Carl Wells Books

We have been living (or sometimes dying) with the Covid-19 virus for a bit over a year. I wrote on the topic of the virus about a year ago. I wrote a four-part series “Reflections on the coronavirus situation” published on May 7, 14, 21, and 28 of 2020. (I hadn’t remembered that I had that much to say at the time!) Today I want to list a few things that have been impressed upon me after one full year. Some of it will be similar to what I wrote a year ago. Which I suppose is a good thing. But there will also be a few new points made, and I will definitely try to keep this brief. I will get everything said in one blog post, or I will send a free Cadillac to each one of my readers. Absolutely guaranteed.

1/We still need to develop a sense of proportion. As dangerous and deadly as the virus has been and can be, we continue to murder babies at a higher rate. Abortion remains the key issue of our times. A people which is willing to murder babies, is not worth preserving. Which leads into the next point.

2/The “new normal” being pressed upon us is pretty grim. But if we are honest with ourselves, the old normal wasn’t all that great. We were still killing babies, still destroying lives through the welfare state, still murdering and destroying foreigners for no good reason as the warfare state, still pretending that men can be women and that women can be men. Getting back to the old normal would not be a wonderful accomplishment. We need something better than either the old normal or the new normal.

3/Most people still trust the U.S. government. The U.S. government is going to find an excuse to keep us masked and helpless and staying at home, and not working, and accepting checks with money created out of thin air. They want people who are easily manipulated, want people who are unwilling to stand on their hind legs and holler.

4/Most people still trust Mainstream Media–affectionately known as Main Sleaze Media to people like me. Mainstream Media, like the rest of the elite running the U.S., is instinctively statist, with no interest in discovering the truth. If they find out and print the truth, horrible problems will come upon them. It is easier to parrot The Narrative.

5/Have you noticed that basically everyone in public life goes along with the masks, goes along with the shutdowns, goes along with considering the virus as bad as the plague? There is a reason for that. If you go along with the consensus, you will be left alone and considered a good guy. However, if you question the consensus, there is a price to pay. You will be criticized, called a science denier, perhaps hated, perhaps canceled. What, people working in the public are going to jeopardize their incomes by saying, “Hey, are we sure this makes sense?”? No, there is no chance of that.

6/There are other sources of information about the virus. A good place to start for such information is LewRockwell.com. Most people won’t search for such alternative information. Why? There are at least two reasons (7 & 8).

7/As an approximation, 1% of people (whether Christian or non-Christian) have much deep interest in truth. That is simply human nature. We like ourselves the way we are, and we don’t like thinking. It is easier to just live, take our ideas from a buffet early in life, and stick with those ideas the rest of our lives.

8/Also, admitting one has been wrong about the U.S., about important things, becomes increasingly difficult as we get older. Anyone who finds himself 40 or 50 or 60 years old, having believed the U.S. is “the indispensable nation,” a nation which stands taller and sees further and has more wisdom than other countries, a nation which loves freedom, is not going to be in a hurry to say to himself, “I have been wrong about the U.S. I have been played for a fool my entire life.” No, that is a bridge too far–about five or six bridges too far, probably. So to have arrived at full adulthood and to be a believer in The Narrative, means one is unlikely to want to begin thinking for himself now, belatedly. It is very hard to move oneself from the 99% who believe cliches, to the 1% which take truth seriously.

9/Our brand of Christianity is deeply flawed. We are one-quarter faithful in our giving. We as an American Christian people give about 2.5% to the church, while God requests a tithe. So we are one-quarter faithful. But the situation is far worse than that. Giving financially is the easiest discipline in the Christian faith. Any knucklehead can count to ten, set aside one out of the ten for God, and do so with little or no diminution to his quality of life. When it comes to the weightier measures of the law, we are far less than one-quarter faithful. As an estimation, we might be one tenth faithful. So our Christianity doesn’t amount to much, compared to what God wants from us.

10/As discouraging as 7, 8, and 9 can be, there is hope in point 10! (Don’t give up.) That is, our Christianity is real, among at least a sizeable portion of us. Perhaps 40% of professing Christians really have been regenerated and converted, as a guess. Our potential is much greater than our current production.

11/There is no other hope for us except in a vigorous, Bible-believing Christianity. That may seem like bad news, because our Christianity is so flawed. But it can also be good news. Remember, our potential is great.

12/Moral courage from all of us is the need of the hour. We need pastors willing to be hated, willing to tell us painful truths and accept the consequences. We in the pews need to accept our responsibilities, and to love truth more. This is not going to be easy. But isn’t that fair? If we are unwilling to love truth and stand for the truth, maybe we are undeserving of freedom.

13/The Christianity of the recent past and of the present has been a holding operation. We frolicked in quarter-truths, half-truths, and full truths which weren’t painful. Full truth: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and died for His people. That is a wonderful full truth. But it is not enough. We haven’t been told full truths that convict us of sin. Full truth: most Christians are idolators of the United States, and of the United States military. That also is a full truth–and that truth we have not been taught.

14/We need pastors who will speak to us the painful full truths, not just the wonderful full truths. We in the pews need to identify those truth tellers, and support and encourage them. They are going to need lots of encouragement, because they are going to face constant criticism, and they are going to be disliked. Few of us enjoy being disliked. So if you find a truth-telling pastor, encourage him as much as you can. We need him desperately.

15/We are closer to being free than we realize. Our potential is great. I sense it among the Christians with whom I associate.

16/Keeping elderly people from their loved ones, in the nursing homes, was a mistake. We need to learn from our mistakes, not just shrug them off. Find a way to do it differently. The state will always find a way to keep us masked and isolated. They are bullies instinctively; it is their nature. But if we refuse to go along, we can find ways that are better for all concerned.

17/Use your own judgment about the vaccine. I plan not to get any sort of vaccine in regard to the virus. But think for yourself. Be reminded that Mainstream Media does not want you to do any reading and research on your own. They are not very likely to report adverse reactions to the vaccine(s).

18/The U.S. may be heading for a complete disaster of some sort. Runaway inflation might do the trick, although it could be something else. Be aware that if the disastrous inflation comes, it won’t be solely because of the Democrats. The Republicans have supported that as well. So don’t be tempted to resort to partisan finger-pointing; don’t dream that replacing Joe Biden with Donald Trump or some other Republican is going to help. We need to start thinking honestly about things. That starts, for most of us, with increasing our 2.5% giving up to 10%, at the church. If we are willing to steal from God, why shouldn’t the state steal from us?

19/If/when the disaster comes, that may alert us to how demented we have been acting for such a long time. So though the disaster may be horrific, it will probably be necessary. We refused to learn without the disaster.

20/We need to keep or develop a sense of humor. We can learn for ourselves, but we can’t teach other people. Only the Holy Spirit can make people willing to learn. But He can and will, in a significant number of cases. He can use our example to teach others. If we can have a giggle, and live with humility, other people will be more influenced by that than if we self-righteously try always to convince them of the rightness of our position (even though our position might indeed be right). We can realistically have a sense of humor, because God is in control of world history. He is going to win. Suck on that, baby-killing scumbags.

21/I think it is good not to wear the mask. But if a business requires that you wear the mask, don’t respond with anger. It is their business, not yours. Deal with people politely. We have seen too many incidents on the Internet of people who reacted discourteously to requests that they wear the mask. Bad. Bad example. This is not showing responsibility.

22/Think ahead as to exactly what you believe in regard to mask-wearing, and vaccine taking, and gird up your loins. I have worn the mask twice. Once I needed to wear the mask in order to visit my mother in the emergency room at the hospital. Once I grudgingly wore the mask at a Chinese restaurant. (I won’t do that one again.) I was pitched out of my beloved Rally’s because I was not wearing a mask; I went calmly. I was scheduled to help time track meets this spring, but was defenestrated (politely) when I said I would not wear the mask. I would wear the mask if that was the only way I could buy food. I would wear the mask if that was the only way I could keep my job. I will not wear the mask to attend high school sports events (events which I dearly love). I think I have a realistic understanding of how I will act in regard to the mask and the vaccine. But I have had to think about it. I have had to prepare mentally, psychologically, spiritually. And only time will tell if I stick to my principles.

23/The Powers That Be seem firmly in control. But that is partly an illusion. A Christian minority unwilling to compromise its principles, would be very powerful, very quickly. God accomplishes excellent things, through exercising His zeal (Isaiah 9:7). If we anchor ourselves in loving and obeying Him, maybe lots of good things might happen. I might even be able to walk into Rally’s someday, and order a few sandwiches.

One of the most remarkable human beings in world history is nameless to us. She had a name, but we don’t know what it was. I am thinking of the little slave girl of 2 Kings 5:2-3. I have written about her at some length in my book Nameless Heroes of the Bible (Chapter 56), but if you are one of the seven or eight people in the U.S. who has not yet read that book, don’t despair. I’ll give you the condensed version now, and you can buy Nameless later and read it at your leisure. The dedication to Nameless Heroes of the Bible was to the little slave girl.

She figures in just two verses of the Bible, but her behavior had far-reaching consequences. Let’s quote five verses so that we can see the context of her actions.

‘Now Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man was also a valiant warrior, but he was a leper. Now the Arameans had gone out in bands, and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” Then the king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.’ (2 Kings 5:1-5)

Within a few verses Naaman is in Israel, gets with the prophet Elisha, and is healed of his leprosy. The final 22 verses of the chapter give us much which is of great interest. But we won’t try to talk about any of that today. Today we want to focus on the little slave girl.

I am certain that I did not appreciate the little slave girl the first time I read about her. How many times did I have to read the passage, over the years, before the light bulb belatedly went on? Better not to know, perhaps. The point is, multiple readings of the Bible are necessary for us to get everything that is there. If I had read the Bible once in my life, there is much that I would miss. Am I still missing things? It seems so, because I still pick up new things with more reading. So it is good for me to keep reading the Bible, although reading the Bible does not come easily for me. It is work rather than relaxation. But the work is repaid in the long run, many times over.

Eventually, belatedly, I began to understand how remarkable was the little slave girl of Naaman’s wife. By now she is one of my favorite people in the Bible. She is an astonishing person.

There are two ways in which she is a profoundly shocking person.

The first way in which she is shocking is in her great faith in God. Note how artlessly she speaks up. She is just rattling on, out of the fullness of her heart. “Isn’t it a shame Naaman is not in Israel with the prophet! He would be healed in a few seconds.” It never occurs to her to doubt the prophet’s ability–granted to him by God–to heal Namaan. Just get to Israel, and, boom, we’ll see a healed Naaman. No problemo.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of her faith, however. Remember, she has been taken into slavery. She is separated from her family. Her hopes of a normal happy life among her people, are completely shattered by her having been taken captive. She has lost her home, her family, her people, her freedom, her language, her hope of marriage and children and grandchildren. (She had to learn a new language and probably is talking to Naaman’s wife in Aramaic rather than in her native Hebrew.) She is a slave working for whatever her masters decide to give her. Will she be protected by them? Or treated shamefully? Namaan and his wife seem to be treating her well enough, or she wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking as she had done. But what about the rest of the Arameans?

Despite all the frightening and discouraging things she has been through, she doesn’t distrust God! She knows He is in sovereign control. He let her become a slave of the Arameans? Okay, so He did. She doesn’t think or say that God is being unfair to her, or that He doesn’t exist. No, somehow this most unusual young lady continues to believe in God and to trust Him.

As great as is the faith of this “little girl,” I think even more remarkable is her generosity of spirit. If it had been me in her situation, my thoughts would have run along these lines: “So, Naaman is a leper, huh? Well, that suits him perfectly. He holds me as a slave just because I got captured in Israel, but God is in ultimate control. This leprosy is God’s covenantal judgment on Naaman. Naaman wrongly turned me into a slave, and God rightly allows Naaman to be a leper. Suck on that, mighty captain of the Arameans!” Of course I would have said none of this aloud. I would have taken silent compensation for the wrongs done to me, by brooding to myself week after week, year after year.

However, the little slave girl didn’t think like that. No, where she was, she loved, and wished the best for everyone. Naaman is her slave master, and has leprosy? Darn it! Get him to Samaria, and we’ll get him cured of his leprosy. “I wish my master were . . . ” etc.

This is one astonishing young lady. Is it possible she could be an example to us, in both her faith and in her generosity of spirit? Perhaps the Holy Spirit intended us to learn from her, and we are just slow to appreciate her greatness.

There are other lessons here. She is young. We don’t know how young. She is a “little girl,” but she could be seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, or some other age. We simply don’t know. The Holy Spirit thought it best not to tell us her exact age. Great decision! What we know without a shadow of doubt is that a young person can be someone of great faith and of great generosity of spirit. How do we know that? Because she did it! The little slave girl could be the patron saint of every young Christian. (She could be the patron saint of every old Christian as well!)

She is female. Here is a young female who, because of her great faith in God and her great generosity of spirit, and because she simply prattled on about how the prophet could easily heal Naaman, set in train great events. The story of Naaman, which follows in 2 Kings 5:6-27, is one of great historical/theological interest. This female started the story rolling. Is it possible that Christianity has no need of modern feminism? That what we need is biblical Christianity? That if we exercise biblical Christianity we all, male and female, will find our place of usefulness? That the little slave girl is an example to all of us? That we need to be like her, whether we are male or female, and things will go well with us, and also go well with others? Well, it’s a theory.

I like to think about Naaman’s wife and Naaman. They are pagans, clueless about the God of the Bible. But already they have been treating the little slave girl well enough that she is not afraid to babble out her artless, crazy thoughts about the prophet in Samaria.

And then, in a split second, they immediately are possessed of a nutty, impossible hope. A silly little slave girl speaks, in Hebrew-accented Aramaic, about her God, and the slave masters pay attention immediately. (Perhaps her behavior had impressed upon them that she was a person of excellent character.) Of course it was all ridiculous. Unless it wasn’t. Naaman, no doubt encouraged by his intelligent wife, goes to his king, his pagan king master. Who doesn’t laugh, and instead immediately sends Naaman off to get healed by the prophet of the Israeli God.

Isn’t this a reminder to us that pagans are frequently pre-Christians, and just don’t know it yet? Many of us who are Christians now were pre-Christians at one time, exactly like Naaman and (no doubt) his wife. We are all, Naaman and the rest of us, saved by grace, which can show up in surprising ways.

We are not told, by the Holy Spirit, what happened to the little slave girl when Naaman returned from Samaria, healed of his leprosy. Clearly this is another good decision by the Holy Spirit. We know that Naaman was a person capable of showing gratitude. That is made clear in the passages of Scripture telling us of his actions with Elisha and Gehazi. So when he got back to Aram, we can be completely certain that Naaman and his wife acted generously to the little slave girl.

Why not tell us the details? I think perhaps He wants us to focus on the character, the faith, the generosity of spirit, of the little slave girl. The story for us is not, “The little slave girl did this, and she had great reward.” The story is, “The little slave girl had great faith and showed great generosity of spirit, despite her unpromising situation.” The Holy Spirit did not want to risk us missing the main point. That is the main point: do what is wise and right, and let consequences be what they may.

That does not mean that we don’t burn to know what exactly happened to the little slave girl! Of course we do, and no doubt the Holy Spirit understands our interest, and I am very hopeful that some day I will be able to find out much more about the little slave girl and her subsequent life on earth.

The little slave girl could not know, when she spoke up wishing that her master be healed from his leprosy, what the consequences would be. Naaman’s wife could have said, “Please don’t forget to sweep the porch today. And we don’t need to hear any more about Israel or Samaria.” And that would have been the end of it.

Instead, the consequences were immense, and incredibly good. The consequences for the little slave girl were also immense. They were also incredibly good, no matter what happened to her when Naaman returned home.

Picture the eternal consequences for her. She is one of the most celebrated human beings in world history. The Holy Spirit has recorded her story in the Bible in a manner that makes it impossible to ignore her. Countless thousands, perhaps millions, of us want to meet and talk to her, thank her and pay tribute to her in person. Perhaps every day, in eternity, she meets new people who love and admire her already, because they met her in the Bible.

She is nameless in Scripture, but she is not nameless in eternity. This astonishing “little girl” will continue to teach mankind how to behave, as long as the Bible is read.

The United States may be heading for an end in the relatively near future. That is good in the long run, because as Leopold Kohr and history show, huge countries have no reasonable option except to go wrong. It has something to do with human nature and the fact that many of us instinctively want to push other people around when we have the chance. The quality of our Christianity will have to improve for many, many centuries before we are able to understand that we need to leave other people alone even when we are strong! Breaking up power rather than consolidating it, is the way to protect ourselves and others. Read Kohr’s The Breakdown of Nations for a great deal more on the topic. Or, if you can’t resist (most people can resist, however), read my own Getting Ready for Secession.

But if the United States ends, history will not end. Life will still go on. Countries will go on. Good things will go on, and so will bad things.

Today we are simply going to have some fun. I am going to look at what happened after the break-up of the United States. It’s not all bad! There are a few good things to report, and even if you think those things are bad rather than good, at least you might find them interesting.

When the country broke up (due to massive inflation which destroyed the value of money and made it impossible to finance the welfare/warfare state), only a few rather small segments of the country were interested in becoming self-consciously Christian countries. Twenty-two small countries were Christian, with populations ranging from 50,000 to about 150,000. The average Christian country was 100,000, which means the total population of those countries was a mere 2,200,000. That is less than 1% (about .69%) of the pre-break-up population of the U.S. estimated at 320,000,000.

