The Hitchens brothers

Review of: Peter Hitchens, The Rage against God, Grand Rapids, Zondervan 2010, hb, 224 pp.

by Maxwell Ryan

Christopher Hitchens is among the more prominent of the current crop of atheists, which is one reason why The rage against God (subtitled “How atheism led me to faith”) by his less well-known brother Peter, is such a fascinating read. This is a marvelous read, for form as well as content. Readers who are looking for a defense of the Christian faith against atheism will not be disappointed. Yet this is far from being a fundamentalist rant.

Peter - a British journalist, author and broadcaster - is currently a columnist for the Mail on Sunday. A former revolutionary, he attributes his return to faith largely to his experience of socialism in practice, which he witnessed during his years reporting in Eastern Europe. Three years as a resident correspondent in Moscow during the collapse of the Soviet Union confirmed his growing doubts about secular salvation.

This is a beautifully written and poignant book. The carefully crafted language is a delight to read as the author leads his readers along a winding autobiographical journey that is honest, thought provoking and kind. As the younger brother (by three years), Peter early learned to fight physically and verbally with a brother who defined much of his life. As Peter writes, “Christopher and I have had over the past fifty years what might be called a difficult relationship. Some brothers get along; some do not. We were the sort who just didn’t.”

The poignancy is evident as Peter muses, “My brother and I agree that independence of mind is immensely precious. This will not make us close friends at this stage. We are two utterly different men approaching the ends of two intensely separate lives. Let us not be sentimental here, nor rashly over-optimistic . . . But I was astonished that the longest quarrel of my life seemed unexpectedly to be over . . . as I have long hoped it would be.”

The rage against God is an important book, not only because it is a sparkling example of a well-written book, but also because it reveals that no one is outside the providence of God.

I find it interesting that the book is published by a Christian publisher and not by the well-known secular publisher that has published Christopher’s attacks on Christianity.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement has been a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

Sadness & joy

by Maxwell Ryan

“Let’s play a game, little one,” I sang into my daughter’s ear, some years ago.  Eagerly she complied and, dropping her dolls, swung up to my lap and snuggled down.  An impish smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as she poked a finger into my ribs with astonishing speed and said “I tickled you”-a statement of invitation as well as of fact.

I declined this overture and instead said, “I want to ask you a question.”

“Well” she said, bright with impatience “what is it?  What’s your question?”

“I want you to tell me what makes you happy” I replied.  She hesitated for a moment or so and then, in a doleful voice, replied “Daddy, I can’t!”  There was a pause and then came the explanation, told with urgency.  “I don’t know what makes me happy, but” and then her voice sparkled with certainty “I do know what makes me sad!”

She is not alone.  You know that, don’t you? Most of us can tell, at a moment’s notice, all of our problems and the concerns that depress us and make our life miserable.

But we are slow to remember the good things.  We are hard put, sometimes, to scare up a few blessings.  And so our days continue in their bleakness as we moan and groan about our lot in life.

Of course, this is not the whole story. It is not even half the story. I find it very significant that one of Jesus’ most consistent promises to His people was that they could receive the gift of joy.

Joy is not emotion-based. Rather it is embraced when we decide to focus on Jesus, while opening our inner life to the empowering Holy Spirit.

The next time you find yourself spouting a litany of complaint, decide instead to nourish the joy and peace that has the taste of Heaven. Good-bye sadness, hello joy!

His word, and his life, had been given; who was he to take them back?

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement has been a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

Easter #4 : PETER

by Maxwell Ryan

The pale translucent dawn wiped the darkness from craggy hills and spilled over into the valleys. It was going to be a hot day, despite the present chill in the air.

A man was running, stumbling in the half-light as if chased by demons - or the shadow of defeat that he could not face. The gnarled roots of olive trees burrowed and interlaced the earth as if possessing a life of their own. The man didn’t see them, and before he knew what was happening the coarse rope of a flopping sandal caught and threw him, full-length and face down, on the stony ground.

He was winded and lay there as if dead. His legs, grabbing this respite in the mad rush from the city, throbbed and ached with growing intensity. Forcing his eyes closed, the man tried to bring order out of the chaos of his darting thoughts.

There were the voices - the low, profane voices of Roman soldiers as they sat around the fire or stamped cursing, in the unwelcome chill of the night air. Then there was the girl: black-haired and lithe, she moved easily among the soldiers with her wine skin. The man watched her.

Her dark eyes flashed and danced as she eluded the clumsy paw of an over-eager soldier, and her high laughter sounded above the general confusion and noise. “Sir, I’m only a poor girl and I have a widowed mother and sick brother at home, would you like to buy…”. The liquid Aramaic of the sales pitch stopped as she bent her head and peered closely.

Harsh and discordant, she shouted wildly, “Here’s one of them, here’s one of them. I saw him with the Man from Galilee!” The sudden silence of the courtyard lived briefly.

“She’s a liar, she doesn’t  know what she’s talking about.” The man’s voice was high-pitched and dry with fear, and trembled slightly. “That no-good, misbegotten daughter of Belial can’t see with the eyes that Jehovah put into her worthless head. I never saw the Prisoner before.”

Curses, now stumbling through disuse upon his tongue, flowed in a dirty stream from the man as the girl clutched her wine skin and backed off.

The outburst had not died on the air when the man heard the slap-slap of marching sandals against the flagstones of the courtyard. A platoon of soldiers moved to his immediate left and he turned quickly to watch. For an instant the solid line of soldiers parted and he could see, not six feet away, the face - but especially the eyes - of the One who meant the most to him. This Person looked at him - through him - beyond him.

The man dropped his eyes and momentarily hid his face in his hands. Then he turned and ran blindly. The hills, the familiar hills, called as he left behind the flickering lights of the city and ran eastward into the paling dawn.

The throbbing in his legs subsided as still he lay on the ground.  Over and over again, with insistent regularity, the thought pounded through his brain: “But I didn’t mean what I said. . . I didn’t mean it . . . I didn’t mean it.’ Those eyes still looked through him and, as they did so, they pierced his heart.

But now the crisis was past, and the fear had gone, to be replaced by hard resolve.  He stirred and then sat, up, wiping his face and pushing back his hair.  Calmly he said to himself, “I must go back, immediately.  He might need me.”

The man arose, bent down to pick up the broken sandal and then walked slowly down the hill toward the city. There was no running now - Peter knew that - and he was warmed by the thought, deep inside, where it really mattered.

There were things to be done, and things to be suffered - perhaps. He’d need all his strength for this troubled present and uncertain future. The pall of defeat receded swiftly as now he strode with purpose. Those beautiful, impact-ridden three years with Jesus were not lost at all. For Peter had made a promise by the rocky shores of Galilee those many months ago.

His word, and his life, had been given; who was he to take them back?

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement has been a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

The stars came down

by Maxwell Ryan

The big stones hurt.  It wasn’t that the donkey couldn’t see, though.  Its splintered unshod hooves pawed for a hold on the shifting slopes.  The stocky man at its side pulled on the knotted and sweaty rope halter and grunted with the strain.

On the donkey’s back a woman lurched.  She was large with pregnancy and her thin, compressed lips blued with grimace.

“God, my God, how long?”

The verbal sounds caused the donkey’s long dirty-grey ears to wag as if in protest.  The man implored with glance and gripped, with sinewed tautness, the shoulder of his wife.

Her head relaxed now and her eyes were filled with dreamy distance and the primitive joy of new motherhood.  The close and heavy air of the stable absorbed the newest sound of tiny life as a new-born baby, wrapped in rags, strained with unknowing fierceness to fill his lungs with the breath of life.

Star-shine from the winter’s sky brought into craggy relief the worried face of the man.  His tuneless whistling blended with the hoarse breathing of the donkey, lost in a twitching-eared sleep a few feet away.

The wonder in his mind far outran his immediate concern for wife and son.  Still heard with inner ears were the words of the angel who had appeared some months ago.  He glanced again at the wrinkled newness of the baby and in a voice rough with tenderness spoke the name: “Jesus!” His wife reached out fingers puffy with strain and grasped his arm.  Their glances locked and each held the other’s gaze for what seemed an eternity.  Words seemed to tumble across the bridge made with their eyes - “Immanuel, King of kings, Saviour, Lord, Alpha and Omega . . .”

