This blog was originally published by The Friends of Israel.
Two years ago I was in Israel on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day). Our team of young adults, a delegation from California and Nevada taking part in the March of the Living, sat in a park amphitheater together. We each shared what we had learned about the Holocaust during our two weeks in Poland and Israel. Not long after we began, the wail of a siren broke the calm of the still, spring morning. For two minutes, the haunting blare rang out in remembrance of the 6 million Jews and 5 million Gentiles who died as victims of the Holocaust. Yom HaShoah is, by its very nature, relatively modern, established by an act of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in 1951. This means, of course, that, unlike Passover, Sukkot, Yom Kippur, and the other feasts of Israel, Yom HaShoah is not a biblical holy day. Rather, it is a solemn observance—and a very painful one at that—in which the Jewish community collectively memorializes victims of the Holocaust. The fact that it was not instituted by God, however, does not mean that Yom HaShoah is not theological. On the contrary, questions about God, His relationship with Israel, and His character are inherent to discussions about the Holocaust. I discovered this several years ago when talking with a Holocaust survivor. He said, “If we are God’s Chosen People, why did He allow 6 million of us to perish? I find it very hard to believe in such a God.” Since then, I have heard similar sentiments repeated countless times by Jewish friends. We must acknowledge, however, that questions of God’s presence during the Holocaust are distinct from questioning God’s existence in light of evil in general. My Jewish friends are not necessarily questioning God’s existence; they are questioning why their God would allow such evil to befall His special people. The Bible has the answers to such questions. Let’s address just a few. 1. GOD WAS NOT SLEEPING. Recently I was at coffee with a Jewish friend. We were talking about God’s protection of the Jewish people throughout the ages when she said, “I guess God was asleep at the wheel during the Holocaust.” Certainly, from a human perspective that seems plausible. After all, surely God must not have been alert to or aware of the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. God tells us, however, that He was not sleeping. Far from it, in fact. Consider past persecutions of the Jewish people. Remember the account of Esther? Although God’s name is never once mentioned in the book of Esther, His hand behind the scenes is evident as He raises a young Jewish woman to a place of authority in the Persian king’s court. He uses Esther to save Persian Jewry from annihilation (Esther 4:14). And who can forget the Exodus out of Egypt? Oppressed for 400 years by the Egyptians, God used Moses to lead Israel out of bondage and eventually into the land He promised them (although their sin added four decades to the journey!). The Lord was not distant from His people during these times—He went through the trials with them. God was not sleeping or unaware of Israel’s suffering during these painful periods. In fact, the psalmist writes, “Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4). And the prophet Isaiah declares that “[i]n all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isaiah 63:9). The Lord was not distant from His people during these times—He went through the trials with them. 2. GOD FORETOLD OF JEWISH PERSECUTION. If God was not sleeping during the Holocaust, then He must have allowed the Holocaust to take place. How does that square with a just and good God? The answer to this question is found in Deuteronomy 28, where we read that because God has a unique relationship with and love for Israel, He will chasten them when they are disobedient. Among the curses of chastening listed there, we find the following: Then the Lᴏʀᴅ will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lᴏʀᴅ will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, “Oh, that it were evening!”And at evening you shall say, “Oh, that it were morning!” because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see (vv. 64–67). The parallels between this description and the experience of many during the Holocaust are unavoidable. Centuries before Hitler was born, God foretold future dispersion of the Jewish people and subsequent persecution of them on the part of the nations. We must remember, though, the purpose of these curses. They are not merely punitive measures, taken to show God’s displeasure. These curses are acts of God’s chastening of His beloved Chosen People. Indeed, the Scripture records that “whom the Lᴏʀᴅ loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12). 3. RESTORATION AND JUDGMENT WILL COME. The thing about punishment is that it is usually an end in itself, the consequence of bad behavior. Chastening, on the other hand, has as its end goal repentance and restoration, not pain. The pain of punishment is the catalyst God uses to get His people’s attention and to show them where they went wrong. Shortly after listing the cursings that will come upon Israel for disobedience, God promises restoration, conditioned on repentance. Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lᴏʀᴅ your God drives you, and you return to the Lᴏʀᴅ your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lᴏʀᴅ your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lᴏʀᴅ your God has scattered you (Deuteronomy 30:1–3). Interestingly, eight days after Yom HaShoah, Israel and the Jewish community worldwide celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day. It is a joyous celebration of the rebirth of Israel as a sovereign nation. But to the believer, it is more than that—it is a recognition of God’s faithfulness to His Chosen People, and it looks forward to the day when ultimate national repentance and restoration will take place (Zechariah 12:10; 14:9–11). The Holocaust was an incredibly painful event, one that continues to haunt not only the dwindling number of people who experienced it firsthand, but their children and grandchildren too. The Holocaust, though, was not the end. Indeed, as the psalmist writes, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). God promised that national restoration will come, and that restoration precedes the judgment of all who have sinned and not placed their trust for salvation in Israel’s Messiah, Nazis included (Revelation 20:11–15). CONCLUSION Sitting in that amphitheatre, the lone Gentile among a dozen or so young Jewish people, my heart hurt. Many, if not all of those sitting with me, lost a relative in the Holocaust. But as the siren’s scream came to a close, I found myself thanking God. Despite centuries of persecution and satanic attempts to destroy God’s Chosen People, and despite being scattered around the world, sitting with me were members of a new generation of Jewish young people, visiting the historic Jewish homeland. God has been faithful to His promises and He always will be. Originally published by The Friends of Israel.
