Archive for Judaism
The King is Coming
Posted by: | CommentsThe Old Testament of the Bible is largely a history of the Hebrew People and their stormy relationship their holy God. In the midst of this sprawling epoch that reminds one of a bad marriage taken to the extreme, there appear great shafts of spiritual light that burst on the scene in various forms. Revelations concerning the holiness and righteousness of God abound from beginning to end, as well as, the revelation of the nature of sin. In these revelations, God clearly claims to be the author of life, perfection, goodness, love, and the absolute owner of eternity and time.
At center stage of the entire Bible revelation is a striking theme positioned at the heart and soul of these people. This theme is built around many prophecies that a day would come when God would raise up a deliverer for His people and he would be their king. In these prophecies, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus is foretold, hundreds of years in advance of his appearance, down to the last detail. The prophecies indicated this king would come into the world for the purpose of redeeming mankind from sin and to make them righteous.
A Stormy Relationship
Posted by: | CommentsThe history of the Jews presents them struggling with and against their God. At times they experienced great highs and amazing national success. More often, they were involved in corruption and rebellion. About 800 B.C., individuals began to regularly appear in Hebrew society who were called prophets. Though he was not labeled as such, Moses was actually the first prophet. He had warned those who were in the desert with him of what the future history of Abraham’s people would be.
Moses’ warnings were periodically ignored or forgotten by subsequent generations and their descendants also discounted the messages spoken by later prophets who were sent to them. These prophets claimed to be uttering the very words of God to this stubborn people and predicted their future fate if they continued to ignore the commands of their God. The warnings were quite specific and the news was not good. The prophets told them what would happen and who would cause it to happen. Every bit of what was prophesied happened.
Because Abraham’s descendants persisted in ignoring God, time and time again they were conquered by other nations and carried away into foreign lands. But God always preserved a remnant and continued to nurture and develop them as a people.
Abraham’s descendants were restored as a recognized nation in their ancestral homeland of Israel in 1948, and to this day, their national existence is continually threatened by the hostile nations that surround them. Yet, they continue to survive.
The revelation in the Old Testament is of a transcendent, personal God, who literally created this people from nothing and owned them body and soul. Creating something from nothing is a characteristic of this God. He relentlessly pursued this people as they fell away time after time. They were truly a people He had called to be His possession, and He expected them to respond accordingly. They rarely did.
It’s Time To Go Home
Posted by: | CommentsAfter the Hebrew people spent four-hundred plus years as slaves in Egypt, a descendent of Abraham named Moses was called by God from a burning bush. God told Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and take them back to Canaan so they could possess the land He had promised Abraham. Moses, who was employed as a shepherd at the time, was reluctant to confront the powerful Egyptians. But, through the assistance of some supernatural “motivaters” that were applied to the Egyptian Pharaoh in the form of several devastating plagues, Moses was successful in securing the freedom of the Hebrews.
Moses and his two-million destitute people departed Egypt and lived in the Sinai desert with no visible means of support for forty years. During this period, God gave the timid sheep-herder the Ten Commandments and a detailed system of orderly living that essentially survives among Orthodox Jews to this very day and serves as the basis for common law throughout the world. This is no small accomplishment in any age and ranks as one of the most astounding facts in the history of mankind. If someone led two million people into a desert today, how long could they survive? A huge UN relief program would probably have to be organized to save them.
After Moses and his people wandered around in the desert for forty years, his rag-tag outfit eventually moved into the land of Canaan and subdued established cultures living in fortified cities with virtually nothing in the way of armament that compared with their enemies defenses. Yet, they somehow succeeded. The only thing they had going for them was God.
Have you ever thought of the immense miracle the Exodus represents? Perhaps no event in history represents such an incredible scenario. However, there is another that rivals it! It’s the regathering of the Jewish people in that same “promised land” that began in 1948 and continues to this day in spite of world-wide opposition!
The Problem of Sin
Posted by: | CommentsThe Bible reveals that sin is at the very center of the nature of human beings and is a terminal condition that results in spiritual death and separation from God. It is this revelation of the nature of sin that upsets the modern world that pursues relative truth and everchanging standards of morality.
In the Biblical history of the Hebrew people, the nature of man’s relationship to God is totally exposed. Human beings are left without defense before the awesome, transcendent God who claims to be the author of life itself. In the sin revelation, the message is clear that the best efforts of man are never enough to achieve righteousness or to be pleasing to a holy God.
Sin is probably the most hated word in the history of the human race, and one of the most misunderstood in our modern day. Many believe there is no such thing, and if there is, it does not present any problem for them in their relationship with God. The revelation of the serious nature of sin is an unexpected surprise, but lines up with the observable facts so evident in human history.
Nobody Wants This!
No human being in their right mind would have voluntarily created such a religious doctrine out of their own thinking, because they would have created an impossible problem to overcome by their own effort. In Hebrew theology, man always fails and no solution is provided that will produce a permanent, peaceful relationship with God. Man is portrayed as dust and beyond hope.
Man on his own would never have written it that way. Man would have created a theology by which he can triumph and appease God, thus fulfilling his dreams and desires. We do not see this as it is revealed in the history of the Hebrew people. We see sin, death and judgment. Man’s desire is to embrace ideas and concepts that will produce the results he wants. The things that man wants are found in naturalistic concepts of deity, and in bizarre idealistic theories. That fact indicates naturalistic religions are primarily functions of human thought, no matter how convincing the human explanations may sound.
How could man have created the Hebrew concept of God from his own thinking? To believe that he did strains logic, based on what we know about human character. The truth of it becomes clear when we can understand the concept of sin. The concept of sin is a foundational difference between the revelation of the Hebrew God, and the god-concepts of other religions. The uniqueness of the Hebrew revelation is in a personal God, and the revealed nature of sin which other theologies and secular ideas do not embrace. Sin is a hated concept and man wants to reject it as truth.
The doctrine of Sin indicates that man is a dead duck. The only way a person who thinks they are alive can come to understand that they are really dead, is by revelation. Because we are talking about spiritual death, it is a hard concept to grasp in a biological brain that thinks it is alive.
The Characteristics of Revelation
Posted by: | CommentsTo know anything factual about God or the eternity he occupies it must be revealed by God. That means our knowledge would come t us by supernatural revelation. There are 4 characteristics of a revelation and what a real revelation would accomplish.
- A revelation would reveal things we could not otherwise know.
- A revelation would be somewhat of a surprise.
- A revelation would line up with certain observable facts.
- A revelation would not conflict with itself, or be deceptive.
The first point is obvious. If we have the ability to know something as a result of our own effort, a revelation would not be required. Theoretically, humanity has demonstrated a progressive ability to uncover the mysteries of the natural world. What we need is information that is beyond the natural world. The revelation we seek would provide that information.
Regarding point number two, the nature of information we could not otherwise know would obviously be unexpected and would probably surprise us, especially if the information revealed was something we did not like. Truth in its most transcendent form cannot be controlled, changed or manipulated to be what we would prefer it to be. It would just be the way it is.
The third point is based on the idea that there would be historical evidence to support the revelation, and facts reported would be verifiable in one way or another. This is necessary because any revelation given would require involvement of the revelator, with the object of the revelation. The revelator would have to be God, and the recipient of the revelation man, who lives in a time-based, event-oriented existence. Any true revelation must involve history, because the revelation would have to take place in the natural world in the form of events.
The last item, which prohibits contradiction or deception, presupposes the revelation would be the truth. The supernatural occupant of eternity could have no possible motive to lie, because, there would be nothing to be gained by deception. If you own eternity it is hard to improve on that.
These four characteristics of revelation also give us an idea of the subject matter we might expect in a revelation. The primary information we need is that which would tell us about God, the eternity He occupies, and our relationship to both. Man has demonstrated the ability to find out just about everything, but the nature of God and Man’s relationship to God is unknowable without revelation. The Hebrew writings found in the Old Testament of the Bible meet all four of these requirements. No other alleged revelations can pass this test. They invariably fail at points three and four. They conflict, or do not line up with observable facts.
The Miraculous Hebrews
Posted by: | CommentsThe history of the Hebrew people begins with one man named Abraham. God told Abraham He would create a nation of people through him and his descendants for a specific purpose. He told Abraham He would reveal Himself to mankind through them. The bottom line is that God did what He said He would do and that is the reason these people continue to exist to this day.
To have a feel for the miracle these people represent it might help to construct a comparative situation: Let’s say I get up one morning and decide to pack up my belongings and move to Mexico. Mexico is already occupied by Mexicans and I will be just one more new face in the population. What is the possibility of my starting a family there and my descendants becoming a distinct, cohesive nation of people over a long period of time? I think the odds against such an occurrence are astronomical.
