The Word for Writers

Do Christian Bowlers Genuflect on Their Approach to Throwing the Ball?

by Eugene Levitzky
10/26/13
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Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) wrote a novel called “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” [published in 1968].   Good question.  The same can be asked of Christians.  Do Christians dream of Christian things?  Do Christians dream dreams in their old age, peculiar dreams, prophetic dreams?  Yes, yes they do.  Do all Christians dream solely of Christian things?  No.  Can it be said of a Christian who is dreaming, who is currently sawing zzzzzzzzzz’s and snoring away the night, that that Christian is a “Christian Dreamer”?  Yes, and no.

Is a bowler, a plumber, a president who is Christian be called a Christian Bowler, a Christian plumber, a Christian President?  No.  Can a writer who is a Christian be called a Christian Writer?  Yes and no.  The question is this:  Should a Christian who is a writer be called a Christian Writer?  That question can only be answered by the writer who is a Christian.  The World cannot decide whether or not you are a Christian writer, though the World may try to box you in or denigrate you by putting you in what the World considers a ghetto, the ghetto or label or pejorative (in the atheist/pagan world’s view) called “Christian Writer.”  A lesser thing it is to be a “Christian writer,” in the Eyes of the World (and the Flesh and the Devil), than to just be a “writer.”  Not a mainstream thing.  Not up to the standards of popular, worldly writers who get their names bandied about in the New York Times, NPR, or the Churches of Secular/Pagan Christianity.

The question, really, is this – why should we give a hoot what the World thinks?  Brothers and sisters, sisters and brothers in Christ, who really gives a flying fig what the World thinks?  God calls us “Peculiar People” for a reason.  God says to us, “Come out of her my people” for a reason. 

Revelation 18:4  --  “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

 Yes, yes, yes – we are not to be partakers of her sins. We are not to bathe in the World’s slough of despond and imitate the World, as Men and as Writers.  Jesus Christ was Fully Man and Fully God.  We, we few bold and meek and mild and mighty peculiar people, we Christians are to be, always, Fully Man and Fully Christian.  And that is all we are to be.  Whatever we do, whatever we are, as Christians we do things “Christianly,” we do everything in obedience to God.  Just as Jesus obeyed the Father in absolute surrender to His will, we are to obey Jesus.  That is the end of the matter (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

So, the crux of the matter is this:  Do we call ourselves “Christian writers” or do we call ourselves “writers who are Christian”?  Either or.  Take your pick.  Those are only words and words can never hurt us or inflate us either.  Or can they?  Yes, they can. 

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), from “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”  --

And there, till Christ call forth the dead,

In silence let him lie:

No need to waste the foolish tear,

Or heave the windy sigh:

The man had killed the thing he loved,

And so he had to die.

And all men kill the thing they love,

By all let this be heard,

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word,

The coward does it with a kiss,

The brave man with a sword!

Mere flattering words can kill.  Words have Power.  The words of a Christian have power if that Christian is a Christian, and though we may hem and haw and criticize and judge who is or who is not a Christian, in the end it is only and absolutely only God who decides who is His and who is not.  As writers who are Christian we must always be aware that our words can kill.  Our words can kill holiness by quenching the Holy Spirit.  Our words can kill by throwing the doctrines of men at the Little Ones, the newborn babes in Christ.  Our words can also kill by sidling up to the World, by giving in to the Spirit of the Times, by seeking the Wide Way instead of the Straight and Narrow.  Words matter, whether spoken or written.  They always did and always will.  And we will be judged by what we have spoken, what we have written.

We have certain Words from God, words given to us as Christians and as writers, and we can take them to heart or ignore them, ignore them at our own peril.   There are many Christians who believe in No Compromise when it comes to their Faith, but many less Christians who actually act upon that belief.  Nevertheless, we have been given certain Words from God that can help us as Christians and as writers, and those Words from God are explicitly given to us in the bible, the bible in its entirety.  Remember this, brother and sisters, sisters and brothers in Christ that we are all either Fully Man and Fully Christian or we are nothing.

Words from God for those of us who are or want to be writers, some of the Words, just a few:

Psalm 45:1  --  “My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”

Philippians 4:8  --  “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

1 Thessalonians 4:11  --  “11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you”