Dr. Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center

Celtic Christianity teaches that there are “thin places”-locations where supernatural-natural worlds almost intersect spatially.[1] Sensitive folk have a sense of a sixth sense.  Perhaps Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s lines from “Aurora Leigh” capture the concept best with her line, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: but only he who sees, takes off his shoes-the rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”[2]

Church history is full of characters whose lives were intimately acquainted with supernatural sensitivities.  Aidan of Lindisfarne brought The Gospel to England after others declared the “Angles” to be uncivilized.[3] It is Aidan’s prayer that comes close to our Mahseh mission:

Leave me alone with God as much as may be.
As the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore,
Make me an island, set apart,
alone with you, God, holy to you.

Then with the turning of the tide
prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world beyond,
the world that rushes in on me
till the waters come again and fold me back to you.[4]

Brendan the Navigator established monasteries which functioned as places of contemplation as well as education.[5] St. Patrick prayed at day’s beginning for God’s “host to save me from snares of demons . . . I summon today all these powers between me and those evils, against . . . incantations . . . black laws . . . crafts of idolatry . . . spells of witches and smiths and wizards . . .every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.”[6]

Historical, Scriptural events evidence the intersection of Heaven and earth.  Abraham entertains Heaven in human form outside his tent in Genesis 18.  Elisha asks Yahweh to open his servant’s eyes to see the angelic army surrounding the physical Syrian army in 2 Kings 6.  Supernatural battles keeping God’s messengers from delivering a message are recorded in Daniel 10.  Philip’s inexplicable transfer from one location to another for evangelism is found in Acts 8.  And Satan’s contention for Moses’ body with the archangel Michael is used as an example of worlds colliding in Jude 9.

A number of movies reflect a paranormal point of view.  In the Electric Mist Tommy Lee Jones’ character continues to meet a long-dead Civil War Confederate general who teaches him life-lessons.  First Snow presents a normal, everyday event transforming Guy Pearce whose life is changed because of a predictive utterance given by a sideshow card-reader.  Seraphim Falls starring Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan display the awful consequences of the Civil War which so haunt the two characters that their lives become interpretations of desert prophets.  The Exorcism of Emily Rose is an example of the horror genre which acknowledges another world.  Intersection of physic and mystic is a truer definition of reality.

The realism of Genesis 1:2, I believe, is the origin of “thin places.”  The phrase “without form and void” is not chaos but the pre-ordered world gently protected by The Spirit of God.  Before structures and systems are established within creation the raw materials are brought into being out of nothing.  Supernatural Spirit protection incubates the pre-formed created elements as a mother bird incubates her eggs.[7] Unlike non-historical myths of the day, Genesis’ primordial materials were not menacing, sinister, nor chaotic.[8] God’s personal presence in His world, the intersection of spirit and matter, is begun in Genesis 1:2.  “The account leaves mysterious what cannot help but be mysterious.”[9] As George MacDonald is heard to say over a century ago

Whenever you begin to speak of anything true, divine, heavenly, or supernatural, you cannot speak of it at all without speaking about it wrongly in some measure. We have no words, we have no phrases, we have no possible combination of sentences that do more than represent fragmentarily the greatness of the things that belong to the very vital being of our nature.[10]

People who arrive at Mahseh consistently say, “When I come on the property it is as if all my burdens have been lifted.”  A Celtic benediction entitled “The Hermit’s Song” is a possible explanation of the phenomenon called “thin places,” of which I believe Mahseh is one.

I wish, O Son of the living God, O ancient, eternal King,

For a hidden little hut in the wilderness, That it may be my dwelling . . . .

Quite near, a beautiful wood, Around it on every side,

To nurse many-voiced birds, Hiding it with its shelter. . . .

Raiment and food enough for me, From the King of fair fame,

And I to be sitting for a while, Praying God in every place.

In the infinity of night skies, in the free flashing of lightening, in whirling elemental winds, you are God.  In the impenetrable mists of dark clouds, in the wild gusts of lashing rain, in the ageless rocks of the sea, you are God and I bless you.  You are in all things and contained by no thing.  You are the Life of all life and beyond every name.  You are God and in the eternal mystery I praise you.