Within twenty years, my family would be speaking Spanish and all my children would be married to Mexicans. Within fifty years, the fact that I had moved there from America would be a vague recollection among my great-grand-children. Within one-hundred years, my name and identity would no longer be a part of family discussions, and few would even suspect there was a time when they were not Mexicans. My descendants and heirs would become part of the Mexican culture and they would continue to be Mexicans until one or more of them decided to leave Mexico and go somewhere else.
In the history of the world, nations of people are established politically and geographically. When the politics and governments change, or the geographical homes of nations are altered, the identity of the people eventually takes on whatever the political and cultural order creates. There is one exception in history to this fact: The Hebrews. Their writings indicate they are the personal property of the supernatural owner of eternity and every human attempt to eliminate them as a people has failed. The Hebrew scriptures constitute the original revelation of a transcendent, personal, eternal God, and from these ancient writings Christianity was spawned.
It is the continued existence of these people and the fulfillment of prophecy they respresent that substantiates the truth of the scriptures and the trustworthiness of the Bible.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ –Part 3 of 5
Posted by: | CommentsA simple way for the Jewish leaders to discredit the Christian movement would have been to produce the corpse of Jesus. Why was the corpse never produced? I am unable to believe that no serious attempts were made to find the body.
It requires strong feelings to engineer the execution of a human being in the way it was done to Jesus. The Jewish leadership despised the man and everything he said. As they saw Jesus hanging on the Roman cross, they must have felt the human emotion of fulfilled revenge. They exulted in his agony and no doubt relished their victory. This was an event filled with passions of hate, revenge and self-righteous superiority. Jesus was an abomination to these men, and they would have done everything in their power to disprove any claims made about a resurrection.
The reality of a resurrection would prove that Jesus might have been who he claimed to be: God in human flesh! The fear of a resurrection was present in the minds of the Jewish leaders because Jesus had predicted that he would be executed, but would rise from the dead. As he was dying on the Roman cross, witnesses jeered and challenged him to miraculously save himself.
The fear of a resurrection claim was real among them, because it was the Jewish leadership that petitioned the Roman Governor to post a contingent of guards at the tomb to prevent anyone from stealing the body. So, when reports of the resurrection began to surface on the third day following his execution, Jesus’ enemies no doubt made an immediate response. The first thing on their agenda was probably an inspection of the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed.
Upon arrival at the tomb of Jesus, the realization that it was in fact empty would not immediately prompt an assumption of resurrection from the dead. The argument of impossibility was probably as valid for them as it is for the modern Bible critic. And if they believed it was impossible, their first suspicion would be that the body was taken by his followers. This question soon becomes a matter of how.
Let’s Steal the Body
The tomb was hewn from solid rock, and had been surrounded by Roman guards. The entrance had been sealed with a huge stone. Such a theft would have required some ingenious planning on the part of the body-snatchers and problems of how to subdue the guards and how to move the stone are the first that come to mind.
I have always enjoyed a good challenge, and I tried to construct a plan which would allow me and a few friends, in the dark of the night, to sneak up on a contingent of Roman soldiers, move a boulder, steal a body, and hide it forever. I kept in mind that we only had two days to conceive, plan and execute the entire mission, as well as come up with a reason for the disappearance of the body. It was also clear that if there was one mistake in my plan, my friends and I would either be executed on the spot, or crucified the following day.
While attempting to construct my plan, it became apparent I would have to overcome some significant strategic problems: To subdue the Roman guards would require a method of rendering all of the guards unconscious simultaneously, without warning. Furthermore, when they awoke, they would have to be unaware that they had been unconsciousness, and all of them would have to be suffering from the same hallucination: that the stone was moved supernaturally.
It soon became obvious that chemically induced, undetected, simultaneous unconsciousness, resulting in identical hallucinations would require drugs and a delivery system not available in the first century, much less our own. However, for my plan to succeed, I would have to think of some way to accomplish all of this.
. If I found a way to zap the guards, I would be faced with the problem of moving the huge stone that sealed the entrance of the tomb. Because the stone was large, moving it would require several men, some equipment, some time, and making some unavoidable noise in the middle of the night.
Avoiding panic among my friends would also be difficult. I would have to convince everyone that body-snatching under the nose of Rome would be no big deal.
