Now for confession… We are all ‘dummies.’ You are a dummy, they are all dummies and I am a dummy! Jesus is polite but honest.
Some skeptics were discussing the tomb of Jesus; my guess is
to laugh and scoff at the idea of a dead man rising. Them not realizing that
they were speaking to the arisen Savior, Jesus said as they were walking, “O
fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” [i]
They were not fools but merely blind to the truth. There they
were, walking with a once dead man, and failed to recognize that He was the
same man that had died shortly before. That was the ‘science,’ the forensic
evidence that Jesus was who He said He was. Many still do not believe that! Those
who do not are fools. A modern Jesus would have said, “You dummies!”
A bunch of dummies gathered and murdered the wrong man. The
guilty one was Adam, but Jesus was a convenient “Last Adam’ [ii] that God planned to be there
all along!
The Word of God came to the First Adam and said, “"O
Adam, as to the fruit of the Tree of Life, for which you ask, I will not give
it to you now, but when the 5500 years are fulfilled. Then will I give you of
the fruit of the Tree of Life, and you shall eat, and live forever, you, and
Eve, and your righteous seed.” (1 Adam and Eve 28:2).
The ‘Tree of Life’ is a symbolic representation of Jesus.
God had explained that 5-1/2 days to Him was 5500 years.
Adam thought the latter was a longtime for justification, but to God, it would
be a short time at midday on the sixth ‘day.’ Paul was quite aware of the short
interval between the two Adams — the first and the last — when he wrote to
Peter, “Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” [iii]
If calculations are true, then world-time is measured, not
from Genesis 1:1, but from the time Adam sinned when Adam and Eve were removed
from Paradise to the world and began to wither.
If time began with sin and decadence, then perhaps we are in
the sixth day. (It has been calculated that this year is Anno Mundi 5784. Given
human error, the “fruit of the Tree of Life’ is about ripe!)
Think not that Adam himself was for the promise, but his kind.
Adam was justified himself when Jesus was resurrected, based on scripture. Jesus
died and three days later, Adam and Eve were perhaps released from their Cave
of Treasures, “The graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which
slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into
the holy city, and appeared unto many.” [iv]
That was the plan all along. Calvary, or Golgotha, is the
place of Adam’s cranium. There on that hill, Adam was justified, and the blood
of Jesus made available on the ground (Hebrew; adam) for the justification
of all the living adama.
When God named both the man and the ground on which he was
formed, ‘Adam,’ that was no accident because they were of the same composition.
In a sense, Adam came back to where he was generated to be regenerated! Jesus
died, not just for the justification of Adam, but all his kind… all who came
after: the Jews, the Gentiles, you, me, and all the others who would come to
Him.
Never think that God is a Royal Dummy. Jesus was not a mere ‘carpenter,
as translators wrote. In the Greek, Jesus was called a ‘Tekton’ — an
artisan/craftsman. He crafted the cosmos and even organisms. He was the Creator,
as John noted. [v]
Jesus, as God, is all-knowing. Yes, we are the dummies like
the Jews who were such dummies throughout history. Except for the prophets and
patriarchs, the Jews were about all ‘dummies’ and still are! Not that they were
stupid, for they were brilliant. They were full of knowledge, and many knew
scripture by memory. The scribes and Pharisees were fools but they were not stupid;
they taught even the ordinary Jews the things of God all the while they never
understood God.
Indeed, Christians are inwardly Jews, just as Paul wrote. [vi] Consider about any Christian
in modern times. What have they been taught? Believe the science. What
does scripture teach? Believe in Jesus; trust God. What do even
Christian do? They trust the science! We are indeed dummies!
How could it be that a man was raised from the dead? That is
beyond science, is it not? No! Jesus revealed the science because He was
the craftsman of life. He once made man from clay, so what would prevent Him
from reviving a man from the dust? He is beyond the known science and men feared
Jesus because in fact, He was a ‘know-it-all’ and could diminish them.
Naming this book what I did seems to insult those who read
it. That is not the purpose, but to humble both the readers and me.
All my life, I have been a ‘dummy,’ even while making high
marks in college. Why so? As an engineer, I questioned the timing of God because
I trusted the science.
Consider Peter’s formula: 1 day = 1000 years. Rounding
things off, using 5500 years, then there would be 2,007,500 day-years since the
beginning of the world. Of course, that was never meant to be a formula but rhetoric.
The point is that Christians have been dummies; that they question God and not
science.
I resolved that contradiction in my mind. It is science that
changes; God never changes! God said so, “I am the LORD; I change not.” [vii] It is science that is unstable
and God who is stable. I trust the science, in a sense, because the Creation is
scientific. The non-canonical Book of Enoch presents the science of it
all. It is well worth reading. [1]
As many Christians have discovered, the truth offends even
the intelligent. When Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh, all the brilliant
minds of the day thought that could not be true. Jesus showed Himself as God,
His three ‘Substances’ becoming undone to reveal the flesh of the man, the Spirit
of God, and the Mind of the Father. The centurion who pierced the side of Jesus
saw that and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” [viii]
The centurion was certainly not a dummy, neither was Pontius
Pilate nor the repentant thief. They finally realized the truth; that this ‘man’
was who He said He is. They saw the science; they added 1+ 2 and got 3. Longinus,
the centurion, knew mathematics and Jesus added up to the Godhead — Three in One
— the Holy Trinity.
Scripture is indeed hard to understand, but salvation is
not. All it took for the thief was to believe that Jesus was who He said He was
and that, if God, then Jesus could save. Dismus, the thief, was not saved at
that moment, but later that day, He was in Paradise — the place of salvation
and the Holy Ghost of Jesus carried Him safely there.
In the movie Superman, Christopher Reeves flew down
and scooped up Lois Lane (Margo Kidder), and said, “Don’t worry; I’ve got you,”
to which she replied, “Yes, but who has you?” because they were both suspended
in mid-air.
The repentant thief knew who had him! He could no longer see
his idea of ‘Superman,’ but ‘Superman’ still had him in Spirit.
Like both the thief and Lois Lane, I always know who has me
in His bosom and that is Holy Ghost of the man, Jesus who carries me over
hurdle and hurdle! Jesus has me. I am in Christ, and you can be as well.
(picture credit; Warner Bros.)
[1]
For your consideration, I have written the book of commentary about Enoch’s
vision of the Creation entitled, Adoil Came Down: Arkhas Came Undone.
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