Atheists are like snowmen that don’t believe in the sun. Good luck.

THAT IS THE IMPORT OF DOUGLAS WILSON'S upcoming work, Heaven Misplaced: Christ's Kingdom on Earth (Canon, 2008). I do not like it. It is not very likeable. (Though I like the snowman implication, even if it is not his image). And yet I think it speaks the Truth; for, honestly, before reading it I vehemently disagreed with his side of the debate, and after reading it I vehemently disagreed with his side of the debate. And then time passed, my Christian life went on as before, and at numerous moments I found his case - at times very sloppily argued here - plainly made much greater sense of Holy Scripture, and much less of an ass out of the reader of Holy Scripture, and contributed much greater glory to the Lord of Hosts that I have quite unconsciously and unzealously, but I think irrevocably, adopted it. (Though not quite to the fullest extent). That said, this book does remain at times infuriating, and may not be the best method of introducing it to others.

The debate is apocalyptic. It is about how the world will end. Atheists are like snowmen that don’t believe in the sun, because Christ - argues Wilson - will do exactly what we celebrate he will do at Christmas-time, with all that talk and carolling of epochal change, hope consummated, peace on Earth and goodwill amongst Men. “[T]he gospel will continue to grow and flourish throughout the world, more and more individuals will be converted, the nations will stream to Christ, and the Great Commission will finally be successfully completed … And then the end will come”. The sun, as he has elsewhere put it, has risen - because the Son has risen - and as it climbs the sky, whilst at first near-imperceptible dawn, it will at last become undeniable noon. It will get harder and harder to not believe, as the Holy Spirit goes to work, and the sinful world is subdued to serve the risen Lord.

Beneath the "fold" of this post, if you will, lies a serious review of the book, so I warn all those who hated my previous posts on this man and his work to acquire a handful of clothes pegs and suitably attach them to their face in advance; and gratify you by reiterating the fact that this is of course the third and last, and much delayed, such meditation.


AS WILSON POINTS OUT, this is not exactly the majority view amongst the faithful. For most, “the world is God’s Vietnam, and the return of Christ consists of the few lucky ones [getting] helicoptered off a roof during the fall of Saigon”. Some of his arguments, however, are better than others at attempting to persuade said faithful to switch sides. And that Vietnam remark - which made me chuckle at first (for it’s fairly accurate) - will come back to haunt him.

It is perhaps fairest to put his best ones forward first.

1) It is promised. The scriptures he arranges and explicates for this are many, and heart-warming, but can be summed up with the famous greatness of Isaiah 11:6-10.

6The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

9They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

10And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

Matthew 28:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 are great reinforcements too. He quite rightly points out that all these seem “so over the top that most Christians just relegate [them] to some time after the Lord comes again. That is the only way they can see that a fulfilment could ever be possible”. But scripture does not allow us to do that. The irresistible fact is, for instance, that St Paul quotes that Isaiah passage in his epistle to the Romans, “as a justification for his preaching to the Gentiles”. (See Romans 15:12)

That is, now is the time of fulfilment! The Christian era - with its pastors, apostles, evangelists - is pre-eminently the slow achievement of this Isaiah prophecy, all thanks to the surpassing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of Mercies and the work of the Holy Ghost. Slow, perhaps, maybe achingly at times, and with reversals - and from our time now, where it is surely not more than half-done, difficult to think of how it might practically be achieved - but steadily advancing - and it will at last have the most glorious promised victory. Here is some wind for our sails, and oil for our lamps!

Either we believe this or we don’t. I couldn’t at first. It is natural, perhaps - for utopian (not to say Christian socialist) bunk about the reformation of human nature, the establishing of heaven on earth in five years’ time, etc, etc, belongs squarely in the gutter of history, whence valiant men have spent numerous centuries punching it. But these are pagan aspirations and should not of a right bar us from thoughts that only at first sound similar; just as we surely do not think the greasy hypocritical Televangelist denies the possibility of true earnest faithful men.

We should remember how much better things have been before, when Christianity was much more widely diffused in our country. The nation was not righteous and religious in all things by fiat and theocrat, but by inclination. Church spires rose everywhere; novelists like Trollope did all they could to “bring every thought” of their public “captive into obedience with Christ” (just read his justifications in that resplendent Autobiography to see what I mean); and men wrote in the floor of the Houses of Parliament that “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalm 127:1, AV). So I think a quiet faith, sensible of this hope, and modestly acknowledging that it will take many generations before it is accomplished - and we are perchance still, in the long run, the early church - is quite consistent and normal with a clear-eyed conservative view of the facts of fallen mankind. It will come by the hand of God, not man. The fact of a small band of Jewish ‘heretics’ spreading their faith the wide world o’er, conquering the hearts of every kind of nation and people … in but two millennia, and it still being the largest faith, and the fastest growing, is supportive evidence enough for me. It is in the hands of the Lord. The rest coming true is no less improbable than what has happened so far. Soli Deo Gloria. And such Gloria!

2) It is lovely. He includes a basic gospel exposition spread over numerous chapters, rejoicing warmly in the well-known elements, but adding this perspective and so rejoicing even more warmly; repeating what we know, and adding what we have not seen, thereby in many respects putting the ‘good’ back in ‘good news’. I would have liked this to be more organised and explicit about what it is doing (because it is unannounced, and leaves the main thread hanging, it feels slightly awkward). But it is all very good.

3) He also excellently tidies up both Christ’s promise that he would return before “this generation passes away”, and the Book of Revelations. For the former, he notes, it must refer to an act of God, involving his Son, that happened before that generation passed away. He marshals a superb case for AD70 and the destruction of the Temple, with the establishing of the Church as New Jerusalem, fitting the bill; and does so in a way which ineluctably glorifies the Lord, for it was a major prophecy, made by him, and majorly fulfilled.

As for the latter, long the site of bewildering, appalling exegeses, he calmly and logically explains its various tropes as being met both in the gospel story itself and the first century. This does not deny it can be read in terms of what may happen in the future. It is not scripturally fallow and spent, having been fulfilled (though hatefully Wilson does not help the reader avoid that idea, which comes naturally). History, being the sum of the paths of men and the will of God, will repeat in many ways. Its principles hold. Revelations is a vivid kind of allegory of the gospel conquest; and so of course must have many future applications, as well as comforting properties, and all thankfully shorn of the trembling jowls and panic of the would-be prophet, seeing helicopters in scorpions or writing badly-written heresy.

ALL OF THESE ARGUMENTS, and the whole book itself, have the immense value of imparting a key and overdue change in the general Christian posture. It is a cause for standing up straight, when many are crabbed and crouched.

Many modern Christians suffer from a strange weakness of belief. In our portion of the globe Christendom is in disarray; you might even be tempted to think the Cross totters (but it stands forever); and there comes upon the mind of men a strange disposal to thinking, whether consciously or not, of God as small and troubled (or else big and a kind of pimp for prosperity; that is, in fact, equally small). Both such wild diversions have the same thing in common: lack of a long-term perspective in which Christ's victory is a victory of the kind he talks of, and like all real victories, one in which we get to enjoy some true peace (of the kind he talks of). One believes the peace will come in some vague sense which is so vague it is as much as saying 'not at all'; the other believes it must have come already, and therefore must mean something like free Ferraris. And there are simply too many people, too, who, shorn of this perspective, look about and believe that Satan is the ruler of this world still; are more willing to ascribe omnipresence, omniscience and infinity to him, in warning us of his demoniac ways, than they are to bless the name of God; but “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31, AV). The world, the flesh, and the devil are thorns in our sides - and we sometimes seem to live in a landscape comprised entirely of cacti - but to magnify such thorns, and not the fruits of that fateful thorn, the spear slung in the side of Christ, whence “blood and water” sprang, and all that means, is utterly and everlastingly perverse.

This mistake affects everything from our childish liturgy and worship, to our measly preaching and enervated evangelism. It is no wonder that the best we can do, for a God whose infinite sovereignty, victory and glory - and explicit Word - we profoundly (sometimes unawares) doubt, is pathetic and half-hearted. We are the most tentative fishers of men known in history; and think that, to catch a man, a few tables of interesting literature, perhaps a fantasy novel full of whizz-bang allegory, maybe 'living a life that provokes questions' (zzzz) will do the trick; but we forget that we follow in the stead of a man who made such a catch of fish the nets overflowed. The expectations are different - or ought to be. The methods are, as with the fish, as with the men, His Word.

The new posture, argues Wilson, (without admittedly stating the kind of opinions above) is the old posture and message of Paul: one that

“topples the princes of this world, and everything that previously had been under their jurisdiction, and this mean[s] the arts, politics, education, scientific investigation, building fences, cooking, and anything else that men might do. Rightly understood, preaching Christ and Him crucified is as broad as the world … In thinking about the greatness of the Great Commission, you do not ever have to worry about overdoing it”

. My cynicism rebelled at this at first; maybe yours will too; but it strikes me now that to not have faith in this, when men have had much fruitful faith in it in the past, is tragic and unnecessary.

NOW THE BAD THINGS.