If we overcame those obstacles and managed to get our hands on the body, we would then be faced with the problem of disposal. While making my plan, I had to consider that the tomb was near the gates of Jerusalem and the time of year was Passover, when there are thousands of visiting Jews in the city, moving around at all hours of the day and night. Robbing a grave and transporting a corpse unnoticed would be no small problem, and finding a place to hide it would be even more difficult because of the stench of decay. If anyone saw us in circumstances that even appeared to be suspicious, the entire plan would be defeated and the hoax exposed.
To cap the entire puzzle, permanent success would require all participants in the operation to keep their mouth shut forever about what we had done. To me, that seemed to be the most insurmountable obstacle. Virtually every conspiracy in recorded history has eventually been exposed by the people who participated in them. The nature of people incorporates a strong need to share their secrets with someone, and once a leak occurs, conspiracies are exposed.
No doubt, a television writer for Mission Impossible might dream up a plan to steal the body, if they could employ the use of sophisticated electronic equipment and a number of other modern aids. But, even with all the electronic assistance available today, it would still be incredibly difficult. The biggest single factor working against any attempt to steal the body was the factor of time, coupled with basic human nature and fear.
The Disciples Were Not Commandos
The disciples of Jesus were not professionally trained commandos. They were simple fishermen and the entire scenario of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion had terrified them. The speed of the way it was done no doubt overwhelmed them. Jesus was abruptly arrested in the middle of the night and by the next morning he was hanging on the cross.
Only one of the disciples was reported to have witnessed the execution. All of the rest scattered and hid. Am I expected to believe these terrified, simple men could have regrouped physically and emotionally, and concocted a perfect body-snatching plan within forty-eight hours? If I have any correct understanding of human nature, to believe the disciples could accomplish such a feat is unthinkable. Yet, on the morning of the third day, there was an empty tomb. Shortly thereafter, these disciples were claiming a literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Lying in the Name of God
Obviously, if there was no resurrection the disciples knew it, and their subsequent testimony was a lie. When people lie, there is generally a motive for the deception. Since these men were faithful, orthodox Jews, we must first see and understand they would have been lying in the name of God. The motivation for the lie may have been to establish a foundation for something they wanted to do or accomplish. Well, what did they do?
The remainder of their lives were dedicated to spreading a message. Here was the message: God loves you so much He came to die for you that you might have life. God wants you to be with Him forever, and He wants you to know peace. God wants you to love each other as He has loved you. God wants you to forgive others as He has forgiven you. God wants you to be in a personal, loving relationship with Him and to walk with Him in the truth. Essentially, that was their message. If the disciples lied they did so to spread love and the knowledge of God.
How About Some Money?
Another motive for the lie may have involved some hope of financial gain, or high position of honor. The actual conditions enjoyed by these Apostles are clearly stated by the Apostle Paul in the following description:
“For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men…To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.” (1 Corinthians 4:9-13)
From this description, it is becoming more and more difficult to identify a motive for the lie. Are we to believe they concocted this story of resurrection for the privilege of preaching love and forgiveness, and the experience of being treated like human garbage?
Eventually, all the apostles, save one, were executed for their belief in Jesus. They never stopped telling the resurrection story. The only logical explanation is this: They were telling the truth.
Based on the testimony of these disciples, thousands of Jews were converted, and the followers of Jesus Christ steadily increased. The movement grew based on the credibility of the resurrection claim, and the reality of the spiritual relationship produced by conversion in Christ. The sincerity of the faith of these believers was ultimately tested in martyred deaths and persecution that culminated in the spectacles of carnage at the Roman games. There is no question the resurrection was accepted as an historical event, based on the personal testimony of the eye witnesses. People do not give up their lives for a hunch, or a fanciful myth.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ – Part 2 of 5
Posted by: | CommentsI normally do not focus on things until they happen, or until I have a reasonable expectation that they might happen. Because of this, it is obvious to me that the first element of proof for the resurrection of Jesus was that it is reported as an historical event. It must be considered and discussed in that context because that is what it claims to be. If I doubt the validity of an event (even though I doubt it because I think it should be impossible) I still have to prove that it did not happen based on the facts. And if disproving the event is the real issue, somehow I have to factually undermine the evidence that says it did happen.
Many of the modern discussions I read that attempt to cast doubt on the resurrection of Jesus place the burden of proof on the event, demanding that it somehow justify itself against the argument of impossibility. When I was studying the history of the Bible so I could evaluate the accuracy of the text, I read material that took positions on both sides of the resurrection issue. As previously stated, I found little or no argument that the text in the Bible had been changed from the original. The argument and disagreement comes in the acceptance or challenge to the truth of what is written.
