During this season of Lent, culminating with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we’ve had multiple opportunities to reflect on and read about His life plus verbally sharing an Easter greeting with those we encounter from day-to-day. It is also evident, that just because we believe in Christ, we still are far from what our spiritual potential is.

The devils believe in Jesus Christ, but they don’t follow nor do they want us to follow Him either. (see James 2:19) We would find further insights of this eternal battle, if one peruses “The Screwtape Letters,” by athiest-turned-Christian, C. S. Lewis. Yes, it’s fiction, but Staple’s story very much follows the battles we each struggle with from time to time, from the unseen spiritual realm.

Our collective descent into greater darkness or muddled thinking, seems to correspond with our gradual turning away from spiritual habits, that were once predominant in societies or nations that profess the tenets of Christianity. That great prophet, Isaiah, spoke prophetically of the cycles of civilization in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (KJV)

Mainly, we have allowed ourselves to be distracted with the mudane things of this temporary existence, along with what seems to be a phobia of reading the entire Holy Bible, to determine how our life parallels those time-tested beliefs that can strengthen each of us, our family and friends, and finally society as a whole. In it’s place, we seem to have a modern version of Mars Hill, where people “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.”(Acts 2:21). Who doesn’t like to discuss and implement new ideas, but before we do so, shouldn’t we take a deeper look at various historical records, in other words, look-before-we-leap, so society quits repeating aspects of history, many of which are very painful to read about. But we foolishly think those short-sighted beliefs are not evil in and of themselves, as we will not have the same results. How so?

Even if a belief in Jesus Christ was only fiction, isn’t it amazing that when we closely aligned ourselves with the spiritual doctrines He espoused, we had much less evil and foolishness to deal with.

Then His teaching can hardly be considered a fairy tale, since there are no precepts, that have lasted so long, with so many powerful concepts, that are still the foundation of home and societyin the 21st century.

The Founding Fathers, spoke and wrote often of their Christian beliefs. Yes, each of those men had a different take on Christianity as a whole, but they believed in a future life, where we will each be judged as to how we lived our life. With the 250th birthday of America on July 4th this year, you will not be disappointed by doing your own research to discover how openly and also how commonly Christian beliefs were understood and followed. Those doctrines are the foundation of the Republic we live in.

Leo Lindquist

Balaton