God Holding People Accountable Judgement VS Consequences

Blog post by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com

You hear it on the news all of the time. People demand justice. Great offense is taken at any and all disrespect.  The fact of the matter is a whole lot of lousy stuff happens for which justice never, ever comes.

God's justice, however is a given fact.  For those whose desire for wrongs to be made right, be assured that one day, justice will come.

     There are those who have perpetrated such great evil and shown no remorse for what their behavior caused that without consequences for their actions God would not be just. This is not God judging, but a result of a person's behavior. 

     A loving God is also a just God. IF ultimately all are blessed and forgiven without seeking forgiveness then Jesus died for no reason. Then there is no need to be good, to be a Christian, go to church, and more. 

That all are saved is called Universal Salvation, or Universal Reconciliation. You will not find it in the Bible. From ancient times the consensus of the Christian Church is that Universal Salvation is a heresy. 

Most certainly, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ did reconcile all people to God. All people, however, don't seek reconciliation for themselves. Jesus Christ explains it himself:

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out: those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. John 5: 28-29

Scripture also tells us that it is NOT our place to judge. Only God knows the true character of each person's heart.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we are called to love. Love our neighbor as we want to be loved...cared for, respected.

Carrying the Light of Jesus Christ in a Darkened World

A blog post comment by Mary Katherine May
Rick and Mary May own the webstore QualityMusicandBooks.com. 
December 28, 2017

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

     Praising Jesus in a darkened world is the same as lighting a candle while singing Silent Night in church with the lights out on Christmas Eve. 

Christ is the light of the world and we Christians carry his light, too. He lives!

Christ is born!     Glorify Him!

What Hymn Did Jesus Sing at the Last Supper Passover Pesach Fascinating Facts

What did Jesus sing at the Last Supper?

Matthew 26:30 "And when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives." 

SO what did they sing? Being curious, I looked it up. At the end of the Passover (Pesach) meal they praised God in song. These Psalms, the Hallel, numbers 113-118, and the Great Hallel, Psalm 136 (135). 

LINK to The Sacred Page website article titled What Did Jesus Sing at the Last Supper?

Israel's Escape from Egypt,
illustration from a Bible card published 1907
by the Providence Lithograph Company
source: Wikipedia.org

The Historical and the Spiritual Significance of the Passover Story

Passover or Pesach is a celebration of deliverance as expressed in Exodus 6 :6-7. 

Four Expressions of Deliverance
1. I will bring you out...
2. I will rescue you... 
3. I will redeem you... 
4. I will take you. 

Historically, Passover recalls the dramatic rescue of the Israelites from enslavement to the Pharaoh. Spiritually, it is the rescue of the People of God from the bondage of slavery to sin, or doing the will of Satan, the restoration and healing of the broken relationship between God and his creation. 

LINK to Chabad.org website excellent article on the Four-fold Promise of Redemption by Rabbi Avraham Brandwein. Please be sure to read Rabbi Brandwein's exposition of the verb take in the fourth promise.

The Hebrew Word Pesach

Pesach, commonly translated into English as Passover, has also a deeper interpretation (to have compassion or mercy) that is both logical and meaningful, according to Rabbi Ari Zivotofsky on the website Orthodox Union.LINK to the article, Tzarich lyun: The Meaning of "Pesach."

This blog post offering by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.

Jesus Golgotha Valley of the Shadow of Death Psalm 23

Psalm 23

Jesus, Golgotha, Valley of the Shadow of Death Psalm 23

blog post article by Mary Katherine May

Comments welcomed and read.

For some time now I have been inspired by the relation of Jesus Christ to Psalm 23.  Who is the Shepherd in this beautiful Psalm? Is it in some way a hymn of the love of God and his saving act through the Messiah? What, or where is the Valley of the Shadow of Death?  Here are a my thoughts.

On the cross Jesus the Messiah hung, suffering cruelly the unjust punishment meted upon him.  Did God use people to accomplish his purpose of reconciliation and thus deny them an eternal reward?  I think not, for it was only through their own real nature of evil that what happened came about.

Darkness Over the Whole Land

Mark 15.33, 37. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 

In the fourth hour on the cross Christ’s body, in the process of dying, was passing from life—through the valley of the shadow of death.  The Hebrew word for the shadow of death, or death shadow is tsalmaveth.

