The Fall

How then can mankind be righteous with God?  Or how can anyone who is born of woman be pure?  If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight,  Job 25:4-5 NASB Righteous – Perhaps Moses was delusional.  Or maybe just egotistical.  He certainly seems to have been affected by some mental mistake when he…

The Ides Have It

And I went back and saw all the oppression that is done under the sun: the tears of the oppressed who have none to console them, and from the hand of their violent oppressors there is none to console them.  And I praised the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are…

Now, But Not Yet

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.  Revelation 22:20 NASB Come – Are you expectantly waiting for the ‘olam ha’ba?  You know, the return of the King, the new Millennium, the restoration of God’s purposes.  Oh, and don’t forget, the end of all your troubles.  Heschel noted that the Christian religion…

The Kingdom on Earth

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from [a]joy over it he goes and sells everything that he has, and buys that field.  Matthew 13:44  NASB Hidden in a field – Stop reading this parable as if it were about some ethereal spiritual realm far removed from…

Fear of Dying

“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4  NIV No more death – Are you afraid to die?  Before you answer with the “hoped-for next world eternal existence of the soul” paradigm, remember that dying…

Going Home

we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.  2 Corinthians 5:8  NASB 1995 Absent – “The fantasy of escape from the struggle of existence must be deeply addressed if one is to find the vital center of one’s being.”[1] “I just…

Kissing cousins (3)

and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.  Revelation 21:4  NASB Death – What do we do to blunt the reality of dying?  The answer isn’t quite so straightforward as you might imagine.  Since death…

Can Heaven Wait?

But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me. Selah  Psalm 49:15  NASB Receive – If the Tanakh really doesn’t have a clear concept of Heaven, then what can this verse mean?  Doesn’t it imply that there is redemption from Sheol?  Doesn’t it suggest that God “saves” us from the eternity…