OCTOBER 2015 Reformed A MAGAZINE FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY Volume 34 Issue No. 12

CELEBRATING 30+ YEARS LEST WE FORGET

On May 5, 2015 the Netherlands celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II with a re-enactment of their liberation

ORTH N W O S TI W N E G N .. . NOTA BENE picture by Robert Hoetink / Shutterstock.com p. 6 IN A NUTSHELL • FROM THE EDITOR • BOOK REVIEWS • CROSSWORD Is this not your copy of Reformed Reformed PERSPECTIVE Perspective? A MAGAZINE FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY

Published monthly by the Foundation for the publication of a Reformed Social-Political Magazine (Reformed Perspective Foundation).

JUNE 2015 Volume 34 Issue No. 8 For Subscriptions or to Change your address, contact: Reformed A MAGAZINE FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY Joanna deBoer - Reformed Perspective Administration, CELEBRATING 30+ YEARS Box 1328, 230 2nd AV NW, Carman, MB, R0G 0J0 [email protected] 1-855-527-1366 For Letters to the Editor, Advertising and Submissions, contact: FALSE DILEMMAp.16 Is Genesis 1 Historical or Poetic? E-mail: [email protected]

THROUGH WHICH Editor: Jon Dykstra GLASSES? P.18 Regular Contributors: Sharon Bratcher, Christine Farenhorst, Margaret Helder, A BOOK FOR EVERY MINISTER, ELDER, AND Anna Nienhuis, Michael Wagner DEACON P.24 Board of Directors: John Voorhorst (Chairman); Henry Stel (Managing Editor); Ken Stel (Secretary); Chris deBoer (Treasurer); Bob Lodder Template Design: Compass Creative Studio Inc. compasscreative.ca Art Direction, Design and Layout: Annelies Schoen www.facebook.com/FreshDesignByAnnelies Contact Address for South Africa: Arie Roos, Box 584, Kuilsrivier, 7580 Republic of South Africa TH N OR OT W IN S G W . E .. N Contact Address for Australia:

NOTA • BOOK REVIEWS • CROSSWORD BENE • FROM THE EDITOR Pro Ecclesia Publishers, PO Box 189, Kelmscott, W. Australia 6111 p. 6 IN A NUTSHELL Copyright statement: Copyright in letters, articles, cartoons and any other material submitted to Reformed Perspective and accepted for publication remains with the author, but RP and its reciprocal organizations may freely reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms. Enjoy Reformed Perspective Th is periodical is owned and operated by the Foundation for the publi cation of a Reformed Social-Political Magazine, a nonprofi t organization, whose purpose is described in all year long. Receive freshly Article 2 of its constitution: “to publish periodically a magazine promoting Reformed principles designed monthly issues in all spheres of life, especially the social, political and economic realms.” In carrying out its objectives, the society is bound by the Bible, God’s infallible Word, as it is summarized and with articles pertinent to confessed in the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort (Article 3 of the constitution). Reformed living. If you are interested in the work of Reformed Perspective Foundation and in the promotion of Reformed principles in all spheres of life, especially in your local area, and you need help, call John Voorhorst at 1 (403) 328-9114 (days), and 1 (403) 345-2904 (evenings). Annual Subscription Rates: CDN $50/year Canadian Funds – 1 year $50.00, 2 years $93.00, 3 years $137.00* Canada Airmail $73.00,* U.S. Airmail (U.S. Funds) $80.00 USA $55/year U.S. Funds – 1 year $55.00, 2 years $100.00, 3 years $145.00, International Surface Mail $69.00 (2 years $125.00, 3 years $184.00) Int’l $69/year International Airmail $115.00 *including 5% G.S.T. – G.S.T. No. R118929272RT0001 We acknowledge the fi nancial support of the Government of Canada, through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Cancellation Agreement Unless a written subscription cancellation is received we assume you wish to continue to SUBSCRIBE subscribe. You will be invoiced prior to the subscription renewal date. Registration: ISSN 0714-8208 Charitable Organization under Canada Income Tax Act TODAY Registration No. 118929272RR0001 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: One Beghin Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R2J 3X5

1-855-527-1366 reformedperspective.ca ReformedPerspective.ca

2 / OCTOBER 2015 CONTENTS

AUSTRIA'S MAUTHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP CREMATORIUMS IS IT EVER PERMISSIBLE TO LIE? p.14 by Piet Jongeling

OUR REMARKABLE SUN P.10 – Spike Psarris

FROM THE EDITOR P.5 – Jon Dykstra NOTA BENE P.6

IN A NUTSHELL P.12 THE VICTORY OF FAITH EDITH CAVELL: – Reimer Faber A BRAVE GUIDE MAKING THE CASE FOR p.11 - Christine Farenhorst MORAL FOSSIL FUELS P.24 p.20 – Michael Wagner

REVIEWS P.32

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 3 COMICS

4 / OCTOBER 2015 FROM THE EDITOR Persistent widows, one and all

uring the election campaign it does that mean we can’t do anything for This woman got her justice, and not Dwasn’t always clear who our next the unborn legislatively? because she won the judge over, and not prime minister was going to be. What No. Jesus told a story two thousand because the unjust judge was replaced by was clear was that no matter who won, years ago about a persistent widow (Luke someone better. No, she got her justice the unborn were going to lose. We had a 18:1-8) and while He didn’t intend it first because she would not shut up. In a coun- pro-choice prime minister going in, and and foremost to serve as a guide to how try in which there are no electable pro-life we have one still. And the situation we best to engage in effective pro-life politi- leaders, this is what we can still do – we face is that before we next go to the polls cal action, it is that too. There once was a can persist! We can continue speaking, again another half million children will judge, Jesus tells us, “who neither feared writing, demonstrating, donating, and be killed. God nor cared what people thought.” volunteering, knowing that no matter This is wickedness on a grand scale, Living in the same town there was a how dire the political circumstances are, but it’s also a routine sort of evil. It hap- widow in need of help, and her only God can make use of our persistence in pens to one baby at a time, every couple means of getting justice was to turn to big ways and small to bring justice to the of minutes or so, and during regular this judge. So what to do when faced with unborn and glory to Himself. business hours. A boy, then maybe a an unjust judge? And we must also remember the real girl, one after another, ripped from point of this parable, which Jesus told to their mother’s womb, torn apart and the “[She] kept coming to him with the encourage us to persistent in our prayers. pieces collected. Just another profitable plea, ‘Grant me justice against my Casting our vote is important, but it is only murder, efficiently executed, done at the adversary.’ For some time he refused. a small, one time thing. Our God is big insistence of the child’s parents and with But finally he said to himself, ‘Even and ever near us. And He wants to hear the approval of this government and this though I don’t fear God or care what from us – He asks us to be persistent in our prime minister. people think, yet because this widow requests to Him. So let us pray for the un- We could see this result coming, but keeps bothering me, I will see that she born and for our country without ceasing! now that we’re here what’s to be done? gets justice, so that she won’t eventu- Jon Dykstra can be reached at Parliament is decidedly pro-choice, so ally come and attack me!’” [email protected].

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 5 HILTON AND THE PERSISTENT ANTI-PORN ACTIVISTS BY JON DYKSTRA

News worth noting his summer the Hilton chain of hotels announced T they had removed all porn channels from their hotels, which are in 85 countries around the world. Part of the credit of this change, accord to Pat Truman, head of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, was due to “the public pressure.” His group organized a three year campaign that saw the company's top executives getting as many as 1,000 emails each week asking for the removal of the EZRA LEVANT MAKES THE CASE FOR ETHICAL OIL porn. BY JON DYKSTRA While Truman didn’t mention the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8), his eff orts bear a striking resemblance to hers. In this story Jesus tells of a widow who kept asking for justice day in and day out, and got it from a judge who was motivated only by his wish to have her leave him alone. While the point of this parable is about much more than laying out an eff ective method of dealing with uncaring offi cials, as Hilton management can attest, it is indeed an eff ective method.

arlier this year Canadian have to turn to countries like Saudi BRITISH MPS VOTE DOWN journalist and well-known Arabia, Venezuela and Iran where ASSISTED SUICIDE E personality Ezra Levant human rights are not respected. As BY JON DYKSTRA made a trip south of the Levant explained, n September British border to try to convince Americans parliamentarians voted 330- …every day, your president says no that Canadian oil is not only a good I 118 against a bill that would deal, but an ethical one. It might to [Canadian oil], he’s saying yes have enlisted doctors to help sound strange to call Canada’s oil to Venezuelan crude – what I call kill suicidal patients. As one MP and “ethical” but Levant argued on the confl ict oil compared to our ethical medical doctor stated: I have never Glenn Beck Radio Show that it is the oil….Where are the progressives considered that death was a good ethical alternative when you consider saying, “I don’t want Sharia oil. I treatment for anything.” where the US has to get its oil if it isn’t don’t want gay-hanging, women- SOURCE: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/09/11/british-parliament- buying it from Canada. Then they stoning oil?" overwhelmingly-defeats-bill-to-legalize-some-assisted-suicides/

6 / OCTOBER 2015 ANIMAL RIGHTS VS. ANIMAL WELFARE BY JON DYKSTRA It’s because those making the loudest Ingrid Newkirk (one of the founders call for animal rights are also those of People for the Ethical Treatment of who have the least interest in animal Animals) put it: “When it comes to pain, welfare. As Smith explains: love, joy, loneliness, and fear, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.” No Ms. Newkirk: Advocates of animal rights ideology while a lonely boy is a sad situation, a seek to end all domestication of lonely rat is a cause for celebration – animals. Advocates of animal welfare, would that all rats were single! on the other hand, seek to create As Smith concludes: ever-improving standards of animal f you think that a dog’s husbandry. You may think you are for animal owner shouldn’t be allowed rights when you are really for animal I to beat it for fun, you might Christians know we have been put welfare. It is time to use the correct think you support animal in charge of the animals – we are terminology so that "animal rights" rights. But Wesley Smith, the author stewards of creation – and even the becomes a scorned and shunned of The War on Humans wants us to wild ones are ours to be managed and movement. cared for. But animal rightists want us SOURCE: http://www.nationalreview.com/human- understand that as a stand for animals' exceptionalism/423163/animal-rights-zealotry-hates-animal-welfare- welfare. Why the different word choice, to think of animals not as objects of wesley-j-smith and why does it matter? care, but as our moral equivalents. As

TRANSGENDERS CLASH WITH HOMOSEXUALS OVER GENDER BY JON DYKSTRA

caricatures of women, all in an attempt their ban, and as a result pleased to muddy and mock that which makes homosexuals, but offended the men distinct from women. transgenders. Meanwhile, even as transgenders The internal disagreement in the – men who want to be women, and supposedly “inclusive” lesbian, gay, women who want to be men – are bisexual and transgender (LGBT) dissatisfied with their own gender, community highlights how there they still believe that the two genders simply is no neutral ground – sides are distinctly different. Why lop off will have to be picked and, inevitably, he organizers of a small bits, and get bits added on in an effort people offended. Some Christians pride parade in Glasgow to approximate the other gender if wonder why we can’t just get along T this August ran into a big this other gender is merely a “social with LGBT folk. Well, as this incident problem when they decided construct”? As parade organizers put shows, even if we gave up on to back transgendered folk over it: defending God’s truth as it concerns homosexuals and ban drag queen sexuality, and instead simply affirmed acts. It turned out that homosexuals It was felt by the group within the whatever positions on gender the like, and transgender folk dislike drag Trans/Non Binary Caucus that some LGBT community wanted us to affirm, queens. But why? drag performance…hinges on the we would still have to make a choice It’s because drag queens are often social view of gender and making about which of their mutually exclusive meant to mock the idea of gender it into a joke, however transgender positions we were going to affirm. distinctions. The men wear over-the- individuals do not feel as though In other words, there's no avoiding top outfits – gaudy skintight dresses, their gender identity is a joke. offending someone, so let it be enormous high heels, pasted on because we told them the truth. make-up – and present themselves as In the end parade organizers reversed

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 7 WHY POLLING IS LESS RELIABLE BY JON DYKSTRA n 1948 the polls were near unanimous that Thomas I Dewey was going to be president. When the Chicago Daily Tribune didn’t have time to wait for all the election results to come in before they went to press, they decided to craft their front-page headline based on what the polls promised. So the early edition of their November 3rd paper proclaimed: “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” But the polls got it very wrong. When President- elect Harry Truman was handed a copy of the Daily Tribune he held it up for the cameras and quipped, “That ain’t the way I heard it!” Polling practices have been refi ned since then and seemed to reliably tion polls released at almost the same predict the results of many an elec- time had diff erent parties in the lead, just cellphones, and another 15% using tion, or at least “19 times out of 20.” But, one saying the Conservatives, another primarily cellphones. While pollsters are according to Wilfrid Laurier University’s the Liberals. still able to call cellphones, people on Barry Kay, that’s changing. He has been So why might polls be getting less cellphones, concerned about burning involved in polling since 1980 and notes reliable? Fewer people have landlines through their minutes, are far less likely that “after 2000 the numbers started and more have caller ID. According to to participate. So polls are becoming getting worse.” the Abacus Data Insider, one third of less reliable because they are forced Some recent polling blunders include Canadians no longer have landlines, to sample from a less and less diverse this year’s British national election. The and many of those that still do use group: those who have landlines, but polls were predicting a coalition govern- caller ID to bypass pollsters. In the US not caller ID. the switch to cellphones is even more SOURCES: Denye O’Leary’s “Do poll results matter in the ment, but the Conservatives ended up Internet age?” posed on September 24, 2015 to Mercatornet. with a solid majority. The Canadian elec- pronounced with 45% of American using com;

ASHLEY MADISON REAPS WHAT IT SOWS BY JON DYKSTRA made public on August 18. the guilty be punished? As Reformed Ashley Madison called in the police, Perspective contributor Rob Slane noted, and then in a news release went on to maybe the hackers were simply following denounce the hackers. the sort of lifestyle that Ashley Madison encourages: one in which the shortness The criminal, or criminals, involved in of life is used as a justifi cation for this act have appointed themselves as indulging in whatever pleasure you can shley Madison, a dating the moral judge, juror, and executioner, fi nd, even if they come at the expense of website specifi cally targeted seeing fi t to impose a personal notion honesty and morality. As he writes: A to married people – it of virtue on all of society…. We are encourages married men and continuing to fully cooperate with law How about this: “Life is short. Hack a women to cheat on their spouses – was enforcement to seek to hold the guilty company and release their details.” This hacked in mid July. A group calling itself parties accountable to the strictest is not my maxim. But Ashley Madison… “The Impact Team” broke through Ashley measures of the law. [has] no right to object. Maybe the Madison’s cyber-security and stole users' hackers were just enjoying themselves. data, including their real names, and then So a company whose slogan is “Life is threatened to expose users’ identities if short - Have an aff air” can without any SOURCES: www.theblogmire.com/life-is-short-hack-a-company the website wasn’t shut down. It wasn’t, awareness of the irony, demand that and they did – user information was

8 / OCTOBER 2015 WHAT’S THE BEST RESPONSE TO A WEDDING CAKE REQUEST? BY JEFF DYKSTRA any answer to the question needed exposed their hostility to Christ and to challenge the couple to make their Christianity; intentions clear (so that we need not cast 2. “No, we don’t, so we withdraw our pearls before swine [Matthew 7:6] if they request!” – which may keep you hate the gospel and those who bring it). out of legal trouble and still give And our response needs to honor you a chance to explain your moral “Christ the Lord as holy, always being stance as a working out of your hope prepared to make a defense to anyone in Christ, rather than as simply an who asks you for a reason for the hope individual issue of conscience; hat do you say to a that is in you; yet do it with gentleness 3. “We don’t understand the problem.” – homosexual couple who asks and respect” [1 Peter 3:15]. which may be the answer we should W you to bake a cake for their So if this stymied Belz and his readers, most hope for since it allows us, with wedding a month from now? how can we answer it? Well, we can start gentleness and respect, to explain That was the question that Joel Belz with what we’ve been given in the first how our hope in Christ compels us to posed in his WORLD magazine column question of our Heidelberg Catechism. honour the commands of God. earlier this year. A little over a month Here is my response to, as Belz calls it, later, he revealed the difficulty that both “the baker’s challenge”: What is most important in any response he and over 200 readers (including five to a request to do something that in prison!) had in answering. By the end "I am a conservative, Bible-believing compromises our Christian convictions of this second column, Belz was no Christian, and I believe that I belong, – abortion, euthanasia, Sunday work, closer to an answer. What made Belz’s body and soul, both in life and death, shading the truth on a tax return, or challenge tougher were two of his to my faithful Lord and Savior Jesus celebrating a homosexual wedding – conditions: it had to be a brief reply, and, Christ. Do you want me to disobey my is to love Christ more than even our like Christ himself was prone to do, the Savior?" conscience (because it’s about Him, not couple’s request had to be answered with us), to confess, as it says in Lord’s Day 1: a question. The couple (one or both of them) have What further complicates the situation three possible responses: “Because I belong to him, Christ, by his is the fact that we don’t know the couple’s Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life motivations. Are they simply unaware 1. "Yes, we do!” – in which case, you and makes me wholeheartedly willing of our Christian moral convictions? Or may still face a human rights tribunal, and ready from now on to live for are they trying to cause trouble? So but you have made the issue clear and him.”

WOMEN BLINDS HERSELF ON PURPOSE? BY JON DYKSTRA

ewel Shuping is a 30-year- still knows this is wrong but which doesn’t • “Right and wrong exist…and if you old women who claims to have the ethical, philosophical or logical don’t think so I’m taking your wallet.” J have blinded herself deliber- basis from which to condemn it. We can • “All religions are not equal; some are ately because she had, since be that light on the hill simply by saying false and nasty.” she was six, felt the need to be blind. such radical things as: • “Two moms or two dads can’t beat In late September and early October having a mom and a dad.” her account was covered in dozens of • “Deliberately blinding yourself is • “Rights are given by God, not the newspapers, but because all the stories foolish.” State.” were based on one original, some have • “Amputating a nether-region body • “Equality has no basis except that God questioned the veracity of her story. But part won’t make a man a woman.” made us all in His image.” whether she did the deed or not, the • “Men are different than women (so support she is getting is real – in all the they shouldn’t play in women’s sports These are increasingly radical notions, but newspaper coverage her act is being leagues).” all written on our hearts (Romans 2:15) treated as something to consider and • “Helping a depressed person commit and as the world descends into foolish- debate, as if it weren't clearly crazy. suicide is not helping them.” ness, the contrast with the wisdom of This is how we witness to the world. • “A person is a person no matter how God will be all the more apparent...if we We can speak truth plainly to a world that small.” have the courage to share it.

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 9 OUR REMARKABLE SUN by Spike Psarris

volutionists like to claim that our Extend this rate out, and each solar-type they can fi nd are hellish planets like Sun is merely an average star, just star would have more than a 50% chance Gliese 876d. Here’s artist Inga Nielsen’s one among billions. Th ere’s no of erupting every 100 years. Th is result conception of what the surface of this Ereason to believe our Sun is unusual… is consistent with previous studies that planet might be like.2 or so they say. Aft er all, if our Sun were showed that solar-type stars erupt about special, that might support the idea that once per century. a benevolent Creator made it for us! Nevertheless, our Sun is special …AND QUIET indeed. As I pointed out in my DVD, Over thousands of years, a typical Our Created Stars and Galaxies, stars Sun-like star should have multiple come in a variety of sizes, colors, and massive eruptions. Yet there is no temperatures. As a single “Class G” star, evidence that our Sun has ever emitted a our Sun is very well suited to support life superfl are. on Earth. Most other stars are not. As the study’s summary in Nature noted, “Th e fl ares on our Sun are CONCLUSION CALM… thousands of times punier than those on Our Earth, Sun, and Solar System are For example, the most common stars similar stars.” But why? fearfully and wonderfully made to be (about 75 percent of all stars) are red Secular astronomers are scratching our home – and to proclaim the glory of dwarfs. Th ese stars commonly emit their heads over this. Th ey attribute their Creator. May His name be praised! fl ares: eruptions of superheated material, the Sun’s gentleness to a lack of large radiation, and charged particles blasted sunspots. But that doesn’t really explain END NOTE out into space. Th ey do this so frequently anything. Why should the Sun have 1 www.nature.com/news/superfl ares- that they’re oft en called “fl are stars.” smaller sunspots than other solar-type erupt-on-some-sun-like-stars-1.10653 Large-enough fl ares can sterilize any stars? Th ey don’t know. 2 Illustration by Inga Nielsen (Hamburg planets orbiting these stars. But creationary astronomers aren’t Obs., Gate to Nowhere) http://apod.nasa. Although our Sun occasionally surprised by this. As Isaiah 45:18 says, gov/apod/ap120429.html and included releases small fl ares, they’re gentle the Lord created the heavens and Earth here under “fair use” compared to what we see elsewhere. “not in vain… He formed it to be We’ve seen other stars produce inhabited.” Spike Psarris was once a civilian “superfl ares” up to 10 million times more Since our Sun was designed by a engineer in the United States military energetic than those from our Sun. masterful Creator to support life, we space program, entering it as an atheist Is our Sun so quiet merely because shouldn’t be surprised that it supports and evolutionist and leaving it as a of its size, temperature, and other life very well. creationist and a Christian. He has characteristics? No. Even among Sun- Meanwhile, secular scientists are produced two wonderful DVDs about like stars, our Sun is unique. still grasping for some excuse to deny what God is up to in space – “Our Created Solar System” and “Our Created A 2012 study1 of solar-type stars found a Creator. Th ey still wish to fi nd other Stars and Galaxies” – and will soon be that many had erupted in superfl ares. worlds like ours, so that ours won’t seem releasing a third. Th ey are available at Of 83,000 stars that were observed, 148 so unique. his website www.creationastronomy.com. erupted in just 120 days of observing. But even the most “habitable” places

10 / JULY/AUGUST 2015 THE VICTORY

OFby Reimer Faber, about hisFAITH uncle

Th is story, about occupation forces, Th e burial drew the whole population Th e Nazi’s place in all the conquered lands From every faith, and unbelief, alike. Of evils that regime gladly endorses, It seemed like a defi ant declaration And of the blood that coats their wicked hands. Of faith, by which the enemy to strike. No justice can be found in any court; Th e church just held a fraction of the throngs, Th at process is by them fully ignored – Outside they heard only the mourners’ songs. Th ey execute men merely on suspicion But when all gained the cemetery ground, Eradicate resistance is their mission. Th e monster crowd a deathly silence found.

