Dressing for the Bridegroom
By Mrs Chan Tean Yin
THE bride in white walks gracefully and guardedly down the aisle towards the waiting bridegroom. She is the most beautiful woman in the hall. All eyes gaze upon her radiant loveliness. The bridesmaids and the flower girls, dressed in spaghetti-striped gowns, also draw the attention of the people. The atmosphere is almost ‘unreal’. There’s a touch of both Disneyland and Hollywood, and the spectators at the modern church wedding are mesmerized. As the bride continues her walk down the aisle, eyes move from her smiling face to the details of her wedding gown. Some are a little disturbed by what they see. Some may shrug it off. ‘This is the 21st century. We’ve got to go with the fashion trends.’ I often wonder how the officiating ministers manage to concentrate without being more than ‘a little distracted’ by the bride’s and bridesmaids’ scant attire.
A senior pastor observed that one of the most disturbing trends creeping into the Malaysian church today has to do with women’s attire in church, especially at church weddings. The wedding ceremony, one of the most holy and solemn ceremonies, has turned into a fashion show of sorts. It is a fashion show displaying not the ‘best dressed’ but the ‘least dressed.’ The senior pastor lamented that perhaps the Malaysian church has lost its cutting edge. If we do not address this issue of proper attire in the holy place, we will not be able to attract our neighbours of other faiths who have a more respectful attitude towards places of worship. The Muslims and Hindus, for example, have such reverence for their places of worship that they ensure they are properly attired and their women are covered up when they worship. In contrast, Christians tend to be lax and seem to have thrown away decorum in dressing and grooming in the name of ‘liberty in the Spirit.’ It is time for Christian women to bring back modesty in their attire.
Modest Dressing
The subject of modest dressing can be controversial among Christians today. Yet, it is an issue that every church ought to face. M. Thaxter Dickey writing on the subject says, ‘Every family, every Christian woman must consider modesty not only as a philosophical, theological and doctrinal issue but as a practical daily concern.’
Today’s Scenario
Immodesty is a serious problem today because we are living in an era that glorifies immodesty and immorality. Just look at the commercial advertisements of today - regardless of what they are advertising (cars, food, cosmetics, etc) the focus is not on the product but on the immodestly dressed man or woman. No wonder immodesty is now so commonly accepted and it does not disturb most people. The younger generation has no qualms about dressing like the supermodels and celebrity models.
M. Thaxter Dickey observes: "At least superficially, they seem to have no shame about this kind of dress. I suspect that they do have doubts but they are reluctant to admit them and so suppress them lest they be thought to be ‘prudes’ or ‘religious fanatics’ or ‘fashion fascists.’ And those who ought to be condemning this kind of behaviour, fathers, preachers, and elders, often fear to do so for the very same reason."
What is Modesty?
Modesty is decency. It is not sexually provocative. Another writer, David Feddes, puts it very well. ‘If you are modest, you have a kind of shyness about sexuality, a discomfort with crude jokes and lewd stares. This doesn’t mean you are ashamed of your body or that you think it’s bad. If you are modest…there’s a strong sense that this passion (love life) is very precious, personal and private. Nakedness may be lovely in the marriage bed but not as a public display.’
Large numbers of women in our immodest culture just do not get it. They choose to wear immodest clothing. Pastor and author Douglas Wilson says: ‘Many of the current fashions for young women appear to be apparel in standard use down at the local Hooker Training Academy.’ Some styles are so similar to prostitutes that Wilson’s wife told him ‘it must be difficult for men these days trying to figure out which ones they have to pay for and which ones are free.’ Unfortunately, today even many church people dress indecently to church services. Wilson puts it this way: ‘Many Christian women go to worship today dressed in a manner that would have gotten them thrown out of a bar fifty years ago.’
What does scriptures say about modest dress for Christian women?
God does not give us a detailed dress code in the Bible. He does not require Christian women today to hide behind thick veils or look plain and dowdy. In God’s eyes, character matters more than clothing. But He is concerned about modesty and calls for it in our dressing and appearance. This message is needed today even more than when it was first written!
1 Peter 3:3-4
‘Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfailing beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.’
1 Timothy 2:9-10
‘I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.’
These passages are primarily a condemnation of finery and ostentation rather than sexual immorality, but they also contain the positive injunction to women to dress appropriately as befits a people who profess to be godly.
Proverbs 7:10
‘Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent.’ This passage is a powerful acknowledgement that some forms of dress are designed to attract unlawful sexual desire and are thus condemned.
Why is modesty important to Christian women?
Does modesty matter in today’s church? Besides the scriptural injunction in 1 Peter 3 and 1 Timothy 2 that exhort Christian women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety befitting one who confesses to godliness, there are other practical reasons for maintaining modest dress. M Thaxter Dickey gives five reasons why Christian women should not dress immodestly.
1. It is unfair to men
Men are easily aroused by ‘sight’. It is therefore dangerous to their souls to see women dressed indecently, especially in church. Though the weakness may be theirs, women should not be a stumbling block to our fellow brethren.
‘Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.’ (Romans 14:13).
‘Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak’ (1 Corinthians 8:9).
2. It is a dangerous threat to chastity
Clothing is an important non-verbal communication that sends signals to the receivers. Thus, indecent dressing sends signals that can lead to sexual violation. Many rape cases occur due to impropriety in dressing on the part of the victims. Dickey advises, ‘Chastity must be motivated by respect for one’s body and the dignity of others. Parents, especially fathers who ought to know about such things, should be watchful so that immoral fashions and attitudes do not violate the integrity of the home, especially through the uncritical acceptance of the messages of the mass media.’[v]
3. Immodest dress is unfair to other women
Today’s fashion trend is putting pressure on women to compete for the sexual attention of men. This invariably reduces the value of women to that of a sex object. Dickey again puts it succinctly: ‘It is unfair to women because it forces them into a restrictive code of dress and beauty that is primarily sexual. Women today find themselves competing with the artificial sexy image of womanhood that Hollywood and Madison Avenue have created…that is the reason for the plethora of women’s mental problem of insecurity and low self esteem as well as the actual physical health produced by excess dieting in a futile attempt to measure up.’
4. It is an indicator of certain character
‘Clothes maketh a man’, so the saying goes. The way one dresses indicates the character and personality of the wearer. Clothing is a powerful non-verbal message. As Christian women, it is important to send the right signals through our dressing. Related to this, the Bible speaks of ‘the attire of the harlot’ (Proverbs 7:10) which indicates to us that there is an inappropriate way of dressing which Christian women must be careful to avoid.
Dickey says of today’s fashion, "Modern dress is nothing short of exhibitionism. Women who choose to display their breasts, thighs or buttocks, either mostly uncovered or with form fitting clothes, to public view must at best endure the public attention that it brings and at worst they must enjoy this kind of exposure."
5.Immodest dressing reflects poorly on one’s vocation as a Christian woman
To put it simply, modesty in dressing is a testimony to unbelievers. While Christian women do not want to be branded as ‘old fashioned’, ‘prudish or ‘fashion fascists’, we want to project to the world that we are a people who believe in decency, chastity and purity. We may be regarded as peculiar to the ungodly, but don’t forget, we are a set-apart people, set apart from the garish, glitzy, exploiting, mindless fashion world of today.
Our outward appearance should reflect the spiritual convictions we hold so dearly. We must not contradict our faith and convictions by immodest dressing.
Conclusion
The subject of modest dressing for the Christian woman cannot be exhausted in this one article. I am aware there are many more points for discussion eg the cultural differences in interpretation of what constitutes ‘modesty.’ What might be immodest in one culture would not be so in another eg revealing of the hands, ankles, face, etc. What is culturally inappropriate in one culture may be totally acceptable in another. However, it is hoped that Christian women would agree that ‘immodest attire’ is that state of dress or (undress) which flaunts a person’s body and sexuality. Christians, note the way we dress when we go to church. How different are we from those going to discos or entertainment centers? While it is true that the Bible does not give us a detailed dress code, and passages like 1 Peter 3:3-5 and 1 Timothy2:9-10 are more concerned with character and conduct rather than clothes or external appearance, nevertheless, Scriptures call for modesty and propriety. The problem with today’s church is that we tend to stretch our Christian liberty too far. It is time to remind ourselves, that as Christian women we have a testimony to maintain. We do this not only with our actions, words and deeds but also in the way we dress and make ourselves presentable for we are the Bride of the Bridegroom.
Tean Yin is a member of the NECF Women’s Commission.
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God is Anti-Nakedness
By Pastor Susan Tang
OH, if only we knew this - that God is anti-nakedness. If every Christian woman knows this, it will change the way she dresses. Many of us fail the test when it comes to implementing the Lordship of Jesus Christ in this area of our lives.
The Scriptures are very clear about how godly women should dress. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul instructed women to dress modestly with shamefacedness (shyness) and sobriety. Put in today’s language, the passage in 1 Timothy 2:9-10 simply means that there must be discretion, decency, and a degree of shyness (over too much exposure) in our dressing.
If we Christian women cannot even adhere to such a simple commandment to dress modestly or decently, then what other commandments can we keep? The Scriptures clearly forbid women to wear clothes that are indecent and that suggest wantonness in our character. Whether we like it or not, one’s character is definitely seen in one’s dressing! That is why people react with hostility when we comment negatively on their dressing because they see it as an attack on their character. It behoves us to remember that the worship of God has everything to do with our outward demeanour and our dressing.
It is not true that Christian women cannot adorn themselves or be dressed fashionably, tastefully, sophisticatedly or attractively. Have you noticed the way God adorns His own creation! Just look at the different hues and the blending of colours in the flowers, the birds, the rainbow, the sea and the clouds. It is amazing!
Creation definitely displays God’s good taste and love of beauty, refinement and colours. Creation is variegated and it speaks loudly to us that God is a God of variety and design. He is artistic, innovative and resourceful. Yes, we can adorn ourselves in whatever way we want but definitely not in a manner that is distasteful or indecent. This will not only draw untoward and negative attention to us but will also fuel men’s minds with uncontrollable lust and obscenity. Hollywood is full of this stuff. It is because Jesus is not the Lord of Hollywood.
Christian women are called to be the true guardians of virtue, but have we today degenerated so much that we have no true luster in our character? Are we so destitute of inward beauty that we have to dress immodestly and seductively to draw attention to ourselves? Surely not! Must we dress provocatively so that we can be special or ‘singular’ enough to court some notice or admiration from lustful and wanton eyes? Of course not! Have we no more Holy Ghost power to draw people to Jesus that we have to revert to indecent dressing or dressing like the world in order to draw in the crowds? No! No1 No! Must I degenerate into a prostitute in order to win the prostitute, or become a drug addict before I can preach to the drug addict? God forbid! Yet some women in some churches are advocating: ‘Dress like the world so we can draw them in!’ What dark satanic counsel! This is so frightening.
Jesus Christ has set the value of women to be higher than the price of rubies. We are costly and precious. Let us remain so! We are to be His ‘garden enclosed and fountain sealed.’ We do not need this cheap publicity copied from Hollywood. We have God’s nobility, beauty, standard, power and holiness inside, and more than this, we have His love. Let all these be expressed through our dressing.
Why copy from Hollywood? Hollywood women are destitute of these qualities. This is why they dress the way they do. Every form of rebellion, lust, pride, uncleanness, lack of self-restraint, perversion and selfishness has been expressed through their fashions and their dressing.
The saying, ‘God looks on the inside, not on the outside, so do not judge people by their dressing’ is wrong, wrong, wrong! Why? Because the inside always controls the outside. Dress is always a symbol of our character. Our choice of clothes reveals deep things about us, things that we are not even conscious of. If a woman shows no outward restraint or shame in her scanty or improper dressing, it means she has no self-restraint on her inside. It is frightening when a woman exercises no restraint in her thoughts and feelings and does not even know what ‘shamefacedness’ (shyness) or embarrassment is. God’s scathing rebuke to the nation of Israel revealed their terrible state of degeneration and deviation. The nation did not even know shame. They ‘could not blush.’ In the end God had to destroy them. Read Jeremiah 6:15.
Christian women need to be taught to dress with modesty and discretion because so many churches in the city are impacted with improperly and immodestly dressed women. Many pastors and church leaders do not dare speak out for fear of the repercussions. As we grow in our knowledge of God, we will realize that Father God loves discretion and order and hates nakedness and immodesty. This aspect of His character is seen in His commandments to the nation of Israel. Firstly, we see Him instructing His people in the Old Testament to put fringes in their sleeves, to the hemline and to the neckline of their garments to properly cover themselves. Read Deuteronomy 22:12.
Secondly, He specifically instructed that altars in those days were to be built on lower ground. To have altars built on a high place would mean that the priests had to walk up the steps to carry out their services. This would uncover their nakedness to the people below. What a prudent and discreet God. He is so full of details, foresight and insight. His thoughts are on everything. He even safeguarded His priests from peeping toms! Yes, when it came to worshipping Him, He made sure that nothing would infringe upon that sacred and holy worship, not even improper demeanour or dressing. Read Exodus 20;26.
Know your God, ladies. Know your God. Know that He is indeed discreet and modest and He hates uncovered bodies. As we increase in our knowledge of Him, may we also improve on the way we dress ourselves. Let there be decency and modesty in our attire.