The closest thing to a miracle I think I have ever witnessed is the birth of my daughter, Lottie. For nine months, my wife and I prayed for her, planned for her, and talked about her. We gathered the necessary baby paraphernalia and filled her nursery with all things frilly and cute. But nothing could have prepared me for that November night when she was born. What an indescribable experience it is to meet your own child face-to-face for the first time! I say that Lottie’s birth was the closest thing to a miracle I’ve seen. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter, and I’m still amazed at how the Lord designed my wife to be able to bring her into this world. But the Bible makes it clear that a miracle is a very specific thing, an event that defies the laws of nature and brings glory to God Himself. WHAT IS A MIRACLE? There are a handful of words translated miracles or signs throughout the Bible, both in Hebrew and Greek. While these terms have slightly different meanings, considered together, a miracle, biblically-speaking, is an act of God that operates outside of nature’s laws and demonstrates His power over the created world. Throughout Scripture, God uses miracles or signs to validate the messages He communicates through His messengers. MIRACLES IN THE BIBLE Both the Old and New Testaments are filled with miracles. Some of the most notable miracles in the Old Testament are those relating to the Exodus of the Jewish people out of Egypt. God commissioned Moses to tell Pharaoh to let Israel go from Egyptian bondage. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt (Exodus 7:2–3). He caused Aaron’s staff to become a serpent, water to turn to blood, frogs to infest the land, flies to plague the Egyptians and their animals, cattle to die, boils to break out on people’s bodies, hail and fire to pummel man and beast, locusts to destroy crops, darkness to shroud the land, and the firstborn of every house not marked with the lamb’s blood to die (Exodus 7—12). With Egypt in pursuit, God divided the waters of the Red Sea so that Israel could pass through on dry ground. He then caused the waters to come back together, drowning Pharaoh’s army (Exodus 14). These miracles, as well as the countless others found in the pages of the Old Testament, demonstrated God’s power and sovereignty over His creation. They also served to validate the messages communicated through Moses and God’s other prophets, showing that they were speaking for God, not for themselves. In the New Testament, the Messiah Himself performed many miracles. He turned water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana (John 2:1–11); walked on water (Matthew 14:25); fed 5,000+ with a boy’s lunch (John 6:1–14); gave sight to the blind (Luke 18:35–43); caused the deaf to hear (Mark 7:31–37); gave mobility to a paralyzed man (Matthew 9:2–7); cast out demons (Matthew 8, 9, 12); healed lepers (Luke 14:1–4); calmed a storm (Mark 8:37–41); and raised the dead to life (Matthew 9:18–19; Luke 7:11–15; John 11), to name just a few. The miracles of Jesus served three primary purposes. 1.) They ministered to the needs of others. Whether by providing more wine at a wedding, healing physical needs, casting out demons, or raising the dead to life, Jesus’ miracles brought answers to hopeless human situations of varying degrees. 2.) They proved He is Israel’s Messiah. John the Baptist had heralded the King’s coming (John 1). But after being arrested and thrown into prison by Herod, he experienced doubts. Was his cousin Jesus really the promised Messiah of Israel? John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?” (Luke 7:19). Jesus’ response was not a lecture on theology; rather, He pointed to His miracles. And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22). Importantly, the miracles Jesus pointed to were not a random sample of the supernatural signs He had done. Rather, they were the exact miracles the prophet Isaiah said would accompany the Messiah’s advent. Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened, And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped. Then those who limp will leap like a deer, And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy (Isaiah 35:5–6). The Spirit of the Lord Gᴏᴅ is upon me, Because the Lᴏʀᴅ has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted (Isaiah 61:1). 3.) They demonstrated His deity. One of the most memorable miracles of the Gospels is that of Jesus’ healing the paralytic man whose friends lowered him through the roof to be healed by Jesus. Luke records that, upon seeing the faith of the man’s friends, “He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you’” (5:20). Sitting with Jesus were scribes and Pharisees. These men heard what Jesus said, and they were incensed. “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies?” they asked. “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” (Luke 5:21). These religious leaders understood that only God could forgive a person’s sins, and they called out such a statement as blasphemous. Had Jesus been a mere sinful man, His pronouncement would indeed have been blasphemous. But Jesus is no mere man, and He certainly is not sinful. Jesus is God, and to demonstrate this fact, He did a miracle. But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home” (Luke 5:22–24). What was the result of Jesus’ command? The Scripture records that the man picked up the mat he had been carried in on and walked home. And those in attendance “were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, ‘We have seen remarkable things today’” (Luke 5:25–26). Jesus’ miracles demonstrated to Israel that He is not only the Messiah—He is God. MIRACLES TODAY? What about today? Does God perform miracles in our time? We have no scriptural evidence to support the idea that God is completely done performing miracles. God is sovereign, and He can do anything He pleases to glorify Himself. I would argue, in fact, that the continued existence of the Jewish people and the re-possession of the land the Lord