Bert Hielema–Columns and Writings

NOTHING IS SURE, ANYMORE.

Everything is up for grabs. Yes, it includes the church. There have never been more people in the world than today. In the Western world there have never been fewer people going to church. There has never been more need for divine intervention in the world than today, yet fewer prayers rise up to heaven asking for forgiveness how we have ruined God’s creation.

This makes me wonder whether there still is a need for the church.

Is there still a need? Yes, an unambiguous ‘yes’. But I hastily add: not the church as it functions in its present form and expression. The church today, too, is at odds with itself. Its major part, especially outside Europe, is strictly ‘spiritually’ inclined, not at all interested in Creation, the cosmos God loves beyond anything else.

But a change is coming: a radical change, now challenging the church’s teaching.

In the Netherlands, Dr. Stefan Paas, professor of Missions at a Christian University, relying on sources world-wide, advocates a new approach where the emphasis changes from personal piety to communal and environmental action, with God’s creation as the focus, an element my readers recognize as my long-time objective as well. But is has thrown ecclesiastical enterprise there into total confusion. The question arises – hinted at in his book, PEACE ON EARTH (The translation of the Dutch title, VREDE OP AARDE) – whether the customary Sunday sermon should be replaced with an occasional ‘walk in the woods’, under the guidance of a ‘nature’ expert. Most certainly more conducive to physical health, spiritual wellbeing and essential knowledge. After all, God’s people are destined to spend eternity here on this very earth, so a bit of exposure to ‘nature’ is eminently necessary, I believe.

Has the church become an obstacle to salvation?

I may be wrong, but slowly I see the church becoming a hindrance to the coming of the Lord, an obstacle on the way to eternity, an impediment to reaching the truth, a pious diversion away from creation, contrary to the aim of Christ, who, in John 10: 10, unambiguously tells his followers that he came to bring earthly LIFE and that to the FULL. After all, Jesus did not start ‘religion’ of any kind: he taught us how to live, in a world for whose redemption he gave his life. Jesus’ life shows that. The pious Pharisees accused him of being a glutton and a winebibber: they saw how he loved being alive and relished in its fruits.

The church is a mirror of today, as we are entering the unknown.

I believe the confusion in the church mirrors the confusion in the world at large. The entire world waddles in uncertainty. AI – Artificial Intelligence – has placed the world’s working population on an edge: “Which jobs will be eliminated?” The war in Ukraine is testing Western resolve. Can it both wage a war against the Russia-China-India axis, and still support the welfare state by paying for Old Age pensions and healthcare? How will the weather play a role, as the entire world brazes for severe storms, hellish heat, melting Poles, failing crops, rising inflation?   

Let me emphasize these last two points: we are in a new period of global history, with everyone casting around for new bearings, where there are none. I haven’t even mentioned a probable Trump tragedy. 

A look back.

The postwar period (after 1945) was followed by the post-Wall period, but that lasted only from 9 November 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall) until 24 February 2022 (Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine). In history, as in love, beginnings matter. What was done in the five years after 1945 shaped the international order for the next 40 years, such as the structure of the UN, to this day. 

For 80 years, ever since 1945, when World War Two ended, we have gradually, then ever more rapidly, treated the earth as our inexhaustible source of riches, now reaching the ‘limits to growth’.

Two colossal choices.

We now confront two major questions: Are we willing and still able to sacrifice our present unprecedented standard of living to 

1. Help the people in Ukraine to withstand the Russian threat, risking World War, and 
2. exchange our current state of wellbeing at the expense of the totality of nature/creation, for a sustainable tomorrow, in order to save ourselves and the future of our children?

No past generation has ever been required to make such mind-dumbing moves, trading a world pampered, spoiled, unhealthy, having lost all notion of divine guidance, saturated with nuclear weapons, for a state of peace and balance.

My bet is prayer: Maranatha, Lord, Come.

How long, before God pulls the plug?

