Ascent Blog

And here is the second story told by a man named Vladimir.

Vladimir

“I would like to tell you about the war the way I saw it from the trenches. It is different when you see it from the trenches…when you see forty german tanks advancing toward you and behind them countless infantry. I volunteered for the army when the war started. At that time, I was seventeen years old. I was sent to the front and put in charge of a regiment. Can you imagine, I was a commander at seventeen. My regiment consisted of older men, forty-five to fifty years old. These were my fathers! Can you imagine, a seventeen year old boy in charge of these men? I was intimidated and did not know what to do. Luckily, the men understood my predicament and welcomed me with open arms. They helped and protected me probably because they felt like I was their son.”

“I celebrate two birthdays. One is my real birthday and one is August 11, 1943. Let me tell you why I celebrate two birthdays. We were taking Warsaw. You know, it doesn’t matter how much technology or how many tanks you have. At the end of the day it is the foot soldier who must take the enemy trenches. This happens at a great cost. We lost 160,000 men taking Warsaw alone. On that day I mentioned earlier, we were attacking. The ground was practically a mud bath. Tanks spun their threads in the mud and threw it back onto us because we walked behind the tanks. We couldn’t walk on the left or the right of the tank because we would be mowed down by enemy guns. As we were approaching the enemy trenches, there was a big explosion next to me. I don’t know what it was. Perhaps a bomb from an airplane or a mortar round. The blast lifted me up from the mud and flung me on top of the tank ahead. I had twelve men with me at that time. I hit the tank, then rolled down off it… onto the dead bodies of my men. All twelve were killed by shrapnel of the blast in an instant! After that I lost consciousness. In a couple of hours, people came to collect the dead. The Russians were collecting their dead, and the Germans were collecting theirs. I do not know what prompted me to wake up, but if I did not open my eyes, I would have been buried alive in a mass grave. A young nurse found me. I still remember her face as if it was yesterday. A very tired face. Worn out from countless sleepless nights and the horrors of war. She found me and dragged me to a field hospital. I remember that I couldn’t move at that time. Luckily, I recovered very well and in four months once again joined the Red Army. I took Vienna, Prague and eventually Berlin. We left over 220,000 dead in Vienna and well over 160,000 in other cities. But that is how it had to be done.”

“You know, an entire generation has been lost in the wart. The most able-bodied men – all gone. It is a great tragedy that we cannot afford forget.”

“Well, that’s my story. I will never forget that day. I keep thinking: ’somebody must be up there, somebody had to pull me out from the grip of death’.”

I visited Russia recently on a cruise and as part of the trip we got to meet with WWII veterans. Hearing what they had to go through during the war I just had to write it down and pass it on to anyone who will listen. The war has left so many dead that, in the former Soviet Union republics, virtually every family was touched by it. Many families lost their fathers and mothers to the war. Others were wounded or captured. The list is long. This is a small attempt to preserve their stories so that we may remember the burden of war.

Raissa

“As soon as the war started, I volunteered for the army. I wasn’t drafted, I went of my own will to defend my motherland. I was sixteen years old. First, they placed me in a nursing school to learn how to bandage the wounded. After a month of training I was sent to the front – to Stalingrad. I arrived there when the city was under siege. Above us the Germans were flying bombers. They dropped bombs, railroad tracks, barrels… anything they could to shock the people below. When I arrived, the city and everything around me was on fire. It all burned. The tanks burned, the buildings burned, the wheat fields burned, even the water burned. A large oil tank spilled into the water and it burned. Imagine me, a little girl of only 16 years being there. I was scared and confused. I simply sat down and cried.”

“There were many wounded. My task was to find those people who were alive and to get them to a field hospital. Mostly, I had to drag them across the battle field on top of a trench coat. When I said I was little, it wasn’t just age. I’m not very tall, nor very muscular. These guys I had to drag across the field were tank operators. They were from Siberia. They weighed up to a hundred kilograms (200 lb.) and I was all alone trying to get them to the hospital. When a tank was shot and there were wounded people or survivors inside, they would open and close the top hatch of the tank. This is how I found them. I remember trying to climb a tank and having trouble doing so. The man inside was also very heavy and I couldn’t have lifted him out of the tank if it wasn’t for a couple of men inside who helped me. He was severely burned. His hip was shattered. When we finally got off the tank, we sometimes walked on three legs, sometimes walked on our knees and sometimes crawled our way off the battlefield. I did get that man to the hospital though.”

“At some later point, our army was surrounded and I was captured along with many others. The Germans brought us to a barn where they kept the POWs. They didn’t care of you were a man or a woman. They just pointed me toward a cot padded with raw wet hay. That was my bed. In the morning, an angry german woman came with an angry german shepherd. She brought us out to work. She would sick the shepherd on us and keep it within centimeters of us on the leash. I was afraid. It seemed that the dog would just devour us. The woman was just as angry. She made us carry buckets full of wet sand that weighed forty kilos (80 lb.) each to the road that the germans were building. Just so that we wouldn’t die, the germans fed us an awful mixture. They would take flour and dump it into water just enough to make the mixture look glue-like. That’s what we would eat. We were constantly hungry. Many of us were swollen from hunger.”

“Eventually, the germans put us on a train headed for Germany. We were riding in a wooden car and a few of our guys would knock out the planks in the bottom of the car and offer anyone willing to jump down onto the train tracks. Of course, the train was going at full speed and it was very dangerous. Not everyone jumped. I did. When I landed, it was very scary, I was between huge train wheels and the train cars were passing overhead. I tried to lie motionless until the last car passed. When I stood up, I was free from my german captors but I was deep behind enemy lines. The Germans occupied everything around me. But what can one do? I somehow had to survive…”
[Raissa did not go into detail about her life within enemy territory.]

“The Russian army eventually liberated the territory where I stayed and I once again joined the front. I made myself a promise to go all the way to Berlin, to Reichstag. I went through Poland, Czech Republic and reached Berlin. When I finally stood at the Reichstag, I bent down to the ground and picked up a piece of shrapnel. With it, I scratched on the wall of the Reichstag: ‘I will remember’. And I remember until this day.”

A good friend of mine has sent me a very interesting article that I wish to share. I’m going to post a small preview here. For the rest please follow the link:

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it’s Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding – as you can – the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

More thoughts about good and evil:

If God would allow any unbelievers to enter heaven it would be worse than hell for them. How can those who detest prayer and praise to God bear to remain eternally in a place which does this continually? If they felt uncomfortable for only an hour in chuch doing this, think of the eternal discomfort if they had to do it forever. Or, to put it more strongly, since heaven is a place where men will bow in worship to God, how could it be loving for God to force men to go there when they do not will to worship God? It seems more congruent with the nature of divine love not to compel men to love Him against their wills.
Surely no one wishes to go to hell, but some certainly do will it. God refuses to coerce anyone into loving Him because forced love is rape. But He demonstrates a tough love by allowing people to go their own way. If God’s perfect and steadfast love has failed to win them, what could possibly change their minds? Hell is simply a place where the unbeliever is no longer bothered by God pestering him with His love.
Geisler & Brooks, “When Skeptics Ask”

I think I have heard this notion a thousand times and yet every time it strikes me how simple it is. Hell is not just a place of physical pain. The biggest punishment one can endure is the eternal absence of God! C.S. Lewis correctly stated: “The gates of hell are locked from within.” If God Himself cannot convince someone that love is the only true thing that matters then who could? People lock themselves up in hell and hate God for it when they have refused God’s call and willingly chose the absence of God.

A 92-year old, petite, well-poised and proud man was fully dressed each morning by 8:00 a.m. His hair was always neatly combed and his face clean shaven … even though he was legally blind.

But today was to be a different day. He was moving to a nursing home because his wife of 70 years had just passed away, and he could no longer live by himself.

After a couple of hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, the nurse provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet curtains that had been hung on his window.

“I love it,” he stated with the enthusiasm of a young child who had just been given a special birthday present.

“Mr. Godwin, you haven’t seen the room. Just wait.” responded the nurse.

“That hasn’t got anything to do with it,” he replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.”

