The Gospel According to Tolkien

Ch 1 - The great symphony of creation

There is room for development and alteration. There is also room for choice-and thus for the tragedy and inconsolable grief that are endemic to mortal life. But usually it is a universe that features a  mighty possibility of growth and change-all prompted by free acts of the will (p12)

Capable of great & moral good means being equally capable of terrible & evil acts. 

A pagan sense of doom-the notion that the world's outcome is unalterably bent toward final destruction-resounds like I dread drum beat throughout The Lord of The Rings (p15)

In watching TLOR, the ever present sense of doom & death kept me on the edge of hope and despair, wondering who would rescue the Hobbits while at the same time wondering how they could keep going. 

A Christian was (and is) still like his forefathers, a mortal hemmed in a hostile world. - Other Essays

Thorin Oakenshield bids farewell to Bilbo by saying "I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers, until the world is renewed". - The Hobbit

CS Lewis rightly noted that a "profound melancholy" pervades the whole of Tolkien's book, even if the sadness service to enhance the joy. Haldir the Elf voices this paradox touchingly: "the world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater" - LOTR 1, p363 

Job 5:7 & Isaiah 40:6-7 are strikingly melancholy as is most of Ecclesiastes. 

Legolas recognizes this, too. "Alas for us all!  And for all that walk the world in these after-days. For such is the way of it: to find and lose, as it seems to those whose boat is on the running stream… The passing seasons are but ripples ever repeated in the long, long stream. Yet beneath the sun all things must wear to an end at last" - LOTR 1, p395,405

The fact that life is shadowed by death does not make it evil. On the contrary, the omnipresence of death renders life immensely precious, even if it can never be the summum bonum, or highest good, (p20 GATT)

The essential goodness of the natural order

Frodo and Samwise Gamgee get a glimpse of the original, unmarred goodness of creation when he and the rest of the company enter Lothlorian. Sam says, "I am inside a song" and Frodo says, "I'm lost in wonder". (p20 GATT). 

It seemed to him that he had stepped through a high window that looked on a vanished world. A light was upon it for which his language had no name. All that he saw was shapely, but the shapes seemed at once clear-cut, as if they had been first conceived and drawn at the uncovering of his eyes, and ancient as if they had endured forever. He saw no color but those he knew, gold and white and blue and green, but they were fresh and poignant, as if he had at that moment first perceived them and made for them names new and wonderful. In winter here no heart could mourn for the summer or for spring. No blemish of sickness or deformity could be seen in anything that grew upon the earth. On the land of Lorien there was no stain. (LOTR 1.365)

Conversely, The Dead Marshes are filled with the dead who fell to Sauron and can be seen in the water. Beyond the marshes lies Mordor, the cruel realm of Sauron-"here nothing lived, not even a leprous growths that feed on rottenness. The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and gray, as of the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands about. High mounds of crushed and powdered rock, great cones of earth, fire blasted and poison stained, stood like an obscene graveyard in endless rows, slowly revealed in the reluctant light… The sun was up, walking on clouds and long flags of smoke, but even the sunlight was defiled."

LOTR 2.239

Tolkien scoffed at his books being somewhat escapist, noting "the notion that motor cars are more alive than centaurs or dragons is curious; that they are more real then horses is pathetically absurd. How real, how startlingly alive is a factory chimney compared with an elm tree: poor obsolete thing, insubstantial dream of an escapist!" GATTp21

Psalm 148:7-8 captures the wonder of "make believe", as opposed to the reality of life and work. 

Tolkien Loves "Slowness"

The Ents are an example of that. It is noted, even the Hobbits were too quick for the Ents:

"one felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present: like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples the very deep Lake. I don't know but it felt as if something that grew in the ground-asleep you might say, or just feeling itself as something between root tip and leaf tip, between deep earth and sky had suddenly woken up, and was considering you with the same slow care that it had given to its own inside affairs for endless years. (2.66-67, GATT p27)

Good Magic and Evil Sorcery

Only in the work of those who are good is there providential assurance that the world is morally ordered, and only there lies a way beyond the despair that is likely to be prompted by the hard realities of both human and natural realms. GATTp28

Magic and divination were common practices in the ancient world in the Bible displays a good deal of both. Deuteronomy 18:9-12

Ephesians 3:10; 6:12

Tolkien notes that magic is never an art but always a technique for manipulation: "it's desire is power in this world, domination of things and wills" (Other Essays 143)

Descartes famously said the aim of modern science is to render us "masters and possessors of nature"

Churchhill said this about modern sciences attempts: "a dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted but the lights a perverted science". 

