Three Gifts and Persecuted Christians

An essay by James A Graves, Jr.

May 2022

Humans are a unique species. Scientists claim that humans are the most intelligent creatures on earth.

Of course, it’s no coincidence that scientists, who also just happen to be human, are the ones who make that claim. If one of the “lower” creatures, perhaps a whale, were asked what creature was at the top of the brain-chain, the answer might not agree with our esteemed, but perhaps biased, scientists.

However, the Holy Bible unmistakably places mankind above all animals. Just one of many examples is Genesis 1:26 — The New International Version (NIV) ²⁶Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Other Biblical translations use “dominion” or “reign” in place of “rule”, but the point is that God placed mankind in charge. Another term you might hear is “steward”, which, if you look further, you’ll learn that mankind was given stewardship over the entire earth, animals, land and water. Stewardship is another term for management. But considering how much destruction mankind has wrought to this planet, and how many species of creatures that have been driven to extinction, I think a lot of those stewards need to be fired. Those of us who have had inept bosses, or have observed rulers and similar high officials that reign or have dominion over others might come to the conclusion that, just because someone is placed in charge doesn’t mean that person is qualified or even takes seriously the responsibilities of the position.

Unlike the repercussions that inept elected politicians face from voters, or royalty might face from their subjects, I suspect that God, having placed all mankind in the role of stewards of the earth, isn’t exactly pleased with our performance thus far. Considering the many gifts from God that humans have been graced with, especially curiosity, intelligence and freewill, you might expect that the Earth would be in better shape, natural resource wise.

When one takes note of all of the amazing man-made things in this world, with the exception of discoveries, like fire, which someone likely found after a lightning strike set the forest ablaze, it’s obvious that most discoveries came about because of the Heavenly gift of curiosity.

Of course, God also gave animals curiosity – which killed the cat, as you know. But then, cats are stupid.

So, we must give equal credit to the Divine gift of intelligence, which provides humans with the ability to make something useful out of the discoveries and inventions that came about because of God-given human curiosity.

Of the three Heavenly gifts about which I write (curiosity, intelligence and freewill), I believe the greatest of these is freewill. Humans can choose. From infancy we are free to choose. We choose not to like strained spinach, and choose to like chocolate pudding. We choose not to like having to do homework after school, and choose to like riding a bicycle. We choose to pursue a higher education after high school, or simply go to work. We choose to marry, or stay single. We choose to be evil or good. We choose to believe in God or not. And so it goes throughout our lives. We have so many choices each and every day that most people simply take it for granted.

But it didn’t have to be that way. If God had not granted humans free will, we would be constrained in the same way that other earthly creatures are. Wild animals are free, but they don’t have freewill. We hear the old adage, “Free as a bird.” and certainly the ability of flight gives birds the freedom to fly anywhere they please. However, birds are too busy finding food and water, building nests, mating, caring for their eggs and fledglings, and migrating, to take many carefree sight-seeing side-trips.

I’ve always dreamed of being able to fly without the necessity of an airplane, but I’m not sure I would enjoy being able to fly if I had all those bird chores to do. I’ve thought that being a duck would be the best of both worlds - flying and swimming, but the prospect of being shot down by a hunter takes all the fun out of that idea.

Using the three gifts, mankind has learned to fly, conquered outer space, gone to the moon, discovered the cure for many diseases, learned to repair the human body, created advanced mathematics and invented computers, invented the electron microscope and discovered that everything, including the air we breathe, is made up of molecules, and those molecules are made up of atoms, electrons, protons and other, smaller, sub-atomic particles. And particle physics research continues to find even smaller particles.

Archeologists have discovered amazing things about ancient human history, including historical events told about in the Bible, and found the skeletal remains of creatures that lived on earth before man arrived. Using the advanced optics of powerful telescopes, astronomers have mapped the solar system and beyond. Advanced mathematics enable precise prediction of not only the positions of the moon, planets and other celestial bodies relative to the earth at any date in the future, but also in the past as well. Technology continues to advance and new discoveries are continuing to be made in every technological field. Those accomplishments happened, and will continue to happen, because of the Three Gifts.

