Wow! More than two months since my last post. My lack of posting ceartainly hasn't been due to "blogger's block." I think it has to do more with "schedule block." Or, maybe it's sleep deprivation. I guess I'll eventually get used to the five hours of sleep per night routine. I'm really not joking at all when I tell people I go to school in the morning, work in the evening, and, if I have any spare time, I sleep. I've taken more 30 minute naps in the past six weeks than the past six years or more. Anyway...
As I had mentioned before, I have a World Civilization class this semester. It's a concentrated course crammed into five weeks of two-hour classes four days a week beginning at 8:00am. I find history interesting, but it's never been my favorite subject, so I knew going in it would have its mundane frustrations. What I did not expect, however, was the challenges that would so strongly antagonize my faith. I thought that battle would be fought in philosophy. I was definitely caught by surprise.
My course is being taught by a historical relativist - something I didn't know existed. As it turns out, he believes history is written by the winners and is always subject to interpretation. It cannot be certainly known, only interpreted under the bias of the teachers. The what and when may be reliable, but the teacher also has to impose the how and why, which leaves plenty room for error. And err he does. Especially when history intersects with Christianity.
Since the first day of class, I've been keeping a running log of things he asserts as factual that undermine Christianity. (I think I'm up to 16 or so, some of them with multiple parts). The comments that really get me are the ones in which he tried to assert that Judaism has its roots in ancient Egyptian religions. First he told us that the Egyptians believed in a male god and female god who procreated baby god, which was the origin of the belief of the Trinity like Christians believe. Then he told us the pharaohs claimed to be the sons of god, a concept Christians later borrowed to apply to Jesus. After that, it was a mythical story of two male gods and a female god who were all brother and sister. One of the male gods (Seth) became jealous of his brother Osiris because of his closeness to their sister Isis, so he killed his brother. This is supposedly the "first version" of Cain and Abel. The sad thing is, people in my class were amazed to find this out! Please! Can no one see how far apart all of these are from the Bible? To repeat the words I did tell my teacher in the middle of class, the similarities are the "size of a knat, and the differences are the size of a camel!" A really big, hairy, 50 hump camel!
Of course, the real kicker is his adamant assertion that the Hebrews stole their monotheism idea from the Egyptians. The funny thing is, since there aren't any known Egyptian records of the Hebrews, my teacher relied on the Bible to assure us of their presence there. Then he used the Biblical story of the golden calf to "prove" to us the Hebrews were polytheists first. The problem is, he refused to rely on another key part of the Bible - the part that indicates the forefathers of the Hebrews, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were monotheists themselves. They may have been influenced first by the surrounding polytheistic cultures earlier on (Abraham, anyway), but certainly before the Hebrews were an established nation God had revealed Himself as "The God..." or "The Lord..," and the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us specifically that Abraham believed and was made right with God because of his belief!
During a break, I brought this to my teacher's attention, and we got into a conversation with another teacher, who happens to be my philosophy professor and a Christian. Well, my history teacher talked his way around my point, then walked his way out of the conversation and back to his subjective classroom. I was left with my philosophy teacher, who finally understood my point that if we rely on the Bible for one bit of historical information, we should at least be willing to consider everything the Bible says in relation to the topic at hand. I finished by telling her, "that's all I want - a fair shake, " to which she replied, "I don't think you're going to get that out of [him]."
I have to brag on God, though. I did a lot of praying around those few days, praying directly against those "vain imaginations" that raise themselves "against the knowledge of God." I have to say that since then, try as my teacher may to show the Bible as just another version of every other religion's story, all I keep seeing is God's presence. In fact, a lot of what I see is different accounts of the same events such as the Exodus and the Flood, what appears to be our loving Father trying desperately to reveal Himself to any who seek Him sincerely, and evidence that we are all made in the image of God. I guess John's words really are true. The Light has shined in the darkness, and the darkess cannont apprehend it!
As I had mentioned before, I have a World Civilization class this semester. It's a concentrated course crammed into five weeks of two-hour classes four days a week beginning at 8:00am. I find history interesting, but it's never been my favorite subject, so I knew going in it would have its mundane frustrations. What I did not expect, however, was the challenges that would so strongly antagonize my faith. I thought that battle would be fought in philosophy. I was definitely caught by surprise.
My course is being taught by a historical relativist - something I didn't know existed. As it turns out, he believes history is written by the winners and is always subject to interpretation. It cannot be certainly known, only interpreted under the bias of the teachers. The what and when may be reliable, but the teacher also has to impose the how and why, which leaves plenty room for error. And err he does. Especially when history intersects with Christianity.
Since the first day of class, I've been keeping a running log of things he asserts as factual that undermine Christianity. (I think I'm up to 16 or so, some of them with multiple parts). The comments that really get me are the ones in which he tried to assert that Judaism has its roots in ancient Egyptian religions. First he told us that the Egyptians believed in a male god and female god who procreated baby god, which was the origin of the belief of the Trinity like Christians believe. Then he told us the pharaohs claimed to be the sons of god, a concept Christians later borrowed to apply to Jesus. After that, it was a mythical story of two male gods and a female god who were all brother and sister. One of the male gods (Seth) became jealous of his brother Osiris because of his closeness to their sister Isis, so he killed his brother. This is supposedly the "first version" of Cain and Abel. The sad thing is, people in my class were amazed to find this out! Please! Can no one see how far apart all of these are from the Bible? To repeat the words I did tell my teacher in the middle of class, the similarities are the "size of a knat, and the differences are the size of a camel!" A really big, hairy, 50 hump camel!
Of course, the real kicker is his adamant assertion that the Hebrews stole their monotheism idea from the Egyptians. The funny thing is, since there aren't any known Egyptian records of the Hebrews, my teacher relied on the Bible to assure us of their presence there. Then he used the Biblical story of the golden calf to "prove" to us the Hebrews were polytheists first. The problem is, he refused to rely on another key part of the Bible - the part that indicates the forefathers of the Hebrews, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were monotheists themselves. They may have been influenced first by the surrounding polytheistic cultures earlier on (Abraham, anyway), but certainly before the Hebrews were an established nation God had revealed Himself as "The God..." or "The Lord..," and the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us specifically that Abraham believed and was made right with God because of his belief!
During a break, I brought this to my teacher's attention, and we got into a conversation with another teacher, who happens to be my philosophy professor and a Christian. Well, my history teacher talked his way around my point, then walked his way out of the conversation and back to his subjective classroom. I was left with my philosophy teacher, who finally understood my point that if we rely on the Bible for one bit of historical information, we should at least be willing to consider everything the Bible says in relation to the topic at hand. I finished by telling her, "that's all I want - a fair shake, " to which she replied, "I don't think you're going to get that out of [him]."
I have to brag on God, though. I did a lot of praying around those few days, praying directly against those "vain imaginations" that raise themselves "against the knowledge of God." I have to say that since then, try as my teacher may to show the Bible as just another version of every other religion's story, all I keep seeing is God's presence. In fact, a lot of what I see is different accounts of the same events such as the Exodus and the Flood, what appears to be our loving Father trying desperately to reveal Himself to any who seek Him sincerely, and evidence that we are all made in the image of God. I guess John's words really are true. The Light has shined in the darkness, and the darkess cannont apprehend it!
posted by Jonathan Branch at 7:42 PM
1 comments
