PJ's Journal

As I was reading this week, I could not help but think about the similarities of Jewish religious thought and worldview to that of my own; however, there is a huge difference relative to receiving salvation. First let’s take a look at Jewish religious thought during the Intertestamental time period. Jews had a very high view of God. It starts with His name. They held the name of God in such reverence that they “put a fence around” His name by refusing to say YHWH for fear that they might mispronounce His name, and therefore, misuse His name breaking the third commandment. 1 The Jews had an elitist attitude toward the rest of the world. The considered themselves to be the elect of God through the covenant relationship they had with Him. The law played a special part in this relationship. Scott says, “Through the requirements of the law Israel was constantly reminded of her inclusion in the covenant.” 2 This provides the backdrop to the huge difference relative...

I read one of the more fascinating letters written by a second century apologist named Justin (given the title of Martyr because that is how his life ended). In the following post I describe 2nd century apologetics and what the church can learn from it. Apologetics is a defense of one's belief system. In the second century, as a result of persecution by the state, Christians began to defend their faith by incorporating their culture into their defense. Apologists, like Justin Martyr, were defending the faith on several fronts: pagan intellectuals, the state, the Jews, and heretics within the church. 1 Rome was accusing Christians of atheism, cannibalism, and incest. 2 The accusation of atheism is not what you or I immediately think of. According to Ferguson "An atheist was someone who did not observe the traditional religious practices, regardless of what faith he professed." 3 Christianity was not thought of as a traditional religion, but rather a new one... one ...

During the time of the New Testament, there were three major religious and political sects of Judaism. They were the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes. Two key issues defined each of these groups: religious philosophy and practice, and social and political philosophy. First, let us look at their religious philosophy and practice. The Sadducees were generally men associated with the priesthood probably as a carry over from their association with the priestly Hasmonean rulers. 1 However, Scott says, “it must not be assumed that all Sadducees were priest nor that all priest were Saducees.” 2 They did control the operations of the Temple. Their authoritative source for religious philosophy and practice was the Old Testament law. They rejected the oral law of the Pharisees in favor of the written law of the Old Testament. Scott says, “The Sadducees were conservative and literalistic in handling the Old Testament law as they resisted the new i...

In this post I will be explaining the religious institution during the time of Jesus and talking about what the church can learn from them. There are three religious institutions during the time of Christ. The first institution is the Temple, which was the worship center of Judaism. 1 Sacrifices in the morning and the evening were offered and both rituals were almost identical. 2 While in the temple, where no Gentiles were permitted, the Jewish people would observe the sacrifice, recite the Ten Commandments, the Shema, benedictions, other prayers, and even sing in praise to God. 3 Toward the end of the ritual, the Levites began singing, trumpet blasts prompted the people to prostrate themselves, and when the singing ended so did the service. 4 The second institution is the synagogue. The synagogues provided a variety of functions for Judaism. Lea says this about the synagogue, “The synagogue served as the center of religious, social, and educational life for the Je...

I sit at my desk in front of my computer screen thankful for what the Lord has given and what He has taken away. Many people have been asking me about what is going on in life and so I want to share. My natural instinct is to hold back and not let people in for several reasons... 1. Life's next step was so unclear that to even talk about a direction seemed irresponsible. 2. I didn't want to move myself nor my family in a direction emotionally without knowing clear direction from the Lord. 3. Does anyone even care about our drama?! haha For those of you that do care, here is the scoop. Since I was in college, God had given me a passion for discipleship and a love for young people. That pushed me into youth ministry, the area I have been serving in some capacity since I graduated High School. I thought I would always be a youth pastor! I used to cringe when people asked me about becoming a senior pastor and assumed I was in youth ministry as a stepping stone toward becom...

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17:20-26 This morning I woke up...

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. " Hebrews 5:11-6:3 Wow! Sometimes the truth hurts. You begin to get the sense of the author's frustration because of the lack of understanding by...

" Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. " And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. " During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedie...

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are --yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:14-16 In verse 13 of Hebrews 4 we are faced with the reality that all of our activities, thoughts, and even motives are laid bare before God whom we must give an account. That is a frightening thought apart from the grace of God. But it is true! All of our sin is an open book to God. We can't hide it or cover it up... He knows! So on the heals of that sobering thought, the author of Hebrews gives the reader good news. We have a High Priest! Now certainly a Jewish audience would be very familiar ...

"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess." Hebrews 4:14 The start of a new section and thought. It seems to be the pattern of the author of Hebrews to begin with a challenge to the reader followed by the explanation. Yet it seems that each of these challenges is connected to each other as well. It seems appropriate timing for this challenge to be issued which I will explain tomorrow, but first, I want to take a deeper look into the challenge itself. "Therefore" , the author's preferred transition word, "since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess." The challenge is to hold firmly to the faith we profess! I have already said that this book is all about faith. The author has been trying to convince a Jewish audience that God has always expected His people...

"Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:11-13 How big is your God? The greatest joy in this life is to know the true God, yet many times we are guilty of creating a false image of God based on our own biases and reason. For instance, many try to reason an infinite being who does not think like us. We create a God that we can reason in our mind instead of accepting His revelation of Himself through the Scriptures. It is through the Scriptures that we primarily know God, though He has revealed Himself through His hand...

"Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' " And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from hi...

"Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith." Hebrews 4:1-2 I hope that by now you see a very common theme in Hebrews. The author is stuck on the whole faith thing! We saw that the God's people, whom Moses led out of Egypt, were not able to enter God's rest because of their unbelief. Now the author tells us that the promise of entering God's rest still stands. God's rest was not the promise land as we will find out later in the passage. It is important to define what the author means by the phrase "God's rest", and we will do so another day as we work our way through the passage. However, for now I want to stick with the main point of the passage... faith! The author...

"We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed ? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief." Hebrews 3:14-19 Moses continues with the theme that a hard heart is an unbelieving heart. He starts out with a statement that can be easily misunderstood. Lets be honest, when you look at verse 14 it seems to indicate that we need to hold on to our faith till the end if we want share in Christ. Yet I do not believe that is what the verse is talking about. For one, as...

"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:12-13 Yesterday we established that a hard heart is an unbelieving heart, and the challenge was not to be found to have a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. So the question today is... "How do we do that?" When you read the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, you cannot ignore the value that God places on community... relationships with other believers. Being a lone ranger was just not God's design. It is true that God has given us His Word and His Spirit, but He has also given us each other. The Old Testament teaches this as well. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17 Jesus established the church. What is the church? It is a body o...