It doesn’t seem fair that we should all suffer because of Adam’s sin. But Adam revealed our problem, that we “are weak in our natural selves,” Romans 6:19. Which the terrible decline of humanity leading up to Noah’s Flood also revealed. Humans just got worse, not better, and nothing could turn the tide. But having got that point clearly established after years of such violence and evil that God even regretted making us (Genesis 6:5-7), he made his move to rescue us. 

And it all began with Abraham. It was in him that God was going to straighten out the mess Adam made. So in one man – Adam – humanity died; but equally in one man – Abraham – God would bring humanity back to life again. 

And the process began the same way. Like Adam, Abraham was also faced with a choice by God, and again the result would be based on trusting in what God said. But unlike Adam, it wouldn’t be the choice of a tree that would decide the future of humanity. Instead, it would be a much greater test: believing in a totally impossible sounding promise. 

Because what God promised Abraham, or Abram as he was then, was “a son coming from your own body,” Genesis 15:4. Which must have sounded crazy, because Abram was in his mid to late seventies already, his wife had never been able to have children, and now she was way beyond child-bearing age too. 

But, verse 6, unlike Adam, “Abram believed the Lord.” He trusted God. And that’s when God came through with his statement to Abram in verse 1, that “I am your very great reward,” because the great reward for Abram’s belief and trust was that through this son of his God would set in motion his promise back in Genesis 12:3 that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” 

Through Abram, then, God was saving the world from the disaster caused by Adam, based simply on Abram’s belief in God’s promises to him, and his trust that what God said was true – the very thing Adam and Eve did not do that caused the disaster in the first place.

So, just as Adam’s unbelief and not trusting God led to the whole world being cursed, Abram’s belief and trust in God would lead to the whole world being blessed. It doesn’t sound quite so unfair, then, that we all had to suffer because of Adam, when all is being put to rights by God because of Abram. 

But “How is God blessing the whole world through Abraham?” 

In Genesis 17:8, God promised Abram “the whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you.” 

So it sounds like the nation of Israel will have to be restored back to the land of Canaan to fulfill that promise. And wasn’t that the hope and belief of Jesus’ disciples in Act 1:6 too, when they asked the resurrected Jesus: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Was this the time that the good old glory days of Israel in King David’s day would be brought back, and all those marvellous Old Testament prophecies about the thriving of Israel and the conquering of all its enemies would begin? 

But Jesus wasn’t interested in the timing of anything, or in their national hopes, verse 7. He wanted his disciples’ attention focused on being his “witnesses,” and the power he would give them in the Holy Spirit to take the message about him to the world, verse 8.  

And what would that message be? It was Peter who explained. At a massive gathering of Jews from far and wide he took them right back into their own scriptures, that this was the time Joel had spoken of, that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21). 

The focus was now on Jesus being the source of salvation. Did that mean, therefore, that the restoration of Israel as a nation was no longer in God’s plan?  

Peter, however, told his fellow Jews in Acts 3:25, that “you’re still heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. It’s just as God told Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed,’ so when God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you to bless you,” verse 26.  

So God was still honouring his promise to them as Abraham’s offspring, by sending Jesus with his message of salvation to bless them first. And how would they be blessed? By Jesus “turning each of you from your wicked ways” (26). 

And those who responded would become “the Israel of God,” as Paul called the Church in Galatians 6:16. So this was how the new restored Israel would come to be; it would be in those who believed it was in Jesus that the blessing of all peoples promised to Abraham was now being fulfilled.  

The Church, therefore, is simply the manifestation of that new restored Israel, as the promises to Abraham of the whole world being saved can be seen in lives being transformed all over the world by Jesus today. 

To the next blog, then: “It all began with Abraham.”  

The tension between Arabs and Jews endlessly boils into conflict as to who has the right to claim Palestine as theirs. Biblically speaking, Acts 17:26 says it’s God who decides where and when nations exist and whose land is whose. So who did he allocate Palestine to?

The Palestine of today covers much the same territory as the biblical “land of Canaan” which God allocated to Abram and his offspring roughly 3,500 years ago (Genesis 15:18, 12:6-7). Canaan was already inhabited by several tribes at the time (Genesis 15:19-21), but God told Abram to leave his homeland (in today’s Iraq) and take up residence in Canaan, because God was going to make his family into “a great nation” there, for the purpose of “blessing all peoples on earth” through him (12:3).

But of the two sons Abram had, the “great nation” God promised would develop through the younger son, Isaac. God promised his older brother, Ishmael, would also be “fruitful and multiply exceedingly” (17:20) – but not in the land of Canaan, which God made clear by having Abram send Ishmael and his mother away. 

