Lost on the lake
The radio alarm snapped on and shattered the peaceful quiet of the bedroom. I bolted from my nocturnal bliss to answer its demanding call before it accomplished its threat to wake the rest of the family. Trembling in front of the dresser where the tormenting appliance resided, I tried to remember what day it was and what had possessed me to set it for such an early hour. Slowly the gears began to turn again and a light went on. Oh yes. This was the day I intended to find a better place to fish on my favorite lake.
Living in Minnesota, winter offers a method of fishing that is unique to the north country. Around the first part of December, when the temperatures begin to stay well below freezing, the lakes crust over with enough ice to support fishermen and their small heated hovels commonly known as fish houses. The place where my brother and I had placed ours had been a fishing bust and I had every intention of relocating in an effort to remedy the problem.
While walking to the kitchen, I looked out the window to see what kind of day was in progress. Unfortunately, instead of the dawning of a clear day that the weatherman had promised, there was a dense fog threatening to cancel my plans. The weather had been rather unusual that fall, and this day was no exception. There had been no snow as yet and much of the small talk around town was about the dreaded thought of a “brown Christmas”. But I intended to make the best of the snowless situation when it came to locating a better place for my fish house. The frozen lake was like one giant ice-skating rink. Getting around on the ice by walking is not only slow but hard on the back and legs. On the other hand, skating would get me a long way quickly with much less effort.
I grabbed my skates and headed out the door hoping the fog would burn off soon. Driving slowly to the lake I wondered if it would be possible to even find my fish house in the poor visibility. It was only about a hundred yards from shore so I thought I should be able to start skating in the right direction and soon begin to see it.
As anticipated, finding my house was no problem. I also happened to notice there was a gentle breeze blowing out of the northeast. Reasoning that I could go anywhere on the lake in the fog and still find my way back by using the wind as a direction indicator, I grabbed the electronic depth finder and headed out onto the big lake into the abysmal gray in a southwesterly direction.
After skating in the same general direction for some time and checking the depth of the lake occasionally, I came to a small group of fish houses. It wasn’t the place I was looking for so I continued on in the same direction for a while till I came across a place that I assumed was the one I was looking for. I stacked up several pieces of ice to help me relocate the place when the fog lifted. I stood up and tested the wind. It had diminished a little, but there was still enough to establish directions, so I confidently struck off to the northeast with the wind in my face.
It wasn’t long before I came to the small group of fish houses I had passed on the way out. It was a strange, eerie sight as they began to materialize out of the fog. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was really seeing fish houses, or if I was hallucinating them on the perfectly blank gray canvas in front of me. But it only took a few more seconds when it became obvious I wasn’t hallucinating as more houses in the group also came into view.
Keeping the wind in my face, I continued to skate on. I skated, and skated, and skated. It had taken a long time to get to the group of fish houses on the way out, but that was because I was stopping regularly to check the water depth. I figured it shouldn’t have taken all that long to get back if I wasn’t continually stopping along the way, but I had been skating for what seemed to be nearly an hour and I was starting to worry. Just when I was beginning to become seriously concerned I thought I saw a fish house beginning to materialize out of the fog. A sense of relief came over me as several other houses did the same. I knew my house would be right on the other side of this group. Skating on, I noticed a fresh set of ice skate tracks beneath me heading in the same direction. Since I had been going in the other direction on the way out, I figured that someone else must have had the same brainstorm and was likewise getting around on the lake with the aid of ice skates.
As I passed through the group of fish houses they suddenly began to take on a strange familiarity. My heart sank and a knot began to grow in the pit of my stomach as I came face to face with the realization that this group of fish houses was not the one my house was in but was the one out in the middle of the lake I had left nearly an hour earlier! What’s more, to add insult to injury, the ice skate tracks beneath me that I thought were made by someone else …were my own! I stopped and stood there in total bewilderment.
It was a feeling I had never felt before and one I will never forget. I had read stories of hunters getting lost in the woods only to find themselves walking in circles, and I remembered thinking it was rather humorous. I remembered hearing my Grandfather tell of a similar incident that had happened to him. He said, “When it happens, the first sensation that comes over you when you realize you’ve gone in a big circle is one you can’t describe, and one you will never forget!” He was so right. I was staring the phenomenon right in the face. It had happened to me!
It didn’t take long for me to figure out where my mistake was. The gentle breeze in my face as I skated along was due to my forward motion and was a false indicator. Any direction I went felt like the right one! Relief came over me when I noticed the breeze was still detectable and I realized I would have no problem finding my way back if I would just stop occasionally and test the wind. But the initial feeling that attached itself to me still had me shaken to the core. It wasn’t the fact of being lost that bothered me. I knew I would soon find my way back and that I would probably be laughing with friends and family as I told them of my humiliating experience. After all, it was kind of funny. Yet there remained something inside me that had me terribly unnerved. It was the part of my Grandfather’s words, “You can’t describe the feeling,” that haunted me. He was so right.
As time passed, the memory of the event continued to trouble me. I now know very clearly and can describe that feeling that had so unnerved me. It wasn’t the feeling of being lost. It was the realization that in spite of all my confidence that I was going in the right direction, I had obviously not been! The worst part was that for a significant part of my journey, I had to have been going in the very opposite direction of the one I was so sure I was going! A type of judgment day had arrived for me. In spite of all my former faith to the contrary, there before my eyes was the undeniable truth. All my faith and subsequent actions had been wrong and in vain. My faith had done nothing for me. I had gone nowhere and played the role of the over-confident fool perfectly.
