Apologia

The frailties of mankind never cease to amaze me, the sins of pride, envy, greed. The world, the flesh, the devil, have shrunk to the size of your pocketbook. The stores already decorated for Christmas before Halloween, everyone searching for an escape.

I was never a sportsman, never an athlete. Still I'd prefer to be in any type of game, rather than the sidelines or the bleachers. Because of total blindness at such an early age, I never watch such games. In College, 1949, I first came into a realization of big money sports, until then, I thought people were just playing games, not big business. From then, 1949, until 1989, 40 years, World Series games did not always result in a full seven-game series. But, with increased television revenues, increase money at every level, you seldom have a 5 or 6 game series, remarkable, always seven. It's the same with all athletics, advertising revenues in proportion to everything else involved in the game. Our games, races, gambling, elections, all fixed. Isn't it strange that polling and election results can be so accurately predicted ahead of time, that gambling defies mathematics. That the great Las Vegas hotels are built by losers.

The word apologia was not widely known or used by the ancients, they apologized for very little, because they had the common sense to do what was right. Nor was the word apologetics recognized, they knew what they believed, the Grecian warrior, so convinced in his beliefs, either came back a victor, or carried on his shield. Today's religionist, not refined in the fire of personal conviction, just dilly-dally along the fringes of their belief, easily tainted and demoralized by defense, not self-equipped to give a good offense. As the disciple Peter said, your offense has got to be “the hope within you.” (1 Peter 3:15)

It is not love, certainly not love as taught by God when we support anything outside the truth. Pilate asked Christ, “what is truth?” (John 18:38) Christ is truth (John 14:6), and the truth is the truth whether anyone believes it or not. God does not care what we think, he only cares about belief in the faith of His Son. The honor of His Son is important to God, one cannot profess belief in Christ and not be changed, to keep on doing what they were doing before repentance. We are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17); transformed, not conformed. (Romans 12:2) The unbeliever, the atheist, the backslider, always identifies Christians in their image of hypocrisy; don't compare anyone with another Christian, make your comparison with the scripture.

A business never advertises sales at a 20% increase, always a 20% discount. The world looks for cheapness, there is nothing cheap about God's workmanship (Ephesian 2:10): God's gift to the world in the form of his only begotten Son (John 3:16), or the price one must pay as a follower (Matthew 16:24).

Converted, convinced, the mind and heart working together...the soul in the blood; blood, the essence of life. The light-bulb in the lamp, the filament in the bulb, all just dead molecules until connected to power with the infusion of electrical impulses, called electricity, into the filament in the bulb, we then have life, light, heat. Such is what happens when God breathes eternal life into us, as he did with the first human being, Adam. It is a relationship between spirit and matter. The manufacturer's handbook, the Bible, tells us we are his when we are spirit-filled.

There is almost no limit to the stories of lives that have been changed by the infusion of God's power through Jesus Christ. Some so convinced, so inspired, willing to suffer anything to reach the lost. Early missionaries never expected to return home, I saw this twice in Africa. At Kenya, at the airport in Nairobi, a young man leaving to go to America and prepare for the mission field. His family were there, weeping because they never expected to see him again. Landing in the Cameroons, an old man left the plane, got on his knees and kissed the ground having told me it was the first time he had been home in 50 years. He had come home to die. He too was weeping as he went inside the terminal, family there to meet him, neither had ever seen one another before, but as he told me, he was coming home.

Acts of God will make nuclear warfare look small. In apologetics, we try to defend our faith; our faith does not need defense! Without God, you cannot know God. To know him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering (Philippians 3:10), is sufficient. Present the Word, and God will do the rest.

The Inklings

C.S. Lewis, born 1898, died with little notoriety on November 22, 1963. Because of the murder of John F. Kennedy on that same day, there would have been much publicity about the death of one of the world’s greatest writers. (The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy). Perhaps the book I know him best for is “The Case For Christianity“. After Lewis graduated from Oxford, he went through a time of agnosticism but because of his friendship with the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, an outstanding Christian, he became one of the world’s greatest biblical apologists, even recognized as a stalwart of the Christian faith by the Catholic Church.

Tolkien, devoted Catholic, professor of Anglo-Saxon studies at Oxford and great admirer of J.K. Chesterton, perhaps the most influential catholic, and most quoted catholic writer, brought Lewis back from his despondency as a self-imposed agnostic since the age of 15, to his revitalization as a Christian apologist and devout believer at the age of 33.

I became acquainted with Lewis, first through his writings and then correspondence, because of his acquaintance with a local professor. Lewis did not adhere to the rules of conduct required by the catholic church of Ireland. He felt, as does this writer, that Christian joy should be a fount of internal pleasure due to the fact that the Holy Spirit of God lives within the human body. Like Joseph of the Old Testament (Genesis 39), we should have Christian joy regardless of situation. It is a matter of history that Joseph found joyfulness even in prison, even in Potiphar’s house, even in Pharaohs government.