I am an avid surveyor of the daily news, always on the lookout for items that pertain to creation, God’s work of art, which he has entrusted to us for safe-keeping. In this I follow Karl Barth’s advice: Interpret history from two sources: The news channels and the Bible.

After the Flood God promised never to destroy the earth again, knowing full well that, next time, we will do the job. In several places the Bible tells us that we have entrusted the world to God’s adversary. 1 John 5:19 comes to mind. Here it is: We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. For the sake of his children, God will intervene!

Nevertheless, we have been Satan’s eager helpers, especially since most church people see their future in heaven, leaving the earth to be exploited, even while personal piety prevails. Daily I pray for Christ’s return to earth, as suffering has become universal, affecting us and all God’s creatures everywhere. Yes, God suffers too!

Take the Antarctic.

Take the Antarctic, where, far from human occupation late last year the beach should have been teeming with harems of fertile females and enormous males battling one another for dominance. Instead, it was “just carcass upon carcass upon carcass,” recalled Dr. Uhart, who directs the Latin American wildlife health program at the University of California, Davis. There, H5N1, one of the many viruses that cause bird flu, had already killed ten of thousands of South American sea lions along the continent’s coasts in less than a year. Also, pups of all ages, from newborns to the fully weaned, lay dead or dying at the high-tide line. Sick pups lay listless, foam oozing from their mouths and noses.

Dr. Uhart called it “an image from hell.”

Or take trees.

Just one example: in Italy olive trees, because of drought, slowly choke to death, wither and dry out. They die en masse, leaves dropping and bark turning grey, creating a sea of sad sameness. Since scientists first discovered Xylella fastidiosa in 2013 in Puglia, Italy, it has killed a third of the region’s 60 million olive trees – which once produced almost half of Italy’s olive oil, many of which were centuries old. Farms stopped producing, olive mills went bankrupt and tourists avoided the area. No cure for drought! Only more fires!

Or take the world’s tropical regions.

Unusually high temperatures have caused disruption to education and agriculture across the Asian region: Bangladesh, for instance, was forced to close all schools this past week after temperatures soared to between 40C and 42C in some areas. The same is true for much of Africa as well.

Will Bird flu hit us?

The bird flu epidemic that has whipped around the world since 2020, has prompted authorities on multiple continents to kill poultry and other birds by the millions. In the United States alone, almost 100 million been culled in a futile attempt to deter the virus.

There has been no stopping H5N1. Avian flu viruses tend to be picky about their hosts, typically sticking to one kind of wild bird. But this one has rapidly infiltrated an astonishingly wide array of birds. So far there is only one confirmed human case. Rick Bright, an expert on the H5N1, said that this is the crucial moment. “There’s a fine line between one person and 10 people with bird Flu,” he said. “By the time we’ve detected 10, it’s probably too late” to contain.

Then there is Trump: Satan Incorporated, claiming “I am your retribution”, an expression that has religious overtones. 

The Next 6 months.

Looking ahead 6 months: Trump may be re-elected. Already Atmospheric wars are intensifying. Already hot military wars are becoming hotter. Already many nations are close to spending more on interest payments on the debt than on social provisions. The current inflation, due to increasing natural disasters, will jump, signalling economic collapse. It happened to the Hapsburg Kingdom, to Spain, to the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire and pre-revolutionary France. Will it now happen to the world economy?

Us and the Bible.

Here are some verses, “The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds”. Micah 7: 13. 

Or 

“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore—Revelation 18: 11.

This text hints at ‘stagflation’ something that may happen this fall, when rising inflation and a stalling economy will cause the world economy to collapse something the Bible calls, “The Fall of Babylon”, signalling Christ’s Return, the Parousia, the Second Coming!

With all this suffering, ours and God’s/Creation, our fervent prayers should be: Lord! Return!

THE SILENCING OF SILENCE.

In September 1975, now almost 50 years ago, our family moved from urban St. Catharines, Ontario, a city close to Niagara Falls, to rural Tweed, half-way between Toronto and Ottawa, both some 200km away. Several factors led to this radical move. I troubled. Not financially, fortunately. I was dissatisfied. Not in our marriage, thank God.

I moved because I was at odds with my life for three reasons: The church, the Club of Rome (Limits to growth), and fed up with my insurance business. 

But first some background.

In 1962-3, I built our first house, 1,800 square feet, brick, on a large lot on one of the city’s main thoroughfares. It had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, family room, dining room, fireplace, a roomy office: a comfortable place. In 1975, when I sold it, it’s value had increased by more than 150%. I also found a buyer for my insurance business at a good price, so when I moved, I had sufficient funds to buy 50 acres and build an energy-efficient 2 storey dwelling, into a southerly-sloping hill, with large windows facing south, passive-solar, in other words: environmentally friendly, and funds to take time off.

Why this drastic move?

My beefs: (1) The church.

One of my employees had given me a book which had opened my eyes to eternity. It was badly written, but with a relevant message: “Our future, after death, is not heaven, but a New Earth”. That for me, pious Egbert, was an eyeopener. The church I attended had a very conservative, traditional minister, totally inapproachable and closed to any dialogue and new thinking. It was easy to leave this church.

My second worry: The Club of Rome, and its publication, Limits to Growth.

A friend gave me the book. Now 50 years old. To me it was a revelation. I had never given it a thought, but it dawned on me that we live on a Finite Earth: there are limits to our resources. The book, especially in its graphs, showed what would happen – 50 years from now: today in other words – when we disregard these limits: A New Lifestyle is needed. Me, consequential me, acted.

Fed up with my insurance business.

I had a very good secretary. Smarter than me. She quit. This gave me the incentive to move, which we did. 

2024, 50 years later.

Now it is 50 years later. In 1975-78 I built up a large garden, went back to school to qualify as a Professional (Real Estate) appraiser, taking courses at Queen’s, Trent and York Universities, and earned my designation upon completing three 100 pages theses, one on a single-family dwelling, one on a 12-unit apartment building, and one on a commercial building. In 1978 I gained my accreditation, and started Hastings – the county I lived in – Appraisal Services, which I sold to my senior employee in 1993, when I retired at 65.

The sounds of silence, then.

In 1975 I would wake up in our 2 storey house – living on the second floor – by the sounds of bullfrogs emanating from the large beaver pond, some 400 meters to the east, a sound compounded by the rapid hammering of whip-poor-wills, repeated for hours at the time. After a long rain, the highway on which we lived, 5 km north of the village, would literally be covered with thousands of frogs, taking the shiny road surface for a fast-moving stream. 

Decades later, these sounds and those amphibians have disappeared: the natural world has falling silent. Had we lived in the city, I would never have noticed this. 

These birds and those frogs are telling us that something serious is happening in the woods and in the waters. The same applies to wild life: Deer, pheasants, grouse, foxes: where are they?  I read that 70 percent of wildlife world-wide has vanished. 

God is concerned. 

The book of Jonah ends with God’s concerns for the many cattle that roamed Nineveh, the aim of Jonah’s preaching. God, too, worries about the conditions of life stock. Today it is poultry. 

An outbreak of H5N1 that began in 2020 has led to the deaths or killing of tens of millions of poultry. Most recently, the spread of the virus within several mammal species, including in domestic cattle in the US, has increased the risk of spillover to humans. The virus has caused large outbreaks in mink and foxes, and wiped away thousands of marine mammals, especially in South America. Scientists have tracked the virus along migratory routes and stopovers, among wild birds in rural areas and commercial poultry operations and, most recently, among cattle on dairy farms.

The foregoing reminds of “The Sound of Silence,” written by a 21-year-old Paul Simon in 1954! 

“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was formingAnd the sign said, “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”.

Now the whispering sounds of silence, no longer muted, have been silenced. Please, Lord: Come!

