A love of truth

 

Amos 9:15

I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

There is an eerie silence regarding end-time prophecies from pulpits around the world today. And I think that this is in part because of ignorance, as many seminaries and Bible schools allocate very little time to this topic during the courses that they offer; and in part because of the potential divisive nature of these prophecies – it cannot be denied that many favour Israel, and are against all other nations who have the destruction of Israel on their agenda.

Amos was active during 760-755 BC, and therefore gave the above prophecy about 160 years before Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon captured Jerusalem. We know that this prophecy is meant not for that time, but for the end times, because although Israel returned to their land again after being exiled to Babylon, they were dispersed once again in 70 AD by the Romans.

But then came the miraculous re-birth of Israel. Never in human history has a country and a nation been destroyed, its citizens scattered to all the corners of the earth, only to return to rebuild their devastated villages and farm their barren fields once again. And revive their ancient language to boot! And it is to the Israel of this time that Amos declares the word of God, Who always keeps His promises: never again will they be uprooted from their land.

Is God being unfair? No, God is called Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. From ancient times He has clearly stated that people and nations will be blessed if they obey the Lord and cursed if they do not (Deut 28:2,15). This includes Israel. They have been severely punished by God during their history up to now whenever they turned away from their God – they, along with the Gentile nations, are certainly not exempt from God’s wrath!

The undeniable truth is that our choices in life not only influence us personally, but also our immediate circle of family and friends, as well as our nation as a whole. Sin left unchecked, spreads like a cancer. If I deliberately choose to blaspheme God and ridicule His followers, I teach my children and wider family to do the same. The consequences of these choices to turn against God, then fall on them as well, and if my national leaders likewise choose to turn their backs on God, these consequences are invited on our nation collectively.

The church urgently needs to address wrong thinking among its members regarding Israel, holding them up to the absolute truth which is revealed to us in the Bible, and not the relative truth widely broadcasted today which is based on lies, only to tickle the ears of  listeners as Paul warned about in 2 Tim 4:3 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

Points to ponder: Upholding truth in a loving relationship is what true discipleship is all about - to correct wrong perceptions and behaviour in love and without judgement.

A love for Truth

God has many sons

 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

I am sure some of you are now scratching your heads and thinking – “this verse so clearly says that God gave his only Son, how can He then have many sons?” The answer lies in the word only, which is the Greek word monogenē, derived from monos (only, unique, solitary) and ginomai (only-born, sole) and means only-begotten; unique.

At the time of His birth, Jesus was the only son of God born of a woman here on earth, which in that moment, made Him very unique indeed.

Who then are the other sons of God? We read of some of them in Scripture - In Luke 3:38, where Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, Adam is referred to as the son of God. We know that God created Adam, he was not born here on earth. Luke 20:36 calls the fallen angels we read of in of Gen 6, sons of God, and we know that God created the angels. In Job 38:7 God asks Job where he was when the sons of God shouted for joy at the creation of the earth, showing that God created them long before the earth came into being. None of these sons of God we read of up to here, were born on earth, all were created by God.

But my friend, do you appreciate that you are also a son/daughter of God? You can read this in many places in the Bible, for example Gal 3:26 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” The moment you chose Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, you were adopted into God’s family; Jesus calls you His brother/sister; you became a new person and received the Holy Spirit – awesome! Along with Jesus, you are now unique sons/daughters of God, born here on earth, but with citizenship in heaven, entitled to all the privileges this brings.

There is someone who now is extremely jealous of your new status, as he himself can never aspire to this level of sonship.

In Job 1:6 we learn that Satan was also created as a son of God: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”  This happened again in Job 2:1. Through his own choices, he rebelled against God and lost his precious position in heaven. His ongoing opposition to God ensures that he will never regain what he had lost, and he knows this full well.

Do you now understand why he hates believers in Jesus so much? That all he wants to do to them, is steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10)?

Points to ponder:

Meditate on what it means to have the privilege of being a son/daughter of the Most High God. When the realization of it saturates your soul, you will also call out with David: In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? And revel in the fact that Jesus has disarmed Satan and his demons on the cross – your adversary has no weapons! (Col 2:15)

Children of God

Which Bible translation?

 

People often wonder which Bible translation is the best one to use. There are about nine hundred English translations of the Bible, or portions of it, from 1526 up to today!