My testament to Lewis was the fact that most of the New Testament was written by a man in prison, even in prison in Rome, in a cistern with little contact with the world and absolutely no conveniences. This Jewish roman citizen, a graduate of the best school in Tarsus, could write a love letter to the church at Philippi and speak of the joy of the Lord. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Philippians 3:10) In every letter I ever wrote Lewis or any other Christian student I use Philippians 3:10. In all his 16 epistles, their was a sense of joy (in the short epistle to the Philippians he used “joy” 17 times, a man in prison still rejoicing over the Philippians whom he had not seen for 15 years), security, confidence. After all, faith is a verb, action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4)

“ 7. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:7-8)

People do what they do because they believe what they believe. You must believe in the all sufficiency of Christ before you can understand your faith. This is one reason Tolkien could not understand Lewis aligning himself with the Church of England. Which, very much like the Episcopal church in the US, is grasping for the indolence of the world. It is hard for any Christian to comprehend a statement by Katherine Hancock, an American Episcopal Priestess, who has served for 17 years on the national board of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, making the statement in Birmingham, Alabama, that abortion is “a wonderful choice”.

I truly believe joy and happiness came to the life of C.S. Lewis, not just with his conversion to Christianity as has been clearly specified in his books, but his marriage late in life in 1956 to Joy Gresham who died four years later after a battle with cancer. I believe his grief with her passing, led to his death three years later at the age of 65, the world losing one of its great writers and Christianity losing one of its greatest defenders.

One of life’s most difficult choices is to encourage joy to a broken spirit. Only the disabled who have the daily challenge of living in spite of handicap can understand my remarks. You think you understand, but you will never understand. Recordings made by the “Three Blind Boys of Alabama” give a sense of joy, only because of their salvation. The burden of daily living reduces enthusiasm.

Recently, this totally blind writer reached under his kitchen sink for a can of bug spray that I was going to spray around doors and windows since insects from the outside always pick my house for refuge. Before I started spraying, I decided to check the contents and I found someone, in making purchases for me at a store, had put a can of shaving cream under my sink. Now can you imagine the sight of this old blind man trying to clean up all that shaving cream.

I thought, erroneously, when I came back from the war, that God would “cut me some slack” in my daily living. NOT SO, I have just as many aggravations, make many more mistakes, than the rest of you. I have never understood how a mother, with the challenges of child training, can rear children without God’s help. I have never understood, how a person with a disability of any type, blindness, deafness, cripple, can survive without God’s help. You learn to pray and get better results then you get from pills, you learn to pray, and get better results than you do from the psychologist. Pray, and you have the assurance of the power of the universe who will never leave you, nor forsake you.

The father of Roxana Saberi ( recently imprisoned in Iran), said his daughter would starve herself to death if she was not released. History has been punctuated by ordinary people who found extraordinary faith, in a time of crises. Before the conflict with the enemy’s of Christianity is resolved (and it probably never will be), many of us will be imprisoned and many of us will need the faith not only to die with but to live by.

Nor cause me from my bosom tear
The very friend I sought.
-Robert Burns

Broad-minded

This is the 50th anniversary of the movie On The Beach which was made in 1959. As great as all the performances were, the photography and the script were as out-standing. The only drawback to this black & white classic is the hauntingly depressing nature of the film. Death is never easy to explore and it's done here tastefully, gritty, and realistically. Gregory Peck shines in this controversial role. Ava Gardner (NC native, buried in Smithfield) gives her finest performance. Fred Astaire is incredible in his serious role. However, the film was stolen by the pre-Psycho Anthony Perkins and newcomer Dana Andrews as a doomed young couple with a new baby. The ending of On The Beach is one of the most depressing in screen history, still this is a must see for any fan of any of the actors or the legendary Stanley Kramer. This should awaken all of my broadminded friends who think I'm so narrow minded in my devotion to the Savior of the world, the only One who makes a difference at the time of death.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” Matthew 7:13

From the time I entered college, friends as well as professors challenged me about my narrow minded religious, spiritual beliefs. Recently, my stock broker told me of his nephew who, at the same university which I graduated, challenged an atheist professor about his mockery of God. At the end of the class, the UNC-CH professor, told my friend's nephew, “You can stay in this class if you like, but you will not pass.” So it is, with 85% of all Christian young people who dare leave home, go to a secular university, and will be immediately challenged about their religious beliefs, always with the term, “broadminded”. Always, I said with kindness, to one of these fellow students or professors, “If you have something better, please tell me about it.” I AM STILL WAITING. The number one goal at all secular colleges, is to have students defy God; in their design, making godless, communist, citizens of all US. young people. Parents, prepare your young people for the onslaught by example, encouragement, Christian apologist, erasing intimidation, shaping them in the beauty and the credibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ; the only entity that has changed the history of the world for the better. Have you ever thought what the world would be like if Christ had not come into the world: darkness and desolation. When Christ comes into our life, we have been raised from the dead. In Christ, we have eternal life; it has already started here and now. The unsaved world can offer your student nothing but death. Sin and the degradation of ungodliness may give some pleasure for a season here on earth. (Hebrews 11:25) The victory is ours, the battle has already been won. All that is necessary for us is to not be deceived, to obey.

The greatest force in the world today, in this computer age, is Google. The owners of Google predict that they will become like God, all-knowing. Already, in the equations and intricacies of Google's programs, all the information of the world stored in hard drives has been collected, “processed and developed.” Google not only now has the picture of the front of your house but everything that goes on within the walls of your house. Big Brother (Google) is the right arm of every government agency. Every commercial enterprise, “Slave-Mart” (Wal-Mart) unlike Sergeant Schultz (“I know nothing.”) knows all. These enterprises know what you like, what you buy, and how much money you have for everything. The computer knows more about your tastes, your family, your life activities, than you know. We have sowed to the wind and have reaped a whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7) God told us long ago it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. (Song of Solomon 2:15) The little foxes can not get any smaller than computer chips.

My first experience with a computer, I was amazed that there was a machine that could put my stuff in alphabetical order. (My large collection of antiquarian books, magazines, records, music, etc.) Did anyone think that the hard drive could be so raped, manipulated, totally compromising all your physical security? Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, truly would say, “What hath God wrought?”

From earliest history, men protected themselves with armor; cities protected themselves with walls; castles protected themselves with moats and drawbridges. Modern nations protected themselves with military armies, then with navies, then with planes, then bombs to throw out of the planes, now with missiles that can be fired from long distances. As with the dead animals put in the water systems of the streams going under the walls of the walled fortresses, as with the stable manure put in the wells of these southern farmers when the Yankee Troops came through, as with the IEDs causing so many casualties in our present-day wars; in bed, while we are sleeping, the enemy has invaded, in the name of broadmindedness and conquered. In the name of broadmindedness, “we have met the enemy and he is us” (first used on a poster for Earth Day in 1970).

Every generation wants everything to be rosy and pleasing to them. On the altar of broadmindedness, we have sacrificed every area of common sense. When did we stop thinking ahead to the consequences of our actions? Who told us to get out of a hole we must keep digging? Did anyone consider the consequences of typing in everything on God's earth that pertains to you and then turning it into your enemies? The American Native BRAVE (Indian) could put his ear to the ground and could tell you the direction of a buffalo herd many miles away, the number of buffalo in the herd, and in which direction they were moving. In this electronic age, we are back to 1801 when Thomas Jefferson established a navy because of pirates. When our forefathers with muskets won the Revolutionary War because they could out shoot the trained, British Red-coats. Go to a fast food restaurant, and see if the wait person can count out your change if the electric computer is down. In many ways, we have voted for slavery and now we complain about the shackles.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” Abraham Lincoln

You can promise some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not promise all of the people all of the time.

We have the government we deserve. God must laugh at our stupidity (Psalm 2:4), blessed with so many technology advances. Compared to my childhood, life is so much easier. The poorest now, live better than the rich when I was a child. I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but one way or another, we will come to our senses. What we have sown, we will reap. (Galatians 6:7)

Muslims emphatically insist that the Jihad, or Holy War, was only a means of defense and was never used as an offensive act. This is underlined in the explanatory notes of the Sahih Muslim:

"Jihad in Islam is not an act of violence directed indiscriminately against the non-Muslims; it is the name given to an all-round struggle which a Muslim should launch against evil in whatever form or shape it appears. Fighting in the way of Allah is only one aspect of Jihad. Even this in Islam is not an act of mad brutality....It has MATERIAL and MORAL functions, i.e. self-preservation and the preservation of the moral order in the world."

Our challenge now is the one billion followers of Islam in the world who seek our destruction. In speaking to a Muslim recently, he said, “We seek the death of all unbelievers, all infidels.” I said, “Christians are supposed to love you because we are told to love our neighbors as ourselves. (John 13:34-35, Mark 12:28-31) My Jesus loves you and does not seek your death.” This will be the challenge of this century, not the fact that we have a Muslim president who, playing charades, is bringing this nation to its very knees with debt enslavement, who can quote the Koran in speaking before the Muslim world but wants all symbols and references to Christianity covered as he or his authority moves around this nation. We have chosen debt, not prosperity. We have chosen television trash, not mind enrichment. We have chosen athletic events, not worship services. We have chosen looks and diction, not experience and integrity. We have chosen media cover-ups, not basic common sense. God willing, we will become narrow of the mind.