This may sound like I’m pulling this out of thin air, but this story is told not only in Genesis, but in all of the surrounding mythologies of the ancient world. They tell the same story but from a different viewpoint.

The myths written by the surrounding cultures are telling the story from the other side. Star Wars is told from the perspective of the Rebel alliance, but the Empire’s tale would make them the righteous protector of freedom. Lord of the Rings is told from the vantage point of hobbits and elves, but the orcs would tell a completely different tale.

That is what is happening in the mythology around Abraham. The Bible is telling one story, and the myths are telling the other. The mythologies have rejected the idea of one God and believe that this the righteous state, a version of progress. This is all over the place. In myth after myth, the heroes are the ones that kill off the primordial creators and gods. The initial gods, such as Uranus, Osiris, and Anu are all killed off by their children, as if this is just normal. The slaying of the higher, older gods is told as a story of progress, in a sense.

The Bible is a book making a different argument. This book is telling us that the most high God created all things and is still the ruler of all. The world all around Abraham is polytheistic and is thus turned away from the idea of one God. In the mythologies, it was not the devil that was kicked off the patio in heaven, it was the one God. The rebellion and overthrow of the original gods by a child god is where the disconnect happens. Where you stand on this point of view is critical in understanding personal and cultural interactions, because it is foundational.

In Star Wars, we enter a world in the middle of history, Luke Skywalker overthrows his father, Darth Vader, a play on “Dark Father.” The Jedis worship a mysterious, uncertain, unknown thing called The Force, a power greater than any god or man. The Jedis are considered fools for following an ancient religion, and Luke has come to restore order through the power of The Force. The Rebel alliance of Luke and the ragtag X-Wing fighters is the people set apart from the rest. The real “rebellion” is that of the Sith, who have overtaken the world, thinking they have deposed The Force. But guess what, Darth? You can’t depose The Force. Your reign is temporary, because the real power is what will be restored through a savior. The rescue mission is on its way. Luke destroys evil and restores the world to health. There is a power greater than the Sith or the Jedi, or Luke, or Obi-Wan Kenobe. Star Wars has the elements of Abraham against the world, and it has the elements of the opposition like that of the pagan cultures around him. This is why it’s a great story: these two things cannot co-exist and must war against each other, so the conflict happens naturally.

In the surrounding cultures of Abraham, the Sumerian gods have slain the top god. It’s done already. The Mesopotamian leaders believe that the rightly ordered world is many gods. Leaders who govern with solid explanations in place would be insane to shake up the game board. Even false gods need to have good backstory, otherwise people will go insane.

Abraham cannot play that game because he knows it’s not real. He is like the boy in The Emperor’s New Clothes, where everyone else is pretending the false gods matter, but Abraham can’t stand it and must speak up and say, “The Emperor has no clothes.” He shakes up the gameboard.

The rightly ordered world according to the Bible, is one God. These two positions cannot abide together peacefully unless one of the positions is abandoned. There are irreconcilable differences between these worldviews, as what grows from these foundations is radically different ways of life. One thing you can see for sure, through both worldviews, is that people are incurably religious. We just are.

The reason why we can't see the big picture is because we've been living in Christendom for so long we have forgotten the tales of the other cultures that surrounded Abraham. We don’t even know what that means in America. Our equality and social justice motives spring directly from Christian ideas, not mythological systems. There is no celebration of selflessness in mythology, aside from a few minor gods and goddesses. There is the idea of sacrifice and ascendency, but not of humility without some kind of reward. In mythology, dogs don’t do tricks unless they get the treat.

We have the script so close to our noses that we can’t even read it. We know the lines by heart, so we can fudge it and maybe we get some details wrong, but the widely accepted dogmas around love and dignity and charity did not come from Uranus. Peace and love most definitely did not come from a world governed by Zeus. No, Zeus was like Jeffrey Epstein in terms of showing us how to live. The mythological systems show no respect for the weak or frail or poor. They celebrated power, not gentleness. They wanted to win, not surrender. The mythological gods were prayed to like NFL coaches, who were to provide a game plan to bring victory. They represented strength, not peace and love. Peace was for suckers.

The chosen people were thus chosen by their choice, but it’s important to keep in mind that the chosen people does not mean they were themselves God. They were keepers of the flame. To keep a flame alive requires a fight, which means violence and bloodshed, which is exactly why people freak out reading the Old Testament, especially people who have been living comfortably in the Pax Americana for the last one hundred years. We just have no idea what it means to have to fight for something. We have no idea how hard it is to keep a candle lit the dark amid a storm.

So yes, the idea of the "Chosen People" seems bizarre to us, as I used to wonder why couldn't the Egyptians be the chosen people? Why couldn’t it be the Amalekites? Or the Hittites? Or the Canaanites?

But that's the whole point. The other people could not be the chosen people of the one God, because the other people have already thrown that idea away, long ago, in a galaxy far away. The other peoples are telling the story of Darth Vader, who is like Zeus. They have not chosen one creator God, they have chosen sub-gods.

Since there is only one group of people that worship the one true God, the description of them as choosing each other makes total sense.

This is another one of these revelations that felt like a club over my head. Rather than looking at this question from my 21st century eyes, you have to look at this story from their perspective, just as you have to look at the Greek heroes through Greek eyes. The story of Abraham was written around 1500 B.C., and Abraham lived around 1800 or 1600 B.C. By choosing to believe in one God, he took a direct step against the grain, he started swimming upstream - whatever metaphor for struggle you prefer - that is what happened. And so the covenant between his people and the one God becomes plain to see. He will not leave God even if the whole world hates him. God will not leave Abraham, even if the whole world rejects God. They have each other. They are alone, but they are together. God uses the people, and they lean back, on God, like Forrest Gump and Bubba in the rain in the Vietnam mud.

Bubba to Forrest: I'm gonna lean up against you, you just lean right back against me. This way, we don't have to sleep with our heads in the mud. You know why we a good partnership, Forrest? 'Cause we be watchin' out for one another. Like brothers and stuff.

God and Abraham’s people are Forrest and Bubba: like brothers and stuff, suffering the slings and arrows of the universe and world. (Except in this case it’s like father and his children, or a shepherd and his sheep.)

The Egyptians and Hittites and Canaanites cannot be the chosen people of the one God because they have already abandoned the one true God, the Most High God, the God that we think of as the monotheistic God.

How do I know this? Assuming I’m not crazy, as I’m sure some family and friends are assuming by now, this wasn’t some kind of private revelation that I had, where I am pretending that something woke me and spoke in the night, like young Samuel. No. I’m not having some kind of experience to realize this, aside from reading both the Bible and mythology. This is all public domain material. I didn’t go to the grotto and hear a voice, I didn’t have a dream, I just read the books. The stories practically shout the situation that Abraham was in when this whole journey to Jesus begins.

The story of these other cultures clearly tell the story of their turning away from the idea of one God. The myths of Egypt and Greece literally tell the story of how the original deity was overthrown by sub-gods. The monotheistic God of old was removed from power, and if you believe that the stories were written to reflect the culture, then that is what the writers are telling us. There are no accidents in Hollywood, nor in propaganda (which is like saying the same thing actually). The idea of one God was abandoned, which is why they write about the many gods, to prove their point. They claim to have it correct. Their argument is no different from modern people who say the same thing, that God is dead. And of course, they are as wrong today as they were 4000 years ago.

This is exactly why the Bible is so different from any other book. It’s why the readings and lessons are so strange to us. Israel is telling the story that no one else is telling. The difference in storytelling alone shows how different a people must be to remain faithful to a single God versus many gods. They are, to put it crudely, the weirdos of the ancient world, and Christians joined them in that weirdness and restored the one God in the mind of human beings to its former glory. I hope this makes sense. The Christian story, in a nutshell, is the victory over the lie that God is dead. The life of Christ is the re-assertion that the one true God is real. The resurrection is the proof that all other gods are false.

