An author so fortunate to compose prefatory remarks for a second edition of his or her work finds it eminently easier the second time around. The reason for this, at least in my case, is the benefit of hindsight. The author knows what the public thought of the original effort, and is thus able to reconstruct weak points while reiterating the strong ones.
If the scores of positive letters and personal encounters over the past couple of years show the broader impact of The God They Never Knew, it is encouraging evidence indeed. Not, to be sure, that some strictly amateur literary effort has attracted some small acclaim, but rather that the kernels of truth so prayerfully sown within its covers produced such desirable effects in the lives of readers. This, when all is said and done, is what really matters. For in contrast to the fixation so many of us have with methodology and technique, God's emphasis is in change.
Perhaps some who saw the cover title of this book in its first format were surprised to find as they llipped through the pages that the book has very little to do with the spiritual ignorance of unreached peoples around the world. In this completely revised edition we have attempted to remove even the slightest confusion by changing the cover and adding a subtitle to better suit the book's primary thrust. The God They Never Knew: The Tragedy of Religion Without Relationship, as the new subtitle suggests, is concerned with the growing number of church (wo)men who indulge in formal religion without cultivating a personal relationship with the living Christ.
You may ask if such a thing is possible. Can one unknowingly belong to one religion while under the impression that he or she is part of another? Rutgers Professor David Ehrenfeld analyzes this question in his book The Arrogance of Humanism. He answers, "If that person believes in the dogma of the former and only celebrates the latter, why not?" To whom else did Jesus direct His words in Matthew 7:21–23?
Not every one who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your nanle, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.
What was their crime? Precisely that which killed Ananias and Sapphira—they lied! They did nothing in God's name; oh, it was on their lips, but they forgot that God looks on the heart, where. He found other names. They wanted power without responsibility, and the name without the relationship.
That's what this book is all about—a relationship. In the chapters that follow, each of "lhe major salvation doctrines are examined through the paradigm of this all important word. Those who look for a thorough, systematic theology will be disappointed, for that is not my purpose. Rather, we seek the Jesus the church has lost in its abstract, theological theorizing, "received by tradition from our fathers." The Jesus with whom we need a fresh and vital encounter.
Life is not a game we can play according to our own rules, for we are creatures. As creatures, we must seek our Source, recognizing that in spite for all our spiritual dialogue, service and fellowship, it is the relationship that counts. It is this relationship which must be cultivated at all costs. As C. S. Lewis put it, "We must starve eternally."
The world still echoes Pilate's class action question: "What is truth?" For there is an intuitive realization in the human heart that once it is found it will set us free. It remains my sincere hope that the truth in these pages will free you to worship God in a new dimension, as it has for me. It must be truth that unlocks the door of revelation, for there is no other key.
George Otis, Jr.
Seattle, Washington
January, 1982