The other 99.31% of the ex-U.S. went other directions, with considerable variety. But today we have time only to glance at the 22 countries which decided to become Christian. Which meant–Christian. No fantasies about how separation of religion and state are possible. Every nation serves its own god, whether it knows it or not. These 22 countries understood that, and decided they would be self-consciously Christian.

There was not complete uniformity in how these 22 countries organized themselves. Some of them were Protestant, some Roman Catholic, in basic outlook. There was one Eastern Orthodox. Their organization of the civil authority also featured variety. Some were ruled by judges, some were republics, and some were monarchies. But even the monarchies which featured a king, made sure to restrain his power–or at least to try. Modelling the king’s authority on Deuteronomy’s instructions meant that the king was expected to kept under strict control. The king was not an absolute monarch; he was restrained by the law of God (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). We’ll have to see if that really works out in the long run!

The variety among the 22 countries was such that anything I report is likely not to be true for all the 22. So everything I say will be only partly true. Thus, when I say that taxes were around 3% total for everyone, that is only partly true. One of the countries went as high as 5% total. There was no property tax in most countries–but there was in a few. (Four, I think.) But nevertheless I am going to press ahead, trying to give you a flavor of these countries as a whole, with the understanding that you must study each individual country for more exact information!

Anyway, here goes.

There are no prisons. There are holding jails, where the accused are held for the brief time prior to their trials. Some convicted criminals are executed. Others are required to pay restitution–which means that instead of being in prison they are out working.

There are civil courts. But there are also church courts. Church courts handle some cases more effectively, whereas civil courts deal with more serious crimes.

Most of the 22 countries have laws which they have instituted, although the number of such laws is relatively few. Oddly, however, in four of the countries they don’t even make laws! They think they might be able to get by dealing with each court case as something that can be handled by general biblical wisdom. They are going to at least try this and see how it works.

Rapists are executed. So are murderers. If you drive drunk and you kill someone, you are executed. (Which means you will probably only do it once; you learned your lesson!) It turns out that there is always a death penalty, no matter what country you live in. In these 22 Christian countries, the guilty are put to death. In the non-Christian countries they put to death the innocent. Different strokes for different folks.

Wife beaters are whipped. Some of them grow up and become good husbands, and some of them prefer more freedom of action and thus leave the country so that they can find someone to beat without having to hear unpleasant whining.

If you make a female pregnant with her consent, you marry the girl and provide for her and the children.

Anyone engaging in homosexual behavior and being convicted on the evidence of two or three witnesses, is executed. Most people who want to engage in homosexual behavior prefer to leave the 22 countries before being caught.

Everyone is required to pay his bills. If you rent from someone and then don’t pay him, the civil authority requires you to pay him after all. You can escape over the border to avoid paying your bills. (Don’t worry, most countries won’t send you back.) But once you do that you are not likely to be able to come back. Until you are ready to pay your bills. The general principle of these 22 countries is that everyone has personal responsibility. (There are no corporations. Responsibility is personal.) Most people work and pay their bills. People who don’t like that way of living are always free to leave.

Money is silver and gold. There is no fractional reserve banking.

There is no public education. Homeschooling and private schools help most people get some sort of education. One seems to work better for some people, while the other works better for the others.

There is no state welfare. Charitable giving is done by churches and individuals.

Almost everyone has learned to handle rifles and pistols. The elders/deacons of the churches have overseen that instruction for both adults and children.

There is no standing army, but every adult male will be trained and ready to fight if necessary. (Three of the countries have standing armies, albeit small ones. Another indication that I am painting with a very broad brush here.)

People tithe to their churches. That includes children–if the adults have wisdom. Which some don’t, of course! But because most Christians are tithing, the churches have plenty of money with which to operate. Many of them are missionary-minded.

The roads are spotless of litter. That is mostly because people don’t usually throw things out their windows. But also in some cases the picking up of litter is a sort of gleaning process by which some people earn money.

If someone has an abortion, and this is discovered, the murderers are executed. That includes the doctor, the “mother,” the nurse, and the husband if he acquiesced in the murder, and anyone else who was complicit in the murder. Most people wanting an abortion simply flee over the border, and don’t come back. That solves everyone’s problem–except that of the baby being murdered. Our 22 countries trust God to avenge the baby if He wants to.

The work needed to be done in the world is always endless, so everyone who wants to work is able to do so. There is no minimum wage to discourage relatively unskilled people from finding work. Some people prefer working part-time, and thus buying more leisure time for themselves rather than buying more things.

Since taxes are small, the ordinary person is mostly working for himself rather than for welfare recipients, for armies and battleships and bombers and foreign interventions, for hoards of public school and public university teachers and all the myriad number of “zombies” (thanks, Bill Bonner) who live on the production of working people.

Our 22 countries have zero desire to attack other countries. They are too small to do so! They want to be left alone, and they know that there may come a time when they have to defend themselves or suffer being conquered by other countries. One of their major worries is that non-Christian countries will find some excuse to attack them. Life always has challenges!

There we have it–a brief survey of the 22 small self-consciously Christian countries which were formed after the break-up of the United States. I wonder if they will flourish, or fail miserably and come crying back to one humanist momma or another. Perhaps there will be some of each. Certainly few of us optimistically assume that we Christians are very ready to accept responsibility for ourselves. But the Bible seems to indicate that that is what God expects of us. What an optimist! Maybe He has long range plans that require that we grow up. If so, jolly good luck with that.

But maybe it would be fun to try . . .

We read in the early part of the Bible, “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15)

God set man the task to make the garden productive. “Keep it” would hint also at keeping the garden looking good. This may be a stretch, but it is a short stretch. After all, the God who is the source of all beauty, could reasonably be expected to want the beautiful garden to keep on being beautiful. Perhaps made even more beautiful.

I think it is still our job to cultivate the earth and keep it, make it productive and beautiful. But let’s back up a bit! When we walk into the garden and the garden is a mess of discarded junk, instinct tells us that we need to get rid of the junk first, then after that get to work cultivating.

It reminds me of something my beloved Uncle Ed said. He said when you get up in the morning after a wild drunken party, it doesn’t really matter which end of the house you start cleaning up. The point is to start somewhere, to clean the mess away bit by bit. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Well, the American Christian church has awakened in a U.S. which has had a wild drunken party. We need to cultivate the garden, yes, but first of all we need to clear the debris.

This can be understood metaphorically. We have awakened to a morally drunken mess: baby murder, transgenderism, homosexuality, the welfare/warfare state, and on and on. But I want to back up even more. I want to suggest that one thing we Christians could be doing when we see the mess around us, is to clean up the mess around us. I mean the physical mess around us. I mean, simply pick up the trash which is destroying the beauty of our country.

Yes, I mean: pick up litter from the side of the road.

It seems a small task morally, and a big task in practical terms. But I think in reality it is a big task morally, and a small task in practical terms. I’ll try to explain what I mean.

I think it is a big task morally, because it is something we think is a task beneath our abilities and our excellent moral standing. What, pick up trash which millions of pagans have thrown out their car windows? (I’m guessing not all Christians are innocent of such throwing, but just for the sake of argument let’s assume most of the littering is done by non-Christians.)

Yes. We Christians are saved totally by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. We are not smart enough or good enough to choose salvation. If we have been saved by grace, it behooves us to be willing to show grace to others. That includes of course something big like being willing to help non-Christians find salvation by pointing them to Jesus Christ. But can it not also include something small like picking up trash? We model grace by picking up trash. Also, we obey God by keeping the garden in better shape than it was before we picked up the trash. We have a more attractive world to look at–and we are helping our neighbor have a more beautiful world also. As we have been shown grace, we show grace to others.

So picking up trash is a big task morally.

But it turns out that to our surprise, picking up all the trash in the U.S. is a small task in practical terms. That may seem incorrect at first sight. The U.S. is big, litter is everywhere and is added to daily.

True. But one person can pick up a lot of litter in a very short time. My town is about 3,000 people. From my experience in seeing how slowly litter is generated, I am willing to estimate that a very small handful of people–call it five–could keep this small town almost spotless of litter.

And I don’t mean they could do this by all of them working a 40-hour week, month after month. No, I mean by the five picking up trash less than an hour each, every week.

You doubt me? Try it yourself. Pick up the trash in your neighborhood for just one hour. Wait a week and go out again. You will find that very little new litter has been generated. Some has, yes, but not much.

The wonderful truth is, litter is much less powerful than elbow grease. If we used elbow grease, we could clean up the U.S. with very little trouble. We are not overwhelmed by litter. We are overwhelmed by our own unwillingness to use elbow grease.