So the promise God made to Abram would focus on the line of Isaac, which led to the formation of the Israelite nation in the land of what is Palestine today. According to God’s plan, therefore, Israel was allocated the land of Palestine, as the means by which God would begin to redeem the world from the disaster in Eden, and put all to rights again.  

The Israelites, however, failed miserably in that task, but through Moses and other prophets God predicted the arrival of a great champion from the descendants of Abram, who would fulfill perfectly and completely what Israel had failed to do.  

So the promise to Abram still stood, but instead of blessing all peoples through a nation of his descendants, it would be through a single descendant of his, who would “bless all who call on him – both Jew and Gentile” (Romans 10:12) – for the simple belief that he, Jesus, was resurrected from the dead (verse 9), with the power to not only forgive the mess we humans have made, but put us all to rights as well.  

In which case God’s promise through Abram’s descendants was no longer dependent on Israel being a nation in Palestine. Which means, biblically speaking, that it doesn’t matter whose land Palestine is now.    

What does matter is people anywhere and everywhere doing what Abram did, and trusting God to be true to his promise. Which in our case is trusting that God did provide a descendant of Abram with the power to bless all peoples – in the person of the mighty Jesus, who right now is rescuing and restoring millions of people all over the world because they trust him too. 

Ah but, next blog: “Will God restore Israel as a nation again?”  

Every time Israel got into another fight with Arabs, I found myself siding with Israel. I didn’t even pause to think why I did that so naturally until recently, when I discovered that my church upbringing had made me into a Christian Zionist.

I firmly believed in the Zionist creed that the Jews were destined by God to return to their homeland in Israel to speed up the return of the Messiah, who would set up his headquarters in Jerusalem and from there spread his kingdom around the world for the next one thousand years. 

Israel, in my mind then, had a very special place in God’s plan, so it wasn’t surprising to see Israel keep winning its battles against the Arabs. Israel would always win, I thought, because along with many other evangelical Christians I believed the creation of Israel as a Jewish homeland in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Israel would remain solidly as a nation no matter what was thrown at it, therefore, because it was Israel being a nation that would bring about Christ’s return.

If, then, I’d attended the Third International Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in February 1996, I imagine I would have been inwardly cheering as the following proclamations were read out: first of all, that “God the Father, Almighty, chose the ancient nation and people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to reveal his plan of redemption for the world. They remain elect of God, and without the Jewish nation his redemptive purposes for the world will not be completed.”

As well as: “The modern ingathering of the Jewish People to Eretz Israel and the rebirth of the nation of Israel are in fulfilment of biblical prophecies, as written in both Old and New Testaments.”

And lastly: “Christian believers are instructed by Scripture to acknowledge the Hebraic roots of their faith and to actively assist and participate in the plan of God for the Ingathering of the Jewish People and the Restoration of the nation of Israel in our day.”

I would have gone along with all of that, firmly believing, therefore, that it was very much my Christian duty to support the nation of Israel. 

But the global outcry of many Arabs of late that Palestine belongs to them, not Israel, got me stirred to write my next blog: “Palestine – whose land is it?”

Carbon monoxide was a real problem in coal mines in the nineteenth century, and being odourless it could kill without warning. But a canary would show signs of distress well before a human would begin to feel its effects, offering miners the chance to escape before it was too late. 

A regulation was made in 1911, therefore, that miners should “use two small caged birds each time they went down a mine.” And so “a canary in the coal mine” entered the English language as a warning of potential danger.  

And through the centuries waves of anti-semitism have operated the same way, as similar warnings of poison in the air. History has repeatedly shown the connection between Jews being picked on and a society that’s becoming toxic. And many historians have made that connection, openly calling the persecution of Jews the “canary in the coal mine.”  

And history reveals why it happens too. Jews have proven to be useful scapegoats when a society is falling apart, or as an easy way for power hungry thugs with nefarious plans to rile up a mob to distract attention away from what they’re really up to – as did the Nazis leading up to World War 2. 

But why Jews? Because one thing Jews have been known for all through their history, no matter what country they’ve lived in, is their reverence for the God of the Old Testament. For over three thousand years, despite pogroms and holocausts, and even brutal persecutions by other religions, including Christianity, Jews have tenaciously hung on to God and what they believe he called them to do. 

So it’s not surprising it doesn’t go down well in a society like ours that believes the only way we can save ourselves from catastrophe – or create a utopian world – is by human ingenuity. Perish the thought in our progressive society, therefore, that God might be a source of wisdom or, as Jews believe, that it’s only by obeying a supernatural God that the human race has a future at all. 