Parallel philosophy
This event in my life has effectively illustrated for me what it will be like–to one degree or another–for all of us when we stand before God on judgment day. On that day, our souls will be naked before Him. All of our illusions and precipitating actions will become as obviously wrong to everyone as my futile actions were to me on the lake that cold December day.
Considering the multitude of differing and conflicting beliefs in the world, one is tempted to wonder if the truth even exists… let alone able to be found. This is especially the case when we consider that the majority of people base their beliefs to one degree or another on the blind faith of tradition. It would seem that all of mankind is skating in different circles, blind, and going nowhere on the frozen lake of life.
Contrary to some popular doctrines concerning faith, faith is not a blind leap in the dark. I believe it is meant to be a confident walk in the light of understanding. This proverb has remained with me and served me well in my ongoing endeavor to grasp more of the truth concerning God and man’s purpose. At least for myself, I am determined to minimize the shock that awaits.
The truth must make sense
In my search for solid sense-making understanding, I have come to some new and far-from-mainstream conclusions. These conclusions are the product of many years of Biblical study and reasoning within myself. I have made a successful living as a drywall contractor in the local home construction industry, an occupation that has greatly benefited my search for understanding. The demands upon the intellect to do drywall are minimal. It’s a craft that becomes automatic and the work becomes monotonous …much like assembly-line work. Therefore, I have had the luxury of a relatively free mind to work with during the day. I have been able to wrestle for endless hours with many of the questions that plague theologians. What’s more, I have not been afraid to ask difficult questions, nor have I been afraid to look for answers in places few have dared to look before. I have been perfectly willing to think outside the box if I couldn’t find sense-making answers inside the box. This work is the result of that ongoing determination.
I am not a “trained” theologian per se. I read much and am self-educated. No one has spoon-fed me doctrines that religious institutions require a student to absorb before they are sanctioned by them. I do not have a stamp of certification from any religious institution upon me. This will no doubt concern some …especially those who carry such stamps. They would naturally be quick to label me “uneducated” if my conclusions drift from their sanctioned beliefs. Yet I feel in good company with those Yeshua called to follow him. They were likewise average everyday people like fishermen, and carpenters, who were considered uneducated men by the established educational institutions of that day. I have no doubt this fact is one of the biggest reasons why Yeshua chose them in the first place. “Educated” men like the Pharisees of the first century were steeped in Greek philosophy much the way university graduates of today are steeped in leftist ideologies. Yeshua simply didn’t want to have to deal with undoing all the errors in their thinking that were deeply ingrained in them. As you will see, much of the errors in Christianity (and even modern Rabbinic Judaism), have their source in this “educated” thinking of the first century.
I do not pretend to have all the answers. That simply isn’t humanly possible. But I will suggest that what I present is far more consistent with what is known to be the word of God, and consistent within itself, than any other traditional understanding today. We cannot know everything, but it is my conviction that what we claim to know must make sense, add up, and be consistent within itself.
Also, I do not start at the very beginning by dealing with questions of God’s existence. This work isn’t intended for atheists. I start with the premise that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel–the God of Moses and the prophets, and the God of Yeshua, is the one true Most High God. On this assertion, I hope to find common ground on which to reason with many Christians and Jews.
My beginnings
I am an American of predominantly Scandinavian and western European ancestry, born to several generations of God-fearing parents of different Christian persuasions. I was raised and indoctrinated in protestant evangelical Christianity through faithful church attendance with my parents when I was young, and through my attendance at the Covenant denomination’s Bible college in Prince Albert Saskatchewan in 76-77. My wife and I were married in the Evangelical Free Church denomination where we and our children attended and were active for a number of years.
God’s official institution?
I believe that many individuals within both Judaism and Christianity have had their prayers answered. This naturally leads people to believe God is on their side and has given their particular institution His stamp of approval. It is easy to see the movements of God’s Spirit within one’s own circle and still be blind to what God has done in the midst of others. There is no question in my mind that miracles have occurred and prayers have been answered in the lives of both Jews and Christians. It would be an exercise in ignorant futility to assert otherwise. Yet it is also an undeniable observation that no religious institution is the wonder to the world that one would expect it should be if it were indeed God’s official representative in the earth. There is nothing happening like what God did for Israel when He brought him out of Egypt. What we see instead in Christianity and Judaism appears more like two religions, each of which …only smoldering with an ember of the truth.
Difficult questions
If we are willing to humble ourselves and admit that something is wrong and lacking in the faith of our upbringing, then there is hope. We who were raised in the Christian tradition must ask the question: why doesn’t God openly endorse Christianity with spectacular miracles the way He did for Yeshua? Yeshua clearly said that his followers would do much more of the same. Could it be that Christianity hasn’t followed him the way he intended? And the Jew must ask: Why were my ancestors dispossessed of the land of Israel a second time …and why for so long? Israel was dispersed the first time for only seventy years for its sins. What could have been done to warrant a nearly two-thousand-year second dispersion? These are painful questions that are seldom asked.
In the end, I hope it will be evident that what each religion has desperately needed is first; a less Greek-influenced better understanding of the character of God, and second; each needs exactly what it has rejected in the other. The last thing the Jew needs is Christianity. Christianity needs the Law …which Yeshua fully endorsed. What the Jew needs is the knowledge of his Messiah. The first believers in Yeshua were all Moses-observant Jews, and there were literally tens of thousands of them. They didn’t know to be anything different because they never heard Yeshua command them to be anything different! But one religion went one way with Yeshua and without Moses, and the other went the other way, with Moses and without Yeshua. As you will see, Paul was absolutely responsible for this division when there never should have been a division!
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