Until the national media (with lots of help from government bureaucrats) told us what was right and what was wrong, we depended on the Bible to teach us that, along with a little help from preachers, revivals, neighbors, tent meetings, teachers... actually, just about everybody.  That's what old time religion was all about... everybody.  We could use a little dose of it today.
     From an article by Cindy Kerr about W. A. Criswell on http://www.bpnews.net
     "Revival meetings were a component of religion past....  Criswell told of his first quarter-time church at the start of his ministry, where the congregation heard their circuit-riding expositor only one Sunday a month, and then in a schoolhouse, not a church house.  They had an open tabernacle on the campgrounds, and when the crops were laid by and the summertime came, he remembered, 'it seemed to me the whole creation gathered for the service, and oh... how the power and spirit of God rested upon those congregations'."
     "Criswell told of an old-time preacher's unyeilding faith in Scripture, even when mischievous boys glued some of his Bible's pages together.  The pastor told of Noah's wife, and turning what he thought was one page, he read aloud, 'and she was 35 cubits broad, 86 cubits long, made out of gopherwood and gawked on the inside and out with pitch.'  The preacher scratched his head, saying, 'That's the first time I ever saw that in the Word of God, but if the Bible says it, I believe it.'."
     "Travel back in time with me," Criswell invited, "to the Green River Baptist Association in central Kentucky.  Imagine -- an opening in a grove of trees, logs split open for benches, a man way up front preaching.  Suddenly the man beside you stands, then one over there, soon the whole throng of people, and they join hands and sing through tears, 'My heavenly home is bright and fair, I feel like traveling on.  No harm nor death can enter there, I feel like traveling on."
     From an article about Billy Sunday (1862-1935) - http://www.biblebelievers.com
     "I don't know any more about theology than a jack-rabbit does about ping pong, but I'm on the way to glory. Theology bears the same relation to Christianity that botany does to flowers, or astronomy to the stars.  Botany is rewritten, but the flowers remain the same.  Theology changes (I have no objection to your new theology when it tries to make the truths of Christianity clearer) but Christianity abides.  Nobody is kept out of heaven because he does not understand theology."
     "What we need is the good old-time kind of revival that will cause you to love your neighbors, and quit talking about them.  A revival that will make you pay your debts, and have family prayers."
     "That's the road, and that's the only one mapped out for you and me.  God treats all alike.  He doesn't furnish one plan for the banker and another to the janitor who sweeps out the bank.  He has the same plan for one that He has for another.  It's the law--you may not approve of it, but that doesn't make any difference."
     "You say, 'Mr. Sunday, the Church is full of hypocrites.'  So's hell.  I say to you, if you don't want to go to hell and live with that whole bunch forever, come into the Church, where you don't have to associate with them for very long.  There are no hypocrites in Heaven."
     "You say, 'Mr. Sunday, I can be a Christian and go to heaven without joining a church.' Yes, and you can go to Europe without getting on board a steamer.  The swimming's good-- but the sharks are laying for fellows who take that route.  I don't believe you.  If a man is truly saved he will hunt for a church right away."

Was my daddy a big ape?                          

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide."
                                                                         Napoleon

"I heard my mother call my daddy a big ape once, but I don't think she meant it literally"
                                                                         Bob "Hoghead" Bush

Excerpt from the novel Death of Glory:                                                                                 