The old man continued, “It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice. I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as I’m alive, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away … for this time in my life.”

What wisdom! Mr. Godwin had learned one of the great secrets of life … and that is … your success and happiness are not determined by the things that happen to you … good or bad. Your success and happiness are determined by the way you respond to the things that happen.

I just had to share this excerpt from the book I am currently reading (When Skeptics Ask by Geisler and Brooks) because it states very succinctly (and very well) the cause of evil.

What is the nature of evil? We talk about evil acts (murder), evil people (Charles Manson), evil books (pornography), evil events (tornadoes), evil sicknesses (cancer or blindness), but what makes all of these things evil? [...] Some have said that evil is a substance that grabs hold of certain things and makes them bad (like a virus infecting an animal) or that evil is a rival force in the universe. But if God made all things, then that makes God responsible for evil. The argument looks like this:

1. God is the author of all things.
2. Evil is something.
3. Therefore, God is the author of evil.

The first premise is true. So it appears that in order to deny the conclusion we have to deny the reality of evil (as the pantheists do). But we can deny that evil is a thing, or substance, without saying that it isn’t real. It is a lack in things. When good that should be there is missing from something, that is evil. After all, if I am missing a wart on my nose, that is not evil because the wart should not have been there in the first place. However, if a man lacks the ability to see, that is evil. Likewise, if a person lacks the kindness in his heart and respect for human life that should be there, then he may commit murder. Evil is, in reality, a parasite that cannot exist except as a hole in something that should be solid. [...]

In the beginning, there was God and He was perfect. Then the perfect God made a perfect world. So how did evil come into the picture? Let’s summarize the problem this way:

1. Every creature God made is perfect.
2. But perfect creatures cannot do what is imperfect.
3. So, every creature God made cannot do what is imperfect.

But if Adam and Eve were perfect, how did they fall? Don’t blame it on the snake because that just backs the question up one step; didn’t God make the snake perfect too? Some have concluded that there must be some force that is equal with God or beyond His control. Or maybe God just isn’t good after all. But maybe the answer lies in the idea of perfection itself.

1. God made everything perfect.
2. One of the perfect things God made was free creatures.
3. Free will is the cause of evil.
4. So, imperfection (evil) can arise from perfection (not directly, but indirectly through freedom).

One of the things that makes men (and angels) morally perfect is freedom. We have a real choice about what we do. God made us that way so that we could be like Him and could love freely (forced love is not love at all, is it?). But in making us that way, He also allowed for the possibility of evil. To be free we had to have not only the opportunity to choose good, but also the ability to choose evil. That was the risk God knowingly took. That doesn’t make Him responsible for evil. he created the fact of freedom; we perform the acts of freedom. He made evil possible; men made evil actual. Imperfection came through the abuse of our moral perfection as free creatures.

I will post next about the false conclusions people may derive when they read this. Like the authors say, evil may be allowed by God but it is not equal in power to God. Eventually, evil will be defeated even though it cannot be permanently destroyed – because eliminating evil would be equivalent to eliminating choice. Perhaps as the concluding word of wisdom, I would like to emphasize the fact that evil is simply the lack of good. It is not some force separate from goodness and godliness. Rather it is the binary complement of good in the same way that false is the complement of true. To choose between good and evil is to exercise our freedom!

Going through my notes on various books I’ve read, I have once again stumbled on great insight by Rob Bell. I won’t spend too much time discussing as I believe his words are self-evident.

“Everybody is following somebody. Everybody has faith in something and somebody. We are all believers.

As a Christian, I am simply trying to orient myself around living a particular kind of way, the kind of way that Jesus taught is possible. And I think that the way of Jesus is the best possible way to live.

This isn’t irrational or primitive or blind faith. It is merely being honest that we are all living a ‘way’.

I’m convinced being generous is a better way to live.

I’m convinced forgiving people and not carrying around bitterness is a better way to live.

I’m convinced having compassion is a better way to live.

I’m convinced pursuing peace in every situation is a better way to live.

I’m convinced listening to the wisdom of others is a better way to live.

I’m convinced being honest with people is a better way to live.

