NULL HYPOTHESES

In research a hypothesis is declared to be "a proposition or supposition as the basis for reasoning or investigation."

Some hypotheses prove to be not genuine nor good and incorrect after reasonable and careful investigation involving known truth. When a hypothesis is faulty it is declared to be a "null hypothesis." Null is to be "without value, content or significance, invalid." So a null hypothesis is a non provable one and one without value.

Jesus was subjected to such faulty "science" at just about every juncture of His blessed life for us here on this earth. His apostles also suffered such treatment as do many today who are trying to follow Jesus. This is due to false judgement and understanding of others. Jesus knowing this gave good advice to those who would hypothesize about others when He said "Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? " (Matt. 7:1-3) Paul followed Jesus lead when he said "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest : for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. "(Rom.2:1)

No where in scripture is false judgement more apparent than the null hypotheses suffered by the Son of God. He was completely misunderstood and misjudged by those of His day. He literally "...came unto His own, and His own received Him not." (John 1:11) John 1:10 says "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." What a testimony to a null hypothesis that is. The creator of the universe came down from heaven in the form of a man, dwelt among men and died for their sins yet they rejected Him.

It is a sad commentary that He came to save the very people that rejected Him. He said "For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." (Luke 9:56) Yet the very people He came to save didn't and many still don't believe that He could either destroy or save. After all they said "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary..." "...and they were offended at Him." (Mark 6:3)

The people of Jesus day had their hypothesis of the kingdom, yet it was null. He told them the truth about the kingdom of God. He discounted their suppositions. He would not at that time set up a literal kingdom and He would not be a literal king. Jesus told Pilate "My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight ..." (John 18:36) Could He at that time set up an earthly kingdom? You betcha! He told Peter "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? " (Matt. 26:53)

All of their accusations about Him were null.

They accused Him of insurrection. John 19:12 "...Pilate sought to release Him: but the Jews cried out, saying, if thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar." Null hypothesis? Jesus was no reactionary against government. The government was not even an issue with Him. He came to save souls. He did say though "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." (Matt. 22:21)

They hated Him so much that they accused Him of conspiring with devils. They said "He cast out the demons by the ruler of the demons." (Matt. 9:34) They said "This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. " (Matt. 12:24) Bloviaters to the max. They had no proof. They were perfectionists at empty, false claims. If there ever was a null hypothesis this was it. The next step, perhaps they did not know that, was to accuse Him of the unforgivable. For they had placed Him in the position of having fellowship with demons. Jesus simply said to them "...if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: how then can his kingdom stand? " (Matt. 12:26) "And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges." (Matt. 12:27)

They accused Him of breaking their laws and traditions. And they had many of them. The Sabbath was so sacred that they had numerous laws to protect it that were not in scripture. It is my understanding that they could not even spit on the ground on the Sabbath because the spittle might make a furrow and that could look like work. They said to Jesus "...behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful..." (Matt. 12:2) Null again! He told them "...the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day." (Matt. 12:8) They said of Him "...why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders." (Mark 7:5) He said to them "For laying aside the commandment of God Ye hold the tradition of men..."(Mark 7:8) "...Ye reject the commandment of God, that Ye may keep your own tradition."(Mark 7:9)

They accused Him of fellowship with what they considered undesirables. Null again! Jesus did not look upon any man as being undesirable even the worst of men. "...the scribes and the Pharisees saw Him eat with publicans and sinners..." "...they said unto His disciples, how is it that He eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?" "When Jesus heard it He saith unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. " (Mark 2:16-17)

Another null hypothesis! They thought they had the ability to destroy Him. "...the Pharisees went out, and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him." (Matt. 12:14) Jesus simply said of Himself, "...He shall not strive, nor cry: neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. " (Matt. 12:19) Jesus' death was one that would be total submission by Him, and it was not in any way connected with their ability to kill Him.

In my opinion the ultimate null hypothesis was the accusation that Jesus was a blasphemer. They said of Him "...He hath spoken blasphemy..." (Matt. 26:65) So they killed Him. They thought they were through with Him but not so. I can't tell you the depth of feeling we had when we stood with a group in Israel and looked at Golgotha where they crucified the One they called the blasphemer. Not too far from there is the Garden Tomb. We viewed the tomb and walked into the tomb, and later we partook of the Lord's Supper in the garden. Yes, they crucified Him. But the powerful angel of God was to stand before the tomb and say to those mourning women "Fear not Ye: for I know that Ye seek Jesus, which was crucified." "He is not here: for He is risen as He said." (Matt. 28:5-6)

It is a disheartening thing that some folks will go to just about any degree to defend themselves and their null hypotheses. Therefore, amazingly enough, the scriptures say of the false accusers of Jesus after His resurrection "...they gave large money unto the soldiers, " "saying , say Ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while He slept." (Matt. 28:12-13)

The matter of Jesus being a blasphemer was an outright lie against His nature. He said "I and My Father are one." (John 10:30) "He that hateth Me hateth My Father also." (John 15:23) "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it up again."(John 10:17) Jesus in reality to them was a blasphemer because He was a threat to their selfish causes.

They had nothing against Him. He was not at all like them. He was "...without sin." (Hebrews 4:15) He perfectly accomplished " ...the will of the Father." (John 5:30) He was God in the flesh, incarnate. (John 1: 1-2) And He did all that so that "...all men through Him might believe." (John 1:7)

He would not line up with them so He had a price to pay. "...and therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day."(Jn. 5:16) "...the Jews sought to kill Him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God."(Jn. 5:18) "The Jews...murmured at Him, because He said, I am the bread which came down from heaven." (Jn. 6:41)

He was a danger to their cause, so they said..."What do we? For this man doeth many miracles?"(Jn. 12:47) "If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation."(Jn. 12:48) So their decision about Him was that "One man should die for the people..." "...so that the whole nation perish not."(Jn. 12:50) That being the case..."...from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death."(Jn. 12:53)

He had done nothing wrong. But he was a danger to them. And be careful who you associate with. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead and the chief priests knew that. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. The lengths to which men will go in maintaining themselves! "...the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death."(Jn. 12:10)

There were even some among them that Jesus had influenced with His life. But they just couldn't break the pressure that was upon them. They just could not confess him because they feared those around them and "...they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."(Jn. 12:43)

Ultimately Jesus had no chance for survival with those folks. They worked their malicious ways and took Him before Pilate. But to their chagrin Pilate said..."...I find no fault in Him no fault at all."(Jn. 18:38)

It is not so easy to deter a lynch mob. What could they do now? They yelled blasphemy! "We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God."(Jn. 19:7)

One sure thing about null accusations is that they will not stand the test of the truth. If one is not honest in his or her assessments either of things or people the truth itself and it alone will bring about a null hypothesis. And a continual rejection of truth will only result in a multiplication of null hypotheses.

It was said of those who accused Jesus in Mk. 14:55 "And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put Him to death: and found none."(Mk. 14:55) So there were false witnesses because they always exist but even they could not agree. "For many bare false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together."(Mk. 14:56)

What do they do now? Simply throw a tantrum. "...then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, what need we any further witnesses?" "Ye have heard His blasphemy..."(Mk. 14:63-64)"And they condemned Him to be guilty of death."(Mk. 14:64)

So they spit in His beautiful face, they struck Him, they beat Him beyond recognition, they drug Him down a long winding street, they mocked Him, they hung him on a tree, they stapled Him to it, they plunged a spear in His side, they killed Him..and they sacrificed Him in essence to their God of tradition. Why?

He in their minds violated their rules. Interesting is it not how folks will use one another to purport their causes yet not really care about one another. The Jews did not like Jesus. His ideas about the kingdom, their traditions, themselves did not set too well with them. The Romans did not give a hoot about the Jews ideas. Yet the Jews knew what strings to pull to get the attention of the Romans and their selfish causes. And if Jesus caused insurrection among the Jews that would get the attention of Caesar who had his selfish cause of peace in his earthly empire. The whole thing hinged around Jesus being a blasphemer and the Jews knew that so they used it against Jesus.

Paradoxically they freed a thief from a literal prison and on their instrument of torture and death Jesus freed a thief who was being crucifed next to Him from a spiritual prison and escorted him into Paradise.

But all the efforts of the Romans and the Jews were foiled. All the null hypotheses about Him are collecting dust and have through the ages..They are impotent, pointless, unprovable, contentless thoughts of misguided men. He has proved them false. For He "...is risen..." He has ascended to the Father. And according to God's strong angel..."...this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."(Acts 1:11)

What is going to happen to all the null hypotheses of men in that day. I believe that one day in the fullest sense when He comes He will bring to full fruition the statement of Isaiah..."...the crooked places shall be made straight."(Isa. 4:4)

Jesus, I believe in you. I confess you. I know you are my Savior and the Savior of the world. And I want to be justified by you so I say to you..."...God be merciful to me a sinner..."(Lk. 18:13)