Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....August 30, 2021
I purposely left this teaching until the last because I want to show you just how different the 1st Century church was in comparison to today....WORSHIP IN THE FIRST CENTURY
The day of Pentecost must have led directly to the emergence of questions about worship. The first converts to Christianity were Jews. They knew how to worship according to the Law of Moses. Little did they realize that worship—sacrifices, washings and purification, festivals, the articles of the temple--under the Law of Moses were precursors of the worship of Christ. Even while they had not come to know Christ, their worship foreshadowed Christ’s work of salvation. It is highly improbable that they knew right away that Christian worship would in time entirely displace the familiar system that their worship merely prefigured.
The first Christians must have wondered, “Will our worship as Christians be different? Will new things be incorporated into our familiar pattern of Sabbaths, festivals and sacrifices?” Many questions must have percolated immediately.
We will examine the effects of this massive change in the first century, and what it portended for worshipers in later generations, by asking the questions presented by five pronouns and adverbs:
What? Who? When? Where? and How?
WHAT is worship?
To worship means to “bow down before and give honor to a higher being.”
Vines Expository Dictionary defines worship this way: "to make obeisance, do reverence to."
Worship of God, then, is laying ourselves prostrate before God, in subjection and reverence, as an expression of adoration. When I was a child many years ago, men used to kneel beside the pews to pray. I believe those men were worshiping God in their physical bodies. Although we worship when we assemble insofar as we revere God, we do not assemble so that we can worship, as though worshiping is enabled by assembling. We may worship God individually and personally, whether alone or assembled with other worshipers.
WHO is worthy to be worshiped?
It’s an easy question to answer. God alone is worthy. No one here today will dispute that.
Why are we so certain and agreed on that?
God has made it plain that he is extremely displeased when his people worship someone or something other than himself, to the point that he destroyed a nation for it. The first of the ten commandments is:
You shall have no other Gods before me. Exodus 20:3
The second of the ten commandments:
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God Exo 20:4-5
Tempted by Satan, Jesus responded this way:
Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” Matthew 4:10
In Jesus’ quote from Deuteronomy 6:13, Moses in turn quotes God himself, saying, “…for the Lord God in your midst is a jealous God – lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.”
When we say that God alone is worthy to be worshiped, do we exclude Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who are involved and included in all the works of God? Do we sing wrongly?
Jesus, we love you, we worship and adore you
Magnify your name in all the earth.
Spirit, we love you, we worship and adore you
Magnify your name in all the earth.
Jesus was indeed worshiped in the scriptures, and readily accepted worship.
• The magi from the East “fell down and worshiped the child in Bethlehem.”
• Joseph and Mary allowed and accepted their infant son to be worshiped, both having been visited by an angel to tell them what Jesus’ miraculous birth was about.
• On the Sea of Galilee, when Peter had attempted to walk on the water to Jesus, and became afraid, they got into the boat, “and those in the boat worshiped him saying “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Jesus clearly accepted worship.
May the Holy Spirit be worshiped?
• God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and Truth (John 4:24).
• …for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3).
Like Christ, the Holy Spirit is not separated from, in competition with or contradiction of the Father.
The Holy Spirit, then, is worthy of worship.....He is God.
No person or object that is not deity is worthy to be worshiped. Peter, for example, is not deity. He refused worship at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:25-26).
Someone may ask, “Since angels are in the heavenly realm, is worship of angels appropriate?”
Paul wrote to the Colossians:
• Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind... (Colossians 2:18)
• The angel who showed John the river of the water of life flowing through the street of the heavenly Jerusalem refused John’s worship. “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he *said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God." (Revelation 22:8-9)
WHEN does the New Testament say should we worship?
On the first day of the week? Sometime in the middle of the week? Day by day?
When did the earliest Christians worship?
• We worship at any time we prostrate ourselves before God, whether as individuals or as an assembled group.
• Worship is a whole life proposition, not something we push into a few hours.
• Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1).
• Everything we have comes from God, and belongs to him still. He is sovereign over every phase of our lives, whether we acknowledge it and bow before him or not.
• So don’t think of worship as an occasional action, or as necessarily a group activity--let your life be worship.
