Chapter 4
”We all believe in
resurrection”
I have
written that I want to test my atheism by comparing it to the faith of the
common Norwegian Christians. On the grassroots of the church, and in other
Christian congregations, I expect to find Christianity in its purest form.
On March 19th this year a man called Terje Berg published a comment
related to Easter in the newspaper Sarpsborg Arbeiderblad (Sarpsborg Worker’s
Daily). Berg was presented as a preacher in the Pentecostal movement (”Pinsebevegelsen”
in Norwegian). He writes a weekly column in the newspaper, which is the only
paper in Sarpsborg. The town is an industrial town somewhat bigger than Halden.
It has been ruled by Labour as long as people can remember. Sarpsborg
Arbeiderblad used to be the party paper of Labour. It is now more independent,
but still has strong ties to the party and the local trade unions.
I am mentioned in Berg’s article, and that is why I heard about it.
His comment was called ”Alle tror på oppstandelsen” (”We all believe in
resurrection”).
Before I set about to write something concerning his pooints of view, I
had a long conversation on the telephone with the Reverend Mr Berg. He is the
principal, or the senior pastor, of a congregation in Halden called Salen. This
is not a misspelling for Salem, which is a common name for Pentecostal
congregations in Norway and abroad. When the Pentecostalites established
themselves in Halden in 1911, they rented a rather simple assembly room called
Amundssalen. ”Sal” is the Norwegian word for ”hall”. The name of the premises
was abbreviated to Salen, and became the official name of the congregation.
Today it counts 800 members, in a town of 25 000 inhabitants. Salen
sports a brass band and a gospel choir for youths. Missionaries have been sent
out from Salen to Bolivia, Honduras and other countries. Over the years,
recruitment to Salen has mainly been from the working class in the industrial
town.
The person who tipped me about Berg’s article was an old friend from
politics, Odd Helgestad. He is a typical Salen member, a former railroad worker
who is now a pensioner.
We were
both elected to Østfold fylkesting (Østfold County Parliament) in 1987. Mr
Helgestad represented the ruling Arbeiderpartiet (the Labour Party), while I
represented Rød Valgallianse (the Red Electoral Alliance), RV. Something must be
briefly said to my foreign readers about RV. It is not so well known abroad that
Norway had a Marxist-Leninist movement that grew quite strong in the 1970’es. In
1973 I was a founding member of Arbeidernes Kommunistparti (marxist-leninistene)
(The Worker’s Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)). We organized RV as an
alliance which should participate in local and national elections. And we got
representatives elected to local municipalities in the bigger cities, and to
some of Norway’s 19 county parliaments. In 1987 the heydays of the AKP (m-l)
were over, but RV persisted. I ran for candidate in Oslo in the 1989 elections
for National Parliament, Stortinget, but failed to obtain a seat. In 1993 my
comrade Erling Folkvord was elected to Stortinget as the first RV
representative, for a four year term. After that RV has not been represented in
Stortinget. In the 2007 local elections RV got representatives in most cities
and many towns in Norway. Down here, as we say about Østfold, RV is now
represented in the municipality councils in Halden and in my neighbouring town
Moss. In both towns RV has voted for Labour mayors, which of course is
considered better than conservative mayors. In 2008 the party changed its name
to Rødt (Red). It is opposed to the national government of the socalled
red-green alliance of Arbeiderpartiet, Sosialistisk Venstreparti (the Socialist
Left Party) and Senterpartiet (the Centre Party, formerly the Farmer’s Party).
Rødt argues strongly against the Norwegian participation in the warfare in
Afghanistan, and that is one of the reasons for me to keep up my membership in
the party.
Sorry for this detour, which was a bit lengthy.
When I was in politics with Mr Helgestad for eight years, I did not know
that he belonged to the Pentecostal movement. What I knew, was that he was a
Labour politician who did not always follow the party line. During a big
demonstration to keep up the local hospital in Sarpsborg, which was threatened
to be closed by the ruling Labour Party bosses, Helgestad and I spoke out
against closure. I remember him standing by the loudspeaker on the stairs
of Folkets Hus (The People’s House) and speaking from his heart.
