us bear? That the religion of Jesus Christ is grand reality, not human fabrication; that Scripture contains Divine revelation, not imposture; that the human heart finds in God what it eternally seeks.