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[1] www.thinplaces.net

[2] Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “From Aurora Leigh.”  Reprinted in Poetry for The Spirit, ed. Alan Jacobs. (Watkins): 280-82.

[3] http://www.prayerfoundation.org/favoritemonks/favorite_monks_aidan_of_lindisfarne.htm

[4] http://www.prayerfoundation.org/aidans_prayer.htm

[5] http://www.prayerfoundation.org/favoritemonks/favorite_monks_brendan_the_navigator.htm

[6] http://www.prayerfoundation.org/st_patricks_breastplate_prayer.htm

[7] Deuteronomy 32:11.

[8] The explanation of Genesis 1:2 is best grasped by reading John H. Walton, The NIV Application Commentary: Genesis (Zondervan): 72-78.

[9] Leon R. Kass. 2003. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. (Free Press): 29.

[10] George MacDonald, from a sermon preached in June, 1882 entitled, ”Faith, the Proof of the Unseen.”

Dr. Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center

It happens to every teacher: my materials for a class did not come on time.  I explained to the students that I would make adjustments to the course schedule.  We would use other methods than the backordered computer disks from the educational company for the next week or two.  One young college student interjected, “Dr. Eckel, just give me the CD and I’ll make copies for everyone.”

I turned to the board and wrote one word: “ethics.”  Looking back at the class I asked how they might respond if someone took their property without paying for it.  “But when it comes to electronic data, it’s so easy to reproduce, and . . .” is as much as the young man got out of his mouth.  “Does that matter,” was my serious reply, “If property belongs to another, no matter in what form it is transmitted, isn’t stealing, stealing?”  My freshmen students, new to a Christian college, did not believe copying CDs without paying for them was a problem.  I had my work cut out for me.

Is stealing wrong?  How do we know?  By what standard will we assess the question?  Where is the measure found?  In essence, “Who says?” I should do this or that?  Genesis begins by answering that query.  Based on the first seven installments in the Genesis series I would like to offer a four-fold standard for wisely addressing ethical issues from a Christian point of view.[1] I call it “The S.P.U.D. Test.”

ONE: Is the belief sensible to what is?  Is it prudent and logical?  Or is the worldview based on emotion, experience, or the desire of the moment?  Is the thinking true to life or do you respond, “Oh, come on!”?

TWO: Is the belief practical and workable in everyday life?  Can people live this way?  Or when applied to reality is the worldview useless and unbeneficial?

THREE: Is the belief universal-for all people in all places at all times?  Does the worldview produce a helpful impact for people today and throughout history?  Or are people hurt by the ethics of the viewpoint?

FOUR: Is the belief dependable and consistent?  Are the ideas based on a changeless set of standards?  Or are they based on the whim of human decision?

Sensibility maintains that standards are embedded in God’s world.  The new Chris Atkins film “Starsuckers” takes aim at celebrity journalism.  Atkins believes that society’s obsession with fame – gaining it and being near it – has distorted everything from the way news is reported to our children’s aspirations.  “It’s the same journalists who write about celebrity hairstyles who write about weapons of mass destruction.”[2] Does it make sense to subscribe to celebrities’ beliefs from global warming to health care simply because they are celebrities?  Does “reality TV” do anything other than distract us from real life?  Do talk show hosts carry any moral weight for human problems outside of their own voices?  Sensibility teaches that “in the multitude of counselors there is safety”[3] when these counselors speak true Truth.

Practicality mandates that life should be intertwined with God’s Truth.  Steven Pinker, an evolutionary biologist, admits that believing right and wrong is nothing more than an impersonal computer program is hard to practice with his family when he gets home at night.[4] Pinker’s impracticality shows itself when he rejects God as the source of Truth, trusting instead in the goodness of human nature.[5] Leon Kass gets closer to workable ethics when he says “In this age in which everything is held to be permissible so long as it is freely done . . . repugnance may be the only voice left that speaks up to defend the central core of our humanity.  Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder.”[6] Practicality teaches that Jesus’ comment “what comes out of a person makes him unclean”[7] gets to the Center of Truth.

