Though there were “twelve tribes of Israel” (Genesis 49:28), under the law of Moses all priests were to be of the tribe of Levi, and of one family in that tribe: “Aaron and his sons” (Exodus 29:4-9). Furthermore, we read that the Aaronic priesthood was to be “everlasting” and “perpetual” (Exodus 29:9; 40:15, KJV, NKJV, ASV, NASB), and that a “stranger that comes near shall be put to death” (Numbers 3:10; 18:7). But we also read that a “stranger,” Jesus, of the tribe of “Judah” (Micah 5:2; Isaiah 11:1; Matthew 2:6; Hebrews 7:14; Revelation 5:5) God has made “a priest forever” (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:21), of “which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priests” (Hebrews 7:14). How could the priesthood be exclusively “Levitical” (Hebrews 7:11), only be of “Aaron and his sons” (Exodus 29-4-9), and yet Jesus “of the tribe of Judah” (Hebrews 7:14) become “a priest forever” (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:21)? Does the Bible have a contradiction? The explanation lies in mistranslations of the Hebrew word olam. Its usual meaning is “everlasting,” as of God’s existence (Psalm 90:2; 93:2), and as of Jesus’ existence, “whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting,” and who is “the same, yesterday, and for ever” (Micah 5:2; Hebrews 13:8). But the Hebrew verb from which olam is derived only means “everlasting” in certain contexts, as noted above about God and Jesus. Its lexical meaning is “hide, conceal” (Gesenius, p. 633), and so points to a “hidden time” (Gesenius, p. 612), “unlimited but not

After Jesus had received “all authority in heaven and on the earth” (Matthew 28:18), “all things written about” him “in Moses’ law and the prophets and in the psalms” had not been “fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). It had been predicted that “the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the Peacemaker comes, and him the peoples will obey” (Genesis 49:10). Jesus “descended from Judah” (Hebrews 7:14), but while he was on the earth he refused a king’s “scepter” (“an ensign of sovereignty,” Webster). After he had miraculously fed “about five thousand men, besides the women and children” (Matthew 14:21), those people “were about to come and take him by force, to make him king,” he “went into a mountain alone” (John 6:15). He knew the Scripture that foretold he would have a king’s “scepter,” but he also knew that the same Scripture stated he would be a “Peacemaker,” and another Scripture said that he would be a “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). He would be a king without a physical sword. His sword would be “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17), the “God-breathed” (theopneustos, 2 Timothy 3:16) Scripture with the power to give to everyone who “trusts in” him “perfect peace” (Isaiah 26:3). Jesus assured Governor Pilate that “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The Scripture foretelling that Jesus would be a king (Genesis 49:10) was not fulfilled while he was on the earth.

The Israelites were instructed to kill an unblemished lamb, “a male a year old” (Exodus 12:5) on the 14th day of Abib (April), “at the going down of the sun” (Deuteronomy 16:6), and to put the blood on the two side posts and the headpiece of their doors (Exodus 12:7). The lamb was to be roasted and eaten with unleavened bread (“the bread of affliction”) and “bitter herbs” that night (Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 12:8). The Lord promised that, as he passed through the land to smite the Egyptians “at midnight,” when “I see the blood, I will pass over you,” and not allow “the destroyer” to enter that house (Exodus 12:13, 23, 29). So the Passover Feast was begun, and the Israelites were commanded to “keep this ordinance in its season from year to year” (Exodus 13:10), saying to their children: “It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses” (Exodus 12:26-27). This “day” became a “memorial,” a “feast to Jehovah” (Exodus 12:14) “by an unlimited (olam) ordinance” (Exodus 12:14). But “in the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4), “according to the eternal purpose” (Ephesians 3:11), Jesus appeared as a planned replacement of the Passover lamb, becoming “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Yes, in “the plan of the mystery, hidden for ages in God” (Ephesians 3:9), Jesus became “our Passover Lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7). As

Many gifts from God, as our lives and the air we breathe, are absolutely free. Whether we are thankful to God and live for him and for others is wholly in our hands. 1. Thankfulness Some people believe that God exists but are not thankful to him (Romans 1:21; Hebrews 11:6). Webster defines the word “thankful” as “impressed with a sense of kindness received; ready to acknowledge it; grateful.” To be thankless is “not feeling or expressing thanks; not acknowledging favors.” After Jesus had healed 10 men of leprosy, only one of them, a Samaritan, “when he saw that he was healed, turned back and praised God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks” (Luke 17:15-16). Nine of those he had healed were thankless, and Jesus asked, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was none found to return to give God the glory, except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:17-18). A song written three thousand years ago is timeless: Shout joyfully to Yahweh, all the earth! Serve Yahweh with gladness. Come before Him with singing. Know that Yahweh, He is God. He made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name, for Yahweh is good, His kindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness is from generation to generation. (Psalm 100) Paul was thankful “that Christ Jesus came

God “knew” Jeremiah (1:5) before he was born (c. 642 B.C.) and had something he wanted Jeremiah to do all of his life, even in his old age. Admirably the “weeping prophet” (Jeremiah 9:1) kept “nothing back” in his preaching “the word of Yahweh” (Jeremiah 42:7-10), but his listeners did not like his preaching. The listeners kidnapped him, and forced him to accompany them to Egypt (Jeremiah 43:1-7). There, “according to Christian tradition, he met a martyr’s death, being stoned by the Jews, who resented his faithful reproofs” (J.R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible, p. 454). Yes, even on the last day of his life, with rocks coming from angry people, Jeremiah showed that he believed the Lord has something for every faithful person to do, even to his last breath. Paul, like Jeremiah, though he was a prisoner under house arrest “for two whole years” (A.D. 61-62, Acts 28:30-31), with the left hand of a soldier chained to his right hand (Conybeare and Howson, Life of Paul, II, p. 394; Ephesians 6:20), knew that Lord had something for him to do every day: “I face a dilemma, desiring to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more pressing” (Philippians 1:23-24). Later, on death row in Mamertine Prison in Rome (A.D. 67-68), Paul still knew that he should be busy every day in the Lord’s work. There he wrote a letter to “Timothy, my beloved child” (2 Timothy 1:2). I know

I. Self-Encouragement Every right-thinking person knows how feeble he is, and he prays with David: “O Yahweh, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is. Let me know how frail I am” (Psalm 39:4). “Truly every man is but a breath” (Psalm 39:11), and “we are dust” (Psalm 103:14), “a vapor which briefly appears, and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Consequently, he needs encouragement in his soul, his spirit, the only part of him that will never die (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Matthew 10:28; 22:32). Powerful in self-encouragement is daily prayer in the “evening and morning and at noon…and he will hear my voice,” said David (Psalm 55:17). Likewise, daily Bible study gives one fresh courage: “this is my comfort in my affliction,” said David, “for thy word has quickened me” (Psalm 119:50, KJV), “renews my life” (NIV), “has revived me” (NASV), “invigorates me” (FHV). You cannot imagine a person more in need of self- encouragement than Job “with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7), and having a wife who turned against him: “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9). However, he refused to give up, and his Bible reading was strengthening, saying, “I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). II. Encouraging Others As important as is self-encouragement, unless a person determines also to encourage others, he is selfish and a

I. Misconceptions About Spirituality 1. Monasticisim. A monk or a nun retiring “from the world under religious vows” is pursuing spirituality by privacy for concentration and fervency in personal praying. But retirement “from the world” is not what Jesus taught or practiced. He taught his disciples that, though they were “not of the world” (John 17:14), “yet they themselves” were “in the world” (John 17:11) with orders to “shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). Pointedly he told them “you are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), and “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Jesus did not seclude himself in a monastery. 2. Asceticism. An ascetic, living alone away from all human beings, believes that he “can reach a higher spiritual state by rigorous self-discipline and self-denial.” But the One who reached the highest spiritual state did not do so by abandoning all human contact. With him self-denial meant to meet as many people as possible, to go “about doing good” (Acts 10:38), “to seek and save” the lost (Luke 19:10). One of Jesus’ grandfathers wrote, “A loner is self-centered, and rages against all sound wisdom” (Proverbs 18:1). 3. Celibacy. Jesus was celibate for a special reason, but he did not ask others to follow his example. Instead, he approved of marriage as being ordained by his Father in heaven (Matthew 19:4-5). Moreover, he walked some 20 miles to attend a wedding in Cana (John 2:1-12). Further, his apostle taught that to forbid marriage

Dorothy Steury of Calvert City, KY has divided 2 Corinthians 2:14 into four parts for her ladies’ Bible class: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge everywhere.” 1. “Thanks be to God.” From ancient times people have been taught to “give thanks to the Lord, because his lovingkindness is everlasting” (1 Chronicles 16:41), and “give thanks to his holy name” (Psalm 30:4), and “At midnight I will arise to thank you because of your righteous ordinances” (Psalm 119:62) and “in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). 2. “God leads us.” He does if we want to be led, if we are of those who respond to Jesus’ invitation: “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The principle is: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). On the other hand, the devil wants to leads us! Demas was led by the Lord when Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24 were written (62 A.D.), but five years later, he had let the devil lead him, as Paul wrote in 67 A.D.: “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me” (2 Timothy 4:10). But a woman like Mary Magdalene, how beautiful a life, being led by her Lord; she was among the last ones at the cross (John 19:25), and actually

According to scholars, Jesus was crucified on Friday, April 7, A.D.30. According to Paul, Jesus, as he died, “nailed” the entire Law of Moses “to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). Until Moses’ law was nailed to the cross, Jesus cancelled not one command in Moses’ law, saying, “Indeed, I assure you, until the heaven and the earth disappear, neither the smallest letter in the law, nor the smallest part of a letter, shall pass away before all things are fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). I. “All Foods Clean” In the Law of Moses certain foods were prohibited, notably pig meat (Leviticus 11:7-8; Deuteronomy 14:8). Before Jesus died, while the Law of Moses was still in effect, Mark’s words “all foods” are “clean” (katharizon panta ta bromata, 7:19), have caused some to say that Jesus would not and did not make “all foods” as legal. Indeed, those words were omitted by the scholars who gave us the King James Version (1611). However, the scholars giving us the New King James Version (1979) have corrected their predecessors’ mistake, saying that Jesus was “purifying all foods.” An E-mail correspondent says that “Most translations do not” include the words “He declared all foods clean.” On the other hand, besides the KJV, my limited bookcase has only one other translation that omits the words, namely, the Living Oracles by Alexander Campbell (1826). All the rest of the translations in my bookcase (eleven in number) do include the statement that all foods are clean: ASV (1901), RSV (1952), PME

It was written “in Moses’ Law” that “If a woman conceive seed, and bear a man-child, then in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:2-3). After Jesus had nailed Moses’ Law to his cross (Colossians 2:14), now all people are under Christ’s Law (1 Corinthians 9:21). Under Christ’s Law, not male babies but all Christians, both men and women, are told: “You were circumcised by him without hands: Christ’s circumcision strips off the sins of the flesh. You were buried with him in immersion, in which also you were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:11-12). Consequently, under Christ’s Law, “circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Romans 2:29). Under Christ’s Law, Christians have been told to Beware of “…outward circumcision. We [Christians] are the circumcision, we who serve by the Spirit of God, and rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:2-3).

Salvation is by faith (John 3:16; Acts 10:43; 13:39; 16:31), but “not by faith only” (James 2:24): “The demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19); “Many among the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue (John 12:42). Salvation is by repentance (Acts 11:18), but not by repentance alone, for “if you do not believe [in Jesus], you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). Salvation is by confession (Matthew 10:32; Acts 2:21), but not by confession alone: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into heaven’s kingdom, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 7:21); “And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, ‘You are the Son of God’” (Mark 3:11). Salvation is by baptism (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16), but not by baptism alone, for (1) if you do not believe [in Jesus], you will die in your sins” (John 8:24); and (2) “except you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3); and (3) “whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). Should we follow “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) or only part of it?