After he read my internet book ”Brev fra de troende”, Odd Helgestad
mailed me and said that he hoped he and I could stand together some day and
speak up for Jesus. It was then I realised he was an active Pentecostalist.
Back to Berg. In his article he compares the resurrection of Jesus to the
life cycle of nature. He writes, in my translation:
He who was crucified and died
stood up from the grave the third day, and met his disciples and was alive! - I
cannot believe this, some people
say. – It is impossible, others say. -If one is dead, one is dead. It is
illogical and inconsistent to believe that anybody can stand up from the the
dead, is the argument. But stop for a moment. Those who say these things in fact
believe more than they understand – and they believe in resurrection! Let me
present an example: Now it is springtime, and it starts to sprout in our gardens
and in the forest. The whole nature bears witness to resurrection!
We can see this with our physical eyes. We ascertain it, and we beleive
it. What died in the fall yesteryear, is growing to new life in spring.
...
When we are soon to pick the
first white anemones, we will hold a wonder of resurrection in our hands.
White
anemones (”hvitveis” in Norwegian) have now popped up under the Blood Tree in my
garden. The anemones are truly beautiful. It’s a modest beauty. The flowers make
me think of milkmaids on a dairy farm in the mountains. But I cannot look at
them as a wonder of resurrection. The flowers did not die when they withered
away last autumn. The root systems were intact and alive in the soil. The
anemones wintered under the snow, to germinate in spring. A living organism
which dies cannot resurrect. It can give life in the form of nourishment to
other organisms, but can itself have no new life.
This is elementary. Why do I bother to mention it, and to engage myself
in a polemic against pastor Berg? He belongs to the Christian grassroots in
Sarpsborg, his hometown, and leads a big congregation in Halden. He is in his
own words a conservative Christian, but do not reckon himself a fundamentalist.
His points of view I have met before, in conversations with Christians, and in
letters from them. Since Berg writes a Saturday column in the only newspaper in
a medium sized Norwegian town, he has some influence in the town and its
sourroundings. Of course not all of the paper’s readers will look upon him as a
spiritual leader they believe in, but quite a few will do.
Berg is a layman. He was never educated as a theologist, and considers
himself an autodidact who has got his religious education through self studies
of the Bible and courses arranged by the Pentecostal movement. The laymen have
during the last 150 years had a special position in Norwegian religious life. It
all began with the preacher Hans Nilsen Hauge from Østfold who started a pietist
awakening which resulted in a pietist movement that spread all over the country.
Hauges movement, Haugianismen, still gives resonance in the religious life of
many Norwegians.
Arguments about resurrection similar to pastor Berg’s
I find in a publication regularily given
to me by representatives of the organisation Jehovas vitner (Jehova’s
Witnesses). They ring my doorbell and give me their semimonthly publication ”Vakttårnet”
(”The Watch Tower”). It is an American magazine, published by Watch Tower Bible
and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. The magazine is translated into 81 languages.
On a world basis 37 million copies are printed.
With common politeness I refuse to engage in discussions with the
witnesses. I do not invite them into my house. Their preaching is too one-eyed
and fanatical for me.
Why then bother with the Reverend Mr Berg? Well, he wrote about me. He
impressed me favourably on the phone. And I find his argumentation charming, in
a way.
He writes about the power of resurrection, calls it violent, and goes on
like this:
All who put potatoes in the
ground in principle believe in resurrection, all who grow vegetables. I you
apply for a job in a market garden or Plantasjen
(a gardening company), you do not
have to present a testimonial for beleiving in anything, not in resurrection
either. It is just obivous that it is like this! This principle of life God
showed us with Jesus, when he died, was laid in the grave, but stood up again.
There is
a naivety – not to say absurdity – in
these arguments. Jesus compared to a potato! But such preaching makes an
impression with some people.
In his article Berge describes the ordeals of Jesus on Good Friday and
his resurrection in the morning on Easter Sunday.
Therefore, God is a
reconciled God, who wishes to bring his blessing to us. This is difficult to
belive for some.
Yes, there are those who call themselves
atheists, which means that they deny
the existence of God. One of them is the well known author Jon Michelet. Last
week he was a guest on the internet in a session arranged by the Christian daily
Vårt Land (Our Country). Everybody
could send him emails with greetings and questions.
