Thursday, March 6, 2014

Make it Complicated, It's Easier

I was watching a video on the planning and construction of an aircraft. Its design was to be extraordinarily complex. It seems that modern airplanes may have 6,000,000 parts, often made by a number of manufacturers, to be assembled in carefully designed processes. The number of brainy people and skilled workers is very impressive. To look at the cockpit of one of these craft is dazzling. Yet it is accomplished, and very well.

I have been in tiny churches of a few families who could not agree on basic theology. Bees can make honey and wax, that still evade the skill of man, operating on instinct alone, yet we can't convey the simplest concept to a bee.

It seems that the more complicated the task, the easier it is to perform. Whole religious systems have been formed that defy analysis. What color of fish hat to wear on each occasion, which Latin phrase to say while incense is burned, and worst of all, complex theology!

If it is complicated it can be performed, but simple truth evades billions of people. Did God really give us a complex religion for our salvation? Did the thief on the cross go to seminary?

Truly, I believe it is simple faith that trips us up. Abraham, "the father of all who believe", had a profound, but simple theology.

My pastor told a story of his youth. He had secretly bought an automobile while under aged. Later he decided to sell it, but his father read the ad. He grabbed his son and demanded, "Do you have a car?" His frightened son replied, "What kind?" This is such a typical response of those seeking escape from a "tight" situation.

When religion is confronted with the Bible, people throw up hurdles of complication to avoid it. I believe that complicated religion is false religion.

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