Palms or Peace

Good Friday is quickly approaching. Its familiar display of palm branches will soon decorate many Christian chapels.

What a shame!

Around 150 B.C. the Roman emperor, Antiochus IV, decided that the Jews will no longer be allowed to worship Yahweh, nor were they to practice any of their Jewish religious ceremonies to include the great feasts. This was unacceptable to the Jews and led to the Maccabean Revolt.

This revolt resulted in developing two new Jewish sects, the Pharisees and the Zealots. The Zealots were those who believed that they were ordained and commissioned by God to kill non-Jews, to include those they considered heretics or hypocrites, anyone who would prevent them from worshiping their God, or anyone who threatened their role as the leaders of the Promised Land. It is not impossible to understand their crude manner of defense when we know that Antiochus was taking Jewish mothers who circumcised their sons and would kill them with their babies wrapped around the mother’s neck. This was a very volatile time for the Jews.

The Pharisees were those who chose passivism and believed that God would take care of their enemies. This was also Jesus’ approach to the Roman problem.

The Zealots, like many tribes, groups, and countries, had a flag or representative symbol. Their flag was a palm branch. When the Jews waved palm branches it was a symbol of the Zealot’s non-peaceful stance. And wherever the palm branch was waved or used as part of a parade or ritual, the message was that the Jews are to take Rome by force.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey, the Zealots were giving the sign of the palm branches to send the message that their Zealot Messiah would help them kill the Romans.

In Luke 19:41-44 Jesus expresses his sadness over their misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the Messiah, who more like the Pharisees than the Zealots believed and taught that killing his enemies was not the answer to bringing peace to Israel. “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.’”

Jesus was not a fan of violence, but of loving one’s enemies. The palm branches symbolized peace by violence. When we decorate our chapels with the flags of violence, we misinterpret the message of the Prince of Peace.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Take the Hill!

The city of Megiddo was located along the most important trade route of the ancient world. Because of its location, Megiddo became a powerful city financially and culturally. The city’s ability to influence the world caused Megiddo to be a place of great desire for world powers, and battle after battle was fought for its possession.

In Hebrew the city of Megiddo was referred to as the hill of Megiddo, translated Har Megiddo. In the book of Revelation in the New Testament, the writer, John, mentions the “hill of Megiddo” in its Greek translation, which we read in English as Armageddon (Rev. 16:16).

Up until the time that king Solomon had possession of the city, it was used as a place of Canaanite worship. Just as the worshipers of Pan at the Gates of Hell in Caesarea Philippi believed that their gods lived in the underworld during the winter and entered the world in the spring, so did the Canaanites believe that their gods lived in the underworld in the winter and surfaced in the spring. To entice the gods, Baal and Ashera, to mate, the priests and priestesses of Baal would have sex with each other and other people, and they would burn infants alive as forms of worship.

Megiddo represented the constant spiritual battle over the souls of the world. It was here that people fought to have influence over what people believed, how they lived, and who they worshiped. This is why taking the hill of Megiddo was so important and why the city was conquered and destroyed, and then rebuilt over seventy times.

Influencing the world for Christ requires that we take the hill of Megiddo in our world today. In a pluralistic society where even Christians are beginning to reflect a more tolerant mentality toward the gods of the world, we will find it tempting to share the hill.

Influencing the world for Christ requires a strategy of compassion and passion. Though we are not to enslave the world with rules and rituals or attack them with finger-pointing and brow-beating, we will only be effective when we share the gospel convinced that Jesus is the Way.

Break Down Your Gates of Hell

Twenty-five miles away from the Jewish worship communities of God is Caesarea Philippi. There is a large cliff there with a cave at its base that, at the time of Jesus, flowed with water from a spring. This cliff became the center of worship for a Greek god named Pan. And the followers of Pan built shrines and temples into this cliff to honor and worship him.

Those who worshiped Pan believed that the gods dwelled in the water under the earth during the winter and returned to the surface by way of the water in this cave during the spring. They believed that this opening (spring) was the (Pu li Ha doo) gate of the unseen, translated as "gates of Hades" (hah-dace) or "gates of hell" in English. The worship of Pan included sexual acts with prostitutes and between humans and goats, which they believed would entice the gods to enter through the mouth of the spring and fulfill the desires of the worshipers.

It is here at this gate of pagan gods, where worshipers are committing unthinkable sins, that Jesus tells Peter in the presence of the other disciples, "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it" (Matthew 16:18). In essence Jesus is saying “My church will be built on the foundation of the lost, bringing them into the Kingdom. Even these Pan worshipers can be saved; even those who most people would not even dare look at can enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We all have gates of hell; places where we go and entice our selfish desires to surface. Jesus not only commissioned his followers to storm the gates of the Pan worshipers, but he bids us all to go to our own places of ungodly worship and break down our own gates of hell.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Confession Is Good for the Soul

I was listening to one of my favorite teachers a couple days ago, Ray Vander Laan, and he was teaching on the subject of stoning.

In the first century, the act of stoning involved more than simply throwing rocks at someone, though that would not be considered a small thing in itself. When someone was found guilty of a sin punishable by stoning, the person would be brought to the edge of a cliff at least eighteen feet high where they would be asked to confess their sin. If the person confessed, he or she would still be stoned, but they would “go to heaven.”

Once the person was stoned, they were then thrown off of the cliff. Upon hitting the bottom, if they were still alive, those who believed them to be guilty would drop large stones on top of them while standing on the edge of the cliff.

If the person was still alive, then the stoned person would be deemed innocent by God.

When Jesus was on the cross with the two thieves, one said “Get us down” and the other said, “Don’t you fear God since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve” (Luke 23:30-42).

Here in the common Jewish repentance practice during punishment this second thief confesses his sin. And Jesus reminds him in the usual Jewish custom, “Today (when you die) you will be in paradise.”

This portion of Scripture is often taught with the emphasis being that one thief did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah, while the other did and it was his belief in Jesus’ Messianic position that caused Jesus to grant him entrance into heaven. The knowledge of this first-century Jewish custom of repentance, gives us a clearer understanding of the context of this event.

The true message of this passage would appear to be that “confession is good for the soul.”

Forever learning,
Johnny

What's In Your Water?

In John 4:10, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he can give her “living” water. “Living water” was not a new concept to anyone living in Israel.

It's important to note that Jesus speaks about "living" water at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7. The Feast of Tabernacles is a seven day celebration of God’s provisions at the end of the harvest season. At the climax of the festival, which is held on the seventh day of the seven-day festival, there is an intense ceremony and prayer for rain. And it is at this heightened, climactic point of the festival that Jesus says to all those in the Temple,

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37-38). Earlier in the same chapter of John, Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”(16-18).

In Jesus’ day, the teaching of a rabbi was known as “water” to his disciples. It was taught that if a rabbi’s waters or teachings were good, then his disciples would be drinking from the waters of God. If a rabbi’s water was bad, the rabbi is to be exiled to a place of evil waters and his disciples will drink and die.

"Living" water is constantly flowing water that is clean and life sustaining, such as rain or spring water. "Living" water is unlike the “dead” waters found in cisterns (manmade pits that were plastered and filled by water that ran off of roofs and streets), which were widely available in Israel. "Dead" waters were often stagnant and contaminated, but to a person who was desperate for a drink, "dead" water appears promising.

When Jesus approached the Samaritan woman who had trouble developing healthy relationships, he was offering to get rid of the “dead” water that she has been drinking (poor teaching that she has been practicing). Jesus was giving this woman the opportunity to stop sipping from the cisterns, and live her life drinking the rain of good teaching. He was inviting her to be his disciple.

We are all teachers. It has been estimated that every person will influence 10,000 people in his or her lifetime. Therefore, it’s important to know whether we are serving "living" or "dead" water. When those who learn from me do as I have taught them, will they experience a better life or will they experience failure and a continued thirst for how to live?

Living in accordance with the teachings of Jesus does not lead to thirst, but to a quenched thirst that brings vibrant, abundant life to the one who lives it. As imitators of Christ, we should all be serving "living" water.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Risky Reading! You have been warned.

If you were to find a letter written to your great-great-grandfather by your great-great-grandmother, wouldn’t you cherish every single word? What an amazing discovery that would be. I know that I would look at every word with a sense of awe and mystery, trying to see those two people and develop some kind of connection as I read the pages.

And what if you learned that the last few original lines were missing (maybe torn, stained, or lost), so, your grandmother wrote in words that she made up, in order for the letter to have an ending that would make sense?

