AP Content :: Sensible Science

1. ” Our God—He Is Alive” [ Part I ]
2. INCLUDEPICTURE ” http://www.apologeticspress.org/themes/AP2/images/pixel.gif” * MERGEFORMATINET by Bert Thompson, Ph. D.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. I suspect that many Christians—whether young or old—know quite well the beautiful and stirring hymn, “Our God—He is Alive,” by A.W. Dicus. And I suspect that most of those same people know the beautiful and stirring refrain with which the song begins: “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.”

III. But while the hymn itself is well known to most of us, sadly, its famous author is not. Aaron Wesley Dicus was born on May 30, 1888 in Festus, Missouri. When he was just a small child, his family moved to Swayzee, Indiana, where he was reared and later graduated from high school. In that same small, north central Indiana town, he met and married his first wife, Bertha Jane, in 1908—the same year he was baptized. It was that year, on the occasion of his baptism, that he made a vow: “If the Lord will allow me to get an education,” he said, “I will use it in service to Him.” The Lord would indeed allow him to obtain an education. And he would spend the rest of his life remaining true to that vow.

IV. In fact, it was shortly after his baptism that he began to prepare himself to preach and to obtain the education he wanted so badly. He started his teaching career in a one-room rural schoolhouse, but left that position to become an inventor. I suspect that few people, in or out of the church, are aware of the fact that A.W. Dicus is the man who, shortly prior to the Great Depression, invented the automobile turn signal!

V. He began preaching full time for the church in Bloomington, Indiana, and around 1925 was offered a student instructor scholarship at the University of Indiana, which helped pay for some of his school expenses. He continued to preach whenever possible, in order to help pay for things the scholarship did not cover. Eventually, even though he had to drop out of college on more than one occasion to earn money to continue his schooling, he graduated with B.S., M.A., and Ph. D. degrees. In 1929, he was offered the job of chairman of the department of physics at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee—a position he held for a number of years. In the mid-1940s, Dr. Dicus became heavily involved in training graduates for nuclear studies in connection with the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. One of his former students, atomic scientist Ray Kinslow, was hired to work at Oak Ridge, and later observed that A.W. Dicus “probably had more of his students at Oak Ridge than any other physics professor. I was one of those. After doing atomic research at Columbia University in New York, I came to Oak Ridge and hired probably more than half of his former students there, including one of his sons.”

VI. Even though he could have stayed on for many more years at Tennessee Tech, he chose to leave his prestigious position at the University and move to Temple Terrace, Florida, to become academic dean of Florida College, where he worked until his retirement in 1954. [His first wife, Bertha Jane, had died, and in 1953 he married a sweet Christian lady by the name of Flora, who was instrumental in encouraging him in his song writing.] Due in large part to his reputation and untiring efforts, Florida College was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

VII. During his retirement, Dr. Dicus remained active in the Lord’s work, preaching full time for congregations in Winter Haven and Miami, Florida. He also wrote three books: Sermon Outlines, A Commentary on Hebrews and Romans, and Church Leadership. In addition, he wrote more than thirty-five songs, among which was “Our God—He is Alive.” Eventually, his health began to fail and he was afflicted with cataracts and glaucoma, which left him almost completely blind. Even then, however, he continued to compose songs, including the beautiful, “Lord, I Believe.” Dr. Dicus died on September 2, 1978 in Tampa, Florida. Although he long ago quit these earthly walks, it truly may be said of A.W. Dicus that he, “being dead, yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4). As a result of his dogged determination to remain true to his vow to use his hard-earned education (and considerable speaking and song-writing talents) for the Lord, even today he reminds us—each and every time we sing the song he composed— of the fact that

