Faulty Faith

As I was perusing the web looking for something interesting for this blog I came across one site which discussed various religions, faiths , God, heaven, hell etc.  I came across two articles which caught my eye.  The heading of one read, “Connection with the Divine to be found in everyday life.”   That is true enough.  Then I kept reading.

The first article was written by a devout Muslim.  It made sense.  He stated his opinion on how to seek God in every aspect of our daily life. He wrote on how Muslims praise and worship God.  In fact it could have been written by a Christian, that is, until the last sentence.  He wrote that we are either lucky or  unlucky in seeing the opportunities presented to us.  The unlucky ones will “throw themselves in hellfire.”  I don’t quite understand his idea of having luck or being unlucky.  As a believer, I don’t agree with the idea of luck. Either God is involved or not involved in our daily life.  We, however, are given the power of choice.  My faith doesn’t depend on the roll of the dice.

The second article was written by a Hindu.  He too, had a message of recognizing the Divine in all of nature and the Divine that resides within each of us. Through Yoga and contemplation we are able to reach the Divine and become one with Him.

These well written articles appeal to spiritual seekers. But one must read carefully to fully understand their impact.

The Hindu says that we must open our minds to the Divine Spirit to become one with the Divine Nature.  “Yoga means the union of the individual soul with the universal soul.”  Then surely all happiness will be ours!

Is this man really capable of obtaining and recognizing the Divine by simply focusing his thoughts in meditation?   Seems to more akin to self hypnosis.  By the way, neither article mentioned sin.

We ourselves cannot realize God’s perfect will for man because we live in a world corrupted by sin.  Elevating our thoughts might give us a sense of well being but it doesn’t solve the problem of man’s dilemma.  It is the guilt of sin which causes us to reach out to something beyond ourselves. A Higher Power as some have said.   We all recognize that it isn’t within us to alleviate the turmoil we encounter within each of us.

If I am reading the Bible correctly, the writers tell us that humans, through our own self will, defied God and sin entered the world.  Sin is the result of our disobedience to the perfect will of our Creator.   Simply elevating our thoughts will never take away sin.  It’s here to stay.

Our attempt to climb to heaven on a ladder of reason, morality, and experience cannot get us one step closer to the Divine Perfection.  As sinful humans we cannot ascend to God on our own……but that God descended down to us in the form of a man called Jesus. He showed us not only what is God’s perfect will for us but He also showed us the way.  It wasn’t through spiritual mediation…..but through obedience, righteous living and prayer.

Man wants to find a God that fits his world view.  We remake God in our image, instead of being remade from the inside out.  Now that’s what I call being “reborn.”

So What’s in a Name?

Often we read scriptures in the same way as we always have heard or been taught, without really knowing the true meaning of the text in the original language.  At least, for me I never have studied either Greek or Hebrew but I pick up snatches along the way.  Having read many articles concerning the original language of the Synoptic Gospels, I have now come to the conclusion that perhaps what we read as Greek (now English for us) was originally written in Hebrew. The only early sources that have survived are Greek but there are many hints that the original language was in Hebrew.  At the same time we are missing so many foundational truths because the words don’t make sense to us.  I will be exploring more of those difficult sayings of Jesus in another blog.

However, I found some interesting words that might give some clarity to a few of the verses we find in scripture.

Last Supper
So what happened at the end of the Last Supper?  The Gospels tell us “when they had sung the hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives”(Mark 14:26).  The word hymn is a translation of the Hebrew word “Hallel”, a reference to the psalms of praise (113-118), which are sung on Passover eve as part of the Seder feast.  Jesus must have been fond of these psalms whose central message is deliverance.

