Bert Hielema–Columns and Writings

PRAYER AND MY BODY.

I am a ‘new earth’ person. The concept of the coming new creation plays a decisive role in my life. I even wrote an entire novel imagining this situation. Just Google: “Bert Hielema, Day without End.”

However, becoming a New Earth inhabitant is not an automatic matter. And, sorry to say, admission is restricted. There are people who believe in universal salvation, which assumes that everybody will be saved. Some clever folk have calculated that about 70 billion people have been born over the millennia. Today the world really cannot support the near 8 billion of its current customers. They only exist because they (we) are using much of our children’s inheritance, leaving only a ravaged and depleted earth.

Why only a limited number? Jesus’ words come to mind, ““For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22: 14.)

Of course, being a sort of Calvinist, I know my Bible and I know my doctrine. Romans 4 tell me that we are saved by grace through faith, but James 2 unambiguously makes it plain that “What good is it if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save?”

And here comes my premise: our saving act starts with our personal living habits, especially since, as I keep on repeating, we live in the last stages of a disappearing world. This past Sunday morning, when my driveway was too icy to go to church, I read this quote:

“Disturbance seems constant now, and everywhere at once. How to describe this time when the world has slipped its moorings? Democracy fragile and cracking, a global pandemic that could well be the first of more to come, a warming world. It feels as if we are living amid a great unraveling, a time when our lives are being stripped and harrowed over and over. Humanity has been kicked out of the nest of the Holocene, where we’ve evolved over the past ten thousand years, and though some say we’ve begun the Anthropocene, I tend to favor E. O. Wilson’s locution: the Eremocene, the Age of Loneliness. In the midst of so much coming apart, I wonder, where is home? Where is our unshakable core, that place beyond which no harm can reach?”

That cry cuts me to the heart: “Day without End”, seems to be God’s greatest secret, the place where REAL life is lived, the life we are intended for. That’s why prayer is both personal and cosmic, constantly involving being in touch with creation, which I see as a form of prayer. Of course, if we think that we go to heaven, then loving the earth is not a priority, however, if we confess that our destination is a renewed earth, then life takes on a different dimension altogether. Then prayer becomes practical, influencing all our actions, because I sincerely believe that this present life is a proving ground for the REAL life in eternity, especially now when Climate Change starts to bite and endangers us all. That’s why our first responsibility is to our own body, God’s personal gift to us, and, according to the Bible, the temple of the Holy Spirit, thus HOLY.

The times, they are a’changing.

A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind, which opens with, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity”. It is plain that ‘Gone is the best of times; gone is the age of wisdom; gone is the epoch of belief’. Left is “it is the worst of times”, evident in climate change; left is “the age of foolishness”, plainly visible in ‘perpetual economic growth’ in a finite world; left is “the epoch of incredulity”, witness the worshiping of Donald Trump.

I read last week a line that stayed with me: “I have two health providers with me all the time: my right leg and my left leg. That’s why I walk every day.

What does ‘pray without ceasing’ mean?

1 Thessalonians 5: 17 tells me that we have to “Pray without ceasing!”. Of course, we have to pray for our loved ones, but prayer is more than a personal matter, prayer is also active, also planet related. Action is prayer as well, because we constantly have to ask ourselves whether this or that act benefits or harms creation: is this car trip really needed? Is that food good or bad? Does this light need to be on? We constantly must ask ourselves whether our actions are good or bad for creation, and beneficial for us. That’s why walking, all exercise is an action akin to prayer, is one of the conditions of gaining eternal life, is, as the Bible Book James claims, ‘to be among the good deeds’ we have to do. “Love your neighbor as YOURself”, is one of the two laws upon which eternal life depends. Of course, the other is “Loving God through his creation”.  

Barring unforeseen conditions or impossible obstacles, we are responsible for keeping our bodies healthy and in good shape. For most of us there are no real impediments not to walk, the simplest form of exercise. More body movement, and healthy eating habits, are among the keys to the Kingdom to come. We reflect the divine image. That is no idle talk. Colossians 1: 15 -20 tells us that Jesus Christ is the human image of the invisible God. He, Christ, was the first human being, not Adam or Eve or whoever: He is “The firstborn of all creation!” If the Scriptures are correct, then by Jesus, the Christ, the first-born as a human being, all things – Ta Panta – came into being. No wonder that we human beings are so smart: we have Jesus as our model, whether we believe in him, or not! And we have to imitate him in our entire life, because he taught us how to live, and that to the full. Here is the full Colossians text:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

For a healthy – Christlike – body, more movement, less bad food – preferably no meat and alcohol (even though Jesus’ first miracle was making water into wine, when wine was the national beverage, not water), because walking, running, any exercise, stimulates blood movement and widens the arteries, preventing clots, and stimulates the brain. Think of body movement as a form of prayer: it enhances our physique and so honors our creator. Also, anything that makes creation more beautiful, whether through art work or gardening, through poetry or prose, through music or dance, is a tribute to the creation, for whose restoration Christ died: John 3: 16!

