Awesome... I don't know how else to put it

Just some stuff about the Bible

I feel like I’m delving into to ancient mysteries that reveal deep and profound insight into the meaning of life. I’m puzzled by these things, but I’m glad to be thinking about them. For my history class, I’ve been reading my textbook and right now it is talking about some of the ancient civilizations, such as the ancient Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Sumerians, that existed back in Old Testament Biblical times. By studying this, I am getting some tremendous insight and perspective on the world and life at the time when the Old Testament was written. It is fascinating to me, and while my studies are for academic purposes, it’s true that I am looking for the spiritual meaning too. This is as much a search for spirituality as it is a quest for knowledge and understanding.

Today I read through a section in my textbook about history and the Bible. It went over briefly what historical and archaeological evidence suggests on the validity of the Biblical history of Israel. On the negative side, it does call into question the truth of the historical accounts of the Hebrews. The Bible paints them as a conquering, militaristic people but history suggests that they were not so much this way. It makes me wonder if part of the purpose in writing the Bible was to preserve and glorify Hebrew tradition, making up stories and fairytales of past glory in the process. I am skeptical of this position, because there is probably just as much evidence in the Old Testament to show that the Hebrew people were fools as there was to suggest they were great warriors. And the Bible is clear that anytime they won a battle, it was because of the Lord, not because of their own heroic efforts.

Even with the questions that have been raised, I did note some peculiar things about the history of this unique group of people. First of all, Israel’s God was revolutionary. In a world where polytheism ruled and where gods had very human qualities, the message of a loving, all-powerful Creator who existed outside of space and time was rare if not altogether new. The polytheistic gods of this time were often identified with various elements and things like that. So there would be a god of agriculture, a god of fertility, a god of war, a god of death, etc. The Hebrew God existed outside of all of that, laying the rules and foundations which the entire natural world follows. In these ancient cultures, there would be myths and legends explaining that these gods exist and how they came into being. One interesting thing about the Bible is that it just automatically assumes that God exists. It doesn’t address the issue of whether there is a God or not, it ignores the question altogether. It shows that God exists, has always existed, and will continue to exist forever.

Another fact that interests me about the ancient Hebrews is that they are the only ancient civilization that has succeeded in maintaining its identity in the modern era. In the ancient world, many powerful empires and nations rose to power only to decline and disappear centuries later; or to go through drastic cultural change. The Egyptians are still around, but I don’t think they still believe in the gods that their ancient ancestors did. The Mesopotamians, Sumerians, Hittites, and Babylonians are all gone, and yet the Jews still remain. Throughout centuries of persecution, conflict, exile, and countless other problems, they still exist with the same cultural identity that was created thousands of years ago. This is remarkable because as quirky, different, and unsettled as their past has been, they still managed to preserve themselves as a people and a civilization. In reality, they probably should have been wiped out a long time ago. It also is worth noting that throughout the Bible, the Israelites are referred to as God’s chosen people. Is it possible that the fact they still exist today as their own nation is a strong bit of evidence that shows they truly are God’s chosen people?

I know that some of you are probably reading this and the answers to these questions are probably obvious to you. Of course the Jews are God’s chosen people, the Bible says so. I understand where you’re coming from. It’s just that I am a person who is trying to understand the Bible while remaining true to the context that it’s put in, and to the reality that I have become familiar with. If there are inconsistencies between the Bible and common knowledge, then I want to know. In the same way, if there are consistencies that point to the Bible’s truth then I want to know that as well. I like to see evidence of things that took place in the Bible, because after all the Bible did take place in our world.

Anyways, just a few quick thoughts to chew on.

BITR: What Animal Would I Make Out With?

(The formatting for this blog is totally messed up and I don't feel like making it perfect, so just ignore that part of it and imagine that these are actually lists that go from 5 and count down to 1.)

Before I even get into this topic I want to clear a few things up. You are probably thinking, “Wow, it’s disgusting that this guy would even write about this.” And you’re probably right. It is disgusting. I had to actually put some thought into this, and what person in his or her right mind puts any kind of thought into the kind of animals he/she would like to make out with? An Old Testament Jew would have probably been stoned for that. Fortunately for me, I am not an Old Testament Jew. I am a 21^st century white guy in America, and we have almost no rules on what we can or can’t make out with.

Still, I want to point out that, going along with the Blog in the Round rules, someone gave me this topic, which means that someone actually wants to know. And to that certain sick individual who wants to know (stephbenton.wordpress.com), I just want to say that I think you are disgusting and wrong and immoral for giving me this topic. Evil people like you should be purged from the land, because you are scum.

That being said, I went ahead and made a list of 5 animals I would make out with, because I couldn’t narrow it down to one. And then, just for fun, I made a list of five animals I would NOT make out with. So here we go:

Animals That I Would Make Out With

5. Angelfish – Any animal with the word “angel” in its name can’t be all that bad, and certain types of angelfish look pretty attractive. Making out has more to do with looks than we would like to admit sometimes. I wouldn’t be caught dead making out with a grouper. An angelfish, however, probably wouldn’t be that bad.

4. Owl – Once again, owls are beautiful creatures. They are also mysterious because they only come out at night.

3. Animal from Sesame Street – Because that wouldn’t be
boring.

2. Chicken – Because it probably would taste good.

1. Ladybug – This is the most heterosexual thing I could think of. Ladybugs are kind of nice. They have the whole “red with black spots” thing going on. The only drawback is that they sometimes smell really weird, which is kind of a turn-off.

Animals That I Would NOT Make Out With

5. Octopus – I couldn’t ever imagine any kind of scenario where making out with an octopus would be appealing in any way. Tentacles? And what about that humongous, lumpy, weird looking head? I wouldn’t be able to even find its mouth, and that would be awkward.

4. Blue whale – Blue whales are the largest mammals on earth, usually the length of 3 to 4 school buses. This just wouldn’t work…

3. Woodpecker – For obvious reasons.

2. Sea bear – Flashlights are their natural prey, but still I don’t think a make out session with a sea bear would be that much fun.

1. Black widow spider - After sex, black widow spiders eat their male partner. Now I don’t expect to get past 2^nd base with a black widow, but if home plate means certain death, just leave me out entirely.

BITR: The Rapture

I used to go to a church where every now and then the pastor would preach on the end times. He would get up behind the pulpit and go through the prophecies, proclaiming that the signs of this age are all pointing to the return of Jesus Christ. Every time he preached this sermon he would say, “And I believe you and I are living in the end times." He actually believed that this generation is going to be called up to meet Jesus in the air, and that death is something that we won't be experiencing. We have our tickets to ride on the "good old gospel ship" so to speak.

I am very hesitant to get into end times theology. I am not a fan of the topic. In fact, I am almost apathetic towards it. I have read most of the Left Behind books, and heard the basic messages preached about the rapture, the tribulation, the millennial reign of Christ, the anti-Christ, etc. Still, I have lots of reasonable doubts about the subject. This is not because I don’t have faith or anything, but because the foundation that this kind of theology is built on is shaky at best. And if it is taken too far, it can be downright destructive.

For centuries, there have been groups of Christians who believed that their generation would see the end times and the return of Christ. The idea of the rapture has only been around for about 200 years, and it came about because of the dream of a little girl. Most Christians in the world don’t even believe in the rapture. This belief is held almost exclusively to conservative Christians in North America. It is also a belief that is never really appropriately addressed in scripture. At best, we get small glimpses or hints. But what some Bible prophecy theologians do is come back through the text, string together a few separate Bible verses from separate parts of the New Testament and then say, “See? This means that the rapture is going to happen.”

I think it’s worth noting that when God gave us the text that we use to interpret the last days, he purposely gave us an extremely confusing, extremely vague and hard-to-understand bit of information. Exiled to the isle of Patmos, John the Revelator had a dream and then wrote down what he saw. And in that dream he tells us about beasts with certain numbers of horns, bowls of God’s wrath being poured out, angels wiping out a third of the world’s population – all kinds of elaborate imagery that indicates lots of woe and upheaval. Even when Jesus told his disciples about his return, he wasn’t very specific about it.

But what some people try to do is go through the text, make a chart, and say “This is how God is going to wrap things up.” I don’t think it is possible to figure this out, and I don’t know if God is even interested in telling us how. I think that at some point we just have to come to a place where we say we don’t know what God is going to do but we still trust him. I have heard that many theologians believe Revelations speaks of events happening in the first century after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In 70 AD, Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed. Christians were also under heavy persecution, and Revelations was a book that spoke about those events, but also offered a great hope to those who were enduring them. Although I don’t really know a whole lot about this view, it would make sense in light of the circumstances of that time.

One issue I have with modern end times theology is that it can influence a person to be apathetic towards the present needs of the world. It can cause a believer to do absolutely nothing to try to make the world a better place, since he/she believes that the world is just spiraling down until Jesus comes back anyways. It can also give a person a reason to want war in the Middle East, since that will lead to the return of Christ and the battle of Armageddon. Sometimes I wonder it these kinds of people should be allowed to vote.

I once read an old preachers’ adage quoted by David Chagall, the host of a Bible prophecy show called The Last Hour: “We Christians are placed here not to clean up the dirty old fishpond of the world but to fish people out of it." I don’t think that this is what Jesus was saying when he taught us to care for the poor and love our enemies. In fact, Jesus even said that the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is now. Not in the next life when the church is raptured and we are all reigning with Christ, but now.

Another drawback to this kind of thinking is obvious in what’s going on with the current election. A lady I work with got all bent out of shape the other day because she heard on the news that Barack Obama said something about uniting the nations. Of course, we all know that that’s what the anti-Christ is going to do, right? And we also know that the anti-Christ is going to be a good speaker. Barack Obama is a good speaker. Therefore, he must be the anti-Christ. The way I see it, if your faith causes you to go against a person who wants to bring peace and unity, then you might want to take another look at your faith. Jesus himself said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”

One more problem with this kind of theology is that it promotes the tendency for Christians to scare other people into becoming a Christian. I don’t believe in this kind of evangelism at all. The Bible says there is no fear in love. To try to use fear to bring someone into a relationship with Christ would be like using fear to get a person to marry you or be your friend. It just doesn’t work that way. We all know that relationships built on fear are not good relationships at all.

I personally really like the book of Revelations. I think it’s a beautiful book. For almost the entire book John gives you all kinds of images of woe and upheaval, destruction, battles, and horned beasts. It’s pretty downright frightening at times, and very mysterious. But at the end you get a beautiful image of a new heaven and a new earth, and a voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

I am not going to pretend like I know what God has in store for us. I have no earthly idea what is going to happen or how it will take place. But the Bible does tell me that I was created to be in a relationship with God and that somewhere along the line that relationship got broken. Now I live in a world where I am separated from God, living in shame, and outside of the love that I need in order to live. And one day I’m going to die. My hope is in Jesus. And because he gave himself, God no longer sees my sin but he sees his son. No matter what I do, I will always be loved by God. Books like Revelations give me hope that when all is said and done, I will be with God. And that is exactly where I’m supposed to be.

BITR: Why Barack Obama Will Be a Better President than John McCain

DO YOU SMELL WHAT BARACK IS COOKIN'?!

The Land of the Thundering Waters (Pictures from Niagara)

Here are some of the pictures we took while we were in Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls actually consists of three separate waterfalls all coming from the same river. The water flows out of Lake Erie and into the Niagara River. The river is separated into different waterfalls by Goat Island. This is a picture of the Horseshoe Falls, aptly named because it looks like a horseshoe from above. We took this picture on our Maid of the Mist boat ride, which took us right up to the bottom of the falls and got us very wet in the process.



The American Falls come from the water that flows on the other side of Goat Island. All of the rocks at the bottom are from a giant avalanche of these falls several years ago. The picture below is also from our Maid of the Mist tour.

The American Falls (above)

Tourists

The Horseshoe Falls from the view of an observation deck.

My one complaint about Niagara Falls is how the people had built it up into basically a tourist trap. Attractions are built right up to the sides of the river, and they sometimes go on for miles. I was hoping that the area would have a really natural feel to it, but it didn't. Even when we were in a boat right in the middle of the Horseshoe Falls, you could still see all the hotels and casinos that had been built next to the river for money-making purposes. Even though the falls were amazing, to me the experienced was cheapened and robbed of its majesty by this.