While we recognize that we do worshipful things both when we are--and are not--assembled, does the New Testament specifically instruct us when to assemble?
In the 11th through the 14th chapters of the first Corinthian letter, Paul gives various instructions that pertain to the assembled congregation. Here's one such example:
When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. (1 Cor 11:20)
But Paul doesn’t specify “when” the church is to come together.
Here's another:
If the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? (1 Cor 14:23)
Here Paul makes it “if” the whole church comes together. But verse 26 shows that he presumes that they would do so:
What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification (1 Corinthians 14:26).
These passages show that Christians assembling together was a normal occurrence that he expected to happen, but Paul and other writers do not specify in these or any other passages that I can find, when Christians are to assemble.
Someone might say, “Christians are commanded to worship on Sunday, because that’s what the Bible commands in Acts 20:7.
At Troas, the disciples had come together:
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.
By a reasonable estimate, that was about 28 years after the church’s beginning, about 1000 miles from Jerusalem.
And what were they doing that day? Breaking bread. It literally means “breaking bread, or a loaf.”
It is often suggested that this occasion is our model for Christian assemblies - or scheduled “services” - on the strength of the suggestion that by “breaking bread” they came together for the explicit purpose of taking the Lord’s supper because in the observance of it, bread is broken.
Precisely the same expression was used in the bible’s original language for taking a meal. About Jesus feeding 5000 with 5 loaves and two fishes Matthew wrote:
Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds…(Matt 14:19)
In his account of that event, Matthew used exactly the same words in the original language that Luke used in Acts 20:7 - “break” is from the Greek klao, meaning to break of pieces, and “loaves” is from the Greek artos, meaning bread.
Note that what they did at Troas on the first day of the week on the occasion in Acts 20:7 is reported using the exact words the same writer used to report what the first Christians did daily.
Acts 2:46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.
The same writer used exactly the same words for “breaking bread” in both passages – they broke bread on the first day of the week in Troas, and daily in Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem the passage in Acts 2:46 explicitly says they took meals together.
We need to be careful when we read the Bible to understand what the writer intended to say. Perhaps the “coming together” in Troas was to take the Lord’s supper. There is no compelling evidence against it. But neither can I raise a compelling argument that their gathering was for taking the Lord’s supper rather than simply to take their meal together, for the early Christians did both.
The other reference to the first day of the week is in 1 Cor 16:2:
On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.
ESV – “put something aside and store it up”
KJV – “lay by him in store”
“Lay by in store” is another of those expressions that has become idiomized in the church context to mean “place your contribution in the contribution tray.”
But the meaning of the words is simply holding some money aside, stored for a special purpose. Doing so on the first day of the week suggests regularity and priority and possibly convenience. And the funds thus laid aside were not for the general costs associated with the operations of a local congregation. The funds were for Judean Christians 1000 miles away, who were suffering through a famine.
But Paul does not tell the Christians at Corinth to assemble on the day they put money aside for their Judean fellow-Christians.
As far as I can see, these two verses (Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2) have traditionally borne the full weight of the question of what day Christians are to worship.
So why do we assemble on Sunday, and why do I nevertheless advocate Sunday as a day when Christians ought to assemble and worship?
• The Bible doesn’t tell us this, but Justin Martyr and other early Christian writers wrote that the earliest Christians set the first day apart from other days to meet together and hear the word.
• The apostles clearly participated in that choice.
John used the expression, “the Lord’s day” in Rev 1:10, saying “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,” without saying what the Lord’s day was, but it signified that by the time he wrote the Revelation, there was a day that was especially devoted to the Lord. But John said nothing about Christians assembling on that day—merely that he was “in the Spirit,” and saw visions.
I do believe Sunday is the day Christians should assemble for worship, but I believe Acts 20:7, often quoted as the key proof, offers - at best - weak support of it. Let me explain why:
Sunday is appropriate for our worship as assembled Christians, but neither because the disciples at Troas came together to “break bread” on that day, nor because Paul told Christians at Corinth to put aside some money for needy Judeans on the first day of the week. Nor because assembling on Sunday is commanded anywhere. I find no explicit instruction concerning the time of assembling to worship.
Sunday was chosen apart from other days for assembling to worship because...
• The day that Jesus rose from the dead was Sunday, and the early Christians recognized the resurrection as a seminal event in their faith.
• Sunday was the day of at least one of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances. The early Christian writers make that connection.
• The day the Holy Spirit came on the disciples and the gospel was first preached (Pentecost) was Sunday.
History does not command us. The Bible is our sole authority in all matters of faith and practice.
Without Biblical command to assemble on Sunday or to do otherwise, we willingly follow the traditional choice of those first Christians, who were blessed in worship and serving.
That is why I believe it is appropriate for us to assemble and worship on Sunday.
May Christians assemble and worship at other times? Most certainly. Nothing prohibits it, and in my own experience, most do so.
WHERE are Christians to worship?
A woman Jesus met at Jacob’s well had questions about worship (John 4:2-26).
“Where?” the woman wanted to know - on this mountain (Gerazim), or at Jerusalem?
The questions touched upon a ferocious controversy that had raged for hundreds of years. Samaritans believed that Gerazim, located in Samaria, was the proper place for worship, to the outrage of Jews who had rock-solid proof in the bible that worship was to be at Jerusalem.
How did Mount Gerizim become the Samaritans’ place of worship?
The Pentateuch was the Samaritans’ Bible. There were frequent mentions of the “place God would choose for his name to dwell.”
Deut 12:11 ...then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord. (and various other passages in Deut 12-14).
But Moses didn’t mention, and in fact didn’t know, where that place would be.
It lies beyond our purpose to explore and settle the complicated history of how Mount Gerazim came to be considered “that place” by the Samaritans, but they believed they had a strong case for Mt. Gerazim as the place.
Briefly, Sanballat (one of those who opposed and troubled Nehemiah when he returned from Persia to rebuild Jerusalem) built a temple on Mount Gerizim for worship about four centuries before Christ was born. By Christ’s it was time old and revered, and thus presumed the right place. (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews xi.c.viii.s.4 and 2 Maccabees 6:2)
Jesus didn’t get caught up in the history and controversy. He said, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father (John 4:21).
THE CHURCH IS NOT A PLACE.....The church and the place it assembles are two different things. Jesus explained that the place does not matter, so he didn’t and we shouldn’t try to make it matter.
There were no meeting houses for Christians for almost 300 years. One of the earliest mentions of one was by Cyprian of Carthage (more later about him).
In Jerusalem, Christians worshiped in homes and in the temple – but not in meeting houses, or “church buildings.” Bear in mind that from the very start there were thousands of Christians, with the number growing rapidly in the comparatively small town of Jerusalem. It would be practically impossible for all of them to meet in a single assembly.
Beginning around the end of the third century, spectacularly opulent buildings were built for Christians at government expense, for the emperor Constantine – breaking the patterns of earlier emperors - had embraced Christianity.
HOW? In what way are we to worship?
In my lifetime, and for some time before, “how we ought to worship” has been a subject of consuming interest in the church.
Few religious questions have been more bitterly debated than various questions centering on the assembly, and how we are to conduct it acceptably.
As discussed earlier, a woman of Samaria perceived that Jesus was a prophet, and wanted to know, “Where do you say we should worship - in this mountain (Gerazim) or at Jerusalem?” But Jesus answered the woman not with “where,” but “how.”
"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers (John 4:23).
In spirit and in truth.
• It would be a spiritual, not physical, worship like the Law of Moses.
• It would be in truth, with Jesus himself--the way, the truth, and the life--being the object; not bulls and rams, which only prefigured the truth that is Christ.
The early church consisted of Jews, and they continued to practice Judaism.
We see evidences of this in scripture.
Here’s Paul at Jerusalem:
After he had greeted them [the elders at Jerusalem], he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when the elders at Jerusalem heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law... (Acts 21:19-20).
The elders’ reference to “the law” was in respect to circumcision, sacrifices, distinctions of meats and days, festivals, etc. It may seem remarkable that they should still continue to observe those rites, since it was the manifest design of Christianity to abolish them. But we do well to remember:
(1) That those rites had been appointed by God, and that the new Christians had been trained to their observance.
(2) That the apostles conformed to them while they remained at Jerusalem, and did not deem it best to set themselves adamantly against them.
(3) That the question of their Jewish observances had never been agitated at Jerusalem. It was only about the Gentile converts at Antioch that the question had arisen, and there it must arise, for if they were to be observed by Gentile converts, they must have been imposed upon Gentiles by some authority.
(4) The decision of the council Acts 15 was to address the question of what was required of Gentile converts. It did not touch the question whether those same rites were to continue being observed by the Jewish converts.
(5) It was presumed that as the Christian religion became better understood - that as its large, free, and universal nature became increasingly developed, the special institutions of Moses would be laid aside of course, without trouble and tumult. Had the question been agitated at Jerusalem, it would have excited tenfold opposition to Christianity, and would have rent the Christian church into factions, and greatly hindered the advance of the Christian doctrines.
(6) In the arrangement of divine providence, the time was drawing near which was to destroy the temple, the city, and the nation, which was to put an end to sacrifices, and effectually to terminate forever the observance of the Mosaic rites. As this destruction was so near, and as it would be so effectual end of the observance of the Mosaic rites Jesus, as the head of the church did not allow the question of their obligation to be needlessly stirred up among the disciples at Jerusalem.
Was the keeping of the Law required of Christian Jews? No. But it would be very difficult to persuade them to abandon the traditions handed down by Moses and meticulously kept by their ancestors, before the doctrines of Christianity were fully revealed and grasped, making the Law of Moses a thing of the past.
What should be the order of worship?
The clearest instruction in the entire New Testament about conduct of worship is in 1 Cor 14 (allowing that the historical backdrop was the Corinth church’s fascination with tongue-speaking, thought to be a prestigious spiritual gift). If we want to see if we measure up to the church of the New Testament, we need to look at 1 Cor 14. Nowhere in the scriptures will you find a more concise on-point instruction about the assemblies of Christians.
Prophecy and Tongues
14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. 3 On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. 5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
6 Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? 7 If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? 8 And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? 9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. 18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.21 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
Orderly Worship
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.
36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But all things should be done decently and in order.
Are we a good match to this description? Does it describe us?
Can we account for our deviation from that description on the basis of the expiration of miraculous revelations and other phenomena?
My answer: Not entirely. Our assemblies as currently practiced have been packaged over a long period of time, mostly by people who lived and died long before us. Over time they became comfortable like a broken-in pair of shoes.
There is no reason we need to change our assemblies. But we should be aware of the scriptural guidance, and where it has and has not guided past decisions.
The Pulpit
Today, the sermon is considered by many to be the centerpiece of the Christian assembly. Others may say, “No, the Lord’s Supper is why we come together.” Or Christian association and fellowship. Or other things.
But the sermon is usually given more continuous time in Christian assemblies than anything else.
There is no scriptural reference or historical evidence of a pulpit in the New Testament church until the middle of the third century, in a letter of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage.
Even then it was not used for preaching or expounding the word. Cyprian’s letter refers to its use in ordaining a “reader” in the Carthage church.
In my opinion, a pulpit is an expedient without command or early history. But it can be misused.
I think it becomes harmful to the spirit of worship if it is excessively large or ornate, or if it is constructed and placed in such a way as to suggest a distinction of clergy as above the laity.
We are all laity, including the one behind a pulpit. We have differing work assignments as the Holy Spirit has imparted gifts, but we are all on equal footing as we stand in God’s presence.
The assembly - for worship, or for mutual encouragement?
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, -Hebrews 10:24-26
The writer shows here why Christians should never stop assembling with other Christians, which some appear to have been doing. Further, he shows the reason why it is important: that Christians should stir one another up to love and good works.
Verse 25 says:
KJV: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together…
NASB: Not forsaking our own assembling together…
ESV: Not neglecting to meet together…
In verse 24 the writer gives the purpose of assembling - that we may stimulate and encourage one another.
Of course none of us suggest that we forsake, or abandon, the practice of assembling ourselves together. However, this passage is sometimes quoted in support of an argument that every Christian must be present on every occasion when the church assembles, and that any person who fails in that duty “forsook the assembly” on that occasion.
But such is a distortion of both the meaning of both the words “forsaking” which means to abandon or cease, and “assembling” which is used in reference not to some particular occasion, but assembling as an on-going practice. So I believe the intended meaning of the passage is that Christians should spend time assembled with one another and that, so assembled, the time should be employed in stimulating and encouraging one another.
I fear that time has assigned a meaning relating the passage only to each formal, regularly scheduled “church service,” rather than the broader perspective of the church’s on-going practice.
I pray that this series of teachings on the church of the New Testament has been informative and instructive.
It has touched on several subjects where Christians differ in their understanding of what the Lord wants the church he built to look and act like. My purpose has not been to fan flames of controversy or to stake out “positions;” but to offer the fruits of my study over an ever-lengthening lifetime for the consideration of any and all who are interested in knowing and doing God’s will. I love you all:)
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
Is there an afterlife?"
The book of Job asks a question about the afterlife very simply: “If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14:14). Asking the question is easy; more difficult is finding someone to answer the question with authority and experience.
Jesus Christ is the one person who can speak with real authority (and experience) concerning the afterlife. What gives Him sole authority to speak of heaven is that He came from there: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man” (John 3:13). The Lord Jesus, with His firsthand experience in heaven, presents us with three basic truths about the subject of life after death:
1. There is an afterlife.
2. When a person dies, there are two possible destinations to which he or she may go.
3. There is one way to ensure a positive experience after death.
First, Christ affirms there is an afterlife a number of times. For example, in an encounter with the Sadducees, who denied the doctrine of the resurrection, Jesus said, “About the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ ? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” (Mark 12:26–27). According to Jesus, those who had died centuries before were very much alive with God at that moment.
In another passage, Jesus comforts His disciples (and us) by telling them of the afterlife. They can look forward to being with Him in heaven: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that 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).
Jesus also speaks authoritatively about the two different destinies that await in the afterlife. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus says, “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side” (Luke 16:22–23). Note, there is no intermediate state for those who die; they go directly to their eternal destiny. Jesus taught more on the different destinies of the righteous and the wicked in Matthew 25:46 and John 5:25–29.
Jesus also emphasized that what determines a person’s eternal destination is whether or not he has faith in God’s only begotten Son. The need for faith is clear: “Everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:15–18).
For those who repent of their sin and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, the afterlife will consist of an eternity spent enjoying God. For those who reject Christ, however, the afterlife will be quite different. Jesus describes their destiny as “darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). As the heaven-sent authority on the afterlife, Jesus warns us to choose wisely: “Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13–14).
Speaking about life after death, G. B. Hardy, a Canadian scientist, once said, “I have only two questions to ask. One, has anyone ever defeated death? Two, did he make a way for me to do it also?” The answer to both of Hardy’s questions is “yes.” One Person has both defeated death and provided a way for everyone who puts their trust in Him to overcome it as well. No one who trusts in Jesus Christ needs to fear death, and we can rejoice in the Lord’s salvation: “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
‘Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?’” (1 Corinthians 15:54–55).
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
In What Languages Was the Bible Written? If you have been in my classes, you should know this one...
Almost all of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, but a few parts were written in Aramaic, also known as Syriac. These include Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26; Daniel 2:4–7:28; and a few other isolated verses. Hebrew and Aramaic both belong to the Semitic language group (others in this group include Phoenician, Arabic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic). The term Semitic comes from Shem, the name of Noah’s oldest son (Genesis 6:10).
The word Hebrew comes from the name given the Israelites by non-Israelites. The term is seen in Genesis 14:13 and 1 Samuel 4:6, for example. The Hebrew language, then, was the Israelites’ native tongue for most of the Old Testament period. Hebrew is a vivid language, ideally suited to telling stories in a pictorial way. This expresses how Hebrews tended to think—more often in concrete pictures than in abstract concepts. According to Bible scholars Norman Geisler and William Nix, “Hebrew is a language through which the message is felt rather than thought.” That is, it is a language of the heart rather than the head. The Hebrew language proved an ideal means through which God could reveal himself through acts in history as opposed to simply making theological statements.
