MY REDEEMER LIVES

On this day fifty-six years ago several hundred enemy planes swooped down upon the air fields and naval base on the island of Oahu in our Hawaiian Territories. The war that began for the United States on that day went on to last almost four years. It called forth strenuous efforts on our part, and we as well as our assorted enemies suffered grave financial and material losses as well as thousands of precious lives. In the course of that conflict, very many humans were carried away in death to a place of no hope, to hell itself. But also as a result of that conflict, some few were called into eternal life with God our Father whose only Son died in spiritual conflict with the author of sin and death, even the devil himself.

One of those who came to salvation was a leading pilot in one of the first planes to attack Pearl Harbor so many decades ago. Providentially, unlike the majority of his fellows, he survived the war and in the process was prepared to accept the Christian faith. That was a journey of many many months, even years as we may understand it from the experience of the saints throughout history. In every clime and place, as the old hymn goes, there are children of our God and King who by the power of His Spirit accept the fact of their own sin and seek forgiveness in the very blood of Jesus Christ.

Some of the older generation who did indeed suffer through the rigors of combat in the hard fought island campaigns of the global war of the forties, may not fully appreciate the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the calling of a former enemy to be their friend in the faith once given to the saints. I remember the fiftieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor, when the gentleman in question from Japan wished to visit the ceremonies and offer a heartfelt apology. Sadly, the worldly authorities who planned the activities would not accept him or any of his kin to be part of their bitter remembrance. They would rather have their lifelong grudge to pin their medals to!

Now please understand, I am not questioning their bravery nor the reality of their suffering or that of their friends who died. But I would question where their experience has brought them. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who was taken prisoner by his own government, went on to suffer almost to the point of death. Then one night the Doctor who treated him shared the faith to which he had been called. From that point on, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to shared in the precious faith. Some years later when he had escaped the hardships of the brutal Gulag archipelago which he won his Nobel prize for describing, he said that he had forgiven those who meant to kill him. And the reason was, that the God of heaven had turned what the wicked meant for destruction into eternal life. If I remember his testimony correctly, he well understood that he needed such an experience to break his pride and spirit to accept the greater wisdom of our God and King.

I recently watched a spy movie set in the terrors of the Third Reich. According to the story line, an American writer took center stage in the German Propaganda Ministry to broadcast their lies to the English speaking world. Unbeknownst to his wicked masters, he was also broadcasting information critical to the allied cause in the very same speeches. At the end of the war, he was released by the Americans and found his way into a generation of shadowlands where his existence hounded him continually. Finally after repeated escapes from disaster, he sought justice at the hands of the courts in Israel. When his old spy handler offered to come and testify on his behalf, he took his own life and escaped into the movie title "Mother Night". Justice he understood and sought it at the end. What he did not understand was the great spiritual gift of mercy and he missed it when he jumped off his desk into the cold reality of a hellish comfort, the darkness of mother night.

I say all of this to contrast the experience of the saints and that of sinners who never quite realize that the Lord God of heaven and earth sometimes turns suffering to His purpose and takes away those who are on their way to serve the devil for eternity in hell. To see all of this in perspective I would urge you to read through the book of Job in the Old Covenant of our Lord and God. Even two millennia before Christ, the writer of Job learned the lesson of salvation.

And this is the amazing thing, we do not think that Job was of the people of Israel. He has an existence outside of the Hebrew culture and experience. His book is very probably the oldest written revelation given by our Creator God. Here is a wise man from the east most worthy of study.

The older I get, the more I appreciate the worldly assessed foolishness of the Bible, both Old and New Covenants. There is here in the experience of Job and all the rest a solid truthfulness not found in worldly wisdom. When you compare the biblical structure to the wild madcap science fiction of Charles Darwin, there is real truth to risk your life for. When you compare the challenge of sin revealed by the law to the guiltlessness of psychotherapy, there is real truth in the gospel offer of forgiveness that gives you comfort in knowing that no one in the modern era has ever missed their appointment with death.

I know that my Redeemer lives, because He has told me in His word and showed me the long history of His patient rule over the affairs of men. At this point in my life I can indeed forgive the salacious attacks of the godless humanists within the Church because God in heaven meant it for my good preparation to serve Him today and always. May He speak to you as He has spoken to Job and all the rest who now from their labors rest, waiting patiently for the coming return of Jesus Christ. Well do we know that not one of the elect shall ever be lost. And I sometimes wonder, how long will the Lord wait once that last elect person comes to Christ.