“Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” - The Biblical Book of Proverbs, 9:10







Copyright 2018 Kim Normington California USA
A Letter to Joseph: What I believe, and Why
Preface
The leadership at our protestant Christian church in the Santa Clara Valley of California has expressed great concern that the majority of kids raised in the American Christian church, stop attending or participating in church after high school. You yourself, Joe, a college student of twenty-four, were baptized when you were 14, and you participated in a ‘small group’ bible study throughout high school, but you don’t attend church regularly at this time. (Full disclosure: Neither did I at your age, and with the same raised-in-the-church background.) The reason cited by some studies on this is that parents have not even told their kids what they believe, and why. While we prayed with you as you grew up, each night since you were born, read Bible stories to you and spoke of our faith to you, and took you to church and Sunday School, and certainly showed you our values over the years, neither your mother, nor I have sat with you and told you, in great detail, from start to finish, exactly what we believe.
So I decided to write this. The following is what I, your dad, believe and why, in under 50 pages. This is for you, Joseph.
I have a second, and equally important reason for writing this. It is apparent to me that much of the highly educated, technology- and science-oriented population in America and all over the world, have left the world of faith behind. If you can’t see it, it must not be there. If there is no identifiable, peer-reviewed science behind it, it must not be real. Data-driven decision making is the only rational approach. Religion to them is the middle ages, it is myth, it is quaint.
However, I believe my faith has a firm basis in facts. I don’t believe it is quaint. I don’t believe it is a fairy tale. I believe there is a coherent, understandable message for connecting with eternity in the Bible, and I want to help give the sons and daughters of Silicon Valley a fighting chance before it is too late. (Whether this ever reaches a single one of them, is entirely up to the Creator of the universe.) Some of the world’s most intelligent people, over the centuries and today, have embraced the message of the Messiah, and so there is no reason for anyone else to assume it is just a mad fantasy, without seriously examining the evidence.
In order to escape the “dogma” language of religion, you will see that sometimes I explain my beliefs in ways that don’t sound very religious, in fact they may sound very secular and even “sacreligious” (i.e., offensive to those who consider themselves religious). In those instances I am trying to move past “Jesus-speak” to language that makes sense to people who are naturally, and rightfully, skeptical. There, I’ve said it: This is for the sceptics. I am not speaking to the choir here.
Caveats: Other than looking up specific bible verses and passages, and checking on some dates in Wikipedia, I have deliberately not done any research to prepare for writing what follows. [Where I have commented on the authorship of certain texts, the sources are in Wikipedia and/or sermons of various pastors I have heard over the years.] I wanted to explain my faith without having to say “I believe it because so-and-so said it was so.” If there is a subsequent future version of this, it might well be more thoroughly researched. If there are any serious theological or other errors, they are mine alone. I don’t have a degree in the theology of any religion. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly: I’m pretty sure that all of the ideas expressed in the following are not original, and I think that is a very good thing. This is mainstream Christianity as I understand it, explained, hopefully, simply.
Six things to consider before, and as you read this. I’ll be referring to these as we go.
(1) You need to know why you believe what you believe. It’s completely okay to just have a simple faith, to just say “I believe because I believe,” in the manner of a child; [Jesus said “…unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like (a) child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”] However, Joe, as you and many others have noticed, kids raised in Muslim households tend to believe in Islam, kids raised in Jewish households practice Judaism, kids raised in Hindu households follow that faith, kids raised in Buddhist or Shinto cultures follow their parents’ beliefs, etc. So, unless all these religions are compatible and are all “true,” I think it is important to understand why you believe what you believe, and even pry yourself free of what you have been taught and re-learn it again for yourself. Because making a mistake on this could have eternal consequences.
(2) Our species, homo sapiens, always seems to have a connection to the after-life, in terms of rituals, burial practices, temples for the dead, all that. Everywhere, and throughout its history, this species of ours seemed aware of something unseen, something beyond. Some American Indian tribes believe in the “Great Spirit” which I can equate to what Christians call the “Holy Spirit…” CS Lewis’ points out, in “Mere Christianity,” that we are hard-wired with a conscience….we know right from wrong and are in surprising agreement across cultures about much of that. Why is that? And we seem to be built to seek out an unseen creator or an unseen presence. Every culture does, and builds statues and monuments to what they have found or what they believe to be just beyond the field of vision. Why is that? (As you’ll see, I believe in evolution, but I don’t see a Darwinian reason for this seeking out the unseen, by mankind.) Why are we hard-wired for seeking an unseen power?
(3) “A rich man died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But Abraham replied, ‘…between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ The man answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them.’ (The man said) ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ (Abraham) said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ” - as told by Jesus Christ, in the Biblical book of Luke 16:23-31.
(4) “Even though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” – King David, Psalm 23:4, speaking about God.
(5) “…I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” – Jesus Christ, Matthew 16:18.
(6) “You are fearfully and wonderfully made” - Psalm 139:14. Joseph, you acknowledged your Creator and his son, Jesus Christ when you were baptized at the age of 14. In this decision you made a connection with a force you will never fully understand while you dwell here on Earth. But that force will not let you go, and it will continue to present itself to you. Once you turn again to that force, you will find that you have strange and wonderful resources at your disposal. I know this sounds crazy, but it is as true as the sky is blue. I am your Pop, and you know I have always told you the truth.
This letter has twelve sections after this Preface. I suggest you read them in order, perhaps one at each sitting or each day. This, frankly, took about seven years to write, and it is not intended to be “skimmed.”
The last thing I want to say in this Preface is this. If this goes nowhere, nobody reads it, that will be that. If this goes somewhere, gets read widely, some folks are going to be royally pissed off. Because telling some simple, well-understood truths, again, is just unacceptable to those who are invested in you believing the oft-told lies about the human condition.
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Contents
Preface (above)1. Why this is important: the context2. Good News is Bad News: L.A. 19823. In the Beginning: Creation, the Fall of Man, the Abramic Covenant, the Exodus from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land4. King David: Deeply flawed, but loved by God because of his faith5. The Psalms6. The Prophets Isaiah and Daniel7. Jesus of Nazareth8. The Parables of Jesus9. Peter, Paul and Martyrs: After Christ10. Paul’s Letters: Explanations of the Christian faith addressed to different audiences11. Revelation: What will eventually happen (or already has)12. What then shall we do?

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1. Why this is important: the context
The man: Two thousand years ago, in a seemingly obscure corner of the Roman Empire called Palestine, a not formally educated, iterant minister preached for just three years and attracted enough attention from the Jewish religious hierarchy (the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin) and from the Roman governor - and was perceived to be enough of a threat - that he was executed on a Roman cross, like other high profile* criminals, at the age of 33. [* I was taught that death by cross was for low-life, low-class, unimportant criminals, but the historians now say that is definitely not the case.]
The location: Although we tend to think of Palestine as a “backwater” in Roman Empire times, when Rome and Alexandria and Greek City-states and some capitals in Asia were the center of things, Palestine was at the intersection of trade routes running south to Africa, and from west (Europe) to east (the “Orient”) – the latter of which we now call the Silk Road. The Rift Valley and the Silk Road form a giant intersection that leads to the destinations of Europe, Asia and Africa. Palestine is, geologically, at the northern end of the Great Rift Valley which runs from southeastern Africa northward. (The remains of some of the earliest pre-homo sapiens, Homo Habilus, who walked upright and used tools, were found in Olduvai Gorge [Tanzania] in the Rift Valley in 1960.) The location of Jesus Christ’s ministry is not obscure at all, as it was on the major trade routes of the advanced world at that time. This was not random, where God put Jesus (and before him, God’s self-proclaimed “chosen people,” the Jews): You had to go through there to get anywhere. (Dubai’s airport, in the Arab Emirates, is about to become the busiest airport in the world. In the 21st Century. The middle East continues to be the crossroads of the world.) And, as one pastor recently reminded me in a sermon, Julius Caesar’s death in 44 BC ushered in the Pax Romana (Roman peace) that lasted for about two hundred years and allowed Christianity to flourish. So history, location, everything conspired to allow the creation of the foundation of Christianity.
The man, again: No one else has ever come across the stage of human history and claimed to be the only path to God (“I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6. ), and been taken seriously. We now base our calendar on the estimated birthdate of this itinerant minister and former carpenter. Why is that. How did this guy get to be so important?
Many “nuts” have claimed they were things that they were not, but they were not taken seriously. Of those religious leaders who were credible: Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Abraham/Moses, all the founders of the world’s great religions, none of them claimed to be God or that a personal relationship with them was the one true path to God. Except Jesus Christ.
Jesus is thought of by many non-believers as a good and wise man, perhaps a prophet, perhaps even a paragon of human behavior – and that’s why he is so important. This is completely inconsistent with the historical record of Christ. Jesus claimed to be God, or at least the son of God and the one true pathway to God. “He was either a nut, an insane megalomaniac, or he was what he said he was.” ([1] Ref. Dr. Gene Scott, circa 1982)
There is serious evidence that after he was executed, he was found to be alive by many, many people over a period of many weeks. So he beat the grave, and proved that he was what he said.
So everyone should ask themselves: What if this is true? That Jesus Christ was sent by God to be the savior of humanity. To make a mistake on this point, I think you do it at great peril. You must, at least, examine the evidence.

