The Word

A complete harmony of all four Gospel accounts of the burial and resurrection, with grouped witness testimonies and ten Old Testament prophecies fulfilled.

  Prosperity teachers extract Malachi 3:10 as a transactional formula: give money to the church (the “storehouse”), and God is obligated to “open the windows of heaven” with material wealth. This is a grave misuse of the Scriptures. Ø  This reading is anachronistic - it is outside of the time to which the Scripture applies. Ø  It is eisegeses – reading into Scripture, that which is not there. Ø  It makes a Scriptural category error - confusing two different levels of critical analysis. Ø  It transplants a covenantal obligation tied to the Levitical-priestly economy of Second Temple Judaism – It turns it into a personal wealth-generation scheme for the New Covenant believer. The error is not merely interpretive but structural: it misidentifies what the tithe was, who received it, why it was commanded, and to whom the covenant blessing-and-curse formula applied. What follows establishes each point from the text and from Jewish tradition. confirmed in New Testament Apostolic teaching. The Text in Question   “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Then there will be food in My House. Now test Me in this”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out blessing for you, until no one is without enough.” (Malachi 3:10) Read in isolation, the verse can be made to sound like a personal opportunity for an investment return. However, read with a Jewish understanding in its covenantal, historical, and cultic context, it says something very, very different. The Tithe Was Agricultural Produce, Not Currency    “You will surely set aside a מַעֲשֵׂר [tenth] of all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.” (Deuteronomy 14:22) Deuteronomy 14:22 defines the tithe precisely: a tenth of the yield of the field, year by year. The Hebrew ma’aser (מַעֲשֵׂר) – a tenth - is levied on agricultural increase, that is grain, wine, oil, and herds – that which the Land of Israel produces. Tithing therefore cannot be separated from the Land covenant that God made with Israel. Rabbinic law confirms this view. The tithe belongs to the category of mitzvot ha-teluyot ba’aretz - commandments dependent on the Land (Kiddushin 36b–37a; m. Challah 4:8). Produce grown outside the Land of Israel was, in principle, exempt from the biblical tithe. It must surely follow that a commandment, territorially bound to agricultural yield in the Land, cannot be the basis of a universal monetary demand on Gentile believers worldwide. The “Storehouse” Was the Temple Treasury for Priestly Provision  Where the Masoretic text reads “storehouse” (beit ha-otzar, בֵּית הָאוֹצָר), the Targum makes the meaning explicit: Targum (Malachi 3:10) “The prophet said, bring all the tithes into the treasury, that there may be food for them that minister in the house of my sanctuary.” The Targum makes clear that the verse was, for its original audience, precisely as provision for the ministering priests and Levites—not a generic offering fund, and certainly not a believer’s chance to get a tenfold return on their investment, suggested by the prosperity gospel. This is supported structurally by Nehemiah, who describes the very system Malachi presupposes: Nehemiah 10:37–38  …the firstborn of our sons and our livestock…to the kohanim [priests] ministering in the House of our God; and the first of our coarse meal…to the kohanim at the storerooms of the House of our God, as well as a tenth of the crop of our land to the Levites, for they, the Levites, receive tithes in all the towns where we labour. The tithe is for “the Levites” in the towns; the terumah (heave-offering), firstfruits, and firstborn go to the kohanim (Priests) and into the storerooms—the lishkot, the chambers of the Temple. The “storehouse” of Malachi 3:10 is these Temple storerooms of Nehemiah 10:38: the very same chambers, the same priestly recipients, the same institution. Malachi and Nehemiah are roughly contemporary (post-exilic, mid-fifth century BC), addressing the identical crisis – that was the people had stopped supplying the Temple, and the Levites, unsupported, had abandoned their posts.  The Crisis: Absent Priests and Defiled Sacrifice   Nehemiah 13:10–11 “…the portions of the Levites had not been given them, so that the Levites…had fled every one to his field. Then I contended with the rulers and said, “Why is the House of God forsaken?” When the tithe was not given, the ministering class went back to their farms for their own survival. This is the problem Malachi addresses. The point about unchecked sacrifices finds its anchor here. Malachi 1:6–14, immediately preceding the text we are considering. It condemns precisely the corruption of the altar and those offering blemished, blind, lame, and sick animals offered in place of the unblemished. The priestly inspection of sacrifices (Leviticus 22:17–25 mandates that the priest verify the animal is tamim, without defect). This breaks down when the priests are absent in the fields. The book’s logic follows a clear path: The withheld tithe leads to unsupported ministry, absent Levites which means no priestly inspection which in turn leads to corrupt, defiled sacrifice – in this God was being robbed (Mal 3:8). The tithe of 3:10 is the remedy for an institutional, priestly failure. It has nothing to do with personal enrichment for Christians.  “Robbing God” Confirms a Covenantal, not an investment opportunity   Malachi 3:8–9 calls the withholding as theft (“Will a man rob God?”) and invokes a national curse (“you are cursed with a curse…for you are robbing Me, this whole nation”). This is covenant-legal language. The blessing-and-curse structure is that of Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26—the corporate, conditional blessings on national Israel under the Mosaic covenant within the Land. Crucially, the “windows of heaven” pouring out blessing is the language of rain on the agricultural land: “The LORD will open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land” (Deuteronomy 28:12). The promised blessing is, categorically, agricultural fertility will be again restored. The promise is of the future rain that produces the very crops that create the harvest, from which will come next year’s tithe. It is a closed farming, covenantal loop – harvest, tithe, harvest, tithe…. It is not a money-multiplication promise to Christian individuals.    A Note on the Talmudic “Tithe and Prosper” Saying   Prosperity teachers occasionally reach behind the text to a rabbinic saying (b. Ta’anit 9a; cf. Sanhedrin 113a): R. Yochanan’s wordplay asser bishvil shetit’asher—“tithe so that you may become wealthy.” It is important I address this directly. “You will surely set aside a tenth of all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.” Deuteronomy 14:22  Deuteronomy 14:22 itself, and the surrounding sugya (a set of arguments in the Talmud that together discuss a particular issue or Mishnah) ties together the promise of rain and agricultural blessing—exactly the farming, Land-covenant frame argued above. It is a teaching about trusting God’s faithfulness within the tithe system of the Land of Israel, not a formula for an individual monetary making scheme. Let me confirm this setting out the sugya stripped of the technical language: This whole passage sits inside a section of the Talmud about rain — specifically, what causes God to send it. That's not incidental; it tells you the passage is thinking in farming terms from the start. Rabbi Yochanan runs into his young nephew — the son of a colleague named Reish Lakish - and asks the boy, "What verse did you learn in school today?" The boy answers: "You shall surely tithe" (Deuteronomy 14:22 — the Hebrew repeats the verb, "tithe, tithe"). Rabbi Yochanan explains the repetition with a pun. In Hebrew, "tithe" (aser) and "become wealthy" (titasher) share the same root letters. So, he reads the verse as: "Tithe — so that you'll become wealthy." The boy pushes back: "How do you know that's true?" Rabbi Yochanan says: "Go test it and see." The boy objects - sharply, for a child: "Are we even allowed to test God? Doesn't the Torah say, 'Do not test the Lord your God' (Deuteronomy 6:16)?" Rabbi Yochanan answers by quoting an older teacher, Rabbi Hoshaya: You may not test God in anything — except this one thing. And the exception comes from Malachi 3:10 itself, where God says, "Test Me in this." In other words, the Talmud treats "test Me" as a rare, narrow exception to a general rule, not a general principle about giving and getting. It's the one loophole in an otherwise firm prohibition — and the rabbis felt they needed a special dispensation just to justify it existing at all. That's the opposite of treating Malachi 3:10 as a template for financial life generally. The boy, unimpressed, replies: "If I'd already read that far, I wouldn't have needed you or your teacher to tell me." Rabbi Yochanan is struck by how sharp the child is - and then the boy's mother pulls him away, afraid of what happened to his father after a past clash with Rabbi Yochanan. (A sober note buried in what looks like a cute anecdote.) There are three further pieces that guard against a prosperity reading: In Tractate Shabbat (119a), the same wordplay is read two ways at once: "tithe so you'll get rich" and "tithe so you won't be lacking." The second reading reframes the promise as sufficiency, not enrichment. A few lines later, the Talmud tells the story of a wealthy man, Nakdimon ben Gurion, whose generosity is questioned — was it genuine, or for honour? The rabbis leave it unresolved. It's a built-in warning against assuming wealth proves piety, right next to the passage that could be misread that way. Deuteronomy 14:22 sits beside the animal-tithe laws (worked out at length in Tractate Bekhorot), all of which describe food eaten "before the Lord, in the place He will choose" — Temple-and-Land categories, not a transferable cash principle. I set this out because of the perniciousness of the prosperity gospel that defrauds innocent believers duped by it. Even the one Talmudic passage that comes closest to "give and God will make you rich" treats that idea as a fenced-off exception to a general prohibition. It is enclosed in a rain-and-Land discussion, immediately qualified by an alternate reading ("so you lack nothing"), and followed by a story cautioning against assuming money proves faithfulness. The sugya undercuts the prosperity reading even while containing the very phrase prosperity teachers like to use for their benefit.   The New Covenant Makes the Levitical Tithe Obsolete  The decisive Christian argument is found in the Letter to the Hebrews, which addresses tithing and priesthood directly. Hebrews 7:5 notes that it is the sons of Levi who “have a commandment to take tithes from the people according to the law.” But the complete argument of Hebrews 7 is that the Levitical priesthood has been superseded by the priesthood of the Messiah after the order of Melchizedek: “For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well” (Heb 7:12). The tithe was a function of the Levitical-priestly system. When that system was fulfilled and set aside in the Messiah, the legal mechanism of the tithe that supported it was also set aside with it. The Temple is destroyed; there is no storehouse, no ministering Levite, no altar requiring inspected sacrifice. When the prosperity teacher attempts to resurrect a defunct covenantal obligation, he strips it of its original priestly purpose. He redirects the tithe to himself, and reattaches it a blessing that was always about rain on Israelite fields – not about money in his pocket.  The New Testament Pattern of Giving   Christian giving in apostolic writings is explicitly not a tithe-formula. It is proportional, voluntary, cheerful, and free of compulsion: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7) Paul’s only “return” language in 2 Cor 9:6–12. It is good gave it in its fulness: “As it is written, "He scattered; he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever." He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for eating, may He supply and multiply your seed, and increase the fruits of your righteousness you being enriched in everything to all generosity, which works out thanksgiving to God through us. For the ministry of this service not only supplies the things lacking of the saints, but also multiplying through many thanksgivings to God..” It is deliberately an agricultural metaphor aimed at generosity toward the poor and the saints, with the explicit purpose that the giver may “abound in every good work” - not build up wealth. The prosperity reading inverts the apostolic motive: it makes giving a means to getting, whereas Paul makes provision a means to further generosity. Note – “increase the fruits of your righteousness” and “thanksgiving to God” and “many thanksgivings to God”. Not one promise of gaining financial wealth. Furthermore, there is a warning in Hebrews: “Let your way of life be without the love of money, and be content with such things as you have, for He has said, "Not at all will I leave you, not at all will I forsake you, never!"” (Heb 13:5) In conclusion let us consider how we are to give to the work of God – not as the teacher of the false prosperity gospel, but with total generosity. Consider the widow in Mak 12 – she gave everything. Jesus’ response was “For all cast in from their abundance. But she, out of her poverty, has cast in all that she had, all her livelihood.” Mar 12:44 The thing to notice is the commendation of Jesus to the widow – a contrast between the proud giving of the hypocrites and the humble offering of the widow. Note also, He does not add anything about her being blessed financially from her gift. Paul wrote: “I have shown you all things, that working in this way we ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35 At Fenlands Church, no collections are taken up at Sunday gatherings. Have you ever asked why? The answer is in Scripture: “On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside some income and save it to the extent that God has blessed you, so that a collection will not have to be made when I come..” (1 Cor 16:2) Some will argue that this was on collection for a specific purpose. In doing that they miss that this was not about this one situation, it was about the heart and spirit behind the giving. Paul addresses the support of the ministry of the local church elsewhere. Here, it is to show that the act of giving is a freewill gesture that gives generously to the work of God, in recognition of how much God has blessed you. It is not a giving for you to be blessed financially in return. Therefore, let your giving be generous, in secret, away from public gaze. God will see.  

A refuting of JW doctrines from the Scriptures. This document presents the evangelical case and broader orthodox Christian response to the principal teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It follows the order of the doctrines as commonly set out and aims to represent the apologetic argument fairly and with its supporting texts. (See appendix at end of document, which might be read first, before the study, to aid understanding of the Scriptural refuting of them.). 1. God and the Trinity The Witness claim is that the Trinity is unscriptural and pagan in origin. The reply is that the doctrine is not a philosophical importation but a synthesis of what Scripture itself teaches: that there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6), yet that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are each spoken of and act as one God. This study argues that the word “Trinity” need not appear in Scripture for the teaching to be biblical, just as “theocracy” or “Bible” do not appear. It is pointed out the term ‘the Triune God’ is more appropriate (See other study on this - If God Is One, How Can There Be a Triune God?). We find passages where the three are named together (Matthew 28:19, where Jesus commands baptism into the single “name” of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; 2 Corinthians 13:14), also note that the historic creeds carefully distinguish the one divine being from the three entities — a distinction that avoids the contradiction the Witnesses allege. On the pagan-origin claim, the doctrine arose from wrestling with the biblical data over the first four centuries, not from Babylonian or Platonic triads, which differ from it in kind. The Hebrew of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) Witnesses appeal to the Shema, “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah,” as decisive for strict unitarianism. The word translated “one” is echad, which can denote a composite or compound unity rather than absolute solitariness: the same word describes the man and woman becoming “one (echad) flesh” (Genesis 2:24) and the spies carrying “one (echad) cluster” of grapes (Numbers 13:23). They contrast this with yachid, the term for “only” or solitary used of Isaac as Abraham’s “only son” (Genesis 22:2), and argue that had Moses meant unmitigated singularity, yachid lay ready to hand for him to use. The Spirit prompted echad. We must be careful to state the argument’s limit: echad is the ordinary cardinal number and does not by itself prove plurality. Words can have different uses depending on context. The Shema is fully compatible with the triune unity later revealed, not that it demonstrates it — which removes the Witness objection that the Shema rules the Triune God out. 2. The Deity of Jesus Christ This is regarded as the central issue. Against the Witness teaching that Jesus is a created being and was the archangel Michael before birth, this study brings together several lines of evidence. John 1:1 The JW’s New World Translation (NWT) renders the final clause “the Word was a god.” This is indefensible in the Greek. The absence of the article before theos signals that it is functioning as a predicate describing the Word’s nature, not asserting a separate lesser deity, and that monotheistic Jewish John would never affirm “a god” in a polytheistic sense. The NWT does not translate other anarthrous occurrences, that is words without an article, of theos as “a god,” which is an obvious inconsistency, that demonstrates their interpretations are biased by their theology and is in error. Other texts •      John 8:58 — “Before Abraham came to be, I am,” this is a claim to the divine name of Exodus 3:14, noting that the hearers immediately took up stones because the saw it as blasphemous – He was equating Himself with God. •      John 20:28 — Thomas addresses the risen Jesus as “My Lord and my God,” and Jesus accepts it rather than correcting him. •      Colossians 1:16–17 — all things were created “in him… through him and for him.” The NWT inserts “other” (“all [other] things”) without warrant to make Christ a creature; without the insertion the text excludes him from the created order. •      Hebrews 1 — the Father addresses the Son as “God” (v. 8) and has the angels worship him (v. 6), which is impossible if Christ is himself an angel. •      Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1 — read grammatically from the Greek, both calling Jesus “our great God and Saviour.” Jesus is not Michael It is noted in this study, that Hebrews 1:5 asks, “To which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son?” — distinguishing the Son from every angel — and that Jude 9 shows Michael unable to rebuke Satan in his own authority, whereas Jesus rebukes demons directly. “Firstborn” and “beginning of the creation” On Colossians 1:15 (“firstborn of all creation”) and Revelation 3:14 (“the beginning of the creation of God”), The “firstborn” (prototokos) denotes rank and heirship, not chronological origin — as David is called “firstborn” in Psalm 89:27 though not literally first-born — and that “beginning” (arche) carries the sense of source or origin, i.e. Christ as the one through whom creation began. On the word “creation” (ktisis) itself, we turn to the vocabulary of the letter to the Hebrews. The writer speaks of the heavenly tabernacle Christ entered as “not made with hands, that is, not of this creation” (Hebrews 9:11), and as “not made with hands”, that is not of human construction and heavenly rather than earthly (Hebrews 9:24). This shows that “creation” in New Testament usage can denote the made, earthly order as distinct from the uncreated and heavenly — so that to call Christ the arche (source/beginning i.e. John 1:1) of God’s creation need not place him within it, but may mark Him as its uncreated origin, consistent with Colossians 1:16–17, where all created things come into being through him. 3. The Holy Spirit Against the view that the Spirit is an impersonal “active force,” it is argued here, that Scripture ascribes to the Spirit personal acts and attributes: He speaks (Acts 13:2), can be lied to and thereby lied to God (Acts 5:3–4), can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), teaches and bears witness (John 14:26; 15:26), and distributes gifts “as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). A mere force cannot be grieved or exercise a will, and that being lied to and thereby lying to God identifies the Spirit as God. The Lukan witness to the Spirit Particular weight is given to Luke and Acts, where the Spirit acts throughout as a personal agent. In the Gospel the Spirit comes upon Mary so that the child is called holy and the Son of God (Luke 1:35), descends at Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:22), then leads and is led — Jesus, “full of the Holy Spirit,” is driven by the Spirit in the wilderness (Luke 4:1) and rejoices “in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). In Acts the Spirit speaks and gives direction (“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul,” Acts 13:2), is lied to (Acts 5:3–4), forbids and redirects the missionaries (Acts 16:6–7), and joins the apostolic council’s decision (“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,” Acts 15:28). Such speaking, willing, forbidding, being lied to and being grieved are the acts of a person, not the operations of an impersonal energy. Capitalisation in the New World Translation Also note that the choice to print “holy spirit” in lower case is an interpretive decision rather than a translation one. The original Greek manuscripts are written in a single case and contain no distinction between “Holy Spirit” and “holy Spirit”; capitalisation in any English Bible is supplied by translators. We argue, therefore, that the NWT’s consistent lower-casing does not report a feature of the text but encodes in advance the very doctrine in dispute — that the Spirit is a thing rather than a person — and so the cannot offer this, as evidence for it. 4. The Bible and the New World Translation The Witness’ affirmation of biblical inspiration and inerrancy, is an attempt to give credence to a false translation. This study disputes the New World Translation and the claim that Scripture must be read through Watch Tower publications. The argument is twofold. First, on the text: the study argues that the NWT renders key Christological passages in ways no standard lexicon supports (John 1:1; Colossians 1:16–17; Hebrews 1:8), and that the insertion of “Jehovah” into the New Testament some 237 times has no manuscript support, since the surviving Greek manuscripts read Kyrios (Lord), not the Tetragrammaton the theological term for Yahweh. In short, Jehovah never found in the NT. The JW website tries to explain this away saying that words have been removed that would allow them to use Jehovah. Every claim can be refuted. Here is one example they quote: Mar 5:19 “However Jesus did not allow him, but said to him, Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord [kurios] has done for you, and has had mercy on you.” The correct translation from Greek. “However, he did not let him but said to him: “Go home to your relatives, and report to them all the things Jehovah (The Greek does not support this usage) has done for you and the mercy he has shown you.” The error in NWT Many more like this defeats their claims.   From Hebrew to Greek: the divine name There is also a point about language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, whose alphabet is consonantal and which represents the divine name by the four consonants YHWH (the Tetragrammaton). Greek has no letter for the Hebrew Y/yod as used here and no means of carrying these consonants across, so the Greek Scriptures — both the Septuagint tradition and the New Testament manuscripts — render the name with Kurios, “Lord,” (As above) rather than transliterating YHWH. Two things follow. First, the form “Jehovah” is itself a late hybrid, combining the consonants of YHWH with the vowels of Adonai (“Lord”), and so is not how the name was originally vocalised; insisting on it as the one true name overstates what the Hebrew actually preserves. Second, because the New Testament authors, writing in Greek, used Kurios, the NWT’s reinsertion of “Jehovah” is a modern reconstruction read back into the text (eisegesis) rather than a reading out of it (exegesis) — and one with theological consequences, since many of the passages where Kurios is applied to Jesus are thereby separated from the Old Testament “Lord” texts they echo. Second, on authority: making an organisation the necessary interpreter of Scripture effectively places that organisation above Scripture, contrary to the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures daily” to test even apostolic teaching (Acts 17:11), and that the history of revised teaching (below) shows the danger of an interpretive authority that is treated as God’s channel yet repeatedly corrects itself. 5. The Organisation and the “Faithful and Discreet Slave” Matthew 24:45–47 is a parable urging faithfulness, not a prophecy designating a single modern Governing Body, as JWs claim. The New Testament knows no organisation mediating salvation between the believer and Christ, who is the one mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), and that the believer is indwelt and taught by the Spirit (1 John 2:27). The repeated reidentification of the “slave” — from the anointed as a whole to the Governing Body alone (last in 2012–13) — is evidence that the claim is a later false construction. The positive argument runs through the headship of Christ and the leading of the Spirit. The New Testament names Christ directly as the head of the Church, which is his body, with no intervening human channel: God “put all things under his feet and gave Him as head over all things to the Church” (Ephesians 1:22–23), and “he is the head of the body, the Church” (Colossians 1:18). Christ exercises this kingship now (1 Corinthians 15:25), and He rules his people not through a bureaucratic slave-class but by his Spirit: “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14), and the Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). This study therefore argues that to interpose an earthly Governing Body as the necessary channel of divine instruction — the one through whom “food at the proper time” must come — displaces the authority the New Testament assigns directly to the reigning Christ and the indwelling Spirit, and effectively binds the conscience to men rather than to the Lord who alone is head of the church. 6. The Kingdom and 1914 The 1914 statements rests on a chain of disputable assumptions: a particular date for Jerusalem’s fall (the Society uses 607 BC, whereas standard ancient chronology places it at 587/586 BC), the equation of the “seven times” of Daniel 4 with 2,520 years, and a day-for-a-year principle applied to a passage about Nebuchadnezzar’s madness. Daniel 4 is about the king, not a countdown to 1914, and they point to Jesus’ own words that “it is not for you to know times or seasons” (Acts 1:7) and that the Son did not know the day or hour (Matthew 24:36) — there is cautioning against precisely this kind of date-setting. The test of the false prophet. Deuteronomy 18:21–22 gives Israel a criterion for distinguishing a true prophet from a presumptuous one: if what is spoken in the Lord’s name does not come to pass, the Lord has not spoken it. They argue that the Watch Tower’s own publications announced expectations tied to 1914 (and later 1925 and 1975) which did not occur as predicted, and that an organisation claiming to be God’s appointed channel of truth is exposed by this standard — not merely mistaken on a detail, but failing the biblical test of a true word from God. Jesus likewise warns of “false prophets” known “by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15–20) and of those who would announce times and seasons in his name (Matthew 24:23–26). The JW is a false prophetic organisation. 7. The Two Hopes: 144,000 and the Great Crowd The New Testament holds out one hope and one calling to all believers (Ephesians 4:4), not two destinies. On the 144,000 of Revelation 7, there are two points. First, the text itself identifies them as drawn “from every tribe of the sons of Israel,” and then names the twelve tribes one by one (Revelation 7:4–8) — they are presented as Israelite, tribal and sealed, not as a cross-section of all faithful Christians across the centuries. This study presses the inconsistency: the Witness reading treats the tribal census as symbolic of a spiritual “Israel of God” while insisting the number 144,000 be taken with strict literalism — a selective literalism that takes the figure literally but the tribes figuratively. The whole description symbolic (12 x 12 x 1,000, the complete people of God), this study takes the view that Jewish identification is exactly what it is – 144.000 Jews; this group is not the modern anointed class the Witnesses describe. Second, the same chapter then turns to a distinct and innumerable “great crowd… from every nation” (Revelation 7:9), standing before the throne with palm branches and serving God “in his temple” (Revelation 7:9–15) — this refutes an exclusively earthly hope for that group, as JWs claim, since the scene is plainly heavenly. Also note Jesus’ teaching that the “other sheep” of John 10:16 become “one flock” with the rest, not a separate class. The restriction of the Lord’s Supper to a small “anointed” remnant is set against Jesus’ command, “Drink from it, all of you” (Matthew 26:27) and Paul’s instruction to the whole congregation (1 Corinthians 11:26). 8. Death, the Soul and Hell Let us grant part of the Witness case as a translation problem. The single English word “hell” has historically been made to cover several distinct biblical terms — the Hebrew Sheol and its Greek counterpart Hades (the realm or state of the dead), Gehenna (the place of final punishment), and Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4) — Sheol in itself often means simply the grave or the abode of the dead, not a place of fiery torment. To that extent they concede the Witnesses are right to object to the older flattening of these words into one. However, it is argued this concession does not establish the Witness conclusion that the dead simply cease to exist. The intermediate state and Abraham’s bosom Against “soul sleep” and non-existence of the JWs, we point to Jesus’ own depiction of the state of the dead in Luke 16:19–31. There the rich man and Lazarus are both conscious after death: Lazarus is carried to “Abraham’s bosom” — understood as the place of the righteous dead, the redeemed at rest — while the rich man is in conscious torment, and the two are separated by a fixed “great chasm.” We argue this rules out unconscious extinction, since the dead in the account perceive, speak, remember and feel. Alongside this, Jesus’ word to the thief, “today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43; note the NWT’s comma placement, “today I tell you,” as a textual manoeuvre), Paul’s desire “to depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23) and to be “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), and the souls under the altar who cry out (Revelation 6:9–10). Non-existence is thereby demonstrated to be totally un-Biblical. Rather the Scriptures depict a sheol in which there are those who are in ‘Abraham’s Bosum’ and who are held separately from those destined for judgement to be excluded from God eternally. A chasm separates them. The resurrection of all and the final separation We affirm a general resurrection of all the dead at the last day, to two outcomes. Jesus teaches “an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29); Daniel 12:2 likewise speaks of many awaking “some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” On this view the dead are not annihilated at death but await resurrection, and at the last day are raised either to eternal life with God or to eternal separation from him. The nature of final punishment On the character of that separation, the traditional position holds that Scripture teaches conscious, everlasting exclusion from God (Matthew 25:46, where the same word “eternal” applies to both life and punishment; Revelation 14:11; 20:10). There are those in a minority of certain Christian traditions’ exegesis (annihilationists) who agree with the Witnesses that the wicked finally cease to exist, however, even these reject the Witness denial of any conscious afterlife for believers, holding firmly to the conscious intermediate state set out above. Annihilationists also cannot stand on Scripture for their minority views. 9. Armageddon, the Millennium and the Earthly Paradise It is acknowledged that there are a range of millennial views, so the response here is more about the destiny of believers than the timetable. Against the teaching that the great crowd’s hope is everlasting human life on a restored earth, it is pointed to the promise of resurrection bodies like Christ’s glorified body (Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:42–49) and to the believer’s inheritance “kept in heaven” (1 Peter 1:4), while affirming with Witnesses that the creation itself will be renewed (Romans 8:21; Revelation 21). The disagreement is less about a renewed earth than about who is raised, to what kind of life, and on what basis. 10. Salvation: Faith, Works and Assurance This is regarded as a defining contrast. We affirm that salvation is by grace through faith, “not of works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9), and that the believer may have assurance now: “I write these things… that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). We argue the Witness system — requiring accurate knowledge, baptism as a Witness, ongoing obedience, field service and loyalty to the organisation, with final salvation uncertain until passing through Armageddon — amounts to a gospel of works that undercuts both grace and assurance. We affirm with James that genuine faith produces works (James 2), but argue the works are the fruit, not the root, of salvation. 11. Separateness, Holidays and Neutrality The call to be “not of the world” (John 17) concerns holiness, not withdrawal, and that Paul instructs believers to honour governing authorities, pay taxes and pray for rulers (Romans 13:1–7; 1 Timothy 2:1–2). On holidays and birthdays, Romans 14:5–6 leaves the observance of days to individual conscience, that there is no biblical prohibition of birthdays as such, and that the labelling of all other churches as “Babylon the Great” is an unwarranted identification that ignores the genuine faith of Christians across history and traditions. 12. Blood and Medical Care We need to distinguish eating blood from medical transfusion. We argue that Genesis 9:4 and Acts 15:28–29 address the consumption of blood as food in a sacrificial and dietary context, not a modern medical procedure that did not exist, and that a transfusion is not “eating.” We appeal to Jesus’ teaching that mercy and the preservation of life take priority over ritual rules (Matthew 12:1–12; the Sabbath “made for man”), and express grave concern that the prohibition has cost lives — a pastoral as well as exegetical objection. We also cite Paul’s counsel to Timothy, “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Timothy 5:23). We argue this is a plain instance of an apostle commending a recognised medicinal means for the care of the body, showing that the use of available remedies to preserve health falls within — not outside — the will of God. By extension, we reason, the use of modern medical techniques such as transfusion to sustain life is consistent with this biblical regard for the body as something to be cared for and preserved, rather than something to be endangered for the sake of a ritual reading of the blood texts. 13. Disfellowshipping and Shunning This study affirms that the church may exercise discipline, including exclusion of the unrepentant (Matthew 18:15–17; 1 Corinthians 5). But it is argued here that the Witness practice goes beyond Scripture in its severity — particularly the shunning of family members and of those who simply leave or disagree — whereas the biblical aim of discipline is restoration (2 Corinthians 2:6–8, where Paul urges the church to forgive and comfort the disciplined man “so that he will not be overwhelmed”). They contend that treating doctrinal dissent as grounds for total social severance is a means of control inconsistent with the gospel’s freedom of grace enjoyed by God’s children. 14. The History of Changed Teaching Finally, the study makes an argument from the Witnesses’ own history. Because the organisation presents itself as God’s appointed channel of truth, we argue that its repeated reversals — the dates 1874, 1914, 1925 and 1975; the “generation” of 1914; the meaning of the “superior authorities”; the bans on vaccination and organ transplants — are difficult to reconcile with their claims. The test of Deuteronomy 18:21–22, that a prophecy which fails was not from the Lord, the “new light” of Proverbs 4:18 describes increasing brightness, not the reversal of direction seen in several of these cases. A Closing Note on Manner This study stresses, that the goal is persuasion in love, not the winning of arguments. 1 Peter 3:15, to give a reason for the hope within “with gentleness and respect,” and 2 Timothy 2:24–25, that the Lord’s servant must correct opponents “with gentleness.” Jehovah’s Witnesses are in the main, typically sincere, devout and knowledgeable about their version of the Bible, and effective apologetics is held to depend on accurate representation of their actual beliefs, careful handling of the relevant texts, and genuine regard for the people themselves. In this see their beliefs set out in summary in the index attached.         Appendix   The Basic Doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses An outline of the principal teachings of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society 1. God Jehovah’s Witnesses are strictly unitarian. God is a single person whose personal name is Jehovah (their preferred English rendering of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH). They reject the doctrine of the Trinity as unscriptural and of post-biblical, pagan-influenced origin. Restoring and using the divine name is considered a mark of true worship, and their New World Translation inserts “Jehovah” throughout both Testaments. 2. Jesus Christ Jesus is God’s Son and the first and only direct creation of Jehovah — a created being, not God Almighty and not co-equal or co-eternal with the Father. Witnesses identify the pre-human Jesus with the archangel Michael. On earth he was a perfect man (not God incarnate), who died on an upright stake or pole rather than a cross, and was raised as a spirit creature, not in a physical body. His death is a “ransom sacrifice” that corresponds to what Adam lost, opening the way to everlasting life. 3. The Holy Spirit The holy spirit is not a person but Jehovah’s “active force” — the invisible power God uses to accomplish his will. Accordingly it is usually written without capitals in Witness literature. 4. The Bible The Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God and the sole authority for doctrine. Witnesses use their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, and understand Scripture as interpreted through the publications of the Watch Tower organisation. 5. The Organisation and the “Faithful and Discreet Slave” Jehovah is held to direct his people through a visible organisation. The Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses is identified as the “faithful and discreet slave” of Matthew 24:45, appointed by Christ to provide spiritual “food at the proper time.” Loyalty to the organisation and acceptance of its teaching are treated as essential to true worship; doctrinal adjustments are described as “new light.” 6. The Kingdom of God and 1914 God’s Kingdom is a real, heavenly government with Christ as King. Witnesses teach that Christ began ruling invisibly in heaven in 1914, a date derived from their chronology of the “Gentile times” (Daniel 4; Luke 21:24). Since 1914 the world has been in its “last days,” and the Kingdom will shortly destroy all human governments at Armageddon and rule over a restored earth. 7. The Two Hopes: 144,000 and the “Great Crowd” Salvation involves two distinct destinies: •      The “anointed” — a literal 144,000 (Revelation 7 and 14) — are born again, go to heaven, and reign with Christ as kings and priests. •      The “great crowd” or “other sheep” — the vast majority of Witnesses — hope to survive Armageddon (or be resurrected) and live forever in perfect health on a restored paradise earth. Only the anointed partake of the bread and wine at the annual Memorial of Christ’s death (their only religious observance of this kind). 8. Death, the Soul, and Hell Human beings do not possess an immortal soul; the soul is the person, and at death one ceases to exist entirely (conditionalism). There is no hell of fiery torment — “hell” (Sheol/Hades) is simply the common grave of mankind. The hope for the dead is resurrection during Christ’s millennial reign. The incorrigibly wicked face annihilation (“Gehenna”), not eternal torment. 9. Armageddon, the Millennium, and Paradise Earth At Armageddon God will destroy the present wicked system of things, including all who are not serving Jehovah. Christ will then reign for a thousand years, during which the earth will be transformed into a paradise, the dead will be resurrected and judged, and obedient mankind will be raised to human perfection. After a final test, the faithful will live forever on earth — the fulfilment of God’s original purpose for mankind. 10. Salvation Salvation is by faith in Jehovah and in Christ’s ransom sacrifice, but faith must be demonstrated by works: accurate knowledge of the truth, baptism by full immersion as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, obedience to God’s commands, and association with His organisation. Public preaching (“field service”) from house to house is a central obligation of every Witness. 11. Separateness from the World Witnesses must remain “no part of the world.” In practice this means: •      Political neutrality — no voting (as a body), holding political office, military service, or saluting the flag and singing national anthems. •      No celebration of holidays and customs regarded as pagan or nationalistic in origin — including Christmas, Easter and birthdays. •      Rejection of interfaith activity; all other religions are viewed as part of “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion. 12. Blood Based on Genesis 9:4 and Acts 15:28–29, Witnesses abstain from blood. This is understood to prohibit eating blood and accepting transfusions of whole blood or its four major components (red cells, white cells, platelets, plasma), even in life-threatening circumstances. The use of minor blood fractions and certain medical procedures is a matter of personal conscience. 13. Moral Life and Congregational Discipline Witnesses are expected to maintain high moral standards — honesty, sexual morality confined to marriage between a man and a woman, and avoidance of drunkenness, gambling and tobacco. Serious unrepentant sin leads to disfellowshipping (removal from the congregation), accompanied by the practice of shunning by members, including family not living in the same household. The congregation is led by appointed male elders; there is no paid clergy class. Teaching Earlier position Revised position Christ’s invisible presence Began in 1874 (Russell) Began in 1914; the 1874 date was abandoned by the early 1930s Meaning of 1914 Would mark Armageddon and the end of the world system Marks the start of Christ’s heavenly rule and the beginning of the “last days” 1925 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be resurrected (Millions Now Living Will Never Die); Beth Sarim built to house them Prediction failed; Beth Sarim sold in 1948 and the teaching abandoned 1975 Strongly implied as the end of 6,000 years of human history and likely time of Armageddon Expectation dropped after 1975; partial acknowledgment of error in 1980 The “generation” of 1914 The literal generation alive in 1914 would not die before Armageddon Redefined in 1995; since 2010, two “overlapping” groups of anointed ones The heavenly hope All faithful Christians have the heavenly calling From 1935, only the 144,000 “anointed”; the “great crowd” has an earthly hope. The view that the heavenly calling closed in 1935 was itself dropped in 2007 “Faithful and discreet slave” The entire body of anointed Christians on earth Since 2012–13, the Governing Body alone “Superior authorities” (Romans 13) Secular governments (Russell); then Jehovah and Christ (1929) Reverted to secular governments in 1962 Blood transfusions No prohibition before 1945 Prohibited from 1945; blood fractions and certain procedures made a conscience matter, with policy progressively refined since 2000 Organ transplants Condemned as “cannibalism” (1967) A matter of personal conscience since 1980 Vaccination Condemned from the 1920s–30s as a violation of God’s law Permitted since 1952; now treated as a personal medical decision The cross Used freely in early literature and on the Watch Tower masthead Rejected from the 1930s; Jesus taught to have died on an upright “torture stake” Great Pyramid of Giza Treated by Russell as God’s “witness in stone” confirming Bible chronology Repudiated by Rutherford in 1928 as inspired by Satan Resurrection of the people of Sodom Position has alternated several times since Russell Current teaching is that they will not be resurrected  

