Where Else are You Going to Go?

Adam and Eve were in the Garden one romantic evening. Adam had built a nice fire that they sat next to as they cuddled together and and just enjoyed each other's company. At one point, being the woman she was, Eve looked up at Adam and said, "Honey, do you love me?"

Adam thought for a moment and then said, "Well, who else?"

No Viable Alternatives

This humorous joke sets up a fantastic truth. Sometimes, in our lives there are no viable alternatives. And sometimes there are alternatives that are disastrous.

One of my college professors, Prof. Hodges, had a wonderful sense of humor and always made classes delightful. Prof. Hodges was one of those rare professors that kept his students fully attentive. When the time came for his classes to be over, students would groan, not wanting to leave.

In one of his lectures in ecclesiology (the study of the church), he started talking about Noah. If it had been any other professor, we might have thought that he was off on a rabbit trail, but this professor had a way of drawing all sorts of seemingly unrelated information into his lectures and making a point.

An Unbearable Stench

He spoke very descriptively about Noah's ark during the flood. His primary topic was the animals and the fact that they would have been smelly.

Have you ever been on a cow farm? I'm talking about the real thing, not just a farm with a few cows. The smell of multiple hundreds of cows and their feces can make a person ill. On the I-5 corridor, there is a cow farm in California. I have driven by it on I-5 on several occasions. What's amazing is that we were not driving through the cow farm; we were just driving by it! Yet, when you drive by it, the smell is simply gut wrenching, and it goes on for miles. Some drivers actually get sick and "toss their cookies." And, it makes no difference if you close your car windows or leave them open.

Prof. Hodges was talking about the animals, and he suggested that all too often we have a child's idea of the animals on the ark. After all, we've all seen children's pictures of the about 20 or fewer animals on the ark; all of them almost seem to have smiles on their faces. All of them are clean and beautiful. But, let's get real for a moment. The sheer number of animals on the ark was overwhelming. The stench was probably unbearable even before the final door was closed.

The people on the ark had to shovel feces every day. The stench would have been excruciating. I have seen people get sick on boats due to the waves, but combine seasickness with the unbearable stink that likely permeated every inch of the ark, and then you might get a smidgen of an idea of what being on the ark was like.

By the time Prof. Hodges got done with his unflattering description of the ark's aroma, some of the students in the class were literally getting physically ill.

Then, Prof. Hodges pointed out one powerful fact. He said, "But, there was no better place to be at the time." Like the title of this CT says, "Where Else are You Going to Go?" Like Adam said to Eve, "Well, who else?"

The Church

You see, the ark is a type of the church. And, I often hear people, both Christians and non-Christians complaining about the church of Jesus Christ. There are "stinky hypocrites" in the church and many other complaints. Well, as Prof. Hodges said, "Yes, there are problems with the church. It is true that the church is not perfect. As long as we are humans in this life, there will be a stench in the 'ark of God.' But, there is no better place to be."

The alternative to being in Jesus Christ and part of his church is simply not viable for me.

Interestingly, some of Jesus' own disciples caught this truth early on. Jesus made a claim that confused and offended people. When he did this, some of the people "in his ark" jumped overboard. Note this occasion in the Gospel of John:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him." From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him (John 6:54-6:66).

Note these powerful and deadly words: "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."

When this happened, Jesus turned to his original 12 disciples and asked, "How about you? Do you want to jump overboard too?" (John 6:67, Walston paraphrase)

The spokesman for the Twelve was Peter, and he said,

Lord, where else are we going to go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We believe and we know that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69, Walston paraphrase).

In the multi-religious society in which we live, many people talk about God and religion as though we may simply "belly up to the spiritual smorgasbord" and pick and chose the spiritual items we want; you have your choice from an array of saviors; situational truths aplenty; you can go light on the Lordship of Jesus and on personal self-sacrifice, but dip heavily into the ice-cream and chocolate syrup of "love and peace and acceptance for all" no matter which savior they dragged out of the big bowl.

God's Truth is Not up for Popular Vote

In the final analysis, the Bible makes clear a couple of things. First, note well that when "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him," Jesus did not chase after them and say, "Ah, com' back! I was only kidding. Maybe I was being too harsh. Please, please don't leave." Nope. In fact, he turned to his Twelve disciples and gave them the opportunity to leave as well. You see, God's truth is not up for popular vote. And if we don't like it, we can leave. You may, if you choose, jump out of the ark into the flood waters below.

Recently, I was at a Starbucks with some friends, Cale and Sheen. Sheen told me that someone had said to her, "Christianity doesn't work for me." To this Sheen replied, "Do you want a religion that works for you, or one that's true?" Solomon said it this way: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" (Prov. 14:12).

So, if you want to live, get into the ark and grab your shovel. After all, where else are you going to go? There are no viable alternatives.

Note from a reader:

While the unbearable stench notion is certainly good for the sake of graphically illustrating a point, it wasn't necessarily true. One possible senerio, for example, is that the animals went into a state of hibernation-either naturally or supernaturally. – Cale Burr