Can you tell I'm not the real subject of this picture?

The Horseshoe Falls from the view of the Skylon Tower buffet restaurant. That blue dot in the middle is a Maid of the Mist boat.

The American Falls. That small waterfall on the right is the third waterfall. It is called the Bridal Veil Falls. The blue Great Lake in the distance is Lake Erie.


My family next to one of the "barrels" a daredevil used to take the trip over the falls.

The guy who used this barrel survived the fall, but suffocated inside the barrel because the water pinned him to a place under the waterfall. Rescuers couldn't reach him before his air ran out. On the bright side, he took his pet turtle along with him and the turtle lived.

The Niagara River Gorge

The beautiful Toronto skyline.


The CN Tower in Toronto, the tallest observation tower in the world. Really, this thing is huge.

On the plane from Buffalo to Chicago.

Coming home!

BITR: What Scares the Living Daylights Out of Me

The Itch

A couple of weeks ago, for the first time in my entire life, I got the chance to take a trip out of the country (barely) and into Canada. We flew to Chicago, then to Buffalo, and then we drove over the border and into Niagara Falls, Canada. The trip took 4 days, and most of our time was spent on the Canadian side. I got to see all kinds of Maple Leaf souvenirs, Canadian flags, Canadian money, and all kinds of other Canadian things. I got to hear people say things like, “So you’ve seen the falls, eh?” and “We’re aboot to go to the wineries.” We bought gas by the liter instead of the gallon, and the speed of our car was measured in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour.

I think that being outside of America did something to me. Subconsciously I think that something didn’t feel right about being outside of the country that I’m used to. I didn’t realize it at the time, but something must have been different about it. So in response to being absent from America for a while, the day after I came back to the United States I went out and did the most American thing I could possibly do. I bought a 32” flat-screen HDTV. Did I need it? Not really. Sure, my old TV was an old 17” television with a decent picture. But did I really need to spend all of that money on such a nice TV? The answer is definitely no.

However, I don’t really regret making the decision that I did. It’s a nice TV, and I definitely enjoy watching shows and movies on it. But it has got me thinking about how a lot of the time we Americans get some kind of itch or longing or discontentedness – I don’t even know what it is but I’m guessing that everyone knows what I’m talking about – and the way we try to cure the itch is to spend money on something. The day after my trip, I woke up and before long the possibility of getting a new TV was on my mind. It lingered there in my head and I couldn’t keep from thinking about it. In the shower I tried to reason with myself to see if I could afford it. Throughout the day I went back and forth, thinking it was a good idea one minute and a bad one the next. Ironically, that same day I watched a show on the Science channel that talked about decision making, and how usually people don’t make rational decisions. People may think they do, but most of the time they don’t really weigh all of the pros and cons of the decision; and a lot of times they just do what they want to do regardless.

Well, that day I don’t know what it was, but I was set on buying a TV. I could afford it, but truthfully the money could have been better spent elsewhere. That night I went to bed watching a show on my new high-def screen, and even though I knew I would be penny-pinching for the next few weeks, I didn’t care.

Like I said, I don’t regret the decision, but the issue of spending money just to try to cure that itch has been on my mind a little bit. I see this all the time in my life. If I’m bored, or kinda down and in need of a pick-me-up, sometimes my cure for that is to go spend money on something. I’ll buy a videogame, a CD or DVD. To tide me over until the itch comes back, I’ll go out and get something that most of the time I don’t need. Then, when it does come back, I just go out and buy something else.

This bothers me because I could be spending my time so much better. If I’m bored, I could pick up my guitar and learn some new songs, or dive into another book. I could read my Bible or pray, or call up a friend and hang out. I don’t have to spend money to do those things, and when it comes down to it doing things like that are going to make a greater difference in the long run. If I take the time now to play the guitar instead of a game, then a few years later I’ll be a really good guitar player. New TVs and other material things aren’t as valuable as the joy of being able to play a song or draw a picture or something creative like that.

When we were staying in Niagara Falls, my sister and I went into a gift shop that was full of all kinds of carved, wooden ornaments. The shop had various items such as carved masks, statues both big and small, and even some musical instruments made out of wood. We saw a few weapons, some staves, bows, and a couple of blow guns. It was a really neat place to just look around. The woman at the desk told us that most of the carvings were imported from India and Asia, in areas like that. And from the Buddha statues and faces I could tell that the art definitely had that kind of influence.

I bought a piece from that store. It’s a section of the trunk of a small tree with a face carved into it. It is carved in such a way that above and below the face you can see the bark from the tree. So you can see where the artist carved into the tree and started to make his or her design. It’s really a beautiful thing to look at. Our dog Dixie was afraid of it when I first brought it home; she wouldn’t stop barking at it. Regardless of what she thinks, I think it’s nice.

When I bought this carving I didn’t really buy it because it was of any use to me. Since I have been back it has just sat in my room, all wooden and creepy looking next to my guitar amp. I didn’t buy it because it would be fun to play with – it’s not. In fact, the thing is basically useless to me. But when I was in that store and I saw all the carvings and the work of various artists from the other side of the world, I found it beautiful. And I bought the carving because it was beautiful and because I wanted to support someone who could make something like that.

I imagine some poor man in India who lives in a small hut with dirt floors. And maybe he lives with his family trying to make enough money to eat and pay for the basic human needs. This guy doesn’t have an X-box to keep him entertained. He doesn’t have a high-definition TV screen or a blu-ray disc player or an iPod. He has none of the everyday distractions in his life that we Americans do. And so what does he have? Well, he has his family, and nature, and his art. Sure, he probably gets bored sometimes, but when that happens he can spend his time carving. He goes out in the woods and cuts down a tree, and then he chops it into pieces and starts to carve. And as he perfects his artwork and refines his skill, he carves a human face out of a piece of wood. Maybe sometimes he carves people and other times he carves animals. The sky is the limit, and really all he has to use is his imagination and his hands, picturing something incredible in his head and then using his hands and his knife to make it real.

I’m going to enjoy sitting on my couch and watching college football on my HD screen this fall. I don’t doubt that. But deep down I do feel like I may be missing out on something. Even though I have so much more than my imaginary poor Indian man has ever had, it might just be true that he is really the one who is rich and I’m the one who is poor. Maybe he is the one who is blessed and I am the one who is cursed. My TV is going to break or become outdated. The picture is going to fade and maybe get a little fuzzy. I’ve got a feeling that over the long haul, his cure for the itch is better than mine.

And so as I live out my life and decide how to spend my time and money, I really hope that when I get that itch I will learn to be a little wiser in how I react. I could just buy the latest toy, or maybe instead I could pick up a guitar or a pen and try to play music better or write better or be a better person. Maybe I could work on my golf swing. I have a feeling that when all is said and done, spending my time doing constructive things like that are far more worth it than using what little money I have to satisfy a longing that is simply not going to go away.

BITR: Aliens and Ghosts

When I was a lot younger, I used to love watching shows about aliens and ghosts. Mostly aliens, because those kinds of documentaries came on more. Whenever I saw a program about UFOs, Area 51, or extraterrestrial aliens on TV, I would usually watch it. I know all about Roswell and the Bermuda Triangle, and I have probably seen all of the most popular footage of blurry UFO sightings. I also like movies about aliens. Independence Day is still to this day one of my favorite movies. As a kid I was fascinated with aliens because they were always a subject of great mystery. Are UFOs and aliens being kept at Area 51? Is the government covering them up? Did aliens teach ancient civilizations how to do things like build the pyramids? The possibility that we are not alone in the universe is fascinating.

I didn’t see as many ghost shows as a kid, but I saw enough to teach me about some sightings, beliefs, etc. I have seen the shows where the producers go to a site that is believed to be haunted and the take along a psychic. They walk through the house or graveyard, wherever it is they’re at, and in one area the psychic always gets excited because she can feel great “energy” in that place. And I have seen where they take radios and instruments that let them pick up electromagnetic fields and such.