Universality moves all humans because we are all made in God’s image.  Why are all cultures obsessed by other-world creatures invading our world?  What do haunted houses suggest about peoples’ beliefs in spirits and ghosts?  Why is the movie Paranormal Activity sweeping the country as an instant cult-classic?  Every supernatural thriller film, every scary Halloween costume, every ghost story is evidence of a world-wide belief that there is another world.  Guillermo del Toro, creator of the bizarrely horrific Pan’s Labyrinth, believes fairy tales from every culture add to one’s “spiritual formation.”[8] Universality teaches that “we wrestle against . . . the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.”[9] Truth in this world comes from Another World.

Dependability motivates people toward God’s changelessness.  When we watch an athletic contest all we ask of referees is to treat both teams equally.  When students turn in essays all they ask is that teachers be consistent in their grading.  When the public listens to a news broadcast all they ask is that all points of view are heard.  When MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann refers to Michelle Malkin-a conservative commentator, a Christian, mother of two children-as a “mashed up bag of meat with lipstick,” hateful comments display that his point of view is unreliable.[10] Dependability teaches that we need “God who does not lie,”[11] an Immovable Standard Outside of ourselves.

It was 10 p.m., two hours before bass season opened.  A young boy and his dad were practice-casting in anticipation of the next day.  The lure flashed in the full moon light as the child learned under his father’s tutelage.  Without warning, the next cast hooked a fish.  Reeling it in, two generations gazed on a beautiful bass, the largest either had ever seen.  “Can we keep it Dad?” came the plaintiff cry.  The father lit a match and noted the time on his wristwatch.  “No son.  The season begins tomorrow.”  The boy glanced around the lake.  They were alone.  “But, Dad!  No one will know!  The season begins in two hours!  Please, can we keep it?!”  The father’s insistence was resolute.  Lowering the big bass into the lake the two watched as the animal swam away.  Neither saw a fish that size ever again.  But the boy now sees that same fish every time he is asked to cut corners, fudge numbers, or submit half-truths in his job as an architect.  Adhering to a standard outside of ourselves suggests a Heavenly origin.  Right and wrong is a result of Genesis law: whether we obey fishing rules or property rights.  The S.P.U.D. Test keeps our earthly eyes on Heaven.

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[1] See Genesis: Lost in the Forest, Part 5.

[2] Jill Lawless, “New Movie Takes Aims At Celebrity Journalism.” 27 October 09 retrieved from http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSlGatp55XanTtYu0m-30MVUcfOQD9BJDON81

[3] Proverbs 11:14; 24:6.

[4] Discussed in some detail by Nancy Pearcey in The Total Truth (Crossway, 2004), pp. 107-09.

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13Psychology-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print

[6] Leon Kass and James Q. Wilson. 1998. The Ethics of Human Cloning. (AEI Press): 19.

[7] Mark 7:21-23.

[8] http://movies.about.com/od/panslabyrinth/a/pansgt122206.htm

[9] Ephesians 6:12 (ESV).

[10] http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/10/13/olbermann-without-fascistic-hatred-malkin-just-mashed-bag-meat-lipsti

[11] Titus 1:2; see the whole of chapter one which shows the difference between trustworthiness and liars.

Dr. Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center

Bright, shiny copper pots: I have never seen anyone so excited about cooking utensils!  Jon was explaining his historical finds that coincide with his love of preparing gourmet foods.  One of the cooking pots had actually been “resurrected” from an underwater shipwreck.  Jon’s love of cooking is displayed as decoration in his home.

One expedition for book boxes prior to a move found me in a bar.[1] While there, the manager showed me his latest technique for dispensing drinks: a gravity system that worked from the room above.  Exact specifications created the beverage ordered by patrons below.  I’ll never forget the excitement of the owner.  He was so pleased to offer exceptional service.  Loving his vocation meant enjoyment of his life within the world.

I received a text from a former student the other day while he was in a tree stand hunting deer.  Back and forth electrons flew as I expressed amazement that he could hunt and text at the same time!  Guy told me that when you spend 200 days a year in the wild you learn to do many things at the same time.  Visiting his website I saw the pure joy in Guy’s eyes as he taught people lessons about life through hunting.

When God created “the heavens and the earth” He had such human enthusiasms in mind.  God’s assessment of His work speaks for itself: “And He saw that it was good.”[2] The word means “beautiful”[3] setting the standard for human excitement in creativity and aesthetics.  The material world is good.  We are not Gnostics, legalistically binding ourselves to human-centered regulations.[4] To enjoy God’s good gifts of life is a sign of gratitude; thankfulness to One outside of ourselves.  The Psalmist is blessed by astronomy, agriculture, biology, law codes, wildlife and human life.[5]

Delight in this God-given life is one of the reasons why I distain certain gospel songs.  Growing up, one of the little ditties we sang in church was “This World Is Not My Home, I’m Just A Passin’ Through.”  I have been teaching a seminar for some time with the title “This World IS My Home!  I’m NOT Just Passin’ Through!”  I love the smell of crisp fall air.  I love the smell of the air just before it rains.  I love the smell of wood fires in the night air.  I love the smell of a bakery, sautéed onion-pepper mixture on the stove, and Kentucky Fried Chicken®!  And that’s just a few smells!  The list is endless of what I enjoy in this life!

So it is with great admiration that I mention a hymn which perfectly explains my joy:

For the beauty of the earth, For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth, Over and around us lies.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour, Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flower, Sun and moon, and stars of light.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye, For the heart and mind’s delight,

For the mystic harmony, Linking sense to sound and sight.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise, This our hymn of grateful praise.

Satisfaction, Appreciation, and Thankfulness is the most important SAT test we will ever take.[6] To be ungrateful for the gifts given to us is to reject The One Who has given those gifts to us.[7] We ought to give thanks for the reality of this life since He has given everything for us to enjoy.[8]

E. M. Forster would cringe when people would tell him to “face reality.”  Turning round in a circle he would ask, “Which way should I face since reality is all around me?”[9] In a similar vein, Cornelius Plantinga rightly takes to task those who think paying bills, going to a 9-5 job, and balancing work with leisure is “the real world.”  He says, “Someone who lives in the ‘real world’ lives with an awareness of the whole world, because the whole world is part of the kingdom of God.”[10]

“The whole” compels me to contend “the real world” includes the seen and the unseen.  The five senses do not make sense apart from the sixth sense.  There is another world to which I must give an account.  The supernatural creates the natural.  The invisible God made the visible creation.  To neglect our responsibility to live under Heaven’s authority creates a disjointed view of life.  We succumb to naturalism, materialism, and pragmatism.  We begin to think that success is based on production.  “The bottom line” becomes our “finish line.”

God draws “a line in the sand.”  Unless we are careful, Deuteronomy 4:15-19 declares we are prone to worship, honor, and subscribe to the standards of this world.  I would encourage us all to ask ourselves this question: Is our Christian distinctiveness informed by “the real world’s” accountability to Another World?  As much as I enjoy this God-given life, I am constantly reminded that the creation has a Creator.  I will continue to revel in sights, smells, tastes, and human ingenuity as I remember that earth depends on Heaven.

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[1] Everyone with a library knows that the transportation of books demands sturdy boxes.  The best boxes are those that transport alcohol because of their small, strong size for bottles.

[2] Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31.

[3] A. Bowling. 1980. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. (Moody): 1:345-46.

[4] Colossians 2:16-24.  The Gnostics have a long history.  One key belief considered the physical world a nuisance to supernatural connections with “the spiritual.”

[5] Psalms 147 and 148.

[6] Deuteronomy 8:10-20.

[7] Romans 1:21.

[8] Ephesians 5:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 1 Timothy 6:17.

