R. Albert Mohler Jr.'s Blog, page 275

“God Made Me for China” — Eric Liddell Beyond Olympic Glory

Olympic glory abounds in Rio as the 31st modern Olympiad is well underway. This time, the event is living up to its hype, especially for Americans, who are likely drawn to the pomp and ceremony as much as the athletic competition.

 

The medal ceremonies represent both climax and catharsis, with athletes awarded the coveted gold, silver, and bronze medals placed around their necks.

 

It was not always so.

 

When Eric Liddell, “the Flying Scot,” won the 400 meter race and the gold medal at the 1924 games in Paris, there was no awards ceremony. Back then, the medals were engraved after the games and mailed in a simple package to the victors. But, even without the medal ceremony, there was glory. Liddell instantly became a hero to the entire United Kingdom and was recognized as one of the greatest athletes of his age.

 

Americans of my generation remember Eric Liddell largely because of Chariots of Fire, the 1981 British film written by Colin Welland, produced by David Puttnam, and directed by Hugh Hudson. The film was a surprising success in both Britain and the United States, winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture. The musical score for the film by Vangelis won another of the Oscars, and its theme is still instantly recognizable to those who have seen the movie.

 

To its credit, Chariots of Fire recognized Eric Liddell’s Christian faith and testimony. His story is inseparable from the drama of his refusal to compete on Sunday, believing it to be a breaking of God’s commandment. Though this determination was well-known before the 1924 Olympics, it became internationally famous when heats for Liddell’s best race, 100 meters, were scheduled for Sunday.

 

The dramatic plot of Chariots of Fire presented a personal competition between Liddell and Harold Abrahams, another top runner who had experienced the agonies of anti-Semitism as a student at Cambridge. When Liddell withdrew from the 100 meter event, Abrahams won, bringing Britain glory. Liddell had become a figure of ridicule, with everyone from athletic officials to British leaders unable to persuade him to sacrifice his moral convictions for the Olympic glory he was promised.

 

Liddell was left to run the 400 meter race, an event for which he was not favored and to which he knew he brought liabilities in terms of his racing form. But run he did, and he ran right into the history books, winning the gold medal with a personal story that shocked the world, even in the 1920s. His intensity of Christian conviction was already out of style and often ridiculed, but Eric Liddell became one of the most famous men in the British Empire and the larger world of athletics.

 

Those who have seen Chariots of Fire well remember how it ends, with the magnificent and sentimental music of Sir Hubert Parry’s anthem “Jerusalem” and William Blake’s famous words: “Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire!”

 

Then the screen fills with these words in text: “Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned.”

 

The end.

 

But in those few words was the real story of Eric Liddell. Yes, he was one of the most famous athletes of modern times and the Olympic glory of Scotland. He was also a Christian who refused to compete on Sunday and refused to compromise. Unquestionably, Eric Liddell was made to run. And yet, more than anything else, Eric Liddell believed that “God made me for China.”

 

Many Christians are proud to quote Liddell’s most famous lines from Chariots of Fire: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” God did make Eric Liddell fast, and he ran for God’s glory, but those words were not actually from Liddell. They were written by Colin Welland and put in the voice of Liddell, as played by actor Ian Charleson.

 

What Liddell did say, and more than once, was that God made him for China. This is what the viewers of the movie never learned. Liddell was born in Tientsin, China to missionary parents in 1902. James and Mary Liddell were in China under the commission of the London Missionary Society. As Duncan Hamilton, author of a very fine new biography of Liddell explains, as a young boy Eric Liddell simply considered himself to be Chinese.

 

Later, Eric and his brother would be sent to boarding school near London and would know their parents only through correspondence and brief visits. But China was always on Liddell’s heart. As a student at the University of Edinburgh, Liddell became very well known as both a runner and a preacher. He was especially powerful as a preacher to young men. Liddell spoke passionately but conversationally, explaining that the best preaching to young men took the form of a simple talk, in Duncan Hamilton’s words, “as if chatting over a picket fence.” But Liddell’s clear biblical and evangelical message came through, and powerfully.

 

He preached before, during, and after his Olympic glory. He returned to graduate from the University and Edinburgh shortly after the 1924 Paris games and made preparation to go to China as a missionary, also under the direction of the London Missionary Society.

 

He taught school, preached, and eventually found a wife, Florence. With her he had three daughters, though he was never to see the third. After decades of internal warfare and turmoil, China was thrown into the horrors of Japanese occupation during World War II.