Th ere was a man, painter by occupation, With words of creed the resurrection teaching, Who found safe-homes for all who had to fl ee. Th e minister addressed with booming voice, Th at Nazis wanted his elimination, Th e sound barely the outside rows be reaching But could not prove that it was really he Announced a song, which was the widow’s choice. Th at kept so many people from their grasp; Th en suddenly in waves of thunder rolled And therefore could not him in irons clasp. Th ousands of voices, now their God extolled. So they just sent a death-squad to his house, To foes, a sound they thought that them defi ed, To kill him in the sight of kids and spouse. But through this song they on their God relied.

It was an evening; curfew had just started. “How would I have despaired in my affl iction, Th ey loudly banged with fi sts on his front door, If I had not believed that in this life Such racket only enemies imparted – Th e Lord would show His goodness, His protection. A friend could not have come here anymore. I would have perished in my tears and strife; Th e man jumped up to quickly heed their call – Wait for the Lord, be strong and undismayed – He realized it would not be good to stall – Th e Lord is faithful, why then be afraid? And opened wide before much time expired; Take courage for His steadfast love is sure, Th en instantly the fatal shots were fi red. Wait for the Lord, His mercy shall endure.” (Psalm 27:6 Book of Praise) Mortally wounded, slumped against the front door His wife rushed from the back to give support And just in time to ease him to the tile fl oor, Asks him if he’s prepared to meet his Lord. He answers “Yes,” so fi rmly he replied, His little girl now kneeling by his side: “Is Daddy going to the Lord Jesus?” “I am, my dear, “ are the last words he wheezes.

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 11 TIDBITS RELEVANT, AND NOT SO, IN A TO CHRISTIAN LIFE

NUTSHELLBY JON DYKSTRA

“BUT THE BIBLE PROMOTES SLAVERY!” rising – and no one complains that we’re being unscientifi c when “Th e answer to such people is that if they cannot understand we do so, or doubts our ability to be clear about other matters. For books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them.” example, when a house builder says his latest building project will – C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity on how we should approach be done in six days we won’t assume he actually meant six million people who attempt to ridicule the Bible by taking a small bit years just because we also heard him talk about seeing the sun of it out of context. (He was specifi cally addressing ridicule rise that morning. Days still mean days even when someone talks directed at the thought of people playing harps in heaven – Rev. about the sun rising. 14:2 – but his point applies more broadly.) But let’s pick nits for the moment and consider if there is any way at all we can fi nd fault with Joshua’s statement. Sure, it makes PSALM ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX sense in common terminology, but it still doesn’t make sense Anyone who knows anything about Corrie Ten Boom knows scientifi cally speaking, right? that this was a woman of great faith – she hid Jews in World War Not so fast! II because she trusted the Lord would take care of her, no matter It turns out it is perfectly valid, scientifi cally speaking, to talk what might happen. of the Sun being in motion around the Earth. Why? Because all In her autobiography Th e Hiding Place she also shows herself motion is relative – i.e. it is measured compared to some other to be a women of great humor, recounting a version of this joke/ object. Most of the time the other object we are comparing riddle from those days. our motion to is not explicitly stated – when we go driving, or running, or even biking, we are measuring our motion relative "Do you know how Psalm One Hundred and Sixty-Six begins?" to the ground but we never actually state that. So when we "But there is no Psalm One Hundred and Sixty-Six! It goes only say a train is traveling 20 miles an hour east, it would be more to 150." scientifi cally precise to say it is traveling 20 miles/hr. east relative "Shall I recite it for you?" to the ground. But the ground isn’t the only frame of reference we "Please do!" use – we can choose to use another. If a fellow was on this train, “'Shout for joy!'” and walking 10 miles an hour towards the back (westward) we "Ah, but that’s only the beginning of Psalm One Hundred!" could say he was travelling 10 miles an hour eastward, relative "And Sixty-Six too!" to the ground or we could say he was moving 10 miles an hour westward relative to the fl oor of the train. SCIENTIFIC TO SAY THE SUN GOES AROUND THE EARTH When it comes to our Solar System we most commonly – Some Bible critics say that Joshua 10:12-14 can be used to because it has the strongest gravitational pull – speak of motion show that the Bible is not trustworthy when it comes to scientifi c as it is compared to, or relative to, the Sun. And relative to the Sun matters. Here we read that at Joshua’s command the Sun stood it is the Earth that is doing all the moving. But we could choose still and as we all know it is the Earth that moves, not the Sun. So a diff erent frame of reference. Relative to the center of the Milky this passage gets it wrong, right? Way Galaxy the Sun is moving too. Now if we chose the Earth as Not so fast! our frame of reference (a logical choice, since this is our vantage Even today we talk about the Sun as if it moves – setting and point) and described all motion relative to the Earth then we

BE THIS GUY! Pictured, amidst a sea of Nazi salutes, one man stands alone. His identity is uncertain but a likely candidate is Gustav Wegert. According to his family, because Wegert was a believing Christian he would generally refuse to perform the Nazi salute. When someone would greet him with a “Heil Hitler!” he would respond with only a “Good morning.” He was a highly skilled worker and thus, while his boss would pressure Wegert to fall in line, he also covered for Wegert. However, Wegert seemed more concerned with what God thought than what his boss or his peers thought. Like Elijah before him (1 Kings 18:22) he was willing to stand apart...for God. 12 / OCTOBER 2015 could say, scientifically and accurately, that it is the Sun that goes around the Earth! And that’s just the reference point that Joshua chose to use. So Joshua 10:12-14 can’t be used to undermine the clarity of the clear six- day creation account in Genesis 1 and 2. In fact, if you find someone trying to do just that, we should instead understand this attempt as undermining the critic’s credibility! They are simply a fault-finder, able to find problems even when those problems need to be manufactured. INNERANCY: A SMALL HUGE DIFFERENCE In his book Everyone’s a Theologian, R.C. Sproul notes how two very different positions on innerancy can seem quite similar at first glance. He writes:

...note the difference in the following two statements: PIERS MORGAN: Can you point to a single public utterance by Jesus Christ – the Christ in Christianity – about gay people A. The Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and practice. or about a gay lifestyle? Can you name one single thing? B. The Bible is infallible only when it speaks of faith and practice. DR. MICHAEL BROWN: I’ll name three for you Piers. The two statements sound similar, but they are radically Number one, in Matthew 5 Jesus said he didn’t come to abolish different. In the first statement, the term only sets Scripture the Torah but to fulfill. He takes the central morals of the Torah apart as the one infallible source with authoritative capacity. In to a higher level. [Second] in Matthew 15 he says that all sexual other words, Scripture is the rule of our faith, which has to do acts committed outside of marriage defile a human being, and with all that we believe, and it is the rule of our practice, which [third] in Matthew 19 He says marriage as God intended is the has to do with all that we do. union of one man and one woman for life. Look, Jesus did not These words change their orientation in the second [directly] address wife-beating or heroin-shooting, but we don’t statement. Here the word only restricts a portion of the Bible use that argument for silence.... We should love our neighbor as itself, saying that it is infallible only when it speaks of faith ourself, but that doesn’t mean that we approve of everything of and practice. This is a view called “limited inerrancy,” and this our neighbor. way of viewing Scripture has become popular in our day. The terms faith and practice capture the whole of the Christian life, WORDS THAT MEAN THEIR OPPOSITE but in this second statement, “faith and practice” are reduced (OR CLOSE TO IT) to a portion of the teaching of Scripture, leaving out what the Bible says about history, science, and cultural matters. In other • Stylist to customer: I can clip your hair, certainly, but would words, the Bible is authoritative only when it speaks of religious you like me to clip it off or together? faith; its teachings on anything else are considered fallible. • The general manager was tired and wanted to resign. But the money was too good, so instead he decided to resign, this JESUS NEVER SAID? time with a four-year deal. In a guest appearance on the Piers Morgan Live talk show that • Giving Forgetful Fred oversight of the packing led to many used to run on CNN, the host asked Dr. Michael Brown about oversights. Jesus’ thoughts on homosexuality. • The UN gave us sanction to impose sanctions on Iran.

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 13 IS IT EVER PERMISSIBLE TO LIE? by Piet Jongeling

eople who are in the public witness to the truth if he were to fall ask you to please elaborate further eye must be prepared to face into the hands of the enemy. So as on that statement, preferably in the the criticism of onlookers and much as he hated the necessity of light of Dr. Dam's position. I will Pbystanders if they want to stay in lying, he maintained that if he were soon be speaking on the same topic business. I have experienced that quite forced to speak, he would never at a men's society meeting. I could oft en in my life as journalist, politician, want to put other people's lives in then include your explanation in my and author. One of those experiences jeopardy. paper. Hoping you will comply with was a letter I received recently and Clear enough. my request, etc... which I would like to share with you. How diff erent is Jongeling! In Th e letter read as follows: the booklet Called and Gone, an DISCUSSING IT IN OUR CELL interview with Peter Bergwerff and Th us far the letter. Didn't someone Dear Mr. Jongeling: Tjerk de Vries, Jongeling says: “I once say: "Give me just a single line of have lied faster than a horse can your writing, and I'll hang you by it?" Some time ago I had to do an essay trot.” Such a statement forces me Somehow this brother letter-writer on the topic of "the white lie" for to classify Jongeling with the many manages to use my words "lied faster..." a Reformed young peoples group. people who during the war stole like to put me in the lineup with those I would like to share part of my the gypsies. who, according to him, "stole like the introduction with you. I wrote: gypsies" during the war. Now, the issue Thus far a part of my introduction. of whether it is ever permissible to lie In a book about Dr. R.J. Dam I read As could be expected, your quote has been the subject of much public that the question of the “white about "lying faster..." was brought up discussion in the past, and it is most lie” became a vital issue during in the question period. I promised certainly a relevant question. So let us the German occupation of the the young people at the meeting consider what was and what was not Netherlands, and that Dr. Dam that I would get in touch with you to allowed under God's law during the discussed this issue several times, German occupation. and in great depth. On the one hand First of all, it is necessary to read he rejected the easy acceptance Didn't someone my "quote" in the context of the of lying that was so often the case interview in which it was given. In during the war. On the other hand once say: "Give me Called and Gone I related the events he showed a real understanding of surrounding my arrest in March 1942 the Biblical dilemma Christians faced just a single line of and the interrogations that followed. here: to speak or not to speak lies, A member of our resistance group and to do so in love for God and your writing, and had been arrested and an anti-Nazi for their neighbor. He understood pamphlet had been found on him. how diffi cult it would be always to I'll hang you by it?" Under heavy pressure and torture the