Our children must learn the right things from us. If mothers do not dress properly, their children will not. If pastors’ wives do not dress moderately, the church members will not. Every godly pastor and church leader or Christian statesman should pastor his wife in the area of her dressing if she has missed the mark. I am not talking about control; I am talking about directing so that their spouses will dress properly and discreetly, with the testimony of Jesus shining through their lives. If we want our children to grow up with a sense of godliness and worth, then they must be taught the ways of God. They must be taught to value their own bodies as private property and as God’s holy temple. Yes, children must be taught that their bodies are not public property. They are not to be gawked at by lustful men and lecherous eyes on the street.
Yes, the experiential and revelational knowledge of our God must indeed raise us from the degradation of all sensuality and vulgarity, so often found in our dressing, to purity and nobility. God’s standard, found in the Bible, should minister guidance for life, release true solace or security for our spirits and provide us with instruction for righteousness in our daily living…and dressing.
O God, help us. Help us glorify You in every area of our lives. We are called to change and to influence the world but why is the world changing and influencing so many of us instead? Help us to manifest Your nobility, holiness, purity, beauty and refinement through our outward demeanour and our dressing. By Your Holy Spirit, deal with us and work obedience into us so that the testimony of Jesus will be recovered in our dressing. May the holiness, the serenity, quietness, nobility and refinement of Jesus be seen through our dressing.
This is an extract from "My Life: Increasing in the Experiential and Revelational Knowledge of God".
**Extracted from Christian literature and not personal written by me! ***
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Monday, January 24, 2005
Christian's Cremation!
This is a discussed issue found at a Christian newsgroups concerning Christian cremation. Credit for this article should go to “Saltlight” channel:
Many people nowadays promote cremation of the dead because of several reasons we can think of e.g. (1) might be those who denies God (2) lacks of land space (3) His promise regarding the resurrection of the dead (3) Etc. The Bible doesn't say cremation is sin. However, it was not practiced by God's people either in the Old and New Testaments' times, though many nations around Israel did burn their dead. In Old Testament days, the Jews buried their dead with the exception of some criminals, who were burned as punishment. Thus, we learn from Scripture the burning a body is dishonoring it. Man is not an animal. Man is a unique creation fashioned after the creator and has eternal significance. The Jews considered it a tragedy if a person wasn't buried. Both the Hebrews and Christians buried their dead knowing that the cemetery was only a resting place for one body; it would rise again in the resurrection. With all of its frailties, there is sanctity about the Christian's body. The body is not garbage; each was designed as a house for a person in which to live to fulfill God's promise. Burial shows respects for the person who was honored in that body. It also shows respect for the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). But in today's world, cremation is a normal thing so I wonder if cremation is biblical or not by writing this topic whether agree or not, let us ponder over this issue of how to dispose of our bodies when we die. (Some of the points given here was not from mine alone as it was more of a discussion on a Christian newsgroup channel).
At one time when I was much younger I thought the mode was important. I was not in favor of cremation because I kept wondering: what if people mistakenly thought I was dead and proceeded to cremate me! I would not survive their mistake! But if they buried me, perhaps I still had a chance to break out of the coffin and give everyone second thoughts! It’s an extremely unlikely scenario but trust me for thinking about such eventualities. But now that I’m older I think that even if they bury me by mistake there’s no chance of my getting out alive because I would be six feet underground!
Many Christians advocated cremation but on the other hand, expressed concern about the effect on the assembly of our resurrected bodies. That’s what I call looking ahead! However, many of us agree that the mode of disposal of our present bodies is immaterial. God doesn’t need the pieces of our old bodies to create new ones, right?
I’d go for the cheapest way (the cheapskate that I am!). Burial plots are getting more expensive these days so I find a case for cremation on that account. But they might as well take my body in a boat and throw it into the sea. It may be eaten up by the sharks but I don’t care. That might be even cheaper and it does the same job! However, if any of you wish to follow my advice, do get a reputable doctor to issue a death certificate first. Otherwise, someone may accuse you of murder by drowning!
About the age-old concern for respect of a dead body which is why people sought proper burials. On biblical grounds from the NT, Grace is more concerned about taking good physical care of our bodies while still alive and refraining from sexual immorality. I think that as long as we avoid acts of perversion on dead bodies (such as mutilation, necrophilia, and the like) we are showing enough respect. There’s no need to go too far.
I remember visiting a Chinese cemetery in a suburb of Manila where rich folks built grandiose structures to house the dead. You can even put a mahjong table in one of these halls and some even play mahjong there, I’m told. The Filipino tour guide shook her head at these structures and I can imagine how insensitive these ostentatious displays are to a population where many yet alive have no adequate housing.
In my view, how you take care of people you like (or love) after they die is immaterial. It is how you interact with them while they are alive that is important. My mother died many years before I became a Christian and when she died I promised myself that I would pray for her soul every night for one year. I was educated in a Catholic school and I recited the Lord’s Prayer. I think I did it partly from concern about her afterlife and partly from a sense of guilt. I had many conflicts with her because I had grudges against her arising from my childhood. She died of a brain tumor. Of course I now know that praying for the dead is not biblical. It does nothing for them.
If I may extend this topic further, the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus tells us, among other things, that we can have no communion with the dead. That’s why Benny Hinn was roundly criticized for saying that he was taken up in spirit to have communion with the late Kathryn Kuhlman.
William Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we are merely players, with our exits and entrances. This is the one most depressing thing I find about this world - the exits of a few friends that I liked. The Lord whisked them away without warning, leaving me wishing I had found more time to spend with them while they were still alive. Perhaps God is testing my responses to people and do not find it useful to prolong the test more than is necessary.
Sometimes we behave as though we are all immortal and that there will be time enough “tomorrow”. We know this is not the case but we behave as though it is.
I don’t believe in elaborate funerals either. I attend funerals purely out of courtesy to the living. It does nothing for the one who died. So, folks, when I die, there’s absolutely no need to attend my funeral. Spend your time more profitably among those still living. “Let the dead bury the dead.” Forget the flowers; don’t waste your money, I won’t be able to smell them. Also forget the eulogies (assuming I deserve any in the first place). If you want to see me or interact with me, do so while I’m still alive! Respect me while I’m alive, not after I’m dead!
What Is the Bible's View?
Is Cremation Proper for Christians?
What is your reaction to the thought of having a deceased relative's body cremated? Does cremation seem to you to be as suitable a way of disposing of the dead as burial? Or does cremation go against your sentiments? Does it seem improper or even unscriptural?
Your reaction may have been molded by the view prevailing where you live. In some lands cremation is quite common. For instance, in West Germany, England and Denmark over half of the dead are cremated, and in Japan it is almost universal. But in the United States only about 8 percent of the dead are cremated and in other lands it is still more uncommon. Why such differences?
Unquestionably, local conditions bear on the customs regarding how the dead are disposed of. For example, in some areas the ground is frozen during much of the year and firewood is scarce. So it is customary for the dead to be `exposed' to be consumed by birds or animals. In such lands only the middle and upper class persons are buried or cremated. In certain countries where land is scarce cremation is popular because it costs less than burial in a normal grave.
But religious beliefs also come into the picture regarding cremation. With their belief that a person has an immortal soul, some of the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed cremation as a fine means of rapidly releasing the soul from its dead body.
On the other hand, the Encyclopædia Judaica reports: "Disposal of the dead body by burning is not a Jewish custom and inhumation [burial] is considered by traditional Jews to be obligatory." Also, for centuries the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposed cremation. In the late nineteenth century Canon Law 1240 declared that Catholics who ordered their bodies cremated were to be deprived of ecclesiastical burial unless they repented before death. A papal decree in 1963 somewhat revised this position, but still it urged `abstaining from cremation unless compelled by necessity.'
What, then, is the proper view of cremation from the standpoint of God's Word? Is it proper for a Christian to be cremated?
In Bible Times
During the Biblical period God's servants customarily interred the body of a deceased person in a cave, tomb or grave. Abraham set an early example. Upon the death of his beloved wife Sarah he purchased a cave as a family burial site. (Gen. 23:2-20; 49:29-32) Abraham's descendants, the Hebrews, attached considerable importance to the proper burial of a person. For someone to be deprived of burial was a severe calamity. (Jer. 14:16) Thus Jehovah's repudiation of King Jehoiakim was expressed in the prophecy that the king would receive "the burial of a he-ass," that is, his corpse being dragged outside
the city and left unburied.—Jer. 22:18, 19; compare Jeremiah 25:32, 33; Isaiah 14:19, 20.
With this emphasis on proper burial, it would have been disgraceful for someone to be refused burial and the corpse just be burned up as trash. In connection with some crimes the Law required that the criminal be killed and his body burned. (Lev. 20:14; 21:9; Josh. 7:15, 25) Similarly, when Jesus was on earth the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem's wall was a garbage dump where fires were kept burning to destroy refuse. Some bodies of dead criminals viewed as unfit for a decent burial were cast there. Jesus used this as a symbol of complete destruction without hope of resurrection.—Mark 9:47, 48; Matt. 5:22.
But do these examples of the burning of corpses indicate that it would be improper to have a body cremated?
First, it is not as if the Law invariably linked the two, criminals and burning. Jews use Deuteronomy 21:23 as a proof text in support of earthen burial. It says that the body of a man executed and hung on a stake should not be left overnight, but "you should by all means bury him on that day." So burning was just one way in which a criminal's corpse might be disposed of.
And it can be appreciated that there is a vast difference between the corpse of an ancient criminal being burned with refuse and modern funeral procedures involving cremation. While the former was intended to express rejection and shame, the latter is arranged as a dignified alternative to a person's returning to dust through normal decomposition in the ground. Actually, modern cremation is somewhat comparable to the actions of the men of Jabesh-gilead after they rescued the bodies of King Saul and his sons from the Philistines. They took the bodies to "Jabesh and burned them there. Then they took their bones and buried them." (1 Sam. 31:12, 13) Faithful David did not consider their burning the corpses as shameful. It was part of a respectful disposing of the dead.—2 Sam. 2:4-7.
The early Christians continued the Jewish custom of burial in the earth or in tombs. In addition to the Jewish background of Christianity, a reason for this seems to have been that cremation at that time was associated with paganism such as the immortal-soul
teaching. In later centuries the Roman Catholic Church legislated against cremation, thus forbidding by Church Law what was not forbidden by Scripture.
What about Christians today? The fact is that there is no Bible command for or against either burial or cremation. Nor usually does burial instead of cremation help to distinguish true Christians from believers in the pagan idea of an immortal soul; today some of the chief adherents of that unscriptural doctrine are found among churchgoers who normally bury their dead.
Additionally, the Bible plainly shows that it matters not whether a dead body is returned to dust rapidly by fire or gradually by decay. Either way God's words are true: "For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Gen. 3:19) It certainly is not as if God needs a mummy in order to resurrect a person. The apostle Paul taught that a person resurrected to heaven will be given a new body, so that he is "changed" from the fleshly body that disintegrated. He showed that `God gives to each one a body just as it pleases him.' (1 Cor. 15:35-49) It will be similar with those resurrected to life on earth in the New Order. God will be able to provide adequate human bodies no matter how their former bodies disintegrated, whether rapidly by fireor slowly by decay.
In conclsion, God's Word does recommend that the body of a dead loved one be dealt with in a dignified, respectful way. But whether a family, for emotional, economic or other reasons, will have a deceased lovedone cremated or not is a personal matter.
Many people nowadays promote cremation of the dead because of several reasons we can think of e.g. (1) might be those who denies God (2) lacks of land space (3) His promise regarding the resurrection of the dead (3) Etc. The Bible doesn't say cremation is sin. However, it was not practiced by God's people either in the Old and New Testaments' times, though many nations around Israel did burn their dead. In Old Testament days, the Jews buried their dead with the exception of some criminals, who were burned as punishment. Thus, we learn from Scripture the burning a body is dishonoring it. Man is not an animal. Man is a unique creation fashioned after the creator and has eternal significance. The Jews considered it a tragedy if a person wasn't buried. Both the Hebrews and Christians buried their dead knowing that the cemetery was only a resting place for one body; it would rise again in the resurrection. With all of its frailties, there is sanctity about the Christian's body. The body is not garbage; each was designed as a house for a person in which to live to fulfill God's promise. Burial shows respects for the person who was honored in that body. It also shows respect for the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). But in today's world, cremation is a normal thing so I wonder if cremation is biblical or not by writing this topic whether agree or not, let us ponder over this issue of how to dispose of our bodies when we die. (Some of the points given here was not from mine alone as it was more of a discussion on a Christian newsgroup channel).
At one time when I was much younger I thought the mode was important. I was not in favor of cremation because I kept wondering: what if people mistakenly thought I was dead and proceeded to cremate me! I would not survive their mistake! But if they buried me, perhaps I still had a chance to break out of the coffin and give everyone second thoughts! It’s an extremely unlikely scenario but trust me for thinking about such eventualities. But now that I’m older I think that even if they bury me by mistake there’s no chance of my getting out alive because I would be six feet underground!