 

Those horrors are still unknown to many Americans, but much of China was submitted to massive rape and murder by the occupying Imperial Japanese forces. Liddell eventually sent Florence, then pregnant with their third child, and their two daughters to Canada for safety. It was just in time.

 

Along with members of the China Inland Mission and many others, Christians and non-Christians alike, Eric Liddell was forced into a foretaste of hell itself in the Weihsien Internment Camp. He would die their shortly before the end of the war. In the concentration camp, Liddell became legendary and his witness for Christ astounded even many of his fellow Christians.

 

As Hamilton writes: “Liddell can sound too virtuous and too honorable to be true, as if those who knew him were either misrepresenting or consciously mythologizing. Not so. The evidence is too overwhelming to be dismissed as easily as that. Amid the myriad moral dilemmas in Weihsien, Liddell’s forbearance was remarkable.” He became the moral and spiritual leader of the horrifying reality with that camp.

 

Chariots of Fire was released when I was a seminary student. Like so many other young Christians, I saw the movie and was greatly moved by it. But, even then, I wondered if Liddell could really have been what so many others claimed of him.

 

Not long thereafter, a professor assigned me to read Shantung Compound by theologian Langdon Gilkey of the University of Chicago Divinity School. Gilkey was in many ways the opposite to Liddell. Gilkey was a theological liberal whose father, famously liberal, had been the first dean of the chapel at the University of Chicago. Langdon Gilkey had gone to China to teach English after graduating from Harvard. He found himself interred with Eric Liddell.

 

In Shantung Compound, Gilkey analyzed what happens when men and women are put under extraordinary pressure. He argued that the worst moral dilemmas in Weihsien came not from their Japanese captors, but from the prisoners themselves. His point was that, for many if not most of the captured, the experience brought out the worst in them, rather than the best. He changed the names of those inside the camp when he told their stories.

 

There were a few moral exceptions. Gilkey wrote of one exceptional individual, a missionary he named “Eric Ridley.” Gilkey wrote: “It is rare indeed when a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known.” Gilkey described how Liddell had largely single-handedly resolved the crisis of a breakout of teenage sexual activity in the camp. In the midst of a moral breakdown, with no societal structures to restrain behavior, few even seemed to want to help.

 

Gilkey made this observation: “There was a quality seemingly unique to the missionary group, namely, naturally and without pretense to respond to a need which everyone else recognized only to turn aside. Much of this went unnoticed, but our camp could scarcely have survived as well as it did without it. If there were any evidences of the grace of God observable on the surface of our camp existence, they were to be found here.”

 

Gilkey had renamed individuals as he wrote about them, but he described “Eric Ridley” as having won the 400 meter race at the Olympics for England before going to China as a missionary. Eric Ridley was Eric Liddell, and Langdon Gilkey was writing of a man he has observed so closely as a living saint. I realized that Langdon Gilkey had told the most important part of Eric Liddell’s story long before Chariots of Fire.

 

Gilkey closed his words about Erid Liddell with these: “Shortly before the camp ended, he was stricken with a brain tumor and died the same day. The entire camp, especially its youth, was stunned for days, so great was the vacuum that Eric’s death had left.”

 

Liddell indeed died of a brain tumor, suddenly and unexpectedly. The cause of his death only became clear after an autopsy. Eric Liddell died in the nation where he had been born. Indeed, he has sometimes been listed as China’s first Olympic medalist. He never saw his third daughter.

 

“God made me for China.” Eric Liddell lived his life in answer to that calling and commission. As Duncan Hamilton explains, Liddell “considered athletics as an addendum to his life rather than his sole reason for living it.”

 

Eric Liddell ran for God’s glory, but he was made for China. He desperately wanted the nation he loved to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe. David J. Michell, director for Canada Overseas Missionary Fellowship, would introduce Liddell’s collected devotional writings, The Disciplines of the Christian Life, by stating simply that “Eric Liddell’s desire was to know God more deeply, and as a missionary, to make him known more fully.”

 

As Olympic glory shines from Rio, Christians must remember that Olympic glory will eventually fade. There will be medalists for all to celebrate in Rio. But, will there be another Eric Liddell? At the very least, his story needs to be told again. The most important part of his story came long after his gold medal arrived by mail.

 

 

Duncan Hamilton’s new biography is For the Glory: Eric Liddell’s Journey from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr (New York: Penguin Press, 2016).

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The Briefing 08-12-16

Marijuana to remain illegal under federal law despite recent gains in several statesUSA Today (Donna Leinwand Leger) — Marijuana to remain illegal under federal law, DEA says

New American Bar Association rules could spell end of Christians in the legal professionWashington Post (Eugene Volokh) — A speech code for lawyers, banning viewpoints that express ‘bias,’ including in law-related social activitiesAmerican Conservative (Rod Dreher) — They’re Coming For Christian Lawyers

What does the lack of character in this presidential race say about the American voter?Washington Post (Mary Jordan) — 2016 is the year of the messy private life — and the year when it no longer matters

A Canadian newspaper takes a look at how American Amish look at the 2016 election—and it's classicGlobe and Mail (Alexander Panetta) — For the Amish, Donald Trump presents a quandary

Eric Liddell understood the glory of the Olympics, but he gave his life to a far greater gloryAlbertMohler.com (Albert Mohler) — "God Made Me for China" -- Eric Liddell Beyond Olympic Glory

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The Briefing 08-11-16

Good news for Christian higher education in California as lawmaker drops proposal—for nowSacramento Bee (Anshu Siripurapu) — Lara drops key parts of bill on religious collegesReason (Scott Shackford) — In California, with No Real Opposition Left, LGBT Activists Target Religious Colleges

No such thing as a "male body"? Transgenderism and the eclipse of biological sexSlate (Chase Strangio) — What Is a “Male Body”?

American College of Pediatricians: gender dysphoria debate is primarily about worldview, not scienceAmerican College of Pediatricians — Gender Dysphoria in Children

Is it political to address social issues like abortion from the pulpit? Pew says "yes"Pew Research Center — Many Americans Hear Politics From the Pulpit

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The Briefing 08-10-16

What the NIKE ad featuring a trans athlete tells us about the culture and ourselves Us Weekly (Megan French) — Chris Mosier on Becoming First Transgender Team USA Athlete: It's a 'Dream Come True'Ad Week (Kristina Monllos) — Nike's Latest Ad Stars Chris Mosier, the First Transgender Athlete on a U.S. National Team

The transgender revolution hits the Olympics … but not consistentlyWashington Post (Steven Petrow) — Do transgender athletes have an unfair advantage at the Olympics?

College football and the sexual revolution: LGBT groups demand Big 12 deny BYU membershipFox Sports (Stewart Mandel) — 25 LGBT groups send letter to Big 12 urging it to shun BYU

Deliberate childlessness celebrated: A really bad argument moves to the mainstreamToronto National Post (Calum Marsh) — ‘Children? Those shrieking, dribbling, bawling horrors? Not for me, thank you’: Why fatherhood is not for everyone and shouldn’t have to be

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The Briefing 08-09-16

The NY Times recognizes its own liberal bias and worldview. Can Christians say the same?New York Times (Jim Rutenberg) — Trump Is Testing the Norms of Objectivity in JournalismWall Street Journal (James Taranto) — Times Is on Her Side, Yes It IsNew York Times (Liz Spayd) — Why Readers See The Times as LiberalNew York Times (Daniel Okrent) — Is The New York Times a Liberal Newspaper?New York Times (Arthur S. Brisbane) — Success and Risk as The Times Transforms

Is one "more fulfilled" single rather than married? Dubious studies based on other studies make claimThe Telegraph (Sarah Knapton) — Singles 'more fulfilled, sociable and self-sufficient than married people' Cleveland Plain Dealer (Sabrina Eaton) — Singledom has many advantages over marriage, studies show

When liberal policies outpace liberal preferences: San Francisco liberals don't want affordable housingBloomberg View (Noah Smith) — San Francisco Progressives Declare War on Affordable Housing

France's socialist president has an un-socialist habit: $11,000 haircutsNPR (Merrit Kennedy) — France's Socialist President Pays Nearly $11,000 A Month For Haircuts

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The Briefing 08-08-16

Will our brave new world include human-animal chimeras? NIH proposal erases ethical linesNew York Times (Gina Kolata) — N.I.H. May Fund Human-Animal Stem Cell ResearchNational Geographic (Michael Specter) — How the DNA Revolution Is Changing Us

The misplaced trust of Scientism and the dangers of Neil deGrasse Tyson's "Rationalia"National Review (Kevin D. Williamson) — The Road to RationaliaPopular Science (Kelsey D. Atherton) — Neil deGrasse Tyson's Proposed "Rationalia" Government Won't Work

Inconvenient truth: If science proved life begins at conception, this abortion activist wouldn't careLife News (Micaiah Bilger) — Abortion Activist: “I Don’t Care” if Science Says Life Starts at Conception, I Still Support Abortion

Should we floss? The (not so) surprising scientific discord surrounding dental hygeineNew York Times (Catherine Saint Louis) — Feeling Guilty About Not Flossing? Maybe There’s No Need

