Welcome once more to Bud Hancock who was trained as a metal model maker for General Motors. Bud applies his engineering mindset to the question of Christian living and makes some wise conclusions. Many thanks Bud.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The Importance of Verification

By Bud Hancock

The statement, “Trust but verify” has been spoken many times, especially here in the US concerning the practices of employers who hire persons of questionable citizenship. To many on the left it has brought much criticism as being homophobic and bigoted. But an examination of the words brings the statement into a different light.

“Trust” means to have faith in, confidence in and possibly, reliance on, the information provided by a person in question, but knowing the propensity of some people, especially those engaged in illegal activity, to lie, the “but verify”, of necessity, comes into play.

“Verify” means to confirm, validate or substantiate the truth of accuracy of information provided. With the potential consequences of simply taking any person at his or her word, the “verify” part is absolutely necessary. Failure to verify in some cases can be damaging financially and dangerous physically for persons affected by accepting as truth, the words of people of unknown character and intent. Verification means looking deeply into every aspect of a person’s life to determine the validity of the claims they make. I believe more and more people are now accepting the need for verification, especially concerning immigration of people of “unknown character and intent”, from one land to another, foreign land. The importance of hiring legal and qualified employees is not the only place where verification is critical. Another synonym for verify is the word, “try”, as in to put on trial. A trial is held to verify statements made by an accused person, or potential witnesses to a crime or other wrongdoing. The result of a trial is to reach a conclusion as to the guilt or innocence of persons accused of criminal acts.

How important is verification of information in other areas of our lives? I dedicated thirty years of my life to being a metal modelmaker in my career with General Motors Product Engineering, with the last eight years in the field of metrology, the science of high precision measurement. When anything, such as an automotive part, is being designed and built, a blueprint showing exactly what the part is to look like, the material from which it is made, etc., is the first step in the process. On the blueprint, the designer will provide the specific shape, size, and to some extent, the various functions of the part. This specific information, when properly followed during the manufacturing process, will assure that the part will function as designed.

As reliable and skilled as the fabricators, machinists, grinders and polishers were in the area where I was employed (and I fully trusted their skills), it was still necessary for every part they produced to be thoroughly checked for accuracy to the blueprint. The parts we manufactured and inspected just prior to my retirement, were the prototype parts that make up the innermost workings of the world-class GM 3800 V6 engine: a crankshaft, camshafts, pistons, balance shafts and several other critical parts that go into the building of a world-class engine. The tolerances on these parts were extremely tight and were not measured in thousandths of an inch, they were measured in millionths of an inch; the standard for most of these parts were that they be machined, ground and polished (lapped) to blueprint specs and held to a plus or minus ten millionths of an inch (0.00001 inch) tolerance, a very tight range.

The standard used to determine whether all these critical engine parts would function properly was ALWAYS the blueprint, because the design engineers are the people with the education, training and know how that makes them responsible for the finished product resulting from proper verification of the parts during design, testing and eventually, production. The greatest responsibility of the design engineers was to provide the specs and tolerances needed to produce a world-class product.
The entire process, from blueprint to production, required special measuring equipment to certify the quality of all parts, and in order to measure anything in a range that small, very specific “blueprint standards” were also required from the design engineering staff. Since all the parts we were manufacturing had tolerances of approximately ten millionths of an inch, all of the “measurement tools” we used for the verification process had to be capable of accurately measuring to that tolerance; they were the latest in measurement technology at that time. When the parts measured were determined to be “within tolerance”, the members of the “Powertrain Team” at GM Engineering were very happy.
Can a case be made that a similar verification process is required for the success of a Christian life? I think so. In the same way that producing a quality, world class engine must have the proper standards and measurement tools for success, so does a Christian need the same in order for his or her life to actually be successful.

So, what is the standard to be used for measuring the correct functioning of a Christian’s life? While that may sound difficult to express, it is really quite simple. Just as the engine designer provides a blueprint explaining how to manufacture the required part(s), so the designer of the human race did also. His blueprint is, and always has been, His WORD, what we call the Bible. In His blueprint, God not only provides His specs (which incidentally are more spiritual than physical) which detail exactly what each person must do to satisfy the design engineer’s requirement for success. At this point, I would suspect that some might assume reading and heeding “the Ten Commandments” would be a part of those specs, but they would be wrong, at least somewhat.

The Mosaic Law was imperfect in that it provided no way for anyone to actually fulfill it. All humans at that time were still living in corruption and sin, and only the grace of God provided for the temporary “covering” of those sins through accepting, on a yearly basis, the blood of animals as a sacrifice that had no lasting ability to redeem anyone. The Law of Moses was merely a schoolmaster intended to lead mankind to the Messiah, the One foreordained to save men from their sins, on a permanent, eternal basis (Galatians 3:24-26). In its imperfection, it was never a good standard for measuring a successful life because no one could actually satisfy its demands. Trying to do so would be comparable to verifying a precision engine part with a + or – 10 millionths of an inch tolerance using measurement tools that only measure in full inch increments: impossible!

When Jesus was on the cross, he stated, “It is finished”, but what did He mean? In that passage, we are told that, ultimately, Jesus became the first person to complete the requirements of the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Law, having lived His entire life without ever breaking one of the ten laws given to Moses and to Israel at Sinai. God’s law required the shedding of blood to destroy the effects of sin, but the blood of animals was not perfect, and therefore could not enable men to be redeemed. Only perfect adherence to the Law, or the sacrifice of perfect blood would satisfy God’s demands; therefore, every generation of humans, including the Jewish people, were never able to find complete redemption. But the suffering and death of God’s own Son after living a perfect sinless life marked the first time any human had ever satisfied God’s requirement regarding the law. Further, His successful, sinless life and His sacrificial death, sealed the new Covenant in His own blood, NOT the blood of impure animals.

When the New Covenant was instituted, at the resurrection of Jesus, the standard was changed from the Mosaic Law to a new standard stated Jesus and recorded by the Apostle John: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).
At that point, His life and death became THE STANDARD by which every person who claims His lordship over their lives, MUST be measured. The fact that every act of Jesus’s life was inspired by the Love of the Father for all humanity, decreed that the Old Law, given to Moses, was no longer a proper standard for measuring the success of any person’s life.

Now, just as a person involved in the manufacture of a precision engine part, hoping to provide a part that will qualify as “world-class”, must constantly refer back to the blueprint and verify what he is producing to the blueprint (the Standard), so must every Christian be constantly going back to the blueprint for a perfect human life: God’s Word, the STANDARD. Now that we know what standard to use for our own “trial”, in order to verify the success of our lives, what measurement tools do we use? There is one that God have given to every person: the “Human Conscience”. This magnificent organ, one that is totally spiritual, is the primary means of determining whether a person’s life has been successful. The human conscience allows a man to contact God, and be contacted by Him, spiritually, and receive the spiritual information needed to determine the true status of his life. Does this contact guarantee the eternal state of being righteous? Only if a person is able to use it properly and keep it open to receive what God has for him. By allowing this constant contact and being willing to truly listen to what God is saying, the conscience becomes the precise “measurement tool” that provides the verification of the status of the closeness of the life to the blueprint, the Holy Bible, God’s Word.

Does this mean that the Old Law, the Law of Moses is no longer important to the Christian’s life? Of course not; it is still a type of schoolmaster, albeit an historical one, that displays the magnitude of God’s grace to humanity. Even though we no longer measure our lives by that law, when we live according to the New law, the Law of Love as described in Matthew 22:37-40, if adhered to, allows us to become the successful persons God intends all His children to be.

Jesus responding to a question by a Sadducee, a “lawyer” of that time, when asked, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law”?, said:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”.

In essence, Jesus told the man that, if you love the Lord God as instructed, and also love your neighbor as much as you love yourself, you will have fulfilled the original law as well as the words that God gave to the prophets to declare unto all people. In this way, fulfilling the New Law of Love, the demands of the Mosaic Law are fulfilled in a person’s life. So ,dos this mean that a person will never again sin? No, of course not, but God in His wisdom, compassion and mercy also provided the means for a person to receive forgiveness for that sin and return to full fellowship with God. The Apostle John stated as much:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9)

A clean conscience, in tune with the Holy Spirit of God, dictates when we must recognize, admit and confess our sin and ask for forgiveness, fully expecting to receive that forgiveness and a cleansing of any unrighteousness that was connected with that sin.

Just as the proper use of the manufacturing techniques, including strict adherence to the engineer’s blueprint, and the subsequent measurement of the parts produced provided the verification of our success at GM in engine building, so will the proper use of the blueprint and the measurement of our adherence to God’s blueprint, His Word, provide the verification we need to continue our walk of faith, always looking forward to the time when true perfection will be our eternal status, with the blueprint having been followed.
Blessings, and Maranatha!

Bud Hancock

Born and raised in a small textile town in North Carolina, Bud’s family moved to Michigan in the hope of finding better employment with General Motors.  After graduating from high school, Bud began an apprenticeship with General Motors to become a Metal Modelmaker.  Retiring after a 30 year career, which included an eight year stint as a Metrologist (Science of high precision measurement), he and his wife moved back to North Carolina to be near his elderly parents.  Shortly thereafter, with both of his parents having passed, he began a new career in the bank security/ATM business, advancing from an entry level technician to one of two North Carolina customer service managers for his employer.  Retiring again after 13 years, he and his wife of 51 years relocated to Tennessee where Bud began writing articles emphasizing Biblical teaching and geopolitical issues.  At age 75, he and his wife relocated to South Carolina with their Miniature Schnauzer, Baxter.  Bud continues to study God’s word and write articles on Christian living and geopolitical issues from the Biblical end times  perspective.