So why do we need the Scriptures now that knowledge has proliferated to such an extent that we can find everything on the Internet? This question may sound ludicrous, but it does present the core belief of modern society in that through our empirical knowledge of science and literature we have reached the ultimate stage of knowing everything that can be possibly known and that we are well on our way to discovering what we don't know. We are so complacent in this assurance of our egos that every generation thinks that they are the best and the brightest. We pass on the torch from one generation to the next with pride, thinking of it as an eternal flame. We see endless space as "the last frontier."
Yet we also know that the world is in turmoil and every so many years thousands must die to quell the rebellion of the poor and the hopeless in the world. Our religious leaders hope and pray for the end to come, to fight the Battle of Armageddon and to greet the returning Jesus as a welcoming hero. And it's not just our enemies abroad, but our society is in turmoil also. The perennial rebellion of youth, the drug addiction and prostitution forced on our children by the corrupt, and the crookedness of the politicians who seek public service just for their own self-aggrandizement.
We do need the Scriptures because they are the only authentic, reliable and continuous source of truth from the earliest recorded history. The Ancient Aramaic Scriptures are in the original language that began in Mesopotamia as picture writing, progressed through cuneiform and alphabetic writing. This language became more than a tool for trade and history, it became the instrument of invention of math, science and medicine. By discarding the Scriptures from the educational process, the Western universities and public schools lose their foundation. Knowledge that is based on the denial of God leads nowhere. Our youth are in a freefall in an amoral society. If it feels good, do it. If you can make money with it, it must be all right. The hedonistic values are held above the moral code of the Scriptures.
As the earliest and most enduring record of civilization, the Scriptures are the most precious asset we have as human beings. The Nineteenth and the Twentieth Century philosophers attempted to break the continuity of the Scriptures by introducing scientific theories to explain the creation of the universe and the birth of the human species. They denied the existence of God so they could advance their own theories of what is human nature, what drives man and how to control the world. They denied the coming of the Messiah as prophesied by the Scriptures on the basis that if God doesn't exist then the prophesy regarding the Messiah is also unfounded. Thus they theorize further today in expensively-produced television programs that Jesus was a rebel of sorts, a revolutionary rabbi, who led a small uprising against the Romans and was executed, and some other contrived stories that masquerade as documentaries.
In like manner, modern-day Christianity denies the Ancient Aramaic Scriptures in favor of the Greek generated translation, because it gives them the freedom to re-interpret the Bible according to their modern traditions. The modern-day churches are ashamed of the primitiveness of the Eastern Orthodox churches. They perceive them as heretics because they don't have a high standard of living. They consider their theology deficient because they're impoverished and living in the squalor of Islamic countries as second class citizens.
The freedom that President George W. Bush brought to Iraq will be squandered by the modern churches if they don't back his administration for the action that he took as the Commander of Chief of the brave US military. Already we saw the shameless, self-serving attitude of the leaders of the American churches, both Protestants and Catholics, calling for a halt on the war to topple Saddam Hussein's satanic regime. And now the modern-day churches continue to ignore the Christians in Iraq, as the Shiite Muslims are beginning to impose Islamic law over the Christian minority in Iraq. In the news media the presence of the Christians has been reduced to an estimated 3% to 4%. During the Desert Storm operation, the Christian presence in Iraq was estimated at 5%. So what happened to the balance, were they massacred? In fact, it was a well-known fact in Iraq, if not the entire Middle East, that the population of Baghdad was nearly 50% Christian. So why do the media lie like that? I think it's because the Christians in the US and the rest of Europe especially don't want to recognize the survival and the legitimacy of Eastern Christianity. So what does that make modern-day Christians? The lost sheep of Christianity, I think.
--June 1, 2003