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