It was inevitable, then, that another round of anti-semitism would spread like toxic fumes in a coal mine. But this time it’s been rapidly expanding around the world, sucking mobs of people into its vortex of madness. But it’s all very much justified in the minds of those who see the only solution to the Palestine problem being the eradication of the nation of Israel. 

The very existence of Israel today, therefore, is under threat. So, next blog: “Is it our Christian duty to support the nation of Israel?” 

Does Christmas exist today because of a promise made nearly 4,000 years ago?  

That’s the time when God promised Abraham that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” But it’s how Abraham understood that promise that’s remarkable, because according to Jesus, “Abraham looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.” 

Abraham, therefore, was given a glimpse into the life and ministry of Jesus 1900 years ahead of Jesus’ arrival. And what Abraham saw caused him to burst out with joy, because he could see how all nations on earth would be blessed through him. It would be through the birth of the human Jesus, a direct descendant of his, 42 generations later.   

Because as angels explained at the time of Jesus’ birth, Jesus would bring peace on earth to all who trusted him. Jesus himself confirmed that later on too, when he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” And that’s what Abraham saw coming in Jesus – all nations, worldwide, being blessed with peace.  

And here’s hoping that’s true, because our attempts at peace aren’t working. At the time of writing this article there were 32 countries at war, and no solutions forthcoming. But as Jesus also pointed out, “I give you my peace which is nothing like the peace of this world.” He’s offering a peace, that unlike anything in this world, does work. 

And at Christmas time it sounds like we believe it, because “Joy to the world” gets dusted off and given another round, and songs with lyrics like, “Glory to the newborn king,” and “fill the whole earth with heaven’s peace,” etc., are belted out over the air waves. 

Is our valiant attempt at Christmas time to create “heaven’s peace,” then, reason to believe that Jesus really is in the process of fulfilling that ancient promise to Abraham? Admittedly it’s a fleeting glimpse for now, because the peace Jesus offers “transcends our human understanding.” It’s beyond anything we can create, in other words, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible, because according to Jesus it’s available to anyone who takes him up on his word.  

And that’s what Abraham saw, that one day the whole world would be at peace – and he knew how too. It would begin in people who looked to Jesus to create his peace in them. Just what we need after Remembrance Day. 

Following the announcement by the Canadian Human Rights Commission that Christmas is “discriminatory against non-Christians, making Canada a religiously intolerant ‘settler colonial state,’” the Parent Council at one school called an emergency meeting to decide what to do about Christmas.

The school couldn’t ditch Christmas all together because it was still a “must-do” part of the school calendar. Somebody had suggested, therefore, that Christmas could be made more inclusive by changing the name of Christmas so it wasn’t just favouring the Christian view. That sounded like a good idea, so the parents put their heads together to come up with a new name for Christmas.

“How about a name that includes the names of all religions in it?” one parent asked. So they wrote the names of all the religions represented in their neighbourhood on the whiteboard. There were five main groups they knew of: Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Jews. Since Christians were probably still the majority, they all agreed that the new name for Christmas should begin with the first three letters of Christianity: CHR.

After playing around with letters from each of the other religions, one parent yelled, “I know, let’s call it Chrindubuddlimas – CHR for Christians, INDU for Hindus, BUDD for Buddhists, and LIM for Muslims.”

It had a nice ring to it too, they all thought, until the Jewish parent suddenly sat up and said, “But where is the Jewish religion mentioned?”

Oh dear, she was right. It went quiet for a few minutes, but then another parent shouted out, “How about Chruddhamuslindew? It’s got CHR for Christians, UDDH for Buddhists, MUSL for Muslims, IND for Hindus, and EW for Jews.”

And to her surprise there were nods and murmurs of agreement. So they tried attaching “Happy” and “Merry” to it, and shortening it to “Happy Chruddamas” and “Merry Muslindew.” They liked it. It was fully inclusive, culture sensitive, and nice too, because all the children could join in the school’s traditional Christmas festivities but have their own religious name attached to them, making the entire season their own holiday as well.

So on that happy note, the parents ended the meeting with a resounding cry of “Happy Chruddhamuslindew,” and even though only two of the twenty parents pronounced it correctly, it felt like a new wave of peace and goodwill had passed through them.

“But,” one parent suddenly blurted out, “what about the Scientologist, the Mormon family, the three new Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Wiccan lady who’ve just moved into our neighbourhood? How do we include them too?”

“Well, why don’t we write to the Human Rights Commission,” one parent suggested, “and ask them what they think we should do.” 

In his own words (part 25)

Working backwards through John 17:2, the last part of the verse has the Father “giving” people to his Son (covered in part 23). So it’s on the Father’s initiative that Jesus has disciples. 

