Three authors have recently warned us of the present danger of idolatry. Selections will be quoted from their works.

Timothy Keller, in Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters, defines an idol as “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. . . . Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life”

“God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, love, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.”

“A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving ‘face’ and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry. . . . An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, than I’ll feel significant and secure.’ There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship.”

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters (New York: Dutton, 2009).

Richard Keyes, in his chapter, “The Idol Factory,” writes, “Anyone or anything that lays claim to our hearts’ confidence, attention, and loyalty may grow into a point of reliance apart from God and eventually may become a full-blown substitute for God.”

“To summarize, idols will inevitably involve self-centeredness, self-inflation, and self-deception. Idolatry begins with the counterfeiting of God, because only with a counterfeit of God can people remain the center of their lives and loyalties, autonomous architects of their futures. Something within creation will then be idolatrously inflated to fill the God-shaped hole in the individual’s world. But a counterfeit is a lie, not the real thing. It must present itself through self-deception, other with images suggesting that the idol will fulfill promises for the good life.”

Richard Keyes, “The Idol Factory,” in No God But God, edited by Os Guinness and John Seel (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992).

G. K. Beale, in We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, says that we take on the characteristics of what we worship. Children grow up imitating the adults they watch. “God has made humans to reflect him, but if they do not commit themselves to him, they will not reflect him but something else in creation. At the core of our beings we are imaging creatures. It is not possible to be neutral on this issue: we either reflect the Creator or something in creation.”

A number of Bible passages “express the idea that instead of worshiping and resembling the true God, idolaters resemble the idols they worship.”

The psalmist states, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.” (Ps 115:4-8). “The principle is this: if we worship idols, we will become like the idols, and that likeness will ruin us.”

G. K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2008).

God says those who worship idols will become as spiritually lifeless and insensitive as the dumb idols they worship—whether it be money, power, or sex.

When we worship God we become like him, when we worship substitute-gods we become as spiritually lifeless as they. We either worship the living God or we choose a substitute god who will let us worship ourselves. Self-worship is the worst worship in all the world.

The apostle John instructs, “Keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris have published best-selling books advocating atheism and attacking religion in general and Christianity in particular.

Evangelical scholars have responded to these atheistic critics. Even though at times these authors have more bombast than substance, Christians need to be aware of these enemies of the Christian faith and be prepared to give an answer to this “new atheism.”

Gary R. Habermas, “The Plight of the New Atheism: A Critique,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51 (December 2008), 813-827.

William Lane Craig and Chad Meister, eds., God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009).

Paul Copan and William Lane Craig, eds., Contending with Christianity’s Critics: Answering New Atheists & Other Objectors (Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2009)

Ravi Zacharias, The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008)

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Atheism Remix: A Christian Confronts the New Atheists (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2008)

David Marshall, The Truth Behind the New Atheism: Responding to the Emerging Challenges to God and Christianity (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2007)

Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine (London: SPCK, 2007).

Forthcoming;

Phillip E. Johnson and John Mark Reynolds, Against All Gods: What’s Right and Wrong About the New Atheism (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2010).

Alex McFarland, Stand Strong in College (Tyndale House, 2007). Apologetics youth expert helps the student prepare for the academic, social, emotional, and spiritual challenges he or she will face. Geared to high school students.

Jonathan Morrow, Welcome to College: A Christ-Follower’s Guide for the Journey (Kregel, 2008). This guidebook provides wisdom from biblical truth and practical experience. It discusses intellectual challenges, financial problems, sexual snares, getting enough sleep and more.

Abby Nye, Fish Out of Water (Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Press, 2005). The author tells of her story of facing the anti-Christian atmosphere and pressures she experienced at Butler University and how she survived with her faith intact.

James W. Sire, Chris Chrisman Goes to Colleges: And Faces the Challenges of Relativism, Individualism and Pluralism (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993). Fictional account of three young men at college and how they confronted the dominant ideologies of the secular university.

David Wheaton, University of Destruction: Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus (Bethany House, 2005). Professional tennis player and speaker relates his experience at Stanford University. He identifies perils faced in sex, alcohol/drugs, and humanism and gives a game plan for surviving spiritually.

