Feeling What Not Having Hope Feels Like

A prominent politician made an interesting comment a couple
of weeks ago. The politician said, “We are feeling what not
having hope feels like.”

Why is this person lacking in hope? Her hopelessness comes
as a result of her political party losing in the November
election. With the election of someone that they heartily
disagree with, they feel that the policies conducive to hope
will be cast aside.

On the other side of the political spectrum, there is great hope
that “America will be made great again”. The sad reality is
that hope springs forth every time there is an election. The
winning voters always seem to hope that good things lie
ahead. As the hopes of the winning side in the election are not
met, there will be great disappointment over the failure to
deliver on the promises made to the voters.

The reality is that no matter the politician, his followers are
bound to be disappointed. The hopelessness of trusting
politicians and their offer for humanity is brought out in
Psalms 118:9, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in princes.”

Whereas man is limited and uncertain, God is not. God is the
same “Yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). We can
always be assured that God is there and He will always act in
our best interest even if His response is not what we want.

Let’s consider a couple of scriptures that lay out for us the
panorama of hope which is what prophecy is all about.
Through these scriptures, we can see why for God’s people
there is always hope.

The panorama begins in Genesis with the sins of Adam and
Eve. As God spelled out in Genesis 2, in the day in which
Adam or Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
they would die. Death is an inevitable outcome of sin.

With death hanging over the lives of the first couple, it might
be said, “They were feeling what not having hope feels like.”

However, one of God’s first actions after sin entered the world
is found in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." God was
telling the first man and woman that a seed would come who
would work out the problem of sin.

The scripture in Genesis seems pretty obscure until God fills
in more details about the coming, Seed, Jesus Christ, who
would open the way to salvation for all mankind.

What is to be ultimately be worked out by the Seed, Jesus
Christ, is detailed in Acts 3:19-21, “Repent therefore and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of
refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that
He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,
whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all
things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy
prophets since the world began.”

God, through Peter, tells us that as promised from the time of
the first sin there is coming a time when all things will be
restored to the way God always intended them to be. We are
reassured that there is always hope for this sin sick world
through Jesus Christ the Messiah.

The Bible reassures us of the fulfillment of this promise from
Genesis all the way to the end of Bible in Revelation.

Human beings lose hope because things don’t work out the
way they want them to.

But God is our hope no matter what is going on in our lives or
in the world around us. As the Psalmist says, “For You are my
hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth (Psalms
71:5).

Have a most enjoyable Sabbath because we always have hope.

Gary Smith

If God’s Word Is Not True, We Have No Hope

This year I decided to go back through a class on Ancient Israel. The class was a wonderful reminder of why I enjoyed the class in my college days.

The final portion of the class went through the arrest and trial of Jesus Christ which is an excellent study prior to the Passover. As this portion of the class began, several books on the subject of the arrest and trial were recommended by the professor. In light of the recommendations made, I ordered three books on the subject. I am currently in the process of reading one of the recommended books.

You would hope that the scholars would be able to give us deep insight into a subject that every Christian would like to know more about. However, the scholars writing the three books come at the subject from the same vantage point. Not one of the learned scholars believes that the Bible is the truth and every word of it is “God breathed” or as we might also say “inspired”.

The three writers view the Gospels as books based on a variety traditions and basically the “fantasies” of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In the scholars view, the four Gospels are not an accurate recounting of the life and death of Jesus Christ.

Here are a few quotes that emphasize the author’s vantage point.

“Thus the Gospels contain no less than seven different descriptions of a scene of a judicial or quasi-judicial character, together with five descriptions of a scene of the maltreatment and mockery of Jesus….Each evangelist retained what he himself had found, and enlarged it by his specific contribution. In this way a discrepancy came about between the various evangelical accounts….The sequence of events now recorded in the four Gospels could not possibly have taken place within the space of six or seven hours, actual time-lag between Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion” (Paul Winter, “On The Trial of Jesus”, pp. 7-8).

“It is now no longer seriously disputed that there was not available to the authors of the Gospels any testimony of eyewitnesses who were present at any of the stages of the arrest, trial, or crucifixion of Jesus and gave a direct account of it” (Haim Cohn, The Trial and Death of Jesus, p. xiii).

“In short, the Gospel traditions are “messages of faith and not historiography”; any historical material in their hands the authors used “to add detail and graphic quality,” but on the whole, they freely exercised their fantasy “in presenting, and in meaning to present, not history but theology” (Cohn, p. xv).

