The Eternal Binary

Mathematical genius George Boole (1815-1864) created a new logic that used only binary values, true and false, in an attempt not only to marry math with logic but also to divine the truth or falsehood of philosophical or even theological statements. Though his work was ignored for 80 years after his death, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, Claude Shannon, using Boole’s binary values—0 for off and 1 for on—created the foundation of modern computers. It’s hard to imagine how radically different our world would be today without digital technology based on this binary.

Even before I read about Boole and Shannon, I had titled this column “The Eternal Binary,” based on Jesus before Caiaphas in Mark 14. After having been seized in Gethsemane, and despite the conflicting accusations against Him, Jesus stood in dignified silence, never answering His accusers in this sham trial. Caiaphas, the high priest himself, finally rose and asked, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?” (Mark 14:60). Jesus kept silent.

Then, getting right to the point and asking what’s really the most important question anyone could ask, Caiaphas said to Jesus: “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” (verse 61).

Only then, with such a straight and direct question about who He was, about His identity, did Jesus feel compelled to answer: “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (verse 62).

There’s no middle ground, however gray it can appear.

How many people, in all human history, have had the opportunity, as Caiaphas had here—standing face-to-face with Jesus Himself, in the flesh—not only to ask Jesus who He was but then to have Jesus Himself tell him to his face that He is the Messiah? 

And how does Caiaphas, with Christ right before him, respond?

“Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?’ And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death” (verses 63, 64).

Talk about a graphic and dramatic example of the eternal binary, of the two-option choice that determines everyone’s eternity: accept or reject Jesus. In the end, there’s no middle ground, however gray it can appear to our blighted eyes now. 

It’s either eternal life (John 4:14) in a “new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1) or eternal destruction (2 Thess. 1:9). We’re either sheep or goats (Matt. 25:32-46). You rise in one resurrection or the other (Rev. 20:5). It’s salvation or condemnation (John 3:16-18), nothing in between. As Jesus Himself expressed it (with little nuance or subtlety): “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Luke 11:23). 

Unlike the vast majority of humanity, Caiaphas had God Himself standing right there before Him in the flesh, and he asked Jesus, to His face, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” How much starker could the choice have been? Caiaphas made his.

We all have to as well: 0 or 1. True or false. With Jesus or against Him.

The eternal binary.