Opus 2024-347: Do the Math

I went to the meeting, even though I didn’t qualify. It was billed as a pastors conference, and as you went in there was a sign saying ,“Welcome, pastors, and leaders”.  I joked with people that I was the “and”.  It was actually open to anybody who wanted to come, so I was not trespassing or being offensive.

They were two speakers.  The first one was a guru on eschatology.  The second was a lawyer who is very involved in the political process.  The lawyer was one of two that I know that I believe are actually going to make it to heaven.  What he had to say was solid.  Believers need to be involed in the political process, their current government and in their society.  The guru, not so much.

When the guru got up to speak, I realized that I had heard him at this event last year and my general feeling was fuzzy neutrality.  When he started to speak, he turned me off a bit because he started off with a startling “gotcha statement”.  He said that 30% of Christians don’t believe that Jesus is God.  At best that is an oxymoron.  At worst it is deceitful.  If you don’t see the problem immediately then follow me here.

If Jesus is not God, then He was just a man.  And CS Lewis points out that is not an acceptable option because He was either God or a lunatic.  If Jesus was just a man, and let’s say He was a good man, then everything He said, was just the opinion of another human being.  All of the teachings that you find in the gospels is just another self-help book or a best seller, waiting to make it on the charts.  It’s just the opinion of another man.

In addition to that if Jesus is not God then He was no longer the perfect lamb.  That means that His death on the cross, assuming it actually happened, was just a tragic moment in history.  A man was killed who did not deserve it.  If He was not the perfect lamb then his blood being shed did nothing to bring forgiveness of sin.  If He was not God, then we have no hope in Him and the term “Christian” becomes nothing more impressive than being called a vegetarian.

So basically, if you do not believe that Jesus is God, you are not a Christian.  Now I would like to think that what the man meant was that 30% of those who called themselves Christians, or consider themselves Christians, don’t believe that Jesus is God.  That would be a statement that makes sense.  Of course, it wouldn’t be as startling and wouldn’t get peoples attention so it wouldn’t work very well.  Such is the dilemma of a public speaker.

From there he went on to speak about Israel and his love with the Jewish people.  I had heard it before, so it was nothing new.  He was very involved with the Jewish people and talked as if he was a member of the synagogue.  Having heard him before I knew where he was going, and a bit about where he was coming from.  He’s one of those who is big on Israel in the end times, and how God is going to reestablish Israel and how we have to pray for Jerusalem and so forth.

Being someone who has read the book of Isaiah and a lot of the prophecies that he talks about and historical books of Israel, I have my doubts that it will work out as smoothly as he proclaims.  Two passages of scripture comes to mind.  The first has to do with the remnant of 7,000.

1 Kings 19:18 (KJV) Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Then you have this prediction that you find in the book of Isaiah,

Isaiah 1:9 (KJV) Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

It doesn’t sound like God is concerned with preserving the masses of people who considers themselves Jews, or even those who are actually in the lineage of Abraham.  Do the math.

Let me look at the passage from I Kings since it’s more specific in its numbers.  The statement is that after all of the butchery and damage bringing Israel to account there will still be 7,000 who are faithful.  We are used to hearing that number I guess and say “Go team”.  Most of us attend churches that are relatively small and 7,000 sounds like a big number.  I think in terms of gestalt.  What is the big picture and what do these numbers mean?

When Moses lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, there are numbers given about how many people were involved.  I am too lazy right now to go back and add them up, but let’s go with the number of one million.  I think that’s reasonable.  When they finally entered the promised land and conquered it, I would suggest that the numbers went up.  We are now 3000 years later.  Surely, that 1 million has grown.  But let’s go with that number as if it were the same.  Do the math.  If there were 1 million Jews, children of Israel, alive at that time and 7,000 are still loyal to God, that means that 993,000 have been sent on their way to hell.  Those are not exactly what I would call encouraging numbers if I were Jewish.  When the end times come and it says that all Israel will be saved in the book of Romans you have to say to yourself that means that the only ones still alive are the faithful ones and everyone else has been killed one way or another.  Not good odds.

Will God bring Israel back?  The prophecies seem to indicate that.  Will it be a great homecoming involving multiplied millions of people with Jewish blood?  Not only is that not consistent with a rational, holy God, but it doesn’t make any sense.

Stay tuned and you will eventually find out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-303: Israel’s Place

I struggle with the idea that Israel is some special group chosen by God.  I can’t deny that the Bible seems to say that.  They are special.  I think we tend to misinterpret and misunderstand that specialness.  I look at verses like this,

Romans 11:26 (KJV) And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

And all I can do is scratch my head and ask, “What?”  My first reaction is a disconnect between centuries of rebellion and rejection of God that I see going on in the Jews and the fact that all will be saved.  I think the key is in the second part of that verse and a better and modern translation of that.

Romans 11:26 (NASB95) and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.”

Notice the difference.  What does it mean remove ungodliness from Jacob?  I think there are clues like one of the places and I came across one in my reading recently.

Isaiah 1:9 (KJV) Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

The context at the beginning of Isaiah has God dealing with disobedient people by bringing in other nations to destroy them.  In the middle of the destruction, there is the promise that there will be some left over.  Here it uses that word remnant.  What is hard for us to understand in our gentle, modern attitudes is the destruction that God is willing to wield when it comes to the disobedient.

It is a hard teaching, yet it is consistent through scripture.  Yes, God will bring Israel back as a nation.  But before He brings them back, He will purge them.  That means that the only ones being brought back will be those who have responded to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and embraced the Messiah and the God of Israel.  I make that a double yardstick because Jesus is necessary and most Jews today have no idea who Yahweh is.  

It goes against my turn-the-other-cheek mentality, but God will not be mocked and His holiness will not be polluted.  Israel will be restored but it will be a much reduced Israel.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-170: The Great White Hope, part 3 of 3

Just for fun I thought it would be interesting to take a quick look at the uses of choice colors in the Bible.  There was a song we used to sing in Sunday School before it became politically incorrect.

Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

So you can see that kids who went to Sunday School were taught at an early age that skin color was not the issue.

First let’s look at red.  I found it was used 53 times in the Bible.  Most of them referred to the Red Sea.  The first time it was used it talked about Esau being born with a red, hairy arm.  That is the closest I could find to race.

There was one place that is of interest.

(Isa 1:18 KJV) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Notice that the comparison of good and bad is not between white and black but white and scarlet, a shade of red. 

One thing that is noticeable about the uses of colors in the Old Testament.  They are used in reference to the medical observations regarding leprosy. 

(Lev 13:30 KJV) Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

Again there is no mention of race.

White occurs most frequently in Leviticus and Revelation.  In Leviticus it usually is used on medical diagnosis of leprosy.  In Revelation it is most common used in regard to clothing.

Black is usually used to describe things you would expect to be black.  One point of interest is in Song of Solomon where the person of affection is described as black.

Interesting but not something to base national policy on.

So my general conclusion is that skin color is of no importance in the Bible and should not be for followers of Jesus.  Thus I reject the idea of white privilege just as I reject black power.  I reject Black Lives Matter if it implies that other lives don’t.  We should also understand that there is not shame or guilt in skin color.  The big difference is that some need to worry about sun burn more than others.

homo unius libri