Letters From Grandpa #74

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 74

Dearest Grandchild,

Today’s letter will feature a fable written many years ago by Hans Christian Anderson. I’m sure most of you have heard about “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. Hans Christian Anderson has given to the world a great many folk stories and fables which have profound implications on the lives of people in every generation. This present “fable” is no exception.

Today’s story involves an eccentric emperor who was obsessed by clothing. His uncontrollable desire for something new and novel made him an easy prey for two swindlers. The swindlers pretended to be weavers and boasted of their ability to make a miraculous garment. The miracle of the garment was this - to everyone who was unfit for office or hopelessly dull, the clothing became invisible. Thus, the emperor, by wearing this apparel could immediately discern all who were worthy and unworthy in his kingdom. The foolish ruler paid the swindlers a large sum of money in advance and they began their pretense upon an empty loom. Periodically the emperor would send one of his officials to check on their progress. Each was shocked to see absolutely nothing, but was too timid to tell the truth. If he admitted that he saw nothing, he feared that everyone would consider him incompetent. The clever criminals described in great detail the imaginary garment so that each intimidated “observer” would carry a consistent description to the emperor. At last the deluded ruler himself was brought in to see his expensive and elegant clothing. He too was too proud to tell the truth. And thus, upon a special day, he removed his real clothing and draped in nothing but his imagination, he paraded naked through the town for all to see. Everyone saw that the emperor was naked, but no dared to say so. Each assumed that such a confession would be an admission of ignorance and incompetence. At last a little child cried out, “But he has nothing on!” The initial implications of this bold assertion brought out feelings of sympathy and compassion for the poor little innocent child, so void of understanding. The longer they thought about it, however, the more clear it became that the emperor was really was naked. Soon everyone, even the emperor himself, was knew that he was naked. The saddest part of the story is that even then he refused to hide himself in shame. The foolish emperor was too proud to admit his mistake. Touche! Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall (Prov. 16:18).

The application of this little parable to our modern world is painfully obvious. Many of us have seen the nakedness of “scientific consensus” and “governmental stupidity”, but have been too timid to say the obvious. When “everyone” brags on how elegant the Emperor looks, it is “dangerous” to be different.

At the risk of opening a Pandora’ Box of controversy, please watch, by way of illustration, this exchange between Senator Ted Cruz and the president of the Sierra Club.

http://therightscoop.com/briliant-watch-ted-cruz-destroy-sierra-club-president-on-climate-change/

Before you were born, “conventional wisdom” warned of global cooling. The cover of the Jan. 31, 1977 issue of Time Magazine, for example, featured the picture of man in a frost covered

ski mask. The cover caption in bold print warned of : ‘THE BIG FREEZE”. The statistical “evidence” of a cooling climate, and the dire threat of a new “ice age”, provoked great fear in the hearts of many. The cooling climate “crisis” was said to be the result of man-made pollution and alarmists called for everything from outlawing the internal combustion engine to a communist style control of our population.

Today, as you know, we are told just the opposite. Now we are told that our globe is not cooling, but warming. It is interesting to note, however, that the cure for global warming is the same as it was for global cooling. I am rather inclined to agree with Otto Edenhofer, an official with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Speaking in November 2010, he advised that: “…one has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. Instead, climate change policy is about how we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth…”

Today’s letter, however, is not about “climate change”, it is about “truth”. Truth does not change. Scientific laws are not determined by “consensus”, but by experiments that are verifiable and repeatable. Unfortunately, the president of the Sierra Club did not appear in this exchange to be interested in truth. We should be! If the emperor is naked we need to know it.

One of the Scriptures that compelled me to become a Christian many years ago was 1 Cor. 3:18. “ Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” At this point in my life I was making good grades and had attractive scholarships to several colleges. Against conventional wisdom I decided to become a fool for Christ. After more than 50 years I have never regretted that decision.

Anatole France once said that the world has been saved by those whom it considered to be mad men. Please consider! The critics of Christ considered Jesus Him to be “beside Himself”. Festus thought that Paul’s “much learning” had driven him insane (Acts 26:24). Christopher Columbus to be crazy. The first steamboat was called “Fulton’s Folly” and Alaska was once considered “Seward’s Icebox”. When Alexander Graham Bell exhibited the first telephone in Philadelphia in 18976 the newspapers called him a “harmless madman with a useless toy”.

Jesus, as you know, marched to the beat of a different drum, and commands us to do the same. He said: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)

Grandpa loves you,

Boyce