Then working backwards through verse 2 again, the Father’s purpose for giving disciples to Jesus was to give them eternal life (covered in part 24) – eternal life being defined in verse 3 as knowing the Father and Jesus Christ. And what Jesus meant by “knowing” he defined in John 14:21 as a relationship of love his disciples could have with both the Father and himself. 

The disciples could experience what Jesus meant by “eternal life,” therefore, in their lifetimes. Jesus’ focus on eternal life wasn’t about going to heaven after they died; eternal life was to be experienced while they were still alive. And obviously so too, because how could they know if eternal life was something to look forward to forever if they hadn’t tasted it already before they died?   

Which takes us to the first part of John 17:2, in which Jesus explains how his disciples would get a taste of this “eternal life” relationship with his Father and himself in their lifetimes: it’s by the Father “granting him power over all flesh.” 

So, whatever hinders our experience of eternal life now – our “fleshly” frailties, fears, doubts, worries, emotions, etc., Jesus has power over all of them, amply demonstrated during his lifetime in the remarkable physical and mental healings he did (John 14:11) – which, as Jesus went on to say in verse 12, would now be available to his disciples too.

Which is an amazing promise, because here we are in a humourless world of hate, bitterness, hopelessness, fear, outright lies by those in office, judging and blaming one another, and crying the blues over the tiniest of offences making life miserable for us all – and yet Jesus has a small group of people to whom he’s giving power over that obnoxious, destructive nonsense, enabling them to experience his lovely promises of love, joy and peace, and a taste of eternal life instead. 

And the Father’s given him a “glorified” position now too (John 17:1), so Jesus has all the power he needs to make his promises come true in the lives of his disciples.   

In his own words (part 24)

The Father sent his Son so that we’d come to know him in his Son. Know the Son, and we’d know the Father too. Or as Jesus put it in John 14:7, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on (therefore) you do know him and have seen him.”And why was that so important? Because as Jesus says in John 17:3, “Now this is eternal life: that they (Jesus’ disciples) may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”   

To Jesus, then, the focus of eternal life wasn’t on living forever. Nor was it on going to heaven either. What made life eternally worth living was coming to know the source and creator of life in a personal way. 

And isn’t that what makes for a happy, long lasting (eternally worth living) marriage too? It’s knowing each other personally. It’s not about fourteen steps on how to have a happy marriage, like getting a machine to work by following the instructions.  

That came as quite a shock, however, to a man who told me his wife was leaving him. And he had no inkling why. He’d worked hard to give his wife a nice house, and if he died she’d be fine financially. In his mind, therefore, he’d done what a husband was technically “supposed” to do – be a good provider. But in working hard to provide he was away from home a lot, and when his wife reminded him that she’d married him for him, not for a good life financially, he just didn’t get it. 

But wouldn’t the same apply to a person who thinks Christianity is all about obeying a system of rules and regulations to get to heaven? True, Jesus told his disciples to obey him – but for what purpose? Was it a rather cold contract, that if they did what they were technically supposed to do, like that husband providing financially for his wife, that’s what would get them to heaven? But according to Jesus in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” 

Obedience, therefore, isn’t the means by which we get eternal life in the future, it’s the means by which we experience eternal life now, in the love relationship we have with the Father and Jesus. 

In his own words (part 23)

In John 17:2, Jesus says the Father “has given him power over all flesh” (or ‘authority over all people’) in order that he “might give eternal life to all those the Father has given him.” 

Working backwards through that verse we have the Father “giving” people to his Son. It’s on the Father’s initiative, then, that Jesus has disciples. Which ties in nicely with John 6:44, when Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” And in verse 45, “They will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”

So the Father puts out a call that can be heard or “listened” to, and it means enough to a person hearing it to want to “learn” and find out more, the result of which is “coming to Jesus,” or coming to understand who Jesus is. And there’s an example of just that happening in Matthew 16:15, when Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” – and Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 

But how did Peter come to believe that, when most people at the time didn’t believe it? Jesus answers that in verse 17, when he tells Peter, “Blessed are you, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” 

Two points here: first of all, that it was the Father who gave Peter the understanding of who Jesus was. But secondly, it was what Peter understood about Jesus that was important too, because Peter called Jesus “the Son of the living God.” 

But why did the Father want Peter to understand that about Jesus? For two reasons; first of all, that anything Jesus said and did was as good as coming from God himself. So that, secondly, it would focus the disciples’ attention on what it was that God was revealing through Jesus. 

The Father, then, was drawing people to belief in who his Son was, so that they would listen to what he’d sent his Son for. And what had he sent his Son for? Jesus answers that in John 17:6, when he says to his Father, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” It was through the human Jesus, therefore, that we’d know what the Father’s up to…(continues Friday)