gave them are miracles. When I consider the number of systematic attempts to destroy God’s Chosen People throughout history and the incredibly unlikely odds that the world powers would choose on their own to vote the State of Israel into existence in 1948, I am convinced that they are both supernatural acts of God (Jeremiah 31; Ezekiel 37). Christians, however, are not to look for miracles as a normative part of the Christian life. Miracles have always been acts of God that validated His messengers. Those in the Old Testament and in the early church did not have the entire Word of God. But today, we have it all, everything we need to be “adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:15). The Scripture, not experience, is to be our final authority. We can read of the miracles God performed through the prophets, the Messiah, and the early church and marvel at the demonstration of the Lord’s power. But our faith is not to be built on miracles, signs, or wonders; rather, it is to be built squarely “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). Originally published by The Friends of Israel.
Unfortunately, it’s not an infrequent occurrence today when a once-celebrated writer, artist, or pastor renounces his or her faith in Christ. Joshua Harris is a prime example. In 2019, the former megachurch pastor and author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye announced via Instagram that he had undergone “a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.” 1 As tragic as it is, Harris is right-—there is nothing novel about his disavowal of Christ. From the church’s infancy, Christians have been warned about those who falsely profess to be believers. The apostle John describes such people as those who “went out from us, but … were not really of us” (1 John 2:19, NASB). Still, when someone falls away from the truth, it hurts the church and leaves Christians scratching their heads. We face some tough questions in the wake of such high-profile renunciations. One of the most urgent concerns is what we should do with all the good things the person said and wrote in the past. Do we keep their books on our shelves? Or do we have a bonfire in the church parking lot, sending it all up in smoke? Here are a couple of thoughts to consider. LET’S CALL IT WHAT IT IS Ironically, in our age of incivility and outrage, it can be difficult to say things that don’t sound nice; and the term apostasy is surely not a nice word. But it’s accurate. While there should be no celebration in doing it, the church must humbly and boldly call a spade a spade: Joshua Harris and others like him are apostates. The term apostasy comes from a Greek word meaning “defection.” It carries with it the idea of a soldier deserting his army and joining the enemy camp. Paul warns Timothy of this very thing when he writes that “the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron” (1 Timothy 4:1–2, NASB). As Joshua Harris points out, the popular term for apostasy is deconstruction. Deconstruction is the process by which a person who formerly professed faith in Christ, denies, brick by brick, various biblical doctrines he once held to be true, until, like a house whose foundation has been chiseled away at, everything crumbles to the ground. Although most who have deconstructed would say that the process was one of careful analysis and objective reasoning on their part, God says deconstruction is demonic (v. 1). Apostasy is never about turning from Christ to nothing; it’s about turning from Christ to the god of this world. The first step in dealing with the works of one who has defected is calling it what it is: apostasy. LET’S FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO ENJOY The real question, then, is this: Can we-—or better yet, should we--enjoy the work of an apostate? And the simplest way to answer this is no. The key word in this question is enjoy. Enjoying, for the believer in this context, involves edification. It includes being encouraged, exhorted, built-up, and equipped in one’s walk with the Lord. It is difficult, then, to imagine what spiritual benefit there could be to the Christian who seeks to enjoy the work of someone who has rejected the Son of God. This is not to say it is necessarily wrong for a believer to examine the works of an apostate to learn from his errors. A friend who serves as academic dean at a Bible college told me that he has faced this very scenario many times and has to use great discernment when allowing such materials to be used in the classroom or the college library. “I would not say that we should never use the materials of those turned apostate, but our use of the materials ought to be extremely rare,” he said. “And when their materials are used, it ought to be qualified and qualified very clearly (in other words, tell why the works are being used, but that the writer has now turned toward apostasy.)” Robert M’Cheyne, the godly 19th-century Scottish pastor, echoed this sentiment when he said the believer should not saturate his mind with teachings and philosophies that go against the Word of God. “True, we ought to know them,” he wrote, “but only as chemists handle poisons—to discover their properties, not to infect their blood with them.”2 Still, the truth remains: Just say no to apostates. We may live in an age of unparalleled portals to error; but we also have nearly unlimited access to two millennia of solid works by solid Christians that make turning to good works by bad men unnecessary. As my friend the academic dean said, “When you can enjoy without fear, delicious boneless fillets of fish, why spend the time on that which is so bony?” Endnotes 1 Harris, Joshua [harrisjosh]. (2019, July 26). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ZBrNLH2sl/. 2 Wiersbe, Warren. Be Skillful (Proverbs): God’s Guidebook to Wise Living. Colorado Springs, David C Cook, 2009. This letter to the editor was originally published in The Cass City Chronicle (7/22/2020) in response to a letter calling for the renaming of Cass City, published on 7/15/2020.
