God's Laws for a Just Society

 When Jesus preached in his hometown of Nazareth, it was the Sabbath day, and he read this text from the Old Testament.

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Lk 4:18–19 NKJV

The acceptable year of the Lord was the Jubilee.

Every fiftieth year was the jubilee. Anyone, who had sold his inherited land to pay debts, could repossess his inheritance free of charge.

Jesus read this text on the Sabbath. Every seventh day was also a day of rest. This was a great mercy for workaholics and poor labourers.

In addition, every seventh year was a year when the land rested. The crops that grew in this year must not be harvested by the landowners, but the poor could help themselves.

Every seventh year, all debts were also cancelled.

In the OT Law of Moses, the Hebrew landowners harvested the grain, the olives and grapes, but they were not allowed to harvest too thoroughly. They had to leave a generous portion of unharvested produce for the poor to gather. This was called gleaning.

An evangelical preacher in the USA explained these laws. He then asked his congregation, what they would think if these laws were not in the Bible and we applied these principles today.

The conservative congregation answered, that this would be Communism.

Does this shock you? It seems to me, that evangelical Christians in America and similar countries have badly misunderstood what it means to be Bible believing Christians. We have been indoctrinated to accept uncritically the priority of maximising investment returns and corporate profits.

What does the bible say about financial greed?

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left, and you live alone in the land. Is 5:8 NIV

In America, Australia and some other countries, real estate speculation has resulted in mass homelessness.

These Bible laws were not just principles for believers to follow, but laws to govern a just society. If we live in democratic countries, and governments are not adequately providing for the care of the poor, the disabled and the sick, churches should do more to provide help. 

In the past, many schools and hospitals have been founded by churches to help people in need.

But it is not enough for Christians to help. We should also call upon governments to do more.

When the Luke and the Apostles wrote the New Testament, they said very little about principles of government. It was already in the OT. The early church also had no possibility of influencing Roman laws. They were like the church today under dictatorships.

In democratic countries, Christian political activists do try to influence laws. Many oppose homosexual marriage and try to restrict abortion, but conservative activists often ignore the OT principles of making adequate provision for the poor.

Many churches do help the poor but they don’t understand that they should pressure governments to help the poor and sick adequately.

Many American Christians have become so indoctrinated with the philosophy of big business, that they think affordable universal medical service is evil socialism.

What many conservative Christians fail to understand, is that poverty often leads to prostitution and more abortions.

In most democratic countries, the majority of people are no longer bible believing Christians. Political action to stop abortion has usually had little or no success. Adequate social welfare for poor or single mothers could reduce the desperation to get abortions.

God Created Men and Women to be Equal

Why do many Christians teach that men must always be in charge of churches, not women? Why do they say a woman must always obey her husband?

They can quote bible verses here and there, often with doubtful interpretations. Every verse can also be interpreted to show that it is not a universal law of God, or even that some verses are incorrect translations.  Books have been written to explain this in detail.  

Paul also instructs slaves to obey their masters. If we tell wives to be subordinate, we should, to be consistent, be in favour of slavery.

However, there is a simple Biblical explanation that shows men and women should be equal in every respect.

God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” Ge 1:27–28 NET

Who did God appoint to rule? Only the man? Only the female? No. He appointed both man and woman to rule, with no indication of hierarchy.

But some Christians point to Genesis 3:16.

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labour you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Gen 3:16.

Did God decree that a husband should rule over his wife? Some understand this to be a divine decree. Others believe God was sadly predicting the unjust subordination of women because sin had corrupted the original godlike human nature. 

Adam and Eve were both originally sinless and therefore created in the image of God.

But God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross to pay the penalty of sin.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

If you believe in Jesus, if you put entrust your life to the love and truth of God, if you commit your life to the leading of God, you are no longer an outsider with God.

But that is not all.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— Jn 1:12 NIV

As a follower of Jesus, you are a child of God, a son or a daughter. God does not discriminate.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 2 Co 5:17 CSB

This translation says anyone in Christ is a new creation. The masculine pronoun HE is not in the original Greek text.

When God first created man and woman, there was not even a hint of rank order or gender based hierarchy. Salvation after the cross restores God’s original intention. 

Both man and woman are in God’s image and are appointed to rule jointly.

God wants husbands and wives to be partners, equal in every respect, including equal in authority, just as in Eden before sin spoiled everything.

Likewise, the church should reflect this principle of complete gender equality, in spiritual ministry and church government.

 

Your new life with Jesus

 If you have entrusted your life to Jesus, you have begun an entirely new life. .

Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. 2 Co 5:17 GW

You are no longer the same person. You are a son or daughter of the Father in heaven. You have eternal life.

    Your eternal life has already begun and will never end.

    You are already a citizen of the eternal kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 Jn 5:12 NIV

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. His life belongs to you and your life belongs to him.

    You have an eternal love relationship with God.
    You are IN Christ and the Spirit of God is in you.

Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you no longer have to die for your sins.

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Ro 8:11 NIV

Because you are in Christ, God will not only provide for your needs. He will also bless you with amazing gifts of love.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Ro 8:31–32 NKJV

God's abundant grace has not been given to us to be selfish like spoiled children.

God gives us His heavenly power, wisdom, healing and love to save the world, to bless our fellow human beings, to rescue people from darkness and hell.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jn 3:16 NKJV

Jesus rose from the dead, but he did not remain on earth, but returned to his Father in heaven.

Now we are his representatives on earth.

    Jesus has no hands on earth except your hands.   

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 

Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Mk 1:40–42 NKJV

What Jesus began, God wants us to continue.

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;

... they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mk 16:17–18 NKJV

Jesus' wounded feet are now healed, but you can still see the scars in the sky. Jesus is now walking on streets of gold.

Jesus now has no feet on this earth but your feet. Will you go now to those who need eternal life?

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Mt 28:19–20 NKJV

Gender Bias in Bible Translations

Different Christians read different Bible translations. Some believe that only one translation is right and condemn other translations as allegedly wrong.

Luther and the translators of the King James Bible included John 8:1-11. They also recognised and translated Mark 16:9-20 as Scripture.

Many modern translators claim that both passages are questionable because they are not found in the supposedly best manuscripts. In some modern translations, the two passages are included but a footnote warns readers that they are not found in some of the best manuscripts. Otherwise they may be omitted but added as footnotes.

I am not a Bible scholar. I studied literature at university. I am interested in the thematic structure of texts.

What are the important ideas in both of these two controversial passages?

In both passages, women are not taken seriously by the spiritual leaders. In both passages, sexist men are rebuked by Jesus himself.

In John 8, pious Jewish men brought to Jesus a woman they had caught committing a sexual sin. They wanted Jesus to order her stoned to death, because the Old Testament law required it.

Jesus was outraged that these men were so unjust. Where was the man who had sinned with this woman?

Jesus exposed this hypocritical injustice, forgave the woman, and saved her life.

Mark 16 tells us that the first witness to Jesus' resurrection was not one of the apostles but a woman, Mary Magdalene. This was certainly no accident. God himself had chosen this woman to be a witness.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.

She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.

And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. Mk 16:9–11 NKJV

In John 8 the unrighteous leaders were religious Jews. In Mark 16, the unrighteous men were the apostles whom Jesus himself had appointed as his leaders!

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mk 16:14 NKJV

In the first centuries after the apostles, who compiled the supposedly best manuscripts of the Bible? The scribes and church fathers. 

There may have been doubts about these passages for two reasons. One is that they may have been added to the original writings of Mark and John. This does not necessarily invalidate them. Deuteronomy was written by Moses, but the last section was added after Moses died.

The other reason is that both passages show how male leaders made unjust judgements against women, and Jesus rebuked the men.

The church fathers and scribes had the task of examining the manuscripts of John and Mark. They had to judge the different copies and decide which versions were authentic.

I think it was inconceivable to some of these men that Jesus would have respected women more than male spiritual leader. That could be precisely why these two passages were omitted from some highly respected manuscripts.

On the other hand, most of the scribes were probably men, and the passages were therefore probably included by men. Sexist distortion of Bible translations can be a problem, but not all male editors or translators twist the text.

The sexism of the early church fathers is not hard to find. In some of the writings of the church fathers, women were openly vilified because of Eve's first sin.

However, there is another reason to confirm the authenticity of these disputed passages, namely the thematic and literary structure of the Gospels of Mark and John. I will explain this in my next blog post.

Luther and the King James translators accepted this passage as authentic. I am not saying that these older translations are better than modern translations in every way. There are other places in the Bible where these old translations are gender biased, but that is not the subject of this post.

Unlikely Miracles in Hard Places

 1941 Paris under Nazi occupation. Jews had to wear a yellow star and were deported and murdered en masse.

A seven-year-old Jewish boy was visiting a Christian friend, but stayed too long. There was a curfew for Jews. After 6 pm, he risked being arrested in the street.

He turned his jacket inside out to hide the yellow star and made his way home.

But then his nightmare got worse. A German officer in a black SS uniform approached him.

It wasn't a dream, but then, as in a dream, the tables were turned.

The officer hugged him lovingly and spoke to him in a friendly way, even though the boy didn't understand German. Then he showed him a photograph of a boy, perhaps his son. And it got even better. He gave the astonished boy some banknotes and sent him home with more kind words.

The boy and his family survived the Nazi era, and they settled in Israel after the war. The boy never forgot the kind SS officer. Fascinated by the contradictions of human nature, he studied psychology.

He became a psychologist in the Israeli army and then went to America to do his doctorate.

He became a world-famous author and Nobel laureate.

Are you perhaps in an inhuman situation like this SS officer? But there is a good God who has good plans for you.

Oskar Schindler was a wealthy businessman and Nazi member. He used his position to save many Jews.  

I met a Russian woman. Her father was a communist, but her mother took the children to the church while her father was politically active.

A German concentration camp commandant used his position to save many Jews. He helped the Jews to build hiding places in the camp so that the SS could not find them.

As a young Christian, I was cruelly abused in an authoritarian church. I had a nervous breakdown and needed intensive psychiatric help. I spent a whole year in hospital, but God still had good plans for my life.

When I returned home, I visited other patients and encouraged them to trust in God.

The Apostle Paul was cruelly persecuted, flogged and sometimes imprisoned, but he used his imprisonment to pray for persecuted Christians. He also wrote letters to the churches. These letters are now books of the New Testament.

What is your situation like? Probably not ideal. Perhaps a nightmare.

Jesus wants to rescue you from your predicament, but perhaps not overnight.

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch woman who ended up in a concentration camp in Germany because her family had been hiding Jews. She suffered terrible ordeals, but even in the concentration camp she served as a missionary.

Her sister was murdered in the camp, but she was released one day because of a clerical error by German officials.

After the war, she became a travelling evangelist, also in Germany.

Is your situation very difficult? If it's possible to escape a brutal marriage, it's probably all the better. Maternal care and the safety of the children outweigh the obligation to stay in the marriage.

If you are being victimised in a legalistic church, you may not be allowed to leave, but such rules do not come from God.

But even if you can't escape your situation, God can help you to be a blessing to others.

The apostle Paul vividly describes his trust in God in the midst of adversity.

We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Co 4:8–10 NIV

God loves you. You can choose to respond.

 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. Jn 12:32–33 NIV

Jesus was not compelled to die on the cross. Although he was arrested, he could have escaped. However, he chose to sacrifice his life willingly to bear God's judgement for us.

Jesus was not coerced; he acted out of love.  Jesus does not want to force you and me to accept his love and forgiveness. Instead, he desires to win us over through love.

Unlike conscripts in armies who do not obey voluntarily, Jesus does not want any involuntary slaves. He loves you and wants to win your love. True love is always voluntary.

God's love is always active.

So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” Jn 5:17 NET

Are you feeling discouraged or stuck? Where is God?

God is at work in your life even when you feel frustrated. If you ask where God is, it's a sign that God is whispering to your soul. Where does the thought of God come from? From God himself.

Remember that there is a good God who wants to help you, so please don't give up.

God is Actively Involved

 In 1718, a Dutch writer described God as an all-powerful watchmaker who created the universe and then let it run by itself like clockwork.

William Paley (1743-1805) was an Anglican clergyman looking for good sermon illustrations. He popularised the idea of God as a watchmaker. Everything in the universe runs according to scientifically predictable laws, with no ongoing involvement of the Creator.

Science was becoming the new religion.

God was thus understood as an absent and insignificant creator.
If you believe in such a God, it makes no difference to your life.

But in the Bible, God does not appear as an absent landlord without compassion.  

God in the Bible is actively involved in this world. He intervenes again and again. 

Today, these interventions are understood as supernatural miracles or are explained away by humanistic theology. 

There are even conservative Christians who claim to be Bible-believing, but who quote Bible texts that supposedly teach that God only wanted to work miracles in ancient times.

But they still believe that God answers prayers. How do you distinguish between a miracle, which God supposedly no longer performs, and an answer to prayer, which is not supposed to be a miracle?

They then say that the greatest miracle is the salvation of a converted soul, which is true, but they then dismiss other miracles as unimportant.

This doctrine is full of contradictions.

If you pray for a job and get it, that's fine, but if your daughter is dying of cancer and is supernaturally healed, you shouldn't believe it. Really?

A conservative preacher prayed for a girl who was dying and God healed her. But that's not supposed to happen in his denomination because the age of miracles is thought to be long gone.

The preacher attended a conference where he asked a charismatic preacher for a biblical explanation. He wanted to know if he was praying correctly.

He got a completely unexpected answer:

Why don't you ask the little girl?

God is love. Jesus tells us that God is our loving Father.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Mt 7:7–11 NIVUK84