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Survival of the Fittest

In the days when Huxley and Herbert Spencer and the Victorian agnostics were trumpeting as a final truth the famous hypothesis of Darwin, it seemed to thousands of simple people almost impossible that religion should survive. It is all the more ironic that it has not only survived them all, but it is a perfect example (perhaps the only real example) of what they called the Survival of the Fittest.

-G.K. Chesterton, The Well and the Shallows

Darwin’s idea of the survival of the fittest, Chesterton says, has been abused. It leads to Capitalistic carnivores who devour the weak, Nietzchian Supermen who fly the swastika, and Eugenicists who decide who is worthy, or isn’t worthy, of life. The original idea, he says, is simply that of surviving. That is, does a species have the necessary equipment to survive the elements? If it does, it survives; if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.

The great irony of all this understanding and misunderstanding of Darwinianism is that the Christian church is the great survivor. It has what it takes. Even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It is, he says, perhaps the only real example of Survival of the Fittest. Let the Beagle take a voyage to the last day and discover what the passenger will observe:

Who are these arrayed in white,
Brighter than the noon-day sun?
Foremost of the sons of light;
Nearest the eternal throne?
These are they that bore the cross,
Nobly for their Master stood;
Sufferers in His righteous cause,
Followers of the dying God.

-Charles Wesley, Who Are These Arrayed in White?

Death and Resurrection: The Story of God and Man in a Garden

After God created Man, He placed him in a garden in a placed called Eden (literally, Paradise or Delight). There God communed with Adam, promising him life for obedience and death for disobedience to his commands. After the Fall, Genesis records,

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden (3:8).

There is debate about whether or not the English phrase ‘cool of the day’ is a proper translation. Some scholars have argued that the phrase should actually be rendered, ‘And they heard the sound of the Lord God in the garden in the wind of the storm…’ That’s quite different from ‘in the cool of the day.’ You can read about the translation issues HERE. If the phrase, ‘in the wind of the storm’ is accurate, it only serves to emphasize the judgement that was impending for Adam and Eve.

That judgement included the several curses listed in Genesis 3, along with expulsion from the garden:

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life (3:24).

From the flaming sword of Genesis 3, thousands of years, and the entire Old Testament, pass before God is seen again walking with man in the garden. That brings us to John’s Gospel and Jesus’ betrayal by Judas Iscariot:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples (John 18:1-2).

Jesus Christ, the man who is God, met with his disciples in a garden called Gethsemane; it was there that he wrestled with God over the judgment that was to be poured out upon him at the cross. It was there that he sweat, as it were, drops of blood for the sake of sinners:

For me it was in the garden he prayed, ‘Not my will but thine.’
He had no tears for his own grief, but sweat drops of blood for mine.

That wasn’t the last we would see of God in a garden. Somewhere near Golgotha he was laid to rest in a garden tomb:

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there (John 19:41-42).

And because he was laid to rest in a garden, he was resurrected in a garden. In fact, the first eyewitness of the resurrection, Mary, mistook him to be a gardener:

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away” (John 20:15).

She mistook him for the gardener of that particular place at that particular time, but we make no mistake in realizing that he is the great Gardener. His resurrection opens the doors to paradise for all those who rest and trust in him as he is offered in the gospel. G.K. Chesterton comments on this passage:

On the third day the friends of Christ coming at day-break to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realised that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but of the dawn (The Everlasting Man, p. 214).

The resurrection begins the new creation, and each of us who trust in that resurrection are already a part of it, awaiting its ultimate consummation. John’s Revelation points to the consummation of the new creation in a city; but assuredly it will be a garden-city, for in it is Eden’s Tree of Life:

…through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2).

From one angle, the Bible is the story of Paradise, Paradise lost, Paradise regained, and Paradise restored. And it tells us that in order for that restoration to happen, man has to pass through the flaming sword of God’s judgment (Gen. 3:24). Beginning with Gethsemane, to the cross, Jesus did precisely that. Adam forfeited his life in the garden when he ate the forbidden fruit, Jesus gained it back for us when he took the foreboding cup of God’s wrath. Adam betrayed God in a garden, Jesus was betrayed by Judas in a garden (for the sake of the children of Adam). Then he was buried in a garden to rise in a garden that he might open the doors of paradise for all who would trust in him.