Yes, I am a ‘new earth’ person. The concept of the coming new creation plays a major role in my life. I even wrote an entire novel imagining this situation. Just Google: “Bert Hielema, Day without End.”

IS THE MEGAMACHINE THE ANTICHRIST?

There’s a new book out: “The End of the Megamachine”, written originally in German by Fabian Scheidler, now translated into English. In it Scheidler attempts to retrace the entire history of our civilization under the umbrella concept of the “megamachine.” He sees the Megamachine as a giant creature devouring the world, now on the verge of collapse, taking everything with it.

He paints the earth today as a fossil-fuel-fed monster, growing from a hesitant start in the late Middle Ages, then finding its footing with the unexpected source of nutritious, carbon-rich food causing it not just to grow, but to become fat, obnoxious and all-consuming, because the more it grows, the faster it can grow.

Now the natural resources enabling it to expand forever are dwindling and this awful automaton starts stumbling around in a frantic, fruitless search for more.

Where does this machine originate?

Here I deviate from the book. In my opinion, the Megamachine started with murder when Cain killed his brother. Jacques Ellul, in his The Meaning of the City, believes – and I agree – that the city, which Cain founded as an answer to Eden, symbolizes the supreme work of humanity, and as such represents humanity’s ultimate rejection of God: hence the start of the Megamachine.

Now, in these last days, our urbanized world has morphed into the Megamachine, embodying the Antichrist, which stands for everything evil; its power is fueled by 0101001 (the modern version of 666), the Almighty computer and its Artificial Intelligence (AI), and by fossil fuels, the ultimate destroyer: both city products, both contrary to divine wisdom.

Contrast this to wisdom.

I don’t have a lot of wisdom, but that doesn’t prevent me from trying to make sense of the world I live in. The book of Proverbs, that chapter in the Bible that follows the Psalms, gives me a lot of hints about wisdom. “The fear of the Lord,” it says, “Is the beginning of Wisdom”. I understand this to mean that, when we are awed by the greatness of creation, and love it dearly, we are on the first steps to wisdom. I try to do that because I wholeheartedly believe that God’s wisdom is evident in creation. Isn’t there a line where it says, “By wisdom you made it all?”  Yes, Proverbs 3: 19: “By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place”.

Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible, tells me that: “The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”.

How do I visualize that? With the boldness of ignorance, I venture to fathom this scenario. It seems to suggest that there was a chaotic, turbulent mass of seething seas, an enormous ball of boiling brew, shapeless suds, piles of water purposelessly posturing, the entire scenery undeniably negative. And over and above all this cauldron of nothingness hovered God’s Spirit. “God is a Spirit”, Jesus told us, so, in essence, God was there surveying the scenes.

Then a miracle occurred; the wonder of wonders took place: “God spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm,” (Psalm 33: 9).

That line, “God spoke and it came to be”, reminds me of an article I read last week in the Aeon Magazine on GENIUS. In it, Craig Wright, professor of music at Yale and the author of The Hidden Habits of Genius (2020), wrote, “Over the course of 20 years, I went in search of Mozart in libraries in Berlin, Salzburg, Vienna, Krakow, Paris, New York and Washington, studying his autograph (or handwritten) music manuscripts. I found that Mozart could effortlessly conceive of great swaths of music entirely in his head, with almost no corrections. What Salieri said of Mozart in Amadeus no longer seems so fanciful: here ‘was the very voice of God’”.

Craig Wright again: “If Mozart could hear in his head how the music ought to go, Leonardo, judging from his sketches, could simply see them in his mind’s eye………Leonardo’s natural technical facility is manifest, as seen in the hand-eye coordination that results in correct proportions and the cross-hatching lines that suggest three-dimensional perception.”

These two men, genius, both, had something god-like about them. “God spoke, and it came to be.” Both Mozart and Leonardo in their minds envisioned totally complete works of art. For them it was simple to put it on paper. God went a step further: he spoke, and, pronto, it materialized in totality, not yet fully formed, still, in principle, but its potential has now been fully realized, has developed as we, the latter-day creatures experience them. God is a God of order.

