Friendly Threatening Gestures
by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
Have you ever had the experience where you reckoned someone as hostile, or even an enemy, and it turned out that the person actually had your best interests at heart? Of course, people may not cotton to being coddling, so they speak their minds or simply take direct action — especially when something is important.
Here's an excerpt from Owen Wister's 1902 classic, The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains:
Although I haven't finished the book yet (it's a bit tedious), this part got my attention to apply in the creation-evolution debate. Some evolutionists and anti-creationists think we're just shooting our mouths off, but biblical creationists are hoping that evolutionists will give some consideration to what we have to say. Despite what many atheists and anti-creationists claim, creationist scientists do have serious science. There are evolutionists who have not taken the time to seriously examine the evidence that creationists present, and may even be unaware of flaws in things that are presented to substantiate evolution.
Ultimately, we want people to realize that not only is evolution seriously lacking in scientific credibility, but that God's Word is true from the very first verse. We're sounding a warning and taking action to get your attention. To use a popular analogy, someone is walking toward a cliff and about to fall off. Someone else says, "Stop! Don't go any further!" Critics may say the one sounding the alarm is being unloving and should let the other one be, but if you study on it, you can see that the warning is a loving act.
No, I'm not saying that believing in evolution will send you to Hell. But evolution is a distraction, and a substitute for the Creator's work. Rejecting the free gift salvation through Jesus Christ will have someone end up in Hell. We don't want that to happen. John 1:3, John 3:16-17, Col. 1:16-17, Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23, Eph. 2:8-9. Ultimately, we have your best interests at heart, and present material that you may not want to hear at first.
Have you ever had the experience where you reckoned someone as hostile, or even an enemy, and it turned out that the person actually had your best interests at heart? Of course, people may not cotton to being coddling, so they speak their minds or simply take direct action — especially when something is important.
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| 1873 Winchester rifle / Image credit: Ricce / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0 |
But all the while I was wondering about the Virginian: eating with him, sleeping with him (only not so sound as he did), and riding beside him often for many hours.Seems to me that the Virginian was not only taking helpful action, but also having a bit of fun with his traveling companion.
Experiments in conversation I did make -- and failed. One day particularly while, after a sudden storm of hail had chilled the earth numb and white like winter in fifteen minutes, we sat drying and warming ourselves by a fire that we built, I touched upon that theme of equality on which I knew him to hold opinions as strong as mine. "Oh," he would reply, and "Cert'nly"; and when I asked him what it was in a man that made him a leader of men, he shook his head and puffed his pipe. So then, noticing how the sun had brought the earth in half an hour back from winter to summer again, I spoke of our American climate.
It was a potent drug, I said, for millions to be swallowing every day.
"Yes," said he, wiping the damp from his Winchester rifle.
Our American climate, I said, had worked remarkable changes, at least.
"Yes," he said; and did not ask what they were.
So I had to tell him. "It has made successful politicians of the Irish. That's one. And it has given our whole race the habit of poker."
Bang went his Winchester. The bullet struck close to my left. I sat up angrily.
"That's the first foolish thing I ever saw you do!" I said.
"Yes," he drawled slowly, "I'd ought to have done it sooner. He was pretty near lively again." And then he picked up a rattlesnake six feet behind me. It had been numbed by the hail, part revived by the sun, and he had shot its head off.
Although I haven't finished the book yet (it's a bit tedious), this part got my attention to apply in the creation-evolution debate. Some evolutionists and anti-creationists think we're just shooting our mouths off, but biblical creationists are hoping that evolutionists will give some consideration to what we have to say. Despite what many atheists and anti-creationists claim, creationist scientists do have serious science. There are evolutionists who have not taken the time to seriously examine the evidence that creationists present, and may even be unaware of flaws in things that are presented to substantiate evolution.
Ultimately, we want people to realize that not only is evolution seriously lacking in scientific credibility, but that God's Word is true from the very first verse. We're sounding a warning and taking action to get your attention. To use a popular analogy, someone is walking toward a cliff and about to fall off. Someone else says, "Stop! Don't go any further!" Critics may say the one sounding the alarm is being unloving and should let the other one be, but if you study on it, you can see that the warning is a loving act.
No, I'm not saying that believing in evolution will send you to Hell. But evolution is a distraction, and a substitute for the Creator's work. Rejecting the free gift salvation through Jesus Christ will have someone end up in Hell. We don't want that to happen. John 1:3, John 3:16-17, Col. 1:16-17, Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23, Eph. 2:8-9. Ultimately, we have your best interests at heart, and present material that you may not want to hear at first.