Last summer Barbara and I wanted to spend a day with each of our four grandchildren. We set the following guidelines—one day only, one child only, and suited to the child’s interests. At that time Dane and Luke were twelve; Hope and Mark were nine. They live within three miles of our home.

Hope, our little drama queen, has acted in two plays at the local Stained Glass Theatre. We went to a Disney Cinderella play performed in a classic theatre in Springfield, Missouri, about eighty miles away. One hundred fifty young people made up the cast. Hope identified one of the step-sisters as the part she would like to play. We also visited the Springfield Zoo for a couple of hours in the morning and ate lunch in a quaint café before attending the play.

Mark loves animals. We spent a couple hours at the Tulsa Zoo in the morning. We drove across town, grabbed a sandwich, and spent the afternoon enjoying the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks, Oklahoma. We found it interesting to see what caught his attention. He entertained us with his comments and descriptions of the marine creatures. The amazing diversity in the animal world declares the creative wisdom of God.

Dane, Hope’s brother, expressed interest in flight. We arranged to meet a flight instructor at the Joplin Regional Airport who graciously showed us the trainer he used in training pilots and the other planes in the hanger. He answered Dane’s questions. Then we went to Tulsa Museum and Planetarium. We learned about constellations, saw many airplanes (including the F-14A “Tomcat” Fighter Jet), and participated in the interactive exhibits (including the Space Shuttle Robotic Arm and Space Maneuvering Unit).

Luke, Mark’s brother likes science. We went to Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, which has a special program in solar energy. The director of the program met us in their house powered by solar energy. He explained solar panels and the value of solar energy. After lunch we went to the Kansas Technology Center at Pittsburg State University. A professor guided Luke in designing a 3-D frying pan using engineering software and gave us a walking tour of their facility. We also stopped by the Chemistry and Biology Departments.

I quipped to someone, “How else would we get to do these fun things if we didn’t take our grandkids.”  The best part of our outings was spending time with each grandchild individually and hearing what they think. Watching them mature has been a blessing. Connecting with grandchildren keeps the family legacy alive and well and keeps grandparents young.

The Good News of Suffering—Lynn Gardner’s Book in Russian

by Sergei Golovin

The people of The Soviet Union have experienced a great exodus from the Egypt of communism and atheism into the desert of democracy. Now, twenty years later, flourishing enthusiasm is replaced with general apathy and disappointment with religion. Wrong expectations were never met, right expectations were not developed. There is an issue however nobody is indifferent to—the issue of pain and suffering. That makes Dr. Gardner’s book, Where Is God When We Suffer? an extremely effective tool for proclaiming Good News of Jesus in the postcommunist part of the world.

Some books on the issue of suffering comfort a reader. Some explain suffering. Some explore the biblical view of it. Some tell how to cope with suffering and help others. The book by Dr. Gardner shows the issue from all these viewpoints. The book is not just  theoretical reasoning, but is written out of the personal experience of the author who has suffered a lot. Instead of aborting the human race because of sin God’s plan allowed suffering in the world with the goal of redeeming the fallen world through his sharing suffering at the Cross. The Cross of Christ is the only way to overcome suffering. Clear focus on Christ makes this book on suffering a vehicle for the Good News.

C. S. Lewis may well be the most influential twentieth century English language apologist. The following resources provide information and perspective on his apologetics.

Baggett, David, Gary R. Habermas and Jerry L. Walls, eds. C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness and Beauty. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

Burson, Scott R. and Jerry L. Walls. C. S. Lewis & Francis Schaeffer: Lessons for a New Century from the Most Influential Apologists of Our Time. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1998.

Cunningham, Richard B. C. S. Lewis: Defender of the Faith. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008 reprint of 1967 ed.

Dorsett, Lyle W. Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2004.

Downing, David C. The Most Reluctant Convert: C. S. Lewis’s Journey to Faith. Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2002.

Duriez, Colin. “Lewis, C. S.” New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, W. C. Campbell-Jack and Gavin McGrath, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2006, 402-403.

Duriez, Colin. The C. S. Lewis Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to His Life, Thought, and Writings. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990.

