I stopped by my office(Barnes and Noble) in Boulder this week and it was a refreshing few minutes as I walked through the stacks of books. The store appeared to be brand new and even had a fireplace next to the cafe. Pretty cool. I was kind of tired from tripping around the mountains so we didn't get to stay long. When I got back into Lincoln I was ready for some time at the office. Yesterday seemed like a good time to show up so I spent some time at the O street office(Barnes and Noble, one of two in Lincoln).

I came across a new book by Hitchens, no, not Christopher but his brother Peter.

Now I kind of like Christopher Hitchens. I like his communication style, his ready ability to call forth his ideas, his patience with those who do not agree with him and just his general demeanor. He uses sarcasm a lot less than other Atheists that I have seen or at least a much more sophisticated from of sarcasm. What I have seen of him in interviews and such have left me interested in his thoughts and thinking. So yes, I've read some of his Atheist viewpoint.

Having read him and some of his co-Atheists, I find myself more thankful than ever that I believe in God. Atheistic belief and thinking leaves me cold and without awe. It certainly offers questions to consider but it does little in providing answers to questions about meaning and the joy of life itself. It's randomness leaves me out in the rain and cold. So I live a life that rejects it flat out.

But that doesn't mean I can't find some of the Atheists and their presentations interesting and intellectually challenging. I don't claim to have special powers that protect me from being overcome by their ideas and turning traitor to God. I just don't swing that way. I'm fairly comfortable with leaving questions on the shelf and not having answers, to a point. But I also get jazzed just enough by some questions to go out and do an all out search for some answers or at least plausible alternatives.

So I've read some Hitchens, Gould and Dawkins. If it gives you any comfort, the list of books I've read on the other side is much longer. I recently read Dinosaurs, An Adventist View by David C. Read. As a lawyer, he too put forth his ideas in a clear and concise manner, worthy of my respect as well. I recommend his book as an aid to helping understand the debates that rage around this topic. He does not rage of course, but gets down to the significant questions right away and does not shy away from answering the questions and giving good reasons for his answers.

I'm comfortable reading on both or maybe all sides of an issue. I don't know if you are, but I am. It is part of my character to want to hear out the other side. I don't fear it like some seem to. I get sharpened by it. I well remember having a Stephen Gould book at church just before 2,000. A woman saw the book and the authors name and seemed to want to get away from me as fast as she could. At the time, that was the only Gould reading I had done. As an evolutionary biologist, I had little interest in other areas of what he had to say mostly because I knew the main thrust of his writings without reading them. I've had my share of biology classes from evolutionists. But his book, the one I had with me in church that day was not about biology but Chronology. It was about the year 2,000. Remember the Millennium factor and the fear and the time change and computers and fears that all came about because we would see a massive failure of computers in society?

His book suggested that we were off base in our calculations for the year 2,000 by four years. I found that fascinating and I also found some support for it in our own Bible commentaries. In short, the fear and speculation around the year 2,000 was nothing short of amazing to me. I spent part of that year calming peoples fears and watching some folks predict the future based on fear. As I think back to that year, many people wanted to take the fear of the turn of a new millennium and turn it into a motivation for life change, sort of like the fear of cancer, maybe a spot on your lung, to get you to quit smoking.

I find that sort of motivation useless, even damaging. It's one thing to change your life for the better, to improve your health. But it does not seem to work when it comes to spiritual health. It's like missing the real point. It seems to me that it is going after something by aiming for where it is instead of where it will be. Remember Gretsky's saying, A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."

Fear is not where the future is. Fear of Christ's return and the events associated with it is not the future. I'm not foolish enough to say that there will be no fear on that day when He returns, I'm simply saying that fear will never bring His return closer nor will it prepare one for that day.

So I bought a book yesterday at my O Street office, by Peter Hitchens . The Rage Against God. how atheism led me to faith. Peter is the brother of Christopher Hitchens, the well known speaker for Atheism. So the book immediately caught my attention. I bought it with little scrutiny, just because I imagine a good contrast in the book between the two brothers. After reading a bit last night, I am not disappointed but more intrigued.

What intrigued me yesterday as well was the conversation I had with the lady who checked me out at the sales counter. She is a friendly and thoughtful lady who knows me and knows I am a pastor. She's Catholic and I'm Adventist and we had one of those memorable conversations that confirms my belief that Christ's return is the greatest event in universal history. I could argue that the Cross was and is the greatest event but for now I want to suggest that we need to see the return of Christ as part two of the Cross, not a separate experience. To go to the cross is to be ready for His return. To enter into Calvary and participate in its cleansing is to long for Christ's return and the return of the world to a condition that pleases God. Fear is not a significant part of it for me. Anticipation is.

As she saw the book she really perked up. As I explained to her who it was from and how it was sort of opposite of Christopher Hitchens, she really got animated. She had been hearing a lot of last day madness from a relative or friend and she had to turn it off and even ignore what is going on in the world to keep her sanity. She told me that she has stopped reading the Wall Street Journal with it's gloomy economic news and not watched much news on TV because it was so bad and so on. Ignorance is bliss she said.

Once again, I see another person motivated or assaulted by fear to live their life in a certain manner. It stuns me actually to think that as an Adventist, I of all people should have something to offer her that creates a splendid anticipation of His return, not a lurking fear of the future. In my experience, fear will fail to do any good. The fear that is described on that day will only overtake those who have decided fully against God and His plans for their lives. Those who are satiated with God will have no fear and they will walk into the welcome arms of our Great Creator, Father and Friend. Fear will have nothing to do with them. They run to, not away from God. For them, fear is not a part of that day, nor has it been a part of their recent days. Anticipation born of love is their great motivation.

Fear is not the future, it should not even be the past. The future is bright and it is in God's hands, no better place to be than that. No fear in that future.

Salt Lake Tribune Article about the two brothers.

Interview Video with Peter Hitchens ---- Also Below

Guardian Article

Peter Hitchens Author Interview--The Rage Against God from Gorilla Poet Productions on Vimeo.