Category: Theology

The Old Testament Against its Environment 

When one studies the religions and cultures of the world, one finds that the Torah (the first five books of Moses) and the rest of the Hebrew Bible presents us with views about God, the world, and the way Israel was to conduct their lives that is in many respects a great contrast to the nations, cultures, and religions of that time.  I have taken this title from a book written in the late 1940s by G. Ernest Wright of Harvard.  More recently the late Rabbi Reuven Hammer, a leader in Conservative Judaism wrote a parallel book, The Torah Revolution.  The standards of the Hebrew Bible are not as elevated as the fulfillment stage in the teaching of Yeshua and the Apostles, but much is universal and forever.  Those who argue for the truth of our faith, say that it is hard to account for or explain the Hebrew Bible unless it came from beyond Israel and from God since it went so far beyond the cultures of the day.  It is not just a product of the gradual advance or evolution of culture.  Many values that we take for granted today had their origins in Hebrew Bible.  Here is a very brief summary. 

First, is the idea that every human being is created in the image of the one Creator God, maker of heaven and earth. (Gen. 1:26).   The assertion of one God who is overall and the rejection of the worship of all other gods is amazing and without parallel.  That every human being has great worth and basic equal worth is also something that the ancient world did not believe.  This great worth is re-affirmed in Genesis 9.  Anyone who murders a human being is to be put to death. This idea of the worth of each human being is the foundation of the progress of human rights.  This is the origin of the idea in the United States Declaration of Independence, that all human beings are created equal and that rights come from the Creator. 

The unique status of Israel as God’s light bearer, the people who carry his revelation, is unique. That a nation was formed from slaves who escaped the nation that suppressed them is so totally unique.  They escaped by signs and miracles from God under the leadership of Moses.  This nation is then given God’s instruction including his Law.  The Law is so unique, amazing. 

The Torah requires the King to be subject to the law whereas in other societies at the time the King was the law and above the law.  The Torah provides for the office of the prophet that holds the King and the nation accountable to God’s Law (Deut. 18).  There is a division of power of prophet, priest, and king. No other society had such a clear balance of power.  The courts of Israel were to be based on evidence and the testimony of witnesses.  Trial by chance ordeal was precluded.  The rich and poor were to be treated favorably.  There was to be equality before the courts.  Judges who received bribes were condemned.  The Law elevated women.  Marriage was a covenant with mutual responsibilities.  A false husband who made false accusations against a woman for immorality was to be punished and had to provide for that wife for a lifetime.  (Num. 5) Women could receive an inheritance and had rights to be heard by the courts.  

The Torah and then the prophets proclaim God as one who identifies with the weak and marginalized, the widow, the orphan, the handicapped, and the poor.  The society is charged with showing special care for these and will be punished if they do not do so. Other societies discarded their marginalized people.  

The Torah provides many laws to make the economic sphere humane.  First is the keeping of time by weeks.  No other society kept time by weeks.  Every seventh day was a day for rest, worship, renewal with God and with one another.  The seventh day was a memorial of God creating the universe in six defined periods called days (yomim) and rested on the seventh day.  Human days in Israel are to maintain a pattern that shows that truth.  The seventh day is a weekly memorial of the Exodus from Egypt.  No other society had a seven-day pattern with a Sabbath. The seven-day pattern in the world today came from the Torah. 

In addition, economic arrangements limited slavery to 6 years or less.  Every seventh year all slaves were freed, and all debts canceled.  The slave was to be sent out with provision to make a new start in life.  The land was to lie fallow and to be renewed. God promises to provide by making the sixth-year harvest abundant and to provide abundance in what grows by itself.  This required Israelites to exercise faith in God.  Even In the United States today, reflecting this law, one can declare bankruptcy every seven years and be freed of debt. 

However, the Jubilee year was the most amazing (Lev. 25).  Primary wealth was held in land in the ancient world. Some could get rich on trade, but land was more primary. In other societies, the rich controlled the land generation after generation.  The rest of the population worked the land at an almost slave level.  This is precluded in ancient Israel. The land was divided among all the tribes and families of Israel. Every 50th year, liberty was proclaimed, and the land was returned to the families of original ownership.  One could become poor and might have to sell their land, but the sale was only for the years of productivity until the Jubilee year. While hard work was rewarded and there could be disparities of wealth, the Torah precludes a super-wealthy class ruling perpetually over a poor class.  It limits wealth disparity. 

Not all in the Law shows God’s ideal.  The New Covenant Scriptures show that some laws accommodated the weakness of that time (allowing slavery though limiting it and giving slaves rights which required them to be treated well and then released) and polygamy which Yeshua precluded, restoring monogamy (Matt. 19)   Most of the ethical teaching of the Torah is universal.  

The uniqueness of the story of Israel and the teaching and laws of the Torah are best explained as a revelation of God. 

Attachment Love

I am reading an intriguing book by Jim Wilder and Dallas Willard entitled, God, Dallas Willard, and the Church that Transforms.  One of the Tikkun America leaders recommended the book, The Other Half of the Church, by Michael Hendricks and Jim Wilder.  The book by Willard and Wilder continues and expands upon the material of the first book I read.  I found out from an old friend, pastor, and leader in the movement called Life Model Works, that there is now quite a movement with a network of associated churches. I am very hopeful that this movement will bring significant positive change and renewal in the Church.  

Dallas Willard was a noted philosophy professor at the University of Southern California.  In his later years and until his recent death, he was consumed with discipleship and spiritual formation.  His book, The Divine Conspiracy, was monumental.  It established that the Gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom, the invitation to live in and from the Kingdom of God under the Lordship of Yeshua.  One can be considered as discipled when that one generally lives in accord with the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and the teaching of Yeshua and then the Apostles.  It is possible to attain this though of course, not perfectly but generally. The Gospel itself is an invitation for discipleship where God puts all in our lives in the right order and establishes us in a community that furthers discipleship for its members.  Individual and corporate disciplines are presented by Willard in this and other books (The Spirit of the Disciplines).  In his last years, Willard has connected himself to the stream that leads Life Model Works. 

Dr. Jim Wilder for many years connected to a ministry of personal healing and growth, The Shepherd’s House in Van Nuys, California.  Wilder presents himself as a Neuro-theologian.  What does this mean?  He has made himself an expert on the connection of the brain to our thinking, emotions, feelings, and established values.  Wilder is brilliant at noting that we have two sides to our functioning, a right-brain orientation, and a left-brain orientation.  The latter is the slow intellectual processor, and the right is the fast immediate respondent to the whole environment.  The right brain is much more the center of our automatic responses. It is also the center of attachment love.   Much of the failure of discipleship in the Church is due to its limited left-brain approach, encouraging people to absorb information and then make decisions and commitments to implement the teaching.  However, this left-brain approach often fails.  Why?  It is because discipleship and spiritual formation is not just a function of logic and will but a matter of developing attachment love to Yeshua and a spiritual family where we correct one another in love.  We are to love him with all our hearts.  The N. T. emphasis on love for God, Yeshua, and one another is pervasive. That attachment love is the center of growth into conformity to Yeshua.  Without a loving community committed to mutual discipleship in love, most will not be discipled.  Many failures and serious falls among leaders show this deficit in discipleship and attachment love to Yeshua and a loving community.  This community begins for a leader in a mutually accountable circle of leaders.  

Much of this material fits our books, my book, Relational Leadership,  and Covenant Relationships by Asher Intrater.  However, there are helpful additions to what we have taught for many years. Community in Yeshua is central to growth and change, but not just attending meetings as observers.  The books of this movement provide exercises and patterns of mutual accountability in small groups beginning with the elders, that make them much more effective in discipleship.   

I do have one correction and that is that the language over emphasizes the brain where one could believe that Jim Wilder almost believes that the brain is the human personality.  I would like to note how much the soul transcends the brain.  The book by Mario Beauregard, The Spiritual Brain, shows that the mind or soul transcends the brain.  Of course, Wilder believes this. Near-death experiences, the best of which I believe are death and resurrection experiences, prove that the soul can be separated from the body/brain.  I have given much thought to the mind-body problem as it is studied in philosophy.  Though it seems to us that the brain is so integrated and that we could say that our body is ourselves, this is not true.  The brain is a detailed map in this world of the multi-variegated soul, a manifestation in this physical world of the soul.  So, I like to speak of left-brain/mind and right brain/mind or left-brain/soul or right brain/mind.  I would like to recommend that my readers pursue these books and look into Life Model Works. 

The Moral Argument 

Famous writers from even a very long time ago, have presented the moral argument for the existence of God.  It is found in Paul (Shaul) the apostle and C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity) and countless others.  There are several aspects to this argument. 

First, we find ourselves with a conscience which either convicts us or tells us that we are guilty or not guilty.  The guilty or not guilty judgment for our behavior is a constant part of our human experience.  We are guilty before the law as our conscience understands right and wrong.  That is an amazing fact about human beings that is not the case with animals at any level. Animals survive and do quite well by instinct and mental awareness.  They don’t’ follow moral standards.  There are two aspects to this. 

  1. Who are we guilty before?  There are many things where we believe we are guilty or not though the wrong we perceive does not violate any civil law of society.  Lying, mistreating another, unfair anger, cheating, manipulating, selfishly grabbing the bigger piece, little things, and big things, all produce guilt. Good behavior produces a sense of peace.  If we are guilty, who is it before?  If there is a Law Giver, this would explain that we are guilty before Him.  We could argue that we are guilty before parents, teachers, and society who taught us standards, but as an adult, we will not be punished by our parents or teachers.  If we are very bad, people will avoid us.  However, guilt has to do with punishment.  How do we find forgiveness from our guilt?  The nature of guilt points to One before whom we are guilty.  This is not absolute proof, but as C. S. Lewis says, a pointer. 
  2. Secondly, we believe in right and wrong.  Some people say there is really no right and wrong. It is relative and only because we think it so.  However, no one acts as if this is the case.  When a driver cuts us off in a dangerous move, we do not say, “Wow, I don’t like it when people do that.”  Rather we get angry sometimes and say that it is wrong.  When someone works harder and better but does not get promoted but the one not performing as well does get it due to favoritism, we do not say, “I feel bad and wish it were not so.”  We say, “it is unjust and wrong.”  We constantly judge others as right and wrong for their behavior as if there is a standard of right and wrong that they violate.  It is not just a matter of feeling preferences.  Romans 2 states that this sense of right and wrong is from God. We will thus be judged by the very standards we express in our judgment of others.  Though cultures vary in their view of right and wrong, there is much in common as well. So where does the law come from, the idea of just and unjust?  To really take right and wrong seriously it can not just be what parents and teachers happened to say to us. Again, the law and standards of justice can be most easily understood as from a great Lawgiver.  He is the one before whom we must give an account, the ultimate Judge before whom we will gain reward or punishment. Our forgiveness and guilt can be removed only by repenting and asking forgiveness from Him and the ones we have wronged and by making restitution or payback for the wrong. 

This understanding of right and wrong, Lawgiver and conscience, and the guilty and not guilty verdicts of conscience have been the overwhelming consensus of western culture for 1600 years.  Only in our day do we see a loss of confidence in these views.   It has produced terrible social decline. Those who make the moral argument are not saying conscience is a perfect guide but that it tells us something.  It is a pointer.  Law, conscience, guilt, etc. make sense if there is a righteous God who created us and gives the Law. However, we also argue that we need biblical revelation to really understand God’s law more accurately and his way of forgiveness and judgment for those who do not repent.  

The New Cosmological Argument 

The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God argues from the observed Cosmos to the idea of a First Cause.  The classic statement of this was from St. Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages. The argument was basically that there had to be a first cause of the Universe or there would be no cause since an infinite series of causes means that there is no cause really.  That is said to be self-contradictory. Philosophers have argued over this argument for many centuries.  After establishing the first cause and naming him God, Thomas went on to present two other arguments. The first was the argument from design.  The First Cause had to be a designer and intelligent since we see design everywhere.  Design is always the product of intelligence. For a time the naturalistic Darwinian theory of evolution was thought to disprove this, but as we showed in our last essay, this is not so, and the argument for design is stronger than ever.  The next argument was the moral argument.  It posits that our conscience judges our behavior as right or wrong, with guilt or exoneration.  However, if we are judged, it shows that there is a moral lawgiver.  We can only be guilty before a judge who is the author of the law.  I will return to this in a future essay.  The great writer C. S. Lewis presented this argument brilliantly.  However, the law of right and wrong in societies and in conscience is not trustworthy.  

The New Cosmological Argument does not seek to solve the problem of whether or not an infinite series of causes with no first cause is contradictory.  It instead begins with the most clear and absolute point, that something cannot come from nothing.  If we do not accept that nothing produces nothing, then all reasoning is ended.  Rather, Something or Someone had to and will always exist, or nothing would exist.  We exist, our earth-world, and the universe exists.  So, we know for sure that something has always existed.  

The second question in the New Cosmological Argument is what is the nature of the Always Existent?  Is the Ultimate Everlasting matter in motion, atoms, energy, sub-atomic particles, etc. or something more?  Again, the principle that nothing does not produce something helps us understand more about the everlasting existent.  Those who argue that the Always Existent is just matter, particles, etc. have a great problem.  The most foundational experiential fact of our experience is that we are conscious beings.  Consciousness exists.  Everything we know and experience is within our consciousness. There, is nothing in chance re-arrangements of particles that can be thought to come together to produce consciousness.  Everything we know is only known because we are conscious and intelligent.  It is unthinkable that a conscious intelligent being can be produced from what has no conscious intelligent being.  Conscious intelligent being cannot be explained in terms of matter and energy processes. We say that it is a given in existence and cannot be explained in terms of something that is not conscious intelligence.  It is a foundational reality and must be part of the Everlasting Something.  In philosophy, this is called irreducible.  You cannot reduce the reality to something lesser.  This is also true of the basic qualities of our conscious human existence: love, beauty, and so much more.  Only conscious intelligent beings can produce conscious intelligent beings. 

This argument does not tell us a lot about the Ultimate Existence.  It does tell us something important.  This Ultimate could be one God, or many gods that are in union and live forever, or the mind/consciousness of the Universe itself as in New Age thinking. This is progress beyond materialism, but we will need revelation from the Everlasting Conscious Intelligent to know more.   

Privilege and Disadvantage

It is wrong for a person to be disadvantaged due to the color of their skin.  This is the cry of the Critical Race people on the injustice of white privilege.  Does it exist?  Yes, in court sentencing until recently (amazingly Trump acted to right this), in how police treat black young men in comparison to whites, in educational opportunity, and more.  However, there are circumstances where blacks may be more privileged as when a black is accepted to a top-flight university instead of a higher-performing Asian, or in being raised in a sports culture, especially basketball.  The well-known player in his day, Enos Country Slaughter, was amazed that he could lead a life making a salary at a game he loved, baseball.  In Basketball the pro-players all would be rich with the right financial discipline and investment.  That is a great privilege.  However, having said all that, I do believe that black skin is generally a disadvantage and white skin an advantage.  But it is overly stressed since it is not determinative.  Dark Indian immigrants do very well.  It is not as in the days of Jim Crow a barrier that cannot be overcome.  Those some whites will hire those who “look like and act like me” others really seek diversity.  I don’t think there are clear stats to know how this is breaking down. However, I want to talk about another issue of advantages and disadvantages through the lens of my life and then speak of some applications.  

My Jewish father died before I was 9 years old.  That was a terrible disadvantage.  I watched my mother who cried and grieved daily for years.  That also was a disadvantage.  However, my father left my mother a good sum in inheritance. He was a successful Wall Street broker.  That was a great advantage.  We never lacked food or clothing and grew up living in a large lovely home without a mortgage.  We all went to very good public schools in Northern New Jersey.  That was an advantage, a great privilege.  I became amazingly fat and was greatly rejected in elementary school to high school until I was 15.  I had few friends.  It was a terrible disadvantage.  Normal-looking thin people were so much more privileged.  Yet when I was 12 ½ I was drawn to God and went to Church.  This was connected to my Norwegian roots.  My Uncle was on the board of Billy Graham’s organization and an elder in the church where I attended. I prayed to accept Jesus.  Then I went to summer camp and dedicated my life to Jesus.  I also had friends at camp that accepted me.  After this, though at times my weight, connected to thyroid issues, gave me depression, I was yet mostly optimistic.  I had this deep conviction or certainty that my life would be good, and I would succeed because God was with me.  I did lose weight when I was 15.  Acceptance was not a big issue anymore though I was not cool.  I had two strong friends in the secular school and a few in the church youth group.  The family funds were enough to pay for Wheaton College and graduate school.  What a privilege this was!  I look back on the anti-Semitism of my grandparent’s era, living in the poor area of the Lower East Side of New York, but somehow, they made it financially, and I am so privileged that they did.  After a time of depression and doubt, God provided a spiritual father, an amazing man who nurtured me back to faith.  What a privilege to be loved and mentored by Wheaton’s Chaplain Evan Welsh. 

God has a good calling intended for all, but these callings are not equal.  To prevent a good destiny is a central meaning of injustice. (Destiny prevention) However, I have other thoughts.  This is for believers.  Paul notes that in the Body we should take care of those members who are especially not as beautiful or seemingly important just as we take care of the less presentable parts of our bodies.  Do note the many issues of disadvantage, not just black skin.  Those who are beautiful in form are given preferences in hiring, marriage prospects, and social advantages.  Ever notice how the women look on Fox news?  Yet, this can come with challenges. I sometimes think the middling people, not greatly beautiful or ugly but middling, not rich but not poor but well supplied, maybe more well-adjusted.  Each of us is called by God to make the most of what God has provided, for we all have advantages and privileges and disadvantages.  Those who were raised in loving two-parent families with a father and mother who loved each other show amazing privilege.  This may be the number one predictor of success.  Lastly, I mention the disadvantages of mental and physical handicaps, autism, genetic deformities, crippling from accidents or even from birth.  

The job of the Body of Messiah is to provide communities of love where those who are disadvantaged are well-loved and from that love, and healing can go on to succeed in life as God has called them. The emphasis of the Gospel is toward the disadvantaged; those who are marginalized.  With the power of the Spirit, all can come into the most amazing privilege and success.  All have a purpose in Him.  

What is God Like

In our last article, we argued that life on earth including human life can only be explained by intelligent design or that there is a designer who brought about our world. This is the overwhelming conclusion of most cultures.  Ancient China had the concept of the will of heaven and living in accord with the order of heaven.  Other cultures describe the gods in the plural as being the source of life on earth.  Maybe gods are eternal or maybe not.  The gods usually have one at the head of their company.  India posited Brahmin as the ultimate god idea but one that is left vague with lesser gods having great sway on earth. Native Americans speak of the Great Spirit and a happy life after death for good people. Africans worship many gods but sometimes perceive an ultimate god above all but only a few tribes seek to relate to him and not only the lesser gods.  Judaism and Christianity see God as ultimately good and loving.  

The dilemma is, what can be known about God or the realm of divinity without God revealing himself in acts and speech?  We now want to look at what can be known about God or the Divine realm without the revelation that is in the Bible.  In Acts 17 in Paul’s preaching, we are told that from one original human couple all peoples were created and given boundaries that they might grope after God and perhaps find him.  Indeed, this groping after seems universal. In addition, some cultures seem to fall into worshipping dark powers, sacrifice human beings on altars, eat other human beings, and do evil that is hard to comprehend, though in our own recent past terrible evil has been done, such as by the Nazis in killing six million Jews or Stalin in Russia starving from ten to thirty million.  Part of the motive was evil religious ideas. We return to our original question.  

