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Dear Friend of Creation,
Have you heard it said that art reflects culture?
Indeed it does. And it is true in our evolution-influenced humanistic scientific age, one that has been mixed with and is coasting on the coattails of a biblical worldview for many years.
Consider some of the lyrics of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell’s song Woodstock, which summarized the famous outdoor rock concert of 1969, and was made popular by Crosby, Stills, and Nash in 1970. The song is said by art critics to be one of the very best representations of that “hippie” era, by one of the very best music artists of that generation.
“Well, I came upon a child of God, he was walking along the road
And I asked him tell where are you going, this he told me…
Got to get back to the land, n’ Set my soul free.”
“We are stardust, we are golden, We are ten-billion-year-old carbon
And we've got to get ourselves, Back to the garden”.
“Well then can I roam beside you, I have come to lose the smog.
And I feel myself a cog of something turning…
And I don't know who I am, But life is for learning.”
“By the time we got to Woodstock we were half a million strong,
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes, Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies, Above our nation.”
Final Chorus: “We are stardust, we are golden, We are caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves, Back to the garden.”
In Mitchell’s lyrics, you can find all kinds of imagery of biblical truth – right alongside cultural beliefs in evolutionism and new age pantheism. Here we see manifested some of the effects of church compromise with the world through the theory of evolution, as the church, for a hundred years at that time, did not fight very hard for the truth of biblical creation! Truly, like the title character in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s masterpiece, Faust, the modern church in many ways has been “caught in the devil’s bargain” (though I’m sure that’s not what Joni Mitchell had in mind when she used that phrase).
Especially poignant in Mitchell’s hippie anthem are the repeated cries, “And we’ve got to get ourselves, Back to the garden”. This is of course, the Garden of Eden. As the Bible says, “He has set the world (Heb. Olam, world without end, eternity) in their heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Or as C.S. Lewis logically pointed out in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
The truth is, we can’t “get ourselves back to the Garden”. But God can – through His grace extended to us in Christ Jesus! The Bible says that “paradise” was a historic reality, and will again be a future reality available to us through the grace of God in Jesus! “Joy and gladness... thanksgiving and the voice of melody” were “to be found in the garden of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3). And we have a future opportunity to “eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7).
The “Garden” was the place of man’s initial state of innocence and connection to a divine world. And like the Great Flood of Noah, it is a “cultural memory” in the history and language of many people groups. Even today, after the lost Edenic ideal, the earth retains a broken image of that original perfection. “The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). The beauty of nature that people enjoy, and in which we can see the hand of God, is a gift from our awesome Creator. His own life-giving Personality of Perfect Love and Goodness manifests in great created beauty, and makes our own appreciation of great beauty possible!
The biblical imagery flowing from Mitchell’s song reflected what was happening in the culture on the heels of Woodstock. Consider how the “Jesus Revolution” of the early 1970’s in the United States grew out of the hippie movement. Jesus and the Jesus Revolution were famously put on the June 21, 1971, cover of Time Magazine. I am reminded that God causes all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28). Jesus Himself was happily being embraced as an authentic counter-culture purist figure (which He was, and is!) by many young people of the time - disillusioned as they were by the materialism of their parents’ generation, while finding of course that the “new age”, the drugs, the communes, and the sexual revolution did not satisfy. Genuine revival, conversions, church renewals, church plants, and worldwide missions grew out of the movement.
When we’ve seen revival, we have seen repentance and renewal toward fulfilling both of the Greatest Commandments. Revival and renewal help us reciprocate God’s love with all our “heart, soul, mind, and strength”; and love “our neighbor as our selves”. The “great mystery” (Ephesians 5:32) of the Bible is the great spiritual union of Christ in us, and us in Christ – a great Oneness! Jesus said, “…continue ye in my love… that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:9-11). God dwells in “unapproachable light”, but also in unlimited delight! That’s also what the Bible says in Psalm 16:11, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore”.
Until we see Him “face-to-face” and “know even as also I am known” we have work to do, while “abiding in faith, hope, and love” (1 Corinthians 13:12,13). Contrast that with Woodstock’s plaintive lyric “And I don’t know who I am” - since we are lost as evolved “stardust”. Indeed, the harvest is plentiful! Young people of today are “ripe for harvest” – and there is, in fact, revival going on in many quarters. They also, like many in their parents’ and grandparents’ generation before, are quite open to finding Jesus in the midst of modern disillusionments! Counterfeit relationships and realities offered up by social media and AI are leaving Gen Z and Millennials hungry for something real. And nothing is more real than the One Who is called “Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11)! We are all called to co-labor with Him and His Holy Spirit for the purpose of proclaiming Biblical truth and making “disciples of all nations”!
This month, all preparations have been completed, and we are officially broadcasting our creation-evangelism radio programming in the Japanese language in Japan! Please pray for that new work! You may recall from my letter last September that in calling us into Japanese ministry, the Lord was calling us to take the message of Him to what is considered the 2nd most unreached (few adherents) people-group in the world (after the Bengali Muslims). Japan has had a history of banning Christianity for 260 years, ending only in 1874. Even then, there was cultural resistance to a “foreign” faith. And there have been many Japanese martyred for their faith – as indeed there are martyrs and persecuted Christians all over the world to this day. June 29 is becoming known as “International Day of the Christian Martyr”, based on the day in Christian tradition that the Apostle Paul was martyred in Rome for his faith following the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which Emperor Nero blamed on Christians.
So there is much to do and many to pray for in this Age of persecution under the world, the devil, and our own flesh - until our Great Savior consummates His-story! Thank you so much for your prayers and offerings as we all work together to advance His Kingdom and to declare the opportunity for “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” to get right with their Creator and get “Back to the Garden”!
Yours in Christ,
Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman
P.S., As we grow our broadcast outreach to new languages and peoples around the world, I want to recommend God’s Promise to the Chinese. Not only does the ancient Chinese script include many incredible allusions to the Garden of Eden (as discussed above), but it also shows how Biblical creation, including Adam and Eve, and the Great Flood of Noah are embedded in the ancient script! This powerful book is awesome evidence of God’s witness through multiple means, and love for all people across the globe. The unreached have never been un-loved by the Father!
I’d also like to recommend the DVD Jesus Revolution for your next movie night. This film tells the true story of the national awakening of the early 1970s and its origins within a community of teenage hippies in Southern California. Let your faith be stirred as you watch a retelling of the revival that reshaped and renewed American youth to the reality of Christ!
Lastly, I’d love to recommend the book Richard Wurmbrand: Love Your Enemies from the series Christian Heroes: Then & Now. As we broadcast the truth of the Bible into many areas of the world where there is Christian persecution, it is good for us to remember the true stories of those who put it all on the line for the Gospel of Christ! It’s a powerful resource for anyone, written for children ages 10-14, about the man who founded Voice of the Martyrs. Strengthen yours or your child’s faith by ordering a copy today!
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