Many Christians advocated cremation but on the other hand, expressed concern about the effect on the assembly of our resurrected bodies. That’s what I call looking ahead! However, many of us agree that the mode of disposal of our present bodies is immaterial. God doesn’t need the pieces of our old bodies to create new ones, right?
I’d go for the cheapest way (the cheapskate that I am!). Burial plots are getting more expensive these days so I find a case for cremation on that account. But they might as well take my body in a boat and throw it into the sea. It may be eaten up by the sharks but I don’t care. That might be even cheaper and it does the same job! However, if any of you wish to follow my advice, do get a reputable doctor to issue a death certificate first. Otherwise, someone may accuse you of murder by drowning!
About the age-old concern for respect of a dead body which is why people sought proper burials. On biblical grounds from the NT, Grace is more concerned about taking good physical care of our bodies while still alive and refraining from sexual immorality. I think that as long as we avoid acts of perversion on dead bodies (such as mutilation, necrophilia, and the like) we are showing enough respect. There’s no need to go too far.
I remember visiting a Chinese cemetery in a suburb of Manila where rich folks built grandiose structures to house the dead. You can even put a mahjong table in one of these halls and some even play mahjong there, I’m told. The Filipino tour guide shook her head at these structures and I can imagine how insensitive these ostentatious displays are to a population where many yet alive have no adequate housing.
In my view, how you take care of people you like (or love) after they die is immaterial. It is how you interact with them while they are alive that is important. My mother died many years before I became a Christian and when she died I promised myself that I would pray for her soul every night for one year. I was educated in a Catholic school and I recited the Lord’s Prayer. I think I did it partly from concern about her afterlife and partly from a sense of guilt. I had many conflicts with her because I had grudges against her arising from my childhood. She died of a brain tumor. Of course I now know that praying for the dead is not biblical. It does nothing for them.
If I may extend this topic further, the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus tells us, among other things, that we can have no communion with the dead. That’s why Benny Hinn was roundly criticized for saying that he was taken up in spirit to have communion with the late Kathryn Kuhlman.
William Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we are merely players, with our exits and entrances. This is the one most depressing thing I find about this world - the exits of a few friends that I liked. The Lord whisked them away without warning, leaving me wishing I had found more time to spend with them while they were still alive. Perhaps God is testing my responses to people and do not find it useful to prolong the test more than is necessary.
Sometimes we behave as though we are all immortal and that there will be time enough “tomorrow”. We know this is not the case but we behave as though it is.
I don’t believe in elaborate funerals either. I attend funerals purely out of courtesy to the living. It does nothing for the one who died. So, folks, when I die, there’s absolutely no need to attend my funeral. Spend your time more profitably among those still living. “Let the dead bury the dead.” Forget the flowers; don’t waste your money, I won’t be able to smell them. Also forget the eulogies (assuming I deserve any in the first place). If you want to see me or interact with me, do so while I’m still alive! Respect me while I’m alive, not after I’m dead!
What Is the Bible's View?
Is Cremation Proper for Christians?
What is your reaction to the thought of having a deceased relative's body cremated? Does cremation seem to you to be as suitable a way of disposing of the dead as burial? Or does cremation go against your sentiments? Does it seem improper or even unscriptural?
Your reaction may have been molded by the view prevailing where you live. In some lands cremation is quite common. For instance, in West Germany, England and Denmark over half of the dead are cremated, and in Japan it is almost universal. But in the United States only about 8 percent of the dead are cremated and in other lands it is still more uncommon. Why such differences?
Unquestionably, local conditions bear on the customs regarding how the dead are disposed of. For example, in some areas the ground is frozen during much of the year and firewood is scarce. So it is customary for the dead to be `exposed' to be consumed by birds or animals. In such lands only the middle and upper class persons are buried or cremated. In certain countries where land is scarce cremation is popular because it costs less than burial in a normal grave.
But religious beliefs also come into the picture regarding cremation. With their belief that a person has an immortal soul, some of the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed cremation as a fine means of rapidly releasing the soul from its dead body.
On the other hand, the Encyclopædia Judaica reports: "Disposal of the dead body by burning is not a Jewish custom and inhumation [burial] is considered by traditional Jews to be obligatory." Also, for centuries the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposed cremation. In the late nineteenth century Canon Law 1240 declared that Catholics who ordered their bodies cremated were to be deprived of ecclesiastical burial unless they repented before death. A papal decree in 1963 somewhat revised this position, but still it urged `abstaining from cremation unless compelled by necessity.'
What, then, is the proper view of cremation from the standpoint of God's Word? Is it proper for a Christian to be cremated?
In Bible Times
During the Biblical period God's servants customarily interred the body of a deceased person in a cave, tomb or grave. Abraham set an early example. Upon the death of his beloved wife Sarah he purchased a cave as a family burial site. (Gen. 23:2-20; 49:29-32) Abraham's descendants, the Hebrews, attached considerable importance to the proper burial of a person. For someone to be deprived of burial was a severe calamity. (Jer. 14:16) Thus Jehovah's repudiation of King Jehoiakim was expressed in the prophecy that the king would receive "the burial of a he-ass," that is, his corpse being dragged outside
the city and left unburied.—Jer. 22:18, 19; compare Jeremiah 25:32, 33; Isaiah 14:19, 20.
With this emphasis on proper burial, it would have been disgraceful for someone to be refused burial and the corpse just be burned up as trash. In connection with some crimes the Law required that the criminal be killed and his body burned. (Lev. 20:14; 21:9; Josh. 7:15, 25) Similarly, when Jesus was on earth the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem's wall was a garbage dump where fires were kept burning to destroy refuse. Some bodies of dead criminals viewed as unfit for a decent burial were cast there. Jesus used this as a symbol of complete destruction without hope of resurrection.—Mark 9:47, 48; Matt. 5:22.
But do these examples of the burning of corpses indicate that it would be improper to have a body cremated?
First, it is not as if the Law invariably linked the two, criminals and burning. Jews use Deuteronomy 21:23 as a proof text in support of earthen burial. It says that the body of a man executed and hung on a stake should not be left overnight, but "you should by all means bury him on that day." So burning was just one way in which a criminal's corpse might be disposed of.
And it can be appreciated that there is a vast difference between the corpse of an ancient criminal being burned with refuse and modern funeral procedures involving cremation. While the former was intended to express rejection and shame, the latter is arranged as a dignified alternative to a person's returning to dust through normal decomposition in the ground. Actually, modern cremation is somewhat comparable to the actions of the men of Jabesh-gilead after they rescued the bodies of King Saul and his sons from the Philistines. They took the bodies to "Jabesh and burned them there. Then they took their bones and buried them." (1 Sam. 31:12, 13) Faithful David did not consider their burning the corpses as shameful. It was part of a respectful disposing of the dead.—2 Sam. 2:4-7.
The early Christians continued the Jewish custom of burial in the earth or in tombs. In addition to the Jewish background of Christianity, a reason for this seems to have been that cremation at that time was associated with paganism such as the immortal-soul
teaching. In later centuries the Roman Catholic Church legislated against cremation, thus forbidding by Church Law what was not forbidden by Scripture.
What about Christians today? The fact is that there is no Bible command for or against either burial or cremation. Nor usually does burial instead of cremation help to distinguish true Christians from believers in the pagan idea of an immortal soul; today some of the chief adherents of that unscriptural doctrine are found among churchgoers who normally bury their dead.
Additionally, the Bible plainly shows that it matters not whether a dead body is returned to dust rapidly by fire or gradually by decay. Either way God's words are true: "For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Gen. 3:19) It certainly is not as if God needs a mummy in order to resurrect a person. The apostle Paul taught that a person resurrected to heaven will be given a new body, so that he is "changed" from the fleshly body that disintegrated. He showed that `God gives to each one a body just as it pleases him.' (1 Cor. 15:35-49) It will be similar with those resurrected to life on earth in the New Order. God will be able to provide adequate human bodies no matter how their former bodies disintegrated, whether rapidly by fireor slowly by decay.
In conclsion, God's Word does recommend that the body of a dead loved one be dealt with in a dignified, respectful way. But whether a family, for emotional, economic or other reasons, will have a deceased lovedone cremated or not is a personal matter.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS 2
PRE-SUPPOSITIONS OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS
Presupposition is the most basic and starting assumption upon which the rest of the subject is built up. The validity of the presuppositions is proving and disproving certain assumption with care. Analyzing helps in later stage of advancement of the subject whereby more information is available and it gives a fruitful result. The test of "consistency" become possible after the given subject is developed to a reasonable degree e.g. Theory of Evolution increase its importance assumption in the complexity of the universe and later explains the interrelations with theory of Probability, informative science, computer technology and etc.
Presupposition is another reason of establishment of different school of thoughts and not according to the "Consistency Test" give way to proponents of bias e.g. one that speak against the Bible, existence of God and historical phenomena has to be explained naturalistically. That is where different presupposition brings division in the Christian apologetics. Hence, we see some of the major presupposition of some groups prominent today like the fundamentalist where their presupposition are Bible alone is the word of God, grace alone basis of salvation, faith means of free gift to salvation and Christ is the only Savior/ Mediator between God and man. Later evangelist a synonym of fundamentalist believes in a little more flexible and loosen manner rejected the strict conservative presupposition slowly neo-evangelicals, liberal, neo-orthodox, Christian mystics, cults, occultist, new ages, New Prajapati, rationalist, humanist and many more just to name a few, goes off tracks or side away from the actual or conservative Christian apologetics.
Christian Apologetics should not be narrow-minded. They have to have diversifies or varieties of subjects or numerous subjects to know in order to handle oppositions. Christian apologetics should confine to all sort of study like:
• Philosophical/Theological Apologetics.
• Historical/Legal Apologetics.
• Rational/Scientific Apologetics.
• Interdisciplinary Apologetics.
With all these branches of study or knowledge, no way can opposition harm or destroy the credibility of Christian faith that one has now as we grow stronger in the Lord standing or holding fast to the knowledge of what He has handled down from the Bible.
NEXT, WHAT IS HISTORICAL APOLOGETICS?
Christian faith is all about history i.e. the historical nature of the Bible. Radicals and atheists know that if the foundation can be destroyed than Christianity automatically crumble down. That is only for decades they used historical basis to deny the Bible legally or historically. Apologetics is the combination of legal and historical reconstruction. Legal apologetics deals with the legal investigation of certain facts or events. This information is collected from available within and to be cross-examined. In the Bible, these events are historical events recorded in the Bible. These events than demonstrate if probably taken place beyond all doubt and to be explained as available data. Historical to Apologetics are connected with legal but historical aspect are important in archaeology i.e. the study of ancient civilization where archaeological discoveries is leads to Bible history took place as the actual incidents or events in legal history. Data techniques determine of the age as what the Bible is written while linguistic studies is important to understand the languages used to understand the meaning of the Biblical text which like to study ancient custom and culture; and the ability to evaluate the accuracy and authenticity of ancient manuscripts. All these can be considered as an application of the legal/historical tools which sees with or insight into history/chronology, culture/customs/manner, languages and reconstructions of the incidents for investigation of biblical histories. Finally, the values of historical investigation is about understanding how Biblical text is produced, preserved and transmitted till today, it is a better appreciation of it reliability of what prophecies that have been recorded. One major opposition that likes to attack Christianity is the historical of Jesus Christ as a dispute issue as He does not exit but many ancient records and manuscripts from great and famous philosophers and king had proven His existence is truly real as how it was mentioned or recorded in the Bible.
Presupposition is the most basic and starting assumption upon which the rest of the subject is built up. The validity of the presuppositions is proving and disproving certain assumption with care. Analyzing helps in later stage of advancement of the subject whereby more information is available and it gives a fruitful result. The test of "consistency" become possible after the given subject is developed to a reasonable degree e.g. Theory of Evolution increase its importance assumption in the complexity of the universe and later explains the interrelations with theory of Probability, informative science, computer technology and etc.
Presupposition is another reason of establishment of different school of thoughts and not according to the "Consistency Test" give way to proponents of bias e.g. one that speak against the Bible, existence of God and historical phenomena has to be explained naturalistically. That is where different presupposition brings division in the Christian apologetics. Hence, we see some of the major presupposition of some groups prominent today like the fundamentalist where their presupposition are Bible alone is the word of God, grace alone basis of salvation, faith means of free gift to salvation and Christ is the only Savior/ Mediator between God and man. Later evangelist a synonym of fundamentalist believes in a little more flexible and loosen manner rejected the strict conservative presupposition slowly neo-evangelicals, liberal, neo-orthodox, Christian mystics, cults, occultist, new ages, New Prajapati, rationalist, humanist and many more just to name a few, goes off tracks or side away from the actual or conservative Christian apologetics.
Christian Apologetics should not be narrow-minded. They have to have diversifies or varieties of subjects or numerous subjects to know in order to handle oppositions. Christian apologetics should confine to all sort of study like:
• Philosophical/Theological Apologetics.
• Historical/Legal Apologetics.
• Rational/Scientific Apologetics.
• Interdisciplinary Apologetics.
With all these branches of study or knowledge, no way can opposition harm or destroy the credibility of Christian faith that one has now as we grow stronger in the Lord standing or holding fast to the knowledge of what He has handled down from the Bible.
NEXT, WHAT IS HISTORICAL APOLOGETICS?
Christian faith is all about history i.e. the historical nature of the Bible. Radicals and atheists know that if the foundation can be destroyed than Christianity automatically crumble down. That is only for decades they used historical basis to deny the Bible legally or historically. Apologetics is the combination of legal and historical reconstruction. Legal apologetics deals with the legal investigation of certain facts or events. This information is collected from available within and to be cross-examined. In the Bible, these events are historical events recorded in the Bible. These events than demonstrate if probably taken place beyond all doubt and to be explained as available data. Historical to Apologetics are connected with legal but historical aspect are important in archaeology i.e. the study of ancient civilization where archaeological discoveries is leads to Bible history took place as the actual incidents or events in legal history. Data techniques determine of the age as what the Bible is written while linguistic studies is important to understand the languages used to understand the meaning of the Biblical text which like to study ancient custom and culture; and the ability to evaluate the accuracy and authenticity of ancient manuscripts. All these can be considered as an application of the legal/historical tools which sees with or insight into history/chronology, culture/customs/manner, languages and reconstructions of the incidents for investigation of biblical histories. Finally, the values of historical investigation is about understanding how Biblical text is produced, preserved and transmitted till today, it is a better appreciation of it reliability of what prophecies that have been recorded. One major opposition that likes to attack Christianity is the historical of Jesus Christ as a dispute issue as He does not exit but many ancient records and manuscripts from great and famous philosophers and king had proven His existence is truly real as how it was mentioned or recorded in the Bible.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Tsunami info!
CEO/Cells of Prayer - Powered by InJesus
95,000 PEOPLE DEAD IN INDONESIA THE COUNTRY WITHT THE LARGEST DEATH TOLL
From: Himawan Djuhana hdjuhana@cityblessing.org Tsunami Report Update From Ibu Hana Indonesia
Hello friends,
Please read this in its entirety from Hana Ananda. It is long but will be worth your time. Pastor Him Djuhana City Blessing Church Clairmont, California
Dear Partners in Love for Aceh
I appreciate your reading my long report today, God bless you.
Here is the update news of today.
January 4, 2005.
1.John is still in Aceh Indonesia right now, he appeared on our national TV several times
This is what he reported this morning. The Tsunami hit Aceh, Indonesia Sunday, which is a working day for the Moslems, so it was a busy day, resulting about 95% of the local authorities in Aceh killed by the Tsunami, therefore only very few government personnel left, and those who were saved happened to be in other towns for duty when the catastrophe happened. This is one of the reasons, why arrangements for distribution of the relief have become so slow.
The death toll on the TV that says nearly 100,000 does not include the dead that are still on the rivers, (can you imagine, riding in a boat passing through rivers teeming with dead bodies?) The bodies are also on beaches, on plains, in villages, everywhere unburied, We can see almost like what happened in Egypt during the plaques and many verses in the Bible speaks of, "He will strike the kings in the day of His anger, and punish the nation and fill the places with the dead" (Ps. 110:5-6)
The existing wells cannot be used any more because they are filled with dead bodies and seawater, so they must dig new wells for washing and drinking. Gunarti, our engineer, head of Community Development working with Samaritans Purse Bio Filter will go to Aceh to help with water purifier, train the local people and the churches to make their own water filter so that the need can be covered. We see how wonderful Gods provision is. Thank God, for giving us the opportunity to give solution to the most needed thing in Aceh, the clear water project through Bio Filter.
From the report, I heard and saw on the TV. Every night thousands of people leaving Aceh, carrying their babies and children and bundles, running, crying, not knowing where to go, they are so filled with fear, (I quoted the words from the TV).Again what I read in the Bible about what Jesus says, becomes a reality,
"Then there will be strange events in the skies, warnings, evil omens and portent things in the sun, moon and stars; and down here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. The courage of many people will falter (people will die of fear and worry- Ind. Translation), because of the fearful fate they see coming upon the earth, for the stability of the very heaven will be broken up" Luke 21:25, 26"
I heard almost 6000 people flee to Medan everyday, so Medan faces another problem, now it is overloaded with people a people staying in tents, and sleeping everywhere.
2. Some days ago, a strong issue of Christianizing people arose, and there was a strong reaction from the Moslems who warn the people not to take any relief, or help from the heathens (they mean the Christians) and the missionaries. People began to feel afraid and hesitant. Our Moslem brother, Muchlisin , who took the picture with Bryan, from CHF, went immediately to Aceh to speak to the people there that this issue is destructive and that they must repent. On 31 December our Moslems brethren were invited by a group of Christian artists , together with top level from the government to celebrate New year together not for celebration, but for Prayer of Repentance , Peace and Reconciliation. We are so happy that this love has spread to West Java.
3. Today, I received an email; forwarded to me from a Moslem who wrote it to counter what the radical Moslems do (we are facing a real spiritual warfare between the light and the darkness). Her email is so interesting that I will quote it here. (I can forward the email in Indonesian)
Sender: Mustikawati@yahoo.com
Date: 01 Jan. 2005
Subject: Hi, Moslems, learn from this Catastrophe!
Arabic address and greeting:
Assalamulaikum wa rahmatu-Ilahi wa barakatuh,
I cried when I saw such great care of the white people, the Jews, the Chinese, even the Indians who are all heathens and idol worshippers, who are often persecuted by the Moslems who have the same religion as me.
I plead to you, all Moslems, learn from today's culture, which is very different from the culture during the time of Prophet Mohammad, who robbed the passing Jews! Let this earthquake and the Tsunami that are so ghastly, and assume it, take it as Gods direction of what we, as the Moslems should do to dedicate ourselves to humanity, disregarding religions, without boasting that our religion is the best and that people from other religions should be destroyed by God.
Look at how all of them help us, wretched people who are disaster - stricken, yet we are shamelessly ungrateful. They are the ones whom we persecute; we close the doors of their churches, We force their Christian schools to teach Islam religion, we burn their churches, We burn their shops, we rape their virgins/girls, we even slander them, accusing them saying that they are the enemies of our religion.
Now, when we are punished by God, they are all united to defend us and to save us, and yet they are the people whom we always hate and treat as our enemies.
Al Quran has led us astray to destroy the idol worshippers who actually have gracious and merciful hearts. Al Quran has deceived us to destroy their innocent idols!!! Why should we hurt their feelings in their belief towards their statutes? Why should we consider them as our enemies because we do not worship their statutes? They do not believe in God, but they never offend nor despise our God, and none of tem has ever destroyed our mosques as what we have done to their churches, temples and their statutes¦.
At this moment when we are mournful because of disaster, attacking us, MUI (The Assembly of Indonesian Moslem) claimed that the ones who go to heaven are only the Moslems, while those who are not Moslems go to hell. Is that our attitude to express our thanks to those who help us by cursing them only because they do not believe in Islam, which we believe.
Have you ever heard the Hindus from India, who also help us now, claim that only the Hindus go to Nirvana and those who are not Hindus go to hell? Never do we hear any evil words spoken towards us, the Moslems just as what we usually say to them. Why should we not pray for the idol worshippers that they may go to the same eternal heaven as we, the Moslems go ?????
Now, just watch on the TV, thousands of people whom you consider as your enemies, and whom you persecute come together only to save our lives, to ease our suffering. They even ignored their New Year Celebration. They give their donation with their strength and their money. The Japanese, the idol worshippers have donated 500 million dollars that excel the Americans donation, which is $350 million dollars. They compete to help us, to bless us and to make us happy, while we always compete to curse them, to mock at them, to slander them, and to persecute them. We danced , we rejoiced when one of our brothers of the same faith purposely destroy WTC building on September 11, 2001, then we slandered that the doer was a Jew, even without any evidence , while the reality proved it otherwise, it was done by our people who have the same religion as we.
Once again, my brethren from the same faith and religion learn from this Judgment of God, that we are not supposed to do so cruelly and inhumanly to them who consider us as their brethren, while we consider them as our enemies.
Once again, I CRIED WHEN I WATCHED HOW MY BRETHREN WERE RESCUED BY THOSE WHOM WE HAVE PERSECUTED ONLY BECAUSE WE OBEYED THE COMMANDMENTS OF QURAN WHICH IS NO LONGER APPLICABLE NOW!.
My conscience knocks the hearts of all Moslems!!
Mrs. Muslim binti Muskitawati.
This is very bold of her to write such statement in the email, and website.
I believe God has His own way of using very simple people who are obedient to do simple thing to change a nation.
Thank you dear partners, in the Body of Christ, whatever we labor for the Lord, is never in vain, but in His own time, in His own way, He makes is fruitful for His glory. To God be the glory!
4. The best thing to do now is to do the mapping and to have several centers in different locations. There are villages, badly damaged, among others, in Lokngah, with 7000 population only about 100 of them saved, in Meulaboh, consisting of 3 counties, the whole coastland was swept, leaving not single soul and building, only 20% were saved These islands have not received anything yet, it is accessible only by boat, so hiring a boat is recommended.
Nias, a small and Christian island but very poor, the southern part of it had the hardest blow. We need to care for this island.
5. We plan to charter plane, network with churches, take religious leaders, volunteers, relief after john
As we need to be united and stand together to lift up Aceh, Nabire, Alor particularly and our nation generally, I have contacts with several Rescue centers who always communicate to us days and nights sharing information, among others are :
1. PONDOK KASIH, Love for Aceh Center -
INTER RELIGIONS FORUM for national repentance, reconciliation and united prayer (with the Moslems and other religions)
Contact : John Kahuluge, 0811341293, 081553827148 (Aceh), Hana, 0818525073
Location: Iskandar Muda, Lanud, Airport Base.
04/01/05: The medical team and other operational in Aceh, Indonesia as follows:
Ambulance, stretchers, operational car, nurses, medicine among others antibiotics, yodium, anti tetanus, bandage vitamins, analgesics, diarrhea, femine napkins (badly needed, no donation of such is given yet)
At this moment I am evacuating some victims whom placed in the mosque who suffer from broken bones, wounded using self-chartered car, unfortunately I cannot take the patient with tetanus with me. Tomorrow I will try again.
Food: rice, noodles, kitchen utensils, dinner sets, baby food, milk, nursing bottles.
Many victims urgently in need of help because of bruise, cuts, broken bones, tetanus, ulcer , nausea, vomiting, heavy depression, phobia of water, hysteria at night, shouting with swimming gesture while shouting for help, gasping for breath . Physiologist is needed.
Temporary toilets, tents, sleeping bags.
Other need is clean water provision inform of manual or electric well drilling, water tank, and its pipes.
Volunteers to help food distribution.
2. POSKO BERSAMA, comprising several Christian foundations, some of which are PKour national team leaders, and board member
Location Wismaartik, Aceh, small motels of 30 rooms, with/without air con, can accommodate foreign volunteers, with spacious court to be used as feeding centre or medical centre.
Contact: Sony Subrata. Telephone 081319278997,
Pastor Sukendra Salagih 0651 21749 (h)Telephone 08126039801
News.01/04/05 The government becomes more serious in handling Aceh and Nias, more than 600 heavy-duty instrument will be operated .Logistics is managed by DHL, and others.
01/04/05: We need to allocate the donation so that there will be no oversupply and overlapping with the Government
A big fund is being allocated to rebuild Aceh.
3. POSKO MEDAN PEDULI SEDUNIA ( International-Care for Aceh Centre). Location Jl. Kapten Muslim , komplex Ruko Tata Plaza blok A no. 28 Medan Telephone 061 8470246, 8471122
Contact: Pastor Hezron & Pastor Sora 061 8215702,
Cell ph. 08126000800
4. International Humanitarian Institute SAVE THE CHILDREN in Medan, contact 085261020172 Need 200 volunteers for Banda Aceh. We had meeting with the Church Council last night (. Those who came were from different Christian organizations, foundations and churches. There were about 45 people present from Full Gospel Businessmen (FGBMFI), Petra University, The Mission group, NAT (Gods Latest Trumpet), Pondok Kasih, International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and some churches. The inputs that we have as follows:
1.Medical Outreach for 8.250: to send doctors (15), nurses (25) and a Psychologist. They concentrated upon medical outreach to assist 1250 people a day for 7 days.
2.Feeding Centre : I mentioned the feeding program that will be organized by Samaritans Purse, I asked volunteers to assist because it is a three-month plan.
3.Clothes, planned for 20.000 people in form of sarong, both for men and women, because this is how the Aceh dress themselves. Most needed: feminine napkins (no donations for this yet), underwear (provided by Pondok Kasih).
I think my report is quite long now, I am tired and I think that you may be tired too, so let us pause and I will continue with other report regarding the food distribution.
HANA ANANDA
PHONE: 62-31-8415205; 8439189
FAX: 62-31-8414482
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This information is brought to you by Christs Exceeding Opportunities Ministries aw www.ceoministries.org
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INDONEISA THE LARGEST DEATH TOLL 95,000 WAYS TO ASSIST Ann Bandini Prayer Minister for Kingdom Business Jan 4, 2005 |
From: Himawan Djuhana hdjuhana@cityblessing.org Tsunami Report Update From Ibu Hana Indonesia
Hello friends,
Please read this in its entirety from Hana Ananda. It is long but will be worth your time. Pastor Him Djuhana City Blessing Church Clairmont, California
Dear Partners in Love for Aceh
I appreciate your reading my long report today, God bless you.