The  word  Hallel mean’s “praise” in Hebrew.  It is one of the most important words in the Hebrew Bible.  It is also the root of the word, Halleluiah, which means “Praise unto God” as well as the name of the Book of Psalms in Hebrew, “Tehilim.”  It is precisely that book of Tehilim (Psalms 118:25-26) that is being quoted on Palm Sunday when the crowds proclaim “Hosanna…Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9)

Passover is the Jewish holiday of freedom.  When we as believers, take the Lord’s Supper we are also celebrating a type of Passover feast. It is reminder of that famous holiday of Jewish freedom, which goes back to Exodus and Moses and the escape from Egypt.  So when we take the communion we pray with gratitude our hymn of praise for God’s deliverance from sin through the death of Jeshua (Jesus) our Messiah.

The Moral Heart.
The Hebrew word for heart, lev, is found hundreds of times in the Bible.  In the biblical mindset it is more than merely the organ that tirelessly pumps blood through our veins.  The lev is the core human organ.  It represents the inner self.  It is what causes us to love, cry, sin and empathize.  A better English equivalent would be “psyche’.

The Bible uses the word lev to express a wide variety of human personas.

An honorable person is described “straight hearted”; a stubborn person is “hard hearted”; an arrogant person is guilty of an “elevated heart”; a dishonest person has a “heart and a heart” or a “double heart”; a courageous person is “mighty hearted”.  I like the dishonest person having a double heart…………think about that one!  A heroic figure like David is not merely courageous but had a “mighty heart.”  I like that.

Jesus as Preacher.
Before he became famous as a healer and miracle-worker, Jesus was a preacher.  The Gospel of Matthew begins telling us of Jesus’ public preaching.  Known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus real ministry came as a teacher and rabbi, instilling the Torah in his followers and preaching to them about the kingdom of God.

The English word ‘preach’ came from the Latin words prae (before) and dicare (speak) “ to declare in front of.”  Jesus spoke neither Latin nor English. The original Hebrew word that he used to refer to his preaching was “drasha” in Hebrew.  This word carries more meaning that simply preach.  It meant “to demand”.  Jesus’ sermons were not meant to be easy listening.  He wasn’t going to “tickle the ears” of his audience.  As a Jewish preacher and teacher, Jesus looked deep into the words of Scripture, demanding  a more profound meaning than what is apparent on the surface.  How do you study?

Gethsemane
You have probably heard the name Gethsemane, but did you know that it actually means something?  Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew words “press” and “oils”. At the base of the Mount of Olives there was a garden where the farmers of Jerusalem would bring their harvested olives to be pressed into oil.

The name Gethsemane is significant because it underscores the essence of Jesus’ suffering at the time of his arrest.  Like oil in a press, Jesus is literally having the life squeezed out of him.  As Scripture says, “being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)  How appropriate he went there to pray!

Hope this blog will peak your interest into delving deeper into Scripture.  There is whole world of meanings that we fail to understand.  I hope to write more on the some puzzling phrases found in Scripture.  Stayed tuned!

Can We Trust the Bible?

I have always been taught along with millions of believers, that the Bible is inerrant, which means it is divinely given and written.   God doesn’t make mistakes, does He?  This was taken from an interesting article that gave me considerable thought.

There are many, including myself, who believe that each and every writer was inspired to write the words that were either given to him or else handed down from a previous source which God intended to be used as His way of telling mankind about Himself and His desires for creation.  He himself came in human form to save His very creation.

But what about all those various details of events in both the Old and the New Testaments? There are various kings, peoples, cultures, dates, etc that seem to conflict with either themselves or with archeological data.  Actually, much of scripture proves that these events really happened, despite being out of sequence….. but does that matter?  The Jewish scribes were intent upon giving us information although perhaps not always in the way we expect.

Some theologians and historians, view many of the stories as metaphors which have a deeper layer of meaning.  Does the crossing of the Red Sea and leading the people into the Promised Land, somehow give us another dimension?  Do the death of Jesus and His resurrection lead us as believers into the promise of everlasting life………a type of Promised Land?   This is only one example.

Let’s look at the details of the resurrection.  Although I think there are good reasons to believe in an inerrant Bible, inerrancy is an unnecessarily high standard by which to establish the central event in Christianity.  It would be a true event even if the Bible were never written!  This single event in history is the central belief of all believers.  How did the thousands of people in the 1^st century world come to faith in a Messiah of the Jews without the written word?  It was by telling the story.  They had very few actual written documents.  Even Paul’s letters could only reach a small minority.

We don’t need inerrant sources to establish that the resurrection actually happened. When reading a report of a football game some commentators like to focus one part of the game while another report focuses on a different aspect.  But it is still the same football game.    Then why do some people mistakenly want to confine the scripture accounts so that all the writers are saying the same thing?

Perhaps they are confusing the fact of the resurrection with the reports of the resurrection.  Conflicting reports of a historical event are evidence that the event actually occurred. Even if one were to find an error of disagreement between the multiple accounts of the resurrection story, the very fact that there are several eyewitness stories shows that something dramatic actually happened in history.

Christianity isn’t true just because the Bible says it is true.  Christianity is true because an event occurred which changed the thinking of millions of people.  We wouldn’t know much about this event now without reading about it……but the resurrection preceded the reports written about it.

Contrary to what some skeptics may think the New Testament writers didn’t create the resurrection.  The resurrection accounts are the reason the writers of the New Testament put this story in written form.   Therefore the foundational beliefs of the Messiah and His teachings, His death and resurrection are true, even if the reports have some errors.  Getting the details wrong in reporting the resurrection doesn’t change the larger point that the resurrection actually happened.  In fact, if all the accounts agreed on every detail, we’d rightly assume they colluded.  Actually eyewitnesses never describe the same historical event in the same way.  Ask those who have witnessed an accident.

The historical documents we’ve collected and put into one binding we call the New Testament are just what the name implies.  The scriptures are documents or testaments of reports of what honorable people witness and had no motive to invent.

I believe the Bible can be trusted but we don’t need to go that far to show that Christianity is true.

Jesus view of Pacifism.

Many people over the years have seen Jesus as a pacifist—and for good reason. Here was a man who apparently was willing to die rather than defend himself, a man who taught his disciples not to kill, not to resist evil, to love their enemies, not to fear those who kill the body, and that only those who are willing to lose their lives will be able to save them.  Jesus’ teachings seem very much like those of such popular pacifists as Tolstoy and Gandhi, and indeed, Tolstoy based his views on gospel passages.

But did Jesus teach that it is wrong to defend oneself against attack? Did he really mean that we should not resist evil? Such a view seems to contradict what we read elsewhere in the Bible. In Romans 12:9, for example, Paul says that one should “hate what is evil,” and in James 4:7 we read that we are to “resist the devil.” It is clear from passages in Luke 22 that Jesus’ disciples were armed, and Jesus himself advised them to purchase swords.

These apparent contradictions can be reconciled by recognizing the Hebraic nuances of the gospel texts, and by developing a deeper understanding of the Jewish background to Jesus’ words.
Kill or Murder?
One verse that is commonly cited in support of Jesus’ pacifism is Matthew 5:21, which most English versions of the Bible render, “You shall not kill.” The Greek word translated “kill” in this passage is a specific form of a Greek verb. This verb always used in the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures as the equivalent of the Hebrew verb “ratsakh”.  I don’t know Hebrew but I looked it up and this is the same word used in the sixth commandment in both Exodus 20:13 and its parallel, Deuteronomy 5:17. It seems quite certain that in Matthew 5:21 Jesus was quoting the sixth commandment.

The Greek word to kill and ratsakh in Hebrew are both ambiguous and can mean either “kill” or “murder,” depending upon the context. However, God himself commanded capital punishment for such crimes as deliberate murder (Exod. 21:12-15), rape (Deut. 22:25-26), kidnapping (Exod. 21:16), adultery (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22), sorcery (Exod. 22:18), and many other crimes. The sixth commandment, therefore, must be a prohibition against murder, not killing as such. This includes premeditation of murder.  It’s the intent of the heart.  Even the prohibition about lusting is a matter of the heart and not the actual doing.

In spite of this, the King James Version of 1611, and the revisions of 1885 (Revised Version) and 1952 (Revised Standard Version), used “kill” rather than “murder” in translating Jesus’ quotation of this commandment. Most recent translations of the Bible have corrected this mistake; however the “kill” of the King James Version and its successors has strongly influenced many English-speaking Christians’ views of self-defense.

The eye for an eye prohibition means that we are not to take revenge upon another.  When a debt is to due we must take only what the debtor owes and not to extract more. In other words, Jesus is telling his disciples that one must indeed consider the circumstances of the debtor…..turn the other cheek if necessary.  Keep him as a friend.  “Do unto to others” etc etc. So how does this all relate to killing?  The Lord is simply telling his listeners that revenge belongs to the God.  However, never did he imply that we are not to defend ourselves.  Or to resist what is evil.

Our response to evil does have to be resistance—it is morally wrong to tolerate evil. However, we also must continue to show love for the evildoer.

It should be noted that loving and praying for one’s enemies in no way precludes defending oneself when one’s life is in danger. One is morally obligated to preserve life, including one’s own. Jesus never taught that it is wrong to defend oneself against life-threatening attack. However, he consistently taught his disciples to forgive and not to seek revenge against those who had attacked them. Our responsibility is not to respond in kind to belligerence directed against us. That only prolongs and perpetuates the evil. We are not to “be overcome by evil,” but to “overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).

Not only does a pacifistic interpretation of Jesus’ sayings contradict many biblical passages, but pacifism was never a part of Jewish belief. According to Scripture, for example, a person who kills a housebreaker at night is not guilty of murder: “If a thief is seized while tunneling to break into a house, and he is beaten to death, the person who killed him is not guilty of bloodshed” (Exod. 22:2). The rationale is that the thief is ready to murder anyone who surprises him, thus one may preempt the thief!!  The Jewish position on this issue is summed up in the rabbinic dictum, “If someone comes to murder you, anticipate him and kill him first.”

The sages taught that if one is in danger of being murdered, he should defend himself, even if there is a measure of doubt about the intention of the attacker. Furthermore, if another person’s life is threatened, one is obligated to prevent that murder, if necessary by killing the attacker. The sages ruled that a person who is pursuing someone else with intent to murder may be killed. In light of this, it is very unlikely that Jesus, a Jew of the first century, would have espoused pacifism.  He understood that every disciple must condemn what is evil and protecting human life.

When we examine Jesus’ words from a Hebraic-Jewish perspective, we can see what has been obscured by mistranslation and lack of familiarity with Judaism. The passages construed to support pacifism actually condemn revenge rather than self-defense. It is not surprising that this interpretation is consistent with Jesus’ other teachings and the rest of biblical instruction.

Bible Tidbits

I am always interested in learning more about God through reading His story in the Bible.  I hope you are like me and enjoy delving deeper into scripture.  We can see God in both the obvious and not so obvious ways that He deals with us humans.  In this short blog I will submit to you, my followers, a few tidbits that I thought quite interesting and hoping you do as well.

The Last Part of the Last Supper.

As I was reading the account of our Lord and His disciples eating the Passover feast together in the upper room, it again came to mind that this was to be His last meal on earth.  I often skipped over the last part of the story focusing instead on the cup of wine and the broken bread.  I’m hoping that most of you at some point have been able to observe the Passover meal either in your congregation or perhaps at a special celebration presented elsewhere…..even in a movie.

So what happened at the end of the Last Supper? The Gospels, tell us “when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Mark 14:26) The word hymn is a translation of the Hebrew word Hallel, a reference to the psalms of praise (113-118) which are sung on Passover eve as part of the Seder feast.  These hymns/psalms were also sung by the pilgrims going to the temple for the yearly feasts and were well known by the Jewish people.  They are still sung today as part of Passover meals. Jesus must have been fond of these psalms whose central message is deliverance.

