Against the Flow by John C. Lennox - this is one of my favourite books, and I will start off by saying that I will give it a rating of 5 stars.
This was a book recommended by one of my role models, Simon Manchester, who was the Senior Minister at St Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney, Australia. I had the privilege of speaking with Simon over lunch, but also had the opportunity to interview him several years back with my lovely wife, Sally and my greatest mentor and brother, Sam.
We talked about all sorts of topics - starting from personal life, to God, the church, theology and even politics. And that was where he highly recommended this book, saying that “we need more Christians in government to make a difference to our country”. I immediately went out and bought this book. But it ended up collecting dust on our book shelf until early last year, when I actually decided to give it a go.
So what’s my take on it? It made a huge impact on my life.
This book explores the parallel between the challenges faced by Christians today and those experienced during the time of Daniel. While Christian faith is often tolerated within private spheres like churches and homes, a growing societal discomfort and criticism towards public expressions of faith is evident. I didn’t intend this blog to be this long, but I will be covering four key areas which personally stood out to me:
Lennox mentions in the book it should be elementary logic to influence others that our God is the one true God who wants to have a relationship with humanity. We as Christians need to personally be loyal to our God and adjust our lives accordingly.
Yes, that makes sense…
No wonder, when speaking with friends or acquaintances, my words had no weight. Yes, it’s elementary on paper. Yet in reality, it’s quite hard to put this into practice.
This was the first real punch in the face for me in the book.
I personally compromised my faith in the past to pursue my wants, my desires, to save face, to avoid judgement, etc. And it’s actually sad to see the same thing in other people. What I’ve been witnessing most recently:
Let me preface - these sins have always existed in the past(and I am guilty of some of these and more sins myself). However, what makes it different in the new and upcoming generation is that there is no shame about their sin which makes it more dangerous. When people used to hide their sins in the past, it was an outward manifestation of how they thought about their sin inside. Understanding whatever they’re committing, it is wrong (which is why they hide it). Our conscience is obviously still trying to tell us something.
However, when someone is shameless about their sins and publicly shares it, I believe it is also a manifestation of their thought. They don’t see anything wrong with it. The subconscious mind has gone numb to sin. Where have our morals gone? I’ll elaborate more on the morals later on.
None of this is to say these sins per se determine the individual’s salvation. However, it does make me question what they truly think about their own faith. And what the future consequences of these actions will be… Food for thought? Maybe?
I have definitely faced my fair share of consequences and probably have more to come. But in saying that, I am now more aware of my actions as a representative of Christ.
Why is it so important that we don’t compromise our values? There are obviously multiple factors. To pin point one thing - according to Revelation in the Bible, the time is near, and it’s only going to get harder to be a Christian.
So we need to discipline ourselves now. Otherwise, what makes you think we will hold onto God in the toughest times when you’re compromising your values with the smallest things in life now?
The book also suggests as Christians, if we are to stand up for our faith, we should stand up as Daniel did, where “[he] did not protest as an observer outside the system [of Babylon]; he protested as a participant”.
So what is that exactly suggesting? If we are hoping to break some ice with people we interact with, we must learn to be gentle and respectful, rather than Bible bashing people and forcing our opinions down their throats.
Let me straighten things up. This doesn’t mean whatever you say respectfully and gently is not, not going to hurt the person from the receiving end. Sometimes, no matter how much you try to be kind, loving, gentle, respectful and anything alike, the person from the receiving end could always take it the wrong way, and this is clearly shown in the book of Daniel too.
Here’s an example scenario:
Unfortunately, there are people out there who don’t want to hear things that are beneficial to them, and some live in a delusion of how Christians should only be positive.
Like anything else in this world, only hearing what you want to hear will hinder your personal and professional growth. And as a Christian, it can also hinder our spiritual growth. To finish off this little sub-topic, being gentle and respectful DOES NOT mean the receiving person will always take it well. However, we are called to be gentle and respectful to represent Christ to the people around us. The book goes deeper into this if you want to hear more about it!
Of course we cannot miss the famous story of the three friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego). We all know God has delivered these three men from the furnace, where they should have been cremated to dust(if you didn’t know, that is what happened). But Lennox also mentioned while God is the greatest deliverer, “he will not deliver us from our own decisions”. This has never crossed my mind but it makes total sense because God would want to make us stronger. If he did deliver us from our own decisions, we will in essence be “perfect” which is not human at all. And this is kinda going down a loop hole which I won’t go into. But if we are to be perfect, we wouldn’t need Jesus to come to die for us…
This also made me reflect on myself as a father of a 19-month-old. There are certain things I cannot decide for him because I will only spoil him to become a person who cannot make decisions for himself. And this will become more so as he gets older by the day. The most loving thing I can do for my child is to set him up for success. The only way to do that is for him to make decisions for himself, understanding there are different outcomes and consequences for all the little choices he makes in life, while of course steering him in the right directions as God does for us through the Bible.
The development of moral consciousness, with its capacity for abstract reasoning and empathy, is a significant factor in what sets humans apart from other animals.
I guess this is where the chapter title “The law of the jungle” comes from in Lennox’s book, which is literally 'survival of the fittest', or the idea of a ‘dog-eats-dog world'. The way Daniel ended up in the lion's den was because of these jealous administrators who couldn’t stand Daniel’s popularity and favour. So they decided to conspire against him. Law and morality, all out the window(did they have windows back then? hmmm🤔).
Though they were humans, you can start to see that they were slowly becoming amoral animals(not literally like Twilight, but you know what I mean). I think to myself, what difference are we as a society? I don’t think most of us are conspiring to kill anyone out there(well, I hope not). However, we are slowly compromising our values, morals and laws to achieve what we desire, whether that may be for our careers, finances, marriage/relationships, fun, etc. Lennox talks well about how the term tolerance has changed over time. All in all, “we have lost our human dimension of virtue and truth. In that sense, we have become merely animals”.
So what does it mean to be a Christian in the midst of a society that is becoming like amoral animals?
What makes us different is beautifully put forth by a great Canadian Bible scholar, Wesley Huff:
“Christianity says, ‘you can’t feel, do or think enough’. It’s not gonna work. You’re not going to live up to the standards of the Holy God. And so, it’s not the survival of the fittest, it’s not the most intelligent, or most spiritual or it’s not about people who have the greatest revelations. Instead, the fittest [Jesus Christ] steps down and sacrifices himself for the survival of the weakest. That’s what we call the gospel. That’s the good news. It’s subverting the system.”
To put it simply, we must understand what God has done for us on the cross. And if we truly understand that, it is inevitable to become more like Christ each day.
I can literally go on forever around what else I got out of the book. In which case, I may as well just copy and paste the whole book here. I highly recommend reading this book, as I have only scratched the surface in this blog.
If you are working in government, I just want to encourage you that no matter what position you’re in - high or low - God has placed you there for a reason. Even if you think you’re making little impact, God has placed you there for a reason. Daniel is a great testament to how low he started and how much impact he had made in the end.
And this is the case for everyone else. You are where you are for a reason. Hopefully the following statement about Daniel by Lennox, challenges you to think beyond what is of this world:
“Although he lived in this world, he did not live for it.”
Check out the book here: