Home \ Contents \ Site Search \ Contact

LIFE MEETS THEOLOGY:

"You should have read the Bible!"

by Greg Williamson (c) 2007

COPYRIGHT RELATED INFO

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS

ARE FROM THE  New American Standard Bible.

LIFE: I will confess that I am a closet Outer Limits fan, although I'm able to catch an episode only occasionally.

I did happen to see it early this morning, however, and the story was set in the days of the early American frontier. A band of outlaws was targeted for an experiment by a preacher. Eventually each of the four gang members was given the power to instantly eradicate anything from material objects to people -- all with only a concentrated stare.

The power eventually destroyed the gang, ending in the death of all but one of its members and his sweetheart. After witnessing its potential for devastation, the surviving now-instantly-reformed gang member willingly relinquished the power. That's when they were let in on the secret: the "preacher" was actually an advance scout for a colonizing alien race. The terrifying looking creature surmised that humanity would prove to be an easy target, since any race where "brother kills brother and friend kills friend" will eventually self-destruct.

THEOLOGY: Of the many points that could be made, I would like to share two. First of all, I wanted to grab the alien by the shoulders and shout: "You could have saved yourself a lot of time and trouble if only you would have read the Bible!" After all, the Bible clearly recounts how humanity was created perfect but straightway chose the wrong way -- with devastating effect as one brother jealously murdered another. From there it was a short leap to everyone thinking and doing evil all the time. That's when God flooded the earth in order to start over with righteous Noah and his family. And as the Bible goes on to show, it is only God's redemptive grace and his restraining of evil that prevent humanity from destroying itself.

Secondly, we do indeed need the power. In the guise of a preacher, the alien tempted his subjects by saying that they just needed "the power." In truth, that is exactly what we do need as it is the only real and lasting solution to our bent toward self-destruction. The power I'm referring to is, of course, God's power to change people from the inside out.

As the apostle Paul put it while writing to his young protégé, Timothy:

 

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 TIMOTHY 1:7-10)

And as Paul wrote to the believers in Colossae:

 

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. (COLOSSIANS 1:9-12)