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Reviews (3)
13 February 2011
Normal versus Average
1 of 1 found this helpful When I first read the printed version of Watchman Nee's "The Normal Christian Life" I sensed that here is a book revealing the hidden secrets of what really matters, a map pointing to Bali Ha'i (the island of heart's desire). It's a treasure trove of wisdom densely packed - fairly easy to read on the surface, yet needing repeated reading and meditation to fully unlock it. During my teenage years many emotional troubles made concentrating enough to retain its message difficult, so I longed to have an audiobook I could listen to again and again to get an overall grip on the book and anchor it in my mind.
In the 1970s, audiobooks (also called "talking books") were virtually unheard of unless you were blind. Thank God sighted people can have them today and there now exists the recording I longed for. There are even two editions; I own both for variety, rotating a copy between my house and my car. The readings are generally rightly nuanced, and the narrators' voices can be listened to repeatedly without becoming annoying (at least to me). They are doing a narration, not preaching a sermon.
The audiobooks encouraged me to meditate again on the printed version, which includes helpful footnotes by editor Angus I. Kinnear who prepared the book for its first publication in Mumbai, India in 1957. There's also a study guide by Harry Foster published separately in England in 1976. Both Kinnear and Foster heard Watchman Nee deliver the original late 1930s spoken addresses on which the book is based.
Watchman Nee has been criticized in some circles because of the doctrines and practices of certain ones of his colleagues and followers. That is "guilt by association". It's no more legitimate than criticizing the apostle Paul for Hymenaeus, Alexander, Phygellus, Hermogenes, Philetus, Demas and "all who are in Asia" who had been Paul's associates and disciples but decided to "distance themselves from him" (I Timothy 1:20; II Timothy 1:15; 2:17; 4:10). Some of them became proto-Gnostic heretics who claimed Paul as their hero while totally perverting what he actually said. Unlike them, Watchman Nee once in a while extrapolates somewhat beyond the Scriptures in a few of his other books but never ventures into actual heresy. "The Normal Christian Life" has only one prominent mistake I've noticed: he applies Luke 17:26-37 ("one shall be taken, the other left behind") to the Rapture, when the context of that passage actually refers to the Flood of Noah and the judgment on Sodom "taking away" the sinners. Nee is not alone in this traditional misapplication. Just ignore the mistake and don't let it rob you of the wonderful benefits of everything else he has to say.
The message of "The Normal Christian Life" is not just for a few Christians who might enjoy it as their own particular interest or emphasis. Rather, it is the core of what it means to be a Christian. This is far different from what the average person thinks, or even the average Christian thinks. Had I read this book when I first believed in Jesus it would have put me on the right track and helped to save me from the will-power moralism of average Christianity. Nee's message may seem radical or strange, but that's only an
13 January 2021
Nice Flip Phone
Great, only its now only 3G, which is OK, but some providers will no longer activate it.
15 November 2010
The End of an Era, a Beginning for Me
6 of 6 found this helpful This movie was released in September of 1966, which placed it at the close of a long tradition of Hollywood Biblical epics. I was around ten years old and had a vinyl LP of its great musical score which I played over and over again before I finally saw it in a theater. Our family was not particularly religious, but this film was one of those that had a profound influence on me and made me interested in knowing more about the Bible.
Looking at it today, the opening footage from all over the world of the days of the Creation is still breathtaking. As a child I felt uncomfortable with the partially nude scenes of Adam and Eve (and even now I believe nudity needs to be implied; otherwise my mind stops focusing on the story and thinks "I just saw a naked actor!"). Beyond that, the film rolls on quite nicely through the first twenty-two chapters of Genesis. The cinematography is rich and beautiful. I do think they interpreted too many scenes as desert settings, since many of the Bible lands were lush and only outskirted by desert as a result of the climatology of the region being somewhat different more than 4,000 years ago (though of course that's controversial). Either way the storyline still follows the episodes of salvation history. One reviewer said it looks like they just kept shooting until they ran out of film and decided to call it quits. To me it was essential they kept going until they climaxed the film with the sacrifice of Isaac, which pointed forward to the day when God would inaugurate a new creation. Thus there is a great arc of theme in the epic from "In the Beginning" to "The New Beginning".
Overall the movie looks like a live-action version of Sunday School art. By that I mean most events are like pictures I've seen in religious artworks. For example, Adam and Eve are portrayed by clean-shaven white people. Cain bashes Abel over the head instead of slitting his throat (like the sacrifices he'd watched - see I John 3:12 in the original Jerusalem Bible [1966], not the New Jerusalem Bible [1985]). This Tower of Babel somewhat rightly resembles a Sumerian ziggurat, yet more resembles Renaissance paintings of it. Modern researchers have discovered that Noah could have been a king, and the ark was actually a huge flat barge shaped like a giant shoebox to ride the tidal waves of the Flood. The movie pictures things like I've seen them all my life: a peasant Noah, and a rounded boat with a house on top (and that shape would capsize in no time). The only thing they didn't have was a giraffe sticking out of the window.
I'm preferring literal Biblical research combined with the look of what has been discovered in archaeology, yet for me the overall effect of this film is still profound and quite moving. It's been said that George C. Scott's portrayal of Abraham was the low point of the movie, but I thought his crusty performance was inspiring! (I was also thankful they didn't picture Abraham like Santa Claus). For the most part, watching this film was an enjoyable and uplifting experience. Any Biblical movie should give us a taste of what things were like; then we should always go back and read the Book. There we will find the authentic atmosphere of the actual words. Still, one line the scriptwriters put in the mouth of Abraham is not found in the Bible, yet it does reflect what the Bible says of him. It has helped me with my faith. It is the line
where Abraham asks, "Shall the Lord speak, and Abraham not believe?"