OBIT: Donald Richard Holmes January 12, 1935 — March 2, 2020

Donald Richard Holmes

January 12, 1935 — March 2, 2020

Don was born January 12, 1935 in Ames, Iowa to Melvin G. Holmes and Irene Stewart Holmes. Raised in Bellevue, Nebraska he attended Wheaton College in Chicago, Illinois and Young Life Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  There he met Barbara Jean Lind of Bellingham, Washington and married her in Bellingham in November of 1959.  The two served together as Young Life staff in Kansas City, Missouri where their first daughter Christy was born in 1960.  Young Life work then took them to Colorado Springs, Colorado where their daughter Suzanne was born in 1963.  In 1965 Don and Barbara moved into her childhood home in Bellingham, Washington and their son Timothy was born in 1967.

Don managed the Mount Baker Ski Area from 1965 to 1969 and the Lind Gravel/Pacific Concrete interests from 1969 to 1972, at which point Don and Barbara opened The Quest Bookstore in downtown Bellingham, to serve the Christian and Seeking Community.  This led to a wholesale book warehouse and export agency, Baggins Books, from which Don eventually retired.

Don loved to read and discuss ideas, with a particular fondness for the writings of C.S. Lewis, from whom Don once received a letter.  

He and Barbara also enjoyed travel, visiting Europe, Russia, Israel, China, and Turkey, before Don’s life was dramatically altered in 2006 by an unfortunate tangle of tree, chainsaw, wind, and gravity.  He spent the last 14 years of his life as a paraplegic in either his wheelchair or his bed which was a huge frustration for he could no longer help his family, but was instead dependent on them to help him.  These years were blessed by his care-giver Aaron Brandt, who — in Don’s words — “made what was almost an intolerable situation very pleasant”.   

At 85, Don died at home in the early morning of Monday, March 2, 2020 holding the hand of a family member.  His passing was as gentle and peaceful as we could hope for and we know he is walking with his Lord in his life ever-lasting.

He is preceded in death by both his parents and is survived by his wife, Barbara Jean Lind Holmes, and his children: Christy Lind Hart, Suzanne Kay Chandler, and Dwight Timothy Holmes; grand-children Kara Maguire, Kelli Sittser, Kayti Christianson, Andrew Chandler, and Juliana Chandler; great-grandsons: Charlie Sittser, Danny Maguire, and Henri Sittser.  He is also survived by his sisters, Margaret Buswell and Carol Butte of Nebraska, his brother Bob Holmes of Bellingham, and numerous fine nieces and nephews.

Don asked that any memorial gifts be directed to www.IJM.org.  Memorial service pending COVID-19 abatement.

Science and the Bible

What is the Relationship between Science and Religion?

The short answer is 'none!'. It is like asking what is the relationship between a shadow and a tooth pick. There is no relationship between them. You can examine a tooth pick in the laboratory but you can't examine a shadow. Religion has NOTHING to teach science and science has NOTHING to teach religion. Religion is trying to discover if there is an invisible reality behind the universe and what it might be like. Science is trying to learn as much as it can about the physical universe that we can examine.

We ought to be quite trusting of the results of the work of honest scientists. It is a self correcting field of study. In the long run, it will get things right. (but some times it takes some time). We believe that if the clear established teaching of science conflicts with any INTERPRETATION of religious books, we ought to take such scientific conclusions very seriously. For instance, for many years it was thought that the age of the earth could be determined by studying the genealogies in the New Testament of the Bible. It was concluded that the creation of the universe was about 6000 years ago.

This was an interpretation that is very seriously challenged by a very large host of archeologists, paleontologist, geologists, chemists, cosmologists, biologists, physicists, and a host of other methods of study to be impossible. A very significant number of these scientists hold strong religious beliefs.

There has been a long conflict between people who hold religious beliefs and some scientist about evolution. It is popularly been labeled as the war between 'Religion and Science” or “Science and the Bible”. We would assert that this is an meaningless conflict. The word evolution simply means change. It is perfectly obvious that many, many changes in plants and animals have happened and it has been firmly established that this has been caused by genetic mutations over a very, very long period of time. So, yes, that kind evolution is true. Humans evolved from a microscopic speck. But there is a second kind of evolutionary thinking that claims to know that the universe created itself. That is not science, it is philosophy. When scientists assert that there is no creator they not speaking as scientists but as  humans with no more authority than anybody else.

There are lots of things that are very widely and rightly believed that are beyond the ability of science to examine. Science can not directly examine emotions, ideas, beauty, truth, values, etc. Science can not verify most of what we read in history books. We believe what we believe about history because we trust authority. You can't put historical claims in a test tube. If a person could only believe what science can prove we would have to be content with very little knowledge.

People often ask me how I am-
I think I shall tell people that I am at peace with God, my family and my friends which is all that I or anyone else could hope or ask for.

I wish you the best in your own life.

Don

holmesdb@gmail.com

BEING GOOD WITH OUT GOD

Spiritual without being religious -

Many people describe themselves as being 'spiritual' without being 'religious'. We ask “do they have any idea of what they mean”? Would they be hard pressed to give a meaningful response to the question. Do they simply mean that they believe in right and wrong and also believe that they think themselves to be better than others in their effort to be good. Maybe they mean that they think they can be good without God. But why would a person want just to be good? Do they want to be able to think of themselves as being good or do they want just others to think of themselves as being good or do they really want to be good? How good to they want to be – moderately good or really good? Or just better than others. We ask "why bother"? Trying to be good is a real nuisance. It means having to say 'no' to yourself, being honest when one would like to lie to cover their tracks. It means trying to avoid every selfish act. It will impinge on ones life almost hourly to not do what we would like to do or to do things we don't want to do. Is it possible to succeed in being good? Well to a degree, yes. If one works very hard they maybe able make themselves a bit better than others. But Christians would assert that if they want to be their best possible self, they will need God in their lives to help them deal with their pride, envy, self importance, etc. etc. If there is a God we think He will help us make progress but only if we give ourselves over to Christ. He can make us truly good, but we can never make it on our own. C.S. Lewis describes a religion without God as “having all the thrills of religion with none of the costs”.

Our apologies - blog site was down for three weeks but is working again.

CHRISTMAS BLOG 2013

As we have both about reached our three score and ten (plus ten), we can't help but reflect upon our lives. We ask ourselves “If we had to do it all over again, what might we wish we had done differently.” I (Don) would like to have received a better education, to have learned to play the piano, would to have liked to become fluent in another language,would have tried to spend time gardening with Barb and help more with the cooking, would have spent more time and effort being a better parent, would have made a better effort to tell my parents how much I appreciated them, would have done a better job of planning for our financial retirement, would have made a much more serious effort to try to help people more, would have taken daily walks with Barb and finally made more of an effort to help people build their faith on a firm foundation not related to experiences but based on convictions of the truth of the historical events surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Christ. (two of the saddest words in the English language are 'too late')
 

Then we ask ourselves “What would we like to do with the rest of our lived?” This is a bit harder to answer as we don't know what our health and general energy level will be.

We both work pretty hard a being good parents for our three kids and being good grand parents for our five grand children.

We share these questions with you as a challenge to you to examine your own lives.

The big event of the past year is the marriage on May 26 of our son, Tim, to Kelly

Grotke. They had a pretty big wedding as Kelly is an only child and it was the only time that her folks would be a part of a wedding of a close family member. She is from New York and is a on the staff of a high school working with special needs students. She plays the fiddle, mandolin and the piano. Tim plays the piano and the guitar and they treat the entire family to great music at family gatherings.

How do we spend our time? I spend hours on the computer, responding to email, watching the news (ug!), watching documentaries and movies of classic books on youtube.com and a little writing. I also like libre.com which is a site that reads out loud thousands of books. Progress on a book I want to write is very slow.

I have a small group of friends what I can count on to stop by for visits. I am usually home except for church and frequent trips to our daughters and the grandkids sports games. We continue to have a wonderful caregiver, Aaron, who comes in daily for about three hours and helps me with my morning routine and a hundred chores around the house. Barb runs many errands to the grocery store, the bank, the drug store, etc. She also looks forward the womens Bible Study Fellowship each Monday eve and her prayer group which meets every Monday noon. We continue to be a part of our monthly book club which has been meeting for over forty years.