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2. Good News is Bad News: L.A., 1982
Sometime in the summer of 1982, a year out of grad school, I was driving home from work at Mattel Toys in Hawthorne, California (just a few blocks from where the Wilson brothers of the Beach Boys grew up) to my apartment in the beautiful Belmont Shore area of Long Beach. I was flipping the dial on the radio as I sat in the “world’s largest parking lot” – the 405 Freeway – during the evening rush hour. I landed on a station where I heard a very clear, authoritative voice and I realized it was a preacher. He was literally in mid-sentence: “…It’s pretty clear, if you look at all the evidence in the old and new testaments, that the majority of humans who will ever live, won’t be going to Heaven.” A shocking statement. It was Dr. Gene Scott, an LA-based televangelist who had a PhD from Stanford University. The point he was making was, with less than a third of people on Earth even claiming any kind of relationship with Christ, from the Christian perspective that left over two thirds on the outside looking in. And that assumes that everyone who claims to be a Christian, is. So the numbers are probably even worse.
And so if you believe that Christ is the savior* of mankind, the numbers suck for mankind. Is that good news? Honestly, I think that is very bad news. If there is a God, how could he let that happen?
Well, it’s about free will.
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom… - Matthew 4:23. The problem with the “good news” of Jesus isn’t that God doesn’t want to save mankind, or that God isn’t a loving God who forgives easily (read the biblical book of Jonah, chapter 3 if you want to see a good example of God’s compassion toward a sinful population). God decided when he made Man, to give him free will – not impose behavior - and the problem is that too much of mankind wants to be their own God**, doesn’t want a relationship with the true God, and He has said that the only way to have that is through his son, Jesus Christ. The thing is, if people understood what having a relationship with Jesus Christ meant, many of them would want it. Remember the story, quoted above, about the man who wanted to go back and warn his family, warn those still living? And consider Matthew 11:30, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light,” which is Jesus saying that it is not all that hard to be a follower of Him.
(We will however visit the biblical book “Acts of the Apostles” later in this letter, and we’ll see that it is not always easy to follow Jesus. We must be in it for the long term, not the immediate rewards.)

Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom – Psalm 111:10
There is good news though. It is not hard to find Christ if you look. If you seek him, He will find you. And once he finds you, he won’t let go. He’ll keep showing himself to you. Life on Earth may be better or worse for you, after you find Him. (You will be the same flawed, imperfect individual but with a very different perspective and with a different source of strength, and so at least some of your actions and outcomes will be very different.) But Eternal life, we are told, will be assured. And all tears, and fears, and troubles will be gone in that life. We’ll live in “mansions,” surrounded by love and by the best of friends, and I believe we’ll be given meaningful, exciting work to do. “In the house of my Father there are many mansions….I go on to prepare a place for you…” – Jesus Christ, John 14:2.
Please be assured that there is one soap I am not selling you: that Christianity is a complete remedy for this world’s difficulties, or that by embracing Christ you will have a golden path to worldly success. Most people who are Christians in this world live the same challenging lives as their peers and compatriots. The “Life will be materially better if you become a Christian” stuff is told because it sells, particularly in America, but it is not more true because it’s often told. Jesus, in fact, describes in Matthew 8:18-22 how great is the cost of following him. What is promised is, you will have peace beyond your understanding, the “peace of God which surpasses all understanding” as described by St. Paul in Philippians 4:7.
[*** See third note at the end of this section.]
You know that bumper sticker, “Life is not a dress rehearsal,” and many folks agree with that? Because they think, “This is all there is, this is all the time we get.” I gotta tell you, I think they’re very, very wrong. Not everything about life is a dress rehearsal, but Life is most assuredly preparation for life in eternity.
Another common saying is “It’s all good”, or “Everything happens for a reason.” Well, not down here on Earth. We got kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and we are in something like that place “Pandora” in the movie “Avatar.” We’re in a beautiful but dangerous place. Bad stuff happens (an earlier version of this used another term). War, famine, disease, mayhem, crime, terrorism, weather, accidents, they happen to the believer and non-believer. We can pray for, and receive, protection from many things here on Earth. But there is no assurance that nothing bad will happen to Christians down here in “Pandora.”
[I hear non-believers say all the time, in various forms, “I don’t believe there is a God because if there is, with all the misery and suffering in this world, either he doesn’t exist or he’s a sick monster for creating and/or allowing all of this.” Well, when you give this creature, homo sapiens, free will, and then put them (outside of the Garden of Eden) in a situation where there are scarce resources, and where – yes – accidents do happen - you have life on earth today. And that is how God has set it up for us. Another way of thinking about this: If you are a parent, and you have three children and you let them resolve their differences among themselves, and one child kills one of the others, does that mean you should have locked the children away separately to prevent this happening? Most of us would not automatically blame the parent for everything bad that the children do…yet many are very quick to blame a God that they claim not to believe in!]
We are asked to choose Christ because of the place it will give us in eternity, and the knowledge that, while we are down here in “Pandora,” we will be okay for all eternity. Ultimately, it all depends on whether you believe in eternity…
So, like the beer commercial says, Here we go…

*Saving mankind from what? We will delve into that in the next section, “In the Beginning…”** We were, says the Bible, created in God’s image. God is God, and we are built to want to be that ourselves – a god. But we are not ready for that while here on Earth.*** In Mark 10:30, Jesus does seem to promise “a hundredfold in this lifetime” for those who make great sacrifices; this to me is a perplexing and seemingly contradictory verse but as Jesus says, “With God all things are possible.”