The word Hallel means “praise” in Hebrew.  It is one of the most important words in the Hebrew Scriptures.  It is also the root of the word Halleluiah which means “Praise unto God” as well as the name of the Book of Psalms in Hebrew, Tehilim.  It is precisely the book of Tehilim (Psalms 118:25-26) that is being quoted on Palm Sunday when the crowds proclaimed “Hosanna….Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9)

A Sacred Number to Swear By!

What do the Sabbath, Joshua’s march around Jericho and the pairs of clean animals brought by Noah into the ark all have in common?  The answer is that all these biblical subjects have the number Seven.  And it’s not just in these stories.  In dozens of other Scriptural instances the number seven plays a central role.    In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of himself using the phrase “I am” seven times.  What is so special about seven?

In ancient Israel, the number seven represented divine perfection.  It was considered a powerful, unbreakable number because it could not be divided by common small numbers which the people used to count on a single hand.  The word seven in Hebrew, “sheva” is linked to “shevua”….an oath.  Unlike most languages, Hebrew words have layers of meanings.

This word sheva is used when someone wanted to make a very strong promise.  They would take an oath as though to say, “let the divinely perfect number seven be my witness.”  It was the same as saying that God is the witness between them…..however, the name of God was never used directly because it was considered too holy to be pronounced or even written.  Now we know seven is worth swearing by!

Why Do the Jewish People Pray Three Times Daily?

When reading the book of Daniel I noted that Daniel opened the window of his house and prayed to God.  Three times daily he did this. (Daniel 6:10)  The apostle Paul probably did the same although he told us to be in prayer continually.  In other words, always have a heart toward God.  But why would Daniel and other observant Jews pray three times daily?  God didn’t specify three times, did He?  No, however, there are examples of men praying at three different times during the day. The rabbis deduced from their reading that we ought to pray at three specific times daily… and more is even better.

First, the Morning Prayer.  Three times in Abraham’s story we read …..Abraham got up early in the morning…..when he was wondering what had happened to Lot (Gen 19:27); when fulfilling God’s command to sent Ishmael away (Gen 21:14); and when he was going to sacrifice Isaac. Each of these times, he was overwhelmed with anguish, pain and questions. Thus, he prayed and poured out his heart before God.

Second prayer. It is said that Isaac instituted the afternoon prayer when, “Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening” (Gen.24: 63). The word rendered as meditate here also means prayer.  Did he pray for his bride in order to be comforted after Sarah’s death?  If so, his prayer was answered quickly, because here she came, Rebecca, riding on a camel, escorted by his father’s servant!!  So the afternoon prayer goes back to Isaac.

The Evening Prayer….It is said that Jacob instituted the evening prayer. “He, (Jacob) came to a certain place and stayed there because the sun had set.” (Gen. 28:11) Actually one of the most well –known encounters with God happened there and that’s why, ever since, the Jewish people have sought God in the evening prayer.

Our Lord also observed these prayer times.  We do know that He went out early in the morning to pray.  We as disciples are to follow the example of our Rabbi, Jesus.  How is your prayer life?  Do you pray only in times of need or just when you feel like it?

I hope these few Bible Tidbits are interesting for your inquiring minds and will be of benefit to your spiritual knowledge.

“The fear (wisdom, awe, power) of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverb 1:7)

                                 Come to Dinner

We all enjoy our holidays.  Most are usually accompanied by a wonderful meal with family and friends.  There is something special about sharing a meal together.  As I read the stories in the Bible I came to realize how many times the Lord used a meal as a teaching tool!  I found more information concerning eating and feasting in a recent newsletter I received, and thought I would share some of the comments in this blog.

