Forever by Your Side (Willamette Brides #3) - Tracie Peterson Page 0,39
a great deal about you through her, so that gives you an edge. When someone I know well passes along information, I feel that I can believe it. Unless, of course, that person is proven to speak falsely.”
Tom felt confused by this response. He had asked a simple question about the election, and now Mr. Browning had him questioning his own thoughts.
Browning chuckled. “I’m sorry if I confused you. I just think we can both agree that a lot of the stuff we believe, we’ve learned from someone we respected. Someone we knew we could trust.”
“Of course. And if we choose to believe someone we don’t know, it’s usually based on the word of other people or personal observation and experience.”
“Exactly.” Browning began to walk again. “I think the same can be said of God.”
Tom cast him a side glance. “God? How did we get from politics to God?”
“Tom, I respect you. Your refusal to believe in God is troubling to me, because I see you as a highly intelligent young man.”
“Thank you. I think.”
Adam Browning laughed. “I will hang on to the right to change my opinion as we continue our discourse on the Bible and God, but for now, you hold a high place in my esteem.”
Tom didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing.
Browning continued, “You see, I was taught by people I trusted that the Bible was the Word of God—that it was true and that it was good for teaching others. I read and studied that book from cover to cover, and as I did, I also paid attention to who was reporting the things I was reading. I didn’t just take it as truth because my mother and father and grandparents believed it. I worked to prove the validity for myself.”
“Yes, but you only spoke to people who believed as you believed.”
“Did I? What a presumptive thing to say.”
“I apologize, sir. It was indeed presumptive.” Tom put his gaze on the far horizon.
“I did talk to people who believed as I believed, but I also spoke to people who didn’t believe what I believed. I wanted to know why they thought the way they did. You told me that you weighed your belief on the actions of your father. You decided if God did exist and those actions were sanctioned by Him, then you wanted no part of Him. But you couldn’t believe someone to be so cruel, and so you chose to believe He didn’t exist at all. Never mind that hundreds of thousands of witnesses come down through the ages to tell you that what was written in the Bible was true—that God not only existed, but came in human form as a babe, grew up and shared His truth, and then died to bring man a way to eternal life. An ultimate sacrifice to meet the blood offering required by God. You easily dismissed the witnesses.”
He paused only a moment. “Yet you are about to embark on creating a record of the people on this reservation. You’re quite willing to believe what they tell you about their old chiefs and medicine men without ever having met them. You will base your facts solely on the testimony of one man or woman who believes the stories passed down to them. On occasion you will meet someone who actually met the person in question, but those will be few.”
“So you think I should believe in the existence of God because of the hundreds of thousands of witnesses who have gone before me to produce the Bible and continue its existence from generation to generation.”
“I do. Tom, what are the odds that such a book could be handed down and continue to influence people to this day? There are so few books that can boast that claim, and all of those that have been revered and passed on are books that people chose to believe in with such a passion that they were willing to die for those beliefs. They were willing to give up everything to ensure that others could have a chance to believe as well.”
“But the Bible isn’t the only book that has that kind of history.” Tom felt like he had the upper hand now. “There are others, especially amongst religions.”
“That is true. And those people cling to their books, just as I cling to mine. I don’t want to make our conversation about those other books, however. I have studied them, and I believe that those people hold