The thoughts I offer in this post are nothing new. I remembered a talk by Rob Bell almost a year ago and wanted to capture it for my own sake. But to do so I also had to write the previous post with which this one nicely dovetails.

I would like to take us back to the ancient gods of the past once again. There is a paradox that I want to outline which exists for any supernatural being that humans have known. To demonstrate a clear example of this consider the goddess Demeter – “the goddess of grain and bread, the staple food of the ancient Greeks. She was also, by contrast, the goddess of starvation and hunger. When the crops failed, hunger would quickly follow. Like most of the Greek gods, she represented a force of nature, which in its dual nature could bring either blessing (a bountiful harvest) or curse (crop failure).”

The description above is very interesting because it exemplifies the duality of most gods (including the Christian God). There is always a benevolent and nurturing side that is closely mirrored by an angry and cursing side. While this is nothing new, let us look at the consequences of this duality.

Imagine a farmer worshiping Demeter in 800 B.C. This farmer plants a crop and in due time reaps a bountiful harvest with which he can feed his family for many months. Naturally, he feels compelled to thank Demeter for such good fortune and offers a small amount (let’s say 5% of his entire yield) as a sacrifice. He praises the goddess and prays that next year she would bless him with an even better harvest.

Everything goes well as the farmer plants his next set of crops but as they begin to take root a strong ice storm falls upon the land and the crops perish. Horror! The farmer has clearly upset Demeter with his puny and inappropriate sacrifice and is now reaping the wrath of an angry goddess!! How may he appease the deity and repair his good standing? Clearly, Demeter deemed his sacrifice too low and is demanding that the farmer demonstrate his devotion to her by offering a more substantial quantity of his grain from the dwindling reserves that he has kept from the previous year. The farmer has no choice but to oblige.

What happens the next year? Well, if Demeter sends the farmer a bountiful harvest then she will seem to have been appeased. But if Demeter was appeased with a small dosage of grain from the previous year (as compared to this year’s generous harvest) then this year the farmer better sacrifice and even larger portion to the goddess. After all, it is only fair to exuberantly worship a goddess who is responsible for such riches. And what happens when Demeter is again displeased with him the year after? Clearly the previous sacrifice was not pleasing enough and farmer must give up more than ever before to repair his standing!

In essence, this is a doom loop. No matter whether Demeter is appeased or NOT appeased, the farmer must keep sacrificing more of his crop because he never knows where he stands with Demeter. At a moment’s notice the goddess can decide to be angry and the poor farmer must continue providing increasingly more demanding sacrifices. He sacrifices his crops at first, but when that proves to be insufficient he resorts to cattle, and eventually, in the most dire situation even his own children.

But will the goddess EVER have her fill? In one word: NO.

This doom loop has horrible consequences and a few things that need to be learned from it. The first thing is that sacrifices are never enough to appease a god. The ritual of sacrificing as a means of gaining standing with a god is a downward spiral that ultimately destroys lives. By the way, you don’t have to think of sacrifices in material terms. Many people who do not understand Christianity have tried to argue that they deserve good standing with God because of their good deeds or good thoughts. But that is not true. There has been only one and ultimate sacrifice to God… a God himself – Jesus Christ. Recognizing that only an infinite sacrifice is pleasing to God and that the price of their freedom has been paid in full, Christians are free of the doom loop. We worship God for his greatness and not to gain any standing with him. Nobody can “earn” his way to heaven. St. Francis De Salles has a great quote to capture this idea:

1. Consider that it is strictly true that you stand between heaven and hell and that each of them lies open to receive you according to the choice you make.
2. Consider that the choice of one or the other of them that we make in this world will last eternally in the world to come.
3. Also, that although each of them is open to receive you in keeping with your choice, yet God, who is prepared to give you hell by his justice or heaven by his mercy, desires with an incomparable desire that you choose heaven.

This is why the concept of Christianity makes perfect sense. It is not the law that keeps us bound to God, it is our own choice. We desire to maintain and grow a relationship with God free from the moral and physical obligations of payment or sacrifice. So as it turns out, the one true God is not angry. And that is a great reason to rejoice and praise Him for his love and benevolence as well as for his justice.