Here is the update news of today.
January 4, 2005.
1.John is still in Aceh Indonesia right now, he appeared on our national TV several times
This is what he reported this morning. The Tsunami hit Aceh, Indonesia Sunday, which is a working day for the Moslems, so it was a busy day, resulting about 95% of the local authorities in Aceh killed by the Tsunami, therefore only very few government personnel left, and those who were saved happened to be in other towns for duty when the catastrophe happened. This is one of the reasons, why arrangements for distribution of the relief have become so slow.
The death toll on the TV that says nearly 100,000 does not include the dead that are still on the rivers, (can you imagine, riding in a boat passing through rivers teeming with dead bodies?) The bodies are also on beaches, on plains, in villages, everywhere unburied, We can see almost like what happened in Egypt during the plaques and many verses in the Bible speaks of, "He will strike the kings in the day of His anger, and punish the nation and fill the places with the dead" (Ps. 110:5-6)
The existing wells cannot be used any more because they are filled with dead bodies and seawater, so they must dig new wells for washing and drinking. Gunarti, our engineer, head of Community Development working with Samaritans Purse Bio Filter will go to Aceh to help with water purifier, train the local people and the churches to make their own water filter so that the need can be covered. We see how wonderful Gods provision is. Thank God, for giving us the opportunity to give solution to the most needed thing in Aceh, the clear water project through Bio Filter.
From the report, I heard and saw on the TV. Every night thousands of people leaving Aceh, carrying their babies and children and bundles, running, crying, not knowing where to go, they are so filled with fear, (I quoted the words from the TV).Again what I read in the Bible about what Jesus says, becomes a reality,
"Then there will be strange events in the skies, warnings, evil omens and portent things in the sun, moon and stars; and down here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. The courage of many people will falter (people will die of fear and worry- Ind. Translation), because of the fearful fate they see coming upon the earth, for the stability of the very heaven will be broken up" Luke 21:25, 26"
I heard almost 6000 people flee to Medan everyday, so Medan faces another problem, now it is overloaded with people a people staying in tents, and sleeping everywhere.
2. Some days ago, a strong issue of Christianizing people arose, and there was a strong reaction from the Moslems who warn the people not to take any relief, or help from the heathens (they mean the Christians) and the missionaries. People began to feel afraid and hesitant. Our Moslem brother, Muchlisin , who took the picture with Bryan, from CHF, went immediately to Aceh to speak to the people there that this issue is destructive and that they must repent. On 31 December our Moslems brethren were invited by a group of Christian artists , together with top level from the government to celebrate New year together not for celebration, but for Prayer of Repentance , Peace and Reconciliation. We are so happy that this love has spread to West Java.
3. Today, I received an email; forwarded to me from a Moslem who wrote it to counter what the radical Moslems do (we are facing a real spiritual warfare between the light and the darkness). Her email is so interesting that I will quote it here. (I can forward the email in Indonesian)
Sender: Mustikawati@yahoo.com
Date: 01 Jan. 2005
Subject: Hi, Moslems, learn from this Catastrophe!
Arabic address and greeting:
Assalamulaikum wa rahmatu-Ilahi wa barakatuh,
I cried when I saw such great care of the white people, the Jews, the Chinese, even the Indians who are all heathens and idol worshippers, who are often persecuted by the Moslems who have the same religion as me.
I plead to you, all Moslems, learn from today's culture, which is very different from the culture during the time of Prophet Mohammad, who robbed the passing Jews! Let this earthquake and the Tsunami that are so ghastly, and assume it, take it as Gods direction of what we, as the Moslems should do to dedicate ourselves to humanity, disregarding religions, without boasting that our religion is the best and that people from other religions should be destroyed by God.
Look at how all of them help us, wretched people who are disaster - stricken, yet we are shamelessly ungrateful. They are the ones whom we persecute; we close the doors of their churches, We force their Christian schools to teach Islam religion, we burn their churches, We burn their shops, we rape their virgins/girls, we even slander them, accusing them saying that they are the enemies of our religion.
Now, when we are punished by God, they are all united to defend us and to save us, and yet they are the people whom we always hate and treat as our enemies.
Al Quran has led us astray to destroy the idol worshippers who actually have gracious and merciful hearts. Al Quran has deceived us to destroy their innocent idols!!! Why should we hurt their feelings in their belief towards their statutes? Why should we consider them as our enemies because we do not worship their statutes? They do not believe in God, but they never offend nor despise our God, and none of tem has ever destroyed our mosques as what we have done to their churches, temples and their statutes¦.
At this moment when we are mournful because of disaster, attacking us, MUI (The Assembly of Indonesian Moslem) claimed that the ones who go to heaven are only the Moslems, while those who are not Moslems go to hell. Is that our attitude to express our thanks to those who help us by cursing them only because they do not believe in Islam, which we believe.
Have you ever heard the Hindus from India, who also help us now, claim that only the Hindus go to Nirvana and those who are not Hindus go to hell? Never do we hear any evil words spoken towards us, the Moslems just as what we usually say to them. Why should we not pray for the idol worshippers that they may go to the same eternal heaven as we, the Moslems go ?????
Now, just watch on the TV, thousands of people whom you consider as your enemies, and whom you persecute come together only to save our lives, to ease our suffering. They even ignored their New Year Celebration. They give their donation with their strength and their money. The Japanese, the idol worshippers have donated 500 million dollars that excel the Americans donation, which is $350 million dollars. They compete to help us, to bless us and to make us happy, while we always compete to curse them, to mock at them, to slander them, and to persecute them. We danced , we rejoiced when one of our brothers of the same faith purposely destroy WTC building on September 11, 2001, then we slandered that the doer was a Jew, even without any evidence , while the reality proved it otherwise, it was done by our people who have the same religion as we.
Once again, my brethren from the same faith and religion learn from this Judgment of God, that we are not supposed to do so cruelly and inhumanly to them who consider us as their brethren, while we consider them as our enemies.
Once again, I CRIED WHEN I WATCHED HOW MY BRETHREN WERE RESCUED BY THOSE WHOM WE HAVE PERSECUTED ONLY BECAUSE WE OBEYED THE COMMANDMENTS OF QURAN WHICH IS NO LONGER APPLICABLE NOW!.
My conscience knocks the hearts of all Moslems!!
Mrs. Muslim binti Muskitawati.
This is very bold of her to write such statement in the email, and website.
I believe God has His own way of using very simple people who are obedient to do simple thing to change a nation.
Thank you dear partners, in the Body of Christ, whatever we labor for the Lord, is never in vain, but in His own time, in His own way, He makes is fruitful for His glory. To God be the glory!
4. The best thing to do now is to do the mapping and to have several centers in different locations. There are villages, badly damaged, among others, in Lokngah, with 7000 population only about 100 of them saved, in Meulaboh, consisting of 3 counties, the whole coastland was swept, leaving not single soul and building, only 20% were saved These islands have not received anything yet, it is accessible only by boat, so hiring a boat is recommended.
Nias, a small and Christian island but very poor, the southern part of it had the hardest blow. We need to care for this island.
5. We plan to charter plane, network with churches, take religious leaders, volunteers, relief after john
As we need to be united and stand together to lift up Aceh, Nabire, Alor particularly and our nation generally, I have contacts with several Rescue centers who always communicate to us days and nights sharing information, among others are :
1. PONDOK KASIH, Love for Aceh Center -
INTER RELIGIONS FORUM for national repentance, reconciliation and united prayer (with the Moslems and other religions)
Contact : John Kahuluge, 0811341293, 081553827148 (Aceh), Hana, 0818525073
Location: Iskandar Muda, Lanud, Airport Base.
04/01/05: The medical team and other operational in Aceh, Indonesia as follows:
Ambulance, stretchers, operational car, nurses, medicine among others antibiotics, yodium, anti tetanus, bandage vitamins, analgesics, diarrhea, femine napkins (badly needed, no donation of such is given yet)
At this moment I am evacuating some victims whom placed in the mosque who suffer from broken bones, wounded using self-chartered car, unfortunately I cannot take the patient with tetanus with me. Tomorrow I will try again.
Food: rice, noodles, kitchen utensils, dinner sets, baby food, milk, nursing bottles.
Many victims urgently in need of help because of bruise, cuts, broken bones, tetanus, ulcer , nausea, vomiting, heavy depression, phobia of water, hysteria at night, shouting with swimming gesture while shouting for help, gasping for breath . Physiologist is needed.
Temporary toilets, tents, sleeping bags.
Other need is clean water provision inform of manual or electric well drilling, water tank, and its pipes.
Volunteers to help food distribution.
2. POSKO BERSAMA, comprising several Christian foundations, some of which are PKour national team leaders, and board member
Location Wismaartik, Aceh, small motels of 30 rooms, with/without air con, can accommodate foreign volunteers, with spacious court to be used as feeding centre or medical centre.
Contact: Sony Subrata. Telephone 081319278997,
Pastor Sukendra Salagih 0651 21749 (h)Telephone 08126039801
News.01/04/05 The government becomes more serious in handling Aceh and Nias, more than 600 heavy-duty instrument will be operated .Logistics is managed by DHL, and others.
01/04/05: We need to allocate the donation so that there will be no oversupply and overlapping with the Government
A big fund is being allocated to rebuild Aceh.
3. POSKO MEDAN PEDULI SEDUNIA ( International-Care for Aceh Centre). Location Jl. Kapten Muslim , komplex Ruko Tata Plaza blok A no. 28 Medan Telephone 061 8470246, 8471122
Contact: Pastor Hezron & Pastor Sora 061 8215702,
Cell ph. 08126000800
4. International Humanitarian Institute SAVE THE CHILDREN in Medan, contact 085261020172 Need 200 volunteers for Banda Aceh. We had meeting with the Church Council last night (. Those who came were from different Christian organizations, foundations and churches. There were about 45 people present from Full Gospel Businessmen (FGBMFI), Petra University, The Mission group, NAT (Gods Latest Trumpet), Pondok Kasih, International Fellowship of Evangelical Students and some churches. The inputs that we have as follows:
1.Medical Outreach for 8.250: to send doctors (15), nurses (25) and a Psychologist. They concentrated upon medical outreach to assist 1250 people a day for 7 days.
2.Feeding Centre : I mentioned the feeding program that will be organized by Samaritans Purse, I asked volunteers to assist because it is a three-month plan.
3.Clothes, planned for 20.000 people in form of sarong, both for men and women, because this is how the Aceh dress themselves. Most needed: feminine napkins (no donations for this yet), underwear (provided by Pondok Kasih).
I think my report is quite long now, I am tired and I think that you may be tired too, so let us pause and I will continue with other report regarding the food distribution.
HANA ANANDA
PHONE: 62-31-8415205; 8439189
FAX: 62-31-8414482
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This information is brought to you by Christs Exceeding Opportunities Ministries aw www.ceoministries.org
A brief ideas of what is Christian Apologetics!
Apologetics come from Greek word "Apologia" meaning "making a defense". Christian Apologetics started because of increase attacks from radical philosophers and critics toward Christian faith. Apologetics does not come from man's intelligent but from the Bible itself. Bible is now fully understood as well furnish with ample evidence without doubt it is the word of God. On the other hand, polemics deals with attack or objection originating from people "within" the Christian faith or community. Overall, Apologetics and Polemics are not different at all i.e. to refute error, to remove the sincere doubts in between believers and unbelievers, to demonstrate only Bible is the word of God that Christ faith provide permanent peace and happiness and to establish truth. Beginning from Old Testament to New Testament until modern times, opposition inside and outside church tries to disproof the Bible as just a fairy tales but proven wrong by the Bible itself through archaeology and scientific research with "genuine" interests and not with willful blindness or stubbornness to accept due to fear from own personal distrust or lacks of coherence for what they believe in. The needs of studying apologetics is for our own faith as an aid in witnessing, a better way to recognize when been attacked and knowing how to tackle the enemy. The purpose of Christian Apologetics are defending the reliability of the Bible is more than a man word operation as the Bible is an inspired word of God. It can be explained without the helps of science, it helps seekers of God to find the truth, it does not need any treatment or demands from willful reception from rationalists or radical and the message of the Bible can take away all doubts or suspicions.
In conclusion, we must not be ignorance in the word of God. We need to understand the power of God through the Bible (as error free) and never be doubtful or ashamed of its faith that builds us to enable us to counter attack those against the Bible. We need to grow together in the word of God by what is taught in the Bible instead of our own human intelligent.
Monday, January 03, 2005
WHY GOD CHOOSES ISRAEL AS HIS SPECIAL PEOPLE AND EXACTLY WHO OWNS THE LAND OF ISRAEL?
