"The whole Bible is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. Received, believed, obeyed, it is the great instrumentality in the transformation of character. It is the grand stimulus, the constraining force, that quickens the physical, mental, and spiritual 94 powers and directs the life into right channels."6
Henry sat in his favorite chair cursing
himself for his stupidity. How silly to think he and Hans could
find George when countless other rescue workers had failed.
Loosening his tie in the collar, he unbuttoned
the collar buttons, his only concession to relaxation late at
night. He fidgeted slightly, thinking of the discomfort the morrow
would bring. Rain, cold, mud, sore and tired feet, why couldn’t
George and Billy find themselves?
In disgust, he rose and walked to the kitchen
for a glass of water. Returning to his chair, he picked up the
mail. Despite the generalized destruction caused by the hurricane,
the mail had arrived on time or nearly so.
Sorting through the bills, junk mail, and
the women's magazines, these he contemptuously tossed aside, they
meant nothing to him, he came upon an interesting advertisement.
A group of religious enthusiasts, he judged by their tone, were
raising money to mount another expedition to Mount Ararat in Turkey
to locate and photograph Noah’s ark. Enclosed, were detailed
maps of the region believed to contain the ark.
I bet those Muslims won’t be pleased
if they discover old Noah’s ark, he thought, as he reached
for his pocket handkerchief, it would decimate their religious
beliefs.
He blew his nose, carefully refolded the
white linen handkerchief, then leaned forward to replace it in
his back pocket. The brochure featured several photographs of
the snow covered, beak, 17.200 foot mountain in Eastern Turkey.
It stood as a solitary sentinel guarding a large, dry, brown barren
wasteland of small villages and rough, pitted roads. Shaped like
a steep sided cone, the mountain was covered with glaciers that
were reported to be 200 feet thick except where the sun had caused
melt back which occurred primarily during the hot months of summer.
The distinguishing features of the mountain,
Henry read, was a deep, ice filled caldera or crater nestled between
there peaks. It was formed by the collapse of a volcanic cone.
Also pictured was the precipitous Ahora gorge that was virtually
unassailable to mountain climbers.
Mt. Ararat, an extinct volcano, was bleak
and forbidding, often assailed by fierce winds, lightening, avalanches,
and Kurdish terrorists who used the mountain as a base to launch
their attacks on Turkish military forces stationed in the area.
A team of researchers planned to explore
the region around the caldera which they thought might contain
the remains of the ark buried beneath its frozen surface. An earlier
research team had measured the thickness of the ice with a hand
held ice penetrating radar unit. It was at least 256 feet deep.
Their measurements were interrupted when they were chased off
the mountain by Kurdish rebels who were attempting to establish
their own nation carved out of parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria,
and Russia.
Henry knew more about the Bible then his
simpleminded wife believed. He had studied it, at first from a
general curiosity to find those supposed contradictions that everyone
said it contained, then with real interest. He was familiar with
the flood story and the ark that God had instructed Noah to build.
He even knew its dimensions, its general layout, the type of material
used in its construction, and the circumstances of its building,
and eventual landing upon Mount Ararat.
He smiled to himself over the victory he
had scored with a devout Bible believing Christian several months
earlier.
“All we have to do is believe,”
the Christian said, “just believe and Christ does the rest.
It’s simple really, trust Him, take him at His word and believe.
Christ offers us salvation, all we have to do is accept it, just
reach out and take it. It is as if He places salvation before
us, like food on a plate, then waits to see what we will do with
it.”
Listening to this man spouting scripture
to those in the office, Henry interrupted to ask a question.
“Gregory,” he said, as sly as
a cat. “Do you believe the Bible is the inspired word of
God.”
“Yes sir,” was his confident answer.
“Do you also believe those prophets
who wrote the old testament did so under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit?”
“Yes sir,” came the immediate
reply. He was eager to enlighten this nonbeliever with the truth.
“Do you believe in the flood story
and Noah’s Ark?”
“Yes sir,” his friend replied
somewhat repetitively, Henry thought.
“You believe every word of that story
to be true?”
His friend looked suspiciously at Henry,
beginning to realize that he might be in for a rough time from
this unbeliever. “Yes, I do,” was his still confident
response.
With the cunning of a cat, Henry sprang
the trap he knew the man would fall into.
“Do you believe it rained before the
flood?”
“Yes sir. It has always rained, ever
since creation,” came the confident response.
When Henry read the appropriate scripture
the office staff, who had followed this exchange with mounting
curiosity, roared with laughter over the man’s obvious discomfiture
at being bested at his own game and from a nonbeliever at that.
Not willing that this scripture spouting
fraud should get off so lightly, he asked him another question.
“When Noah and his family and the animals
entered the ark and everyone else was left outside, who shut the
door?”
