ATHIEST GENUS, WARREN
Story number two of WOC 68..
My co-counselor, John, and I had a second memorable camper, and he was in our cabin. The campers came on Saturday afternoon and left the following Saturday morning. So we had them for nearly an entire week.
John and I would meet the new campers on Saturday evening by doing a series of pullups (chin-ups) to convince them that they did not want to tangle with us. Some would try, but did it with their palms facing themselves. We made them turn their hands around. It is harder that way.
I only recall one camper who was able to match us. We did 10 just to start. Then if they were able to pull 10, we would immediately jump up for a second set. Only one camper, as I remember, made it past 10. And after several sets, we agreed to call it a draw.
Incidentally, my co-counselor’s full name was. “Big John.” And he was big. I was not inclined to tangle with him. We were wonderfully and propitiously matched. He also attended LeTourneau College, and I don’t think I knew him before we “met” on Schroon Lake Island.
Saturday afternoon and early evening were largely unstructured, allowing campers and counselors to get “acclimated” to each other, if not acquainted. I think this guy’s name was Warren. (Warning, this is a giveaway as to his character and temperament.) We had a different challenge with him. Within a few minutes we became aware that Warren was both precocious, and gifted. Just how gifted was not clear, even at the end of the week.
I cannot compare him directly with the “geniuses” I encountered while teaching high school and college chemistry. But, based on a 50 year-old memory, he was probably one of the highest IQ’s that I encountered in my life. (Exclusive of my own, of course. Smiley face.)
Warren declared that he was an atheist and was here for the recreation only. He was from New Jersey, Newark, if I remember, and he had little patience with the peons who were in charge of both his cabin and the whole camp. Anyone who believed in God had to be brain-dead or barely above that level.
We discussed a little relativity and he started to come out of his shell. (I knew nearly as much about it as he did, and neither of us understood it. Intellectual draw.) So the door was open. I cheated. I prayed for him.
And later in the week we were discussing the Bible. He stated that he could not believe it because it was filled with errors and contradictions. I simply challenged him to give me one. After a few false starts, he gave up, but continued to argue that there was nothing about the Bible that made it special, especially God’s Word. (I did not point out his self-contradiction there.)
I countered with the premise of prophesy. If the Bible makes prophetic statements and they come true, would that not prove that it was supernaturally inspired? He admitted that it would, but categorically stated that most of the “so-called” prophesies were written after the fact. There goes all of my Jesus points. I knew that they were not postdated, but had no way to prove it to him there.
He had been told that everything was written later, and had no reason to doubt it. He may even have been in an “atheist club” or group of some kind. He was well primed, but with his IQ, he was capable of ferreting out his own arguments. (And in the days before the internet and Google, that was a bit of a task.)
“Luckily,” I had just been reading in Isaiah where the prophet named Cyrus as being the king to let the Israelites go back to their land after Babylon had exiled them for 70 years. (I omitted the 70 year exile prophesy.) I started in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23. (It is repeated in Ezra 1.)
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah—the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’”
I may have started with Isaiah 45:1-3. (I do now.)
Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: 2 “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. 3 “I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
This name thing is big. God named a king several years before he was the king. And here it gets very exciting. Whether here or later, Warren was astounded.
Isaiah wrote that between 701 and 681 BC. Cyrus overthrew Babylon and became the ruler of the Jews in 539 BC and the Chronicles and Ezra books were happening. But wait, there is more.
In Isaiah 44:28 we read,
“It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
I wanted to focus on the sending back and rebuilding the temple. But Warren seized on the fact that his name had been predicted nearly 150 years before Cyrus took power and did his thing.
(Disclaimer: I had just acquired a Scofield Study Bible, and all of the dates when books were written were there. So I did not have to remember them, only that the prophesies existed.)
That broke the dam. Warren exclaimed, “They (and presumably the documents he had read) lied to me! Only a God who knows everything could foretell the future like that.” (Did I tell you he was “pretty bright?”) I didn’t have to say a word or explain anything. (I’m choking up here.) Even without my explaining that God inhabits eternity, etc, he realized that if anyone was able to do that, He would be God. And he was ready to accept Him.
I was not satisfied to get Warren to God, I wanted him to know Jesus. That was an easy transition, now that he discounted all of his “learned” training about how the Bible was spurious and unreliable. The Jesus story made sense and Warren accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for his sin right there in our cabin. PTL! Isn’t God good, to have me “just happen” to read those passages recently? His leading is profound and, thankfully, fairly consistent. “Listening” is more the problem of consistency, but I digress.
Warren was changed too. He was stil a genius, but no longer an atheist. I do not recall anything about his parents. But, unless they were aggressive atheists, sending him on a mission to camp to convert the gullible, they may have been behind his coming in hopes that someone could get through to him. Someone, Someone did, and He used me to point out the road through Isaiah.
I hate that I did not keep up with either of these boys/men. But we will meet in heaven, and who knows, maybe we will cross paths on Facebook or something. John and I recently discovered each other. (“Hi John.”) We are slowly catching up. Warren and LSD guy were more peripheral encounters, but I was deeply impacted. And they are going to heaven because of that. If we don’t meet until then, so be it.
God changes lives. We are born in sin, but He can take us out and make us New Creatures. Thank You Jesus.
Epilog: The previous engagement was done before the advent of the “GET LIFE” program. They use RAMP to argue for the validity and veracity of the Bible. Resurrection (of Jesus), Archeology (historic finds), Miracles proving an Supernatural intervention in lives, and Prophesy. God pre-wrote history because He is everpresent, He is in the past, the present, and the future. Cyrus comes in this category.
Disclaimer: These “memories” may have warped and been enhanced over the years. A couple of years ago, we had instances of peoples’ memories “conflating” events that actually happened and things that happened to them. There is a good possibility that these tales, like my memories of being an all-American high school basketball player, are bigger than life. The actual events are not imagined or invented. I have a witness: John.
Story number two of WOL 68 is at an end.
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