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3. In the Beginning: Creation, The Fall of Man, the Abramic Covenant, the Exodus from Egypt and entry into the Promised Land
“In the beginning all was invisible. The sky was motionless. There was only water, the quiet ocean, the silence, the nights. Then there came the word.” - From the Popol Vuh, sacred Maya scriptures, taken from the book Playa Del Carmen by Joshua Eden Hinsdale.
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” - Genesis 1:2
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1
The creation story in Genesis was written (probably by Moses) in about 1400 BCE (1300 BCE is the date calculated by rabbinical Judaism and Moses may have been around earlier than either of these two dates), is predated by the Gilgamesh Epic (circa 1800 BC) and other ancient Sumerian legends which describe some of the same events told in Genesis. I didn’t know until recently that the Maya, whose origins as a high functioning society date to about 2000 BC, had a creation story with some elements seemingly similar to those found in Genesis. (Not at all drawing a historical connection here, it’s just very interesting.)
This section will be the longest in this letter, several pages, because Genesis and Exodus form the foundation of everything else that happens in the Bible.
Before I go further, an important word: I believe that the books in the Bible are divinely inspired, meaning God got his message into them. Each book in the Bible was written by a human, not dictated by God, and there are many agendas in the various books of the Bible. I was taught as a child that the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE (Common Era, essentially the Christian Era), decided which books of the New Testament era, at least, would be part of the Bible and which would not. (The books of the Old Testament having been agreed upon by Jewish scholars prior to that.) However, according to many sources, it’s more likely that the books that make up today’s Bible were agreed upon over time in a series of councils that may have started before Christ (in the case of the Old Testament books) and continued until the late 300’s or even 400’s CE. The important thing I believe here is that not everything in the Bible is necessarily to be taken literally. A majority of Christian scholars agree with this. I do not believe it is an Herculean task to understand which parts of the Bible are literal and which are not. I do believe that if the Bible says something happened – the great flood, for example – then something happened, in that case a great flood. It may be that not everything about the description of the flood in Genesis, was a complete and accurate description. But something big, something historical, happened. The majority of biblical scholars (and as you know I am not a bible scholar) feel as I do, that if the Bible says something big happened, then something big happened. But also that the Bible is not a complete treatise on everything that happened, and it often contains a very simplified version of what happened, and from the perspective and agenda of the writer.
I do believe that Genesis 1, like the other creation stories, is a very simple representation of what happened. I do not believe it is literal. I do believe that there was a creator, and that it was the guy we call “God,” the Father. (It is for us now, a mystery that God the father, and Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit were all there in the beginning. That probably then refers to the beginning of our time-space continuum, not their beginning. Because a father precedes his son, who then presumably precedes a caretaker – the Holy Spirit – of our realm )
Creator, vs random evolution: In God’s creation, I personally see evidence of an architect…the whimsical nature of the life forms in coral reefs, the redwood forest, the desert, the birds. But on the other hand, I can’t accept “poof creationism,” the idea that God literally, merely spoke into existence, everything. The fact that there are perhaps four hundred thousand species of beetles: why bother if you (i.e. God, or nature) are not experimenting with what works and populating numerous ecosystems over a very long period of time? If you can speak into existence a perfectly functioning beetle – and they do have a pretty cool architecture – why 399,999 other models? So that I am perfectly clear: I believe that evolution is the primary means by which species developed on Earth. I cannot say how much other intervention there might have been once things were set into motion. I don’t see any inconsistency with believing in science and believing that there might have been interventions at various points, although I don’t have any strong feelings about the latter. But God started it and continues it as the “kingdom of heaven” unfolds.
Age of the Earth: I don’t believe the Earth is 6,000 or 8,000 or 10,000 years old, as some “Young Earth Creationists” who try to interpret the Bible literally, do. I believe the scientists who tell us that the Earth is at minimum over four billion years old and the known universe is over ten billion years old. The guy who led America’s Human Genome Project, Francis Collins (a committed Christian and a big-time scientist), said in a speech at a CS Lewis conference at Oxford in 2008: “The evidence is, the world is very old, and I’m sorry if this disappoints those of you who feel otherwise.”
What about Genesis saying God created the Earth in six days? Almost all Jewish scholars will tell you that biblical “days” are not 24-hour days, but eras. Long periods of time, demarcations of long phases. It’s just absurd that so many – mostly American – Christians insist on this six literal days thing, and it ruins their testimony to the world. As former President (and serious Christian) Jimmy Carter has said, this insistence on a young earth ruins the credibility of Christians in their witness to the world. Could the Earth have been created by God in six actual days? Sure, because I believe God is capable of pretty much anything, but see my reference to the “Holideck” below.
I like The Vatican website’s (circa 2009) handling of these issues. It basically said that human scientific discovery is part of God’s amazing revelation to mankind, and Catholics are free to believe that the earth is very young, or very old. They are not free to assume that creation as we see it just happened in some random manner with no influence by God the creator.
The fact is, if you want to make the case that the Earth is very young, you need to explain away what are now millions of scientific observations, quite consistent with each other, that the Earth is old. In the 1970’s, the Creation Science Institute sought to explain away certain things like radio-carbon dating and major water erosions like the Grand Canyon (i.e. that the Grand Canyon was caused by the “Great Flood”). I attended one of their presentations, so I know this. Since then, literally millions of scientific observations demonstrate an old Earth. Sure, the Earth could be like the “Holideck” on Star Trek, a place of complete and convincing fantasy. God could have faked all the evidence that the Earth is old, but why would he? If he loves us, respects those of us who recognize and love Him, why would He fake it all? I think one can argue that one of the reasons God created Man was because God wanted someone who could appreciate what he did in creating the heavens and earth. “The Heavens declare the glory of God….” Psalm 19:1 So scientific discovery is a way of learning about the fantastic complexity of our Earth and the universe, as designed by the great Architect himself. This is what I believe. (To ‘poof Creationists,’ I say “Your God is the Wizard of Oz, a really fancy circus act. My God is the architect of things that if you had a thousand lifetimes to study them, you would only begin to understand what has been done by him.”)
Adam and Eve – my view. Whether there was an actual Adam and Eve, or this is allegory, I believe they may well represent the first homo sapiens who had a soul, in other words, who could have a special relationship with the Creator. So I don’t think they were the first homo sapiens, and that resolves many of the problems that Biblical literalists have with science. If Adam and Eve were not the first of our species, we have resolved the issue that there were just a few thousand years between Adam and Eve, and Christ. (Genesis 1 says the plants preceded the animals which preceded man. Genesis 2 is very disconnected from Genesis 1, and suggests that man preceded plants and clearly is about one of the men and one of the women created in Genesis 1. So Genesis is not at all crystal clear on the sequence of events.)
The scientific evidence so far suggests that the earliest homo sapiens - our species - showed up in the area of the Great Rift Valley - in modern-day Ethiopia or Tanzania - about two to four hundred thousand years ago. Geologically, the Great Rift Valley runs from the middle of Africa’s eastern side, northward all the way up to modern day Palestine (Israel). The Jordan River in Israel is the northern end of this geological feature. It’s not a surprise to me that God chose this backbone of the Earth as the place where he gave Man his first soul, and where he sent his son to live among men. (Before homo sapiens, we know there were upright walking “ape-like” or “human-like” primate creatures dating back 2 million years or more and perhaps to fifty million years. Whether they were our direct ancestors, or not, is really not that important. But it’s likely that at least one chain of these creatures were our biological ancestors.) And, our species, homo sapiens, has been dated genetically to 200,000 to 400,00 years ago. (And the evidence is that Neanderthals, a larger human-like creature, lived side by side with homo sapiens for a time. And some homo sapiens today have some Neanderthal DNA in them. Were these the creatures mentioned in Genesis 6:4? Big problem for Biblical literalists, that verse! But let’s not go there right now.)
One fascinating aspect of this is that, although we think of the times of Abraham (2200 BCE?), Moses (circa 1300 BCE), and times of Christ, 2000 years ago, as a long time ago, in the context of 200,000+ years of homo sapiens history, all these events occurred in the last three or four percent of human history. I think that makes it far more understandable that things written those thousands of years ago, show that the people of those times seem pretty much like people today. In terms of brain wiring, socialization, and economic organization, they were much like us. That’s why we can relate to many of the stories in the bible.
Genesis identifies the Garden of Eden as being between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, placing it in modern day Iraq. Modern science suggests the location may now be under water in the Persian Gulf – coastlines have shifted significantly in that part of the world. (Abraham came from Ur, a major Sumerian city on the banks of the Euphrates River, which was at the time at the mouth of the river on the Persian Gulf, but the coastline has shifted and the buried remains of the city are now well inland.) Although that area is very arid, completely desert, today, we know that the area was much more verdant several thousand years ago – as was the Sahara region of Africa! (“Things have changed.” - Bob Dylan)
Genesis says that Adam and Eve dwelled in the Garden of Eden, and warned them not to eat from a certain tree. Eve, at the behest of the “serpent” (apparently, Satan, the devil), ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and broke God’s command. (It is not identified as an apple, that fruit, although often spoken of as such.) And that angered God a great deal: He felt betrayed.
So Adam and Eve had to leave Eden, and whereas they had been caretakers of a garden, they and their offspring were now destined to be farmers – to toil at raising food from the ground until to the ground we return. God put cherubim – a kind of angel – on the east side of the Garden to prevent entry by Man. This, simply, represents the Fall of Man, wherein sin, i.e. doing what God commanded not to do, separated Man from God. The major theme of the rest of the bible, both Old and New Testaments, is how a messiah – a savior - would come, to reinstate and restore the relationship between God and Man.
I think it is important to understand that the concept of sin, means separation from the will of God. It isn’t really about Eve ate something she shouldn’t have and so we are all screwed. The human condition is, we are separated from God by our own arrogance and self-interest, and if we give that up and find faith in the redemption God sent us (Christ), we reconnect. And then we find an eternal future that is great. It isn’t a whole lot more complicated than that.
[Many, many volumes have been written over many centuries, by brilliant people, about the concept of the Fall of Man and the relationship between the creator of the universe, and mankind. I’m sorry to give it short shrift here. Study it if you will.]
I will skip over the stories of early Genesis, including that famous one featuring two of Adam and Eve’s many sons and daughters, Cain and Abel; but some hundreds of years passed and mankind proliferated on the Earth.
We then find the story of Noah. Apparently mankind’s sin was really angering God, and he decided to do a “reboot” on humanity. Wipe it out and start over. But he found one man and his family who were righteous, and decided to save them. This is an important theme you will see repeated throughout the Bible, that God takes a “remnant,” a small group of faithful people, and grows the entire future from that small group. (This is one of several recurring themes in the Bible; another is that God uses the lowest of the low – total losers - to become leaders and accomplish great things for him.)
Again, with Noah, I believe the most essential stated claims: there was a big boat (the “ark,” which means vessel), a lot of people and animals were taken onto the boat, and there was a great flooding of the land. It would not have been physically possible for Noah to collect two of each species (or more than two in some cases, according to Genesis) of every animal on the ark, and it’s not likely the entire 360 degree circumference of the Earth was flooded. But the point is, something big happened, a whole lotta water.
Noah’s story is also told in the Quran (the Koran) and was part of early Earth legends throughout the middle east, having its origins in the “Gilgamesh” creation story, circa 1800-2500 BCE.
After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah, telling him that He would not in the future cause flood waters to destroy all life on the Earth.
After more time passed, the narrative in Genesis moves to a man called Abram, who lived in Ur, which was a major Sumerian city in Mesopotamia (in modern day Iraq). Archeology has identified human activity in Ur dating to at least 2500 BCE, making it not nearly the oldest known city (which could be modern day Jericho, or even some parts of Damascus that date past 5000 BCE. Cities arose sometime after farming started in about 10,000 BCE.)
Genesis 12 says that God told Abram to go from his country to a land he would be shown. God further said “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you…and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” At God’s instruction, Abram went with his wife Sarai, nephew Lot, and others, to the land of Canaan, which roughly corresponds to the areas of modern day Israel, Lebanon and parts of Jordan and Syria. This is, literally, what is referred to as the “promised land.” When Abram, who was a nomadic herder (probably goats and sheep), got to Canaan, he found the locals dwelling there, and also there was famine [aka the crops were not producing food] in the land, so he headed south, through the Negev (the desert in southern Israel) and into Egypt. This would not be the last time God’s people found themselves not in the promised land of Canaan but in Egypt. Abram became very wealthy in Egypt, raising and selling livestock. Eventually Abram and Lot and company went north, with Abram settling in Canaan and Lot settling nearer to the Mediterranean sea in Sodom. God made a covenant with Abram, telling him that for four hundred years his descendants would be enslaved in a country not their own (referring to Egypt), but they would return to the promised land of Canaan after that time and would be given the land.
To shorten what is a longer story, Sarai, Abram’s wife apparently could not have children, so Hagar, Sarai’s handmaiden, bore a son to Abram, named Ishmael. God said that Ishmael’s “hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
God then made another covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham and giving him and his descendants everlasting possession of the land of Canaan. (This is why modern day Israel clings so tightly to every scrap of this land.) The deal was, every male in Abraham’s clan needed to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant with God. God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah and promised that she would bear a son (even while apparently unable to bear children, and now very old at the age of ninety), and that Sarah would be the mother of nations and ancestor of many kings.
In Genesis 18, God destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, due to their extremely sinful nature, with “sulphur out of the heavens,” probably a large meteor or fragments of a comet, although possibly the result of volcanic eruption. Lot’s wife looked back at the conflagration and was turned to a pillar of salt. (There is today in modern day Israel a stone formation that everyone calls “Lot’s Wife”!)
As the story in Genesis proceeds, Abraham has contentious relationships with the kings and warlords of the region; Hagar and Ishmael are sent away; and Sarah finally bears a son as God promised: Isaac. God then tested Abraham, telling him to sacrifice his young son with a knife. Abraham did as God told him, but as he was ready to kill the boy, God told Abraham not to kill him. God said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” (God would sacrifice his only son, Jesus, on a Roman cross two millennia later.)
(Ishmael, Abraham’s first son, is regarded as the ancestor of Mohammed, so he is to the Muslims as Isaac is to the Jews.)
Isaac marries Rebekah, a Canaanite girl. They had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Each became the ancestor of different nations; Esau of the Edomites and Jacob of (eventually) the Jews. Jacob married Rachel, and today in Israel, “Rachel’s Tomb” is a famous place where women go to pray for fertility. Jacob is renamed “Israel” by God, and one of his sons was Joseph.
The story of Joseph is familiar from Sunday School and/or from the famous musical. Joseph, living in Canaan, was a subject of contempt of his brothers, who sold him (!) to a band of Ishmaelites who were taking their camels, loaded with spices, to Egypt to trade them. (Several of Joseph’s brothers, such as Judah, became head of some of the twelve tribes that we now refer to as the “twelve tribes of Israel.”) Taken down to Egypt and sold as essentially a slave, Joseph, due to his skills and intelligence, found himself working for Pharaoh himself, and being given important responsibilities. As we will see repeated in later Old Testament books, the king (Pharaoh) has a dream and the trusted servant (Joseph) correctly interprets it and gains further favor. Joseph was then put in charge of the entire land of Egypt at the age of thirty!
Meanwhile, famine overtook Canaan (pronounced traditionally in America and England as KAY-nun, but more likely should be pronounced as kuh-NAAN), and Joseph’s father and brothers – including those who had sold Joseph - came down to Egypt to find food. Long story short, Joseph did not punish his brothers who had sold him into slavery, but forgave them. What’s the significance of Joseph aside from being an important part of Jewish history? His life story is a pattern of, and signal for, what would happen in the life of one Jesus Christ, a long time later.

The Exodus
This book is about the descendants of Israel (Jacob), Joseph and his brothers; all of the former are now, by this time, dead. Their descendants reside in Egypt and are “oppressed,” being used as slave labor and being required to live in what we today would call “ghettos.” A new Pharaoh, who had no loyalty to Joseph, decided to formally enslave the now inconveniently numerous Israelites, and to throw all Hebrew newborn boys into the Nile so they would die. One couple of the Hebrew tribe of Levi, had a son whom they desperately wanted to keep alive, so the mother placed him in a papyrus vessel and floated him in the reeds on the banks of the Nile. A daughter of the Pharaoh discovered the floating baby, and took him to some Hebrew women who could nurse the baby. When the baby grew to be a boy, they took the boy to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son, whom she named “Moses.”
Moses saw the mistreatment of the Hebrews as he grew up. One day as he was tending his flock, God called out to him, telling him He was the god of his ancestor Abraham and that he would help Moses bring the Hebrews out of Egypt and back to the land of “milk and honey” – Canaan.
It’s not completely clear (to me) why, if the Hebrews were becoming too numerous, that Pharaoh did not want them to leave Egypt, but that is something to consider in the next version of this narrative. But it is clear that the Jews served as an important slave labor element in Egypt, and thus they were not free to just move on.
Exodus 7 – 12 covers the various plagues (such as locusts) that God visited on Egypt in order to get the Pharaoh to let the Hebrews leave. The final plague was when God killed the first born child in every household, a horrifying concept, except that He instructed the Hebrews to put lamb’s blood on the doorframes of their homes. When the Lord (represented probably by an angel or angels) would see the lamb’s blood on the doorframe, instead of killing the firstborn, He would “pass over” that house. From that time forward, the Jews celebrated “passover” as one of the major festivals in their religion. And, two thousand years later, Jesus would enter Jerusalem for the last time during the Passover celebration, as a sign that He is the Lamb of God and anyone who believes in Him will not be judged by God: one’s sins will be “passed over.”
What exactly was the passover? WTF, an angel killing children? As noted earlier, I believe when the bible says something big happened, something big happened. This was, like the great flood, an example of something really nasty happening. It would be harder to believe, except in our own last hundred years of human history we have seen a whole lot of really nasty things happen, both by human hand and natural disaster. So biblical-scale events are seen even today.
The rest of Exodus covers the Hebrews’ flight from Egypt, the famous “parting of the Red Sea” (there is now a scientific theory about how this actually happened, although it appears to have been a tributary or estuary of the Red Sea, not the Red Sea itself, that experienced a special tidal flow that made a dry path for the Hebrews and then overcame the pursuing soldiers of the Pharaoh); the Hebrews wandering in the desert (Sinai) for forty years; the manna (bread) coming from Heaven to feed the Hebrews along the way; the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai; the creation of a Tabernacle (a moveable temple) and the Ark of the Covenant, in which God’s spirit on Earth resided; rules for making offerings to God, and the development of a priestly class who could enter the tabernacle; and the creation of “Shabbat” (the Sabbath) as a weekly holy day.
The book of Leviticus then goes through all the rules and regulations (created by Man, not God!) that were outlined in Exodus. Aaron, Moses’ son and Aaron’s sons were anointed as priests, setting up a priestly class (later known as “Judges”) that had tremendous power. (It’s not unlike the Mullahs in Iran and important clerics in Arabian countries today, who hold power even over the secular leaders like prime ministers and presidents.)
The book of Numbers, which was called that by the English but the Hebrew word for it means “In the Desert,” or “In the Wilderness,” contains a census of all the Hebrews and also outlines who is in each of the twelve tribes of Israel. The book ends with the twelve tribes gathered at the eastern edge of Canaan, about to cross the Jordan river into the promised land; Moses is prohibited by God from entering the promised land as he did not do something God asked him to do. I hate it when that happens.
The book of Deuteronomy has Moses recalling the forty years journey from Egypt to the edge of the promised land; he climbs Mt. Nebo and the Lord shows him the whole land – “from Gilead to Dan…” and all the land of Judah all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. Moses then dies in Moab, on the edge of the promised land, not being allowed to enter it. Joshua is installed as the new leader, and the Hebrews enter the promised land of Canaan and proceed to conquer it (because there were other people already living there!) starting with the walled city of Jericho. (Jericho is, today, a candidate for oldest known, or one of the oldest, cities in the world.) Slightly over six hundred thousand Hebrews were gathered near Moab and most of them crossed the Jordan and participated in the conquest of Canaan. Many “kings” in Canaan (probably tribal leaders) were killed or overthrown as the Hebrews spread throughout the land. The Hebrew tribes are then allotted land throughout Canaan.
Joshua led the Hebrews into the promised land sometime around 1400-1470 BCE. Jerusalem, the city, had existed since sometime before 3000 BCE. King David would establish it as the capital of a united Israel around 1000 BCE.
All that history, all those people, lost now in the sands of time. Amazing people, heroes, disgusting people, evildoers, all of it, lost to our memories. But they will be remembered in Heaven forever. I believe you’ll actually be able to speak to many of them, in the hereafter.
I’m exhausted! Let’s move on.