Henry savored this miner triumph. Simply
reading the scriptures was often enough to confound many Christians.
Their ignorance was so profound.
If people would just read the Bible they
wouldn’t make such fools of themselves. Christians, as a
general rule, either don’t bother to read the Bible, preferring,
instead, to let their preachers read and explain it to them, or,
if they do read it, they don’t believe the plain truth because
it contradicts some pet sin or they insist the Bible can’t
be understood. What good is a contract that can’t be understood,
Henry asked rhetorically. Similarly, what good is a Bible that
is vague and contradictory?
This logic was often lost on Christians
who insisted that portions of the scriptures, especially Revelation,
couldn’t possibly be comprehended, therefore, they never
made the attempt, but Henry had, with some miner success. Revelation
wasn’t altogether a mystery. After all, he often chided his
believing friends, it did say ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ,’
not ‘the Mystery of Jesus Christ.’
Pausing, in his reading of the Noah’s
Ark expedition advertisement, he wondered what such a discovery
would do to the secular world. Certainly the humanists would attempt
to dismiss it, for such a discovery would doom Darwinism and evolution
to the trash heap of history. But many Christians would be discomforted,
also. Having the form of godliness but denying the power thereof,
they were, in his estimation, nothing but secular Christians.
The discovery of an ancient artifact as
intimately connected with the Biblical story, as the ark, would
shatter scientific knowledge. Almost all of science was founded
on the principal of evolution which could not possibly stand in
the face of such dramatic evidence for creation.
How many Christians, he wondered, would
feel uncomfortable with its discovery? If the Bible was correct
about this story, then it must also be correct about other things
as well, such as the necessity to overcome sin. He knew many Christians
who sought to evade the clear teachings of the Bible with regard
to sin and its consequences. With the discovery of the Ark, they
would be forced to confront unpalatable truths.
Henry chucked to himself over their discomfiture,
wondering how they would explain away evidence that contradicted
their fondest teachings. He wondered also what the ark would look
like after nearly four thousand years? Its discovery meant the
end of modern science with all of its pretensions and foolishness.
Henry, the doubter and skeptic, the intellectual
man endowed with an ample amount of curiosity, had long since
realized that much of so called science was based on the flimsiest
evidence, requiring, of the skeptic or scientist, as much faith
in science as the Bible seemed to require of those who believed
in God. In fact science, to its practitioners and to many laymen,
was a God, or at least a way of explaining existence without reference
to God and to his laws.
If God could be proved out of existence
by science then his moral laws could also be laid aside as merely
the invention of some deluded sage in ancient times. Thus the
wildest and most absurd immorality could be excused. However,
let reputable scientists discover the ark, photograph it, even
offer tours, and the whole system of science and the immorality
it spawned would collapse. God would stand vindicated and science
would be unmasked as the deception that it was.
He smirked at this idea. Science offered
a plausible excuse for disregarding God and his laws. Destroy
science, refute the Biblical critics with genuine evidence that
could be seen and felt, and no right minded person would have
any basis for further skepticism or doubt.
Henry paused in his consideration of this
interesting line of meditation, looked at his watch, and decided
it was about time to retire for the evening. Punctual in his night
time ritual, he expected his wife would be waiting for him.
As an astute observer of human nature, he
intuitively understood many Christians merely went through the
motions and rituals of Christianity without letting morality disturb
their placid existence. Faith in God was wonderful for Sunday
morning but when they entered the office Monday morning thoughts
of God were instantly banished from their minds.
What would they think if Noah’s ark
was discovered? Would they now confess Christ Monday through Saturday,
not just on Sunday, or would they scoff at the evidence, deny
its authenticity, reject the Biblical story?
When confronted with the reality of the
Bible many pretentious Christians would turn from God, their faith
unmasked for the hypocrisy it was, stoutly affirming they had
been deceived into believing a lie, there really wasn’t a
God after all.
* * *
Beth shivered with the cold. It really had
turned cold in the last several days. Turning her face to the
pillow, she cried softly, so he would not hear. “O, Lord,”
she pleaded, “why won’t you help me? Why won’t
you take away this terrible thing?” Her tears moistened the
pillow.
The McKenzie’s enjoyed the same upper
scale, middle-class existence as the Ballard’s. Childless,
neither husband or wife wanted children, nor pets, they preferred
a quiet life, content with simple pleasures.
Beth was, as Henry had described her earlier
that day, somewhat plump, although she preferred to think of herself
as only slightly overweight. She wasn’t pretty, she knew,
remembering Henry’s all too fond embrace of Grace. Why couldn’t
he hold her that way, why couldn’t he look at her as he looked
at Grace?