Is the job of making the U.S. litter-free worth doing? It is, in my opinion, but apparently it is not a job worth doing for most people. Because the points I am making here are not esoteric reasoning open only to a tiny intellectual elite. Any person, any Christian, who thought about the issue for twenty minutes, can understand that the U.S. could be spotless within a month, with very little collective effort. But apparently other people disagree with me that this is a job worth doing, because as a people, Christian or non-Christian, we make no real effort to get the job done. And it is a job we could do standing on our heads with one hand tied behind our backs, and blindfolded. Very quickly. So apparently the job is not worth doing, in the minds of most people.

Keeping the garden involves a whole lot more than picking up litter, of course. We need to make the garden more beautiful in countless ways. But let’s crawl before we walk. Let’s clean up the drunken mess on our streets, then beautify our homes and gardens after the litter is gone.

It would vastly encourage us if we cleaned up the mess. As a people, we tend toward depression and discouragement. If we won a small victory such as having clean streets, it might encourage us to consider that maybe we could have other victories. Maybe the lack of elbow grease is what is holding us back in a dozen categories, not just in the category of keeping the streets clean. Maybe we could actually, over the long haul, clean up the drunken mess of our morality, if we used elbow grease. It’s a theory.

I’ll let you in on a secret. If you say I told you this, I’ll deny it. Here’s the secret: in actual fact, picking up trash is fun. Yes, I know there must be something wrong with me. To say picking up trash is fun, is probably a cry for help. Help which has arrived too late. But think about it.

When I remove litter from the side of the road, I get instant gratification. The world looks better, and it looks better because I personally did something which made a difference in the right direction. It was a small something, and probably few people even notice that there is less trash, but I notice and I feel rewarded. So when I say that picking up trash is fun, I have some sort of twisted logic on my side.

I apologize to the teeming millions who have read Chapter 6 of my book The Way to Do a Thing Is to Do It: Essays (2017) in which I discuss “Picking Up Trash and the Power of Minorities.” You’ve heard all this before. It is a topic which, heaven help me, I consider fun, so I couldn’t resist writing about it again.

I’ll close with the epigraph to that chapter, borrowed from the gifted English writer Theodore Dalrymple. Dr. Dalrymple has gone so far as to write a very good book on litter: Litter: How Other People’s Rubbish Shapes Our Lives (2011). But this quote is from another of his books, Our Culture, What’s Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses (2005). Dr. Dalrymple reminds us of a truth worth pondering.

“Of course, civilization is not only an attachment to the highest peaks of human achievement. It relies for its maintenance upon an infinitely complex and delicate tissue of relations and activities, some humble and others grand. The man who sweeps the streets plays his part as surely as the great artist or thinker.” (p. 157)

Do we want to give Christian civilization a shot in the arm? One way, humble rather than grand, is to pick up the litter off our streets. Which may lead eventually to our cultivating and keeping the garden, a job assigned to us long ago.

Christians all agree that salvation can occur because Jesus Christ died for His people. The sinless Son of God died in our place, on the cross. He rose again, triumphing over death. We are sinful, but by trusting in His death and resurrection, we can escape eternal death and instead can find eternal life with God. We can’t and don’t trust in our own righteousness, but we can trust in Christ.

It therefore seems very obvious that what salvation is for is to save us from eternal death.

This I believe is true. But I also believe it is only a partial truth. In fact, I contend that the church as a whole has a very flawed and incomplete understanding of what salvation is for. And because of our flawed understanding and the flawed behavior which has come about because of our flawed understanding, the results for us and for our non-Christian neighbors have been horrific.

Before I proceed with my theory as to what salvation is for, the question may arise: who am I to criticize the mainstream position on what salvation is for? The answer is, I am a nobody, who has read the Bible a lot, and thinks he might have something useful to say. Don’t trust me. I’m just a guy, like Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. ‘”Zaphod’s just this guy, you know?”‘ (Chapter 2) I’m just this guy. Read the Bible for yourself, and see what you think.

But don’t be quick to reject my argument out of hand. Look around you. Half of the people in the United States self-identify as Christian. Yet look at the crazy moral disaster area which we inhabit. How could this happen, when so many of the people in this country claim to be Christian? Something is wrong. I think part of the reason it has happened is that Christians do not have a biblical understanding of what salvation is for.

A year or so ago, at the church I attend a young man came forward as wanting to become a Christian. He was duly baptized. We saw him about once more after that. I happened to see him at a place of business a few months later. He wasn’t attending any other church. When I was lamenting the situation of this young man with a Christian in the church, my Christian friend agreed that it was a shame the young man was not in church, but he said, “At least he got saved.”

The person who said that was a committed (and far from stupid) Christian. But his opinion of the whole episode was, the young man had come forward, was baptized, and while it would be better if the young man were in church, “At least he got saved.” My committed Christian friend did not understand salvation. He did not understand what salvation was for. Profession of faith, accompanied by baptism, had ended all doubts about the future eternal state of the young man in question. No matter what, the young man was good to go for eternity.

This is an unbiblical understanding of what salvation is, and what it is for. My committed and intelligent friend had wrong ideas about salvation. And, I submit, the church as a whole is similarly wrong about what salvation is and what it is for.

Last week in my post entitled “The last things,” I tried to prove that God plans to build His kingdom here on earth, in history. I pictured that post as a prologue to this one–clearing the ground so that we could talk about salvation in a sensible way. However, it is not necessary to agree with my views on the last things to be see the possibility that God has big things in mind when He saves someone.

In my worst seller What Are God’s Goals? (2014) I suggested that we look at salvation from God’s point of view. What goals does God have in mind, when He thinks about the earth? I came up with eight goals I think God has. There could be more than eight! But these were the eight that jumped out at me. I will paraphrase what I wrote in the book. (Remember, I am saying in one blog post what I took an entire book to say.) As you read the eight, you will and should read suspiciously. But some points you will probably agree seem likely. I encourage you to read suspiciously, however. Anyway, here are eight of God’s goals.

1/To show the necessity of Jesus Christ’s life and death, and His power to change the world for good.

2/To show the power and usefulness of the Holy Spirit as He inhabits each Christian and enables us to grow in godliness and obedience.

3To vindicate the generous character of God the Father, whose plan for mankind has always been wise, practical, and merciful.

4/To convert millions–eventually billions–of people to become true Christians, so that in the long run most of the people living on earth are Christians. [Don’t forget, it is fine that you read suspiciously. But at least consider the possibility that this might be true.]

5/To help true Christians grow in godliness in their daily lives, to become mature, gracious, generous-spirited thinking Christians. [I spent almost two pages on this in the book.]

6/To see the earth, in time and history, move toward an edenic state.

7/To punish unrepentant evil justly and proportionately.

8/To provide an eternity of joy (and possibly useful work) for His friends and adopted family members. (pp. 43-45)

Goals 4, 5, and 6 were probably the ones that many Christians are most likely to question. And that is why we have allowed the United States to become so ungodly. We did not understand God’s goals, and we did not act to help Him fulfill those goals. We have grieved and quenched the Holy Spirit. Paul warned us against such behavior–which means he knew that it was something we were likely to do. Why warn us against something to which we had no inclination or temptation?

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

“Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

What salvation is for is certainly to keep us from eternal death. But that is only the start of what salvation is for. Salvation is the means by which God gets tens of millions of adopted sons and daughters who will be people with whom He can enjoy pleasant fellowship. He wants people who are really changed at heart, and whose behavior shows that they are changed at heart. Remember when Jesus was told that His mother and brothers were outside (Matthew 12:48)? His response was to indicate His disciples. He called them His mother and brothers.

‘”For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.”‘ (Matthew 12:50)

This is common sense on Christ’s part. What is the fun of having family members who are self-absorbed annoying people? God wants people who are trustworthy people with high principles. Aren’t we the same in our evaluation of who we want to spend time with? We interact with a lot of people, and we try to avoid the annoying ones, and we enjoy the ones who are really godly. What would be the fun of going through eternity with self-absorbed people with wobbly principles?

So one of God’s goals is to see us become really godly people. But it is important to note here that while this is of benefit to God–He will have friends and family members He need not be ashamed to spend time with–it is also of immense benefit to us. Remaining knuckleheads far longer than is necessary is what we are good at. But every time we make even the slightest approach to biblical godliness, we sense that we have been blessed. It really is a blessing to live within biblical guidelines. It is a blessing to us to become better Christian people rather than to just wallow around in the same low level of not-very-heartfelt-obedience.

There are several Bible passages that warn us that it is not those who name the name of Christ who are true believers, but it is rather those who obey God from the heart. Let’s look at just a few, very briefly.

