Father, help us to have faith.
Last week we looked at how the world centred around faith, whether this was faith in science or faith in God. So this week we look at history. What has already happened must be correct, correct?
The answer is no. Like science, the 'facts' of history might not be quite as concrete as most people think. At its most basic, history is a record of perceived events. This can be a direct record (ie the person saw the event and wrote their account of it) or an indirect record (where the historian put together an account based on what other people had told him/her or by looking at evidence of the event such as building, ruins, pottery, etc).
We'll start with indirect records. One of my favourite comedy sketches was that of 'Cricklewood Man' by the Goodies. Basically it centred around the idea of three archaeologists who thought they had found 'the missing link'. They found a broken plant pot which they interpreted as an architect's scale model or doll's house of the type of buildings they lived in, half a telephone became a nose that had undergone plastic surgery, and so the story continued. We look at that and laugh because it was done by comedians, but how much history is similarly misinterpreted? Stone Henge may just be the ruins of an ancient tribal hall that used stone pillars instead of timber, or it may have been erected hundreds of years ago simply because someone fancied a round ring of stones. It all comes back down to faith.
But what about direct records? The writers were there, weren't they. They must be right.
The key thing here is now we perceive things. A few weeks ago I gave an exhortation. It was pretty poor. I kept losing the thread, missed bits out and added bits in that shouldn't really have gone in. To tell the truth I was glad when it was over. Yet three or four people came up and said how much they enjoyed it how it had really made them think. (Possibly because they were trying to put the pieces together in their minds as well!) They couldn't have been listening to what I was saying, they must have been listening to someone else. To some people certain things are interesting, to others they are really boring. Yet they are talking about how they perceive the same event. We're all different, our experiences let us look at things in a different light. No two people would write exactly the same thing about the same event if using their own words. (I was watching a terrible football match last weekend - my team lost. )
So how does this affect us?
Firstly, the Bible has more evidence to show its correctness than nearly any other historical event. Did Julius Caesar invade Britain with his famous "I came, I saw, I conquered" quote? Possibly, but there's only one account of it, and that was at least 300 years later! Did Robin Hood even exist? Probably not. There are many more. Some people did question the accuracy of the Bible in the middle of last century, then the Dead Sea scrolls were found. This showed just how close the Bible translations are to original documentation. (As an aside, there are two main ways to convert ancient texts into modern, readable documents: the first is translations. This means matching the words in the original to their closest modern alternative. This is good when the sentance structure match, but what about Latin where the verb is always at the end? The second was is a 'sense for sense' match, or transliteration. Here the meaning is matched to a more modern alternative but this may actually confuse things further. One example in the New International Version (a transliteration) where it says "they greeted each other with a hearty, handshake" while the King James Version says "they greeted each other with a Holy kiss". The nearest word is 'kiss' but the word was changed due to match the western culture we are accustomed to.) Even what version of the Bible we use can influence our understanding. Where the Bible differs from other historical books is that its author is God. He didn't misinterpret the record of the Jews coming out of Egypt or the resurrection of Jesus or any of the other facts in the Bible. He had prophets write it on his behalf, but it is his word they were writing.
Secondly, how we understand the Bible still needs faith. There's quite a bit I don't understand. Some texts may seem contradictory with a quick read. God is looking for faith. Some things are difficult to understand and because of this we must work at it. If it wasn't that way, his words would be written in letters of fire across the sky each night. This one way in which he tests us.
We live each day, one at time. It's not what has happened, but what is going to happen that is important. And that is one area that the Bible is the only accurate source. Jesus is going to come back, to rule as King of Kings in a world made perfect by him. We pray it may be soon.