Concentration Commanded Series

A salesman who was growing more and more nervous

about his travel by air went one day to see a statistician.

"Can you tell me what the odds would be against my

boarding an aircraft on which somebody had hidden a bomb?"

he asked. He replied, "I can't tell you until I've

analyzed the available data. Come back again in a week."

The next week the worried salesman returned and asked if

the answer was ready. "Yes," said the statistician, "the

odds are one million to one against you getting on an aircraft

with one bomb on it." "Those are good odds," said the

salesman, "but I'm not sure they are good enough for me. I

travel a good deal." "Well then, if you really want to be

safe, "The statistician counseled, "carry a bomb with you.

My calculations indicate the odds are one billion to one

against your boarding an aircraft with two bombs on it."

This is obviously crazy advice, but the statistics are

correct and they reveal how you can prove anything with

statistics. The jump of the odds from one million to one

billion also points out what a radical difference there can be

between one and two. Upon close examination we find the

most radical transition anywhere is the jump from one to

two.

Elton Trueblood, the outstanding Quaker theologian,

points out some things of interest here. He says that the step

from two to three is relatively slight, but the step from one to

two is enormous. Why? Because when you go from two to

three you are going from one degree of plurality to another,

but when you go from one to two you leapt out of one

category into another totally different, not only in degree but

in kind, for you leap from singularity into to plurality. For

example, if a man has two or three wives or any number

beyond this he remains in the same class-he is a polygamist.

But if he has one wife he is a monogamist. To go from one to

two is a change in class, but to go from two to any other

number is only a change of degree within the same class. To

go from two to any other number is just a change in

quantity, but to go from one to two is a change in quality.

One is the most unique of all numbers, not only because it

is the beginning of numbers, but because it represents a class

all it's own. Singularity refers to one, and one only, but

plurality refers to all the rest from two to infinity.

Trueblood says, "There is more essential difference between

one and two then there is between two and a million." This

is more than an interesting fact of mathematics, it is an

important theological truth. One is the great theological

number, for ultimates are characterized by singularity, and

they call for undivided concentrated commitment. Paul in

Eph. 4 says, "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you

were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one

Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us

all..."

Christianity is characterized by oneness, and we find this

is also central in the Old Testament. The most basic text of

Judaism is Deut. 6:4, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is

one Lord." One God is the foundational doctrine of the

Bible, and that is why commandment number one deals with

the fundamental issue of oneness. God prohibits a plurality

of gods and demands singular and concentrated devotion to

Himself. No other category but oneness is acceptable. He

will tolerate nothing but that unique class of number one.

The Old Testament emphasis is on the prohibition of

polytheism. The New Testament emphasis is on the positive

concentrated devotion to the one God. Both have the same

goal, but before one can concentrate he has to get rid of his

divisive loyalties. Let's look first at the Old Testament

emphasis which-

I. PROHIBITS COMPOUND DEVOTION:

It might be hard for us to conceive in this day of growing atheism and

anti-religious attitudes, but one of man's basic problems has

always been that he is too religious. Man's tendency has

always been to believe too much rather than too little. The

result is, his religion distorts all of reality and becomes a vice

rather than a virtue. Doctor John Baillie says, "A pagan is

not a man who does not believe in and worship deity, but a

man who believes in and worships too many deities." The

pagan is too religious. He has no unity of life, but is a

shambles of disunity, tossed about by fears and uncertainty.

He is at the mercy of gods everywhere, and never knows for