In Luke 12:42-48, Jesus Christ points out that the slave who knew his master’s will and did not obey that will, is going to get more lashes of punishment than the slave who did not know his master’s will and also did not obey that will. In short, we Christians (who surely have the means to know our master’s will), are in danger of getting more lashes of punishment than some non-Christians. This makes perfect sense. God wants people who walk the walk, not just people who talk the talk in an articulate fashion.

Romans 2:1-16 warns us of the impartiality of God: “for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified” (v. 13). We are to persevere in doing good (v.7). There will be tribulation and stress to those who do evil (v. 9). And on and on. Surely Romans 1:1-16 is a passage which the church needs to consider a lot more often than it currently does.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 straightforwardly warns us that how we build on Christ is crucial. We need to build with gold, silver, or precious stones, or our works may be burned up. God is generous, so that even if our useless works are burned up, we might be saved “yet as through fire” (v. 15).

To tell us that salvation is to keep us from eternal death is a truth, but it is a partial truth. And it is a partial truth we have managed to call a full truth, thus harming ourselves and others. Saved people who are eager to obey God from the heart are part of the means God has chosen to clean up the earth. (Only part. He does the heavy lifting Himself, of course. And it should be pointed out that when God saves us, He is doing all the work. We are saved by grace, not by our own wisdom. So even the fact that we can serve Him comes about only because He acts to change us.)

When His saved people begin bringing forth increased godliness of behavior, that will have an immense effect for good.

Right now we can’t even get to church on time, tithe, avoid bankruptcy, educate our children at our own expense, or vote against pro-abortion politicians. Hey, “At least we got saved.” No, that is misunderstanding salvation. Salvation is only Day One of our life with God. He wants our salvation to start us on the road to becoming more and more godly, more and more practical examples of how life should be lived. When we understand what salvation really should mean to us, and act on that understanding, we will be better people. This will help our families, our church, and our neighbors. God intends to build His kingdom on earth. He plans to use redeemed and obedient Christians as a large part of the means. What an optimist! But since He is God and seems quite intelligent, maybe He knows something we don’t know but should know.

Eschatology, Webster tells us, is “the branch of theology dealing with the last things, such as death, resurrection, judgment, immortality, etc.” And, secondly, “the doctrines concerning these.”

My discussion today is sparked by my having recently viewed a video entitled “On Earth As It Is In Heaven.” This was recommended to me by a thoughtful Christian friend. He thought I might like it. He was right. Here is a link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jchu–KWvDw

Warning: this video is long. It is 1:52:41. (Another warning: I found the background music accompanying the comments to be very annoying. It didn’t bother my friend; he didn’t even notice the music.)

I watched the video in segments. The people who made the video talked to several prominent Christians who espouse the postmillennial view concerning the last things. The postmillennial view says, basically, that Jesus Christ will return to the earth only after (post) there has been a long (millennial) stretch in which Christianity is extremely influential for good on the earth. This view suspects that quite possibly we are in the early church. It could be, maybe, the very early church.

Postmillennialism is currently a doctrine held by very few people. You could slaughter us all on a rock, and no one would miss us except perhaps a few people in our families.

The two most numerically prominent eschatological views are amillennialism and dispensationalism. (Dispensationalism is a branch of premillennialism, but I am going to just talk about dispensationalism, and not make this more complicated than my minuscule knowledge can handle.)

Amillennialism says we can’t know when Jesus Christ will return. But there will be an ebb and flow of Christian influence over the centuries.

Dispensationalism says the world is getting worse, but that Jesus Christ is coming back in visible power, probably very soon, and He will take control and straighten things out. Some foresee a “rapture,” in which Christians will be removed from this earth, while non-Christians will be left behind. (There is a series of books with the overall title “Left Behind.”)

In my 2011 best seller Inconvenient Opinions I contend that all three eschatological views offer immense psychological benefits to their adherents. (What? It wasn’t a best seller? Details, details. It should have been.) I devote Chapter 16, “Why Do We Believe Our Eschatologies?” to showing what these psychological benefits are. I’ll summarize briefly here, what I spent eleven pages doing in the book

The psychological benefit of dispensationalism is obvious. If Jesus Christ is coming in visible power soon, what is not to like about that? Come right now, Lord! I hope He does. Our problems are all going to be solved within a few years at the most.

The psychological benefit of postmillennialism seems obvious as well. Things are going to get better! Excellent news! It may happen more slowly than we would like, but it will happen. The improvement of the earth may take centuries rather than years, but it is coming and it will be wonderful as it comes.

The psychological benefit of amillennialism is not as evident, right off the bat. Ebbs and flows, ups and downs? What is enticing about that vision? But I think there is a tremendous psychological benefit to amillennialism also. Because if amillennialism is true, we have no responsibility to build the kingdom of heaven on the earth, because the Bible says that it cannot be built. We are let off the hook. Oh sure, it is great to be godly, and it has some influence for good in our families and our church, but to actually see so much Christian influence in the world as to make a vast difference to everyone? It won’t happen, because the Bible says nothing about such a thing happening.

So all three eschatologies offer psychic benefits. But of course the most important question for us is not, what makes us feel good about life?, but rather, what does the Bible actually teach?

I think the Bible teaches that when we are obedient to God, from the heart, that He will allow Christian influence to increase very greatly in the world. So yes I am postmillennial, but even more fundamentally I think of myself as a Christian covenantalist. That is, we all make covenants–whether we know it or not–and when we consciously make a covenant to love and obey God, using His word the Bible as the instruction manual, He finds a way to bless us and to bless those with whom we come in contact.

Read the Bible for yourself, and see what you think He says about what is going to happen. It seems clear that a child was born to us, the government rests on His shoulders, He is the Prince of Peace, and that there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, because, who knows, maybe this will happen not because we are wonderful in ourselves but because the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this (Isaiah 9:6-7). Call it a theory.

What I want to say next will be shocking. The shock is intentional. I want to get people thinking. I think both amillennialism and dispensationalism are satanic.

I don’t mean that amillennial and dispensational Christians are consciously intending to serve Satan. I don’t mean that amillennial and dispensational Christians can not be very godly. They often can and do serve God wonderfully.

What I do mean is that they have fallen prey to Satanic deception. Satan knows he cannot defeat God in the long run. But Satan wants to delay the spread of God’s kingdom for as long as he can. If Satan can get Christians in large numbers to believe nonsensical things, and to act in terms of those silly beliefs, Satan can hamper the effectiveness of Christians very greatly.

If we believe that Jesus Christ is coming back soon, to a world scheduled by God only to get worse and worse, then our ability to build God’s kingdom is tremendously hampered. We are psychologically devastated.

If we believe that godliness will only ebb and flow, come and go, then once again we are hampered. We are psychologically devastated.

That is what has happened to Christians. Satan’s rearguard action has devastated us. He has been glad to see us believe nonsense, so we are not ready to work as diligently as we should to build God’s kingdom (because it can’t be built, right?). Whether Satan consciously promoted amillennialism and dispensationalism, or simply took advantage of our willingness to believe nonsense, I don’t know. It is an interesting question.

The proof of Satan’s success is in how we act. We don’t plan for the long term. If we had begun to plan for Christian education for every Christian, a generation ago, we would be well along to our goal by now. But most of us still expect our friends and neighbors and enemies to educate our children at their expense. We didn’t plan for the long term. We didn’t plan to build God’s kingdom on earth (because it can’t be built).

Education is an example only. Everything comes into play. When we understand that God’s kingdom can and will expand when we believe Him and obey Him from the heart, everything comes into play. We have not understood our potential for improving the world by our heartfelt obedience to God.

Heck, we don’t even plan to do the simplest thing to build God’s kingdom. Giving financially is the easiest thing we can do, far easier than dealing with the weightier provisions of the law (Matthew 23:23). The Israelites were expected to tithe (give 10% of their increase) to God, and God even reinforced the value of fulfilling that requirement by promising them a blessing if they did tithe (Malachi 3:7-12). This was before the full revelation of Jesus Christ as happened in the New Testament, a full revelation which every Christian now has. The modern American church gives about 2.5%. This is our obedient gratitude to our Savior? Check out emptytomb.org for details of our giving. What could we do if our funds were quadrupled?

So yes, amillennialism and dispensationalism are satanic. Their influence devastates the church, devastates the garden variety Christian, and devastates even the planning ability of our most godly and admirable Christians. Satan’s rearguard action is working.

Probably we are in the early church, and possibly it is the very early church. That should encourage us. As one of the commentators in the video noted, look how far we have come from the handful of Christians living just after the death of Jesus Christ! As rotten and disobedient and sinful as we have been, still we have come a long way numerically, and countless of our people (including countless of our amillennial and dispensational believers) are a joy to spend time with, and some of them have tremendous virtues.

