If I Could Travel Back in Time

There are some people who believe that time travel is possible, whatever means and mechanism it takes to make it happen. As it remains a hypothetical idea, though there were a few who had traveled outside earth’s time zone, science has to find more realistic ways how to let it happen for ordinary people.

But the question is about when and where to go if given the chance to do time travel. I think it is quite interesting to really learn and be able to do this thing called time travel. If given the knowledge, the chance and choice of doing this, I would be willing to do it with pleasure.

In spite of several interesting epochs in human history, like the very beginning of human existence as theorized through Evolution and taught as Creation, there is one most significant epoch I would love to go back to. It is a time travel back to the past two thousand years ago when one peculiar race of people in the Middle East was under the domination of the mighty Roman Empire. They were a group of people descended from a great man Abraham who originated from Ur of Chaldeans, the present-day Tall-al Mughair, south of Baghdad.

During that time, there were two Roman emperors who ruled the whole empire consecutively, and had an impact on the descendants of Abraham, called as the Hebrews. Emperor Augustus ruled before Emperor Tiberius in that particular era, but it was Herod who had a direct rule over the people of Judea or the Hebrews, but still under the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate at that particular time.

Historians have employed what is called dividing lines of history for historic life on earth, as prehistoric is set aside. The central point is the greatest Man who has ever lived, and He was the Hebrew or Jewish person named Jesus Christ. What is used as the dividing time line “BC” connotes: “Before Christ”; sometimes it is BCE: “Before Christian Era”. The other dividing time line  “AD” connotes: “Anno Domini”, or “After the Year of the Lord Jesus”, or simply “After Death”. The time of human history has its basis on the person of Jesus as its center. All the recorded things that happened before Him were noted under the BC period, and those things that happened after Him were noted under the AD period.

For us Christians, however, what is really significant is the purpose of Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection that all took place in that small piece of arid land called Israel which is contested by a few groups of people even these very days. He came to that place two thousand years ago to die for all mankind to bear the punishment of all our sins on that cruel Roman crucifixion. It is only through the shedding of His pure blood that forgiveness of all sins can be attained, never good works nor any religious groups could ever do that.

I believe the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus are the most significant events in human history. It happened two thousand years ago in the promised land called Israel, where three major Abrahamic religions originated. Personally, I really want and wish to witness those things firsthand if I could just travel back in time.

Birds and Humans

“26 And God said, let us make man in our  image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth;

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the earth, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”     (Genesis 1:26-28, The Bible)

I don’t think that the ability of the birds to fly, or the purpose they serve in flying connote their higher intelligence compared to humans. No matter how agile these avian creatures are in what they do, no matter how much they utilize their capacity to think to better their way of life,  they remain lower than human beings.

I believe it is the design of the great Creator to make this particular kind of creatures fly. It is more of an animal instinct that they know how to function this way. They are designed to be that way by much higher intelligence of the Divine Being.

The good Creator and Designer has made human beings the highest kind of created beings that are given certain abilities only we can possess, and are able to do never by other creatures. We were created in the image of God, not necessarily in physical form but it is manifested in our inner person. We have the intellect higher than any animal, we have an array of pure emotions, and we have the will to do what we want or need to do.

We human beings can reason and talk in intelligible ways, we can plan and build physical structures, we can compute and count numbers, we sing and recite poetry, we love and sacrifice everything we can in the name of love, we can do many things that animals can’t.

In their simplicity, however, birds serve a purpose different from us humans. We can never replace that purpose no matter how we try. They are a part of the chain of life, the food chain in which their loss will greatly affect the balance of nature. I once read about a scientific study that shows that birds balance the number of particular worms and insects which can bring a pestilence if left alone.

That purpose can never be replaced by us human beings. That purpose, plus their ability to fly can never be matched by us. But it does not mean that they have greater intelligence than humans. We can never naturally fly, but we are endowed with higher intelligence than birds. Aside from that, we have the souls and spirits lent by our Creator, and He will take them back in the appointed time of our death.