[9] Richard John Neuhaus. 1992. Freedom for Ministry. (Eerdmans):134.

[10] Cornelius Plantinga. 2001. Engaging God’s World. (Eerdmans): 139-142.

GENESIS: LOL[1] (Part 6)

Dr. Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center

“I know the crap out of women!”  Michael Scott, boss of The Office, defends himself against misogynist statements.  Of course those who watch the show know Michael knows absolutely nothing about women!  I revel in humor from The Office. Actor Steve Carell inverts the normal making his every utterance as Michael a laugh line in waiting.

Jay Leno’s nightly skewering of people dislodges belly laughs from his audience.  Stand up comics find humor observing humanity-the origin of Seinfeld laughs.  “The funny papers” point out our foibles spreading smiles as we sip our morning coffee.  Political cartoons lampoon politicians, taking them to task on their recent public gaffes.  Comedy points and laughs at us.

The most laughter I received while recently speaking on film at Moody Bible Institute’s chapel was from my comments about The Devil Wears Prada. I celebrated the truthfulness of Meryl Streep’s and Anne Hathaway’s performance while taking a shot at the phrase “chick flicks.”  “Everyone wants to be loved,” I intoned, “so why is it that romantic comedies are gender specific?!”  The women in the audience laughed out loud.  My point is simple: comedy teaches lessons another medium cannot.

Thursday nights have become comedy central for me.  Each week I engage a group of older students teaching Old Testament Survey.  Invariably, the classroom will explode in laughter over some side comment.  One night I made a “crack” about women.  Oh, you would have thought the world had ended!  Mine almost did!  The ladies in my class became playfully indignant responding with their own barbs poking fun at my gender.  Laughter sometimes comes out of situations where we take ourselves too seriously.

Watch people do dumb things.  Read the punch line from a comic strip.  Listen to a joke poking fun at our idiosyncrasies.  Every single instance of humor is dependent upon one important idea: order.  We humans rely on normal, day-to-day experiences.  We expect that people will act in a usual, accepted fashion.  We believe that there is a customary way life should be lived.  We accept certain standards which become habits.  When what has become “typical,” “routine,” “regular,” or “come-to-be-expected” is turned on its head, we laugh.[2] The inversion of order makes comedy possible.

The words “cosmic” and “comedic” have similar roots.  “Comedy” comes from the Greek meaning “village” while “cosmos” in the same language focuses on order.[3] Humor is “cosmopolitan” (an ordered city).  Revelry or comedy is born of universal order in the cosmos.  Cosmic comedy: in order to be funny there must be order.  There is an

Intrinsic playfulness of the cosmos. . . . While this, indeed, is a rule bound universe, within the rules, as within any game, the play ensues.  If the rules and order become too restrictive trickster chaos stirs things up, disrupting the status quo . . . Play requires both boundaries (order) and the impulse to cross them (chaos).[4]

And Robert Fagen has said, “”The most irritating feature of play is not the perceptual incoherence, as such, but rather, that play taunts us with its inaccessibility. We feel that something is behind it all, but we do not know, or have forgotten how to see it.”[5]

So “a link to religious impulses” is necessary to understand laughter says F. H. Buckley in The Morality of Laughter.[6] “Our laughter contains the hope of redemption.”[7] A comic society cannot lose its moral sense.[8] A standard, a rightness, an ought, forms the foundation for laughter.  Without order, without a standard, laughter dies.

Genesis 1:1 establishes order.  “In the beginning” tells that matter, space, and time began together.  “God created” tells of One, Independent Supernatural Agent who brings natural agencies into existence.  “The heavens and the earth” tell of the whole of creation-top to bottom, side to side-which now depends on The Independent One.  Order is the precursor to any society.  Comics and cartoonists owe their ability to order, turned upside down.  The origins of anything dictate the ethics-the should, the ought, the standard-of everything.