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4. King David: Deeply flawed, but loved by God because of his faith
In the biblical book of 1 Samuel, covering about 1085-1053 BCE, the Philistines defeat the Hebrews and capture the Ark of the Covenant. That did not go well for the Philistines, and they soon decided to send the Ark away. Samuel became the Judge of Israel, and when he became old, he made his sons the judges over Israel. The Hebrew elders, however, felt Samuel’s sons were corrupt, and they decided Israel now needed a king. Samuel warned them about naming a king, but they persisted, so Samuel anointed (appointed) a man named Saul, from the wealthy family of the tribe of Benjamin. Saul defeated the Ammonites and then took on the Philistines; his son Jonathan defeated the Philistines. In taking on the Amalekites, who God said to destroy completely, Saul spared their king Agag, and some of their best livestock. This disappointed God, and Samuel “unanointed” him from being king. The Lord informed Samuel that he had chosen a young sheepherder from the house of Jesse (a family from Bethlehem), named David. David would become a helper to Saul, and in the Hebrews’ ongoing battles with the Philistines, David slew the giant Goliath (at 6 cubits, about 8’ 9” tall using the 17.5 inches per cubit; the tallest man in modern history was 8’11” so Goliath was not out of range of homo sapiens height). Saul’s son Jonathan became fast friends with David, and this and other things angered Saul who became jealous of David and tried to have him killed. In pursuing David all over the land, David eventually trapped Saul and his men, but decided to spare Saul’s life.
After the tribes of Israel came together at Hebron and essentially elected David to be their king, he attacked a Jebusite fortress in about 1000 BCE called “Jebus” or “Jerusalem,” and conquered it. (The Jebusites were a tribe in Canaan that was not one of the twelve tribes of Israel.) David’s time as king, the second real king of the nation of the tribes of Israel after Saul, was marked with many wars and fierce battles. David’s own son Absalom started a civil war that caused David to have to flee Jerusalem; in a later battle, David’s forces defeated Absalom and one of David’s generals killed Absalom. The death of his son was devastating to David. Another of David’s sons, Solomon, became king when David died.
King David was perhaps the most famous of kings in Jewish history, and he was a great example of how God loves our hearts, our sentiments, our intentions and is very willing to overlook our actual flaws, even our sinful deeds. According to the Jewish leaders, the Jewish laws of the Old Testament were to be followed exactly, and if they were not you had to do penance by sacrificing something – the worse the transgression, the more expensive the sacrifice. David was no paragon of behavior, and in fact he was an adulterer, a murderer, a violent warrior. But he adored the Lord of the heavens, and the Lord loved David. David was “justified” – reconciled with God – because of his faith, not because of his probably many sacrifices for his transgressions.
(I see David as the ultimate proof that God always saved souls who had faith in him, even in Old Testament times. While it’s true that the “New Testament” is about a change in the perceived relationship between God and man – i.e. freedom for Mankind from having to follow strict laws that no one could even keep track of – it is also true that God always loved those who trusted him and so they were “justified by faith.” Moses, Joseph, Abraham, David, all the greatest old testament heroes, were deeply flawed people who made sometimes big mistakes, sometimes were angry with God and often did not display the lock-down faith that God wants from us. But God loved them for recognizing Him and seeking to serve Him.)
God made a pact with David, according to 2 Samuel Chapter 7, telling him that He brought David from a pasture, feeding sheep on the hillsides outside of Bethlehem, to be King of the Jews. God promised that He would make David’s name great, and beginning with the conquering of Jerusalem, He would give the people of Israel a permanent place to call home (and that is Palestine, today).
David was not only a leader and warrior, he was a poet and a musician; he wrote many of the chapters/songs in the biblical book we now call the Psalms (which means praises). Many of these he wrote when he was in the midst of a major war and his very survival was uncertain.
The most famous of the Psalms is probably the 23rd, which begins “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” My personal favorite is Psalm 27, which begins “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” And one he wrote when he thought he was about to be defeated by his enemies, Psalm 22, and the first line of which Jesus is reputed to have quoted while on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you foresaken me?” In the middle of this Psalm is another reference to the day of Jesus’ execution a thousand years later: “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”
Jesus Christ’s lineage, on the human side, is from David, King of Israel.

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5. The Psalms
The Psalms are lyrics – words for music. Psalms means “praises.” They were probably written over several hundred years starting around 1100 BC;about half of the Psalms are attributed to King David. They are some of the most widely read verses in the Old Testament because they are encouraging, soulful, and worshipful. David wrote many of these, praising God even while fearing his own annihilation at the hands of his enemies.
Some of my favorites include:
Psalm 13, which begins, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my own soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?”.... and ends, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
Psalm 14, which begins, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good”….
Psalm 22, which begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Jesus uttered these words while dying on the cross a thousand years later.]… and later, “I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest….” “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast.” David then goes on to describe how God has delivered him and saved him, and he will sing his praises.
Psalm 23, that most famous one. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Psalm 27, which begins, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?”
Psalm 37, which begins, “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Read the Psalms for encouragement and wisdom, and you will not be disappointed. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. The Prophets Isaiah and Daniel
Isaiah was a prophet during the reigns of several kings of Israel in the 8th century BCE. It is now thought that perhaps Isaiah is the author of the first 39 chapters of this biblical book, and others authored the remaining 25 chapters some two hundred years later. Isaiah is important because he is thought to have made direct pronouncements about the coming of Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 7, he writes “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means, “God with us”). Isaiah 9, quoted throughout Handel’s Messiah, says: “For to us a child is born, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace….He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom…”
Isaiah 5, Mark 12 (the parable of the Tenants), and Chapter 11 in Paul’s letter to the Romans, connect the dots about Jesus Christ: Israel (the Jews) would mostly reject God’s rule and the recognition of Christ as the savior of the world; a remnant of Jews – as Paul was, Jewish – would recognize Christ. And because of the rejection by the Jews, all the non-Jews of the world would be invited to share in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is the “grafting on of the wild olive branches” that Paul describes in Romans 11. Later, he says, all of Israel – all of the Jews – will be saved as they will later recognize Jesus as their Messiah, something most of them missed the first time around.
On a side note, it has been posited that the “powerful and oppressive nation” who sends “emissaries by sea” in Isaiah 18, and who is “beyond the land of Cush” (Ethiopia) and “whose land the rivers divide,” is a reference to the USA. Even the reference there to the flag, recognizable to everyone all over the world, that certainly could be the Stars and Stripes; what other country’s national flag is recognizable all over the world and is also defined by its rivers? (The Japanese flag might be the most recognizable in the world, but Japan is not defined geographically by its rivers, nor is the UK with its highly recognizable Union Jack.)
The Book of Daniel, who lived about 600 years before Christ, is important in one regard because it is an important key to understanding the 490 years of prophesy – the “seventy weeks of years” about the Jewish people, and the Revelation. In Daniel 9, the Angel Gabriel tells Daniel that “Seventy Sevens” are decreed about “your people,” (the Jews), a period in which the Jews would end their sinfulness and an “anointed one” (the Messiah) would come to rule. Many modern Christian theologists believe that sixty nine of the seventy sevens have already occurred, and the last week of years (7 years), yet to come, is described starting in Revelation 13. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Jesus of Nazareth
Two thousand years ago, in a backwater of the Roman Empire called Palestine, a thirty-year old carpenter from a small town called Nazareth, in the Galilee region north of Jerusalem, began to preach publicly. He probably would not have gained the attention of anyone, except he began performing miracles like healing people who were sick, and even restoring life to people who were apparently dead. The gospels tell of his conception by his mother Mary via the Holy Spirit; his cousin John the Baptist announced his arrival on the scene. He recruited twelve men to be his close helpers, some of them fishermen, telling them he would make them “fishers of men.” He befriended several women who would be close to him and help in his ministry. Probably for almost entirely the reason of the miracles he was doing, crowds of people followed him. Some people, including some of the twelve, began to suggest that he might be the “Messiah” – a Jewish king - that the Jews had expected for a thousand years or more.
Some expected that he would be the one to throw off the Roman rule and free Palestine, be an earthly ruler. When Jesus came into Jerusalem near the end of his life, and at the time of the Feast of the Passover, some people threw palm branches down in his path, thinking they were welcoming a rebel king. So we celebrate “Palm Sunday.”
Despite the crowds’ following, there was no consensus that he was the “messiah.” They asked him for a sign, and he basically scolded them by saying, “Here is your sign: Jonah.” (Matthew 12:39) As we know, Jonah was an Old Testament figure who was swallowed by a whale and spent three days in the beast before being vomited up on a beach. Jesus was signaling that he would be dead for three days and then rise, but probably nobody really got that. He was basically “dissing” the crowd for their unbelief and their requests for more “signs,” and signaling that the great sign they were seeking was still to come. (Unknown to them, that would be his resurrection from the dead.)
Jesus preached about love, and how our loving relationship with God is far more important than the old Jewish laws of the Old Testament. In my opinion, three things he said were most important: “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The second was “Love your neighbor as yourself” - and then to make sure he was clear, he told the parable of the Good Samaritan. You’re not just to love your actual next-door neighbor, you’re to love and take care of those who cross your path and have needs, even though they may be very different from you. And the third was “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.” Go tell someone. I find this to be the hardest one, although I don’t completely understand the first one very well either. Most of my personal ministry has been around the second one, and that with flawed and incomplete results. (Our family supports several missionaries, and perhaps that is how we can best do the “go into all the world” work.)
Ultimately, from a completely secular point of view, Jesus’ greatest accomplishment before his death was that he managed to seriously piss off the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Among all the self-proclaimed messiahs and nut-cases running around Palestine in that era, he was perceived as a real threat: they saw him as the supreme nut-case who claimed to be the literal son of God, and who claimed that “No one comes to the Father (God) except through me.” They thought this was heresy – certainly if he could not back it up, it was - and when they had the opportunity, they had him arrested and brought before the Roman governor, who according to tradition and to the biblical texts, somewhat reluctantly* allowed the sentence of death to be passed on him. (*But, more likely, according to modern historians, Pontius Pilate had many such “rebels” executed in the same way. So what you read in the gospels may just be about a politician doing what he does best.)
The religious leaders in Palestine were determined to make an example of Jesus. In this, for perverse reasons, their objectives were entirely aligned with those of the creator of the universe.
In the end, Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, managed to garner enough attention that he was executed on a Roman cross in about the year 30 AD. The process of crucifixion - killing someone on the cross - was to tie by rope, or in Jesus’ case, nail, the arms and legs in such a way that the weight of the body caused one to not be able to properly breathe, and so death was caused by asphyxiation, or exhaustion and subsequent cardiac arrest brought on by the effort to breathe, or sometimes simple dehydration. Regardless, when combined with the terrible beating that Jesus was subjected to before being put on the cross, it was a very humiliating and painful way to die.
The day of Jesus’ execution is traditionally associated with a Friday, at noon (hence, “Good Friday”) and his rising is associated with the first light on Sunday morning, after the sabbath ended at 6PM on Saturday. However, that is not a three day (72 hour) period – from noon on Friday to 6AM on Sunday is only 42 hours, and from 3PM on Friday – the official time of death - to 6AM on Sunday is only 39 hours - and so some scholars suggest that Jesus was crucified as early as Wednesday of that week. It is certain that he was executed on or around the Passover holiday, and it was God’s plan that Jesus made his ultimate sacrifice on a day that celebrated that day in ancient Egypt when the angel of the Lord swept over the Pharaoh’s land and killed the first born child in every household who didn’t have the Jewish lamb’s blood on its door – so that the angel of death would “pass over” and not kill. Jesus thus became the “lamb of God” who was sent so that our sins and separation from God would not be held against us. Our sins have been “passed over” if we embrace Jesus Christ. When you hear about the “Lamb of God,” the “blood of Jesus,” all that weird stuff, this is what that is referring to. Jesus was the sacrifice for all of us.
On the Sunday morning after Jesus was buried – this would be the day after Shabbat (the Sabbath), and in modern times the first work day in the new week, several of Jesus’ friends had strange encounters. At the place where Jesus was buried, one met a guy, or guys, dressed all in white who said “Jesus is not here.” Apparently they were angels, sent from Heaven. Two others met a guy who they later realized was Jesus himself. In the ensuing weeks, about five hundred people [1 Corinthians 15:6] would see Jesus, who had been killed, walking around and speaking to them. And particularly for the apostles, a scattered, scared group of people, that changed everything.
This is what Easter is all about – that moment when people realized “The dude isn’t dead! He was what he said he was, or, we now “get” what he said he was. And that changes everything!”
No one has ever walked across the stage of human history and had the impact of this carpenter from Nazareth. He never published a book, never held a political office, never commanded an army. But his impact on human history is greater than that of anyone else who has ever lived.
One of many things, is certain. Upon the apparent resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, He and one of the greatest governments in human history, Rome, were on a collision course. We’ll see shortly, who won that one.
The key thing about Christianity, however, is this: as St. Paul said, “If Christ be not risen, our faith is in vain.” If Christ didn’t die and then walk out of that tomb, alive, then Christianity is like every other religion – a source of comfort, perhaps, a chance to be part of a cause, something bigger than yourself, but not a connection to the Creator. Certainly not, “The” religion and a connection to immortality.
So, as is often said, “Faith begins with a fact.” That fact being Jesus’ triumph over death. It doesn’t matter how you come to be convinced that Christ rose from the dead, but it is essential that you do. St. Tomas Aquinas said that the “great proof of the resurrection” was that a scattered, scared group of believers at the time of Christ’s death, later went to the corners of the known world to preach about Christ – and to die alone. They were utterly forlorn when Christ was executed, and utterly convinced that he was alive just a few days or weeks later when they saw him. Only that type of conviction could have generated their subsequent behavior. (They certainly had no earthly gain to be achieved by being bold Christians – only persecution and death.) And the results of their efforts were that the Roman empire “fell” in the 4th century CE - when Constantine became the first Christian caesar - and eventually became the Holy Roman Empire; the Christian church in Ethiopia began in the first century CE, and continues vibrantly today; Byzantium, which became Constantinople which became Istanbul, Turkey became a seat of what we now call the Eastern Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church; a Christian community arose on the west coast of India, and they associate with a guy from 2000 years ago called Thomas – many think he was the very apostle Thomas who demanded to see Jesus’ wounds so that he would know that Jesus had truly risen from the dead. And today, in 2018, Russia (Russia!) is the most Christian nation in Europe.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0SO8xOyqtdVpKoAG1dXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEybzloOWI0BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA0OTJfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Thomas+Aquinas+Four+Proofs+of+the+Resurrection&fr=yfp-t-307-s
As one of the pastors whose ideas fill these pages said, and I paraphrase, “I respect any man or woman who considers the facts and circumstances of Jesus Christ’s life and decides he was not the messiah, I just don’t think anyone should fail to consider them.”

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The next pages cover some of the parables of Jesus, and then the letters of St. Paul, which explain the life of Jesus and its meaning to different ethnic and religious groups.

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8. The Parables of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount
Jesus often spoke in parables, which are stories about hypothetical people and hypothetical circumstances. Jesus used these to make his point. Sometimes his point was very clear to his disciples, and sometimes he had to explain himself to them. Jesus describes the purpose of the parables in Mark 4:10 and also in Matthew and Luke. Following are some of the most interesting and important parables that Jesus told:
The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4, Matthew 13, Luke 8)The Parable of the Seed Growing (Mark 4)The Parable of the Tenants (Mark 12)The Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13)The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mark 4, Matthew 13)The Parable of the Hidden Treasure (Matthew 13)The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value (Matthew 13)The Parable of the Net (Matthew 13)The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10)The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12)The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13)The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Luke 14)The Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14)The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15)The Parable of the Lost Coin (Luke 15)The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) And there are others…I’m not giving you the CliffsNotes on these, you have to read them. That’s the whole point.

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) was given by Jesus on a mountainside to his disciples. It begins with what are known as The Beatitudes, which are words of encouragement:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Jesus then says, “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world…let your light shine… He then goes on to describe how he “didn’t come to abolish the Law (of God) or the Prophets (referring to the old testament Prophets), but to fulfill them.” He then refers to the Ten Commandments and makes the point that his standard is even higher than those. He emphasizes loving your enemies and giving to the needy. He tells them, when they pray, to pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And he says, “…if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Later he says “Lay up your treasures in Heaven” not on earth; “do not be anxious” but rather have faith in God who will take care of you; “Judge not, that you be not judged;” “Ask, and it will be Given,” and then he says “which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?” That means God will actually answer your prayers. Toward the end he says, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” rather than the foolish man who builds his house on sand.

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9. Peter, Paul, and Martyrs: After Christ
The Acts of the Apostles
The book of Acts, written by a guy named Luke (who also wrote the Gospel of Luke), starts with Jesus “presenting himself alive” to the apostles and to others, during the forty days between his resurrection and his ascension into Heaven from the Mount of Olives. Jesus exhorted his disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father,” by which he was referring to the Holy Spirit entering them. Jesus then ascends into Heaven from the Mount of Olives, disappearing into the clouds. As the disciples were watching the sky, two men in white robes (angels) appeared and assured them that Jesus “will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”
Sometime later, during the Jewish Feast of Weeks called “Pentecost” (which celebrated Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai), the original twelve apostles, minus Judas and now plus a certain Matthias, were together in a house in Jerusalem when a sound “like a mighty rushing wind” filled the house. Tongues of fire appeared and rested on each of them, and they were “filled with the Holy Spirit.” They began to speak in all the languages of the world, even though they did not previously know those languages. A large crowd of Jews gathered and they marveled that the apostles were speaking to them in their own languages. But some mocked the apostles and said they were drunk, to which Peter gave one of the funniest responses in the bible: He said, “They’re not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day!” (Nine AM). Not “They’re not drunk because they’re men of God, holy, dedicated, above reproach, etc.” Nope. It was too early for a drink. Peter then gave a sermon to the multitude, saying that Jesus – “whom you killed” – has been raised up, appeared to men, and now sits at the right hand of God in Heaven. And Acts says “When they heard this they were cut to the heart,” and Peter told them to repent and be baptized, and that very day about three thousand of them became believers and joined “the Way” in Jerusalem. Peter and other apostles performed miracles, healing people the way Jesus had (they, through the power of the Holy Spirit), and Peter gave a sermon in Solomon’s Portico in the temple at Jerusalem. This latter act enraged the religious powers, the same ones who had plotted to kill Jesus, and they brought Peter and John before the high priests and challenged them to explain what they were doing. Since all Peter and John had done was to heal a lame man, they finally let them go. They continued to perform wondrous acts and to preach in the temple, and thousands more were added to their ranks.
The apostles were arrested and imprisoned, then freed by an angel. The high priest and his council called a meeting to judge them and called for them to be brought from the prison, but they were not there. Then someone said “The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” The apostles were then brought before the council and questioned, but one Pharisee named Gamaliel asked that the apostles be told to wait outside while the council met in private. He then said, “If this movement is of man, it will ultimately die out, but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” A wise man indeed, and they took his advice. However, they did beat the apostles and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus, but they did let them go.
As the numbers of believers grew, they all gave their possessions to the group and functioned as one body. Governing and administering this now large group of people became challenging, and the apostles decided to select seven men “of good repute” to take care of many of the administrative tasks such as distributing food. Stephen, one of the seven and considered a great man “full of grace and power”, was seized and brought before the council. He gave a long speech, taking them from Abraham to Moses and up to the present time, finally accusing them of murdering Jesus. And so they stoned him to death, and Stephen became probably the second Christian martyr (assuming John the Baptist was the first).
Acts Chapter 8 describes Saul (who would become “Paul”) persecuting the Christians, entering houses using his authority as a religious leader, and dragging people off to prison. Saul’s persecutions sent the disciples of Jesus scrambling to other regions outside of Jerusalem, which helped spread the news of Jesus. At one point, Philip, one of the apostles, meets with an Ethiopian eunuch down near Gaza, and the man decides to be baptized. There is today, in Ethiopia, a strong Christian church that dates itself to the first century AD…
Peter was of course one of the original twelve apostles of Jesus. Paul on the other hand, was a Jewish scholar who persecuted the early Christians for a number of years before he had an enlightening encounter with Christ on the road between Jerusalem and Damascus (Acts chapter 9). Paul went from being a slaughterer of Christians, to a self-proclaimed apostle. The secular textbooks say he “had a change of heart.” I guess!!!
The short version of Acts, mostly, is that Peter’s mission was to convey the Christian message to the Jews of Palestine, and later to non-Jews in Palestine, and Paul’s mission was mostly to convey the message of Christ to those outside of Palestine.
In Acts 10, Peter sees a vision that convinces him to share the news of Jesus with non-Jews (Gentiles). He does so, and some Gentiles have the Holy Spirit fall on them. So clearly the Holy Spirit can indwell anyone who accepts Christ.
Persecution in Palestine (as, for example, the killing of Stephen, and Herod’s later killing of James) led some of the disciples to scatter as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Antioch was in ancient Syria and is in modern-day Turkey. Because many of its citizens received the word of God and believed in Christ, Antioch became a “cradle” of Christianity. Acts says that believers were first referred to as “Christians” in Antioch. Antioch was literally right on the Silk Road and another major road to Persia (modern day Iran), and so as noted in previous sections, God placed the message right where it would be carried to the far corners of the Earth. (Antioch was founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Ref: Wikipedia.) Antioch was in Galatia, a region now in Turkey, and of course one of the books in the New Testament is Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
From Antioch, Saul (now called Paul) and Barnabas were sent off by the church, to Cyprus (the island in the Mediterranean) and other points west such as Iconium, a Greek city now in modern day Turkey, and Lystra.
Later, Paul, Silas and Timothy travel further west to Macedonia; the book of Acts mysteriously says that the Holy Spirit forbid them to speak the word in Asia (i.e. further east). They went to Philippi, a Roman city in eastern Macedonia, and there is in the New Testament, Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi for a time. They then traveled to Thessaloniki, the capital of Macedonia, and of course there is in the New Testament, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. In all these places, Paul sought out Jewish synagogues and started preaching his message there, gradually spreading out to preach to non-Jews in other venues. Finally Paul makes his way to Athens, where he engages in deep discussions with many philosophers and clerics of various religions. These people brought Paul to the Areopagus, a venerable meeting venue near the Acropolis in Athens. There, Paul gave one of the great speeches in all the books of the Bible. He was very respectful, telling those gathered that “in every way, I perceive you are very religious….and as I passed along and observed objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,” explaining that God now lives in each believer and in him we live. “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world…”
Paul then goes to Corinth, another Greek city, then back to Antioch, then over to the Greek city of Ephesus that is in modern-day Turkey (note the New Testament letters from Paul to the Corinthians and the Ephesians).
Later, Paul goes all the way back to Jerusalem, where he is arrested due to continued problems with the Jewish hierarchy there (pretty much the same lot that wanted Jesus dead). When he claims Roman citizenship, they realize they can’t just treat him like some local, so he is sent to the governor of Caesarea, Felix, for trial. His crime: stirring things up and being leader of a sect of the Nazarenes. Felix’ successor, Festus, agrees with Paul’s appeal to Caesar himself, and Festus sends him to pro-Roman King Agrippa. Finally, Paul is sent with some other prisoners to Rome, but on the way his ship is wrecked on the island of Malta. Some time later he arrives in Rome and is allowed to live by himself, guarded by a Roman soldier. We don’t know exactly what happened to Paul after that, but early Christian writings not in the Bible indicate that he may have gone all the way to Spain in his final stage of ministry.

