The Man Who Never Was

In 1943, a body washes ashore in Spain.  The corpse is that of a British officer with a briefcase chained to his wrist, like bank emissaries carry.  Inside his uniform, they find his identification papers, a letter from his girlfriend and her picture, his membership card to a club back in London, and money.  But more importantly, they find the plans for the coming Allied landing in Greece and Sardinia.  The contents of this briefcase make their way to the German high command.  The Germans are elated.

But what Nazis don't know is that it's all a fake, a deception which has been called, "World War II's boldest counterintelligence operation."  Unknown to the Germans is that British Naval Intelligence and MI 5 had devised a plan to dupe them into believing that the planned Allied landings in Southern Europe would take place in Greece and Sardinia, instead of the intended island of Sicily.

British Intelligence, in carrying out the operation, had found a body, dressed it as a British naval officer with the fake identification, fake personal effects, including the love letter from the "girlfriend" written especially for the deception.  They chained the briefcase to the wrist of the corpse, a briefcase containing the plans written to fool the Germans.

They loaded the container holding the body onto a submarine and discharged it close to the coast of Spain near the place where they knew a Nazi spy was operating, hoping that the body, once washed ashore, would fall into the hands of the Nazis.  Brilliant.  And it worked so well that the success of the British invasion is attributed in part to this 20th century Trojan Horse.

Hollywood found the story so fascinating that they made a movie of it, and in the movie, when the information gets to the German high command, being suspicious, they dispatch a spy to London for verification as he goes to the club and tracks down the girlfriend who wrote the letter.  Suspense abounds in the 1950's movie.

The British officer, that messenger with the briefcase, never existed; he's "the man who never was."  By the same token, Satan has his "messengers who never were," ideas of deception which have washed ashore and embedded themselves into the minds of men:

"Christ always called people publicly."  This deception, washed upon our mental shores with false papers claiming biblical legitimacy, is intended to promote the idea that to be saved a person must change his geographical location from the pew to the front of the auditorium or from his seat in the stadium to be nearer the evangelist.  But this is an idea which never was; it's patently and demonstrably false and we can see its falsity when we read about Jesus' private nighttime meeting with Nicodemus where He, One on one, issues the call, "You must be born again." 

We see the statement is a fake when we turn to the next chapter in John to find that Jesus deliberately arranges for privacy as He sends His disciples away so that He can talk to the woman He met at the well all by her lonesome.  We see privacy reigning supreme when we go to Acts 16, and find Paul's answering the jailer's question, "What must I do to be saved," with, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved."  We turn back to Acts 10 and find the salvation of Cornelius occurring in the most private setting of them all, his hearth and home. Throughout the ages, God has called people to salvation privately and will continue to do so in homes, in hospitals, in jails, in jungles, and in a thousand and one secluded settings.

"To be saved, pray the sinner's prayer."  This false message inside the briefcase also needs verification.  Where is such verification?  Not in the Bible, because the Bible contains no such prayer.  No one is saved by praying a prayer; one is saved when his faith meets the right object--the person and work of Christ.  No apostle wrote a "sinner's prayer;" they never heard of it and never mentioned it in any of their evangelistic sermons in the book of Acts.  If the sinner's prayer is a prayer which has to be prayed to be saved, it's odd the Apostles never command its recitation in any of their sermons or statements, and it's strangely absent in every epistle they wrote.

"Turn from your sins and come to Christ."  Further examination of the briefcase attached to the wrist of the satanic messenger reveals more false information to confuse and deceive.  The unbeliever is instructed to get better by quitting certain sins.  But which ones?  All of them?  Some of them?  If some of them, which ones?  For how long?  All sins forever?  Impossible.  Somehow Christ "forgot" to mention to the coquette at the Samaritan well that she needed to make a major renovation of her life before she came to Him for the living water.  Although He knew she was living with someone's husband, He made no demand that she shape up, move out, pray the sinner's prayer, change her geographical location and go public.

In the movie version of "The Man Who Never Was," we have to give the German high command begrudged credit--they sent someone to London to check the authenticity of the officer.  The spy spends days and late-hour nights checking out the information he found in the briefcase.  He goes to the officers' club and asks if anyone knows him or has heard of him.  He finds the "girlfriend's" apartment and waits hours and hours to talk to her.  He is energetic, indefatigable, and relentless in his checking and double checking. In this, the Germans were like the noble Bereans in one respect, "who searched . . . to see if these things were true."

The problem today is that few check and double check the information which has floated upon our ecclesiastical shores.  Most accept the papers in the briefcase too quickly, too eagerly, too mindlessly. But when we do check, we see that these ideas are notions which never were, never were in the good news, ideas which contradict the clear message of the gospel: Christ, the God-Man, died for our sins, rose from the dead, and promises everlasting life to anyone, anywhere, in any setting, at anytime, who trusts Him and Him alone for it.

The Germans staked their lives on false information and lost.  Millions stake their eternal destiny on unchecked assumptions (Matt. 7:21-23).  They too will lose.  Our mission: to sit by their wells, to get into their homes and to ask them to double check, to rethink their cherished information with the ultimate touchstone: the Bible.

By double checking, by rethinking, they will find that these ideas are notions which never were.  Then they're ready to hear about the Christ, the Christ who . . .  is. 

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor