This will be an ongoing series on mysteries or questions that bother me in the Bible because there are no definitive answers, only faith and questions. I am a rational person who reads the Bible and tries to connect the dots. But when things seem to contradict themselves, or blanket statements seem to good to be true, it leaves me wondering about the validity of the document that we call the Bible. And my only answer to that is to believe it anyway because I'm obviously missing some vital truth that will set my mind at ease. So, please, do not think I am attacking Christianity with these questions. I am merely asking questions in the hopes of finding some answer that will strengthen my understanding of God.
Part One - Heroes
On the TV Show, Heroes, several people have seemingly developed super powers overnight according to a theory of evolution posited by one of the main characters now deceased father. The idea being that these "Heroes" would gain these powers just in time to preserve the human race from some disaster, much like evolution teaches us that giraffe's developed long necks so that they could eat leaves higher up in the branches - had they not done so, they would have gone extinct. Its the idea that the chicken comes before the egg. But that is neither here nor there. These heroes have super powers. They can fly and teleport and go backwards and forwards into the future and paint the future and hear thoughts, etc... No clue as to how these particular abilities are going to save the world, but I'll leave that to the writers to decide.
In the Bible, there are many "heroes" who also develop super powers. Joseph can interpret dreams. Moses is able to part the Red Sea and call down plagues upon Pharoah. Daniel can calm lions. Many can prophesy. Jesus can heal the sick and even raise the dead. All of these "heroes" are sent by God to save the world (a few people at a time, perhaps, or in the case of Jesus, all of us at once). We are then lead to believe that in order to gain super powers, we must be sent by God. We hope to hear His voice in our ears, telling us to leap tall buildings in a single bound. But, of course, it doesn't work that way.
Yet, Jesus said that if we had faith as small as even a mustard seed, we could tell mountains to jump out of the way, and they would move. Now that would be a neat trick.
In today's world, its easy to dismiss the Bible's super powers because, after all, raising the dead isn't nearly as cool as bending over backwards and dodging super-sonic bullets, or stopping in mid-air, turning around and kicking an opponent in the head. Nobody in the Bible has spider sense. Nobody flies. Nobody has metallic claws to gut their opponents. As super powers go, walking on water is pretty lame. In this world of computer animation and fictionalized stories, the Bible pales in comparison.
Except, of course, that they're real. They really happened. Didn't they?
We can recreate the parting of the Red Sea with special effects, draw down plagues on people with computer animation and make-up, and every other show on television seems to resurrect some villain or hero once a week or so. Walking on water? Heck, even Dash from the Incredibles can do that. Feed the 5000? Give me a Star Trek Replicator and a little power from the Dilithium Crystals and I can do that.
In dealing with thoughts of the incredible its hard not to let your imagination take over. And imagination is make believe - not faith. We don't expect man to really fly, nor swing on spider webs through the city. People can't really dodge bullets, and nobody can really raise the dead, nor walk on water, nor spend the night in a cave with hungry lions. And anyone who claims they can interpret your dreams is probably a very good con artist. These things must be simple flights of the imagination combined with some flim flam.
So how does one move mountains? How does one raise the dead or heal the sick? How can faith really do all these things? If I ask God to part San Francisco Bay, would He do it? What if I really concentrated hard and pictured the Bay parting, when I opened my eyes, would it have parted? What missing ingredient am I missing? How do you believe the unbelievable? And how does belief in Christ and His resurrection allow you to move mountains?
I'd like to undo mistakes in my past. There are times when I try to imagine myself in the past and how I'd change things. I concentrate really hard. I close my eyes. I pray. But when my eyes open, nothing has changed. I can not even manage a mustard seed.
Perhaps Yoda was right, "Do, or do not, there is no try."
1 comment:
I view the mustard seed parable as essentially saying that by having faith in God, all things are possible - with the caveat that it is according to His Will.
I guess I'd like to understand what "blanket statements seem too good to be true" or what "things seem to contradict themselves". There's a lot of the nature of God that I don't understand, and I think you've delineated some questions that I've had myself - especially when I try to read the Bible rationally.
And I've discovered that rational reading of it doesn't quite work, because the Word is active, and a passage I read today might speak to me differently a year from now, because the context in which I read that passage in my life at that moment has changed.
Maybe that's when things seem to contradict themselves, because the practical application may have changed.
Good questions. And as always, I just need to take it on faith, because I don't want to be necessarily have "book" knowledge of God...I simply want to KNOW God.
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