MYTH & LEGEND

 (Both photos below are from the Web)

I have a love for Scottish myth and legend, much of which are shared with the other Celtic people. Fionn Mac Cumhail (Finn McCool) appears in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Felix Mendelssohn raises a baton to Finn McCool in his Hebrides Overture known also as Fingal’s Cave – after a cave on the Island of Staffa. The cave’s Gaelic name is Uamh-Binn meaning ‘cave of melody.’ Beautiful! But did Finn McCool ever visit this cave and listen to its eerie water music?

Finn McCool was the leader of an ancient warrior band known as the Fianna. There’s a legend that the mighty Finn McCool and his army of warriors sleep in a great rock and will all awaken again at some future point.

Many myths and legends are built around actual people and real events. Though there is usually a core of truth to them, the tales tend to get embellished so much that they morph into mere fantasy. Fact yields to fiction. Some people view some of the stories recorded in the Bible in this way – as myth and legend. But real Christians view the Bible, as the Word of God Who does not lie. Which is to say that God supervised everything that was written in the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures; accurate copies of which are extant today.

To be sure everything in the sixty-six books of the Bible must be read in its own proper context, which includes its historical and literary genre contexts. For example, when Jesus refers to Himself as a ‘door’ He is speaking metaphorically, but when He refers to Adam He is referring to a real historical human being who lived in a real geographical Garden east of Eden.

At present there are some who reject Biblical cosmology, favouring instead a speculative and ultimately unprovable ‘Big Bang Theory.’ The Bible says that the eternal God spoke and things that were not became things that are. Therefore some see the Creator God as the initiator of the ‘Big Bang.’ Does this mean that there is a core of truth at the heart of Materialistic Cosmology, which, by its very nature, denies the existence of the Creator?

In the Bible the eternal Triune God is the One who created out of nothing the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them. This He did in six special or God days. Some Christians hold that each of these days of formation were of twenty-four hour duration, while others maintain that the Bible teaches that they were of longer duration. Indeed the original seventh or God’s Sabbath Day is never ending! Be that as it may, all true Christians believe God created everything; and that He constantly and personally sustains and maintains His creation.

All true Christians have a personal relationship with God through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. This is where the Bible comes in, for God speaks to His adopted children by His Spirit working with His Word. The Bible teaches us who God is, and what He requires of us. All the stories contained in the Bible are lessons to the Christian on these two things.

Among many other things, the Bible speaks of Creation, the Fall, the Promise of Redemption, the Flood, Christ’s Cross of Redemption, His Resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit for the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom, the Day of our Resurrection, the coming Judgment, and the final New Heavens and the new Earth. So, we see then that according to the Bible Finn McCool and his warriors will indeed rise again, along with the rest of mankind on the Last Day, i.e., the Day of Judgment.

Christ’s resurrection two thousand years ago is the heart and soul of Christianity. If Jesus did not actually physically rise from the dead then we will not rise. The Apostle says, ‘Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.’ 1 Corinthians 15:12-20.

The Bible is not about myth and legend, but about the fact of eternal life.