These quotes do not promote faith in God and in His word. If God’s word is unreliable, how can we have confidence in God or His plan of salvation? If God’s word is not true, we have no hope beyond the physical world, so we better be about the business of enjoying the physical life to the hilt.

However, we are reassured by God’s word.

First of all we learn in John 10:35 that, “…the Scripture cannot be broken)….” The point Christ is making concerning the scriptures, as accurately translated, is they are not in error. If we find error or contradiction in the word of God, then how can we believe in the scriptures at all? Thankfully, the scriptures are reliable and without error. If we find a seeming contradiction, we can be assured that if we dig into the scriptures we can find a reliable explanation.

The writers of the gospels sought to truthfully recount for God’s people the truths they witnessed. Their writings were not flights of fantasy made up in order to sell the public on Jesus Christ. Note what the Apostle John relates about his personal experience, “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe” (John 19:35).

John made a similar point in 1 John 1:1-4, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life — the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us — that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”

The writers of the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament sought to record the truth to serve as a reliable record for the generations to come. The New Testament harmonizes perfectly with Old Testament to give us a complete record in order to follow a path pleasing to God.

In summary, the Gospel accounts are true and accurate and serve to give us insight into our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sadly, so-called experts cannot see the picture clearly and they present a picture that only causes doubt and uncertainty.

Thankfully, God gives us the opportunity every Sabbath to come together as a congregation to delve into God’s word for “doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Have a pleasant Sabbath,

Gary Smith

Bible and Sword: On the Edge of Prophecy

I am currently reading, Bible and Sword, by Barbara W. Tuchman. It is an exposition on England and its relationship to Palestine. She covers the time from the Bronze Age to the time of the Balfour Declaration which paved the way for a Jewish state. It is a most interesting discussion of how the English took an interest in that small section of the earth that we as Christians would designate the Land of Promise.

In this week’s Sabbath Thought it is my goal to note one particular section of the book which I found to be amazing. What I found to be amazing was that there was a time when a group of Englishmen sought to literally implement God’s laws, judgments and statutes on a national scale.

In Chapter VII titled, “On the Edge of Prophecy: Puritan England and the Hope of Israel”, she gives an overview of the Puritans. For most people in modern America and in England, the Puritans are seen as “the lunatic fringe.”

She states, “With the Puritans came an invasion of Hebraism transmitted through the Old Testament, but distorted by the effort to apply to post-Renaissance England the ethics, laws and manners native to a Middle Eastern people of more than two thousand years earlier. In their devotion to chapter and verse of the Hebrew testaments the Puritans, undaunted by the mental jump of two millennia, adapted to themselves the thoughts of tribal herdsmen groping their way out of idolatry toward monotheism in the time of Abraham, or of slaves triumphing over Pharaoh in the time of the Exodus, or of warriors carving the frontiers of a new state in the time of Saul and David. . . .It did not matter that it covered a period, from Abraham to Maccabaeus, of nearly a millennium and a half; the Puritans swallowed the whole with equal zeal.”

“It was not a narrative ideally suited for transplanting word for word, as principle and precedent, to seventeenth-century England. But that was what the Puritans attempted” (Bible and Sword, Barbara W. Tuchman, page 108).

In other words, she sees the Puritans taking the teachings of the Old Testament and seeking to implement them in their time. In other words, they were seeking to take the scriptures and apply them in everyday life. They were seeking to apply God’s word to the whole of England.

There is actually a specific year in which the Puritans sought to bring about implementation of this lofty goal. “For in the year 1653, with the calling of the Barebone Parliament, the “remarkablest” of the modern world according to Carlyle, the peak of Hebraism was reached. The little band of stern, impassioned men hand-picked by Cromwell convened on July 4, 1653 with the set purpose of so remaking England’s constitution as to put into actual practice Mosaic Law and the pristine principles of Jesus. On the Exchange, in the courts, in the markets, the Englishman was willy-nilly going to love his neighbor as himself. It was, says Lord Morley in his life of Cromwell, an attempt “to found a civil society on the literal words of Scripture . . .the high water mark of the biblical politics of the time.

“Cromwell himself was inspired by the move and in his opening speech to the Little Parliament he seemed almost carried away by a vision of himself bringing, like Elijah, a nation back to God. “Truly you are called by God as Judah was to rule with Him and for Him. . .You are at the edge of Promises and Prophecies, he went on, and quoted the Sixty-eighth Psalm: “There it prophesies that ‘He shall bring His people again from the depths of the Sea’ as He once led Israel through the Red Sea. And it may be, as some think, God will bring the Jews home to their station, ‘from the isles of the sea’” And he rose in eloquence, quoting psalms and prophets in every other sentence and assuring his hearers that the triumph promised by the Sixty-eighth Psalm to God’s people of old would be realized by the Commonwealth, God’s people now on earth” (Tuchman, pp. 122-123).

