The Bible On Trial

Dreams and Reality~

When do dreams end and reality begin? Students of philosophy and psychology study this question from at least those two perspectives in hopes of getting a handle on what is 'reasonable' and what is 'fantacy' in life!

Dreams can feel so real to the sleeping person that they can actually get up out of bed and begin acting on those dreams before they wake up. This is called 'sleep walking'. My first experience with this was when I was 13 years old at summer camp. The only other time happend to me last night when I heard my dog Maggie barking furiously outside in the back yard right outside the bedroom window, as if she was being attacked by another animal. I am a light sleeper. I have been this way for 35 years since my wife and I brought our son home from the hospital after he was born. My ears just don't shut off when I go to sleep, which makes getting a full nights sleep and 'iffy' propsect at best. So when I heard the barking I was up grabbing my glasses, into my slippers, with flashlight in hand, and out the back door so fast that I did not realize I had been dreaming until I was in the middle of the lawn being hit by the cold. Just to satisfy my curiosity I inspected the back yard, and finding nothing I went inside and went back to bed after seeing Maggie asleep under her blanket on the bed.

The dream felt real, but it wasn't!

Our waking dreams can feel real, but often end up being illusion. This is especially true for our dreams of salvation and eternal life that we have heard from our pastors and teachers at church and read in our Bibles. The salvation given by the Apostle Paul 'feels' so real, and is so beautiful that we believe that it MUST be true. Reality is much different. And this reality affects how we see salvation.

We must 'wake up' in order to hear the truth of the words of Jesus.