Rock Of Ages

© Copyright 2013 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.

-       Mary Robinson.

   It’s been ages since John Lennon, in the early sixties, had proclaimed, “We (the Beatles) are now more famous than Jesus Christ!”  Well, the Beatles had come and gone, but Jesus Christ is yet more famous than ever.  After all, He has promised:  “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”  (John 12:32 KJV).  In Africa today most people, if we were to ask who 'Lennon' was, would probably reply that it must have been some communist revolutionary who overthrew the Tsar in 1917. 

   Science too, most of the time may prove an excellent tool and servant, but sometimes a bad taskmaster; the only reliable ‘commodity’ today is the promise of the Heavenly Spring of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages and Master of the Universe. As the song goes … nothing compares to the promise we have in Him! 

   There was a time when scientists used to ('scientifically') describe the Sun as a disc in the sky about 30 cm (300 mm) in diameter (Ptolemy), and malaria was (erroneously) said to have been caused by toxic gases emanating from the unsanitary marshes in forests.  Yes, today’s ‘scientific truth’ often becomes tomorrow’s redundant reading matter, with such books inevitably ending up in a stall at the local flea market stamped: ‘Discarded from the XYZ Public Library’.  How many sets of such books and encyclopaedias have I not seen at such flea markets or in second-hand bookshops;  splendiferous volumes magnificently bound in black, red and gold, yet selling at virtually next-to-nothing?  Of so-called ‘science’ Oswald Chambers writes:  “If the Bible agreed with modern science, in about fifty years both would be out of date.  All scientific findings have at one time been modern.” (McCasland: 245).

   During the so-called ‘space race’ some Russian cosmonauts were reported to have (sardonically) said that, even though they orbited the Earth in deep space for many days, they have never noticed any sign or evidence of angels or the existence of a so-called ‘Creator’. 
   What a myopic view of ‘science’!  After all (and this has been said by others before me) … you won’t discover Henry Ford by tinkering around in the engine of a Ford-car.  Likewise I do not have to actually meet the manufacturer of the Rolex-watch to know that the watch did not 'evolve' but was made by an intelligent, industrious and innovative watchmaker.

   Let the atheists revel in their boring and virtually obsolete atheistic philosophy and myopic, one-dimensional and hopeless anti-gospel of evolutionism; let the pagan worship his idols of wood, stone, rocks and ancestral spirits; let the unbelieving scientist hope on a last-minute evacuation to another better and more hospitable planet, or on some magical scientific solution to the problem of disease and death.  As far as we are concerned, nothing in our hand we bring; simply to the cross we cling. Jesus Christ is the rock in a thirsty land.  
   This song, Rock of Ages, reportedly had its origins in the unique rock-formation at Mendip Hills, Burrington Cobe (England) where Augustus Toplady is said to have once been sheltered from a storm.  Yes, this is our prayer:  ‘While I draw this fleeting breath; when my eyes shall close in death; when I rise to worlds unknown; and behold Thee on Thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee!’  

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Rock Of Ages

(Augustus M. Toplady, 1740-1778/Thomas Hastings, 1784-1872)

Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee;

Let the water and the blood,

From Thy wounded side which flowed,

Be of sin the double cure,

Save from wrath and make me pure.

Could my tears forever flow,

Could my zeal no longer know,

These for sin could not atone ‒

Thou must save, and Thou alone;

In my hand no price I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling.

While I draw this fleeting breath,

When my eyes shall close in death,

When I rise to worlds unknown

And behold Thee on Thy throne,

Rock of ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

Piet Stassen

eLiterature/eLiteratuur:

1. Scribd Publishing Site:  www.scribd.com/PietStassen (ENGLISH & AFRIKAANS)
2. eBook: 'Evolution: The Science That Evolved Into A Fairy Tale' (ENGLISH)  
3. eBook:  'Bertrand Russell Revisited: Rebuttal Of Bertrand Russell's 'Why I Am Not A Christian''(ENGLISH)
4. eBook: 'Meditations & Contemplations: A Reader For Both Atheists And Creationists' (ENGLISH)
5. eBook: 'Conservation, Rhino Poaching And Hypocrisy' (ENGLISH)
6. eBook: 'Why Darwinism ('Evolution') Does Not Make Sense' (ENGLISH)
7. eBook: 'Names And Titles Of Jesus Of Nazareth (ENGLISH)'
8. eBoek:  'Darwin Of Christus: Suid-Afrikaners By 'n Kruispad!' [AFRIKAANS].
9. eBoek:  'Bevryding Van Die Anti-Evangelie Van Ateisme-Evolusionisme' [AFRIKAANS].
10. eBoek:  'Name & Titels Van Jesus Christus' [AFRIKAANS].
11. eTracts, Christian (Free, Downloadable):  Free, downloadable Christian eTracts for free distribution (ENGLISH)
12. eTraktate, Christelik (Gratis, Aflaaibaar): Gratis, aflaaibabre Christelike Traktate vir gratis verspreiding (AFRIKAANS)

Bibliography

1.     Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.

2.     McCasland, David (2008)  The Quotable Oswald Chambers.  Discovery House. Grand Rapids, Michigan.

3.     Peterson, John W. (1968)  Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Rock Of Ages’. Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan.