Bert Hielema–Columns and Writings

THE CHURCH AND THE NATURAL WORLD.

In my youth, there used to be an answer to the question of ‘how to live as a Christian’. The pat reply then was: “We live to honor God”. That was then acceptable, but now it needs fleshing out. Jesus, in John 10: 10, touches on this, when He says that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Apply this to today’s situation, it seems to me that WE are the thief, WE kill and destroy, WE do harm, no matter how careful we are, no matter how good our intentions are. 

Of course, I try to avoid stealing, killing and destroying, but I have been – like all of us Westerners – sucked into a mode of living that consists of stealing, killing and destroying. 

Just one example of our cruel extravagance. Worldwide, 80 billion animals are slaughtered every year for meat. Raising all those animals has already claimed most of the world’s farmland. It has led to zoonotic diseases and vast deforestation. It has polluted air and water and spewed planet-heating gasses into the atmosphere.  

That’s why I sincerely believe that today, now, Anno 2024, it is our Christian duty to be vegetarian:  it’s healthier, and, yes, it prepares us for LIFE to come: fully vegetarian!

I don’t think we fully fathom the destruction we have wrought and still do, to God’s creation, his work of art, that fully reflect His being. There really is need for daily praying, “Forgive us our trespasses”. 

Jesus lived a life in complete symbiosis with God’s handiwork and, as John 3: 16-17 tells us, was willing to give his life, his divine life, in order to restore God’s precious possession, the cosmos which he gave to us for safe-keeping. 

I know, being a vegetarian, is not what the church teaches, but even the church can change, because we’re always learning, and always growing, and always adapting: change simply indicates humility, curiosity, openness, imagination. Show me someone who believes and says the exact same things about the world 20 or 10 or even 5 years ago and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t been properly living.

All this ties in with how the church’s original divine design became distorted.

The first ‘house of worship’, the tabernacle, was full of ‘nature’ symbols, replicated in the Solomon temple. The tabernacle and the temple were seen as the world in a nutshell, a microcosmos, with the deity living at the centre. 

There are several places in Scripture that illuminates this. The temple’s Holy of Holies, as well as the Holy Place, were decorated with palm trees and flowers. In 1Kings 6:29 we are specifically told that all the walls of God’s house were adorned with wooden sculptures of cherubim, palm trees and open flowers. 

In other words, the inner Holy Place was completely portrayed as a garden of golden flowers. One commentator explains this section as follows: “Perhaps the palm trees represent the trees in paradise, guarded by the cherubim (Genesis 3: 24). What is striking is that all the wall adornments are replicas of flowers, representing the Garden of Eden. It makes sense to view the temple as a facsimile of Paradise to which free access can only be obtained by way of atonement, while honoring the highest regard for God’s holiness, ensured by the presence of the cherubs.”

Think about that.

The first church designed by divine instructions, resembled Paradise. Why? Because God did not want creation to be relegated to history, but he wanted us to be daily reminded that Paradise never disappeared, then still hidden behind heavy curtains. But, when Christ died, that heavy curtain tore from top to bottom, signifying that Christ’s death restored Paradise. Think about that!

I repeat: Christ’s death restored PARADISE, our eternal destination, and, believe it or not, that’s why our very own places of worship should portray this as well.

Roman Catholic Churches.

Roman Catholic Churches, from what I have seen, portray heaven. The high ceilings often feature angels, while the windows show saints of various eras. The heaven heresy has affected Protestantism as well, as the Iconoclast in the mid 16^th Century, where all images were seen as sinful and destroyed, has influenced the Reformational churches until this day. 

Actually, deep down, Plato and Socrates have influenced the church more than Jesus and the Bible.

Our life should reflect the LIFE to come.

Life is preparatory for LIFE to come, not in heaven – an ancient Greek pagan teaching – but on a renewed earth. Churches today, following God’s instructions in the designs of His house, should reflect this New Earth. 