The Whole Truth It is often said, as a settled matter, that Scripture teaches salvation by faith alone and that good works contribute nothing. While that is true, the whole truth is both richer and more coherent than that summary allows. A careful reading of the Scriptures—from Isaiah and the Psalms through Paul, James, and the words of Jesus—reveals not a contradiction to be explained away, but a single, unified vision: faith directed toward God is the ground of acceptance, and that genuine faith inevitably proves itself in righteous works directed toward our fellow human beings. What appears to be a conflict between Paul and James dissolves once the direction of each relationship is properly understood. Addressing the Apparent Problem The difficulty is real but only on the surface. Paul writes that salvation is “by grace… through faith… not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9), and that a person is justified by faith “apart from the works of the law” (Romans 3:28). James appears to answer flatly that a person is justified by works “and not by faith only” (James 2:24)—the single occurrence of the phrase “faith only” in the Bible, and it is a negative. Both writers even appeal to the very same example, Abraham, to make opposite-sounding points. Yet the conflict is more apparent than substantive. Each writer is addressing a different question, and the resolution lies in recognising what each is actually describing. The Old Testament Foundation: Righteousness Required, Self-Righteousness Rejected Isaiah and the “Filthy Rags” Isaiah 64:6 declares that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” The Hebrew image is more visceral than English translations usually convey: the “filthy rags” are actually a ritually unclean menstrual cloth, the very emblem of self-sufficiency rendered impure and fruitless. It would be a mistake, however, to read this as a blanket dismissal of righteousness itself. Scripture everywhere demands righteousness, and warns plainly that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). Isaiah cannot be teaching that righteousness is worthless, for that would contradict the whole tenor of the prophets. What Isaiah is pointing to, is a particular kind of righteousness: the self-generated, externally performed righteousness that human beings parade before God as though it were a payment that could purchase His favour. The menstrual-cloth image speaks precisely to self-sufficiency—the presumption of bringing one’s own purity to God. A fruitless task. The passage occurs within a communal confession during a season of national faithlessness; it is expressing grief over righteousness asserted apart from a right heart relationship with God, not a denial that God requires righteous people. David and the Contrite Heart The Psalms locate that righteousness correctly. After his grievous sin, David confesses that God does not desire sacrifice, Psalm 51:16–17 “..else would I give it”; rather, the sacrifices of God are “a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart.” David does not abolish the requirement of righteousness—he identifies its source. The external act, divorced from the inward disposition, is empty. What God requires is the transformed, repentant heart, out of which true righteousness flows. Crucially, David does not discard the works. He continues that after the heart is made right, God will be pleased with sacrifices and burnt offerings (Psalm 51:19). The works are not abolished; they are reordered—placed behind the heart as its proper fruit. Isaiah condemns righteousness asserted before God for merit; David describes righteousness flowing from a heart already surrendered to God. Together they teach that righteousness is genuinely required, but only the righteousness rooted in a contrite, God-oriented heart is acceptable. The New Testament Resolution: Two Directions of One Faith This Old Testament foundation prepares the way for resolving the supposed Paul–James conflict. The key is direction. Paul: Faith Directed Toward God Paul addresses the vertical relationship—how a person stands before God. Here nothing one does can establish merit; the verdict of acceptance rests on faith directed toward God and on the grace He extends. This is exactly the lesson of Isaiah’s “filthy rags” and David’s contrite heart: before God, self-asserted works are worthless, and only trusting dependence avails. Paul excludes works from the cause of salvation precisely to guard against boasting. James: Faith Demonstrated Toward Man James addresses the horizontal relationship—how genuine faith becomes visible and verifiable in the world. James 2:18 “Show me thy faith without thy works,” he writes, “and I will show thee my faith by my works.” The works are not a payment offered to God but the demonstration brought before men—the evidence that the professed faith is alive rather than dead. When the strictest readers insist that James’s word “justified” means “shown to be righteous before men” rather than “declared righteous before God,” they are, in fact, conceding this very vertical-horizontal distinction in their own terms. Paul therefore tells us how faith is received; James tells us how it is recognised. They describe two faces of one living faith—the root and the fruit, the inward reality and its outward proof. Paul’s Own Link: Ephesians 2:10 That Paul and James were never truly opposed is settled by Paul himself in the verse immediately following his most famous statement of grace. Having said in Ephesians 2:8–9 that salvation is not of works, Paul places good works after salvation as its ordained purpose. Works are not the root of salvation but its designed outcome—which is James’s point made from the other side. Paul excludes works as the cause and affirms them as the consequence. The Words of Jesus Jesus seals the synthesis: Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Note the direction once more. The works shine before men—visible in the world—yet their ultimate reference is vertical, that God be glorified. The works flow from a heart already right with God and rebound to His glory rather than the doer’s merit. This maps precisely onto Psalm 51: the contrite heart first, then the acceptable offering. The apparent contradiction between Paul and James was never a contradiction at all. The works are never the ground of acceptance, but always its evidence and its ordained fruit. Faith directed toward God saves; and a faith that truly saves is never alone—it walks, inevitably, in the good works for which it was created. Obtaining Righteousness Therefore, as righteousness is God’s requirement we now look to see how is that obtained. This starts with understanding faith as outlined above. Paul writes: Romans 1:17  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."” In otherwards when God justifies a person through grace and the gift of faith, they are declared righteous and will gain eternal life. We turn to Paul again and his great statement on righteousness: Romans 3:21-26 “But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets;  even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness through the passing by of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God; for the display of His righteousness at this time, for Him to be just and, forgiving the one being of the faith of Jesus.”  The Law and good works do not save. It is the believing that Jesus the Messiah paid for sin on the cross. His blood was the sufficient sacrifice that delivered the gift of righteousness to the believer. Furthermore, proof that this righteousness is not ‘earned’ by good works comes from Paul – it is a gift: Romans 5:18 “Therefore as by one offense sentence came on all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came to all men to justification of life.” Faith and righteousness therefore, come through grace. Romans 5:21 “..so that as sin has reigned to death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.  The witness then of the believer must be confessed. Romans 10:10 “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” Conclusion: One Coherent Vision The Scriptures speak with a single voice when its texts are read according to their direction and intent: 1.  Righteousness is genuinely required; the unrighteous will not inherit eternal life. 2.  Self-asserted righteousness is rejected (Isaiah)—works paraded before God as payment for merit are “filthy rags.” 3.  The acceptable righteousness springs from a contrite heart (David)—the inward condition God requires, from which true works then flow. 4.  Faith toward God justifies (Paul)—the vertical ground of acceptance, apart from any meritorious work. 5.  Genuine faith proves itself in works toward man (James, Ephesians 2:10, Matthew 5:16)—the horizontal evidence and ordained fruit of that faith. 6.  Through Jesus alone righteousness that justifies comes (Romans 1:8, 5:18, 21)

The Jewish Rabbi and the Sermon on the Mount The passage of Scripture that has become known as The Sermon on the Mount, many have proposed it was a view of the ideal conditions to be blessed by God. A new system of ethics presented by Jesus. Others have argued it was a manifesto for social reform. A call for a new society. These views are the seeing of the sermon with a Greek mind. It fails to see that the Rabbi Jesus was doing was no more, than giving a Rabbinic explanation, a deeper insight, to the Scriptures. What He was doing was called drash. This was a method of teaching similar to Hillel the Elder. However, Jesus does not refer to other sources to support His view, as was common. He Himself spoke with His own authority. It was His own Word that was being expounded. He was the Word made flesh. He was not rewriting Scripture, or giving a new law, He was showing the spiritual outworking of the Jewish Scripture. Understood this way, brings out a deeper understanding of God and His Son the Lord Jesus.  It starts with how Matthew introduces the sermon:   Matthew 5:1 “And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain. And when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him.” This would immediately open the eyes of Matthew’s Jewish readers. It echoes the Jewish journey in Sinai. Moses went up the mountain to receive God’s law and then brought it down to the people. Here Jesus goes up the mountain, not to bring a law down, but to act on His own authority to explain the Law. As Matthew writes when he closes the passage on the sermon:  Matthew 7:28-29 “And it happened, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His doctrine. For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Whilst others would need to consult or refer to others, Jesus was His own authority with the right to make clear the meaning of texts. To do this was a deliberate and direct statement of who He was – The Son of God and author of the Law.  The sermon was an exposition of the prophet Isaiah and His vision of the Messianic age to come. For example The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12). Seen as a list of virtues if practised will lead to s better character can be made richer through the Rabbinic Jesus’ eyes. It brings a real pointer to the future Messianic age.  It is a reference to Isaiah 61.  Isaiah 61:1-3 “The Spirit of Adonai Elohim is on me, because Adonai has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Adonai’s favour and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of Adonai, that He may be glorified.”  As you can see Jesus is heralding the arrival of Messiah, who brings to the broken, the rich blessings of the Father. This can be confirmed when Jesus reads from Isaiah 61 and declares at the start fo His public ministry:  Luke 4:21 “Then He began to tell them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.”” When we read Matthew 5:21-48, we see drash in action, when Jesus makes a series of contrasts. This is typical of Rabbinic chiddush which means - blessed is the person, who has words of Torah from his teaching encouraging more Torah learning They are introduced with, “ You have heard it was said”. The usual thing is then to refer to other Rabbis and the Torah itself. However, Jesus adds variations of, “But I tell you….”. Some would claim that this was Jesus changing the Law, in fact He was confirming the Law and bringing to it the spirit of what it meant.  These examples bring this home;  Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever commits murder shall be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca’ shall be subject to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be subject to fiery Gehenna.” Here Jesus is not changing the Law. He is pointing to the origin of murder – anger. The solution Jesus gives is to deal with the anger and go and be reconciled the one who is the object of the anger.  We find the same contrast and pointing to the root of sinful lust:  Matthew 5:27-29 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away! It is better for you that one part of your body should be destroyed, than that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna.” Agan, Jesus is not changing the Law regarding adultery, He is once more pointing to the cause that starts in the heart with lust. All truly great Rabbis were known for this understanding that brought the Law into focus and explain that the heart of the person was the true origin of rebellion. It was well recognised that Jesus was a greater teacher than all the Rabbis around Israel. This is stated plainly by Matthew:  Matthew 7:28 “Now when Yeshua had finished these words, the crowds were astounded at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as their Torah scholars.”  If we then consider what became known as the Our Father or The Lord’s Prayer. The latter a total misunderstanding of the prayer. Jesus had no sin that the Father had to forgive. Jesus spoke against the long prayers of the hypocrites and introduced a pattern of prayer. It was never intended to become a religious ritual. It starts with:  Matthew 6: 9-10 “Therefore, pray in this way: ‘Our Father in heaven, sanctified be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….”  The Kaddish was a prayer for the dead in Jesus’ time. The opening line of that prayer reads ‘Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the worldwhich He has created according to His will.’ You will notice the change Jesus’ introduces – Our Father. This brings home the difference between Jesus’ disciples and the hypocritical leaders of His day. He made this clear as to who their father was:  John 8:44-45 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks lies he is just being himself—for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”  In the prayer for daily bread would echo the provision of Manna in the wilderness. (Exodus 16) The other prayer of that time was the Amidah, which was prayed while standing and asking for blessings. In this Jesus was drawing on the Jewish heritage but again, was increasing its power and direction to God the Father as the Great Yahweh Yirah - God the provider.In the sermon, we also see the references to salt and light. Again, this is also steeped in the Jewish understanding. Salt was seen as relating to covenant. Numbers 18:19 “Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings which Bnei-Yisrael present to Adonai, I have given to you, your sons and your daughters with you as a permanent share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before Adonai for you and your offspring.”  Leviticus 2:13 “Also you are to season with salt every sacrifice of your grain offering. You are never to allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your sacrifices you must offer salt.” Jesus’ hearers would understand salt as the sealing of the covenant of salt as the everlasting friendship with God. Jesus uses the idea of salt, which purified the offerings to be applied to the person. We too must be a purified people, a holy nation. They were to be a light to the nations: Isaiah 42:6  “I, Adonai, called You in righteousness, I will take hold of Your hand, I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations..”  Isaiah 49:6 “So He says, “It is too trifling a thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones of Israel. So I will give You as a light for the nations, that You should be My salvation to the end of the earth.””  Now the followers of Jesus the Messiah, were called to be that purified and holy people. They were to take up that command to reach the nations. Paul preaching to Gentiles said:  Acts 13:47 “For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed you as a light to the nations, so that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.’”  It is amazing that these disciples, many poor uneducated fishermen, were now seeing the greatness of the Father. They now carried the prophetic mission which Jesus would give them before He left the earth.  I trust this study will show you that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was not placing a heavy burden of legalism to reach great ethical heights. He was throwing light on the Jewish history that led to Him as their Teacher and Saviour. He was that Triune Godhead, who had given Israel it’s covenant and its Laws. Now He was showing the disciples, and us, how we are to continue His work of making Disciples;  Matthew 28:18-20 “And Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And remember! I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Let us accept the challenge and go as the Master Teacher said!

