Viewpoint of Mark Cadwallader, Creation Moments Board Chairman
In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom told how she and her sister were thankful for the lice-infested women’s barracks at the Nazi concentration camp. The heavy infestation of lice helped keep the guards from sexually abusing them. Corrie went on to describe how – in learning to be thankful as a Christian for even the unlikeliest of things – there was real joy and rejoicing in the midst of the horrible suffering!
The “hiding place” title refers not just to the physical place in the family home where they tried to hide Jewish neighbors from the prying eyes of Nazi persecution. It also refers to the secret spiritual “hiding place” accessible within us where we are spiritually protected in God (Psalm 27:5; Psalm 119:114; Psalm 91:1-2; Matthew 6:6). This is the place we can access by faith, quieting our souls to truly encounter the love, joy, peace, patience and other fruit of the Spirit of God, no matter our circumstances!
The same is recounted in Richard Wurmbrand’s famous book, Tortured for Christ. The book tells his experience of terrible persecution behind the Iron Curtain by the communists of Romania. Pastor Wurmbrand recounts how – through the horrible persecution – many Christians were able to look beyond the temporal and into the eternal. There was a beauty in the hearts of such men, women, and even children that enabled them to “kiss the bars” of their prison cells, to “rejoice in the fellowship of Christ’s suffering”.
Truly, in every circumstance, there is something to be thankful for, even if it is simply exposure to the true extent of evil in this present age. That exposure can make us draw nearer to Him who holds waiting for us the rewards of the eternal glorious age to come of righteousness, love and brilliant beauty! This is why the Bible says: “…for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen [temporary] but at the things which are not seen [eternal]” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
As we come up on the Thanksgiving holiday, we can be thankful that God has given us His truth and His presence wherein we can by faith, quietude, and worship “abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). For even if we were to be imprisoned, as were the apostles, we can be joyful in heart as they were – from the “interior blessing” God gives us through faith and obedience to Him. As the apostles said to their captors in one of their imprisonments for preaching Christ (censorship), “We ought to obey God rather than men”. And after enraging their captors with this profession, leading to another beating, “…they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” (Acts 5:29,40-41).
A great lie has been pushed upon Christians, and the whole world for that matter, dominating the public and mainstream institutions of our day. It is evolutionism. And from the justification of this lie has trickled down an endless stream of subsidiary lies, ones that are more than “pseudo-scientific theory” though they are based on it – including racial theories such as those of the Nazis, false ideologies like communism, and materialist rationalism to deny spiritual reality.
Once people abandon truth, and perpetrate and succumb to a narrative of lies, it becomes a habit and necessity to create more lies in justification and defense and fear and submission. Remember, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we purpose to deceive.” We need to be standing for truth, to be living in revival and repentance – standing against “the darkness” and for “the light”.
Last month I mentioned Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s famous essay “Live Not by Lies”. Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia was also a hero of the same era against European communism. Havel pointed out in his book The Power of the Powerless how the lies begin to stream forth as truth is discarded. “Life in the system is thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present. And it falsifies the future. It falsifies the statistics.”
Get rid of the absolute truth of God, Creator Almighty, as evolution claims to do. Then truth becomes relative to the whims of men, and thus defined by the State, so therefore by the ruler(s) of the State (the regime). Francis Schaeffer and other thinkers eloquently pointed this out in the last century.
In spite of all that is going on with us during these last couple years – of division, political failures and unrest, threats of illness, isolation, censorship, and authoritarianism – as Christians, we have reason to be thankful. This world, this age, is not our home! And being led by His Spirit “to obey God rather than men” will bring wonderful consolation of joy and fulfillment in the Lord! We know this from the Bible and from the experience of other Christians throughout history.
As you know, at Creation Moments we are currently making quite a push as a ministry for international outreach. We are funding more broadcast range for our messaging, partnering with international radio to reach another approximately 1 billion people. We have launched recent efforts in the Korean language, increased our broadcast outreach in Spanish, are launching programming in Mandarin Chinese, and working with others who use our programs in Romanian and Russian languages.
In this effort, our Board of Directors has been inspired and affirmed by the text of Revelation 14:6-7, which reveals that in the final days before the consummation of this present age, an angel “having the everlasting gospel to preach” brings a message to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people”. And the message is, “Fear God, and give glory to him…and worship him that made heaven and earth”. As you can see, the creation message is front and center with the gospel angel!
We rejoice at this Thanksgiving for your participation with us! We are in an exciting time of great outreach and harvest as we reach out to those many persecuted and oppressed people in a hurting world, to closed and unreached areas with “the everlasting gospel”. Thank you, and may the Lord bless you mightily!
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