Mistaken Identity

A young couple found they were expecting a child. As the pregnancy progressed, they found out they were going to have twins. What an excitement. Yet, what a problem. What if they were identical twins! How would they tell them apart long enough to teach them their respective names? The idea of mistaken identity feared the mother more than the father. To the father, this was a bridge to be crossed at a later date; now was not a time to panic.

Perhaps you do not have a set of twins as your children nor any twins in your family. I am sure you know of twins somewhere in your life. Are they identical twins? Can you identify them by name correctly?

There was a set of twin girls near me when in grammar school through high school. One had a small mole on one cheek; the other did not. I had to know which had the mole and which did not or I had them mistaken one from the other. Their mother, before they grew older and the one obtained the mole, parted their hair differently to tell them apart.

Mistaken identity is a fact of physical life here on earth. Humans have to have identities for everything. When a child is born, from the first breath they enter a world where identification of things is mandatory. Humans have to have an identifying aspect of every object, place and person to distinguish one from another.

God has given humans five senses by which to make an identification of things different from other things. Sight, smell, taste, hearing and touch are those tools by which we identify all earthly things. In our physical realm we use these senses every waking moment.

Humans have developed a method to identify persons, places and things which are like twin siblings. We add more identifiers; sub categories to the main identifier. If two or more people look similar, and have the same name, we have given them an additional name called a last name. Humans cannot bear to not have the ability to distinguish people, places and things from other people, places and things.

Humans cannot bear to not be identified separately from others. Our world is filled with the necessity to stand out and be different. Yet, man desires as much to be approved by those of like character traits and common ideologies. So people walk, talk, and dress alike so as not to be too different from those they desire to associate. However, they reserve a small area to be different to be recognized. The necessity to be recognized is very powerful in the minds of humans.

People desire to be like the world in all but a maximum of four hours per week. In those four hours, if they choose to participate in all four, they choose to be like those of which they assemble. You get the picture; those four hours max is when they attend a worship service Sunday, Sunday night and one night during the week.

Humans are social beings. They must belong to an association of like-minded persons. They must have an identifying characteristic. They are proud to tell everyone they belong to such and such a group.

I knew a lady who grew up attending a certain church assembly identified by; I will use ‘X’. When she married, her spouse identified with a certain church identity I will call ‘Y’. Many years into life and having moved away from that church location, they attended church ‘Z’. If you asked her which association she belonged to, she would say, 'I am a ‘Y’’.

She could not bring herself to be identified with anyone associated with church 'X’ or ‘Z’. She did not wish to be known with a mistaken identity; one of which she did not approve.

Where did this notion of church identity begin? We see man’s desire to have identities for everything under the sun; including their religious preference.

God told His chosen people, Israel, to follow Him as God and not follow, nor be found imitating any other god. His first commandment to Israel was, 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:3. Israel was God’s identifier of His people. God had changed Jacob's name to Israel. They were to follow only Him as their God.

Man soon identified two classes of people, Israelites and all others. They soon identified Almighty God as the living God and all others with a different identity, Baal.

Religions are identified by different names. The term ‘faith’ is the proper term to identify a spiritual religious entity. Such faiths are: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism.

Who gave these religions an identifier? MAN. Man has had to have an identifier to separate one person, place or thing from another.