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad — Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)          Here we have the central confession of Jewish People since Moses, wrote down this command of God. The faithful Jewish people recite it twice a day. It was taught to children as soon as they could speak, It is what every Jew wants to utter immediately before death. It is engrained in every Jewish heart. It is pinned on their doorposts - the mezuzah You will find it placed in the tefillin worn during prayers. It is the core of Judaism in all its forms.          The Shema has a very Jewish background and understanding that is not readily available to the Western mind. It is the understanding of this background: religious, cultural and traditional, that brings home the importance of the Shema and the consequences that obeying the command brought to the Jewish community.   When we consider Deuteronomy 6:4 we see it sit immediately with verse 5: “And you shall love YAHWEH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5 HRB) This is what follows the acknowledgement that there is only one God. All other gods around Israel, and indeed us, are false gods. There can be no part of the heart, soul, or might of the person that should accommodate another god. The heart of a believer in the one God, must be undivided. “Then I will give them one [echad] heart. I will put a new Spirit within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow My laws, keep My ordinances and practice them. They will be My people and I will be their God. As for those whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their ways upon their heads.” It is a declaration of Adonai Elohim. (Ezekiel 11:19-21 TLV) This must never be seen as some abstract doctrine or concept. It is called to be a heartfelt commitment to the covenant and the God who was the graceful source of the favour bestowed on Israel as God’s chosen people.   “For you are a holy people to Yahweh your Elohim—from all the peoples on the face of the earth, Yahweh your God has chosen you to be His treasured people. It is not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that Yahweh set His love on you and chose you—for you are the least of all peoples. Rather because of His love for you and His keeping the oath He swore to your fathers, Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8 literal) This is vital truth that Moses writes and encourages the faithfulness of Israel to make sure it is passed on. “You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7 TLV) Note we, as parents, must pass onto our children the truth of God and, for Christians, His son. It is also a commitment to fill their whole day. ‘When you sit’ is those times at home: eating, leisure or study. ‘When you walk’ that is when you are out and about, travelling, ‘When you lie down’ is that time before sleep. ‘When you rise up’ is that time when you start your day. The commitment is 24 hours, 365 days – a lifetime.          Let us turn to the cultural time of the Roman occupation. The people of Israel are under the rule of an Emperor. His titles include: Dominus — Lord — and Deus — God. The Jewish people would say the Shema faithfully and this was in direct violation of the emperor’s command, that he alone was the ‘Lord God’ of the Jewish people. Their action was a courageous act of obedience to their God, Yahweh, and a direct defiance of Rome. This denial of the emperor’s divinity would bring them into conflict with Rome. Rome was a polytheistic nation. They had many gods and their idols were in every town and city of Israel. That was an affront to the Jews. They had to decide between their Lord and the ‘Lord’ of Rome. The same conflict confronted Peter when he disobey the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. “Peter and the emissaries replied, “We must obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29 (TLV)  The defiance of Rome did bring consequences for the Jewish people. The Mishnah records Rabbi Akiva reciting the Shema as he was being tortured to death dying on the word echad — one. “When Rabbi Akiba was taken out to be executed, it was the hour for recital of the Shema, and the executioners were combing his flesh with iron combs, while he was lovingly making ready to accept upon himself the yoke of the kingship of Heaven. His disciples asked: Our teacher, even to such a degree? He replied: All my days I have been troubled by this verse "With all thy soul" (Deut. 6:5), which I have interpreted meaning "Even if (God) takes your soul." But I said: When shall I have an occasion to fulfil the precept? Now that I have an occasion, shall I not fulfil it? He prolonged the Shema's concluding word, echad, ("one"), until he expired as he finished pronouncing it. A divine voice went forth and proclaimed: Happy are you, Akiva, that your soul departed with the word echad!” Talmud Berakhot 61b This beautifully illustrates the true passion that the Jewish people had for the Shema and the covenant God from whom it was given. When we turn to Jesus to see what he answered, when He was questioned about what was priority in the Mosaic commands from God. “One of the Torah scholars came and heard them debating. Seeing that Yeshua had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which commandment is first of all?” Yeshua answered, “The first is, ‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. “Well said, Teacher,” the Torah scholar said to Him. “You have spoken the truth, that He is echad, and besides Him there is no other! And ‘to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love the neighbour as oneself,’ is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared any longer to question Him.” (Mark 12:28-34 TLV) This is a remarkable Jewish centred discussion between the greatest scholar of the Scriptures – Jesus and a Jewish Torah scholar. Note what Jesus does. He repeats the Shema but extends it to include a verse from Leviticus. “You are not to take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am Yahweh.” (Leviticus 19:18 TLV) Then the Torah scholar says something remarkable,  He refers to Psalm 51:18, that the love of neighbour ‘is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices’. This elevates the dual commands to a new level. Jesus’ response, is to indicate that the scholar is at the door of the Kingdom. Thus, Jesus links the greatest commands to an understanding of the Shema as the bedrock of what God wants – that is an undivided heart that sees embracing faith and grace, not sacrifice. As more pleasing to God. Note David does continue to say that we should lead sacrificial lives. For Christians that means a dedication to God in how we lay down our lives for others.            Turning to Paul, who himself was also a scholarly Jewish teacher. He looks at the Shema in his letter to the Corinthians. Paul will use his Rabbinic skills, to show that it points to Jesus as the divine Son of God. 1 Corinthians 8:6 “…yet for us there is one God [Yahweh], the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord [Adonia], Yeshua Ha Maschiach [Jesus the Christ] , through whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”   As outlined already, the Shema was at the heart of the confession of Jewish monotheism – the belief in one God. There are two divine names in the Shema: Yahweh and Elohim. In making the argument that Jesus is part of the echad, the oneness of God, and that Yahweh and Elohim is also the Adonia, Jesus. Through Him Paul, argues, all things exist. Again, a reference to the Jewish Scriptural understanding that God created all things. His argument is reflective of the Jewish John who also declares Jesus as Creator. (John 1). This is not just Paul making a clever argument.   Guided by the Holy Spirit, using his sophisticated Rabbinic skill, he refutes those who would challenge that Jesus did not fit into God’s prophetic plan. Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah who would become a human being to save the world. Jesus was at the heart of the great Shema. This is further confirmed to the Philippians: Philippians 2:6 “Who, though existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped.” The Jewishness of the Shema and Jesus as creator is not unusual, if the Scriptures are searched.            The Shema ends, as we have  seen, with the word echad. Jewish scholars have long noted this and it reflected that the oneness of God, not a mathematical numerical singularity but a unity that contains relationship within itself. This is not the place for a prolonged description of this. The Zohar, a Jewish document, has this:  “The Judaic notion of a world of Free Will (Talmud Berachot 33b) is deeply rooted in this concept, in the understanding that in creating life, the Eyn-Sof, or the Endless One, subdued the omnipotent, all-embracing Divine Presence for the sake of the realization of the Divine Will that there be other beings (Etz Chaim 1:1:2.)” Whilst this quoted document is wrapped in other mystical ideas, it gives insight into that reality, that the echad of God was one in which the Messiah as creator is included. The document also has, a reference of Elijah's discourse in the Tikkunei Zohar that states: "Master of the worlds, You are One but not in the numerical sense..” and “The Mitteler Rebbe, Dovber Schneuri, elaborates that all of the Torah and mitzvot are included in the unity of the Holy One, and His presence in the world — expressed through the two divine names, Hashem and Elokim, together forming the inner relationship of God with creation.” The New Testament and the whole idea of the Triune God sits comfortably into such Jewish thinking and explains how Paul himself reconciled the Shema with the creator Jesus. The Christian belief is not a departure from Jewish monotheism. It embraces the highest reality of the Shema. This is the union of the covenant of Israel with the Messiah, Jesus. That is, the unity of the Godhead is brought to Israel through their Messiah, as a means of reconciling the world to that great Triune God. This is echoed in the prophetic word of Zechariah:   “Adonai will then be King over all the earth. In that day Adonai will be Echad and His Name Echad.” (Zechariah 14:9 TLV) Again, this is loudly echoed by Isaiah referring to the Messiah:   “It will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our Elohim, We waited for Him—He will save us. This is Yahweh—we waited for Him. We will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9 TLV)              This study shows us that the Shema is not just a religious formula to be repeated thoughtlessly. It is a heart felt prayer that the Jewish people prayed. It brings in a divine view of the created world. It is statement about covenant commitment. For the Christian, it is a statement that rejects anything else, be it a person or an idolatrous habit, and places the Messiah of God, Jesus, at the very heart of our faith.              At the time of Jesus, when those faithful Jews turned to Him and, as Paul, seen Him as the centre of the Shema, they were courageous. Their willingness to proclaim such truth, could and did sometimes end in their death.  They went against the culture of Rome and refused to declare Caesar as their God. They were not departing from their Jewish faith, they were reaching out to its completion, by accepting Jesus as their Messiah, promised from the very start (Genesis 3:15). We who have been grafted in can also now rejoice in the Shema, as our own declaration of a God who has blessed us. In our reciting of the Shema, we are declaring an undivided heart for our God.            Finally, The God who said ‘Hear O Israel, is the same God who said, ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to him’. We can now see that the Shema and the gospel are one constant call to hear, to believe, and to love God with all our being, and to love our neighbour as ourself.

The Rabbinic Paul and the Messiah Jesus Glossary Hebrew words and references used in the study: Torah – Instruction, guidance and usually refers to the first five books of the Bible. Ha Mashiach (the Messiah) – This was the supreme anointed one, expected by the Jewish people. He would deliver them from their enemies and establish a Jewish Kingdom. Hence, Jesus was Yeshua Ha Mashiach – Jesus the Christ. Gezerah shavah — linking texts by shared words or phrases Qal wahomer — argument from lesser to greater (a fortiori) Midrash — creative, narrative-theological exposition of Scripture Pesher — “this is that” fulfilment interpretation Typology — reading persons and events as foreshadowing later realities Shema – The word means ‘hear and act’ and called the people of Israel to put God first in every aspect of their lives. Found in Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 11:13–21 and Numbers 15:37–41. Haggadah – Narrative expansion   INTRODUCTION There is an amazing amount of argument about Paul and what he meant in his letters and the reports of him in Acts. Paul is indeed difficult to understand at times. Peter knew this and knew that Paul was being min-interpreted. That I why he wrote: 2 Peter 3:15-16 “Bear in mind that the patience of our Lord means salvation—just as our dearly loved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom given to him.  He speaks about these matters in all of his letters. Some things in them are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist (as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures)—to their own destruction.”   This highlights the problem. Those who read and hear Paul, fail to understand his Hebrew background, and then, distort them to their advantage. Therefore, we, who are Greek, particularly need to get into the mind of the Rabbinic Paul. Because of the nature of this study the Tree of Life, Bible version will be used. Let us the begin by asking who exactly is Paul? To answer we will let Paul speak for Himself. Philippian 3:5-7 “…circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel; from the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Torah, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting Messiah’s community; as for Torah righteousness, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, these I have considered as loss for the sake of the Messiah.” It is important to note Paul’s Jewish teacher. His influence is often seen in Paul’s arguments. Gamaliel the Elder was the most celebrated Rabbinic teacher of his generation — grandson of Hillel and president of the Sanhedrin. To study at his feet was like going to a great University, such as Oxford or Cambridge and getting the highest doctorate possible. Gamaliel was known for a more flexible, interpretive approach to Torah. Something that is seen in Paul’s arguments. For example, about marriage and divorce. Paul used the following Jewish methods of interpretation of Scripture: Gezerah shavah, Qal wahomer, Midrash, Pesher and Typology (See Glossary). These tools are found throughout Paul’s works, demonstrating his Rabbinic training and mastery of the Scriptures. Whilst it is not necessary be an expert and learn these things in depth, they show how Paul reasoned, as a Jew. His writings were not made up or created out of any mal intent. They were considered and well-reasoned expositions of Scripture, with the chief aim of Paul, putting Yeshua Ha Mashiach at the heart of the Jewish Scriptures. His hope, initially, was to persuade his fellow Jews to accept their Messiah. God had other ideas for the thrust of his mission, and he became an Apostle to the Gentiles. Because of this Paul has influenced not only Western theology but philosophy, law and ethics throughout the ages.  We can see this, as we consider how Paul, once confronted by Jesus, on the Damascus Road was changed. He went into Arabia after his vision and there his faith was honed. He became convinced that the Jesus he had met, was indeed the Jewish Messiah. This study cannot cover everything regarding this change of understanding, that would take a book. The problem Paul had to address was the central message of the faith of the Jewish followers of Jesus. That was, that the death of the Messiah on the cross was necessary for salvation. Addressing a Scandal This claim of a Messiah dying, as Jesus did, was a scandal to the Jewish authorities. The idea of a crucified Messiah was an abhorrence to their Jewish minds. In fact, to first-century Jews, it was theologically offensive. The Torah itself stated: "Anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse." — Deuteronomy 21:23 A Messiah was expected to be a triumphant Davidic King who would defeat Israel's enemies, rebuild the Temple, and usher in the age of God's kingdom. This man Jesus, in the minds of Jewish leaders, had blasphemed and declared Himself equal with the Father – the “I Am”. He had been executed by a Roman Governor, as a criminal. This was the complete opposite of Jewish expectation. Paul's Rabbinic genius, anointed by the Holy Spirit, was seen in showing that the curse of the cross was not the defeat of the Messiah — it was in fact, the means of redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the intelligent.”  Where is the wise one? Where is the Torah scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” Paulis was using a quotation from Isaiah: Isaiah 29:14 “Therefore, behold, once more I will do a marvellous work among this people—a marvel and a wonder—so the wisdom of their wise will perish, and the discernment of their discerning will be concealed.” Here in Corinthians, Paul is using a Mixture of Typological Reasoning with some Pesher. The original context was the Assyrian crisis. Jerusalem's leaders were making secret alliances with Egypt instead of trusting God — their "wisdom" was actually faithless cleverness. Paul is arguing that both the Greek and Jewish scholars were not understanding that Isaiah’s statement still applied and continues to do so. Therefore, the rejection of Jesus as a crucified Messiah was no more than an attempt to reject His Messianic claims through clever arguments not based on faith. This is perhaps one of the strongest examples of the Rabbinic Paul contesting for the Gospel, using Jewish reasoning. The Shema We will now consider the great verses of Scripture, which are at the heart of the Jewish faith – the Shema. Paul will once more, through his Rabbinic skills, show that it points to Jesus as the divine Son of God. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The Shema meaning is expanded in the Glossary.   1 Corinthians 8:6 “…yet for us there is one God [Yahweh], the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord [Adonia], Yeshua Ha Maschiach, through whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”   The Shema was at the heart of the confession of Jewish monotheism – the belief in one God. It was recited twice daily by every observant Jew. It was the expression of the ‘echad’ – the oneness – of God Himself. There are two divine names in the Shema: Yahweh and Elohim. In making the argument that Jesus is part of the echad, the oneness of God, and that Yahweh and Elohim is also the Adonia, Jesus. Through Him Paul, argues, all things exist. Again, a reference to the Jewish Scriptural understanding that God created all things. His argument is reflective of the Jewish John who also declares Jesus as Creator. (John 1). This is not just Paul making a clever argument.   guided by the Holy Spirit, using his sophisticated Rabbinic skill he refutes those who would challenge that Jesus did not fit into God’s prophetic plan. Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah who would become a human being to save the world. This is further confirmed to the Philippians: Philippians 2:6 “Who, though existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be grasped.” His heart was also that his Jewish people would also understand these truths, from their own Scriptures.   How Much More?   This salvation brought by Jesus is another case of the Rabbinic Paul using the Middot of Hillel, his earthly teacher.  In another place he uses kal v'chomer. If something is true in a more difficult case, how much more must it be true in an easier case. Paul uses this pattern constantly, usually signalled by the phrase ‘how much more?'. Romans 5:8-10 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.  How much more then, having now been set right by His blood, shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him.  For if, while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.” This is a classic kal v'chomer argument. If God reconciled us while we were enemies — the much harder case — how much more will He save us now that we are reconciled — the much easier case. It has to be clearly understood, that Paul is not using worldly philosophical reasoning. This is Paul in his highly Rabbinic reasoning, using a formal Scriptural method that his Jewish readers would understand instantly. He continues the use of this principle as he continues in Romans 5:12-21. If one man's sin (Adam) brought death to all, how much more does one man's righteousness (Christ) bring life to all? This is a comparison between two representative types, applied to the history of redemption. The Seed In the very matter of faith being necessary for salvation and able to be applied to those who turn to the Christ, Paul again demonstrates his superior Rabbinic knowledge and argument. This is the Rabbinic way of using the study of a single word, to demonstrate the application from one place in Scripture to another. Galatians 3:16 “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “and to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your seed,” who is the Messiah.”  Paul puts a great weight and emphasis on a single Hebrew word - זֶרַע, (zera)’. He takes this word, meaning seed, and argues that the seed that was expected, was the Messiah. Jesus was to be that ultimate heir to the promised Messiah. Therefore, it was faith, not Torah observance, was always the design of God for covenant inclusion. Furthermore, Paul continues, with a qal wahomer assertion, that Abraham was justified before circumcision that came later. Galatians 3:17 “What I am saying is this: Torah, which came 430 years later, does not cancel the covenant previously confirmed by God, so as to make the promise ineffective. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise. But God has graciously given it to Abraham by means of a promise.”  The Rock We can also consider Paul’s midrashic typology in this passage: 1 Corinthians 10:2 “They all were immersed [baptised] into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink—for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the Rock was Messiah.” We see again, Pauls great Rabbinic mind. Under the previous Scripture, the people were baptised into the Mosaic system of Torah. With the coming of the Messiah in Jesus, they were baptised into Him. In Jewish tradition, in places like the Tosefta Sukkah in chapter 3, there was created a legend of a miraculous rock that followed Israel through the wilderness. Paul adopts this midrashic tradition and identifies the pre-existent Christ as the spiritual reality behind it — using Rabbinic haggadah he applies it to his understanding of the Messiah. Jesus was the Rock in the wilderness, and is now the Rock of those that follow Him. Conclusion There are other examples throughout Paul’s writing, of his Rabbinic style, but there is enough here to help us understand, how Paul not only reached out to Gentiles, but where ever he went in writing and speech, he would appeal to the Jewish people to realise their Scriptures continually pointed to Jesus as the promised Messiah and redeemer. Let us end this study with considering Paul’s understanding of why his Jewish people rejected the Gospel. His deep love for them. He, who would give up his own salvation for them, if that were possible (Romans 9:3), was deeply saddened by their refusal. 2 Corinthians 3:14-18 “But their minds were hardened. For up to this very day the same veil remains un-lifted at the reading of the ancient covenant, since in Messiah it is passing away. But to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Ruach Adonai is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory—just as from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Let us use this study to pray for God’s beloved people the Jews. Never forget this from the Rabbinic Paul: Romans 9:4-5 “..who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Torah and the Temple service and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs—and from them, according to the flesh, the Messiah, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.” God will be faithful to His chosen people. He has not rejected them. As Paul wrote: Romans 11:1 “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.  Romans 11:25 “For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be ignorant of this mystery—lest you be wise in your own eyes—that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer shall come out of Zion. He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” Whilst we must preach the Gospel to all men, including the Jewish people, we cannot use human means to pressurise or condemn them. Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. God will bring about His purposes for His people in His way, by the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, let us show with loving acceptance that they have their journey and as we see in Revelation, God’s reveals the completion of His plans for them. One day Jews and Gentiles will rejoice as the one eternal family of God.

Introduction Genesis 3:1-5 “But the shining one was shrewder than any animal of the field that Adonai Elohim made. So it said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from all the trees of the garden’?” The woman said to the shining one, “Of the fruit of the trees, we may eat. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat of it and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” The shining said to the woman, “You most assuredly won’t die! For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””                                   Hebrew Script Genesis 3:1-5 When Moses ‘wrote’ the original Hebrew scriptures, he did not use letters as we know them. He used pictograms. These were very different from what the Hebrew looks like today.  An example in use: The sign for (chen) grace. A wall and a seed. The Hebrews camped in a circle. God’s grace was a continuous wall around the camp. Within that protection, they had every blessing the needed. There were no vowels as we know them. The Rabbis were asked why there were no vowels. They answered: “The ambiguity allows us to derive multiple layers of meaning from the same written text.” Vowels were not introduced until around the 9th century. The meaning of the word can be changed by the vowels used. Therefore, we need to ask when we read Genesis and the word ‘serpent’, we must ask is that what it means? The use of serpent has caused many to be sceptic of God’s Word. Let us look at the word and how Hebrew is used.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Serpent/snake       Shining Material           Evil diviner with supernatural                                  Bronze or copper          knowledge read omens enchant                                Hence 'shining one All Hebrew words come from a root. From that root multiple meanings can be drived as above.  We can see from the root highlighted, depending on vowels and other characters, different applications can be made. When there is no clarity on a word, we need to look at context and apply other Scriptures. Scripture must interpret Scripture, when there is a question about a word. Thus, we have the word in Genesis: Genesis 3:1 “And the  נָחָשׁ was cunning above every beast of the field which YAHWEH Elohim had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that Elohim has said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” The reading does not say the creature was a beast of the field. It reads, that it was more shrewd or cunning, than any of the field creatures. We then go to other Scriptures to help the understanding. Numbers 21:6 “And YAHWEH sent the  נְחָשִׁים    שְרָפִים in the form of serpents among the people; and they bit [to strike with a sting] the people, and many people of Israel died.” Here we have the word from Genesis alongside another word – sapharim. Psalm 148:5  "Let them [Angels] praise the name of Yahweh; for He commanded, and they were created..” Job 38:5-7 “Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it? Upon what are its bases grounded? or who laid the corner stone thereof, When the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God [Angels] made a joyful melody?”  Hebrews 1:13-14 “But to which of the angels said he at any time: Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?”  You will note that the verse from numbers had the word for a type of angel – seraphim. The plural word for saraph. Therefore the numbers verse can be understood as shining seraphim. Shining angels which were sent by Yahweh – good angels. This is further clear in God’s instruction to Moses to create a creature on a staff. “..Make a   שׂרף  [Saraph]  and put it on a pole..” Numbers 21:8 Here again, we have the type of angel. Using the Greek Septuagint, the figurative word serpent is brought into the New Testament text. Jesus said, John 3:14 “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up..”  This idea that Jesus would compare Himself to a serpent, demonstrates the translation issue. He would not do that. Therefore, when we see numbers in its true rendering, Jesus is comparing Himself to the good Angel on the staff. We know the description of the Seraph from Isaiah 6. Ezekiel writes: Ezekiel 28:12 & 13 “You [Satan] were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God…….” Satan was a saraph who was before the throne of God. He was original created as a good angel, However, he decided he wanted to be God. His rebellion was dealt with alongside a third of the angels who rebelled with him. Isaiah writes of the humiliation of Satan, also called Lucifer, the light bearer, son of the dawn. Isaiah 14:12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O daystar, son of the dawn [Shining One] ! How you are cut down to the earth, you who made the nations prostrate!”  Jesus also confirms this in Luke 10:18. The final piece of the jigsaw comes in Revelation: Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”  Revelation 20:1 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a great chain. He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and satan—and bound him for a thousand years.”  Now we can see the real picture in Genesis 3. It was Lucifer/Satan – an angel of light - who comes to Adam and Eve. They would have been familiar with angels who would have ministered for God in the garden. Therefore when a ‘good’ angel in her mind talks with her, why should she trust him? This brings us to Paul: 2 Corinthians 11:11-15  “..Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off the opportunity from those who want an opportunity in what they boast about to also be regarded just as we are. For such men are false emissaries, deceitful workers masquerading as Messiah’s emissaries.  And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their deeds.”  This is how deception often works in the modern world. Lucifer hides in the darkness and acts through others who appear as ‘good’ as angels of light. Any study of Scripture will show this. Read Jude for example of how he speaks harshly about such people – men and women. They flood the internet and news. They preach from pulpits in many places. This is why we must be Bereans and check out everything against the Word of God and under the light of the Holy Spirit’s lead. 1 John 4:1 “Loved ones, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  When we look at many denominations of all colours, we hear and see so much being preached that just does not sit with God’s revealed Word. Be alert and warned. The word about the end times shows that such deception will be widespread and many will be deceived.

Introduction   Roman 6:4 “Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life.”   The question is an important one and it requires an open and considered response. There are many, including myself, who came to a living faith in Jesus, in adult life. Being brought up in strict Catholicism, I was brought as an infant to the font to be sprinkled with water. There have been many people in my ministry, who have sat in other places and heard the same message - You must be baptised by full immersion. For some this is a shock and confusing. Even in a few cases it is offensive to them. Legitimate questions are raised in their mind. Was my infant baptism meaningless then? Did my parents do something wrong? Surely this is not really necessary? Of course, it is reasonable and honest to question this call to adult baptism. Any study must respect these questions. A reasonable, careful, respectful answer is rightly due. This study will not treat infant baptism with disregard for what honest parents did. Nor will it dismiss it as an important part of a person’s life journey. It will not consider those godly, Bible-believing Christians who have arrived at a different view, un-Christian. It has been the case, that in the history of the Church, it has been a hotly debated matter. What the study will do is to set out a Biblical case from the Scriptures, to allow them to speak into the question. This will show why I hold that adult baptism is a necessary part of the journey for the Christian. I am convinced that baptism is, in its name and in its pattern, grounded in Scripture. With all grace, it must be made clear that many infants were brought to the font in all sincerity by the parents. Many ministers who carried out the baptism, did so with sincere belief in what they were doing was right. What the study does do is ask a question: is a personal confessed faith necessary before baptism? The study is offered as a positive answer to that question. What Is Baptism? A study of the word The English word “baptism” comes directly from the Greek βαπτίζω (baptizo), which means to dip, plunge, or immerse. Every teacher who has dealt with baptism confirms that it was used in everyday Greek for the dyeing of cloth (dipped into the dye). It was also used for the sinking of ships and the washing of vessels by plunging them underneath water. The word cannot be used to sprinkle or to pour. Our opening verse from Romans is clear, we are buried with Him. Sprinkling or pouring does not reflect a burial. When John the Baptist baptised people, it was in the Jordan River, he was immersing them under the water. Even when Jesus was baptised, it says: Mark 1:10 “And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him.” The language only makes sense if Jesus was under the water and came up out of it. Then we have Philip, who baptised the Ethiopian eunuch. We read: Acts 8:38-39 “And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch. And he baptised him. And when they had come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing.” We cannot avoid the clear meaning of the text. Philip did not simply sprinkle or pour water over the eunuch. They both went into the water and came up out of the water. If it were a case of pouring or sprinkling there was no need to go down into the water. The consistent New Testament picture is full immersion in water. Let us be clear again. The Greek word is certain. Thayer defines it as such: 1a.of Christian baptism; a rite of immersion in water as commanded by Christ, by which one after confessing his sins and professing his faith in Christ, having been born again by the Holy Spirit unto a new life, identifies publicly with the fellowship of Christ and the church. Notice the order confession – professing faith – born again – public confession of faith – then baptism. The Greek lexicon, as noted already, defines baptizo as: to dip, plunge, immerse. Looking at the early church history. We find Tertullian and Origen describe baptism as immersion. The Didache, one of the earliest Christian documents outside the New Testament, often seen as a guide to practice, permits pouring only as an emergency alternative, acknowledging immersion as the normal step after conversion. What Symbolism in Baptism                    The study turns to look at Romans 6:3-4 to expand the explanation of what baptism means as a symbol of a deeply spiritual step on the Disciple’s journey. This Scripture is very important Theologically for the doctrine of baptism. Romans 6:3-4 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”  The text again is very clear in Paul’s use of language. It explicitly speaks of burial and resurrection. The act of baptism is about being plunged into the water. It demonstrates that there is a death and burial, followed by a resurrection.  The old self, the old life of sin, is buried and is to remain in the ‘grave’. The believer is to leave their flesh life behind – dead and buried.  Coming up out of the water is the picture of our resurrection. We rise and are now to walk in the newness of life that Christ’s resurrection secured by His death on the cross. As already indicated and confirmed here, the picture Paul paints. only works with immersion. A person is not ‘buried’ by sprinkling or pouring a little water on their head. The picture is of going under the water and coming up out of the water. It is being submerged and raised. It brings home dramatically the very Gospel that is truly preached. Colossians 2:12 “..having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”  This is an important statement from Paul. It specifically states, that it is through faith, that God worked to raise those who have been buried in baptism. Therefore, it requires a personal act of faith, of which, an infant is not capable. As a believer. In my going under the water of baptism, I died with Christ. I was placed into Him. In my burial, my old life was put into the grave. When I was raised up out of the water: I rose with Christ. In Him, I now live a new life. Full immersion brings home the great drama of the gospel in physical form. Believe, Then Be Baptised is, the   New Testament Pattern Of all the arguments, the clearest for believer’s baptism. is simply the consistent order laid out in the New Testament. After Pentecost, Peter preaches the Gospel. He lays out the pattern when asked how his hearers are to respond: Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Link this with: Acts 2:41 “So those who received his word were baptised, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”  And we see the Gospel being received and accepted followed by repentance and then baptism. The pattern is not isolated to these verses; the following are further confirmation of the pattern. Jesus Himself said: Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. " Here again faith, with the understanding that repentance implied, must be baptised. The act not possible for an infant. Acts19:4-5 “And Paul said, “John baptised with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.”  This is another clear indication that the pattern in consistent: Faith - Repentance - Baptism When we turn to Philip in bringing the Gospel to the Samaritans, we find: Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women.”  The pattern: they believed, they were baptised. Faith is the necessary prerequisite for a Disciple. It is not added at a later date. The question asked of Peter at Pentecost, is also found in Paul’s ministry. In Philippi, Paul is in jail and miraculously he is freed. The jailer fearing for his life, asks that question: Acts 16:30-33 “Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptised at once, he and all his family.”  Again, we have the pattern – faith – implied repentance (Paul would have ensured this) – baptism. A similar household salvation is also found with Crispus: Acts 18:8 "Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptised.” Here again, faith came by hearing, and upon repentance, were baptised. The pattern repeats itself. (Paul in discussing baptism, also mentions the baptism of the household of Stephanas) This is also seen in Paul Himself. He has his encounter with the risen Jesus, and is convicted of his unbelief in his Messiah. When he meets up with other followers, the faith that came and his repentance leads to baptism. Acts 22:16 “And now, what are you going to do? Arise and be baptised, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Remember Paul was a Jew and he would have gone through many ritual baths. These were no longer one of the steps to salvation. Faith, repentance and baptism were evident in Paul’s response. By now it must be clear that the New Testament is consistent. Believe – repent – baptised. There is not one single account in the Scriptures of an infant being baptised. The first records on infant baptism, did not appear until the 2nd and 3rd centuries. These arose because there was concern about infant deaths and their eternal future. The response was not Biblical but a man-made idea of a half-way house, that would lead to the idea of ‘limbo’. The place where infants went on death. In recent days that word is being dropped but the idea still persists in some denominations. Jesus and the pattern of the Great Commission Jesus’ own commission to the church establishes the sequence with unmistakable clarity: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  — Matthew 28:19–20 The central command is make disciples. Baptising and teaching are the means by which disciples are made and formed. But note: you cannot baptise a nation — you baptise individuals who have been discipled. The grammatical structure in Greek makes the disciple-making primary and baptism the first formal act of the one who has responded. An infant cannot be a disciple in this sense. A disciple is someone who has heard, who follows, who has made a conscious commitment to the person and teaching of Jesus. Baptism is the act by which that commitment is publicly declared and sealed. Were Infants Included in Household Faith Baptisms? In the Jewish faith, infants are not baptised and are deemed to be part of the religion from birth. However, there is the tevilah which is the immersion in water but it is only for Gentile children. It is a simple ritual of cleansing. As the child grows there are different local customs that sometimes there may be ritual cleansing as a mikvah. Furthermore, they do not believe in the fall of Adam and the entry of sin into the world. They believe that the sinlessness of Adam and Eve persisted after they left Eden. Therefore, infants are born in a state of purity. It was only the Tree of Life that they were excluded from. Therefore, people may sin they can make an offering of atonement and there is a special day each when there are ten days to consider the previous year and failings to be atoned for on Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. With this in mind, when households were saved, infant washing would not be carried out for Gentile infants, as they were no longer under Law. Jewish infants would not be baptised, as they were still part of the Jewish community but the parents had now accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore, in household salvation there would be no baptising of infants. Scripture has no record of any infant being baptised. Furthermore, Paul teaches this truth about children: 1 Corinthians 7:14 “For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.” The issue of the husband is a matter best dealt with n another study. Here dealing with infants, clearly shows the children are ‘holy’. That is separated unto God. This will only exist until the reach an age of reason, when they can make their own personal decision as to acceptance of salvation and baptism. It is important to see that the only household that matters in this study is the household of faith spoken of by Peter (1 Peter 4:17 also Paul Ephesians 2:19). What Infant Baptism Cannot Accomplish What we are doing in this study, is not dismissing infant baptism with ridicule or contempt. It is acknowledged that there are sincere, Spirit-filled Christians who were baptised as infants. They have continued in true fruitful faith. We would not doubt that God can do His work in a person’s life despite misunderstandings of faithful people. His grace abounds and He can. No, the question that must be answered, is whether infant baptism fulfils what the New Testament clearly shows, as the pattern of salvation. This becomes evident in Romans 6:1-5ff. Such and understanding and coming to personal faith cannot be achieved by an infant. This is confirmed by Paul in another letter: Colossians 2:12 “..having been buried together with Him in baptism, in which also you were raised together through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” ‘Through faith’ is a clear statement that faith is needed in baptism. Something, that has been stressed here, is not possible for an infant. Neither can the infant, express repentance or make a conscious commitment to Jesus. Infant baptism therefore cannot fulfil the New Testament’s requirement that baptism be the individual’s own declaration of death to sin and new life in Christ. The New Testament demonstrates, that there is a public declaration of an open identification with Christ to those in and outside the assembled church. An infant, by fact, cannot make any such profession of their faith. Whatever infant baptism is for, it cannot be for this. The going-down-and-coming-up drama of immersion — burial with Christ, resurrection with Christ — requires a conscious participant who understands what is being enacted. The symbol is emptied of its content if the one being baptised has no awareness of it. Let it be clear, this is not an argument that infant baptism in any way harms the infant or that the infant is outside the grace of God. The truth is that infants who have not reached the age of reason are in God’s care and are taken straight to him if they unfortunately were to die. This is seen in the case of David’s son born from Bathsheba. We are told when David was asked about the infant’s death: 2 Samuel 12:23 “But now he [the infant] is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”  David was a man of God who went to eternal life. If he was going where the infant was, then the infant was in eternal life, in the hands of God. No form of baptism was needed for the child. Infant Baptism and Believer’s Baptism – a Comparison As a means of reflection let us construct a comparison of the two baptisms under discussion. This is not offered in a spirit of hostility but in an attempt to make an honest comparison. The position of this study is from an evangelical viewpoint. It expresses a belief that the New Testament’s evidence is consistent and clearly supports believer’s baptism by full immersion. Infant baptism is practiced by: Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Reformed churches. It is received by: Infants of believing families, on behalf of the covenant community (Sometime adults will receive this form of baptism). It signifies: Entry into the covenant community; sign of God’s grace and promise. It is based on these passages: Household baptisms (Acts 16:33); covenant theology (Col. 2:11–12); continuity with circumcision. How it is performed: Typically sprinkling or pouring. Does it give salvation?: Some traditions: yes (sacramental). Most: it is a sign, not the means of salvation. Adult baptism is practiced by: Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, most nondenominational churches. It is received by: Only those who have personally professed repentance and faith in Christ. It signifies: Personal death to sin and resurrection with Christ; public declaration of faith. It is based on these passages: Repent and be baptised (Acts 2:38); believe then be baptised (Acts 8:36–38); Rom. 6:3–4 How it is performed: Full immersion (βαπτίζω — baptizo — means ‘to dip/immerse’). Does it give salvation?: No — baptism follows and confirms salvation; it does not cause it One thing to note is that there is a difference in understanding infant baptism within the paedobaptist tradition, Roman Catholics and some Lutherans take a sacramental view that baptism is a means of grace. Reformed and Presbyterian traditions on the other hand take a different view. For them it is a sign of covenant, marking membership of the community. This does point to a disagreement of the practice. It also raises questions on the Scriptural claims and does not show a unified position. “Does That Mean I Am Not Already Baptised?” A heartfelt question which needs a sensitive response. It therefore needs grace and a clear answer. As with all questions on Biblical matters, must be answered by the Scriptures. From what has been already shared in the study, a baptism that does not follow a personal faith, with a personal repentance is not baptism as patterned in the New Testament. The name of the ceremony can only share a name but they are both very different in content and meaning. For example, if a man and woman present themselves for marriage but another couple make the vows on their behalf, the couple have not married. The pair must make their own statement of the vows and their acceptance. It is the same for baptism: well-meaning parents, who in love, do what they think best for their infant. There is certainly no condemnation for their actions. However, the individual arriving at a point in life, having reached the age of reason must make their own act of faith and repentance, which Scripturally is followed by full immersion in baptism. The infant having water sprinkled or poured on their head must mature into a believer with their own personal faith. Read Romans 6 in its fullness and there is what needs to be grasped and understood. Is This Re-Baptism? The idea of “re-baptism’ for many believers from infant-baptism traditions is often a challenge, Their feeling is it negates their original ceremony, honestly entered into by loving parents. Evangelical churches such as my own, would not classify this as a re-baptism at all. The truth is you were not baptised in the New Testament pattern as an infant; therefore, this is your first true baptism following the command of Jesus for Disciples. The church is not undoing something your parents did - it is bringing to completion something that you could not have done without your own personal faith and commitment. As an historic note, when the Anabaptists in 1525 in Zurich were baptising adult believers, their Catholic and Reformed opponents called it Anabaptism: that is “re-baptism”. The Anabaptists response is enlightening: “we cannot re-baptise anyone who was never truly baptised in the first place.” Their point was not an act of rebellion against any other organisation. It was faithfulness to the New Testament pattern. Unfortunately, many were martyred for this conviction. Baptism is Joyful Obedience Please do not see this study as an argument to be fought over and won. We should be careful in this matter and not simply study baptism as an opportunity for a theological argument that must be won. First and foremost, see baptism as an act of joyful obedience to the Lord and Saviour who commanded it. Let Jesus be your example. What was His state that was recognised by John the Baptist? Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted just as we are, yet without sin.”  Matthew 3:14-15 “But John restrained Him, saying, I have need to be baptised by You, and do You come to me? And answering Jesus said to him, Allow it now, for it is becoming to us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he allowed Him.” John recognised that Jesus was the only one who lived who had no need of baptism. Yet Jesus humbled Himself and was immersed in the water to fulfil all righteousness. Returning to Peter and the great salvation at Pentecost, we read: Act 2:41 “Then those who accepted with joy, what Peter said, were baptised. On that day about 3000 people were added to the group of believers.” Note here, there was an acceptance of Peters instruction of the pattern, faith – repentance – baptism. These were Jewish people used to ritual washings. The response was also with joy. It was not an unpleasant thing to hear and obey. There was no delay – their baptisms were immediate. Such was their eagerness to follow the Scriptural call. It is the entrance into the Christ – the Door. It is the step of inclusion into His body – the visible Church. You become a member of His body not a church. The church as a local expression, is what you commit to and join. I, as one who was baptised as an infant, can confirm that my immersion as a Christian was one of the most profound and moving experience of my life. I only know that rising out of that water, I felt the whole weight of my sinful past, was washed away. My joy was overwhelming. Forty-four years later I have no regrets. I am sure my parents with their religious views were doing the ‘right thing’. However, I knew that the Gospel was clear and I followed in obedience to the Word. 1 Peter 3:21  which speaks of the flood compares it to baptism. It is not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;  1 Peter 3:21 “Which [the flood] is an image of full immersion, not the body getting rid of filth, but as an appeal towards God to obtain a clean conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus the Christ..”  Baptism is not a bath to wash the natural body. It is the looking to God, who seeing your faith and repentance, raises you in the Christ, to a fresh spiritual existence, in which He will not remember your past sins. This is all because of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. The steps you take in baptism by immersion. For those who go through the waters of baptism, they can truly say, “I belong to you Lord. I am now buried with the Christ. I am now raised with the Christ. And I am not ashamed of the Gospel.” A final word from a pastoral heart: I wish that everyone knew what I have discovered a living gracious God who wants righteousness to be in every soul. His love provided a means to achieve it. He sent His only Beloved Son into the world that we might be saved. Can I first invite you to do what has been laid out - hear and open your heart to faith in God through the work of the Holy Spirit, repent (Turn away from your past sin and failures), be baptised and receive the Holy Spirit to lead you through a new life.   Perhaps you are a believer already but have not yet taken that step of Scriptural baptism. I would not want to put pressure on you but I would simply offer you a warm encouragement to consider what you have studied here. Accept the wonderful, joyous gift of baptism. It is not a burdensome thing it is an obedient step of faith. I understand that there may be a background to your life that would raise questions, doubts or you are wrestling with an infant baptism, do not stay alone in this position. Reach out to a trusted Pastor. Or you can email our fellowship, based near Wisbech, on admin@fenlandschurch.co.uk. This is a conversation you will not regret - gently, carefully, and in community. Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” 

*Pesach is the Hebrew word for the Supper and will be used here to stress the Jewish origin of the event. Introduction Many Christians would claim to fully know what the Supper in the upper room is about. Unfortunately, it is one of the most familiar passages in the Scriptures, that is most often not really understood. This is because it is approached with a Western, Gentile mind, that has been influenced by Greek thinking.  Or is has been appropriated as a church centred religious ceremony. In doing this, it removes the supper from the Jewish history and contextual setting. It separates it from anything that came before it. It overlooks the fact that Yeshua – Jesus – was a Jewish teacher bringing home to His disciples what was about to happen. It was, in fact, the realisation of a new understanding of the fulfilment of the Jewish prophet Jeremiah’s words. It is therefore important that we do not miss what was actually happening in that upper room. Jesus was communicating to His disciples, in a way that they, as Jewish men, would understand. They had participated in the annual celebration of the Pesach from their birth. He was shining a light on His being the Pesach Lamb and the bread from heaven. They would have had some inkling of what the Messiah was doing immediately and profoundly. It is certain John grasped this as we see in his Gospel account. The upper room supper, is wrongly called the last supper. That last supper will be the banquet held when the marriage of the Lamb is celebrated. This supper shared before His death must be read correctly, as a commemorative Jewish meal, that was being given a new application. That is, that it was a Pesach Seder, in which Jesus was central to the new awakening to come. When we then approach it as such a Jewish event, the words and actions of Jesus take on a greater depth. It reveals great truth that cannot be gained from a Western understanding. 1 Corinthians 5:7 “Then clean out the old leaven [corruption] so that you may be a new lump, just as you are unleavened [uncorrupted]. For our Pesach is Messiah who was sacrificed for our sake.” The Pesach — Its Origins and Structure Exodus 12 recounts the historical Pesach and it is there we find its origin. It tells how God delivered Israel from their slavery in Egypt. The final plague - the death of the firstborn - would bring the Angel of Death on all the first born. This meant everyone including the Hebrews if they did not act on God’s Word. To ensure they were not included in the death, every Israelite household was commanded to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and put its blood to the doorposts of their home. They then ate the roasted lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, in readiness for a speedy departure. This required the Hebrews to have faith in God’s word through Moses. It is a great lesson to all who wish to escape eternal death. That is to have faith in God’s Word. John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears My Word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death to life.”  We see the word of God is clear to the Hebrews: Exodus 12:13-14 “And the blood shall be a sign to you, on the houses where you are. And I will see the blood, and I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be on you to destroy, when I strike in the land of Egypt. And the day shall be a memorial for you. And you shall celebrate it as a feast to YAHWEH, for your generations. You shall celebrate it as a law forever.” Here we see both the means of deliverance and the command to the annual memorial of Pesach.   The Pesach must not be seen as merely an historical commemoration. The *Mishnah in tractate Pesachim records that every Jewish person in every generation is obligated to see themselves as if they personally came out of Egypt. The Seder was a participatory re-enactment of redemption. Every element carried meaning and told part of the story. Again a reflection to everyone who responds to the Gospel, that each must accept their own acceptance of gift of salvation from God. *The Mishnah is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah.   Before the ending of the first century, the Pesach Seder had a structured format. The elements were:  Four cups of wine, each representing one of the four divine promises of redemption in Exodus 6:6-7. There was the breaking and hiding of the afikomen. There were prayers, psalms, the recitation of the Haggadah, bitter herbs, and the Pesach lamb. The Four Cups and Their Significance The four cups of the Pesach Seder correspond to the four promises God made in Exodus 6:6-7: I will bring you out - the Cup of Sanctification I will deliver you - the Cup of Deliverance I will redeem you - the Cup of Redemption I will take you out - the Cup of Restoration It is John that points us to the first Cup of Sanctification, that would have been drank: John 17:19 “And I fear for their sakes. I sanctify myself so that they may also be sanctified by Truth.” John also gives us the prayer Jesus prayed for their deliverance, the Cup of Deliverance, to eternal life in glory, through His resurrection: John 17:24 “Father, those whom You have given to me, I desire that where I am they might also be with me that they might see my glory that you have given to me because you have loved me from before the foundations of the world.” When Stephen in Acts speaks of their history, he made this deliverance clear when he says of God, “..I have come down to deliver them [The Jews)..” (Acts 7:34) Moses was sent to deliver them. As Luke tells us Jesus was sent into the world and said, “..He (God) has sent me to proclaim release to the captives…” (Luke 4:18) This  great truth is part of the Pesach celebration for us. It is Mark who points us to the two last cups. The third, the Cup of Redemption, is associated with the blood of the Pesach lamb and the promise: I will redeem you with an outstretched arm: Mark 14:24 “And He said to them, this is My blood, that of the New Covenant, which is poured out concerning many.” It is important to note again, the Jewishness of what Jesus said. His reference to the New Covenant, was His stating that He was the one ushering in the New Covenant spoken of by Jeremiah: Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, days are coming” - it is a declaration of Adonai - “when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah - not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they broke My covenant, though I was a husband to them.”  -  it is a declaration of Adonai. “But this is the covenant I will cut with the house of Israel after those days” - it is a declaration of Adonai - “I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart. I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will each teach his neighbour or each his brother, saying: ‘Know Adonai,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” - it is a declaration of Adonai - “For I will forgive their iniquity, their sin I will remember no more.”  The covenant that was cut with Moses, required the sacrifice of animals, whose blood was sprinkled over the people, thus sealing the covenant with blood. Note the reference to cutting the animals – covenants were not ‘made’ they were ‘cut’. Exodus 24:7-8 “He took the Scroll of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. Again they said, “All that Adonai has spoken, we will do and obey.” Then Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which Adonai has cut with you, in agreement with all these words.”” The letter to the Hebrews refers to this in chapter nine. The same writer also writes: Hebrews 10:29 “How much more severe do you think the punishment will be for the one who has trampled Ben-Elohim [The Son of God] underfoot, and has regarded as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Jesus, in the Cup of Redemption, was indicating that He was sealing the Jeremiah Covenant with His own blood. That promise of this fulfilment, was offered to the Jewish people in His day, and remains open to all who will accept His Messiahship. In His return, Revelation shows us, God will bring to completion, the Promises of Redemption for His chosen people. The fourth cup - the Cup of Restoration This was not drunk. Mark again tells us this: Mark 14:25 “Amen, I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”  Revelation 19:9 “Then the angel tells me, “Write: How fortunate are those who have been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb!” He also tells me, “These are the true words of God.”  Jesus was deliberately leaving the final cup to signify to the Disciples an important promise, to comfort them that what was going to happen was not the end. He was pointing forward to its completion at the messianic banquet. It is Paul who fills in the gap as to when the last cup will be drunk: he writes; 1 Corinthians 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” Though not completely grasped, it would have left them pondering and attempting to understand. Every person at that table knew exactly which cup was being left and its meaning of restoration by the Messiah. Peter was certainly aware of this, though again not fully understanding it. (Matthew 16:16) The Bread — Matzah and the Afikomen The bread Jesus broke was not ordinary bread. It was matzah - unleavened bread - which carried profound theological significance. Leaven in Jewish thought was a symbol of sin and corruption. The removal of all leaven from the household before Pesach was a thorough act of purification. This was commanded as part of Pesach: Exodus 12:15 “For seven days you are to eat matzot [unleavened bread], but on the first day you must remove hametz [leavened bread] from your houses, for whoever eats hametz from the first day until the seventh day, that soul will be cut off from Israel.” Jesus made clear He was the Bread of Life who had come down from heaven. He was without sin and corruption (Hebrews 4:15). The use of Matzot was the breaking of uncorrupted bread symbolising His own body, that would not see corruption (Psalm 16:10, Acts 2:27) and would be broken for them. Central to the Seder is the afikomen, which is a piece of matzah that is broken, wrapped in linen, hidden away, and then found and eaten at the end of the meal. The word afikomen is debated in its etymology - some scholars connect it to a meaning of He who has come or He who is coming. However, the debate on its origin must not distract from the huge significance of the actions of Jesus. There are three Matzot breads. The middle one is the one taken and broken. 'This is my body which is broken for you' The symbolism is astonishing in the light of the gospel. A piece of bread is broken. It is wrapped. It is hidden. Think about this. It is the second Mazot. The first day – crucified. The second day Jesus’ body was in the tomb. It was wrapped in linen and ‘hidden’. Then in the meal, it is brought back - Jesus was raised on the third day. It is the final taste of the meal. That is the taste that lingers, after the meal, and no wine is drunk. Every one of the Disciples would have thought immediately of the afikomen, something they would have seen enacted every Pesach of their lives. Haggadah, Maror, and the Pesach lamb. The Haggadah was the retelling of the Exodus account. This may have been done at the upper room meal or, as I see it, Jesus was retelling it using the emblems as discussed above. The Maror are the bitter herbs that are tasted at the Pesach. This was to remind them of the suffering in Egypt:   Exodus 1:13-14 “They worked them harshly, and made their lives bitter with hard labour with mortar and brick, doing all sorts of work in the fields. In all their labours they worked them with cruelty.” Thinking of the bitterness suffered by the Hebrews in Egypt, brings to mind the great suffering of Jesus the Messiah. As He knelt in the garden before His death, we read: Luke 22:44 “And in His anguish, He was praying fervently; and His sweat was like drops of blood falling down on the ground.” We must not dismiss this as hyperbole. It shows the immense stress of the suffering that Jesus was to face. There is in fact medical evidence of cases of sweating blood - hematidrosis. This is the medical description: People who have hematidrosis may sweat blood from their skin. It usually happens on or around the face, but it can also come from the mucosa inside the nose, mouth, or stomach. The skin around the bloody area may swell temporarily. Crying tears of blood is related. It's called hemolacria. Bleeding from the ears is called blood otorrhea. The Pesach Lamb was the meat of the pure sacrificial lamb, which of course speaks of the Messiah, Yeshua, The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. The Hallel — What They Sang in Gethsemane Matthew and Mark, both record that after the supper Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn before going to the Mount of Olives. Matthew 26:30 “After singing the Hallel, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”  Whilst Western readers may pass over this detail without thought, the Jewish Disciples knew exactly what was sung. At the Pesach Seder the Hallel Psalms are sung. These are Psalms 113 to 118. They are sung in two sections. The first section (113-114) before the meal, the second section (115-118) after the meal. It was certainly the Great Hallel that Jesus and His disciples would have sang as they left for Gethsemane. This is probably what they were singing. Psalm 116: 'The sorrows of death compassed me... I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD.' Or perhaps Psalm 118: 'The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.' These were not some randomly chosen worship songs. They were the prophetic texts that pointed to what was about to happen. Jesus would have sang them with joy, heading toward His arrest, as the Word says: Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Indeed, we can understand that the Scriptures are true and every action of Jesus confirms this truth. A New Exodus from the Bondage of Sin When we gather all the Pesach elements together, we see a picture that is far greater than any religious institution of a church ceremony. Jesus was proclaiming and bringing in a new Exodus. The original exodus from Egypt was the delivering of the slaves of the Egyptians.  The blood of a pure Lamb was used to rescue from death. The new Exodus Jesus brought in would deliver humanity from spiritual slavery to sin and death through His own blood, the blood of the pure Lamb of God whom John the Baptist had identified at the very opening of Jesus' ministry. John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching under which you were placed; and after you were set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.”  Galatians 5:1 “For freedom, Messiah set us free - so stand firm, and do not be burdened by a yoke of slavery again.” When Jesus said 'Do this in remembrance of me' He was using the same language the Torah used for Pesach observance. In Jewish thought that is zakhor which is to remember. It appears around two hundred times in the Bible. It does not mean merely to recall intellectually and nod one’s head that it happened. It is to allow the memory to become very present and real in the recall of that memory. To keep the breaking of bread in our gatherings is to truly embrace the reality of what Jesus did. This is what he intended. It is to become a real deeply spiritual participant in the new Exodus in which Jesus has brought to us.  He has been our Sanctification, our deliverer, our redemption and He will return to be our restoration, when He makes all things new eternally. So when we celebrate in our worship as we break bread, we declare that the Lamb has been slain, the blood has been shed, and we are those who shelter under it. Finally, if we read the upper room narrative, without the Pesach context, we are only seeing half of the conversation. With the Pesach’s Jewish context is restored, every element - the bread, the cup, the lamb, the psalms, the timing, the words – everything about it rings loudly, with greater meaning and points unmistakably to the Lamb of God. John 12:31-33 “Now is the judgment of this world! Now the prince of this world will be driven out! And as I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to Myself.” He said this to show the kind of death He was about to die.”  Jesus did not institute a new religion; He fulfilled the promises of God to the Jewish people and His loyalty to the Covenant. We, who are Gentiles, have the great privilege of being grafted into the Jewish tree as Paul wrote in Romans.  The Gentiles do not have a covenant (that belongs to the Jews (Romans 9:4)); Gentiles have a promise: Galatians 3:16-18 “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say, “and to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to your seed,” who is the Messiah. What I am saying is this: Torah, which came 430 years later, does not cancel the covenant previously confirmed by God, so as to make the promise ineffective. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise. But God has graciously given it to Abraham by means of a promise.”  We have so much to celebrate and to rejoice in, because of Jesus. We have been included by grace into His great Pesach. Therefore, never let us forget His defeat of Satan and the victory of that Pesach of Jesus, in our celebration of the breaking of bread! Hallelujah!

Introduction We start with the word itself – Shalom - שָׁלֹם. This is a most familiar word in the modern world. It used as the greeting in meeting or saying goodbye. It a blessing when offered. It is a title (as of Jesus). To translate it as ‘peace’, is not in itself incorrect. However, it has a much deeper meaning that is lost in that simple translation. It is a very poor understanding of a greater richness of the word, shalom. When I use it, it not just wishing peace. I intend a far greater blessing than that. The Church would be a richer place for people, if it was understood and taught. Hence this study. When a person with a western mind is offered the word peace, they often immediately think of the absence of war and conflict. They may think of a cessation of war as in a peace treaty, in a way. Perhaps, they hear it as wish for a quiet environment, a safe room. Perhaps it is thought of as a time to quiet the mental stress of the world’s pressures.Or could it be a retreat from a noisy family. Have you ever heard it said, "I can't get a moment's peace!"? This understanding of peace, comes from a Greek-influenced Western world. It is negative It describes the taking away of something: war, noise, disturbance, anxiety. However, that is not what shalom means. It is a warm, positive wish to add to the person or community’s life. It is hoping for the presence of an environment of blessed health and wellbeing. It is huge in its intention to bless. Its understanding will transform Bible passages, as will be shown here in this study. The Root Meaning — Nothing Missing, Nothing Broken The Hebrew root of shalom is to be complete. To be whole in every part of your being. It is to have nothing missing or damaged in your life. It is a totally comprehensive prayer for the wellbeing of the recipient of the shalom. That is it wishes the complete physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life of the person and of the community, to which it is offered. To have it, is to live fully as a human being as God intended. It is echoed in Jesus’ Truth: John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The evil one brings the lack of true shalom. He brings pain, destruction and the stress these things bring. Jesus came to undo all that and bring us true shalom. We will see later one of His titles confirms this. To know shalom is to know the fullness of life, truly as was intended by God at creation. Before the fall Adam and Eve lived in this perfect shalom of God. There is a massive difference between this Hebrew word and the Greek word, ‘eirene’. This is the way the Greek Septuagint and New Testament translate the original meaning, thus losing the original intention of God’s shalom. Eirene in its primary meaning meant exemption from the rage and havoc of war. It may surprise you to know it is in fact the name of a goddess: The ancient Greek goddess of peace. Its literal secular meaning was to bind or join together that which has separated. Since the referring back to the Hebrew, additional meanings in Biblical dictionaries were added to include what shalom truly is. Eirene remains a narrow word for what God intended. In the beginning God created the world and it was in shalom. The relationship between Adam and Eve was perfect and complete. The relationship with nature was also perfect and complete. The whole wellbeing of the entire creation was complete. The Word repeats this and says “..God saw that it was good.” The fall would destroy all that and shalom was lost. Men and women would be in conflict. The world would make Adam sweat, just to live. Violence and murder would result. Here was a problem for mankind – but God had always planned a solution to restore shalom. Shalom as a truth for community Shalom was never meant to be a private affair. It was to be a sharing within a community. Its presence in a community will bring a great quality of life. Relationships, will be fruitful. There will be a care for the outsider. The widow and orphan will know love and care. The leaders and governments will protect the vulnerable of the community. Justice will be fair and offered in grace and love. People will keep their word. We read in Judges: Judges 3:11 “Then the land had shalom 40 years. When Othniel son of Kenaz died..”  Israel had known rebellion and war and the community was fractured and torn in every way. But Othniel, the first Judge, brought true shalom to Israel and then shalom remained for those forty years. He was the nephew of the great Caleb and married his daughter. This unity of family with the Holy Spirit, were the ingredients that led to shalom. When there is no unity and there is oppression and injustice - when widows and orphans are neglected – when those in authority and the rich ignore or exploit the poor then shalom is not present and unrest comes to the community. In the days of Jeremiah the prophet, God was angry at these things in Israel. The prophet is told: Jeremiah 6:13 “For from the least to the greatest, all of them are greedy for gain, and from prophet even to kohen, everyone practices deceit. They healed the wound of My people superficially, saying ‘Shalom, shalom!’ when there is no shalom.”  Isaiah confirms: Isaiah 48:22 “There is no shalom,” says Adonai, “for the wicked.”  Indeed, Paul warned the Thessalonians: 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 “For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. When they are saying, “Shalom and safety,” sudden destruction comes upon them like a woman having birth pains in the womb— there is no way they will escape.” The world was swamped with selfishness and drunkenness, only concerned with self. There was a false sense of shalom that was not real.  In the book of numbers, Moses is commanded to tell Aaron the High Priest to pray a blessing over the people of Israel: Numbers 6:22-27 “Again Adonai spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons saying: Thus you are to bless Bnei-Yisrael, by saying to them: Adonai bless you and keep you! Adonai make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you!  Adonai turn His face toward you and grant you shalom!’ In this way they are to place My Name over Bnei-Yisrael, and so I will bless them.”  This Aaronic blessing is showing the desire of God to grant the blessing of shalom on His people. It is a blessing of total favour from God that will bring wholeness and well-being to the community over whom it is prayed. That is why I use it often. The Title of Jesus – The Prince of Shalom Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a yeled (child) is born, unto us ben (a son) is given; and the misrah (dominion) shall be upon his shoulder; and Shmo (name) shall be called Peleh (Wonderful), Yoetz (Counsellor), El Gibbor (Mighty God), Avi Ad (Possessor of Eternity), Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace).” (Jewish Orthodox Version) These wonderful Jewish titles proclaim the great Messiah Saviour who will come. The important one for this study is Sar Shalom. Here it is clear that the final Title for the Saviour has the fullest meaning: Completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, completeness (in number), safety, soundness (in body and mind), welfare, health, prosperity, peace, quietness, tranquillity, contentment, friendship in human and covenantal relationships especially with God.. In summary, He is the prince of wholeness. Furthermore, His Government, unlike the world’s, is one without end. It is a growing shalom that will find its fulfilment when He returns. A political Government will never give this. It is not a man-made peace treaty. It is a restoration of the perfect creation that God intended and was lost through Adam. Paul wrote of Jesus the Saviour, the Sar Shalom: 1 Corinthians 15:45 “So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” This is the great joy. What Adam destroyed, Jesus came and as the Sar Shalom, He was a life-giving Spirit, that brought us the gift of full life: wholeness, Shalom. The Shalom that was brought to us on the Cross The prophet Isaiah speaks an extremely important prophecy regarding Shalom. Isaiah 53:5 “But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”  We have heard this verse often preached wrongly. It is said that the stripes He bore was heal physical sickness. This is not the case. It is greater than that. Firstly, it was to deal with ‘our iniquities’: our sins that separated us from God and destroyed the shalom between God and us. Secondly, through the cross and death of Jesus, we are reconciled to God the Father. In that restoration we are again in shalom – wholeness of relationship between God and us. In fully embracing this truth and living out the holy life Jesus has provided; we have a full and total restoration of unity with God and all those who have done the same.  Truly, what the fall had broken, Jesus on the cross repaired. Jesus Gives us the gift of Shalom Jesus was God Himself in human flesh, without sin, and the bearer of true shalom. He, in His generosity, did not keep it within Himself. He gave it to His followers: John 14:27 “Shalom I leave you, My shalom I give to you; but not as the world gives! Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid.” You will see in this verse the truth that the shalom of God is not like the Greek understanding as set out above. As we have seen, there is great wholeness. A great completeness foe each one and on and their community. Have you ever considered Paul? When you think he went through so much suffering and rejection how did he keep the shalom of God? He writes the answer: Philippians 4:7 “And the shalom of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Messiah Yeshua.” He, in his imprisonment, kept his heart focussed and remained in joy, contentment and shalom. Hebrews eleven is full of men and women who died in the trust and hope of God, looking for the Sar Shalom. Many would have received encouragement from God’s Word down the centuries. Jeremiah for example, even in the midst of threatening disaster, writes: Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have in mind for you,” declares Adonai, “plans for shalom and not calamity - to give you a future and a hope.” You see God's desire for His people are plans for their complete wellbeing, so that they might grow and mature in His love and salvation. As we see here, His plan is not to harm our bring disaster, it is to bring the wholeness of shalom. Finally…. I hope this brings home, the great joy we can have. We can rejoice in the shalom of God, brought through the Sar Shalom. We can choose to remain in that shalom, brought about at great cost. We can avoid the call of the world who offers a false peace through false words of security. Jesus is the centre of our life in the sunshine or the storm. We stand on that Rock that cannot be shaken. Empires came and fell, even the great Rome who promised the Pax Romana. For two hundred years they claimed it. In reality, within that time, there were revolts and local wars. Eventually, as with all human empires, it fell. Only the government of the Sar Shalom will bring that security and eternal shalom. Meanwhile we hide ourselves in Him and live out a life of shalom. Paul gives us the way we can do this: Colossians 3:1 “Therefore, if you have been raised up with Messiah, keep seeking the things above - where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of God. Focus your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in God.”  Therefore, keep yourself in shalom and bless others in the community, so that the whole community can know wholeness.

There is no doubt, that one of the most debated issues, in modern Christianity, is the issue of the security of salvation given to the believer by God the Father through Jesus. The views for security and those who would argue salvation can be lost, are held sincerely. Therefore, in this study, I wish to honour those sincere believers, and endeavour to set out the arguments for both views fairly and clearly. I must be open from the start, that I stand in the place of believing salvation for the true believer is secure. In this I will comment on Scripture in that light, to ensure the context and other Scripture is brought to bear. In this I want to avoid any charge of ‘text proofing’ but allow the Scriptures to establish the truth. We start with a look at the Tanach/Old Testament and look at Ezekiel: “But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity and does according to all the detestable acts that the wicked man does, will he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered; for his trespass that he trespassed and for his sin that he has sinned, for them he will die.” Ezekiel 18:24 (TLV) “When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die in it.” Ezekiel 33:18 (TLV) These verses are ones used to support the lack of security of salvation. It is important to put these verses into context. The Jewish people were arguing over the sins of the fathers being laid on the sons and deeming it unfair. “Yet you say, ‘Adonai’s way is unfair!’ Hear now, house of Israel! Is My way not fair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? Ezekiel 18:25 (TLV) They were then wanting to have their own good works accounted to them and thus God not judging their bad actions. They were believing themselves to be righteous in their own eyes. God makes clear His merciful heart: ““Do I delight at all in the death of the wicked?” It is a declaration of Adonai. “Rather, should he not return from his ways, and live?”” Ezekiel 18:23 (TLV) As we know from Isaiah, good works avail nothing in terms of salvation: “We are all dirty with sin. Even our good works are not pure. They are like bloodstained menstrual rags. We are all like dead leaves. Our sins have carried us away like wind.” Isaiah 64:6 (Literal rendering) The prophet’s word re brutal but clear. The woman’s monthly period is a sign that the womb has not been fruitful. The people who look to good works for salvation will find it fruitless too. As Habakuk the prophet made clear: “For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, the soul of him is lifted up, and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith.” Habakuk 2:3-4 (MKJV) This is the Gospel message for true salvation in Jesus. At the end of the day, those who have truly trusted in Jesus, by faith, will be saved. This is why Peter writing to Jewish people declared: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, make all the more effort to make your calling and election certain—for if you keep doing these things, you will never stumble. For in this way entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Messiah Yeshua, will be richly provided for you.”  2 Peter 1:10-11 (TLV) We then turn to the Gospels and consider what they say on the matter in hand. We consider Matthew’s Gospel and there are four Scriptures that are to note in the argument against security of salvation. They are Matthew 7:21-23, 10:22, 12:32, and 24:13. Also, Mark 13:13. Luke 8:13, 12:45-46 and John 15:6 need to be considered. In Matthew chapter seven, the verses noted above speak of those who come at the end and claim: “….‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?’...” v.22 They are told they were never known by the Lord, because of their lawlessness. The simple act of acknowledging Jesus as Lord, without true faith in Him is vacuous. It has no meaning. This is what the sons of Sceva discovered: “But some traveling Jewish exorcists also tried to invoke the name of the Lord Yeshua, saying, “I charge you by the Yeshua whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of a Jewish ruling kohen named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, “I know Yeshua and I know about Paul, but who are you?”” Act 19:13-15 (TLV) Even the demonic recognised false claims. In Matthew chapter ten, we see it said that in times of persecution, those who stand firm will be saved.  This is also reflected in chapter 24. This is also in Mark 13:13 and Luke 8:13. The thought is that those who do not will be lost. This needs to be understood in the light of other Scriptures. Not everyone who is in church or who professes to be followers of the Lord are true believers. John writes: “Children, it is the last hour. Just as you heard that the anti-messiah is coming, even now many anti-messiahs have come—by this we know that it is the last hour. They left us, but they didn’t really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left us so it became clear that none of them belongs to us. 1 John 2:18-19 (TLV) Jude is even more blunt on the matter, specifically on the common salvation of believers: “Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men have secretly slipped in among you – men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 1:3-4 (NET) “These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit – twice dead, uprooted; wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved.” Jude 1:12-13 (NET) This is the reality of the visible church. That is the church we see on earth. However, God sees the universal unseen Church, in which the true believers stand firm. Chapter 12:32 is about those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. This is often referred to as ‘the unforgiveable sin’. It has caused so many to have unnecessary concern. The context is vital here. This is when the Pharisees were accusing Jesus that it was not the Holy Spirit at work, but that Jesus was in league with Satan. This sin is solely related to that one time. We are comforted by Scripture in the matter: “Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:3 (EMTV) Of course, as we have noted, many can say ‘Lord’ but this is not Paul’s point. He is referring to the heartfelt sincere believer. It is not just using the name that is important, it is that it comes from the heart. Again Paul: “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart, one believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation.” Romans 10:9-10 (EMTV) You see, it is not just using the mouth. It must be coming from a sincere heart. The ones who fall away and are, in heart unrepented, were never true believers, as shown by John and Jude. We turn to Luke 12. Here we are in a Parable of the unjust servant who beats fellow servants. The master says of hm, “appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.”. Context is of huge importance. There are two attitudes highlighted: “And the Lord said, "Who then is a faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?” Luke 12:42 (ESV) And “And that servant who knew his master's will and did not get ready or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many blows.” Luke 12:47 (ESV) The first servant was faithful and was prepared for the Master’s return. The latter was not faithful nor ready or to do the Master’s will. Yet, there is a third servant “But he who did not know…” He was punished but not condemned. This again shows the grace of God. The faithful is saved and the ignorant punished and forgiven. Only the one who knew the will of the Master and deliberately ignored it, was condemned. It is the prophet Isaiah who helps us understand: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6-7 (ESV) This brings us back to wilfulness and contrasts to God’s mercy. The writer to the Hebrews brings this home: For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Hebrews 10:26-27 (ESV) God can reveal Himself and show His Son as The Truth. But if having that knowledge and it is rejected, then judgement comes. This Scripture, as I understand it, is referring to those who hear the Gospel understand it. They may well even know of their sin as an affront to God and yet the choose not to make that step of faith needed for salvation. Scripture is replete with such warnings. Matthew 13 recounts the parable of the Sower and how the seeds are scattered. One grows but the others die or are snatched away. John is clear: “The one practicing sin is of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning. For this the Son of God was revealed, that He might undo the works of the devil. Everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin, because His seed abides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.” 1 John 3:8-9  We need to be clear here. The ability to sin is to continue in sin by choice. John has already made clear in the earlier chapter how the believer is to act: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous that He may forgive us the sins, and may cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9 (LITV) In this John again is looking back to what he knows about Jesus. His Gospel tells us a very important truth: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My Word, and believes the One who has sent Me, has everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” John 5:24 (LIVT) The truly saved, born again, believer has within them the Holy Spirit. When there is a stumble by the believer, the true believer is immediately sensitive to this and repents immediately. Turning to John in chapter 15 we read: “I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one abiding in Me, and I in him, this one bears much fruit, because apart from Me you are not able to execute, nothing. Unless one remains in Me, he is cast out as the branch and is dried up; and they gather and throw them into a fire, and they are burned. John 15:5-6 (LITV) Here we see the principle of ‘abiding’. This the one who decides to accept the offer of salvation and through baptism is placed into Jesus. There the believer remains secure. The one who simply ‘visits’ to have a look but does not enter in by faith, deliberately rejecting Jesus, is the one who is cast out. Hosea speaks: “Those dwelling in his shadow will return. They will grow grain and bud like a vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim: “What more are idols to me? I have responded and observed Him. I will be like a luxuriant cypress tree. From me will be found Your fruit.” Who is wise? Let him discern these things. Who is intelligent? Let him know them. For the ways of Adonai are straight, and the just walk in them, but the wicked stumble in them.” Hosea 14:8-10 When we look at Paul in Romans, we find similar thought about branches. In Romans 11:20-22, Paul writes of the Jewish people of that day who rejected Jesus being cut off. His warning was to the arrogant Gentiles, that they must be careful, “..perhaps He may not spare you either.” A similar idea is written in Colossians: “..if indeed you continue in the faith, having been founded and firm and not drifting away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was proclaimed to all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Colossians 1:23 (EMTV) This again brings us back to being firm. Paul also addresses being firm in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2. If you are not firm and anchored in Jesus, then you will drift away. This thought is also echoed in 1 Corinthians 10:11-12. Therefore, we return to the question of how the person started out. The Sower parable again comes to mind. Has the seed taken root? If not, then the person is rootless and not grafted into the True Vine (John 15:5-6). Surely, the Hebrew writer speaks to this: “Thus God, wanting to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His counsel, guaranteed it by an oath, in order that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong encouragement, who have fled to take hold of the hope being set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and secure, and which enters into the inner side of the veil, where the Forerunner has entered in on behalf of us, even Jesus, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:17-20 (EMTV)   It cannot be clearer, that for the true believer it can be said, “..we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and secure..”. In Galatians 5:4, Paul speaks of justification: “You have become estranged from Christ, you who are justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” Galatians 5:4 Again, context is so important. Paul is arguing about how we are justified. True justification comes from faith. “For we by the Spirit eagerly await for the hope of righteousness by faith.” Galatians 5:5 (EMTV) Those who rely on circumcision and the law, the main thrust of Galatians, are not saved. Paul made this clear to the Roman church, quoting Habakuk: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."” Romans 1:17 (EMTV) Therefore, falling away from grace is not loss of salvation, as salvation had not been received yet by faith. The grace is seen in the fact that the Lord reveals Himself to the lost, the sorrow is that it is rejected or it is allowed to be stolen by the demonic or anti-Christs who have gone out into the world. This is also addressed by Paul, when we turn to the letters to Timothy, which needs examination. (1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Timothy 2:12). The first address those who are abandoning faith because of demonic influences and the latter with those who disown Jesus in this life. In the former text, as we noted before, the seed has been stolen by the thief and robber (John 10:1). As we will see later it is the security of the true believers that safeguards them as they truly put their faith in Christ and act on it, showing the fruits of repentance. That is what we find in Luke when the unbelievers are confronted: “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” Luke 3:8 (ESV) Then we turn to those who do not acknowledge Jesus in this life (2 Timothy 2:12) also Matthew 10:33. Again context is so important. The Timothy verse in context reads: “Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the chosen, so they might obtain the salvation that is in Messiah Yeshua with eternal glory. Trustworthy is the saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:10-13 (TLV) “If we died with Him..” is the key phrase. If we have died with Him in sincere faithful baptism, the promise is that we will live with Him. The Matthew Scripture is of further instruction: “So do not fear; you are worth more than many sparrows. Therefore whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:31-33 (TLV)  In this context, the disciples are being sent out to spread the Gospel to Israel. Jesus has made clear in the account of the sparrow how valuable they are. They are in His care. If we then look to Peter’s denial (John 18:15ff) later, we see that that denial did not lead to Peter being lost. This because despite not having the fullness of the Holy Spirit, Peter was still devoted to Jesus. This is acknowledged by Jesus, when He confirms Peter’s restoration (John 21:15ff). We can bring much Scripture to bear on this to give understanding. “Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:14-25 (TLV) There is the point. Those who do not deny themselves and have not taken up the cross, cannot be disciples of Jesus. If they do not deny Jesus they find life. Then we have the Jude Scripture mentioned already, These false disciples deny the Lord not only by word but by behaviour. Paul wrote to Titus about such people: “They claim to know God but their deeds deny Him. They are despicable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” Titus 1:16  John again has encouragement: “I know where you live—where Satan’s throne is. Yet you continue to hold firm to My name, and you did not deny your faith in Me even in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan resides.” Revelation 2:13 (HRB) The writer to the Hebrews makes clear those who will be denied: “How much more severe do you think the punishment will be for the one who has trampled Ben-Elohim underfoot, and has regarded as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:29 (HRB) The letter to the Hebrews has six references to the matter of insecurity of salvation (Hebrews 2:1-3, 3:12-14, 6:4-6, 10:26-27, 10:35-36 and 12:14-15). These are serious warnings and need to be understood. First the overall context of the letter is understood to be to the Jewish people who had professed the had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. The letter has over sixty-seven references or allusions to the Jewish Tanach/Old Testament. That demonstrates the thrust of the letter is Jewish and for Jewish instruction. What the writer is addressing is the conflict that was happening in the hearts of these Jewish people. They were under persecution and trial from their own Jewish community and families who had not turned to Jesus. They were also being mis-treated by Gentiles. In this there was the question of returning to the Jewish faith. This echoes the Exodus and the experience of the wilderness. The Jews having been brought out of bondage, grumbled and complained constantly to Moses. They had no faith in God’s deliverance. Therefore, it says that ‘..not one of those who provoked Me shall see it [the promised land]..”. (Read the full account in Numbers 14). Only those faithful men and their families entered (Caleb, Joshua). Indeed, it is the Hebrew writer calls this to our attention: “,,so I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest." Hebrews 3:11 (HRB) This is also referred to in Psalm 95:7-11. Here we see that despite the cutting off of that generation, there is still a Rock of Salvation: “O come, let us sing unto the LORD; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.” Psalm 95:1  Those who are on that Rock will never be shaken. As is written|; “He is like a man who built a house and dug deep and laid the foundation on a rock; and a flood occurring, the stream burst against that house and could not shake it; for it was founded on a rock.” Luke 6:48 Those who place themselves on the Rock Christ Jesus, are secure and will be like Caleb and Joshua, they will reach the Promised Land. James makes clear in his letter that faith and action are bedfellows and must come together. He too, writing to Jewish believers, also warns about straying from the truth. The comments on Hebrews applies here. Peter then also writes this: “For if—after escaping the world’s pollutions through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Yeshua the Messiah—they again become entangled in these things and are overcome, the end for them has become worse than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after learning about it, to turn back from the holy commandment passed on to them.” 2 Peter 2:20-21 (TLV) This study has covered much of the context of this. Peter, the Apostle to the Jews, is writing to Jews. The ones addressed had been shown the way of righteousness but were now being warned to test their faith – was it a true faith? This is what he pointed to in the opening chapter of this letter. Note also this verse at the head of the chapter under discussion: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result the way of the truth will be maligned.” 2 Peter 2:1-2 (TLV) Here we are back in the references made to Jude’s letter. It is a constant theme in considering the insecurity of salvation. Such insecurity comes from the lack of true faith in Jesus for salvation. It comes for those who enter in but are false in their faith. It comes for those who seek religion and not the true faith that is called for in Scripture. There are references in Revelation which suggest insecurity but again these have been covered here in other places. The controversial point comes in understanding Revelation. My contention is that it is a revelation by John to the Jewish people about their covenant with God and its fulfilment. We will now turn to look at the Scriptures that confirm the security of salvation for the true believer. In this we start with the Psalmist, who in a Psalm about the preservation of the holy ones (saints), writes: “For Adonai loves justice and does not abandon His godly ones. They will be preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked will be cut off.” Psalm 37:28 (TLV) Here is a sure and certain promise: God will preserve His Godly ones forever. In Isaiah God speaks to Israel, and those same promises apply to God’s faithfulness to His faithful people (Isaiah 43:1, 46:4, and 54:8-10). In Isaiah 54:8 we read: “In a surge of anger I hid My face from you a moment, but with everlasting kindness [chesed] I will have compassion on you,” says Adonai your Redeemer.” (TLV) The word ‘chesed’ is a word God often uses when talking about His loving kindness. It speaks of the Great Power – God, who cannot help but have pity and love for a lower power – mankind. It is that which is the security of our salvation through our Redeemer – Jesus. Jeremiah also reminds us of this chesed: “From afar Adonai appeared to me.” “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness [chesed].”” Jeremiah 31:3 (TLV) This assurance is carried through into the New Testament, to which we turn. The greatest testimony to our security must surely come from Jesus. In John’s Gospel we find the direct words of Jesus on the matter. Looking at John’s Gospel, we find this most well-known verse of has a clear unambiguous statement: “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.” John 3:16 (EMTV) The central point is that faith in Jesus is so that believers ‘should not perish’. It is important to speak to the underlying language. ‘Should not’ expresses an absolute denial in both Greek and Hebrew. In other words there is no possibility of perishing. This is further confirmed by John later in the chapter: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; and he who does not believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 3:36 (EMTV) See also John 6:47, where this is also confirmed. Faith in Jesus brings possession of eternal life. John brings this home with the inspired Word of God: "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24 (EMTV) Here we see that true faith in Jesus, has the assurance that the believer will not come under judgement. In fact, the believer has passed from death to life. This can only mean that the person once dead in sin has come to life and indeed, life to the full (John 10:10). Then John has Jesus’ great encouragement: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” John 6:37 (ESV) For the one who truly and sincerely through faith, are gathered up in Jesus, has this promise from the lips of Jesus, as to their security in Him. This is more concretely assured in a following verses: “I didn't come from heaven to do what I want! I came to do what the Father wants me to do. He sent me, and he wants to make certain that none of the ones he has given me will be lost. Instead, he wants me to raise them to life on the last day.” John 6:38-39 (CEV) Verse 40 also continues this reassurance. Therefore, here is a certainty from the Lord Himself. God will make certain that true believers will never be lost. (See also John 17:12) These preceding verses are brought together by Jesus in a wonderful and glorious declaration: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one." John 10:27-30 (CEV) Can it be any clearer? The true committed believer who has heard the voice of Jesus, the great Shepherd, has eternal life. They shall not perish. They will never be snatched out of Jesus’ hand. The assurance is wrapped up in the Father’s promises. Jesus and the Father are one in this matter. Then we turn to John’s writing further, Holy Spirit inspired encouragement. Jesus is standing at the grave of Lazurus. His sister is concerned about her brother and his being dead and not understanding what Jesus had said, "Your brother will rise again.". Then He speaks very clearly: “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world." John 11:25-27 Jesus points her to eternity. Natural death will come to all human beings. This is as a result of the Adamic fall. However, after natural death, every person will face one of two things: eternal life or the second death (Revelation 20:6). The matter will be decided by the person’s choice whilst alive. For the true confessor, that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, and who has placed their faith in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, will not face the second death and shall never die – that is have eternal life (See also John 17:24). In turning in to the Apostle Paul we again see a pattern of confirmation of the security of the true committed believer. In the great letter of Romans, Paul sets the whole basis of salvation. In the justification of the believer through the blood of Jesus: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Romans 5:9 (ERV) The Tanach, or Old Testament, provided the blood sacrifice of animals for justification before a holy God. This would have to be renewed every year on the day of atonement. Their annual renewal was their guarantee of justification. However, through the propitiation of Jesus’ sacrificial death, there is the permanent justification for those who believe. In Hebrews it is written: “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.  For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews 9:11-14 (ESV)  Note, “..thus securing an eternal redemption”. It is again certain that Jesus secured an eternal redemption for all true believers, through His blood.  This is also clear from Paul when he writes: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:29-30 This needs unpacking. There is the Calvinist view that states God has chosen who will be saved in advance. There is the Armenian view who place human choice above God’s sovereign actions. It is my view that both fail to grasp the wider more gracious intentions of God. If we turn to Psalm 139 we read: “Your eyes saw me when I was unformed, and in Your book were written the days that were formed—when not one of them had come to be. Psalm 139:16 (TLV) God knows each individual. In His Word we see how His foresight works with the prophet Jeremiah for instance, who was called before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5). Furthermore, it needs to be understood that the predestination is not individual, it is for those in The Christ: “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah. He chose us in the Messiah before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Messiah Yeshua, in keeping with the good pleasure of His will - to the glorious praise of His grace, with which He favoured us through the One He loves!” Ephesians 1:3-6 (TLV) Therefore, for those who have responded with true faith, to the offer of salvation, and baptised into Jesus the Christ, are included in the promise of predestination. We can accept or reject the gift, but once accepted, it will never be lost. A glimpse of this is seen in the encounter between Jesus and Mary (Miriam in Hebrew): “…but only one thing is necessary. For Miriam has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42 (TLV) It is in this spirit that Paul was inspired to write: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua.  Romans 8:1 (TLV) And I will quote this in full: “ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Truly He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he condemning? It is Christ who has died, but rather also who is raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For Your sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep of slaughter."  But in all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39 (MKJV) This is of great comfort as to the security of the true believer. Their faithfulness to God in the Messiah, even through the suffering and disappointments of life, will still see them triumphant and secure. This is further underlined by Paul when he writes: “..being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ..” Philippians 1:6 (MKJV)   Paul’s confidence of God’s work being completed in us until Jesus’ return is a great security. God it is at work in us. God it is who will see us through. Again Paul reaffirms this confidence: “He shall also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8 (MKJV) Paul also reminds his true believing readers, that they are not storm-tossed strangers. They are children of God the Father who has made them heirs. It is the Holy Spirit that bears us witness: “But when the fullness of time came, God sent out His Son, born of a woman and born under law - to free those under law, so we might receive adoption as sons. Now because you are sons, God sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, who cries out, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son - and if a son, also an heir through God.” Galatians 4:4-7 (TLV) This is a wonderful truth – true believers are children of God. This is something that is sealed by God through His Holy Spirit. “After you heard the message of truth the Good News of your salvation - and when you put your trust in Him, you were sealed with the promised Ruach ha-Kodesh. He is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of His possession - to His glorious praise! Ephesians 1:13-14 (TLV) Paul brings home this principle of being sealed to the Ephesians in another place, with a warning: “Do not grieve the Ruach ha-Kodesh of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 (TLV) The grieving of the Ruach ha-Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, is not an unforgiveable sin. It can be dealt with by coming to God in humble contrition and repentance, to receive forgiveness. More than this we have a promise again from Paul that it is God who will keep us secure: “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (ESV) That this is the work of God in Christ is confirmed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 & 2 Thessalonians 3:3. These confirm He will do it. In looking forward to the return of Jesus, Paul again is confident in his salvation, as we are to be. “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Philippians 3:20-21 (ESV) We can also see this in Colossians 3:3-4. Because we are ‘hidden’ in Christ, when He appears so will we. This is a confidence born on the knowledge that we are not saved by works but faith through grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) This gift from God is truly a gift that will never be taken back. We are assured of this principle by Paul, again. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Romans 11:29 (ESV) Some final thoughts on Paul before we move to other Scriptures. In 2 Timothy we find Paul’s assurance that is also ours: “For which cause I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I have been persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed to Him until that Day.” 2 Timothy 1:12 (MKJV) Paul had committed his whole life. As a Jew, he had given up everything to be a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, his Messiah. He was certain that having done that God would protect him and he would arrive safely home. Why was this confidence so strong? He tells us: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13 (EMTV) Paul again makes clear the security of the true believer: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will deliver me safely into His heavenly Kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” 2 Timothy 4:18 (TLV) What a confidence this is. God will never deny Himself or His Word. He will deliver us safely home. As we turn to other Scripture, we find the writer to the Hebrews state very clearly, the truth of our security: “Therefore He is also able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, always living to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25 (TLV) ‘Save completely’ is unequivocal. The Greek is clear in that it stresses that the salvation is perfectly kept by God. The same writer assures us, that He will never leave or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5). It is in the same letter the sacrifice has made those who have been made holy by Jesus are made perfect forever. (Hebrews 10:14) Peter tells us we are ‘shielded’ by God until the return of Jesus. (1 Peter 1:3-5) Again Peter, as Paul does, writes that it is God who will keep us secure. (1 Peter 5:10) What Peter advises us is that we are to make sure of our election, as stated before. Often asked is how can I know for certain I am saved? Let Scripture answer: “All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other." John 13:35 (MKJV) “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance..” Matthew 3:8 (MKJV) “Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. Matthew 7:19-20 (MKJV) These Scriptures guide us. If we are true believers, there will be a genuine love of God’s people. In our lives we will show forth fruit that demonstrate a changed life that loves, cares and has compassion for others, especially the lost. When people see us and our character and behaviour, then they will see the light of Christ and be attracted to know Him.  There are those in Scripture who appeared to be true believers but were clearly not. John wrote: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out so that it might be revealed that they were not all of us.” 1 John 2:19 (MKJV) There will be those who have appeared to fall away but they were never truly committed believers. However, there are some who appear to fall away but they can be restored. (Galatians 6:1) Therefore, we must be careful in our discernment as to which are which. Let us end this study with the comfort and encouragement of Jude, to those who were being tempted by false ones: “Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy..” Jude 1:24 (MKJV) AMEN!  

