I don’t make it a habit of correcting literary giants such as Dostoevsky, and what I have to say is hardly a “correction,” but I would like to tweak the following statement. Dostoevsky is certainly right concerning the need for humanity to bow down before something infinitely great, that is, the triune God. And he is undoubtedly right that many who don’t find the infinite greatness of the living God through Jesus Christ will die in despair. But I believe that there are many others who will give their lives to a lie believing that it is in fact infinite greatness. Radical Muslims running through Iraq these days with AK-47’s on their shoulders are exhibit A. In either case, we have the privilege of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ in order that such lost people who be transferred from death unto life.
The one essential condition of human existence is that man should always be able to bow down before something infinitely great. If men are deprived of the infinitely great, they will not go on living and will die of despair. The Infinite and the Eternal are as essential for man as the little planet on which he dwells.
Footnotes:
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed (Barnes & Noble Classics), 382.