1. INTRODUCTION.
As a Chinese I ask myself or even to God why He chooses Israel to be a blessed land and people while that are so stubborn. I think I am a way envying the love of God to this people just like elder brother envy his parent special attention to his younger brother. I also question over the war in the Middle East over the land of Israel and I found it is not the land that is in issue but the built-in hatred or unforgiveness over past forefathers’ sin. Both parties do not give way to each others and one problem over another tense up. I take this opportunity to write a term paper on this topic to help me see or understand the problem over this issue and my research was a success although I would like to quote directly from what I have learned. Hence, what I can come up with why God chosen Israelites and why the land of Israel and big issue of who right to own the land: Israel or the Palestinians?
2. WHAT IS ISRAEL ACTUALLY?
Israel is often referred to as the "chosen people", or the "chosen nation". It is a moniker that often seems to indicate that God has historically preferred and favored one nation or people over all others. The Bible is quite conclusive about the fact that God has indeed chosen one people over all others in the world. Why would God make such a distinction? It would seem to be an antithetical action for the Creator of all people to choose one people from all other peoples, to a status of "God's Chosen people". [1]We can read this through the history found in the Old Testament. Only later in the New Testament under the jurisdiction of Christ, we all others people come into God's dictionary. It was St Paul's epistle where we see the calls of God to all Gentiles.
In Jewish tradition, "Israel" signifies three distinct but closely related entities: a people descended from the patriarchs and matriarchs; a covenant originally established between God and the first of the patriarchs that was renewed and extended to the whole people at Sinai; and a land given by God to this people so that they would have a place in which to live in relationship with God and in accordance with the terms of the covenant as spelled out in Torah. God elected the people Israel, established the covenant with them, and gave them the land for a specific purpose, namely, to reveal God to the rest of humanity and to serve as a model of faithfulness so that all human beings would be inspired to partner with God in completing the work of redeeming God's creation.[2]
I Chronicles 16:13 says: O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
When God chose His special people, He chose Abram of Ur of the Chaldees. He chose Abram—later to be changed to Abraham—because the man obeyed God and put his faith in Him. Because of Abraham’s faithfulness, God promised Him that in his seed (child) would the entire world be blessed. I guess from Abraham that God promised a great nation and people under God's provision.
Through the Abrahamic Covenant, God could have chosen anyone he wished to become the Father of a new nation to be the path to or of his testimony. We do not know whether He calls other because the Bible does not relate any info about whether anyone else was called upon to father a new nation, but one thing is for certain; if anyone else was called they did not respond the way Abraham did. Abraham obeyed, and left Ur, and departed from the Pagan world to follow God. Abraham suffered to follow God instruction. So, in important that God did not choose Israel, he chose Abram, and Abram chose to accept. It is noteworthy to remember that the name of Israel only came into existence when God changed Jacob's name to Israel.
In Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall ALL families of the earth be blessed.
In this covenant, God pronounces blessings for all people through the action that he and Abraham have entered into agreement on. Does that sound like God favors one people over another in so far as his love and compassion is concerned? I think not. I believe God loves every nation, tribe, race and every family. I am sure it was very crucial for God to choose someone to embody the lineage of his intended blessings. The great irony of God having a "chosen nation", is that if God had not chosen someone, somewhere, sometime, then; nobody could ever be the benefactor of an all encompassing love that God wishes to bless us with!
Gen 22:17 - That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; Gen 22:18 - And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
The Apostle Paul tells us to whom the word "seed" pointed. It was not to the
Israelites:
Gal 3:16 - The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.
Now, of course, the Israelites were involved in all of this. They were descendants of Abraham and were entrusted as the keepers of the promise—the promise that one day Messiah would come to save all mankind—including Chinese, Indians, and the English, etc. The Israelites were also keepers of the information God gave to mankind about Himself and about how they should live. This information would eventually be known as the Holy Scriptures, and today is known as the Bible.
3. THE PURPOSE OF ISRAEL [3]
That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. 41:20).
According to this verse, the Jewish people exist for at least four reasons.
That people may see the Jewish people and their history and realize that they are unique to this world. When Frederick the Great of Prussia challenged a believer in his court to prove the truth of the Bible and his God, he astutely replied, "The Jew!"
That people may know the existence of the Jewish people can only be explained supernaturally. Her continued existence is not explained by luck, coincidence, or any other fluke of nature.
That people may consider that the God of the Bible has done this miraculous work and seek a relationship with the sovereign God of the universe. If the God of Israel is powerful enough to bring these things to pass and to judge not only individuals but also nations that contradict His will, He deserves our attention and our worship. What will happen to you in light of this Holy God?
That people may understand that the God of Israel is the true God of this universe. He is the One we need to listen to and obey.
Israel’s history is relevant to people the world over, Jew and Gentile alike, and prompts them to respond in faith to the Holy One of Israel. God issues the world a challenge in Isaiah 41:21–23:
Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
The history of the Jewish people establishes the God of the Bible as the only One who has met this challenge to perfection. No other entity man has ever worshiped, including Allah, Buddha, or whoever, has ever been able to do these things. The God of Israel and the Bible is indisputably the one true God of this universe.
And the Bible is the Word of the one true God. He and He alone is the One to be sought and obeyed. It is He who promised He would bring a redeemer; it is He who told us in His Word how to recognize that redeemer; and it is He who has the power to do as He promised. Just as He said, He sent the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, who fulfilled hundreds of prophecies written about Him. Jesus summed up the teaching of the Old Testament and the challenge it issues to people everywhere: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me" (John. 5:39).
4. BLESSING TO THE ISRAELITE THAN THE ARABS.
God gave Israel a Promised Land but yet Israelite misused God’s blessing and turned it into a curse. On the other hand, Israelite step-brother came into the story where they took the Promised Land of the Israelite after the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersed of the Jewish people throughout Europe. Now, where do the Arabs come from?
Abraham had more than one son—he had eight. Isaac, child of Sarah, was designated as the child of the promise. The promise God gave to Abraham that there would be a "seed" through which all the world would be blessed, was passed on down through Isaac.
Abraham had a son by his concubine, Sarah’s slave, Hagar—Ishmael.
Gen 16:11 - The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. Gen 16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."
After leaving Abraham, Ishmael and his mother formed a tribe of their own, from which come the Arabs and many of the other tribes of the Middle East today. Ishmael and his descendants were often at war with the Israelites, and the hostilities continue to this day.
Abraham married again, after Sarah died, a woman named Keturah:
Gen 25:1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. Gen 25:2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.
Abraham sent them all away from Isaac, because he wanted Isaac to be his only heir. We notice God still blessed Ishmael and from here there came a big nation of the Arabs. God is/was not biased against the Arab nations, or the Palestinians, or anyone else. To the contrary, he has offered even the enemies of Israel His love. To explain further I like to extract an article that talk about the sixteen facts that we ought to know about the claim of the land of Israel.
5. SIXTEEN FACTS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ISRAEL. [4]
Fact # 1: The Jewish people are the Chosen People: After Adam and Eve sinned, humanity deteriorated so badly that God destroyed the early world of men with the Great Flood. Noah and his family knew the Lord, and were spared, but after they came out of the Ark and started repopulating, their descendants abandoned God, became idolatrous, perverse and evil. Then God created a special nation to be a light to the other nations. The Creator of the universe specifically chose the nation of Israel to be that unique people who would witness to His reality.
Fact # 2: The Land of Israel belongs to God: "The Earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it" (Psalm 24:1). Since the entire world belongs to God, He has the right to apportion it as He chooses, and He specifically gave the nations their lands based on the Jewish people's right to the Land of Israel!
Fact #3: The Chosen People needed a Chosen Land, and so the God of Israel strategically chose the Land of Israel for the People of Israel: "This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands around her.” (Ezekiel 5:5).
Fact #4: The Land of Israel was given by God to the descendants of Abraham as an everlasting possession: "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this Land'" (Genesis 12:7).
Fact #5: Even though Abraham had many sons, the Land of Israel wasn't given to Ishmael, or to any of the other sons of Abraham, but only to Isaac: "Abraham said to God, "oh that Ishmael might live before you!' But God said 'No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him'" (Genesis 17:18-19). God rejected Abraham's request that Ishmael be the heir of the covenant, and appointed Isaac instead.
Fact #6: Even though Isaac had two sons, the Land wasn't given to Esau, but to Jacob: One night Jacob had a dream while fleeing from his brother Esau. In his dream the Lord said to him, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the Land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants." (Genesis 28:13).
Fact #7: There is no doubt about Israel's God-given borders because they are described for us in detail in the Holy Scriptures: "The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever... Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you'" (Genesis 13:14-17).
Fact #8: In addition to the everlasting covenant (which includes the Land), God swore an oath to give the Jewish people this Land: Keep in mind that it's absolutely impossible for God to break an oath (see Hebrews 6:16-18).
Fact #9: Israel's sin and resulting exile from the Land of Israel never annulled God's covenant with His Chosen People, nor did it permanently abrogate our right to the Land of Israel: "Yet in spite of this (Israel's disobedience), when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors" - which includes the Land of Israel (Leviticus 26:44-45). Our exile from Israel was meant to be temporary!
Fact #10: In His prophetic Word, God promised to regather us to "our own Land": "I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own Land... And you will live in the Land that I gave to your forefathers" (Ezekiel 36:24, 28).
Fact #11: In His prophetic Word, God calls this restored Land "Israel" - not "Palestine": "I will open up your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the Land of Israel" (Ezekiel 37:12). The name "Palestine" comes from the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the Jewish people. "Palestine" was the derogatory name given to the Land of Israel by the Romans after they conquered us. But throughout the Word of God, this Land is always called Israel - never Palestine.
Fact #12: God, speaking to us through the prophet Ezekiel, informs us that this Land is specifically reserved for the Jewish people: "You O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be rebuilt" (Ezekiel 36:8-10).
Fact #13: 2,500 years ago the Lord also told us that the Jewish return to the Land would provoke a reaction from Israel's neighbors: "Because the enemy has spoken against you "'Aha' and 'The everlasting heights have become our possession'... Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My Land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul, to drive it out as a prey" (Ezekiel 36:2-5).
Fact #14: God will severely judge any nation who divides up any part of this special Land: "In those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My Land" (Joel 3:1-2).
Fact #15: Eventually this conflict over the Land of Israel will entangle the entire world: God, speaking through the prophet Zechariah in 12:1-3, in the Sixth Century BC, predicted: "Behold I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around" (the nations will react to the regathering of the Jewish people with senseless behavior and irrational hatred); "and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples" (Israel's Islamic neighbors want to destroy the hated "Zionist Entity" because the Islamic worldview teaches that the entire world will ultimately come under the control of Islam. A Jewish state in the midst of the Moslem Middle East is by its very existence an insult to Allah and Islam, and must be destroyed. Islam can have no true and lasting peace with Israel - only a temporary cease-fire. Hostilities will once again be renewed when Islamic strength is renewed. At its core, this is a religious conflict - not a political or economic one); "all who lift it will be severely injured." (The nations of the world will be drawn into this conflict and try to remove the Jewish presence from Jerusalem. However, be warned - every nation that tries to remove the Jewish people from our Land and capital city will be severely injured). "And all the nations of the Earth will be gathered against it." (The world's United Nations will wage a final world war in the Middle East, directed against Israel). It's amazing to see this 2,500-year-old prophetic scenario shaping up before our very eyes! Zechariah's prophecy continues and informs us that the army of the United Nations will be defeated; God will destroy all those nations that fight against Israel; Israel will be miraculously saved and recognize Yeshua as the Messiah!
Fact #16: This will be a time of great difficulty for the Jewish people, but we will be miraculously delivered out of it: "Alas! For that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it" (Jeremiah 30:7).
6. CONCLUSION.
Israelite is a chosen people because of a closed relationship of Abraham and God. Abraham’s faithfulness had shown great respect and love from God to the extreme that He promised him great nations. He promised a blessed nations despite the later part that discouraged Him but yet our God is mercy and graceful to carry on with His promise. He later stretches out His hand for those who wish to believe and abide in Him. He does not bother what race we are from and we used Israel relationship as an example of can be done out of the fact that God is love and only want the best for mankind but when thing goes wrong, it is our problem or failure. Yes, there have been many wars down through the millenniums in the Middle East. It’s all a result of Abraham’s decision to have a child by Hagar without the approval of the Lord. Ishmael’s hand has always been against the descendants of Isaac, and Isaac’s children have always been against Ishmael’s. It’s an animosity that will live until the end of time. We can never expect to see real "peace in the Middle East." It is not only the issue of Land but the long history of hatred of built from the descendants of Ishmael toward Issac. Finally, we know that when Jesus died for my sin. We are no more considered a Jews or Gentiles but all equal under the sight of God. We notice that through the epistles of Paul, many times Paul specifically tells us that we are all blessed under one chosen people of God because:
Under the gospel, Gentiles as well as Jews (all nations) can be justified by faith when they are baptized into Christ. All who do so are one in Christ. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. All are heirs according to the promise made to Abraham (v24-29). The promised blessing was forgiveness of sins, which came through Jesus who was Abraham's seed. The blessing came through a descendant of Abraham, but the blessing itself was "upon all nations" - it was received by both Jew and Gentile. Every promise of God to the nation of Israel has been completely fulfilled. Nothing remains except the blessing of forgiveness, and that is enjoyed equally by men of all nations. [5]
[1] Why Did God Choose Israel?
Focus on Jerusalem, Prophecy Ministry - Darrell G.Young, http://focusonjerusalem.com/whydidgodchooseisrael.html
[2] What and who is Israel? The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, Baltimore, http://www.icjs.org/clergy/israel.html
[3] (Israel: God’s answer to skeptics, Christianity.com, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc© 2004, http://www.christianity.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/
0,,PTID306608CHID556136CIID1397346,00.html – whole section directly extracted)
[4] Sixteen Facts That Everyone Should Know About Israel; Moriel Ministries @ 2004
http://www.moriel.org/articles/israel/
sixteen_facts_everyone_should_know_about_israel.htm – whole section extracted but cut short.
[5] God's Plans for the Future of Israel:
Will the Jews Be God's Special People in the Millennium? Bible Study Lessons,(C) Copyright 12/78, 4/95, 7/04 David E. Pratte
http://www.biblestudylessons.com/cgi-bin/gospel_way/israel-future.php
As a Chinese I ask myself or even to God why He chooses Israel to be a blessed land and people while that are so stubborn. I think I am a way envying the love of God to this people just like elder brother envy his parent special attention to his younger brother. I also question over the war in the Middle East over the land of Israel and I found it is not the land that is in issue but the built-in hatred or unforgiveness over past forefathers’ sin. Both parties do not give way to each others and one problem over another tense up. I take this opportunity to write a term paper on this topic to help me see or understand the problem over this issue and my research was a success although I would like to quote directly from what I have learned. Hence, what I can come up with why God chosen Israelites and why the land of Israel and big issue of who right to own the land: Israel or the Palestinians?
2. WHAT IS ISRAEL ACTUALLY?
Israel is often referred to as the "chosen people", or the "chosen nation". It is a moniker that often seems to indicate that God has historically preferred and favored one nation or people over all others. The Bible is quite conclusive about the fact that God has indeed chosen one people over all others in the world. Why would God make such a distinction? It would seem to be an antithetical action for the Creator of all people to choose one people from all other peoples, to a status of "God's Chosen people". [1]We can read this through the history found in the Old Testament. Only later in the New Testament under the jurisdiction of Christ, we all others people come into God's dictionary. It was St Paul's epistle where we see the calls of God to all Gentiles.
In Jewish tradition, "Israel" signifies three distinct but closely related entities: a people descended from the patriarchs and matriarchs; a covenant originally established between God and the first of the patriarchs that was renewed and extended to the whole people at Sinai; and a land given by God to this people so that they would have a place in which to live in relationship with God and in accordance with the terms of the covenant as spelled out in Torah. God elected the people Israel, established the covenant with them, and gave them the land for a specific purpose, namely, to reveal God to the rest of humanity and to serve as a model of faithfulness so that all human beings would be inspired to partner with God in completing the work of redeeming God's creation.[2]
I Chronicles 16:13 says: O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
When God chose His special people, He chose Abram of Ur of the Chaldees. He chose Abram—later to be changed to Abraham—because the man obeyed God and put his faith in Him. Because of Abraham’s faithfulness, God promised Him that in his seed (child) would the entire world be blessed. I guess from Abraham that God promised a great nation and people under God's provision.
Through the Abrahamic Covenant, God could have chosen anyone he wished to become the Father of a new nation to be the path to or of his testimony. We do not know whether He calls other because the Bible does not relate any info about whether anyone else was called upon to father a new nation, but one thing is for certain; if anyone else was called they did not respond the way Abraham did. Abraham obeyed, and left Ur, and departed from the Pagan world to follow God. Abraham suffered to follow God instruction. So, in important that God did not choose Israel, he chose Abram, and Abram chose to accept. It is noteworthy to remember that the name of Israel only came into existence when God changed Jacob's name to Israel.
In Genesis 12:2-3 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and I will curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall ALL families of the earth be blessed.
In this covenant, God pronounces blessings for all people through the action that he and Abraham have entered into agreement on. Does that sound like God favors one people over another in so far as his love and compassion is concerned? I think not. I believe God loves every nation, tribe, race and every family. I am sure it was very crucial for God to choose someone to embody the lineage of his intended blessings. The great irony of God having a "chosen nation", is that if God had not chosen someone, somewhere, sometime, then; nobody could ever be the benefactor of an all encompassing love that God wishes to bless us with!
Gen 22:17 - That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; Gen 22:18 - And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
The Apostle Paul tells us to whom the word "seed" pointed. It was not to the
Israelites:
Gal 3:16 - The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.
Now, of course, the Israelites were involved in all of this. They were descendants of Abraham and were entrusted as the keepers of the promise—the promise that one day Messiah would come to save all mankind—including Chinese, Indians, and the English, etc. The Israelites were also keepers of the information God gave to mankind about Himself and about how they should live. This information would eventually be known as the Holy Scriptures, and today is known as the Bible.
3. THE PURPOSE OF ISRAEL [3]
That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. 41:20).
According to this verse, the Jewish people exist for at least four reasons.
That people may see the Jewish people and their history and realize that they are unique to this world. When Frederick the Great of Prussia challenged a believer in his court to prove the truth of the Bible and his God, he astutely replied, "The Jew!"
That people may know the existence of the Jewish people can only be explained supernaturally. Her continued existence is not explained by luck, coincidence, or any other fluke of nature.
That people may consider that the God of the Bible has done this miraculous work and seek a relationship with the sovereign God of the universe. If the God of Israel is powerful enough to bring these things to pass and to judge not only individuals but also nations that contradict His will, He deserves our attention and our worship. What will happen to you in light of this Holy God?
That people may understand that the God of Israel is the true God of this universe. He is the One we need to listen to and obey.
Israel’s history is relevant to people the world over, Jew and Gentile alike, and prompts them to respond in faith to the Holy One of Israel. God issues the world a challenge in Isaiah 41:21–23:
Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
The history of the Jewish people establishes the God of the Bible as the only One who has met this challenge to perfection. No other entity man has ever worshiped, including Allah, Buddha, or whoever, has ever been able to do these things. The God of Israel and the Bible is indisputably the one true God of this universe.
And the Bible is the Word of the one true God. He and He alone is the One to be sought and obeyed. It is He who promised He would bring a redeemer; it is He who told us in His Word how to recognize that redeemer; and it is He who has the power to do as He promised. Just as He said, He sent the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, who fulfilled hundreds of prophecies written about Him. Jesus summed up the teaching of the Old Testament and the challenge it issues to people everywhere: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me" (John. 5:39).
4. BLESSING TO THE ISRAELITE THAN THE ARABS.
God gave Israel a Promised Land but yet Israelite misused God’s blessing and turned it into a curse. On the other hand, Israelite step-brother came into the story where they took the Promised Land of the Israelite after the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersed of the Jewish people throughout Europe. Now, where do the Arabs come from?
Abraham had more than one son—he had eight. Isaac, child of Sarah, was designated as the child of the promise. The promise God gave to Abraham that there would be a "seed" through which all the world would be blessed, was passed on down through Isaac.
Abraham had a son by his concubine, Sarah’s slave, Hagar—Ishmael.
Gen 16:11 - The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. Gen 16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."
After leaving Abraham, Ishmael and his mother formed a tribe of their own, from which come the Arabs and many of the other tribes of the Middle East today. Ishmael and his descendants were often at war with the Israelites, and the hostilities continue to this day.
Abraham married again, after Sarah died, a woman named Keturah:
Gen 25:1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. Gen 25:2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.
Abraham sent them all away from Isaac, because he wanted Isaac to be his only heir. We notice God still blessed Ishmael and from here there came a big nation of the Arabs. God is/was not biased against the Arab nations, or the Palestinians, or anyone else. To the contrary, he has offered even the enemies of Israel His love. To explain further I like to extract an article that talk about the sixteen facts that we ought to know about the claim of the land of Israel.
5. SIXTEEN FACTS THAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ISRAEL. [4]
Fact # 1: The Jewish people are the Chosen People: After Adam and Eve sinned, humanity deteriorated so badly that God destroyed the early world of men with the Great Flood. Noah and his family knew the Lord, and were spared, but after they came out of the Ark and started repopulating, their descendants abandoned God, became idolatrous, perverse and evil. Then God created a special nation to be a light to the other nations. The Creator of the universe specifically chose the nation of Israel to be that unique people who would witness to His reality.
Fact # 2: The Land of Israel belongs to God: "The Earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it" (Psalm 24:1). Since the entire world belongs to God, He has the right to apportion it as He chooses, and He specifically gave the nations their lands based on the Jewish people's right to the Land of Israel!
Fact #3: The Chosen People needed a Chosen Land, and so the God of Israel strategically chose the Land of Israel for the People of Israel: "This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands around her.” (Ezekiel 5:5).
Fact #4: The Land of Israel was given by God to the descendants of Abraham as an everlasting possession: "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this Land'" (Genesis 12:7).
Fact #5: Even though Abraham had many sons, the Land of Israel wasn't given to Ishmael, or to any of the other sons of Abraham, but only to Isaac: "Abraham said to God, "oh that Ishmael might live before you!' But God said 'No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him'" (Genesis 17:18-19). God rejected Abraham's request that Ishmael be the heir of the covenant, and appointed Isaac instead.
Fact #6: Even though Isaac had two sons, the Land wasn't given to Esau, but to Jacob: One night Jacob had a dream while fleeing from his brother Esau. In his dream the Lord said to him, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the Land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants." (Genesis 28:13).
Fact #7: There is no doubt about Israel's God-given borders because they are described for us in detail in the Holy Scriptures: "The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever... Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you'" (Genesis 13:14-17).
Fact #8: In addition to the everlasting covenant (which includes the Land), God swore an oath to give the Jewish people this Land: Keep in mind that it's absolutely impossible for God to break an oath (see Hebrews 6:16-18).
Fact #9: Israel's sin and resulting exile from the Land of Israel never annulled God's covenant with His Chosen People, nor did it permanently abrogate our right to the Land of Israel: "Yet in spite of this (Israel's disobedience), when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors" - which includes the Land of Israel (Leviticus 26:44-45). Our exile from Israel was meant to be temporary!
Fact #10: In His prophetic Word, God promised to regather us to "our own Land": "I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own Land... And you will live in the Land that I gave to your forefathers" (Ezekiel 36:24, 28).
Fact #11: In His prophetic Word, God calls this restored Land "Israel" - not "Palestine": "I will open up your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the Land of Israel" (Ezekiel 37:12). The name "Palestine" comes from the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the Jewish people. "Palestine" was the derogatory name given to the Land of Israel by the Romans after they conquered us. But throughout the Word of God, this Land is always called Israel - never Palestine.
Fact #12: God, speaking to us through the prophet Ezekiel, informs us that this Land is specifically reserved for the Jewish people: "You O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be rebuilt" (Ezekiel 36:8-10).
Fact #13: 2,500 years ago the Lord also told us that the Jewish return to the Land would provoke a reaction from Israel's neighbors: "Because the enemy has spoken against you "'Aha' and 'The everlasting heights have become our possession'... Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My Land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul, to drive it out as a prey" (Ezekiel 36:2-5).
Fact #14: God will severely judge any nation who divides up any part of this special Land: "In those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My Land" (Joel 3:1-2).
Fact #15: Eventually this conflict over the Land of Israel will entangle the entire world: God, speaking through the prophet Zechariah in 12:1-3, in the Sixth Century BC, predicted: "Behold I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around" (the nations will react to the regathering of the Jewish people with senseless behavior and irrational hatred); "and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples" (Israel's Islamic neighbors want to destroy the hated "Zionist Entity" because the Islamic worldview teaches that the entire world will ultimately come under the control of Islam. A Jewish state in the midst of the Moslem Middle East is by its very existence an insult to Allah and Islam, and must be destroyed. Islam can have no true and lasting peace with Israel - only a temporary cease-fire. Hostilities will once again be renewed when Islamic strength is renewed. At its core, this is a religious conflict - not a political or economic one); "all who lift it will be severely injured." (The nations of the world will be drawn into this conflict and try to remove the Jewish presence from Jerusalem. However, be warned - every nation that tries to remove the Jewish people from our Land and capital city will be severely injured). "And all the nations of the Earth will be gathered against it." (The world's United Nations will wage a final world war in the Middle East, directed against Israel). It's amazing to see this 2,500-year-old prophetic scenario shaping up before our very eyes! Zechariah's prophecy continues and informs us that the army of the United Nations will be defeated; God will destroy all those nations that fight against Israel; Israel will be miraculously saved and recognize Yeshua as the Messiah!
Fact #16: This will be a time of great difficulty for the Jewish people, but we will be miraculously delivered out of it: "Alas! For that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob's distress, but he will be saved from it" (Jeremiah 30:7).