Order and Disorder.

I try to be a man of order, perhaps too much so, but it makes life easier. I always get up at the same time, feed the wood stove, eat my oatmeal porridge ready in my slow cooker, add my blueberries, fruit in season, apple sauce – I am still working on the 2019 crop in my freezer – and so have a healthy start of the day. First thing, after breakfast, I copy the lectionary readings and select a passage for elaboration. That’s my routine.  Every morning I prepare a hot lunch at noon, followed by an hour-long nap, a concession to my age. I diligently exercise every day without fail, either walk or use my treadmill, stationary bike and rowing machine.

In my reading of Proverbs, I have noticed that wisdom and discipline go hand in hand. My discipline extends to my reading which these past weeks has centered on Walter Brueggemann, and his Interpretation and Obedience. The book was written some 35 years ago, but certainly is not outdated. In it he writes a lot on ‘the land’, quoting Psalm 24: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” He is more direct there, emphasizing that “THE LAND” belongs to God. I have 50 acres of land, mostly woods, rocks and wetland, but I have a patch, surrounding my home, our guesthouse and my workshop, where there is also some 2,000 square feet of ‘land’ precious soil where I grow much of what I eat. Preserving and enhancing it is my divine duty.

Our environmental situation can be traced to the way we treat The Land: the right way spells ORDER, the current wrong way DISORDER, which will backfire on us dramatically. There is more ingenuity, harmony and coherence in a cubic inch of my soil than in the tallest condominium tower anywhere.

As the Bible tells us, the fall will be sudden and unpredictable. Disorder versus Order. The End of the Megamachine spells it out, completely in tune with the Scriptures.

In the final chapter of Interpretation and Obedience this well-known Old Testament scholar, writes, “That the world is dying before our eyes is no idle speculation, but a daily experience of change so massive, of alienation so powerful, of anxiety so unending: there no going home. It will never be the same again.”

And then there is foolishness.

This monster we have fashioned destroys God’s creation on purpose because it hates God, hates wisdom and loves foolishness: the result is the Disorder we see today.

That’s the Megamachine in operation, the Antichrist at work, trying to thwart God and his beloved work of art.

Brueggemann again, “Because world-ending is so scary and so painful, we do not want to face it. Patients, clients, or parishioners (even the clergy, I might add) do not want to face it. And in the end, neither do we.”

Is the Megamachine the Antichrist?

Yes. From the very inception of civilization God’s opponent lived only for revenge, aimed at destroying God’s wonderful creation. God allowed this to happen, as shown in Deuteronomy 31, “I will hide my face to see what the end would be.” Now we know the end. In the process we are learning how to live eternally.

Thank you, Lord.

IS GOD DEAD?

Is God dead? That’s what Nietzsche thought. In his Thus spoke Zarathustra he wrote”,

“I conjure you, my brethren, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH (Capitals in the original) and believe not those who speak unto you of super-earthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.

Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them!

Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died, and therewith also those blasphemers. To blaspheme the earth is now the dread-fullest sin, and to rate the heart of the unknowable higher than the meaning of the earth!”

Wow! Nietzsche holds nothing back! He truly despises those ‘heaven’ preachers and their earth-detesting sermons. No wonder his words were twisted and, of course, ignored. His passion for the earth and its occupants cost him dearly. He loved horses, was a cavalry officer in the Habsburg army. When he saw a poor horse whipped to death, he embraced the dying animal, ‘lost his mind’ and never again spoke for 12 years, until his death in 1900.

Nietzsche himself was slated to become a minister in the Lutheran church, like his father and his two grandfathers, one even a bishop there. Steeped in Bible knowledge and a thorough knowledge of classical literature – he became a professor at the age of 22 – this brilliant man saw the basic theological fraud of Protestantism, the heaven heresy, which lead him to abandon a clerical career, seeing not heaven as the goal, but the new earth. That’s why he shouted, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH. He sensed that a church that worships heaven has a God who is dead. And that applies to much of current day Christianity, and, sorry to say, lies at the very root of the environmental crisis.

God is not dead.

Well, I can tell you that God is not dead, even though, in a sense, he is dying. I mean that literally. Readers of my blog know that I am a great admirer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that young theologian who became a martyr for Christ when he was hanged on the explicit instruction of Hitler, weeks before the end of World War II. Dr. Sabine Dramm, in her important book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an introduction to his thought, concludes that, “What Bonhoeffer presents as specific to the Christian faith is the perception of God and the world as one, and the perception of life that has its wellspring in this world in God, and in turn proceeds from this world back again to God”.

Actually, this makes eminent sense: Take Bach, the greatest composer of all times. Two of his three wives died on him: he had 20 children, many who did not survive. He probably was a hard taskmaster, living for his work as kapellmeister, composer, church organist, choir director. We don’t much care about his personality: we only know him by his works, his beautiful music: that’s how we still admire him (1685-1750). We must see God also that way, because, as he is beyond knowing, we must love him by his works: John 3: 16, if “God so loved ‘the cosmos’ that he offered his beloved Son to buy it back from evil,” shouldn’t we do the same? Believing that fundamental truth gives us Life Eternal.

Bonhoeffer was not alone. Richard Elliott Friedman in his intriguing book, The Hidden Face of God, comes to an identical conclusion, even though he poses it as a question mark. This professor of Hebrew and Bible translator, concludes this masterpiece with, “There is some likelihood that the universe is the hidden face of God”. (The emphasis on ‘is’ is his.)

On the Reformed scene there is J. H. Bavinck who wrote that salvation of the person and salvation of creation go hand in hand.

Aspects of Christianity and Jewry are united on this score, and so are Roman Catholics.

Not only are there Jewish and Protestant sources identifying God with his creation, there are ever louder voices in the Roman Catholic Church proclaiming identical views. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is the most outspoken one. The title of his most famous book is Le Milieu Divin. The title says it all. In connection with ‘the coming of the kingdom’ he writes, “But in fact how many of us are genuinely moved in the depth of our hearts by the wild hope that our earth will be recast?” (Emphasis his). He speaks with great longing for The New Earth to come.

Of course, this is not real news for many: songs often speak louder than sermons. In “This Is My Father’s World”, we have that line, “He speaks to us everywhere.” Creation IS God’s Word, and as Pere Teilhard writes, ‘It is Divine”, is Holy.

Sister Ilia Delio, founder of the Omega Center, sees the New Creation as the heart of Christianity. With a double doctorate in Pharmacology and Theology, she is an ardent promotor of Teilhard’s New Creation beliefs.

 Is God dead? If our life is dominated by ‘going to heaven’, then, indeed, God is dead, leading to a totally distorted Christianity: “Poisoners are they!” The Bible tells us that the stagnant Jewish Theology, centering on Temple worship, killed Jesus because he flouted their rules and regulations. When Jesus died on the cross, the heavy curtain in the Temple, separating the Holies from the Holy of Holies, ripped from top to bottom, a clear signal that a new era of worship had begun: away from organized religion and heralding freedom, where humans could become fully human, not bound by church dogmas and outdated rites and rules and clerics.

Yet, still today, much of churchy Christianity worships a god who, basically resides within the walls of a building featuring a spire that points to heaven. Its adherents worship a book, the Bible, whose very words in Psalm 119: 105, tell us that it is “a lamp for our feet and a light for our path:” a means, not an end. However, the church has made that lamp the sole source of wisdom, staring into that light that it has become blinding, not only ignoring creation, but purposely harming it, killing the God=Creation in the process.  

Sister Delio of the Franciscan order, points out the difference between Pantheism and Panentheism. In Pantheism we see everything -pan – as god -theos, while in Panentheism we see God in everything: that’s how we have to go through life, especially now in Pandemic time: not a return to the pre-pandemic era which got us where we are today, but progressing to a post-pandemic time, where we live, try to live, seeing God in everything.

In the Lord’s Prayer, that plea with the Creator God to speed up the coming of the New Earth, the first line is HALLOWED BE THY NAME. That has nothing to do with God’s name, whether it is Jehovah, Yahweh, Lord, Adonai or whatever, but has everything to do with God’s signature on all that lives and moves and has a being, thus making every species HOLY.

And the church?

nbOh, oh, touchy subject. Look at it this way: Just as Christ’s death ensured new life, God’s death in creation promises the same: a NEW creation. where “there is no altar”, says Revelation 21. That’s why, frankly, I don’t see a future for the church in its present form: its basic premise – buildings, offices – has become outdated. If it is ‘heaven-oriented’, even half-heartedly, God and the church are dead, not worth supporting. Communion of saints will continue, of course, directly engaged in ‘new’ earth-centered, holistic activities, which, by the way, will lead to greater non-church participation. That this will make preachers superfluous, is an extra bonus. The funds freed can be used to promote human responsibility in honoring creation by example, in green eating, in carbon-free living, and, of course, in praying without ceasing for the Kingdom to come, and effectively working toward that goal.