As Tolkien continues to write in LOTR,  Treebeard the Ent reports that Saruman becomes obsessed with power and acquires "a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things, except as far as they serve him for the moment" (2.76) 

Even Saruman's fortress at Isengard is a prison house of mechanical power "a graveyard of unquiet dead. For the ground trembled. The shafts ran down by many slopes and spiral stairs to caverns far under; there Saruman had treasuries,  storehouses, armories, smithies and great furnaces. Iron wheels revolved endlessly and hammers thudded. At night plumes of vapor steamed from the vents, lit from beneath with red light or blue or venomous green." (2.160)

Further, GATT writes, "Tolkien was careful to point out that the use of a thing whether for good or ill, determines its worth, not the thing itself". 

Simply put, larger things do not have more value in God's economy. 

William Craig Lane on the Uncaused Cause

Dr. Craig: Well, it’s interesting, Kevin, in my arguments, the properties of the being which is reached at the conclusion of the argument are deduced from the argument itself. 

So, one isn’t dependent on definitions, rather one can deduce the properties. So, for example, in the Kalam argument, on the basis of the argument for a cause of the universe, this cause would have to be uncaused because we have argued that there can not be an infinite regress of causes. 

So, you have to get back to a first uncaused cause. It would have to be beginningless because if it began to exist then it would have to have a cause according to the first premise, and we have seen that this is an uncaused cause. 

So, it’s an uncaused cause, beginningless, and since it created time and space it has to transcend time and space, and therefore, be timeless and spaceless. Because it transcends time and space it has to be immaterial because anything material would be constantly changing and would, therefore, be in time and space. 

So, we have got and uncaused, beginningless, timeless, spaceless, immaterial being. It brought the universe into existence, and therefore, must be enormously powerful as the cause of space and time, matter and energy. 

Then, I argue on several grounds for the personhood of this being as well. So, from the argument itself we are able to recover a number of striking properties of this cause of the universe that are theologically significant. It is an uncaused, beginningless, timeless, spaceless, immaterial, enormously powerful, personal creator of the universe.

Read more: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/Alleged-Evidence-Against-God#ixzz3KPsV4SyR

The Path of Life and Sweetness of Sin

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, 

and her speech is smoother than oil, 

Lips described like this would indeed be tempting and alluring. Both honey & oil were luxurious items in ancient times. In U2's song, "Running To Stand Still", there is an oft cited lyric that goes "sweet the sin, bitter the taste in my mouth". There is no denying the sweetness of a kiss; the context is what is most important. I don't know if this is still a thing, but for years I had heard "don't do that" without the acknowledgement that the beauty of a woman is good…in the context of marriage. 

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, 

sharp as a two-edged sword. 

As far as my experience goes, there's nothing worse than the morning after effect of sexual sin. The heart may want what it wants, but the conscience of man cannot deal with what the heart wants. Nothing gets a man talking to himself and running from God more than this type of sin. Both wormwood and the two-edged sword are symbols of God's judgment and most of the time, the judgment is immediate in the mind, while later in the body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-19. 

Her feet go down to death; 

her steps follow the path to Sheol; 

she does not ponder the path of life; 

her ways wander, and she does not know it. 

I've heard it said that if we took just a few minutes to think on the sin before partaking, it would be far less appealing. The problem is the lack of introspection, submitting to God and the impetuous nature of satisfying the flesh. 

Proverbs 5:8

This verse implies we control much of what we do in regard to the path we walk. There is a definitive choice we make when choosing to go to a door of someone's house. Among the many consequences, the rest of the verse shows what those consequences are in the long run- lost honor & lost years: essentially, authority, strength & respect. 

Isaiah 30 and the Going Right or Left

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. 

For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. 

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. 

As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 

One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 30:21. I've rested on that plenty and have found God to be faithful in showing, if I listen. When I fail to listen, nothing of any eternal value is accomplished. 

Isaiah 29 & 30 is rich with imagery and truth. 

Does God Forget?

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. Gen 8:1

Zakat often translated "remember" 

but in reference to God, it conveys “thought about” or “turned attention to” (compare 19:29; 30:22). God’s purpose for the flood is accomplished, so He turns His attention back to Noah and the ark. 

God doesn't remember our sins, rather chooses to turn his attention elsewhere. Not in a way a parent may when uncomfortable with confrontation, but in such as way as to conform to his nature. 

