Can Man Live Without God?

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you." – Isaiah 49;15, NKJV

Shortly before his death, historian Will Durant wrote, "The greatest question of our time is whether men can live without God."

The Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, came to the conclusion that Durant was right. After 73 years of communism, Luzhkov decided that the Cathedral of Christ the Savior should again be rebuilt. In the 1930s, Stalin had ordered its destruction to make way for a colossal monument to communism. Hard times fell on the USSR, and the monument was never built. Khruschev turned the site into a swimming pool, but the Mayor teamed up with Aleksi II, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, to begin construction of the new cathedral. Working from the original 19th-century drawings, architect Konstantin Ton heads the construction of the church which will replicate the original.

Can we live without God? Some still believe it is possible. It is true that across the former Soviet empire, churches have been rebuilt as a testimony to the fact that God has outlived another system of government that intended He should have no part in people’s lives. But elsewhere in what was formerly the USSR, former communists whose ideologies haven’t changed are regaining power.

Recent elections in Bellorussia not only put former communists back in power but also put the hammer and sickle back on the flag. The same thing is happening in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany. "Today," writes Tad Szulc, "through the ballot voters from the Baltic to the Black Sea are bringing the discredited communists–known as post-Communists–back to power."

How is this happening when only a few years ago–only months in some cases–democracy won with massive popular support? The issue now is not ideological, that is, communism versus democracy, but economic–bread and butter, meat and potatoes. "Things were so much better for us under communism," a meat packer in Ukraine told me. Yes, he is Christian and a member of a Baptist church in his city. He has no desire to return to the system of wholesale fear and suspicion which sent 17 members of his congregation to Siberia. He just wants to work a full shift at the meat packing plant and have enough to provide for his wife (also working as an accountant) and his two teenage girls.

Some say that political labels have lost their meaning, that post-Communist governments are different. If man could live without God, that line of thinking would indeed be appealing. Of one thing we can be certain: Neither communist governments nor their successors are the ones rebuilding the churches and cathedrals.

Resource Reading: Psalm 1