Shadow of Death (צלמות tsalmavet, Strong's Concordance #6757): The Hebrew language rarely includes compound words (two words put together to form one word). One of those few compound words in Hebrew is tsalmavet which is the word tsal [str:6738] meaning "shadow" and mavet [str:4194] meaning "death." The "shadow of death" is despair, danger or tragedy which is understood as a deep impenetrable darkness. (source link)

God asks in Job 38:17: Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

Bible Commentary by Adam Clarke, 1831: Shadow of death - Σκια θανατου, used only here and in Luke 1:79, but often in the Old Covenant, where the Hebrew is צל מות tsal maveth, It is not easy to enter fully into the ideal meaning of this term. As in the former clause, death is personified, so here. A shadow is that darkness cast upon a place by a body raised between it and the light or sun. Death is here represented as standing between the land above mentioned, and the light of life, or Sun of righteousness; in consequence of which, all the inhabitants were, involved in a continual cloud of intellectual darkness, misery, and sin. The heavenly sun was continually eclipsed to them, till this glorious time, when Jesus Christ, the true light, shone forth in the beauty of holiness and truth. Christ began his ministry in Galilee, and frequented this uncultivated place more than he did Jerusalem and other parts of Judea: here his preaching was peculiarly needful; and by this was the prophecy fulfilled. (source link)

Jesus Christ Lived the Life We Live

Jesus lived the earthly Christian life and even through the valley of the shadow of death and is leading the way.  The Valley of the Shadow of Death may be the time of passing from earthly life, an emotional feeling of despair or hopelessness, a time of fierce struggle and hardship, or a demonic battle for a soul. In a larger spiritual sense, this valley is separation from God.  These are the times when we feel that not a single person is near enough to help that the Savior consoles the soul.

As long as the heart beats, every human being has the possibility of eternity in Heaven, how every slim the opportunity may be.  Life in Christ is light, and life outside of Christ is impenetrable darkness. We have relationship with God only through Jesus Christ. We live now with Jesus Christ in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Flock without a Shepherd: Confusion and Chaos

Matthew 9: 36. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Jesus Christ, The Good Shepherd

John 10: 11. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

John 10: 14. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

Psalm 23: The Shepherd Who Provides All We Need

Psalm 23

The well-loved hymn, Psalm 23, is an exquisitely beautiful expression of the confidence and strength by which believers are able to walk through any darkness they encounter.  New Testament Scripture expands and enhances the Psalm’s meaning, offering in a sense an interpretive commentary.

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Matthew 5: 6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

John 6: 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes me shall never thirst.

2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. 

John 10: 9. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Luke 8: 24, 25. And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commands even the winds and water, and they obey him.

3 He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Matthew 11: 29, 30. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you art with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.

Luke 1: 79. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: you annoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.

John 16: 23. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

John 14:26, 27. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Matthew 28:20b. and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 

AMEN.

Jesus Christ Caiaphas Sacred Oath of Testimony

From the Upper Room to the Empty Tomb

William Evans, Ph.D., D.D.

Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1934

Chapter 5: The Trial of Jesus

2. The Ecclesiastical Trial—Before Annas, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin

Pages 165-169

Christ Before Caiaphas by Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337)
Source: Wikipedia Link to Image
image edited by Mary Katherine May

The Sacred Oath of Testimony

Author William Evans explains two reasons for the death of Jesus according to the purposes of Rome and the Jewish authorities and not the same as the real purpose according to God which of course at the time they would not have known.

The following small excerpt from Evan's book will perhaps be an insight into the real events leading up to the the empty tomb not realized or thought of before as it wasn't for me.  

The question Caiaphas asked of Jesus was framed in a way to require or necessitate a response other than silence.  It was the defining moment from which there was no escaping death.

The committed Christian, in order to be named as committed, has already had one such moment, which is not the same as knowing you are a Christian.  It is the moment that has led from a worldly or sinful life to death on the cross with Jesus Christ and then on to a life of resurrection and light.  

Christians now as ever before, however, are coming to another defining moment. This moment, if it comes, is each for each of us accompanied with a sacred oath of testimony in the same manner as Jesus faced before Caiaphas.  What would my answer be? What would your answer be?  That is something to think about.

Excerpt from The Upper Room to the Empty Tomb

“The Christ,” “the Messiah” of the Jews, was related not only to the spiritual blessings that would come on the people of God when He came; He also was to be, at least in the mind and calculation of the people (although certainly not according to the true interpretation of their Scriptures), a ruler, a king, a military commander who would deliver His people from the galling yoke of the oppressor.  Here then was a conception of the Messianic office that would be of keenest interest in Rome.  It was this aspect of the case that interested Pilate: “Art thou a king then?”  The thing which perhaps more than aught else moved Pilate to give up Jesus to the Jews for His crucifixion was the saying of leaders of the Jews: “If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar’s friend; whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.”  “When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down (or set him down) in the judgment seat…and saith unto the Jews, Behold your King…Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king, but Caesar.” (John 19:14-16)

The cunning of the high priest, therefore, was shown in his illegal attempt to wring from Jesus the confession that He was the “Messiah,” “the Christ,” for by so doing His doom would be sealed and made sure by both Jewish and Roman authorities—by the Sanhedrin and by Pilate.  Here was both a religious and political crime punishable with death.

But to exact a confession from the accused in order that he might condemn himself was a violation of Jewish law which clearly said: “Our law condemns no one to death on his own confession”….”It is a fundamental principle with us that no one can damage himself by what he says in judgment.”  That this was teaching of the Mishna, the controlling Jewish law, the high priest well knew.  But what was law to him and the Sanhedrin seeing they were determined to put Jesus to death?  There was nothing else for them to do, if they were to accomplish their nefarious purpose, but to ignore their own laws of justice and human rights.  Caiaphas will cowardly resort to a most holy custom; he will have recourse to the “Sacred Oath of the Testimony.”