I have a letter a lot like that, but much older. It’s a letter that was written a long time ago by a man named Mark. In Mark’s letter, the last 9 verses were added much later. Why? Because, as all textual scholars will tell you, including “believing, Christian” scholars, the last 9 verses are missing in the oldest and best manuscripts. Without adding them, the letter would end with no one being told that Jesus had risen. More than likely, according to those same scholars, the ending that was added is not a completely fictional account. However, what is very interesting in this addition, are the words of Jesus in verses 17-18 of the last chapter in Mark.

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Without the later addition, the Scriptures which are used as a foundation for the Pentecostal Church would not exist.

Today there are more than 5700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament Scriptures including very small fragments, single books, and complete New Testament writings that are catalogued and used by scholars to translate the Bible. Some are cheap copies, and others are very expensive manuscripts written in gold. The oldest copies were written from the 4th to the 9th centuries, which are copies of copies of copies.............

All of these have what are called “textual variances” or differences among the texts. There are 200,000 to 400,000 variations among these texts. As Bart Ehrman says, “There are more variances in the manuscripts used by scholars to translate the Bible into the common language than there are words in the New Testament." These variances make it very difficult to translate the Bible in full, without a translator making educated decisions as to which parts of which manuscript he or she will write into the Bible from which Christians will read and teach.

The translators of the NIV have pointed out some of these variances, such as the last 9 verses in Mark. These and other more recent scholars have decided to make us aware that the oldest copies do not have some of the verses that have been added to our Bibles.

This information comes from the work of Bart Ehrman in his book, Misquoting Jesus.

Forever learning,
Johnny

A Child's Perspective On the Word

Seeing God through the eyes of a child is powerful.

Somehow most of Christendom has caused the word of God to become something to yawn about. For a great number of people, especially Christians, hearing God’s Word is like having to sit and listen to someone’s dream. You know that in the end it will take you nowhere and benefit you nothing, but you have to listen because it’s the respectful thing to do.

Yesterday, one of my teens was doing his teen Bible study lesson (nothing like reading the Bible to fire up a teen) and he said under his breath, “I hate this!”

To try and take away some of the boredom, I picked up the Bible and began paraphrasing the passage that he was reading from Luke 9:10-17. As I began to read my teenage son showed no greater interest, but something miraculous happened with my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

She was standing on the floor at the end of the dining room table playing with some of her toys and as soon as I began to read she stood still, folded her hands, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. Her mother and I watched in amazement. And as soon as I read the last word of the passage, she said, “Amen,” and went back to playing with her toys.

No matter what we may believe about the Bible, one thing is for sure, there is power in the teachings of Jesus.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17 NIV).

Forever learning,
Johnny

Read At Your Own Risk!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Most of the reading I’m doing is from authors who are quite controversial and not the most popular characters to reach the Christian audience. But the subjects are wonderfully intriguing and lead the reader to search deeper.

One book I’ve been reading was a recent gift from a friend in Texas. The book’s title is “The Gift of the Jews.” Another great book that was given to me in the same week by another friend is titled “Misquoting Jesus.” These are not books that I would recommend to the average fundamentalist or anyone of a less than completely stable faith. Frankly, the two books together are a recipe for creating an atheist at worst and an agnostic at best. At the very least, they will create confusion and frustration for the average Christian.

“The Gift of the Jews” was written in the late 1990’s by Thomas Cahill and it is the history of Abraham’s ancestors who were called the Sumerians. The Sumerians were fantastic story tellers who developed their stories over literal centuries until they would reach perfection. The story of Gilgamesh is a story that began even before the Sumerians and was told over millennia.

The story of Gilgamesh included a “Tree of Life” that was protected by a serpent, a man created from a ball of clay, and a great ritual ladder that, if someone were to climb it and reach the heavens, they would become a god. There was also the belief that each individual had an angel that tended to his or her needs after a difficult time in life. The prehistoric ancestors of Abraham would pass these stories verbally long before writing was ever invented, perfecting them with each generation. And the stories are preserved in stone, the first form of writing, which archeologists and scholars use today to piece the stories together.

These are all very fascinating findings and quite faith shaking. As I said before, these are not books for anyone who wants his or her beliefs to remain unchallenged. Yet, somehow, my faith is only strengthened by the study. And I don’t mean in a rebellious way, but in a healthy kind of peaceful way that gives me the ability to say, "So what? Does it matter if the stories belong strictly to Israel or if Israel, the descendants of these great story tellers, held on to these fantastic tales and used them to build and sustain a faith in God throughout the centuries?

For me, it doesn’t give me cause to give up faith, but a hunger for more of how we have come to believe what we believe.

Forever learning, wherever it takes me,
Johnny

Grace Is A Gift From God, Not From the New Testament

Many Christians believe that God’s grace was instituted by the coming of the Messiah. It’s often understood that the old Covenant was a covenant of law, while the new Covenant is a covenant of grace.

Jews in Jesus day are thought to have been “saved-by-works” hypocrites who believe even today that they have to earn their way into God’s grace, while the Christian has the knowledge that grace is a free gift from God. We’ve heard sermon after sermon where we are taught that the Jews have missed the boat because they believe that they are saved by the “Law.” This is not the case at all.

Orthodox Jews do not believe that they are saved by the Torah. They believe that they are privileged to be the people who have received a special covenant that they are honored to practice.

When God gave the 613 instructions to Moses at Mt. Sinai, He gave them to Israel for their benefit. His intent was to allow them, through their obedience, to experience His grace as the commandments gave them the ability to experience fulfilling lives. Just as we practice certain habits like exercising, saving money, or changing the oil in our car to experience the benefits of such habits, the instructions of God for Israel were considered the wisdom of God that provided a better life for the individual and the community.

The word “grace” comes from the Hebrew word hesed and it means "beauty" or "favor." Unfortunately, most English translations translated hesed as "mercy," which causes the Hebrew Bible to appear as if there is much less grace in the old Covenant than in the new Covenant. Hesed, for the Jew, could not be bought or earned, but was the result of godly living.

How many people waste their money and still experience the blessings of wise investing? How many wives allow their husband to do nothing but watch T.V. and eat ice-cream and have a wonderful productive marriage? What kind of company allows their employees to come to work whenever they want and still benefits from a well-run organization? Have you ever known of a car that never has an oil change or a tune-up yet even after 200,000 miles, still runs like new?

Grace isn’t a ticket out of hell; it can’t be bought or earned. Grace is the benefit that is experienced by the obedient follower who lives according to the ways of God.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Honor Your Parents

My wife and I spent four days away from home this week. While we were gone, my wife’s parents watched our four children. When we returned, we received the wonderful privilege of having been honored by our children. Their grandparents told us that they were incredibly respectful and polite, and they did all that they were supposed to do while we were gone.

God tells us in the fifth commandment to honor our parents. This is a command that we could all do well to revisit as we have become a society where mothers and fathers are more apt to honor their children than then other way around.

In our world today, Mothers and fathers live to make their children smile. This is not a biblical model, but one that causes parents to be treated like bank accounts, sources of entertainment funding, and free trips to wherever rather than the wisdom granters and life teachers that they are created to be.

The Western world has done much to turn the ideals of parenting upside down and this is to the detriment of our own futures. Parents are not called to make their children happy; they are called to train their children to honor the will of God.

It’s also important to remember that “children” does not only mean “little kids.” Children are to honor their parents with their behavior and choices even as they become parents themselves.

Much of what gets us into trouble in life could be prevented if we would focus more on the command to honor our parents. Think of every sin and every crime and within them you will see that obeying the command to honor one's parents would have prevented it. How many prisoners would never have spent one day in jail had they chosen to honor their parents? With that said, I should clarify that honoring parents does not mean doing everything they say or making them happy even if it requires an immoral act. Parents are also to live according to the will and instructions of God as parents.

There is no greater way to honor God than to honor our parents. By honoring our parents, we do honor God.

I would add, after John's comments, that Mother and Father refers to the aged who should be honored rather than treated like they no longer have value. Mother and father can also be a reference to "wisdom" and "God."

In His dust,
Johnny

Interperter of Tongues

The early Church was a branch of first century Judaism. Both the synagogue and the early Church were well organized and had similar roles, titles, and positions for those who had specific responsibilities in a perspective congregation.

One such position was that of the meturganim (interpreter). A meturganim was a person who was very knowledgeable in the language of Hebrew, including the Hebrew Scriptures, and was also fluent in the common language, such as Greek or Aramaic, of the people in a particular synagogue. He would stand by the person who was reading the Hebrew Torah or teaching in the house of study, and after the reader would speak the Hebrew words directly into the ear of the interpreter, the interpreter would turn and tell the congregation, in their own language, what was read or taught.

This is the context of Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:27: “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.”

Understanding that the Scriptures of the Hebraic Jews were written in Hebrew helps us to understand Paul’s insistence upon having a meturganim when reading in a congregation where they did not understand Hebrew. Without an interpreter, “…you will just be speaking into the air” (1 Cor 14:9b).

Forever learning,
Johnny

Let Go And Let Man

People will often resort to the quickest way to get from one point to another, which is not a straight line. The shortest way to get from one point to another is by taking the path of least resistance.

Anytime a person, including myself, gets out of control, it’s because we don’t know how to handle the situation that we are in. Often parents like me will find themselves in situations of discipline where we resort to screaming like maniacs or spanking a child, not because we have great wisdom, but because, at that moment, we don’t have a clue what we should do.

When Jesus introduced the Kingdom, he did it by show and tell, and then he said, “Take over.” In fact, he gave Peter the keys (Matthew 16:19). Peter was put in charge of the Kingdom. Jesus didn’t say, “Peter, here are the keys. You are in charge, but I’m in control.” Peter was charged with leading the Kingdom of Heaven (God's children).

Peter wasn't put in charge the same way we put our six-year-old in charge of cleaning her room. Peter was in charge like the President of the United States is in charge of the country—he is the leader, supported by the rest of the people in the U.S.

Many Christians will use the cliché “God is in control” and I often wonder—what in the world does that mean?

I have been haunted for the last two days over a little four-year-old girl in Raleigh who was brutally killed by her own father by way of decapitation in their home, while her mother was at work. The father fled the state and left the mother to come home and find the unimaginable remains of her baby. I have cried twice in the last two days, because I coudn't stop myself from picturing the horror of that little girl's last few moments of life with her dad.

When God first created human beings, the first thing he did was give them the authority to kabash the world.

“God created human beings in his own image. God gave them authority and said, “Make more people; fill the world and kabash (kaw-bash) it. Rule over all the living things in the world” (Genesis 1:27-28, my translation).

Kabash is a very interesting word. We often read it translated as “subdue.” "Subdue" in our day can mean a lot of things. I would venture that most people think it means “cover.” But the real meaning of the word will probably surprise most of Christendom. Kabash is a word of great depth; it means to conquer, bring into bondage, bring into subjection, CONTROL.

God put human beings in control.

Good or bad, pretty or ugly, we are in control.

Nice or hateful, life-giving or murderous, we are in control.

Happy or sad, grateful or greedy, we are in control.

Saying to ourselves or to others, every time something goes horribly wrong, “God is in control,” may sound nice, but it’s not true. We are in control. God put us in control and we don’t have the privilege of taking the path of least resistance and giving control to God.

God said a long time ago, "Let go and let man."

Today, I stopped giving my responsibility to kabash the world back to God. It may not be easy, fun, comfortable, convenient, or simple, but it’s still our responsibility.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Who Is Your Jesus?

Whether we want to accept it or not, Jesus did not go around the country finding non-Jews and creating the Christian Church. Neither did Jesus go around converting Jews to Christianity. Jesus was a Jew in a Jewish world with a message for Israel. The non-Jews are privileged to be welcomed into the family of Israel. It’s not the other way around.

“As far as the gospel is concerned, they [the Jews] are enemies on your account but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).

The history of the Church is often written with the pre-70 A.D. Jewish world left out. This is unfortunate, because the ability to thoroughly understand Jesus and the early Church requires a person to have some understanding of the world in which Jesus lived and taught. Ignorance about the world of Jesus is also partly responsible for such atrocities as the Crusades of the early Church, the Holocaust, and the ongoing terrorism from one religious group upon another. Even the lone-ranger evangelists that in good conscience condemn others to hell with printed posters and harsh words do so out of ignorance of the true message of the true Jesus.

Christ’s movement was a very Jewish movement within a Jewish world and founded on a Jewish framework that was almost completely lost when the Church became dominated by the non-Jewish world.

Bringing a clear focus to Jesus and his Jewish world is difficult today because over the centuries the world has worked diligently to define who Jesus is outside of his Jewish culture. Almost every era has its own version of Jesus. As Dr. Ron Moseley points out in his book, Yeshua: A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church, the influence of Gnosticism is probably the first to begin distorting the image of Jesus with its teachings of dualism (the idea that the soul is good and the body is sinful, and one day the soul will be freed from its sinful cage). With this thought in mind, Jesus began to take on the persona of being a mystic teacher who could show us the way for the soul to be released. This philosophy still invades the Theology of the Church today and has given life to songs such as “I’ll Fly Away.”

From the fourth to the 7th century, indicative of the Byzantine period, Jesus was presented as a powerful emperor who resembled Constantine rather than a humble rabbi.

And reflective of the medieval attitude in the Middle Ages, Jesus was portrayed as the lowly, defeated victim who is hanging on a cross.

Today, especially in the Western world, many people view Jesus as a fair skinned, blue-eyed, long-haired, middle-aged Caucasian rather than a Jewish man with a dark complexion.

Our picture of Jesus has an affect on our perspective of his words, which also has an affect on our interpretation of Jesus’ message as we share it with the world. If I picture Jesus as a lowly, defeated, suffering bearer of a cross, then I will tend to see the rest of humanity as guilty sinners who are unworthy of the Savior whom they killed by their sins. If I picture Jesus as a powerful conquering emperor, then I will view humanity as servants of a respectable king who empowers his people for an abundant life.

Our picture of Jesus, when removed from the reality of his Jewish rabbinic world can inspire an entirely different message from that of the historical Jesus, and make the message of Jesus as subjective as our individual pictures.

Jesus, the Pharisee

In Dr. Ron Moseley’s book, Yeshua, Moseley cites an essay written by Morton Smith, where Smith writes that the ancient world did not have a general term for “religion.” In the Hellenized world, the only word used for “religion” was “philosophy,” which included the religion of the Pharisees. In addition, Smith notes that the ancient Jews used the Hellenistic term “philosophy” to describe what they believed and how they expressed their beliefs.

There are some remarkable similarities between the Pharisees and Greek philosophers.

Pharisaic teachers and Greek Philosophers:
1. were not paid to teach;
2. had disciples who followed and served them;
3. had occupations and were financially supported by those who appreciated their teaching;
4. were exempt from taxes;
5. were recognized in public by the way they walked, talked, and dressed;
6. practiced some level of asceticism.

The philosophy of the Pharisees included believing in the entirety of the Scriptures and the Oral Law (spoken commentary), resurrection of the dead, angels, and eternal judgment.

If it were not for the Pharisaic philosophy, we would not believe in life after death, the resurrection of the body, preaching on the Sabbath, the existence of angels, or the importance of commentaries.

It is widely believed by many scholars of first century Judaism that Jesus was very much in line with the Pharisaic philosophy and that his criticisms of the Pharisees were not criticisms of all Pharisees, but were part of an ongoing debate between those who followed the great teachers, Hillel and Shammai. Jesus was most closely aligned with the teachings of Hillel who was thirty years older than Jesus and was known for his great wisdom and teaching. One of Hillel’s teachings, which was supported and quoted by Jesus, was “what you would not have done to you, do not to another; that is the whole Law, the rest is commentary.”

Those who supported and followed the yoke of Hillel were often debating with those who followed the yoke of Shammai. Jesus often entered the same debate, supporting the teachings of Hillel who taught that it is okay to heal on the Sabbath and clean the outside of a cup at a later time rather than before drinking from it.

The philosophy of Jesus is his yoke, and Jesus' yoke is the yoke that we follow today. Jesus' yoke and Hillel's yoke were very similar. Therefore, the point of this article is to bring attention to the possibilities that the Pharisees, like other ancient philosophers, were varied in their beliefs and teachings, and that Jesus, like the other Jewish sages of his time, was not necessarily enforcing an entirely new philosophy for living out the Word, but was an advocate of a philosophy which was already being taught and practiced in his time by a portion of the Pharisees, a group with which Jesus was most closely aligned.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Check out this blog.

I want to invite everyone to check out Angela's blog at www.ang4him.blogspot.com.

She's sharing some really great studies on the Hebraic and Jewish roots of Christianity.

Say hello while you're there.

Grace and peace,
Johnny

Signs of A Cult

Has anyone else ever heard of these five signs?

Tantalizing if True
Five signs of a cult
Posted in Desperate Suggestions Thursday, December 7th, 2006 Trackback

1. A strong sense of group identity and community.
2. A belief that the group is somehow separate from the rest of society.
3. A strong sense of group destiny and purpose.
4. An unwavering adherence to the teachings of its founder, which may differ radically from the rest of society.
5. A total commitment to the goals of the movement which overrides personal goals and comfort.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Is the Bride Ready?

Ancient Israel had many customs and practices that would not be allowed in our culture today. One such custom was the engagement process. A young man in his twenties would go with his father to the village where the 14-year-old girl whom he was to marry lived with her parents. While there, he would meet the girl and her father for the first time.

A Jewish matchmaker called a shadkhan would put the young man and young woman together based on yihus (stock, family background, reputation in the community, and personal virtue). Jewish marriages placed an emphasis on love after marriage, as opposed to marrying the one you love.

When the young man arrived at the young woman’s house, the two fathers would settle on a “bride-price." Payment by means of money or material items was a way of honoring the family that would be losing the daughter. When the price was settled, the young man’s father would pass his son a cup of wine. The young man would drink from the cup and pass the cup to the young woman, signifying that he wanted her to be his wife and that he was giving his life to her. If she drank from the cup, she was in effect saying, “I want to marry you. I accept your life, and I will give you mine.”

Then the young man and his father would travel back to their village where the young man would begin building a room onto his parent’s home. Generations of sons would build on to the house, creating what is called an insula, a house with many rooms. The young man would work on his house until his dad, the only person who could give a final approval for the new home, would say, “It is ready. Go and receive your bride.”

While the young man worked on the new house, the bride-to-be would make wedding clothes and learn to take care of a home. She was expected to always be ready for his return at any moment. During this time of preparation, all of the people in the young woman’s village would refer to her as “one who has been bought with a price.”

Eventually, the home would be ready, the young man’s dad would give his approval and send his son to receive his bride. When the bridegroom entered the village of his bride-to-be, he would blow a shofar and all the village would hear the horn and know that the bridegroom had arrived. A wise bride would be ready when her bridegroom arrived.

Those who have been learning, preparing, and have kept themselves ready for the groom will join him when he returns and sends his angels to sound the trumpet.

“Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3).

In His dust,
Johnny

There Is No Old Testament

It is often believed that when Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17) that he is saying, “I have not come to nullify them, but finish them off and start a new one.” With this thought in mind, most of Christendom believes that Jesus was teaching that he came to obey all the commands, close the old book, and write a new book. As we study the very Hebraic nature of the idiomatic words and phrases “to come,” “to abolish,” and “to fulfill,” we will find the true meaning of Jesus’ words.

According to David Bivin in his book, New Light on the Difficult Words of Jesus, when Jesus says that he did not “come,” the word that he would have used was often idiomatically used to denote his intent or purpose rather than meaning he left one place and came to another. In other words, Jesus is saying, “My purpose is not to…but to…” In the King James Version, the original word for abolish was translated “to destroy the law.” According to Bivin, this is not a correct translation as the probable Hebrew equivalent of the Greek verb, levatel, which literally means “to cancel” was often used among the educated teachers during the time of Jesus, and it meant “to misinterpret a biblical mitzvah or commandment.”

Bivin goes on to teach that the probable Hebrew equivalent of the Greek verb plerosai, which is translated “fulfill,” is lekayem, which was often used as the opposite for levatel and meant “to clearly or properly interpret a commandment.”

All of this leads us to understand that it is very possible that Jesus is saying, “I did not come to misinterpret the law and the prophets, but to clearly interpret them” denoting that God’s people needed His instructions reiterated and clarified.

Knowing that Jesus as a Jewish rabbi greatly valued, respected, and kept the Hebrew Scriptures, we should consider that Jesus would not have given a new Bible to the world; he gave clarity to God’s original instructions, not to replace them, but to be placed with them. As one who agrees with this understanding of Jesus’ words, I would add that it does harm to the Church to consider the “New Testament” a new law, rather than a clarification with two amendments. The two amendments to the instructions of God are the release from making blood sacrifices as Jesus became a permanent sacrifice, and all people are now welcome to become a part of God's chosen people.

Furthermore, the approach of considering the “Old Testament” to be an outdated and finished up book of rules replaced by Jesus’ book of grace would appear to resemble the teachings of Marcion who completely rejected the Old Testament and considered it to be the scriptures of a cruel and completely different God from the God of the New testament. Marcion’s influences from Gnostic beliefs have unwittingly been carried on within Christian theology, philosophy, and practice whether overtly recognized or revealed in more sinister and hidden ways.

It may be that the practice of printing Bibles which are without the Old Testament is justified by a hint of Marcionism and the anti-Jewish culture that has been cultivated by the post-70 A. D. movement of the Church.

I want to do my best to fulfill Jesus' words and never abolish them.

In His dust,
Johnny

The Mark of the Beast

When the book of Revelation was written, emperor worship was in full swing. The emperor at this time was Domitian.

Domitian demanded that he be addressed as “God” even by his wife.

Ephesus was a very important city during Domitian’s reign. It was a city in which many citizens of that era would do their shopping, and without being able to shop in Ephesus, a person and his or her family would be without many of their basic human needs. Before a person could shop, he or she was required to declare that Domitian is God at the public altar.

Once a person declared the deity of Domitian, he or she was required to participate in festivals, give an incense offering, and make sacrifices in honor of the deified emperor.

Other requirements included recognizing that the emperor was the provider of life before drinking from public water fountains.

By practicing all the requirements of paying homage to the emperor, the person was considered to have taken on the “mark” of the emperor. To accept Domitian as God and to follow his requirements was to take on the “mark of Domitian.”

The Jews of Domitian’s time nicknamed Domitian "the beast."

Domitian also had a 35-foot statue that would be presented by his representatives wherever he went. This statue would be rolled out into the street and all the people present would pay homage to it by saying in loud voices, “Our Lord, our God, you alone are worthy of praise and honor and power." The statue depicted a very muscular version of Domitian who was actually very obese.

Those who accepted Domitian as God were allowed to shop freely in the market place as they were considered to have taken the “Mark of the Beast.”

“And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no respite day or night—these who pay homage to the beast and to his image and whoever receives the stamp of his name upon him” (Revelation 14:11).

Forever learning,
Johnny

Reflection of Perfection

This morning, most people went into the bathroom, looked at a person who lives in the mirror, and they dressed that person up until he or she was exactly what he or she wanted that person to look like.

They looked as close as they possibly could at that person in the mirror so that if one nose hair was out of place, he or she could see it and pluck it out. Some of them stood, hunched over the sink in an uncomfortable position, holding their breath at times to keep their hand as straight as possible so that they could put makeup on that person as perfectly as possible or so that they could shave away every single whisker. And when they were done, they looked at that person again; looking over every shade and line to make sure it was exactly what they wanted it to be.

They brushed the hair of the person in the mirror and many took dozens of minutes making sure the hair of that person in the mirror was just right.

Many people dressed up the body of that person in the mirror, making sure his or her clothes were without wrinkles and being sure to have every part of that person’s body decorated in clothing that matches, with jewelry that adds to the splendor of the day’s attire.

And many of those people would not leave the mirror until they were absolutely sure that the person in the mirror would add beauty and value to the world.


There were also many who didn’t take any time at all to dress the person in the mirror. Many of these people never even looked at the person in the mirror. The person in the mirror was there, but the person in charge of dressing the person in the mirror had either no ability, time, or interest in dressing that person.

There are many reasons why some never take time to dress up the person in their mirror. Some don’t like the person in the mirror; some are blind and need someone else to dress the person in the mirror. And then there are those who have found themselves so busy that there is no time to spend on the person in the mirror. Finally there are those who have no mirror and don’t have the opportunity.

The person in the mirror is important to us because it is our own exact representation and some of us value what the person in the mirror represents. Some of us care about the gift that the representation of the person in the mirror gives to the world as a person who is cared for and valued, and cares for and values others.

And once we leave the mirror, we take ourselves out into the world where we live in someone else’s mirror. The world then has the opportunity to make us what it wants us to be and look like.

Who am I allowing to dress me up to spend my life representing? If I wonder into the mirrors of the world, I may end up as someone else’s neglected slob.


I am a child of God who is dressed every new day to represent Him. I am to be a reflection of perfection in the world.