 THE WEATHER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY………

We hear weather announcements in every newscast, always preceded by a commercial. Nothing new in that. Frankly we are bombarded with news trivia, while the real news, something that will lead to a global catastrophe is rarely mentioned, because it will upset “The Consumer”.

So, yes, the weather!

My farmer-grandfather (1870-1940) had no access to weather forecasts: he relied on his innate experiences, his fine-tuned historic knowledge, and prayer. Yes, prayer, because my ancestors knew that in the end, we propose, God disposes.

Today is different: very different. The meteorological messages, which forewarn us of rain, sleet, snow, frost, sunshine, sometimes inaccurate, usually quite astute, come before our eyes or penetrate into our ears, in the form of a low pressure here or through the aftermath of a high pressure there. These may well be the rational explanations. What former generations read in the sky, in watching the sun, observing the wind direction and in the behavior of birds and other animals, has now been replaced with the latest in computer power. But why we have more weather extremes, is seldom mentioned.

The truth about the weather.

Public messages don’t want to broadcast the truth. Public companies can’t afford the truth. Advertisers hide the truth. And we? We too, hate to be faced with the truth, because it shakes our complacency, and makes us uncomfortable. 

The Truth with Capital T, is that the weather is not brought by company such or corporation that, but it is brought to us by you and me: we are the bringers of the excessive rain that causes extreme floods; we are the culprits when drought hits the grain-growing fields, and causes inflation, and famine in Africa and South East Asia; we are to blame when hurricanes hit the coastal areas, and tornadoes demolish the trailer parks, and rip the roofs of churches and schools. We now make the weather, and consequently disasters multiply.

 The Fortunate Few.

So far, we have been able to pay the extra in food dollars, as we spend only 10% of our income on basic necessities. We also can still afford to pay the ever-rising insurance premiums, and mortgage rates. After all, we have the political clout to influence the government officials to rebuild, until the deficits become too large, and the economy collapses, as it will before too long.

Then what?

Will AI tell us what to do, how to handle the weather extremes, how to live when virtual money shows its true face? Artificial Intelligence is well-named: it is nothing but computer-power magnified. It can only work with information already available, as it steals facts and figures wherever they float out there. AI is like a gigantic-prehistoric bird, with a brain too big for its own good.

In other words, there is nothing new under the sun, except there is: a new extreme of evil is at work here. The core of the problem – fossil fuel emissions – is well known and largely uncontested in the scientific community. We, humans, we are altering the climate by burning gas, oil, coal and trees. We started by denying that a climate emergency is happening, and that humans are the root cause. Now we are beginning to realize that our worldview or lifestyle will have to change, so we downplay the scale of the crisis, by putting all your faith in technological fixes. Jesus had a valid observation there: “can we rely on the devil to throw out the devil?” (Mark 3: 23). Will technology cure technology?

The side effects.

Already we see mental depression increasing as it becomes plain that we are overwhelmed by the extent of the crisis and realize that governments and corporations are not only spinning their wheels but often actively exacerbate the damage.  

Fossil fuels aren’t the only source of carbon dioxide. The mega fires that have charred Canada, Europe and Chile last year are set to repeat themselves in an exponential fashion, adding even more CO2 into the atmosphere. Yet even there, the vicious cycle of human-caused climate change is easy to see: Many of those fires were made worse because of the warming that has already occurred.

The year ahead.

In one word: accelerating HEAT. It will speed up the arrival of super hurricanes, as the oceans have never been warmer. Heat will make forests more vulnerable, delivering a double whammy: less trees to absorb CO2, and more Green House Gases to speed up warming. I need not be a prophet to predict this to happen: just as smoking and alcohol addiction leads to premature death, so our addiction to car use and modern ‘conveniences’, leads to planetary death. Sudden release of Methane in the Arctic – see ARCTIC NEWS – will make true 2 Peter 3: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.”

Yes, the weather is us!

RELIGION AND ME.

I admit it: I go to church each Sunday morning, done that since I was 4 years old, when I lived in the Netherlands’ most northerly City, Groningen, a university town since 1614, now with some 30,000 students. 

