BOOK REVIEW – Against the Flow, Part 1

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego” by Simeon Solomon (1863) (PD-Art, Old-100)

Acclaimed Oxford University Professor, John Lennox, has written another book with significance for Christians confronting the modern world.  Against the Flow – The Inspiration of Daniel in an Age of Relativism is an analysis of the biblical Book of Daniel.  Lennox finds striking parallels between the Prophet Daniel’s time and our own.

Lennox examines the Book of Daniel systematically, addressing the faithfulness of Daniel, Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Meshach), and Azariah (Abednego), young boys forcibly transported from their homeland during the Babylonian Captivity; Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace; the madness of Nebuchadnezzar; Belshazzar’s feast; Daniel in the lion’s den; and Daniel’s own prophetic visions [1].

In the process, Lennox discusses a variety of other topics including the flawed nature of man, the Kingdom of God, the perils of various forms of government, and the deification of man.

The Flawed Nature of Mankind

“History teaches a consistent lesson:  there is something obviously wrong with human nature…’A great and prolonged police strike, the existence of a revolutionary situation…and the exhilaration of conquest in an enemy country are likely to show up the seamy side of human nature amongst people who, cushioned and guided by the influences of normal social life, have hitherto presented a respectable figure to the world’ ” (pp. 125-126).

-Against the Flow by John Lennox

The author begins from the premise that mankind is flawed, as Christian theology teaches and history amply demonstrates.

“…[U]nrecognized flaws in human nature such as pride, cupidity, and self-centeredness can produce a dangerous self-righteousness that convinces people they are one hundred per cent right, and others similarly wrong…Christendom itself has been guilty at times of such self-righteousness, [as] when it tortured and burned heretics in a supposed effort to ‘save’ their souls.  But that attitude has also characterized…political movements, such as Nazism and Marxism, with their vast toll on human life” (pp.126-127).

-Against the Flow by John Lennox

John Lennox does not exempt Christians from this assessment of the flawed nature of mankind.  In fact, he warns Christians not to become self-righteous.

“There is a deep flaw in human nature, but humans still perversely insist on placing their faith in it…[T]he only satisfactory answer to man’s flaw is God’s supernatural power…” (pp. 128, 132).

-Against the Flow by John Lennox

John Lennox drives home the point that human beings persist in their error, that pride leads them to judge God by human standards.

The author explores how the failure to believe in God actually corrupts reason, as reflected – among other things – by degenerate imagery in art and entertainment.

The Kingdom of God

“…[W]e are not to think of the kingdom of God…as a new member of the sequence [of world empires] to be added on at the end.  In particular it is not a final stage of world government, reached by advancing human experience and wisdom…Yet throughout history it has been all too common for people professing Christianity to think that the system of government that happened to be in power…in their era was nothing less than the kingdom of God on earth” (p. 115-116).

-Against the Flow by John Lennox

John Lennox gives the Holy Roman Empire and western liberal democracy, as examples of the temptation to confuse a prevailing government with the Kingdom of God.  The latter, of course, has particular bearing for us.

The author compares absolute monarchy, constitutional monarchy, democracy, and totalitarianism.  In so doing, he confirms that atheism in the form of communism has been responsible for more carnage than all religiously motivated conflicts.

The Deification of Man

“Even though there is a drive to relativize absolutes, men and women cannot live without them.  So they eventually take something of relative value and absolutize it.  That is, they regard it as the core value that determines their attitude to everything else.  From time immemorial the obvious candidates have been the state, power, wealth, and sex” (p.137).

-Against the Flow by John Lennox

Lennox warns that mankind is not advancing toward some exalted evolutionary ideal.

Like modern industrialized nations, Babylon was searching for its identity in cutting edge scientific and technologic advancements.  The kingdom fell when God’s patience with its blasphemy and immorality reached an end.

We ignore the lesson at our peril.

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[1]  The Babylonian Captivity was the 70 year period in Jewish history during which the temple of Solomon was destroyed, and captives from the Kingdom of Judah were taken to Babylon.  The Kingdom of Israel had already been taken into captivity by Assyria in 722 BC.  After the fall of Babylon, Cyrus the Great of Persia formally permitted Judean captives to return home in 539 BC.  Biblical accounts of the Babylonian Captivity can be found in the Books of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, and Daniel.  The return of the captives to Jerusalem is recorded in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

The end times prophecies contained in the Book of Daniel will be addressed next week, in Part 2

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