HOPE

In the beginning,” that’s how the Bible starts. Whatever has a beginning, also has an End. I am afraid and also delighted it’s the End that we are witnessing today. We all know that the last Bible book reveals, to some extent, what’s going to happen before the END. Revelation 18is a typical example That chapter deals with ECONOMICS, the religion that has dominated our world for centuries, and now threatens our very existence. Here’s a line from an Oxford economist I found in last week’s Guardian, “The world is being put at “extreme risk” by the failure of economics to take account of the rapid depletion of the natural world and to find new measures of success to avoid a catastrophic breakdown.”

Revelation 18 very much applies to today: And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because there is no one left to buy their cargo— cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; of fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; of all kinds of citron wood and every article of ivory, precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots; of slaves and souls of men.

How do I translate this in today’s economic environment? It points to deflation: the peddlers of luxury items are stuck with their inventory and longingly lament the good times, never to return, because even the affluent are no longer in the market for their merchandize.

Why do the rich buy expensive stuff? They want to show them off, want to be seen as rich, able to indulge in such useless, but expensive expenditures as precious stones, pearls, famous brand wines, horses and pricy cars, and especially have poor, unregistered immigrants at their bidding. This time around all this is no longer possible because multi-millionaires too have become victims, catch the VIRUS, and so they too are housebound, confined to their monster dwellings. Even personal aircraft cannot help, because in a pandemic, there’s no safe place to fly.

And, curiously, Revelation also mentions inflation: food inflation, especially as heat waves, cold spells, spoiled soil, polluted water all reach extremes. Remember the four horses, those ominous beasts that herald the Apocalypse? The footnote on Revelation 6 mentions that famine had inflated food prices to at least ten times their normal level: “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages.” Both that scale and these words signify poverty, hunger and inflation. Money loses its value and the costs of the normal daily needs goes higher and higher: deflation of what we own; inflation of what we need.

Suicide or adoration.

I am re-reading Teilhard de Chardin this week, that Jesuit priest-scientist, who, some 100 years ago, wrote, “You are on a testing ground where God can judge whether you are capable of being translated into his presence. He also prophesied that, “The day is not far distant when humanity will realize that biologically it is faced with the choice between suicide and adoration”.

Well, that day has come: the most outspoken part of churchy Christianity is engaged not in adoration, but in an aberration, a Trump Religion. True adoration focuses on the Creator-God, but today Americanism, the world’s dominant Religious System, centers on suicidal, meaningless Bible prattle that condones or even promotes nature-destroying actions. The sad truth is that the world is going through hell for the sake of economic growth: there’s no turning back, the choice has been made, and global suicide is the only option left: the die has been cast

Witness the facts.

It’s easy to forget that last year gave us not just the pandemic, but also the West Coast’s worst fire season, as well as the most Atlantic hurricanes ever. And, as ARCTIC NEWS repeatedly told us, 2020 also was the year that the sea ice there retreated at near record pace, and gave numerous hints that significant methane releases from Arctic permafrost and the Arctic Ocean are happening, while high temperatures in both Canada’s and Siberian north, shattered heat record, even now as I look.

We are now facing positive feedback, with exponential capacity: never mind the Paris Accord; never mind America going on a Climate Change binge; never mind the electric cars: we have passed beyond the point of no return.

True, I commend President Biden, who has recommitted the United States to the Paris Agreement, which is great except that it doesn’t really mean much, since the agreement’s commitments are voluntary. All indications are that it has become a fruitless exercise because, even if the countries fully abide by the pledges, the cutbacks are not nearly enough to keep global warming below the two degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels. According to the Arctic News website we already are 2.5 Degrees Celsius above pre-agricultural level, some 12,000 years ago. Methane is the real big factor. The Arctic Sea is quite shallow: some 50-100 meters deep. There on its bottom are buried trillions of tons of methane, a greenhouse gas more than 80 times stronger than the stuff that comes from the exhausts of our diesel and gasoline powered trucks, cars and farm machinery.

Meanwhile, the earth’s climate seems to be changing faster than expected. Last week I read that, “We are 50 years to 100 years ahead of schedule with the slowdown of this ocean circulation pattern, relative to what the models predict … The more observations we get, the more sophisticated our models become, the more we’re learning that things are happening faster, and with a greater magnitude, than we predicted just years ago. Last year the Greenland ice sheet briefly reached daily melt rates predicted in what were once considered worst case scenarios for 2060 to 2080.” The same applies to the thawing of the permafrost.