I am constantly amazed when I hear Christians and other religious people so willing to accept when research verifies the occurrence of events described in the Bible but lacking a recorded date, yet vehemently deny estimates by science of the age of the earth because Genesis 1:1-27 records that the universe and everything in it was created in six days. They choose to believe science if it coincides with their beliefs, and deny science when it doesn’t.

Further study of the Bible reveals that six days is only a relative measure of time. The six days of Creation gives the typical, uneducated reader an understandable quantity of time to enable comprehension of a very complex event in history – God’s creation of the universe.

Verses in Isaiah, Psalms, and Second Peter bring the relationship between man’s thinking as compared to God’s thinking, and man’s concept of time as compared to God’s concept of time into a much better perspective:

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NASB) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

That is a very kind and thoughtful way of saying, ‘I’m smarter than you and you will never be smart enough to understand Me.’

Psalm 90:4 (NASB) “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, Or like a watch in the night.” (This is Moses speaking. “…a watch in the night” refers to the several hours duration of standing watch over a flock of sheep) In other words, a thousand years to God could be like a day, or just a few hours.

2 Peter 3:8 "…with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

Again, that is a very kind and thoughtful way to simply explain that mankind will never be able to comprehend God’s view of time.

In the article, “What is the Relationship between God and Time?” from CompellingTruth.org, the concept of God and time is explained very succinctly; “When we say things like "God is timeless" or "God has no beginning or end," we are trying to explain God in terms of a dimension by which He is not constrained. God created time. In our universe time is basically linear. We go forward at a fairly steady rate, give or take allowances for velocity and gravity. We cannot go back in time, and we cannot experience more than one instant at a time. God does not have this limitation. He does not live within the semi-linear timeline of our universe. He experiences every moment of time all at once. It is similar to the creator of an animated film. While the film is running, the characters experience life one cell (the sheet on which animations are drawn) at a time as it flickers past the light. But the animator lives in a dimension where all the cells exist at once, and he can view them all at will.”

God is timeless. God is omnipresent. God is ancient, existing before the beginning of time, older than the universe, yet God never ages, and, in human terms of time, God is simultaneously present at the beginning of time and at the end of time, and at every instant of time in between.

Yet Biblical literalists continue to propagate the argument that the earth, and possibly the entire universe, is only 18,000 years old. The argument is absurd considering the obvious archeological evidence found around the world, but that’s not really the point. The big question is; why does the age of the universe matter to Christians? Time doesn’t matter to God, so why should time matter to Christians?

It amazes me that people try to predict when Christ will return. He was very specific about that; in Mark 13:32, Jesus had been teaching his disciples about his return and says, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

If God didn’t see fit to even tell Jesus, how could anyone think He intended for us to know?

Jesus simply said to be ready for His return. To me, that seems like a simple command to obey.

Eventually, someone blessed with the ability to use the Three Gifts to their greatest advantage will probably figure out how old the earth and the universe is, but that discovery will not affect the Bible.

The Bible is not a science book. The Bible is not a history book. The Bible is a law book – the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Torah) is Jewish law. The entire Bible, Old and New Testaments, is God’s biography. And the story of God does not depend on the measurement of time or the use of a calendar.

God created time for mankind, consequently we cannot live without a clock. Before we had the intelligence to build a clock, a sundial was invented. Before sundials, time was marked by the passage of days and the phases of the moon. Humans are obsessed with keeping track of time, and God put that in us. So, if Christians must be obsessed with time, I suggest that we concentrate our efforts on the time that persecuted Christians spend at the mercy of the evil, blood-thirsty monsters that torture and kill us.

According to the International Society for Human Rights, “While about 30 percent of the world’s population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed at Christians.”

In 2021, according to OpenDoorsUSA.org,

Over 360 million Christians were living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination.

5,898 Christians were killed for their faith.

5,110 churches and other Christian buildings were attacked.

4,765 believers were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned.

If you’re a Christian and want to make a difference;

1. Stop worrying about how old the earth is. That doesn’t matter.

2. Start using your gift of Curiosity to inquire about persecuted Christians.

3. Use your gift of Intelligence to realize that the persecution of Christians just because they follow Jesus is unjustified and morally wrong in every way.

4. Use your gift of Freewill and choose to defend persecuted Christians. That DOES matter.

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