Somehow, thanks to Dr. John Poland, professor of Biology at Queen’s University, Kingston, our church is utilizing the grounds surrounding the building, to grow vegetables and flowers. Next should come the complete renovation of the interior, now devoid of beauty and divine radiance. 

Life is about living, living so that God’s creation is enhanced. The church should lead the way in this.

WILL WE BE ALIVE IN 2025, WHO WILL SURVIVE, 2025?

That’s the headline on ARCTIC NEWS, September 11 2024: Have a look. That such a headline can appear on a website maintained by top Arctic scientists, is, in itself, deeply troubling, because it states that most life on Earth will disappear with a 5°C rise, possibly next year! 

It also tells me that I and you and the rest of the human race, will likely go extinct with a 3°C rise.  We are, by some counts, already beyond 2°C. 

What have we done to come to this point?

When God caused the flood, ‘regretting’ creating humans, he said that this would be a unique act, not to be repeated – fully well knowing that next time we would destroy the earth. 

If ARCTIC NEWS is correct, we, the Western world, North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, about one billion people, will have caused the death of the other  seven billion human beings – and many animals beside – all innocent victims of the extravagance of our affluent minority.

If there is a just God – and there is – do you really think that we will get away with this abnormality in the end, causing the ‘telos’ to come? It simply is an act of righteous justice that this will happen. 

It seems to that we are going full circle. Genesis 1: 2, The very first words in the bible, shows the word ‘chaos’, translated as ‘empty’. That’s how it was ‘in the beginning’ and that’s what we have accomplished over the eons: emptiness. Now the world is full of our toys and gadgets, full of mechanical means, but empty of what was: large animals, fertile, clean soil. Instead, the air is saturated with hurricane-breeding ingredients, seas depleted of their natural creatures, the earth rapidly devoid of large wild animals.

We have gone full circle. 

Our holy earth is crying: enough, enough.

We have gone full circle: In the beginning there was ‘chaos’, ‘emptiness’, in the end there is ‘chaos’, ‘emptiness’. In Greek, ‘chaos’, a singular noun, means chasm or void. It designates the emptiness that came before the beginning of time in both Hellenic and monotheistic creation stories.

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”— Genesis 1:2

Everything becomes what it is. The beginning is the end. Chaos was, and to chaos we return.

Again, yes again, because we live in Matthew 24 times, I will quote it again. The Bible today is more relevant than ever! That chapter emphasizes that we cannot predict “The Day and the Hour” (Matthew 24: 36) of God’s justified wrath, but it does stipulate that an approximation of the time of THE event to come, is possible. ARCTIC NEWS does that.

“So, when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ (Global Heating, storms, fires) spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand – be prepared. (Matthew 24: 15).

The little aside – ‘let the reader understand’ – means that only when these disasters happen, can we recognize the events. That ‘desolation’ is happening now: Daily we read about them, especially this year!

Chaos everywhere.

Chaos not only happens in ‘nature’, as the Arctic News asserts: it also happens in politics. The debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was an instance of chaos versus reason. Come November and Trump losing the election, political chaos will descend on the United States of America, already more Disunited than any other great power. 

Chaos, aptly enough, is an unruly word with a volatile history. In modern English, there is something violent and unpredictable embedded in its very spelling and pronunciation: just sound it out! KAY-OS, Could the election be a single chaos among many?

Then again, maybe whatever is about to happen in American politics is just the latest symptom of a larger disorder. Last December, The New Yorker asked “what to call our chaotic era?” Here’s a quote:

“Some have argued that the aggregate events of recent years call for a new label that we can apply to our chaotic historical moment, a term that we can use when we want to evoke the panicky incoherence of our lives of late.”

Yes, agreed: This is the Age of Chaos! This is the Age of uncertainty. This is  the Age of instability, of which the weather is but one facet. “Will I find faith on earth, when I return?” wondered Jesus, and the emptiness of churches tragically confirms this query.

ARCTIC NEWS (September 11) concludes:

Potential causes for such a rapid temperature rise include a cataclysmic alignment of the temperature peak of the next El Niño coinciding with a peak in sunspots expected to occur in July 2025. 

So: Rejoice! Maranatha, the Lord will come back to bring THE NEW CREATION.

THE LORD WILLING.

A biography, of sorts.

Next month I hope to reach my 96^th birthday, DV, which stands for Deo Volente, the Latin for ‘The Lord Willing’. I once saw this DV limitation, on a note from a prominent economist, who advised one of the major US financial institutions. No explanation given: just DV. It suggested to me that this man, one of the nation’s most important monetary experts, lived by the grace of God.  I do that too.

I see my entire life as being lived before God’s face – another Latin phrase: Coram Deo. It indicates dependency and also uncertainty, the opposite of fundamentalism, which is a stagnant, intellectual, political, or theological position that asserts a certainty in the absolute truth and righteousness of a belief system. Fundamentalism, to me suggests an extreme form of hubris— of overconfidence, not only in one’s own beliefs but in the ability to understand complex questions.  

For me, my life is a constant struggle to attain the truth, an ever-shifting stance, however slightly, however minute, but actually, a joyful journey, a discovery track that leads, in the end, to surprising changes, because reading and reflecting and questioning, makes life interesting and worth living. 

Reading, all the time.

It’s reading that removes me from any permanent position: I always probe and search and experiment, always wonder what is God’s way, and what leads me and keeps me on the path to eternal life. I constantly wonder whether I should continue the same routine, my established way of life, or opt for a different path, because Creation is infinite and searching it is a never-ending journey: it also makes life interesting.

Today the present is threatened by AI, Artificial Intelligence, working with existing sources, and relying on limited knowledge, influenced by human, imperfect, impulses. It does not take the Spirit into account, God’s way that leads to eternity, freed from sinful inclinations and human hubris, Being dependent on God’s Spirit, I boldly can explore spirit-filled impulses, carried out with laughter and excitement, sharing and rejoicing, all in leisure and freedom, resulting in surprises and amazement.

There’s where books come in, to me life-changing at times, one of those has been: Diet for a small planet by Frances Moore Lappé, bought more than 50 years ago, 1972.

After sharing it with my spouse, we decided to change our eating habits: go vegetarian, because the production of a pound of meat takes up to 10 lbs of grain. 

That year 1972, was a real turning point in our lives: two other books also altered our vision: Limits of Growth, by Meadows and others, and After Death…what? by a Rev. Dr. Telder.

“Limits of Growth”, projected economic growth 50 years in the future, and now, 50 years later, we see the accuracy of this study: Doom is in the air. Another book, “After Death… What?”challenged the church’s message of us being ‘heaven-bound’, and, instead, pointed out that eternal life is lived on God’s very earth, affirmed in John 3: 16-17, which bears repeating: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

In John 3, Jesus directly speaks specifically to all preachers and teachers today, and it’s worth pointing out that verse 13 there expressly denies heaven as our final destination, a major false teaching.

I was brought up believing in heaven. As a child, songs about heaven were common: “Get in line, get in line, then follow the ‘to heaven’ sign”, was one of them. Today most church’s hymnals glorify heaven: By the sea of Chrystal, saints in glory stand: myriads in number drawn from every land. Robed in white apparel….they now reign in heaven. Just one of the scores of hymns praising heaven. All fundamentally false.

J, H. Bavinck’s book: “Between the Beginning and the End: a radical Kingdom vision”, offers a different vision. One of its lines, states: Salvation of the person and salvation of Creation go hand in hand.” That’s revolutionary!

This concept, that God’s Kingdom equals God’s Creation, more than any other thought, has deeply influenced me. All the piety in the world cannot possibly compensate for neglecting and worse, for harming God’s beloved work of art, which made Dietrich Bonhoeffer state that John 3: 16-17 form the heart of the gospel. 

