#785

Revival And Bigfoot

Have You Ever Seen A UFO?

I always joked that my Mother-In-Law had the ability to throw an ashtray around a corner. At least my dad and my uncles thought so. According to the urban legend, whenever those 4 young men got out of control my grandmother could grab that magical piece of glass and then hurl it around a corner and hit whoever was in its path. It didn’t matter if it hit any of them or went whizzing by, just the thought that she could do it was enough. The fear it instilled in them was all it took. Now no one who ever actually saw it happen is still alive and even I never saw her do it, but those who directly witnessed that flying object swore by the accounts being totally true. Legends can often become larger than life based on a single disclosing of the subject. Even if we think it is plausible or not, those who said it did carry weight with them especially if it affected one person. Add to that this one person is sincere, honest, and trustworthy overall and then it can feel like there could be a real chance it happened. If it is so outlandish, like those seemingly thousands of tall tales and memes about Chuck Norris, we know they never happened, but there are actually some people who want them to be true. Such is the nature of the urban myths we can actually think there is some truth to it.

The Big Three

At least in America, President Donald Trump authorized the release of the sealed records of the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King. For the first time in my life we can actually know why they were hidden. This is huge. Was there more than one gunman in Dallas 61 years ago? If so, where were they stationed, the grassy knoll? Or was it the so called magic bullet that took down the 35th President of the United States? And what of JFK’s brother Bobby who was assassinated as well. The assassin, Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed JFK’s brother in 1968 while he was campaigning to become the 37th president. The controversial part of this one wasn’t the number of people who shot him but why. As RFK won the California Democrat primary he changed his plans and decided to walk through the kitchen for the Ambassador Hotel where his assassin laid in wait and shot him. For Sirhan it was not that we knew who he was by why did he do it. In the case of James Earl Ray, the man who killed Martin Luther King, the motive seems to be pretty clear. This was in Memphis and King was campaigning to end the social and economic conditions in America at the time. Ray pleaded guilty and was given a 99 year sentence. The conspiracy theories all swirled around the FBI and CIA staging the whole thing. Not that all the files are released, we should get answers. For ordinary citizens like you and me, we want to know.

Are They Connected?

I’m pretty certain you want to know what Bigfoot and revival have in common. If I saw that title, I’d want to know what connections if any are between the two. I could also throw in aliens, UFOs and any conspiracy in the title, but good ole Sasquatch was a good as any. The lines from one to the other are less based on the actual topics but more to how they’re viewed. I’ll start with the seed thought for this podcast and that is that people say they’ve seen revival, but few have. The desire to actually see them fits. We’ve read about them in books and now videos, but we would love to actually want to experience them in person. The rumors around them tease us and we really want them to be true, but rarely do we actually experience seeing them. Second and third hand accounts are good and all, but like Bigfoot, just seeing a low quality video of them won’t suffice. We want solid evidence for them. More than that, we want to become the people who can testify about them to others. Evidence? It should be easy to document them in this day of heightened forensic science. For Bigfoot, it would be nice to get some DNA material to test. I’ve seen shows that went to great lengths to provide evidence from eyewitnesses who say they came close to actually seeing Bigfoot, and when the area was searched and forensic evidence was found, the findings always fell way short of proving anything, that doesn’t change their minds. And with revival, we’ve got a lot of accounts where people said that they saw evidence of it, but they never experienced it firsthand. While it sounds nice to talk about them, most would prefer to be a part of finding it for themselves.

So What Are We Looking For?

This is one of the weak links in both. If one were to find DNA evidence of Sasquatch, what would it reveal to us if we have nothing to compare it to. What markers will we need to discover? In the case of revival, you can’t get theologians to even agree on what it is let alone give current examples. Some say the signs are when believers return to Biblical Christianity and cite the Book of Acts as the chief example. But you or I weren’t there on the Day of Pentecost. And revival stories are found in the Old Testament, too making the evidence abundant, but the real meaning is often lost in what I call Christian conspiracy theories. Some revivals see signs and wonders with people being healed of a variety of ailments. And still others have unusual manifestations like quaking hence the Quaker revival. It seems that no two revivals are the same. Sightings of Bigfoot have similarities with others but they all can’t be lumped into one box, either. Fortunately for us, revivals are much better documented, but still there are critics. The saying goes that the proof is in the pudding and that could really mean that the proof is in the tasting of the pudding. The best proof of both Bigfoot and revival is experiencing it for yourself.

And About That Pudding

As I perused the interwebs I found so many people that say they have such evidence for Sasquatch, but the holy grail would have a body of one to put on display. Even better would be to capture one alive. To see how it moves, see how it behaves in real time. Of course there would still be skeptics no matter how much evidence you put in front of them. Doubt me? One magazine article shows this about the moon landing:

The number of moon-landing-deniers is up from 6 percent in 1999, according to a Gallup poll conducted on the 30th anniversary cited by SatelliteInternet, which conducted the current poll. It's a sad trend. As you can see in the chart, the younger the person polled, the more likely they were to think the moon landing took place on a Hollywood sound stage. Older Americans—those more likely to have seen the moon landing happen live or at least to have parents who did—were more likely to believe.

And guess what? Many younger respondents were also more likely to say they believed the earth was flat, as well. No lie.

Why do deniers think the moon landing is a conspiracy between the government and NASA? Well, 41 percent say the flag waving in the moon-landing footage is a giveaway. 14 percent said you can't leave a footprint in moon dust.

Most have other conspiracies as well:

The conspiracies extend to 98 percent of the landing-deniers being convinced the government spies on us through tech (well, I'll give them that); 51 percent also think the Mars Rover is faked. (This story from History.com debunks most of the wilder conspiracy theories.)

Where does this put us in comparison to other "intelligent" life out there? For whatever reason, the skeptics about our own ability to put people on the moon are far more likely to believe in space aliens having already arrived on Earth. (And to be honest, a significant number of moon-landing believers agree.)

What’s my point? Well just as there are rabid deniers of moon landings and believe the earth is flat, so there are those who deny that revival is a real thing or that it is sensationalized. You’ll always have skeptics about Bigfoot and revival even if you have real proof of them.

Experiences Are The Best

The saying goes that a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. There are so many variations of this quote, but it fits in my logic. You can read and read about Bigfoot and revival, but having an experience is way better. Just as the world would be astounded by a living, breathing Sasquatch, so it is when a person experiences revival in person. People who believe they actually saw either with their own eyes are much harder to be dissuaded by popular opinion. The educated that try to explain away how either can’t exist will never change the minds of a true believer whose lives have been radically transformed by seeing it happen to them. It might take more faith to believe that Bigfoot is real, but faith is part of both. So what are left to believe now. How do we move forward? The Bible tell us that Thomas was a believer who needed more proof to believe that Jesus was resurrected:

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said to him,“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:24-29, NKJV)

I couldn’t care less about Bigfoot, but when it comes to experiencing all that God has for you, be like Thomas who doubted before he believed. Work out your hesitations so that God can help you past them. Revival is not only real, it’s happening right now on college campuses all over America. Jump in the deep end and be immersed into His presence. Ask Jesus to come to you and let Him bless you. It’s not a theory, it’s the truth.