The Loaves and the Fishes……(Matt 15:32  Luke 9                     We all learned this story as children.  Perhaps the teacher had us play the part of the little boy who shared his lunch and how Jesus multiplied those five barley loaves and two little salted fish.  All four Gospels relate this miracle so it was something really special.  That tiny bit of food was multiplied and enough to feed the hungry crowd and still some left over.   Jesus used this miracle to remind the people how God had provided the quail and the manna for their ancestors on their escape from Egypt.  This hillside crowd now witnessed the promise that God had made to their ancestors many years before. They in a sense were reliving those events.   You can read about it in Deut. 18:15.

Our Lord provided this type of meal two times.  First , with five loaves and the second time with seven making a total of twelve.  The Priests of the temple were required to bake twelve loaves of bread every day.  According to the rabbis, the priests would only consume a small bite but they were satisfied.  These loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel.  When the Master multiplied the loaves He was also alluding to the twelve loaves found in the temple. Everyone ate and they were satisfied.  God was to be their provider.

The Prodigal Son….. (Luke 15:22-24)
There are so many layers of meaning in this story.  But the basic parable involves a wayward son who returns home to a loving father after he had taken his inheritance and it squandered it.  He is starving and in order to survive he devises a plan.  He knows his father is a forgiving and kind man and so he takes a chance that perhaps his father will take him back……..if only as a servant in the home.  Of course he is right. The father completely forgives this ungrateful young man and provides a feast to honor his return.  Jesus uses this story to describe the attributes of God.   He is always loving and forgiving and willing to take us “back” after we repent of wrong doings and seek His forgiveness.  The Prodigal now realizes the great love of his father for him despite all he has done.   There is reconciliation for one who has “returned.” This calls for a celebration!

The Last Supper….  (Luke 22: 14-10)
Jesus would share his last Passover Seder with His disciples in a small upper room in Jerusalem.  This was one of the three annual feasts that every good Jewish man was to attend.  Of course the Seder meal involves more than just the bread and the four cups of wine.   Jesus however used this part of the Seder to tell his disciples that the broken bread and the cup of wine were to remind them of his suffering and death. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:27-29) also tells his gentile readers to remember the body and blood of the Messiah and to take these elements in a worthy manner.  Always realizing that even though they are gentiles, they are deemed worthy of taking this part of the feast, in remembrance of their being grafted into the “body” of the Messiah and that He died for them as well as the Jews.  We today continue this tradition, remembering the sacrifice of our Lord and making a renewed commitment in our discipleship.

Breakfast by the Sea (John 21 1-14)
This meal took place after the resurrection.  Jesus made a breakfast for those fishermen disciples.  The Master called to them and He was recognized.  Jesus was frying fish on the beach and the disciples saw him from their boat.  I imagine the aroma blowing on the wind first caught their attention.  After the meal Jesus purposely talked to Peter.  He had charged Peter with “feeding His sheep.”  He was giving Peter a major job.  He was to guide this ragtag group of disciples into a driving force for bringing to others the good news of the gospel.  Jesus was again alive and had been resurrected from the dead and that a New Kingdom was at hand.  I imagine the Master had more teaching to do before His final ascent.

Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
In Revelation 19:9 it was revealed to John there was to be another great feast.  Knowing the marriage rituals of the 1^st c. Jews would help in understanding the traditions of this final supper.  However, Jesus represents the Bridegroom and the Bride as represented by the congregations of believers.   When the Lord returns for us there will be a marvelous feast.  It will be a great celebration and the most joyous occasion of all time!

    Be sure to prepare yourself for grandest feast of all!!!

                                  The  Great Divide.

Most people know the story of the Rich Man and the poor beggar, Lazarus.  It’s found in Luke 16:19-31 where Jesus is teaching his followers. Jesus told this story in the form of a parable to bring home a pointed lesson.  The Lord often spoke in parables to teach a moral lesson which people could understand.  He used familiar locations and as well as various themes…. using types of people familiar to that culture.  The Lord never wasted an opportunity to relay spiritual truths.  This parable like all of his stories had multiple layers of meaning.

