Compassion and Righteousness in the Twenty First Century

The Christian Church is greatly divided by the political persuasions of her adherents. Popular political ideologies can be classified into two main categories: Right and Left. This is ironic, since even baboons can count to more than two. They can distinguish between one, two or many.

The present state of affairs can be traced back at least to the Enlightenment if not earlier. For hundreds of years the establishment, consisting of church and king/emperor, made the laws while the vast majority of citizens held little political power. Out of the latter group emerged "intellectuals" who agitated for a fairer distribution of power and wealth. In France a big clash occurred - their revolution in which the social order was radically amended. A similar pattern played out in Russia about a century later. Today the governance of church and aristocrats has been replaced by a state which wields enormous power over its citizens.

Christians have always been involved in politics. The laws of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire, were vastly shaped by Christian values. A century ago these laws were pretty much still applied in Western Society. But today there is universal suffrage, no-fault divorce and women in all spheres of influence. None of this was possible in the early twentieth century. Furthermore adultery and homosexuality are no more agains the law and in South Africa one cannot be jailed for bad debt. Whether any or all of these changes in law are good or bad is debatable, but two things have to be kept in mind in the debates: 1. Should the state legislate on all these issues?, and 2. Which ethical code must be used to draft the laws?

Lawmakers often invoke Judaeo-Christian values to justify their position but they normally do so by a one-sided emphasis of some passage in the Bible. They become driven by ideology rather than truth. In two-party systems the voting public is confronted by uncomfortable choices. For instance, if you vote against state sponsored abortions, you could find yourself voting for uncontrolled damage to the natural environment. It is important to note that the sanctity of life and the protection of the environment are both Judaeo-Christian values. Thus Christians are pitted against Christians in these debates.

In Europe the Reformation preceded the Enlightenment. The reformers fought, and some died, in their quest for personal freedoms. Two hundred and seventy one years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg the French revolutionaries were agitating under the banner of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. They had taken these values out of the original context of the Reformation and were applying them to all affairs of state. Today the meaning of Equality is the root of destructive disputes between "right" and "left". For Bible believing Christians Fraternity has little meaning apart from the fraternity of believers. How Liberty is to be pursued is also the topic of vicious debates.

Since the era of the early church Christians have cared for the vulnerable in society while the state has mostly ignored them. Some of the adherents of ideologies born of the Enlightenment like to claim that many of today's state sponsored benefits were pioneered by "enlightened" individuals. History proves that the initiatives were almost exclusively driven by Christians. Of course the laws could only be passed with majority vote. Many legislators were in agreement with laws that were more humane than the previous ones, even if they were not of the Christian persuasion. But today Christians are a minority in most Western legislatures. The values Liberty, Equality, Fraternity have been extended to areas most Christians cannot support. Radical lawmakers continually press for laws that "normalise" deviant behaviour, maybe because many of them have succumbed to depravity.

In the twentieth century Christians have been at the forefront of the rehabilitation of alcoholics, drug addicts and people with behaviours traditionally frowned on. The dilemma facing the Western Church today is the political pressure exerted on her to conform to values accepted by modern society but which clash with sound doctrine. We must be compassionate to the wayward but maintain doctrinal integrity. This pressure has caused many pastors to endorse one or other political party. There is no precedent for it in the New Testament. However, pastors are obliged to teach Biblical ethics, clearly spelling out what God regards as right and wrong.

The miracle of eternal life

 After Adam and Eve lost their first two sons, to murder and to exile respectively, they had another. Seth was born "in the image and likeness" of his father Adam (Genesis 5:3). Noah was a descendant of Seth, and everyone on earth today is a descendant of Noah. It follows that each man on earth is an image of an image of ... an image of Noah.

After humans had attempted and failed, for about 4000 years, to live the way our Creator had intended, Jesus was sent into the world. Eve had been promised that someone of her "seed" would come to crush the head of the snake who had deceived her (Genesis 3:15). The images of Adam in all the men had become too corrupt to produce a new kind of human. Therefore Mary conceived Jesus by the power of the "Most High" (Luke 1:35). Paul called Jesus the "second Adam" which is also the "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).

Jesus is therefore both human and divine. Most of the non-Jewish Christians of the first few centuries came from a Hellenistic (Greek) culture. They struggled with the idea that a divine being could live in a material body, since they regarded matter as inherently evil and spirit as good. The early church debated the issue for centuries and drafted creeds to differentiate between catholic (general/orthodox) faith and heresy. If Jesus was not divine, it would be idolatry to worship him. That is why today Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims and Jews accuse Christians of idolatry. To make sure the flock understood the official position of the Church, the Nicene Creed (AD 325) states among others that Jesus was "begotten, not made, of the same essence as the Father". The Creed of Chalcedon (AD 451) went further and officially declared the Virgin Mary to be "Theotokos", the Greek word for "God-bearer" which some translate as Mother of God. Not all modern day followers of Jesus approve of this designation.

Because "all have sinned", we all deserve to die (Romans 3:23). This is according to the announcement of the Lord (Genesis 2:16-17; Ezekiel 18:4). Jesus never sinned but he identified with sinners, even to the extent that he was baptised. John baptised people who confessed that they were sinners (Mark 1:4). Jesus was baptised by John "to fulfil all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). This means that he was going to die like a sinner and make it possible for those who believed in him to be regarded as righteous (Galatians 2:16). By faith in Jesus we become new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are the new humanity of which Jesus, the second Adam, was the first. His claim to this title was confirmed by his resurrection from the dead.

The miracle of life

 I recently had a scare. My blood pressure soared and I had chest pains. It got me to think of the function of my heart. It is a pump that has not stopped working for more than 78 years. It is the engine that moves blood to every part of my body. If any part of my body is deprived of blood for a period, irreversible damage is incurred. The period depends on the body part; for the brain it is minutes, for muscles a few hours. Christian and Judaic doctrine states that the life is in the blood. That was why Noah, and by implication all mankind, was forbidden to eat blood (Genesis 9:4).

My mind went to how my life had originated. A little cell in my mother came into the environment where it was susceptible to unite with one of the thousands of cells of my father. Each cell was a little factory with a very specific instruction set in its DNA. After the cells had combined into one, the new little factory started to make more cells, acting on the information contained in the DNA of the merged cell. That was the beginning of what was to become a fully functional human being. If you'll excuse my satire, when I think of this process, I want to exclaim "Evolution is very clever!"

Where does the human soul come into this? Both the Hebrew and Greek words for "soul" are words also used for "life". Who knows when consciousness dawns on the new baby? What is important is that there is life in each human, life which he/she inherits from the first human (Acts 17:26). That means we each have a "spark" of the Divine, each being an image of God, although a distorted image.

The process of restoration of God's image in each person begins when the person is "born from above" (John 3:3). This means one has to be willing to "live by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). But whoever desires to live by the Spirit has to forsake love of the "fleshly life" (John 12:24-25). Jesus did not only set the example, he made it possible (Ephesians 2:1-5).

Israel and the Church

If being a Zionist is to believe the state of Israel has a right to exist, like any of the other states of the United Nations, then I'm a Zionist. If it means to believe the Creator has a special calling for the Jews of today and throughout the ages, then I'm still a Zionist. If, to be a Zionist, I have to believe Jews can be saved through Judaism, then count me out.

The Abrahamic covenant included land for his descendants (Genesis 12:7; 13:15; 15:18), but Abraham had many descendants. Hagar and Ketura bore children for him as well as Sarah. They were originators of several nations (Genesis 17:4; 17:16), but according to Genesis 12:2 Abraham would be made into a great nation, singular.  There is no reason why these other nations may not claim to be blessed because of their ancestor Abraham. But regarding the land, God made covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 17:19; 24:7; 26:3; 28:13). His covenant with Israel is confirmed as eternal by the words of the prophets such as in Jeremiah 31:37. Paul told the Athenians that God fixed times and places for all nations (Acts 17:26).

God's covenant with Abraham was not only about land. Through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Paul interpreted this seed to be Jesus the Messiah (Galatians 3:16). This interpretation can also be derived from the  gospels and Acts. Matthew 12:21 is a quotation from Isaiah 42:4 where it was prophesied  that the nations would put their hope in his name. In Mark 11:17 Jesus applied Isaiah 56:7 to the temple, saying it was supposed to be for all nations. Paul quoted Isaiah 49:6 in Acts 13:47 to prove that Jesus would be a light to the nations.

None of these verses exclude the possibility that the Jews would also be a light to the nations. But Pharisaic Judaism cannot possibly make converts for the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus made that very clear by cursing the fig tree (Matthew 21:19), and also by means of the parable of the tenants of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-45). The Pharisees knew he was implying that the keys to the Kingdom would be taken from them and given to another. The keys were given to the new custodians of salvation, namely the Church of the Messiah, Jews and gentiles (Matthew 16:18-19; Ephesians 3:6).

From time immemorial nations have had official religions. Since the time of Constantine there has been animosity between Jews and the official church of the Roman Empire and churches of the states originating from the empire. On both sides of the conflict there are those who incorrectly believe the Church belongs to the gentiles. From this perception many theologians draw the conclusion that the Church has replaced Israel.

State churches are based on the erroneous notion that all its citizens are people of God. If this assumption is accepted as true, then it follows logically that all the citizens of ancient Judah and Israel were people of God. That would mean the Church replaced ancient Israel and the covenant God made with Jacob regarding his descendants is no longer valid.

A more accurate understanding of modern Israel and of the Church is possible. The same people who persecuted the Jews over the last two millennia, also persecuted true believers in Jesus, especially those who rejected the baptism of infants as unscriptural. The reformers of Luther's day struggled with the question of who the members of the "true Church" were. Unfortunately they did not always have the courage of their convictions. This is very understandable if one considers the fate of John Huss, William Tyndale and thousands of "anabaptists".

Christians who support the BDS movement are misguided, engaging in "level 1 thinking", a term used by Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. They should examine their moral compass by thinking slower before drawing flawed conclusions about the Middle East conflict. They should consider the regimes with whom they align themselves. Freedom of religion is regarded by the United Nations as a fundamental human right but this right is denied by many of its member countries. Persons who support terrorist organisations must appease their consciences by believing "the end justifies the means". 

There are also Christians who support Israel but pay scant attention to Paul's words regarding the gospel, namely "to the Jew first". Some of their support can even end up in the hands of Jews who persecute believers in Jesus, following in the footsteps of their forefathers who persecuted the prophets. Rather, Christians should be champions of Messianic Judaism in which Jewish believers observe Jewish culture.

Eternal security

An interesting story is told about a remark by the physicist Wolfgang Pauli when his opinion was asked concerning a paper written by a student. "Not only is it not right: it is not even wrong", was his comment. I wish to say the same to someone who asks "Can I lose my salvation?" David prayed to God: “Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation” (Psalm 51:12). In other words, salvation was never David's to begin with.

The whole problem started in Eden when Adam and Eve wanted to be "like God". They wanted to judge for themselves between good and evil instead of accepting the authority of their Maker. Many Christians only want one thing from their Creator, namely the assurance that they will go to heaven when they die. After they feel confident that they have met the requirements, they want to lead their lives as they see fit. They do not realise that by ignoring God's counsel, they are setting themselves up at the centre of their own universe. I have heard someone say the most common form of idolatry is people idolising themselves.

I think a more reasonable question to ask would be "Can I change my mind about being a Christian?" People have talked about this question for hundreds of years. It leads to another question, namely “Do we have a free will and if so, how free is it?” Christians do not all have the same answers to these questions. That is one of the reasons why there are different churches.

One of the slogans used in this debate is: “Once saved, always saved”. This thinking has as its starting point that God is almighty and does whatever he wants to. He creates some to be saved and others to be lost. The following verses and parts of verses are used to prove this (Calvinist) belief:

• The Lord opened her heart to hear what Paul said (Acts 16:14).
• No man can come to Me unless the Father gives him the desire to come to Me (John 6:44).
• So God has loving-kindness for those He wants to. He makes some have hard hearts if He wants to (Romans 9:18).
• I chose you twelve and one of you is a devil (John 6:70).
• But God chose me before I was born (Galatians 1:15).
• I will never leave you or let you be alone (Hebrews 13:5).
• I give them life that lasts forever. They will never be punished. No one is able to take them out of My hand (John 10:28).

Those who say that a Christian's salvation depends completely on his/her own  endurance also base their opinion on the Bible. They say that God will never go against our free will. If he did, we would be no more than machines. Every person is free to decide to become a child of God and also to walk away from God. This (Armenian) outlook is backed up by the following verses and parts of verses:

• He is hard on those who fall away. But He is kind to you if you keep on trusting Him. If you do not, He will cut you off (Romans 11:22).
• If anyone does not remain in Me, he is cut off like a branch and dries up. Such branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and they are burned (John 15:6).
• You are saved from the punishment of sin by the Good News if you keep hold of it, unless your faith was worth nothing (1 Corinthians 15:2).
• But the one who stays true to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13).
• Brothers and sisters, make sure you are among those He has chosen and called out for His own (2 Peter 1:10).
• It is not his purpose that anyone should be destroyed, but that all people should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
• When the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness, he will die because of it. And when the wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he will live because of it. (Ezekiel 33:18-19).

Many more verses can be added to both arguments but I believe these scriptures prove neither the strict Calvinistic nor the Armenian view. As an example of the futility of these arguments consider the following question: Was Judas Iscariot "saved" and then lost his salvation? The Arminian will say yes, while the Calvinist will deny that he was ever "saved". I say "God knows; I don't have to know".

The problem with these quarrels is that it hinges on what the opposing parties mean when they use the word "saved". Do I have the ability to deny the free gift of salvation? Am I "saved" because I responded to the gospel, and at that time had the assurance my sins were forgiven? Does it mean that on that occasion my sins were forgiven "past, present and future"? Do I have to change my behaviour after making the decision to follow Jesus? Do I have to be baptised to be "saved"? Do I have to regularly confess my sins in order to remain "saved"? Soteriology is the branch of Biblical studies which busies itself with these questions and many more.

But the average Christian can be helped to gain assurance of salvation by accepting that:

• By receiving Jesus I became a child of God (John 1:12);
• God’s way of working in our hearts is above our understanding (Romans 11:33);
• Every believer must trust God to help him/her overcome sin (1 Corinthians 10:13);
• Martyrdom does not guarantee salvation (1 Corinthians 13:3);
• God's plan for a believer is to be in a Christian community (1 John 3:14);
• We have been saved to do good works (Ephesians 2:10);
• Our assurance is based on our relationship with the Saviour (1 John 5:12-13).

To understand why Calvinists and Arminianists will argue till kingdom come, I have found it helpful to compare it with a picture which can be viewed in two ways, but not in both ways at the same time, like the ones described in https://mentalbomb.com/my-wife-and-my-mother-in-law.

Paradise lost and regained

The English words "in the beginning", found in the first chapter of Genesis, do not do justice to the Hebrew. One may be tempted to ask "the beginning of what?" But the meaning of the Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:1 is not the common Hebrew word for "beginning". According to Christian doctrine, worked out after centuries of debates, "in the beginning" there were the Father, the Word and the Spirit.

They decided to create Adam and allow him into their friendship circle. There is no indication that Eve was excluded from the harmonious relationship between God and man. Their unity was due to the fact that God is love and love is not self-centred. Humans were still to demonstrate that they would not upset this peaceful order. Adam and Eve proved not to be completely trustworthy. They decided to "go it alone" by excluding their Creator from their decision to do the one thing that would be fatal to their fellowship with him. On that day they died spiritually (Genesis 2:17). They felt exposed and inadequate to talk to the Lord. Instead of crying out to him for help they ran away and hid. This is still the knee-jerk reaction of humans when we sin.

God was not unprepared for the turn of events. He promised that "the seed of the woman" would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). By triumphing over principalities and powers, the Deliverer would restore fellowship between the Creator and those who accepted his terms (Colossians 2:15). He seems to have made a covenant to this effect with Seth (Genesis 4:26).

In John's first pastoral letter he invited his readers to have fellowship with him and his fellow believers. He claims that their fellowship was with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. John implied that it was up to individuals to respond to the proclamation of the Word of Life which he equated with "that which was from the beginning" (1 John 1:1-3). In John's gospel he identified the Word, which was in the beginning, with Jesus. On the night he was delivered to the Sanhedrin Jesus claimed that, amongst others, he was "the Life". Before Adam sinned, fellowship with the Word of Life was automatic; after all, it was God's own breath which made Adam into a "living soul".

One of the capabilities humans have due to being created in the image of God, is the potential to procreate humans after our own image (Genesis 5:3). Sin caused God's image in us to be distorted and we reproduce the distortions in our children. They are born self-centred, "dead to God". That is why they need to be born from above to see the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:3). The tragic story of Cain and Abel illustrates the painful consequences of the desire to "know good and evil". Cain allowed himself to be ruled by his emotions of anger and resentment. He did not seem to have any remorse for his action, only fearful of its consequences (Genesis 4:13-14).

Nevertheless, Jesus said we need to become "like little children". He could not have referred to the predisposition of children to sin. A hint at what he meant is found in Matthew 18:6 where he pronounced a curse on anyone who would cause a "little one" who believed in him  to "stumble". Although children are born in sin, they have a natural tendency to be naïve and trusting. I think God created Adam and Eve with that same characteristic. The snake sowed distrust in their minds regarding the Lord. That was the seedbed for the first sin.

