While worshiping on the first Sunday of Advent, I attentively listened to my pastor read from John 1:1-18 as I followed along in my CSB.  I paid particular attention to John 1:5: “That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.”  Afterwards I reread these familiar words of John’s gospel, which have been shared so often during the Advent season.  A footnote to John 1:5 in my CBS Bible notes that “overcome” can also mean “grasp, or comprehend, or overtake.”  

The NET Bible translates John 1:5 this way: “And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.”  Phillips says, “The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.”  The NET Bible notes “shines” as being in the present tense: “The light continually shines…expresses the timeless truth that the light of the world never ceases to shine” (NET).  

The Amplified Bible reads, “The light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it].  Continuing, it notes, “Although Satan and his forces resist the light, they cannot thwart its power.  In short, Jesus is life and light; those who accept Him are ‘sons of light’ (12:35-36).  As the creation of light was the beginning of the original creation, so, when believers receive the light, they become part of the new creation (II Cor. 4:3-6).” 

My thoughts often drift to focus on challenges men face.  On this particular Sunday, I sensed I should blog on John 1:5 and our battle with the ever-increasing darkness.  Jesus’ warning from John 12:35 seems very appropriate to 21st century believers: “You are going to have the light just a little while longer.  Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.”   

Here’s how two cultural observers describe our society:  “There is a creeping sense that our society has turned upside-down.  Healthy debate is replaced by activist hysterics.  Speech is declared violence; violence is excused as speech.  Masculinity is condemned as ‘toxic,’ while men in dresses are celebrated in the public square.  It feels as if we are in the midst of a society-wide mental breakdown” (Christopher F. Rufo).  “There is something deeply unwell in our society right now… I’m sure social media, economic malaise, Covid lockdowns, fentanyl, and every other reason we hear about factor into it… in aggregate, (it) still feels insufficient” (Robert Sterling).  Sterling goes on to suggest that something “metaphysical” seems to have shifted.

In other words, something in the spiritual realm has changed.  Psalm 88:5 reminds us that the “gods” of this age walk in darkness. They cause earth’s foundations to shake. “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing.  They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken” (Ps. 82:5).  Yes, there is a major shift taking place.  The “gods” of darkness have been loosed, causing a type of metaphysical “mental breakdown.” This has produced an unhealthy spiritual vacuum.  Paul warns, “For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie” (II Thess. 2:11).

But remember, men: Jesus, the light of world, has come.  His light will not go out.  Darkness will not overcome, grasp, comprehend or put out that light.  In the future, AI may deceive many while claiming to bring light. We know better. “You are all sons of the light and sons of the day.”  We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like those who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled” (I Thess. 5:5-6).

The Gospel Coalition website offers an article by Trevin Wax entitled 60 years of ‘Honest to God’.  Sixty years ago, I was a young freshman at Augsburg College, having spent the previous two years at a Lutheran Bible school in California.  As a recent convert determined not to lose his faith, I had my testimony of new life in Christ and a deep commitment to the Word of God as my guide to both life and practice.  Bishop A. T. Robinson’s book Honest to God came as a shock to my newly-formed biblical frame of reference.  I vividly remember struggling with some of the bishop’s proposals. 

Feeling inadequate to respond to Robinson’s book, I asked whether I should I cling to my orthodox faith as I prepared to become a pastor. Should I reconsider restating “traditional orthodoxy in modern terms” in order to reach an increasingly secular culture?  The bishop warned that the survival of Christianity was at stake.  “There is no time to lose” in seeking to “recapture ‘secular’ man.”  According to the bishop, the church needed radical change, embracing a “metamorphosis of Christian belief and practice,” while calling for a recasting that would “leave the fundamental truth of the Gospel unaffected,” yet still requiring “everything to go into the melting – even our most cherished religious categories and moral absolutes.”  I wondered what that would mean.

I am very thankful that I weathered the spiritual storm caused by Honest to God. I remember being unsettled with Robinson’s criticism of “supernaturalism” and “the miraculous.” I felt my own personal experience as a believer was under attack.  I had my testimony but did not have the spiritual maturity to disprove Robinson’s point of view.  In the words of Trevin Wax, Robinson believed that “the church should heed the naturalist critique of supernaturalism because it exposed many of Christianity’s cherished beliefs as ‘an idol’ we must no longer cling to.”

Wax observes, “Now that postmodern waves have crashed upon modernity’s shore… Robinson’s ‘recasting’ looks like little more than an outdated attempt to curry favor with people who have ‘come of age’… What the church needs most isn’t another proposal that integrates Christianity from the vantage point of our contemporary sensibilities but leaders who interrogate our current moment from the vantage point of historic Christianity.”

Men, this is my testimony after over 60 years of contending “for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3).  I was motivated by Paul’s words to young Timothy: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles to word of truth” (II Tim 2:15).  I remember clinging to II Tim 3:16-17: “All Sculpture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  I believed fervently that I had been filled with God’s Holy Spirit.  Jesus said of the Spirit, “He will not speak  on his own; but he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13).

What did this mean for me?  First, I wholehearted wanted at a young age to a “worthy workman” for the Lord.  I surrendered myself to him as best as I could.  2) With all my heart and mind I believed scripture to be “God-breathed” and I submitted myself to the authority of God’s Word.  3) I realized I am helpless without the work of the Spirit in my life – and I praise God for the “fullness of his presence” in me.