IX A Last Word

espy the Devil’s cloven hoof. For there is no logically necessary connection between the belief that God reveals Himself to His creatures and the belief that God has chosen out, to be the recipient of His revelation, one creature that happens to be precisely I myself, and that this revelation, given exclusively to me, is a unique and a final one. (p. 132) Here the error lies in the particular concept of revelation, which the writer finds acceptable. Had he not fallen into this erroneous way of thinking it would have become clear to him that revelation and special revelation are so closely and logically connected that they are quite inseparable. To modern thinkers, revelation is something like a fine picture flashing through an artist’s mind, or the burst of inspiration, which enables a poet to compose a beautiful poem. To them, God is not a conscious being who chooses someone to execute His will in order to serve a purpose; rather God is conceived of as an external, abstract reality which encompasses our universe—a reality which is reflected upon us. To some, this is not the true situation either, although our own subconscious speaks in terms of inspiration and revelation. Clearly, the religious point of view is quite different from this. Hence the failure of the modernists to understand the religious concept of revelation. 4. According to this modern interpretation, religion is reduced to a worldly need, whereas religion, in actual fact, is a need of the life hereafter. That is, from the purely religious point of view, the real task of religion is to show man the path of salvation in the next life. But according to modernists, the aim of religion is to provide a proper basis for social organization in this world. But rather than this being the main purpose of religion, it is only an incidental benefit accruing from the application of religious principles. Dogma cannot just be reduced to any given thought arrangement on which there could be built the unity of purpose and practice desirable amongst the believers of a particular religion. 5. The prevalent form of Judaism, which no longer consists of the original teachings of the prophet Moses, there having been many