All Comments for: Olympic Snapshot | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Free Newsletters:

RSS Feeds |

Audio |

Twitter

Home > 2008 > August

Christianity Today, August, 2008 |

KINGDOM SIGHTINGS

Olympic Snapshot

Imagine swords turned into plowshares, and soldiers into soccer players.

Al Hsu | posted 8/08/2008 07:26AM

I love the olympics. My grandfather attended the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles and brought back an Olympic keychain that I used for two decades before the clasp broke. I have pins from every Olympiad ...

[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Rate and Comment on this article

Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 comments.

Page: 1

Show All

MK from China

Posted: August 14, 2008 11:13 AM

Let me first say that steve needs to recheck his china knowledge if he thinks that china is without want. that is absolutely ridiculous when you think of all the farmers in the western half of china living off of less than $30.00 a month for their entire family. as a person who grew up in taiwan, there is a love in my heart for the chinese people and i find the first four comments especially self-righteous. who are you to say that the americans don't persecute christians? look at your culture. i am american, so i have the right to say this. the american culture is extremely intolerant for all their talk of tolerance. they can't even allow people to say merry christmas in some places... it also hurts to hear my homeland (even though i am white through and through) being put down. who are you to judge? is not God the judge of all men? and what about eric leddell? have you forgotten the runner who won two medals in the olympics and refused to run on a sunday, chris? did God not sanction

pete Benson, editor UNITYINCHRIST.COM

Posted: August 12, 2008 1:47 PM

Very interesting and forward looking ideas about the soon-coming Kingdom of God, and the artifacts that will be offered to God. Also, very true about the one time the Greek city-states would drop their weapons and endless civil wars to be at peace during their Olympics. But I think the Feast of Tabernacles may end up as a substitute for the Olympics during the Kingdom age after Jesus Christ's 2nd coming, when the world will gather at Jesus' feet and learn from him, and then take what they've learned back to their various homelands.

Bill Bray

Posted: August 10, 2008 2:17 PM

The Olympics games is a daily reminder to pray for the 56 nationalities that make up China and for the indigenous missionaries there, some in prison, who are calling out a people for His name in that land. China already has one of the world's fastest growing churches and through trading relations can potentially be used as the next great, global missionary force. These are exciting days for us to love and support the Chinese people. The Chinese are the largest single group of overseas students in our colleges and universities. There are so many opportunities for us to respond to them while there are here in the USA and other western nations and to support them as they go back to their people with the Gospel. I am so excited to be working with our Chinese partners in missions and we need to open our eyes wider to the implications of what the Holy Spirit is doing to bless China and the Chinese nations.

Wang Zhixue

Posted: August 09, 2008 4:49 PM

Hsu wrote an insightful biblical reflection. I will surely watch the Olympics Game with an important perspective he provides. However his brief comments on China are lacking a balanced view. Modern China under the Communist government is kind of a mix of the beauty and the beast. There are many problems China government needs to improve, both internationally and domestically. However, Hsu overlooks the tremendous efforts and the measurable improvements in different aspects the Communist government has made. Hsu affirms China's PAST, but there is not even one positive word of appreciation about the PRESENT. That's biased, unfair, and may I say, not gracious. Every country has its institutional sins and problems. What if someone casts doubts about Chicago's possible hosting the Olympics Game, because of the original sin of America, the on-going problem of racism? I think that's also biased and unfair. It seems to me that Hsu needs to do more homework before he writes on China.

Nathan

Posted: August 09, 2008 9:23 AM

As a descendent of white Europeans, I feel that Tang Koon Huat's comment is a little unfair. It is true that many people have committed atrocities in the name of Christ, but while they used His name, they were serving their father, the devil. It is also true that many 'christians' continue to use the name of Christ for their own purposes today. But there is a remnant; those who have been called by God and are faithful to Him. We are not citizens of any human nation. We are citizens of Heaven, and from it we await a Savior. (Philipians 3:20) I am not proud of my earthly heritage, of the actions of my white European christian ancestors. But my true heritage, and the heritage of every true Christian, is the family of God, from the prophets of the Old Testament to the apostles of the New, through many faithful Christians whose names I will not know until I reach Heaven. Please don't judge western Christians by those who use our name, but by those who truly follow Christ.

carter

Posted: August 09, 2008 3:49 AM


Chris, the point is not whether God likes soccer. The point is that peacemaking is better than war. I think the Prince of Peace would rejoice if people stopped killing each other for a while.

Chris

Posted: August 08, 2008 9:21 PM

I think there's a fundamental problem with Al Hsu's reading of what Scripture has to say about culture. Jesus said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." The world, being apart from Christ (in contrast to the Church), cannot produce anything of real and lasting value. Ultimately all the energy spent by an unbelieving people on sports, art, food, clothing, etc. is for naught. The passage Hsu cites in Revelation 21 needs to be read with the whole chapter; then he would see that the kings bringing in their splendor are from the New Earth, not the old. Turn soldiers into soccer players? Why would God want that? Spend our lives learning to kick a ball into a net? Instead, all that energy athletes have ought to be turned to activities God has actually asked us to do - spread the Gospel, care for the sick, fight for justice, eliminate oppression, build houses for the homeless, etc. These are the "games" God sanctions.

Steve

Posted: August 08, 2008 8:53 PM

With all the blood, sweat and tears that were spent to provide the world with FDR's Four Freedoms, from Want, from Fear, Freedom of Speech and Freedom to Worship, China only has freedom from Want. ONE OUT OF FOUR IS JUST DISMAL. I think all Olympic sponsors and Chinese importers (Walmart, Mattel, etc) deserve censure for supporting a brutal totalitarian regime for their profit. That is a type of crime against Peace, but we have no political body with principle to say that. That would leave the churches to speak out. Our own US Congress has given veto power over US policy to China via its enormous holdings of US Treasuries, purchased through the profits gained by dealing with American corporations. It's just like the Quakers who owned slave-trading ships- totally wrong on every dimension. There is nothing to celebrate in China rather we should mourn their dominion over Nepal, Tibet, Sudan's Darfur oil fields and the evil puppet buffer states like North Korea and Myanmar. Work for peace

Rich	Posted: August 08, 2008 7:38 PM


I have chosen not to watch the Olympics this time. I don't wish to support the Chinese government in any way. I wish Pres. Bush would have called for a boycott like Pres. Carter did with the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. We have tried to appease the Chinese government for far too long and it has gotten us nowhere. We stand up for what is right.

Dave	Posted: August 08, 2008 7:28 PM

There are interesting ironies in the commentaries that I read on the olympics being held in China. They generally always end up a whitewash. Very few, it appears, can say it how it is. This is an age old problem of might and empire, akin to the contrast between a single home owner defaulting on loan payments and a massive corporation defaulting to a bank. The usual response to the homeowner is a cold, pay up or you are out. To the corporation it is usually, how much more do you need to help you out of trouble. Essentially, if you get big enough you can bully your way out of anything. The worlds ways are the not the way of Jesus Christ. It seeks its own glory and riches. The same God who sacrificed himself for us on the Cross is not the same god who approves of the olympics being held in a country that abuses, tortures and murders Christians and the defenceless and downtrodden. Where is our sense of justice gone. Comparisons between the 2008 and 1936 olympics are not without merit.

Page: 1

E-mail this page

Write CT

Print this article

Post a comment