For some reason it takes a long time, at least in how we see time, for this to play out. People ask why couldn’t God just tell us this and send a great sign. But he did do that. In fact, the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus is the exact response to this question from people of “why couldn’t God have just sent us a sign?” We could talk about that parable for hours, but the point here is that Jesus says that signs have been sent. They have been sent repeatedly and were ignored. So what good is another sign? We ignored all of the prior signs, so what sign would get the message across? Those who choose not to believe, will choose not to believe whether there is a sign or not. When you are turned inward, you cannot believe because you refuse to ask for faith. When you are spiritually blind, you wouldn’t even see a flashing billboard advertising “free beer” with your name on it. The rich man in hell asks, “Why wasn’t there a sign?” and interestingly enough, the speaker from heaven in this parable is none other than Abraham himself, which is just so perfect. This parable blows my mind both literarily and spiritually. Abraham tells the rich man that he ignored all the signs, and that “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” (Lk 16:19-31) This parable surprises in so many ways that it may have to be a future episode.

Keep in mind that God never lost any power or glory through all of this turning away by the people. He is no less because people just didn’t give him the glory and honor. No, it’s the people that have become fooled into trading the ultimate being, God, for the entertainment of a false object or a fallen spirit. They are praying to dolls and dummies and expecting miracles.

I am sorry to say that I have prayed for free-throws to be made late in games, as if there were a basketball god, even though I sent my prayer to the one God. In reality, I was praying for a basketball god to exist, as I fell for the most classic error in worship, which is to ask for something other than God’s will to be done. Not my will, God’s will. In fact, if I pray for anything other than God’s will to be done, then I need to go back and study the Lord’s Prayer because I’ve clearly forgotten that it doesn’t mention anything about getting what I want, including a free throw to be made, and really, why on earth would my prayer be for an orange ball to go through a metal ring? We have lost our minds when that type of prayer comes from our heart, because that is the entry point for false gods to insinuate themselves into our lives. That is where they get a hold of you.

The density of Genesis in chapters 1 through 11 is profound. Genesis was written around 1500 B.C. That may seem long ago, but 3,500 years ago is not that deep into human oral history and in God’s time is a blink. The ideas in Genesis did not suddenly spring into being in 1500 B.C., as they were oral traditions of people, long before the sacred writer took up a pen.

From the beginning, in the first sentence, the reason the Israelites are so different is because they reject the idea of a heavenly rebellion that succeeded. From that first line, they refuse to adopt a worldview that conflicts with this truth.

The hard thing about truth is that only one argument can be true, as there is no such thing as “my truth” and “your truth” as we like to say today. Either there is one creator God of the universe or there is not. Either there is one God, no god, or many gods. Only one of those can be true. So you have to choose.

If you choose “many gods,” then either Zeus sits on Mount Olympus or he doesn’t. Then you can drive a few hours away and ask the same question: either Marduk exists, or he doesn’t. You have to do this with all the gods. This gets really repetitive once you have to do these same questions for every culture in the world. This is why it’s so easy to throw them all out and declare all gods to be fake.

The argument that atheists and agnostics use today is, “I just believe in one less god than you do,” because the modern non-believer has fully rejected the idea that there are many gods. And so have I. Some people think they have rejected the many god world, but if they are into astrology or divination or all that stuff, then they have not. If you believe in crystals and reiki and witches, then you believe in gods. You have chosen and it’s not the one God of Christianity and Judaism.

But for those that do reject the idea of gods altogether, they should pause and ask themselves about the one God first. Either one God exists, or does not. The question is not about Zeus or Flying Spaghetti Monster that occupy this world and universe. This is a question of whether there is one God who existed before everything and created everything, before the chaos, before empty space. This is where we tend to argue today. You can argue forever if you like on this question, but only one outcome can be true, which makes it a very high-stakes game of roulette for those who put their chips in to play, and we all have to play this game whether we like or not, no matter how long we stand in the shadows trying to bide our time or hide in the corner. The choice here is whether you believe that we are nothing but material, pure chemistry and physics, or if there is the possibility of a soul. You can believe in a soul if you believe in many gods, but you cannot believe in a soul if you reject the one God and the many gods. If you choose that there are neither gods nor the one God, you don’t get to have a soul. You can’t have the cake and also eat it. So if you believe in a soul, you have chosen one God or many gods.

