Truth or Dud

I have always loved History.

 In High School, although my grades rarely showed it, History was my favorite subject.  Mr. White, my History teacher, made the subject very interesting at the time.  I don't know whether the subject was the first to catch my attention, or the fact that Mr. White is still the only guy I know that could sweat through a shirt, sweater and a parka in the middle of winter.  The only problem that I have is that Mr. White made the subject seem so important that I thought I needed to memorize every useless fact in order to survive life.  To be honest, I've rarely used any facts about The Emancipation Proclamation while working my blue-collar job, so the facts have been replaced by thoughts such as "DUhhh....water plus electricity is a no-no".

That's why I was so glad Sarah Palin reminded me this week about the story of Paul Revere.  I forgot that he rode through the streets yelling "They are coming to take your guns!" 

I was excited because I have finally noticed History actually being used in everyday life.  This ignited a fire in me to talk all things History with as many people as I can this week, just to renew my fervour for such an important subject.  

I can barely contain my excitement as I wait to talk about how the Chinese bombed Pearl Harbor on that fateful morning of  December 11, 1941.  Or the horrific events in 1963 when Lee Harvey Oswald leaned out of the 7th story window of the Book Depository and assassinated Robert F. Kennedy.  When I get to my first service call tomorrow, I want to somehow initiate a conversation about how at George Washington's funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing.

Now before I get a ton of comments about how much of an idiot I am, let me correct myself.  I know that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.  I'm well aware of the fact that John F. Kennedy was assassinated back in 1963, and that it was Andrew Jackson's parrot that was swearing in 1845.  But I wonder how many people picked out just those mistakes in my last paragraph?  There were two other mistakes.  It was December 7th, not the 11th, and it was the 6th story window of the Book Depository, not 7th.  Oh, and Paul Revere yelled "The British are coming!", not "They are coming to take your guns!" as Mrs. Palin stated.  Thank goodness she's pretty.

My point is this.  If we take just what people say and use them as fact, we may be wrong more often then we think.  As a Youth Pastor, I constantly get texts or phone calls saying "Where in the Bible does it say....."  

"Where in the Bible is the story of a whale swallowing Jonah"?  I have been fooled by this question before.  But in fact, nowhere in the book of Jonah or in any other part of the bible does it say that this fish was a whale.  It says that God prepared a big fish to swallow Jonah.  We just all assumed it was a whale.

"Where is the story of the Three Wisemen?"  I have been guilty of sharing the story of The "Three" Wisemen.   The bible talks about the wise men, but nowhere does it ever say that there were three of them. Children’s authors and song writers now perpetuate this idea without knowing where it has come from. I think that the world has decided that there were three of them because they brought three different gifts, but we have no idea exactly how many men were there.

If we really dug into it individually, where does the majority of our knowledge of the Bible come from?  Does it come from what Pastors, teachers, or stories have mentioned, or does it come from the Bible itself? 

I'm not discounting what other's teach you.  I obviously feel the need for what Pastors and Teachers do.  I just want to make sure that more of our knowledge about the Bible comes from actually digging deep into the Word of God, praying and pondering.  How many times will we recite a "fact" that we KNOW is somewhere in the Bible?  Next time you hear a "fact" about History or the Bible, really think about what's being said, open a book or The book,  and make sure it's the truth.

That way you really know how many animals Moses took on the Ark.