“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. To convince, you must first believe.” – Winston Churchill
The Nazi war machine had moved across western Europe and pinned down remaining British and French forces at Dunkirk on the English Channel in May of 1940. High-ranking ministers in Parliament were ready to concede to Hitler. They were being sensible, strategic, and logical about the facts and horrific dangers for the British army and the entire country of Great Britain.
But Winston Churchill was God's man of the hour. And his "gut feel" was strongly against capitulation to Hitler and the Nazi’s. On the verge of being forced to concede to the strategically minded ministerial advice, he decided on an impulse to ride the London Underground (for the first time in his life) and assess what was in "the heart" of the average British person. Everyone he talked to on the subway ride was vigorously against surrender to the Nazis. God confirmed something to him, and he came off his subway ride knowing what he would do. He immediately called for a full meeting of the Parliament as he strode back into the halls of government. There, the great wordsmith gave a great inspirational speech, uttered with immense passion, which famously concluded:
"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end! We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be! We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!" – Winston Churchill, June 4, 1940
He persuaded with tremendous imagery and emotion, rallying the Parliament behind him. And the rest, as they say, is history. There was the "miracle at Dunkirk", America eventually entered the War, the totalitarian axis powers were defeated, and the world entered an era known as the Pax Americana (American Peace), an era of relative tranquility and freedom as the United States became the world's dominant economic, cultural, and military power after World War 2. This included new freedom and incentive for worldwide gospel missionary outreach!
After the War there was a surge of missionary activity, and shortwave radio broadcast stations were constructed by Christian missionary entrepreneurs and organizations at strategic locations in the world, the broadcasts of which could be received over almost the entire globe – in the languages of local listeners. Only God knows how many millions of people have been called into Christian faith because of the "free exercise" of religion made possible in the Pax Americana after World War 2. Indeed, as Creation Moments has expanded our international outreach, we have been able to use many of the transmitting stations for our programming, testifying to our Creator and Savior.
Many people predicted the demise of shortwave radio with the advent of the internet, but this has not happened – especially in the international setting. Over 3 billion shortwave receivers exist worldwide. God's word "shall not return unto me void" (Isaiah 55:11), and it is the means through which faith comes (Romans 10:17) because it is made "quick and powerful (alive and active)" (Hebrews 4:12) by its infusion with the power of the Holy Spirit as men "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21).
Indeed, the first convert of missionary Adoniram Judson in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1819, a man named Moung Nau, said in response to hearing a reading of the Sermon on the Mount, "These words take hold on my liver; they make me tremble."1 I find this statement quite interesting because of the Bible’s original terminology, and because modern science has only in the last 30 years recognized the enteric nervous system (which lines the “gut” organs in our torso) to be our "second brain".
The gut, the belly, our internal organs are repositories in Scripture (scientifically “ahead of its time”) for thinking and feeling - and for receiving and giving communication prompted by the Spirit of God! For example, the Bible says, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly (Greek, koilia) shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake He of the Spirit…)" (John 7:38-39).
The apostle Paul writes about “bowels of mercies” (Colossians 3:12). He writes to Philemon in verse 20, “brother let me have joy of thee in the Lord; refresh my bowels in the Lord”. And Jeremiah writes, “My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart” (Jeremiah 4:19). The Song of Solomon says “…my beloved put his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him” (Song 5:4).
This kind of language is quite odd for us, because of our modern ignorance. Yet it is the language not only of the old King James version but of all translations that translate the original ancient Hebrew (meeh) and ancient Greek (splangknon) correctly as “bowels” in these passages. And many modern reputable Bible translations do not get the words right, because modernists have failed to appreciate the full function of the internal organs, such as bowels and belly.
The Bible long ago repeatedly stated a truth that has been lost on modern science for many years, and which is only now being scientifically understood.
Today we understand that running from the esophagus to the rectum, in the inner lining and walls of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon, is what’s called the Enteric Nervous System (ENS). Our “2nd Brain” functions via the same neurotransmitter hormones as the brain in our heads, and it has generated a whole new field of study called “neuro-gastroenterology”.
The Bible cautions us, "There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12). The strategic calculations of the other top ministers of the British Parliament, had they been implemented, would have led to a completely different world – one with much less freedom! What was needed was some “fire in the belly”. Like Winston Churchill, we all need the check of the "gut feel", informed as it can be by the Holy Spirit!
1Piper, J. "The Holy Spirit: Author of Scripture", 2/26/1984, desiringgod.org
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