We can’t wish these questions away, because it raises the deepest concerns of our lives, which is to extract meaning and purpose from our senses, from our days, from our experiences, from our education, and most importantly from our hearts. These are high-stakes questions, so naturally we don’t want to bet too brashly or recklessly. People try to hedge their bets on this, but you can’t. You can’t play partially because your life here and hereafter is what’s at stake on the table. That’s why this game rouses anger and strong feelings, because we know that choosing incorrectly can lead to disaster. If I’m wrong my whole world, and what I hold to be most meaningful, falls to pieces. If I’m wrong, I’m a fool.

The choice of choosing the one God requires leaning into the void, looking at the mystery, and opting to allow for mystery. The reason faith is so hard to ask for is because it requires giving up control and knowledge. You can’t achieve faith. You can’t google it. You can’t order it. You can’t even work for it like money or fitness. You have to ask for it. And who likes to ask for things any more? Who wants to be weak, or vulnerable, or exposed? That is where the bet must be placed, on that razor blade. The choice cannot be split. If you are down to the decision of whether to have faith or not have faith, you have to choose God or the self, because if there’s no God, then the only person who can save you is yourself. If there’s no God, then the only person who can give your life meaning, is yourself. And that is exhausting.

So it’s very big bet to place but you have to place it before you die, because your chips go back to the house if you don’t play.

If you answer “no” to the question of God, then you can stop playing now. The rest of the quiz doesn’t apply. You can proceed to the bar and buffet. Enjoy!

If you answer ‘yes’ to the idea of one God, you have to play further. You’re not done after the question of God. There is another decision tree that must be traversed.

If you bet that there is one true God, then you have to consider a followup question, which is every bit as high-stakes as the one before it was. The next question is this: “Did Jesus rise from the dead?”

You could ask a slightly different one, and ask: “Was God incarnated as a human and did he live among us?” But I think the better question that gets to the heart of the matter real fast is the one about the resurrection. This is where we waffle today. This is where we make the choice of whether Jesus was a teacher or God. There is no better place to ponder or loiter than the tomb itself because this is like a light switch that you can either turn on or off. If you turn if off, if you bet against the resurrection, then Jesus was a teacher. He becomes an ordinary man. You can then proceed to the bar and the buffet as well.

Either the resurrection is real, or it was made up. Only one of those two things can be true. There is no “my truth” for this because the roulette wheel either stops on black or red. The wheel stops and your bet cannot be changed once the wheel comes to a halt. I think the better metaphor here is “the light switch is on of off” because this choice either puts Jesus to sleep or brings him to life.

St. Paul states the risk of this predicament openly and plainly. All is at stake for Paul in his bet. Paul’s own life, his own death, the meaning of his life, his hope, his faith - everything sits on the table with this question. And if he has chosen this strange and (seemingly) restrictive way of life, when he could be gorging at the bar and the buffet with those who bet on ‘no,’ then he says that he is a fool to be pitied. And it’s exactly right.

…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins…If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. (1 Cor 15)

If you bet that the resurrection is false, then you can ignore the Commandments. If the resurrection is false, the parables are just forgettable fables. You can get all of the ethical stuff from other writers. If the resurrection is false, then you need self-help books, not Jesus.

But if you accept the resurrection, then the Commandments are required. The parables become instructions for living. Every word he said explains the universe. If the light switch is on, then you cannot go to the bar, you have to ask for faith. Many people, like Paul, like Augustine, never wanted to turn that light switch on. I didn’t want it to. I spent many years doing everything I could to avoid that switch. But once this switch is on, you can’t turn it off. In fact, maybe this whole “choosing” about the resurrection is not really your own choice in the end. I may have led you to this choice incorrectly. Because this is the one choice that seems to choose you. It’s very strange. Very, very strange. I think perhaps you can get here on your own, if you try, if you ask. But this is a gift. Yes, I lied. This one is not a choice. This decision is a gift that comes to you, as if made for you. But this is the one gift where it is not rude to ask. This is the kind of gift you have to ask for. Then we have to come and stand in the empty tomb. We must be like Mary Magdalene, peering into that empty space, and decide whether the light will be on or off.

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