The first problem is that he doesn’t elaborate his arguments against probable objections. He expresses a wish in his introduction to make it congenial and sympathetic to us, by presenting it simply and straightforwardly; but he really should have done some defensive work as he went. Misunderstandings and unnecessary opposition are provoked on nearly every page in a work like this - that is, one attempting to supplant another devoutly held view. Most Christians don’t just simply believe something else; along with that, they are naturally suspicious of opposing claims. As it happens, Wilson’s opposing claim has many historical antecedents to comfort the sceptic (I think Jonathan Edwards, for instance, would have been very sympathetic). But it is only through serious patience and charity not of my own resources that I have not simply set fire to the manuscript at times. In his introduction he tries to wriggle out of this important job by saying skeptics should relax and just try and imaginatively appreciate his vision. This is all well and good: by the imagination has an opinion too; it's why novels have morals.

Along with this goes his propensity for slaying straw-men. He slaughters whole armies of scarecrows in defence of his arguments, but does not allay genuine concerns. Why, for instance, detect and destroy the notion in opponents that “human history is basically all the same … Things go on pretty much as they have always done … the resurrection being a completely anomalous event in an otherwise unchanged world”. This from the writer who, a paragraph previously, wrote that the “resurrection was one small, tiny part of the general resurrection to come”. Who is it truly with a warped sense of the resurrection’s importance? Surely if it is numerically a tiny part of the general resurrection, it still remains vast and central; the first fruits and so the very seeds of all the rest.

It would be boring to go through all the rest in as much detail; the worst though must be put down. And God's Vietnam is probably the worst. For he rightly - but belatedly, in a brief passage, by-the-by, almost at the end - stresses that if this view is not like the more popular view in thinking of this world as being God's Vietnam, it is only really the ending they disagree over. There will still be suffering for Christ; there will still be death for Christ; the road, as he puts it, lies through the cross. It will be a heavy task, and there lies in many veins saintly blood that must be spilled to win it. It is no easy thing. This is quite right. This is terribly important, especially to keep the reader from mistakenly thinking he is preaching anything contrary to the tribulation, suffering, labour - and weight of glory - that is at the heart of orthodox Christianity. But for the amount of words and passion he expends on this, it sounds about as troubling as a mosquito bite.

The last problem is a great deal of muddled obscurity in the writing. The whole thing feels hazy at times; some of it makes a very infuriating semi-sense, and has to be very generously interpreted to be anything other than idiotic or meaningless. He begins vigorously enough, but soon is wibbling and digressing and floating free. It is most un-Wilson-like.

E.g. after much diversion from his central matter, he states that Christ as judge “is the resurrected victim of a judicially-rigged murder. Christ is returning, and He is returning with deliverance from the old ways of death disguised as ‘justice’”. Right. What? This I can only take to mean a deliverance from the Law - in which we were dead, with the semblance or ambition of righteousness or “justice”, and into Grace, where it truly is found and accomplished. In other words, but a classic point of the New Testament… But it comes across as a random disquisition against capital punishment. Time would fail me to tell of the idiocy of such lines as “Salvation of the world doesn’t mean salvation of each and every person. But it does mean salvation of the world.” At one point he says that America needs a saviour, and Christ is a saviour, "therefore the nation will be saved". That seems to me one of the largest non sequiturs ever committed to the page. And it is lousy stuff to say we must let NT writers tell us how to treat OT texts, and then reverse this a few chapters later (i.e. don't make rather arbitrary rules, only to contradict them). Similar sillinesses abound. I am not sure why. It does not meet Wilson’s usual standards. It is gravely disappointing.

Heaven Misplaced also has a rather digressive, disorganised, torrential organisation - chapters leaking every which way, making irrelevant points, or too many points, or impertinent points - which makes me suspect, alongside all these issues, that it is a touched-up transcript of a talk or lecture series. There is nothing wrong with this. But they haven’t been touched up enough.

ANYWAY. It makes its points. And they are agreeable. They are not at all essential. He does not make them irresistible. I can think of many points where his interpretation of scripture need not be the only one. But it is the more convincing one. And, as I said, the picture, when you have internalised it, fits so smartly, glorifies so largely, and inspires so lastingly, that I am strongly inclined towards it. This is not a very good basis for belief if it is merely (as he unadvisedly says it can be) simply because it is excellent if true. It fits smartly. That’s important.



And at the heart, I feel, of this instinctive opposition to his arguing it will all literally, specifically, in human history come true, is the fact that at our historical moment it seems so unlikely. Yet I dare not say it is impossible. It warms the heart. The Holy Spirit can do all things; has done so much already; in less than half a century he has, for instance, called more than 100 million Chinese out of darkness and into his everlasting light. This is a miracle of astonishing proportions. So to the men and women of far futurity, faithful once more, the glory of the Lord abiding in their hearts, and the Lord ever glorified in their lands, able to read this from Google v. 509, I bid you a hello from a true Dark Age!

Heaven Misplaced is due for release on December 16th, and shall be available from CanonPress.org