The Great Debate—Part 1: Introduction

To my faithful readers I apologize for the lack of posts in the last week.  It has been a really busy week at school.

Before I continue with the TV Fast series I need to explain a key way in which I understand the world and make decisions (after reading the last post I’m sure you know it’s not blindly submitting to what I’ve been told to do at church).  Everyday I ask myself if I am going towards Egypt, the wilderness, or The Promised Land.  To understand this paradigm it is key to know a little bit about the Bible.

In the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, God’s people (the Israelites) are in slavery under the Egyptians.  It turns into a very savage slavery as the Egyptians first try to work the Israelites to death and after that fails try to exterminate the male babies.  In this context the people groan to God, he hears them, and he gets to work on saving them.  This process will include Moses being called at the burning bush, the ten plagues, and finally (the most memorable scene) Moses parting the Reed Sea.  Once the sea is parted the Israelites escape the Egyptian chariots.

Following their escape the Israelites end up in the desert/wilderness.  Here they will receive the Ten Commandments and make an idol of a golden calf. 

Finally, after some more wandering, the Israelites end up near the Promised Land.  I like to imagine that they walk all the way up to the river that marks the boundary between the Promised Land and the desert/wilderness.  Here, they run into a problem.  They realize that the land on the other side of the river, which God has promised to them and led them to, has strongly fortified cities and mighty enemy armies. 

This will lead to the Israelites having a great debate about what direction they should head.  One option is to go back to Egypt and be slaves again.  A second option is to trust that somehow God will allow for them to successfully displace their enemies in the Promised Land.  And a third option becomes wandering around in the desert/wilderness.

Especially during my first two years of being a Christian, while I was at Pasadena City College, I had this debate in contemporary terms daily.  In fact, the sequel to War For My Soul is called Insane Asylum (currently only 10,000 words long) and exclusively deals with these debates and their outcomes.  Although the intensity of the debate is not so loud anymore, I still run every decision I make through the grid of whether it is taking me to Egypt, the Promised Land, or the wilderness. 

I’m sure this grid is still incredibly vague.  Over the next three days I will make the case for each direction both in the terms of the great debate, which occurred on the banks of the Promised Land, and in contemporary terms.