In today’s age of unbelief and uncertainty, in our era of cynicism and the pursuit of pleasure, at a time of extremes and endings, of unparalleled weather events and social upheaval, we must recognise that DV, Deo Volente, the Lord Willing, must still be our rule for life. Through all turmoil, God’s will is being done.

AND THEN SHALL THE END COME.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a testimony to all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24: 14)

I am pretty sure that theologians are puzzled by this text. All around the world the Christian Religion is in decline. The concept of ‘kingdom’, meaning God’s rule on earth, has become a no-no, hardly ever mentioned in sermons or in Christian gatherings. Piety prevails, of course, but it is principally applied to personal prayer and song, and remains far removed from day-to-day activities. Jesus’ statement that he came to bring LIFE and that to the full – John 10:10 – is limited to spirituality, even as Christ’s statement indicates that there is no split in life. 

It becomes increasingly clear that, being a Christ follower, simply means adopting a ‘way of life’, a total immersion into Christ-like living, 24/7, inundated in LIFE that reflects the NEW life to come. 

Christian living is not a ‘looking back to the past’, but looking ahead to the New Creation to come, seeking new ways of holiness, living not only within the means and ways of creation, but in total symbiosis with all created matter, air, soil, water, fauna, flora, humanity, fully recognizing and implementing that Creation is God’s expression to us, first and foremost.

God’s way of punishing

When, in the Hebrew Bible God’s Chosen People, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, neglected the WAY, God punished them through natural disasters, often drought for years on end. That’s how God manifested his power, and showed his people his authority over all created matter. The ten plagues that beset Egypt before it let the Israel people go, were mostly climate related, except the last one, when ‘the angel of the Lord’ killed all the firstborn of man and beast, sparing no family. 

Today is no different.

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a testimony to all nations; and then shall the end come. 

The Greek word for ‘gospel’ is eu-angelos, or the good news. Just as the Ten Plagues were good news for God’s people, so the current unnatural disasters are Good News for God’s people as well. They shout loud and clear that God’s creation cannot be tampered with without serious consequences. Climate Change, melting icecaps, horrendous hurricanes, wars, are causing more CO2, more diseases and epidemics, while uncontrollable forests fires rage with double whammies, more CO2, less absorbing powers. All these events are just pinpricks compared to what is still to come

God’s Kingdom is today’s tool to punish us, the trespassers into God’s Kingdom. The laws of Ecology come to mind, reflecting divine intentions, captured into 4 simple statements: Everything is connected to everything else; Creation knows best; There is no free lunch; Nothing disappears. The bills of our riotous living are now due. 

A lot of questions. 

How can we, under these circumstances expect the Gospel of the Kingdom to be preached to all the world? A sudden church revival? A miraculous opening for the Kingdom prospective? A population receptive to God’s message? No, none of these above. What then?

Here is how I see this. 

One clue lies on the Calvary Hill, just outside Jerusalem when Jesus died. There occurred a sudden conversion, but was it really sudden? I think that Jesus showed both murderers, both his cruel cross companions, vivid descriptions, in blazing colors, vital impressions of the New Earth to come, and their possible place in it. One accepted his place in paradise; one rejected it. Take note: their destination is not heaven, but the restored Garden of Eden Paradise.

I know, this is pure conjecture, but it sounds true to me: Jesus mentioned Paradise for a purpose. Nothing happens in isolation. 

To continue this possible scenario, here is my take.

When all those who have ever lived, have been assembled, Jesus will address them, and give them too, an eyeopener of the Kingdom, a snapshot, a total overview of the new creation, with the invitation to accept or reject it, just as the two murderers, crucified with Jesus, were offered a final choice. That is, I think, what is meant when “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a testimony to all nations; and then shall the end come.”

Here it is Jesus himself who, just as when he was on earth, in word and deed, shows us the Gospel of the Kingdom, in its eternal entirety, in its total splendor, in its uttermost beauty. Accept or reject, because then shall the END come. Last chance.