This blog post is sort of a prologue to what I hope to talk about next week. That is, I want to begin to try to answer the question, what is salvation for? I think the church as a whole has a very incomplete and flawed understanding of the answer to that question. Today’s post clears the ground. God is going to build His kingdom on earth, in history, in dramatic fashion, postmillennialism correctly teaches, in agreement with the Bible. Period, full stop. Where does salvation fit into all that?

But who is Ruth Suckow?

I’m glad you asked!

Ruth Suckow is a writer who died 61 years ago. She is largely (not entirely by any means!) forgotten now, but she had her day of fame and success. Her writing was even championed by H. L. Mencken. She was born in Hawarden in northwestern Iowa on August 6, 1892. She died in California on January 23, 1960, at the age of 67. However, she was buried in Cedar Falls, Iowa. She had come home to be buried.

She was and is associated with Iowa, and deservedly so. Iowa was where her character was formed, and Iowa was frequently the location for her stories and novels.

I was alerted to the existence of Ruth Suckow when rereading Bill Kauffman’s excellent Ain’t My America. Mr. Kauffman had a quote from Suckow’s novel Country People, which inclined me to seek out that novel.

I did seek it out, and I’m glad I did. Country People (1924) was Ruth Suckow’s first novel. It is short–213 pages with large print–and is a quiet book which held my interest well. I read it in three sittings.

There are not a lot of exciting things going on in the book. Suckow’s characters are country people. They work hard. They court and marry. They have quite a few children. Some of the children flourish better than others. Change comes, and the change is not always for the better.

The two main characters are August and Emma Kaetterhenry. They are German Methodists. When we came to southern Indiana six and a half decades ago, we immediately began to get to know German Lutherans. When I hear Mrs. Kaetterhenry say ‘”a’ready,”‘ I remember hearing the same word often among our German Lutheran friends! They too were hardworking people. In fact the German Lutheran presence remains strong in our area. Their children are strong in scholarship–and in athletic ability, to the benefit of our local high school sports teams.

August Kaetterhenry has a rude awakening when the U.S. entered the (First) World War against the Germans.

“Then the taunts, the talk about Huns and Boche, made farmers like August for the first time actually realize their German ancestry. August had always taken it for granted that he belonged in this country. They awoke a deep racial resentment that could not come flaring out into the open but had to remain smoldering, and that joined with the fear of change, the resentment at interference, into a combination of angry feelings.

“This centered in a deep opposition to the draft. To have someone tell his boys to do this and that! To take away his help on the farm just when he needed it most! To have somebody just step in and tell them where they had to go! Was that what happened in this country? Why had his people left the old country, then, if things were going to be just the same?” (pp. 102-103)

Two of August’s sons are drafted. They return from the war, one seemingly unaffected, the other somewhat harmed psychologically, never quite the person he could have been.

We learn when reading about Ruth Suckow’s life that she found World War I profoundly disturbing. In fact her relationship with her father, a Congregationalist pastor, was damaged because of his activities in support of the war. Later in life, in World War II, she established contacts with conscientious objectors, and she joined the Quakers in California. It is good to hear that she did not swallow the warmongering spirit of far too many American Christians. The way American Christians, in their idolatry of the U.S., have baptized all the idiotic American wars, is a disgrace to the name of Christianity.

Ruth Suckow does not idealize her country people. Far otherwise. She is trying to paint an honest picture of their lives. A second reading of the book may cause me to revise my evaluation, but what I see from this first reading is a lot of people who have a sort of subdued Christianity that does not really apply to all of life. That hampers their ability to act with biblical wisdom. Sound familiar? What else do we have in this country, for the most part, but a sort of quasi-Christianity which seldom encourages us actually to apply what the Bible teaches?

The marriage of August and Emma is good–but we get hints that it could be so much better. This is indicated subtly. Near the end of the book we have a contrast between August Kaetterhenry and his father-in-law Grandpa Stille. Grandpa Stille had not been as great a success in life as had August.

Now, late in his life, Grandpa Stille is mostly confined to one room. He often can be heard praying. He can be heard singing old German hymns. He is not demanding of his daughters or of life. Emma, lately made a widow by August’s death, ponders all this in what for me is the key passage of the book.

‘Emma thought about it as Carl was driving her home between the September fields of dusty gold in the late afternoon. She could still hear those faint, far-apart, devout German words. August had always said that if her father had been more of a farmer and less of a preacher, he’d be better off today. August had despised him in a dispassionate way. But the old man had had something, she hardly knew what, that had lasted him when his work was over.

‘”He’s got something to think about,” she thought.

‘It was that something, she could not name it, which she had missed all her married life.

‘She remembered the pathos of August, coming in from the farm and saying bitterly that everything had to go Carl’s way now; of him sitting about the house, trying to look at the farm journal, not knowing what to do with himself. Her father, what a frail man he had been when he had first come to live with them years ago! And here he was living still, contented with the little that he had, and well, and August was the one who was gone.’ (pp. 197-198)

Her own life no doubt nearing its end within a few years, Emma is vaguely conscious that there was something “she had missed all her married life.” Something which her father’s more committed brand of Christianity had given to him. There is sadness in this book, and a clear-eyed honesty. We respect and admire August and Emma. But Emma understands, to some extent at least, that things could have been better.

This is the first Ruth Suckow book I have read. I plan to order another later today. Country People is not inexpensive on the Internet. The best price I could find today was about $19.00 (shipping included, but sales tax extra). I saved my money and read the book through inter-library loan, but that keeps me from underlining passages.

Other books by Ruth Suckow are less expensive. If the second one I read is as good as the first, I will be encouraged to keep on reading. In Country People, Ruth Suckow has given us an admirable, honest, moving, thought-provoking book. It is a superb first novel.

Ruth Suckow shared one interest with Sherlock Holmes. Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective, she became powerfully interested in bee keeping. She even ran an apiary for part of her life.

Ruth Suckow, at age 37, married Ferner Nuhn, but they were childless. Their marriage seems to have been happy. To read more about Ruth Suckow, follow the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Suckow

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has been dead twelve and a half years. But he is going to continue to be important to us forever. Today I just want briefly to discuss a handful of his books.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian writer. He was born Dec. 11, 1918, at the beginning of the Russian Revolution, and died Aug. 3, 2008, almost seventeen long years after the end of the Soviet Union in December of 1991. He was instrumental in the overthrow of that communist totalitarian state.

Before we examine a few of his books, let’s listen to Solzhenitsyn about why the disastrous things connected with the Russian Revolution all happened. It is a brief summary.

‘Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”‘

The U.S. has been having some wretched things happen. If we ask why, is not Solzhenitsyn’s answer–it was also the answer of old people when he was growing up!–really the answer for us as well? “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962). This was the short novel that brought him fame. It recorded an ordinary day in the life of prisoner Ivan Denisovich, a man trying to survive in one of Stalin’s prison camps. If you have never read anything by A. Solzhenitsyn, here is something short to get you started.

In the First Circle (1968/2009). 1968 marked the publication under the title The First Circle; the latter date marks a more recent edition under a slightly different title, with some of material left out of the first edition restored. I have read both versions. Either one will work, but I would recommend the second version, as it is more faithful to S’s original intent. This is a novel about men who are in the Soviet prison system, but are favored by their position in that system. Scientists, they are being treated better than men like Ivan Denisovich, so that they will use their knowledge and skill to help further Soviet scientific projects. S himself spent time in a place like this. The first circle means the first circle of hell–it is indeed hell, but it is not as horrible to endure as circles lower down.

The Cancer Ward (1968). Another novel. This is my personal favorite of the books by S that I have read so far. S himself spent time in a cancer ward, before he became a famous writer. His life was threatened by cancer, but God preserved him. God preserved his life for S, but He also preserved his life for the rest of mankind. Thank God that He allowed this man to live and to bring us numerous thought-provoking books.

The Red Wheel (1971-1991). This is a long cycle of novels comprised of several works. August 1914 was followed eventually by November 1916 and March 1917 with Lenin in Zurich also fitting in there somewhere. I have read only 1914 and Lenin, and both so long ago that I need to begin again at the beginning with 1914 and press on to the end. These books discuss the days just before the Russian Revolution.

The Gulag Archipelago (1971-1975). Three long volumes. Solzhenitsyn called this, in his subtitle, An Experiment in Literary Investigation. He investigate the Soviet prison system from 1918 through 1956. The research done is monumental. S was always an incredibly hard worker. He had to work very hard to compile, write, and protect these books. I used to say that if I could encourage people to read one book, it would be volume one of The Gulag Archipelago. It would teach people so much history, plus it would alert them to how easily man becomes wicked. I see no reason to revise my recommendation. My second reading of volume one, a year or so ago, was rewarding again. The other two volumes I have read only once, but they are excellent also.

