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| Volume 25 Number 8 August 2023 |
Page 8 |
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| Volume 25 Number 8 August 2023 |
Page 8 |
Brian R. Kenyon
One of the most beloved songs of a few generations ago among churches of Christ in the USA was “Our God, He Is Alive,” known affectionately by some as “728b.” This song was written by Aaron Wesley Dicus (1888-1978), a brother in Christ. He was born in Missouri and reared in Indiana. He obeyed the Gospel in 1908 and began preaching in 1913. He mostly taught in high schools and universities, and in 1950, he moved to Temple Terrace to teach at Florida Christian College. He was a scientist-inventor-type who loved to preach. He held thousands of patents and invented technology involving automobile turn signals and cruise control, an electric pencil sharpener, and a skill saw. According to Irvin Himmel, when Dicus was in “his old age, somewhat as a hobby, he took up song writing” and produced about thirty hymns (Truth Magazine 22.43 [1978]: 697-698). “Our God, He Is Alive” is actually a defense of the biblical God. In this article, we will note the biblical principles behind the song. Hopefully, this will remind us of the God we serve and help us in teaching the biblical God to others.
Our God, He Is Creator
Before anything was created, there was only God! Then, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). This verse and the next are best taken as a summary of creation, the details of which are given in Genesis 1:3-31. Those who take Genesis 1:1-2 as part of the first day disrupt the beautiful pattern of the creation account. If, for example, these first two verses belong to the first day, then that day becomes the only day that did not begin with “Then God said…” (cf., Genesis 1:6, 9, 14, 20, 24).
Our culture has been desensitized concerning God. For years academia has done its best to get rid of God. It has succeeded in the minds of too many, but those people should reconsider. It is impossible for something to come from nothing without an intelligent, all-powerful, uncaused cause! There is more design in a blade of grass than in the most advanced technology invented by man! Surrounding the great throne of God in Revelation 4:11, the four living creatures and twenty-four elders praised God, “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.” No wonder brother Dicus exclaimed in the first stanza, “There is, beyond the azure blue, a God concealed from human sight, He tinted skies with heav’nly hue and framed the worlds with His great might.”
Our God, He Is Revealer
John declared that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). While there is a moral element in this declaration, there is also a truth about the nature of God. Light cannot help but to reveal itself. Everyone who can see knows when the light is on or even a lit match in a completely dark stadium (John 1:5). Like light, God cannot help but to reveal Himself. He has done this through His creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). The psalmist went on to use the sun that God created as an illustration (Psalm 19:2-6). Like clockwork, it precisely rises and sets every day. From creation, we can “clearly” see God’s “invisible attributes,” knowing “His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20).
Although nature can teach much about God, only through His written revelation – the Bible – can we know about our need for salvation. Thus, the psalmist declared the importance of the “law of the Lord” (and its synonyms) immediately after His statements about knowing God through nature. God’s written revelation “is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7-9). Paul also confirmed, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). No wonder brother Dicus exclaimed in the second stanza, “There was, a long, long time ago, A God whose voice the prophets heard, He is the God that we should know, Who speaks from His inspired Word.”
Our God, He Is Sustainer
God not only created this world, but He also sustains it! As mentioned earlier, the One Who sat upon the throne in John’s vision was praised, “For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11). Even from a human standpoint, it is one thing to make something, but quite another to sustain it! God’s awesome power not only brought everything (except Himself) into being, but also His will and wisdom sustain everything He created. Throughout the Book of Job, the patriarch wanted to meet God face-to-face to prove his innocence (Job 9:1-35; 19:23-24). God never met Job in a formal, legal setting, but He did speak to him from “the whirlwind” (Job 38:1). The only thing God did was ask Job about creation (Job 38:4-41:34). Job could not answer. All he could finally do was confess, “I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3)!
Paul gave further insight by adding, “All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). This universe was created to serve God’s purpose in redemption! Paul proclaimed that “God… made the world and everything in it… and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:24-27). From that blade of grass to everything we see in this world, creation by God is the onlyrational explanation! Any explanation short of God is foolishness (Psalm 14:1)! No wonder brother Dicus exclaimed in the third stanza, “Secure, is life from mortal mind, God holds the germ within His hands, Tho’ men may search, they cannot find, For God alone does understand.”
Our God, He Is Redeemer
God loved us to the amazing point that “He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and, like light, sacrificial love cannot help but to reveal itself. “Redeem” means to buy back or pay the price to regain possession of something by paying a price. The price paid for our salvation was not worldly valuable commodities such as “silver or gold… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Thanks be to God that Jesus, “with His own blood… entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). Because of this, the redeemed will sing “a new song before the throne” of God forever (Revelation 14:3-4).
Not only does God redeem the lost, but even when the saved sin (1 John 1:8, 10), God has a plan to make them whole again. When the new Christian, Simon – known as “the sorcerer” – sinned, he was not told to be baptized again but to “Repent… and pray” to God for forgiveness (Acts 8:22). Christians are assured that “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7, 9). God not only wants people saved, whether they are outside of Christ or in Christ (1 Timothy 2:4), but He has also done everything on His end to make that possible (Romans 8:29-39)! No wonder brother Dicus exclaimed in the fourth stanza, “Our God, whose Son upon a tree, A life was willing there to give, That He from sin might set man free, And ever more with Him could live.”
