Eutychus: Take One Tablet
written by: Warren Wiersbe
An unsuspecting archaeologist named Harvey Jenkins has made the find of the year at a dig near the ancient city of Nippur. It is a clay tablet with an inscription that has been deciphered as a dispensational chart. Fortunately, the tablet has the date 1863 B.C. stamped on it, so there is no need to make estimates of its age. Harvey is sure the tablet is authentic.
“My discovery was really accidental,” he told our man in Nippur. (We always keep a man in Nippur just in case there are any accidental discoveries.) “I really wasn’t looking for tablets. I had lost my can of wheat germ and was searching for it when I discovered the tablet.
Experts at the British Museum refused to comment. In fact, they refused to look at the tablet. “Stuff that’s already dated is not of interest to us,” snorted Sir Hilary Boswell-Bangbeetle, head of the tablet department. “It takes all the fun out of archaeological guesswork.”
Harvey’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Gertrude Gaswinder, a waitress in Keokuk, Iowa, stated dogmatically that the find was no doubt the greatest in modern archaeological history. “It is no doubt the greatest find in modern archaeological history,” she told our man in Keokuk. “It proves that the dispensational system is not a new invention, but an old invention.”
Dr. Howard Scroggins, the eminent amillennial archaeologist, examined the tablet carefully and concluded that it was not a dispensational chart. “It is definitely the marks of a horse’s hoof, a rather nervous horse at that,” he explained. “And I will believe this until kingdom come.”
Harvey has interrupted his work to fly back to the U.S. where he is to be involved in: (1) an illustrated lecture tour, (2) writing a book for Moody Press, (3) negotiating a professorship at Dallas Seminary, and (4) possibly making a movie and producing a series of cassettes.
“That piece of clay has transformed my life,” he told our man in Dallas. “But I do wish I could find that can of wheat germ.”
EUTYCHUS X
(signed in his absence)
Written by Warren W. Wiersbe
Originally appeared in Christianity Today 10/19/79
Used by permission. Not to be reprinted.
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
