If you haven't gotten a chance yet, I recommend listening to BreakPoint's Discourse #34, featuring Chuck Colson and Mark Steyn discuss After America: Get Ready for Armageddon.
Comments:
Or as my mirror sometimes reminds me, Jason, if God could pardon a repentant Nineveh (which did indeed make our worst cities look like complete novices at sinning), then He'd certainly be willing to pardon a repentant LeeQuod.
Posted By: LeeQuod on September 30, 2011 10:30 AM
Any historian would tell you that Jonah had plenty of excuse. That's neither here nor there. Just a note that those who are shocked that Jonah would want Nineveh destroyed usually don't know what they are talking about.
Posted By: jason taylor on September 30, 2011 9:23 AM
Definitely one of those "Oh, boy, *this* oughtta be good!" moments, when I saw this.
And it was.
I think Mark Steyn is an excellent cultural observer, and a hilarious writer, and this book continues his effort to point out what people need to hear. But Chuck's reference to "Jeremiads" got me to thinking that as a prophet, Steyn is actually closer to Jonah.
As most of us know, after making the big fish ill, Jonah barreled through Nineveh at full tilt, shouting "You're all gonna die!" That's it. No "unless you do X" tacked on. No advice - just a death sentence. Imagine breaking into the corridors of power in D.C., or money on Wall Street, or the movie sets in Hollywood, and shouting "You're dead!" then just leaving them with no idea how to avoid that fate. (In fact, Jonah was *hoping* they'd die - and that he'd get to see it.)
Mark Steyn isn't that severe - he says, in effect (and almost in these words) "We've got to wake up and change what we're doing if we don't want to all die!" And while that's certainly better, it's still a bit short on specifics.
The man conducting this interview, Mr. Colson, fully agreed with what Mark Steyn had to say about the illness, and could even confirm it with supporting anecdotes of his own. The big difference between the two men, though, is found in the first few verses of Luke 13 - "Unless you **repent**, you too will all perish." The difference between Mark and Chuck is the difference between "We need to do *something*," and "We need to do **that**."
"After America: Armageddon" is a rollicking read with a deadly serious message. Ultimately, though, it proposes political solutions to a spiritual crisis. It's rather like applying the paddles to the chest of a patient who has long since expired, or one more shot of chemo for end-stage liver cancer. As Ravi Zacharias has put it, "Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live." Steyn's diagnosis is perfect, but as one might expect from a bold surgeon, his prescription is missing the need for a miracle - since miracles don't bring the doctor any accolades.
So this was an absolutely terrific interview, and I want to publicly thank Chuck Colson for taking the time to do it. But I want to thank him even more for witnessing here and there in the interview to the real, time-tested method to avoid personal and maybe even worldwide Armageddon. Let us pray that all of America, and the rest of the world also, pays heed quickly.
Posted By: LeeQuod on September 30, 2011 12:16 AM
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Comments:
And it was.
I think Mark Steyn is an excellent cultural observer, and a hilarious writer, and this book continues his effort to point out what people need to hear. But Chuck's reference to "Jeremiads" got me to thinking that as a prophet, Steyn is actually closer to Jonah.
As most of us know, after making the big fish ill, Jonah barreled through Nineveh at full tilt, shouting "You're all gonna die!" That's it. No "unless you do X" tacked on. No advice - just a death sentence. Imagine breaking into the corridors of power in D.C., or money on Wall Street, or the movie sets in Hollywood, and shouting "You're dead!" then just leaving them with no idea how to avoid that fate. (In fact, Jonah was *hoping* they'd die - and that he'd get to see it.)
Mark Steyn isn't that severe - he says, in effect (and almost in these words) "We've got to wake up and change what we're doing if we don't want to all die!" And while that's certainly better, it's still a bit short on specifics.
The man conducting this interview, Mr. Colson, fully agreed with what Mark Steyn had to say about the illness, and could even confirm it with supporting anecdotes of his own. The big difference between the two men, though, is found in the first few verses of Luke 13 - "Unless you **repent**, you too will all perish." The difference between Mark and Chuck is the difference between "We need to do *something*," and "We need to do **that**."
"After America: Armageddon" is a rollicking read with a deadly serious message. Ultimately, though, it proposes political solutions to a spiritual crisis. It's rather like applying the paddles to the chest of a patient who has long since expired, or one more shot of chemo for end-stage liver cancer. As Ravi Zacharias has put it, "Jesus did not come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live." Steyn's diagnosis is perfect, but as one might expect from a bold surgeon, his prescription is missing the need for a miracle - since miracles don't bring the doctor any accolades.
So this was an absolutely terrific interview, and I want to publicly thank Chuck Colson for taking the time to do it. But I want to thank him even more for witnessing here and there in the interview to the real, time-tested method to avoid personal and maybe even worldwide Armageddon. Let us pray that all of America, and the rest of the world also, pays heed quickly.