Back to Eden

     Well, last week Kelly and I found a big box of Ted's sermons.  A real treasure for our family and anyone else who appreciated his preaching.  I sorted through them and found some gems.  I also found some with missing pages, which was very disappointing. However, I may publish them anyway and leave the missing pages to one's imagination.  They are that good.
     In light of the fact that we just celebrated the anniversary of the "moon walk", I decided to publish his sermon about that subject that he preached just before the feat occurred.  The only thing I've changed are some typos and misspellings and the translation of the bible he used.  So I hope you all enjoy, "Back To Eden".

Our moon

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard..."
                                       President John F. Kennedy

Genesis 2:15 and 3:1
"The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

                                                                        and



The Garden of Eden

"The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.  One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?"


"There is a voice that is shouting across the United States today...
 and it's a voice heard... in echo...in fact...
                                                              literally around the world!

It is a voice raised that can claim the attention of most of mankind... and that voice is telling a story.

It is telling a story of brave men... in shinny suits, mounting silvered rockets... riding on red and blue tongues of flame, to the very edge of earth's pull...

It is telling a story... a story that starts with the roar of a booster engine...
           and ends in the coasting silent ride to a literal long ago and far away...

Already... poets are writing their lines... newspapers have bedded
down their stories of success...

"...one giant step for mankind!"

And like some great church responsive reading, that voice, tells of another portion of a mission completed...
                            and the masses fill in with their "amens", and back and forth they go until splash down.   

I wondered...why? then I thought, "Maybe he is just doing what God meant for man to do when God said the He should subdue the Earth and have dominion over it...

But in all candor, I had to eliminate that...

It would be very hard to convince me that the reason we are spending billions going to the moon is to glorify God...

No, we are not making this trip for Him... nor because we wish to subdue the earth.



Back To Eden!

And I don't think we are doing this great and awesome feat out of idle curiosity...

What I really believe is... man is trying to get back to Eden!

There are few if any that would argue that going to the moon is not fantastic... adventurous...spectacular!  There is no question about that.

There are many adjectives we could use to describe the men, the equipment, and the task that is set before us.

And history like today's crowds gone beserk, will note this day with all the pomp and ceremony due it.

And I shouldn't be surprised if we aren't for now and forever more going to be blessed with a "Moonday,... maybe an eighth day of the week!

But there is another side to this day.  There is another side to this tale told and we should be mindful of it.  A voice is trying to be heard above the crowds that will cheer.  It is a side that pleads for our attention... with the quiet voice of reality.  It is a voice that speaks not of frills and thrills, but a voice of hope, that we are heading back to Eden!

     These are truly challenging times...

     We are living in an age where no matter how adventurous the man, no matter how far his vision, no matter how wistful his dreams, mankind can somehow meet the occasion and do just about exactly what he sets out to do!

     I was wondering... what is it about man that makes him so quick to answer a challenge... what makes him so quick to "rise to the occasion"?  There seems to be literally no limit to what man can do... why is he this way?

     In today's scripture we find Adam and Satan challenging God's Law... a Law that if obeyed, promises harmony, fulfillment, joy and peace, that brings with it a "life more abundant".

     But they chose a different course.  They didn't only break God's Law, they broke themselves upon it, as God had promised... "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die!"

     The life of freedom and fellowship was sold and man's sin resulted in an infectious condition that affected all mankind and finally hung a beautiful Savior on a cross at Calvary.

     A creation was thrown into disharmony and Paradise possessed became truly, Paradise lost.  Not just for Adam, but for all mankind as sin became universal and death became the wage!

     From that time until today, and as they will tomorrow, man has sought and searched for his way back to Eden. 



God's Judgment!

The way does not seem clear... but there is a way...there is a way we can get back to Eden.

     But it is a way whose path leads through God's unshakeable, never changing, rocks of judgment.  It is a way that leads along shear faced cliffs and deep ravines and along dangerous soul claiming ridges.

     One author had declared that we as a people are living off the "fat of the world".

     I think she was closer to real and pointed truth than even she realized.  We are a people living off the fat of the world!  And while we may not be aware of it, we are like Marie Antoinette who when she was parting the Rhelm, while her people starved said, "They have no bread?  Let them eat cake!"
     There is something terribly wrong when we become more concerned with going to the moon, than caring for the people here on earth.

     Eric Frome said, "While people believe in God, they aren't that concerned with Him, or His kingdom."  And I might add, that kind of faith is not a saving belief in God!

     But just to set the record straight, let me say this, I believe science is a wonderful thing, a gift from God, but like a coin, it has two sides and we want to look at both, so we can more certainly know how to spend it or invest it.

     The great danger in science, as in its discoveries, lies in it's misdirection or misuse.  Because  man is by nature sinful and unclean, too many if not most of science's blessings have become curses to the very people they seek to serve.

     Because our morality does not match our intellect, the misuse of science becomes greater than its use.  Not until man's morality catches up with his intellect will mankind through science, be able to solve more problems than it creates.

     That's why I believe that this moon shot, as tremendous as it is, is just another widening step in the gap that lies between man's morality and his intellect.

Back to Eden, mankind's dream...

     There seems to be a feeling in the air that when man steps on the moon, it will prove something,... they haven't said what,... and man can go from there to greater things, bigger things.  He thinks to himself, "Things are going to get better and all mankind will live better and longer and, we're all going to be heading back to Eden!"

     Omar Bradley said, "If we are going to save ourselves from the instruments of our own intellect, we had better soon get ourselves under control and begin making the world safe for living."

     "If we are going to save ourselves..." therein lies the trouble!
I am sometimes amazed at the foolishness of some of our leaders.  Mankind will not, nor cannot save themselves!

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods... knowing good and evil."

     The devil trapped Eve with that line of thought.   Mankind just is not able to withstand the devil without God, neither then or now!  Added to this, mankind is no longer concerned with doing what is right... he is  now more concerned with getting along and adjusting to the wrong!

     But God, who made the moon and is never changing, is concerned with what is right and His voice that echos down through the centuries says that the way back to Eden leads through the cross of Christ!

"I am the way, the truth and the life..."