During the time of the Assyrian Empire (tenth through seventh centuries bc), the Assyrians’ native language, Aramaic, became the trade language of much of the ancient Near East. The name itself comes from the Arameans who lived in Aram, later known as Syria (thus the term Syriac) located northeast of the Sea of Galilee. Aramaic continued to be the primary language throughout the Near East through the fourth century bc, when Greek began to displace it after the conquests of Alexander the Great. During their time of exile in Assyria, and later in Babylon, the Israelites began speaking Aramaic rather than Hebrew. They continued its use even after the Persians, who had defeated the Babylonians, allowed them to return home in 538 bc.
This became a problem for the Jews who had returned, because they could no longer understand the Hebrew Scriptures; God’s Word had to be explained to them in Aramaic. This is what was happening in Nehemiah 8:8: “They [Ezra and other Levites] read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.” What was initially done orally was eventually written down and called Targums, the Aramaic word meaning “translations.” These would be the very first translations of Scripture. The Israelites, or Jews, as they came to be known at this time in history, who lived in Palestine (formerly called Canaan), continued to speak Aramaic as their native language into the first century ad. Aramaic was the language Jesus himself learned and spoke (see Mark 15:34).
The New Testament was written in koine, or common Greek—that is, “street language” Greek. This is significant, in that God did not see fit to inspire the books of the New Testament to be written in academic Greek, making them accessible only to scholars. He inspired them in the common Greek, because His Word is for all people. Alexander the Great established the Greek Empire in the fourth century bc, and along with it, Greek as the universal language. This was so widespread that even after the Romans displaced the Greeks as the dominant power, they continued to promote Greek as the common language. As with Hebrew for the Old Testament, it is significant that God chose to use Greek to communicate the books of the New Testament.
Greek is a language of the mind (remember ancient Greek philosophy). It provides technical precision, which is important in stating ideas, concepts, or thoughts. Greek is therefore ideally suited to communicate propositional or theological truth. This would be hard to do in a more pictorial language like Hebrew. It seems that God also chose Greek for the books of the New Testament since so many people spoke it in the first century. This aided in the efficient, timely communication and spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the books of the New Testament. Remember that Jesus commanded that disciples be made from “all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
It might be helpful to discuss one more step regarding the original languages of the Bible: the process of copying the books of the Bible. The term autograph is applied to the original biblical documents written by the authors or their scribes. None of these originals are extant today, which means “still in existence or available in a library or museum.” However, there are copies available. There are fewer for the Old Testament, but many for the New Testament—nearly 6,000 partial or full manuscripts! In a technical sense, a copy is still in the original biblical language—Hebrew copied to Hebrew and Greek copied to Greek. Since these copies were made before the invention of the printing press, this was very tedious work, done completely by hand.
What is also important to note here is how seriously the copyists or scribes took their responsibility. They understood that this was no ordinary literature being copied; it was the very Word of God. Consequently, they did their work with as much care as possible. Being imperfect human beings, they did not do a perfect job—there are minor differences between copies—but they were amazingly accurate. It seems that God providentially worked through them to faithfully preserve His Word as communicated initially in the autographs of Scripture.
A good example of this is the group of scribes called the Masoretes, who worked around ad 500–1000. They are well-known for their faithful and accurate copying of the Hebrew Scriptures. An example of their diligence is that they kept track of the number of lines and letters and even the very middle letter of the manuscripts they were copying. After completing a copy, which normally took months, they would compare the number of lines and letters and the middle letter of their copy to the source manuscript, and if there was any deviation, they would destroy the copy and start over. This should give us great confidence in the accuracy of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts upon which our English Bible is based.
The current Hebrew text used by biblical scholars is known as the Masoretic Text, the work of these Jewish scribes. The Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in 1947, and predate the Masoretic Text by about 1,000 years, confirm the accuracy of the Masoretic Text and demonstrate that the Hebrew text was faithfully preserved through the centuries.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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