The Gospel According to Jerry: Confessions of a Fool for Christ

By Jerry G. A. Rodgers

The
testimony of this book reaffirms the original New Testament witness, that the
Christians separation from the world is so radical that in the eyes of the class=SpellE>unbaptized worldling he is quite
literally out of his mind (Acts 26:24). Pauls description of the Christian
gospel as folly (1 Cor. Hour="13">1:18style='font-family:Arial'>) therefore is seen to be no mere literary device but
a deep penetration to the root of the Christians alienation from the world.
The basic proclamation of that gospel__that
God was in Christ, who died for our sins, rose from the grave, ascended into
heaven and will some day return to judge both the living and the class=SpellE>dead__is at best hard to believe (Mark 16:9-14),
and at worst has been placed in the same category of delusional psychology of
which those with experience in caring for the mentally ill can give numerous
examples (Albert Schweitzer, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus). My own
experience of the gospel, having run this gamut from best to worst, has been
for me a brilliant illumination of the depth of the riches of the wisdom and
knowledge of God (Rom. style='font-family:Arial'>11:33). I believe it cannot but result
in enlightenment for others also, and therefore I publicly make this
confession.

___from the authors Foreword

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 4, 2004
• ISBN: 9781418468071

Jerry G. A. Rodgers

G. A. (Jerry) Rodgers, born 1925 in Roanoke, IL, born again 1953 in San Francisco, is a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, happily married husband in an interracial marriage, father or stepfather of five, grandfather of seven, and great-grandfather of three. Raised the son of a Methodist preacher; after leaving home and studying philosophy at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago he professed agnosticism until his conversion at the age of 27. His conversion experience made his family think he had lost his mind, and they had him committed to mental hospitals for several years after his discharge from the Navy in 1953. His story is an archetypical example of Anton Boisen’s thesis in his Exploration of the Inner World (1936) in which he examined the mirror-image relationship of mental illness and religious experience; and it throws a glaring new light on Schweitzer’s Quest of the Historical Jesus, initiated at the beginning of the last century.

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© 1984, 2004, 2011 by Jerry G.A. Rodgers. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 5/19/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4184-6807-1 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4184-4796-0 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004090206

Printed in the United States of America.

Quotations from the Bible in this book are sometimes paraphrased by the author, but are based primarily on the New International Version (copyright 1978, 1983, International Bible Society, published by Zondervan Corp., Grand Rapids, MI); the Revised Standard Version (copyright 1952, 1973, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in U.S.A., available from several publishers); and/or the King James (Authorized) Version. Other versions used and/or consulted include: New American Bible, New American Standard Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Amplified Bible, Living Bible, Good News Bible, New English Bible, New King James Bible, English Standard Version, and others.

First edition published by the Latter Rain Publishing House, A.D. 1984. Second revised edition published by AuthorHouse, Bloomington, IN, A.D. 2004.

Contents

A Word to the Wise

Foreword

Prologue

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Epilogue

Examine Yourselves

End Notes

Appendix I: Law

Appendix II: History

Appendix III: Divinity

To

Nan, Lise, and Danny

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We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise….

1 Corinthians. 4:10

A Word to the Wise

This book cannot be understood, or even read, without two helps: 1. a Bible, and 2. a Spirit of humility.

1. In asking the question, Which version of the Bible should I use? today’s English reader suffers from an embarrassment of riches. There are a good baker’s dozen to choose from besides the venerable King James (Authorized) Version of 1611 which is still viable, although on the threshold of joining the original Hebrew and Greek and the medieval Latin Bibles in the catacombs of history. Much controversy surrounds the more recent versions, but if we were to allow controversy to deter us we would not get out of bed in the morning, much less rise from the dead. Read them all if you can. Each one has its strengths and its weaknesses, but the weakest is better than none at all, for the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.1

My personal preference at this time is the New International Version,2 although I was brought up on the King James Version, and have read the Revised Standard Version3 profitably for many years. As for Bibles in languages other than English, I can give no recommendations but know of no other languages in which the choices are so many or so controversial.