Human beings find themselves in a world of great beauty and wonderful experiences.  Human love between men and women, the birth of children, the joy of nature, animals both pets and wild animals, flowers, sports, art, music, friendship shout that God or the divine is good and loving and pours out good gifts on us.  On the other hand, human beings know terrible pain, disease, suffering, death, war, terrible evil done by some against others, natural disasters, floods, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, droughts, accidents, and more.  This mixture of the wonderful and the terrible has led to three main theories or responses from those who believe that our universe is designed.  The first is Deism.  Yes, there is God, and He created the universe.  It was something He was interested in doing.  But He does not care about people and is uninvolved.  He created our capacities but left them all up to us and the forces of nature.  It is as if God created a clock wound it up and then released it to run on its own.  The other theory is dualism, that there are really two gods, the good and the evil god.  The ancient religious philosopher Manni in Persia put forth this view, hence called Manichaeanism.   The good comes from the good god and the evil from the evil god.  The great science fiction series Star Wars gets close to this idea, the good side of the Force and the dark side.  When they say they can experience the empowerment of the Force, it is the good side of the Force and they say, “May the Force be with you.”  But one can go over to the dark side of the Force.  The third response is to say it is too mysterious.  Yes, we see the Divine, but we see such good and such evil, that it is an ultimate mystery.  We cannot know, but this existence is an illusion (Buddhism). Hindus believe that the good and evil experienced in this life are a matter of just deserts due to our past lives and sins. If we pursue goodness, eventually we escape the wheel of reincarnation birth and death and enter the eternal realm of bliss with no more suffering. 

So, where does this leave us? I think a few more comments are in order.  First, the idea of one ultimate God is a more credible idea than two gods or many.  This is because we experience one universe.  The universe is an integrated whole and does not look like a multiverse with many different not integrated parts running on its own.  We are not a multiverse, but a universe.  Science discovers scientific laws that apply to the whole universe, from Mars to the farthest galaxy.  The basic elements are the same on that famous chart of the elements and the discoveries of physics not only of the atom but sub-atomic realities apply to the whole universe. So the designer behind the universe would be an ultimate unity.

So, we conclude that there is one ultimate God.  However, does God love us and is He good?  There is so much astonishing beauty and joy in living that it seems He is good when we focus on that.  But there is so much evil, pain and suffering that it seems He is not. This is called the problem of evil. Those who deny God’s goodness or even his existence due to evil and suffering (a truly foolish idea to deny design) have to deal with the problem of good.  How can there be no God of goodness with all the wonderful experiences in this life, all the good things in life? 

C. S. Lewis was one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century.  Children know of him through his children’s series, The Narnia Chronicles. Lewis put forth one more argument in his book Mere Christianity.  It was that our conscience that justifies us for good actions and condemns us for evil actions.  This is an important hint concerning the nature of the universe.  This is similar to Paul’s argument in Romans 1, 2.  Conscience is not a perfect guide, but it tells us that we are condemned or affirmed by a judge that is above us.  The judge is the Creator of the Universe.  This is strong evidence that God is good and cares about good and evil behavior.  However, is there an ultimate judgment beyond this life.  Many cultures have come to that conclusion. 

However, without biblical revelation, we just do not have enough information. 

Sukkot | Tabernacles

The first day of Sukkot/Tabernacles begins with a sabbath rest and then will celebrate the next six days as well but not as sabbath day rest days until the 8th day of rest, Shmini Atzeret. 

Messianic Jews and Christians who are zealous for a Jewish-rooted (original context) understanding of their faith are familiar with the major Feasts and Holy Days.  Most know their historical meaning to ancient Israel, fulfillment in Yeshua, and last days and Age to Come symbolism.  I will not belabor this, but no doubt many of you see site after site and blog after blog teaching on this.  Here is a very brief review and then some new comments on what is not usually taught.

The Fall Feasts come on the seventh month of the biblical calendar.  It is the month of making perfect (as symbolized in the number 7).  The month begins with the sound of the Shofar.  It is called Rosh Hoshana due to the Rabbinic teaching that the universe began on this day. It is taught in Judaism, and I think it is likely, that the blowing of the Shofar is a clarion call to get ready and fully engage and prepare for the whole month.  We do see a foreshadowing of the trumpets of the judgments in the book of Revelation.  On the 10th day, Yom Kippur is observed.  Confession of sin takes place, sin is forgiven and covered (kippur).  Of course, Yeshua, our High Priest, fulfilled the meanings and brought His own blood into the most Holy Place.  The day looks forward to the general repentance of Israel and the nations where repentance will take place and His Yom Kippur/Passover atonement will be applied more fully to the whole world.

Sukkot is a festival of the final harvest of the year.   It is also the largest harvest.  We are to dwell in makeshift dwellings and remember our time in the desert before entering the promised Land.  This is to remind us that God provided in the desert and that our provision comes from Him.   However, it also looks forward to the Kingdom of God being in full manifestation on Earth.  After the last wars, the nations will enter the Kingdom of God and send representatives to the Feast, including all who battled against Israel and survived.  We are therefore commanded to rejoice during the week of the Feast.  This was the Feast in which Yeshua proclaimed himself the Light of the World.   The context may have been the candle-lighting ceremonies in the Temple.  Also, he proclaimed himself the Water of Life.  “If any man thirsts let him come to me and drink.”

The rejoicing on Sukkot would have especially been an enhanced rejoicing every seventh year, the Sabbatical Year, and the 50th year, the Jubilee Year.  First, on the Sabbatical year, all debts were canceled.  All who were indebted were given a new start. This is an amazing law.  It influenced American law so that one can declare bankruptcy and be released from debt every seventh year.  All who fell into need and debt would have a new start, a clean slate.  Also, the land was to lie fallow and be renewed.  God promised that if Israel acted in faith, the sixth-year harvest and what grew naturally would be so abundant, there would be no lack.  Such a law could only be possible by supernatural provision by faith obedience.  As a principle of agriculture, we know that land renewal is so important and fields must have fallow years.  The Feast of Sukkot therefore would produce much greater rejoicing in the sabbatical year.

The Jubilee Year was much greater than the Sabbatical Year.  Not only was debt canceled.  That happened in the 7th Sabbatical year in the cycle, the 49th year, but the 49th year led to the 50th where land was redistributed.  All who had to sell their land now received it back.  The land returns to the family owners, even if the leader of the family who lost it had died. Since in an agricultural society great wealth is in the Land, the restoration of the Land in this way precluded an ensconced class of the very rich and those who would live on the land as serfs.

Yeshua proclaimed his ministry as a time of Jubilee and his announcement in Luke 4, that his ministry would reverse circumstances for the poor, the sick, the demonized, the grieving, the imprisoned, and the abused, was an amazing announcement. It proclaimed liberty as the announcement on Yom Kippur on the Jubilee year.  “Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land” became the cry of the patriots in the American Revolutionary War and is inscribed on the Liberty Bell.  The goal of the Torah is amazing,  to see that all had provision and a store of wealth.

Alas, we are told in Jeremiah that Israel did not have faith to keep the Jubilee year. This raises other questions about economics.  The Bible allows for rich and poor in society, and gaining wealth in trade, production and more. It is not re-distributed.  But a part of the wealth is, that is the land. The great debate between the most libertarian, the progressive Democrats and the Socialists is a great debate with a huge gap of the divide. For Libertarians, income taxes are a type of stealing.  The Democrats say that the rich need to pay their fair share (which percentage is never defined and then the higher taxes end up being charged to the consumer in higher prices).  The socialists want to level wealth and income.  What a great gulf!  There is a middle ground, that the wealthy would pay for lifting the poor by providing job training, real education, and police protection so that the young would not turn to criminals for their advance.  Rather than the government doing so, I would like to see the incentives for taxes such that the rich have to give a percentage that they choose to private programs that they believe are doing the best job with real results. Corporations can do job training and then hire.  This is more productive than paying for often worthless college experiences.

At any rate, let us rejoice this Sukkot.

Image source bit.ly/2ZcL89H 

The Cults of Human Rights

The fountainhead, the roots of all human rights progress in the West can be traced to biblical influence.  Only nations that have these biblical roots have embraced the quest for human rights and outside of this influence, it is unknown.  So, historian Tom Holland, an atheist, in England argues. The magnificent writings of the great scholar Rodney Stark shows this in several books.   See his, For the Glory of God, How Monotheism led to Reformation, Science, Witch Hunts, and the End of Slavery.  Fighters for human rights on a biblical basis have been the key to real progress. Of course, not all professors of faith had any real commitment to human rights, but those who were motivated by God and biblical teaching to fight for progress were greatly influential.  Here are two examples of the kind of biblical teaching that got seeded into the world through the spread of Christianity,  

“From one he made every nation of men to live on the face of the earth, having set appointed times and the boundaries of their territory.  They were to search for Him, and perhaps grope around for Him and find Him.  Yet He is not far from each of us.” Acts 17:26,27 TLV

“With it (the tongue) we bless our ADONAI and curse people, who are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26, 27 ref.) . . .  these things should not be so.  James 3:9,10.  TLV

Search as you will the ancient traditions and literature of the world and you will not find the idea that every individual is of special importance as crated in the image of God.  We can not make progress by persecuting and mistreating others!

Christian rooted cultures (those who were historically Christian influenced) produced two kinds of movements for human rights.  First are the movements whose vision and values are in accord with Scripture.  They are best led by committed Christians like Martin Luther King.  Sometimes people in these movements are not Christians but so influenced by the Bible that their movement has a biblical character.  (Gandhi).  Others have a vision for a society and how they want the world to be.  However, there are often strong departures from biblical norms and values.  These movements become very destructive.  They are like cults from Christianity.  

The greatest example of the destructive cult movement for equality, Marxism, has done untold damage.  Whenever a society goes Marxist it must enforce its authoritarian order by oppression and violence.  The great adversarial relationship with China is due to its Marxist leaders from the early days of the Communist state, though China today is hardly true to Marxism though it is brutally authoritarian and oppressive.  Tens of millions have been slaughtered in the quest for equality in human rights.  The idea of equality in regard to equal outcomes in income, wealth accumulation, and more as a state policy leads to terrible destruction, though of course as Messiah’s followers may voluntarily give up wealth for higher callings.  We think of the revolutions. Whether or not we think the United States revolution was justified, Christian or Judeo Christian values dominated the leaders.  In the French Revolution, a wholesale rebellion against God and biblical values were ensconced.   The slaughter for equality is terrible. Sometimes you can tell the difference easily.  More biblically rooted movements value human life and eschew violence and oppression as a way to a more just society.  However, for Marxist and other evil supposed equality movements, violence and death for those in the way is accepted.  For Marxist equality, millions can be slaughtered. Marxism always leads to great oppression and more poverty in Cuba, Venezuela, N. Korea, China, and Russia.  China now moves away from Communist equality toward enterprise and wealth disparities but they maintain the authoritarianism. (See my book Social Justice.  Justice is not equality generally but only in biblically defined contexts)

One other key to biblical human rights is that they are based on biblical norms of morality.  Fostering destructive patterns of life cannot be fostered as human rights.  Today so-called human rights are toward destructive behaviors being celebrated and an enforced affirmation of these behaviors.  These behaviors will lead to family destruction and greater poverty.   Yet, we are to treat people who hold to such wrong ideas and foster such destructive movements with love and dignity since they are created in God’s image. The battle is fought on the basis of ideas and not on the basis of their oppression and persecution. 

Paul David Yonggi Cho and our Marriage

I recently got a message that Paul David Yonggi Cho, the former pastor of the World’s largest church died. 

In 1986 I was part of a committee of leaders that sponsored a church growth conference with Dr. Cho.   Several hundred pastors came, some noted, including Dr. Richard C. Halvorson, before he became the Chaplain to the U. S. Senate.   Cho spoke about how God had spoken to him when he was pastor of a little church that he would pastor the largest congregation in the World.  What an outlandish word to receive.  Yet the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  In his presentations, Cho asserted that God gave him this huge church and ministry to convey two messages.  The first was that all churches were to grow through cell groups that were both pastoral to the people in them, and evangelistic.  The second was the importance of prayer.  Early morning corporate prayer was central. Cho joked that one time he was so tired but left for prayer just the same and did not realize he was in his pajamas.  They also created prayer mountains for prayer retreats.  We were privileged to minister many times in Korea and experience Korean prayer. However, I think there was a third message.  It was supernatural signs and wonders flowing from prayer that is a key to evangelism.  Cho told many stories.  He was unassuming and delightful.  Those of us who applied his teaching were very blessed.  

However, I have one personal story, an amazing one.  Patty was nursing our youngest son, Samuel.  We came to the restaurant where the committee was to meet and have lunch with Pastor Cho.  Somehow, Patty and I were the first in the room, so we thought we would just wait for the rest of the committee.  At that moment, Patty was overwhelmed with thirst and just had to have a drink of water.  She decided to sit down at the table and drink the water which had been poured into the glasses.  As she was drinking, Dr. Cho walked in but there were still no others.  He decided to sit down opposite to us.  We introduced ourselves and I explained our Jewish ministry.  Dr. Cho remarked that in some ways, Israel is like Korea, between Empires that want to take them over, China and Japan with Korea, like Israel with Egypt and Assyria and fighting for their independence.  

Then out of the blue (I think the Spirit of prophecy came on him), he pointed his finger at Patty and said, “You must praise your husband.”  This was a shock.  Patty asked, “What do you mean.”  He said, again, “You must praise your husband.”  Then Patty, of good English stock with stiff upper lip  said she was taught, “If I praise him too much he will get a swelled head.” Cho responded that she should not worry about that, for “Other people will pop his bubble, but you must praise your husband.” Needless to say, I was not unhappy about the pastor of the largest church in the world giving Patty this prophetic word. 

In December 1971 we were married just less than six months.  We were having a great struggle.  The fault was mine. I was trying to criticize my dear bride that she might conform to some of my ideals (not from God but what I wanted).  She was wounded deeply, and we were alienated.  I went for a walk and got a big rebuke from the Spirit.  He spoke to me and said that I was destroying my marriage.  I was commanded to not focus on what displeased me but on all the good that Patty was and did and ignore the other.  I was told to praise her and that paise was the soil in which she would grow.  Some years later at a leadership conference with Myles Monroe, the famous late pastor from Nassau, Bahamas, he taught this as a principle for husbands and laid the primary responsibility on them for the success of their marriage. But now, in 1986, almost 15 years later, Patty was given this message.  

When I received this word from the Spirit in 1971 (and I claimed to not be charismatic!) it turned our marriage around dramatically. I deeply repented to Patty.  Then Patty received her word from Cho.  It does not mean that we do not discuss issues, or problems in ways that we behave that are not helpful, but the soil of our marriage is mutual praise and growing in gratitude.  As we did this, year by year we grew in perceiving the treasure of the other.  We learned to serve the other first and not ask how well we were being served.  Some of you read that after 50 years of marriage, the passion of our love is sometimes like infatuated young lovers, but with a stability of life experience and appreciation and depth that young love can not know.  

Thank you Dr. Paul David Yonggi Cho for giving a push in this direction of praise toward the joy of love.  We are thankful for your life. 

Rosh HaShana | Yom Teruah

I am sitting in my study.  This morning during devotions, I was reflecting on Rosh Hoshana. Once again, this year is not the normal Rosh Hoshana where were we go to services, sing liturgy and hear the sound of the shofar.  The Delta COVID spike has changed that for us. I loved our gatherings when I was leading our congregation in Maryland.  We had such wonderful times of worship with a Yeshua-centered liturgy. The presence of the Spirit was so precious.