Farrer, Austin. “The Christian Apologist,” Light on C. S. Lewis, ed. Jocelyn Gibb. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1965, 23-43.

Geisler, Norman L. “Lewis, C. S.,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999, 420-425.

Kilby, Clyde S. The Christian World of C. S. Lewis. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964.

Lindsley, Art. C. S. Lewis’s Case for Christ: Insights from Reason, Imagination and Faith. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Lindskoog, Kathryn Ann. C. S. Lewis: Mere Christian. Glendale: G/L Publications, 1973.

Macdonald, Michael H. and Andrew A. Tadie, eds. G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis: The Riddle of Joy. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.

Purtill, Richard L. C. S. Lewis’s Case for the Christian Faith. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981.

Walsh, Chad. C. S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics. New York: Macmillan, 1949.

Walsh, Chad. The Visionary Christian. Touchstone Books, 1996.

I began having a non-productive cough in 1995. In the fall of 1999 I was checked out for shortness of breath with asthma, apnea and other things ruled out. My local pulmonologist suspected idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which a CT scan at Barnes Hospital (St. Louis) confirmed. However, my doctor wasn’t sure what treatment to pursue.

I went to National Jewish Research Center, a top respiratory hospital in Denver. They agreed with the diagnosis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Idiopathic means the cause is unknown. Pulmonary refers to the lungs. Fibrosis means scarring. IPF, as it is called, is a progressive scarring and deterioration of the lungs leaving the victim unable to breathe. My doctor said, “You don’t have cancer, but you have something just as bad. You have a life expectancy of about three years.”

More than 128,000 Americans suffer from this disease with about 48,000 diagnosed annually. Each year 40,000 die of IPF, the same number as die of breast cancer. Despite these facts, little is known about IPF. It has no known cause or means of prevention or FDA-approved treatment—outside of a lung transplant.

I started taking prednisone and cytoxan and began pulmonary rehab in August 2000. After talking with a lung transplant recipient at rehab, I agreed to be tested to see if I could get on the waiting list for a lung transplant. After a week of evaluation at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis in December 2000 I was placed on the waiting list. To be a recipient one must meet strict requirements including a good support group.

My health continued to decline. I began using supplemental oxygen and gave myself interferron gamma shots three times a week for three years. I continued my college teaching but with an assistant teacher. I had to sit to lecture. I was constantly coughing and had shortness of breath. My skin was pale and pasty. I ran out of energy easily. My college, Ozark Christian College, made sure our health insurance covered me.

In 2003 my condition stabilized temporarily. So for a while I was on the inactive transplant list. In the fall of  2003, my pulmonary function declined significantly and my doctors at Barnes said I needed to get back on the active list and prepare for the transplant. In April 2004 three weeks before the end of the spring semester, we moved to an apartment in St. Louis near the hospital to be available for the transplant and wait for a match. A match is based on blood type and height.

Two months later, on June 15, 2004, I received a double lung transplant, number 840 at Barnes Jewish Hospital. Barnes has an outstanding transplant program and has performed more lung transplants than any other center. We moved back to our home in Carl Junction, MO in October. I had several setbacks during the first year, including one surgery, a couple minor rejections, and three or four hospitalizations. The next year was difficult with Barbara having several surgeries and chemo as she dealt with breast cancer.

Since August 2000 I have faithfully exercised three times a week in pulmonary rehab at St. Johns Hospital, Joplin, MO (except for the time in St. Louis). Exercising regularly in rehab has contributed greatly to my general good health. Since I am immunosuppressed and susceptible to infection and rejection, I take about twenty-five pills every day. After recovering from the transplant, I taught in the classroom in the 2005-6 school year and retired from the classroom teaching in June 2006.

In retirement I had two goals: spend more time with family, especially grandchildren, and write articles and books. Since the transplant I have written and had published three books and twenty three articles. I tell our story in the first chapter of Where Is God When We Suffer: What the Bible Teaches about Suffering (College Press, 2007). I have had more time with family. My wife and I have enjoyed our Bible club with our four grandchildren. I regularly teach a Sunday School class and our care group and speak occasionally.