The author is incredulous that the Puritans could not see that the literal implementation of the ancient word of God, formed and shaped over 1500 years, was an impossibility. For her, the Bible applied in its time only, but had little or no application beyond that time. The Bible is ancient and has little modern application.

Was there any positive outcome of this zeal for God’s word among the Puritans? Matthew Arnold wrote of the impact of the Puritans and their zeal to obey the law. Their zeal he says, “left a lasting imprint on the nation.”

“Our race,” Arnold declared, “has yet (and a great part of its strength lies here)…..a strong share of the assuredness, the tenacity, the intensity of the Hebrews. This turn manifested itself in Puritanism and has had a great share in shaping our history for the last two hundred years” (Tuchman, page 113).

From her interpretation of the Puritans, I have two observations.

First, is it really so unrealistic to apply the word of God on a day to day basis? She sees such application as impossible, but is it? What would happen if a nation undertook a full implementation of the word of God? The outcome would be revolutionary as the prophet Isaiah clearly stated.

Isaiah 2:3-4, ““Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

The second observation is that England was impacted positively by the Puritan effort to implement the principles of the Bible. It was not a trend that lasted, but it paved the way for freedom, parliamentary government, liberty, the rule of law and many other positive results in the English speaking world.

The Puritans didn’t fully understand the Bible, but they did understand that God’s way of life is to apply to a nation and our individual lives. Their approach was heavy-handed at times and at times misguided, but what they hoped for will be a reality when Jesus Christ returns.

Have a happy Sabbath,

Gary Smith

Preaching the Gospel

As the Sabbath day arrives, I would like us to consider “the preaching of the Gospel.”

When Jesus began His ministry, He began to preach a particular message. Mark mentions this in Mark 1:14-15, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."”

After His death and resurrection, Christ re-emphasized the work that the Apostles were to carry out, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen (Matthew 28:19-20). Clearly the Apostles were to carry on the work that Christ began in Galilee. They were to preach the gospel message of the soon coming kingdom of Heaven. They were to make disciples, which can only be done by teaching the truths of the Bible. These verses emphasize repentance since one can only have their sins washed away in the waters of baptism upon repentance.

Did the Apostles preach the gospel? We only have to look at what happened on the day of Pentecost in 31 AD. Acts 2:38-41 “Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”

The Gospel was preached. Disciples were added to the Church by God and congregations were established throughout the world. For a time, the Church of God enjoyed a relative freedom to preach the truths of the Bible and to meet the Roman Empire and beyond.

However, by the end of the 1^st Century, distortion of the truth and persecution upon the Church had begun. By 325 AD, with the decisions of the Council of Nicaea and Roman Emperor, Constantine, God’s people had to go into hiding for better than 1280 years. At the end of that time, the door was slowly opened for the Church to go forward to openly preach the Gospel.

For those of us associated with the Radio Church of God and its later manifestation, the Worldwide Church of God, we have lived in a remarkable time. A hundred years in which there has been relatively little suppression of the truth. It has been a time when the church could proclaim the Gospel to the world, over the airwaves, on TV, and in print. It has been an era in which the Church could meet in peace without fear of oppression.

On Friday, June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court decided a case legitimatizing something that is condemned by the scriptures. It opens the door for actions to be taken against those who wish to follow the scriptures.

Some questions:

• Will we be able to meet in peace while holding fast to the truth?
• Will we individually and collectively come under attack because our religious beliefs?
• Will we be able to hold jobs where we are forced to accept something we know to be in opposition to God’s way of life?
• Most fundamentally, can we continue to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we can no longer preach the message of repentance from dead works?

Pandora’s Box has been opened and there is no putting what has been unleashed back in the bottle.

Will we follow the Apostles admonition as we go forward in preaching the truth even if we are threatened and persecuted? Note what Peter and the other apostles said in response to the religious authorities seeking to suppress the truth, “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him." (Acts 5:29-32).

How the future will unfold exactly is unknown, but all of God’s people must be aware that on June 26, 2015 we crossed a threshold that can only bring challenges for God’s people.

We especially need God’s protection, wisdom, and guidance as we journey on to the Kingdom of God.

Stay focused on the hope we receive every Sabbath day and may God hasten the reality that the Sabbath portrays.

Gary Smith