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In Dedication to the "One Who Causes To Become"
We were reminded this week that the Voyager spacecraft has at last reached the so-called "termination shock" boundary of our local solar system. The Voyager's voyage from earth began some 26 years ago and carries a message intended for extraterrestrials from the late Carl Sagan. Man's entire space program might rightly be hailed as an extraordinary human achievement and the culmination of human genius stretching back to the ground-breaking scientific works of Galileo and Kepler. But, what is even more extraordinary than any single work or accomplishment in the human sphere is the power that mankind has to affect the future, often even long after we expire. As a dramatic example of the divine power we have been endowed with, consider how, even after his death, Carl Sagan's voice and vision continue on—now, literally beckoning beyond our native world. It is not at all uncommon, though, that what we create lives on. For example, parents set the future in motion simply by having children and passing on to each generation life and some measure of continuity of culture and accumulated knowledge. Of course, Jehovah initiated all things in the beginning. In fact, the very name Jehovah means "He that causes to Become." The first thing that Jehovah caused to become was his special Son, whom he endowed with the power to create all other things. Through his firstborn Son, Jehovah set things into motion here on earth by creating humans in his own image, with small-scale abilities similar to his own, giving us the capacity to cause things to become in a limited way through our own thoughts and actions. But, it is humbling that Jehovah's power to cause things to become has even been infused into the unreasoning animal creation. Take the squirrel, for example. This time of year in the Northern hemisphere squirrels instinctively bury nuts and acorns in the ground by the hundreds and thousands. But, apparently due to Jehovah's programming of them, they often forget where they buried their little treasures, and as a result, many of the seeds and nuts they "squirrel-away" germinate into seedlings in the spring. Thus, the long-lived mighty oak may live long after the squirrel that planted it has expired. It is quite possible that you may be sitting on a chair made of oak, or have a table or flooring made of oak wood that was originally planted years ago by our little rodent arborist friends. Jehovah's power of causation ripples down from him throughout all of his vast creation. Truth-seekers today ought to especially appreciate how Jehovah's power to cause has operated through the far-reaching and profound contributions to the truth that some men have made. As the translator of the first English Bible, William Tyndale is one such man whose work changed the entire course of history. Up until his time, the Bible was only available in Latin; which few Englishmen were able to read. Tyndale once told a priest who tried to discourage him from his work: "If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than thou dost." Although William Tyndale was betrayed and burned at the stake for his efforts, Jehovah did spare his life long enough for him to set things in motion so that the common man and woman today does indeed know more of the Scriptures than the learned clergy. If not for Tyndale breaking down the tyrannical forces that held the Bible in bondage, we may never have had the opportunity to possess and read God's Word in English. In more recent times, Charles Taze Russell made an enormous contribution to the furtherance of the truth. He too over-turned the tyrannical reasonings that held people's minds captive to convention at that time. The movement he set into motion from the tiny living-room gatherings of Bible Students in Allegheny has become what it has become today. But, like all previous institutions that have started off as guardians of the truth, the Watchtower has gradually become more like the tyrannical system we oppose. Originally intended as a bastion against the forces of evil, the protective walls of the "organization" have, ironically, served to obstruct the very vision Jehovah intended for truth-seekers. My faith is that these words that long ago left Jehovah's mouth will eventually cause to become: "In view of your rejecting of this word, and since you men trust in defrauding and in what is devious and you support yourselves on it, therefore for you this error will become like a broken section about to fall down, a swelling out in a highly raised wall, the breakdown of which may come suddenly, in an instant." Comfortingly, at the time the highly-raised imaginary protective wall collapses, Jehovah speaks, saying: "Therefore Jehovah will keep in expectation of showing you favor, and therefore he will rise up to show you mercy. For Jehovah is a God of judgment. Happy are all those keeping in expectation of him." (Isaiah 30) The eye of the artist may perhaps admire the Hebrew writing as beautiful calligraphy. Perhaps a few learned readers may even be able to actually read Hebrew. No doubt for most of us, though, the writing is as un-decipherable as hieroglyphics. The point that should impress us is that the human mind has the capability to look at lines and markings on a page and to see, not just what appears to our eyes, but we are gifted with the divine faculty of perception and reason and so are able to grasp spiritual concepts and eternal truths that ultimately emanated from the mind of God and were transmitted from another realm millennia ago. In a sense the Bible's message has come down to us in reverse to the concept employed by the Voyager. Originally etched on crude animal skins, then later transcribed onto processed papyrus, and still later, wood pulp, and most recently converted into recognizable text through the wizardry of computer technology; the Word of Jehovah has already demonstrated its potential to endure forever.
In Dedication to the "One Who Causes to Become"
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