Enoch (2nd century B.C.) wrote of ten heavens (Book of the Secrets of Enoch, 22:1). Jewish rabbis counted seven heavens (Testament of Twelve Patriarchs, Levi 2-3, cited by David Smith, Life and Letters of St. Paul, p. 335). The Bible mentions three: I. “THE HEAVENS” That vast aerial expanse (not a “firmament,” meaning “that which is firm”) above the earth where “the birds fly” and where are the sun, the moon, the stars, “and all their multitude,” Moses called “the heavens” (Genesis 1:17, 20; 2:1). David wrote, “The heavens tell of God’s glory, and the expanse proclaims the works of his hand” (Psalm 19:1). II. “THE HEAVEN OF HEAVENS” As eye-opening and stunning as are the physical heavens, in no way can they be compared to the eternal, the spiritual “heaven of heavens” (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalm 68:33; 148:4). The spiritual, eternal heaven is “the dwelling place” of God, called by Jesus “my Father’s house” (1 Kings 8:30; Matthew 6:9; John 14:2). There is his throne (Isaiah 66:1; Acts 7:49), and there are uncountable angels (1 Kings 22:19; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 5:11). Into “heaven itself” Jesus ascended, “far above all the heavens,” to “appear in the presence of God for us” (Ephesians 4:10; Hebrews 9:24). Jesus is preparing places that have been “reserved in heaven” for those who “are kept by the power of God through faith for the salvation ready to be revealed at the last time” (1 Peter 1:4-5). Another Bible name for the “heaven of heavens”

Charles “Chuck” Moore and his wife, Carolyn, are returned missionaries: seventeen years in Rome and Catania in Italy and Sicily. Now they are working night and day with the church in Rockwall, Texas, stirring more interest in Italian mission work, sponsoring the “Italian Literature Program.” In a monthly mail-out (March, 2003) Charles writes: In St. Peters Cathedral in Rome, Italy, they have a large mural showing the baptism of Jesus. It shows Jesus in water about ankle deep and John pouring water on the head of Jesus with a bowl. John baptized people at Aenon near Salim “because there was much water there” (John 3:23). Baptism is a burial (Romans 6:3-4). The traditional baptismal place of Jesus near Jericho is four or five feet deep. The Ethiopian eunuch, in Acts 8:38, went down into the water and Philip baptized him. Then they came up out of the water. That was what Jesus did when John baptized him. Near that mural in Rome the Catholic Church has a baptismal fountain where hundreds of little babies are “sprinkled” and they call this baptism. Babies don’t have any sins. They are pure and innocent. Jesus said, “Unless you become as a little child you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.” One evening in Sicily, at mid-week Bible Study, a young American sailor came into our services. This was unusual. Catania was a city of 450,000 people. We were a small Italian congregation, but he wanted to go to Bible Study

If one restricts himself to some verses of the Old Testament, he could reasonably conclude that no future life beyond the grave is taught, for “man has no preeminence above the beasts” (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Human beings and “the beasts that perish” are equal (Psalm 49:12, 20). Both people and animals “all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:20; cf. Genesis 3:19). But there is something in a human that the above Old Testament verses do not mention, something that does not “turn to dust” when he dies. That something, invisible, intangible, unweighable, is called man’s “spirit” (Isaiah 57:16) or “soul” (Leviticus 17:11). “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all” ( Ecclesiastes 11: 5). All you know is that God “forms” ( yasar, as a potter) “the spirit” within the embryo (Zechariah 12:1). The prophet Samuel “died” and was “buried” at Ramah (1 Samuel 25:1). But the spirit that God had formed within his embryonic self in Hannah’s womb, being immortal, had not died (Matthew 22:32)! And, in his case, his spirit, his soul, returned from the spirit-world and had a conversation with King Saul (1 Samuel 28:8-19). This information, that the spirits (souls) of people are alive and conscious after the death of their bodies, helps us to understand that when an Old Testament

I. The Philippians Luke wrote that the city of Philippi was a colony (kolonia, Acts 16:12). Critics doubted Luke’s accuracy until archaeological inscriptions showed that in 42 B.C. Julius Caesar designated Philippi a Roman colony. Then about 31 B.C. Augustus Caesar made the city even more distinctive by designating it a military colony (B-G-D 442). Coins inscribed Colonia Julia Augusta Philippensium have been found (David Smith, The Life and Letters of St. Paul, 126). Thus, once more the spade of the archaeologist has falsified Bible critics. The use by the two Caesars of the Latin word colonia, which Luke changed into the Greek word kolonia, “often denotes a colony of foreigners or relocated veterans” (B-G-D, 686). Colonial status meant (1) libertas, self-government; (2) immunitas, immunity from imperial taxes; and (3) jus Italicum, same rights as Italians citizens (Interpreter’s Bible). People in Philippi took pride in saying that they were “Romans” (Acts 16:21), though they were some three hundred miles distant. The usual Greek word for “behavior” (anastrophe, Galatians 1:13; Ephesians 4:22; 1 Timothy 4:12; Hebrews 13:7; James 3:13; 1 Peter 1:15, 18; 2:12; 3:1, 2, 16; 2 Peter 2:7; 3:11) in the KJV is “conversation.” In 1611, when the KJV was issued, the word “conversation” meant “behavior,” but now “conversation” represents only one aspect of a person’s behavior, his language. So Paul’s Greek word politeuomai represents only one aspect of behavior: a person’s conduct as a legal member of a community. He commanded the Philippian Christians to “discharge your obligations as

David appreciated what God had done for him before he was born: You created the organs inside of me, and you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and marvelously made! Your works are wonderful! That I know so well! My bodily form was not hidden from you, being made privately in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me as an embryo, and in your book all its parts were written, and even the time ordained for me before day one. (Psalm 139:13-16) One wonders what the phrase “in the depths of the earth” in verse 15 means until one notices that the same preposition “in” (be, in Hebrew) in verse 13 precedes “my mother’s womb.” Somehow the two phrases are synonyms. But still one wonders how such a strange phrase “in the depths of the earth” could refer to a womb. One commentator says the phrase points to “the remotest recesses of the womb” (Leslie), while another says that it is a “poetical description of the darkness of the womb” (Cohen). And the context shows that the “in” location can be nothing other than David’s mother’s womb. How David was formed in the womb got the best of him emotionally: “I am fearfully and marvelously made! Your works are wonderful! That I know so well” (v. 14). By the inspiration of the Spirit (2 Samuel 23:2) David knew that God had formed his “bodily form,” and “embryo,” in his mother’s womb, and that “all

Ignatius, an elder of Antioch and a Christian martyr, in 110 A.D. wrote that Jesus was “begotten and unbegotten” (gennetos kai agennetos, Ephesians VII 2, B-G-D, 126). I. Begotten Physically Jesus was “begotten” in Mary’s womb “by the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20). Figuratively, on a special “today” (Psalm 2:7), Jesus was “begotten” three ways: (1) on his resurrection day; (2) on his coronation day and (3) on his ordination day. 1. Begotten on his resurrection day. In heaven, a thousand years before Jesus died on the cross, he was already rejoicing that he would not stay dead, saying, “I will celebrate the decree of Yahweh. He said to me, ‘You are my Son. Today I have begotten you’” (Psalm 2:7). The apostle Paul explains why Jesus was so happy, writing, “God raised him from the dead…as it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son. I have begotten you today’” (Acts 13:30-33). So we learn that the “today” of his resurrection (April 9, A.D. 30) was figuratively portrayed as his being “begotten.” As the word “begotten” points to the beginning of new life, so the resurrection of Jesus pointed to the beginning of Jesus’ new life as a king and as a priest. 2. Begotten on his coronation day. In God’s wisdom, the “today” prediction of Psalm 2:7, of Jesus being “begotten,” not only referred to Jesus’ resurrection day, April 9, A.D. 30, but also to his coronation day as “King of kings and Lord of lords,” on

The descendants of Abraham “confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were remembering the land that they had left [Chaldea, Genesis 11:28], they would have had an opportunity to return. But they longed for a better–that is, a heavenly–homeland. God was not ashamed to be called their God, and he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13-16). Jesus said that “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; . . . I go to prepare a place for” those who believe “in me” (John 14:1-2). “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). When he fulfills his promise to “come again,” “every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7). In the meantime, when those who believe in Jesus are baptized, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit come invisibly to dwell in their “bodies” (John 14:23; Acts 2:38; 5:32; 1 Corinthians 6:15). Accordingly, since they “have been bought with a price,” they are exhorted to “glorify God in” their bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20). “Also, I assure you” (said Jesus), “that many will come from the east and west and sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in heaven’s kingdom” (Matthew 8:11).

In Lois’ Bible she had glued a selected piece: Teach me, my Lord, to be sweet and gentle in all the events of life–In disappointments,In the thoughtlessness of others,In the insincerity of those I trusted,In the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied.Let me put aside myself,To think of the happiness of others,To hide my little pains and heartaches,So that I may be the only one to suffer from them.Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path.Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden nor embitter me.That it may make me patient, not irritable.That it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow,haughty, and overbearing.May no one be less good for having come within my influence,No one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble for havingbeen a fellow-traveler with me in our journey toward eternal life.

I. The Earthly Jerusalem The most famous of biblical cities (“of mighty fame among all mankind,” Josephus, WARS 7:1, 11) has had four names: Salem, Jebus, Jerusalem and Zion. In the days of Abraham, it was called “Salem” (Genesis 14:18), meaning “peace:” He who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and he is in our tongue called the Righteous King [Melchizedek], for such he really was. (Josephus, WARS 6: 10) Later the city was called “Jebus” (1 Chronicles 11:40), named after a great grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:16), and the inhabitants were called the “Jebusites” (Joshua 15:63). Then the name “Jebus” (meaning “trodden down”) was changed to “Jerusalem,” which was a fusion of the name “Salem” with the Hebrew word meaning “foundation,” and so the name “Jerusalem” means a “foundation of peace” (Joshua 15:63; 1 Chronicles 11:4). Notice in David’s words how peace is connected with Jerusalem: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions’ sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. (Psalm 122:6-8) The fourth name for Jerusalem is derived from one of the mountains on which the city is built, Zion, meaning “citadel” (1 Chronicles 11:4-5; Zechariah 9:9). The name “Zion,” especially in songs, has become a synonym for Jerusalem: Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great

Sometime, in every God-given day, David’s words, now 3,000 years old, never get out of date: “Come! Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). “Yahweh” is the best pronunciation of God’s Hebrew name, YHWH. It is miscalled “Jehovah” in several translations, as in Psalm 83:18: “whose name alone is Jehovah.” Of the four letters, YHWH, God had told Moses, “This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations” (Exodus 3:15). What a being! Only he could say, “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14): “I am the A and the Z, the originator and completer…who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8), “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2). Because the Father and the Son “are one” (John 10:30), Jesus could say “before Abraham was born [two thousand years ago], I am” (John 8:58). Daily worship by a Christian, in his or her room, or in a family gathering, involves the sacred Three. Jesus is involved because he is listening, for “we have an intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one” (1 John 2:1). Moreover, the Holy Spirit also is listening and speaks up for us: Likewise, the Spirit helps our praying, because we do not know how to pray as we ought. In regard to our groanings, too deep for words, the Spirit himself intercedes for us. The Searcher of hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, who, according to the will

I. Similarities The king of the kingdom is the head of the church (Colossians 1:13, 18). Only one kingdom (Revelation 1:6) was established, and only one church was built (Matthew 16:18). One set of keys opens the door both to the kingdom and to the church (Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:1-47, KJV; 5:11). One seed, “the word of God,” produces both the kingdom and the church (Luke 8:11; Acts 2:41, 47, KJV; 5:11). Baptism, a birth “of water and Spirit” (John 3:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13), puts one into the kingdom (Colossians 1:13; 2:12) and into the church (1 Corinthians 12:13, 20). The Lord’s Supper is in both the kingdom and in the church (Luke 22:29-30; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 10:16). Both the kingdom and the church are indestructible (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:21; Hebrews 12:28). II. Differences That which is “born again” (John 3:7), entering the kingdom through the teaching of the Spirit (Colossians 1:13), is an invisible human spirit (John 3:3, 6). That which is “born again” of “water,” entering the church, is a visible human body (1 Corinthians 12:13, 20). The kingdom “comes not with observation” (Luke 17:20), but the church is observable people (Acts 18:8). The kingdom is “within” (entos, Luke 17:21) human bodies, but not the church. When a person is “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3), recognizing his utter helplessness to save himself (John 3:17; 1 Timothy 1:15-16), then he is rich, possessing “the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), but he does not own the church. Sadly, there are

I. Four Definitions The dictionary gives four definitions of the word “saint”: 1. a holy person; 2. a person who is exceptionally meek, charitable, patient, etc.; 3. [S] a member of certain religious groups calling themselves “Saints”; 4. in certain churches, a person officially recognized as having lived an exceptionally holy life, and thus as being in heaven and capable of interceding for sinners; a canonized person. II. Comments 1. There are holy people in all religions: “consecrated or set apart to a sacred use” (Webster). Christians are told: “as he who called you is holy, you yourselves be holy in all your manner of life, for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). But more than holiness is required to make a Christian saint. 2. There are people “exceptionally meek, charitable, patient, etc.,” in all and out of all religions. Christians are told: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5, KJV). “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13, KJV). “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7). But more than meekness, charity, and patience are required to make a Christian saint. 3. Outstanding among the religious groups who call themselves “Saints” is the Mormon Church, with the name “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” founded in 1810 in Fayette County, New York State, by Joseph Smith, Jr., 1800 years too

The love of Christ–who can describe it? It supersedes sexual love (eros), and family love (storge), and friendship love (philia). It is what God is: agape (1 John 4:8). It is selfless service, undying concern and unending commitment. It is unconditional, impartial and never failing. It has been called the “in spite of” love. When the love of Christ takes hold of a sinner’s heart, he confers “not with flesh and blood,” but immediately he rushes, even at midnight, to the water of baptism (Acts 16:25-34). On arising from the water, he is never the same again! From that moment, he lives “no longer” for himself, but only for him who died for him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). He has “crucified” and “buried” his “old” self and is “renewed in the spirit of his mind” (Galatians 5:24; Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:22-23). He is a “new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Everlastingly grateful, he describes to all who will hear “the excellencies of him who called” him “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). He exclaims that Jesus “loved me, and gave himself for me,” yet not for him alone, “but for the whole world” (Galatians 2:20; 1 John 2:2). He may be criticized or even spurned by his blood-kin, but what Jesus has done for him means everything. He is grieved, because of mother love, if he has to turn away from mother’s religion, but his decision has been made, and he will not turn back. One man, some

It is refreshing, after one has become despirited with the pessimism of blind evolution, to examine the positive, optimistic, thoughtful design seen in the human eye. First, the chemical elements making up the eye had to have a cause for their being in existence. Second, that those elements are arranged to form an optic nerve, a retina, lens, pupil, iris and cornea means there was an arranger. Third, that all the caused and arranged parts cooperate to give sight appears to be the purpose of the designer. For nine months, the parts being made and arranged in a dungeon are useless. Then, all of a sudden, the design is obvious, which design had to precede the making and the arranging of the multiple parts, and design reflects intelligence. An intelligence capable of producing sight cannot himself be blind: “He who forms the eye, can he not see?” (Psalm 94:9). In order to keep the eye moist and clean (which qualities are necessary to its brightness and its use), a wash is constantly supplied by a secretion for the purpose; and the superfluous brine is conveyed to the nose through a perforation in the bone as large as a goose-quill; or, more properly speaking, along two capillary tubes, one from either eyelid, which enter a duct, lodged in a canal passing through the bone. When once the fluid has entered the nose, it spreads itself upon the inside of the nostril, and is evaporated by the current of warm air which,

Some people look on baptism as a sprinkling, whereas in the New Testament baptism is a “washing.” The New Testament does use “sprinkling” in relation to salvation, but it always refers to the blood of Jesus, not baptism. I. Washing “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16). “[H]aving…our body washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). “[B]aptism…now saves you, not the removal of dirt from your body” (1 Peter 3:21). “[H]aving cleansed her [the church] by the washing of water” (Ephesians 5:25-26). “[Y]ou were washed” (1 Corinthians 6:11). “He saved us…by the washing of the new birth” (Titus 3:5). II. Sprinkling “[O]bey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood” (1 Peter 1:2). “[H]aving…our hearts sprinkled” (Hebrews 10:22). “[Y]ou have come…to Jesus…and to the blood of sprinkling” (Hebrews 12:22,24).

Natural Beauty Human beings are fascinated, not only by the existence and revolutions of the moon, but also by its beauty. The moon serves a utilitarian purpose in regulating the months and the tides, and it also serves an aesthetic purpose to earth dwellers. Up close, it is neither utilitarian nor beautiful, but from a quarter of a million miles, its yellow crescent or its white full-orbed splendor does something to everyone, especially to lovers. Did the moon’s Maker have something in mind for earth dwellers both practically and aesthetically? When one turns his eyes from the moon back to the earth, and examines a rose, several questions arise. How did it arrive? Why is it so symmetrically shaped, beautifully colored, and delicately perfumed? If there is no practical value, did the rose’s Maker have an appreciation for things of beauty? Did he put in humans a corresponding sense of appreciation of symmetry, of colors and of fragrance? If one tries to make a list of beautiful things, he becomes exhausted. Long before the apples of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia become utilitarian nourishment, that valley in blossom season is more than any artist can imagine. Also, springtime in the Rocky Mountains has something more than mining and ranching. Furthermore, sunrise at sea is more than another earth revolution. The scientific explanation of a sunrise at sea leaves something to be desired: “the earth revolves until its tangent plane coincides once more with the solar azimuth.” The songs of the

In a biology class of yesteryears, the professor asked a student, “What is life?” The student replied, “I did know, but I have forgotten.” Then the professor remarked, “What a pity! The only person who has ever known what life is in this room, and he has forgotten!” In the 21st century, scientists still do not know what life is. All they can say is that life is: that property of plants and animals which makes it possible for them to take in food, get energy from it, grow, adapt themselves to their surroundings, and reproduce their kind (Webster). However, on December 10, 1998, came a startling announcement: In a big advance in the race to understand the blueprint of life, scientists announced Thursday that they have, for the first time, mapped the complete genetic instructions for making a living animal. (The Oregonian.12 Nov. 1998) Thousands of dead animals have been made, especially the teddy bear, “a stuffed toy for children resembling a bear in miniature” (Webster). But, is it possible for scientists to make a “living animal”? They believe that they have learned how to make a living animal by studying a very small animal. I. The Roundworm A tiny roundworm (c. elegans) is by far the most complex creature to have virtually all the components of its DNA [“an essential component of all living matter,” Webster] mapped. Although it would take 25 of the worms lined up end to end to fill an inch, it has a nervous

He who knows “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10) knew that man, created as free to make his own choices, would sin. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but love could not ignore that which is the opposite of the One who is “righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (Psalm 145:17). Sin-offerings of animals, even burnt sacrifices, would not remove man’s guilt. What could be done? One envisions a heavenly conference back in eternity producing the “plan of the ages” (prothesin ton aionon, Ephesians 3:11) in which not an animal but a human sacrifice was suggested, and God asked: “Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?” (cf. Isaiah 6:8). The One afterward called “Jesus” volunteered, saying, “Look! I come” (cf. Psalm 40:7). God made it clear that Jesus did not have to go to the earth and become a human sacrifice, and Jesus responded, “I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart” (cf. Psalm 40:8). That statement pleased the Father, and, down on the earth, Jesus said, The Father loves me, because I lay down my life to take it again. No one takes it from me. I myself lay it down. I have authority both to lay it down and to take it again. This commandment I received from my Father (John 10:17-18). As the time drew near for Jesus to lay down his life, he underwent a mental struggle! Was there

An inspired commandment is to “Hold fast the form of sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13). The word “sound” (hugiaino) first refers to your physical body, “to be well, to be in good health” (Thayer), and then refers to your spiritual body, your soul, your spirit, that it may “be well” and “in good health.” This requires teachings “free from any admixture of error” (Thayer), “correct instruction” (B-G-D). The word “form” (hupotuposis) refers to a “model,” an “example,” a “standard” (B-G-D), a “pattern placed before one to be held fast and copied” (Thayer). Thomas used part of Paul’s word (tupos): “Except I shall see the print [tupos] of the nails, and put my finger into the print [tupos] of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Unfortunately, words are used today for which there is not an inspired “print” or an “example” or a “standard” or a “pattern” placed “before one to be held fast and copied.” Hugh Fulford in a Vigil article reminds us: Do Not Say: Instead, Say: “Church of Christ people” “Christians or God’s people” “Church of Christ preacher” “Preachers or ministers of the Gospel” “Church of Christ doctrine” “The gospel of Christ or New Testament teaching” “Come hear what the Church of Christ teaches” “Come hear the Word of God” “I am trying to teach him our position” “I am trying to teach him the Word of God” “I am trying to convert her to the Church of Christ” “I am

The “land” that the Lord “searched out” (tur, “spied out”) for the twelve tribes of Israel was the “most glorious of all lands,” said the Lord, flowing “with milk and honey” (Ezekiel 20:6, NRSV). Daniel called Palestine “the Beautiful Land” (8:9; 11:16, 41, NASB). Jeremiah said that Jerusalem was “the throne of Jehovah” (3:17, ASV). A psalmist wrote that Zion, another name for Jerusalem, was “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,” the city “of the great King” and “the perfection of beauty” (Psalm 48:2; 50:2). Some 2000 years before Jesus was born, God promised Abraham that he would give to him and to his descendants all of “the land of Canaan” (now called Palestine) “forever” (Genesis 13:12, 15) for “an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8). But if the word God used, which is translated in most versions as “forever” and “everlasting,” `olam, is rightly translated, then the Lord is “slack about his promise” (cf. 2 Peter 3:9), for from 70 A.D. down to 1948, none of Abraham’s descendants owned any of Palestine. The word `olam, derived from `alam, to hide, conceal (Davidson, 601), means a time hidden, indefinite or unlimited. The duration of `olam time is therefore hidden and indefinite. The context in which it is used tells how long a time is being considered. The land promise of Palestine to Abraham and his descendants, fulfilled in stages, thus came to an abrupt termination in 70 A.D. when the Lord allowed the Romans to destroy the Temple at

Sometime, in every God-given day, David’s words, now 3000 years old, never get out of date: “Come! Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh our Maker” (Psalm 95:6). “Yahweh” is the best pronunciation of God’s Hebrew name, YHWH. It is miscalled “Jehovah” in several translations, as in Psalm 83:18: “whose name alone is Jehovah.” Of the four letters, YHWH, God had told Moses, “This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations” (Exodus 3:15). What a being! Only he could say, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14): “I am the A and the Z, the originator and completer, . . . who is, who was, and who is coming, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8), “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2). Because the Father and the Son “are one” (John 10:30), Jesus could say, “before Abraham was born [two thousand years ago], I am” (John 8:58). Daily worship by a Christian, in his or her room, or in a family gathering, involves the sacred Three. Jesus is involved because he is listening, for “we have an intercessor with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one” (1 John 2:1). Moreover, the Holy Spirit also is listening and speaks up for us: Likewise, the Spirit helps our praying, because we do not know how to pray as we ought. In regard to our groanings, too deep for words, the Spirit himself intercedes for us. The Searcher of hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, who,

“Can anyone forbid water?” (Acts 10:47). “One baptism” (Ephesians 4:5) was commanded by Jesus for “all the nations” to “the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20). It was not “Holy Spirit” baptism nor “fire baptism” (Matthew 3:11), but “water” baptism (Acts 10:47), the only kind that human beings can administer. But there were three instances of water baptism preceding the fourth, which is the “one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5) for everybody today. 1. The baptism of the Israelites: They “were under the cloud, and passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2). They did not think that they were saved from Pharaoh before their baptism: “when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and they cried out to Yahweh” (Exodus 14:10). Moses relieved their fear: “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will accomplish for you today. The Egyptians, whom you see today, never again will you see them” (Exodus 14:13). After the Israelites had been “baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea,” their deliverance was announced: “So Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:3). Their baptism was not “an outward sign of an inward grace,” as some modern preachers assert of the “one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5) for us today, but an urgent necessity for the Israelites to

With all my learning (?) at age 20, in a Bible class in Urbana, Illinois, in 1931, when sister Bert Gerrard asked the meaning of “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), I said that the passage does not command that we pray all of the time, but that we must always be in the attitude of prayer. She replied, “In the baseball game at the church fellowship in the park, when you slid into second base, you were not in a prayerful attitude.” The lady had me. I needed to do more study on prayer. Paul’s inspired word adialeiptos, translated “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, KJV), occurs in three other New Testament passages: “God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers” (Romans 1:9, KJV). “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father” (1 Thessalonians 1:3, KJV). “For this cause also we thank God without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, KJV). The word adialeiptos is threefold: (1) the first a is called an “alpha privative” (Classic Greek Dictionary 11), meaning the rest of the word is not true; (2) dia in context means “to”; (3) leiptos means “desert, abandon, forsake, leave behind” (409). Hence 1 Thessalonians 5:7 means that prayer is not to be deserted, abandoned, forsaken, left behind, but is to be a permanent part of a Christian’s life, never to

Two principal dictionary definitions of “faith” are: (1) an “unquestioning belief in God, religion, etc.,” and (2) “a religion or system of religious beliefs.” In the New Testament, when the meaning of “faith” is “an unquestioning belief in God, religion, etc.,” the word “faith” often is without the definite article “the” (Mark 11:22; Acts 6:5; 11:24; 20:21; Romans 1:17; 3:28; 5:1; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Galatians 2:20; 3:11; Ephesians 6:23; 1 Timothy 1:5; 6:11; Hebrews 10:38). In the New Testament, when the meaning of “faith” is “a religion or system of religious beliefs,” the word “faith” is often preceded by the definite article “the” (Luke 18:8; Acts 6:7; 13:8; 14:22; 15:9; 16:5; 24:24; 1 Corinthians 16:13; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Colossians 1:23; Jude 3). “Faith,” as “an unquestioning belief in God, religion, etc.,” is personal, subjective and internal, while “faith,” as “a religion or system of religious beliefs,” is impersonal, objective and external. I. “Faith” “Faith” (pistis) is “conviction,” “belief” (Thayer), “trust,” “confidence” (B-G-D). In relationship to God, faith holds “that he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). In relationship to Christ, faith says “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37), and that “no one comes to the Father except through” him (John 14:6). Personal salvation (justification, righteousness) a sinner obtains by his “faith” (Acts 16:30-31; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38). But salvation is not by faith alone. The “worst” of sinners (Paul’s own estimate of himself, 1 Timothy 1:15-16), having seen the

A correspondent writes, “There is a book out advocating tithes and offerings under the Christian Age or the New Covenant. Could you help me with Malachi 3:8, 10, which speaks of tithes and offerings.” There is much in the Old Testament about tithing, beginning with Genesis 14:20 and ending with Malachi 3:8, 10. The word “Malachi” means “My Messenger.” He was the prophet appointed to convey the “oracle of the word of Yahweh to Israel” about 436-420 B.C. He condemned the selfishness of the Jews in robbing God by keeping their tithes for themselves, and so were cheating themselves of God’s multiple blessings. If they would be liberal, God promised that he would “open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). However, the divine law for tithing, both in Patriarchy (Genesis 14:20) and in Judaism (Deuteronomy 14:22), came to an end when Jesus took it “out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). Now “If you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law” of Moses (Galatians 5:18). In “the law of the Spirit” (Romans 8:2), in the “New Covenant” (Hebrews 8:8), in “the Christian Age,” in the New Testament books, there is not a word commanding tithing for Christians. But there is much about Christian liberality. The Corinthian Christians were taught to give, not by measured tithing, but as God prospered them (1 Corinthians

A correspondent asks for an explanation of Matthew 5:20: “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.” The “scribes” in Jesus’ time “were the ‘scholars’ or men of letters (John 7:15), to whom belonged the professional study of the Mosaic Law” (Bible Dictionary, p. 106). The Pharisees “devoted themselves to the most scrupulous fulfillment of the Law as expounded by the scribes” (Bible Dictionary, p. 98). Righteousness (dikaiosune) is “uprightness,” “what is right,” “what God requires” (Greek-English Dictionary, p. 46). But the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was not “what God” required. They had “a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,” had “not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3). As part of “the righteousness of God,” Christ came to establish “my kingdom,” a kingdom “not of this world” (John 18:36), a kingdom of “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). It was called both “the kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of God” and “my church” (Matthew 5:20; 12:28; 16:18). Accordingly, “the manifold wisdom of God” is made “known by the church” (Ephesians 3:10), “according to the eternal purpose which he [God] purposed in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:11). The scribes and the Pharisees and other Jews rejected the Christ, whom God sent from heaven not

A question has come about the meaning of two Hebrew words found in our English versions (KJV, ASV, NASB, NEB, NRSV, NIV) left untranslated: “the Urim and the Thummim” (Exodus 28:30). God had commanded Moses to “make a breast-plate of judgment, the work of the skilful workman . . . of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen . . . a span [9 inches, Webster] will be the length thereof, and a span will be the breadth thereof. And you will set in it settings of stones, four rows of stones: a row of sardius [ruby], topaz, and carbuncle [emerald] shall be the first row; and the second row an emerald [carbuncle], a sapphire, and a diamond [sardonyx]; and the third row a jacinth [amber] and agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl [chalcedony], and an onyx [beryl], and a jasper; they will be inclosed in gold in their settings. And the stones will be according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names” (Exodus 28:15-21). “And you will put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim [the Lights and the Perfections]; and they will be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before Jehovah [Yahweh]; and Aaron will bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before Jehovah [Yahweh] continually” (Exodus 28:30). There was “something in the high priest’s breastplate that gave an oracular response” (Robert Young, Analytical Concordance, p. 1018).

A tiny, frail, land-bound maggot, able only to wiggle, somehow transforms itself into a skillful flying machine, complete with antennae, gyroscopes and wings (Rutherford Platt, “Those Remarkable ‘Two-Animal’ Animals,” Reader’s Digest, July, 1970). The pilot in that remarkable airship, flying faster than the eye can follow, executes a half-roll and lands upside down on the ceiling on six legs. From there, without the use of a runway, he can take off instantly. Helpless scientists can no more explain the change from larva to pupa to adult than they can explain the fly’s aeronautical ability. When they speak of inborn “blueprints” or of “instruction data from the DNA,” or of “the DNA code script” they are saying they have gone as far as they can, and have no answer without using the name “God.” Another example among thousands is the cicada, often called “the seventeen year locust.” Cicadas have various cycles, with the longest being seventeen years. Almost exactly on May 24 each seventeenth year, these insects climb out of a seventeen-year period spent some 18 inches below the frost line underground. When they emerge they are still encased in a protective subterranean suit resembling plastic. After shedding the transparent suit, wings, never before used, but now ready for a new life, are dried in the breeze. After mating, the female, equipped with a sharp blade, cuts under the bark of a twig, deposits her eggs, and then cuts the twigs three fourths through. As a result, the twig dies, falls to

“Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars” (Isaiah 40:26, NASB). “Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?” (Job 38:28). The clearest of all reasons for the existence of deity is the fact that every effect must have a cause, which fact logically leads back to an uncaused cause. Plato cited three reasons for belief in “the Gods,” but the one listed “in the first place” was the very existence of “the earth and the sun and the stars and the universe.” The “Gods,” said he, “produce the sun, moon, and the stars” (Laws, Book 10, p. 453). Joseph Addison (1672-1719), adapting Psalm 19, followed Plato’s reasoning that the existence of the planetary bodies points to a maker of those bodies: The spacious firmament on high,With all the blue ethereal sky,And spangled heavens, a shining frame,Their great Oriental proclaim.The unwearied sun, from day to day,Does his Creator’s power display,And publishes to every landThe work of an Almighty hand. America’s astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, collected 48.5 pounds of rocks from the moon’s surface, and brought them back to the earth. An analysis shows the presence of 16 earth elements in those lunar rocks, the principal ones being titanium, silicon, aluminum, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium. Reason says that those stones had a maker, for of nothing, nothing is made (ex nihilo, nihil fit). The evidence obtained by the astronauts does not testify how

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17): Whose gentle gifts all creatures share, . . .Thy gifts are strewn upon my wayLike sands upon the great seashore, . . .(“Father of Mercies,” F. W. Faber). Some of his gifts are absolutely free, while others in his wisdom await human obedience. I. UNCONDITIONAL GIFTS The first of the Father’s gifts, freely bestowed, is our marvelous physical universe. “The heavens tell of God’s glory, and the skies proclaim the works of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). Joseph Addison (1672-1719) wrote a meaningful poem, “The Creation,” which closes with the words “all the stars” are “forever singing as they shine, ‘The hand that made us is divine.’” His poem a Mr. Haydn set to music, and grateful human beings love to sing “The Spacious Firmament of High”: In reason’s ear they all rejoice,And utter forth a glorious voice,For ever singing as they shine,“The hand that made us is divine.” A Mr. Conrad Kocher was moved to write: For the beauty of the earth,For the beauty of the skies,For the love which from our birthOver and around us lies,Lord of all, to Thee we raiseThis our sacrifice of praise. Long before Addison or Haydn or Kocher the prophet Isaiah (B.C.759-690) exclaimed: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens; who created these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls each by name; because of his great power and

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (Hebrews 5:7, KJV). Two of Webster’s definitions of the verb “fear” are: to feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil; to be afraid of; to dread. “I will fear no evil, for thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4). to feel reverence for; to have a reverential awe of; to venerate. Oh! The fervency of Jesus’ prayer struggle: in the garden of Gethsemane, separating himself from his disciples, around midnight of Thursday, April 6, A.D.30, all alone, falling “on his face,” in such “agony” that his “sweat” was like “great drops of blood,” praying “with strong crying and tears, ‘O My Father, if it be possible let this cup [of death] pass away from me,’” and “heard in that he feared.” Certainly Jesus’ fear that caused his prayer to be heard in heaven was not Webster’s first definition (Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:44; Hebrews 5:7). Only a few hours before, in another prayer, Jesus had spoken to his Father of “the glory which I had with you before the world was” (John 17:5), and that he was looking forward after the cross to regain that glory: “O Father, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with you before the world was.” God’s law for everyone’s prayer, written by Moses, was “Thou shalt

The Greek word magoi (Matthew 2:1), that is translated “wise men” (KJV, NKJV, ASV), “magi” (NASB, NIV), and “astrologers” (NEB), has a literal, unsavory meaning pointing to “one trained in astrology and dream interpretation,” to a “magician, sorcerer” (Barclay M. Newman, Jr., Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament, p. 110). The literal translation of Matthew’s magoi “were a priestly caste,” with the word, from “the 1st century A.D. onward,” applied “to magicians and soothsayers” (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 569). The literal meaning of magoi was used by Luke (mageuon) in describing Simon of Samaria, as one who “practiced magic in the city” and who gave out that he was “some great one” (Acts 8:9). The same literal meaning of a form of magoi Luke used to describe Elymas Bar-jesus of Paphos as a “sorcerer,” and Paul called him a “son of the devil” (Acts 13:6, 8-10). But the literal meaning of magoi (English, “magi”) as “sorcerers,” or “astrologers” (Matthew 2:1, NEB), is false in its meaning in Matthew 2:1-16). The magi of Matthew 2:1-16 were God-fearing devout men whom God miraculously directed by a star to find Jesus. Therefore, contextually, the magi of Matthew 2:1-16 are the “wise men” of the KJV, NKJV, ASV. The Encyclopedia Britannica (vol. 14, p. 570) ignores the context in Matthew 2:1-16 about the magi in that passage, declaring a “connection of the Magi with astrology.” Moreover, the lexicographer Joseph Henry Thayer does the same thing in declaring that the magi of Matthew 2:1-16 were “astrologers” (A

“Man is the measure of all things” (Protagorus, Greek philosopher, 480-410 B.C.). Therefore, “we must save ourselves” (Humanist Manifesto II, p. 16). But “a man’s way is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Of “making many books” of directions “there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Only one of those books is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), that is, the holy Bible. Weariness is eliminated and certainty guaranteed by recourse to the one book that gives “to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3): Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path. . . . The opening of your words sheds light, giving understanding to simple people” (pethayim, “ignorant, inexperienced,” Davidson, Psalm 119:105, 130). Though “the mystery of religion” (1 Timothy 3:16), involving some things “unsearchable” and “untraceable” (Romans 11:33), such as the Trinity or graphic pictures in the book of Revelation, yet the plan of salvation is so simple that an honest sinner, after one lesson, instantly asks, “What hinders my being baptized?” (Acts 8:36). As regards “the way of holiness” Isaiah wrote that “wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err” (35:8). As regards “the Holy Way,” the NRSV in Isaiah 35:8, says: “no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” As regards “God’s Sacred Highway,” the CEV, in a footnote to Isaiah 35:8, says: “And not even a fool

Paul said, “I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and the unwise” (Romans 1:14). Hugo also is a debtor, both to Paul and to hundreds of people, living and dead. Paul also recognized his debt to Jesus, expressing it this way: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh is in trusting the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Hugo also is a debtor to Jesus, as are all human beings. Every human being should say that the Son of God “loved me, and gave himself for me” as “an unblemished and spotless Lamb,” in the pouring out of his “precious blood” (Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 1:19). Not only are all responsible human beings sinners (1 Kings 8:46; Romans 3:23), but in themselves, by their own resources, they cannot rid themselves of the guilt of sin, as Jeremiah admitted: “I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (10:23). All of us are helpless, but, thankfully, the supreme Helper saw our condition, and, moved by love, sent a book from heaven, a book of directions for all of us to reach the benefits of Jesus’ “precious blood” (1 Peter 1:19). Among the thousands of books in the Congressional Library in Washington, or in

On one occasion Jesus “left Judea and went again into Galilee. However, he had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:3-4). He “came to the Samaritan city of Sychar” where “was Jacob’s well” (John 4:5-6). Jacob is believed to have had the well dug following his purchase of a “parcel of ground” near a city called Shechem (Genesis 33:18-20). Jacob himself drank from this well “along with his sons and their flocks” (John 4:12). Jacob’s well is ancient. Jacob was born in 1770 B.C. (Robert Young’s Concordance, p. 531), and he died 147 years later (1623 B.C., Genesis 47:28). If Jacob had the well dug say about 1700 B.C., then it was 1727 years old when Jesus was at the well in A.D. 27 (A Harmony of the Gospels, Steven and Burton, p. 40). The well has been and is a good supplier of excellent water for 3702 years (1700 B.C. plus 2002 A.D.). Tourists thrill at drinking from this historic watering place. On May 23, 1971, Harold and Joe Bryant and Gene Priest and Hugo McCord drank from a freshly drawn bucket of the cool water. A glass full of it our guide poured back into the well, and it was five seconds before we heard the water from the glass strike the water below (“125 feet,” said the guide). No doubt the well in Jacob’s day and in Jesus’ day was out in the open, but now a church building (Greek Catholic) covers the well, and a walled monastery surrounds

I. Temples Made With Hands The first two of Webster’s definitions of a temple are: a place regarded by the ancients as a dwelling place for a god or gods; hence, a building for the worship of a god or gods. Any of three buildings for worshiping Jehovah, successively built in Jerusalem. The first of the three buildings was erected by Solomon. It was beautiful, requiring 7 years in the construction, 966-959 B.C. (1 Kings 6:38). It was costly: Solomon “overlaid the whole house with gold” (1 Kings 6:22). On the day of dedication the house was “filled with a cloud” and “the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:13-14). The Lord said to Solomon: “I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting my name there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually” (1 Kings 9:3). But the Lord’s promise to bless the temple “forever” and “perpetually” was not unconditional. If Solomon’s people failed to keep God’s commandments, “then [said the Lord] I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given to them, and the house which I have consecrated for my name,” and “this house will become a heap of ruins” (1 Kings 9:6-8). Sadly, the temple, that in 959 B.C. was dedicated, in 587 B.C. became “a heap of ruins”: Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had his soldiers to pillage and to burn Solomon’s beautiful and costly temple (2 Chronicles 36:19; Jeremiah 52:13). After

He who knows “the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10) knew that man, created as free to make his own choices, would sin. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but true love could not ignore that which is the opposite of the One who is “righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works” (Psalm 145:17). Sin-offerings of animals, even burnt sacrifices, would not remove man’s guilt. What could be done? One envisions a heavenly conference back in eternity producing the “plan of the ages” (prothesin ton aionon, Ephesians 3:11) in which not an animal but a human sacrifice was suggested, and God asked: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (cf. Isaiah 6:8). The One afterward called “Jesus” volunteered, saying, “Look! I come” (Psalm 40:7). God made it clear that Jesus did not have to go to the earth and become a human sacrifice, and Jesus responded: “I delight to do your will, O my God, and your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). That statement so pleased the Father that Jesus could afterward say: The Father loves me, because I lay down my life to take it again. No one takes it from me. I myself lay it down. I have authority both to lay it down and to take it again. This commandment I received from my Father (John 10:17-18). The words “God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4), referring to Jesus, do not mean a son by God’s semen, for

According to Thayer (p. 64), the first meaning of the Greek word apollumi is “to destroy, i.e., to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, ruin: Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; 17:27, 29; Jude 5.” I failed to notice that Thayer also gives a “metaph” meaning, “to devote or give over to eternal misery: Matthew 10:28; James 4:12.” His statement means that my translation of Matthew 10:28 and James 4:12, with the word “destroy” is wrong: Fear not those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). There is one Lawgiver and Judge, the one able to save and destroy. Who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12). Thayer’s metaphorical meaning of apollumi in Matthew 10:28 and James 4:12 would have this reading: Fear not those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of him who can give over to eternal misery both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). There is one Lawgiver and Judge, the one able to save and to give over to eternal misery. Who are you to judge your neighbor? Vine agrees with Thayer that lost people in hell have not been destroyed, writing that apollumi does not here mean “extinction, but ruin, loss, not of being but of well being.” Vine’s definition of apollumi fits what the father said about his prodigal son: “He was lost [apollumi], but

“Israel,” the complimentary name which God gave to Jacob and to his descendants (Genesis 32:28; 35:10; 1 Kings 18:31; 2 Kings 17:34), was to be replaced, said Isaiah (62:2, ASV), “by a new name which the mouth of Jehovah shall name.” Some have said that the “new name” was “Hephzibah” (Isaiah 62:4), but Hephzibah was not new, being the name of Manasseh’s mother (2 Kings 21:1). Some have said that the “new name” was “Beulah” (Isaiah 62:4), but the word “beulah” was not new, having already been used by Isaiah (54:1, beulah, “married”). The only “new name” by which Jesus’ disciples were called was “Christian” (Christianos, meaning “belonging to Christ.” It fulfills the prediction of “a name better than of sons and daughters,” of “an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 56:5). Various names (not spelled with a capital letter) of Jesus’ followers were “believers” (Acts 4:32; 5:14), “brothers” (Acts 9:30), saints (Acts 9:32), and “disciples” (Acts 6:2; 9:26). It is sad that Alexander Campbell exalted the word “disciples” into a proper name, “Disciples,” thus making it the “new name” of Old Testament prophecy. His fellow restorationist and friend Barton W. Stone criticized Campbell for this error. But today Campbell’s error remains in “The Disciples of Christ” denomination, a “sect founded by Thomas and Alexander Campbell” (Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, p. 321). Biblically the only name that came originally from “the mouth of Jehovah” (Isaiah 62:2), and in which Jesus’ followers are commanded to “glorify God,” is the

[Hugo McCord passed away at 8:04 a.m., May 14, 2004, in Vancouver, Washington at the home of Charles and LaVera McCord. Brother McCord was 92-years-old. He was a prolific writer and stalwart soldier of Christ, who by his own admission, had made adequate preparation and was desirous to be with God which is far better. This issue of Gospel Gazette Online is dedicated to Hugo McCord with numerous of his articles gracing its pages. Hugo’s article on this page certainly fits him and his life of service to the Lord Jesus. ~ Editor] In several ways the church and the kingdom are similar, and in several ways they are different: I. Similarities The king of the kingdom is the head of the church (Colossians 1:13, 18). Only one kingdom (basileia, Revelation 1:6) was established, and only one church was built (“one body,” which is the “church” (Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 12:20; Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 1:18). One set of keys opens the door both to the kingdom and to the church (Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:1-47; 5:11). One seed, “the word of God,” produces both the kingdom and the church (Luke 8:11; Acts 2:41, 47; 5:11). Baptism, a birth “of water and Spirit” (John 3:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13) puts a sinner into the kingdom (Colossians 1:13; 2:12) and into the church (1 Corinthians 12:13, 20). The Lord’s Supper is in both the kingdom and in the church (Luke 22:29-30; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:20-26). Both the church and the kingdom are indestructible (Matthew 16:18;

A converted prisoner in the Joseph Harp Correctional Center, Lexington, OK, who is a careful Bible student, grows in the “knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Now I learn he also is studying the Greek New Testament! I am amazed! He writes wanting to know why there is a “mistranslation of basileia” in the NKJV in Revelation 1:6: Christ “has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.” Jerry’s point is that basileia means “kingdom,” not “kings.” The explanation is that the NKJV scholars, and the 54 KJV scholars before them, followed the Greek manuscript P, which has the word basileis, “kings.” Furthermore, the context in Revelation 1:6 calls for “kings,” not “kingdom.” It is awkward to say that Christ “made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father” (ASV). Much smoother it is to say Christ “made us to be kings, to be priests unto his God and Father.” If someone insists on following the Greek manuscripts that have the word “kingdom” (as A), then parallel to “kingdom” would not be “priests,” but a “priesthood” (hierateuma, cf. 1 Peter 2:5, 9), and making the translation Christ “made us a kingdom and a priesthood.” But the translation “kings” (of P) is parallel to “priests” and so a translation would be Christ “made us to be kings, to be priests.” I am sorry I did not use those words in my printed translation of the New Testament. A parallel

A friend keeps on loving, and is a helping brother when trouble comes (Proverbs 17:17). There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Faithful are the wounds of a friend (Proverbs 27:6). Perfume is pleasing, but better is counsel for the soul from a friend (Proverbs 27:9). According to Webster, a friend is “a person one knows well and is fond of,” an “intimate associate,” a “close acquaintance,” and the word is also “applied loosely to any associate, or, as a term of address, even to a stranger.” According to the Greek New Testament, two different words describe Webster’s two English definitions of a “friend.” A hetairos friend may be “someone whose name one does not know” (B-G-D, 314), as a worker hired from a market place, dissatisfied with his wages at day’s end, to whom the employer says, “Friend [hetairos], I have not been unfair with you. Did you not agree with me for twenty cents [a denarius]?” (Matthew 20:13). A hetairos friend was not one of “the invited guests” at a wedding dinner, but a stranger, to whom the host said, “Friend [hetairos], why have you come without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12). In itself hetairos has no warmth of affection. Sometimes the word was used merely as a way to start a conversation, as Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, spoke to Judas, “Friend [hetairos], do what you came to do” (Matthew 26:50). But when Jesus spoke of Lazarus, whom Jesus loved (John

A careful Bible student writes: In Genesis 35:23-26, the 12 sons of Jacob are listed. Dan is named there but not Manasseh. In Revelation 7:5-8 the 144,000 sealed from all the tribes of the children of Israel are named. Here Manasseh is named but not Dan. I am wondering why. Thanks for your help. Manasseh was not a son of Jacob; instead he was “the first-born of Joseph” (Joshua 17:1), and so he was a grandson of Jacob. Some Greek copyist made a mistake by inserting the name “Manasseh” in Revelation 7:6 instead of “Dan,” who was the fifth son of Jacob (Genesis 29:32-30:6; 35:22-26). Perhaps they inserted “Manasseh,” because he, along with his brother Ephraim, became very prominent in Israel’s history (Joshua 16:1-10; 17:1-12), more prominent than Dan. “Ephraim and Dan, being the principal promoters of idolatry, are left out in this enumeration” (Adam Clarke’s comment on Revelation 7:5-8). However, a Bohairica manuscript has “Dan” in Revelation 7:6. I noticed years ago the insertion of Manasseh (not a son of Jacob) and the omission of Dan (a son of Jacob) in Revelation 7:6, and I had written a question on the margin of my old Greek NT text in 1953: “Each tribe has a quota? Dan none?” But Dan had a quota (Joshua 19:47-48). I should have made the correction of all English translations in my translation but I overlooked it. Jacob had tried to change the number of his sons from 12 to 14 by claiming the first

A well-meaning, prayerful church bulletin editor has cited two verses to encourage every reader to “Start Your Day the Right Way… PRAY: The prayer of faith will cure the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous has powerful results (James 5:15-16 FHV). Encouragement for daily praying is good advice, as Paul’s example shows: “Fervently we are praying night and day to see your face” (1 Thessalonians 3:10), and Paul’s instruction, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). But the citation of James 5:15 as being applicable today is an example of not “interpreting correctly,” of “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). We cannot say today that “the prayer of faith will cure the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:15). Sadly, some good people in our time do not realize that miraculous praying and healing ceased after the death of the last person died who had received the gift of healing by the laying on of an apostle’s hands (1 Corinthians 12:9; Acts 8:18; Romans 1:11). Today, in the 21st century, no apostle is available for hand-laying, and consequently all miraculous healing by prayer ended near the end of the first century. The right application of James 5:15 has to come from James 5:14: “Is any sick? Let

Paul’s words “Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:1l, KJV, ASV), represent a mighty reversal on his part in outlook and in conduct: Formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, … the worst of [sinners] (1 Timothy 1:13, 16). I persecuted [Christians] to death, binding and delivering to jail both men and women (Acts 22:3-4). Educated “at the feet of Gamaliel, having been instructed according to the strictness of [his] fathers’ law” (Acts 22:3), and “breathing threatening and murder against the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1), he was on the way to being a famous rabbi. However, after he saw Jesus in the sky, and having experienced “the bath of the new birth” (Titus 3:5), he had become a “new man” (Colossians 3:10, and he wrote about his new outlook: But the things which were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ’s sake. More than that, I count all things to be a loss because of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost all things for him, and count them as dung, that I might gain Christ, and be found in him (Philippians 3:7-9). Not only did Paul forfeit earthly advantages and respect from his fellow Jews, he also lost the love his kinfolks had for him. The grief at the loss of family affection stayed with Paul, after his conversion to Christ, the rest of his life. Baptized at the age of 33 (cf. W.M.

A question has come about Matthew 5:17-19: Do not think I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Indeed, I assure you, until the heaven and earth disappear, neither the smallest letter in the law, nor the smallest part of a letter, shall pass away before all things are fulfilled. Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches them shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does these commandments and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said that he had come into the world to fulfill “all things written about me in Moses’ law and in the prophets and in the psalms” (Luke 24:44). Yes, Christ was “the goal of the law” (Romans 10:4). But after Jesus had “fulfilled” the law, he “took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14). In his death, Jesus “set aside the law” (Ephesians 2:15). No one today is to be married to Moses, but “be married to another, to the one who was raised from the dead” (Romans 7:4). If one is married to Moses (representing the Old Testament) and to Christ (representing the New Testament) he is guilty of bigamy. A woman married to two husbands at the same time “shall be called an adulteress” (Romans 7:3). But before Jesus had fulfilled the law and the prophets, he made it clear that the

For your meditation I submit the following verses from the HFV [Freed Hardeman Version, 4th ed.] about JESUS. “Some of the Greeks who had come to worship at the feast went to Philip (of Bethsaida in Galilee), asking, ‘Sir, we want to see Jesus.’” “No other name under heaven is given among men by which we must be saved.” “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” “Have this mind in you, which also was in Christ Jesus. Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal to God something to be held on to, but he emptied himself. He took the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men, and, having been found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” “Therefore, God exalted him to the loftiest height. He gave him a name above every name, so that every knee in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, should bend at Jesus’ name, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the praise of God the Father.” “My heart overflows with a pleasant subject: I speak of the things … touching the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.”

A Gospel preacher asks, “Why did you translate the Greek word for ‘kidneys’ in Revelation 2:23 as ‘minds’?” The Gospel preacher doing the asking has more than an average interest in the word “kidneys,” since he suffered for years with defective kidneys, and now his loving mother has gone to the hospital and had one of her kidneys removed and placed in him. As a result, all who have been edified and saved by Don Ruhl’s preaching (Klamath Falls, OR) are smiling and praying that he will have no more health problems. No one thinks that Jesus literally “searcheth the reins and hearts” (KJV, ASV). Physically and literally, “the reins [the kidneys] and hearts” are very important. But non-literal hearts, both God’s and man’s, are meant in these two verses: And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart (Genesis 6:5-6). It is clear then that, when Jesus searches hearts he is talking about a man’s mind, for “as he thinketh in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV), and when Jesus “searcheth the kidneys” he is talking about a man’s mind. Also, non-literal kidneys are mentioned in Psalm 7:9, “God trieth the hearts and reins” (KJV), and also in Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10; 20:12. Kidneys (kelayoth in the Hebrew, Psalm 7:10, nephrous

In the Old Testament three hundred and thirty two predictions of the coming of Jesus have been counted (Floyd E. Hamilton, The Basis of the Christian Faith, p.157). Three hundred and thirty two pieces of marble, assembled by many different sculptors over some 1,500 years, most of whom never saw one another, could not produce a beautiful statue, but only something ugly, fantastic and grotesque. However, if a super-overseer sent out a plan for the three hundred and thirty two pieces of marble to local sculptors, the result would be a beautiful statue. So, God, as a super-overseer, sent out “pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6), words “from God” to “men” (Scripture writers), who were “moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21), words describing the most beautiful life ever in human flesh in 332 ways hundreds of years before he was born. Of the 332 Old Testament predictions about the coming of Christ, Jesus’ Biography in the Psalms is restricted to the 21 passages in the book of Psalms certified in the New Testament as predictions, and to three others (Psalm 22:1; 24:7-10; 31:5) that are believed to be predictions. I. Jesus’ Pre-fleshly Existence God, apparently in a heavenly conference “before the world existed” (John 17:5), to carry out his “eternal purpose” (Ephesians 3:11) to save sinners by a human sacrifice “as of an unblemished and spotless lamb” (1 Peter 1:19), apparently asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for

Many of us have read enough to be resigned to the fact that we shall leave this life with unanswered questions about the soul and spirit. However, what God has revealed we ought to find out. The Soul My mother taught me that my soul is my immortal nature, a part of me that survives the body. What she taught is the most important thing knowable about the soul, but there are other meanings. The elemental meaning of the word “soul” (nephesh) is that which breathes: “To all the beasts of the earth and to all the birds of the air and to all creeping things on the earth, wherein is the breath [nephesh] of life, I have given green plants for food” (Genesis 1:30). The first time that most versions insert the word “soul” (nephesh) is in Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul [nephesh]” (KJV). I used to think that the word “soul” in Genesis 2:7 referred to man’s immortal nature. Most of the Bible occurrences of the word “soul” (nephesh) do refer to man’s non-material, immortal nature. I have counted 24 instances, but the context of nephesh in Genesis 2:7 (including Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, 26, 30) shows that Moses was saying that man, like the fishes, the birds, the beasts, and creeping things, is a living breather. In Job 41:21 (v. 13 in the

Mariolatry (Gr. Maria, Mary, and latreia, worship) is the “worship of Mary.” Something is worse than the worship of Mary, namely, slander. A university professor writes that Mary was a “sexually questionable woman.” Gregory Alan Tidwell has refuted the professor: To insinuate that she [Mary] was morally loose is insulting not only to this godly woman, but to the very act of the incarnation. What Scripture describes in terms of tender beauty is transformed into a scandal of the gutter. A miracle of untold wonder is explained away as a tale of common filth (Gospel Advocate, April, 1993). If Jesus was born of two earthly parents, he was wholly human, and no more divine than the rest of us. If Jesus was wholly human, he was not raised from the grave, nor can he raise anyone else. Christianity without the virgin birth is reduced simply to a social Gospel for this life only. However, as infidels attempt to destroy the beautiful history of Jesus’ virgin birth, the Catholic Church (both Roman and Orthodox) exalts Mary above all women, above all the angels, even to the status of deity, in seven ways: 1. Because the Catholic Church holds to the false doctrine that all babies are sin-infected even before birth, which would include Mary’s baby Jesus, their theologians were forced to invent the “Immaculate Conception” doctrine that Mary herself was the one exception in all history to be born sinless. If Mary were born sinless, she would have no sin to

David’s inspired words, “Indeed, in iniquity I was born and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5), have caused some people to say that babies have inborn sin. Other verses, however, show that the meaning is, “Indeed, into a world [of iniquity] I was born and my mother was a sinner when she conceived me.” In parallel, one could say, “I was born in a potato patch, and on a farm my mother conceived me, but I am not full of potatoes.” Becoming a mother in itself is not sinful (Genesis 1:28; 1 Timothy 2:15). But all people as they grow up do sin (Romans 3:23), Jesus being the only exception. And each person does his own sinning (Isaiah 53:6). They who say that babies have inborn sin need to address the fate of children who die in childbirth, or die as little children; is heaven refused to them? Other words from David are misused to prove that babies have inborn sin: “The wicked go astray from the womb; they turn aside at birth, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3). David knew that the literal meaning is false, as shown by another statement from him: “But you [God] brought me from the womb, and caused me to trust on my mother’s breast. … From my birth you have been my God” (Psalm 22:9-10). This latter statement likewise is false literally, for babies do not trust God on their mothers’ breasts. And another psalmist wrote impossible words about babies: “Upon you [God]

A question comes about 1 Corinthians 6: 12: “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be made subject to any.” A similar statement is in 1 Corinthians 10:23: “All things are lawful, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful, but all things are not upbuilding.” The word “All” in the statement, “All things are lawful,” would include a man living in “fornication” with “his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1), but Paul’s condemnation of such, “Expel the evil man from among you (1 Corinthians 5:13), shows that fornication is not in Paul’s list of “All things” being lawful. Similarly, Paul did not include ‘”having lawsuits” among “brothers” in his statements that “All things are lawful,” for he also wrote that “lawsuits among yourselves” is “a complete defeat” (1 Corinthians 6:7, FHV; “an utter failure,” NKJV). They are “lawful” but neither “helpful” nor “upbuilding” (1 Corinthians 6:12; 10:23). The immediate context of “all things are lawful” (1 Corinthians 6:12) is in the next verse: “foods.” So Paul was saying that though “all foods are lawful,” some are not “helpful,” and he would not allow himself to be “made subject to any” of that kind. A vegetarian makes himself subject to his own law about “foods”: “a person who eats no meat, and sometimes no animal products (as milk, eggs, etc.” (Webster). Thus, there are two kinds of Christians: “One believes that he may eat anything, but

The title of the earliest known copy, from the 4th century, of the last book in the Bible is The Revelation of John. In the 8th century a copyist enlarged the title to The Revelation of John the Theologian, a title reflecting non-inspired words about God, and does not teach that John was Spirit-inspired to write the book (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4). In the 17th century the 54 scholars, giving us the King James Version, changed the title to The Revelation of St. John the Divine, an erroneous title in two ways: (1) the “St” (an abbreviation for “Saints”) leaves the impression that John had been set apart from other Christians by his having attained sainthood, and (2) leaves the impression that John had been set apart from other Christians by becoming a “Divine,” a “man skilled in divinity; a theologian” (Webster). As to the first error, all Christians are “saints” from the day of their baptism (Acts 18:8; 26:10; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 16:1). The word simply means in the New Testament that a sinner has “set himself apart” (hagiadzo) to live for Jesus. Theologians formulated the idea that one cannot reach sainthood until an announcement comes from the pope at least 25 years after the person’s death. Biblically, if one does not reach sainthood in this life, he is doomed, for only the Judgment comes after this life, not a second chance (Hebrew 9:27). As to the second error, a “divine” (a theologian) writes “in words which man’s wisdom teaches,” while John wrote

John said, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbad him, because he has not been following us.” Jesus replied, “Do not forbid him, for no one doing a miracle in my name can quickly speak evil of me. He who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:38-40). Some well-intentioned people, determined not to be opinionated and judgmental, have deceived themselves into a misuse of Mark 9:38-40 and Luke 9:49-50. They think that these passages teach that no matter what doctrine a preacher sets forth, he is not to be criticized so long as he claims to be “for” Christ. They think that right-thinking people will not be narrow-minded, but will praise diversity and pluralism in religion. They do not think it is possible to be “against” Christ if they claim to be “with” Christ. Truly none of those sincere people means to be “against” Christ, but many people will be surprised to find in the day of Judgment that being “with” Christ requires more than confessing Jesus is “Lord,” for Jesus has already given us a preview of the Judgment: Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into heaven’s kingdom, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father. Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have we not cast out demons, and in your name have we not done many miracles?” Then

[Hugo McCord passed away at 8:04 a.m., May 14, 2004, in Vancouver, Washington at the home of Charles and LaVera McCord. Brother McCord was 92-years-old. He was a prolific writer and stalwart soldier of Christ, who by his own admission, had made adequate preparation and was desirous to be with God which is far better. This issue of Gospel Gazette Online is dedicated to Hugo McCord with numerous of his articles gracing its pages. Hugo’s article on this page certainly fits him and his life of service to the Lord Jesus. ~ Editor] While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, . . . being caused to fly swiftly, . . . said, O Daniel, . . . at the beginning of your prayers a word went out, and I have come to tell you, because hamudhoth are you (Daniel 9:21-23). In God’s appraisal, Daniel was hamudhoth, which has been variously translated as “very precious,” “highly esteemed,” “greatly beloved” and “a favorite.” In a general sense, all human beings in God’s sight are precious and valuable. “Behold! Children are the heritage of Yahweh, and the fruit of the womb is his pay” (Psalm 127:3). However, some people to him are much more valuable and desirable than others, dependent on their disposition and conduct. Daniel was one of these. In like manner, if David was one of God’s favorites, any human being can be if he so chooses, for God made them all, loves them all and he “is not partial”

A request has come: “Explain your understanding of Matthew 10:23.” The verse says: “When they pursue you in one city, escape to another. Indeed, I assure you, that you will by no means have gone through the cities of Israel until the Son of man comes.” On the last day of Jesus’ first appearance (for some 35 years, B.C. 5-30 A.D.) “two men in white clothing” said to the apostles: “This Jesus…will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Some 25 verses of the New Testament state that Christ “shall appear a second time” (Hebrews 9:28). Since so much is said about his second appearance, still in the future in 2002 A.D., what is the meaning of Jesus’ words in 29 A.D., that his apostles would not have finished a preaching tour “through the cities of Israel until the Son of man comes”? The explanation is that, though there are only two visible appearances of Christ (one for some 35 years in Palestine, and one to be at the end of the world (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Peter 3:7), there was an invisible coming “in his kingdom”: “Indeed, I assure you, some standing here [in 29 A.D.] will not taste of death until they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28). It was Sunday, May 28, A.D.30, with Jesus personally in heaven, but present invisibly in Jerusalem, when his kingdom was established. He heard the Father’s coronation words: “Your

The Sunday (April 2, A.D. 30) before Jesus’ crucifixion is called “Passion Sunday” or “Palm Sunday.” From the 4th century are the “blessing and procession of palms (leaves of the date palms or twigs from locally available trees)” accompanied by singing (Britannica). The prophet Zechariah, about 520 B.C., saw Jesus, not as a “carpenter” (Mark 6:3), but as a “king”: Rejoice with all your heart, people of Zion! Shout in triumph, people of Jerusalem! Look! Your King is coming to you: He is righteous and victorious. He is humble and rides on a donkey, on a colt, a young pack animal (Zechariah 9:9). Jesus knew what Zechariah had predicted, and he knew where two donkeys, a mother and her son, were in Bethphage tied in front of a certain house “by the door outside on the street” (Matthew 21:1-4; Mark 11:4). Jesus asked two of his disciples to bring the donkeys to him. “So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them” (Matthew 21:6). Then they threw their garments on the colt, and set Jesus on him (Luke 19:35). As Jesus rode along, a large crowd spread their garments on the road, and some cut branches from the trees and put them on the road (Matthew 21:8). The people going before and following fulfilled another Old Testament prediction as they shouted, “Hosanna [“Save now”] to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens” (Psalm 118:25-26; Matthew 21:9).

Unconscious plant life commands respect, and it ought to turn men’s minds to a power that can beget life. Such was its effect on Joyce Kilmer: I think that I shall never seeA poem as lovely as a treeA tree whose hungry mouth is pressedAgainst the earth’s sweet flowing breast;A tree that looks at God all day,And lifts her leafy arms to pray;A tree that may in summer wearA nest of robins in her hair;Upon whose bosom snow has lain;Who intimately lives with rain.Poems are made by fools like me,But only God can make a tree. The very existence of matter is inexplicable without assuming there was a maker. Kilmer’s tree, however, adds more mystery if one does not assume a maker. The chemical elements constituting an apple did not create themselves. And the seed within the apple has something which analytical chemistry cannot locate. From some source the tiny seed has power to burst open and send roots deep within the soil. The roots have anchoring power and also ability to withdraw water and nutriments from the soil. From some source they have ability to turn in the direction where the most water can be found. The same little seed has power to send growth upwards, climbing out of the soil and into the sunlight, and to include in that upward growth canals for carrying precious and vital liquids against gravity to high limbs. Some source gave that tiny, dry, hard apple seed the power to send forth leaves

It is sad that the “Contributors to the Study Aids” in regard to the New King James Version assert that “in Acts 11:26, we have the inspired record of the Antiochians coining the word Christian,” and that the “Antiochians were witty, worldly and rather wicked.” On the other hand, as Moses was the mouthpiece of God for divine revelations (Exodus 19:17-25; Hebrews 12:25), so were Barnabas and Saul (Paul) mouthpieces of a divine revelation first predicted as “from the mouth of the LORD” (Isaiah 62:2). God used Barnabas (a prophet, Acts 13:1) and Saul (an apostle, Galatians 1:1) to teach [didazai, active voice] a large multitude a whole year in Antioch, and to call [chrematisai, active voice] the disciples “Christians” (Acts 11:26). The “Contributors” do not believe that the name “Christian” came “from the mouth of the LORD,” but that it “was no doubt . . . a term of reproach.” On the contrary, the inspired James wrote that the “name” by which Jesus’ disciples were called was kalon (honorable, good, worthy, beautiful) (James 2:7). The “Contributors” in 1 Peter 4:16 failed to follow the majority of Greek manuscripts in removing the word “name” in favor of “matter”: “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.” Why they changed the reading in the old KJV “behalf” to “matter” they do not say. But thank God the new KJV, as well as the old KJV, preserves the word “Christian.”

Sad it is that the editor of a much read Gospel paper, irritated by church divisions over interpretations of the Book of Revelation, wrote that he hoped someone would publish a Bible without the last book! One can understand his irritation, but actually, he was criticizing God! “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable” (2 Timothy 3:16). All 66 of the divinely authored books impart blessings, but only in the Book of Revelation is that fact specifically stated: “Blessed is he who reads, and the ones who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things written in it, for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3). Many subjects about which God wants us to know are addressed in the first 65 books, but some are not finished. One wants to know more, and the Lord thought that we should know more, and supplied the need. The Book of Revelation completes the Bible. 1. The Heavens and the Earth The Holy Book begins with arresting words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). What a creation! The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands (Psalm 19:1), even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them (Nehemiah 9:6). But after the sin of Adam and Eve, God was forced to curse his beautiful world, putting thorns (qus) on roses, and weeds (dardar) everywhere

In God’s eyes, motherhood is to be exalted. God could have sent Jesus into the world as a full-grown man. Instead, by the way of the womb of a “woman” (Galatians 4:4) Jesus “became flesh” (John 1:14). If the Creator has thus chosen to honor motherhood, human beings should do no less! Normally, women “will be saved through child-bearing if they continue in faith and love and dedication with good sense” (1 Timothy 2:15). [Paul said] “I want the younger women to marry, to bear children, to manage the household, and to give no occasion for criticism” (1 Timothy 5:14). But a woman does not have to become a mother. If she chooses to remain single, yet putting the Lord first, the Scripture blesses her: “The unmarried woman and the virgin care about the Lord’s things, that they may be dedicated, both in body and spirit” (1 Corinthians 7:34). However, God’s plan for Jesus was for him to be formed in Mary’s womb, and for her in her ninth month to ride on a donkey’s back some 60 miles, Nazareth to Bethlehem. God could have planned for Jesus to be born in a palace. Instead, Joseph and Mary were turned down at the inn. Mary said to Joseph, “‘Take me down from the, for that which is in me presses to come forth.’ …Joseph took her down, and he found there a cave, and let her into it” (The Protoevangelium of James, XII, 10-14, a 2nd century apocryphal book). In

From the island of Patmos, the apostle John, “in the Spirit,” ascended into heaven, and saw in God’s right hand a scroll “sealed tightly with seven seals” (Revelation 1:9; 4:1-2; 5:1). When no one “could open the scroll,” John “wept much” (Revelation 5:3-4). One of the 24 elders said to him, “Do not weep. Look! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the descendant of David, has conquered! He can break the seals and open the scroll” (Revelation 5:5). However, the one who took the scroll from God’s hand was not a Lion, but a Lamb (Revelation 5:6-10). What is the explanation? All 66 Bible books are interlocked. The history of the Lion and Lamb pattern begins in Genesis. About 1706 B.C. the patriarch Jacob prophesied about one of his sons: “Judah will stoop and crouch as a lion, and as a lion, who will arouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until the Peacemaker comes, and him the peoples will obey” (Genesis 49:9-10). Apparently because the lion is the king of the jungle, God planned that a descendant of Judah would be given a king’s scepter of “all authority in heaven and on the earth,” and as a lawgiver the King would issue “the law of the Spirit of life,” the words of which will “judge” all people “in the last day” (cf. Matthew 28:18; Romans 8:2; John 12:48). Isaiah added to Jacob’s prophecy that the coming lion-like King would

The apostle Paul said that “I am a debtor both to the Greeks and foreigners, both to the wise and the unwise” (Romans 1:14). Hugo is a debtor to Paul and to countless others, living and dead. I have found, along with Jeremiah, “that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (10:23). Consequently, I am in debt to the Author of the one book of directions in this world that came from heaven. And I rejoice with David in saying, The law of Yahweh is complete, refreshing the soul. The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are upright, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of Yahweh are clean, enlightening the eyes (Psalm 19:7-8). The ordinances of Yahweh are truth, and are altogether righteous. More to be desired are they than gold, even much refined gold; sweeter than honey, even the drippings of honeycombs. Moreover, by them is your servant admonished, and by observing them is a great reward (Psalm 19:9-11). And I rejoice that Paul could say, Every Scripture is God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that God’s man may be equipped and completely ready for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). John Wycliffe (1324-1384) But for over 1200 years, after the apostle John wrote the last book of the New Testament about 96 A.D., there was no English translation. I am a debtor

I. Jesus’ Present Bride John the immerser (Matthew 3:1) physically was a cousin of Jesus (Luke 1:36), and was his “friend” (John 3:29). Since John was “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15), by inspiration he knew that Jesus spiritually would be pictured as marrying his church, and so the elated John, standing and listening to Jesus, rejoiced “greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29). Ahead of time, John announced that “The bridegroom has the bride” (John 3:29). Figuratively, the dowry that Jesus paid for his bride was “not by perishable things (as silver and gold), . . . but by the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Jesus’ bride is “my church” (Matthew 16:18) whom “he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). No one joins the church, but God adds “to the church daily the ones . . . being saved” (Acts 2:47). The “saved” are those who believe “that God has made” Jesus “both Lord and Christ” and have repented and have been baptized “into the forgiveness of” their “sins” (Acts 2:36, 38). Collectively, all the saved are the bride of Christ, whom he “loved” and “gave himself for” her,” having cleansed her in the washing of the water by” the teaching of “the word, that he might set her apart, to present her to himself in splendor, having no spot or flaw or any such thing, that she might be unblemished and set apart” (Ephesians 5:25-27). Thus the marriage

A sincere brother wonders why do we have the right to say that the terms psallo and psalmos lost all connection to the instrument by the time of the writing of the New Testament. If the early church was in fact using the LXX [Septuagint, Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made by 72 Jewish translators in Alexandria Egypt in the second or third century B.C.] version of the OT, then they would be very familiar with the book of Psalms. And since that would be true, how could Paul’s use of these terms be significantly different? No one has such a right. The terms psallo and psalmos had not “lost all connection to the instrument by the time of the writing of the New Testament,” nor since. On the contrary, in the very century in which the NT was written, psallo could mean “sing” or “play,” depending on what the writer had in mind. Josephus, in the first century A.D., wrote of some who “psallowed on the harp” (Antiq., 6:8,2), in which example psallo could not mean, “sing.” I have seen three other examples in print with psallo meaning “play”: (1) in the first century, Strabo (Geography, 1:23; 14:2,26); (2) in the first century, Plutarch (Life of Pericles, 1:5); (3) in the second century, Lucian (The Parasiste 17). A second century inscription is cited by Moulton and Milligan (Vocabulary, psalmos) in which psalmos signifies a song sung with a harp. Likewise, Paul commanded Christians to do two things: aido and

According “to the eternal purpose” of “God, the only being truly wise,” Jesus Christ has become “the Ruler of the kings of the earth,” the “King of kings” (Ephesians 3:11; Romans 16:27; Revelation 1:5; 17:14). The holy Scriptures set forth four stages in the heavenly plan: I. A King Is Coming! In the second millennium (c. 1852 B.C.), God promised Abraham that “kings will come from you” and “Sarah” (Genesis 17:6, 16). Then (c. 1706 B.C.) Abraham’s grandson Jacob, a prophet, said that his son Judah was the one who would be the ancestor of a special coming king: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and him the peoples will obey” (Genesis 49:10). “Shiloh” (from shalah, to be at rest, safe, secure) means a man of peace, a bearer of security, a peacemaker. Later Isaiah would call the coming king sar shalom, Prince of Peace (9:6). And David reported (Psalm 2:2) what God had said he would do for Mashiah, Messiah (in the Hebrew), for Christos, Christ (in the Greek): “Most certainly I will anoint my king in Zion, my holy mountain” (Psalm 2:6). Moreover, God spoke directly to that special coming king about a thousand years before he was born: “Ask me and I will make the nations your domain and you will possess the whole world” (Psalm 2:8). In anticipation, God said to the coming king that he would “send from Zion the scepter of your power,

Jacob, a 147-year-old patriarchal prophet, on his deathbed in Egypt, about 1706 B.C., foretold the coming of Christ: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until the Peacemaker [Shiloh] comes, and him the peoples will obey” (Genesis 49:10). The Scriptures set forth seven comings of Christ: I. The First Coming One night, “not far from the end of B.C. 5 or the beginning of B.C. 4” (Stevens and Burton), an angel was dispatched from heaven to appear in the sky near Bethlehem with an announcement that startled shepherds, “Today in the city of David a Savior is born” (Luke 2:11). Jesus “had appeared in flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), destined to live about 34 years. II. The Second Coming “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his teaching” (Luke 3:23). After he had selected twelve apostles, he sent them to preach in “the cities of Israel,” telling them that their task would not be completed before “they would see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 10:23; 16:28). Jesus was not a king during his 34 years on the earth. But after he had returned to heaven, on Sunday, May 28, A.D. 30 (Pentecost Day), he was crowned “King of kings” (Acts 2:30; Hebrews 1:8-9; 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14), with authority to reign “until he has placed all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). But on that memorable Sunday, May 28, A.D. 30, Jesus’ coronation day in heaven,

Human beings are fascinated, not only by the existence and revolutions of the moon, but also by its beauty. The moon serves a utilitarian purpose in regulating the months and the tides, and it also serves an aesthetic purpose to earth dwellers. Up close, it is neither utilitarian nor beautiful, but from a quarter of a million miles, its yellow crescent or its white full-orbed splendor does something to everyone, especially to lovers. Did the moon’s Maker have something in mind for earth dwellers both practically and aesthetically? When one turns his eyes from the moon back to the earth, and examines a rose, several questions arise. How did it arrive? Why is it so symmetrically shaped, beautifully colored and delicately perfumed? If there is no practical value, did the rose’s Maker have an appreciation for things of beauty? Did he put in humans a corresponding sense of appreciation of symmetry, of colors and of fragrance? If one tries to make a list of beautiful things, he becomes exhausted. Long before the apples of the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia become utilitarian nourishment, that valley in blossom season is more than any artist can imagine. Also, springtime in the Rocky Mountains has something more than mining and ranching. Furthermore, sunrise at sea is more than another earth revolution. The scientific explanation of a sunrise at sea leaves something to be desired: “the earth revolves until its tangent plane coincides once more with the solar azimuth.” The songs of the nightingale, the

A question comes about three verses in the KJV: 1 John 3:6, 9; 5:18. The KJV leaves the impression that a good Christian never sins: “sinneth not” (3:6); “doth not commit sin” (3:9); “cannot sin” (3:9); “sinneth not” (5:18). But other verses in the same epistle of John in the KJV show that even good Christians are not sinless: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the Lord is not in us” (1:8); “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9); “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1:10); “My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (2:1). Why did the scholarly 54 translators of the KJV in 1611 leave the impression in three verses that it is impossible for a Christian, a man “born of God” (1 John 3:9), to commit a single sin (1 John 5:18)? It was a simple oversight, but it has left a Bible contradiction. Grammatically, for example, the Greek verb “sin” (twice in 1 John 2:1), points only to one sin, and cannot refer to a life or practice of sin. Conversely, grammatically, the verb “sin” (twice in 1 John 3:6), refers to a life and practice of sin, linear,

The 39 Old Testament books and the 4 Gospels look forward to the Book of Acts, and the succeeding 22 New Testament books look backward to the Book of Acts. It is the support, the fulcrum, on which all the other Bible books are balanced, and without which one would wonder why the other books were written. Sad it is that some Gospel preachers, who formerly preached the importance of the Book of Acts, now say that the Book of Acts is only “the shadow or the reflection of a ham sandwich [the four Gospels],” and “you won’t get much nourishment eating the shadow or reflection of a ham sandwich.” On such a “substanceless shadow,” writes a veteran Gospel preacher, the restoration movement has been fed and “long ago starved to death. We are a dead movement.” He continues, “Plugging into any part of the Scripture except the Gospels” is “like plugging an electric motor into a reflection of a power outlet.” On the other hand, in God’s sight, the whole of the Old Testament (cf. 2 Peter 1:21; Revelation 19:10) and the four Gospels are prologues to the Book of Acts. All of those books, 43 of them, antedate “the beginning” of the “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:8), which beginning is first described in the Book of Acts (11:15). Before “the beginning” of the “new covenant,” John the immerser (Matthew 3:1) preached that sinners “should believe on the One coming after him, that is, on

More than 3000 years ago it was said that “of making many books there is no end” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). Many of them deserve respect, but reverence should be reserved only for the 66 books which originated in heaven, the Holy Scriptures. Any human being thinks too much of himself who presumes to add or to subtract the words of the Bible. Complete instruction in this regard God gave to the Israelites: Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it (Deuteronomy 4:2). See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it (Deuteronomy 12:32). David was privileged to be one of God’s penmen: “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2). He magnified the integrity and the purity of heaven’s communications: The words of the Lord are pure, as silver melted in a furnace, refined seven times (Psalm 12:6). Forever, O Lord, your word is settled [nasab, “set,” “fixed,” “made to stand”] in heaven (Psalm 119:89). David’s son Solomon also was privileged to write inspired books. Of all inspired books he wrote: Every word of God has proven to be true (Proverbs 30:5). Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you, and you be found false (Proverbs 30:6). Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians to “learn through us [the inspired apostles] not to regard men more highly than what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6, FHV). The

An attempt at an in-depth study of agape, the greatest word in Spirit-inspired language (“God is agape,” 1 John 4:8) ought to help the investigator and as many readers as are willing to study with him. Words Related to Agape Necessary to a knowledge of agape is an acquaintance with three other Greek words meaning “love”: Eros For sexual love the Greeks used the word eros. From it is derived the English word “erotic.” Capitalized, Eros becomes the name of the Greek god of sexual love. As a proper noun it is equated with the Roman god of sexual love, Cupid. A harlot, “wily of heart,” told a potential customer, “Let us solace ourselves with loves” (Proverbs 7:10, 18). Her word “loves” in the Greek Old Testament (LXX) is a form of eros. As misused as is the sexual nature, and with so many sins related to that misuse, some have concluded that a person’s sexual nature is evil and must altogether be denied. However, when God had created all things, including the sexual natures of Adam and Eve, their Creator’s appraisal was that the whole was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). If the human sexual nature is evil, the Creator himself must be blamed. In marriage the bed is “undefiled” (Hebrews 13:4). The doctrine affirming the perpetual virginity of Mary, designed to exalt the Lord’s mother above other women, actually slanders all mothers. Storge A second Greek word meaning “love” defines family and kinship loyalty. As eros in itself is

A sincere Bible student would like a discussion in regard to “the Hadean realm”: 1. “My understanding [he says] from the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 is that there is a place for departed souls which consists of a place of comfort for the righteous (Abraham’s bosom) and a place of torment for the wicked.” I believe that your understanding is accurate. 2. Another sincere brother takes Paul’s statement in Philippians 1:23, “having a desire to depart and be with Christ,” as teaching that when one dies he or she goes to be with Christ in heaven. On the contrary, a person’s being “with Christ in heaven” has to wait until after a stay in “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22), which is another name for Paradise (Luke 23:43) and “the third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). And heaven must wait until “the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render to every man according to his deeds (Matthew 16:27). Jesus “is ordained by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42; 17:31; John 5:22). We all will be “made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ” that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what we have done, “whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). After “the day of judgment” (Matthew 10:15; 11:22, 24; 12:36), the righteous will “be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the

At year’s end for centuries, even before the birth of Christ, people in Europe enjoyed a holiday season. An occasion of rejoicing was the fact that at year’s end the northern hemisphere was at its farthest point away from the sun about to turn back closer to its light and warmth. Days would begin to lengthen. Gradually the long nights would be shorter. As a symbol of returning life, the ancient Teutonic tribes decorated their houses with evergreen and the fireplace burned brightly with the yuletide log. Good luck gifts were freely exchanged. It was a time of joy and good cheer. Over three hundred years after Jesus was born, the year’s end holiday season was appropriated to make a religious celebration. It was recognized that Jesus was not born in the wintertime, for shepherds do not have their flocks out in the open around Bethlehem in December. The continual weather forecast for December is “Hail. Snow on higher hills, and occasionally on lower levels.” Nevertheless, the date of December 25 was selected by Liberius, bishop of Rome, in A.D. 354, to coincide with the established year’s-end holidays. Since that time, the bishop’s order has been followed by the Roman Catholic Church, and when the Protestant churches were established, they began following Rome’s lead in making December 25 a sacred day. God did not make any day of the week or of the year as a holy day for Christians. If anyone does so, it is his own private doing

Many churches have special names, but the New Testament church has no name. Denominations have proper names. The word “denominate” means to “name” something. The New Testament church is called the house of the Lord, the family of God, the body of Christ and the kingdom of Christ (Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:13; Hebrews 3:5-6; 1 Timothy 3:15), with no proper name. The individual members of the New Testament church have a proper name. Their name is not “disciple,” though they are disciples (Acts 9:1). Their name is not “brethren,” though they are brothers and sisters (Acts 9:30). Their name is not “saints,” though they are saints (Acts 9:32). Their proper and divinely given name is “Christian” (Acts 11:26; 1 Peter 4:16), but to call the church the “Christian Church” is to denominationalize that great institution. To speak of the New Testament church as “the church of Christ” is as right as it is to speak of it as “the church of God” (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2), but neither is a proper name. To speak of “Church of Christ” congregations, “Church of Christ” preachers, is to denominationalize that church. The New Testament church has no proper name.

