HANNAH HURNARD, author,
lecturer, and former missionary to Palestine, is best know for her book Hind's
Feet On High Places, an allegory of a Christian's spiritual pilgrimage
towards true freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian readers will be
disappointed to learn that Eagle's Wings reveals Miss Hurnard's radical
departure from sound scriptural doctrine.
Eagle's Wings To Higher Places
follows the allegorical tradition of Hind's Feet. The heroine, a
young girl named Alethia (perhaps from alethis, Greek for truth),
becomes increasingly unhappy with the belief that those who do not accept
Christ will spend eternity separated from God. Her dissatisfaction leads
her to search for "higher places" of spiritual truth.
Soon she receives a "divine
revelation" that all human beings ultimately will be reconciled to God,
whether or not they personally accept Christ as Saviour. The concept of
eternal hell is abandoned completely. Alethia tries to share her new
revelations with her Christian friends, but they refuse to accept her
erroneous teachings.
Undaunted, Alethia continues on her
new path and soon receives other revelations. In one vision, she is
shown that it is wrong to kill animals for food or even to use products such
as feather pillows or woolen clothing in case they are taken from animals
"by force." Another revelation introduces her to the
"Ideal Way of Life" which involves attaining higher and higher
levels of "God Consciousness."
If Eagle's Wings reflects Miss
Hurnard's own beliefs, she appears to be embracing a combination of Christian
Science, Eastern thought, and assorted cultic teachings. Considering her
impact as a widely-read author, Christian readers will be saddened and
disturbed, though I hope not confused, by her new direction.
I was shocked to see that you
recommended Hannah Hurnard's Hind's Feet On High Places as a good
devotional reading (Books, September). It is plain that Miss
Hurnard is a panthiest. This false teaching is evidenced much more
in her other books than in the one mentioned, however.
I quote from her Creative Powers:
"In case of need we should be able, at will, to stimulate and control the
winged cells in our body which would enable us to fly; or the fish cells which
would cause the body to pass through the water like a fish. There is no
lower creation. Every living creature is a part of the 'One Created
Being.'"