Did you ever stop to think, if you are a believer, that Jesus' perfectly obedient life was lived for you? That when God views you through Jesus your representative, he sees you as perfectly pleasing to himself? That is the astounding message of Hebrews 10:4-14. * * * The New Testament author of Hebrews says it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (10:4). "Why is that?" we ask. Because animals, being amoral creatures, are incapable of offering God what he most desires from his human creatures -- an obedient human life, lived in right relationship to the Creator from … [Read more...]
Archives for 2012
WHAT IS YOM KIPPUR? (3)
After the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 69-70, Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah were not nearly so dismayed as their fellow-Jews who did not, for they realized that all the rituals of high priests and sacrificial animals had reached their intended goal in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth -- "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Those Jews who did not receive the Messiah were devastated and felt obligated to re-invent Judaism for a situation without any Temple or priests or sacrificial animals. Over time, repentance and prayer … [Read more...]
WHAT IS YOM KIPPUR? (2)
This all foreshadowed the realities that Jesus later brought to pass and anticipated the eternal atonement Jesus would make by his self-offering to God on the cross. The white linen spoke of purity and common humanity. Though deity incarnate, Jesus was fully man, and he went to the cross having kept God's laws perfectly and having lived in absolute covenant faithfulness to God. The word for the Mercy Seat in the Greek Old Testament was hilasterion, the "Propitiation," a word combining the ideas of appeasement and reconciliation. By offering himself, symbolized in the shedding of his blood on … [Read more...]
WHAT IS YOM KIPPUR? (1)
Yom Kippur is the Hebrew name for the Day of Atonement (literally, "Day of Covering"), the most holy day in the Jewish calendar. On this day, observant Jews worldwide repent of sins committed during the past year and seek God's merciful forgiveness. In keeping with these solemn exercises, a total fast is imposed, even from water, with certain merciful exceptions. The details for this day's original observance are recorded in Leviticus chapter 16, as given by God through Moses to the Israelites in the wilderness after their miraculous escape from Egyptian slavery and God's covenant-making with … [Read more...]
JEWS & SALVATION
"Judaism has lost favor with God," someone writes. "To say that it is still a path to God makes a liar of Jesus and therefore of God." * * * While it is certainly true that no one will be saved except through the atonement Jesus has accomplished, that does not prevent God from saving many people by Jesus' atonement who lacked personal conscious awareness of that atonement in this life. Most Christians would place in that category all faithful Jews before Jesus, faithful Gentiles before Jesus, and babies and small children who die -- both before Christ and since. Can we not allow that a … [Read more...]
BUDDHISTS AND COMMON GRACE
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "I have a Buddhist friend who does not believe in God as I do, or in the necessity of Jesus for salvation. I see what look like fruit of the Spirit in her life which makes me want to find some kind of reconciliation between my beliefs and hers. Any thoughts?" * * * Every good thing comes from God (James 1:17), and God has not left any people-group totally without knowledge of himself. That includes the peoples of Japan, India, Hawaii and other places where Buddhism is prominently represented. Paul refers to this universal self-witness of God at least twice in his … [Read more...]
BUDDHA NOT SO OLD
A gracEmail subscriber writes, "My husband was witnessing to a co-worker today who said that the Buddhist Bible was written before any other Bible. He asked how anyone can convince a Buddhist to believe in anything else but their own Bible since it precedes all others. Can you offer any suggestion on how we can deal with this when trying to share Christ?" * * * Your husband's co-worker is a tad confused. Prince Siddhartha, the Indian philosopher and founder of Buddhism, lived in India from approximately 563-483 B.C., which made him a contemporary of the later prophets of the Old Testament. … [Read more...]
CHOPRA, ARISTOTLE OR JESUS?
A midsouthern Bible professor summarizes author-guru Deepak Chopra's message as "Don't trust the intellect; go to the heart," then asks whether the same mindset infects much contemporary Christian thinking. * * * Chopra is indeed one of today's most prominent purveyors and popularizers of New Age, Hindu-oriented, "Eastern" mysticism. As such, he preaches distrust of the intellect, so that the "heart" swallows up everything else. You are surely correct that Christians in any age are always susceptible to the tossing waves and swirling winds of their own intellectual environment. For that … [Read more...]
WHY MUSLIMS HATE THE WEST (1)
It is astounding to realize that millions of Middle-Eastern Muslims hate the West (and the USA in particular). I am not talking about the terrorists -- barbarian savages who launch suicidal attacks on innocent men, women and children. I am speaking of day laborers and artisans, mothers and school-children, regular people sometimes referred to as "the Arab street." Political correctness says they hate us because they disagree with our democracy, our capitalism, our cherished freedoms -- often summed up as our "way of life." That is a comfortable answer, to be sure, but it is also wrong. In … [Read more...]
IS ALLAH GOD?
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "Recently in Sunday school, our teacher said that Allah is not the same God that we know. I've always been under the impression that Allah and God were the same, just worshipped differently by Muslims and Christians. What do you think?" * * * In the Arabic language, Allah is the word for "God." The goal of devout Muslims is absolute submission (Arabic: Islam) to him. Muslims believe that Allah revealed the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad during the years from 610-622 A.D., dictating it letter by letter through the archangel Gabriel. Some Christians argue that … [Read more...]