Was Adam's conscience sufficient to keep him from doing evil? It would seem from the Lord's conversation with Cain that it was possible for the early humans to choose good (Genesis 4:7). Man's conscience was not yet so polluted that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). But our default tendency is to want to be "free" to make our own decisions. Since we have different preferences, there has to be rules to govern our behaviour. We refused to obey the single command which was given in Eden. Now we need guidelines to help us live in harmony with each other.

After the flood the remnant of mankind was given the Noahic covenant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_Noah). The instructions contained in it have not been repealed. Later God made a covenant with Israel at Sinai in which he gave them the ten commandments and elaborate instructions based on them. Laws and courts are essential for a functioning society. The scribes and Pharisees codified the laws into 613 commandments. They also amplified the laws with traditions which made life for ordinary people onerous (Matthew 23:23).

If we make love our aim (1 Corinthians 14:1) we would not violate any law, since there is no law against the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). If this mindset had prevailed in Adam and Eve, there would have been no Fall - the world would not have been cursed. But those who become citizens of the Kingdom of God through the new birth receive the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15) which enables us to love God and our neighbour. He promises us freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17), something human beings instinctively crave. Christians are free from the ceremonial laws prescribed by Moses (Galatians 5:1-5).

While we are in this world we cannot expect to be completely free of sin (1 John 1:8-9). We mature as we learn to discern good from evil (Hebrews 5:14). Our desire for independence is clearly not from God who made us to be in relationship with him (Revelation 21:3).

End Times - the Jews

There are different opinions today about who the Jews are. The State of Israel has criteria which it uses to determine the eligibility of a person to immigrate to it. Some wisecracks have decided to use DNA tests to prove that most Jews are not descended from Jacob. For the purpose of this discussion I assume that people who say they are Jews, had a bar mitzva or bat mitzva and celebrate Passover are in fact the Jews of the last days. Although the word Jew originally meant someone from the tribe of Judah, all the other 11 tribes are also included in this designation today.

Because the Israelites broke their covenant with JHWH, he raised up the Assyrians and Babylonians to take them into exile. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The exiled Israelites could no longer offer sacrifices. They retained their religion by establishing synagogues in the towns they lived. In these the scriptures were read and community events organised.

Pagans who were interested in the one true God could attend meetings in synagogues and even convert to Judaism. Those who preferred not to follow the ceremonial laws of Moses were given the title God-fearers. Cornelius was such a person (Acts 10:1-2) and Paul met many of them in his apostolic journeys (Acts 13:50; 17:4; 17:17; 18:7). In this way the pre-Christian gospel became available to non-Jews of the empires whether Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek or Roman.

Tragically, when the Messiah arrived, a large amount of Jews did not recognise him. However, there were tens of thousands of Messianic Jews (Acts 21:20). Believers in Jesus were called Nozerim (Nazarenes) by the anti-messianic Jews who discouraged them from attending their synagogues. They did so by introducing a benediction which the Pharisee congregations would recite when they met. Believers would in effect invoke a curse on themselves if they were to join in reciting it (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/birkat-ha-minim). Those Jewish believers in Jesus who joined gentile churches had another problem. The churches discouraged them from continuing to observe Jewish feasts.

Over the centuries such a rift emerged between Jews and gentiles that Jews who wanted to convert to Christianity were compelled to deny their Jewishness. The words "Messianic and Christian are in theory interchangeable, but in actuality, miles apart because of the history between so-called Christians and the Jewish people" (https://www.roncantor.com/post/why-i-don-t-call-myself-christian). 

Since the middle of the 20th century things have changed for Jewish believers in Jesus. Many Messianic congregations have been established all over the world. Members of these assemblies believe in Jeshua (his Jewish name) and continue to follow Jewish traditions. Also, since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Israeli congregations have been founded. They sing, preach and teach in Hebrew. John also prophesied that 144000 Israelis would play a key role in the end times. God is keeping a record of the tribe from which each of them would come (Revelation 7:1-8; 14:1). 

The statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (see End Times: A prequel) is eventually pulverised (Jeremiah 51:24; Revelation 17:4-5; 17:16). The statue represents the empires that ruled and will rule from the time of the Babylonians until it gets replaced by an everlasting Kingdom. The demolition of the statue comes from a stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:34-35). That Kingdom will have its capital in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3; 60:14). The cornerstone of that Kingdom is the One which was rejected by the rulers of the Jews (Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 21:42).