A couple weeks ago, after a seemingly colder springtime than usual, summer temperatures finally arrived here in the northeast. And, somewhere in my few spare hours from practicing law, writing, studying, exercising, and assisting with a major project that my friends at RenewAmerica have undertaken (which I’ll be able to write about in upcoming weeks), I found a little time to enjoy the sun.
When the warm temperatures first arrived, during a few evenings after work I crafted a set of wooden shelves on my deck to rest potted plants. Perhaps not the greatest wood-working creation in the world (or even much above average in appearance), I did enjoy the relaxation that came with focusing my attention on this carpentry task.
During this time, after setting aside the tools to enjoy the cool evening breeze next to my newly potted ferns and flowers, I read cover to cover a little book that can almost fit into a back pocket ?Letter from a Christian Citizen written by Douglas Wilson and published by American Vision. Wilson’s publishing agent was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy after a mutual friend facilitated an introduction.
Letter from a Christian Citizen is a response to Letter to a Christian Nation by one Sam Harris. I haven’t read Harris’ book and I don’t plan to, and one need not spend any dollars on Harris’ book to enjoy Wilson’s rebuttal.
In conversational and plain-spoken writing with creative chapter titles and themes such as “God’s Fast Ball, High and Inside” and “Playing to the Cheap Seats,” Wilson engages point-by-point the typical arguments of those who hold atheistic worldviews. As I read Doug Wilson’s book, I found myself at times laughing and smiling and at times reviewing passages of scripture. Beyond Wilson’s easy-flowing arguments, his apologetic responses to common assertions by nonbelievers is a useful tool for any professing Christian.
Two quotes from the book:
The difference between us is that the Christian knows that there will be short-term chaos, but also knows that God has it under control, and that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). The atheist who runs into moral chaos has arrived at his final home, given the truth of his premises. Nevertheless, we can agree on this at least ?the truth is independent of our wishes and desires.
and
On another front, you complain that the Bible doesn’t really treat some of the subjects you would have preferred . . . But a complaint of this nature amounts to an unwillingness to let God be God and tell us what He would like us to know and to do so in a way that reveals what He believes to be important. We have no mathematical books in the Bible ?to take an extreme example of what I am saying here ?for the same reason that God did not include the perfect Star Trek novella in there. Mathematics as a subject is just fine, and God thought it was cool enough to embed it in everything He made for us to discover, but it is not nearly as important in the communication of divine truth as poetry is.
In Gary Demar’s Foreword to the book, Demar writes, “Douglas Wilson . . . has shown what life would be like if the world were consistent with atheistic assumptions . . . Letter From a Christian Citizen will prove to be a painful exercise for any atheist since it exposes the raw nerve of materialism ?the desire for a moral worldview that cannot be accounted for given naturalistic assumptions.”
Fun book. I definitely recommend it for summer reading.
amp,Novel,star trek
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