It is rather touching when Michelet says the following to Ragnar Nordseth:
”When I call myself a non-believer it is related to you who are Christians and
have faith in God. This faith I envy you. I think that I would appreciate to
have a strong skipper fist of God to place my hand in when I am in stormy
weather. But i cannot believe that such a fist exists.”
Jon Michelet is very honest. For that, he should be met with respect.
However, I know that faith is nothing we can arrange for ourselves. Faith is a
gift from God. Some catch the Gospel quickly, others need more time. Luckily, we
believe that the fist
(of God) exists, and that it was this fist
which was crucified for our sake (...)
Terje
Berg’s article was illustrated with a half page photo of the statue of Jesus
Christ on Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The photo was taken in
1999 when the Austrian base jumper Felix Baumgartner made himself ready for a
jump from the outstretched right hand of the Jesus statue. In the picture
Baumgartner is no bigger than one of the statue’s fingers. He survived the jump.
On the phone Berg invited me to attend a Sunday sermon in Salen. I asked
him if members of the congregation speak in tongues during the ceremony. He
confirmed that this happens at almost all the Sunday meetings. Sometimes healing
of sick people also occurs.
That God speaks through humans in
languages they do not know, is a special Pentecostal belief.
I found that I did not need to tell Berg
that I find it impossible to beleive in glossolalia, the gift of tongue. Since
most Christians do not practise glossolalia, why should an atheist believe in
it?
Once, when very young, I attended a session arranged by a breakaway sect
from the Pentecostalites, called the Maran Ata. We were a gang of boys who went
to a Maran Ata meeting in Oslo to listen to the most famous - not to say
infamous - Maran Ata pastor, the
demagogue Åge Samuelsen, and have some great fun. Mr Samuelsen really was a
fire-and-brimstone preacher. But he did not scare us much with his flaming words
of condemnation and Hell. What scared us a bit, was the intense energy of the
young women and men who jumped up from their seats and spoke in tongues.
Did I say that i found Berg’s argumentation charming? Well, but I do not
find glossolalia charming at all. The thought of it awakes a deep resentment in
me. On the other hand, it is a sign of the human capacity to believe. And who am
I to pass judgement?
Couldn’t I go to Salen out of curiosity, and to get in touch with the
real Christian grassroots?
Terje Berg asked me again if I would attend.
I mustered all my civilty and answered no, thank you. I said that if I
should go to a sermon, it should not be out of curiosity, but because I felt an
urge of some kind. I added that I feel no such urge.
We wished each other well, and said a polite goodbye.
I know that many Christians in Norway now look upon me as a prime object
of salvation. They are after my blood. My scalp would be a valuable one to hang
in the belt of a Christian chieftain.
The old Communist turned Christian would
make a good story. Magazines like Se og Hør would love it.
To deny
the Christians a triumph, or to deny the press a lovely story, are not heavy
reasons for me to stick to my atheism. The real reason, the tought from the
bottom of my soul, is that I cannot believe in the supernatural and in
miracles..
Give me
nature, not supernature. I take great pleasure in the white anemonas. They are a
sign of life to me, but not a sign of
eternal life. They are
miraculous, but they are earthly
miracles.
I
complete this text late Thursday evening, April 10th. Yesterday we had a
snowfall. Nothing exceptional in the capricious month of April in Norway. It was
hard on the anemones, but they survive.
I drove
to the pool outside Sarpsborg through the snow. My swimming went better than
Monday. 15.09, 15.16. Why do I tell you about this? What’s the point of
reporting to the world in English about the swimming efforts of a rather old
Norwegian man, living in a remote corner of the world, in a hole-and-corner
place, traveling to one-horse towns?
Earlier I wrote that I fight for my soul. This may sound like I fight for my soul to be saved. Yes, I want to save my soul! But by this I mean that I want to save my poor soul from faith and keep it rational like it has always been. I fight to stand upright mentally, and not give in to beliefs I do not really have. I try to follow the Nike slogan ”Don’t crack under pressure”.
This fight is connected
to the fight for my body, that it should not give in to disease, not get rotten
and drag the soul under.
These
fights are universal.
We all
fight them one way or another, don’t we?