For years in my office or classroom wall E. B. White’s statement has had its place: “Humor plays close to the white, hot fire of truth.”  Laughter is impossible apart from a Christian worldview.  In order for humor to exist, order must be assumed.  Order has only one origin.  Order is dependent upon a world that works in a certain way.  Steve Carell, Jay Leno, and my Thursday night class all owe their laugh lines to The One Who drew the order line.

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[1] For those unaccustomed to seeing the an acronym, LOL is short for “laugh out loud.”

[2] Or cry.  “Gallows humor”-what the Germans refer to as galgenhumor-is a topic for another article!

[3] Joseph T. Shipley. 1945. Dictionary of Word Origins. (Philosophical Library): 140, 276.

[4] Gwen Gordon. “What is Play? In Search of a Universal Definition” acquired on 7 October 2009 at http://www.gwengordonplay.com/pdf/what_is_play.pdf

[5] Robert Fagen, as quoted by Brian Sutton-Smith in The Ambiguity of Play (Harvard University Press, 1997): 2.

[6] F. H. Buckley. 2003. The Morality of Laughter. (University of Michigan Press): 198.

[7] Ibid. 14.

[8] Ibid. 197.

Dr. Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center

Imagine that you are hiking through a great forest, and lose your way.  A storm sets in.  You’re relieved to see a hut in a clearing.  A light shines from the window, and smoke curls from the chimney.  You practically run to the door, hoping to find shelter there.

You knock.  No answer.

You call.  No voice replies.

You go to the window to look in.  What a relief!  The hut is occupied.  There is a fire burning, which warms the stew bubbling merrily in a kettle.  The table is set for supper, and a freshly baked pie sits in the center.

What do you know about this setting, using scientific observation?  You know that someone lives in this hut, even though no one is home at the moment.

Someone had to have built the fire, put water in the kettle, set the table, and baked the pie.  From the state of things, you gather that the person will come back soon to eat the supper he’s prepared.  You are not alone in the forest.[1]

“God.”  He is introduced in the first verse of the Hebrew Bible.  There is no argument.  There is no evidence.  There is no justification.  There is no defense.  Genesis begins with what theologians call a “presupposition.”  Everyone begins with belief.  We all assume something to be true.  Our belief then interprets our world.  Philosophers would refer to Genesis 1:1 as a statement of ontology.  Ontology considers origins.  Beginning to think about reality, existence, and being is a deep, deep well!  But Genesis makes a simple statement: “God is.  Everything else follows.”

Just look around.  Everything that is, is dependent upon One who already Is.  Order-necessary to every thought and action, to living day-to-day existence, to authorities that give boundaries to our lives-comes from Outside of us.   Logic-upon which lawyers depend to make a case, teachers employ to create their lessons, and everyone uses to get from one place to another-is given by Another.  Energy-which powers our solar system, our industries, and our bodies-is impossible to define apart from One who made it.  Postulates-which are claims for truth in math that form the basis for all numbers, equations, proofs-must be grounded in Reality separate from this world.  The Hebraic-Christian faith is best described by Francis Schaeffer: “The truth of Christianity is that it is true to what is there.[2]”

We assume ideas that run our lives, normally, without thought.  But we reflect on other concerns that trouble us every day.  Let me consider just two basic ideas that are established in Genesis 1:1: (1) Morality.  How do I know what is right and wrong?  (2) Meaning. Does my life have purpose?  Answers to these and other essential questions are found in this first statement of Genesis.

(1) Morality. “Who are you to tell me what to do?!”  The exclamation asserted by many today gets to the heart of the issue: is there a law outside myself?  “In the beginning” suggests that human history had a start.  There is another assumption here: Someone gave something its commencement.  If there is an eternal God, He sets the standards for all things.  Earthly ethics have their foundation in Heavenly standards.  The origin of anything dictates the ethics of everything.

(2) Meaning. “If there is no God, anything is permissible.”[3] The claim gives an alternative to right and wrong: if life is meaningless can I do whatever I want?  “God created” suggests that humans are responsible to Deity.  There is another assumption here: Someone gave rules for everything.  If The Eternal Personal Triune God exists, there is a response to the exclamation “There has got to be more to life than this!”

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.  A baby feels hunger: well, there is food.  A duckling wants to swim: there is water.  If I find in myself a desire which no experience can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.  If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it…probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.[4]

Meaningful satisfaction in this life is hard to come by.  Perhaps “mystery is an embarrassment to the modern mind”[5] comes closest to our understanding.  Using words like “infinite,” “mystery,” and “wonder,” Maria Spiropulu, a University of Chicago experimental physicist, says,

Our view of things has changed tremendously in the last five years.  We are being totally surprised by what we observe in nature . . . something unknown that exerted a great gravitational force was keeping galaxies bound together . . . Scientists call it dark matter.  We can measure its presence but we can’t see or feel it . . . [it is] invisible . . . [string theory] could explain all the particles and forces we see…We don’t know whether it really works yet.  But it has this wonderful feature of unifying everything.[6]

Unity “assures the wise person that the universe is comprehensible, and thus encourages a search for its secrets.  Furthermore, creation supplies the principle of order that holds together the cosmic, political, and social fabric of the universe.”[7] Order, logic, energy, postulates, meaning, and morality exist because God Is.  We are no longer lost in the forest if Someone is at home in the universe.

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[1] Adapted from Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. 1982. How to Be Your Own Selfish Pig. (Chariot): 34-35.  The story is one of many told by Susan’s father Francis whose ability to connect true Truth to life continues to resonate with hearers.

[2] Francis Schaeffer. 1972. He is There and He is Not Silent. (Tyndale): 17.

[3] The quote a belief espoused by Ivan Karamazov in the early chapters of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov .

[4] C. S. Lewis. 1943, 1952. Mere Christianity. (Reprint, MacMillan): 136.

[5] Flannery O’Connor. 1957, 1969. Mystery and Manners. (Reprint, Farrar, Straus, Giroux): 124.

[6] Ronald Kotulak, “Seriously Weird Science,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, 11 January 04, pp. 12-16, 27.

[7] James L. Crenshaw. 1995. Urgent Advice and Probing Questions: Collected Writings on Old Testament Wisdom. (Mercer University Press):126.

Dr. Mark Eckel, Director, Mahseh Center 

Elaine and I met at the International Institute for Christian Studies (IICS) this summer in Kansas City.  She regaled me with dinner-time-travel-stories which included her emeritus philosophy professor husband Jim.  Some years ago they went to Siberia for a semester with IICS.  Elaine’s eyes welled with tears as she told lovely tales of the Russian people who hungered to know about The Creator of the universe.  One lady wondered if God was there, because she was told by the Communists that no God existed.  “Why tell someone something does not exist?  Perhaps this is another Marxist lie,” she reasoned.  Visiting American Christians led her to the Faith on a visit to her village.  Then there was an old woman who had believed in Jesus based only on a few scraps of the New Testament.  Given a Bible for the first time by Elaine, the Russian pressed the book against her chest so hard it left an imprint.  She testified, “I have lived many years but this is the most important possession of my life.”  Elaine’s stories deserve to be written.  

His last entry read like a spy-thriller.  In his accounting, Jim was miraculously spared physical harm in one of his many speaking trips to the former Soviet Union.  My adopted Dad, Jim Braley, has begun to write stories of his past.  Jim’s life is full of experiences: stories which have been told and retold but need the promotion of pen to paper.  Fifty years a school headmaster, educational leader, and worldwide Christian school speaker, Jim’s life is chuck full of interesting tales.  Personal histories must be filed for the future. 

Dan and Kathy Vaillancourt, along with my daughter Chelsea, have been hard at work cataloguing personal lives of Americans. The Vaillancourts’ vision stands in the long line of histories and historiographers who help us to understand the past.[1]  Many cultural historians will owe them a great debt for the dedication to and creation of memoirs.  As George Eliot wrote in Middlemarch,  

The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric [unrecorded] acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.[2] 

Personal accounting honors unknown people, their untold tales, and the unappreciated impact on our world.  Historical story leaves a heritage, a standard of belief and practice. 