How then must I choose which Bible to use? No single English translation will ever represent all the meanings or nuances of the original biblical languages perfectly. This is because those languages are so dissimilar to English – the sentences are constructed differently, and there may not be an exact English word to match the original language word. That one word may also have many different meanings attached to it.

Use the translation that best suits your personality, as your primary go-to Bible. For people with a teacher redemptive gifting, this may be the Amplified Bible, and you will also find at least 6-10 other translations and concordances on their desks. If you have a mercy redemptive gifting, there may only be one worn-out Bible next to your bed, which you probably received when you were 8 years old! You may not be someone who appreciates a translation that keeps to the original text so strongly that it renders a very stilted or unnatural way of reading, and you therefore may enjoy an interpretive Bible more. It remains good advice, however, to have at least one other translation to use for comparison, or even to use an app like Bible Hub for example, where various translations are given parallel to each other – this will help you pick up what the true intent of the original text is.

I would caution against using any translation that was prepared by one person acting alone as your primary source – there must be accountability among many advisors so that the whole translation does not become slanted into representing one person’s view of what the text is saying. Use such a translation as an additional reading only, and enjoy doing so!

Let us look at one verse to see how different translators worded it:  Ps 90:12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. This is from the NIV. In the New Living Translation, it reads Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. The King James Bible says So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The Brenton Septuagint Translation has and who knows how to number his days because of the fear of thy wrath? So manifest thy right hand, and those that are instructed in wisdom in the heart.

The translation for this verse that touched my heart this morning, was from the Contemporary English Version: Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.

Points to ponder:

The Bible shows us God’s character – His holy, unchanging, faithful, gracious, and loving character. In it we learn how to avoid error; how to help others; all about Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross; to name but a few. It records history; it reveals science secrets. It contains many prophecies of what is yet to happen in the future. It has innumerable treasures just waiting to be discovered with Holy Spirit’s help. Stop fretting about which translation is better or worse, and just start reading your Bible – you will be richly rewarded!

The B I B L E

The traditions of men

 

Matthew 15:3 “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

It is inevitable that certain practices will be picked up from the culture in which we live and make its way into our religious gatherings as a church - for instance, Japanese church members might remove their shoes at the entrance to their meeting place. This does not make it wrong in and of itself, as culture is part of our very being, but we need to exercise great discernment to decide whether those cultural influences contribute to the holiness of our worship of God, or detract from it.

Paganism was the dominating religion of the Roman Empire until the fourth century. During the reign of Constantine, many features of paganism were brought into and absorbed by the Christian church. Even though he granted Christians freedom of worship, his actions showed that he held on to his superstitions and beliefs in pagan magic. However, the Christians were so grateful to be granted the right to exercise their religion that the temptation to accept these pagan rituals in their services became too great to resist.

These pagan festivities were given a Christian veneer in the hope of redeeming them from their obvious occultic sources. We can name Easter and Christmas as examples of this, but in a sense, the timing of these festivals has been redeemed by the fact that for thousands of years, many authentic believers have gathered during these times to bring honour and glory to the one true God, and not to the pagan deities that the feasts were originally dedicated to. These believers mostly adhered to the events narrated in the Bible, not using the pagan symbols otherwise associated with these feasts.

Halloween, on the other hand, cannot be redeemed on any level. Not the timing of it, nor the elements thereof. The origin of Halloween lies some 2000 years ago in the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Absolutely all the traditions associated with the modern Halloween celebrations can be traced back to these ancient occultic spiritual festivities and beliefs, all bringing honour and glory to the devil and his evil spirits by firstly celebrating them, and then by giving in and bowing before their presumed power over human beings. (Only presumed power, because the truth is that at Calvary they became a defeated, disarmed enemy!)

The most damaging effect of this tradition on our children is the polluting of their minds and the defiling of their innocent imaginations, instilling fear instead of teaching them that fear is not from God and therefore is subject to His presence and power in their lives.

God very clearly states His commandment regarding our participation in feasts honouring the evil one, in 1 Cor 10:21 “You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.” And in Eph 5:11 “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

Points to ponder:  Is Halloween contributing to your holy worship of God? You have a decision to make here: are you going to dishonour God for the sake of your traditions?

In Christ alone