In England, when a prisoner is on trial, the place where he sits is called “the dock.” So, the accused is said to be “in the dock.”
C.S. Lewis, in his brilliant essay, “God in the Dock,” points out that somehow modern man thinks that God is “in the Dock”: that God must give an account of himself to humanity.
The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defence for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the Bench and God in the Dock (God in the Dock, page 244).[1]
Who can deny that Modern Man largely believes that God must defend himself to human beings? Somehow, Modern Humanity is audacious enough to act as though God must meet a standard humanity establishes.
Can anything be more ridiculous?
It’s as though Modern Man stands on the edge of the Sears tower in Chicago and peers over the side. With his toes hanging over the edge, and the wind gusting at his back, even as he watches others scream and pitch over the side, Modern Man says smugly, “I am not sure that I approve of the law of gravity. In fact, I’m not sure I agree with it at all. What kind of a law would cause people to fall off objects?”
Don’t get me wrong. Modern Man is a reasonable sort of “chap” (I have to stay with British words when interacting with Lewis), he is willing to listen to a few defend to him the law of gravity. But, generally, he takes a pass on accepting that gravity has any particular bearing for him and those he knows.
So, for a few moments – – the length of time a wisp of steam rises over your coffee cup (James 4:14), Modern Man stands with a smirk on his face laughing at the law of gravity. Soon enough, a gust of wind comes along and an eternal plunge begins.
[1] C.S. Lewis, “God in the Dock,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 244.