KNOW THYSELF

That was the heading above the entrance to the Greek temple in Delphi: Gnoothi Seathon, Know Thyself, a quest we all are engaged in, whether we actually pursue it, or ignore it. I learned from translating a book on Revelation, the last Bible book, written by J. H. Bavinck, and available under the title, And On And On the Ages Roll, that, in the end, ‘Everything becomes what it is’. That applies to economic conditions, to what we call ‘creation’, and, yes, to us humans as well: in the end, everybody becomes what they are.

Are we really what we eat?

I once went to a lecture on food, entitled, We Are What We Eat. I learned that this is only half the truth. We also are our genes and our upbringing. Yes, physically, we are what we eat. More and more our ‘bought’ food is processed, or ultra-processed, not made to benefit us, but guarantee shelf-life and corporate profit, causing health problems in the process. 

But mentally and, I should add, spiritually, we are, at least partially conditioned by our genes and upbringing: my growing up in an orthodox Christian family placed an undeniable stamp on me. For that reason, I did some internet searching and some soul searching as well to discover hidden traces.

My ancestors.

I spotted him because of his second name and my first one: Egbert: Harold Egbert Camping.  Wasn’t he the man who had published, by billboards everywhere, the date of Christ’s return? 

I decided to investigate, and, yes, I was related to him: His grandmother was a sister of my maternal grandfather, whose father, thus my great grandfather, was Drewes Bousma de Haan. 

My mother told me that my great-grandparents lost much of their holdings, and with it their elevated status. Note the double last name, indicating some distinction, some sort of rural nobility. Apparently, he was a well-off gentleman-farmer, born in 1830, whose grandfather had been an appointed member of the political class, in the Province of Groningen. I remember seeing a plaque affixed above the entrance of a small church in Doezum, honoring his allegiance to the House of Orange, the titular head of the Netherlands since 1568.

My particular interest was in Harold Egbert Camping, the grandchild of Edo Albertus Kampen and Gepke Bousma de Haan who married on March 5 1896 in the Netherlands and shortly thereafter emigrated to Lynden, Washington, USA. Harold Egbert Camping – his father changed the name – was born on 19 July 1921 in Boulder, Colorado to Ralph Jacobus Camping and Trijntje “Trina” (Hettema) Camping.

When my grandfather was baptized his, parents deleted the ‘Bousma’ name, for the boys, but when the daughter, Gepke, married, she reclaimed that double surname, indicating an independent streak, later evident in her son who changed the family name from Kampen to Camping. Harold Egbert Camping moved at an early age to California; there he studied at University California, Berkely Campus, became an engineer, formed his own construction company, and was a millionaire at 35.

He and two other men founded Family Stations Inc. in 1958 and, a year later, began broadcasting fundamentalist Christian programming on a San Francisco station. Beginning in the 1970s, Harold predicted the world’s demise multiple times over 3 decades. His prediction for May 21, 2011 was widely reported, in part because of a large-scale publicity campaign by Family Radio, and it prompted ridicule and rebuttals from secular and Christian organizations. After May 21 passed without the predicted events, Camping said he believed that a “spiritual” judgment had occurred on that date, and that the physical Rapture would occur on October 21, 2011, simultaneously with the final destruction of the universe by God. Except for one press appearance on May 23, 2011, Camping largely avoided press interviews after May 21, particularly after he suffered a stroke in June 2011. After October 21, 2011, passed without the predicted apocalypse, the mainstream media labeled Camping a false prophet and commented that his ministry would collapse after the “failed ‘Doomsday’ prediction. 

He passed away on 15 December 2013 after a fall in his home.

What about me, my family and our genes?

Has this trait, this religious zeal, this obstinacy contrary to Scriptural givens – see Matthew 24: 36, where Jesus explicitly states that ‘the Day and the Hour’ cannot be known – revealed itself in subsequent relatives? In me? 

Know Thyself.

