The Bible is a wildlife sanctuary
By Warner M. Montgomery
Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Charles G. Pfeiffer finds the lion in the streets at the Torch Club.

Charles G. Pfeiffer is a Zane Grey aficionado, a 50-year stalwart at Columbia College, and an in-demand Sunday School teacher at Washington Street Methodist Church. Pfeiffer is a teacher's teacher and a preacher's preacher, a man admired for his dedication to The Word. But at his talk to the Torch Club Tuesday night, he went batty...he flew the coup and lay down with wolves.

Pfeiffer admitted that in his search for the purpose of life, the law of harvest, and his Christian mission, he discovered Natural Revelation. "I realized one can see God in what He has made," he spaketh. "So why not find Him in wildlife?"

For an hour, the man who tracked Zane Grey all over the West, led his audience on exposition of the birds, mammals, and reptiles in the Bible. Be they literal, figurative, or symbolic, Pfeiffer found beasts everywhere in the Old and New Testaments. He found 28 doves, 25 eagles, 11 ostriches, 11 ravens, and six little sparrows from Genesis to Revelation. Some flew to freedom, some attacked evildoers, some warned of danger, and some announced the daybreak. All were God's little creatures.

Pfeiffer captured 217 beasts roaming the Holy Book, including 127 regal lions, 17 sneaky jackals, 16 graceful gazelles, 12 cunning wolves, six spotted leopards, 12 powerful bears, nine dumb oxen, nine sweet hinds, eight hardy harts, and six wiley foxes. And not quite out of his Zaney grasp were the...ugh...reptiles: 48 repulsive serpents, 13 treacherous vipers, eight deadly adders, six vicious asps, six ponderous leviathans, six dreaded dragons, and five awful rahabs. (For all you non-Bible Thumpers, a rahab is a sea-demon, a dragon of the waters, the ruler of the sea found in Jewish folklore.)

In conclusion, Pfeiffer quoted Isaiah 11:16, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

The Torch Club is an international organization dedicated to lively discussions on subjects of current interests, invigorating inter-professional exchanges, and the enjoyment of free inquiry and expression. The local chapter meets every month. For information, call Ed Latimer at 803-776-4765.