Antediluvian Widespread Evil

As someone interested in both science and theology, I have a particular interest in the human race and it's history.  Contrary to some people who believe the human race is only 6,000 years old (based on their arithmetic of Bible accounts) the overwhelming, irrefutable evidence of science is that humans have been around for a lot longer.  That does not mean the Bible is wrong, just that the Bible is not that interested in telling us about exact time periods of human history.   The Bible is not a science handbook but a book of infallible truth, carried in a variety of literary genres, most of which are not concerned with being a text book.

One such idea is that there was once a great flood that God used to wipe all humanity off the face of the earth, except for 8 people he preserved in a boat. The Noah's Ark and the Flood story is about evil human nature and it's relationship to the environment, disinterest in the good God, God's sovereignty and right of judgment, and His continuous desire to redeem and recreate, and finally His inviting us into that recreating process.   The timescales are quite irrelevant. The exact extent of the flood is not the point.  The essence and quality of the truth conveyed in the Bible narrative is what is intended.

I spent my teen years tramping the upland massif of Dartmoor in Devon in England, where bronze age relics are everywhere to be seen.  Perhaps that is why i have no problem thinking about human in great antiquity.

That's Grimspound - the remains of a Bronze age settlement on Dartmoor dating from about 1300 BC.  I read today a story from the nearby county of Somerset:

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150416-our-ancestors-were-cannibals

Our ongoing research shows that ancient people, although great artists and craftspeople, had a poor view of human sanctity.  If cannibalism and human sacrifice were normal ancient impulses, how much suffering did God abate when he selected a few people in a global 'do over' for humanity?
Do we need historical evidence of the 'fallenness' of human nature?  Perhaps the news headlines from various war zones and ISIS provide evidence that human morality is not evolving or improving as many modernists might suppose or hope.  Human nature, like God, is the same yesterday, today and I fully expect, tomorrow.

Thank God - for he has made a way of saving us from ourselves, from the darkness we each carry, and has made a path of forgiveness, affirmation, healing and growth.  That is the Way of Christ.

(And just in case you were worried about all the ancient humans who died in those days of flood and rain...see my previous blog post.)

A Rich Day, Part 1: Humility and Recognition

     Wednesday April 15, 2015 was an extraordinary day in the life of this chaplain.  4 aspects will remain with me, and I'll blog on each one.  In this post I want to share with you a simple moment.
     As usual for my workplace chaplaincy role, I visited with the employees of one of my companies at 6:15 AM to walk the line of field-technician trucks and meet the men and women with a one-on-one handshake and a friendly word.   Today the company was meeting at a function hall to give everyone a breakfast buffet, some hoopla and to announce the first quarter results.
     The company principals gave their presentations followed by each of the senior directors, finally the HR director.  She had a couple of slides and the final bullet-point was my name with two exclamation marks after it.  Ashley Chartier was so gracious to me, thanking me for my work over the year 'from the bottom of her heart'.  Everyone applauded and then a few people stood up, then more, and soon all 80 people in the room were on their feet, applauding me.  A standing ovation for a chaplain. For me.  I was just crushed with humility, genuinely - which I was as unexpected to me as their applause.  I motioned for them to sit down and they did.  The principal echoed Ashley's thanks and the meeting moved on.  I however was just so deeply moved.
     I don't work for either praise or thanks, but I'll take them if they come.  What moved me so very deeply was that my ministry was recognized and valued.  It was a gracious gift of God to me.  Not all the leaders of my last church shared their sentiment, a fact that has humbled me these last 3 years.
     I may not know what the next few months may bring, but I want to stay with this group of people, just as I have stayed connected to the kind people from my previous church.  Thank you God for a unique moment.  You have humbled your servant, and in due time, have lifted him up (James 4:10).  Thank you Lord for this encouragement.

Easter Saturday - Christ walks Hades

Easter Saturday. God, apparently, is dead. At least for today, because we know that Sunday is coming...tomorrow. For now though, Jesus is in the tomb. cold. dead. utterly dark. silent. sinews rigid, corpse, almost blood-drained, scarred, naked apart from the burial shroud. Humiliated, cut, brutalized.

The Apostle Peter, writing some years later, mentions a beautiful early Christian tradition (1 Peter 3:18-20) that Jesus was not inactive in His death, but that He was busy in Hades bringing new life to those who had died trusting in God, for all the years leading up to this momentous day. The penitent thief who died alongside Him on the cross would have experienced hades turned into Paradise as Jesus came to greet him. The faithful men and women, boys and girls of Old Testament times too. Even the ancient ones who died in and before the great flood, says Peter.
Wherever Jesus Christ walks, death turns to life, darkness to light, indifference to love.
There is a movement among some modern Christian theologians to think that hell cannot exist, because it is incompatible with the central notion of the loving all-power all-knowing God. Yet Jesus, whom I follow, never taught such thinking, Notably, Jesus Christ taught more often and at greater length about hell, that he did about heaven. God, He reminded us, is equally about justice, as He is about love. And justice seeks righteousness. Since Jesus IS God, He is speaking with self-understanding here. Who will provide the righteousness needed to undo the the darkness we each carry? It was God come to us, revealed to us as Jesus, who allowed all humanity - the hegemony of state power (Imperial Rome), and the baying crowds, and the self-righteous right-wing conservative religious elite (Pharisees), and the left-wing liberal intelligentsia (Sanhedrin) - to brutalize, mock, marginalize and execute Him. The Holy One absorbed into Himself all the darkness, hatred, self-righteousness and brutish ignorant stupidity of humankind. There is noting more we can do to Him, we have done it all in our fore-fathers, confirmed in our every micro-decision to prefer our own ways. Yet here comes Jesus, walking though the hallways of our minds, bringing paradise, bringing life, and always saying - "come follow Me".
Love has satisfied Justice and here He comes. On Easter Saturday we get the chance to decide to follow Him into Resurrection Sunday, or stay in hades.