In the church there, in my fourth year I met my future wife, the daughter of the minister. I distinctly remember this! Yes, churches also have a beautiful social function! 

In my 9 decades of church attendance, I have heard thousands of sermons. I do recall preachers pounding the pulpit to emphasize a point, but sermons? I can recall one, at a funeral: Psalm 116: God delights in the death of his faithful. 

A better way

As a teenager I faithfully attended the Young Men society. We met after the evening service, where we, in turn, presented an essay on a Christianity-related topic: that taught me more than the ministers’ 40 minutes orations. 

After arriving in Canada in 1951, I soon integrated within the rapidly growing Dutch diaspora. I became active in establishing Christian Schools on a local and provincial level, advancing the matter of Christian education in line with the Netherlands, where Christian Schools were state-financed. 

In 1965 I became an elder in a large church. That was a move that backfired: a clash of personalities.

I struggle.

Sermons and Creation. What is God’s Word?

I am a fervent believer that Creation is God’s Primary and Direct Word: “God spoke and it came to be”, says Psalm 33:9. There also is that beautiful opening line of John 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That Word was not the Bible: that Word was Creation. 

Dr. Sabine Dramm, in her book introducing Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology, summarized his thinking in one line: “Specific to the Christian Faith is the perception of God and the world as one.”  Makes sense: that’s how we honor great artists and thinkers.

Enter Stefan Paas.

Dr. Paas, professor of Missions at the Free University in Amsterdam, in his remarkable book, VREDE OP AARDE (PEACE ON EARTH), states that God’s saving acts relate to everything: body, soul, spirit, but also our entire vulnerable creation. In other words: there’s more to being a Christian than pure piety.

Piety?  I confess, I am a pious person. I pray before meals. I read the Bible every day. I write a 500 words meditation, on the lectionary every morning after breakfast – have done this for 30 odd years. 

But piety and searching the Scriptures is not enough. Being a Christian primarily includes observing the holiness of creation, loving God and neighbor in whatever form, myself, my fellow humans, all God’s creatures, great and small: they too are our neighbours! 

But…

We have assumed that in a finite world, infinite growth is possible. That sort of automatic behavior has led to a situation where we no longer are in control: now the system controls us. Yet, God is telling us that Creation is holy. Exploiting it means expunging God. Church attendance – long travel, large parking lots, huge spaces to heat or cool – cause Climatic Heating. Now the church itself has become a mission field, needs a radical change, fully embracing a holy creation.

And sermons?

Where does the concept of sermon originate? Did Jesus initiate it? No. He always encouraged dialogue. Did the apostles promote this sort of monologue? No. What, actually, is the real meaning of the word “sermon”? It comes from the Latin word, Sermo. My Latin dictionary defines it as ‘conversation, serious discussion’. Augustine, a well-known early preacher, in his preserved sermons, encouraged constant interactions, applause, cries of approval and objections, and an intermingling with the audience. 

Which begs the question: What is the purpose of the church TODAY? What is the purpose of Christianity at this late hour? What is mission?

Stefan Paas in his book writes, and I translate, “Mission is no longer an obvious spreading of Western civilization or the salvation of souls from a doomed creation, it is far more a fervent longing for the coming of the Kingdom of God at ‘the end of times’, in the true confidence that everything done in the name of the Lord somehow will find a place in that Kingdom”.

Those words have serious implications for the church which, before sending out workers or supporting ‘foreign’ missions, needs to evaluate its own thinking and reorient its own conception of the gospel. An excursion into a forest, under the guidance of a biologist, a ‘nature film’, is as important as an explanation of a bible passage, and, perhaps more relevant than a monological sermon. At the least, a sermon ought to be a dialogue, a ‘give and take’ conversation.

The contemporary ‘religious’ church is dying. Jesus himself pointed the WAY: (John 10:10), “I have come that you may have LIFE and that to the full”.  Religion and church do not save: Full-time Life in Jesus and his creation does.