The Bible critics who challenge the truth of the Bible text universally begin their arguments by reasoning as follows:
- Miracles are impossible.
- Events that require supernatural intervention are impossible.
- Since supernatural events are impossible, one must look behind the written text and seek otherexplanations for what was written.
The critics then go on to produce all kinds of theories about what they suppose the text really means. And none of the critics take on the issue or defend why they think supernatural events are impossible. The critics simply accept impossibility as fact and treat it as the foundational truth of the debate, instantaneously requiring all of their theories to agree with their platform of impossibility. Personally, I found this approach to be intellectually dishonest because history is not validated or disproved by merely introducing an assumptive opinion that the event in question is impossible.
History stands in the written and spoken record of events, which have completed themselves and have been witnessed. Historical events either happened or they did not happen; a reported historical event cannot be honestly required to defend itself against a subjective presupposition or bias.
For example, history indicates George Washington was the first President of the United States, which will stand as a fact until someone accumulates the factual evidence to disprove it. People saw him become the first President, talked to him when he was the first President, and wrote about him as the first President. To merely say it was impossible for George Washington to have been the first President is not an argument. To disprove Washington was the first president, I would have to find reports claiming someone else held the job first, and compile evidence that the people who claimed Washington was the first President were lying.
In our courts, a defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution must prove the guilt of the defendant to the satisfaction of a jury. If there is any doubt, the defendant is declared not guilty. In the case of the resurrection of Jesus, the event and the people who claimed to be witnesses to the event are recorded in history and could be considered defendants. If I want to prosecute them I must produce the evidence that would convict them and disprove their claims. In two-thousand years no prosecutors have been able to prove the defendants guilty on the basis of conflicting evidence. The last resort for conviction is the assertion of impossibility.
The decision each person makes about the truth of the resurrection of Jesus is a trial of sorts. As I made my decision, I found myself sitting as prosecutor, judge and jury. The decision I had to make was simple: Would I convict the defendant (the alleged event and the people who reported the event) on the basis of evidence or on my own preconceived notions? I found that the evidence to acquit the defendant goes far beyond reasonable doubt. On a common sense basis alone I found the evidence to be overwhelming.
The Evidence
To me, one of the most compelling pieces of evidence is the two-thousand year existence of Christianity. Without a literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus, it is unlikely that Christianity would exist today. As I studied the history of Christianity it became clear that it began and grew as a result of personal testimony given by eye witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. This testimony originally came from the immediate followers of Jesus, his disciples. The disciples must be examined in order to evaluate the history of the resurrection event.
Who Were These Guys Anyway?
Once I understood the magnitude of the political and emotional circumstances that surrounded the trial, execution, and death of Jesus it became very difficult for me to believe twelve simple men could have formulated the theology of the most successful religion in the history of the world in the three days following the execution, and base the credibility of that religion on a literal bodily resurrection of a dead person.
Before the twelve disciples of Jesus became powerful witnesses of His resurrection, they had been reduced to a trembling group of cowards hiding behind a locked door. The man they had followed for three years was dead and in their opinion he had failed in his mission. They had expected him to take over the government and establish an earthly kingdom.
Even with this sobering realization in mind, their most immediate concern was their own safety. The Jewish leaders who engineered the crucifixion of Jesus had demonstrated their antagonism against him, and Jesus’ disciples probably had good reason to suspect they might be the next to go. It is probably too strong a word to call these men cowards. They were merely being human and they had a legitimate reason to be afraid. The human response to fear is to run and hide. They did. I am sure many of us would have run farther and faster.
Jesus had been their friend and spiritual mentor. Their emotional state must have been a disaster. All they had hoped and dreamed for in Jesus was gone. If I had been in their position, I believe I would have been emotionally paralyzed, engulfed in depression and grief, feeling rather stupid, and very anxious to return home and get on with my life. That seems to be what the Bible account of these men indicates they were in the process of doing.
Yet, something happened to these men that became Christianity. They claimed that Jesus was no longer dead and was in fact alive. All but one of these men were eventually executed, and they went to their deaths telling the same story. They said they saw him. They said they touched him. They said they ate with him. They said he was alive. And when they started reporting these things people started to become Christians. This caused much discomfort for the Jewish leaders who had caused Jesus to be executed.
