Blasphemy

What’s something you believed as a child that has changed since you became an adult? 

I always loved teaching reading genres. I would teach about non-fiction, fiction, and science-fiction and explain that fiction and science-fiction of the past were the non-fiction of the present and future. We would look at objects written about in fiction and science fiction and see how those same objects are now. Think about spy movies and stories from the 1960s-70’s. They talked on hand-held, portable communicators. These were the precursors to our cell phones of today. Cell phones were modeled after the communicators used on Star Trek. Many of Jules Verne’s writings are not far from reality.  

Think about the things you were told as a child that you know are not true. Eating carrots makes you see better. Coffee will stunt your growth. Pluto is a planet. When this is all you ever knew growing up, and then one day you’re told it isn’t true. Or someone starts changing everything around, it may be hard to believe.

In the Book of Acts, the Jews had always believed that the way to Heaven was to follow the Commandments of Moses and the Old Testament. They held the Temple as the holiest of holies. And then comes Stephen. Stephen is preaching the Gospel of Jesus. The leaders of the synagogue disputed the preaching of Stephen, stirred up the elders, and brought him before the council. The crime? Blasphemy.

Now to them, what Stephen was preaching was blasphemy. They said he claimed that Jesus would destroy the Temple. Jesus did destroy the Temple, Himself, and rebuilt it in three days, when He was crucified, buried, and resurrected. They claimed that he said Jesus would change the customs of Moses. He did. Rather than the laws of Moses and the Old Testament, Jesus, through His shed blood, became the path to salvation and eternal life.

It’s easy to sit back, read, and see how Stephen was taking all they ever knew and preaching a “New” Gospel. 

I’m still upset about Pluto.