After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to two friends walking to Emmaus. Assisted by a miracle or prevailing trauma from his death, they didn’t recognize him, presuming he was a friendly local person. The conversation picked up and the two informed the veiled Jesus of the events of the crucifixion, and the report of the empty tomb, perhaps to be doubted because no corpse was found. The friendly stranger presented a case to them that we recognize as a Bible study, a sweep of the prophecy of the Messiah from the Old Testament. Present day students of Scripture might reproduce his conversational outline. The review continued until evening and the meal at the inn when Jesus was recognized during the prayer and devotion he uttered. On recognition, he disappeared. The men changed their plans, returned to Jerusalem and found other disciples together ministering to a somewhat mesmerized congregation. The main issues for mankind – life and death – suddenly overshadowed all else whether in Emmaus or in Jerusalem – or in the world. The issue of life/death and God remain the vital issues they have always been. They must be managed in the way God would have them managed or there will be unneeded despair.
Life is the hinge on which all other matters turn for human beings. We often identify persons in the way they identify with life. If persons are not taken with debilitating contexts, mental or physical, we can fairly well identify their normalcy in the way they perceive and treat life. Lawbreakers, abusers, drunkards, habit addicts, and the like degrade their lives – their own and often the lives (life) of others. They decline in respect of both themselves and others (life). Their arrogance, varying in depth of expression and force to influence is negative for themselves and others. They miss belief in humility and meaning. Without a degree of humility the individual human being or group of individuals will not understand or credit the source of life. Whatever we learn about life contributes to learning about the source of life. Whatever that source, God is found creating at the beginning point, and maintaining that he has done by installing systems for procreation for both plant and animal. Systems of procreation are visited with unexplainable drives that are awe inspiring. Clumsy animals for the purpose (elephants, whales, turtles, and the like) are driven to breed. The oddities of the queen bee, the penguin, the salmon, strike us as near miracles. Even human beings, some selfish, yearn to engender children, and millions of mothers have died in giving birth. The first human being formed was given conscious life, and not unlike God’s motivational ideals, wanted to share life. Fulfilling life, the first parents wanted to project life beyond the self in them, but bearing evidence of likeness. To them children were born. What has Scripture to say about all this origination? The magnificent introduction of the Epistle to the Hebrews sums it up: God . . . . Hath . . . spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Who being the brightness of his glory . . . the express image of his person . . . upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
During the week this Page was written, a story was reported out of Kentucky where an elder person took the position that the Bible was in error by asserting the age of the earth at 6,000 years. A much younger fellow was defending the time period. The exchange between the two men in recent years has become something of a popular following for a group. Tickets (800) for one debate quickly sold out. About the only difference between the discussion of the two men and the famous Scopes trial (1925) is the respect that emerges in the recent debate. This suggests the debate may not be suited for a courtroom. The debate, even in good spirit, fails for various reasons. It would be currently impossible to prove that Scripture supports a 6,000 years period for the age of the earth. The debate is between persons who are debating different theories about the age of the earth, one growing out of natural evolution and one growing out of presuppositions related to interpretations of the first chapter of Genesis that may not be held literal by scholars of language and history, persons who also claim biblical orientation. It is important to remember that we are faced with literary and interpretative issues that appear commonly in language studies. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020