Month: August 2020

Soccer to Football

I had a dream the other night that seemed highly significant to me. As background let me say that I played soccer in college and developed a love for the game. Recently I’ve tried to watch most of the games of the local university team.

In my dream I had gone back to my college to play in an alumni soccer game. But when the game got started, everybody started throwing the ball around and running with it. I was totally disgusted. That was not the game I came to play. It had somehow turned into rugby or American football.

When I woke up, it occurred to me that such a transformation was a good metaphor for the origination of what became known as Christianity. Now of course a game is not the same as religious faith, and it’s fine to play any variation of a game that you want to. But imagine that soccer had been divinely revealed at some point in the past and the rules for it had been personally given by God to his representatives.

Imagine further that a master teacher had come later and continued to teach the game of soccer as previously revealed, but with the additional detail that he was to be the ultimate goalkeeper (or something like that). Then, not long after the master teacher departed, the players started to reason that, since the goalkeeper could pick up the ball, take steps with it, and even throw it, other players should be able to pick up the ball and run with it or throw it. You ended up with a significantly different game.

In this metaphor, as you’ve probably figured out, soccer represents Judaism and American football represents Christianity. God gave a revelation to his people in the Hebrew scriptures that came to be known as Judaism. Jesus came and taught Judaism as revealed by the scriptures with the addition that he was the ultimate king in God’s promised kingdom. Since the kingdom was rejected by the authorities, as God knew would happen, Jesus also became the ultimate sacrifice for sin.

But in the centuries that followed, some of the rules of the game were thrown out and a lot of new ones were added. Since Jesus stayed in the tomb (resting) during the Sabbath and was resurrected on the first day of the week, it was decided that they would honor that day as their holy day and ignore the Sabbath that God had instituted. Since their focus was, they thought, to be exclusively on Jesus, they would make major celebrations of his birth and death/resurrection, and cast aside the festivals that God had instructed his people to observe. Since Jesus, at his last Passover celebration, extended the symbolism of Passover to include not only the redemption from Egypt, but also the spiritual redemption that was to be provided by his sacrifice, it became commonplace to observe a kind of mini-Passover every week or month, and totally divorce it from the Passover that was the basis for it. It became a whole new ball game.

Now just as with American football, Christianity has become more widespread than Judaism in certain contexts. But it’s not the “faith once delivered to the saints” as the third verse of the epistle to Jude puts it. There have been many reformations that have made gestures to getting back to the faith of Jesus and the apostles, but they’ve all failed because they haven’t realized that Jesus was teaching the same Judaism that God revealed to Moses and the prophets. We need to throw out all the new rules and get back to the game that God introduced in the first place.

False Prophet?

In Deuteronomy 13 we read about God’s warnings to his people regarding false prophets. “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (gods you have not known) ‘and let us worship them,’ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.” (Deu. 13:1-4)

Even if the prophet performs miraculous signs, he could be a false prophet. The main test given in this passage is whether the prophet tries to lead people to follow other gods. But it seems also to emphasize obeying God and keeping his commandments. The implication is that any prophet who tries to lead away from keeping God’s commandments is a false prophet and should be rejected.

Unfortunately, the way Jesus is presented by most Christians, he appears to Jews to fit the characteristics of a false prophet in this passage. He and his followers are portrayed as leading people away from God’s commandments, claiming that the Torah has been done away. Jews who reject Jesus on this basis are doing it out of faithfulness to God and to scripture. They should be commended for this.

However, this is clearly not the way Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament. The Jesus of the New Testament held Torah in extremely high regard. He taught that not a letter, or even a piece of a letter would pass away from Torah until heaven and earth pass away, until all things happen (Matt. 5:18). I can’t imagine affirming Torah any more strongly than that.

He quoted the Torah often in his teaching. It was his go-to scripture. He cited Deuteronomy more than any other book. When he was confronted by the devil in the wilderness, he quoted Deuteronomy three times. (Matt. 4; Luke 4) His famous statement about the greatest commandment and the second greatest, summarizing the entire law, are from Deuteronomy and Leviticus (Deu. 6:5; Lev. 19:18) When he healed a man with leprosy, he ordered him to go and show himself to the priest and offer the sacrifices commanded in the Torah (Mark 1:44).

There are those who seem to think that Jesus disregarded the Sabbath laws. He certainly faced disagreement from some of the teachers about how they should be interpreted. A close examination of the texts reveals that Jesus never claims that the Sabbath laws have been abolished. He always defends his understanding as the original intent of the laws, sometimes quoting scripture to back it up.

There is one passage where some poor translations have led people into a misunderstanding about Jesus’ attitude toward the food laws. In Mark 7 Jesus has just accused some of the Pharisees of ignoring God’s law in favor of their traditions (7:8-13). Afterward he goes on to explain to the crowd and his disciples that what they eat has nothing to do with being clean or unclean. It’s a totally separate issue. He explains to his disciples that food that they eat doesn’t go into the heart, but into the stomach, and then out of the body into the sewage, purging all foods (from the body). Some translators with an agenda have translated the phrase “purging all foods”, which in the context is part of Jesus’ statement, to say something like, “In saying this Jesus declared all foods clean”. This is a real stretch grammatically, as you’d have to go back two or three verses to find an antecedent for the participle. Besides this, he had just finished standing up for the authority of God’s law; he wasn’t about to cancel it in the next few verses. And even if he had intended such a statement, the things that he and the Jews considered to be “food” would not include the things that were prohibited by God to his people and called “detestable” (Deu. 14:3ff).

Jesus clearly revered God’s law and did not try to change any of it. But most Christians after the second century have embraced “another Jesus” who they think changed the laws. This has been a stumbling block for Jews, preventing them from acknowledging the Torah-observant Jesus who identified himself as their promised Messiah, and will return to set up God’s promised kingdom where God’s law will be internalized into people’s hearts (Jer. 31:33) and will be the universal standard of behavior (Isaiah 2:3).

Hallelujah

“Hallelujah” is a word that has become common in English, although not many people are familiar with its derivation. It is a transliteration of a Hebrew word with two parts. “Hallelu” is a masculine plural imperative form of the verb that means “Praise”. It is telling a group of people to praise. The last part of the word is “Yah”, the short form of the name of God, the One who is to be praised.

The Hebrew word “Hallelujah” is used twenty-four times in the book of Psalms, mostly in the final psalms in the book. It both opens and closes a few of them. The KJV translation doesn’t transliterate the word. It translates it as “Praise ye the LORD”, which gets at the meaning very well.

This is a sacred word, the more so because it contains the name of God. It should not be tossed off flippantly as a synonym for “I’m happy”. This could be an example of using God’s name in vain. It seems like this is the major use of the word in our society.

Another way it should not be used (or sung) is to de-emphasize the last syllable to the point of almost eliminating it. The last syllable is God’s name, and it’s the whole point of the word.

Yet another mistaken use of the word is to imagine that by saying it (or its translation, “Praise God”), you are actually praising God. Praising God is recounting his works or his character and lauding him for that. Saying “Hallelujah” (or “Praise God”) is telling a group of people to praise God; it’s not actually doing it.

Because of this, it is not an appropriate thing to be saying to God. When you have songs to the effect of “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord”, you are telling God to praise himself, which makes no sense. When the psalmist says it, he is telling the congregation to praise God, and he goes on to elaborate how and why it should be done.

What about “Alleluia”, which we often find in our music and liturgy? This is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word, and it’s only found in Revelation 19, although it’s found four times in that chapter. This is the passage on which Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” is based. It tells of a multitude in heaven exhorting each other to praise God. It also makes clear that the language being spoken on this occasion is Hebrew.

Is there any reason to use “Alleluia” in our music or liturgy? Maybe if you’re speaking or singing in Greek, as it’s a Greek transliteration of a Hebrew word. But I see no reason to use “Alleluia” in English music or liturgy. It has no meaning in Greek, only as a transliteration of Hebrew. Thus, in English we should recognize the Hebrew origin of the word and use the English transliteration, “Hallelujah”. As a choir director, I’ve asked my choirs to change “Alleluia” to “Hallelujah” in songs that they sing.

In summary, recognize that “Hallelujah” is a sacred word and use it reverently. Don’t minimize the portion of it that is God’s name. Don’t use it as a synonym for “Yippee!” And don’t tell God to praise himself. But get in the habit of praising God yourself and encouraging others to do the same.

Am I a Christian?

Am I a Christian? This is a complex question to answer because the word “Christian” is not a simple word. If it means a follower of Jesus as the promised Messiah, then I am certainly a Christian. But the word has other levels of meaning. If it means an adherent of the religious system that has come to be known as Christianity, then I have some issues.

People tend to think of Christianity as a religion that is separate from and in opposition to Judaism. I am convinced that Jesus had no intention of starting a new religion, that he and all his immediate followers were self-consciously adherents and teachers of Judaism. Jesus was a Torah-observant Jew.

After the deviation in the second century brought about by the Fiscus Judaicus, of which we have spoken elsewhere, most of Christianity took on some positions which seem to me to be contrary to scripture. They cast aside their identification with God’s people, Israel, and considered themselves to have replaced Israel in God’s plan. They shrugged off God’s law as a standard of behavior. They dismissed the Sabbaths and holy days that God commanded and instituted replacements with no biblical warrant. Most of these deviations still affect the bulk of Christianity today.

The term “Christian” is used very rarely in the New Testament. It is never used by Jesus, or even by the apostle Paul. The first mention is in Acts 11:26 where it says that “the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch” following the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. It doesn’t say who was calling them this. It could easily have been their opponents, using it as a term of mockery — greasy ones. In any case, the passage doesn’t endorse this term; it only reports it.

There is an occasion a few years later that Paul has an opportunity to use the term, but chooses not to. In Acts 26 Paul is making an extended defense before King Agrippa, including the statement that he was saying nothing beyond what the prophets and and Moses said would happen (26:22). When he asks Agrippa if he believes the prophets, Agrippa responds, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” (26:28). Paul replies, avoiding using the same term in response, “Short time or long– I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.” (26:29) It seems like Paul is not endorsing the use of that term to describe his faith.

There is only one other mention in the New Testament of the term “Christian” or any of its derivatives. It occurs in the first epistle of Peter, and it’s the only time that it’s used by a follower of Jesus. Peter is discussing the suffering that the disciples are experiencing. He says, “If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.” (I Peter 4:15-16) The term could still be a term of mockery by those who are causing the suffering, but Peter exhorts them to be proud that they bear the name of Christ, even in suffering.

Many pastors and teachers talk as if the purpose of the New Testament is to teach us how to be good Christians. I think that is the wrong metric, as it never claims that. It teaches us to be followers of God and disciples of Jesus.

When I am asked for my religious preference, “Christian” is not a term that I choose to identify with. That makes it tricky when there is a list from which to choose. But when possible, I will use a description along the lines of: “Follower of Jesus the Jew”.