Where Art Thou?

    The first question which God ever asked of man, as it is recorded in the Bible, was the question, "Where art thou?" Adam had tried to hide himself among the trees from the presence of God, and he failed to realize that the God who made him could surely seek him out.

    We use this question today in a somewhat modified form when we ask of one another, "Where do you stand?" It seems rather strange that we Christians should find it necessary to ask such a question of one another, particularly when we are often reminded of the language of one who said, "Now I beseech you, brethren , by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."

    It is not so much a matter of one of us hearing that language and taking special note of it because he simply didn't realize that it is part of God's word.   Rather, it would seem that there is among us a kind of thinking which hears the same word but which embraces a theory that believes in no absolutes, no rules, no laws, no commandments, and which feels repulsed at the very suggestion of uniformity among us.

    If God's absolutes are thus successfully eliminated, then man becomes his own God, and it doesn't matter "where he stands" on anything.  When we go back to God's original question of Adam, "Where art thou?"  it is noteworthy that the question came on the heels of a disobeyed commandment.  Adam was trying to hide from God. But why hide? What is there about the commandments of God which make them so repugnant that we would rather believe that no such commandments even exist?  Is it not the very epitome of arrogance to assume that the creature can better direct his stops than can the Creator?  Well did the Psalmist say, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sin."

  -- Gene M. Carrell

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