VIII. Tim Ayers

IX. This song was written by brother A. W. Dicus. According to brother Gene Finley, Aaron Wesley Dicus was born May 30, 1888 in Festus, Missouri. He died September 2, 1978 in Tampa, Fla. … His marriage took place in 1908, the same year that he was baptized into Christ. On the occasion of his baptism, he made a vow to the effect that “If the Lord will allow me to get an education, I will use it in service to the Lord.” Almost immediately after his baptism brother Dicus began to prepare himself to become a minister and to pursue his education…He advanced from classroom teacher in a one-room schoolhouse to instructor in a large Technical High School. In 1918 he gave up his teaching to develop his invention, the turn signal. In the recession of 1922 the under-capitalized turn signal “folded,” and he turned all rights over to his financial partner. By this time his reputation and popularity had grown until he was offered the job of minister of a large church in Bloomington, Indiana. This afforded him the opportunity to attend the University of Indiana located there. Around 1925 he was offered a student instructor type of scholarship at the University of Indiana. By scheduling monthly appointments at several congregations, he was able to continue his ministerial work. By this time he was becoming much in demand for gospel meetings. He subsequently finished his B.S. and M.S. degrees, and in 1929, when he had most of the work done on his Ph. D., he was offered the job of Head of the Physics Department of Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee. The depression years were hard on the young “Dr. Dicus,” and his family. At one period eleven months went by before the State of Tennessee could pay its college teachers. Meanwhile brother Dicus continued to pursue his ministerial duties. He would accept monthly appointments at small rural churches. Many times he was given the entire collection. Often it was not sufficient to pay for the gasoline used to get there. In the 1940’s he became involved in military training at Tennessee Tech …In 1954 he retired, but he was not content to remain inactive. He and his wife developed their small tract of five acres adjacent to the small suburb of Tampa where they lived. During this time he preached full time for churches at Winter Haven and Miami, Florida. During this “retirement” period he wrote and published three books: Sermon Outlines, A Commentary on Hebrews and Romans and Church Leadership. All this activity was going on as he wrote and composed his songs. He wrote approximately thirty-five songs after he retired. Of the thirty-five, the most popular, and indeed, one of the most popular of all songs, is “Our God, He Is Alive.” Other songs include “Lord, I Believe” and “The Open Tomb.” (Finley, pp. 165-168)

X. Wikipedia

XI. The cover of Time magazine HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_8” \o ” April 8” April 8, HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966” \o “1966” 1966 and the accompanying article concerned a movement in American theology that arose in the 1960s known as the ” death of God”. The death of God movement is sometimes technically referred to as ” theothanatology”.

XII. The main protagonists of this theology included the Christian theologians Gabriel HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vahanian” \o ” Vahanian” Vahanian, Paul van Buren, William Hamilton and Thomas J. J. Altizer, and the Jewish rabbi HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rubenstein” \o ” Richard Rubenstein” Richard Rubenstein.

XIII. In HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961” \o “1961” 1961 Vahanian’s book The Death of God was published. Vahanian argued that modern secular culture had lost all sense of the sacred, lacking any sacramental meaning, no transcendental purpose or sense of providence. He concluded that for the modern mind ” god is dead”, but he did not mean that God did not exist. In Vahanian’s vision a transformed post-Christian and post-modern culture was needed to create a renewed experience of deity.

XIV. Both Van Buren and Hamilton agreed that the concept of transcendence had lost any meaningful place in modern thought. According to the norms of contemporary modern thought, God is dead. In responding to this collapse in transcendence Van Buren and Hamilton offered secular people the option of Jesus as the model human who acted in love. The encounter with the Christ of faith would be open in a church-community.

XV. Altizer offered a radical theology of the death of God that drew upon William Blake, Hegelian thought and Nietzschean ideas. He conceived of theology as a form of poetry in which the HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanence” \o ” Immanence” immanence (presence) of God could be encountered in faith communities. However he no longer accepted the possibility of affirming belief in a transcendent God. For Altizer, God had incarnated in Christ and imparted his immanent spirit that remains in the world even though Jesus died.

XVI. Unlike Nietzsche, Altizer believed that god truly died. He is considered to be the leading exponet of the Death of God movement.

XVII. Rubenstein represented that radical edge of Jewish thought working through the impact of the Holocaust. In a technical sense he maintained, based on the HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah” \o ” Kabbalah” Kabbalah, that God had ” died” in creating the world. However, for modern Jewish culture he argued that the death of God occurred in HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz” \o ” Auschwitz” Auschwitz. In Rubenstein’s work, it was no longer possible to believe in the God of the Abrahamic covenant. He felt that the only possibility left for Jews was to become HYPERLINK ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan” \o ” Pagan” pagans or to create their own meaning.