“Cleverly devised stories”

     I was working my way through the two letters of the Apostle Peter, when I came across his statement, “We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16) 

     One of the ways my wife and I like to relax in the evening is just that—we watch a mystery cleverly devised by Agatha Christie, or Dorothy Sayers, or G.K.Chesterton. The story is always entertaining and we can very seldom guess who the culprit is. For instance, last evening we watched a re-write of The Lady Vanishes—one mis-direction at the start followed by 75 minutes of well-written, well-acted plot. Then it seems like the director was told that all his money was gone and he had better finish quickly. Suddenly ‘a god jumps out of a box’, turns things around, and the story is over. At this point, however, we tend to look back and say “that part was well-written” or “well-acted” or “the director did a great job.” On the other hand, sometimes we say, “that part of the story went nowhere”, or “why did the vagrant do it?”, or even “why did the butler do it?” The plot-line is critical and the ability of a writer is judged by how well his plot holds together. 

     In a similar way, life is a story, with multiple plot-lines. But life, of course, is what really happens so there is no artificiality. This is what Peter means when he tells us of his own experience—Jesus was transfigured right before his eyes and he heard the voice of God, “that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” (2 Peter 1:18) 

     By definition, we would have to say that truth can have no plot-holes. Christians therefore base the whole field of “apologetics” on this principle. Opponents point out gaps in the Christian story and claim these are real holes in the plot. We Christians accept most of the story by faith, but we do like to see some of the gaps filled. 

     A small example of a supposed plot-hole in scripture might be the size of the tank in 1 Kings 7:23. It was 30 cubits in circumference and 10 cubits in diameter. On the face of it (but not in fact), that makes pi equal to 3.0000. 

     A really big plot-hole would be the death of Jesus on the cross, then seeing Him talking to the disciples in the closed room three days later. What a plot-hole this is! This is life from the dead—for Him and for us too! Only God can explain this plot-line. This is resurrection. Other hard things to understand are prophecy, miracles, the incarnation, the virgin birth, and the ascension. The point of these stories is that they are true. Christians have seen them, believe them, and have honestly reported them. The plot-line is true.