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10. Paul’s Letters: Explanations of the Christian faith addressed to different audiences
Paul wrote letters to groups of believers in Rome (“Romans”); Corinth, Greece (“Corinthians”); Antioch, in Galatia – founded by one of Alexander the Great’s generals, now located in modern day Turkey (“Galatians”) – this church sent out many missionaries as they developed; Thessaloniki, Greece (“Thessalonians”); Ephesus, in modern day Turkey but at the time a Greek settlement (“Ephesians”), and others.
As Christians, we can learn as much about Christianity from reading Paul’s letters, as we can from reading the four gospels and the Acts. (Much like, you can learn as much from reading historians’ descriptions of events, as you could by living through those events and reading the newspaper every day.)
The letter to the church in Rome, i.e. the “Book of Romans,” is Paul’s most comprehensive explanation of Christianity. Paul addresses both Jews, and Gentiles, in this book.
A few key points in Romans:
• We shall live in faith. Faith puts us on the right path, and lack of faith puts us on the path of “covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit,” etc.• No one is righteous, and all have sinned; our faith gives us righteousness in God’s eyes, so that we won’t be punished by Him.• Even Old Testament figures like Abraham were “justified by faith,” meaning they achieved their salvation by trusting in the Lord. • We have peace and grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. He became the perfect sacrifice for our sins (remember the “passover”?). “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.” [Romans 8:1]• We have a future that is everlasting and glorious, and we have the Holy Spirit to encourage us while here on Earth.• The Jews’ didn’t, and most Jews still don’t, believe in Jesus Christ as messiah. But a “remnant,” a small minority such as Paul himself – who was a Jew – and the Old Testament prophets, understood and believed (remember Isaiah’s prophesy of the coming of Jesus?).• By the Jews’ unbelief has come the immediate (at the time of Paul) opportunity for Gentiles to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. [Romans 11] The analogy he gave was of a wild olive shoot [the Gentiles] grafted into an existing olive tree: the broken branches of an olive tree, represented by unbelieving Jews, were replaced with a grafted olive shoot.• Israel – the Jews – will be ultimately saved [Romans 11]. “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 (quoting the prophet Isaiah): ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ “• The marks of a true Christian include genuine love, honor, fervency of spirit, being a servant, rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation (tough times), being constantly in prayer, not being haughty, not judging others, not carrying out vengeance, giving of our resources liberally.• Again Paul emphasizes not judging others, and bearing with the failings of the weak.• Christ is the hope of the Jews and the Gentiles!
A note about the Jews: Referencing Paul’s comments in Romans 11. No, Joe, your Jewish cousins are not automatically destined for hell. Because God gave his word to Abraham. It’s all the rest of us, who have to find and embrace Christ. We are the remnant, the fraction of humanity who will make the right choice.
Early in Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, he says “the Jews demand signs, the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom God.” And he later says that God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom. 1 Corinthians 12 covers a topic important to Christians: “spiritual gifts.” These are things given to each Christian that allows them to uniquely serve the kingdom of God: wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, interpreting the speaking of tongues, etc. Most theologians would say these are examples, and not an exhaustive list of spiritual gifts. (Many Christians anguish over what their spiritual gift is, and worry that they don’t know, haven’t found it. I would suggest, if there is something you like doing that you can do in the service of the Lord, do it. Don’t assume that if you like building things, and can do that for a church, that it’s not your spiritual gift just because Paul doesn’t mention it in 1 Corinthians 12.)
Chapter 13 covers one of the most important concepts of Christianity: Love. Paul says that really, no matter what good things you do, if you don’t have love for your fellow man, you’ve kind of missed the point. “If I….understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians Chapter 15 is one of the most important in the bible. “…if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." The resurrection of Jesus is the key foundation stone of Christian faith, and is the only reason we should pursue Christ as the one path to eternal salvation.

In the letter to the Galatians, Paul instructs them that they are justified – saved – through their faith, not by their “works” (things they accomplish). Apparently the Galatians were believing another version of things whereby they could earn their way to heaven by doing good works. Paul points out that since no one can perfectly follow all the laws, no one can earn their way to heaven through merely trying to follow all the rules. This message is that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Paul even makes the point that God made a covenant with Abraham, and “the law came 430 years later” (i.e., the Ten Commandments given to Moses); and the law could not annul the promises given to Abraham. Paul wraps up Galatians with an instruction to “bear one another’s burdens.” Paul’s letters to the church at Thessalonica (modern day Thessaloniki) is addressed to a group of Gentile believers in the capital of ancient Macedonia. Paul visited there but was pretty much chased away by Jews who did not accept his message; he sent Timothy there, and the church was flourishing when Paul wrote his letters. Paul’s words are primarily encouragement, rather than admonishments, as he tells them to continue to live in faith and that their persecutors would be vanquished in time. Paul spent over two years [Acts 19] in Ephesus and his letter to the church at Ephesus reiterates that we are redeemed by faith, not by our works (“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works…”) He then emphasizes church (the body of Christian believers) unity, and that Jews in Israel who became Christians share the same heritage and future as the Gentiles outside of Israel who become Christians. They have access to the same Father, the same Holy Spirit. “The Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Paul says he is a “prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.” He further says the Lord provided “apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers” so that we may no longer be “children” [in our understanding], “tossed to an fro by…evert wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” He implores them to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds, but rather to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Paul then speaks about the relationship of husbands and wives, and about children and parents. “Honor your father an mother [from the Ten Commandments], this is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Finally, Paul says one of the most-quoted passages in the bible, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
An interesting thing about this letter is that the earliest manuscripts did not reference Ephesus at all, leading some scholars to believe it may have been addressed to another church. It is also thought that it might not have been personally authored by Paul, but by others who represented his thinking and message. Perhaps he was the “editor” of it. Regardless of the details, the messages in Ephesians are powerful. Paul visited the Greek city of Philippi in about 50 AD, and Philippi became the first Christian city in Europe. His letter to the Philippians was written in about 62 AD while he was in prison in Rome. Finally, although this section is about Paul’s letters, a brief mention about two important New Testament letters not written by Paul: Hebrews, and the letter from James to the Jewish diaspora. The letter to the Hebrews was once almost unquestionably thought to have been authored by Paul; it is now thought by most scholars [source: Wikipedia] that he is not the author, and the authorship of this letter is unknown. Hebrews connects Jesus Christ to the “order of Melchizedek;” Melchizedek was a (to us, anyway) somewhat mysterious high priest – referred to not only in ancient Jewish texts by also by the 1st century historian Josephus – who encountered the patriarch Abraham (Genesis 14) and blessed gave him food and drink and blessed him. To me, Hebrews is making the point that Jesus Christ was a “better version” (better covenant) of the Jewish high priest. He also makes the point that Jesus’ “blood,” (his death) was a one-time sacrifice for everyone, versus the Jewish laws that said you had to shed animal blood to atone for each of your sins. Finally – and this is all what I get from reading Hebrews, so consult with a bible scholar if you want a better understanding – the point is made that even in old testament times, the heroes of the faith like Abraham, Moses, etc. were justified / saved by their faith. In other words is wasn’t ever about just following a bunch of old Jewish laws, it was always about faith the God. Which is entirely the point of Christ: salvation comes by faith in Him. The line of argument in Hebrews is meant to make the most sense to Jews and those raised in the Jewish laws and traditions. James begins by saying “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials [i.e., problems] of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” And later, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in his ways.”
James is most known for his admonition against merely being a “believer.” He says “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer…his religion is worthless.” And later, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” James’ main point was that although we are saved by our faith, if we don’t actually do anything - do any good works, help our fellow man, worship God, etc. – then that may mean we don’t actually have a saving faith. It is certainly true that true faith will yield many good works. I’ve heard very learned pastors say, “James basically got it wrong, we are saved by faith and works have nothing to do with it.” The way I see it, we are absolutely saved by faith – the Greek word pisteuo kind of faith – meaning more than belief. Faith is hanging your body on it, not just theoretically believing it. Knowing there is a God, fearing that God, knowing he sent his son into the world to save us, loving that son – all that produces a desire to do some good in this world. True Christians, despite their flaws, their inconsistencies, their selfishness, all that, true Christians will do some good in this world. That, to me the point of James.

