Science in Christian Perspective

PSYCHOLOGY
Philip Marquart, M.D.

Vaughan's textbook of Social Psychology is a very full and complete text for Christian students, but unfortunately, the author is a humorist, liberal, idealist and pantheist. He takes a stand which is near to na!turalism. The following quotation illustrates his unscriptural stand: "the naivete of the belief that God can interrupt the course of nature to suit the whims of the faithful." The last chapter of James relates how Elias, a man of like passions with us, did actually interrupt the course of nature, by his prayer to God. There are many who call themselves Christians, who deny that their God is able to change the course of nature, but their God is too small for His universe. My God is able, He is able to do anything under the sun--or above it. Those who believe in an absolute uniformity of nature, are not even on theistic grounds. They are Neo-deists. Do you believe in the miracle of the resurrection? If not, then you believe that the body of the Lord Jesus still lies in a grave. If you believe that God is not now able to do the same, in His own will, then you may as well throw your Bible in the trash can, burn down the church, and shoot the preacher.

I asked a number of Christians to characterize the quotation above. Five left it unanswered, three said that it was naturalism, one said it showed egocentricity, two said that it was an example of Pentecostal thinking. Four labeled it miracles and three said that it described Christian faith.