EVERYTHING IN OUR WORLD IS FAKE.

Everything in our Western world is fake. Nothing is real. It’s different elsewhere. My wife and I spent some time in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Some 30 years ago, our youngest son worked there for 2 years as a lawyer, representing the Canadian Presbyterian Church, helping its transition to democracy. 

There I met genuine people sharing the little they had with others, nothing fake about it. They reminded me of my grandparents, born in 1870, some 155 years ago, when they lived simple lives, fulfilling lives, pleasing to God and his creation.

Now everything in our world is fake: nothing is real. Take my car. When I bought it new – a 2002 Jetta diesel – it was advertised by the Volkswagen designers as the most climate friendly automobile: least polluting, highest mileage. Since then, this claim has proved to be false. 

Actually, what is true for my car is true for all cars, even the total electric ones: all the world’s billion plus ‘auto’ = self – ‘mobiles’ = moving, vehicles, harm God’s creation, to the point where ‘global heating’ increases unabated. Yes, even the word automobile = ‘Self-moving’, is fake:  There is nothing ‘self-moving’ about them: trillions of tiny explosions propel them, causing global poisoning and drought, affecting especially poor nations like Malawi.

Today all machine-operated apparatuses, without any exceptions, in the final analysis are harmful and destroy, and thus – yes – are sinful. SINFUL!. 

That really means that things in this world are really not what they are in the final analysis. Everything in our world is fake, carries a mask, is disguised; everything is different than it is advertised. All the political pledges to reduce climate change, are bogus, false, lies, fraud. Why? Once again, we find ourselves enacting a tragedy of the commons: short-term economic self-interest encourages using ‘free’ air, until it heats up beyond human endurance. We experience it daily. Everywhere. Just as the air, even the immense oceans covering most of our globe, have become liabilities, impure, toxic, a source of evil.

The same applies to A.I. content where we maximize clicks and views, which in turn pollutes our culture and even weakens our grasp on reality. Yes, yes, yes.

Revelation.

We find all this in that mysterious Bible Book, Revelation. Revelation means Revealing. Revelation means ripping off all veneer! Revelation means going naked, shedding all pretensions. 

In the book of Revelation, that very Last Bible Book, the name so familiar, the message so obscure, John paints the progress of the grand happenings of OUR time, today, 2024. 

There he starts with the premise that, at last, matters will become what they are, that masks will be torn off. In its very last chapter of Revelation, he sounds the alarm bell: “Let those who do wrong can only keep on doing wrong, and those who do right must continue to do so, and let those who are holy continue to be holy”. That means that the time for going back to simpler times, is over, that it’s too late to make amends. Still, I persist in trying: My holy duty! 

Why try? 

Because, out of all the chaos and collapse at long last the truth emerges, when all camouflage vanishes and everything, at last, shows its true character. That is the melody that vibrates through the entire book of Revelation and makes it so engaging and vibrating.

The Good News!

Yes, there is good news: “Our good deeds”, says Revelation 14: 13, “will follow us”. What we do today in preserving God’s creation, in providing meals for the destitute, in loving others as ourselves, in doing everything in our power to live God-honoring, creation-enhancing, neighbor loving, acts: all these will follow us into the new world to come.

Still evil expands: everywhere.

Now the universal use of social media products – every kid now has a mobile phone – designed for compulsive use, are rewiring the way children think, behave, and learn, harming the wellbeing of students, and leaving educators and schools to manage the fallout. Here again: under the cloak of education, the minds of young people are enslaved to social media.

The Western World, in its entirety is again engaged in a Civic war conflict: our Industrialized World versus Creation, or more correctly: The West against God, in spite of some pious postulations. COP 1 through 28, 28 years in succession, have only seen climatic conditions worsen: all our pledges and promises are false and lies. 

On this EASTER weekend, we celebrate Christ conquering death forever, bringing the TRUTH and making everything NEW.