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11. Revelation: What will eventually happen... or already has
The book of Revelation was written by a guy named John, probably sometime after 80 AD while he was in exile on the Greek island of Patmos. Not the John who was Jesus’ apostle, but rather thought by the majority of biblical scholars to be another first century prophet. It describes some elements of what is referred to today as the “end times.” However, there are many things believed by some Christians about the end times which simply cannot be found in Revelation, so it is either not the entire story, or some of the beliefs about the end times are wrong.
I believe what at least some theologians believe, which is that Revelation describes many things that were happening or had already happened by the time John wrote this down. I believe that the last “seven of sevens,” the last seven years of the 490 years of Jewish prophesy [referred to in Daniel 9], is referred to in Revelation 13 and has yet to occur.
In Revelation 13, and also referenced in Daniel 7, we see a description of a series of earthly governments: The reference to a leopard, a bear, and a lion are the kingdoms of Babylon, Medoc-Persia, and Greece, respectively. The beast itself, which came from these previous kingdoms, refers to the Roman Empire. Revelation says it had seven heads; these were the Syrian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Medoc-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires, and the seventh is the new earthly government that will arise out of these older, previous governments. At this point, when the Book of Revelation was written, all but seven of the 490 years covered by Jewish prophesy had occurred.
The last seven years, yet to come, concerns the rise of the Antichrist, the great tribulation (suffering), and the eventual return of Christ who will rule Earth. Christ will rule the Earth for a thousand years before people from north of Israel will attack and be destroyed in a final battle. Then there will be “a new Heaven and a new Earth,” [Chapter 21] and a new Jerusalem.
[It is interesting that the “rapture,” or the “catching up together in the air” that is thought to occur prior to the tribulation, isn’t mentioned in Revelation and was not a major part of Christian theology until the 19th Century when it was popularized by several influential preachers. A possible reference to it is mentioned by St. Paul in 1st Thessalonians Chapter 4. It is today mainly an Evangelical Christian concept.]
Perhaps the most important thing you need to know about the end times and Revelation is that you don’t need to understand anything about it to be a Christian, to have a saving faith and to be in the presence of God forever in Heaven. Good thing! So far, everyone who has believed they understood the end times in great detail, has been proven to be wrong. So wisdom would suggest, study this topic if you find it interesting, but don’t worry about it.

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12. What then shall we do?
“The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences.” - St. Augustine.
“What then must we do?” asked the Russian Leo Tolstoy in 19th Century Moscow. He was referring to poverty, starvation, literal human suffering…His point was that what you see in front of you, what you have come to believe, compels you to do something. Given what you have read up to this point, what will you do?


Living a fulfilling life
Jesus has said that he loves us and wants us to lead a life of fulfillment, peace and joy. This really means, serving him. We should not attempt to serve Jesus because we can earn our way into Heaven; our salvation is freely given and we can never earn it. We should serve because it pleases God and fulfills us.
Jesus’ three greatest commandments: Love the Lord, Love thy neighbor (with the example being, the Good Samaritan) and Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Focus your energies on these, and you will have a fulfilling life.
For better or worse, according to Jesus’ own words and the many explanations by St. Paul and others, we can’t just choose to ignore the message. We can’t be “agnostic” forever.
You can follow Buddha, but Buddha did not claim to be God, or the path to God and eternal life.
You can study Confucius, but Confucius did not claim to be God, or the path to God and eternal life.
You can follow Mohammed; he didn’t claim to be God, just a prophet. So for the same reason I’d tell you not to worship Jeremiah or Isaiah, I’d tell you not to make Mohammed the center of your religious pursuit.
You can serve other masters – money, power, etc. But these will not give you the satisfaction that you seek in life.
In the end, you can’t judge any religion by how it makes you feel here on Earth – unless you don’t even believe in an afterlife – but by what it assures you of in the hereafter.
The key to it all is to find your faith and live a life of faith in God.
Joe, when you were about six years old and first learning to ski, after a couple of days in ski school on the bunny hills I took you high up the mountain on a ski lift. On the way up the mountain on the lift, I told you “When I tell you to jump: Jump!” As we approached the exit point, still twenty feet above the ground, you asked me “Now, Dad?” And you would have jumped off the chair, twenty feet above the snow if I had said to do it. You trusted me completely, and that is the kind of trust God wants us to have in Him.
Another time we were up in the snow, you were older – maybe ten or eleven - and a snowboarder by then, you and I were high up on the mountain at Heavenly Ski Resort at Lake Tahoe, and you got stuck in very deep powder, all the way to your shoulders. (It’s very hard to snowboard in deep powder.) I was near you, on skis, and having my own difficulties, buried to my waist. You were terrified, and you called out to Jesus, again and again, to help you. In your moment of greatest terror, you spontaneously called out to Jesus. This is one way I know you have faith in God at your very core.
Joseph, when you were twelve, I wrote a letter to you asking that you take up the job of being a peacemaker in this tired, war-torn, politically divided world that needs peace so that the message of Christ can spread and flourish. How you do that, I hope will be revealed to you. I hope that you take up this idea. I have thought for many years now that this is your destiny.

When we are at our best
We are definitely at our best when we don’t feel at our best - when we desperately need something from God. This is why Jesus said “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Because the rich man doesn’t need much; he doesn’t need to rely on God. God wants us to rely on him. Why? I think one reason is, He wants to populate Heaven with those who trust him, are on his team, are on board with his agenda. He wants people who feel free to express their opinions and desires, and then, as good team members, get on with it and get along beautifully with each other.
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A very complete summary of the essentials of Christian belief can be found in C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” which is a written assemblage of a number of radio sermons he delivered in England in the 1940’s. Lewis was an Oxford University “don” (a resident scholar and teacher) at Magdalen College.
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Okay, that’s the end of what I believe. Except for all the other subjects, like sports, business, geo-politics, climate change, global conservation, and women, which I don’t plan to cover here. Did I skip some important things in the Bible, gloss over some things? Of course I skipped over a lot! If you take this seriously, you should spend the rest of your life studying the Bible and the tremendous truths that can be discerned by careful study, particularly with others.
The really important thing is this: It’s not about you; you are not God, not a God, not in control except for the things inside your little fishbowl. It’s about you worshipping your Creator. Don’t make the mistake that so many who dwell on Earth will make and will find their end to be very disappointing, sometimes very long and sad, and sometimes very sudden, and with a very long tail of misery in the hereafter.
It’s important to know that God takes broken vessels, flawed people, deeply troubled people even, and makes heroes out of them. When they reach out in faith to Him, grab the unseen and in faith, call out to Him, he makes noblemen of commoners, giants out of weaklings, leaders out of the clueless. The story of King Arthur is an analogy, the simple kid who was able to pull the sword out of the stone when no others could, because he believed. And he became a great king. This is what God can do when you reach out in faith.
Joe, you have said to me on several occasions various versions of “If there is a God, why does he allow all the human suffering, misery, murder, evil, all that? What kind of a sick God would allow all that?” Go back to my section 2, “Good News is Bad News:” It’s about free will. We’re not in the Garden of Eden, we were banished to a world of scarce resources and allowed to do whatever we want, and many pursue only selfish goals. We can restore things to where they need to be only by reconnecting to Jesus Christ, the savior of the world. You can shake your fist at the God you don’t believe in and tell him he’s a sick you-know-what. But you know what? The universe’s trillion galaxies will stare back at you in silence. The heavens declare the glory of God.
What then shall we do? It’s not a bad idea to go out to the ball park and see a game. Pray to God to enlighten you, to show you something; He will. Pray for understanding about how and why he sent his Son into this crazy world. You’re not God, and you don’t have to figure it all out. Wait on the Lord, which means, He’ll answer you when he’s ready to. And he will.
And bring your glove.
Copyright 2018 Kim Normington