Introduction: This Question is at the Heart of Christian Faith The doctrine of the Triune God is an essential and unique one, for the true Christian faith. It is also much misunderstood. Christianity is a monotheistic faith. Muslims believe it to be polytheism. Jehovah’s Witnesses simply deny it. Some Christians tend to avoid it as too complicated and not relevant for the practical outworking of their faith. There are even those who are genuine in their faith struggle over how one God can be three revelations, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? We cannot dismiss any of these, but as Peter wrote:   “... in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect..” – 1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)   This study will take the question with all seriousness. It will not pretend the question of a Triune God is simple. it is certainly a deep mystery of Christian faith. However, it will attempt to show that it is nether irrational, unbiblical and a later invention. The truth is, that the Triune God is the only way to make sense of everything the Bible tells us about God. The question is addressed with two convictions that are held together: humility (we are finite beings wrestling to understand an infinite God) and confidence in our faith (God has given us the Scriptures, in which He has revealed Himself, and what he has revealed is trustworthy and with the Holy Spirit leading we can discover the truth). I do not use the term ‘Trinity’ or ‘Persons’. These do not sit right with the revelations of God in the Bible. Rather, I use the term Triune God and Revelations. This is more in keeping with the Scriptures. For example, ‘God had revealed himself’ (Genesis 35:7 and elsewhere). ‘to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’, (Referring to Jesus (John 12:38). ‘But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 2:10). I acknowledge that personal pronouns are used, but these are for the human reader to be able to understand the text and activity of God. The only revelation that is truly able to referred to as ‘person’, is the Lord Jesus, as He walked the earth in human form. Both God the Father and the Holy Spirit are spirit and do not have a personal body. Furthermore, the use of ‘person’ does give rise to the idea of three gods and hence the criticism from others. A Definition The doctrine of the Triune God teaches: There is one God, who eternally exists as three distinct revelations: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each one is fully and equally God, yet each are distinct from the others. One in essence; three in the revelations that are revealed in Scripture. Part 1: God Is Absolutely One — The Bedrock of Scripture Any discussion of the Triune God must begin exactly where the Bible begins: with the absolute, uncompromising oneness of God. However, before we get to the meet of the question, let us understand words that are used of God in Scripture. In the opening verse of the Bible re read:   “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth;” Genesis 1:1 (HRB) The word Elohim is a plural word. Throughout the creation account, it is used. This is further emphasised in the creation of man: “And Elohim said, let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 (HRB) The Hebrew Shema — the great confession of Israel — speaks loudly through both Testaments: “Hear, O Israel, YAHWEH our Elohim is YAHWEH echad [one].”  -Deuteronomy 6:4 (HRB) Echad (one), the Hebrew word, used here reflects a compound oneness. When the Scriptures talks of marriage the word for the unity of two is also echad. (Genesis 2:24) When a sole solitary one is intended, yachid would be used. We must be clear. This does not mean polytheism – the claim of multiple gods. The Scriptures are clear that the Christian faith holds to monotheism. In that it enriches the Christan faith as it demonstrates the wondrous God who is able to reveal Himself in ways that are to the benefit of humanity. God as Spirit cannot be seen. The Hebrew Roots Bible brings this out: “Elohim is spirit, and the ones worshiping Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24 (HRB) Indeed, no man can see God and live: “And He said, “You are not able to see My face; for no man can see Me and live.”” Exodus 33:20 (HRB) Yet God did meet man face to face in a number of places: Check these Scriptures as examples: Genesis 18, Exodus 33:11, Deuteronomy 34:10, Numbers 12:8, These visitations are known as Theophanes, when God appears in a form, as a man. This is the eternal, divine and pre-existent Son of God, who came into the world as a man, in order to reveal the Father, and to carry out the plan of Salvation. As with the Holy Spirit, His presence is seen all over Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. “..and the earth being without form and empty, and darkness on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of Elohim moving gently on the face of the waters” Genesis 1:2 (HRB) Jesus Himself speaks of the Holy Spirit with personal pronouns: “,,the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” John 14:17  This again demonstrates the grace of God, who is enthroned in the heavens, sends the Holy Spirit, to allow human beings to live out the life of God on the earth. It must be stressed this is not Modalism, that is three persons with different roles. It is the same one God, who reveals Himself through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Neither is it Tritheism, that is three gods who cooperate. Rather it is a wonderous unity of the One God, who reveals Himself to humanity in a more personal way than we can ever conceive. Philo, a Jewish philosopher who was around before the birth of Jesus, in discussing the matter, said of it, that it ‘resembles an enigma’. This is indeed the case. The concept of the God we worship is indeed a mystery, beyond human comprehension. We can only be guided in our understanding by the Scriptures. Jesus said: “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30  Paul writes “Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”  — 1 Corinthians 8:6 (NIV) “For YAHWEH is one (echad), also there is one Mediator of YAHWEH and of men, the Man Messiah Yeshua...”  — 1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV) Part 2: Scripture Reveals Three Who Are Fully God While the word “Trinity” or the term ‘triune God’, do not appear in Scripture (neither does the word “Bible”), they are terms that help us wrestle with the concept under discussion. The truth is that the idea of the Triune God is seen throughout both Testaments, producing a rich picture of a great God.  All the writers of the Scriptures were committed Jewish men (Luke may be an exception, but he too was committed to the God of Jesus). devoted to God, and latterly to Jesus, were monotheists. Yet they all, without exception, speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each as fully divine and yet, as distinct from one another. The Father Is God In both Testaments, the God of Israel: the Creator, Covenant-maker, and Sovereign Lord, is addressed as Father, particularly by Jesus himself. Jesus spoke of “my Father” and “your Father”. There is demonstrated in the Gospels, an intimacy and authority that indeed scandalised His hearers (John 5:18). The hearers of the time, could not grasp the awesomeness of what Jesus was teaching. It is written: “And this is everlasting life, that they may know You, the Elohim of truth, and Yeshua Messiah, whom You have sent.”  — John 17:3 (HRB) The Son Is God Jesus as the Son of God is the doctrine that challenges many. It is also the most crucial. The New Testament is very clear: Jesus of Nazareth is not merely a great teacher, prophet, or even the highest angel. He is God incarnate revealed to the world. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.... And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”  — John 1:1, 14 (HRB)  John’s opening, as captured by the Hebrew Roots Bible, which captures the original language used, is staggering. Even in the Greek we see the Word (Logos) was distinct from God (“with God” in a relationship) and yet was God (“the Word was God”: divine in nature). Both truths are stated in the same verse. There exists so called ‘christian’ groups, who would deny the very words that appear in this Scripture. “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  — Colossians 1:15–17 (RSVA) Remember Paul was a well-trained Pharisee. Equipped with a detailed knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures. Yet Paul attributes to Jesus the Messiah the very act of creation, which the Jewish Tanach points exclusively to God as creator (Genesis 1, Isaiah 44:24). This is not exalted language for a creature; it is the language of deity. “For He is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His being, and upholding all things by the power of His Word; having made purification of our sins through Himself, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high..”  — Hebrews 1:3 (HRB) We also have the internal dialogue of God Himself, again from the Tanach, that confirms the previous verse: “A declaration of YAHWEH to my Adonai: Sit at My right hand, until I place Your enemies as Your footstool.” Psalm 110:1 (HRB) Then we have the Jewish Thomas’ exclamation when he meets the risen Jesus. The sight of a resurrected Jesus, crucified as a man, now raised in glory, captures it perfectly: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Jesus does not reject the either title but He confirms and commends his faith. The Holy Spirit Is God The Holy Spirit is wrongly often referred to as “it” in popular speech. The error in this is to suggest that the Holy Spirit is just a force or influence. Scripture is clear: the Spirit is a direct revelation of God Himself having intellect, will, and emotion – and fully divine. The shocking account in Acts is clear: “But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart for you to lie to the Holy Spirit, and for you to keep back for yourself from the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And after it was sold, was it not in your control? Why have you purposed this thing in your heart? You did not lie to men but to God." — Acts 5:3–4 (EMTV) This is direct and deliberate: lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God. Paul warns the Corinthians: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” — 1 Corinthians 3:16 (EMTV) Paul makes clear that God dwells in believers because the Spirit of God is within them. If That were not so, then Paul’s argument that the believer’s body is a temple, the dwelling place of the divine, would be false. However, as we know, the Scriptures are God breathed and profitable for doctrine, (2 Timothy 3:16) which is being studied here Part 3: The Three Are Distinct The three Revelations are not merely three names in a book for the same God. Nether or they three masks God wears at different times, as if in a Greek play. No. They are truly, personally distinct. We see this most clearly in the baptism of Jesus: “And having been baptised, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And behold, a voice came out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found delight."’”  — Matthew 3:16–17 (EMTV) In one single moment, the one God is revealed as the unique echad: the Son in the water, the Spirit being seen descending, and the Father speaking from heaven. Three simultaneous, distinct presences — and yet one God. This scene alone destroys the views of Modalism, discussed earlier, and shows their views to be impossible. The relationship between the Revelations of the one God is also relational and powerful: This is demonstrated in the Father sending the Son (John 3:16); the Son praying to the Father (John 17); the Father and Son sending the Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26); the Spirit interceding for believers before the Father (Romans 8:26–27). A single divine Person cannot send, pray to, or intercede before Himself – the conclusion must arrive at the truth of the One God of our faith. The Great Commission — One Name, Three Revelations In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commands believers to be baptised “in the name” (singular - one God) “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (three distinct Revelations). If the three were merely roles of one Person or revelation, Jesus would have said “in my name only.” If they were three separate gods, he would have said “in the names” (plural). Surely the use of the singular “name” encompassing three Revelations is the grammar of the Triune God. Part 4: The Three Persons at a Glance The following brings together the distinct identity and work of each Revelation of the Triune God, as revealed in Scripture. Each describes the same One God - viewed from a different personal dimension of His eternal being. We must be clear that the distinction of distinct works, in no way implies inequality of nature. All three Revelations are equally, fully, and eternally God. Paul makes this clear in Philippians: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the *form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming to be in the likeness of men.”  Philippians 2:6–8 (EMTV) *As appears to the sight This the humility of Jesus. His submission to the Father in the incarnation was a voluntary, eternal-purposeful submission – it is not evidence of lesser divinity. Jesus was fully God and fully man. Augustine on the Triune God and Love “You see the Triune God if you see love. For there are three: the one that loves, the one that is loved, and love itself.” (Translation) Augustine gives insight from his De Trinitate that brings to our mind, that the eternal life of God is not an isolated, self-contained individuality but a communion of perfect love - a life eternally shared within the Triune God. Part 6: The study of the Triune God, not as academic exercise The Triune God should not simply be treated as an abstract Scriptural conundrum with little or no practical consequence or purpose. This would be a mistake. The doctrine of the Triune God is the foundation of Christian salvation, prayer, community, and mission. 1. Salvation Needs the Triune God The gospel story cannot be shared without Trinitarian language. As stated above, The Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16). The Son brings to fulfilment, redemption through his life, death, and resurrection. It is the Spirit who brings that redemption to individual hearts through conviction of sin, regeneration of the soul, and the sealing of the convert (Ephesians 1:13–14). If any Revelation is removed or activity diminished, salvation collapses. 2. Prayer Is Trinitarian Christian’s prayers are addressed to the Father. Prayed through the Son, and in the power of the Spirit (Ephesian 2:18, Romans 8:26–27). Every genuine act of prayer is direct involvement in the Trinitarian life of God - the Spirit prays within us (Romans 8:26), in line with Christ’s mediation, toward the Father. Prayer is not a monologue aimed at a remote God but an invitation into a divine relationship, where dialogue between the Father and His child can take place. 3. Church Reflects the Triune God In John 17:20–23, Jesus prays that his followers “may be one as we are one.” The unity of the Church is clearly modelled on the unity of the Triune God. The Father, Son, and Spirit each distinct but perfectly united in love, purpose, and self-giving. Christian community is called to be a reflection of that divine communion — diverse persons, genuinely united. As God is the echad, a composite one, the Church is also a composite one, united in the Triune God. The truly amazing and wonderful joy is that the Triune God is rooted in Eternal Love. Jesus communing with the Father expresses this sentiment: “Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me, that they may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You have loved Me before the foundation of the world.  — John 17:24 (MKJV) Before the world began, the Father was loving the Son. Creation did not create love, it is, the overflow of an eternal love already perfectly complete within the Godhead. That loving unity is the heart of the Triune God, for the Church. Jesus referring to the earlier Testimony: “And Yeshua said to him, "You shall love YAHWEH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Deut. 6:5) This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Lev.19:18) On these two commandments all the Torah and the Prophets hang.” Matthew 22:37-40 — (HRB)  