June 15, 2009 was an exciting day for me because it was the fifth year anniversary of my transplant. When I received the transplant, I was told that five years was the average life expectancy after transplant.

Those who saw me before my transplant and now remark about the dramatic difference. Just before the transplant I was so bad my family thought I wasn’t going to make it. My primary care doctor said he wishes he had a video of the before and after, just to show the great change.

At this Thanksgiving season I want to express my gratitude. I would not be alive today if I had not received the transplant. I am thankful for every day of life as a special gift of God. He gave me a new lease on life. I am deeply grateful to God, to the donor family, to the medical team, to my family especially my wife and friends and the many who prayed regularly for me.

I want to make the most of every day. I am grateful to have been alive to help Barbara through her health challenges with breast cancer and for this extended time together. We are both thankful to be alive and doing well today.

When speaking about C. S. Lewis in class at Wheaton College, Clyde Kilby said he believed that children exposed to the world of fantasy were better able to understand and relate to the real world as adults.

In The Christian World of C. S. Lewis, Kilby wrote:

Lewis rigorously defends the fairy tale against any who claim that it gives a false conception of life. The fact is, says he, that this is the direct opposite of the truth and it is the so-called realistic stories which deceive children. The fairy tale, like the myth, on the one hand arouses longing for more ideal worlds and on the other gives the real world a new dimension of depth. The boy ‘does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little more enchanted.’ The child reading the fairy tale is delighted simply in desiring, while the child reading a ‘realistic’ story may establish the success of its hero as a standard for himself and when he cannot have the same success, may suffer bitter disappointment.[1]

Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia and other similar books have an important place in a child’s early development.

[1] Clyde S. Kilby, The Christian World of C. S. Lewis (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 116.

Grief as a Gift

Christians grieve even with our hope in life beyond death. Losing a loved one brings great pain and indescribable sadness and loss. It is insensitive, unrealistic, and unbiblical to suggest that Christians do not need to grieve. Pretending one does not need to grieve is unhealthy.

God designed the grieving process as a way of coping with the death of loved ones and other tragic losses. Mourning and expressing one’s grief can facilitate healing. Minimizing or refusing to grieve delays healing.

Grief is the mental, emotional, and spiritual pain and sorrow enabling us to cope with serious loss. The depth of our grief depends on the intensity of our love for the person or thing that is lost. When the loss is anticipated due to extended illness, grieving takes a different shape than in cases of unexpected loss. In divorce, the hurt is permanent but it lacks the closure and finality of the death of a mate because conflicted consequences continue.

When a tragic loss occurs, grief is more consuming and devastating than we ever imagined. Words fail to express what we feel. Shock leaves us half-numb, making it difficult to comprehend what others say or to formulate our own thoughts in coherent sentences. However, the shock helps us survive the early hours and days.

Grief as an Adjustment

Grieving is a process of adjusting to the death of a loved one or some serious loss of health or great tragedy. In grief we deal with the changes that bereavement and loss bring. Grief is not a problem to be solved or something to get over and then all will be well. Grieving the death of a loved one involves a process of adjustment where we learn to live in the world without him or her.

Considering mourning as immature, some counsel survivors to detach themselves from the memories of their departed loved ones. But according to licensed counselor Sharon Hart May, “The grieving process is a natural, innate, God-given means for humans to accept, adjust to, and live on in the light of the death of loved ones.” It helps the family restructure a new life in light of the death of a loved one.

Grief is not something we get over like a sprained ankle. It helps us adjust to the new set of circumstances. One does not soon get over and forget the amputation of a leg.

Adjusting to the loss of a loved one requires daily coping with the new realities presented. In the days and years after a loved one dies you face situations that are different because the person is now absent instead of present.

After his wife died C. S. Lewis said, “The act of living is different all through. Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.” Even years later something will trigger a flashback bringing a strong emotional sense of loss. Grieving represents more of a journey than a destination.

Grief as a Process

The intense aspect of grieving may last one to three years but the sense of loss continues. Every person’s experience of grief does not follow the stages of grief outlined by some. Shock, crying, disbelief, anger, guilt, sleeplessness, disorientation, and depression may be present at different times with different people. We all grieve in our own personal way. Individual mourners need a supportive environment and must be allowed to express their grief in their own way.