Time stopped for an instant as hope lived again.  The heavens rang with vaults of exquisite song. A gigantic star blazed out the coming of the King who slept in the crook of his mother’s arm.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement has been a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

Growth through adversity

Where would the cross be, and where the fight? asks Maxwell Ryan

One of the most pervasive heresies - and one which continues to seduce countless Christians from the true faith - is the false belief that becoming a child of God through the new birth leads to a pain-free life of ease where success is assured and every plan is blessed abundantly. Though even a cursory reading of the Bible shows this is not true the dangerous fiction still remains.

How many new Christians there are who think God has abandoned them when the first wind of adversity blows across their tender spiritual sensibilities. They swallowed the line that as Christians they would be protected from trials that are the common lot of humanity.

Such people have their personal expectations rooted in this world’s agenda instead of in the biblical perspective, which is to sit loose to this world and its philosophies. Their values, hopes, dreams and reason for being are linked more to this world’s transient glory than to the satisfying joy of Christlikeness. Because of this many Christians live with a sense of failure as well as an inability to accept adversity as God’s major means of pushing them to spiritual maturity.

An early Salvationist songwriter got to the heart of the matter when she wrote:

If all were easy, if all were bright,

Where would the cross be, and where the fight?

But in the hardness, God gives to you,

Chances of proving that you are true.

Tough times separate the true believers from those who are attracted by the glitz and glamour which is associated with some branches of the Christian faith, as well as what they perceive to be the personal advantage to be had by espousing a faith which promises and easy way to Heaven, the biggest jackpot of all.

For the Christian there certainly is joy and happiness, as well as times of uplifting praise, but such occasions are not when the most dramatic spiritual growth takes place. Maturity in the Lord comes only when the believer holds to faith in the goodness of God, the saving power of the Lord and the continual indwelling of the Holy Spirit, even when disappointment clouds the horizon and bitterness of soul threatens to overwhelm.

Another early Army songwriter, Susie Swift, wrote out o persona anguish of spirit the words below which point the way to a healing attitude of life:

Mine to smile in face of failure,

Thine to gladden my defeat;

Mine to kneel and drink of Marah,

Thine to make its waters sweet.

In joy or sorrow, with dreams realized or ruined, during victory or defeat God does not change. His mercies and His love are eternal and they are poured out on those who have chosen to be His children.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement has been a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

Thoughts about Heaven

Are we too sophisticated to talk about Heaven? by Lieut-Colonel Maxwell Ryan

T

he fair city lures and beckons me with glimpses, no, intimations of unspeakable joy which is beyond all human understanding.  My soul is ravished with a swelling bittersweet fullness as I realize the desire of my heart.

At unexpected moments I am waylaid by the nearness of this other world, of the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for us.

I remember, as a child, being excited and entranced at the prospect of Heaven while, at the same time, being warned of the dire possibility of hell. Many a visiting preacher and earnest corps officer echoed the words, “There’s a hell to shun and a heaven to gain.” I must say that while through the years, the terrors of hell have faded somewhat; I am still gripped with exultation at the thought of that fair, bright and glorious land.

But I feel somewhat of an anachronism in our present day Salvation Army. What, I wonder, has happened to our hopes of Heaven? Our forebears in the Army sang, “We’re bound for the land of the pure and the holy”, “There’s a land that is fairer than day…”. These haunting words spoke of a place where wrongs will be righted, where justice will meet injustice, where true values of goodness, meekness and life will be rewarded.

Perhaps it is that affluent Christians who have never felt the pinch of want, the cloying fear that there is nothing left - no food, no water, no hope - have it all. They don’t need Heaven, or so they think. It’s only the poor, the starving in developing countries and the dispossessed who sing about Heaven.

What is Heaven? - A place (Revelation 21, 22) that is not only the absence of wrong - tears, death, etc. - but a place of healing, light, glory, worship and everlasting life.  All that we need - and more.

I think we have a generation of officers and Salvationists who say nothing about Heaven because they are afraid of ridicule, or because of a damaging reaction against Victorian mawkishness. In so doing they deny themselves and other Christian pilgrims the sweet and nourishing reality of one of God’s great provisions for His children.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

The Cab Horse Charter Project

“We believe in rebuilding lives” says Maxwell Ryan

In  1890 William Booth’s famous book, In Darkest England and the Way Out, was published, to great acclaim. This bestseller was and remains to this day an unequalled blueprint for social action. Unfortunately few Salvationists have read the book and many are completely unaware of its existence.

Out of this seminal book came the idea of a cab horse charter. With his penchant for an unforgettable phrase Booth wrote:

“When a cab horse, weary or careless or stupid, falls in the midst of traffic, there is no question of debating how he came to stumble before we try to get him on his legs again. In order to put him on his feet, you’ll have to pick him up. Everything is done to help him, and he is restored to his work. The cab horse has, in addition to work, two things: shelter for the night and food for his stomach. Here are the two points of the Cab Horse Charter: when the horse is down, he is helped up, and while he lives he has food, shelter and work. The cab horse is a very real illustration of poor broken-down humanity.”

The bottom line for Booth and his Salvationists was that a person should have at least the same benefits as a horse.

In Booth’s day at least ten per cent of the people in London had less than the horses that pulled the cabs of the day. The Founder found that outrageous, and did something about it.

In the community where you live, what percentage of the population lives broken and despairing lives, as did the denizens of Victorian England?  Do you know, or do you even care? Do you read your society well enough to know the lost? The Army has the expertise, the knowledge and the background to be God’s shock troops.  We know how to do it. In fact, in many places we ARE doing it well. But it’s not enough. What about a contemporary Cab Horse Charter Project? Is this what the 614 network is all about?

Ed: Download an e-Copy of IN DARKEST ENGLAND AND THE WAY OUT http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/475

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

Cultural Grace

How God led us to live in another culture by Lieut-Colonel Maxwell Ryan

I suppose a workable definition of culture is ‘the way we do things’, referring not only to isolated acts, but also to the assumptions, priorities and needs which motivate the acts in which they are embedded.

While it was not easy for my wife and me to live in the African culture we experienced in Ghana, our distance from the Canadian lifestyle had commenced when we lived and worked in England for two years prior to being transferred to Ghana in the autumn of 1993.

Experience as a corps officer, as well as several years as an editor and writer, had nourished an interest in people, language and thought-forms - all hopefully an aid to my work as principal of a small officer training college in Tema, Ghana’s port city. The student body of Ghanaians and Liberians came from six language and tribal groups, though the common language of the college, as well as the two countries involved, was English.

I soon learned that while dictionary and idiomatic English are generically the same, in practical terms they are not. And what if a logically and linguistically correct definition does not fit the cultural grid through which the students understand meanings? What about my quickly squashed assumption that conceptual thinking was the norm? The national education system of rote learning does not encourage conceptual thinking, by which I mean the ability to take unrelated ideas and weave them into meanings that were inherent but not obvious.

Western theology, biblical and church studies and the like come packaged as concepts/propositions/questions/digression - much of which is symbolic. And it doesn’t usually fit with the West African approach to theological and biblical understanding that we experienced. There, the way to the heart and to understanding is story-telling. Many times in Africa we thanked God that His Word is a true story, about the universal Saviour.

We found it essential to have read country and local history and in this way become aware of the pervasive myths and stories out of which life-meaning is woven. We also gradually became aware of the pressuring and stifling effect of traditional culture which so often made it difficult for local  Christians to experience a full and free application of biblical principles to everyday living.

In brief, all that we as expatriate Christians could hope to do while living in another culture was to model Jesus Christ in the minutae of daily living on a compound where privacy was not important. We found that where there was interracial openness, a sense of humour and wits tuned sensitively to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as well as conscious joy in the attractive goodness of God’s holiness, these were used by Him to transcend cultural barriers.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

For Real or just for Show?

asks Keith Hampton

On Friday night as I did my rounds in the pubs, just talking and inviting people to take a War Cry, a guy stopped me at the door as I was leaving. He must have been watching me for some time as he confronted me with “Is that for real or just for show” pointing at the cross around my neck. 