6. CONCLUSION.
Israelite is a chosen people because of a closed relationship of Abraham and God. Abraham’s faithfulness had shown great respect and love from God to the extreme that He promised him great nations. He promised a blessed nations despite the later part that discouraged Him but yet our God is mercy and graceful to carry on with His promise. He later stretches out His hand for those who wish to believe and abide in Him. He does not bother what race we are from and we used Israel relationship as an example of can be done out of the fact that God is love and only want the best for mankind but when thing goes wrong, it is our problem or failure. Yes, there have been many wars down through the millenniums in the Middle East. It’s all a result of Abraham’s decision to have a child by Hagar without the approval of the Lord. Ishmael’s hand has always been against the descendants of Isaac, and Isaac’s children have always been against Ishmael’s. It’s an animosity that will live until the end of time. We can never expect to see real "peace in the Middle East." It is not only the issue of Land but the long history of hatred of built from the descendants of Ishmael toward Issac. Finally, we know that when Jesus died for my sin. We are no more considered a Jews or Gentiles but all equal under the sight of God. We notice that through the epistles of Paul, many times Paul specifically tells us that we are all blessed under one chosen people of God because:
Under the gospel, Gentiles as well as Jews (all nations) can be justified by faith when they are baptized into Christ. All who do so are one in Christ. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. All are heirs according to the promise made to Abraham (v24-29). The promised blessing was forgiveness of sins, which came through Jesus who was Abraham's seed. The blessing came through a descendant of Abraham, but the blessing itself was "upon all nations" - it was received by both Jew and Gentile. Every promise of God to the nation of Israel has been completely fulfilled. Nothing remains except the blessing of forgiveness, and that is enjoyed equally by men of all nations. [5]
[1] Why Did God Choose Israel?
Focus on Jerusalem, Prophecy Ministry - Darrell G.Young, http://focusonjerusalem.com/whydidgodchooseisrael.html
[2] What and who is Israel? The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, Baltimore, http://www.icjs.org/clergy/israel.html
[3] (Israel: God’s answer to skeptics, Christianity.com, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc© 2004, http://www.christianity.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/
0,,PTID306608CHID556136CIID1397346,00.html – whole section directly extracted)
[4] Sixteen Facts That Everyone Should Know About Israel; Moriel Ministries @ 2004
http://www.moriel.org/articles/israel/
sixteen_facts_everyone_should_know_about_israel.htm – whole section extracted but cut short.
[5] God's Plans for the Future of Israel:
Will the Jews Be God's Special People in the Millennium? Bible Study Lessons,(C) Copyright 12/78, 4/95, 7/04 David E. Pratte
http://www.biblestudylessons.com/cgi-bin/gospel_way/israel-future.php
Sunday, January 02, 2005
ANALYZING PAUL EXPERIENCES AND APPEARANCES WITH THE GROUPS OF JEW AND GENTILE IN HIS SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY WITH TODAY'S WORLD.
1. INTRODUCTION.
Paul by racial ancestry was Israelites, by citizenship was Roman, by religion a follower of Judaism, yet born and raised among Greek culture. We do not know much about him but this background and environment that Paul (or at that time he was called Saul) received his education in the religion of Judaism which means that he was very well versed in its dogma and apologetics. Sometime during his so much educational years it was instilled in him a fervent hatred for Christ was found in him he became a perfect agent in the employment of the Sanhedrin against the Christians. He moved around throughout the Roman world in his approximately thirty years in Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-2) in arresting and testifying against the followers of Christ until God had to do something about him and used what he knew to do His ministry. His tripped to Damascus somehow changed his history to become fellow followers of Christ and through the life he only brought gospel to all nations and all kinds of men from the poor to the rich, from the servant to the king and not forgetting his own people the Jews which was the most difficult people and like Christ he was prosecuted because of them.
2. which experience taught us about him
Paul went on to make three recorded missionary tours plus his journey to
Paul imitated Christ’s way of teaching. Therefore he knew how to relate to people. He knew how to teach and how to train others as teachers. He based his teaching on the Scriptures. He did not try to impress others with his own wisdom but, rather, reasoned from the Scriptures. (Acts 17:2, 3) Paul also knew how to adapt to his audience and how to use the local setting as a stepping stone for his message. As he said: “I have made myself the slave to all, that I may gain the most persons. And so to the Jews I became as a Jew . . . To those without law I became as without law . . . To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to people of all sorts, that I might by all means save some.”—1 Corinthians 9:19-23; Acts 17:22, 23.
With what attitude did the apostle carry out this ministry? “Though I am free from all persons,” he said, “I have made myself the slave to all that I may gain the most persons.” (1 Corinthians 9:19) Unquestionably, Paul made meaningful effort to present his message in an effective way, for he also said: “I do all things for the sake of the good news, that I may become a sharer of it with others.” (1 Corinthians 9:23)
3. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM PAUL’S EXAMPLE?
Paul’s Jewish background and his willingness to do all things for the sake of the good news equipped him to help humble Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah.
For example, consider what the apostle did when he chose Timothy as his traveling companion. Timothy, whose father was Greek, had not been circumcised as Jewish male children were. (Leviticus 12:2, 3) Paul knew that Jews might be stumbled if an uncircumcised young man tried to help them to become reconciled to God. Therefore, so that honest hearted Jews might not be hindered from accepting Jesus, what did Paul do? He “took [Timothy] and circumcised him because of the Jews.” This was done even though circumcision was not a Christian requirement.—Acts 16:1-3.
Did he deal similarly with Gentiles? First, “Paul had decided to preach to gentiles apparently out of his own revelatory experience that this was the mission that had been given him by God when God called him to function as a prophet for this new Jesus movement” [1]. Paul’s genuine desire to gain Gentile converts to Christianity prompted him to take an interest also in people whose background was very different from his own. “To those [the Gentiles] without law I became as without law, although I am not without law toward God but under law toward Christ, that I might gain those without law.” (1 Corinthians 9:21) How did the apostle seek to gain Gentiles?
When Paul went to
Giving a witness in
4. PAUL’S LIFE JOURNEYS [2].
Before I decide to choose which journey I would like to analyze and to select his appearance to a particular group for discussion in this term paper, I would also like to briefly go through the whole three missionary journey that he had covered through his life or what is found in the book of Acts. We need to know that each journey is almost interrelated because if we talk one particular group of people like the Jew, it is also found through the three missionary journeys how Paul related to these groups of people. The events or the incidents might in different locations and reasons but it always end up with the same message that is Jesus Christ is the son of God and only through Him we have salvation. It did not matter if they are Jews or Gentiles. All are the same under God’s grace. All these lessons have different incidents or arguments but overall it is Paul that had to defend the faith that he believed and live by.
The books of Acts 13 and 14 covers Paul’s first missionary journey from the city of
The books of Acts 15:35-18:22 covers Paul’s second missionary journey which recorded the journey of Paul, Silas and Timothy on their preaching tour which covered approximately four years between A.D. 50-54. Their journey was form Antioch, Syria to the Roman regions of Cilicia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Galatia, Mysia in modern Turkey, westward across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia, turned south into Greece, Achaia (southern Greece), sailed eastward across the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor, then to Samaria, Jerusalem and back home to Antioch, Syria.
The books of Acts 18:23-21:17 covers the final or third missionary journey that recorded the journey of Paul, Timothy and others on their third preaching tour which covered approximately four years from A.D. 54-58. Their journey took them from their home church in
5. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY. [3]
Before I really go into a discussion of analyzing the particular group of people, I would general like to go briefly into the account or incident that happened during Paul and Silas journey as Timothy and Mark came into picture along the journey.
*Gordon Smith, A Harmony of the New Testament,
http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CH225ACTSPaulTwo.htm
a) Paul & Silas cross
Paul met Timothy in Lystra. Paul chooses Timothy as companion. We do well to notice that the early apostles not only worked in pairs, but also took along younger brethren for training in practical aspects of the Christian ministry in this missionary enterprise. Before Paul departed, he circumcised Timothy. If these Jews knew that Timothy was not circumcised, they might refuse to listen; whereas if he were, there would be no possibility of offense on this matter. The interpretation that Paul’s circumcising of Timothy was in order to gain an audience for the gospel with the Jews seems to be strongly implied by the word. And circumcised him because of Jews although they all knew that his father was Greek. I will analyze this matter on the next section.
b) They cross to Europe and reach Philippi;
16:10-40
During a night vision Paul saw a man of
The man of
In
When the jailer announced the good news to Paul, the apostle refused to leave under such circumstances. After all, Silas and Paul though Jews by birth were citizens of
c) In Thessalonica they are rejected by the Jews; in
Paul and Silas now traveled to Amphiplis than to Apollonia before stopping at Thessalonica. This city was strategically located on trade routes and an excellent center of commerce. Here Paul chose it as a base form his next gospel. He preached at a Jewish synagogue about the long awaited Messiah Jesus Christ. He tried to prove that Christ was God. Some of the Jews were persuaded included the Greek proselytes and not a few of the leading women. This provoked the unbelieving Jews to take decisive action by incited a riot from the market place and besieged the house of Jason where Paul and Silas was guest. They described them (Paul and his followers) as those who had turned the world upside down. Then charged them with plotting to overthrow the government of Caesar by preaching of another king whom we knew was Christ Jesus. What was funny here was that they were questioning safeguarding the government while they actually had little or no love for the
d) Paul is taken to
Paul stopped at
Paul’s proclamation to the Greek is one with his proclamation to the Jew, he is “testify God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ”, the Deliverer and Judge of both Jew and Greek. Human wisdom is not easily persuaded of its failure; the mind boggles at the miracle of the resurrection of the dead. [5]
They considered Paul teaching rubbish a proclaimed of unknown gods that die and resurrected. They took him to Areopagus, a judicial body like a supreme court that met on the hill of Mars. Paul stood before them all and delivered a message speaking before to Gentile and not Jews this time. He preached about the God of every thing, we are his offspring and that He will judge us for what we did. During his last message on the resurrection of Christ that scorn him of his concept. Paul had to put an end to his preaching. However, it would not be right to say that Paul’s message was failed. We learned that Dionysius (Areopagite, a member of the court), a woman named Damaris and many that their names not given were believed and convinced of Paul’s gospel.
e) Paul to
Paul departed from
Once again as usual, Paul was compelled by the spirit to share about Jesus was indeed the Christ of God at the Jews’ synagogue and where he was once again opposed by the unbelieving Jews and called as blasphemed. Following the outburst of the Jews, the apostle went to the home of Justus, a Gentile convert to Judaism whereby lived next door to the synagogue who the ruler was Crispus on which Paul shared his ministry and were enable to convert him and his household. This brought encouragement to Paul on which he stayed on for eighteen months on which Gallio was appointed proconsul of Achaia. The Jews were thinking the new proconsul would be friendly to them, they brought Paul before him at the judgment seat in the marketplace of
6. which "groups" that Paul met was most meaningful of all his journey?
ALL groups were treated the same by Paul and every incidents that occurred in the second missionary journey stands something for us to learn. In my opinion, there are only two groups that are the Jews and the Gentiles and Paul intention was just to bring them together under one roof. There should not have differed in any way under the
For example of Paul experiences and how he tackles this groups of people:
Paul circumcised Timothy despite preaching the necessity of circumcision found in Acts 16:1-5 – Why did Paul circumcise Timothy yet he believed that it wasn't necessary for a person to be circumcised in order for that person to be saved? 16:3 says that he did it "because of the Jews who were in those parts". The implication being that the Jews wouldn't have received any word Timothy spoke on the grounds that he hadn't been circumcised, and therefore it was necessary to circumcise him to allow the Jews to give him a hearing.
Paul and Silas were accused of teaching Jewish customs to Romans found in Acts
The Jews in Beroea tested the word of Paul and Silas’ word found in Acts 17:10-12 was that they found Paul’s word was true and confirmed according to the Bible; many were converted and just a few against.
Paul personally observed the Law of Moses like what we found in Acts 18:18 - 21 where Paul “shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a “vow” and personally observed the feast in
We can learn from Paul, who had a fine missionary spirit. For instance, he did not want to be responsible for obstacles that might prevent Jews and Gentiles from accepting the truth. Therefore, the apostle was careful about what he ate and admonished Corinthian Christians to watch that exercising their right to eat certain foods so that it should not stumble others. (1 Corinthians 8:8, 9) In the New Century Bible, Professor F. F. Bruce stated: “In all indifferent things (such as the food which was at issue in [1 Corinthians] chapter 8), [Paul] conforms to the customs of those with whom he is at the time, so as to put no obstacle in the way of ‘winning’ them for the gospel.” (Romans 14:21)
Similarly, missionaries works do not try to change the customs of people in their own perspective state or country, though new ones are given spiritual help to make adjustments needed to please God.—Romans 12:1, 2.
7. CONCLUSION.
[1] Woolsey Professor of Biblical Studies Yale University, Paul’s mission and Letter, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
shows/religion/first/missions.html
[2]
http://www.truthinhistory.org/paul.htm (extracted with minor changes)
[3] Mac Donald, William, Believer’s Bible commentary, Thomas Nelson Publishers,
Nashville-
[4] James Stalker, Life of Paul, p.78
[5] Walter R..Roehrs & Martin Franzmann, Concordia Self-Study Commentary,
Concordia Publishing House, St Louis-Missouri, 1973, pp.115
[6] Alluochier, Isaac, Servant of Yahweh, London 2000 http://www.serveyahweh.org/Paul/paul05.htm#paul078
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