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The Briefing 08-05-16

The Good, the Bad, and the Olympic: The Olympics, then and nowWall Street Journal (David Stuttard) — The Strange Rites of the Ancient OlympicsNational Geographic (Nick Romeo) — Olympic Games We No Longer Play

"Clemency, please, Mister President": President Obama's clemency orderThe Atlantic (Matt Ford) — Obama's Historic Day of Clemency

No longer a danger to himself or others? John Hinckley, who shot Pres. Reagan, released from psychiatric hospital.New York Times (Gardiner Harris) — John Hinckley, Who Tried to Kill Reagan, Will Be Released

A pardon, seriously? Gov. Brown rejects pardon request of "model prisoner" — a Manson family murderer.Associated Press (Jonathan J. Cooper) — California Governor Denies Parole for Manson Follower

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The Briefing 08-04-16

The fall of Roger Ailes can serve warning for Christians to avoid a media echo chamberNew York Times (James Poniewozik) — Roger Ailes Fused TV With Politics, Changing Both

Biden officiates same-sex wedding, tweets photo posturing on the "right side of history"The Hill (Jordan Fabian) — Biden officiates same-sex marriage

The NBA, creator of the WNBA, spurns North Carolina for codifying gender distinctionWall Street Journal (Jon Kamp and Valerie Bauerlein) — NBA Pulls All-Star Game From Charlotte Over North Carolina Bathroom LawNew York Times (Scott Cacciola and Alan Blinder) — N.B.A. to Move All-Star Game From North Carolina

In surprising decision, SCOTUS temporarily blocks transgender bathroom use in Virginia public schoolCNN (Ariane de Vogue) — Supreme Court temporarily blocks order on transgender bathroom use

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Southern Baptists and the Quest for Theological Identity

THE COLLAPSE OF CULTURAL CHRISTIANITY AND THE RISE OF THE BAPTIST MOMENT

 

In 1987 Richard John Neuhaus published The Catholic Moment. Neuhaus’s argument was that the Catholic Church, especially in the United States, was best poised to meet the cultural contest and its challenges. What was clear to me when I first read this book was that if there was a Catholic moment, it had already passed by the time the book was even published. I would suggest, however, that we now have every reason to believe that we may be entering “the Baptist moment.” As cultural Christianity takes its final breaths, Baptists may be ousted from any place of prominent cultural influence, but our theological convictions uniquely situate us to respond to the challenges posed by late modernity.

 

Our commitment to regenerate church membership, the baptism of believers only, and our understanding of the nature of the church gives Baptists a unique voice in the face of disappearing cultural Christianity. I honestly believe that in coming years evangelicals will increasingly look to Southern Baptists due to the ecclesiological crises created by the collapse of cultural Christianity. The coming generation will urgently need the wisdom and biblical conviction of Baptists on these issues.

 

But Baptists will only be prepared for this challenge if we retain our theological integrity and remain faithful to our doctrinal convictions. To that end, let’s consider ten questions as we reflect on the future of the Southern Baptist Convention and Baptist identity in the twenty-first century.

 

UNAVOIDABLE QUESTIONS FOR SOUTHERN BAPTISTS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

 

1 . Will Southern Baptists embrace an identity that is more theological than tribal? The older I get the more I recognize the value of the tribal inheritance I received as a young boy. This is why I phrased the question “more theological than tribal” rather than “theological instead of tribal.” In fact, I believe it is impossible to survive as a community of conviction without having a certain amount of tribal identity. But, as many young Southern Baptists now realize, tribal identity is not enough. Tribal identity alone will eventually give way to theological accommodation. Our identity must be more theological than tribal, and that requires a change in the logic of the Southern Baptist Convention, certainly a change from the logic employed during the middle and late decades of the twentieth century.

 

2 . Will today’s generation summon and maintain the courage to minister Christ in a context of constant conflict and confrontation? In our generation and the generations to follow, there will never be a faithful ministry that does not face constant conflict and confrontation with the larger culture.

 

If we are seeking peace with the culture, we will abandon the gospel. Are we ready for the challenge? Will we demonstrate theological and moral courage in the face of stiffening cultural opposition?

 

3 . Will Southern Baptists find a healthy balance between evangelical identity and Baptist conviction? One of the lessons we can learn from the evangelical movement is that its central weakness was not epistemological. Its central weakness was not its commitment to the core doctrines of the Christian faith. Its central weakness was ecclesiological—in particular, an undervaluing of the local church. As Southern Baptists we must be staunchly evangelical, but we must also be unashamedly Baptist. Evangelical is essential, but it is not enough.

 

4 . Will Southern Baptists maintain the intellectual and moral credibility to speak truth as we live truth? As Southern Baptists we must not only define what we believe but affirm those same truths with our lives. Southern Baptists must live before the world the convictions we teach, or we will lose all credibility to teach and preach those convictions. Even as Carl F. H. Henry called a generation for the evangelical demonstration of our faith, the same call must now be issued to Southern Baptists.

 

5 . Will Southern Baptists embrace the deep roots and riches of the historic Christian tradition without apology? Far from being merely of academic interest, our understanding of Baptist origins really does matter. We must remember that while the early Baptists were at pains to demonstrate their differences in matters of ecclesiology from other Protestants, they also went to great lengths to demonstrate that they stood in continuity with confessing, believing Christians throughout the ages. Early Baptists recognized that they had inherited a theological treasure from previous generations that was not distinctively Baptist but was rather, to use Thomas Oden’s term, classically Christian.

 

One of my most important moments at seminary came in the first minutes of my first church history class with Professor Timothy George. He began the class with these words, “My name is Timothy George, and my responsibility is to convince you that there was someone between your grandmother and Jesus and that it matters.” As Baptists, we need to learn that lesson well. Southern Baptists, particularly SBC pastors, must understand that they are in a long line of godly men that goes back, not just to 1845, but to a room in Jerusalem where Jesus sent his disciples into the world.

 

6 . Will Southern Baptists preserve the essential gains of the Conservative Resurgence of the last quarter of the twentieth century? Will we unashamedly and rigorously hold to inerrancy? Baptists must recognize that Scripture and Scripture alone is the norma normans non normata, the norm of norms that cannot be normed. The Bible alone, inerrant and infallible, must remain foundational for our epistemology and always serve as our highest authority—the norm that norms all others.

 

7 . Will Southern Baptists be comprehensively confessional and not merely anecdotally confessional? Baptists must recognize that our confession must be more than a document we turn to in crisis or emergency situations. Our confessional identity should shape our articulation of the faith and regulate our theology, teaching, and preaching. If we do not regain a sense of being comprehensively confessional in all we believe, teach, and preach, then we will ultimately fail to be confessional when it matters most.

 

8 . Will a new generation of Southern Baptists be eagerly and authentically Baptist? This means Baptists must unashamedly and with theological depth articulate, defend, and live out our ecclesiology. Even as we claim continuity with classic Christian tradition, we also must unashamedly hold our dissenting opinions from other traditions in terms of our doctrine of the church and the ordinances. We must be authentically Baptist because we believe our convictions on these matters are authentically biblical and essential to a right understanding of the church.

 

9 . Will Southern Baptists produce a generation of pastor-theologians adequate to the challenge of late modernity? It is not enough that we produce theologians. Of course, we should be grateful for the wonderful theologians and professors faithfully serving our denomination in colleges and seminaries across the world. But the future of the denomination comes down to whether we are producing pastor-theologians—men who can faithfully do the work of theology in local congregations situated in a hostile culture.

 

10 . In the words of Jesus in Luke 18:8, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Though we do not know the future of the Southern Baptist Convention, we ought to at least ask this question of ourselves. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in the Southern Baptist Convention? If so, and we must pray that it will be so, it will require us to regain a clear and robust understanding of theological identity. Our responsibility for our denomination and our churches is to be found faithful to that end.

 

May the Lord, indeed, find us faithful. Amen.

 

 

 

This essay is an excerpt from my chapter in The SBC and the 21st Century: Reflection, Renewal, and Recommitment, edited by Jason K. Allen (B&H Academic, 2016).

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The Briefing 08-03-16

Pending SB 1146 would mean the end of comprehensive Christian education in CaliforniaReligion Dispatches (Stephanie Russell-Kraft) — Will SB 1146 End LGBT Discrimination in California's Religious Schools?NBC Los Angeles (Dano Nissen) — LGBT Anti-Discrimination Bill Stirs Controversy at Religious SchoolsThe Master's College (John MacArthur) — Our Response to SB 1146

Schools that refuse federal aid or request Title IX exemption blacklisted by secular leftThe Atlantic (Ibby Caputo and Jon Marcus) — The Controversial Reason Some Religious Colleges Forgo Federal Funding

Pepperdine University "repents" of its Title IX exemption to escape LGBT furyChronicle of Higher Education (Gabriel Sandoval) — A University Makes a Rare Call to Ditch Its Title IX Exemption

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