Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [188]
Armstrong’s “unseen” offers an alternative—a great, big “On the other hand.” If we accept the possibility of the “unseen,” it allows us to think that there may actually be something about a set of ideas, morals, and rituals that have survived persecution, ridicule, and doubt for thousands of years. Nietzsche said God was dead. But surprise! God outlasted Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, the Third Reich, and Communism. Each of these “empires” relied upon a distinct belief system. Holding fast to gods of sun or moon, the philosophies of Plato and Socrates, the divinity of the emperor, or the Führer’s deranged promises, these earthly empires were founded upon some vision—no matter how perverse—of a perfect world. Needless to say, they all failed.
In other words, if God is dead, “the old boy” looks remarkably well preserved when compared to some of his rivals.
But even that still leaves our question suspended in midair—Which God? Is it the omniscient, omnipresent God of my childhood confirmation classes, the Cosmic Santa Claus who keeps track of who is naughty or nice?
Inevitably, these questions all come down to the “F” word. Faith. The “unseen.” You can’t buy Faith. You can’t sell it, though many have tried. You can’t measure, weigh, or dissect it. Do people “believe” because we are spiritual suckers, gullible humans who inevitably fall back on the superstitions of our “primitive” ancestors? Or do we believe because believing is a valid choice?
In a wonderful description of Judaism, Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin have written:
The Jew introduced God into the world, and called all people to live in brotherhood by accepting one moral standard based upon God. Each of these ideals, a universal God, a universal moral law, and universal brotherhood, was revealed for the first time 3,200 years ago, to some exslaves in the Sinai desert. Why this particular group of men and women, at that particular time, should have taken upon themselves and upon all their succeeding generations the mission to “perfect the world under the rule of God” is a mystery which perhaps only the religious can hope to solve. (The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, p. 111)
Jesus was a devout Jew who taught that “the Kingdom of God is within you.” The notion, shared by many religions and philosophies, of attaining perfection was one of Jesus’ simple—yet seemingly impossible—commandments. In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Perfecting the world. Perfecting ourselves. Yeah, right. What ridiculously innocent, utopian ideas!
But for thousands of years, faith has sustained Jews against seemingly impossible odds and difficulties. They have been sustained by the idea that the world is perfectible by revealing the truth about God’s moral laws. For two thousand years, faith has sustained individual Christians through persecutions and trials. They have held to faith that miracles can still happen. That death is not an end. That loving one’s neighbors is a pretty sound idea. That we have the power—and even the responsibility—to forgive. That we can try to be “perfect as the Father is perfect.”
It sure isn’t easy. But it beats most of the alternatives.
APPENDIX 1
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third