I wasn’t in my usual full blues because I was taking someone with me who doesn’t wear SA uniform and I thought I’d dress the same as him in the polo shirt and jacket and my wooden cross (usually under my jacket).
 
I was taken aback when the reality of his query struck me, “Is that for Real or just for Show?”
  
I answered quickly, “Yes it is for real, I’m a Christian and I wear it to remind myself and others who see it that Christ died for me on the Cross and for everyone who believes Him, and one day will live with Him in eternity” (at least I think that’s what I said in the surprise of the moment).
 
This guy was big. He looked like he could have been a lumberjack, but I was in Australia not Canada, and he began to raise his huge hand towards me … to vigorously shake my hand. ”I’m a Christian too,” he said, “I love what you guys do every week and I just wanted to thank you.”
 
As a third generation Salvationist I think I almost grew up learning by osmosis that anyone who drank in pubs were dreadful sinners who were ready recruits and were all going to the wrong place one day if they didn’t find salvation. In fact I’ve met some really wonderful people in the pubs since I started on Friday nights back when I was 18.  In church that Sunday morning I commenced with this call to worship - ”Are we real or Just for Show!” and I shared my story about the big guy.
 
I’ll never forget that split second feeling when his huge hand started towards me, until I realised that he was in fact one of us!  Yeah I know, not everyone should be in a pub on Friday night, but for him, like me, it was a ministry and he isn’t scared, to stand up and be counted as “real”.

Writer: Major Keith Hampton is a married man of 36 years to his childhood sweetheart Ruth (nee Terracini). Keith and Ruth have a grown up family, Daniel (31) and wife Emma and Rachel (26). Keith is currently the Corps Officer of Caboolture Corps on the outskirts of Brisbane and Ruth is the Salvation Army Workplace Relations Manager for Queensland. He was a member of the Overcomer’s Session and has served as an officer in both Australia Eastern Territory and New Zealand Territory in field, public relations and divisional youth work. With a fundraising, marketing and theological bent, Keith is always seeking ways to “Improve the Product” and has been responsible for new corps openings and building programs in various corps and plants in both territories.

Who’s all wet?

asks Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan

O ther Christians may be all wet (sprinkled or immersed by baptism) but Salvationists generally are not. Though the Army’s non-sacramental stance puts it outside the pale for some Christians, Salvationists believe they are living according to the intent of Scripture as they attempt - in the power of the Holy Spirit - to live sacramental lives, without the visible signs.

Salvationists are aware of the deep theological divides in the Church over such a common practise as baptism: to immerse or to sprinkle; believers’ baptism or infant baptism; baptismal regeneration or rebaptism (viz Anabaptists)? They are also aware that the practise had its roots in the Old Testament and pre-Christian Judaism, by which means it made its way into the early Christian church as the rite of initiation.

Evangelicals generally hold that baptism is not salvatory, i.e. it has no saving grace but is, in the words of the old saying, “An outward sign of an inward work of grace.” The function in such ceremonies is to draw attention to the truths they symbolize. Therefore, if baptism is not necessary to salvation, reasoned the early Salvationists, is it necessary at all? Could being baptized give Christians a false sense of security? Indeed, they averred, is it not as scriptural to live and worship relying only on the grace of God, as revealed in Scripture through our Lord Jesus Christ and interpreted by the Holy Spirit, as it is to live according to historically sanctioned rituals?

Of course, there is the vexed question as to whether Scripture requires that all Christians - without exception - use this rite as the entrance into the Kingdom. Salvationists hold that the New Testament declares that a rite is fulfilled only by those in whom its spiritual meaning is effective and active, whether or not they outwardly observe the symbol (Romans 2: 28, 29, Philippians 3:3). And they are aware that Jesus Himself neither introduced nor administered baptism (John 4: 2), and the Apostle Paul made sure that he was not known as a baptizer (1 Corinthians 1: 14 - 17). Salvationists further hold that though baptism by water may be helpful, the one true baptism by the Holy Spirit is essential (Ephesians 4: 5).         

Having said this, there is a lively discussion within the international Salvation Army about its non-sacramental stance. Many shades of opinion are vigorously and at times hotly debated on the Army’s chat pages.

Let’s not major in the non-essentials!

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud.