VII. The Visions of the Wars of Satan - part 3

 Revelation 13:1-8, 11-17

13:1 Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns were ten diadem crowns, and on its heads a blasphemous name. 13:2 Now the beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority to rule. 13:3 One of the beast’s heads appeared to have been killed, but the lethal wound had been healed. And the whole world followed the beast in amazement; 13:4 they worshiped the dragon because he had given ruling authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast too, saying: “Who is like the beast?” and “Who is able to make war against him?” 13:5 The beast was given a mouth speaking proud words and blasphemies, and he was permitted to exercise ruling authority for forty-two months. 13:6 So the beast opened his mouth to blaspheme against God – to blaspheme both his name and his dwelling place, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 13:7 The beast was permitted to go to war against the saints and conquer them. He was given ruling authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation, 13:8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed. 

 

13:11 Then I saw another beast coming up from the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but was speaking like a dragon. 13:12 He exercised all the ruling authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and those who inhabit it worship the first beast, the one whose lethal wound had been healed. 13:13 He performed momentous signs, even making fire come down from heaven in front of people 13:14 and, by the signs he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, he deceived those who live on the earth. He told those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had been wounded by the sword, but still lived. 13:15 The second beast was empowered to give life to the image of the first beast so that it could speak, and could cause all those who did not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 13:16 He also caused everyone (small and great, rich and poor, free and slave) to obtain a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. 13:17 Thus no one was allowed to buy or sell things unless he bore the mark of the beast – that is, his name or his number. 

Now we come to two fearful and bizarre images. Again, we must recognize that these are drawn from previous apocalyptic writings. In them, and here, these beasts stand for world powers. They do not represent one power at one point in time, as so many current predictors of end times would have us believe. They are figures of world powers down through the ages. In older writings, they were seen as referring to Persia and then Greece. It this writer, John, is speaking from the latter part of the first century, he is speaking to his audience about Rome. 

These beasts are earthly powers. They arise out of the sea and the land, respectively. In such writings, the sea is often seen as the source of evil and chaos. However, the dragon, Satan, gives this first beast his power. Remember, Satan has been thrown to earth, so he can do this. He can give authority to the beast to rule and to wage war against the saints and even to conquer them. 

One might well ask, how can God allow this? Look at v. 8: “and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.” Is this not reassuring? Possible cause for joy? As with Elijah of old, God will preserve a remnant who will not bow down to the beast. They might be conquered, killed, martyred, but they will not have bowed down to the beast as their names ae secure in the book of life. As we have said before, they will be victorious in the end because of their faith in the redeeming work of the slain Lamb.

The multiple heads of the beast point to successive Roman Emperors, particularly those who vainly accepted or even declared that they were gods and therefore demanded worship. Failure to obey could mean death, and indeed it did for many Christians in these times. Note that John writes that one of this beast’s heads appeared to have been killed. This likely refers to a story traveling around the empire round this time. It was said that the wicked Nero, who had committed suicide when deposed by the Roman Senate, had come to life again. He was apparently going to come from the east with a mighty army (Parthian soldiers from beyond Asia Minor?) and retake the throne.

These emperors and their subjects perpetrated varying degrees of persecution against the Christians. It is to these believers that John is writing, passing on what he hears and sees from heaven and its various representatives, whether Christ or angels or the voice of God. He puts what they are experiencing in perspective. He constantly puts it all in the course of history and also includes the salvation history that gives the Christians victory in the end, to give them heart and reassure them. They are challenged to hold fast to the faith, even through death, for they will be victorious, whether alive here, or in the next life.

The second beast (vs. 11 and ff.) can be understood as those world powers that give support to the first beast, which is the government. In other words, those who control the economy, whether it be arams of government, trade or financial institutions. Some have included the United Nations. But who are these beasts in our time? Who or what is it we are to be wary of and not fall prey to. Really, we should not be giving first allegiance to any world power, whether it be the United States, Russia or China. All of these have and do act in accordance with what is described here as the behavior of the beast. Eighty years ago, it could have pointed to the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler. These powers will come and go as others have before them, which we have already referred to. Our allegiance is to Christ and his Kingdom. That is the only one that does what God wants with the world God created. That is the kingdom that will be victorious over all others in the end.

A word about numbers. The beast is given power for forty-two months. This does not necessarily refer to any particular period in history. Remember that seven is the perfect number, whereas six is the opposite, the imperfect, perhaps even evil. So, these powers are allowed to rule for a block of time that will be filled with a lot of evil, whatever period of history it is, however long it really is.

As for the mark of the beast on those who worship it, elsewhere it is identified as ‘666’. Numerologists in the early first century could contrive this number to refer to almost any one of the Roman Emperors at the time. So, what does that say to us about thinking it points to one specific anti-Christ at one point in time. Remember again that 6 is the number of imperfection. Multiply it and it simply emphasizes that this is all evil.

When we look at some of the things the beasts are allowed to do, it’s not a stretch to see those things in present day world powers’ behaviours.  Russia, when at its communist height, tried to eradicate anything to do with God. The Chinese government is determined to root out Christianity and replace it again with a cult of worship of their leader, as happened before with Mao Tese-Tung. What about the language and behavior of the 45^th president of the USA? What about the sometimes-not-so subtle actions that even our so-called democratic governments (Europe, Canada, the USA) and those who support them carry out against Christians when we act and speak as we believe our Lord wants us to? 

Some refer to these beasts as the Anti-Christ. Really, any of these powers can become anti-Christ, as we have already discussed. The powers that be enforce worship of this beast. Some put forward fanciful explanations about this talk of the wounded beast being replaced by an image that could talk as if indeed resurrected.  Some even talk about this as being a very human-like robot. Well, the technology for such is probably here. Just go to Disneyland and listen to Abe Lincoln speak from his seat.

In the end, our Lord has said we are not to get caught up in these details. We are to be alert, watchful, and not fall prey to all these allurements and pressure. As we have seen, these words applied to our brothers and sisters in Roman times, during the Third Reich and when the USSR was a power. Such words of our Lord apply to all time, until Christ returns. What our Lord wants us to her form this letter is that these things will come, so we should be forewarned, and conduct ourselves accordingly. Keep the faith, endure, and we will overcome. So be it.

VII. The Visions of the Wars of Satan - part 2

Revelation 12:12b But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you! 

He is filled with terrible anger, for he knows that he only has a little time!”

12:13 Now when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 12:14 But the woman was given the two wings of a giant eagle so that she

could fly out into the wilderness, to the place God prepared for her, where she is taken care of – away from the presence of the serpent – for a time, times, and half a time. 12:15 Then the serpent spouted water like a river out of his mouth after the woman in an attempt to sweep her away by a flood, 12:16 but the earth came to her 

rescue; the ground opened up and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 12:17 So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.

 

The last section ended in 12:9 with the Devil being thrown down to earth along with his angels after his defeat by Jesus upon his resurrection. We saw how the view in heaven also portrays this as a battle with the angel Michael. In apocalyptic literature, Michael appears in our Bibles in Daniel 10:13-11:1 as an angel fighting the prince of Persia, then going on to fight the prince of Greece. Given that this information came in a vision to Daniel as did John’s vision in our text, one would gather from the context that these are cosmic wars being fought and that these princes are probably demons defending successive empires. Empires all do become evil in time, so this connection need not be surprising. 

 

Indeed, in Daniel 12:1-4, Michael is identified by the heavenly being speaking to Daniel as ‘the protector of your people, meaning the people of God, in this case Israel. The description of the battle in Daniel sounds very much like that in our text from Revelation 12. However, now we understand the people of God to include Christians. It stands to reason that, as people of God, Michael is also our protector, as seems to be the case in Revelation 12.  The only other biblical reference to Michael is in Jude 9 in the New Testament, where he is called an archangel. This is the title given angels such as Michael, and Gabriel who came to Mary and Joseph, because of the key role they play in the scriptures and apocalyptic literature as one of the few named angels.

 

After the Devil is thrown out of heaven, John hears a loud voice in heaven (12:10). Among other things, this voice is heard in 12:12b warning the inhabitants of the earth that Satan is “filled with terrible anger, for he knows that he has only a little time”. Remember, the Devil, Satan, is here described as a dragon. The serpent of Genesis 3 has morphed in apocalyptic literature into a dragon.

 

We see that the dragon is still bent on destroying this child but now that it is safe in heaven, where Satan is not, he turns its attention to its mother. Remember, we said this woman could represent the people of God, past, present and future. Past would include the first human group to be so identified, the Jews. One can interpret what the Jews have suffered all through history, right up to our time, as the result of Satan’s extreme hatred for them because they figure so centrally in God’s plans, and as such, gave birth to the Christ. We saw why the devil wanted to destroy him before he gave his life as the sacrificial Lamb, and so corrected what Satan had done to the world by defeating him with that death and the resurrection that followed.

 

However, we are told again, as in 12:6 that the woman had not only fled into the wilderness as stated there, but been helped to get there by being given the wings of an eagle to fly to the place in the wilderness prepared by God for her. Suddenly the dragon is again a serpent and now tries to flood the woman out of the wilderness, but fails when the earth itself comes to her aid and absorbs the flood the devil created.

 

The dragon then turns its attention away from the woman to focus his anger on her children. Now her children are not one son who was snatched up into heaven, but the many “who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus.” This could refer still to the Jews, “those who keep God’s commandments”, as well now as Christians, those who “hold to the testimony about Jesus.” This testimony is, of course, that he is the long-promised Messiah, our Redeemer, Savior and risen Lord. 

 

These verses show that Jews and Christians alike will not have an easy time on earth. We see that in history and still. However, we have already been learning that we are victorious with Christ. We also know that the defeat which occurred at the cross will be finalized when Christ returns. Knowing that should encourage us, strengthen us and perhaps even allow us to experience joy in the midst of tribulation. That is one of the key aims of this book, this letter to the seven churches, and to us.

VII. The Visions of the Wars of Satan - part 1

Introduction

Blog comment: Some of you will recall that I began to write on The Revelation about a year ago on my blog. My initial efforts faded over time. However, with the lessening of other responsibilities since then, I am taking up the work again. I believe The Spirit prompted this after New Years (2021) and I am excited to dig in and learn further about The Joy of Revelation. Her is what I share about Revelation 12:1-9). My apologies for the alternating 'bold' and 'normal' font. It's a glitch I can't seem to correct, it bears no meaning on importance of sections. 

 

Now we come to some of the most dramatic and climactic portions of The Revelation. These passages recount the efforts of Satan to defeat Christ and his people all through the ages. Some of these descriptions refer to recurring situations the Church has found itself in since Christ’s resurrection. Some point to the future and what would appear to be final battles between Christ and Satan. However, these battles might not be what you have likely been taught to expect.

 

The significance of these wars is evidenced by their being covered in eight of The Revelation’s twenty-two chapters. We have by now come to understand that The Revelation is not so much a chronological account as a record of scenes played out in different settings and seen from different vantage points, as well as in varying degrees of depth and complexity. Some of the passages we will study here seem to be expansions of chapters six, eight and nine. What the seven seals of chapters 6 – 8 and seven trumpets of chapters 8 – 11 introduce, are in some ways dealt with here again, in the sometimes bizarre seven signs or symbols of chapters 12 – 14. Finally, the accounts of the ‘wars’ wrap up in the latter half of chapters 16 – 18 and the latter portions of chapters 19 – 20. 

 

Signs 1 & 2, The Woman in Heaven and The Dragon.

12:1-9

12:1 Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars. 12:2 She was pregnant and was screaming in labor pains, struggling to give birth. 12:3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadem crowns. 12:4 Now the dragon’s tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. 12:5 So the woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, 12:6 and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days. 12:7 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 12:8 But the dragon was not strong enough to prevail, so there was no longer any place left in heaven for him and his angels. 12:9 So that huge dragon – the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world – was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him. 

 

This is a cosmic description of what began with the birth of Jesus and ended with his resurrection. As with many apocalyptic images, these pictures are drawn from different sources and thus combine different elements. To begin with, the first symbol, the woman, would appear to be Mary of Nazareth. We’ll come back to her description and its meaning later. She is pregnant and about to give birth. She does gives birth to a male child, a son, who is to rule all the enations with a rod of iron. This child must be Jesus.

 

The second symbol, the dragon is none other than Satan. This is the moment he has been waiting for. He knew God had a plan to rectify the damage Satan began to wreak on God’s good creation from the beginning. He sees that this child, the description of which would line up with the human, Jewish, Messianic expectations of the time of Jesus’ birth, has a key part in that plan. So, Satan wants to kill this child. We know he tried unsuccessfully to accomplish this through King Herod, as described in the tragic account in the Gospel According to Matthew, 2:1-18. This killing of all male children in the area of Bethlehem under the age of two is referred to in Church History as The Slaughter of the Innocents. It is still remembered much more in the Eastern churches of our faith family. If you go to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, you will see it memorialized below the complex on which this Church stands.

 

Not to be deterred, Satan tries again and this time succeeds in killing this Son, not through Herod but through the efforts of the Jewish people themselves, with the aid of their Roman overlords, and Jesus is killed, crucified on Calvary. The Child is snatched up into heaven, to God and to his throne. This refers to Christ’s resurrection, his vindication and his exaltation to sit at the right hand of God, as described on numerous occasions throughout the New Testament. Satan is foiled again. 

 

The woman meanwhile, flees to “the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God”. How many times have those who were part of God’s plan not had to spend time in the wilderness. Indeed, sometimes we all feel as though that’s where we sometimes are. However, here this is seen as a place of security. It is prepared by God to protect the woman from Satan. We do well to remember that when we feel we are in the wilderness, God is still there with us. He can still protect us and see us through whatever our wilderness experience is.

 

Indeed, this brings us to see this symbol in another light, referring it would seem, to a different, later period of time. This woman can also be seen on another level as Christ himself, symbolized as a woman, the Mother of The Church. We can now turn to the description of this figure. We know Christ is described as Light. When he showed himself as he really was to his three closest disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration he was so bright they could not look at him. He would be the one entitled to wear a crown with twelve stars, which could stand for his rule over the twelve tribes of Israel as King David’s successor, or, following that, the twelve Apostles representing The Church. The moon is sometimes understood in biblical times as having evil aspects, so it is under the feet of this portent, indicating evil’s subjection (Psalm 121:6: “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”).

 

Now, we can see how the comments in the paragraph preceding this last really can apply to us as Christ’s children. The Church is not really fully at home in this world. We can be said to be in a wilderness. We are not lost but we are pilgrims, wanderers, looking for our future home when the Kingdom of God, of which we are already citizens, will fully come into being.  God is looking after us though, just as he did look after Israel those forty years in the wilderness of the Old Testament. Our wandering will end, as did Israel’s.

 

Satan is furious. The war he waged on earth against the Christ is now seen as it appeared from a heavenly vantage point. Satan wages war on a cosmic scale, in heaven itself, with Michael and his forces. Satan loses and is thrown – not the to his eternal punishment, but to the earth with his angels, which we sometimes refer to as demons. This tells us that Satan and his forces are already weakened by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This was meant to comfort and encourage Jesus’ followers at the time this was written. The text is reminding them that although they might be facing hostility, persecution and even death now, they are on the winning side with Jesus, and their vindication and reward will come, as did Christ’s. 

 

We today, in the face of all we as believers see and experience in today’s world, should be likewise heartened and able to feel joy in the knowledge that we too shall overcome through Christ our Lord. As the Apostle Paul writes, we are baptized into his body, so we die and rise with Christ (Romans 6:3-11). Praise be to God!

Publishing a Novel

 I have been writing since I was a child. Besides letters and cards to family and friends, and what was required at school, I probably did not start other writing until I was in my teems. That first writing consisted of notebooks full of observations about nature, mainly birds. I did dream of being an ornithologist at the time.

Twenty years later I was writing poetry. Then folks songs. A couple of articles for our national church-affiliated newspaper. Some 25 years ago I began to think of writing a novel. My first idea has still not come to fruition, nor my second. Perhaps three years ago, I began to think of a biblical historical fiction story - of Mary of Nazareth and her relationship with her firstborn son, Jesus, no less.

I tested it our by putting instalments on this blog, which some of you will have read. That began in March 2018. Today, I received my first copy of this novel in published form.  This is some 50% larger than what was on here, so those who have read it here will not have read it all. 

It is on sale at FriesenPress bookstore, the publisher. I think they have a pretty good deal for you. Amazon and Kindle also have it on their website. I also have a goodly number of copies which I can get to you for a pretty good price.

Here is a photo from the 'unboxing video' that happened today, as filmed by my daughter. The movie is on my FB account but it's too big to upload here.

No Room in the Inn? Not Likely

 

The “Christmas Story” most of us know is likely not historically accurate. Oh, we know that no one knows for sure about when Jesus was born. But, as you can guess from my title, what we have been told is probably not even correct as far as to where Jesus was born.

 

If we take the time to really read the biblical sources, we know that only two of the four Gospels have a story of Jesus’ birth. The first, the Gospel according to Matthew, actually says nothing about where Jesus’ birth took place when it talks of his being born (Matthew 1:18-25). Place only comes up when the story of the ‘wise men’ follows. They had gone to Jerusalem, the capital city, thinking that was obviously where the king would be born as that was the home of the king. Then it is told that the learned men of Jerusalem, called upon by King Herod to answer the question of where a king was to be born, finds that the prophet Micah, some six or seven centuries earlier, had prophesied that this king would be born in Bethlehem. This is seen as appropriate as he was to be a descendant of Israel’s most beloved king, David, and that is where David was from. Indeed, as we know from the story, the wise men did go to Bethlehem where they were led by the ‘star’ they were following to Jesus. 

 

The other, the Gospel according to St. Luke, places Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. From Luke 1:26 and 2:4 we learn that Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, were from Nazareth, up north in Galilee. However, according to Luke 2:4-5, they had to travel to Bethlehem, in the Judean hills six miles south of Jerusalem, for census purposes because they were descendants of David.

 

So, that’s the town. But where in the town? That’s where we have likely got it wrong.  The oldest Greek manuscripts of the Gospels we have say Jesus was born in a kataluma. This is the place for guests in a home, literally, above or ‘beside the room’, room her meaning the main area of the home. The fact that Mary laid her newborn in a manger then clues us into that because the guest room was full, they slept on the periphery of the spacewhere most household activities took place. It was on the border between that and where the family’s animals would be kept for the night for safety. The living quarters were raised a few feet above the level of the animals. On the edge of that transitional space were indentations, space to hold feed for the animals, so they could eat from it at will. This is the Middle Eastern ‘manger’, not a wooden structure that we know from the places we in the West keep animals. It was into this place, Mary laid Jesus, right beside where she and Joseph slept off to the side of where most household activities took place. 

Middle Eastern people are among the most hospitable on earth. They always had room for strangers. If they really did not, a neighbor would take them in. Some villages even had a special guest room built above a home which villagers took turns looking after to host guests in. There was severe censure for lack of hospitality, if not from society, maybe from God. Even the Bible speaks of this. Sodom and Gomorrah were burned for their utter lack of hospitality for God's own representatives (Genesis 19). These customs continue even into the early 21st century, as my wife and I can attest to. On our travels to the Holy Land we were shown hospitality by Jews, Muslims and Christians, sometimes together, whether it was in a restaurant, as is often the case nowadays, or in homes, the latter even in refugee camps!

 

So, how did we go wrong? Kenneth Bailey, who grew up partly in Egypt and spent most of his working life studying and teaching in the Middle East, believes it is due to a non-canonical writing (a ‘book’ that did not make it into the Bible) called The Gospel of James. Here is where the story says Mary gave birth to Jesus immediately on her arrival to Bethlehem, so where else but in the place for animals as there was, ostensibly, ‘no room in the inn’. What does the Bible say about that? Luke 2:6, our only source, simply says “while they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child” (NRSV). No idea about whether that was hours or days later! 

 

It appears to be from the Gospel of James where the ‘no room in the inn’ story originated. This writing had proven so popular, so captured the imagination of the Western Church, that it obviously influenced the translation of the King James Version and very other translation into English that that followed. It might also have been accepted as the main narrative as it seems to fit with the idea of Jesus giving up everything, heaven and all its glory, riches and power, to begin life at the lowest level of humanity to really identify with us. 

So, if we accept all of this, likely more authentic, alternative tradition, what does that do with this longstanding theology? Here’s where further understanding of this core Middle Eastern hospitality comes in. Both being of the line of David and coming to his hometown, Joseph and Mary would have been enthusiastically welcomed ‘home’ as long-lost relatives. They would have been looked after as well as conditions permitted. The guest room was occupied, as were in all probability, most of them in Bethlehem, because of others from David’s line coming back to Bethlehem for the census. Mary, being pregnant, probably slowed down the couple’s travel and they arrived later than most.

 

Yes, John writes in his Gospel (1:11), “he came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” This refers not to Jesus the infant, but to the grown man, who was not accepted because his actions and teachings were too much for his people, the Jews as a whole. If we discard this ‘Jame’s’ writing and accept that Joseph and Mary were welcomed by family, what could be better?  God was the one who first ordained family, according to Genesis. What could be more fitting that his Son was born into family? And in the home of his illustrious ancestor? It simply underscores the importance of family. 

 

 

 

The Acts of God in My Life

The Bible contains numerous references to The Acts of God. The Psalms, in particular, often refer to these and how the writer will tell of them. Sometimes it is written that they will be shared in ‘the assembly’ or in ‘the congregation’ (nowadays we would say 'church') or even ‘to the nations.’ Sometimes the writer states he will tell of them in return for what God has done for him. 

I believe these examples suggest we who claim also to believe in the same God should continue to tell of the Acts of God in our histories. Let me begin speaking of my history. I have written earlier of our need to tell of the God-stories in our lives, as a testimony to how we believe this has taken place. Here's a summary of mine so far. 

 

In the first place, I thank God for being born into a heritage of some 400 years of Anabaptist Christianity. I must at the same time be thankful that my ancestors, at least enough of them, survived severe persecution directed at them at the time by the Roman Catholic Church, but not only that. The Christian Reformed Church also persecuted them. I don’t think the Lutherans were quite as active in that way.

 

In an effort to escape this persecution, my ancestors moved from the Netherlands and northwestern Germany to what is now once again Poland. From there, one of my mother’s ancestors, Jacob Hoeppner, was instrumental in a move of his people from there to what was then Southern Russia. This was at the turn of the 19^th century at the invitation of Queen Catherine the Great. They got off to a rough start there but things improved and more came to join their number, settling in many villages in what is now Ukraine, north of the Black Sea.

 

Again, my ancestors were blessed in choosing to leave this area when they did, in the 1870s (my mother’ side) and early 1900s (my father’s side). In so doing, they escaped the horrors of the Russian Revolution and the anarchy unleashed then. They were fortunate in being able to settle in Southern Manitoba, which, after again an initial tough beginning, turned into fertile farmland so they prospered.

 

Then, in the mid-nineteen-forties, God led my father to Manitoba where he met and married my mother (his family had moved to Saskatchewan very shortly after his birth).  I was thus provided with the most wonderful, loving, caring and generous Christian parents and grandparents. Our parents encouraged us in many ways. They spent time with us, in work and play. They introduced us to things in the world, took us on trips.  The responsibilities I was given in my teens, the gifts I got, the trips I went on with my father, all showed me how much they loved and trusted me.

 

As a missionary family, we lived in what were then somewhat remote communities in Manitoba through my childhood. There were many benefits to growing up in such locations. I learned to appreciate nature and the indigenous habitants of our land. When I was about to turn sixteen, we moved to Winnipeg. This allowed me to get a better education academically for the last two years of my public school life.

 

I am also thankful that my ancestors had the vision and foresight to join more progressive branches of the Anabaptist tradition. As such, I was able to go directly to our denomination’s newly university-cross-registered college in Winnipeg after high school.  This was a wonderful experience in broadening my horizons, learning and also in experiencing Christian community, when I lived on campus two of the three years there. I had been mentored and given experience in youth leadership in our church. In college, I was able to join a choir and travel across the West visiting churches; itself an experience in seeing God at work in many lives and many places. I was also able to serve in the dormitory and on the student council. 

 

Father’s work in the city, the connections he had made as a chaplain, provided an opportunity for me to get a good job in a hospital on graduation after three years at Canadian Mennonite Bible College. Meanwhile, the family lad left Winnipeg for Saskatchewan. In the spring of 1968 I followed them. I thought there was a young woman there I had met in college whom I would marry but God had other plans. However, those years were again ones of growth in the church – teaching Sunday school in two different churches. I also gained more experience in leading in youth work where I developed many good and long-lasting friendships. 

 

I had also been blessed to have two parents who were good singers and mother was a good organist and pianist. She got me started on playing the piano and ensured I took more lessons beyond what she started, reaching a Grade VI level. Father had also tried violin and so my parents had me start for one year on that instrument but then the teacher moved away and that was never continued. I continued with the piano, even playing in church and for choir. I was also blessed with a natural tenor voice and learned early to sing harmony with my siblings on our parents’ missions deputation visits to churches. This gift was fostered with more choir singing in church, in college and in high school. In Saskatoon, I got more involved in music, including beginning to write once I taught myself to play a guitar my stepmother was kind enough to lend me.

 

From when I graduated college and after I also gained experience in preaching and other church leadership work. On two occasions, I almost became a pastor. However, God had called me, when in college, into medicine and it required a move back to Manitoba to get into Medical College. I realized shortly how God had a hand in that. From first year, I became involved in the very supportive Christian Medical and Dental Association, which also taught me a lot through the examples of other physicians and an opportunity for leadership here too.

 

Even more to the point, in third year I was able to take part in an elective in medicine in a Mennonite mission hospital in Taiwan. This led to me being introduced – in Winnipeg, though, not in Taiwan - to a young woman who eventually became my wife. We began to go out in earnest in fourth year. However, her parent resistance meant it took another two years before we could marry and begin our life together. I know God led me to Winnipeg for these reasons -  a supportive medical community, church and my wife-to-be. Go supported us both through the long difficult time from when we first pledged ourselves to one another till when we were actually able to be together. 

 

The church I refer in Winnipeg to was the one I had been part of when a youth in Winnipeg. Now, I became a choir leader, a Sunday school teacher, Music Committee member and then chair, and was involved with a good youth group and small group. 

 

Life was not without its struggles. Our mother died when I was in my last year of high school. Then I got mumps. All of that did not help my academic record. It took me three tries to get into medical school, but that helps develop persistence and patience and keeps one humble. So did failing a key exam in second year medicine, but I passed the oral make-up. I failed the College of Family Practice Examinations at the end of my Family Practice residency too, but passed on appeal. 

 

God then led Anne and I to a small community for the beginning of my medical practice. I worked with a good mentor for the first year. Here again, over time I became the medical director of the health unit and even vice-chair of the local health board. We found a good and welcome church home with more Mennonites. Again, God allowed me to use my abilities to teach Sunday school and be involved with bibles study groups. There were difficulties related to the delivery of health care in this community. I tried to mediate in some ways but my efforts were not appreciated and those I had considered friends ended up not appreciating me, but we got through that.

 

Anne turned into a strong believer and follower of The Way, especially the Anabaptist way. She became a member of the church in Gladstone on baptism. I had gone through that in the Bergthaler Church in Winnipeg. I had a good supportive minister there in Ernest Wiebe who baptized me and later married Anne and I.

 

When things got stressful work-wise in Gladstone, God opened the way for us to move into wonderful home and another welcoming church community in Brandon. I was also able to join a good collegial group of physicians. In this church, I was also able to develop further abilities in teaching, worship leading and even preaching. Perhaps in part because I was away at residency when it happened, my wishes to have done more to prevent and heal a split that occurred in our church here did not materialize. However, we carried on and things were still good for us with the group we were left with. We made some very good friends who remain so to this day. 

 

Here again, I went through a time of testing when a colleague reported me to the College of Physicians and colleges for alleged improper prescribing. My psychiatrist supervisor where I was working part time said I was just being compassionate and ahead of my time, but that did not help.  I had to leave the practice for 6 weeks of remedial training in Winnipeg. However, even here, God provided in the form of a scholarship from the College of Family Physicians to help cover the cost of that period when I did not work.

 

In spite of my being away from the family for 5 days out of 7 when in the psychiatry residency a few years later, God looked after my family. God has given me a most loving, loyal, capable and longsuffering wife and she managed things very well. Our son Ansel had a fracture and a leg cyst that got infected and needed surgery. Both children needed congenital hernia surgery. But all happened all right.

 

Then, after our daughter’s graduation, we had a real test of faith and found again how great it is to have a supportive family and faith community. Thanks to much help and many prayers, Anika went through some very difficult times over the period of the first couple of years out of high school. However, she came out of that all right and went on to graduate from university, away from home, in Montreal, as her brother had done. This really helped deepen Anika’s own faith in seeing all these prayers answered, in experiencing the support she did.

 

In 2004, for several reasons, we began to seriously consider moving from Manitoba to the west coast. A British Columbia physician matching service quickly picked up my case and in a few months, I had five interviews to attend: five different communities, workplaces, to choose form. All were new. How to choose? We prayed and drew lots. Richmond – which we knew least of. Questioning that, we repeated the process – same answer. After we moved to this city we soon realized why God had led us here. It was at a time when many Chinese were immigrating to Canada. Some of them were searching, for what they did not really know. However, they came to our church. Again, we fairly shortly found what has turned into a good church home. This time, it was Anne’s turn to be able to use her knowledge of language and culture to make connections with these immigrants and a number have become members of our church and personal friends. Anne helped with Sunday School here as she had in Brandon. We jointly led an immigrant bible study and taught that for years. I got on to the Missions and Service arm of the church council a couple of times. We ended up joining and then leading small groups again. 

 

Finally, I retired, at age 69. The following year it was my turn for a health crisis.  I required surgery for a bowel obstruction but God provided quickly a very capable surgeon who was able to operate in such a way that the physical aspect of the procedure hardly interfered with my life.  When this recurred a year later, God calmed it before it grew to need another procedure or surgery. 

 

Our extended family life has not always been easy either. Interestingly, on Anne’s side it has turned out to be more consistent and supportive. On my side the vagaries of a blended family, having a stepmother etc., have presented their own difficulties. However, we have navigated all of this well enough. Last year my father died, three months after Anne’s mother. Her father had died five years earlier. Our stepmother is developing dementia but even there, God has provided. Our parents were able to get into a very good and inexpensive Assisted Living facility near where they lived. When father, unfortunately, ended up in hospital a month later and it was deemed he could not return there, it was only two months before he got into a good care home next to the hospital. This was close enough so mother could go and see him very day by walking on her own. 

 

This year, we got the Covid virus in our community and world. Fortunately, father had passed on three months earlier. It would have been very difficult for our parents to have experienced the separation that would have called for. Even mother’s dementia has been somewhat of a blessing in this. She is happy in the world that is her Assisted Living facility and has not troubled us with wanting more. None of our family, indeed no on we know, had so far contracted Covid, so that is also a blessing at this time for which we thank God. 

The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost

 

“So, you want me to wear a mask so you will feel safer? I’m telling you, it’s my right not to wear a mask.” Words to that effect have been heard too many times already in recent months, mostly in our neighbor to the south, the United States of America. This while Covid-19 infections rates are soaring to new heights. The speaker is implicitly accusing the other of being selfish. Might s/he be selfish too? I’ll leave the reader to decide who is most selfish in this scenario. 

 

Phrases such as these are the result of reading America’s founding documents too literally. Interestingly, many of the same people read the scriptures too literally and also use them as weapons in their arguments. In this line of thinking, we’ve also heard words to the effect of, “God made my body and he made the air for me to breathe freely and I don’t need a mask in between.” Or, “God will protect me.”

 

What we have here is a convergence of individualism and fundamentalism. In other cases, it is an extreme view of civil rights, libertarianism. Relativism also plays into this. Everyone is their own interpreter of laws, of the Bible, of everything. Community and altruism suffer.  

 

Where does this come from? How did we get to this place? Some trace it all the way back to the Enlightenment. The rational thought that originated there is what informed the founding fathers of the USA’s first documents and declaration, which speaker(s) such as the one(s) quoted to begin with point to in support of their stance.

 

Others point to the “God is Dead” movement, of which one of the earliest proponents was German philosopher Friedrich Nietszche. He, in fact, predicted precisely where we are at over 100 years later. His life trajectory paralleled where society can end up if we follow his philosophy to its extreme – he ended up with a complete loss of his intellectual and cognitive abilities. 

 

The existentialism, post-modernism and post-structuralism which followed really gained momentum with the hedonism of the ‘60s. Any reference point outside of man was out the window. There were no absolutes. All of which brings us to where we are today. Living in a moral vacuum with real leadership in short supply. The title under which I write this can also be summed up in two quotes from The Ancient Writings which many know, “”They sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind (The Ancient Sayings 8:7),” and the writings of Amabassador Paul to the Galatian Church, “”You reap whatever you sow (6:7).”

 

To be sure, not all have bought into all this thinking. There are still good people out there, those who do show that they are made in God’s image. They can be found in every society, in every religion, in every profession and occupation, in every neighbourhood. There is still hope. In fact, right after that line to the Galatians, Witness Paul writes, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all (6:9-10).” Those, my friends, are the words we should live by. Those words embody a spirit that rises above individualism and selfishness. Those are the words that someone who will wear a mask might be living by.