Thepfulhouvi Solo
For most Christians in Nagaland, whether the world was Created or has Evolved into existence is of not much consequences in their belief in GOD, but for some highly educated Christians in the civilized world today, the issue is of tremendous consequences in the acceptance or rejection of the Bible as a revealed document of Truth. “If the creation of the World, as recorded in the Bible, is not true, could the virgin birth of Jesus or of his Resurrection from the death be true?” they say. The modern Mind seeks rational reasonable scientific evidences for the Virgin Birth or for the Resurrection, both matters of which are beyond the realm of Reason or of the Rational dealings.
This absence of rational scientific answers to the question of Virgin birth and to the Resurrection is the Serpent in the modern Garden of Eden, -the Mind of the Learned. The Serpent quietly reasons with modern Eves and Adams from the comforts of the cozy sofa sets of their modern Homes: the Serpent says: “The Bible is indeed a very important Moral Document, it founded the Western Civilization and its Values, the Sermon on the Mount is one of the most beautiful teachings in the human language, but the clever liberal Serpent says:
“the Bible is not wholly true.” “The world evolved from ancient simple forms to today’s complicated forms as is explained in Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’. Plants and Animals developed from simple forms into today’s complex ones. Small differences of forms appear in the many progenies of every species, those suited to the environment fares better and survives under a principle of survival of the fittest. Such a process gradually over millions of years produced a new species rather than God specially crafted it. Primitive Animals existed millions of eons ago, today we see them only in fossilized forms in the stones. The scales in the skins of some animals like the scales in the leg of the Birds or small pointed Spurs on the belly of the Python are the remnants of primitive animals from which they evolved long ago from extinct animals.
Man evolved slowly over millions and millions of year: Primitive animals developed into the Apes and Chimpanzees, with which Man differs only in 2 % of the trillions of genes of our DNA, climbed down from the Tree to the ground in search of greater varieties of food and became Homo habilis, an Apelike Man- then it developed into Homo sapiens–pre-historic man developing stone tools and the knowledge of other simple tools; then finally Homo sapiens developed into Homo sapiens sapiens –modern Man– in millions of years of gradual changes. Plants and animals evolved due to competitions for food and the fittest survived; species less suited to the environment became eliminated and species suited to the natural conditions survived.
The story of the virgin birth or that of the resurrection are exaggerated accounts of simple gullible uneducated fishermen in adoration of their revered wonder working Leader, -worship of Man. The Bible is a good Teacher but it is not wholly true!” says the modern Serpent.
The Authority of the Bible as the revelation of the Divine, is cast into doubt. From here, it is short cut to stating that the love between Man and Man or between Woman and Woman can also be genuine and therefore Same Sex marriage is O.K. because there can be genuine love between them also and the Bible says God is Love. Sodomy between consenting adult is a private matter. Every kind of attractive worldly explanations are put forward intelligently and the Authority of the Bible as a final Divine Moral Authority is undermined with rational human Reasons and Argument.
On Matters of Morality; the Divine is the final Authority; what the revealed Words of God says is the final Authority. Modern Serpent thus unobtrusively undermines the Authority of God. And not many simple honest and good Christians have the patience or the training of the Mind to go into the detailed complicated niches of the soundness of the Special Creation of the World or of the rationale behind the Virgin Birth and of the Resurrection.
All human Beings, rich or poor, sophisticated or not, educated or just simple common sensed, all men have the gift of God of the capacity to discern truth from untruth. Any righteous person with the Gift of God can perceive right from wrong and discern truth from untruth. Such righteous persons were Prophets inspired by the Spirit of God and have testified the Truth of the virgin Birth of Jesus and of his resurrection and we trust the because man everywhere believes righteous persons. Trust rather than distrust, between Man and Man is the foundation of the Human Civilization and approach to God. This world cannot run if Men do not trust another man.
The Story of Mary and Martha, the short account of their dear perhaps only brother Lazarus, their happiness, worries and toils as simple citizens of a distant difficult time, recorded in the Gospel, for all intents and purposes, is not a concocted story. They were real persons, their lives, possibly not very rich but not destitute, were real and the account of their lives in the Gospel is genuinely honest and true. Lazarus died, was buried for 4 days when Jesus reached their home. There were mourners in the place just like we have mourners in today’s Funeral. The sisters were in great sorrow and they told Jesus their brother would not have died had Jesus been there at the time of Lazarus’s sickness. Jesus sought to go to the grave, the sisters told him it would be bad smelling since Lazarus was buried 4 days earlier. Still Jesus went to the grave together with the sisters and the crowd of mourners. When they reached the burial place, Jesus shouted, the gospel writer claims, with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out”. And Lazarus came out of the Grave in all his dead body attire.
The human DNA -the seat of our being alive- is constituted of known non-living materials and before it is dead, the DNA is a ‘living thing’ rather than a dead chemical liquid. There is an invisible, untouchable, non-material ‘living thing’ inside this known material DNA (Di-ribo-nucleic-Acid) making our Thoughts and Mind. This is the Spirit. This Spirit is the breathe of God living in us. God is invisible, untouchable but perceptible with our MIND, -‘the living thing’ in us. God is not an impersonal senseless cosmic Energy nor Force. God is a Spirit, Personal and sensible and all powerful.
If a dead man could come out of the Grave alive just at the calling of a voice; if a raging Storm would become quiet immediately just by a voice rebuking it to be quiet; if a dead body, the son of a widow, bring carried in a bier to the burial site, is suddenly stopped in the street by an unknown Stranger and the boy is made alive just at the touch of the hand of the Stranger, then there is no wonder if ‘that person’ comes out alive from his grave on the third day or any day in this world and here. Then we do not see any difficulty in the invisible, non-material God to say: “Let there be Light and there was Light”.
