Letters From Grandpa #56

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 56

Dearest Grandchild,

Today’s letter will deal with the need for common sense. Here is a joke that made the rounds before you were born. It comes from time when Jimmy Carter was President. The economy was terrible, interest rates were high, gas lines were long, and many were unemployed. So, the joke goes, a PHD was out of work and sought a job at a gas company. The boss felt sorry for him and said he could have a job pumping gas. The man was incensed and said: “What do you mean pump gas, I’m a PHD?” The boss replied: “OK, I’ll show you how”.

The point is that often highly educated people lack common sense. They may excel in ethereal discussions and theories, but lack the practical skills necessary to make common sense decisions. There is something very practical about the message of Christ, that why the common people heard Him gladly (Mk. 12:37 KJV). That’s why, after praying all night long, Jesus selected 12 of these common people to preach His message (Lk. 6:12 - 16). These common people had common sense.

Some years ago I did an interview with Steve Saint, Mincaye, and Tementa. This interview can be seen on the Venture in Faith Series produced by GNPI in Joplin. Mincaye and Tementa are part of the infamous “Auca” tribe in the Amazon jungles. Sociologists have considered them the most violent tribe on earth. 60% of the deaths within the tribe were the result of family members killing one another. Tementa’s father was mortally wounded by family members and buried alive by his wife. When the dying father requested that his daughter be buried with him, the mother dutifully strangled the little girl and placed her in the grave. When he requested his son also, the distraught mother refused realizing that someday she would need him to hunt for her. That son was the very Tementa whom you can see on the video. As ridiculous as it sounds, there are many people who criticize missionaries for seeking to convert these natives and deprive them of their tribal ways. Does that make sense to you?

Pete Singer, a professor at Princeton, believes that all animals are equal. In his view, this includes humans. In 1979 he wrote, “Human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons”; therefore, “the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee.” In 1993 he suggesting that no newborn should be considered a person until 30 days after birth and that the attending physician should kill some disabled babies on the spot. Does that makes sense to you? How would you like to hire this man to baby sit your children?

I think I told you of a written exchange I had with a feminist over 20 years ago. She insisted that the Bible was bad for women, and I took the opposite view. After several exchanges she said that further correspondence was useless as neither of us would change. I agreed with her, but did ask one final favor. I asked her: “Tell me where you want to live where the Bible has never been

taught”? She said that was a good question and that she would get back with me after the holidays. That was over 20 years ago and I am yet to hear from her. Surely people with common sense recognize that the Bible is good for society.

Back in the 1960s I picked up a hitch hiking Hippie who was so confused that he didn’t know whether he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was a man. He and his girl friend were living in a commune in Arizona when their little baby died because there were no medical services available. Aren’t you glad your parents got married, and didn’t try to raise you in a drug invested environment with no medical facilities?

John chapter 9 tells the story of a man born blind who was healed by Christ. It is amazing that the scholars saw nothing good in this healing. As they were trying to sort out their own tangled theology they turned to this common man and began to ask him questions. He obviously had no formal education for he had been born blind. He was so out of touch with society that he didn’t even realize who had healed him. He did, however, have enough common sense to say: “One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see” (Jn. 9:25).

A similar story is found in Acts chapters 3 and 4. This time it involved a man who was over 40 years old and had been crippled from birth. For many years his friends had laid him at the Gate Beautiful to beg for alms. When Peter and John healed him through the name of Jesus, he immediately began walking, leaping, and praising God. Common sense tells you this was a good thing, but the scholars thought otherwise. They would have been happier if he had remained crippled. They recognized, however, that everybody in Jerusalem knew that an outstanding miracle had taken place (Acts 4:16) and they couldn’t deny it. As irrational as it seems, however, they did everything they could to see to it that something like this never happened again. Does that make sense to you?

I am constantly amused by the Freedom From Religion activists who are forever trying to purge anything religious from society. Think about it! North Korea has already achieved the very thing in society they are striving for, but not one of them wants to emigrate there. Does that make sense to you?

Many years ago the late Carl Bowers asked me to visit a friend in the hospital. The man was terminally ill but still maintained optimism that with the help of good doctors and medical science he would survive his present crisis. When I spoke to him about receiving Christ he made clear that he had never needed God before and had made a deliberate decision to die the way he lived. The next day it was as if someone had flipped a switch and all of his optimism had vanished like a vapor. The doctor took away all dietary restrictions and told him he could eat anything he wanted. He said that he felt like a man on death row eating his last meal. In a couple of days he was dead, and as far as I know he died the way he live. Does his philosophy on life make sense to you?

Richard Dawkins, arguably the world’s most famous champion of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, has recently been discussing the possibility that life on Earth could be the result of

advanced alien engineering. In an interview with Ben Stein he admitted the possibility of a designer, but suggested it was aliens from outer space and not God. Another scientist referenced the same theory while commenting on what appear to be man tracks at Glen Rose, Texas. The controversy involves the fact that these man tracks are in the same stones as Dinosaur tracks. If this is true, the theory of evolution has no way to explain it. Some scientist suggested that these tracks may have been made by an alien as Dawkins theorized. Since whatever creature made the tracks was bare footed, someone wryly suggested that if aliens had the intelligence to come to earth in a space ship, it looks like they would be smart enough to wear shoes. Yes! Common sense is often in short supply, even in the scientific world.

If you are interested in a more detailed discussion regarding these footprints please click on http://www.bible.ca/tracks/taylor-trail.htm

Please remember that the followers of Christ have nothing to fear from facts. It is important, however, to always use some common sense.

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce