The Ultimate Desire of All Nations

The legend of Robin Hood is one of the most enduring stories in Old English folklore. The idea of a common man and his band of righteous renegades battling corrupt leadership on behalf of the exploited poor will never lose its appeal. It will be told and re-told. The world loves its heroes and superheroes and they are never far from our collective conscience whether they are in our imaginations, books or on the big screen. 

Heroes, especially flawed ones, are pretty much the basis of the stories we tell, read and watch, and the human family is all about its stories both real and fiction. Hollywood has created a monolithic industry based on them. Virtually every movie that has ever come out is about good versus evil in some way with good winning, at least most of the time. This is true of Superman and Batman right on down to Pippi Longstocking and Bugs Bunny. 

The Bible itself is a book of stories filled mostly with historical accounts as well as lesson-stories called parables. In fact, the Bible is not just a book, it is a collection of books - a library - revealing to us the greatest story ever told. From beginning to end it is about its central figure, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of all things, Jesus Christ. We are introduced to Him in the first sentence of the Bible, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." All creation was as good as goodness could be until sin entered it via the serpent with the permission of man. Hence began God's plan for conquest over sin (Genesis 3:15) and the titanic, multi-layered struggle between good and evil. This is a battle that is ingrained in the heart of every man, woman and child who has ever lived. Every day we live it somehow and every day, regardless of our claims to the contrary, we confess the Good behind the good and the unseen Truth behind the truth we see. This is because God has placed in each person a conscience, an awareness of this Good and a certainty of its existence, however murky. Even when we suppress it, we are acknowledging it because if it didn't exist, there would be nothing to suppress.

We need our heroes. They inspire us to battle our world's villains and our demons within. In echoes from our pre-fallen humanity, we love the innocent and want to see them prevail. And we want to see evil trounced. Let us consider, though, that our heroes themselves are just mere heart-echoes of the Hero of heroes. Our deep-seated desire for victory is really a desire for His ultimate victory, a victory already won by Him. This is what we are acting out and can't stop acting out... and this is how even our sinful world, with all its insolence and misery, ultimately bears witness to its very good Maker. Pity on us if we assume that goodness is not His but our own.

Christmas and the Cave-Dwellers

Other than their names and a few random facts about their lives and ideas, the ancient Greek philosophers are largely unfamiliar to me. That said, my ignorance isn't total. Socrates was a controversial philosopher in his day and was often ridiculed in the works of contemporary playwrights. He was also sentenced to death by poisoning by a court of his peers for multiple crimes including impiety (I have no idea what he was impious about). Socrates was also Plato's teacher and mentor and while Socrates never wrote anything down, we know a lot about him from the writings of Plato and a soldier/historian by the name of Xenophon. Plato, in turn, was the long time teacher of Aristotle. These two complimented each another with Plato being the abstract thinker (hence the evolved term "platonic") while Aristotle was more practical and scientific. Aristotle's most famous student was a 13-year old boy who would later become known as Alexander the Great. I've always liked "small world" stories. Of the "Big Three", Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Plato was the most religious. More than 800 years later Augustine was influenced by Plato's The Republic for his classic work City of God. 

While Christmas shopping recently, I came across Plato's The Republic and would normally have passed it by except for the book's attractive cover. I was further interested by a note on the back cover regarding the author that read, "He invents the allegory of the cave to illustrate his notion that ordinary men are like prisoners in a cave, observing only the shadows of things, while philosophers are those who venture outside the cave and see things as they really are, and whose task it is to return to the cave and tell the truth about what they have seen. This dynamic metaphor expresses at once the eternal conflict between the world of the senses (the cave) and the world of ideas (the world outside the cave) and the philosopher's role as mediator between the two." This prompted me to buy the book.

This illustration immediately reminded me of the citizens of Underland in C.S. Lewis's book The Silver Chair. The Underlanders never see Overworld, or the sunlit land, and are ruled by the Queen of the Deep Realm. This not-so-good Queen denies the existence of Overworld and moves quickly against any Overworlders who enter her lower realm. The problem with the Underlanders is their unquestioning devotion to their despotic Queen, and there's no telling them anything. They can't possibly imagine a life above because all they know is the life below. Most have long since contented themselves with the life they know and reject all notions of a different life. Such is the hopelessness they have settled for.

More than a few parallels of these illustrations can be made with the world we live in. Enter Christmas. It is a season like no other. Aside from the fun, food, foliage and fellowship, the main reason we celebrate Christmas is to commemorate the visit of the Good King into our shadowland. His entrance into this realm is the real-life instance of an Overworlder - the Overworlder - coming into our underworld of the sensory, to declare to us the real life beyond the cave. Herein lies our hope. The choruses we sing every year, "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity," and "A thrill of hope, the weary soul/world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn" are not just seasonal ditties but pointers to genuine truth and life.

The true King has made Himself known to us and our true happiness is found in re-aligning our loyalties to Him for the truth is, we were made for Him. May His grace open our hearts and minds this Christmas and in the years to come.

Fortress North America's Feet of Clay

“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”  C.S. Lewis from The Abolition of Man.


Yesterday was U.S. President Donald Trump's 72nd birthday, but no matter. The excoriation of "45" has continued unabated in these days immediately following his much anticipated meeting in Singapore with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un. Some were applauding the summit as "historic" and successful (mostly people in the White House and the North Korean propaganda machine) while much of the American media and public were, for the most part, appalled.

Here is, I think, a blunt assessment of what happened between Trump and Kim as told by Noah Rothman of NBC, "Kim Jong-Un, the warden of a prison in which 200,000 people and their families are held hostage, was treated like a rock star in Singapore. Kim, the man who reportedly ordered the murder of his half-brother, uncle, and ex-girlfriend, among many others, took smiling selfies with Singaporean officials. Kim, the man who impoverishes, extorts, and tortures his chronically malnourished and parasite-riddled population, was called 'funny,' 'smart,' 'a great negotiator' who 'loves his people' by the American president. Indeed, Trump said the meeting was 'my honor'."

Then there was the video that went viral of Trump saluting a North Korean general. The North Korean media milked it for all it was worth while many Americans recoiled in disgust. The optics of this and his gushing over Kim have damaged the credibility of this president and now he must go to work each day with his wounded image wrapped in a Singapore sling.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's stunted image at home is getting a minor boost from Trump's bullying of his trading partners over international tariffs. However, in his own way, Justin is no better. Trump is taking heat for fighting with America's closest allies and befriending her greatest enemies. This is typical bully behaviour - harass your friends, suck up to your enemies out of fear. Trudeau, meanwhile, pushed gender equality in China when he visited there last year but when he went to India, did he press Prime Minister Modi to rein in Hindu extremism against Muslims, Christians and environmentalists? Not a chance. Instead, he embarrassed himself (and Canada) with shameless attention-seeking selfies.  

I wonder if they have too few principles or too many. I mean, it seems they have different ones for each setting they enter. Both men think they can govern and change the world by the sheer force of their personalities. The reality is, however, neither one of them understands (or cares much about) statecraft. To them, stagecraft is what matters.

But is it right to judge them so harshly? It has been said that nations get the leaders they deserve and after generations of opportunistic and valueless thinking and living, should North America be surprised by the character of its leaders? They were, after all, duly elected by us. If North America crashes and burns, it's on us as citizens. Change begins with us. When we change, so will our leaders, and I'm hoping here in Canada the change will be ushered in next year.

The Passing of a Titan

It's too early to tell, I guess, if the death of Billy Graham will be one of those events where many people remember where they were when they first heard about it. I suspect it won't be because his passing from this life to the next was no tragedy. I'll remember where I was, though. As corny as this may sound, it's the truth. Six of us were drinking coffee and eating donuts at an early morning men's Bible study at our church. Billy died at 7:46 am on February 21, just over the half way mark of our weekly Wednesday meeting. Really. We were discussing Ephesians 5:1-14 and as I re-read it, this passage could've easily been a Billy Graham sermon: repent of your sin, embrace Christ as your Savior and avoid God's judgment by gaining eternal life in Heaven.

This is the message of many preachers but very few enjoyed the open doors that Billy Graham did. In 1950, and not yet 32 years old, he was invited  to the White House by U.S. President Harry Truman. This was the first of many invitations to that famous residence by its chief occupant of the day. Four years later, he was invited by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for a private meeting at 10 Downing Street. He was permitted to preach behind the Iron Curtain in numerous communist countries during the Cold War years. Owning a Bible in North Korea is punishable by imprisonment or death, yet in 1994, Graham visited the "hermit kingdom" and presented its founding dictator, Kim Il-Sung, with a copy of it along with a copy of his book Peace with God. You can Google the picture.

It has often been said that his ministry thrived for decades without scandal, but that isn't quite true. No movement is ever scandal-free because no movement is people-free and where there are people, there is sin. Because he led a public life, Graham's motives were publicly debated over the years. Many faulted him for his lengthy absences from home, that his wife Ruth was basically a single mother. His children had their share of issues. Rightly or wrongly, some suggested that he pandered to the powerful and secretly reveled in the trappings of worldly influence. His personal integrity and that of his whole ministry was in peril because of his friendship with U.S. President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. And he was often accused of preaching a gospel of "cheap grace". Some of these accusations were likely rooted in envy while others were taken out of context. Still, others were true but in the business of public life, myths can be indistinguishable from facts. That all said, Billy Graham was a sinner like everyone else and that is something he never denied. In fact, realizing this weakness was the key to his success. He was reliant on God's grace, not on his own ability to be perfect in all things. 

Quite simply, Billy knew his God. God's grace sustained him and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association through the storms that come to all people and organizations. Billy knew that God wanted to perform a perfect work through an imperfect servant like him. God went before him and filled every stadium and converted every penitent and Billy was careful in making sure God got the glory. Billy knew it wasn't about him and God honored him for that. God blessed him abundantly and how much He blesses someone is His business and no one else's.

Now Billy is gone. By God's grace his legacy will continue in the ministry work of his and Ruth's children and grandchildren, warts and all. His son Franklin is different from his dad. Where Billy sought to please, Franklin doesn't shy away from bluntly speaking the truth against the spirit of the age. He will offend and that's OK. So did Jesus. His daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, will do the same. Her father used to say that she was "the best preacher in the family". Franklin's son Will also has a thriving evangelistic ministry under the BGEA umbrella and other family members are also involved in Christian ministry of some kind. All will be well as God is gracious and as long as they all remember what Billy knew. The Psalmist more than once asked of God, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" Billy himself often wondered why God chose a North Carolina farm boy to bring His word to the world. No direct audible answer came but the fact remains that God did choose him because God is very mindful of man. That is the lesson and the legacy for the rest of us.