14 / OCTOBER 2015 We were dragged out for questioning one at a time. man finally admitted that he had received the document from me. That was the truth – I worked in the distribution center from which our group spread its literature. After his confession I was promptly picked up. “But the search of my house yielded no evidence: everything had been Can Christians do pro-life the good that resulted, they were quickly gathered up and hidden wrong to do so because it is always somewhere else. In this excerpt from undercover work? by Jon Dykstra wrong to lie. the Called and Gone interview I In his July 20 blog post “The Ethics continue recounting my experience of the Righteous Sting Operations” in German custody. On July 14 the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released (dougwils.com) Douglas Wilson argues that. “Scripture fully allows (indeed We were both questioned for days a video, secretly recorded, of Planned requires) deception under certain on end, first in the police office Parenthood’s Senior Director of conditions, while flatly forbidding it in and later in the remand center in Medical Services, Deborah Nucatola, others.” And if we want to discern the Groningen. It still amazes me how discussing over dinner the prices for one from the other “then we have to do wonderfully well it all ended up. harvesting body parts from the unborn some Bible study.” We were locked up in separate children they were aborting. For the Wilson takes his reader to Ex. 1:17- cells, although in the same block. next three months CMP has gone on to 20 in which the Hebrew midwives lie Between us there was an empty release (to this point) nine other videos, to Pharaoh, in order to save Hebrew cell. But we soon discovered that at a rate of about one a week, each babies’ lives. Wilson notes there is with a bit of effort we could talk more gruesome than the one before it. a pretty direct parallel to the baby- via the large heating system pipe Though the mainstream media was saving activities of the CMP, with one that ran through the back of all slow to cover the videos, the regular difference. While the midwives were the cells. We were dragged out ongoing release of new videos has acting on behalf of their own people, for questioning one at a time. made it impossible to ignore them. the pro-lifers are acting on behalf of When he returned – often after The CMP’s undercover work has made babies with no ties to them. “If there is being tortured – I asked him what Planned Parenthood’s murderous a difference,” Wilson writes, “this video questions they had asked him, work a public political issue, so sting was even nobler.” and what answers he had given. big that it is being discussed in the He also references Nathan’s And later, when I faced the same presidential candidate’s debates. The confrontation with David about questions, I made sure that my CMP videos have also led to four states Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12) describing answers corresponded with his... cutting Medicaid funding for Planned Nathan’s activities here as “deceiving ...for some time I shared a cell Parenthood. Then, on Sept. 18, the someone in order to be able to with Rev. J.W. Tunderman. He US House of Representatives voted confront them with the truth.” He was minister in Helpman and on 241-187 to freeze the abortion giant’s writes that Nathan’s point was “to January 6, 1942, the Gestapo federal funding for one year while an deceive and then unveil the deception dragged him out of his home. In investigation is conducted. By any in such a dramatic way was as to December of that same year he measure, the impact of these videos unmask the unrighteousness being died in Dachau. Together with him has been phenomenal. confronted….The point is to reveal, not I have prepared my case as well as But some Christians have criticized hide.” possible in the circumstances ... I the pro-life group behind the videos, The parallels to CMP’s activities are lied faster than a horse can trot. because their undercover work involved the CMP hiring actors to clear. We can and should thank God pretend to be potential “fetal tissue” for the astonishing work this group has As was to be expected, the done on behalf of the unborn! interviewers zeroed in on that last buyers. In plain speak, they lied. And some Christians think that, no matter

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 15 ministers of the gospel had already Rev. Tunderman said simply: ‘You must been dragged away into concentration camps because they had said things on not tell them the truth. If you do, many the pulpit which were not to the liking of the occupying forces. others will perish.’ This did not deter Rev. Holwerda. He let the light of God's Word shine statement. They asked me: "Lied faster believed it was my duty to lie. To on those points that, especially than a horse can trot? Did you give that this day I still believe that. They hit amidst the terror of war and the any thought at that moment?" I replied: me, they hurt me, but I had built up confusion of the occupation, most a watertight story and that is why I had to be clarified. Holwerda explains Yes, I did. But in a way one also acts could stick to it. There are situations that the commandment “You shall intuitively in such a situation. Sitting like that in the Bible. Think of Rahab not bear false witness against your in the cell together, Rev. Tunderman and her lie; think of Gideon with neighbor” brings us into the realm “and I, we discussed the issue for his torches in the empty jars. Those of the courts. These courts are in hours on end. Tunderman was very were well-designed ruses with only place so that the government may straightforward. He said simply: one intent: to mislead the enemy. avenge unrighteousness in a righteous “You must not tell them the truth. manner. To that end, proper order If you do, many others will perish.” Thus far the quotes from the is to be maintained, and everyone is Of course, one could say, as later interview. called upon to give his full cooperation Prof. Greijdanus did, that in such a I maintain to this day that I acted, with these courts. Therefore, when case you should remain silent. But though spontaneously, yet not rashly, so requested, one must speak the that doesn't work. Those hoodlums when I did not share the truth with truth. But it would be another thing use the most inhumane methods those torturers in the Scholtenhuis altogether if telling the truth would to make you talk. Besides, there are prison. Had I remained silent, become instrumental in the abuse of situations when silence does not assuming for a moment that I could justice. Then, according to Holwerda, help either. Take as an example, a have kept that up even to death, witnessing to that truth has become farmer who is hiding fugitives, as so the result would have been heavier senseless. As he puts it: many did in those days. pressure on my fellow inmate. And "Are you hiding anyone?” he had already succumbed once. He When the Lord asks His children "I won't tell ... I won't tell...” would most likely have been forced to walk in the truth and to act in No, refusing to answer is not to mention more names. But now it truth, there is something more a practical solution. That’s why I became possible to communicate via and different at stake than simply the heating pipe, so that we could make providing factually accurate up a story that steered their whole information. Communion with investigation to a dead end, so that God and our neighbor comes first. further arrests were prevented. Therefore, in the life of obedience to this ninth commandment the ON THE NINTH COMMANDMENT key question we need to ask is not During the war hundreds, perhaps whether we are at odds with the thousands, of people pondered how facts, but rather whether we are best to deal with such cloudy ethical shortchanging our neighbor... If dilemmas. I am put under pressure to make Some preachers tried to provide a statement which clearly would Scriptural leadership on these matters. deliver my neighbor (or myself) Rev. Tunderman did that for me in up to unrighteousness and render our cell. Rev. B. Holwerda did it in him defenseless against the brutal his preaching. In his collection, The force of the father of lies, woe Gifts bestowed on us by God, Part IV, then to me if I dare speak the truth! we find a sermon on Lord's Day 43 For then I sacrifice my neighbor “Holy Writ forbids us to lie. (the ninth commandment), held on on the altar of the facts. But the Sunday, January 24, 1943. That was in ninth commandment forbids me But… is every form of lying the middle of the war, when the matter to sabotage justice. Therefore, at all times forbidden?” of “white lies” was extremely relevant. it commands me to sabotage And it was at a time when many unrighteousness — if need be,

16 / OCTOBER 2015 through an incorrect declaration. you shall love him “as yourself.” You Latin in this dissertation, it is written If need be, I must be willing to shall also protect your own rights. All in a clear and readable manner. A sacrifice the facts for the sake of the this is necessary, otherwise society comprehensive critique is not in place urgent needs of my neighbor... will collapse and sink in the mire of here, but a few lines and conclusions lawlessness. may suffice to illustrate the point I am Holwerda continues with examples trying to make. from the Bible. And he warns against A REFORMED THESIS The concept mendacium officiosum abuse. In 1979 the Korean minister Bo Min is usually represented by the English Lee was promoted to doctor of theology expression "a white lie," but that does Let no one say: We may do as we at the Kampen seminary. His thesis not properly express what is contained please; the minister has said so... No, was entitled: Mendacium officiosum, in the Latin phrase. "Officiosum" means you shall love your neighbor, honor with this explanation as a subtitle: "A something like: "in the service of..." his rights, defend his good name and discussion of the so-called white lie, According to the author, the phrase reputation, and so ensure that there with special emphasis on Augustine's expresses the service we are sometimes is room for him within society. And views." Although there is quite a bit of called to deliver to our neighbor or

indeed Christ is so “I’m fine” inseparable from and other lies we tell honesty He is called by Jon Dykstra “the truth” (John 14:6). So if we want In Canada we don’t have Nazis at to imitate Him then our doors asking about Jews. And yet we too should be we still lie. When a telephone solicitor concerned about calls we tell him we “can’t talk right honesty. now” whether we can or not. And the Consider also waitress asking “How are you?” is given the damage done an “I’m fine” whether we are or not. from our ordinary And children who want to play with lies. One example: Mom or Dad are told “later” whether how many parents there will be time then or not. make a habit out Why do we, Christian folk that we of lying to their are, lie like this? No one is being saved kids? How many of (and would do so permanently but for from torture; no lives are at stake. us make promises we can’t keep and the grace of God) so we should never We lie because at the time it seems make threats we don't carry out? When dismiss any sin as inconsequential. the quicker thing to do, and because a parent’s “yes” doesn’t mean “yes” and If you don’t think you lie, consider the “half-truths” we’re telling seems our “no” doesn't really mean “no” how this challenge, taken from Diane M. harmless enough. We lie because can we be surprised when our children Komp’s book Anatomy of a Lie: carry a we doubt the sincerity of the people don't accept anything we say as the small notebook with you to tally every around us: “He can’t really want to final word? Experience has taught time you lie, or are tempted to lie, and know how I'm doing, can he?” And these kids that Mom and Dad’s “no’s” ask yourself “why?” Keep this up for when we lie often enough, then the are at best half-truths, because half the a week, or even just a day, and if you lying spills out of us as a matter of time a bit more badgering will result in may well be astonished at how often habit. a favorable “yes.” you are lying, and how often it is for no There is a temptation to dismiss Now, in some instances we may not discernable reason at all! these “little lies” as harmless. However be able to deduce the harm caused by a Of course becoming more aware of the Bible is quite clear about the bit of deception – who gets hurt when our sin isn’t any sort of place to stop. overall need for honesty and the we lie to a telephone solicitor? But Now that the need for repentance value of truth in our day-to-day lives consider the harm that comes from the is clear, go to God, ask Him for (Col 3:9, Lev. 19:11-12). We find that fact that if we are not habitually honest forgiveness, and ask Him to help you the very character of God prevents we all too easily become habitually speak the truth in big things and small. Him from ever lying (Num. 23:19) and deceptive. Sin separates us from God

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 17 AUSTRIA'S MAUTHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP CREMATORIUMS : We are not to bear false witness against our neighbor, but what about bearing false witness for him? What if a lie would save him “ from here?

to ourselves through the means of THE SCRIPTURES Rahab because of her attitude towards speaking an untruth. But "white lie" The dissertation's third chapter, the spies and the people of Israel, as we also indicates the critical situation in entitled "Scriptural givens," begins as can read in these four passages: which we find ourselves and which follows: makes the speaking of such an untruth Joshua 6:17: And the city and all that a means of protecting ourselves and our It is as clear that Holy Writ forbids is within it shall be devoted to the neighbor. us to lie. Texts such as “You shall Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the Augustine and many theologians not bear false witness against your prostitute and all who are with her in after him reject any speaking of neighbor” (Exodus 20:16) and “Do her house shall live, because she hid untruth, even if it results from the not lie to one another, seeing that the messengers whom we sent. desire to prevent a terrible evil from you have put off the old self with its befalling a neighbor; for instance, practices” (Colossians 3:9) leave no Joshua 6:25: But Rahab the murder or rape. doubt. And Augustine did not leave prostitute and her father's household Bo Min Lee claims that such a any of this open for discussion. and all who belonged to her, Joshua radical rejection by Augustine and his But some passages of Scripture saved alive. And she has lived in followers results from an erroneous create problems and leave us with Israel to this day, because she hid separation of the body as the lower part the question: is every form of lying the messengers whom Joshua sent of man and the soul as the higher part, at all times forbidden? to spy out Jericho. an idea that has its roots in the Greek world of thought. He also demonstrates The author then introduces a long Hebrews 11:31: By faith Rahab the that the church father could only list of texts of which the first is Rahab's prostitute did not perish with those maintain that outright rejection by misleading answer when Jericho's king who were disobedient, because she following an incorrect exegesis of all demanded that she hand over Israel's had given a friendly welcome to the kinds of Scripture passages. spies (Joshua 2). The Bible praises spies.

18 / OCTOBER 2015 Jongeling’s Best Books James 2:25: And in the same way short space of this article to relate Piet Jongeling (1909-1985) might was not also Rahab the prostitute the many arguments Bo Min Lee be better known in Canada by his justified by works when she produces in his thesis. He also gives pen name, Piet Prins, under which received the messengers and sent ample coverage to opposing views, he authored dozens of children’s them out by another way? but refutes their ideas in a most books, including several about how convincing manner. the Dutch lived during World War It’s clear that nowhere in the Bible II. During the occupation Jongeling is Rahab’s lying denounced. However, A FORCED CHOICE worked in the many exegetes hold that Rahab also During those critical days of war Resistance until he wasn’t praised for her lying, and that and occupation many Christians was arrested and sent it was Rahab's faith that was praised. were confronted with the problem to a concentration They insist that it was still wrong of of what to do if one fell into the camp. After the war, her to utter lies to save those spies. hands of the enemy. I was one of in addition to writing Bo Min Lee rejects this form of them. What do I do if a factually children’s books, reasoning. In an extensive discussion correct answer can cost others their he was the editor of the relevant passages he shows freedom or even their lives? We had of a Reformed daily that such conclusions are based on no time then to have an interesting newspaper and a a twisted exegesis. Rahab is being theoretical discussion on that matter. member of the Dutch praised in the Bible for her "faithful It was literally a matter of life and Parliament. works," and the misleading message death. Many, and I was one of them, Many of his children’s books can be she gave is a vital part of those concluded: purchased at www.inhpubl.net but "faithful works." The same holds true the translations of some are better for many other cases where the Bible I must not reveal the facts. And than others. Very good ones include: describes how misleading statements silence, even if I could keep that were made with a virtuous purpose up, will not help. And just as a ruse Shadow Series – living through WWII and were clearly crowned with a aimed at spreading disinformation • The Lonely Sentinel blessing. Think of the God-fearing by fake actions is acceptable • The Hideout in the Swamp midwives in Egypt (Exodus 1), of Jael during times of war, so misleading • The Grim Reaper and Sisera (Judges 4:18-22), of the the enemy with words is also woman of the house of Bahurim (2 acceptable — even mandatory. Scout – a most remarkable dog Samuel 17:17-20), and also of several • The Secret of the Swamp stratagems which have only one That, in the jail cell, facing death • The Haunted purpose: to impart to the enemy an during the torturous interrogations, Castle erroneous image of reality. The author was not a choice one made rashly. • The Flying of the dissertation then comes to this But it was a choice that was suddenly Phantom conclusion: forced upon people, and their correct • The Sailing decision has saved the lives of others. Sleuths The Bible does not prohibit what It was a choice for which I in my • The Treasure of Rahab and others have done, and circumstances have prayed and for Rodenysteyn therefore we have no right to the outcome of which I have given Castle introduce such a prohibition now. thanks to God, the Father of truth. • The Mystery of We realize that the mendacium And if someone, like my letter- the Abandoned officiosum may never become writer, equates that with the activities Mill a matter of routine. Such “lies” of those who in wartime "stole like • Distant Journey may only be used in borderline the gypsies," he should really reflect situations. a bit more deeply on the meaning of Wambu – cannibal boy turns to Christ the ninth commandment, also as it • The Chieftain’s Son He continues to explain then affects his own speech. RP • In the Valley of that such borderline situations are Death governed not only by the ninth This article first appeared in Reformed • Journey to commandment, but that the other Perspective thirty years ago this month. Manhood commandments are often relevant as The late Piet Jongeling was featured well. That, too, he illustrates with a regularly in early issues of the magazine. number of Scriptural examples. Again, it is impossible in the

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 19 Edith Cavell: A Brave Guide by Christine Farenhorst

150 years ago, on December 4, 1865, English woman Edith Cavell was born. 100 years ago, on October 12, 1915, during the First World War, she was executed. Instilled with a desire to please her Creator God, Edith Cavell became a nurse; she lived what she professed, and died bravely at the hands of German soldiers. Her crime? Assisting Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. In a seemingly hopeless situation, she persevered and did not shun the victor's crown. She was a gift given by God to His Son Jesus Christ and, as such, saved for eternal life. Th roughout the fi ft y years of Edith Cavell's life, she was content to work hard and live humbly. She was a godly woman and, therefore, a godly historical example. Th e Bible instructs us to teach our children about such historical examples. Psalm 78:4 reads: "We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and His might, and the wonders that He has done." At a time in history when examples of godly women are few and far between, much needed strength and encouragement can be drawn from the life of this lady who put all her trust in Jesus Christ, her Savior. Th e following is an excerpt from the Christine Farenhorst historical fi ction novel of Edith Cavell’s life, called A Cup of Cold Water, (P&R Publishing, 2007). At this point Edith has been helping many Allied soldiers escape out of German territory.

20 / OCTOBER 2015 December 4, 1944 - Brussels, Belgium which would never be paid by the to be so tough. patients, was next to impossible. She had Captain Tunmore, noting a picture on Breakfast was generally served received some money from Reginald de the wall, remarked, “Hey, that’s Norwich at an early hour in the L’Ecole Belge Cröy and Monsieur Capiau but the men Cathedral!” d’Infirmieres Diplomees, the Belgian who had been sent to her regularly since “Do you know Norwich?” Edith asked. School of Lay Nurses. Too early some of Monsieur Capiau’s first appearance all “It’s my home. I was born on its the nurses said. had hearty appetites. Resources were at outskirts.” “It is actually 7 o’clock, you know,” the breaking point. With a glance at the Edith took another look at the man. José said at 6 o’clock one morning, as calendar she saw it was her birthday and The fact that he said that he was Norfolk he bit into a thin piece of toast. Puzzled, with a pang she realized that it would be born, gave her, for just a small moment, everyone stared at him and he went the first year she had not received letters the feeling that she was home, that she on. “The Germans changed our time from Mother, Flo, Lil, Jack and cousin was looking into her mother’s face. yesterday. We are now on German time Eddie. She swallowed. Jack growled softly “Well, gentlemen,” she smiled, “I’m and no longer on Belgian time. All the and she looked out the window. Two men afraid you’ll have to spend Christmas here public clocks have been put ahead.” were approaching the walkway. Bracing with us as there is no guide to take you “Well, I’m not going to pay the slightest herself, she smoothed her hair, patted the until after the twenty-fifth.” bit of attention,” Gracie said, glancing at dog and went out into the hall to await her wristwatch, “That’s just plain silly.” their knock. *** “Well maybe,” Pauline added hopefully, Although most of the men sent to the “we should get up later.” She eyed Edith school only stayed one or two nights, Captain Tunmore and Private Lewis but Edith was looking at cook in the some of them stayed longer. As Edith had come without identity cards. Edith, doorway. awaited the arrival of the new refugees, consequently, took photographs of the “Excuse me, Madame,” the cook she wondered how long she would need men herself and had contacts make said, “there is someone to see you in the to provide them with shelter. If they were identity cards for them. After Christmas, kitchen.” ill, they would be nursed right alongside she arranged to have them travel towards Edith got up, wiped her mouth on a German patients. Many of the nurses Antwerp in a wagon but they were napkin and left the dining room quietly in the school were unaware of what was discovered and barely made it back after glancing at Elisabeth Wilkins. going on. All they saw were extra patients safely to the clinic a few days later. Edith, Elisabeth nodded to her, indicating that — bandaged, limping and joking patients. therefore, prepared to guide them out of she would supervise while Edith was The Café Chez Jules was situated Brussels herself. gone. right next to the school. To recuperating “Gentlemen, be ready at dawn soldiers, as well as to idle men with tomorrow. I’ll take you to the Louvain TWO MORE nothing to do for a few days, it became a road. From there you’re on your own.” Louise Thuliez, one of the resistance favorite gathering place. The Café served workers Edith had come to know, was watered-down wine and at its tables the “I WAS THIRSTY…” waiting in the kitchen. She had come men played cards, chatted and lounged At daybreak, Edith taking the lead in through the back entrance. Brown about. But even if the Germans were and the men following her at a discreet hair hidden under a kerchief, the young not yet suspicious, word quickly spread distance, the trio made their way to a road woman was obviously relieved when around the Belgian neighborhood that outside of Brussels. Once there, Edith Edith walked in. Ushering her through Allied soldiers were hiding in the nursing passed the soldiers a packet of food as the hall towards her own office, Edith school. well as an envelope of money. “In case could feel the woman’s tenseness. Once again, as she had done so often, you need to bribe someone – or in case As soon as the door closed behind Edith opened the door. A short, thickset you get a chance to use the railway,” she them, Louise spoke. There was urgency in man looked Edith full in the face. said. Shaking their hands once again, she her tone. “I have two men waiting to come “My name is Captain Tunmore, sole turned and disappeared into the mist. to the clinic.” survivor of the First Battalion of the On the walk back, Edith reminisced Edith nodded. “Fine. Direct them here. Norfolk Regiment.” He spoke with a about how she had walked these very I’ll see to them.” heavy English accent. “And this,” Captain paths as a young governess with her Louise nodded, brusquely put out Tunmore went on, indicating the man at young charges. It now seemed ages her hand, which Edith shook, and his side, “is Private Lewis of the Cheshire ago that they had frolicked about her, disappeared. Left alone in her small Regiment. Password is yorc. We’re both collecting insects, drawing, running office, Edith passed her right hand over looking to get across the border.” and pulling at her arm to come and see her forehead in a gesture of weariness. Edith shook their hands. They were some plant which they had found. Now Running a hospital in peacetime was a little nonplused that this small, she understood that God, in His infinite not easy, but running it in wartime, with frail-looking lady whose hand totally wisdom, had used that time to intimately mounting bills for food and medicines disappeared in their grasp, was rumored acquaint her with this area. How very

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 21 strange providence was! At the time Arriving back after one such venture, watched the silly soldier through their she had sometimes felt, although she in the early days of March, she found curtains as he looked behind him and loved the children dearly, that her task Elisabeth waiting for her in her office with around corners and pointed his silly rifle as a governess was unimportant – trivial a very guilty-looking Pauline and José at at nothing. We laughed so hard.” perhaps. Yet it had equipped her for the her side. Edith sat down. “Do you have any role she now played. Smiling to herself she “What is the trouble?” Edith asked as idea what could have happened if that thought, “Why am I surprised? After all, she took off her coat. soldier had shot up at a window? Or if does not the Bible say that it is important “Would you like me to tell her, or shall he had kicked open a door and ...” She to be faithful over a few things. I?” Elisabeth’s voice was angry. paused. They really had no idea about the A noise to her left interrupted her José shuffled his feet but he met seriousness of the times in which they reverie and she slowed down. A German Edith’s gaze head-on. Then he spoke. were living. She sighed again and went on. guard suddenly loomed next to her. “Halt! “I encouraged all the families on Rue Pauline looked down at the floor and José Papieren, bitte — Stop! Papers, please.” Darwin to set their alarm clocks at the appeared fascinated with the wall. Silently she took them out and waited. same time. I told them to set it for six “You ought to know better than He waved her on after a moment and she o’clock in the morning, the time I knew a anyone, José, how dangerous it was what resumed her way. What would her father single patrol would be passing.” you did. After all, you have come with me have thought about these activities, she He stopped. Edith sighed. many times to help soldiers find their way wondered? “And,” she encouraged, “what through and out of Brussels so that they “Out so early, my Edith?” she imagined happened?” can escape to safety. War is not a game.” him asking. “Well, when all the alarms went off at “Yes, father. Just a little matter of the same time, the soldier jumped a mile *** helping some soldiers escape to the front into the air. You should have seen– ” lines. If they are found, you see, they’ll be “Was anyone hurt?” Edith interrupted After they left her office, thoroughly sent to an internment camp somewhere, him. chastened, Edith sat down at her desk, or they might be shot.” “No, no one,” Pauline took over, put her head into her hands and wept. “What about you, my Edith?” “everyone only let their alarms ring for Childhood seemed such a long way off “Oh, don’t worry about me, I’ll be five seconds exactly. After that they shut and the Germans were stealing much fine. And besides, what else can I do? them off at the same time. It was deathly more than blackberry pie. RP These men, these refugee soldiers, father, quiet in the streets and all the people they just come to me. They arrive on my doorstep and look so helpless, so afraid that I will turn them away.” “Well, my Edith, you are doing right. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, child: “I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in.” “I remember, father. I remember.” “And in the end ... in the end, Edith, He will say ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” “I know, father.” NO TIME FOR CHILDHOOD Throughout the spring of that new year, 1915, Edith continued to rise early on the mornings that soldiers were to leave for the frontier. English, French, and Belgians – they were all men eager to leave so that they could help the Allies. Between five and seven in the morning, she would accompany the men to the planned rendezvous point with the next guide, generally a tramway terminus or a point Edith Cavell’s execution was used as a rallying cry in Britain, in some street. Canada, and South Africa, and in both World War I and II.

22 / OCTOBER 2015 Consider the difference between these two questions:

• “What did God say?” • “Did God really say?”

The first one is about finding clarity. The second seems like the first, but when the Serpent asked it of Eve in the Garden his intent wasn’t to confirm what God had said, but rather to challenge it. He was asking this question to raise doubt. The same is true today. Some in the Church are questioning, but not to find out what God said, but instead to undermine what He said.

In his new book Dr. Bredenhof wants us to understand that there is no need for uncertainty, because God did say!

E-book (pdf) $5 Paperback $16 Order at www.tinyurl.com/GodDidSay ($10 + $6 shipping)

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 23 MAKING THE MORAL CASE FOR FOSSIL FUELS BY MICHAEL WAGNER

re fossil fuels a friend or was abruptly ended, society would be does – they are tremendously beneficial foe, blessing or curse? To reduced to abject poverty at the very and have been a big factor in the environmental activists like Jane least. Imagine no longer being able to creation of the wealthiest civilization in AFonda there is a clear answer – earlier buy gasoline for your vehicles or natural history. It is important to realize that this year the American actress told the gas for your furnace. How many people on balance, fossil fuels are a good thing. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: currently living in Canada could survive Discontinuing their use will make life “We cannot drill anymore. All the fossil one winter without fossil fuels? Not very much worse, not better. fuel that's in the earth has to stay there many. It would only be a question of now.” Like most environmentalists, she whether we starved or froze. THE MORAL CASE FOR FOSSIL FUELS sees fossil fuels as being harmful to the In short, people like Jane Fonda This is the point Alex Epstein makes environment and therefore wants their are asking those of us who live in cold in his powerful new book The Moral use to be stopped. countries to commit mass suicide by Case for Fossil Fuels. He demonstrates The trouble is, if her prescription foregoing an essential life-preserving the importance of fossil fuels to modern was followed, and all fossil fuels resource. (To be clear, Fonda doesn’t life and also shows that the harmful currently in the earth were left there, hate Canadians; she isn’t wishing us side effects of using them have been millions of people would probably die all dead. She is talking this way in dramatically exaggerated by modern – maybe billions. Western civilization ignorance, not malice.) While fossil fuels environmentalists. He views the is powered by fossil fuels, so if their use have their drawbacks – like everything situation this way:

24 / OCTOBER 2015 Ultimately, the moral case for fossil over the birds of the heavens and over cheap, fast and efficient transportation fuels is not about fossil fuels; it’s the every living thing that moves on the is completely dependent on fossil fuels. moral case for using cheap, plentiful, earth. This is a fact of modern life. reliable energy to amplify our abilities to make the world a better The task given in this verse sounds GLOBAL WARMING place – a better place for human very different from a goal of “human The biggest concern about fossil fuel beings. nonimpact.” use is that it leads to global warming. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon When we make a judgment about IMPROVING HUMAN LIFE dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. The the morality of using a particular Filling and subduing the earth can be build-up of carbon dioxide leads to a substance, we need to judge it against expected to have a substantial impact. “greenhouse effect” whereby the earth’s a specific standard. Epstein points out This should not be seen as a bad thing. average temperature increases. Epstein that many modern environmentalists According to Epstein, if we use writes, “There is a greenhouse effect. don’t see meeting human needs as the It’s logarithmic. The temperature has highest goal. Their standard is different: …a human standard of value, we increased very mildly and leveled off “It is holding human nonimpact as need to have an impact on our completely in recent years.” one’s standard of value, without regard environment. Transforming our That is, the burning of fossil fuels for human life and happiness.” In environment is how we survive. Every has, in fact, raised the amount of carbon their view, the planet and its naturally animal survives in a way that affects dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere. But occurring environment should not be its environment; we just do it on a the effect on the planet’s temperature disturbed. Human activity is largely greater scale with far greater ability. has been quite small. Some scientists assumed to be harmful. In other have used that small increase to create words, “the Green movement wants Fossil fuels have been essential in computer models that claim to predict you to look at all transformation of our improving human well-being, and their future temperature increases based on environment as environmentally bad.” continued use is necessary to maintain current rates of fossil fuel use. They the current standard of living: “Fossil assert that the continued use of fossil THE RIGHT MEASURING STANDARD fuel technology transforms nature to fuels will lead to catastrophic climate Epstein suggests a different standard, improve human life on an epic scale. It change. So far none of these models have namely, using natural resources for is the only energy technology that can been accurate. the benefit of humans. He notes that, currently meet the energy needs of all As a result, Epstein writes, “Aiming at human well-being, which 7+ billion people on this planet.” “The entire modern enterprise of includes transforming nature as much One of the most significant ways catastrophic climate change predictions, as necessary to meet human needs, is a fossil fuels have benefitted humanity is the enterprise that threatens our lot different from aiming to not affect in agriculture. Machines using diesel energy supply, is based on equating nature.” or other fossil fuels have dramatically a demonstrated scientific truth, the Epstein is not arguing from a increased food production in the last greenhouse effect, with extremely Christian perspective, but the standard 100 years or so. It would be impossible speculative projections made by he suggests of aiming at human well- to feed the world without these invalidated models.” being closely resembles the Biblical machines. And there is no fuel on the The predictions of dramatic increases view. As God said to Adam and Eve in horizon that could replace the fossil in the earth’s temperature, leading to Genesis 1:28: fuels they need. In other words, if catastrophic climate change, have not we were to suddenly stop producing been borne out. There have not been Be fruitful and multiply and fill fossil fuels, there would be widespread rapid increases in the temperature in the the earth and subdue it, and have famine and death around the world. last few years as all the models predicted. dominion over the fish of the sea and Currently, every industry that requires Thus every prediction of drastic future consequences is based on speculative It would be impossible to feed the world models that have failed to predict the climate trend so far and that speculate without these machines. And there is no a radically different trend than what has actually happened in the last thirty fuel on the horizon that could replace to eighty years of emitting substantial amounts of CO2. the fossil fuels they need. “ REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 25 DEATH BY CLIMATE the annual rate of climate-related fuel we use, the safer – dramatically, People who warn about the dangers of deaths worldwide fell by an incredible dramatically safer – we become from global warming or climate change often rate of 98 percent. That means the climate-related dangers.” express concern about disasters caused incidence of death from climate is fifty Many people seem to think that by storms that they expect to result. They times lower than it was eighty years the environment is naturally safe and believe there are more storms due to the ago. humans make it dangerous. But the burning of fossil fuels, and those storms environment has always been dangerous are becoming more intense, thus leading As fossil fuels have been increasingly to human life. to increased property damage and loss used, the number of storm-related of life. The facts are quite otherwise, deaths has dropped dramatically. That Thus, when we think about how fossil however. As Epstein points out, is because fossil fuel energy enables fuel use impacts climate stability, we humans to build sturdier buildings and are not asking: Are we taking a stable, In the last eighty years, as CO2 to move people away from areas where safe climate and making it dangerous? emissions have most rapidly escalated, storms are about to hit. “The more fossil But: Are we making our volatile,

Does Jane Fonda want you dead?

No, not exactly. But she does want us to quit extracting fossil fuels from the ground, likely in favor of “renewable energy” sources which have not yet shown an ability to meet our energy needs in a mass affordable way. So if we did as Fonda wishes – if we stopped pumping out the crude and coal and natural gas – we would be left to starve (food production takes fossil fuels) and if we made it to year's end then we could look forward to freezing in the cold Canadian winter. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole)

26 / OCTOBER 2015 “in the entire world, there is not one real or proposed independent, freestanding solar or wind power plant. All of them require backup.”

dangerous climate safer or more freestanding solar or wind power plant. dangerous? All of them require backup.” That backup is usually provided by fossil POLLUTION fuels. In the early years of mass fossil fuel It might be nice if some sort of clean “use a lot of pollution was released. energy could be developed to replace The early coal-burning factories in fossil fuels. But nothing of that sort nineteenth-century England produced exists today on the scale that is needed. large amounts of smoke and soot that As Epstein writes, “There is zero made breathing difficult in the industrial evidence that solar, wind, and biomass areas. Even in China today there are energy can meaningfully supplement areas where air pollution from burning fossil fuel energy, let alone replace it, let coal is so bad as to be a health hazard. alone provide the energy growth that is But in the Western countries, desperately needed.” technological development made possible through the use of fossil fuels CONCLUSION has dramatically mitigated pollution. People who think modern civilization Air quality in the Western countries has could exist without the large-scale use of been improving in the last few decades, fossil fuels are deceiving themselves. As even as the burning of fossil fuels has Epstein explains: increased. Epstein concludes, “It’s clearly possible to increase fossil fuel use while Fossil fuel energy is, for the foreseeable decreasing pollution.” future, necessary to life. The more of Or, to put it another way, “The energy it we produce, the more people will we get from fossil fuels enables us to have the ability to improve their lives. improve our environment – including The less of it we produce, the more mitigating or negating our own negative preventable suffering and death will contributions.” exist. To not use fossil fuels, therefore, is beyond a risk – it is certain mortal CLEAN ENERGY peril for mankind. Environmentalists often advocate for the use of “clean energy” such as solar As a result, it would be immoral to power, wind power, or renewable energy prohibit the use of fossil fuels. Doing from biomass (plant or animal matter). so would be prohibiting something So far, however, none of these energy necessary for human survival and sources can be produced efficiently and well-being. With this in mind, people reliably. like Jane Fonda who campaign against Solar power and wind power are fossil fuels are more dangerous than especially unreliable because they the fossil fuels themselves. Until some require sunshine and wind which are new efficient and reliable energy source both periodic. They cannot be depended is developed, modern civilization will upon because the energy they produce continue to be dependent upon the use is intermittent. “Which is why,” Epstein of fossil fuels as its main energy source. notes, “in the entire world, there is not one real or proposed independent, RP