Everyone desires paradise. Eden is programmed into our system. Whether it’s a snow-capped mountain, a warm beach, a cabin on the lake, or a rock concert, we all want it, and we all know that it is lost. We may have glimpses from time to time, but we can never lay hold of it. Jesus in the garden of resurrection assures us that when the Christian thinks about paradise, it is not simply a tragedy of the past, lost and almost forgotten; rather it is our hope for the future.

Don’t Believe In Anything That Can’t Be Told In Coloured Pictures (Chesterton)

G.K. Chesterton wrote these words in a Randolph Caldecott picture-book he gave to a child:

You will not understand a word
Of all the words, including mine;
Never you trouble; you can see,
And all directness is divine—
Stand up and keep your childishness:
Read all the pedants’ screeds and strictures;
But don’t believe in anything
That can’t be told in coloured pictures.

A former teacher (and pastor) of mine regularly uses the last four lines of this poem as he introduces the Book of Revelation. (He also does a good job of tying a ringing cell-phone into his sermon!).

Whose Name Was Writ In Water

I am not a poetry expert by any means, but my favorite stanza of all the poetry I have read is from John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale:

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
         No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
         In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
         Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
                She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
                        The same that oft-times hath
         Charm’d magic casements, opening on the foam
                Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.
I read a short biography of Keats this past week and learned for the first time of the words he requested to be written on his tombstone:

Here lies one whose name was writ in water.

Keats died at 25 years old. His accomplishments as a writer are amazing when you consider how young he died. He had a strong sense of the brevity of life, and his epitaph reflected that. His skylark was immortal but he knew that he was not. Consider therefore the shortness of your life and where your name is written:

  • So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12).
  • He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it (Rev. 2:17).

Him that is Unjust, Let Him be Unjust Still: What does it mean? (Revelation 22:11)

Revelation 22:11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.
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Johnny Cash quotes this verse in the good old English of the Authorized Version in The Man Comes Around:

  • He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

But what does it mean?

My pastor once used a couple of things to explain it, and I find them helpful. One is Romans 1. God, in his judgment, ‘gives over’ the wicked to their wicked ways that their evil deeds should multiply and condemn them all the more: ‘Let the evildoer still do evil’ and let that evil increase. Or take the words of Jesus Christ in Mark 4:25:

  • For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Think of this in terms of righteousness, love, purity, gifts, and graces.

My pastor also used the famous quote of C.S. Lewis to illustrate the point:

The doors of Hell are locked on the inside. I do not mean that the ghosts may not wish to come out of Hell, in the vague fashion wherein an envious man ‘wishes’ to be happy: but they certainly do not will even the first preliminary stages of that self-abandonment through which alone the soul can reach any good. They enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free (The Problem of Pain, chapter 8).

Let the evildoer still do evil – and do so willingly. Let the filthy be filthy still – and let him get so used to his stench that he thinks it is normal. That is one aspect of the great judgment of God. He allows the wicked man to lock himself up in his wickedness.

The good news left to be stated is that Jesus Christ takes the wrath of God upon himself for such evil and filth that we might be counted as righteous and clean before God. If you have found your righteousness in him, that righteousness will abide. But if you are locked in your wickedness and filth, don’t be surprised when you stay that way. You may have been saying for years, ‘I can change when I want to, just give me time.’ This verse calls you to reconsider, and reconsider now.

Looking Up and Seeing Again

  • Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.

One of the most profound experiences of my life happened at about 4:30am in the year 2000 or 2001. They say nothing good happens that time of day, and I think that’s true for those who tend to hit the clubs and parties until the wee hours of the morning, but it’s not true entirely. It was December or January, and I was in a john boat heading down a ditch en route to a duck blind with two friends, excited about the upcoming hunt. I was in the middle of the boat, lying down on my back, as I often did, in order to keep the cold wind from smacking me in the face. But something was happening in the sky – something that I had never seen before.

I saw a shooting star – and then another, and another. Stars were shooting all over the place. It looked like the heavens were coming down, one star at a time. I didn’t know what was going on. But I was profoundly moved. I had never seen such beauty. I had never been in awe of the night sky before then. I found out later that I had witnessed a meteor shower. At 19 years old, sadly, I didn’t even know what a meteor shower was.

The visual impact of the meteor shower was intensified because my friends and I were in the middle of nowhere. We were in the woods, deep in the Mississippi river bottoms of northeast Arkansas, far away from any city lights.

The image of the night sky on that occasion still lingers with me. I’ve tried to watch showers since, but it’s near impossible where I currently live, being in a metropolitan area. I have, however, made a tradition with my oldest daughter over the past several years. Each time I go home for Christmas I take her out into a cotton field, away from all the lights, and we sit on the hood of the car to stare at the stars. They’re so much brighter in the Arkansas delta than they are here. It never ceases to move me.

As I was driving home tonight I noticed the full moon peeking out behind some hazy clouds. I made a mental note to myself of how often I just ignore the moon. So often I treat it as if it’s just background light, nothing really to take note of. I’d rather stare at a computer screen.

I bring all this up because lately I’ve been thinking about the planets and the stars. It all started with an interview I heard from Mars Hill Audio. Ken Myers conducted a fascinating interview with Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia, a book which sets forth the position that C.S. Lewis’ governing principle in the structure of the seven Narnia books is based upon the seven celestial bodies of ancient astrology. I don’t have time presently to write at length about this, but the discussion was stimulating to say the least.

That discussion led me to check out an audio book about the planets from the local library, which again, was fascinating.

And finally, I happened across D. James Kennedy’s book, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac, at a local Goodwill, and purchased it for a quarter. I’m presently reading it with delight. I know the book has gotten some flack, and possibly deservedly so, since Kennedy does seem to conflate natural and special revelation to a significant degree. But it is fascinating nonetheless, and well worth reading.

The main takeaway from all this at present is that I do not want to become someone who is mesmerized by a television screen while completely oblivious to the wonders that are all around me in nature. The header image on this blog is of a swimming pool positioned near the ocean. I once heard John Piper comment on staying in an beachfront hotel that had a swimming pool near the ocean. It struck him as preposterous. Why do you need a pool when you’ve got the Pacific? It’s man’s pool vs. God’s pool. And God’s is greater.

But we can control our little pools, get them to just the right temperature, build diving boards, have televisions on the patio and bar stools in the water right in front of the screen. Aren’t we awesome? Not really.

Modern science has had the unfortunate impact of disenchanting creation. Yet creation remains enchanting, if only we take the time to look. Stars are just balls of gas burning at extremely high temperatures to the modern mind. C.S. Lewis brushed back against this mentality in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (who, by the way, treads the dawn?) when the retired star Ramandu notes that even in our world a star is not simply a ball of gas – that’s only what it’s made of (not what it is).

I’m taking a physical geography class presently. It’s all about clouds and precipitation, floods, solar angles, earthquakes, volcanoes, and the like. It’s all very technical. Yet it’s all very awe-inspiring, if we have eyes to see. But television and computer screens have dulled our vision. Sometimes you just need to get out in the dark and look up and say, ‘Who created these?’ (Isaiah 40:26).

In the vision of John set forth in the book of Revelation, he sees risen Christ thus:

  • Revelation 1:16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

Stars in his hand and face like the sun. Indeed, the heavens declare the glory of God.

A while back I was driving to church with my family. It was early in the morning and we were admiring the sunrise. My daughter said, ‘You know daddy, the stars never go away. The sun is just so bright that we can’t see them in its light. I learned that at school.’ From the mouth of babes…

In those words a 6 year-old preached to me a powerful sermon that she didn’t know she was preaching. Immediately a passage came to my mind:

  • Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

It’s not that the sun and moon are necessarily going to be done away with in the new heavens and the new earth. Rather, it’s that the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ will shine so brightly that their light will be swallowed up in it. I look forward to Christmas vacation so that I can see the lights of the delta, but more so I look forward to that last day when the glory behind their glory, which surpasses their glory, will be revealed in all His brightness. Come, Lord Jesus.