But Hatshepsut, the famed female king of Egypt, was unsure of her own legacy.  One of the great rulers of the mighty African nation, the “She-King” left her stone chiseled inscriptions all over Egypt.  Even with her one-of-a-kind access to histories’ longest lasting, rock hard memories, Hatshepsut worried she would be forgotten. 

Now my heart turns this way and that, as I think what the people will say.  Those who see my monuments in years to come and who shall speak of what I have done.[3]  

What will people say about us?  We can establish our history in words, but will anyone care?  Who will believe us?  Will our memories be only regarded as opinion, fog evaporated in the morning sun of another’s point of view?  Is Daniel Boorstin’s concern correct when he questions “the bias of survival?”   Are historical points of view fashioned by only those who had the time, opportunity, or inclination to establish their perspective?[4]  And has the quest for scientific truth usurped the proper role of discovering historical truth?[5]  Ultimately, if we question the reliability of ancient sources is there any hope of securing authentic authorities from the past? 

Should Moses’ words be reinterpreted as just one more perception of truth?  Karen Armstrong believes so.  Armstrong says Genesis is non-factual.  With “no pretensions to historical accuracy” the first book in the Hebrew Bible is simply “an early form of psychology” dispensing “an inner source of strength . . . with serenity.”  The cosmology (the study of origins) of Genesis “was primarily therapeutic” providing consolation “to a displaced people.”[6] 

Is it historically honest to reinterpret Genesis as therapy?  No.  Genesis makes Truth claims unlike non-historical myths.[7]  It is not academically fair to evaluate a document based on one’s personal assumptions without examining the evidence.  Genesis should either be rejected, if it is historically unreliable, or taken at face value without therapeutic reinterpretation.  Writing establishes Truth and attacks falsehood.[8]  Truth is more than proposition or story.  Truth is or Truth is not.  No area of human knowledge is neutral.  Historical Truth is tied to reality, establishes identity, and forms the bridge to ethics.  Jesus’ simple statement draws a line in the sand: 

If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.  But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?[9]  

“Soon I will die and all those who knew me; it will be as if I never existed,” laments Jack Nicholson’s character in the movie About Schmidt.  It is then that Schmidt discovers that he has lived Eliot’s “hidden life” because of “unhistoric acts”-those events whose importance is unrecorded in books.  Israel’s powerful neighbors said little or nothing about the Hebrews’ “unvisited tombs.”  Seemingly insignificant in the throes of international heavyweights, Israel’s historiography was ignored in recorded human history.  But like the stories from Elaine, Jim, Dan, Kathy, and Chelsea, the First Testament account of Genesis provides “the growing good of the world.”  Our personal histories are important because The Personal Eternal Creator has entered our stories: “in the fullness of time God sent His Son.”[10] 

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[1] Visit the website www.memoirforchange.org

[2] George Eliot.  1872, 2003. Middlemarch. (Barnes & Noble Classics): 794.

[3] Chip Brown. “The Woman Who Would Be King,” National Geographic April 2009, accessed at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/hatshepsut/brown-text/2

[4] Daniel Boorstin. 1987. Hidden History. (Harper & Row): 3. The first chapter of Boorstin’s book entitled “A Wrestler with the Angel” should be read and re-read, giving pause to the process of historical analysis.

[5] I tell my students that television shows like CSI have hurt the impact of eyewitness accounts in the courtroom suggesting that fiber and follicle are the end-all of guilt or innocence.

[6] Karen Armstrong. “Essays: Man vs. God,” Wall Street Journal 12 September 09.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574405030643556324.html

[7] See my comments and footnotes on historiography in part two of this series, “Hummingbird Amputees.”

[8] 2 John 5 references “These written commands which we have had since the beginning” linked to First Testament instruction (Leviticus 19:18) which have come to us “through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him” (Romans 16:26).  Second Testament books such as 2 and 3 John identify the need to compare Truth with falsehood.

[9] John 5:46-47.

[10] Galatians 4:4.