On the cross, as they both were dying, Jesus told the penitent thief, “Indeed, I assure you, you will be with me in Paradise today” (Luke 23:43). I believe similar words Jesus spoke to Lois on July 13, 2000, saying, “Indeed, I assure you, you will be in Paradise today, awaiting the time I meet you ‘in the air’ on our way into the ‘heavens of heavens’” (Psalm 115:16; 148:4). On evangelistic trips twice around this world, Lois helped me in the Gospel work, 67 years of her 89. She would have been 90 her next birthday, December 19. Before Lois’ passing, she had received a beautiful card entitled “God Has a Plan for Every Life.” Indeed so, and it begins with knowing that every human being is a son or a daughter of God (Luke 3:23, 38). As a father is tender toward his children, so Yahweh (God’s Hebrew name, Exodus 3:15) is tender toward those who reverence him. He, even he, knows how we are made, and he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14). However, human beings are more than “dust.” God has formed a spirit in every person (Zechariah 12:1). When the “dust,” making up our physical bodies, “returns to the earth as it was,” then “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7), and lives on! “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). Man’s immortal spirit is also called his soul (Matthew 10:28; Revelation 6:9-11). Since

A “miracle,” says Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, p. 1147, is “an event or effect that apparently contradicts known scientific laws and is hence thought to be due to supernatural causes, especially to an act of God.” The New Testament uses the word semeion, a sign, to describe a miracle. The word is used “of miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are pleading is God’s” (Thayer, p. 573). The New Testament uses the word “signs” (and so, “miracles”) to validate the work of Jesus and of his apostles. 1. Jesus’ Miracles Jesus’ first miracle was to replenish the supply of wine at a wedding in Cana (John 2:1). Six jars of water, each holding 20 or 30 gallons, Jesus instantly converted into “good wine” (John 2:10). This miracle was “the beginning of signs,” proving that Jesus was God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14; 2:11). A list of some of Jesus’ miracles, substantiating his deity, during his four to five years of preaching (25-30 A.D.), is given by the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The list is climaxed by Jesus’ dead body coming to life again (Luke 24:44-48). “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. If each was written, I suppose the world itself would not have room for the books” (John 21:25). 2. The Apostles’ Miracles The “all authority in heaven and in the earth” that the Father had given to

Some well intentioned people misuse Mark 9:38-40: John said, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbad him, because he has not been following us.” Jesus replied, “Do not forbid him, for no one doing a miracle in my name can quickly speak evil of me. He who is not against us is for us.” Some denominationalist and charismatic people assert that the message in Mark shows that no matter what doctrine a preacher sets forth, he is not to be criticized so long as he claims to be “for” Jesus. Those people praise diversity and pluralism in religion. They do not think that it is possible to be “against” Christ as long as they say they are “for” him. Truly none of those sincere people means to be “against” Christ, but Jesus’ preview of the judgment shows that being “for” Christ requires more than saying so: Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into heaven’s kingdom, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father. Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have we not cast out demons, and in your name have we not done many miracles?” Then I will say to them, “I have never known you” (Matthew 7:21-23). Thus Jesus asserted that the only right way to know if one is “for” Christ is not by saying, “Lord, Lord,” but by doing “the will

With thorns scratching bloody marks on Jesus’ head, with lacerations on his naked back, with nails in his hands and feet, and with loud railing in his ears, he did not respond with ugly words (1 Peter 2:23). Instead he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). What a response! That kind and caring reaction apparently changed some hearts on crucifixion day. I. A Penitent Thief Two robbers, dying on each side of Jesus, did what the mob was doing: they “cast upon him the same reproach” (Matthew 27:44). However, as the time passed, one of the thieves no doubt noticed that Jesus, though he “was cursed, did not reply with a curse”; though “he suffered, he did not threaten” (1 Peter 2:23). The heart of that thief had been touched by Jesus, and he rebuked his fellow-robber: “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same condemnation? We indeed justly, for we are receiving just payment for the things we have done; but this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:40-41). That penitent thief apparently had heard Jesus preach about his coming kingdom, but had paid no attention to the idea. Now, however, after his change of heart on the cross, he recalled what Jesus had preached, and he begged the Lord, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus, knowing there was sincerity back of the thief’s prayer, granted him forgiveness of his railing

A careful reader of the Scriptures thinks that the KJV does not follow the Greek in Matthew 28:20 in reporting Jesus’ promise to his apostles “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (and so in the ASV). She thinks that the NIV is more correct: “I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” The NIV translation of the Greek is accurate, and so are the translations of the KJV and the ASV. Jesus’ word aion means “age” and also “world” or “universe,” as seen in the NIV translation of aion in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world”; and in Hebrews 1:2, of what God did by Jesus, “through whom he made the universe” (NIV); and in Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command” (NIV). Thayer (p. 19) cites the double usage of aion. Abbott-Smith (p. 15) says that kosmos, “the ordered universe,” is a synonym for Jesus’ word aion. Scripturally, no age follows our present age: on “us” is “the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NIV), “the ends of the world are come” (KJV). Christ has appeared “at the end of the ages” (Hebrews 9:26, NIV), “in the end of the world” (KJV). After “the end of the age” is not another one on this planet, but then comes the “harvest,” and “the harvesters are angels” (Matthew 13:39, NIV), when “the weeds

A question has come about 2 Chronicles 29:25: “And he [Hezekiah] set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of Jehovah by his prophets.” It is clear that Old Testament worship services included not only instruments of music (Psalm 33:2; 43:4; 71:22), but also burnt-offerings of bulls and rams and he-goats (Leviticus 16:1-19), and clouds of “sweet incense” (Leviticus 16:12-13; Exodus 30:7; Deuteronomy 33:10), and dancing (2 Samuel 6:14: Psalm 150:4), and hand-clapping (Psalm 47:1), and shouting (Psalm 47:1). It is clear also that the entire Old Testament worship services have been cancelled, nailed to Jesus’ cross (Ephesians 2:5-16; Colossians 2:14:16). It is clear also that the New Testament worship services include singing, the “fruit of the lips” (Hebrews 13:15; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15), and playing, not on a literal harp (as in Psalm 71:22), but figuratively on the strings of the human heart, “making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19), and praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and, on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7), and the collection (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

An acquaintance with three kingdoms, earthly, spiritual and heavenly, is enlightening. I. An Earthly Kingdom At Hebron, after the death of King Saul, “the men of Judah came and there anointed David king over the house of Judah” (2 Samuel 2:4). “In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty three years over all Israel and Judah” (2 Samuel 5:5). I am certain many godly men and women have been, and are today, “after [God’s] own heart,” though in Scripture only one is recorded: “I [God] have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all of my wishes” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). God swore to David that he would “set one of his descendants on his throne” (2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 89:34-37; Acts 2:30), saying, “From the fruit of your body will I set [one] upon your throne” (Psalm 132:11). II. The Spiritual Kingdom In “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4), an angel appeared to Mary, “a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David” (Luke 1:26-27). Mary also was of the house of David, being the daughter of Eli (TALMUD, Bava Bathra, sec. 110 a), whose fathers descended from David through his son Nathan (Luke 3:23:31). To that surprised virgin the angel said: You will become pregnant and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son

The “ark of the testimony” (Exodus 25:22) was a wooden chest about four feet long, about two feet wide and about two feet deep (Exodus 25:10), made of “acacia [locust?] wood” (Exodus 25:10). A “mercy-seat [kipporeth] of pure gold” (Exodus 25:17) covered the ark. God talked with Moses “from above the mercy-seat” (Exodus 25:22; Numbers 7:89). Once a year, “on the tenth day of” the seventh month (Leviticus 16:29), our October, the high priest sprinkled the blood of a goat upon the mercy seat “with his finger seven times” to atone for the sins of the Israelites (Leviticus 16:15, 19). This annual observance was called “the day of atonement” (yom hakkippurim, “Yom Kippur,” Leviticus 23:27). The word kipporeth, derived from kaphar, “to cover,” translated as the “mercy-seat,” is “only used of the cover of the ark of the covenant” (Gesenius, 412). Kaphar means “to cover” sins, to pardon, to obtain forgiveness (Ibid.). In the New Testament, the word for the mercy seat is hilasterion, “the place where sins are forgiven” (Hebrews 9:5, Newman, 86), the “means by which sins are forgiven” (Romans 3:25, Newman, 86). Literally, hilasterion (eleos, “mercy,” and tereo, “hold”) is a “holding place for mercy.” As the high priest brought goat blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, so Jesus brought “his own blood” figuratively to sprinkle on heaven’s mercy seat, having “entered the Holy of Holies once for all time, obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). Literally, Jesus was never a priest on the earth, even

The late and esteemed Foy Smith preached a moving sermon entitled, “Have You Been to Calvary?” The word “Calvary” (Luke 23:33, KJV) or “Golgotha” (Mark 15:22) means “the place of a skull,” referring to the site of Jesus’ crucifixion. Where was Calvary? Jesus died in 30 A.D., but in 70 A.D., when General Titus’ soldiers had demolished Jerusalem, “It was so thoroughly laid even with the ground . . . that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited” (Josephus, WARS 7, 1, 1). Not a stone was left on top of another (Matthew 24:2). Where was Calvary? A rebuilt Jerusalem again rebelled against Rome under Bar Kochba in 135 A.D., but again Jerusalem was destroyed, this time by Emperor Hadrian (117-138 A.D.). Where was Calvary? On the old site, Hadrian built a pagan city, naming it “Aleia Capitolina,” and erected there a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. Under pain of death, no Jew was allowed in the city, nor even to stand at a distance to view the place of old Jerusalem (Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History, I, 154). Where was Calvary? Constantine, the first emperor to be converted to Christianity, determined in 325 A.D. to find the site of Calvary, ordering Bishop Macarius of Aelia to locate both Jesus’ death site and his burial place. Macarius prayed, and allegedly the exact locations were miraculously revealed. Constantine’s mother, the Empress Helena, on sending a large number of workmen to the

No one knows what day or what month or exactly what year Jesus was born, but his birthday does not matter. What matters, something of eternal significance, is that he was born! If Jesus was not born, the greatest book in the world, the book that “has done more for the world than all the books that men ever wrote” (William Jennings Bryan), is a book of lies! “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). “All of the prophets testify to this one” (Acts 10:43), as: But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, which are little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall one come forth to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2). For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7). If fifty prophecies about the coming of Jesus had been made, assuming an equal chance for their happening or not happening, the law of probability against all fifty being fulfilled “is greater than

“Religion And Ethics” is the title of an article in The Oregonian (5-26-01), but I look in vain to find anything in the article pertaining to religion and ethics. Michael and Dianne Alexanian (East Lansing, Michigan), “fed up with the stress of their daily grind,” have “built a Japanese meditation garden in their backyard.” Dianne says, “It’s completely changed our lives. We look forward to getting up each day. When we can’t take other people, we go to hide in the solace of our garden.” Dianne’s blood pressure has fallen, and Michael “has kicked his smoking habit.” “Millions of Americans hunger for the kind of spiritual solace the Alexanians have found in their own back yard, according to a new national survey. But people aren’t flocking to churches to find it” (David Crumm and Alexa Capeloto, Knight Ridder News Service, 5-26-01). But if “millions of Americans” and millions of non-Americans build “Japanese meditation” gardens “in their” backyards, in search of “spiritual solace” (selfish contentment?), and finally dying, what then? A young man was asked by an aged person, “What are your plans for life?” He replied, “I aim to live a clean moral life, get an education, and begin a business career.” Then the aged man asked, “What then?” He replied, “I aim to find a nice girl, marry, have children, and enjoy my family.” The aged man continued, “What then?” The lad replied, “I hope to retire and to enjoy the rest of my life.” The aged man continued, “What then?”

Today there are two Israels: (1) “Israel after the flesh” (1 Corinthians 10:18) and (2) Israel after “the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:6). This is true because “not all of those of Israel are Israel” (Romans 9:6). Those who reject Christ are the “Israel after the flesh,” and those who accept Christ are Israel after “the Spirit.” The “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is the church which Jesus built (Matthew 16:18), including “the congregations of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2). In “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) is “neither Jew nor Greek,” for both are “united in Christ Jesus; and if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29). There “is no distinction between the Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is over all, and is generous to all who call upon him” (Romans 10:12). However, someone asks, “Will not ‘all Israel,’ including ‘Israel after the flesh,’ be saved?” They will “if they do not continue in unbelief” (Romans 11:23, 26). Jesus came as a Jew (John 4:9), and tasted “death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9), but “his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). Instead, in unbelief, him they “crucified” (Acts 4:10). It is painful that even today most of “Israel after the flesh” still rejects one of their own. In “the Israel of God,” however, there is “one new man of the two,” Jew and Gentile, with both being reconciled “to God in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:15-16). Does God