Restoration

The brokenness of the human heart is the main source of pain and disappointment along the trail of hopelessness. There is no clearer picture of what we distinctly are apart from the the mighty grace of God than described in Jeremiah 17:9-10.

However, God chooses to redeem that brokenness daily in His promises and faithfulness, manifestly found in the relationships he forges in our life with others. Satan would have some think and feel they are isolated, alone and unworthy of absolute affection. Even in Proverbs 18:1, the writer intimates the person who isolates himself seeks that which is contrary to the desires of God. Isolation is necessary, but not as a means for self pity and loathing, but as a means of refreshing and quieting our soul before God.

I'm reminded of the absolute necessity for man to be bound to God through others at Zach's Graduation Party last night. What immeasurable joy and elation it is to be gathered together in His name to celebrate milestones God has made possible.

The timeline of Zach's life was represented as well-
people who were there as he was formed in his mother's womb;
friends and family who saw him crawl, walk, speak for the first time.
those who saw him at his dedication.
Those who shared his joy when Noah was born.
those who saw his first day of school.
his first sport played and his laying out of his uniform.
first bible memory verse;
first time really broken over sin;
Saying yes to The Lord
first crush;
Big move to a new school.
First broken bone (and not the last!)
First trip to Disney.
First day of High School.
First home run, tackle and 3 pointer.
Baptism.
Surrender.
Love.
Joy.
Loss.
Restoration.

Zach doesn't know all the stories of how God has weaved the people he's known back together again. Maybe someday we will share with him the faithfulness of God in these areas. All he knows it that he's loved and he saw them in one place last night.

That's a good picture of restoration.

Threads of Forgiveness

I've been reading an article from an excerpt of Ravi Zacharias' book, The Grand Weaver called "Threads of Forgiveness" and have found myself swimming in deep waters of thought.

Ravi writes about an encounter with a young lady who saw her father throw acid on her mother to mar her beauty and keep the mother from other men. Here is the excerpt:

While at a conference in another country, I was approached by a young woman, who asked if she could talk to me privately. Once we found a couple of chairs and sat down to talk, I learned that she was miles away from the land of her birth and had lived through some horrendous experiences. She had a beautiful mother, but her father, as she worded it, did not have the same admirable looks. Through an arranged marriage, they had begun their lives together, but the father always resented his wife’s looks and the many compliments given to her, while none ever came his way. His distorted thinking took him beyond jealousy to fears that some man might lure her away, and so he made his plan to snuff out any such possibility. One day, he returned home, and while talking to his wife in their bedroom, he reached into his bag, grabbed a bottle of acid, and flung the contents into her face. In one instant, he turned his wife’s face from beautiful to horrendously scarred. He then turned and fled from the house.

At the point of our conversation, two decades had gone by since mother and daughter had last seen him. The young woman, now in her twenties, had been a little girl when this tragic event took place, and yet the bitterness in her heart remained as fresh as the day she saw her mother’s face turned from beauty to ugliness—so hideous that it forced the little one to cover her own face so she wouldn’t have to see what had been done.

But the story did not end there. Just a few days before our conversation, the mother, who had raised the family on her own, had heard from the husband who had deserted her. He was dying of cancer and living alone. He wondered if she would take him back and care for him in this last stage of his illness. The audacious plea outraged this young woman. But the mother, a devout follower of Jesus Christ, pleaded with her children to let her take him back and care for him as he prepared to die.

Forgiveness is an act of obedience and is awfully tricky ground for a human heart to navigate. I have found myself going back and forth on the justification of my own indignation and the inability to release those indignities into the hands of God.

The minute I find myself wrapped in pride of having taking no offense, there are a handful of offenses I've gladly accepted into my heart and let them make a quite comfortable home. There is little doubt, on my best days, I'd be with the majority of this family in turning the father away. I'd turn him away with conviction and a teaspoon of pride.

Ravi goes onto write:

In this story, we see all the elements of the human fall and the power of a redeemed heart. Morality alone would dictate that he gets what he deserves.

A redeemed heart says, “Let me bind his wounds because what needs attention is his soul.” Morality alone says, “There is nothing reasonable in the man’s request.”
The redeemed heart says, “The reason by which we live is the heart of mercy that does not keep a ledger.” Morality says, “It’s all about whether you think it’s right or not.”
The redeemed heart says, “What would God have me do in this situation?” Morality says, “Make your own judgments.”
The redeemed heart says, “Don’t make a judgment unless you are willing to be judged by the same standard.”

In short, morality is a double-edged sword. It cuts the very one who wields it, even as it seeks to mangle the other.

The double edged sword we often wield has little to do with God's word and more with our offenses taken. The greatest offense ever wrought upon the heart of man is the Cross. Man's need for forgiveness and redemption are at the heart of any peace or joy we can find in this life, yet paradoxically, it appears there is more joy in keeping offenses while denying the power of redemption found at the Cross.

Perhaps it is to keep the barriers nice and strong, so our own hearts are protected from this sin soaked life. There is a fortress in our hearts we can build and if it were not so, I suppose the need for God being a Mighty Fortress might not ever need mentioning. But Psalm 46:1 does indeed mention it. God knew our hearts and he knows our little games we play to keep it in tact. Jeremiah 17:9-10 is quite clear.

I deceive myself when I build false fortresses. I wield a weapon in which I have little skill. Dangerous in my hands to myself and those around me.

Ravi continues,

I have often wondered if many who name the name of Jesus have missed this truth. I think, too, that in missing this, we miss the larger point often hidden in what appears to be the main point. When we stand before God, it would not surprise me to find out that the real point of the story of the prodigal son was really the older brother; that the real point of the good Samaritan was the priest and the Levite who went on their way; that the real point of the women arriving first at the tomb was that the disciples hadn’t; that the real point of the story of Job was the moralizing friends. Those who play by the rules sometimes think that this is all there is to it and that they merit their due reward. Yet God repeatedly points out that without the redemption of the heart, all moralizing is hollow.

In the garden it was not we who were set up but we who tried to set God up by blaming him for the situation and then wishing to redefine everything. Had we obeyed everything, we still would have lost if we had errantly concluded that we deserved what the garden offered. What, then, of the moral law in the believer?

Entitlement is a pillar of the human heart. If I do good, I want a reward. If I do bad, I want an excuse and someone else to blame. If someone else does good, I want to minimize the accomplishment and if someone else does bad, well, what did you expect with the way they live?

Ravi then cites C.S. Lewis' brilliant book, The Screwtape Letters:

C. S. Lewis has a remarkable little illustration in his book The Screwtape Letters. The senior devil is coaching the younger one on how to seduce a person who hangs between belief and disbelief in the Enemy (the Enemy here being God). So the younger one sets to work on keeping this man from turning to God. But in the end, after all the tricks and seductions, the individual is “lost to the Enemy.” When the defeated junior devil returns, the senior one laments and asks, “How did this happen? How did you let this one get away?”

“I don’t know,” says the young imp. “But every morning he used to take a long walk, just to be quiet and reflective. And then, every evening he would read a good book. Somehow during those books and walks, the Enemy must have gotten his voice through to him.”

“That’s where you made your mistake,” says the veteran. “You should have allowed him to take that walk purely for physical exercise. You should have had him read that book just so he could quote it to others. In allowing him to enjoy pure pleasures, you put him within the Enemy’s reach.”

The motivation in morality must be birthed from the Spirit of God and not ourselves. If it originates with ourselves than no glad handing is going to be enough. If I can earn anything, I will. I will feel very good about it. So good, in fact, I may make mention of it a few times.

I've found myself reading books to get quotes, to work out to look healthier and to pray to somehow please God. In each of those moments there is a distinct feel where I could point to a thought that escaped: "Isn't God pleased with me? Yes, He must be very pleased. I bet nobody else in the world can do this."

The danger of a self satisfying life is it is antithetical to a life that weaves threads of forgiveness. If I have no need to forgive because everyone around me is the problem and the source of my ills, why on earth would I need to forgive? Of course, that life also misses the biggest need of forgiveness (and the biggest offense taken, too) through Christ because of the offenses I've committed against the absolute Moral Being.

Ravi goes on,

Lewis’s brilliant insight applies to morality as well. Pure morality points you to the purest one of all. When impure, it points you to yourself. The purer your habits, the closer to God you will come. Moralizing from impure motives takes you away from God.

Let all goodness draw you nearer, and let all goodness flow from you to point others to the source of all goodness. God’s conditions in the garden of Eden were not a setup, any more than the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was a setup or that the long journey to Egypt was a setup. God wants us to understand our own hearts, and nothing shows this more than the stringent demands of a law that discloses we are not God — and neither had we better play God. Once we understand this and turn to him, we find out the truth of what the psalmist wrote: “To all perfection I see a limit, but [the Lord’s] commands are boundless” (Psalm 119:96). True fulfillment and the possibility of boundless enjoyment come when we do life God’s way. When we do it our way, we only enslave ourselves.

 Is there anything more?