#006 - Apologetics - pt. 1

FEBRUARY 2019

The beginning of any story is as important as its ending. Prequel movies make money from this, and I believe everyone loves a good origin story. If we’re honest with one another, the grittier and, let us say, darker the past of the main characters, the more triumphant and appealing the story becomes later. This theme is painted all over the stories of the Old Testament and even onto Jesus’ later teaching in the Bible. Stories of redemption from unimaginable sources. The bible signifies promises fulfilled through this redemption.  

If we want to go back to the beginning of this book, which has helped millions of people over many generations, I feel it is important to start near the middle of the story. More specifically, the first four books of the part of the Bible called the New Testament. This is a great place to start if you want to try Christianity for the first time. You’ll be introduced to Jesus, his parables, and, for this illustration, metaphors of light in reference to Jesus. 

Jesus as light is an easy place to start understanding the Bible and the epic timeline of history it covers. It has been said that the old points to the new, and in this case, it is absolutely true that the Old Testament, in fact, points to what is coming in the new. If we follow this logic in reading the gospels, we can look at the parables and stories as a fulfillment of God’s promise when we read this Old Testament. 

I love the fact that these two sections of the Bible start with light entering the world in two unique and life-altering ways. God brings light via the sun to sustain his creation, and God also provides the light of the world through Jesus to sustain creation. These are both acts of love on God’s part- an act of love for us puny humans. It’s hard for us to think on an astronomical macro scale, but God’s plan involved so many variables that they are written in an immortalized form that we now hold sacred today. 

Well, most of us, anyway.

I find putting the biblical narrative into a historical context provides the most enlightening experience when it comes to the Bible. Religion tells us to look deep inside ourselves for the benefit of others, and using stories from the Bible helps us relate to the struggles of people long ago. It turns out we have a lot in common with our ancestors and, in turn, have more in common with one another. That was the unifying message of Jesus—differences aside, we are all children of the one true God. 

Well, most of us, anyway.

That has been the approach of some Christians for quite some time, and that has got to stop. Using the Bible to support this narrative has got to stop as well. If you are going along with me in this journey of biblical proportions, you have to throw away all your preconceived Sunday School notions of the Bible and start brand new as we begin the adventure. Also if you’re a Calvinist or view the world through a levitical lens, glad you’re reading too, just be prepared to be pissed off. Send all complaints to Andy Stanley. Andy, please do not send me a cease and desist. Nothing but respect for you, my friend.

Let there be light devotionals.

Let us begin at a place that seems like an unlikely beginning—a story about me getting asked to do a devotional. This was for one of our middle school services, so there was no pressure, right? Let me preface this with the fact that I am not a public speaker, and these things tend to freak me out. I did theater in high school, but that was memorizing other people’s stuff, not trying to sound interesting for five minutes. 

When I was researching for my homework assignment, I began to delve into light and what it meant for me to serve others by providing lighting. In the American South, some churches hire lighting designers to light some of their services. I was tasked with coming up with a devotional that ties the biblical concept of light to the physical concept of creating emotion with light. I did what any amateur biblical scholar would do and googled verses about light. 

This concept of light is written throughout the Bible. I found this out by linking these two verses in Genesis and John. The first is the verses of creation:

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 

Genesis 1:1-3

I love the imagery of God hovering over the dark world, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash light and, ultimately, creation upon it. This scene is repeated in the linked verse from the first few lines of John:

 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome [does not comprehend] it. 

John 1:1-5

John is connecting Jesus with the words of the sacred Jewish scripture found in Genesis, which was revolutionary if not sacrosanct at the time. By connecting this allegorical theme of light through Jesus, we can also say that any reference in the Old Testament to light is ultimately referencing Jesus. Furthermore, we can say that life equals light and, therefore, Jesus. The aforementioned primordial light is now connected to the eternal and immortal light of Jesus, who brings life and light. God creates light first with the ultimate plan of using this light to save the world via Jesus. Just as God vanquishes the world's darkness with light, Jesus fights this darkness, the darkness of creation, with his light and, ultimately, his life. All of this is shown through these two verses.

I love devotionals, don’t you?

Setting the stage.

Since this is a lighthearted discussion about the Bible's historicity, I won’t go into much detail about its well-known aspects. If you want to know more, simply research the topics you’re interested in. Here is the basic timeline of the Bible for those who want to read it. 

God creates → creation rebels → God requires animal sacrifice → God sends a final sacrifice.

I like to think of the creation account in the Bible as an accurate description of the first man and woman being brought onto the scene. I can believe this without believing a person should be stoned for breaking one of the Ten Commandments. It perfectly describes God’s love of humanity and humanity’s tendency to rebel. God creates this perfectly pitched world for us to have dominion over with no rules save ignorance. 

However, we do what humans are best at, and with our own interests in mind, we are talked into what we know not of at the time, which is basic enlightenment. The outcome is this woke state to use a newspeak term. God gets angry at such a forbidden state and assigns humanity to a life of separation and a life of animal sacrifices to atone. This is seen in both the first and second covenants, which comprise the majority of the Old Testament. God provides land, protection, and descendants as long as the Mosaic and Abrahamic covenants are followed appropriately.

This was life before Jesus came into the world to provide the final human sacrifice. This, of course, was to atone for all of humanity’s mistakes and sins. Sin here is a fun word for anything that goes against this macro plan for the world. However, this setup is absolutely necessary for Jesus’ introduction into the world. What happens in the aftermath of the final sacrifice shapes the course of humanity for the next two millennia.  

Sidebar: God sent this final sacrifice in the form the pagans knew all too well via the virgin birth/resurrection motif. This is why Pagan stories that existed years before Jesus have such similar themes. The eyewitness accounts of the resurrection separate them. 

Current opponents of Christianity try to use this as an argument against when this surely points to God’s overarching plan for humanity. If the pagans were to drop their former gods and take up the Jewish God of the Old Testament in a new form, would it not be simpler to put it in a form or a package that would be easy for most of the at the time world to understand? Paul spoke about this while adapting his preaching methods to reach Gentile crowds. Wonder where he got it from? 

All of this is made possible through the Old Testament and God’s first two covenants with his people. Jesus was from the old way and was foretold by numerous prophets. His light would form a new way forward for the world, a path that would shape laws and thoughts for millennia—a path that is still alive and well to this day. How’s that for some biblical narrative?