My fourth letter describes the reasons for my stay in hospital. Lying on my back with my foot up resting my chronic wound, with my mind active, my motive for writing these letters was certainly to give me something to do. I am lucky and thank God for the ability to do so, noticing the conditions of other patients, and aware of the pain and suffering in the world. But as C. S. Lewis wrote, hearing of someone else's toothache did not help him with his own!
A Fourth Letter From Hospital.
My fourth letter will begin with an account of my infirmities. I was admitted for a skin graft on my ankle, having suffered a chronic wound there for five years. In hospital at that time for eight weeks, with two theatre visits, a skin graft was not done because the wound was deep exposing the Achilles Tendon. My wife has dressed it for five years, on average about twice per week, and then we decided to attend the Orthopaedic Clinic where the consultant said he could now go ahead with a skin graft, complimenting my wife for her work. As I write today, two weeks after the operation, the graft has not taken. If it is God's will, I could be in hospital for some time. Interestingly I am getting more fellowship here with family, friends, patients and a few nurses than I ever did attending an SDA Church.
Anyway, coming back to my ankle, after surgery whilst coming out of the theatre the doctors said I could do a little walking, to the toilet and to wash myself at the bedside, by using my stick and walking flat-footed on the bad leg. This has caused some concern amongst my wife and my family. One member related the experience of a cousin of hers, who had a skin graft several years ago and was confined, practically immovable, to her bed, to avoid trauma on the wound. She had to have everything done for her, toileting, washing and dressing, for ten days. The graft was successful. With my limited mobility approved by doctors and nurses I have been able to go to the toilet and wash myself at the bedside.
Today I used my walking stick to get across the ward and sit with the patient who is totally bed-ridden, paralyzed from the waist down. I spoke to him again about Stephen Hawking because I had noticed that this patient, his name is Christopher, was just lying in bed doing nothing for himself, and going to sleep. He told me he sometimes gets bored, he does have many visitors and considerable attention from the nurses, but I asked him if he would consider tackling his infirmity with the technology which Hawking was able to operate successfully? He said if possible he would be interested. He is thirty five years old.
My two doctors arrived to attend to Christopher and I said that I am going to be told off for walking across the ward. My doctors said not at all, they approved of the way I walked flat-footed on the bad leg and said that it would help the blood circulation to the wound. They raised their eyebrows at my story concerning my niece and her bed-ridden stay for the skin graft. They said it must have been a few years ago, and treatment changes. I guess only God knows what is best and I pray to Him always for guidance and believe He is telling me to trust the doctors. Medical science, indeed all sciences, show progress, and God will not allow the devil to interfere with the progress of His gift. However the devil can influence the doctors by encouraging them to give unwise advice, motivated by their own sinful selves more interested in their own grandizement rather than the welfare of their patients. After declaring our whole-hearted trust in God, we have to respond positively to His will and place our trust in some human enterprises, and some mortal human beings.
Christopher does no reading and barely watches the television some distance away from him in the ward. He does use a cell phone occasionally, other patients are on their smart phones or laptops all of the time. I suggested that perhaps he could have a monitor fixed above his head, operated by a one-handed keyboard, I have heard that this sort of facility is available in many wards of the hospitals in developed countries. We are in Barbados, therefore it would have to be done as a privately financed piece of equipment, in the same way we have to bring our own fan into this ward which is not air-conditioned. God works in mysterious ways, has He placed me here to experience these things and write about them? Family members tell me I should try to get these letters published, not that they have read them yet although several have expressed interest in them. They have only listened to me telling them briefly about what it is that I am writing.
I have been interested in Christian Anarchism for many years, ever since I learnt that Leo Tolstoy is considered to be a Christian Anarchist, and after beginning to read his book "The Kingdom of God Is Within You". We now have the Internet, already referred to when I mentioned Teilhard de Chardin, and I have done many quick searches over the years for anything about Christian Anarchism. Beginning with Wikipedia, I have found there is a vast source of writings, and accounts of people's experiences, on the Internet. Unfortunately I have not pursued my interest over the years, needing at first to gain some knowledge of the development of Christianity in its entirety, therefore have never contributed to Christian Anarchism. When I am out of hospital, I will look to see if there might be an interest in these letters, and post them out on the Internet.
Dorothy Day, for instance, a renowned Christian Anarchist, herself accepting to be known as an anarchist, started the Catholic Workers Union during the 1930's. There is a lot of information about her in Wikipedia. A problem with some Christian Anarchists is that she remained loyal to her Roman Catholicism. I am thinking that Seventh Day Adventism could be a platform from which I could air my views but I would never become a member and then be expected to pay tithes, nor would I attend their full Sabbath Service. If I was given help to get to Church on a Sabbath I would only participate fully in the Sabbath School, and would be unlikely to stay for the Divine Hour. Please help me God, should I just stay at home and only use the Internet, moving us towards Teilhard de Chardin's noosphere and the Second Coming of Christ?
These letters appear to be developing into an outline of what I think it means to be a Christian. This was my question added to the questions posed by the advertisement in the SDA Quarterly, and I now submit my answer.
To begin we must believe in the supernatural, something beyond our time, space and material universe. We must believe in a Creator who exists in this supernatural world. As Christians we must believe that this Creator came to earth as a man so that we could relate at a mortal human level to our Creator. This man's name was Jesus, and although the Bible was written, compiled and translated from its early languages by mortal men and women, we must believe all of this work has been inspired by God, the Creator. We must also believe in the devil, who also came to this world from the supernatural realm which we call heaven, he took command and introduced sin. Jesus died as a man, was buried as a man, but because He was God He was resurrected and now exists within each of us as a spiritual being whom we call the Holy Ghost, or in more recent times, the Holy Spirit. We must believe that God created us in His image, and gave us free will so that we are not mere puppets on a string. Such a deterministic world belongs to the fanciful imaginations of non-believers. As we all know, having free will and the ability to make choices, we all fall to the temptations of the devil. We are all always in sin, with selfishness, greed and pride paramount in our mortal selves, leading to cruelty, war and all other ills of this corrupt society. We must believe that our eternal salvation is only through our spiritual relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.
I now come to the fourth question from the advertisement in the SDA Quarterly, "What happens when we die?". I believe that even as Christians we can only speculate. It may be soul sleep until the Second Coming of Christ, as advocated by the Seventh Day Adventists, or our spiritual selves may come immediately into the presence of Jesus. This is my belief, but to be honest I do not know, it is all in God's hands. I do not believe there is a lake of fire. I am a Christian because of my faith in God through Jesus, and He is a good God. He is not a punishing God. As a Christian we should believe in the power of prayer, that God hears our prayers, acknowledges our faith because of all of our prayers, those of praise and adoration, intercessional prayers and petitionary prayers. We understand that He will answer our prayers according to HIs will, which is ultimately for the salvation of all at His Second Coming.
In the meantime, in our mortal life, we must try to do good works. This is not to secure our salvation, because we know that is a free gift from God if we believe in Him and have faith in Him, but we in His image must do something in this world. We must try to bring others to Him and to counteract the wiles of the devil. We will not succeed in this life on our own, and Christian living is a journey as we wait for His Second Coming. Only then will all sin be destroyed.
I now want to discuss how I view the Christian concept of good works in this world, and this is where my anarchism impacts my thinking. According to Scripture, I think, I am no Bible scholar, we have to be in this world but not part of it. Christian Anarchism is well documented on the Internet, therefore I feel no need to explain it here. I do not claim to be a Christian Anarchist. I try to be a Christian as I have just been discussing, and throughout my life an anarchist. To attach any label invites the devil to intervene, just as what has happened with the established denominations, and did happen with Marxism in the nineteenth century. Ideologies become corrupt and build themselves up into human institutional authorities, leading to authoritarianism.
