"To believe something with absolute certainty, one must start with doubting."  (A quote of the king of Poland in 1766.)  The Apostle Paul, and Lee Stroble--the atheist who wrote, "The Case for Christ" both are highly qualified doubters of the resurrection of Jesus.  Both changed their minds with explosive results in their lives.  They made a 180 degree turn.  (So did the Apostle Thomas.)

Paul was killing Christians with a vengeance.  He was traveling from city to city stoning them to death.  Those who believed in the resurrection of Christ were his targets.  Paul thought he was doing God's work by killing heretics who threatened the Jewish religion.  Acts 8:3 "As for Saul (Paul), he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, identifying men and women, and committing them to prison."  Rather like the caliphate in the middle East today--which says if you aren't Muslim, then they will kill you.  Death by religion.

Paul, "...yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest...", for a letter to give him authority to travel to other cities and arrest people. Acts 9:1.  But on the way to Damascus, Paul met Christ.  And was forever changed.  Now he had to convince the disciples that he was a different, new, born again disciple of Christ.  The Apostle to the Gentiles.

Peter, James and John didn't trust Paul when said he was a Christian--much less an Apostle.  And they were certainly justified.  Acts 9:26 "And when Saul was come to Jerusalem...to join himself to the disciples...they were all afraid of him and didn't believe that he was a disciple."  But Barnabas, a loving Christian man, vouched for Paul.  Then, Paul explained that God had called him to witness to the Gentiles--which was strange to the disciples.  They believed Jesus was a Jewish Messiah and they had no concept of God including Gentiles into the mix.  Who did this man, Paul, think he was!!

Paul had everyone against him at this point.  But he did not let it deter him.  He began to preach God's message to the Gentile peoples, and write prolifically to encourage them to stand fast and not be discouraged.  And we have those letters.  An eye witness account as to what happened in Paul's life.  So when he writes to the Ephesians and says,"..he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy...having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ," Eph. 1: 4-5, Paul was telling everyone that God wanted us.  He chose us.  Jews and Gentiles.

The letter to the Ephesians starts this way  1:1, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God..."

When someone wrote a letter back then, they reversed the order that we use today.  Instead of starting with the name of the people you were writing to, you stated who you were.  (Today, we would give our name at the end of the letter.)  However, the letter to the Ephesians starts with, "Paul."

Not only did Paul want them to know his name, but also his standing.  He was an Apostle of Jesus Christ.  There had been 12 Apostles.  But Judas was dead.  So Matthias had been chosen by the other eleven to fill his place.  Problem is, Matthias was chosen by "lot," (kind of like tossing a coin for heads or tails).  Matthias wasn't "called."  Christ didn't tell them to replace Judas.  If Jesus had wanted Judas replaced, He had plenty of time after the resurrection to do that.  So what happened?

Jesus had appeared to the disciples before he left them--to be taken up into heaven.  Jesus told all of them to 1. Go to Jerusalem and 2. Wait for the Holy Spirit.  Which they got "half" right.  They left the Mount of Olives and returned to Jerusalem.  But Peter, who was never much good at waiting, decided they needed to have an election--while they were sitting around waiting on the Holy Spirit.  Oops.

He told the group that since Judas was dead, they needed to replace him.  And the replacement needed to be someone who had accompanied them during:  "...the time that Jesus went in and out among us...beginning from the baptism of John unto that day he was taken up from us...a witness with us of his resurrection." Acts 1:15-26  Any number of men fit Peter's description.  

Peter's heart was in the right place.  He made a list of qualifications for the job of Apostle.  He was ready to get started doing the work of the Lord.  But like you and me, sometimes we ask God to bless what we have already done--without asking Him if He wanted us to do that thing in the first place.

They chose two men, Justus and Matthias, cast lots, and Matthias was chosen.  He was a good man I am sure.  But you never hear of him again.  So when Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he wanted them to be sure and know his standing.  It was by, "...the will of God."  Nobody cast lots to elect Paul as an Apostle.  Paul was God's man for the job.  Called.  (Paul would not have qualified for Peter's list.)

It is amazing how dependent I have become on my Mac.  I have been 7 days without it since I broke the screen.  It felt like I had lost my right arm.  Funny, 20 years ago I wouldn't have even know how to use it--or what to do with it if I did know how to use it.

I have gone though my regular routine every morning, but when I got to the part where I edited and posted, I found myself reading the funny papers instead.  I realized that I have read a zillion comic strips in my time, and none of them comes close to "Peanuts."  The characters are so true to themselves.  Year after year.  And now that they are being repeated, it shows that they are timeless.  So heart-warming and funny.

In the Sunday paper, there are a lot of "trial" strips.  Mostly stupid.  Inane.  Rude.  Ignorant.  I wonder who can stand to read them.  Or why they would want to?  Every now and then, I read one or two of the new ones just to see if I have changed my mind.  I haven't.  Unfunny.  Just dumb.  Whatever happened to "Popeye?"  If Charles Schultz can die (in 2000), and Peanuts is just as funny as ever, why couldn't those other old strips be repeated?  They were certainly better than what is currently being written.

It's like wishing for Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, Fibber Magee and Mollie, or Jack Benny.   Or Red Skelton.  They were just funny.  No dirt, no bad words.  Just comedy.  Maybe I am over the hill, but when you depend on four letter words to make a joke, something is wrong.  This generation of writers and comedians don't seem to understand irony.  Or dramatic pauses.

Enough.  I'll try to get back to something worth discussing on Monday.  Get back in the groove.  After 7 days not typing, my fingers aren't connected to my brain.

