R.C. Sproul

Our problem is not so much that we tend to think of God as a God who has no love.

But rather the problem that we find in the culture of our day is a view of God that carries with it a cheap view of love and a sense of love by which all the other attributes of God are removed or stripped from His character and swallowed up by one attribute, which is the attribute of love.

I wonder how many of you ever saw the Hollywood movie

entitled Elmer Gantry.

Or perhaps you read the book upon which it was based, which is an American classic written by Sinclair Lewis.

And if you've ever seen that film, you know that the stars in the movie were Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones.

And the movie was a parody about two famous evangelists.

Burt Lancaster was really, as Elmer Gantry was parodying, the evangelist Billy Sunday.

And Shirley Jones, as Sister Sharon Falconer, was a parody of Amy Semple McPherson.

And, of course, Sinclair Lewis was poking fun at these evangelists.

And one of the regular scenes in the movie was when Burt Lancaster, being Elmer Gantry, would come out on the stage.

He would run out on the stage and slide like a baseball player, sliding into second base, because that's what Billy Sunday was known for.

He had been a Major League Baseball player and a base stealer.

So Gantry slides into second base, and he says, safe.

in the arms of Jesus.

And then, if you remember Burt Lancaster, he would flash that inimitable grin of his, and his eyes would get that gleam, and then he would start off his sermon by saying, love.

What is love?

Love is the morning and the evening star.

Love is the inspiration of the artist, the substance of the philosopher.

And he would go on and on with this syrupy, saccharine definition of love.