In my reading today for the Wednesday evening studies in Genesis, I came across an interesting question.  "What if God turned Himself off?"  It relates to the issue of just how dependent we are on Him; just how actively involved He is in the everyday affairs of the universe; just how much His will has to do with things like stock markets and presidential campaigns and doctor's reports.

Is He just watching as a passive spectator, reaching in every now and then to fix things when they go wrong?  We don't believe that, but I'm afraid we act like it.  At least, that's what it looks like when things get rough and our feelings become dominated by fear and anxiety.

Would God "turning Himself off" be like a symphony orchestra in the midst of a concert, suddenly affected by the conductor's walking off-stage?  Would the members keep on playing from the musical scores in front of them, the music continuing, but less and less beautiful as they miss entrances and stray from the tempo?  Or would it be much more dramatic than that?

In Richard Bube's The Human Quest (Word, 1971), he defends his thesis: "The universe exists moment by moment only because of the creative and preserving power of God."  We know this as the doctrine of providence.  If God turned Himself off, would anything change?  Would natural laws keep things going, for a while at least?  Would everything just begin to slowly and gradually fade to black?  No, everything would cease to exist ... instantly!

Bube illustrates this with the analogy of a television screen.

Personalities appear on the screen and interact with one another according to the laws of the world and life.  They love, they fight; if they step off buildings, they fall (barring children's cartoons!); if they are cut, they bleed.   But what happens if the plug of the set is pulled out?  Do the laws of nature in the events on the television screen begin to fail?  Do the characters begin to be less loving and considerate?  No, when the power is removed - when the plug is pulled - the very source of existence is gone: the personalities on the screen in their life and story context simply cease to exist.  (p. 27-28)

It's just as Scripture tells us in Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live and move and have our being."

Isn't it wonderful that there is no plug to God?!