Yes, we are what we eat and we are our genes. I see traits of him in my wider family and in myself. I too, have this urge to warn people of the Coming of the Lord. I confess that my daily prayer is Maranatha, Lord. Come. And my relatives? I see traits in my younger brothers; I see traits in a nephew.

Know Thyself. A constant struggle.

BACH, VAN GOGH, SHAKESPEARE, AND GOD.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
    or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
⁸ or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
    or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Job 12.

Oh, the Bible! Yes, I mean this forgotten book. Most families have a copy or two, gathering dust somewhere. Which makes me wonder whether the Bible – and the church – is really necessary for salvation. 

What is salvation anyway? Good question. I think salvation comes when we pursue knowledge about God. The Belgic Confession points in that direction.

Article 2: The Means by Which We Know God 

We know him by two means: 

First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe,
since that universe is before our eyes
like a beautiful book 

in which all creatures, great and small,
are as letters
to make us ponder
the invisible things of God: 

his eternal power
and his divinity,
as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. 

All these things are enough to convict men and to leave them without excuse. 

Second, he makes himself known to us more openly by his holy and divine Word,
as much as we need in this life,

for his glory
and for the salvation of his own. 

What does that indicate?

A number of things. It emphasizes that Creation is God’s Primary and Direct Word, while the Bible is God’s Secondary and Indirect Word. 

It also tells us that Salvation is all about knowing God, especially his LOVE for creation and for his Son. Karen Armstrong, in her book, Sacred Nature, has shown how throughout our 10,000 years of history, people have seen Creation as a gift of God, and thus holy. Jesus calls his father ‘a Spirit’, by definition invisible. Paul in his letter to his protégé Timothy, wrote “God lives in inapproachable light, who nobody can see or has seen.”  (1 Timothy 6: 16). So, how can we worship a God who is both unseen and beyond knowledge? 

For this I go to three historical figures, all three genii in their own right. 

Shakespeare first.

Very little is known for certain about William Shakespeare. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. William Shakespeare was baptised on 26 April 1564 at Holy Trinity in Stratford-Upon-Avon.  This most famous playwright of all time – he wrote or co-authored some 50 plays – we only know him through his works.

I know a bit more about Johann Sebastian Bach. 

I have 2 Bach biographies: one more than 500 pages, written by Christoff Wolff, born in Germany, taught at Harvard. He confesses that he knows little about Bach as a person. Two of his wives died, one survived him, leaving her with 4 small children, of which he had 20, many dying young. He lived from 1685-1750, all in East Germany. But Bach’s musical talent is unequaled, I quote, “Johann Sebastian Bach was a genius of the highest order; his spirit is so unique and personal, so immense that it will require centuries to properly typify him. His original genius is immediately obvious”. His output was legendary: working 15 hours 7 days a week. 

Again, we know him mainly through his immense treasure of music.

Then there is Vincent van Gogh.

I have his biography, written by a duo: Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh, both graduates of Harvard Law School. They managed to unearth every letter he ever wrote: and there were a lot. The life story of Vincent – his father was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church – is so depressing that I could not finish this almost 1,000 pages volume. Notable facts: he was financially supported by his brother, an art dealer; he cut off his ear and committed suicide. 1853-1890.

But his paintings! His legacy! Unequaled among painters, except for, perhaps, Rembrandt and Da Vinci. 

So, why mention these great artists at all? 

They are world-famous because of their works. Without their artistic achievements, history would have forgotten them.

The same is true bout God. John 3 comes to mind. In it, Jesus talks to a preacher of his church. Three notable items: (1), in verse 13 he reminds him (and us) that ‘nobody goes to heaven, except Jesus, God’s son, who came from there’; (2) verse 16: God’s love for his creation is so great that, in order to buy it back from Satan, God’s Son is used as a ransom; (3) verse 17: Jesus came, not to condemn the world but to save it. 

Conclusion.

Three examples of famous men, still known today for their unequalled legacies.

The Old Testament believers saw God concretely in the holy temple. Today’s Christians can see God in his holy creation.