Going back to normal now means returning to a course that will destabilize the conditions for all human life, everywhere on earth. Normal means more fires, more category 5 hurricanes, more flooding, more drought, millions upon millions more migrants fleeing famine and civil war, more crop failures, more storms, more extinctions, more record-breaking heat. Normal means the increasing likelihood of civil unrest and state collapse, of widespread agricultural failure and collapsing fisheries, of millions of people dying from thirst and hunger, of new diseases, old diseases spreading to new places and the havoc of war. Normal could well mean the end of global civilization as we know it.

So, where is the HOPE?

The world does not offer hope. We are past the point of no return. Only Christianity offers hope. Jesus died, not only to save sinners, but to restore creation. We have learned an expensive lesson with God’s earth in the balance and, through trial and error, have realized that loving God means loving his creation. John 3: 16 spells it out.

Where do I find my hope? I believe the Revelation 21 text: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Who is the bride? Who is the husband?

Isaiah 62 spells it out. The land is the Bride. We, the redeemed of the Lord, the new human race, wise and mature, are the groom, with Jesus as the PRIMUS INTER PARES, the First among equals.

“for the LORD will take delight in you,

and your land will be His bride.”

That is our HOPE

MY BODY.

Shortly after my wife of 67 years died in late October, I started to write a daily commentary based on the Anglican Lectionary, 500 words on weekdays and 1,000 words on Sundays. This Lectionary always features three bible readings, the Old Testament, the Psalms, and the New Testament. I usually pick a text from the New Testament, copy it into my Word document and start writing without any forethought or previous reflection.

Last week Sunday my chosen subject centered on my body: 1 Corinthians 6: 19, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own”.

That caused an avalanche of words. My body houses the Holy Spirit of the Trinity! By loving my body, by cherishing my mind, by favoring my heart and lungs, my legs and stomach, I honor the divinity in me. Christ, who is all and in all (Colossians 1: 15) has given me that body to look after, has given it to me ‘in trust’. It is more important than anything else I own: it is holy. It really does not belong to me at all: it belongs to Christ, reason why I must treat it with the greatest care and utmost devotion. Don’t get me wrong: my body is not an object of idolatry. It also is not something to be sold, or to become reason for veneration, or to be admired and displayed as a source of pride.

Looking after my body carries a great responsibility: as an item of trust, as a borrowed entity I am answerable to Christ alone. In eternity I will be called to give account of my body and how I have dealt with this possession. The commandments Jesus gave me, has 2 components: (1) Love God in his creation, and (2) Love my neighbor as myself. If we don’t love our own being, body, mind and spirit, then all other love is useless and it is futile to even try. Loving means treasuring, means taking care, means cherishing and valuing, means keeping the body and mind and spirit properly fed and properly rested and properly exercised. Dr. Jordan Peterson, a psychology professor, will only counsel people when they get up every morning at the same time, and start the day with a healthy breakfast: regularity is needed for the body; good living habits are the key to health because discipline and wisdom go together.

Mens sana in corpore sano.

A sound mind can only function in a healthy body. One of the most important observations gained from studying the universe is that “Everything is connected to everything else”. That especially applies to the body. By and large the American diet is atrocious, influenced as it is by corporate profits and inculcated into the American Mind through Television. If food is manufactured, it means that it is no longer genuine food, but a food-like substitute, made not for its nutritional merit, but for long shelf life and fake healthy appearance, and especially corporate profit. It’s no longer ‘real food’ such as fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and, yes, a bit of fish and meat as well. The real rule is “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”

No wonder the American Mind and its religion are all wrong. Sugar – soft drinks, any corn-based substance – is basically poison, but it is a great conserver, excellent for shelf-life and is also very addictive: once you are hooked, it’s hard to kick it. The wrong diet has made the USA and to some extent Canada as well, the unhealthiest and most unwise populace on the Western world. No wonder the COVID is so stubborn to eradicate, because the simple rules, “Keep distance, wash hands, wear a mask”, are ignored. Not following these directions is god-less, against the grain of loving our neighbors, against the gospel: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own”.

America’s addiction to sugared food has caused its religion to become ungodly, witness its Trump addiction, equating this godless human specimen with the Gospel. Compare his behavior with the fruits of the spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (Galatians 5: 22).  President Biden tries to embody these biblical aims, and is ridiculed for this by Religious America.

Yes, we are innately and naturally religious, for the simple reason that our bodies ultimately are divine. The Psalms testify to that. When Jesus was accused by the Pharisees for calling himself “the Son of God”, he simply quoted what is now known as Psalm 82: 6, “You are gods, you are all sons and daughters of the Most High.” Psalm 8 reiterates that. So, don’t underestimate your being: we are God’s offspring.

All that is glorious and also frightening. The word ‘Responsibility’ has at its root the word ‘response’ which indicate that it is an answer to the WORD, the word in a threefold way: the Word Created, the Word become Mensch, the Word in Scripture.

As Revelation 22: 11 attests, humanity has reached a stalemate: “let those who do evil, continue; let those who do good, persist. No more conversions. We have reached the end of the road. Already in the globe’s animal and plant life, a severe reduction is getting worse. We see the human race on the decline, not in numbers but in intellectual and religious understanding.

America, as always, leads the way. Tens of Millions refuse to acknowledge Biden as the duly elected President, another sign that humanity no longer abides by reason. It seems to me that in the Covid-19 situation we too are at a standstill, too are at the crossroads. Environmentally matters can only deteriorate. True, there is a new regime in Washington, and optimism abounds. In how far this is based on reality remains an open question.

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own”.

Why have I not seen it before or, rather, why haven’t I paid attention to it before? I love the Psalms, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world and they who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24: 1) Not only we belong to the Lord: the entire world does! Not only we are holy; the entire world is. We, as the “top of the line” creatures are called to be the example of grace and godliness. Every thought and every one of our actions for good and bad vibrates through the universe because everything is connected to everything else.

We are not our own. No matter what we believe, we belong to God, the creator of all that exists. Bach’s music will always be his. Shakespeare’s plays will always be his. God’s creation will always be his. My body will always be his. That’s why I try to keep it healthy.

My Body? Absolutely amazing! In God’s image, using himself as the prototype! He who is Hildegard of Bingen, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Joan d’Arc, Bach, Rembrandt, Nietzsche, Bonhoeffer, Teilhard, the William sisters, Einstein, Messi, Kamala, John XXIII, all rolled into one and then some: only in the new creation will we achieve our potential. And that will take eternity!

REVENGE and VENGEANCE.

Both words are in use, and they signal somewhat the same intent: James Lovelock uses REVENGE in the title of: “The Revenge of Gaia”, indicating that Gaia, Earth, fights back. God mentions Vengeance, telling us not to retaliate when offended, but leave punishment to him who knows the heart and understands the people’s purpose when he said: “Vengeance is mine” (Hebrew 10: 30).

Revenge sounds so very human. Vengeance? I offer a new thought.

Lovelock – a famous scientist – sees the earth – Gaia – as alive and conscious, is keenly convinced that she is battling the wrongs humanity is committing against her by taking her own counter measures, such as Climate Change, rising seas, melting tundra. In other words: The earth has a built-in defense mechanism which automatically trickers Revenge.

The Bible tells me that we must refrain from either revenge or vengeance. Jesus gave the 70×7 rule: always forgive: no retaliation, no vendettas. Yet it happens, because Lovelock is right: both our bodies and the earth have built-in counter measures: when we sin against ourselves and against creation, the Lord’s vengeance is already at work. We well know that when we neglect our bodies – smoking is a common example and so is lack of exercise or eating the wrong foods – God’s vengeance kicks in. Also, in our environmental sins God has given us a free hand. That’s how I explain Deuteronomy 31: 17, where God has pledged: “I shall hide my face to see what their end will be”. To me that means that God is allowing us to muddle through without his guidance, and so learn from our mistakes. After all, our present life is a proving ground for eternity on earth, where no wrong action will ever take place.

Back to Lovelock.

Yes, Lovelock, this learned man – now 101 years old – asserts that our world is a living organism with its own consciousness and defense mechanisms. His GAIA designation means our EARTH, referring to the Greek goddess thought to be in charge of the world. In his 160 pages book he relates how we have waged war on the environment and the earth is fighting back. Lovelock writes, “Unless we see the earth as a planet that behaves as if it were alive, at least to the extent of regulating its climate and chemistry, we will lack the will to change our way of life and to understand that we have made it our greatest enemy.”

That is very ‘Christian’ talk.

Interestingly, he outlines for the inhabitants of the coming new earth (Lovelock himself is an atheist) their task, when he writes: “The universe is a much more intricate place than we can imagine. I often think our conscious minds will never encompass more than a tiny fraction of it all and that our comprehension of the earth is no better than an eel’s comprehension of the ocean in which it swims.”