If God Is So Loving, Why Does He Send People to Hell? A Study in God's Love, Human Freedom & Divine Justice   Introduction: A serious question that requires a Bibical answer. The question is not to be dismissed, not because the Bible does not answer it, but because it challenges the very truth of who God is. If God is love (1 John 4:8), how can a loving God send anyone into an eternity of suffering? How can hell be compatible with a God of grace and mercy? This question therefore, deserves serious consideration, and answered completely based on God’s Word. It cannot be one based purely on emotions or ‘feelings’ of any kind. There are many sincere people, including grieving parents, and those experiencing, or have experienced, the death of loved ones, who have desperately sought the answer to the question. This is especially true of those, whose loved one’s salvation may be in doubt. Believers and teachers of the Word have wrestled with the question posed. This study seeks to examine the key Scriptures, the theological tensions, and indeed, the pastoral realities of this profound question. There is no contradiction in the Bible between love and his justice. Or search will show this to be true. Love and justice are not at opposite poles, contradicting each other. Both expressions of His divine perfection and holy character. To gain understanding of their relationship will bring important light to shine on this relationship. This is a most important thing for a Christian to have gained, to allow them to be confident in their own faith and help others who are struggling with the issue. I am conscious that honest seekers for truth, and committed Christian believers, approach this question with genuine concern for an answer, There must be a sensitivity in the study, to this search for answers, as we honestly seek them with love and pastoral compassion. Part 1: Considering the Right Question Does God 'Send' People to Hell? The framing of the question really matters. We must challenge the popular image of a harsh judgemental God, simply banishing people against their will into a fiery pit of hell. We need to ask: is that what Scripture actually teaches? The biblical picture is more nuanced. God does not enthusiastically inflict hell on anyone. It is about what people choose, and God finally, with sorrow, honours their own choice. Hear the words of Peter: The Lord does not delay concerning His promise, as some reckon slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (EMTV) Then consider how the Bible speaks: " 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. For God did not send His Son into the world so that He might condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the light, because their works were evil". John 3:17–19 (EMTV) It must be noted that condemnation is not a verdict God eagerly gives. It is the state people are found in already through the nature of sin and rebellion. Jesus whole purpose in coming was not to condemn but to save. Those who reject that salvation remain in their condemnation. This is not because God put them there, it is because they preferred darkness to light. To demonstrate this heart of God in the Christ Jesus, consider the woman caught in adultery. She was caught red-handed so to speak. There were witnesses to her sin. They were challenged and they all went away. The account ends: And standing up and seeing no one but the woman, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."” John 8:10-11 (EMTV) You see, Jesus has the heart of compassion. He does not condemn but sends her away to make better choices about her life. She goes away with that responsibility – it will be her choice as to how she responds. “Ah”, but someone might say, “why doesn’t God force people to accept salvation? If He did that everybody would be saved.” Sounds so plausible. However, consider love. Is true genuine love between parties, really love if it is forced on them? God, who is love (1 John 4:8), created man in His own image. God has a will. Man was given a will. God’s will, was to freely love. God gave man the freedom to chose to love.  God will not force man to choose to love Him and in turn accept the gift of salvation. God will not take away man’s freedom. Therefore, salvation cannot be forced upon anyone. What Is Hell? It is best to be exact about what hell is before asking whether it is compatible with love. The Bible uses several images and words: Gehenna (Greek) — the word Jesus most often uses, drawn from the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem, a site of ancient idolatrous fire sacrifice. Jesus uses it as a vivid image of ultimate destruction and judgement. Hades — the realm of the dead, sometimes used interchangeably with Sheol (Hebrew). In Revelation 20:14, Hades itself is 'thrown into the lake of fire' — it is temporary, awaiting final judgement. The Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14–15) — the final, permanent state of judgement, described as the 'second death.' This is the ultimate separation from God. The most challenging definition of hell in Scripture, is not flames but separation. Paul writes: “These shall pay a penalty: eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might..” in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 The Psalmist declared: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” Psalm16:11 (ESV) To be shut out of the presence of God, is to be separated from the source of all goodness, beauty, life, and the perfection of joy everlasting. To go into that permanent separation from Him, is to be separated from everything that makes existence worth living. Yet that will be the eternal state. The absence of God is an earthly choice made permanent. Part 2: God's Love Is Real — and So Is His Justice God's Love Is Not a Sentimental Love One of the most important correctives I want to bring to mind is about the much-abused word, ‘love’. What is love? Is a question often posed in modern songs, that is often asked. What must be understood is that love is not an emotion. That ‘feeling’ experienced is no more than chemicals being released in the body, that causes a change in our biology. Do not get me wrong, I do like the feelings, but that does not mount to love. In so many relationships, the feelings change, and too often the relationship breaks down.  One or both of the parties go off in search of getting the feeling back. True love is a decision of the will that does not rely on ‘feelings’. The marriages that I have encountered where this is the case, last. The marriage will go through many ups and downs, but the decision of the will to love brings the couple through. As we turn to God, a similar thing happens. A common view of God's love is along these lines: 'God loves everyone, so in the end everything will be fine for everyone.' This is not what the Bible teaches. Similar emotional beliefs are fine, until life gets tough. Those who are saying they are with God, find these periods difficult, and many fall away. This is because they have not made a committed choice to love God as the Scriptures teach. “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment”. Mark 12:30 (EMTV) The important phrase, I want to highlight is ‘..all your mind..’. This is where the act of the will in conceived. A true commitment to do what Scripture says here, is to stick with God no matter what. The Bible's often quoted Scripture about God needs to be read carefully: is not 'God is nice' but 'God is love' (1 John 4:8), Love is not God, yet so many pursue love and its feelings, rather than the God who is love, in His very nature, love. We see this very quality in Jesus in the garden. He asked if the cup of suffering, could pass. But, He declared that it would not be His will but His Father’s will. An act of His will, that was the greatest act of love. You see, love is holy, has purpose, and costs. The love of God and His Son, is most clearly displayed at the cross, where God bore in himself the full weight of human sin and rebellion: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, the Messiah died for us. — Romans 5:8 (TLV) This is not the love based on ‘feelings’. It is the decision of a God who loved us. The Scripture that brings this home is the oft quoted, John 3:16. Read it carefully, word for word, note the action involved. ‘He gave’. This was a divine act of will of a wonderful God who is love. This is an act of love of a holy God who took sin and its consequences for humans, so seriously, that He made that deliberate decision to send his own Son to deal with it. That act of will, provided the means for people to be saved and not to face judgement. The cross is surely the final proof that God's love is not incompatible with justice — at the cross, they meet. Dwell for a while on this Scripture:  “Psalm 85:9-10 “Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other”. Psalm 85:10-11 (RSV) God's Justice Is an Expression of His Love Let me put a case to you. A father has a daughter who is treated terrible by her husband. She comes to him for help. The father knows that the brute of a husband is determined to continue to harm his daughter. What is the loving thing to do? Surely, it is to go to law and demand justice to protect his daughter. You see love and justice are partners. They do not oppose each other. In God's character, both of these qualities are united. Consider this: if God was not of a just character, how could He be fully loving? A God who ignores evil, abuse, oppression, and injustice would not be a good God and Father. In fact, He would be morally indifferent and unloving. Perish the thought. God in His very nature brings love and justice together. Read this of Isaiah and His confirming this unity: "And therefore, will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have compassion upon you; for the LORD is a God of justice, happy are all they that wait for Him”. Isaiah 30:18  (JPS)  The prophet makes clear, God's justice and His compassion and love are not in tension. Both of them come from the heart of the same holy character of God. The very existence of hell is God’s declaration that evil will not go unanswered forever. The oppressor and robber will not triumph eternally. Every victim will be vindicated and receive justice. This shows that the charge of God being unloving is not the truth, in fact, a God who judges and gives justice, is indeed, a God who cares passionately about righteousness. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you”. Matthew 6:33 (MKJV)  C S Lewis wrote: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.” C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce The Parable of the Prodigal Son — Love That Does Not Force Many will challenge the notion that that those who choose to follow God lose their free will. However, Jesus uses a parable that is so clear about free will.  The parable found in Luke 15:11–32. In the parable, the younger son demands his inheritance whilst his father lives. Shockingly, he was in reality, wishing his father was dead. In the well-known account, the son goes off and squanders it in reckless living. Note the father does not run after him. Neither, does he frustrate or not revoke the son’s right to make a free choice. He simply watches and waits: "And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.."  — Luke 15:20 (ESV)  Do you notice the father’s response? It is unrestricted by concerns about the condition of the son. He had stood patiently until the son made his own choice. God, who is love, waits. watches. rejoices at the return of people. This is the attitude of God toward every human being. He does not force anyone to come to His embrace. In fact, like the father in the parable, the heavenly Father also has a celebration meal on the return of a lost one. “Just so, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10 (EMTV) God will never drag or force anyone to come to His open arms. The parable ends with a very angry second son. He opposed the fact that love triumphed over judgement. The father’s words end the parable: “But it was necessary to be merry and to rejoice, because your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.' " Luke 15:32 (EMTV) If there is still a question over love and justice being friends, consider that. Part 3: Answering the Objections Objection 1 — Eternal punishment is disproportionate to a finite life There is of course the objection often raised. “How can years of sin deserve an eternity of punishment? That seems wildly unfair”. This question fails to recognise the truth about sin. God is not keeping a tally of sins committed and giving justice according to the number of sins. Justice requires us to truly see that sin is not so much about actions. It is a state every human is in whilst unreconciled to God.  For the believer, God offers the solution to the Christian who falls into sinful actions:  “If we claim that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we claim that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us”. 1 John 1:8-10 (EMTV) This again is the love and justice of God meeting beautifully. No, sin is more than actions it is the deliberate choice by an individual that leaves them in a state of rebellion against God. It is the decided will of the person to reject the infinite love and goodness of God. Speaking to Israel, Jesus reflects this attitude that can be applies to those who reject God’s offer of salvation and righteousness in Jesus the Christ. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Matthew 23:37 (TLV) This brings home the eternal consequences for those who, by their own choosing, reject the God of love and justice. Objection 2 — What about those who never heard the gospel? This is one of the most pastorally sensitive questions and needs careful attention to show respect for the question. Therefore, we will let the Scriptures speak. Romans 1:18–20 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In unrighteousness they suppress the truth, because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God has shown it to them. His invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature, have been clearly seen ever since the creation of the world, being understood through the things that have been made. So, people are without excuse”. (TLV) This clearly teaches that all people have access to what is known as general revelation. That is that the knowledge of God through creation is clearly there. Because of this we are all are accountable. The Psalmist well understood this: Psalm 19:2-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky shows His handiwork. Day to day they speak, night to night they reveal knowledge. There is no speech, no words, where their voice goes unheard”. (ERV) Romans 2:14–16 “Those who are not Jews don't have the law. But when they naturally do what the law commands without even knowing the law, then they are their own law. This is true even though they don't have the written law. They show that in their hearts they know what is right and wrong, the same as the law commands, and their consciences agree. Sometimes their thoughts tell them that they have done wrong, and this makes them guilty. And sometimes their thoughts tell them that they have done right, and this makes them not guilty”. (ERV) In this Scripture, Paul addresses the specific question. The honest person will admit that even if they were ignorant of anything to do with God, will know that immediate feeling of guilt and knowing their actions were wrong. Of course, there are those who are so deceived that have no conscience about what they do. Paul again addresses this: 1 Timothy 4:2 “..through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared..”. (ESV) They are guilty because of the hardness of their hearts. Paul addressing a Greek audience, says: Acts 17:26-27 “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us..”.  (ESV) Here again we see love and justice at work together. God holds Himself near to us and there is a time and a place when God will provide opportunities to hear the Gospel. It is the choice of each person as to their response to that Gospel. These Scriptures make clear that God is the perfect judge. The great Abraham asked in Genesis 18:25, 'Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?'  The answer is  an unqualified yes. No one will be unjustly condemned who did not deserve their condemnation. No one who genuinely sought God will be turned away. We can trust His justice precisely because we know His character. Objection 3 — If God was loving He would eventually save everyone (Universalism) Universalism, simply stated is the belief that all people who ever lived will ultimately be saved. This is a natural human response. Indeed, it is an appealing position emotionally. There are many sincere people who would lean towards this view. However, anyone who looks at the Scriptures honestly will find it difficult to sustain biblically. Jesus' warnings about hell are stark and unambiguous. Jesus, speaking of those who acted wrongly, states: Matthew 25:46 “And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life”. (EMTV) Jesus is clear that there two destinations and the same adjective is used – eternal. People will go to either one depending on their choices in life. Revelation 20:10 is horrifyingly clear: “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where also the Beast and the False Prophet are. And they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever”. (EMTV) The clarity of the words cannot be understood as a temporary period. It describes the devil, the beast and the false prophet being 'tormented day and night for ever and ever'. The very urgency of the gospel as expressed in Hebrews is so clear as well:  Hebrews 2:3 “How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?'. Urging people to respond to the Gospel would make no sense if all roads lead to the same idyllic destination. Universalism, however compassionate in motivation, removes the purpose for Jesus' own stated mission and indeed, the church's call to evangelism. Finally, we address the case of reading Scripture without bringing other Scriptures to bear on it. It can be said, “Doesn’t 1 Timothy 2:4 say God 'wants all people to be saved'? Then why doesn't he just save everyone? The Scriptures do make clear God’s desire, but note the qualification in that Scripture, people “must come to the full knowledge of the truth”. 2 Peter 3:9 also says, that God is 'not wanting anyone to perish.' God's desire is genuinely universal. However, we need to understand that Scripture distinguishes between God's desire and God's decree. God desires all to be saved, yet he has also decreed that salvation comes through repentance and faith, not by divine override. His love is real; so is human freedom – that is the power to choose. The tragedy of hell is that it is possible to choose to resist what God desires for you. Part 4: The Cross — Where Love and Justice Kiss The question 'How can a loving God send people to hell?', could be debated all day long and great philosophical arguments made. However, that will never give a satisfactory answer. The truth is that the answer is found on a hill called calvary. The cross is how God settles the question of righteousness, sin and judgement and punishment. What had an uncalculatable cost, was offered with out cost to every human being. Think about this. Every human being as has been said above has fallen short of God’s standard. Revelation 21:6 “And He said to me, " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give from the spring of the water of life freely to him that is thirsty”. (EMTV) The definitive answer to the question is found, not in philosophical argument but at Calvary. The cross is God's answer to the problem of sin and judgement and the offer of love that covers it. It is offered freely, at infinite cost, to every human being. There needs to be a blunt statement made: All human beings are born into sin and a penalty is required - death. If that is rejected then the love and justice of God will never be understood. " For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him".  — 2 Corinthians 5:21 (MKJV) This is the amazing and wonderous truth. At the cross, God does not simply dismiss sin and pretend it did not happen. His justice demands sin is seen for what it is and the penalty that must be paid. As the Scripture says, the wages of sin is death. Therefore, He the unique Son of God, took upon Himself the totality of sin, ever committed: past, present and future. He paid the full penalty for all human beings in Himself. In Christ, divine love and divine justice meet in the costliest imaginable act. God does not excuse sin — He makes propitiation for it. Offers us that gift of salvation. All we have to do is accept it or reject it. It is a choice. This shows that hell is not God's desired outcome. In this it is of great sorrow to Him, as we saw in Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. Hell is God accepting and honouring a final human choice. The cross stands as that eternal proof that God did everything possible - everything - to make a way out. Jesus Himself said:  “.. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me”. John 14:6 (RSVA) God’s door to eternal life is thrown wide open. The invitation is unlimited. The price has been paid. "The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let him who hears say, "Come." And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price".  — Revelation 22:17 (RSVA) Hell exists not because God's love is unable to meet the need of fallen human beings. It is because God's love is offered and never forced on anyone. He will not force anyone love Him. He will not drag anyone into His joyful presence if they do not wish to enter. He stands at the door and knocks (Rev. 3:20). Those who open it find grace. Those who do not, in the end, come into his presence, to discover that their choice has brought them to a terrible, tragic and permanent future, away from His presence. This the heart of the Christian Gospel message. God’s love is not contradicted by His justice. God’s love is the motivation The Heart of the Gospel God's love is not a contradiction of his judgement — it is the sole reason He provided a way of escape from it. The gospel is precisely the proclamation that in Christ, the wrath we deserved has been fully borne with satisfaction, and reconciliation with God is now freely available to all who will receive it. " 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". John 3:16 (MKJV)   Part 5: Living in Light of These Truths How Should This Change Us? Doctrine that does not move us to worship in Spirit and truth and inspired action has not yet been truly understood. If we genuinely believe that God is love, that hell is real, that the cross has made a way: how should we then live? 1. Deep Gratitude So often in life, we meet those who do not know the words – thank you. That should not be the believer. We should be profoundly grateful to the Father. We were not saved because of our goodness or wisdom. We were saved because God, in His mercy, gave us eyes to see and hearts to respond. That is grace — pure and undeserved. Romans 5:8 should bring us to our knees: 'While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' 2. Urgent Compassion for the Lost If we are convinced that hell is real and the gospel is the only way of deliverance, then evangelism is not an optional extra for committed Christians — it is the most loving thing any believer can do. Paul captured this urgency in Romans 10:14: " But before people can pray to the Lord for help, they must believe in him. And before they can believe in the Lord, they must hear about him. And for anyone to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them?" Romans 10:14 (ERV) A genuine understanding of these doctrines should make us more compassionate, not more disinterested. We should be more willing to share the good news with gentleness and respect (1 Pet. 3:15), not less. 3. Humble Confidence, Not Arrogance We hold these truths of Salvation as stewards; we do not own them. We do not know men’s hearts as Jesus did. The final state of every soul is God’s business. We know that God is perfectly just and perfectly merciful, and that His judgements will be the right ones. We cannot and must nit judge any person. Our task is to proclaim the gospel to all and leave the judging to the One who alone is qualified to judge. 4. Hope, Not Fear For the believer, the doctrine of hell is not a source of fear or dread. It is a great security. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The same God who is Judge is also Saviour — and those who are hidden in Christ need not fear the judgement. Hell confirms that God takes evil seriously. Heaven confirms that he takes love seriously. And the cross confirms that he takes us seriously. This then throws us back to answer the question for ourselves. If God Is So Loving, Why Does He Send People to Hell? As a believer or a non-believer, what is your answer and response?  

Introduction Reading the New Testament without understanding that it is a Jewish document can lead to misunderstandings. With the exception of Luke, the writers were all Jews. The mistake is reading it as if it were a Greek or Western document. It is clearly not. Jesus Himself, was a first-century Jewish teacher: a Rabbi He grew up in a Jewish home, read the Jewish Tanach (The OT), worshipped in a Jewish synagogue, often debated with Jewish scholars, even at the age of twelve (Luke 2:46). The people he often talked to in groups our singularly, were Jewish. They, like all Jews were at that time, steeped in the Jewish law and traditions. Paul was equally Jewish and more than that he made it clear (Phil 3:5). He studied at the feet of Gamaliel the Elder, one of the most celebrated rabbinic teachers of his generation. Paul’s reasoning and arguments throughout his letters reveal a Jewish mind and patterns of thought. When we fail to see the Jewish background and read about divorce and remarriage, through the lens of Greek logic or any Western legal thinking, we will have mis-read them. We will turn Jesus and Paul, two passionate Jewish teachers defending vulnerable women, into lawmakers constructing a new divorce code with strict legalism. We therefore, miss what they were actually saying, alongside to whom they spoke, and why. This study attempts to restore that Jewish background and in doing so allow the texts to speak with their original force and meaning, bringing the compassionate and merciful God fully into the picture. The Two Stages of Divorce Under Jewish Law To fully understand what Jesus was dealing with, we must first need to understand how divorce actually worked in first-century Jewish society. It is important to grasp that this is not a minor technical point: it is the key that will unlock the entire passages under this study. This is what the Jewish Torah stated about divorce If a man wished to divorce his wife he was required to write her a certificate of divorce: in Hebrew the get (גֵּט). It was to be given to the woman before sending her away. The text reads: Deuteronomy 24:1 "When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement (siphrâh kerı̂ythûth), and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house (min bayith )". This shows that Jewish divorce had two distinct steps: The first was the putting away (Hebrew - shalach - Greek – apoluo). This was the act of expulsion from the household, the physical sending away of the wife. The second was the certificate of divorce (Hebrew – legal term is the get - Greek - apostasion). This was the legal document that formally dissolved the marriage. Importantly it freed the woman to remarry. These were two separate acts. By the first century there developed a truly unjust practice among some Jewish men. A man would put away (shalach) his wife: expel her from the home, withdraw all financial support, refuse to live with her. However, he would withhold the certificate of divorce. In other words, he would not give her the divorce certificate (get). The reasons were almost certainly financial. As long as there was no formal divorce, she remained his legal wife. Her property, her dowry, her inheritance rights — all remained tied up with him. By putting her away without the get he kept financial control while abandoning all his marital responsibility. In the first century, the consequences for the woman were obviously disastrous. She was what Jewish law (halakha) called an agunah — a ‘chained woman’. Re-marriage was not possible because she was still legally married. With no modern welfare state as we know it, she was without any financial support. The husband had abandoned her and had denied her justice. She was socially ruined and economically destitute. She was trapped: chained to a marriage that only existed on paper. She could only look to an impoverished future. Unlike modern women, she had no recourse to the law. It is this specific injustice — this deliberate exploitation of vulnerable women — that Jesus was addressing, when He dealt with divorce. The Shammai and Hillel Debate — The Context of Matthew 19 The Pharisees approached Jesus with the question Matthew 19:3 "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?". As usual this was another trap being set for Jesus by the Jewish authorities. Their question was not about asking an abstract theological question, looking for an honest answer. They were inviting Him to take sides in a live and heated debate that had divided the Rabbinic community for a generation. Whose view would Jesus support? Again Jewish background is needed here. There were two major schools of rabbinic thought that had formed around the interpretation of the phrase in Deuteronomy 24:1: "some uncleanness." Rabbi Shammai was a strict interpreter: the only valid grounds for divorce was sexual immorality, specifically ervat dabar, that is a matter of nakedness or sexual indecency. His school held a high and protective view of marriage. Rabbi Hillel on the other hand interpreted the same phrase with an astonishing laxity opposed to Shammai. Hillel’s school taught that a man could divorce his wife for virtually any reason — including, burning his dinner: "Even if she spoiled a dish for him" is the Mishnah record of the Hillel’s position. One of Hillel's own disciples, Rabbi Akiva, went even further to allow divorce simply if a man found a woman more beautiful than his wife. Hillel’s position had become dominant and was what was widely practiced among Jewish men. They were putting away their wives for trivial reasons. They also, were withholding the get. It was widespread. The Pharisees wanted to know where Jesus stood. Which school would He support? His answer was as always one of wisdom. He did not support either Shammai or Hillel positions. He went above both schools entirely. He went back to creation, back to Genesis, back to God's original intent before the Torah and its concessions even existed. Also, before human sinfulness had entered the world. Matthew 19:4-5 "Have you not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female... For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?". He refused to enter their debate on their legalistic terms. He was reframing the entire question and demanding they look at the matter from God’s perspective. What Jesus Was Actually Condemning Having established the God’s creation foundation, Jesus then addressed the specific practice He was condemning: Matthew 19:9"And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away (apoluo) his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commits adultery: and whoso marries her which is put away does commit adultery". Read this through Greek legal eyes and it might sound like a new divorce law with one exception clause. However, read it through Jewish eyes and it is something far more specific and far more radical. The word translated put away is the Greek apoluo, which is the first stage, the expulsion from the house, the abandonment. Jesus is condemning the practice of putting away a wife without giving her the divorce get. When a man does this and then takes another woman he is committing adultery. Why? Because his first wife is still legally his wife. He has not properly divorced her. He has simply abandoned her while retaining her legal status for his own benefit. And critically it puts the woman in a terrible position. Why? Because when the abandoned woman is eventually driven by destitution or desperation, as many were, they were forced to find another man to survive. In that she is said to commit adultery. This was not because of any moral failure on her part but because legally, having never received the get, she was still married. The man who abandoned her has made her an adulteress through his own selfishness. Jesus was not creating a restrictive new divorce law. He was defending abandoned women against the legal exploitation they were suffering. He was being compassionate towards the woman. He was making clear that the men who practiced this were responsible for the situation they have created, and would be called by God to account for their actions. The exception clause — except it be for fornication — is Jesus acknowledging that where genuine sexual unfaithfulness has occurred the situation is different.  Totally confirming Scripture and yet lifting it to a higher level. The covenant has already been broken by the unfaithful party. The innocent spouse is not in the same position as the guilty man who puts away his wife for burning his dinner or for financial advantage. Mark 10 — The Same Teaching, Different Audience Mark's account of this same encounter (Mark 10:2-12) contains no exception clause. This has puzzled many Western readers who assume Mark and Matthew are simply recording the same event with an inconsistency. Understanding the Jewish context clears this up. Matthew was writing primarily for a Jewish audience who would have immediately understood the technical distinction between apoluo and apostasion. He included the exception clause because his readers needed it to understand the nuance. They were after all Jewish. However. Mark was writing primarily for a Gentile audience who were more specifically Roman readers. They had no knowledge of Jewish divorce laws. He gave a much simpler summary statement suited to his audience. Furthermore, Jesus in Mark 10 goes beyond Matthew by adding:  Mark 10:12 "And if a woman shall put away (apoluō) her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery". Under Jewish law women could not normally initiate divorce: only men could give the get. This addition was specifically directed at the Roman practice where women could and did initiate divorce. This is another example of the Scripture writer being inspired to write to address Jesus’ teaching to the specific legal and cultural context of His audience. This is not inconsistency. It is again, a Jewish author addressing different audiences with the same truth applied to their specific circumstances. The Sermon on the Mount — Matthew 5:31-32 The earlier reference to divorce in Matthew (Matthew 5:31-32) follows the same pattern. It sits within a section where Jesus repeatedly uses the formula: "You have heard that it was said... But I say unto you." In each case Jesus is not contradicting the Torah. He is going behind the legal technicality to the heart of God's intention. He also did this with murder: the law says do not kill, He says do not harbour hatred. He does this with adultery: the law addresses the act, He addresses the desire of the heart. He does the same with divorce. The legal technicality was being exploited — men were using the letter of Deuteronomy 24 to justify the abandonment of their wives. Jesus goes behind the letter to the spirit. Matthew 5:31-32 "It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce: But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery". Jesus is exposing motives: they had taken Moses' protective provision for women and turned it into a tool for exploiting them. This was never God's heart. They were causing their abandoned wives to become adulteresses through theirr own legal manipulation. That is what they would be answerable for. Paul's Rabbinic Reasoning — 1 Corinthians 7 Paul's teaching on marriage and divorce in 1 Corinthians 7 is frequently read through Greek understanding.  That sees Paul as a Greek moral philosopher laying down legal principles. That I not what he was. He was a Jewish Pharisee, highly trained in the school of Gamaliel. His reasoning is in recognisably Jewish patterns. Paul uses the kal v'chomer. That is the rabbinic light-to-heavy argument that he uses throughout his letters. He reasons by metaphor, analogy, by what was previously agreed, by the comparison of one case against another. This is what any first-century rabbi would do. His handling of the marriage question in 1 Corinthians 7 is no different. When Paul writes: 1 Corinthians 7:15 "But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases". Paul is making a distinctly Jewish legal ruling on a new situation. That is one that arose specifically in the Gentile mission context. Among Gentiles, the Jewish divorce law did not apply.  The unbelieving party was simply leaving a marriage, without any formal Jewish process. The phrase ‘not under bondage’ is the Greek ou dedoulotai: not enslaved, not bound, free. This is the language of release from obligation. Paul is ruling that the believing spouse who has been abandoned by an unbelieving partner is not bound.  That is not an agunah , a chained one. They are released from the marriage bond. This is the abandonment justification for divorce. This is a ruling that the rabbis themselves would have accepted as a reasonable application of the principle behind the get. Paul is not just making a simple pragmatic ‘get out clause’ to cover difficult cases. He is reasoning as any trained Jewish scholar would. He is applying the principles of the Torah to a new pastoral situation. He does it with care and rigour: just as his teacher Gamaliel would have recognised. The Prophetic Background — God as Divorced Husband Let us consider another aspect of the Jewish background that Western readers may miss. It transforms the emotions of these texts. The image of marriage and divorce was used by prophets to describe God's relationship with Israel. Read these beautiful verses: Isaiah 54:5-8 "For your Maker is your husband—Adonai-Tzva’ot is His Name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He will be called God of all the earth. For Adonai has called you back like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of one’s youth that is rejected,” says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but I will regather you with great compassion. In a surge of anger I hid My face from you a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says Adonai your Redeemer". This is extraordinary, indeed amazing. God Himself is presented in the prophetic literature as having gone through the experience of a broken covenant relationship: as the faithful husband whose wife was unfaithful. Yet there is the sweetness of forgiveness. When Jesus talks about marriage and divorce, He is talking as a Jew who knew these prophetic texts intimately. His concern for the permanence of marriage is not cold legalism: it is rooted in the understanding that marriage reflects the covenant faithfulness of God Himself. His openness to grace for those who have known failure is equally rooted in the prophetic portrait of a God whose steadfast love endures even the breaking of covenant. Pastoral Application Reading these texts through their proper Jewish background does not change the difficulties Pastors and Elders are faced with. In fact, in some ways, it makes it harder. That is because it calls for a more careful, loving, graceful and contextual thinking approach. It does not call for an easy of the peg legal approach, applying rules. But it makes it more faithful, and ultimately more compassionate. Indeed, the Scripture says: Rom 9:15 “For to Moses He says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  Several things emerge clearly from the readings we have considered. Jesus was not primarily focussing on the legality of divorce. He was defending vulnerable people, who in His day, were primarily women. He was speaking against legal exploitation of women by men. Any application of His teaching that results in further harm to vulnerable people has misread Him. The two-stage Jewish divorce process tells us that abandonment and the withholding of proper legal protection is in itself a serious moral failure. The person who walks away from a marriage and uses legal technicalities to maintain control and cause harm to their spouse is exactly the person Jesus was condemning. Grace and truth must be held together. The Lord of all is beautiful: Psalm 85:11 “Lovingkindness and truth meet together. Righteousness and shalom kiss each other”. Remember, it was Jesus who took the covenant of marriage with absolute seriousness, also said to the woman taken in adultery John 8:11 "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more". It was Paul who wrote with care about the binding nature of marriage also wrote that in the Christ "there is neither male nor female" (Galatians 3:28) Men and women are equally saved by God, through Jesus. Both have equal blessings and compassion from God. This was a radical statement of equality. Bear in mind, this was in a world where women were frequently the unprotected victims of divorce law. Many men thought they could see women as chattels who they could treat as they wished. God has other ideas. And finally, we must be mindful of those who have known the pain of a broken marriage. In divorce, there are those who were wronged or the one who bears responsibility for that wrong. Both stand before a holy God who has Himself known what it is to love faithfully and to experience a covenant broken. He does not stand at a distance from human marital pain. He has entered it. Of Jesus it is written: Hebrews 4:15-16 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but having been tempted in all respects in quite the same way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. Furthermore, God, even in anger, has a word to encourage us: Isaiah 54:8 “”In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer”.  Conclusion In divorce and remarriage, the Bible, properly read in its Jewish understanding, is not primarily approaching it from a legalistic position. Rather, without any compromise of the law, it is a passionate defence of the vulnerable. It is a call back to God's creational design for mankind. It is ultimately a reflection of God's own faithful and enduring love for people. Jesus lived as a Jewish Rabbi. He loved the Torah and loved the people the Torah was designed to guide and protect. Paul reasoned and argued as a Jewish pharisee who applied Torah principles to the pastoral situations he met. It was with compassion, care and precision. Both Jesus and Paul, would have been astonished to see their words interpreted as a Western legal system. They would not have wanted to see the precious Word of God sometimes turned to cause further harm to the very people God’s Word was seeking to protect. Read in context, these texts will always call the Church to take marriage seriously and to take people seriously urging them to honour the covenant of marriage they entered, However, the Church must extend grace to those for whom the covenant has broken down in imitation of the God who is both the faithful husband of Isaiah 54 and the running father of Luke 15.  As James wrote: James 2:12-23  "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment".  and John reminds us: John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him".

Introduction Outside of the name of Jesus, what word is the most important? I would suggest it is ‘salvation.’ It is the centre-piece of the gospel message. It is the reason Jesus the Christ came. It was then sole purpose of the cross. It is the hope in the heart of every believer. Luke 4:43 “..but He said to them, "I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."” John 12:27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour””. (ESV)  Because of this clear statement about salvation, there are many people, even some who have attended church for years, struggle to give a clear and confident answer to the question: what exactly is salvation and how does a person receive it? This study seeks to answer that question clearly and from Scripture, from the basics upwards. We will look at the question of why salvation is necessary We need to fully understand what it cost.  What exactly does it achieve. Finally, how it is received? This is an important, if not the most important, teaching, if we are to explain salvation to the unbeliever and see people saved. Why Salvation is Necessary — The Problem of Sin The Bible is very clear about the human condition. Ever since Adam disobeyed God and was expelled from the garden of Eden, man had a problem. The human nature was corrupted and everyone is born into the world with this fallen nature.  Paul was referring to this when he wrote: Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” There are no punches pulled here. The Psalmist is even more stark: Psalm 58:3 “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from the womb, speaking lies”. (MKJV) Even the man, king David, was brutally honest: Psalm 51:7 “Behold, I was born in iniquity and in sin when my mother conceived me.”  This is the truth of Scripture. The human condition is one of sin, no matter how ‘good’ a person might feel. Unless this understanding is clear, any discussion on the subject of sin will be unprofitable. It teaches that every human being is born with a nature that is fundamentally turned away from God. This is why salvation and the cross is offensive to many. Let us be very clear from every part of Scripture the truth is plain. The Apostle Paul again: Romans 9:30-33 “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness—that is, a righteousness of faith. But Israel, who pursued a Torah of righteousness, did not reach the Torah. Why? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were from works. They stumbled over the stone of stumbling, just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in Him shall not be put to shame.”  Understand there are no exceptions. Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, all are under the same charge. It also includes the morally upright and the openly wicked, the religious and the irreligious, the educated and the unlearned. Every human being who has ever lived, with the sole exception of Jesus the Christ, are sinners. All have sinned against God, be it in action, words or the thoughts that fill our minds. We also need to be very clear about sin. To sin is not the making mistakes. It is not falling short of our own standards and regretting it. Sin is transgression against the holy law of a holy God. It is choosing our own way over His. It is saying my will not God’s will. When we place ourselves at the centre of our lives, we reject God’s sovereign authority in our lives. He alone is to be held in the highest honour and worshipped as the only true God. before anything or anyone, even ourselves! Deuteronomy 6:5 “..and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”. This is not my view or opinion. It is the truth spoken by Jesus as the greatest of all commandments. Matthew 22:37-38 “And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment”. Sin, is at its root, rebellion against our Creator. Sin has consequences. Paul declares: Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death". Think about the word 'wages'. Its meaning brings light. You earn wages, you deserve them for what you have done. It is just, that you should be paid what you have earned. In the case of sin, that is death. Death has been discussed in another study that can be found here. Briefly, death includes physical death, spiritual death and is a separation from God in this life. If left undealt with it is also separation in eternity.  That is eternal death. It is the final and permanent separation from God which the Bible calls the second death. There you have the human predicament. Every person stands as guilty before our holy God. We are unable to save ourselves. We deserve to be judged and paid the wages of sin. I appreciate this is an un comfortable truth.  It is the essential foundation upon which the gospel stands. 1 John 3:4 “Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness”. The Barrier Between God and Man Isaiah the prophet understood the problem and with great clarity wrote: Isaiah 59:2"But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear". Sin creates a barrier. It is a moral and spiritual gulf that is created, between the Creator and His creation. Man has no power to cross by his own effort. Learning from history is difficult for human beings. Hegel, the philosopher, wrote, "What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it". Experience tells me that, that notion, applies to the greater majority of people. We human beings have tried to bridge this gulf by human means. Religion, strict morality, good works, ritual, philosophy: every culture that existed has produced its own system for trying to reach God or trying to have inner peace. The Bible is consistent in its verdict: none of these can deal with the fundamental problem of sin and guilt before a holy God. Paul makes it plain: Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us". Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." It we learn anything from this study, it has to be that salvation cannot be earned, achieved, or deserved. It can only be received from a gracious God and Father. God's Answer — The Plan of Redemption I was once told by a dear friend and international teacher of the faith: God cannot help Himself - was one of the implication of the Hebrew word Hesed: Often translated as 'lovingkindness'. He loves us so much He will never leave us to perish. Indeed, is not the Gospel story - an amazing wondrous exciting story that was ever told? The God against whom we have sinned. The One we have rejected and rebelled against, did not leave us in our pathetic lost condition. He could not simply change His standard to a lower bar or just forget about our guilt. That would nether be righteous or just. He did something infinitely more costly and more wonderful: He Himself stepped into human history to pay the price of the wages of sin that were due to us and that justice demanded. This is what the incarnation means. The eternal Son of God, Jesus the Christ took on human flesh, being born of a virgin as prophesied by Isaiah, lived a perfect sinless life, something no other human being could ever do. He voluntarily chose to go to the cross. There He died and bore the penalty of sin in the place of us guilty sinners. This is what called substitutionary atonement: The Christ dying in our place, bearing our guilt, taking into Himself, the wrath of God that our sin deserved. Isaiah foretold it seven centuries before it happened: Isaiah 53:5-6 "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" The Holy Spirit inspired Paul it with great clarity: 2 Corinthians 5:21"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him". The Christ Jesus took our sin. In exchange He gave us His righteousness. This is sometimes called the Great Exchange. That is what it is. An act of gracious love from a merciful Father, who gave us His Son for this purpose. It is the very heart of the gospel. As Jesus declared from His wooden throne on Calvary: John 19:30 “…it is finished..” The Resurrection — Proof That it Worked The cross is essential in understanding the Gospel. Whilst it dealt with the problem of sin, it alone is not the complete gospel. If the Christ had simply died like any other man and remained in the tomb, then His death would have been no different from any other man. It would not have any meaning in terms of salvation. However, on the third day He rose bodily from the dead through the direct Divine poer of God's Holy Spirit: that resurrection changed everything. For Paul it sealed His understanding of the work of redemption: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." Romans 1:4 “..and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord..” For Paul, the resurrection is God the Father's declaration that the sacrifice of His son was accepted, He had paid the debt, and death itself had been conquered. Again Paul: Romans 4:25 "[The Christ] was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." The empty tomb is the final receipt that the price has been paid in full. This is what gave the apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, the courage to preach. They were not proclaiming am earthly philosophy or a man-made moral system. They were announcing a historical event, something that happened in history: a dead man had risen by the power of God — and now, though His people, was inviting the world to respond to it. What Salvation Achieves When a person receives salvation, the Bible describes a transformation so profound that Jesus called it being born again (John 3:3). Certain things happen simultaneously at the moment when faith comes to a person at salvation. Firstly, a person is ‘quickened’ or made alive, by the Spirit of God: Ephesians 2:5 “Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, by grace you are saved”.  Repentance: When the Spirit comes, He convicts of sin, righteous and judgement. (John 16:8). If the response to the Gospel is repentance, it leads to life, as is seen in Acts: Acts 11:18 “When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life”. Regeneration: It then follows that repentance and belief in the work of the Christ, the believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit: Ephesians 1:13 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation: having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise..”. In this then the person a new nature is given by the Holy Spirit. This is the fulfilment of the prophetic word: Ezekiel 36:26 "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you…" Paul makes the case for the believer’s change; 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in the Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come”.  This is only the start as the Holy Spirit begins to live within the believer, beginning the lifelong process of transformation into the likeness of The Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”. Justification: New believers are declared righteous before God. This is not of themselves but is an act of grace from God, who gives the free gift of righteousness: Romans 5:17 “If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus the Christ”. Because the righteousness of the Christ is credited to a believer’s account, they are justified: Romans 5:1"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Along with the sin being cleared out the associated guilt is also removed. There is no more condemnation (Rom 8:1). The gulf between God and man is removed. Redemption: We start with the truth of what Scripture tells us. Romans 6:20 “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness”. The unbeliever is in the bondage of sin. To be made righteous there needs to be a payment, a ransom, made. In other words, the person has to be bought back from slavery to sin. The word redemption comes from the slave market and it it means to purchase freedom for a slave. The Christ's blood is the price that was paid to set us free from sin's bondage and its penalty. Peter is very clear on this point: 1 Peter 1:18-19 “..knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your futile way of life handed down from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb blameless and spotless..”. It is often discussed to whom was the ransom paid? I cannot accept the argument that the ransom was paid to God the Father. That to me is unthinkable that the Father of the unique Son of God would demand such a ransom. Then there is the argument that it was paid to Satan. Again, an argument that cannot be held. We were in the power of sin not Satan. It is my belief that the ransom was paid to justice. The Scripture says: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “Christ died for all, and His death brings life to those who receive Him”. 1 Timothy 2:3-6 “God desires all people to be saved and gave Christ as a ransom for all”. How does salvation come about? Through Justice being satisfied. The Canons of Dort, stated this: God is not only supremely merciful, but also supremely just. His justice requires (as he has revealed himself in the Word) that the sins we have committed against his infinite majesty be punished with both temporal and eternal punishments, of soul as well as body. We cannot escape these punishments unless satisfaction is given to God’s justice (2.1) I believe it was one of the things discussed they got right. When Paul wrote: 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. Here was God giving His Son as the price for justice. That merciful and gracious act satisfied justice. It says in Hebrews: Hebrews 12:24 “..and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel”.  See also Hebrews 11:4. Abel’s sacrifice satisfied God (Gen 4:4), Cain’s did not (Gen 4:5).  Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, the blood of Jesus was better. It brought salvation and peace. Adoption: This is a great joy of salvation. The new believer becomes a child of God and joins the family of God – the Church. Not a denomination or cult, but the universal Church, the household of God. John 1:12 "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”.  This is the wondrous amazing truth. The dead have been raised spiritually and given a home in the Father’s family. The rebellious becomes a beloved child. The fatherless are brought to a loving Father’s home. Eternal life: Here is the most joyous of joys: the person is given the gift of eternal life! This is a fullness of life (John 10:10) alongside an endless existence with God. A quality of life defined and made sweeter by knowing God. Jesus Himself declared: John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent". How Salvation is Received We turn to the very important question of the entire study. Salvation is necessary – salvation is available – how does a person receive it? This question can only be answered with one word – Grace! The person who is dead is incapable of doing anything. It is the sovereign act of God that happens when a person hears the Gospel and is convicted of the need to be saved. In this the Bible is consistent. Salvation is received by grace alone, through faith alone, in the Christ alone. Paul gives the most clear statement on the matter: Romans 10:9-10 “…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  We learn from these verses two things: believing and confessing. Believing — Faith in the Christ It is important to understand, that faith is not merely an intellectual agreement with Biblical facts about Jesus. The Bible is clear that even the demons believe that God exists and tremble (James 2:19). Biblical faith is a wholehearted trust and reliance upon Christ alone for salvation, and nothing else. It is a turning from confidence in oneself and placing full confidence in Him. The Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas the most important question a person can ask: Acts 16:30-31 "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The answer was direct and simple: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved".  When Peter preached at Pentecost, he also was asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) His response was “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”.  Faith boils down to three things: knowledge of the facts of the gospel. accepting those facts are true and having a personal trust and commitment to and in the Lord Jesus. That last part transforms mere belief into saving faith. The personal entrusting of oneself to the Christ: that is true saving faith. Repentance — Turning from Sin Repentance is the essential accompaniment to faith. Throughout the New Testament, the two are consistently linked. They cannot be separated. Repentance does not simply mean feeling sorry for sins: a person can feel sorry but never turn away from sin. It involves a complete change of mind about sin and its offence to a holy God. Whilst teaching a class of seven-year-olds, a young lad when the class was asked at their level about repentance said, “It means not doing bad things again”. From the mouth of babes…. Repentance is all about seeing the beauty of the Christ Jesus and the overwhelming desperate need a sinner must have, that results in a change of direction. Acts 3:19 "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out..”.  True repentance is not a work by which we earn salvation — it is the natural response of a heart that genuinely understands the grace of God and the seriousness of sin. Romans 11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace”.  Confessing — Declaring Faith Openly As we seen Romans 10:9 links salvation to confession of the mouth that Jesus is Lord. This is not a magical formula spoken by rote. It is the outward expression of an inward reality. A faith that cannot be declared openly is questioned in the New Testament. Jesus said: Matthew 10:32 "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven". Confession is the natural overflow of genuine saving faith that acknowledges the saving grace of God: it cannot be permanently suppressed. The Assurance of Salvation “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine….” So goes the old hymn. It is one of the most precious gifts God offers the believer: assurance That is the confidence that they are truly saved and eternally secure. It is not arrogance. It is a humble acceptance of the truth that a sinner has been shown grace that God will never withdraw. As Paul expressed it: Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”.  This is faith in the faithfulness of God. John wrote his first letter precisely for this purpose: 1 John 5:13 "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that you have eternal life". Salvation can be known. It is not presumptuous to be certain of it: it is the appropriate response to the truth of the promises of God. Jesus Himself gave this assurance:  John 10:28-29: "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." Such a statement from the lips of the Saviour must bring deep encouragement of security. We are in the double clasp of the hands of the Son and His Father. No power in heaven, earth or hell can remove them from that grip. Salvation is For Everyone No one is excluded from the possibility of salvation The most glorious truth about salvation is its openness to all. It is not reserved just for the morally respectable, the religiously educated, or those who feel worthy of it. It is offered to all, without exception. The well-known verse should never become so common we forget its power: John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This verse is the greatest invitation the world will ever receive. It is an open door that nether the powers of hell or the world can close.  It is for the filthiest sinner. It is for the young and the old. It is for men and women It is for the one who has been seeking over a long time. It is for the newest seeker. It is for those bowed down with striving religiously and failing. It includes those who think their sin is too great to be forgiven. It includes you! Revelation 22:17 “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Conclusion Surely, salvation is the greatest need of every human being, whether .they realise it or not. It is certainly the greatest gift God has ever given through His beloved Son. It was planned in eternity, purchased at Calvary, proclaimed in the gospel, and is received by faith. You cannot earn it. You cannot buy it. You cannot ever lose it, if you truly possessed it. The question that matters above all others is not theological but very personal. This is not merely an intellectual exercise. Understanding salvation and all about it is one thing: but have you received it? Not Just know how is it obtained: have you obtained it? If you have never placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, there is no better moment than this one. The promise is as clear today as it was the day it was written: Romans 10:13 "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". Will you do that now? If you have received Him. then live in the joy and the assurance of what He has done. You are justified. You are redeemed. You are adopted. You are His — and nothing shall ever change that. Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.  

Introduction The truth is that every human being is mortal. Death is a guaranteed destination of life. It is a question that transcends culture, age and background. The young think it is something that is well into the future. The older one gets the more the question of the afterlife begins to be more of a question. How many young people die unexpectedly? Young sportsmen have fallen whilst at their peak from an undiagnosed complaint. Mid-life death has carried of those who hoped for a long retirement. True Christianity does not shrink back from the question of the afterlife.  The Scriptures have the answers. The Bible speaks with great clarity and consistently speaks about what lies beyond death. The answers Scripture gives are on one hand sobering but on the other it is gloriously hopeful. Death is Not the End The first and most foundational truth many wish to avoid is that there is an existence after death. Their faith, yes, their faith, is that there is nothing after death. However, the Bible makes clear that physical death is not the end of existence. Jesus Himself states it clearly: John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Here is the simple truth: all human beings will die. But the deeper truth is that man is not merely a physical being. God created men and women. The creation of the first man is recorded: Genesis 2:7 “..then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Man became a living being. The word for that in the Hebrew is ‘soul’. The physical body contained a soul. That is the invisible reality within all mankind. It does not cease to exist when the last breath is given. It goes on to live after death. Death is an interesting word. It indicates a separation. In actual death there is a separation of the soul from the body, not the extinction of the person. The writer of Ecclesiastes confirms this: Ecclesiastes 12:7 "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it". It could not be clearer. The body goes into the grave. The spirit returns to God. This is the truth about every soul that ever walked the earth What Happens Immediately After Death The Bible teaches the good news, that when death comes; the soul/spirit of the believer goes immediately into the presence of God. The apostle Paul expressed this with joyful confidence when he wrote 2 Corinthians 5:8 "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord". Let us be clear. The Bible has no purgatory, no ‘soul sleep’, no ante-waiting room. To depart this life is to continue in existence. For the believer it is to be with Jesus the Christ. Paul underlines this in his letter to the Philippians, writing from prison and facing possible execution: Philippians 1:21"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". There is no loss in death for the believer, rather it is gain — it is to be in the immediate, presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about the thief on the cross. Death was guaranteed within hours. All he did was recognise Jesus as his King. In return he was given the promise of eternal life with Jesus. He heard that directly from the King on the cross. Luke 23:43"Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise". Notice there is no period of waiting in purgatory. No delays. That very day he would be in Paradise with Jesus. Heaven — The Promise of God's Dwelling Place It is to be understood that heaven is not some mystical state of bliss.  The Scriptures are clear: it as a real place that our Saviour Jesus said He would prepare for believers. Jesus said:  John 14:2-3 “In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you may also be.” (TLV)  The book of Revelation gives us the most graphic description of what awaits the redeemed. John writes of a new heaven and a new earth, a holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God. He records these beautiful encouraging words: Revelation 21:4 "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away". Heaven is a place where everything that was a great burden to human beings: sickness, grief, disease, loss, loneliness, even the event of physical death itself. For the believer all these have passed away forever. It is not just that there is an escape from suffering. But it is more, a glorious restoration of everything God originally intended for humanity, in the original creation of Paradise, but even more so. The greatest glory of being in heaven, however, is not its wondrous beauty or even its freedom from pain. It is the very presence of God Himself. Revelation 22:4 “They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads“. At last, what all believers have longed for has come! Hell — The Solemn Warning of Scripture The subject of hell is an awesome and terrible thing that has to be spoken of. Whilst there is joy is looking forward to heaven; the Bible is honest - we therefore must speak of hell. We cannot speak of one without the other. It was Jesus Himself — He who wept at the tomb of Lazarus, who welcomed children into His arms, who forgave the adulteress, was gentle with the Samaritan women, living in sin. His concern was that He wished hell on no one. He spoke of Hell more than anyone else in Scripture. His concern was a great act of mercy and grace. He was clear: Matthew 25:46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life”. We need to think long and hard about this: "everlasting punishment" for some and “everlasting life" for others. Everlasting describes both destinations. If heaven is eternal, so is hell. We cannot accept one without the other. Jesus told a parable that is both sobering and heart rendering. Luke 16 tells of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. They both died. Lazarus was taken by angels to Abraham's bosom, but the rich man found himself in the torment of hell. He cried out to Abraham: Luke 16:24 "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame". This parable teaches vital truths about hell. It is a place of conscious existence. We are told that the rich man thinks, feels, remembers and speaks. It is a place of torment and there is a complete separation from God's blessing. There is no escape from hell. That gulf of separation is permanent it cannot be crossed. It is to be remembered that hell is not God's spiteful revenge on sinners. It is the righteous consequence for those who by their own free will choice, lived a life of rejection. That is a rejection of God and His Son Jesus, who He had sent into the world. It is the rejection of God’s mercy and grace. 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not purposing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance". The death of Jesus on the cross opened a door to salvation, from the consequences of sin – death. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The salvation God offers is a free gift. The door of grace and mercy stands open whilst people live. To reject the gift and close the door in God’s face, has the consequence of the eternal Hell. The Gospel has to be the great call to people by all who teach and preach. The Scripture speaks eloquently: Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call Heaven and earth to record today against you. I have set before you: life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live..”.  This was spoken to the Jewish people by Moses about their choices to obey or reject God. It is the same in the matter of heaven and hell – choose life. The Resurrection — The Great Hope The Bible teaches a bodily resurrection. This is the believer’s hope has within it, that the soul is going to be with God at death and will be reunited with the resurrected body This doctrine sets Christianity apart from every other worldview. The return of the Christ, will see the bodies of the dead being raised and the soul and the new spiritual body united, they are transformed and glorified through Jesus. The soul is not just some disembodied ethereal thing it will be clothed: 1 Corinthians 15:44 “..it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 “For we know that if our earthly house [our body] of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our dwelling-place out of Heaven; if indeed in being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; inasmuch as we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that the mortal might be swallowed up by the life.” Paul further writes with great pastoral tenderness to believers grieving their dead: 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord". The resurrection body will be real and physical, but transformed and imperishable. Our hope is not to drift around on clouds as disembodied spirits forever. Our hope is the resurrection of the body - a redeemed humanity dwelling in a renewed creation, in the full and glorious presence of God, for eternity. Hebrews 3:6 “But Christ was faithful as a Son over his own house; whose house we are, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”  The Final Judgment We must start our understanding that God’s throne is established, not founded on love but on righteousness and judgement: Psalm 89:14 “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before thee.” These Scripture teach that every human being will stand before God in judgment The Scriptures make clear God looks to see if a person has lived righteously and depending on that, justice must be done. From an earthly perspective, if someone breaks the law, say they murder another, it is expected that they will be subject to justice. But  this judgement is made in the context of steadfast love. This is how the Hebrew word ‘Hesed’, used. is translated. However, it means that the judgement is carried out with mercy and in faithfulness and truth, as meant by the Hebrew word ‘emeth’. Everyone will be treated fairly. We therefore, can now turn to what the Scripture teaches. There are two places of judgement. The first is the Bema or judgment seat of the Christ. There are two key Pauline portions of Scriptures to note here. 2Co 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.” 1Co 3:11-15 “For no other foundation can anyone lay, other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work shall be made manifest; for the Day shall reveal it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall test each one's work, as to what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built remains, he shall receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, but so as through fire.” For the believer, this is the Bema, the Judgment Seat of the Christ. This is not a judgment of condemnation, for Paul also makes clear: Romans 8:1"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus". The believer’s judgement is an assessment of faithful service and a time of eternal reward. This is not a choice that God makes as a form of favouritism. Rather it is a judgement made as to the person having made the right choice. As said above it is a judgement about righteousness. For a believer, they do not stand before this set in their own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Jesus Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (See also Romans 3:21ff and Romans 10:10) The second place of judgement is for those who have not accepted Jesus the Christ. It is the Great White Throne of judgment that awaits them. This is described by John in Revelation: Revelation 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and He who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled. And no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened the books. And another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by the things having been written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to their works. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death, the Lake of Fire. And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.” This is a deeply sad portion of Scripture, because it is a place of finality of judgement. It is where the books are opened and every life is assessed against God's perfect standard. Those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life, that those who have rejected God’s gift of the Lord Jesus and His righteousness, face the second death - the lake of fire. This is not a comfortable doctrine. But it is a biblical one, and as a teacher who loves people, I cannot hide it or dismiss it. I can only hope that people will choose wisely whilst they have their opportunity to do so in life. The Urgency of the Gospel Everything the Bible says about heaven, hell and the afterlife gives weight and urgency to the message of the gospel. Paul makes the most succinct and clear appeal: Romans 10:13 “For "whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved."” The Scriptures outlined here are clear. Heaven and hell are real. it is therefore profitable to accept what God offers in love – the gift of Jesus who imparts righteousness. Pursue this above all things. Avoiding hell is worth any sacrifice. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life: no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). To share that message with those we love is not a burden. It is a great act of love we can offer. The invitation of Scripture remains open today: Revelation 22:17 "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. Conclusion Let us be clear. What the Bible teaches on the afterlife and heaven and hell, is not designed to frighten but to give light in the darkness. It pulls back the curtain on death and what lies beyond. It invites us to live in the light of eternity. For the believer, death has lost its sting. The grave has lost its victory. Quoting from the Jewish Scriptures Paul confirms this: 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 “” O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christ has conquered both, and those who are in Him share in that conquest. Heaven is real. Hell is real. The resurrection is real. And the God who made us, redeemed us and promises to receive us, is more real than anything this present life contains. Romans 8:38-39 "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (KJV)  

Introduction Of all the questions ever asked about the Christian faith, this is a key doctrine. The whole of a Christian’s life depends on the answer. Salvation is futile and our faith impotent, if Jesus was just another man. Read John 1:1-14 carefully. John was the last living witness who actually walked and talked with Jesus. Note these verses particularly: What the Gospel of John Declares John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”  He wrote this Gospel with a purpose: John 20:31 “..but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the [yachid = unique*] Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” In the mind of the Jewish John, He would understand that the Scripture is clear that Jesus was yachid, unique. It is therefore clear that the Scripture from John is confirming – Jesus was truly God in human form. John wrote through the Spirit, that Jesus was not only with God from the beginning, but was God. This is not John being prosaic, or using an allusion. He was making a profound theological declaration, of the doctrine, that Jesus was God. Jesus was, from eternity, God. He never ceased being God. He reigns now as God in one essence with the Father and Holy Spirit. This is what is called the hypostatic union - fully divine and fully human simultaneously. He was put simply the God Man. Jesus' Own Words Jesus could not be clearer in what He declared: John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” This was clearly a declaration of His divinity. The outraged Jewish leaders of that time wanted to stone Him for the remark! To them it was blasphemy. On another occasion Jesus used the divine name "I AM" — this was what God revealed to Moses about Himself at the burning bush — for Jesus he had full entitlement to the name. John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” This brought about the same reaction – an attempt to stone Him. Jesus would use this phrase in other statements. (See John 10 for example) What the Apostles Declared Paul of all the Apostles was one of  the greatest educated Jews. He was trained in his Jewish theology to the extent of becoming a chief Pharisee – a Pharisee of Pharisees, he declared himself. There was no way Jesus could be, who He claimed to be – the God Man. So convinced was he about this that he sought to destroy the Way as the Jesus community was known (Acts 8:1-30). That was until he was confronted by the Lord Jesus! No longer could he deny that he had met a man who was dead and now stood in front of him on the Damascus road. That is why he would declare: Colossians 2:9 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;” Do you note the words of Paul? ‘.. all the fullness of the Godhead..’ Paul was making a very important point that he had come to understand. In Jesus every aspect of God the Father dwelt in Jesus. His omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, holiness and perfect love. The writer of Hebrews, writing to a mainly Jewish community makes a very stark and clear argument about the divinity of Jesus: Hebrews 1:5-8 “For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, today I have begotten You"? And again: "I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me"? But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him." And on the one hand he says to the angels, "He who makes His angels spirits and His ministers flames of fire." But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom.”  A clear statement of the divinity of Jesus is there. What the Prophets Foretold  The writer of Hebrews had in mind the prophecy from Genesis:  Genesis 49:10 “The scepter will not pass from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs will come. To him will be the obedience of the peoples.” We can also turn to Isaiah who seven centuries before the birth of Jesus the Christ, declares; Isaiah 9:6-7 “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. There is no end of the increase of His government and peace on the throne of David, and on His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Hosts will do this.”  This was the pointer to the Son being born who was ‘the mighty God, the everlasting Father.’ The term Mighty God is El Gibbor in Hebrew. This was used by Isaiah and Jeremiah elsewhere, to refer to Yahweh. Turning to the prophet, Micah, who wrote: Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”  This declaration is pointing to the eternal nature of the promised one, who was to be the ruler of Israel and that rule would also be eternal. Why This Matters  This doctrine matters as it is the foundation of our faith. The deity of Jesus the Christ is not an add on to faith or an optional doctrine that can be taken or left. It is the central core of the entire Christian faith. This is why: Only God can forgive sin. Many men had died on crosses. Not one of them could bear the sins of the whole world, not even their own and claim forgiveness. It was only the divine Son of God, taking on flesh and living and dying as a perfect man: the spotless Lamb of God – could bear those sins. He alone was able to pay the debt and bring righteousness to those who would believe on Him. Only God is worthy of worship. From Genesis to Revelation all worship belongs to God alone. Every act of worship was for God alone. Any other worship to any other false god or object was condemned. However, we see Jesus receive worship from His followers and His disciples Many of those He healed, worshipped Him. The very angels of heaven worshipped and adored Him. Jesus never rebuked or stopped any of them from worshipping Him. Unlike Peter who highlighted the difference between worship of man and Jesus (Acts 10:26). Who else but the divine Saviour can give eternal life. He declared  "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." (John 11:25) There is no human being whether priest, prophet, teacher, man or angel can make that promise and bring it about. Only God can. There will be objections It is argued that Jesus never said or invited people to worship Him. It is true that He never made any statement to that effect. However, the entire witness of Scripture is overwhelming. Those who walked with Him, those He healed, those delivered from demons, did not need to be asked to worship Him. Their immediate response was to recognise His divine power and authority. Every thing He did, His actions, His acceptance of worship, His authority to forgive sins, His power over death — these all declare His deity beyond any reasonable doubt. Some will try to point to Jesus saying, "the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) and then say that even Jesus accepted He was not God. This is to misunderstand what Jesus had done. He had laid aside the divine privileges of being God to live as a man. In His humanity He accepted to be the obedient Son within the Triune Godhead — He was not denying His divine nature. Paul makes this clear: Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself [Laid aside His divine privileges], by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” The doctrine of the Triune Godhead teaches that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct revelations of the Godhead who are co-equal in nature. Conclusion The whole question of the divinity of Jesus is not an abstract theological conundrum. It is deeply personal to every believer. The fact that Jesus is God, gives great weight to His invitation:  Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" There is divine authority and power that underlines it. His invitation to come to Him for the forgiveness of sin, is to find life and peace. In these invitations Jesus is offering Himself. The very God in human form, the author of life, the forgiver of sin, the conqueror of death. It is to all who will receive Him by faith. It is underwritten by His divinity and that divine authority. This study is showing the testimony of Scripture, of prophecy, and even of Jesus Himself, along with those who walked with Him. There is a unanimous agreement: Jesus the Christ is Lord. He is fully and truly God. Let us give the doubting Thomas the last word: John 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'"