Certified trauma specialist Norman Wright in Will My Life Ever Be the Same? (Harvest House, 2002) describes “being ambushed by grief” after a significant loss. “It’s an ongoing onslaught of grief that hits you suddenly when you least expect it. You may choke up or cry, your chest may feel constricted, and a wave of sadness may overwhelm you. This is a normal response, but when it happens you need to stop everything else and deal with your feelings.”

Grief as Relearning

Thomas Attig listened to countless grieving persons in over 25 years. In How We Grieve: Relearning the World (Oxford University Press, 1996), he describes grieving as “a process of relearning the world that requires that we relearn physical surroundings and find a new place including fellow survivors, the deceased, and (for some of us) God, and relearn ourselves, that is, our ways of being who we are.” When we grieve we must “relearn our selves as we adjust our daily life patterns, redirect the stories of our lives, and establish new patterns of connection with the world.”

Norman Wright explains some of the adjustments encountered in bereavement:

One of the tasks of grief is learning how to function without this person in your life. You won’t have the interactions and validation you were used to experiencing with that person. The loss of their physical presence in your life means that your needs, hopes, dreams, expectations, feelings, and thoughts will change. Slowly, over time, the reality of separation begins to sink in and you realize, ‘For now, I exist without this person as a part of my life.’

Death only ends your physical relationship with the person.

Thomas Attig in The Heart of Grief: Death and the Search for Lasting Love (Oxford University Press, 2000), describes grieving as a transition from loving the lost loved one in their presence to loving that person in their absence. Love does not quit loving (1 Corinthians 13:8). Grieving does not mean a forgetting or complete letting go of the person who has died. Grieving helps us transition to a lasting love that acknowledges and appreciates that person.

We should not hold on to a departed loved one to an obsessive degree, but we don’t want our loved one to be forgotten. Even though not physically present, our relationship with that person continues through memories, caring about what they cared about, and appreciating their contribution to our lives. As we hold on to the good they did while here, we maintain a healthy connection with the past and can proceed to regaining wholeness in our lives.

When one is taken from us, everything changes in our relationships with our family and with others in our communities. Through the process of grieving we have to relearn and reshape our lives in a new reality without the lost loved one.

Some relationships include both constructive and destructive aspects. We continue a relationship with another person in spite of some things that disappoint us. The good in the relationship outweighs the bad. You may have had a difficult relationship in some aspects with the person who has died. In their death, as in life, we need to hold on to the good and let go of the rest.

As we face life without the loved one, we must deal with changes in feelings, habits, and expectations. This process may be painful. But we can move beyond hurt and anxieties and cherish the good memories of the past. Attig says, “Our journey in grief can bring us to lasting love that honors those who have died, enriches our lives in survival, and takes a place alongside our other relationships with fellow survivors and new people who enter our lives.” We need to give thanks to God for his grace in giving us the grieving process so we can relearn the world and live productive lives after our loss.

Grief as Learning

Experiencing loss and grief does not make us expert counselors who can tell everyone else how they will experience grief. In my own life those who explained to me how I was feeling did not help. However, I did find great comfort from those who had been touched with grief but said little. They knew the pain of loss. They said, “We’re sorry for your loss and we care.”

Comforters do not lecture us on grief. They grieve with us, being supportive and caring. Experiencing grief can help us be sympathetic and caring for those who are hurting. Journeying in the valley of grief can prepare us to comfort others who grieve. The sympathetic listening ear and caring heart of trusted friends can help grievers navigate the jumbled maze of the early stages of grief.

Grieving is a God-given process for coping with and adjusting to the new reality left when we experience serious loss. The experience of grief endows us with a stewardship of grief. We should be more sensitive to the hurting, recognizing and empathizing with their loss. Having grieved and been comforted, we should be caring comforters.

The Lookout, August 27, 2009

I responded, “They are the best team money can buy.”

He answered, “They should not be called the New York Yankees. They
should be called the New York Bankees.”

I believe his label still fits.