Here we see an outline for our task in the New Earth: eternity will not be long enough to unveil all of Creation’s secrets!

James Lovelock subtitled his THE REVENGE OF GAIA, as Earth’s Climate in Crisis and the Fate of Humanity. He correctly states that we are trapped in a vicious circle of positive feedbacks: melting ice in the ARCTIC and melting tundra on land, releases methane that speeds up global heat. The real problem is that we are dangerously ignorant of our own ignorance. As an example, Dr. Lovelock quotes Mother Theresa who, in 1988 said, “Why should we care about the Earth when our duty is to the poor and sick among us. God will take care of the earth.” We now realize that not taking care of the earth harms the poor the most.

Enough.

Dr. Lovelock concludes, “The evidence around the world brings news of an eminent shift in our climate towards one that could easily be described as Hell: so hot, so deadly that only a handful of the teeming billions will survive.” 

ARCTIC NEWS last month reported that “No one wishes to believe in the projections made in the recent book ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, except that these projections, made by David Wallace-Wells, are disturbingly consistent with the current shift in state of the climate toward +4 degrees and even +6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”. That literally means Hell on Earth.

The riot at the Capitol in the center of Washington on January 6 was seen as the ultimate crime against US democracy. That we constantly desecrate God and creation, is seen as normal.

So, what about the WRATH OF GOD, HIS VENGEANCE?

Once reading Isaiah 62 I came across a curious passage: “And your land will be married”. The footnote there suggests that the relationship between the land and us, humanity, will be restored. It indicates that the Bible sees ‘the land’ as a living entity: “the land to be married”, indicates an unbreakable unity with humanity. The bride is not the church: the bride is ‘the land’, creation, the Apple of God’s Eye. Actually, the Psalms repeatedly refer to all earthly elements having a living relationship with her maker, occurrences too numerous to mention. The problem is that a vast majority of church-goers still see heaven as their destination, and so totally fail to see their task on earth. 

A real life example.

A few years ago, the Synod – the General Assembly – of the Christian Reformed Church (where I have my roots, and was an elder) had its annual meeting at the Campus of Redeemer University, and I attended many of the weeklong gatherings. At one time I joined a small discussion group, including the then general secretary of the denomination, 2 deputies from Colorado, and 2 US youth delegates. Here I was able to question the highest authority of that church. I pointed out that its confessions include the Belgic one, which undeniably points out that we know God first, by looking at creation and second, by the Scriptures. I asked, “If creation is so important for the church, why is the church exclusively concerned with the Bible, calling it Holy: isn’t Creation Holy as well?” My remarks were met with stony silence.

One of their own, Prof. Dr. Lewis Smedes, wrote in his autobiography: “God minus the universe equals nothing. If there were no universe, there would be no God.” That echoes Bonhoeffer’s words, “God is nothing without the world and the world is nothing without God”.

Gnosticism

This conversation, and other observations, have led me to conclude that the church, in its exclusive reliance on the Scriptures, has surrendered to Gnosticism. Gnosticism? In the introduction to the three letters of John it is described as “One of the most dangerous heresies”. Its central teaching is that Spirit – preaching, prayer, heaven – is entirely good, and matter – creation, trees, soil – is entirely evil.

This sort of dualism, is entirely based on pagan Greek philosophy. Dr. Harold Bloom, noted Hebrew translator, in THE AMERICAN RELIGION, with as subtitle, The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation, bluntly stated that the American Religion has ceased to be Christian, citing Gnosticism as its true confession. A great number of those violently invading the Capitol were shouting that Trump was an agent of God and his son, Jesus Christ. Just as the shouting mass killed the crucified Jesus, now the contemporary church is killing God’s Creation. Yes, Deuteronomy 31: 17 prophesied it already in the beginning: when God ceded power over creation earth’s ultimate doom was guaranteed. We tend to forget 1 John 5: 19, “the whole world is under the control of the evil one”, all too evident today.

Vengeance? I offer a new thought.

Revelation, the last Bible book, reveals that God’s Son has prepared a new earth where everything is perfect, where God’s children will live forever. Could this be a new, parallel earth? Could the current earth remain where those who have willfully harmed it will live, totally deprived of God and his grace, the HELL Lovelock mentioned?

I know this idea clashes perhaps with 2 Peter 3: 10-13, but then, what form will God’s Vengeance take?