The following is an excerpt from End of The Spear by Steve Saint, Tyndale House Publishers (2005). You can get a gist of the book from reviews on Amazon. When I read things like this I instinctively think of our friend Richard Dawkins and his book, The God Delusion, a book which I confess has left an indelible impression on my mind. It is the kind of story that, for me, is the major counter to the cynical anti-god brigade to which I once belonged. Like Dawkins I was raised in a Christian home. Perhaps unlike Dawkins I broke off my Christian connections - and didn’t renew them until some years later when I was of a more sound mind. This half century old story is just the kind of thing that was just one of the influences in my change of direction in life, of taking a more serious and honest look at real Christians and Christianity. I am thankful that I got to grips with the Christian faith before reading TGD, otherwise Dawkins might have affirmed me in my own irrational prejudices before I became a Christian. Thinking of what Dawkins thinks of the Bible and of God, why we might wonder is it that others think so differently and thousands of people are still willing to literally give their lives for Jesus Christ in certain parts of the non-democratic world today such as in China. This story of what happened in another but remote part of the world, The End of the Spear is a case in point. Here are a few paragraphs from the book, enough to illustrate how others see the message of the Bible and how it influences and changes people and whole communities.
“Since Aunt Rachel had started living with the Waodani, I had looked for every chance I could to stay with her and the tribe. That is, after Aunt Rachel figured I could visit without being killed. The Waodani had a long history of killing outsiders and being killed by them. I was just a nine-year old kid when I first visited Waodani territory, but I was almost as tall as some of the adults in the tribe, though pitifully skinny.
“By the time the evening mist began to settle over our little encampment and the night sounds their serenade, the shelters had been made, the fires were going, and fish and monkey were in the pot. It didn’t get much better than that in my book - and there was also the possibility that the jaguar would come back. That would add some excitement for sure.
“The next morning, after drinking the Waodani’s customary breakfast of plantain mashed in warm water and finishing the meat from the last night’s meal, we were ready for the baptismal service. Kathy wanted Kimo and Dyuwi to baptise us. They were both warriors I had learned to respect, and they treated me like family. Kathy’s choice was good by me.
“Kimo spoke to Waengongi - God - as some of us bowed our heads: ‘A long time ago we came to this place to do bad, bad thing. But now, speaking Your name well and keeping you in our hearts, we have come back to do a good thing. Taking these four young people into the water, they will die to the old way of living and will show they truly want to walk Your trail now, following Itota, Your only Son, who marked your trail for us.
“It didn’t occur to me until Kimo was praying that he and Dyuwi knew this sandbar well. The men we had chosen to baptise us were two of the very same men who had speared my father and the others - at this very same place. It seemed strangely out of character that such kind and gentle men whom we all liked so much and who obviously liked us could have done such a terrible thing. I had forgotten the pain of losing dad, but I couldn’t imagine not loving Kimo and Dyuwi and all the other Waodani who had come to visit this terrible, wonderful place with us.
“Then Kimo and Dyuwi took Kathy, Oncaye, Iniwa, and me into the water and lowered us into it as though they were burying us. When they lifted us back up, they told us to live happily and at peace, following God’s trail.”
Following that event, the author, Steve Saint, went on to say, “I . . . wanted to know why they had speared my dad and our other friends. But again, I remained silent. I was too young to realise how strange it would seem to other people that Kathy and I were baptised at the same place and by the same men who had speared our dad and hacked his body with a machete. These were people Aunt Rachel loved and Mom had been praying for since before they killed dad and the four others. Following their example, it never occurred to hate them”
As mentioned earlier you can get a gist of the book from reviews on Amazon, also available at Christian book shops here in the UK as well as having been made into a very popular film.
But on my reading of the story there are two significant points for me that mark out Christianity as a significant and a positive influence in the world. The first I have mentioned in a previous post - Christianity’s civilising influence. The second is the opposite from what the new atheists would have their readers believe. Christianity, biblical Christianity that is, majors in forgiveness. It might be something Christians struggle with as would anyone else, but Christians don’t meet together to express hate towards others but through what Christians know as the grace of God they seek to bring forgiveness and peace to those around them.
It is here where Professor Dawkins, or science in general, is unable to provide any resolution to the fallen human condition that so spoils our planet. As expressed in The End of the Spear, the power for change in human attitudes and behaviour comes from a supernatural source - that is what Jesus Christ came to do. Science may get us to Mars - but it would not help us in how we should behave towards each other if we got there!
Interesting isn’t it how some people can have such a jaundiced view of God (and I include my former self) - and of those who have come to know God and are willing to give their lives in service for Him. It is interesting how reactions to God can be so different - like the sun shining down on mud - it hardens; put butter out in the sun and it melts. It is under that kind of warmth that the human heart sees a different God from the one that by choice becomes impervious to the radiance of God, from what Mark Earley in his commentary on this story calls, “Amazing Grace, Amazing Justice“