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 27 A Rare Principled Politician: Ron Paul by Michael Wagner

he practice of politics notoriously Occasionally there are exceptions to known as a “libertarian” but his views requires compromise. Every this rule. One of the most outstanding also appeal to many conservative politician must bend at some examples in recent years has been Christians. Tpoint in order to be electable. Many Congressman Ron Paul who ran for the politicians are very malleable and change Republican nomination for president DOCTOR TO POLITICIAN their views with the currents of popular in 2008 and 2012. His career and the Ron Paul was originally a medical opinion. This contributes to their principles he represented are described doctor who became involved in politics. continuing electoral success. Those who in a book by journalist Brian Doherty In his medical career he delivered about won’t go with the flow have a harder time called Ron Paul's Revolution: The 4000 babies, and his knowledge of fetal succeeding and will get weeded out over Man And The Movement He Inspired development contributed to his pro-life time. (Broadside Books, 2012). Paul is best views. But it wasn’t the abortion issue

28 / OCTOBER 2015 that ignited his participation in electoral DR. NO politics. Instead, it was his views about Nevertheless, Paul won and remained There are 435 money and government finance. in office until 2012. During his time While practicing medicine, Paul had in office Paul became known as “Dr. members of been reading a lot about the importance No” because he voted against so many of free enterprise economics as the basis measures. He believes that the US the House of of prosperity. Then, in the early 1970s, federal government should be restricted President Nixon implemented wage and to the powers authorized under the Representatives, price controls to curb inflation. Paul was US Constitution. Much of what the incensed that an American president federal government currently does is and sometimes the would implement such socialistic policies very questionable from a constitutional and he decided to do something about it. perspective. It has grown far beyond the vote tally would be He ran as a Republican candidate for bounds of its stated authority. the US House of Representatives in the Paul is thus known as a 434-1, with Paul 1974 midterm election but lost. When “constitutionalist” for this view. He is “ the victorious Democratic candidate more popularly known as a “libertarian” being the odd man later resigned the seat, Paul was again because his views involve a very minimal the Republican candidate in a special role for the government. He does not out. election and this time he won. He served compromise his views on these matters a few months as a Congressman but lost even when standing by principle makes stances have resulted in a great diversity the seat in the 1976 general election. his own constituents angry with him. of people supporting his candidacy. He ran again in 1978 and won. He Doherty quotes one congressman as Doherty notes that Paul campaign kept the seat until he decided to run for saying that Paul meetings would often bring together the Republican nomination for a Senate seat in 1984, but lost that contest to Phil is very predictable: If proposed the usual Paul fan motley: concerned Gramm. legislation expands government or veterans, pierced anarchists, involves activities which he does not conservative Christian moms, real LIBERTARIAN PARTY consider specifically authorized by the estate brokers and homeschoolers and Although Paul had been a strong Constitution, then he will vote No. weapons enthusiasts and peace hippies. supporter of Ronald Reagan during the 1970s, he became disillusioned And Paul does not shy away from Although Paul’s core supporters have with Reagan’s presidency during the unpopular stances, even when they usually been libertarians, he has also 1980s because of the lack of progress involve going against the flow. Doherty gathered a good number of conservative in shrinking the size of the federal quotes Paul as saying, “when I take a vote Christian supporters. Doherty writes, government. Thus he joined the contrary to a prevailing attitude, instead Libertarian Party and became that of hoping no one will notice I send out Paul could appeal to the religious party’s presidential candidate in 1988. a press release.” There are 435 members right not just on the economic With the failure of his Libertarian of the House of Representatives, and libertarianism and hard-money stuff – Party presidential campaign, Paul went sometimes the vote tally would be 434-1, which resonated well with them then back to his medical practice and also with Paul being the odd man out. and now – but on social liberty issues produced newsletters on financial and Some people believe Paul’s pro-life such as free speech and just being political matters. position contradicts his libertarian left alone by the government to shape He decided to run for Congress again views. But that is not so. As Doherty your own life in your own way. He in 1996. Although he had rejoined the points out, if an unborn child is a person could remind these people who valued Republican Party, party leaders were (and he or she is), then “a libertarian homeschooling and the health of their no longer supportive of him and tried believing in laws against abortion makes own small religious communities that to derail his candidacy. They convinced exactly as much sense as a libertarian they should fear a government that the local congressman to switch from believing in laws against murder.” interferes in their personal cultural the Democratic Party to the Republican choices – even if it means having to let Party, and they supported that guy with PAUL’S APPEAL the government respect choices they money and prominent endorsements. Paul’s constitutionalist and libertarian don’t personally like. As Doherty puts it, “The Republican views have made him very unpopular in Party did not want Ron Paul to be a many places including large portions of Doherty also notes that Paul’s personal congressman again.” the Republican Party. On the other hand, life should endear him to conservative during his presidential campaigns, his Christians. He is a “serious family man,

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 29 devoted to one woman, successfully presidential nomination for 2016. jeopardize the safety of the American raised five children with many happy people.” devoted grandchildren and even great- THE REVOLUTION: A MANIFESTO Perhaps his most controversial grandchildren in their wake, a serious During 2008 Paul wrote a book position is his belief that attacks against Christian.” Wikipedia lists him as being explaining his principles and policy Americans abroad, and even against Southern Baptist. positions. It is entitled The Revolution: A the US itself such as 9/11, can result Manifesto (Grand Central Publishing) from people who think they must fight REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL and it became a New York Times back against what they see as American CANDIDATE number-one bestseller. imperialist aggression. Paul cites Michael Paul created a stir during both of One of the most important matters Scheuer, chief of the CIA’s Obama bin his attempts to win the Republican that Paul addresses in this book is his Laden Unit in the late 1990s (and a presidential nomination, but he was controversial views on foreign policy. conservative), in support of this view. never a front-runner. However, his Unlike most conservatives, he believes Paul writes, campaigns did create a lot of excitement the United States should have a non- among libertarians, constitutionalists interventionist foreign and military His point is very simple: it is and some other segments of the policy. That is, the US should not become unreasonable, even utopian, not conservative movement. He refused to involved militarily unless it has been to expect people to grow resentful, endorse John McCain as the Republican threatened or attacked. “Americans have and desirous of revenge, when your nominee in 2008 and was therefore the right to defend themselves against government bombs them, supports not allowed to speak at the Republican attack; that is not at issue,” he writes. But police states in their countries, and convention in Minneapolis. As a result, what is an issue is the use of American imposes murderous sanctions on his supporters organized another event, military power against other countries them. That revenge, in its various the “Rally for the Republic,” that ran that have not harmed the US. forms, is what our CIA calls blowback concurrently with the Republican The most famous example of – the unintended consequences of convention in Minneapolis. interventionist foreign policy was the military intervention. The Rally for the Republic drew over invasion of Iraq under President George ten thousand people and celebrated the W. Bush in 2003. But there have been SMALL GOVERNMENT, AT HOME AND constitutionalist and libertarian ideas other recent examples such as President ABROAD promoted by Ron Paul. Doherty writes, Clinton’s attack on Serbia in 1999. And in Interestingly, Paul’s foreign policy “It had Ron Paul singers and Ron Paul 2011 President Obama authorized the use views reflect those of the original intellectuals and Ron Paul economists of offensive military force against Libya conservative movement before the Cold and Ron Paul celebrities and, most of all, despite the lack of any threat against the War. As he notes, it had Ron Paul.” US coming from this country. This is During his 2012 campaign for the what Paul opposes. The so-called old Right, or original Republican nomination, Paul decided In fact, Paul points out that the Right, opposed Big Government at not to run again for Congress, so his unnecessary use of American military home and abroad and considered career as an elected official was over. power abroad causes more problems foreign interventionism to be the However, his son, Rand Paul, was elected than it solves. He writes that, “when our other side of the same statist coin as as a Senator from Kentucky in 2010 government meddles around the world, interventionism at home. and is currently seeking the Republican it can stir up hornet’s nests and thereby

Christianity vs. Libertarianism by Jon Dykstra Can a Christian be a libertarian? Libertarianism, in broad terms, is an ideology that believes that the individual must be free to do what he wills, and that his freedom is the very measure of what is good or bad. The individual is god, and all must bow to his will, his choices, his freedom. Of course we know it is God who defines good and bad, and some of what He declares good includes restrictions on our freedom. We also know it would be foolish to make our sinful will our master. So if these are the definitions we use, Christians should not be libertarians But Christians will find among libertarians, allies who are just as eager as we are to oppose the State’s attempt to be all and do all for all citizens. Both groups oppose the State as god, and thus want smaller government and more personal responsibility. So, as a wise man once said, Christians should never be libertarians, but we should regularly be mistaken for them. 30 / OCTOBER 2015 Being in favor of limited government means supporting a small role for the Ron Paul’s view is that many problems government in domestic policy, but also a small role (or no role) in the affairs of would be solved if the US federal other nations. This is a consistent and principled position. government was restricted to the role Furthermore, it is useful to note that the aggressive use of military power authorized for it by the US Constitution. abroad involves a huge cost in money and lives. As Paul puts it, “we waste not from foreign aid but out of the government. a staggering amount of manpower, extraordinary workings of the free One might think that many American hardware, and wealth on a bloated market, the great engine of human politicians would support following the overseas presence that would be better well-being that everyone is taught to Constitution. In rhetoric many will speak devoted to protecting the United States hate. well of it when doing so is convenient. itself.” But in recent years it has primarily been “ A considerable amount of money CONCLUSION left to Ron Paul to publicly argue for is wasted on foreign aid as well. Over All in all, Ron Paul’s view is that constitutional limitations on government the last few decades there has been many problems would be solved power, especially when doing so is tremendous progress in raising the if the US federal government was politically unpopular. Receiving harsh living standards of millions of people in restricted to the role authorized for criticism for supporting unpopular underdeveloped countries. But foreign it by the US Constitution. In both positions has not caused him to back aid is not the reason for that. Paul notes domestic and foreign policy the federal down. That is because he stands on that, government has grown far beyond its principle. He will not waver even when constitutional limitations. The framers the political consequences are harmful to the economic success stories of of the Constitution did not envision his career. This marks him as a rare bird the past half century have arisen such a large and interventionist federal in contemporary politics. RP

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 31 LEST WE FORGET REVIEWS BY JON DYKSTRA 3 CHILDREN’S BOOKS 3 GRAPHIC NOVELS 3 CLASSIC MOVIES Some children’s series are so good it Nathan Hale’s Treaties, Trenches, Mud, Any list of classic World War II films can seem foolish to recommend them and Blood tells the story of World War I, would have to include Casablanca – everyone must and makes it a (1942). Rick already have read bit more kid- Blaine is a bitter them, right? But palatable by lonely man, just in case there using animals and he’s also is someone out as stand-ins the hero of our there who doesn’t for the various story. That’s know about nations: the what sets Anne DeVries’ English are Casablanca Journey Through bulldogs, the apart from the Night this Ottomans are (and above) is an absolute otters, the the many must-read! John Russians are other very DeBoer is only a teenager, when the bears, and because the Germans are good WWII Germans take over the Netherlands, and eagles, the Americans get stuck being movies: it isn’t about heroes doing his family doesn’t entirely intend to work bunnies. Hale does a good job of laying heroic things, but rather lonely, broken, in the Resistance. But they are Christians, out the facts, which means detailing the and even wretched people in difficult so John’s father sees no choice but to slaughter, but also lightening things up conditions doing the right thing in the help. A four-book series, it has gone with doses of humor whenever he can. end. That might sound depressing, but through more than 30 printings. It can be Recommended for 10 and up. it isn't. These are folk we can empathize purchased at tinyurl.com/JourneyNight While Paul with, so when they pick principle over and is recommended for 12 to 112. Keery’s Canada pragmatism we're right there with them, Margaretha at War is a cheering them on, and hoping that we Shemin’s The graphic novel it would do the Little Riders is might be better same. a very different understood as While The Dutch WWII an illustrated SeaHawk (1940) book: one of the history book. He is set in the heroes is German! does a masterful 1500's it is very Short chapters, job of explaining much about and simple line Canada’s role World War II, drawings from in the second which was just Dutch artist Peter World War II – how our country went commencing Spier, make this an from having next to no military to, in the at the time of accessible story for children as young as space of just five years, becoming the filming. Spanish Grade 1. third most powerful fighting force in the king Phillip II, In Afterwards world. It is bit grim (without being gory) intent on conquering the world, could I Knew Christine and lacks the humor found in Hale’s only be more Hitler-like if he wore a Farenhorst shares offering. For 12 and up. tiny little mustache. British sea captain seven short In Eric Heuvel’s A Family Secret a Geoffrey Thorpe and his band of merry stories and one young Dutch men stand in for the Allies, attacking poem about the boy of today Spanish ships to free English slaves. world wars. I discovers that Bataan (1943) would buy this during World is an average collection just to War II his family film but with have the very first was divided one of the story, The Hound – one great most impactful of Heaven, to read uncle fought for endings I've to my children. It is about a German, the Nazis and ever seen. who was a soldier in the Second World another joined When the Allies War, explaining to his grandson that he the Resistance! are booted was once a very different man, a mean Published by out of the man, running from God. But God was the Ann Frank House (and drawn in a Philippines a faster still! Recommended for 12 and up. Tintin artistic style) this is a fantastic small band of book. 10 and up. soldiers is left behind to harry the advancing Japanese.

32 / OCTOBER 2015 THE HIDING PLACE BY CORRIE TEN BOOM 272 PAGES / 1971 (2006 REISSUE)

If you know only the barest details of Corrie ten Boom's life story you might mistake her for a superwoman. After all, this is a lady who lost her father and sister to the Nazis, and who had to endure depravation and cruelty of a German concentration camp and yet she still managed to forgive the very people who did her so much wrong. The grace that fl owed from her was certainly extraordinary! However, while Corrie was a special woman, her biography is about God's greatness, not her own. In the fi rst third of the book she shows how God was preparing in her early life. Part of that preparation was the gift of a wise father. Once, when she was a little girl, she overheard someone talk of "sex sin" so she went to her father and asked him, "Father what is sexsin?"

He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At least he stood up, lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it up on the fl oor. "Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said. I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. "It's too heavy," I said. "Yes," he said. "And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a heavy load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you." And I was satisfi ed. More than satisfi ed– wonderfully at peace. There were answers to this and all my hard questions – for now I was content to leave them in my father's keeping.

Later, still as a child, she has her fi rst encounter with death – a small baby in an apartment on her same block has passed away - and she can't stop worrying about what she would do if her father and mother died. She can't eat, and can't stop crying. In response her father points his little girl to her Heavenly Father.

Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. "Corrie," he began gently, "when you and I go to Amsterdam – when do I give you your ticket?" I sniff ed a few times, considering this. "Why, just before we get on the train." "Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and fi nd the strength you need – just in time."

And that is just what Corrie fi nds when, years later, this 48-year-old ordinary woman fi nds herself as the leader of a Resistance cell, hiding Jews and members of the underground, stealing ration cards from the Nazis, and providing whatever help she could to whoever came asking. And that is what she found still in the midst of the Nazi concentration camp, surrounded by cruel guards and biting fl eas. God gave her just what she needed, just when she needed it. This is a wonderful story that will be encouraging to anyone contending with discouragement, sickness, and death. Miss ten Boom wants us to know that God never stops being good, even when we are wavering as things around us go so very badly. Then we can trust Him. We can count on Him because He loves his children! I'd recommend The Hiding Place to anyone 16 and up and suggest it as a very good off ering for a reading group - it could foster some wonderful discussions! There is also a "young reader's edition" but this abridged version has only a fl at, impersonal narration to it - Corrie's unique voice is gone. So give it a skip, and go with the original, even for "young readers." And if you’re looking for more great World War II biographies two others to consider are Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, and Things We Couldn’t Say by Diet Eman.

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 33 ENTICING ENIGMAS & CEREBRAL CHALLENGES

Chess Puzzle #225 Riddle for Punsters #225 “Keeping Track of their Skills” Why did Schultz want a job with the railroad? He had no work experience but he heard that they give lots of free on the job ing.

Problem to Ponder #225 “Fruit Salad Anyone?” Unscramble the following names of common fruits. E.G. PREAG = GRAPE. PLEAP = PLENAPIPE = MOWMERLATE = TRYWEBARRS = RANGETINE = RARESPYRB = PLANETOCA = LOMENSKUM = DACOOVA = LYERUBBER = NICETRANE = WHITE to Mate in 3 Or, If it is BLACK’s Move, FRAGEPURI = BLACK to Mate in 4

Answer to Riddle for Punsters #224 Last Month’s Solutions “Beach Decision” Solution to Chess Puzzle #224 Jasmine could not decide if her family should go to the WHITE TO MATE IN 3 beach. It started out to be a sunny day but the weather Descriptive Notation forecast of an afternoon thunderstorm tended to cloud 1. NxN ch K-R1 the issue. The family went anyway and found that the 2. N-B7 ch RxN beach was so crowded that there was sanding room 3. QxP mate only.

Algebraic Notation Answer to Problem to Ponder #224 1. Nf5xh6 + Kg8-h8 “Water Within Reach, Fun at the Beach” 2. Nh6-f7 + Rf8xf7 3. Qb1xh7 ++ At Wet-water Beach on a holiday Monday, 30 adults and BLACK TO MATE IN 3 56 children had arrived by noon, at which time 20% of the adults and 50% of the children were in the water. Descriptive Notation Three hours later there were 34 more adults and six times 1. ----- Q-Q7 ch as many children in the water. At that time, 2/5 of the 2. K-R1 N-Q1 ch children and 3/5 of the adults were NOT in the water. If 3. Q-K4 BxQ mate an average of four people per vehicle came to the beach, IF how many vehicles were in the parking lot at 3 p.m.? 1. ----- Q-Q7 ch 2. K-B3 N-K4 mate Send Puzzles, Solutions, Ideas to: By noon, 20% of 30 adults = 6 adults in the water Algebraic Notation and 50% of 56 children = 28 children in the water. 1. ----- Qd7-d2 + By 3 p.m., 6 + 34 = 40 in the water = 2/5 of total adults A Puzzle Page, 2. Kg2-h1 Nc6-d8 + since 3/5 were NOT in the water. Thus 40=(2/5)A so 43 Summerhill Place, 3. Qb1-e4 Bb7xe4 ++ 5(40)=5(2/5)A so 200=2A so 100 = A. Winnipeg, MB IF 1. ----- Qd7-d2 + R2C 4V4 2. Kg2-f3 Nc6-e5 ++ By 3 p.m., 28 x 6 = 168 in the water = 3/5 of total or children C since 2/5 were NOT in the water. [email protected] Thus 168=(3/5)C so 5(168)=5(3/5)C so 840=3C so 280 = C Thus, there were 100 adults and 280 children = 380 people so there were 380 / 4 = 95 vehicles at 3 p.m.

34 / OCTOBER 2015 CROSSWORD PUZZLE BY JEFF DYKSTRA LAST MONTH’S SOLUTION

SERIES 2-1

DOWN 31. Large warm-blooded (!) 1. Relating to the sense of predatory fish hearing 32. Small single-motored 2. Result of a car crash or a boats ship running aground 34. Peak or highest point 3. Take it on the ___ (become 35. The opposite of lose a fugitive) 37. Latin name for sun 4. Citizen of Mecca’s country 42. Two of these = 32 oz, or 5. Enlist; get registered almost one kg SERIES 2-2 6. Go off course 44. Cotton fabric that feels 50. You’re allowed to overrun 7. Snake that really gets like satin the first one. around 47. Poetic version of over PUZZLE CLUES 51. “…he ____ grass like an 8. Feel ill (due to too much 49. Russian overlord ACROSS 24. Shot on a golf green ox.” (Job 40) French garlic?) 51. Swelling caused by excess 1. Tool to pierce a slave’s ear 27. All-natural container for 53. System used to classify 9. Description of feet with fluid in part of body (Exodus 21) peas blood groups ill-fitting shoes 52. Common flower mostly 4. How much of seven is in 28. Be appropriate for; befit 56. Prefix relating to 10. “Do you see as man originating in Eurasia (and begins) several? 30. Edible preparation of treatment of nature ____?” (Job 10) 53. Venue for athletic 7. Nickname for Barbara dried seaweed 58. Body of water parted by 11. Part of a cathedral competition 11. Distinctive quality 33. Small two-masted boat God through Moses containing the altar 54. Competes athletically, but surrounding something 36. They are Green in the 60. “…their feet ___ to evil,” 12. “Keep ______my steps….” not a big hit 12. Not mad; in your right 1960s TV comedy. (Prov. 1 - ESV) (Ps. 119) 55. To a position on; upon; mind 38. What Rumpelstiltskin did 61. “Awake and _____ 14. Qualified medical on top of 13. Hockey player on an to straw yourself” (Ps. 35) caregivers (abbreviation) 56. Epoch; historical or Edmonton team 39. Often sliced up after the 64. Something that keeps us 16. Large bushy hairdo geological period 15. Born before the due date; morning service from doing wrong 20. Large primate shipped to 57. Abbreviation for the first rushing to judgment 40. Prefix relating to blood: 66. Change or transform Solomon (1 Kings 10) column of a table 17. Foreigner living in ancient e.g. ____globin (something) 25. Canada’s neighbor 59. One variety of a cheesy Israel (Ex. 23) 41. Dull; unoriginal; clichéd; 67. Last word in prayer 26. Friend who fixes your wi-fi Dutch favorite 18. Baglike structure, often trite 68. “…you shall come ____ connection 62. Type of seasoning, for containing eggs 43. “…to the ____ of the the ark,” (Gen. 6) 27. Mexican party game, Henri et ses amis 19. Hat found in 1940s earth” (Ps. 48) 69. Island (inhabited by Man typically for birthdays 63. Something both here and detective movies 45. “An ____! A craftsman or other Wight?) 28. Lost blood; released there have in common 21. Sound of a sibilant snake casts it,” (Is. 40) 70. The month between Feb. excess compressed air 65. Edge (of a cup or a wheel, 22. Large deer also known as 46. It has a “lid” inside it and and Apr. 29. Meeting absence excuse: especially) wapiti on top. 71. Children need Pas and Didn’t get the ____! 23. Method of shipping (but 48. “…they ___ and were well ____ 30. Traitorous WWII Dutch not by ship) filled,” (Ps. 78) group (abbreviation)

REFORMED PERSPECTIVE / 35 36 / OCTOBER 2015