The Oak and the Calf (1975). This is a memoir of S’s battles against the Soviet state. How many writers are equally gifted in writing fiction and non-fiction? Surely only a handful. S is one of the few. This is a wonderful book.

Warning to the West (1976). This is a book comprised of five speeches gathered together in one short book, in which S tries to warn the West of our own problems. Yes, the Soviet Union was wretched in its treatment of people, but that did not mean that we in the West necessarily had everything figured out. Those of us who are old enough can remember the West’s arrogant assumption that we were more sophisticated and wiser than S. However, he nailed us. A generation later it is obvious how empty of Christian wisdom was and is the West. Our emptiness was on display in our childish response to S’s warnings. Not everyone was so foolish, of course. But it was visibly obvious that our “elite” was childish and arrogant and ignorant, even four and a half decades ago.

From Under the Rubble (1975). This was a book which contained essays by several men. S contributed only three essays and a forward. I list it here because I am going to quote from one of his essays, “The Smatterers,” below as I close.

Between Two Millstones: Book I: Sketches of Exile 1974-1978 (2018). Thrown out of the Soviet Union, S traveled several places before he ended up in the Vermont woods–working as hard as ever to get his books out. I felt this was a magnificent book. I got carried away in reporting on it. I devoted eight blog posts to covering this book, March 5, 2020 through April 23, 2020. Rather than read my eight segments discussing Between, it would be simpler for you just to read the durn book. You won’t regret it. You’ll learn a lot about not just S, but also about the U.S.A., and the West in general. The news is not all bad!

Between Two Millstones: Book II (2020). I have not read this yet, but I hope I will be able to do so soon.

“The Smatterers” is a long essay, but I want to quote just a small part. S gives his Russian people advice. This, remember, was in 1975, sixteen years before the Soviet Union fell. The Soviet Union in 1975 was a totalitarian state. S tells his readers what needs to be done.

“And if we set out in capital letters the nature of the examination we are going to set our fellowmen: DO NOT LIE! DO NOT TAKE PART IN THE LIE! DO NOT SUPPORT THE LIE!–it is not only the Europeans who are going to laugh at us, but also the Arab students and the ricksha-drivers in Ceylon: is this all that is being asked of the Russians? And they call that a sacrifice, a bold step, and not simply the mark that distinguishes an honest man from a rogue?

“But it is all very well for the apples in another barrel to laugh: those being crushed in ours know that it is indeed a bold step. Because in our country the daily lie is not the whim of corrupt natures but a mode of existence, a condition of the daily welfare of every man. In our country the lie has been incorporated into the state system as the vital link holding everything together, with billions of tiny fasteners, several dozen to each man.

[. . . .]

“What does it mean, not to lie? It doesn’t mean going around preaching the truth at the top of your voice (perish the thought!). It doesn’t even mean muttering what you think in an undertone. It simply means: not saying what you don’t think, and that includes not whispering, not opening your mouth, not raising your hand, not casting your vote, not feigning a smile, not lending your presence, not standing up, and not cheering.” (pp. 275-277; my ellipsis in brackets; italics and capitals are those of S)

I think you see where this is going. History may not repeat itself exactly, but it does rhyme. We ordinary people in the U.S. have come to a time in our national history in which the Powers That Be are pressing upon us a Narrative. The Narrative is a lie. (Example: Black Lives Matter is an honorable group. That is an example only; The Narrative has many facets, all of them lies.) If we go along, we can get along. If we refuse to go along (to lie), we may be “cancelled.” It could cost us our job. We could be called moral monsters.

Countless people are going along with The Narrative. Many of them have managed to persuade themselves that The Narrative is true. S, a brave man himself, who took on the entire establishment of the Soviet Union–while also offending most the elite of the West–is not asking too much of us. (Or is he?) He just tells us not to lie, not to go along with the lie. That is going to take courage, however, as he well knows.

You and I are apples in our own barrel, and we know how we can be crushed. It is going to take courage on our part to refuse to go along with the lie.

But note this encouraging fact: as powerful as the Soviet Union was in 1975, by late December 1991, the Soviet Union had disbanded. As powerful as the Powers That Be in the United States are right now, as our elite pushes The Narrative on us via the media, education, politics, Hollywood, sports celebrities, and whatever else, those Powers That Be may not be as powerful as we think. Just maybe, if we refuse to support the lie, we can have an honest public scene someday, and sooner than we think. If that means the break up of the U.S. (remember that the Soviet Union broke up), so be it. A few non-Narrative zones are better than what we have now.

S, I think, was correct. He was a prophet, a truth-teller. A key for us is if we can develop the courage to refuse to lie. He wrote “The Smatterers” for the Russian people, but really he wrote for all mankind. He wrote for us in the United States. May God grant us the courage not to lie.

My mother’s death at age 101 10/12 is a good time to reflect on aspects of both her life and death.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago. It was a slow-growing form of cancer. At first we were considering surgery for her, but second thoughts proved better. She was willing to delay, and that proved wise. So she managed to live with breast cancer for a significant handful of years, without pain.

She was always concerned for the well-being of her children. She worried that caring for her was too much of a burden for us near the end. She was quite willing to go to a nursing home, and advised us to send her there when things got too tough. The misery that she was going through was no fun for her, but what made it worse for her was that the children were having to go through the misery also. However, we were able to keep her at home till the end (thanks largely to the continual superb care by my sister Peggy).

That reminds me of one of my mother’s classic comments, from just a couple years ago, before her health took a seriously downward turn. I was taking her on a wheelchair ride–good exercise for me and it got us both out of the house into the fresh air–and she spoke up and said, “I’m just afraid I won’t live long enough to go to a nursing home.” Hilarious, but I knew exactly what she meant. She had always felt like she would flourish at a nursing home. She pictured herself as organizing card games and using time in the nursing home as a chance to interact with other people in a good manner. And she is correct–she would have been a wonderful nursing home denizen, as long as her health permitted. She would have livened up the place. If she couldn’t find bridge players, she would have settled for euchre players. However, I’m glad we were able to keep her at home to the end. It worked out for the best for all of us.

My mother was the child of Italian immigrants. She was glad to be of Italian heritage. But there were limits to her identification as Italian. She had been given the name Anna at birth. When she was in about the third grade, she began to sign her school papers with the name Anne. Why? Anna sounded too foreign. She wanted to be an American. That desire to identify as an American stayed with her the rest of her life. The name Anne stuck. I don’t think she had to say anything more about it. Everyone just went along with Anne instead of Anna. And, like Anne of Green Gables in the classic novel, she definitely wanted there to be an e at the end.

My mother was thoughtful for other people. If she saw something in a newspaper or magazine on a topic which she knew a family member or friend would find of interest, she would cut it out and mail it to him (her). The U.S. Postal Service is going to miss her; their budget has taken a hit.

I have commented before on the great benefit of having siblings, even when sibling relationships are far from perfect. The final months of my mother’s life were more proof of the value of siblings. There are four of us living children. The burden of caring for my mother fell principally on my sister Peggy (who lived with my mother). Secondarily it fell on me, since I lived next door to them. We both were encouraged when Jill or Tom came down (or up) to support us, which they did often. Their drives were not short, but they made them, and Peggy and I felt the benefit. It took some of the burden off of us, both physically and psychologically. We felt supported. My brother Tom made an insightful comment. He said that he knew beforehand that he was appreciated, but all this with the challenging last days of my mother made him feel needed, which was good for him to feel. A good point. We all want to be loved, but also we all need to be needed. It was good that Tom realized he was needed. Anyway, my advice is, have big families. I’m glad we were four living children, and I’m glad to have hope that there are two other siblings waiting for us in heaven. I look forward to meeting them–although I’m willing to put off the meeting for quite a while.

My mother’s health was pretty remarkable, all things considered. As noted above, she fought breast cancer and, really, won the battle. She endured decades of diabetes, and fought to no worse than a draw. She had her eyesight all the way to 101 10/12. Her hearing held out also, although with some loss of quality in latter years. She walked with a walker the last few years, and always got to the bathroom by herself, until the last year or so. Finally it was necessary for my sister to help her to the bathroom, and then eventually it took two of us to get her there. But for well over 99% of her life, she was able to get around on her own. She had her mind her entire life, except for brief intervals in the last few weeks.

My mother was not without faults. We would be here for a while if we listed them all. Her life would have gone better in some ways had she had more knowledge of the Bible, and more obedience to its teachings. That can be said of any Christian, I suppose. She, like all of us, is going to be saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, or not at all. If she is in heaven, as I hope, it is by the grace of God. In heaven whatever faults she had will be corrected.

She was a person who never doubted her salvation. Such faith is not granted to all of us. Was she afraid to die? She acknowledged some slight fear, but it was minuscule. As she noted, millions of other people had done it before her. If they could do it, so could she.