Beth was quiet, reserved, and undemanding
but she keenly feel every slight Henry offered her, every over
long lingering look at another woman, every opportunity he managed
to hold, touch, or embrace some other then herself. She loved
God, but couldn’t understand why he had allowed her to marry
this man. Couldn’t he have given her a kind, loving man who
had eyes only for her, who saw only her beauty, her grace, her
charm even if he had to look beyond the few extra pounds? And
why did he have to demand this thing? She grimaced at the thought
of what was about to be required of her. She had pleaded with
God to take away this horrid thing, but Henry never seamed to
change.
She could hear him coming now and she knew
what was expected of her. Turing her face to the pillow one last
time, she breathed a prayer. “O Lord, if you can’t change
Henry then change me. Give me the courage to endure one more time.
You know how I detest this thing, but, she sighed, nevertheless,
not my will be done, but thy will.” She couldn’t understand
why it was God’s will for her to endure Henry’s style
of love making but she would submit as a dutiful wife and attempt
to please him, not for his pleasure but, for some reason unknown
to her, she believed God required it of her.
Slipping out of bed, she put on her red
high heel shoes and smoothed the red and black teddy. Why couldn’t
he be like other men and make love to her in flannel pajamas.
She shivered with the cold and the expectation of the moment.
Sex wasn’t a pleasant experience for her.
His foot steps neared the bedroom door.
She took one last look at herself in the mirror as she inserted
the pierced ear rings. Assured that she was ready, just the way
he liked her, she sat on the edge of the bed shaking with cold
and dread.
Henry entered the bedroom and shut the door,
while offering her an appraising glance. Tossing his car keys
and billfold on the dresser, he removed his suit coat, carefully
hanging it in the closet. His tie went over the tie rack, his
white starched shirt was laid in the clothes basket ready to be
taken to the dry cleaners in the morning while he carefully removed
his suit pants, matched the creases, then attached it to a wooden
hanger with metal clasps. This ritual performed, he blew his nose
before turning upon Beth.
Advancing on his wife, he stood before her
glowering in disgust at the thought of the discomfort he would
experience the next day searching for someone he knew was already
dead. Too bad, he thought again, that he was stuck with this thing.
With George out of the way, a guy could make time with Grace.
But, no, he was expected to remain faithful to Beth. Well, what
folks didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
“Well,” he demanded of his wife.
“What are you waiting for.”
She just sat there, her left shoulder twitching
spasmodically, shivering, her bare shoulders gleaming in the harsh
overhead light, glancing down at the floor in resignation.
Suddenly, overcome with rage and disgust,
Henry grabbed her arm and twisted it until she grimaced in pain
and would have cried out if he had not bent forward, his face
only inches from hers, and snarled, “Be quiet.”
Twisting her arm even harder, he pulled
her to the carpeted floor until she was laying at his feet sobbing
quietly, one arm shielding her face and head from the blows she
knew were about to rain down upon her. Quietly, she prayed for
strength to endure the onslaught and her prayers were heard. A
warmth spread through her heart that she had never experienced
before. A voice seemed to breath comfort into her ears. “Lo,
I am with you, always, even unto the end of the world.”
She scarcely felt the blows or heard the
angry words, so fierce, so Satanic in their manner of utterance.
All she knew or could feel were the comforting arms of her Savior.
He understands, she realized. He heard my prayer and is shielding
me. Her heart of love went out to Christ for his condescension.
She wasn’t alone after all. He was beside her in the bedroom
witnessing the blows and hearing the angry, demeaning words. He
saw her patient endurance, saw her fortitude, her willingness
to submit to her Savior. She heard him utter the sweetest words
of comfort and approval. No longer was she lonely or afraid. He
was there. He would comfort and protect her. Fully satisfied that
her Savior understood her torments, she surrendered herself to
his care and control. Whatever became of her, she would follow
him, follow him to the grave if necessary. She was loved by Christ
and that was all that mattered to Beth.
His fury satisfied, Henry pulled her to
a kneeling position. She knew what to do. With trembling hands
but a thankful heart, she pulled down his briefs while she offered
prayer of thanksgiving to her Savior, she pleasured her husband.
Half an hour later, dressed in her flannel
pajamas and warm for the first time that evening, Beth lay next
to her snoring husband. A profound calmness settled over her for
the first time in many years. God loved her. She was satisfied
with the knowledge. A new resolve filled her heart. A resolve
to serve her Savior and to suffer anything he required of her.
She had seen him, albeit, only for a moment,
hanging on the cross, looking at her with intense love and interest.
Would she remain faithful, he seemed to be asking, amidst his
own agony? Would she trust him just as he was trusting his own
Father. He would not accept deliverance from his torments for
it was his choice to suffer and die for her. Trust me, I will
deliver you.
She would trust him. The thought thrilled
her. He loves me, he loves me, he loves me she said over and over
and over again as she drifted into a peaceful slumber.