Today’s reflections were on the meaning of this day.  Biblically, I think that the meaning of the day was just to bring an exclamation point that on the Jewish biblical calendar, this month was of crucial importance.  The first month, Passover, and now the seventh month are most important times on the calendar.  In seventh month, we were to experience forgiveness on the Day of Atonement and all that is connected to it. (Lev. 16, 23)   The 15th to 23rd centered on the great harvest festival, Sukkot, and its concluding time of the 8th day sabbath celebration, Shemini Atzeret.  Rosh Hoshana, (not the biblical name) is the wake up call of preparation and accentuates the whole month. Maimonides noted this wake up call for sleepers, a key meaning of the sound of the Shofar.  The actual biblical name is the day of the blowing of the Shofar, Yom Teruah.   

Yet, I am not averse to the Rabbinic meaning given to the day, the memorial of the first day of creation.  There is no proof that the first day of creation was on Tishri 1.  The Sabbath is a memorial of the 7 days of the Genesis account of God creating the heavens and the earth.  However, it does not commemorate first moments of creation, “In the beginning, God created.”

The Genesis account now has an agreement with scientists.  Orthodox Jewish scientists and conservative Christian scientists and other theists are happy about this agreement.  Atheist scientists, not so much.  I want to write about the Genesis 1:1.  The Universe had a beginning.  The famous astronomer, Frederick Hoyle, posited the steady-state theory of the universe.  It was the preferred view of atheists and agnostics.  The universe always just was, is and will be as it is now, everlasting cycles as in Hinduism.  Galaxies, stars and solar systems come into being and pass away in an everlasting process with no beginning or end.  Today, no one holds this view. The scientific evidence is so very strong against it.  The Universe had a beginning.  Some have called it the big bang theory since the universe constantly expands from a tiny point beginning smaller than the ballpoint on a pen.  From that concentration of matter, all has come.  There really was no bang, though the idea of an explosion fits the expansion.  It is rather a singularity event of beginning. It fits Genesis 1:1 perfectly.  This is so upsetting to some!  They even posit multiple universes and many such singular beginnings in some other unmeasured or undetectable dimension (It can never be discovered since it is beyond our universe to which we are limited.)  They will appeal to it for their defense of evolution.  It is special pleading with no evidence at all.

The argument for the existence of God from design is the second part of my article today.  Not only is there a beginning, but there is simply no way to account for the universe and life on planet earth including human life without positing an intelligent designer.  The idea of chance evolution is not new.  It was posited by the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras.  A chance evolution view was put forth as well by Epicurious, the Greek, and by Lucretius in Latin.   For the latter two, chance assembled all that exists by tiny particles colliding and joining.  Darwin sought to give chance more sophistication but it really was the same argument ultimately as these ancients.  He posited the idea of survival of the fittest once life came into being to explain the upward line of development ending in human intelligence.  Of course, this did not fit the fact that on a survival and adaptive basis simple celled animals have greater survival capability.  Today, Darwin’s simplistic view and all other iterations over the years have now been found to be bankrupt since the simplest cell is as organized as New York city.  That the organization of the cell is a most complex integrated reality that cannot evolve from simpler forms shows the impossibility of evolution. There is no simpler form that a cell can evolve from. 

However, there has not been a catch up in the culture to what some know for sure, a paradigm shift.  You can read about the impossibility of naturalistic evolution and the irreducible complexity (Michael Behe’s term) or specified complexity (William Dempski’s term) that show it to be impossible.  It is summarized in Orthodox Jewish physicist Gerald Schroeder’s writings.  The evidence is so irrefutable that two of the most notable atheists have concluded that naturalistic evolution is impossible.  Antony Flew, the leading atheist philosopher in Britain, wrote a book asserting God Exists near the end of his life. This was a bombshell considering Flew’s history.  Then Thomas Nagel, whom some consider to be the greatest American philosopher, now emeritus, from New York University, historically an atheist, has argued that naturalistic evolution is impossible in his important book Mind and Cosmos.  Read a few of these sources and be amazed!

How can this be answered?  Again, only with special pleading speculation.  Maybe if our universe is one of an almost infinite number of universes that come into being and pass away, then what is impossible according to chance statistics becomes possible.  This does not work, not at all, since the issue is that in an evolutionary view, life had to arise spontaneously from inorganic life.  The first cell was so complex that it could not be done.  Therefore, the impossibilities of evolution from simpler to complex life based on the possibilities given this world’s beginnings according to the theory of evolution, is again impossible.

Finally, there is the issue of an anthropic universe.  Astrophysicists use this term to demonstrate that the whole universe seems specifically designed to support human life on earth.  The very forces of basic physics, strong and weak forces in atoms, gravity and the effect of galaxies on this earth, show an exact confluence of mathematical chance impossibilities that occur none the less.  Paul Davis, Michael Denton and Gerald Schroeder and many others argue this.  The answer of the atheists?  The same special pleading of multiple universes.  Yes, they will say, it is extraordinarily unlikely that such a universe that is so fine-tuned so as to support human life would exist.  However, if many universes exist and come into being and pass away, over infinite time, one would exist that is fine-tuned and really looks designed.  Of course, there is no evidence for this at all.  Again, on the idea of the complexity of the cell itself it is impossible within the universe that does exist.

So, from the big bang, or the singularity event of the beginning, to the complexity of the cell to the fine tuning of the whole universe, it is certain that the universe exists only by the will of an infinite intelligent designer.  Why is this now denied?  In the year 2021 the evidence is overwhelming.  Is it because these folks do not want to believe in God?