When Caiaphas had asked Jesus whether or not He had anything to say in reply to the things which were being testified against Him, “Jesus held His peace;” He made no reply; and, in spite of all his persuasion, Caiaphas could not make Jesus speak; He continued to remain silent.  It was then that the high priest determined to resort to one of the most holy customs of the Jews, one which Jesus, being a true and holy Jew, would not dare disobey.  He would apply to Jesus “The Sacred Oath of Testimony” under which a true Jew dared not remain silent.  The Mishna says: “If one shall say, I adjure you by the Almighty, by Sabaoth, by the Gracious and Merciful, by the Longsuffering, by the Compassionate, or by any of the divine titles, behold they are bound to answer.”  It is clear, then, in the face of this sacred oath, that no pious Jew would dare to remain silent, for silence under such circumstances was practically an unforgiveable offense.  Jesus, therefore, could not remain any longer silent; as a true and pious Jew He must answer this question of the high priest.

“And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it that these witness against thee?  But Jesus held His peace.  And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.  Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said; nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.  Then the high priest rent his clothes, (and, this in direct disobedience to the divine command that the high priest should ‘not rend his clothes,’ Lev. 10:6) saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses: behold now ye have heard his blasphemy, What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.” (Matt. 26:62-66)

To this question, “Art thou the Christ?” administered under the “Sacred Oath of Testimony,” Jesus answered in the affirmative: “I am;” “Thou hast said;” “Ye say that I am.”  (Mark 14:62; Matt. 26:64; Luke 22:70)  Being compelled, under oath, to say, what was truth, that He was the Messiah, His answer was as simple as possible, “Thou sayest.”  Let us not think for a moment that Jesus, by these simply expressed affirmations, is seeking to evade the issue by giving an ambiguous answer to the question of the high priest.  He is not.  The answer is, according to Jewish custom and under such circumstances as these, a most positive and an affirmative answer.  It certainly was so regarded by the high priest and those who were present in the courtroom.  There was certainly no doubt in their minds as to the meaning of Jesus’ answer.  This was no word of an overwrought enthusiast, a deluded person.  It was absolute, definite, positive and affirmative to them, being of such a nature as to constitute “blasphemy.” (Matt. 26:65)  According to Jewish law and custom, courtesy, under these circumstances, forbade a direction “Yes” or “No” to a question of such grave or sad import.

It is quite true that the interpretation which the high priest put upon the title “the Christ” was quite different from that which the Scriptures give it, and Jesus Himself put upon it, nevertheless there was nothing else for Jesus to do but to acknowledge that He was “the Christ” foretold in the Jewish Scriptures.  According to the true interpretation of the office and function of the Messiah, His work was to be characterized by accomplishing the spiritual redemption and deliverance of God’s people.  The high priest, in common with the Jewish nation as a whole, had misunderstood and misinterpreted the Messianic function and referred it to a material, physical and political deliverance from all temporal enemies (see Acts 1:6; cf. Luke 17:20, 21)—and it was such a definition that lay back in the mind of the scheming high priest.  But Jesus, of course, was not responsible for this false conception of the Messianic office, and could not, on that account, deny that He was the true Messiah, the Christ of God.

But this admission of Jesus as to His being “the Christ” satisfied the high priest because, on the one hand, it constituted blasphemy, and such a claim, in the judgment of the Sanhedrin, was a crime punishable by death; while, on the other hand, the thought that Caesar’s throne was threatened by a Jewish Messiah would be sufficient to constitute treason which was a crime punishable by death by Rome, for Rome looked for trouble in connection with the advent of the Jewish Messiah, and had already had one or two very serious political clashes with men professing to be the Christ, the Messiah; (Acts 5:36, 37; 21:38; 8:9) so Rome would be taking no more risks in that direction.

Jesus, therefore, by His own confession, had condemned Himself religiously and politically.  And this was exactly what the scheming Caiaphas wished for.  The Sanhedrin would quickly take care of the crime of blasphemy and sentence Jesus to death for it.  Rome would not be slow in taking cognizance of any, even seeming, attack upon its control of the Jewish nation.  As long as Jesus was content to remain as a mere local preacher among the people of Palestine Rome would not need to bother about Him, but let Him make claim to be the Messiah, who, according to Jewish belief, is destined to mount the throne of David—well, that was an entirely different matter; then Rome was interested and seriously so.

Before the Sanhedrin Jesus was condemned because they said He claimed to be the Son of God; before Pilate because they said He claimed to be the King of the Jews; so we should understand that the crucifixion was the crucifixion of one who claimed to be God’s Son in a manner which was equivalent to equality with God.  Nor was it necessarily called blasphemy because the Messiah said He was the Son of God (the Jews expected that), but because Jesus made the claim in an exclusive way.  He had said, “that God was his own Father, thus making Himself equal with God.” (John 5:17, 18 R.V.)  Indeed the death on the cross can be understood only as we see these two things.

This blog post by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.