Off and on during those last three months, she had considerable suffering. Most of the times were not all that bad! But there were some tough times, both for her and of course secondarily for those of us trying to take care of her.

Why, we can ask ourselves, would a good God let a helpless, powerless 101-year old woman experience suffering to that degree? Is He not there? Was she a person destined to be cast away, after all?

I am going to say some things that may sound like speculation here. I discuss these issues at more length in my two books What Are God’s Goals? and If: God’s Covenant of Grace. I don’t think Christians in general pay much attention to what the Bible teaches on a lot of things. We kind of make up a theology which pleases us, rather than look at what the Bible teaches.

What I am going to say may be just speculation rather than biblical exegesis, but my ideas are based on what I read in the Bible. Think for yourself. Anyway, here goes, briefly.

Jesus Christ warns us in Luke 12:42-48 that Christians may get lashes. If we know God’s will and don’t do it, we may get more lashes than the person who did not know His will and didn’t do it. We Christians were given much, and so, reasonably, much was expected of us. Whereas non-believers were not given as much, so not as much was expected of them.

In 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Paul warns that when we build on the foundation Jesus Christ, we may build wisely or not so wisely. Our building blocks may be gold, silver, or precious stones. Or they might be wood, hay, or straw. The value of our work will be tested by fire. We could have our works burned up, but still be saved, “yet as through fire.”

Many other places give a similar message. (Buy my books if you want more on the topic.) Putting this all together, there is much to scare us–and perhaps much to console us. We Christians may have to accept some stripes–which we will know to be well-deserved, when we know everything about God’s evaluation of our behavior.

And possibly, God gives us some stripes while we are still living, so that He does not have to give us stripes after we die. I am hopeful that my mother got her stripes while she was living. When she died, perhaps she did not have to have more stripes. She no doubt had a lot to learn and many ways in which she would have to improve her thinking. But she may have gotten all her stripes out of the way while she was living on the earth. If my theory is correct, my mother may have been able to enter heaven without receiving more stripes after death.

Luke 12:42-48 also gives us hope that maybe not as many people face torture as mainstream Christianity seems to believe. I am not a universalist, but I also do not believe God is tormenting millions or billions of people in hell for eternity. This is not the place to try to defend my opinions, but I will say that my opinions are based on reading the Bible text and believing the Bible text.

One thing about my mother’s suffering that was beneficial to the four of us children is that it helped us to get prepared for her death. If she had had perfect health all the way to the end, we might have felt cheated. Instead, we had time to get ready. Had she lived another five years in the same state of off and on suffering, that would have been pretty rough for her, but also pretty rough for us. It was better for her that her suffering months were few, but it was also better for us that they were few. So the death, when it came, was also a relief. We will miss her, but it is time for God to figure out what to do with her. The ball is in His court now, and that is good. I remember thinking, during those tough times with my mother, something to the effect that if there is no God, it doesn’t much matter what happens, whereas if the God of the Bible really exists, then it will all make sense. Routine thoughts, but perhaps not unreasonable.

She had always wanted to be cremated. Her discussions with various pastors supported her opinion that there was nothing wrong with such a desire. We readily acquiesced in her wishes. There was no funeral service, but we still may have some sort of gathering to celebrate her life.

March is an important month in our family. My mother had always considered March 1 as the unofficial but real start of spring. Some of the rest of us went along with her on that point. Also, her 102nd birthday was going to be March 8. She fell slightly short of making that on earth. We hope she will be celebrating in heaven. We won’t forget her, and we are grateful we had her for so long. Anne Wells, rest in peace.

Well, finally I am an orphan, at the very advanced age of 74. My Aged Parent, my mother, died on Jan. 14, 2021. Anne Margaret Morrone Wells lived to be 101 10/12 (b. Mar. 8, 1919-d. Jan. 14, 2021). She fell only 53 days short of making it to 102. When she celebrated her 101st birthday in March of 2020, I probably would have bet that she would make it to 102. And I thought she had a puncher’s chance of going seriously beyond that. However, it was not to be. From about mid-October onward, we knew that things were trending downward, and that most likely she had only weeks or months. So it turned out. She lived only three more months after we began to see the handwriting on the wall.

In this column I want to mention various aspects of my mother’s life and death. Certain things come to mind. This will likely be disjointed. Something a little less disjointed is the obituary written by my sister Jill, to which I give a link below. Jill did a good job with it.

https://www.hagueandzabel.com/obituary/Anne-Wells

Jill had been praying that my mother would pass peacefully. This was a wise prayer, and God granted it. My mother died peacefully in her sleep. The hospice nurse pointed out my mother’s posture at her passing. Her limbs were relaxed and quiet. An excellent observation.

This reminds me of my father’s death. My father, not a Christian, had always wanted to die working. His preference was granted to him, in 1992. We found my father’s body at the place where he was smelting lead. By the posture of his limbs, I could tell he had died instantly without any pain at all. (I could tell that because I had done the same job my father was doing, and if he had experienced any pain, I knew his arms would have been drawn up to his chest. Instead his hands were in position to move the ingots of lead when they were finished being formed.) God let my father die working, and without pain. My mother died peacefully in her sleep.

When my mother was a young married woman, she suffered a long bout of depression. I was her first-born child. (Hey, that’s not why she was depressed! I hope.) But after that she suffered two miscarriages. This I think is what prompted her toward depression. What she did at this point was very intelligent, and showed an instinctive understanding of how reality is put together by God. What she did was to tell God, that if He would heal her from her depression, she would honor Him by her life from that point on.

She was thinking covenantally. (It wasn’t a word she was likely to use.) She believed in God. If He was there He could help her. In return it would only be fair that she try to honor Him. God honored her attempt at a covenant. He healed her depression, and He granted her three more children.

In her long life, she never really had to deal again with depression. She could get very discouraged for a brief time, but she was resilient and she bounced back quickly. She said that when troubles hit, one should indulge oneself only three days, then it was time to move on. This reminds me of Jesus Christ. He was in the tomb only three days, and on the third day He rose, a victor over death. My mother instinctively picked three days as the limit for being discouraged; after that it was time to get back to regular life.

My mother didn’t dwell on, or even think much about, her two miscarriages, the rest of her life. I think that means that if the God of the Bible exists, as I hope, that she had a very great and very wonderful surprise as she entered the afterlife. I think her two children lost to miscarriage were there to greet her. The joy of that meeting must have been astonishing. Such a meeting was not something she was counting on or even thinking about. I think she received it anyway.

In her last weeks she had many ups and downs. The Thanksgiving meal was wretched. She had no appetite and stayed at the table briefly. But for Christmas day, weeks later, she had a good appetite and was thinking clearly. At times during these last months she was thinking poorly and her speech was slurred. But when her grandchildren and great-grandchildren made their last visits, her thinking was good and her speech was clear. It seemed as if God was going out of His way to make sure she and the family had really good times together as the end was approaching.

For some days she hallucinated. What was she seeing? Bridge hands. She learned to play bridge at age 10 when her older sister Fran came back from college with a knowledge of the game. My mother loved the game immediately, and was a bridge player and fan of the game the rest of her life. My father played also. He used to say he didn’t want to play bridge with my mother as partner, because he couldn’t afford a divorce. (This was a joke, but with a healthy dollop of truth to it. It was better for both of them that they not pair up at the bridge table.) He didn’t say that because she was a bad player. She was a good player–often placed highly in scoring compared to others, even at her advanced age–but apparently was unorthodox in both bidding and playing. That is what we would expect of her–she was never really orthodox in how she lived.

When her days of hallucination stopped, she had no memory of having seen countless bridge hands that were not there.

My sister Jill theorizes that in heaven my mother will discover that of course everyone in heaven plays bridge.

In my blog post for March 14, 2019, when I celebrated my mother reaching age 100, I discussed three ways in which she surpassed many people in her thinking and behavior. I went into some depth there, and here I will only briefly note those three ways.

1/She understood that abortion is murder. She never faltered.

2/She understood that it was wrong to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

3/She had great generosity of spirit toward her in-laws. She would never have been even tempted to be jealous of the times her daughter spent with her in-laws rather than with our family.

Many people, Christians or non-Christians, could not match her thinking and behavior in those three categories. She was not a deep Bible-reading theologian, but she got some things very right–things which supposedly sophisticated people could get very wrong.

She kept her sense of humor. In these latter months, I would sometimes tease her that she was over the hill. “At least I’m not under it” was her refrain as often as I said my half of the cross-talk act.

Rather than try to squeeze all the “aspects” of my mother’s life and death that I want to talk about into one post, I will plan to go with part II next week. Meanwhile, Anne Wells, rest in peace.