Dr Paul Allen

I dwell...with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit. (Isa. 57:15) Matthew Henry, in the eighteenth century, wrote,  “He that dwells in the highest heavens dwells in the lowest hearts, and inhabits sincerity as surely as he inhabits eternity. In these he delights.” 1 Franz Delitzsch, in the nineteenth century, put it beautifully:  The Holy One is also the Merciful One. . . . The heaven of heavens is not too great for him, and a human heart is not too small for him to dwell in. He who dwells among the praises of the seraphim does not scorn to dwell among the sighs of a poor human soul.2 John Oswalt, writing in the twentieth century, says it this way:  “He offers life to those from whom the life has been all but crushed out; he offers life to those whose spirit has been ground down to nothing. They need not be captive to their sin and shame.”3 Our tenderhearted King knows that being alone at rock bottom is unspeakably painful. He vividly remembers that day on his cross ...

The famously angry atheist Richard Dawkins tweeted out a report from the  Guardian  with a reaction that made me do a double take: “Before we rejoice at the death throes of the relatively benign Christian religion , let’s not forget Hilaire Belloc ’s menacing rhyme: ‘Always keep a-hold of nurse, For fear of finding something worse.’” The  Guardian  was noting that Christianity in the UK was completely collapsing: Well over half of Britons no longer pray or attend religious services, and a staggering 70% of those between the ages of 16 and 29 do not subscribe to any identifiable religion.  Dawkins seems to have changed his tune somewhat. After all, this is the same man  who once argued  that the state needed to shield children from religious parents who were “indoctrinating them,” essentially dismissing the fundamental concept of parental rights as so much nonsense. Enlightened atheists running the state were far better equipped, in Dawkin...