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Tell me about the adversaries in your life.

No, not the tax man or the bill collectors. Everyone deals with them. And I don’t mean pain and distress, health issues, family problems, or financial uncertainty. Most folks I know can relate to all those things.

This is not about your job either. A lot of us get up every morning wondering if we have the strength to put our nose to the grindstone again. We all struggle in that space from time to time.

I’m talking about people.

You know – the folks that don’t like you, who attack you, who put you down, and who conspire against you. I’m talking about people who disagree with you at every available opportunity and who basically wish you weren’t even a blip on their radar screen. I’m talking about THOSE kinds of adversaries.

What!?! You don’t have any? What’s wrong with you?

In conversations I’ve had with several people lately, we’ve talked about the issue of adversaries. I didn’t bring the subject up. They did.

Those chats went something like this. General discussions about national affairs gradually got more personal. Somewhere along the line, they told me they aren’t at odds with anyone – and as far as they see it, nobody’s got any issues with them.

What bothers me is they seem proud of that. They feel it’s some sort of badge of honor, a sign they’re getting along and doing something right.

Excuse me while I barf!

Our world today doesn’t need any more dead fish who float downstream. It needs live, vigorous, determined fish who swim upstream. The world needs more fish who will battle the currents, bounce off the rocks, and assume the risks and challenges of standing apart.

I am not a fish, and nor are you. But the analogy applies. Our times urgently need people who will stand for virtue, speak the truth, and not endorse politically correct opinions.

Said another way, the world needs people who are willing to earn adversaries. Even fierce ones!

I chanced upon an excerpt by 19th century Scottish poet, Charles Mackay. He puts this issue much better than I. Here is what he wrote:

“You have no enemies, you say?

Alas! my friend, the boast is poor;

He who has mingled in the fray

Of duty, that the brave endure,

Must have made foes! If you have none,

Small is the work that you have done.

You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,

You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,

You’ve never turned the wrong to right,

You’ve been a coward in the fight.”

I’m not clear if that’s the whole poem or part of it, but it’s enough to make the essential point. If one has no adversaries, then one has not stood for anything – or anyone. They are a coward.

That’s nothing to be proud of.

Look around you. Our world today is being ripped apart by unprincipled people. They are not concerned with law and order, and for them “the end justifies the means.” Their corruption is marked by an activism fueled by ignorance and confidence. They are determined to speak their mind.

What about the rest of us?

Speaking as a believer in Jesus Christ, I am mostly concerned with those who claim to be of the Christian faith. Many of those gather each Sunday preoccupied with being ‘seeker friendly.’ They’ve mostly dismissed the fact that people who have chosen darkness rather than light (John 3:19) are often at odds with – and even hostile to – the truth.

Why?

Jesus Himself said we should expect the world to hate us and to hate the things we stand for and support because it first hated Him (John 15:18-20).

Several conclusions can be made here. First, if the lawless groups of the world have no bone to pick with you, if they feel you’ve got a lot in common with them – then you’re not standing for the truth.

Second, it’s not possible to do what’s right and avoid earning adversaries. You cannot have it both ways. In the same way you cannot run around with skunks without smelling like one, you cannot be a pioneer for truth without receiving arrows.

And third – that whole badge of honor thing? It’s really about earning adversaries the right way. While we are instructed to be at peace with everyone if it’s within our means to be so (Romans 12:18), this is no instruction to sidestep our responsibility to stand up for the truth. It’s to our own gain when we do the right thing the right way for the right reason (Luke 6:22).

The basic point is this: to be right with God has often meant to be wrong with man. When we demonstrate a right relationship with God, when we properly say the things that need to be said, when we stand up for law and order, when we expose the deeds of darkness, and when we demand justice, we will become a target. That’s just the way it is.

There is no way around it. If you don’t have any adversaries, you’ve got a problem.

The Wonderful World of Archaeology

Let’s take a break from politics this week and talk about the fascinating field of archaeology.

For some reason, I’ve always been more interested in Ancient Near East sites, particularly those from the Old Testament. Still, there is much to discover in the Land of Israel that speaks to the New Testament.

Now comes word that perhaps the boyhood home of Jesus has been discovered in Nazareth.

British professor Ken Dark has made some preliminary investigations of a site underneath a convent; the ruins appear to be of Roman era.

“He told the BBC that his work revealed that the building was carved into the rocks of a hillside and that the original house was built by someone who was a master at stone working. Joseph was called a ‘tekton’ in the Bible, which was an ancient word for craftsman or carpenter and it would have made sense that he could have carved the stone.”

As we will see, it’s very difficult to identify a site with certainty, unless it’s the Temple Mount or some such. Yet the Nazareth site is compelling. We know from Scripture that Jesus grew up in the town, after being born in Bethlehem and temporarily living in Egypt (He traveled abroad!).

Archaeologists in Israel are world-class, meticulous in their research. Dark acknowledges that further study is needed.

“The possibility of dating the building remains with certainty was impeded by the fact that the site was dug in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the resident nuns, and not as a scientific excavation, preventing a reliable affiliation of the pottery remains, essential for dating, with the specific building remains. Thus, whereas the cave is Roman (by style), the building remains could possibly be earlier, or even later. It is unlikely that the simple Jewish village population lived in a house on top, or underneath, a Jewish burial cave.

“Speaking to CBS News, Dark said he understood that while there is much evidence to support his theory, ‘[It’s] by no means a conclusive case. On the one hand, we can put forward a totally plausible case that this was Jesus’s childhood home. But on the other hand, actually proving that is beyond the scope of the evidence. It’s debatable whether it would ever be possible to prove that.’”

Many times, I’ve walked around Jerusalem or even near Tel Aviv and seen archaeologists’ sites in the middle of a street, or off the street. Every inch of the Holy Land contains some memory of the past. On the north side of Jerusalem’s Old City, several years ago a tunnel was built so that one could drive around and head east. I’ve often wondered what was found as they worked! And even now, amazing finds from biblical times are almost routinely found around the Old City. You can walk around the walls and realize that only steps away might lay some great treasure.

I’ll write in more detail one of these days about my friend Zak, a Palestinian Christian antiquities dealer in the Old City. He is authorized by the Israel Antiquities Authority, and I’ve bought several items from him. Always a pleasure to work with, he has affordable things, and also things that would break the bank, if you so decided! You can be assured that what he sells you is legit.

For example, you can obtain a water pitcher, or bowl from the time of Jesus, for a modest price.

In the larger sense, archaeology in Israel is vitally important when and where it confirms the Bible.

Years ago, I visited the fabled Albright Institute in east Jerusalem. W.F. Albright was an archaeologist a century ago that made famous the phrase “digging with one hand on the spade and the other holding a Bible.” From the website:

“While the Albright originally emerged from the need for an on-the-ground research center for Biblical Studies, the Institute has dramatically expanded its disciplinary and temporal range of supported studies in its mission over the last century. As an epicenter of cultural, historical, philological, archaeological, and art historical research in Israel and Palestine, its research base has broadened to include all aspects of Near Eastern studies, as well as expanding chronologically in both directions, into the prehistoric periods, Greco-Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, and Medieval periods. The Albright places high priority on keeping up with the evolution and demands of the disciplines in the region.”

Albright was a wonderful defender of the integrity of the Bible. In this age of moral relativism and skepticism, it’s more important than ever to point out the marvelous evidences that the Bible is true.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Got Any Adversaries? – By Steve Schmutzer

30 Nov 2020