This parable is often told to illustrate that those who are faithful in this life, will be rewarded in the life to come.  In other words the faithful ones will receive their place in heaven.  Or in this case it was “Abraham’s bosom.” The Rich Man, whose name is not given, sees Lazarus in the heavenly realm and pleads with him for just a drop of water on his parched tongue.  However, there is a great gulf between them.  They are able to see each other but cannot cross this gulf.  Then the Rich Man tells Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers of their pending doom unless they change their life.  His reply was, “They have the law and the prophets let them listen to them.”  (NIV)

So what is the real take on this story?  Is this a story about life after death?

We must look to Jewish life in the 1^st c. to really understand its meaning. The scribes, teachers and Pharisees believed that God rewards those who do His will.  They taught that the place of the dead was called Sheol.  The New Testament Greek equivalent to Sheol is Hades, which is also a general reference to “the place of the dead.” The souls of the righteous, at death, go directly into the presence of God… “Heaven,” “Paradise, “or “Abraham’s bosom.” Perhaps this the way you have always thought of this parable. However, we need to know the background of Jewish teaching.

Our Master, Jeshua, was speaking to His followers as well as those who doubted Him.  They knew about Sheol and the Great Divide as taught by the scribes. They had studied the Hebrew Scriptures and it was their general belief that a great gulf separated the wicked from those in Paradise.   They also understood that the Rich Man was perhaps, a Sadducee.  The Sadducees were a sect of Judaism and were the officials who were in control of the temple. Unlike the Pharisees, they did not believe in the afterlife, angels or resurrection of the dead.  Jesus is poking a hole in their thinking.

As Jesus (Jeshua) described the soul of Lazarus being carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom, He spoke in the common terms and idioms of Pharisaic theology to describe the death of the righteous.

So if Jesus isn’t talking about life after death what is He saying?  Think about this.

• Jesus did not tell this parable to teach us about the afterlife. He assumed that His listeners already understood those basic principles.  He spoke to a Jewish audience with a general Jewish expectation.  His depiction of the afterlife was incidental to the story.  He wanted to convey a moral lesson about caring for the poor.  The Rich Man should have given Lazarus a place at his table.  Those who receive good things in this life and not share with those who need help are like the Rich Man.  “The first shall be last and the last first.” Sound familiar?

• Finally the Master used this parable to speak of his own death and resurrection. Those who refused to believe him and heed his message of repentance would continue in their disbelief even after His resurrection. The main point of this parable is the message of repentance and forgiveness. Seeing oneself as needy and seeking God in all things.

The lesson to be learned here is this.  We seek God in our repentance, in our humility before Him.  We prove our love by helping our fellow man.  We share the story of His love with tangible evidence of our discipleship.  John, the Baptizer said (Matthew 3: 1-3)

“Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

                           Beware of Itching Ears!

Every doctor will tell you not to scratch inside your ears.  They know it is dangerous and you know it is dangerous.  Yet we all scratch our ears when they itch.  And they do itch!

However, when the apostle Paul wrote about itchy ears he had something else in mind.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Paul is actually warning Timothy and his readers that people will turn to false teaching because they want something that tickles their ears.  The craving starts as a little tickle….some small idea that sounds good or appeals to the intellect at the moment. We start to scratch the ear and it feels good.  These ideas sound rather appealing.  Many people will be lead to believe these lies or half truths because they seem to really make sense.

People are mislead into believing the crafty words of those who appeal to man’s desires because most of us want to be able to take destiny into our own hands.  Remember what Satan told Eve? “Did God really tell you not to eat of that tree?  He doesn’t want you to be as wise as He is!!!”  (my paraphrase)

We too want to be wise and so we are easily led in the wrong direction.  God’s words often appear unrelated to the real world. We are told that science holds the key to man’s understanding of the world……not some antiquated book called the Bible.  Science therefore can solve the dilemmas that face us.  We can take control of the world and ourselves only through science.  Really??

