A Biblical Record of Major Crimes: Insurrection
A Biblical Record of Major Crimes: Insurrection.
“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. Truth in indirection lies.” (Emily Dickenson).
A Different Look to a True Story. Emily Dickenson’s advice was to come at the truth from different angles; reveal the truth while approaching it sideways. There are times when only an indirect story will effectively grab a reader’s attention and will inspire a fresh perspective on an ancient truth. There are occasions when coming at a truth from the side through a story will go further than a didactic, systematic study using logic and reason. We seem to be created in a way in which truth can often be better understood from the side instead of head-on through a blunt statement of raw truth. This fictional story below is intended to reveal the truth of a biblical crime story in a way that brings a fresh perspective, an unexpected layer of meaning, to a familiar story. Perhaps we can learn something new in this indirect approach to the true story of life before the Flood (Genesis 6).
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a highly esteemed group of inventors and scientists who decided to meet together and discuss what it would take to develop a certain life-changing piece of technology. They talked and discussed, researched and experimented, and they came up with their very own idea of what they would call the Tower of Power, or TP as it was more affectionately named. This acclaimed group, known as the Inventors, decided to compose a Statement of Intent to explain their carefully designed invention. They globally distributed this Statement to every country and submitted it to newspapers, magazines and scientific journals world-wide, and this is what they announced…
“We are on the threshold of a giant breakthrough in our world that will never be forgotten. We, the undersigned, will soon be producing an exciting innovation that will forever change the world for the better. It will be an effective and powerful tool of progress for everyone on the globe. This new marvel of technology will be called the Tower of Power, a gargantuan antenna that will enable every country around the globe, every person living in this world, to fully communicate with each other and share their lives in a way that will generate a true global community. We will soon be able to physically travel to distant lands and share our inventions. Through our antenna’s signals, we can do anything from appear at a peace table or defeat the enemy in war. No longer will we need to suffer through those divisive differences of ethnic groups and cultures, languages and personalities. Our TP will bring us all together as one in a way never before seen in history. Not only that, but our invention is our own declaration of independence from our distant Creator. In effect, our TP is so powerful that we don’t need our Creator in order to speak with divinity. No longer will we need to serve our Creator or be considered underlings. Instead, with this invention, the Creator will have to serve us. No longer do we need to bow to the Creator’s name, but instead we can bow to our own name. We the Created will soon be equal to our Creator. We will share the throne with Him in governing the world. The Creator will now have to listen to us as we depend on ourselves to thrive as this world’s authority. This peak of human genius will now reflect our own giftedness and not His. In a sense, we can now be our own gods as we reach new heights in our human advancement. Finally, we will only be accountable to ourselves, and we will be free to chart our own destiny. We will finally remove restrictive burden of the Creator’s ancient promise of a transformed world. We will now be our own transformers. Yes, the instant signals sent around the world from our TP antenna will unite the world like never before.”
There were a handful of skeptics when this “Statement of Intent” was read around the world. Many thought that this so-called moment of progress was an insurrection, an organized attempt to overthrow what has been the established authority for centuries, if not forever. But those voices were shouted down in the unquestioning excitement of hearing about the Tower of Power. It seems that practically everyone was more than ready to be liberated from what they called the Creator’s stranglehold on the world and His designs and plans for humanity and for all of nature itself. The Inventors convinced most of the people to accept their invention, and were so proud of this invention that they wanted to permanently share in the glory now due their name. So the builders of the TP engraved the name of each inventor into every section of the antenna. The names of the inventors was now invested in every inch of that TP. Their identity was now so much a part of their invention that they were virtually one and the same, the human with the machine.
The Creator, though, was well aware of these delusions of grandeur displayed by the Inventors. He knew about their audacious and futile attempts to replace Him as the world’s authority, and how they wanted to unite the world around their name and not His. So while the TP was being built, the Creator attempted to establish a few guidelines, some ground rules that will help the TP to be relatively helpful to the people of the world. But the inventors completely rejected the Creator’s attempts to guide the invention in a good way. The Inventors did not want limitations of any kind unless they themselves established them. So the Creator decided to draft His own letter to be sent around the world… “My Response to the Statement of Intent“:
“There are times in human history when all I can do is laugh. Do you know absurd it is for the created to presume they can be greater than the Creator? What hubris! I must be blunt here and confess My scorn for your arrogant attempts to share My throne or usurp My authority. When you wisely stick to My plan for the human race, you indeed are destined for greatness. But when you are so prideful that you invent your own monuments to your greatness? Don’t be so carried away with the gifts I Myself have given you in being made in My image. The truth is that you can’t even invent anything at all without borrowing the idea from the world that I have already created. You may be inventors, but I am the original Inventor. Do I need to spell this out for you? Your computer borrowed from the human brain network; the camera points to my invention of human eyesight; your airplanes got the idea from the birds who fly so wonderfully in the sky; the human nervous system led to the structure of the home’s electrical system. So you want more examples? How about My whales that inspired your submarines; those unbreakable nettings that originated in the genius of the spiderweb; the plumbing that points directly back to the vascular system in plants; or Velcro that evolved from mere thistle burrs; or the bats and dolphins that led to sonar; even the simple waterwheels point to the webbed feet flapping of the common ducks; the light reflectors were invented after studying the properties of cat eyes; and the idea of helicopters came from observing simple whirligigs; and believe it or not, the invaluable fabric of wetsuits was simply borrowed from what was researched regarding otter fur. The list is endless. You human inventors are basically borrowing all your ideas from My inventions from My creation! That should humble you, but it doesn’t, does it? Besides that, you are only able to invent all these marvelous works because you are using the gifts that I have given to you in the first place. Here’s an idea… How about you start giving me some of the credit for your amazing inventions?”
Because of the audacious pride of the Inventors, though, they didn’t have ears to hear what the Creator had to say. So they want full speed ahead on their construction of the Tower of Power. But while the TP was being built, the Creator allowed a violent electrical storm to strike the Inventors lab, frying all the electrical equipment, blowing all the fuses, and setting the entire lab on a fire that completely engulfed anything to do with the TP. The lightning strike demolished the entire TP project, and repairing any of it was out of the question.
The Inventors realized that their prideful dream of a new global community had failed, a dream in which everything would be the same, whether everyone liked that idea or not, even though they knew full well that this sameness was not at all the plan of the Creator. In a global community, the Creator knew the hearts of man, and understood that in that set-up, there would inevitably be one group dominating all the other groups, with some being more equal than other. The Inventors regrouped, though, and many of them continue to develop new plans that might eventually lead to another version of the TP. Many of them stubbornly want to reach new heights in their discoveries, with the hopes of becoming equal if not greater than the Creator Himself. Little do some of them know, it’s not going to happen.