     "But what about all the troubles you've had?"  Kathy's tone was apologetic.  Getting stranded like you did, with the kids?  Seeing them in that situation?  Your divorce?  How could your God let these things happen to you when you're such a goody two-shoes?"
     "He let them happen to me because after He gave me free will, I used it stupidly to make choices that put me in these positions."  Christine diverted her eyes from Kathy's.  "At least that's my best guess."  She picked up another roll, giving herself a chance to think.  "Besides, what was He supposed to do?  Swoop down out of the clouds and hand me a million dollars and tell me to stay at home?"  Christine chuckled and Kathy smiled politely.  "I made my bed, Kathy.  I married Ricky.  I wish I had never talked my dad into giving him a job, but I did that, too.  Ricky fit right in with my dad's way of thinking."  Christine looked out the window behind the sofa, remembering. "They're like two peas in a pod.  God didn't make Ricky that way though.  He just gave him the free will to become that way."  Christine shrugged, pitifully. "So God is not to blame for my problems.  But back to your original question.  How do I know God exists?"  
     "First of all," Christine continued, "If God came out of the clouds and sat on a throne where we could all see Him;  if He did miracles and did away with our earthly pain and turmoil, there would be no need for faith.  We would worship Him out of fear, because we could see His power first hand.  There would be no doubt."  Kathy reached for her coffee cup without taking her eyes off Christine's face.  "We would obey God's edicts and commands because we were afraid of Him, not because it was the right thing to do... or the right way to live.  We would really not have free will, because we'd be scared to sin, knowing for an absolute fact that eternity in hell would be our reward.  We would have learned nothing by this existence except to do as we were told. We have to accept that He is real by faith... or we would really not have free will.  But, and this is a big but, He has given us some rather dramatic clues."
     Christine shifted positions on the couch until she was comfortable again.  "Before I became a believer, it hit me that if I did believe, died and found out I was wrong, the consequences would be much less far-reaching than if I did not believe, died and found out I was wrong."  Christine laughed.  "Did that make any sense at all?"  Kathy smiled but again chose not to speak.  "In other words, if I died and found out that God was real, but I had not believed in Him, eternity would be a long time to roast in hell.  On the other hand, if I believed in Him, died and found out He was not real... what had I lost?"  Christine smiled broadly.  "Discretion being the better part of valor, I decided to err on the side that God was real, and I started looking to see if there were some things to grasp onto."
      "This universe, for instance.  Our best scientists can't tell us where the universe came from.  I read once that for every grain of sand on every beach there are a million stars.  Only a Supreme Being could do all that, and in such magnitude, but that's a whole different argument.  The universe is just one proof that God exists.  There are others."
     Christine paused, and Kathy raised her hand to stop the conversation.  "Do you want a refill?"
     Christine offered her cup and Kathy filled it.  "Go ahead," Kathy said, settling back into the many cushions on her end of the sofa.
     Aside from what is now an obvious fact to me, that God exists... how about man himself and life on this tiny planet?"  She took a sip from her freshened cup.  "According to evolutionists, we evolved from a single bacterial cell which came to life billions of years ago... accidently... in a sulfur bog, or something."  Christine twisted one corner of her mouth into a wry smile.  "And in order for their theory to work, they have to presume that God doesn't exist.  Yet they insist we must prove that He does.  We aren't allowed to presume... just them.  In other words, they can say they don't know how all this happened, but it wasn't God.  They have less proof than we do, yet they tell us everything was an accident. Everything after that first living cell was an accident, too, because somehow that initial cell multiplied.  I'm not sure how, or what it ate to survive... it was the only life form on the planet... but according to someone, it did.  The only edible thing on the planet at that time was itself."  Christine put her cup on the coffee table and sat up out of her slouch.  She was animated again.
     "But let's pretend these first cells didn't have to nourish themselves, because if they did, the strict evolutionists would have a problem with their theory.  So these single-cell creatures somehow grew into multi-celled creatures without eating each other.  What did these multi-celled creatures eat?  There was nothing else on the planet that was edible... nothing organic.  Eventually, they would have to start eating each other.  Then what would they mate with?  That would have been interesting.  Do I eat this thing, or do I mate with it?  My guess would be eat it, since there would be no reproductive organs.  And where did reproductive organs come from?  To this point they hadn't been needed.  These organs just happened to evolve, very quickly, and the creatures figured out how to use them before they ate each other?  And one day something crawled out of the ocean onto dry land.  Or was the first thing a plant?  Did we evolve from a plant?  Anyway, there must have been a 'first thing' that crawled out of the water onto dry land.  What did it eat?  A burger and fries?  And what did it mate with?  And how did it breathe?"
     Christine paused, let out a breath of air and relaxed back into the cushions. "Do I need to go on, Kathy?  I mean we have a body and mind which defies scientific explanation, much less scientific creation. Certainly we are evolving, but people confuse this with the Theory of Evolution which says we came from a common source. We are growing taller and living longer because of medical advances and scientific knowledge.  We are evolving in that regard. Darwin proved that evolution is a fact.  But to believe that every animal, including man, accidentally formed from something that crawled out of the water with nothing to eat and nothing to mate with... that defies logic.  To think that we are not the result of intelligent design, makes no sense."

Feedback:

I have a friend and very learned scientist who is also a Christian.  On more than one occasion he has pointed out to me how a narrow-minded view of the truth is a dangerous one. (ouch)  I greatly value his opinions in things scientific and must bow to his opinions in these areas.  I am including the following excerpt from one of his recent e-mails regarding the value of the scientific process.

"I don't have all the answers.  I only know what I believe concerning Christ's call on our hearts, and what I have observed in science.  The unfortunate thing is that so many of us think we must choose one over the other.  That immediately alienates those that are prone to think scientifically.  However, scientists cannot be the holders of all truth.  They cannot make claims concerning areas of faith.  If they do, they go against what they stand for.  It is impossible to scientifically test claims of faith.  So what we are left with is an interesting balance.  We pursue truth through the eyes of faith and experience.  Even our own Nazarene Wesleyan tradition is based on a quadrilateral or matrix of pursuing truth which includes faith, reason, tradition and experience..  All truth is God's truth!  We discover it in a variety of ways.  I just hope to convey to a generation of students that ways of knowing (empirical or metaphysical) are part of our created being.  We were created to explore all truth.  Even those non-Christian scientists are revealing God's truth in making observations and discoveries about the created order.  God is the author, they are reading a different portion of the book."

Coming from a background of "redneck", I am certainly not qualified to argue with this.  If you have something to add, pro or con, e-mail me:  shelbyredd@iwon.com