It’s interesting that everything I know about aliens and ghosts came from watching TV. I’ve never had any sort of encounter with either of these beings. I haven’t read about them. I know people who claim that weird stuff has happened to them, but nothing that points directly to a ghost or an alien. It’s possible that the idea of these creatures is promoted by TV, since these types of shows get pretty good ratings. If you are a person who watches shows about ghosts or aliens and you experience something you can’t explain, you are much more likely to say that it was one of them. And the way that people tend to exaggerate, lie, and believe whatever they want to believe, it is more than possible that someone could see light reflecting off of an airplane and call it a UFO.

I am open to anything being possible in this world. I have learned to not really limit my beliefs about it just because I haven’t experienced something. Not really a whole lot surprises me. It is perfectly reasonable to think that extraterrestrial aliens exist. The universe is a vast, enormous, mysterious place; I can’t emphasize that statement enough. To think that somewhere out in the cosmos is a planet in some other galaxy with the ability to produce life is completely reasonable. In fact, it’s possible that lots of these places exist. We once thought that the world was flat and that we were the center of the universe, but we were wrong about both of those things. Isn’t it possible or maybe even probable to believe that we are wrong about being alone in the universe?

However, if I must give an answer then with all of this in mind I am still going to say that I don’t believe aliens exist. I say that not because I have so much trouble believing in aliens, but solely because of spiritual reasons. I believe what the Bible says, that God created humans in his own image, that humans are eternal but fallen creatures, that God became a human and lived here on earth for several years, and that he died to save humans from death. If intelligent life exists on other planets, then all of a sudden we have a lot questions that need answering. Are they created in God’s image or are they like plants and animals? Are they fallen creatures like we humans are? (I guess the best way of answering this is simply by seeing if they wear clothes.) Did Jesus die for them as well? If so, why did he come to earth to dwell among humans?

If I do believe in alien life existing on other planets, I would say that they are not intelligent creatures like we are. I would say that they exist as some sort of bacteria or maybe some type of primitive or maybe even advanced animals. But they don’t have a spirit, the breath of God breathed into them. I don’t think they would have the intelligence or the ability to build spacecraft and travel across the universe to observe us or try to invade our planet or anything.

As for ghosts, I am really not sure what to say. Have I ever seen a ghost? No. I know of people who have claimed to see dead relatives or hear their voices, which really creeps me out, but there is really no way of knowing whether that is true or not. I find it a lot easier to believe that people are either delusional or deceptive than to believe the ghosts that they have seen are actually real.

However, I do think that it is possible that ghosts might exist. I don’t think I will ever see one in my lifetime, and maybe they are completely impossible for us to see. Maybe they aren’t the white, transparent apparitions that we believe them to be. Maybe they exist as something outside of everything we can comprehend, some kind of creature that is not bound to the dimensions and laws that exist in our world. I do believe in spirits, but whether or not they wander and haunt various places on earth, I do not know. And whether they try to communicate with old family members I don’t know either.

In a very unusual and strange Bible story, King Saul and the Israelites are at war with the Philistines. Saul becomes very afraid when he sees the Philistine army, and he inquires of the Lord, but doesn’t get any kind of answer or response. So then he disguises himself and travels to Endor to consult a medium there. The Witch of Endor brings up Samuel, the Israeli prophet who had recently died, and Saul actually has a conversation with him. In this conversation, Samuel’s spirit predicts that the Philistines are going to defeat the Israelites, and that God is going to take the kingdom from Saul’s hands and give it to David. Both predictions come true.

There you have it, in the Bible of all places, an account of a medium consulting a spirit and nothing about this story suggests that the medium was false at all. Samuel really was summoned, and Saul really talked to him.

Either way, no evidence exists that I know of that would prove that either aliens or ghosts exist. I am definitely a skeptic, because I have never experienced anything like that and because it is easy for people to misinterpret all kinds of things, believing in something just because they want to. However, I am not a reductionist either. I’m not going to limit the world to just what I can perceive with my own senses. I believe in spirits, and so technically you could say I believe in ghosts. I don’t really believe in aliens, but I am definitely open to the possibility. Although, if they do show up on earth someday, I think God is gonna have a lot of explaining to do.