Book suggest from Barbara:

Radical – David Platt

History books by Paul Johnson

Novels by Howard Spring

Please send us your book recommendations.

Our lives are bursting with gratefulness for our health, our friends and our hope in Christ. “In the world you will have tribulations but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”

Don & Barbara Holmes

holmesdb@gmail.com

360-734-9648

One of the things I most like to do in life is to help people develop a fact based believe system rather than beliefs based on anything else.  Our convictions should not be based on our experiences, our faith, our feelings,  how comforting a belief is or on our convictions on the inerrantcy of the whole Bible or on anything else.  Christian convictions should be built on our convictions about the essential  accuracy of the biblical account of Christ, His death and His resurrection and His promise that "I will never leave you or forsake you".   This kind of faith is likely to survive the tragedies that surround our lives. (your thoughts - holmesdb@gmail.com)

Things are going quite well for us ages 78 and 80.  Our health is very good and having our three kids and some grand kids (ages 12 and 13) living very near us is a great blessing.  I have great sympathy for folks getting older and their kids living far away.  Barb and our middle daughter, Suzanne,  and her two kids just returned from a week away on Vancouver Island in Canada.

Back to normal.  Please give me an up date our yourselves. 

Don

And I think I have trouble getting up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L28TM48bF0

Feeling, Faith and Fact

Three men were walking on a wall,
Feeling, Faith, and Fact.
When Feeling took an awful fall
and Faith was taken back.
So close was Faith to Feeling
that he stumbled and fell too.
But Fact remained and pulled up Faith,
and Faith brought Feeling too.

Feeling, Faith and Fact

Three men were walking on a wall,
Feeling, Faith, and Fact.
When Feeling took an awful fall
and Faith was taken back.
So close was Faith to Feeling
that he stumbled and fell too.
But Fact remained and pulled up Faith,
and Faith brought Feeling too.

Arrogance - I am sometimes accused of being arrogant. I understand the charge but I think it reflects a misunderstanding of the word arrogance. Having very strong opinions based on reasonable thought is not arrogance, just conviction. Arrogance is the assertion of believing that a person could not possibly be wrong. To make that assertion a person is saying that their mind works so well that it could not possibly make a mistake, which is just plain dumb. 

Kipling - IF..... IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

THIS IS WHY I DON'T LIKE PERSONAL TESTIMONIES - THEY WORK BOTH WAYS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=xxMd6graopw&feature=fvwp WHO HAS THE BEST TESTIMONY? WE MUST TIE OUR FAITH TO HISTORICAL EVENTS AND NOT TO SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES DOB

three cheers for inequality

This whole bit of the equality of men and women is nonsense - We are different and not equal. ON EQUALITY - Have as much equality as you please-the more the better-in our marriage laws: but at some lever consent to inequality, nay, delight in equality, is an erotic necessity. Mrs. Mitchison* speaks of women so fostered on an defiant idea of equality that the mere sensation of the male embrace arouses an undercurrent of resentment. Marriages are thus shipwrecked. This is the tragi-comedy of the modern woman; taught by Freud to consider the act of love the most important think in life, and then inhibited by feminism by that internal surrender which alone can make it a complete emotional success. Merely for the sake of her own erotic pleasure, to go no further, some degree of obedience and humility seems to be (normally) necessary on the woman's part. (C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns, p 109) *Naomi Mitchison, The Home and a Changing Civilization, pp. 49-50

