The best Biblical image for a veil is the “torn curtain” in the Temple. It is torn in response to the death of Jesus according to Matthew. There are also the images of Rebekah and Tamar veiling themselves. Rebekah veils herself as she meets Isaac. Tamar veils herself as she deceives Judah. Veils are meant to hide things. The first example is to hide God. The others to hide the faces of women. Another example is the veil that Moses is asked to wear because of the brightness of his face after being with God. Whatever the situation, the veil is meant to hide the truth about something. Why Churches Disappoint on Doubt
The iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain did not exist. Yet it was real. It was a veil that hid the truth on both sides of the Cold War in Europe. What the peoples of the NATO countries knew about the Warsaw Pact was as accurate as what the peoples of the Warsaw Pact countries knew about the NATO countries. Each group was to be feared, hated, despised and, if necessary, destroyed. Winston Churchill told Americans about the Iron Curtain. We came to believe that we could point it out on maps of Europe. There were literally fences and walls involved. But the veil over people’s hearts placed by their governments is what has kept people behind fences. There was no mass migration on either side until 1989.
The iron veil
The iron veil operated under governmental and social pressure. A person who expressed genuine curiosity about the other side without intending to condemn it was considered dangerous, naive, useful fool, or traitorous. Warsaw Pact countries have added “mentally ill” in some cases. Although NATO continues to exist with some former Warsaw Pact countries, the iron veil remains. There are among others. We are suspicious, belligerent, afraid and anxious. We are all the things we’re not meant to be. For Christians, especially Evangelicals, it becomes a concern about how the world is doing. Many church members have come to me over the years asking me who “is the Antichrist.” It was almost always a geopolitical adversary of the United States.
Enemies created
I was a teenager when the most marginal evangelicals created a new enemy. My uncle and I would take my sister and cousin to cheat or treat. They came back from a house holding two booklets in their hands and looking confused. These were pamphlets explaining to children and parents how diabolical Halloween is. I was shocked. My uncle knew how to handle the situation. He swore and tore up the pamphlets. We put them in the yard hoping that the people following us would do the same.
The people who distributed the pamphlets were marginal until they weren’t. Since then, churches have tried to redeem Halloween with “fall feasts, chests or treats, and hellish houses.” It’s all part of the fact that church leaders don’t want to address the real evils. Invented evils are easier. We risk nothing. The iron veil allows us to assume that some innocuous things (trick or treatment) are bad. Our leaders who talk, think and act like us cannot be bad because they talk, think and act like us. We are never mean. The veil prevents us from seeing. Unfortunately, this does not prevent us from being seen. WHY THEY BELIEVE LIES
The veil remains
I said earlier that the veils hide. Biblical examples of veils are hiding something from others. The iron veil over our minds or our hearts is how we hide from the truth. Halloween is meant to be a time when the veil between worlds thins. I think this should be a time when we should clear up the iron veil. Be open to truths that are unfamiliar to you. Beginning to look for saints where we have never looked before. I find that I hid myself from the Truth when I let the veil thin. Others should be able to do it too. The first step is to see the veil.
