Fear, Imagination & Reality

“There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a wizard or a necromancer, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. ESV Deuteronomy 18:10-12

There was a “New Earth Festival” in Huntsville this past Sunday. Apparently, this festival provided a forum for tarot card readers, ghost hunters, new age healers and the like. Now I don’t pretend to know all the details, but here’s how the Huntsville Times reported on one of ten topics under the heading: Do skulls hold key to world salvation?

“According to folklore, 13 crystal skulls were created in a dimension other than this world up to 30,000 years ago and hidden in Central and South America. On Dec. 21, 2012, the skulls will reunite, activate and save the Earth from doom.” (I’m not making this up.) To which one person is quoted as saying: “I’m a believer and I’m a skeptic. I just don’t know.” How’s that for a disciple?

If it were not so sad, the whole event would provide much comic relief; it’d be a hoot. But it is sad. It’s sad because it’s just another example of the extraordinary lengths our society will go to both fuel and quench our fears of mortality with our own imaginations. We go to all manner of trouble to obscure and/or soft pedal truth. And in so doing, serious discussion is replaced with entertainment. As Neil Postman said in his aptly titled book, we are Amusing Ourselves to Death. I mean think about it. We’re all one day closer to meeting our maker today than yesterday and these folks would have us seek answers at a conference for fortune tellers…It’s like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic; useless.

The Bible says that there is no place for such nonsense with God’s people. But the nonsense is not new. We’ve may communicate it differently, but it was present even in the times of Moses!

The nonsense endures, but the truth endures as well. And the truth is that an all-powerful, timeless, all-knowing, righteous, just and holy God created the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them. And he’s not served, glorified or amused by our entertaining antics.

So, what is the key to world salvation? The writer of Hebrews says it best: “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Hebrews 9:27-28

Ken worships at Tharptown Baptist Church in Russellville where he leads an adult Bible study. Comments are welcome and may be sent to kenaskew@charter.net.