NOT JUST ANOTHER ‘SOAP’ =)
Monday, July 24th, 2006Once upon a time in a far-away land far,far away, a young man named Joshua announced the discovery of a
marvelous new kind of soap.
People were skeptical at first, but they soon found that this new soap made everyone very happy because
it got them so clean. Because it was so powerful, it got rid of dirt and stains that had been around for years.
Because Joshua’s soap worked so well, men found that they had more time to spend with their wives and children.
Marriages got better, people were happier, and everybody admired the young man who had given them the soap.
Joshua refused to charge for the soap and gave it away to all who asked for it. This bothered some rich people,
but the poor loved it. Not surprisingly, the manufacturers of rival kinds of soap soon became very angry
because their business was being hurt badly.
Before long, Joshua had followers who were traveling around the country, giving away the new soap to all
who asked for it. Of course, this new soap was an instant success because the people of Joshua’s country
had been trying for years to make themselves clean with their own homemade soap. Thousands became great fans
of the new soap, and they formed small groups to spread its use.
The other soap manufacturers became desperate and tried to get Joshua to charge for his soap, but he refused.
He said, “I prefer to give it away, because no money would be adequate payment for a soap as perfect and complete
as this one is.”
When the soap manufacturers found that this strategy wouldn’t work, they started a smear campaign against
Joshua and his followers. They said that the soap made cleaning too easy - that you should have to work harder
to get things clean. They also said that Joshua and his followers were immoral because they had been seen in
the company of the dirtiest people in the world.
Joshua smiled when he heard these charges, and said, “Although everybody needs soap, it is the dirty people
who need the soap the most!” These slanders didn’t work because the common people realized that Joshua truly
loved them and that is why his soap was free.
Since their other tactics failed, the rival soap manufacturers plotted to kill the young man. They paid an
informer to betray Joshua and then arrested him.
They paid witnesses to perjure themselves in court, and finally they were able to have Joshua convicted of
trumped up “crimes” and executed. The soap manufacturers were certain that this would take care of the problem,
but to their dismay Joshua’s followers continued to distribute the soap. Persecution of the followers didn’t work
either, for Joshua’s followers kept spreading to new areas and kept giving away the soap.
After many years, the rival manufacturers decided to try the policy of “if you can’t beat ‘em then join ‘em.”
So they analyzed Joshua’s soap and came up with a very clever substitute, which looked the same, but, of course,
it didn’t work. They used the same name for their soap that Joshua had used and organized a promotion campaign
to corner the market. Because of their organization and slick advertising, they made great progress and even got
many of Joshua’s followers to join them for a while.
Soon, however; these infiltrators started to charge for their counterfeit soap, and, because their distributors had
replaced many of Joshua’s followers, many people had to buy the soap now - and their substitute didn’t really work!
However; some people read Joshua’s instructions and those of the early users of the soap and discovered how they
could get it for free! Because of Joshua’s written instructions, down through the centuries there were always groups
who distributed Joshua’s real soap for free.
After several centuries the leading soap manufacturers decided that they needed a publicity gag to stir up interest
in their counterfeit version of the soap, so the started Soap Crusades to go back to Joshua’s homeland and try to
recover the original bucket in which he had first made the soap. Mighty armies were raised because Joshua’s homeland
was now in he hands of some people that didn’t believe in Joshua’s soap.
These Soap Crusades resulted in wars and the deaths of thousands of people and much destruction and heartache.
Many true followers of Joshua protested against these campaigns, but were killed for their efforts. Finally the
Soap Crusades ceased, but they did stir up a lot of interest and sold a lot of the counterfeit soap.
Several centuries later, when soap sales were lagging again, the manufacturers decided to use force to make people
buy their soap. They started an intricate system of spies to report on people who didn’t use the “right” soap.
They also used a group of zealous torturers who called themselves the ‘Investigation’ to torture people suspected of
not using the manufacturers soap.
Many people were killed by the Investigation for using Joshua’s soap, and yet, Joshua’s soap continued to be passed
out to all who asked, for free!
After a few more hundred years, a whole new kind of attack on Joshua’s soap began. This time the charge was made
that Joshua’s written instructions were not really reliable. This attack came from two directions. The first group
of attackers said that the instructions were missing some very important parts that the evil rival manufacturers
had taken out in centuries past.
Various of the attackers claimed that Joshua, himself, had come and appeared to them, giving them special authority
to “restore” the lost instructions. Of course, the attackers all had different versions of the “restored” instructions
and none of them were even close to being in agreement with each other. In many cases they weren’t even in agreement
with Joshua’s instructions. Even so; they were able to deceive some of the users of Joshua’s real soap.
The second group of these attackers used a more “intellectual” attack. They called themselves the “Elevated Critics”
who said that the instructions didn’t really mean what they said, and certainly they weren’t the final authority on how
to get clean. They told the people that Joshua was just another good man who had high ideals, but his wasn’t the only
soap around.
So they took the “mythology” out of Joshua’s instructions and left an empty shell, which couldn’t clean anyone,
in its place. Well, about 2000 years have gone by now, and Joshua’s true soap is still available free, and people
are still getting clean and being happy. And there are those who try to peddle a similar but counterfeit kind of
soap for profit or power.
Now, there are some who say you, really, can’t get clean, but a little soap is a good thing and everybody ought to
have some, but don’t go overboard! Others worship books about the original soap. Still others have Joshua’s true soap,
and have found that only through his power can they become clean.
In our parable, Joshua’s soap is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel (which means “GOOD NEWS”) could not be stamped
out by the “rival manufacturers” or anyone else, because it was a MESSAGE, not an earthly system of priesthoods,
rites and organizations. The message of God’s provision for the gift of eternal life for sinful men has endured
even to our day and people are still getting “clean” by submission of their lives to Jesus Christ - ALONE.
In spite of many attempts to destroy the Gospel message by eradication of the believers, or perversion of the message
itself, the GOOD NEWS of what Jesus Christ did for YOU on His cross remains as viable today as it was on the
Resurrection Morning.
~ ~ ~ hAPPy bdAy rAFFy!!! =) nAnA & sHE, sUper ThanKs foR the TruSt!!! =)