For what it is worth

A few months ago I was in an argument with some folks about the place of emotions in deciding what is true - Wrote the following in response (Making some progress on my book on apologetics) - - Religions Experience and Truth - It is my contention that our subjective experiences should play little or no part in helping us to determine what we think is true. It is the mind that God has ordained as the tool for understanding. It would be hard to exaggerate how much feelings and emotions add to the richness of our lives. We experience the beauty of the world with our emotions, not with our minds. But it is a misuse of them to try to make them the organ of understanding. It is to be expected that anyone who holds any kind of a religion will interpret their experiences in light of their world view. This would be true of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. These experiences are not any kind of evidence for the truth of a particular world view. A persons convictions should be based on external evidence that can be evaluated and not on personal experience. It is not reasonable for a Christian or anyone else to think that their personal experience are some kind of evidence for the truth of their convictions. Any one who thinks that their personal experiences are a kind of evidence for their beliefs is building their faith on a foundation of sand. It is a kind of idolatry to assume our experiences are the voice of God. Mother Teresa apparently lost a good deal of her faith when she quit having the kind of experiences she had before going to Calcutta. This probably would not have happened if her faith was founded on her belief in the essential accuracy of the New Testament writers. This is why is it critical that we teach apologetics. What we have to offer the world is information about the God who became man, and that this man died for our sins, rose from the dead and has promised to never leave us or forsake us and to some day take us Home. This is a message of unspeakable comfort, joy and hope. Note on Mother Teresa Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who has been put on the “fast track” to sainthood, was so tormented by doubts about her faith that she felt “a hypocrite,” it has emerged from a book of her letters to friends and confessors. Shortly after beginning her work in the slums of Calcutta, she wrote: “Where is my faith? Even deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. If there be a God — please forgive me.”In letters eight years later she was still expressing “such deep longing for God,” adding that she felt “repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal.” Her smile to the world from her familiar weather-beaten face was a “mask” or a “cloak,” she said. “What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true.” Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 and was beatified in record time only six years later, felt abandoned by God from the very start of the work that made her a global figure, in her sandals and blue and white sari. The doubts persisted until her death. “I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul,” she wrote at one point. “I want God with all the power of my soul — and yet between us there is terrible separation.” On another occasion she wrote: “I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.” Shortly before she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she wrote that: “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear. The tongue moves but does not speak.” (I confess that even in my darkest moments laying practically unmovable for two months in the hospital, concerned about the future for my wife and I, overflowing with confusion and sadness about the future, I never had any experiences remotely like the ones expressed by Mother Teresa. I never got the lease bit angry at God or questioned why this happened to me. I never felt Christ's presence any nearer or farther than at any other time in my life. It is not that I have a great faith but that I had a strong conviction built on Christ and His promises so clearly stated in the N.T.)

William Wordworth "THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US; LATE AND SOON" THE world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 10 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 1806.

The Renter

The Renter A young man moved into a house full of guys. The first thing he asked the others was “What are the rules of the house?”. They proceeded to give him a printed list of about thirty things covering duties, other visitors, rent due date, etc, etc. They told him it was not an exhaustive list but it was to reflect the principle “be considerate of others as you would wish them to be considerate to you”. He thought this sounded reasonable but found some things on the list to be very irritating – like no parakeets, and no eating pickles in the living room. He began questioning the reasonableness of some of these and other rules. He asked if the landlord had make the rules and they all answered “What landlord, there is no landlord”. He then wondered who the rent money goes to but he didn't ask. He was surprised to find out there was no landlord. Then he asked them if there was no landlord, who made the rules and they said “We did along with the previous folks who had lived there before”. He then asked how did they come to agree on the rules and they said they voted and the majority rules. He asked “ what if the minority decides to rebel against the majority” and they said they fight. He asked further “what if the minority wins the fight?” And they said that the rules change. He decided to move out, he had no desire to live in such a chaotic climate. No landlord? Ridiculous!

Spiritual Without Being Religious?

Spiritual w/o being Religious - Many people today describe themselves as being 'spiritual' without being 'religious'. We ask “do they have any idea of what they mean”? We think that they would be hard pressed to give a meaningful response to the question. We conjecture that what they mean is that they believe in right and wrong and also believe that they think themselves to be better than others in their effort to be good. Maybe they mean that they think they can be good without God. But why would a person want just to be good? Do they want to be able to think of themselves as being good or do they want others to think of themselves as being good or do they really want to be good? How good to they want to be – moderately good or really good? Or just better than others. We ask “why bother”? Trying to be good is a real nuisance. It means having to say 'no' to yourself, being honest when you would like to lie to cover your tracks. It means trying to avoid every selfish act. It will impinge on our life almost hourly to not do what we would like to do or to do thinks we don't want to do. Can they succeed in being good? Well to a degree, Yes. If they work hard they make themselves a bit better than others. But if they want to be their best self, they will need God in their lives to help get rid of their pride, envy, self importance, etc. etc. If there is a God we think He will help us make progress but only if we give ourselves over to Him. He can make us truly good, but we can never make it on our own. C.S. Lewis describes this kind of religion as “all the thrills of religion with none of the costs. Holmesdb@gmail.com

