Maybe I should have been more careful, as in ‘be careful what you ask for – you just may get it.’ I received correspondence from a very knowledgeable man the other day referring to a post entry in my blog. I love to get comments and mailings as I have said before; it is good to know who is out there listening. Apparently he took umbrage to my discourse on the ‘ensamples’ set forth in the Bible for us to follow.
He very intelligently advised me that the examples in the Old Testament, the miracles and signs reported therein, are myths. Yeah, well, a lot of people believe that and I am sure they have their convictions on the subject. Unfortunately, this communication did not come from a lost person, or an atheist (maybe not) – it came from a teacher that happens to teach at a college. And not just any college, mind you, but a teacher of Biblical History at a Christian college in the Atlantic region. I grabbed my trusty keyboard and began to prepare the ultimate essay refuting his logic, determined to convince him of the error of his ways. It was a holy mission, I was sure of it. This man will be responsible for training our future pastors to teach God’s Word in the church, and this is the best he can do? Relegate the Bible to a mythical figment of an ancient people’s imagination? Do tell.
Fortunately, about thirty minutes into my lengthy prattle, I stopped. I realized that no amount of reasoning and logic from this writer’s heart will convince him otherwise; his mind was made up long before he met me or happened to read my column. There was no need for a response from me, due to the whole ‘pearls and swine’ scenario put forth to us by Jesus himself.
But it gave me pause and made me wonder at the absurdity of it all. How can you teach what you do not yourself believe in? What is the purpose of such in academia? If I was offered a job teaching Hindu studies in Pondicherry, out of good conscious, I would have to abstain from taking the job. I do not believe in such and would have nothing to offer my fictitious students. Due to my own innocuous disbelief in the subject, the only fruit of any efforts put forth by me to teach said subject would be confusion on the part of those who would seek to learn from me as their mentor. To put it mildly, I would make me a charlatan, and that’s only at best.
We have the ability (a gift given to us by God) to learn so many wonderful things. With our human nature and natural inquisitiveness, coupled with the technological resources available for our disposal, there is almost no limit to what we can conjure in our own imaginations. We can ‘unravel every riddle, for every individal’ if we choose to do so. I tell you, it is a brave new world we live in. Yet, with almost a cliché-like take on the subject, we seem with all of our knowledge to only manage to become worse as a species.
Paul writes it best in Romans, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
Myths? Or foolishness by fools, for fools?
In Saudi Arabia, there is a mountain called Jabal Al Lawz. It is the highest peak in that area of the country. There is a wide plain in front of it, stretching almost to the horizon. A large company of people, in fact, a nation, could camp there. There are other suspicious artifacts to be found within the area; a split rock nearby, a broken artifact of stone that may have been an altar at one time and is decorated with symbols that look a lot like bulls. Within a few miles of the area there is a small town with twelve wells. The mountain, from Google-Earth, appears to be blackened or burned on top. Pictures taken from the ground proves this to be the fact and not simply an anomaly due to the high-altitude nature of the satellite cameras. It is located fourteen miles west of the town of Al Bad, if you want to look it up for yourself. You’ll also notice the mountain is not on the Sinai Peninsula, but directly across the Red Sea from it.
By the way, the mountain is not volcanic.
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