Now, as an example of my thoughts on Christian works, they can be illustrated by looking at the Catholic Worker's Movement set up by Dorothy Day, a self-acclaimed Christian Anarchist. Voluntarism has to be at the heart of our good works, and although this is very prevalent and commendable in institutional Churches, also first responders who need not be religious at all, and including all secular voluntary work, I have to ask of their motivation? It is of course the Christian love of fellow human beings, but need not be labelled Christian. A home church might exist on Christian Anarchist lines, believers coming together in a home which they did in the early days described in the Book of Acts. The established Churches are recognizing the importance of this type of meeting, and they call them cells. Some Christian Anarchists criticize Dorothy Day for staying with the Roman Catholic Church, but I think this was a case of being in this world but not part of it. As a state, and private, school teacher I thought I was always operating this way, but with little anarchical influence. Eventually I became pessimistic and just got on with the job, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I am too old and infirm now to engage in physical activities, but please God, should I write and use the Internet?
To continue on what I think it means to be a Christian we should be studying the Bible. The words written there are the works of man in thousands of different languages. They are open to many different interpretations, but our study and discussion with other Christians should lead us closer to the Word of God, now written with an upper case "W" in English translations as found in John 1:1. I am no literalist, the Adam and Eve story could be just metaphorical, I think. I believe the seventh day of the week, now called Saturday in English, is the Sabbath, but there are many Christians who hold a different view. The home churches meet anywhere and at any time. Our priority in this world, as Christians, is to be an example to others according to the preaching of Jesus, and emphasized by Him in the Sermon on the Mount. We should read this again and again, put it into our hearts, and act out its admonishments in as great a fervor as we are able, forsaking any worldly gains. Pastors of the established Churches please do this, forsaking your worldly ambitions and give up your worldly goods, as explained in my earlier letter. There is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount which says we should attend a Church, therefore as Christians we do not need to. Where two or more are gathered in my Name, there too will I be (Jesus). Established Churches have only developed as edifices of human authoritarianism and are not needed to be a Christian. We can marvel at the works of man, our cathedrals, architecture, infrastructure, propagation and deployment of the earth's resources, plants, animals, and inanimate materials, but be constantly wary of their abuse, and pray to God for the guidance of their care. Already there is much good work being done in this respect, and Christians should be fully involved, but we must accept that the problems of the world will never be solved until the Second Coming of Christ. As Christians we must spread the Word, and keep up the good works. This might give us some salvation in this life and should be our principal motivation, leaving eternal salvation in God's hands according to His will.
A Fourth Letter From Hospital.
My fourth letter will begin with an account of my infirmities. I was admitted for a skin graft on my ankle, having suffered a chronic wound there for five years. In hospital at that time for eight weeks, with two theatre visits, a skin graft was not done because the wound was deep exposing the Achilles Tendon. My wife has dressed it for five years, on average about twice per week, and then we decided to attend the Orthopaedic Clinic where the consultant said he could now go ahead with a skin graft, complimenting my wife for her work. As I write today, two weeks after the operation, the graft has not taken. If it is God's will, I could be in hospital for some time. Interestingly I am getting more fellowship here with family, friends, patients and a few nurses than I ever did attending an SDA Church.
Anyway, coming back to my ankle, after surgery whilst coming out of the theatre the doctors said I could do a little walking, to the toilet and to wash myself at the bedside, by using my stick and walking flat-footed on the bad leg. This has caused some concern amongst my wife and my family. One member related the experience of a cousin of hers, who had a skin graft several years ago and was confined, practically immovable, to her bed, to avoid trauma on the wound. She had to have everything done for her, toileting, washing and dressing, for ten days. The graft was successful. With my limited mobility approved by doctors and nurses I have been able to go to the toilet and wash myself at the bedside.
Today I used my walking stick to get across the ward and sit with the patient who is totally bed-ridden, paralyzed from the waist down. I spoke to him again about Stephen Hawking because I had noticed that this patient, his name is Christopher, was just lying in bed doing nothing for himself, and going to sleep. He told me he sometimes gets bored, he does have many visitors and considerable attention from the nurses, but I asked him if he would consider tackling his infirmity with the technology which Hawking was able to operate successfully? He said if possible he would be interested. He is thirty five years old.
My two doctors arrived to attend to Christopher and I said that I am going to be told off for walking across the ward. My doctors said not at all, they approved of the way I walked flat-footed on the bad leg and said that it would help the blood circulation to the wound. They raised their eyebrows at my story concerning my niece and her bed-ridden stay for the skin graft. They said it must have been a few years ago, and treatment changes. I guess only God knows what is best and I pray to Him always for guidance and believe He is telling me to trust the doctors. Medical science, indeed all sciences, show progress, and God will not allow the devil to interfere with the progress of His gift. However the devil can influence the doctors by encouraging them to give unwise advice, motivated by their own sinful selves more interested in their own grandizement rather than the welfare of their patients. After declaring our whole-hearted trust in God, we have to respond positively to His will and place our trust in some human enterprises, and some mortal human beings.
Christopher does no reading and barely watches the television some distance away from him in the ward. He does use a cell phone occasionally, other patients are on their smart phones or laptops all of the time. I suggested that perhaps he could have a monitor fixed above his head, operated by a one-handed keyboard, I have heard that this sort of facility is available in many wards of the hospitals in developed countries. We are in Barbados, therefore it would have to be done as a privately financed piece of equipment, in the same way we have to bring our own fan into this ward which is not air-conditioned. God works in mysterious ways, has He placed me here to experience these things and write about them? Family members tell me I should try to get these letters published, not that they have read them yet although several have expressed interest in them. They have only listened to me telling them briefly about what it is that I am writing.
I have been interested in Christian Anarchism for many years, ever since I learnt that Leo Tolstoy is considered to be a Christian Anarchist, and after beginning to read his book "The Kingdom of God Is Within You". We now have the Internet, already referred to when I mentioned Teilhard de Chardin, and I have done many quick searches over the years for anything about Christian Anarchism. Beginning with Wikipedia, I have found there is a vast source of writings, and accounts of people's experiences, on the Internet. Unfortunately I have not pursued my interest over the years, needing at first to gain some knowledge of the development of Christianity in its entirety, therefore have never contributed to Christian Anarchism. When I am out of hospital, I will look to see if there might be an interest in these letters, and post them out on the Internet.
Dorothy Day, for instance, a renowned Christian Anarchist, herself accepting to be known as an anarchist, started the Catholic Workers Union during the 1930's. There is a lot of information about her in Wikipedia. A problem with some Christian Anarchists is that she remained loyal to her Roman Catholicism. I am thinking that Seventh Day Adventism could be a platform from which I could air my views but I would never become a member and then be expected to pay tithes, nor would I attend their full Sabbath Service. If I was given help to get to Church on a Sabbath I would only participate fully in the Sabbath School, and would be unlikely to stay for the Divine Hour. Please help me God, should I just stay at home and only use the Internet, moving us towards Teilhard de Chardin's noosphere and the Second Coming of Christ?
These letters appear to be developing into an outline of what I think it means to be a Christian. This was my question added to the questions posed by the advertisement in the SDA Quarterly, and I now submit my answer.
To begin we must believe in the supernatural, something beyond our time, space and material universe. We must believe in a Creator who exists in this supernatural world. As Christians we must believe that this Creator came to earth as a man so that we could relate at a mortal human level to our Creator. This man's name was Jesus, and although the Bible was written, compiled and translated from its early languages by mortal men and women, we must believe all of this work has been inspired by God, the Creator. We must also believe in the devil, who also came to this world from the supernatural realm which we call heaven, he took command and introduced sin. Jesus died as a man, was buried as a man, but because He was God He was resurrected and now exists within each of us as a spiritual being whom we call the Holy Ghost, or in more recent times, the Holy Spirit. We must believe that God created us in His image, and gave us free will so that we are not mere puppets on a string. Such a deterministic world belongs to the fanciful imaginations of non-believers. As we all know, having free will and the ability to make choices, we all fall to the temptations of the devil. We are all always in sin, with selfishness, greed and pride paramount in our mortal selves, leading to cruelty, war and all other ills of this corrupt society. We must believe that our eternal salvation is only through our spiritual relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.