In appealing to “itchy ears” the “smart ones” know how to intimidate and ridicule those who disagree with their theories.  They couch these theories in scientific jargon which seem impressive.

Another way of deluding those with itchy ears is to make the simple appear complex. The goal is to divert the reader or listener from a clear understanding of the issue.   “In the beginning God created………..”  That simple statement of fact now becomes complex and most scientists can quote their theories of just why it didn’t happen. Accordingly they lead us to believe that it took millions of years to come up with you and me.

Intimidation is another technique used to muddy the waters of reason.  Namedroppers, book-quoters, jargon users, and prestige talkers all use this method.  After all, nothing is really that simple and we scientists know how the world and its inhabitants came into being. In other words, non-scientists must rely on the trained scientists to clarify all things scientific.   After all, the Bible isn’t a science book is it?  Yes, it was written by humans in a particular time frame, however, the validity of the words is true.

I am led to the belief that God’s word is valid in all manner of faith and godliness.  I have come to realize that unless we hold to the truth of scripture in all points, everything we believe will also come into question.

I am certainly not against science.  Our lives have improved and benefitted from science.  Antibiotics and life saving devices have all extended lives. Well crafted science does not go against scripture.  It enhances it!

When someone tries to tickle your ears with ideas contrary to scripture then beware. Our faith is under attack on all fronts.

Hold fast and don’t be deceived.

               How Do You View Mary, the Mother of Jesus?

We Protestants do not believe in many of the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding Mary.  However, have we failed to remember her enough?  She was after all, the birth mother of our Lord.  She was especially chosen of all the women living, to be his earthly parent.

Nowhere does Mary herself or any of the apostles or disciples of Jesus, try to deify her in any way.  She is His mother and a faithful Jew in all ways.  She fulfilled the role given to her.   We find no evidence that Jesus told any of his followers to pray to her as an intercessor to God.  However, in reaction to Catholic dogma, must we never have good words to say about her or the fact that she was the chosen vessel of the Lord?  She is rarely studied in her own right except perhaps at Christmas when we find her in a manger scene, a halo above her head, kneeling beside a wooden trough filled with straw…….which presumably holds baby Jesus.

I want to come to the defense of Mary and in regard to what is written about her in scripture.  She is at the intersection of the Old and New Testaments.  She is in the lineage of other pious mothers…Hannah, Sarah, Rachel, Ruth.  When she appears in the temple with infant Jesus, Anna and Simeon, worship this baby who is called the “consolation” of Israel. This child will be the promised Messiah of the world and will fulfill the promises made by the prophets of old.

Has she the right to be called Blessed?  Remember the word itself means, “set apart”.  Mary earned that right. Not because of her virginity, or even her humility, but because she was chosen as the person and “place” where God’s glory would enter into this world.  She was in the lineage of David, and she was faithful to all the commandments of God.  These she taught her son and raised him in the words of the Torah and obedience to live a life of a pious Jew.

She was perhaps a teen.  Marriages were usually arranged by the family and the daughter was expected to marry the one chosen for her.  We know the story, of course.  Joseph, “adopted” Jesus as his own son although can we imagine the villagers all knew that Jesus was “illegitimate.”

Mary herself was called blessed by her cousin Elizabeth.  “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42)  Mary herself declares that all generations will call her blessed.  Not because she is without sin but because of what God has bestowed upon her.  (Luke 1:48) In fact we might view Mary as the Lord’s first disciple.

In our last glimpse of Mary, we find her in the upper room in a gathering of believers where they were told to go after the Lord’s resurrection.   She lived to see what had been foretold of her son.  That He indeed was to be the Savior of the world.

She bore Him and then lived for Him.  She honored herself in bearing Him and was His mother and His teacher.  He revered her and she worshiped Him.  We need not go through Mary in order to get to Jesus but we can join with Mary in pointing others to Him.  This more than anything else will honor her as she honored Him.