Reflections on the Bible - More stuff to come later

Reflections on the Bible We don't think that most evangelical Christians have any idea of the complexity of believing that the Bible is inspired, infallible and inerrant. We know the the Bible was written by humans, we don't know if, and to what degree, God was involved in writing the Bible. We think the Bible is a pretty much a human book containing some myth, legends, exaggerations, inexactitudes, errors, and LOTS of reliable reportage. We don't know the precise meaning of the word 'inspired' as used by Paul in the book of Timothy nor are we clear on what the word 'scripture' means. Whose scripture, Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox – the three major branches of Christendom who don't agree on what books belong in the Bible. Paul was referring to the Septuagint (The Greek Bible that was translated from the Hebrew) when he wrote Timothy. The Septuagint has books in it that ours does not have. We have very few of the words of Christ in His language. We have His words in the Aramaic translated into Greek, then translated in English. i.e. Aramaic to Greek to English. We have none of the original writing of any of the Bible. What we have is copies of copies of copies, etc. For a VERY informative, interesting and somewhat humerus lecture on the complication of the writing and the transmission of the Bible, go to: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFs-llHmxNc.” Or go to youtube – “Bart Ehrman” and pic “Misquoting Jesus'. Dr. Ehrman was once an evangelical Christian, went to Moody Bible Instutute and Wheaton College and is now an agnostic. We think he should be a lot more skeptical about his skepticism but his material is very worth knowing about. He is a first class scholar on ancient tests and teaches in the department at Religions Studies at North Carolina University. Some thoughts on the idea of Inspiration: We think that all good acts are inspired by God, that all real beauty is inspired by God and that all truth is inspired by God. He is the author of all Truth, Goodness and Beauty and none of these things exist apart from Him being somehow uniquely and mysteriously present. Where truth, beauty and goodness are present, God's inspiration is at work. The Bible is inspired like anything else on earth is inspired – by being true, beautiful or good. There parts of the Bible that are difficult to include under the headings of Truth, Beauty or Good which we find nearly impossible to believe – like the command to slaughter all all the men, women and children in some cities in Canaan or the drowning of the Egyptian solders in the Red Sea, etc. etc. These things seems to violate God's own nature and God can not be a contradiction to Himself. How do we know what to believe? We believe all that we are capable of believing. But we are compelled to disbelieve what our good sense and reason will not let us believe. There is no use in trying to pretend to believe what we don't believe. We think that God honors our attempt to be honest and reasonable. He is the ultimate reasoner, He gave us to be reasonable creatures. He is the Logos – the Word. Jesus is the Word, the one that is truly Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. The above 'we' represents other like minded persons. Don

poem

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tide lifts and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or firm remain? "I never leave you or forsake you"

I DON'T KNOW - Why Jesus had to die for our sins or what the connection is between our sins and His death. I don't know how accurate the history is in the Old Testament. I don't know for sure what is literal and what is figurative in the Old Testament. I don't know if Jesus did all the miracles that the New Testament reports He did. I don't know what the term 'inspired' means in II Timothy 3:16 I don't have any idea of how to understand the book of Revelation in the New Testament. I don't know the connections of the story of the Fall and our sinful natures. I don't have any idea how to explain the disconnect between the goodness of God and the pain, suffering and death in the world. I am baffled at the teaching that apparently billions of the 'lost' will be tortured in hell for ever and ever. I don't know how to deal with the clear cut distinction between the righteous and the wicked in the Old Testament. But I do think I know, at His right hand stands one who is the Savior and who said “What is that to thee, follow thou me?”.