You Just Gotta Believe

 

 

 

To believe is immensely powerful. Empirical proof is only as strong as what comes to the table. The scientific method demonstrates, forms a theory, and then others try to duplicate the theory, trying to find a flaw that will disprove it, and if that happens you get a new improved theory. You can never arrive at an absolute because no matter how old a theory is, someone out there is trying to disprove it in an effort to identify the truth.

Each time a bigger and better telescope peers farther into our “known” universe we have to adjust what we thought we knew. The “Big Bang” seemed to explain everything except that now, with a clearer view, old galaxies appear along the edge of our known universe where the grandfathers of all galaxies should have been pushed out long ago.

And this is only when we look outward. What happens if we look inward? Medical science is constantly finding new things about our bodies that were as distant as those galaxies one hundred years ago. The one thing COVID taught us is that we have much more to learn, and you shouldn’t  mix political science and medical science.

But there are two areas where these different rules apply. Religion and politics. Both have  indisputable beliefs until they’re not. When a law hits the books that is that until the election and when the religious deliver an edict it is immovable until God changes his mind. Laws can be repealed   however, hell cannot!

When archaeologists go looking for proofs if Biblical truths, what do they find. Some pottery?  Dug out remnants of a house that locals claimed somebody lived there? Legend has it that Mohammed flew to heaven on a horse. Must’ve flown because it sure didn’t leave no hoof prints. And that rock in the Mosque of Omar. No hoof prints there either.

Scraps of papyrus are a big deal. There was one found in Egypt years ago. Supposed to date to the first century. Confirmed the Book of Matthew. While it is commendable that researchers try to drill down on these things most will not stand the test of time. Debates between believers and nonbelievers never solve anything. So what’s the point? What’s in it for us?

What did Jesus leave us? He was a carpenter. Look at the Holy Land. Now scrap all those trees that the Jews have planted since 1947. Jesus was a stone mason, ok? So, show me definitive proof of anything He left. Constantine’s mother tooled around down there and “identified” artifacts and sites, three hundred and some odd years after the fact, and things such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are venerated till this day. Well, you gotta venerate something, I guess. You know, George Washington slept more places than Stormy Daniels, but who’s counting, right.

What I’m driving at is actually a miracle right under your nose that everybody missed. Jesus was literate. He read at synagogue. But he never left any written records. Not even the grocery list for the Last Supper. Many years hence others wrote what they remembered or what they were told. And they wrote it in Ancient Greek. Try to read Ancient English. Thank you very much! Now combine that with many different translations. The King James Bible is a good example. Do you notice the italics here and there? The translation team didn’t use anything near the original autographs. They relied on translations of translations of Greek in its many forms and filled in the blanks when it fell short. Words such as “the” and “of” were added to make passages flow. Greeks were weird! An inside dog (σκύλος μέσα) is a whole different critter from a yard dog (σκύλος έξω.) And they were guttural. “Man Son God!”

So what did Jesus leave? His words. As mistranslated as they were the spirit of what he said has come down through the ages: The Good Samaritan, The Woman Caught in Adultery, BORN AGAIN! It’s all there. Right before your eyes in Swahili if that’s how you want it. He said to go out and preach to the world and indeed all men heard it in their own language. And the message is always the same.

If you have a relationship with Jesus it doesn’t matter who’s on the pulpit. He talks to the heart. Where you live. So when you hear someone slicing and dicing the Gospel go to to your closet and have a private conversation with Jesus. He always answers. Sometimes it may not be what you wanted, but when it’s Him, you’ll know. And there will be no empirical evidence, or scientific method, just what you need for that particular thing at that particular moment. No matter what Neil deGrasse Tyson tries to tell you! You just gotta believe!