God bless you for staying with me.  My friend Sally (lives in Hattisburg, Miss.) and I are going to study Ephesians on the phone starting next week.  That's probably what I'll be writing about.







 

I dropped my Mac.  Ruined the serene.  It's in Re-hab.  Won't post before next Friday.

I am finally going to leave the dark ages of writing checks, stamping and putting a return label on an envelope.  I am going to do my banking on line.  I think I must be the last living dinosaur.  I tried to set it up myself.  That was amusing.  All I did was prove that I couldn't get it done.  I have three people lined up to help me.  I'll take the first person I can get.  Big step for me.  I've been reluctant to do this with all the hacking going on.

My music director, (Jerry Miller) who is also the director at teacher's meeting, just finished leading the music at a revival.  He came back with something he learned and shared it with me.  Something that he said he had never thought of.  It turns out that I hadn't either.

We know the stories in the New Testament about Jesus' miracles.  And remember that when he preformed a miracle among the Jews--who were trying to trap and kill him--he would tell the person who was healed not to tell anyone about it--about what he, Jesus, had done.  Because he didn't want to arouse any more irritation among the Pharisees or the priests--those who were plotting to kill him for heresy.  Healing the sick wasn't the thing he came for--he still had a much greater mission to preform.  He was on his way to the cross to die for our sins.  

But when Jesus cast the demons out of the man who was possessed, (and cast the demons into a bunch of pigs), Jesus told the man who was cured to go home and tell everyone what he, Jesus, had done, and what had happened.  (That the man was free from demons.)  Of course, his friends and family would know immediately something had happened since the man had been crazed and cast out of town years before and forced to live in a graveyard.

The question is:  Why did Jesus tell that man that he should go and tell about Jesus, and not the others?  What my director said was maybe it was because the man possessed with a demon was a Gentile.  And this was a way for Gentiles to learn the good news that Jesus--the Jewish Messiah--had come to save everyone.  Not just the Jews.  The good news of salvation is for all of us.  Jesus had no fear of the Gentiles doing him harm.  I had never put that together or thought about why Jesus told that particular man to go and tell his friends.

As for the man who owned the pigs which ran over a cliff?  I'm sure he wasn't very happy.

I am reading the biography of Ulysses Grant, by Ron Chernow--the Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote "Washington," and "Alexander Hamilton.  It is interesting.  But a challenge  to read.  Chernow writes beautifully, but he uses words that I have never heard before.  So I decided to record,  and look up every word I didn't know in the dictionary--to find the meaning.  Which I did.

In one hundred pages, I listed over forty words I didn't know, and subsequently looked up.   I will probably learn the meaning of a bunch of new words before I finish--since there are 965 pages in the book.  Now, the thing I need to do is remember them.   However, if I remember any of them it will be an accomplishment.  Here are a few of over three hundred words I didn't know:

imprimatur--person's guarantee that something is a good standard
peroration--conclusion of a speech intended to enthuse
fillip--stimulus
bruited--spread
fortnight--two weeks
interregnums--a period when normal government is suspended

I should have known "fortnight."  I didn't.  I had heard it but didn't know exactly what it meant.  I did know it was a time period, but didn't know for how long.

One thing I did learn from the outstanding imprimatur (!) that Chernow wrote about Grant's life.  Grant was unfairly branded by history--eclipsing his sterling qualities.  This book gives an account of his life--from birth to death.  I recommend it for anyone who is interested in history.  It is excellent.  I have a much better concept of the political events of the Civil War.  As well as the battles.

I won't remember that word "imprimatur" in the morning.  I guess that's why Chernow won a Pulitzer prize in literature.  His command, and use, of the English language is exceptional.

As soon as I finish "Grant," I'm going to read something easy.  Something in which I know most of the words.  However, there's nothing wrong with stretching your mind a little bit.

There is really only one question that a person must ultimately come to grips with.  And that is: does he think the world--and all that is in it--is the result of intelligent design, or happenstance.  A person must, along with Descartes, conclude one or the other."

Descartes said, "I think, therefore, I am."  You can read the entire "Proof" of Descartes--which is pages and pages long.  He was a mathematician who set out to prove through "if/then" statements the existence of a supreme being.  I read the entire proof.  His logic is faultless.

"Intelligent design" is the current politically correct definition for anything that is not evolutionary in design.  The Cambrian period, in archaeological history, has upset the apple cart of evolution-theory, because there are no precursors for Cambrian life.  Which means that life in the Cambrian period just kind of "popped up" out of nowhere.  And there are eight or more totally different kinds of life in that period.  None of which have precursors.  No strata evidence.  Nowhere in the world.

I think, therefore:  Things don't just pop up out of nowhere.  You need natural selection from somewhere.  Something previous.  Or evolution of some sort.  Or you need a creative event.

Intelligent design would include these concepts: 1. That we came from some outer-space planet, or 2. That there is a Supreme being that designed all of the universe.  If we  came from another planet, who designed the people on that planet?  So ultimately, intelligent design has a name:  God.  But that word doesn't have a place in the current scientific community.

I've made my choice and I call it "God."   It is the one question that every person must answer.

Which brings me to the second question:  Is there life after death?  I've made my choice.  If Jesus was God--which I logically came to the conclusion that He was.  (Read my account on Thomas.)  Then, did he conquer death?  The resurrection accounts of dozens and dozens of people at different times and different places have been recorded and validated.

He arose.  He conquered death.  And we will live again with Him.  Forever.  Praise God.