I now come to the fourth question from the advertisement in the SDA Quarterly, "What happens when we die?". I believe that even as Christians we can only speculate. It may be soul sleep until the Second Coming of Christ, as advocated by the Seventh Day Adventists, or our spiritual selves may come immediately into the presence of Jesus. This is my belief, but to be honest I do not know, it is all in God's hands. I do not believe there is a lake of fire. I am a Christian because of my faith in God through Jesus, and He is a good God. He is not a punishing God. As a Christian we should believe in the power of prayer, that God hears our prayers, acknowledges our faith because of all of our prayers, those of praise and adoration, intercessional prayers and petitionary prayers. We understand that He will answer our prayers according to HIs will, which is ultimately for the salvation of all at His Second Coming.
In the meantime, in our mortal life, we must try to do good works. This is not to secure our salvation, because we know that is a free gift from God if we believe in Him and have faith in Him, but we in His image must do something in this world. We must try to bring others to Him and to counteract the wiles of the devil. We will not succeed in this life on our own, and Christian living is a journey as we wait for His Second Coming. Only then will all sin be destroyed.
I now want to discuss how I view the Christian concept of good works in this world, and this is where my anarchism impacts my thinking. According to Scripture, I think, I am no Bible scholar, we have to be in this world but not part of it. Christian Anarchism is well documented on the Internet, therefore I feel no need to explain it here. I do not claim to be a Christian Anarchist. I try to be a Christian as I have just been discussing, and throughout my life an anarchist. To attach any label invites the devil to intervene, just as what has happened with the established denominations, and did happen with Marxism in the nineteenth century. Ideologies become corrupt and build themselves up into human institutional authorities, leading to authoritarianism.
Now, as an example of my thoughts on Christian works, they can be illustrated by looking at the Catholic Worker's Movement set up by Dorothy Day, a self-acclaimed Christian Anarchist. Voluntarism has to be at the heart of our good works, and although this is very prevalent and commendable in institutional Churches, also first responders who need not be religious at all, and including all secular voluntary work, I have to ask of their motivation? It is of course the Christian love of fellow human beings, but need not be labelled Christian. A home church might exist on Christian Anarchist lines, believers coming together in a home which they did in the early days described in the Book of Acts. The established Churches are recognizing the importance of this type of meeting, and they call them cells. Some Christian Anarchists criticize Dorothy Day for staying with the Roman Catholic Church, but I think this was a case of being in this world but not part of it. As a state, and private, school teacher I thought I was always operating this way, but with little anarchical influence. Eventually I became pessimistic and just got on with the job, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I am too old and infirm now to engage in physical activities, but please God, should I write and use the Internet?
To continue on what I think it means to be a Christian we should be studying the Bible. The words written there are the works of man in thousands of different languages. They are open to many different interpretations, but our study and discussion with other Christians should lead us closer to the Word of God, now written with an upper case "W" in English translations as found in John 1:1. I am no literalist, the Adam and Eve story could be just metaphorical, I think. I believe the seventh day of the week, now called Saturday in English, is the Sabbath, but there are many Christians who hold a different view. The home churches meet anywhere and at any time. Our priority in this world, as Christians, is to be an example to others according to the preaching of Jesus, and emphasized by Him in the Sermon on the Mount. We should read this again and again, put it into our hearts, and act out its admonishments in as great a fervor as we are able, forsaking any worldly gains. Pastors of the established Churches please do this, forsaking your worldly ambitions and give up your worldly goods, as explained in my earlier letter. There is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount which says we should attend a Church, therefore as Christians we do not need to. Where two or more are gathered in my Name, there too will I be (Jesus). Established Churches have only developed as edifices of human authoritarianism and are not needed to be a Christian. We can marvel at the works of man, our cathedrals, architecture, infrastructure, propagation and deployment of the earth's resources, plants, animals, and inanimate materials, but be constantly wary of their abuse, and pray to God for the guidance of their care. Already there is much good work being done in this respect, and Christians should be fully involved, but we must accept that the problems of the world will never be solved until the Second Coming of Christ. As Christians we must spread the Word, and keep up the good works. This might give us some salvation in this life and should be our principal motivation, leaving eternal salvation in God's hands according to His will.
