Theism v. Atheism in the Steam Room.

Funny, coming to think of it, only last week I wrote about how many things in life had changed over time, and the pandemic had speeded up various changes, especially the decline of the "club culture" at our local sauna facility.

Yet, only yesterday, I found myself sitting in the steam room with two other fellows, one looking to be a Brit in his forties, or even in his fifties, who I will refer to as Mick, the other was a Serbian immigrant in his late twenties or early thirties whose parents moved to Germany, and he then came over to live in the UK. As the Brit was quite inquisitive about how his parents had coped with the Croatian/Serbian wars that ended the State of Yugoslavia by 1992. Not that he had to cope with the break-up of the country back then, as he either wasn't yet born, or he must have been very young at the time. Yet, Mick still asked if the young man was able to cope whilst he was still in Serbia.

Inside a typical steam room.

That's was when I joined in their chat, reviving the nostalgia of days gone past of a better social life at the facility. The conversation between the three of us went something like this - my own speech quoted in italics:-

Me: Mick, can I share this true story? When I was at a hostel in the Holy Land, I found myself chatting to a couple of fellow backpackers. They were asking me where I was from.

When I said that I was from near London, they looked so flabbergasted! One of them then asked, "London? Isn't that where there's was a lot of bombings - from the IRA, I believe?"

I burst out laughing. "No, I was never fortunate enough to witness a bombing!" I replied to them. "It's amazing how one or two isolated incidents can so easily damage the reputation of any location. But be assured, London is just as safe a city to be in like any other."

Mick: "You've been to Israel? How long were you there for?"

Me: Well, I went quite a few times. But if I were to string these trips together to become one, it would total almost five months - or 20 weeks.

Mick: "Are you religious?"

Me: Well, put it this way, erm, I know Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. I have known Him for the last fifty years or so.

Mick: "Well, I'm an atheist. As in Life of Brian, I don't have to follow anyone or anything, and I don't like religion forced down my throat. 

Me: What had made you an atheist?

Mick: As I was growing up, I saw a growing conflict between religion and science. As a boy, I had to attend Sunday School, even if my parents weren't churchgoers. But it was later in life I saw that these religious myths did not match scientific facts, like Evolution. Hence, I switched. However, where did you stay in Israel?"

Me: I stayed at a backpacker's hostel in Jerusalem Old City. Over there, you really experience a different culture. As an example, over here, our hostels have separate dorms for each gender. Over there, I slept in a room shared with and surrounded by couples, many sleeping arm-in-arm. 

On another occasion, at a private wedding reception, I watched a live sheep thrashing its legs after having its throat cut and skinned whilst still alive, with its blood flowing to a nearby drain. At least the meat was so fresh when cooked and served! We all sat in a circle and helped ourselves from a large central plate. There was no table or chairs. We all sat in a circle on the ground. That is what travel is all about. Not those Spanish Costa del Sunny or whatever, where you spend your time at an English-style pub!

Mick and the Serbian both laughed.

Me: But most intriguing of all is when I visited the site of the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron, the burying place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their wives Sarah, Rebekah and Leah. It's within the Palestinian territory. If you click, "Cave of Machpelah" on Google, it will come up straight away. A fortress is built over it, and I actually went inside! To think that Herod the Great built it before the birth of Christ. Whilst the whole of Jerusalem was razed to the ground in AD 79 by Roman General Titus, this fortress remained intact throughout, its 2,100-year history, give or take, served as a church, a synagogue and a mosque. In one sense, it's a sentinel commemorating the origin of Israel as a nation. No other country in the world has a sentinel like this one to mark its origins! It certainly upholds the truthfulness of the Bible.

As one story goes, an atheist approached a farmer he knew to be a devoted Christian. The atheist then challenged the farmer by asking, "Can you show me one tangible proof that the Bible is true?"

"Aye sir, the Jew!"

Later, Mick and I found ourselves sitting in the sauna cabin, and we discussed our travels further. This time, I expanded worldwide, including hiking the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, and snorkelling over the Great Barrier Reef and also in the Red Sea at Eilat. Mick became excited as he explained that he holds a PADI certificate for diving instructors. We exchanged our travel experiences further until it was almost time for me to leave. It was then when Mick suddenly asked,

"Do you attend church?" 

To which I replied, Yes, I attend Ascot Life Church. We meet in the Old Paddock Restaurant. So many of us are meeting together that we've outgrown our original building. So we had to hire a venue twice the size to meet in.

Finally, just as I was about to walk out of the cabin for the cool-down shower, I made this parting shot:

If the Resurrection of Jesus Christ had never occurred, then why are we still talking about it some two thousand years later?

Food for thought for Mick, maybe?

The Sentinel of Israel, the Cave of Machpelah.

The world of Travel. How I loved to travel, especially before I married Alex. Since I didn't marry until I was 47 years old, I had plenty of time for that on my hands. Whether it was standing solemnly in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, hiking a trail in the wilderness, or shaking hands with Micky Mouse at Disneyland, the purpose of travel was, and always will be, to explore our fantastic planet that surrounds my home town.

When I was converted to Christ as Saviour back in late 1972, immediately I developed an interest in the Bible as I began to read it. The one feature I come to discover by reading the Old Testament was that gradually, Jerusalem grew in prominence, especially after King David had captured the former Jebusite city, defeating its indigenous inhabitants and then setting up his throne there as King of Israel. As David was the ancestor of Jesus Christ himself, it was the Lord who openly declared to his audience that Jerusalem is the City of the Great King, that is, the Son of God himself (Matthew 5:35) who will return to reign on his father King David's throne.

Hence the inspiration to visit this particular city for the first time in 1976, then again in 1993, 1994 and finally, with my beloved in 2000. It was in 1976 when I attended the Arab wedding Reception. Also, in 1976 and in 1993 as well, I waded through a 2,700-year old tunnel which is a 530-metre long water chute dug through a solid limestone hill they call Mt Moriah. I also stood inside the Dome-of-the-Rock located on Temple Mount. Below its floor, there is a chamber where the summit of the original mountain remains intact, and it's where Abraham was ready to offer up his son Isaac, according to tradition. I stood by that rock with awe!

As I stood outside the golden Dome, admiring its beauty and holding a fascination over me for being on the very site of Solomon's Temple, and also an area Jesus was also familiar with, thoughts began to enter my mind on why this Islamic structure was allowed to be built at this precise spot. If this edifice was never built, then the Jews might have built their Third Temple, prompting the return of Jesus Christ to reign from Jerusalem and marking the end of the present age. The Dome quite literally blocked all this from happening, as it was not the time. In addition to this sobering truth was that - had the Temple rebuilding had occurred during the first millennium AD, we today would not even exist, let alone know God personally. Therefore, it can be said that the presence of the Dome-of-the-Rock blocking the rebuilding of the Temple will allow Heaven to be fully populated by those having faith who are still unborn.

Oh, how wonderful I felt when I thought about these things! These thoughts gave me a new perception of human history and Biblical revelation. And all this is contained in one word - Travel.

Looking back, I could discern a pattern, the putting together of a beautiful picture, like a jig-saw puzzle. By visiting Israel, especially in 1993, had opened the door for worldwide travel in the years that followed. And the combined reasons are a search for adventure and to appreciate our planet in both the natural and man-made structure - inspired by the God-created human brain. Hence, falling in love with the Grand Canyon, snorkelling over the corals of the Great Barrier Reef with its sandy cays held in place by tropical vegetation, hiking through the eucalyptus trees and the rainforest of the Blue Mountains National Park, gazing at the mangrove trees whose roots are submerged in the sea or river estuary, watching tiny shrimp happily thriving in Salt Lake of Utah, the rows of Traveller's Palms lining the theme park of Sentosa Island, standing by the majestic Niagara Falls...

Thus, I regard Travel as a privilege, a wonderful privilege indeed! And something that didn't come cheap at all, but I had to work hard for, the efforts to save up and economise with this for the goal to be reached, experienced, enjoyed, and to be treasured in both memory and photo albums for life.

Travel is one kettle of fish. But there is another - jet-setting - as I call it. With those who jet-set, they are not flying out to experience the natural beauty and the historical riches of this planet. Instead, they fly out to complete an errand, such as visiting a relative, attending a wedding, a baptism, or even a funeral.

Surely, all good in itself isn't it?

I may work hard to fly over a great distance to admire a particular location. Furthermore, throughout my travels, there was no viral pandemic in which I could pass a pathogen to others and infect them. When I arrived back in the UK, there is no thought of quarantine at a hotel, no need to take expensive tests to see whether I'm infected or not. No need for paperwork to prove that I'm fully vaccinated. There was no need for any of that. There was no pandemic. I was clean when I left the UK, I was clean when I arrived back. And I knew it. 

But jetting around the world to fulfil an errand is, to me, cheapens travel to mere convenience. To fly around the world to visit Mum or attend her daughter's baptism or her funeral sounds like a very noble idea. Pre-pandemic, I would have thought nothing of it. But now, a new variant of Covid, the Omicron virus was brought into this country from South Africa by infected people sitting in a jet plane after, say, attending a friend's wedding. And that has made me very cross; the forfeiture of our freedoms and the onset of restrictions due to flying during a pandemic.

As I'm now obliged to wear a wretched mask to cover my face whilst out and about, once again there is a possibility of another Christmas cancelled. In addition, Parliament had just announced that face-to-face consultation with a doctor has been put on hold to speed up the booster rollout. Thus, you better not feel a lump in your breast or suffer heart failure, nor hope for the long-anticipated procedure to end that agonising hip joint pain. All these are now put on hold, especially for senior citizens, so the younger set - who have stronger immune systems - can receive their boosters at a quicker pace.

And travel is cheapened to a mere errand. Instead of spending months, even years working hard to save up for that dream trip, instead, on the spur of the moment, money is easily drawn out of their vast savings to fly halfway around the world to watch a cricket match - as if nipping to the shops for a moment to buy a loaf of bread.

Although well-educated, due to their professional careers, there is plenty of money at their disposal and too much time on their hands, but far too little sense for considerate thinking. Still, that's how wonderful it is to be middle-class. A lifestyle very different to mine, where I was born with a wooden spoon in my mouth rather than a silver one. From my background, I had to learn to appreciate all good things gracefully, fully aware that I couldn't and never will, take anything for granted, especially the wonderful privilege to travel.