Whatever version you use, the Scripture passages cited here are indispensable to understanding what is said. If therefore you do not have the time, or cannot take the trouble, to look up those passages not directly quoted, you will do well to lay this book aside until such time as you do and can.4

2. The Holy Spirit.5 If you have an aversion to this Spirit or any of his manifestations,6 of which humility is only one, you will find it difficult to read this book, much less understand it. If this is the case with you and yet it is your intention to read it, I would suggest that before proceeding further you find some place where you can bow your knees and your heart before God and ask him to remove this aversion from you.7

Foreword

When Paul wrote the Corinthians that we are fools for Christ,1 he was expressing himself not in hyperbole but in understatement. To the men of his generation who were at home in this world he was literally insane.2 But in this, as in all else, he was simply following his Great Exemplar.3 No other disciple learned so well the truth of the maxim, A disciple is not above his master.4

Twenty centuries later, however, a large part of the church shows no awareness of this teaching at all, and of those who do almost all regard it as exaggeration rather than understatement.

The testimony of this book reaffirms the original New Testament witness, that the Christian’s separation from the world is so radical that in the eyes of the unbaptized worldling he is quite literally out of his mind.5 Paul’s description of the Christian gospel as folly (or foolishness)6 therefore is seen to be no mere literary device but a deep penetration to the root of the Christian’s alienation from the world.7

The basic proclamation of that gospel—that God was in Christ, who died for our sins, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven and will some day return to judge both the living and the dead8—is at best hard to believe,9 and at worst has been placed in the same category of delusional psychology of which those with experience in caring for the mentally ill can give numerous examples.10 My own experience of the gospel, having run this gamut from best to worst, has been for me a brilliant illumination of the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.11 I believe it cannot but result in enlightenment for others also, and therefore I publicly make this confession.12

In doing so I wish to acknowledge the indispensable aid of everyone mentioned in this book, but most particularly my father, from whom I first heard the gospel preached,13 and my first wife, who shared with me the burden and the agony of these years until they tore us asunder.

I want also to acknowledge here the signal achievement of Anton T. Boisen, whose Exploration of the Inner World,14 first published in 1936, is a clear harbinger of my own.

Finally, I wish to express what is really inexpressible: my profound appreciation to my wife for bearing with me in the birth of this book,15 and to the church of God for bearing me in her arms and nursing me at her bosom while I was yet a babe in Christ.16

GAR

Advent, 2003

Prologue

(Psalm 107)

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His steadfast love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the nations, from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South.

Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters.

They saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.

For he commanded, and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.

They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight.

They reeled and staggered like drunken men, and were at their wits’ end.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.

Then they rejoiced because they had calm, and he brought them to their desired haven.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men!

Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.

Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in.

Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He led them by a straight way, till they reached a city to dwell in.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men!

For he satisfies him who is thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.

Some were sick1 through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction.

They loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.

He sent forth his word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men!

And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!

Some sat in darkness and gloom, prisoners in affliction and in irons.

For they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor;

they fell down with none to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and gloom, and broke their bonds asunder. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to the sons of men! For he shatters the doors of bronze, and cuts in two the bars of iron.

He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste,2 because of the wickedness of its inhabitants. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water, and there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in.3 They sow fields and plant vineyards, and reap a bountiful harvest. By his blessing they multiply greatly;

and he does not let their cattle decrease.

When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, trouble, and sorrow, He pours contempt upon princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes. But he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness stops its mouth.

Whoever is wise, let him give heed to these things; let men consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

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1

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother …. and your mother …. and now in you.

2 Tim. 1:5

GOD began blessing me by giving me birth in the flesh in the Methodist parsonage at Roanoke, Illinois, a few days before Christmas in the year of our Lord 1925. I thank God for this now, although at the time I am sure I did not regard it as a blessing. But God is better and wiser and—thank God—stronger than we are, and blesses us in spite of ourselves.

Of course, he really began blessing us in the very beginning, when the Word was with God1 and before the mountains were brought forth or ever he had formed the earth and the world, for the Lord has been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 But I shall not begin my gospel3 there as this is already very easily available in print, at least in the English-speaking world, and the time is short.4 I shall begin rather on December 14, 1925—no, I shall begin even later than that, our frailty being such that we cannot recall the beginning of God’s blessings even in this present world.5

My earliest memories, though blessed by Mercy, are unhappy ones of a tragically unhappy home. My parents according to the flesh, mismated from the beginning, determinedly stuck together through more than thirty years of constant strife and almost ceaseless mutual agony. Consequently, it is difficult for me to remember any of my childhood years without a mist of tears clouding my vision. God in his mercy eventually made it possible for these antagonists to separate, but the wounds of their warfare are still felt by all who were touched by it.

It is certainly not for me, or anyone else, to sit in judgment upon one’s own parents, but it is perhaps humanly impossible not to do so, either consciously or subconsciously, in such circumstances. And on the reverse side of this coin, it must be said that it is inhumanly possible to do just this. I have been accused of being inhumanly vindictive in my attitude toward my father since the divorce, and this accusation may be valid. My feelings have been very strong and very strongly expressed, but I love both my parents, however wrong I may feel either or both of them to be. God only knows the agony of suffering through which this love has been drawn as through a fiery furnace—for the purpose, I now see, of consuming its dross that it might be made pure, sanctified for the Master’s use.6

I have no memories of the town of Roanoke at all, as my parents moved from there in the first year of my life to Brimfield, Illinois. Three years later, in the fateful year of 1929, we moved to Magnolia in Putnam county, Illinois, where the dawn of consciousness first lightens my memory. In this small farming community of three hundred souls, surrounded by the green and brown sea of the Illinois prairie, we weathered the storm of the Great Depression.

To ensure a supply of milk for his young brood my father, a farmer’s son, acquired a cow which his congregation allowed him to pasture in the churchyard. Behind the church there was also a patch of ground that he cultivated as a garden. It was one of many sources of bitter disappointment to him that my mother was unable (or unwilling, in his opinion) to utilize in the kitchen much of the produce he worked so hard to raise in the garden. Sometimes we would sit down to a meal that consisted simply of bread and milk. We would break the bread in small pieces into a bowl, sprinkle it with sugar and pour milk over it like breakfast cereal. This was not for breakfast, however; it was sometimes our evening meal.7 Breakfast was invariably oatmeal, usually with a little All-Bran sprinkled on top with the sugar.

My father tells me that I had religious faith as a child, but I don’t remember that I did. If I did, it was a starveling faith, for it did not outlast my childhood more than one day. My father’s faith was very genuine and sincere, but it too was a pretty meager faith, at least in those days. It did very little either for him or for his family in the way of helping us cope with the many problems that finally overwhelmed us.

In this regard however it must be said that it is very easy to underestimate the power of even a meager faith to cope with difficult situations.8 It was not, after all, a paltry accomplishment to hold such a divided house together for thirty-three years, and to keep going, and working, and providing, and preaching the gospel in the face of such tremendous obstacles. Yet as it turned out, it was a Sisyphean labor. There was no zest for the struggle, and no joy—nor was there any victory.9

There were, however, moments of happiness and fun sprinkled like glints of sunshine through the deep shadow. My father was always young at heart and liked young people and loved his children. He always had some hobby about which he was enthusiastic, and in connection with it he usually had some project in which he was engaged. He had a continuing interest in nature and nature study, and liked to think of himself as something of an authority on plants and birds. Gardening was one of his enthusiasms, and after becoming discouraged in the matter of raising vegetables for the table, he concentrated on growing flowers. This enthusiasm added a great deal of beauty to my own life and to that of everyone else who knew him. Photography was another of his hobbies, and he was quite handy with a hammer and saw. He built a bunk-trailer for camping trips, and in Magnolia he constructed a