Dear Editor, I read with interest and a measure of empathy the letter written by Mr. Kranz in last week’s edition of the paper. Mr. Kranz argued that it might be a step in the right direction to change the name of Cass City, since Lewis Cass advocated for and participated in “Indian removal.” At the very least, he argued, the name change might spur on “more serious conversations.” In some ways, I agree with Mr. Kranz. We ought to remember the atrocities perpetrated in the past. We ought to be careful about who we hold up as role models and heroes. We ought to be cautious of our acceptance of the victor’s version of history alone. We ought not brush over those parts of the past which inconveniently disrupt our ideals. But I would like to make a couple of points that I think deserve some thought. As a local historian, I will point out one, minor technicality--Cass City was not named to celebrate Lewis Cass or to commemorate his actions; rather, the town was named thus in reference to its proximity to the Cass River. While this does not negate the fact that the village’s name derives from the man himself, it is necessary to understand the origins of the town name and the intent of the founders, who were actually remarkably uncreative in their choice of a town name. More importantly, and more to my point, is the fact that Mr. Kranz’s arguments beget other questions, chief among them--Where do we stop? Should we scrub the United States of any reference to Abraham Lincoln, who suspended habeas corpus? Do we ban the Communist Manifesto from library shelves and bar Marxist groups from organizing (it was, afterall, Karl Marx whose ideas led to the murder of one hundred million and whose antisemitism is well-documented)? Do we shut down Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by noted eugenicist Margaret Sanger? (Incidentally, this is one organization whose closure I would applaud loudly, not because of its founder’s actions, but because of its scandalous devaluation of human life, its targeting of minority women, and its savage murder of unborn children; but I digress). Do we change the name of every street and building in the Union named in honor of John F. Kennedy, a known womanizer, and Martin Luther King, Jr., whose womanization and acquiescence of rape have been well-documented? My point, of course, is that our current cultural moment, this obsession with erasing references to those individuals and ideas we find abhorrent, is unsustainable and unprofitable. Unsustainable because there is no end to it. Unprofitable because it does not get to the heart of the matter, summed up in one word that is most certainly not in vogue today: sin. Those Christian missionaries Mr. Kranz referenced in his well-written letter, who “opposed most strongly” the Indian Removal Act did so because they had a right understanding of human nature. They understood what we moderns would do well to relearn ourselves, namely that the heart of every person is unfathomably evil in its intents and actions. C.S. Lewis, lauded Oxford don and popular writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, voiced succinctly what we are seeing in our own day. He wrote of “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited,” a concept he dubbed, in a way only an Englishman can, chronological snobbery. Lewis’ point is that every generation sees itself as the arbiter of truth, the gold standard for morality and righteousness. We celebrate our own debauchery as contemporary “liberation,” yet condemn the sins of our fathers’ pasts with a roll of the eyes and a tisk of the tongue. We fail to see that there will come a day when our grandchildren will ask in bewilderment how we could hold up as heroes many of the social justice advocates we laud today. And the answer is that we have the same sin nature that those who came before us had. None of us is righteous, no not one. No campaign to tear down monuments, no movement to expunge names from the pages of history, and, indeed, no call to change the name of a little village in Michigan’s Thumb, no matter how well-intentioned, will ultimately change anything at all, because such actions are futile attempts to deal with symptoms of sin, not sin itself. If we were honest in our historical research, and our own anecdotal experience with human beings, we would admit that no public figure is truly worthy of unqualified celebration; indeed, if we were even more painfully honest, we would admit that our own secret thoughts and actions are often not only cringeworthy, but damnable. Yes, let’s have conversations about the heroic and the heinous of our past. Let’s grapple with the messiness of human action. But if we are content with cultural revolution instead of personal repentance, we are wasting our time. Respectfully, Tyler Perry Las Vegas, NV (formerly of Cass City) ![]() CASS CITY’S Don Greenleaf is best known for what he readily admits is a gift given to him by God — his music. From playing at weddings and funerals to using his talents at church, Greenleaf has had a profound musical presence in his community, one born out of a love of music that began at a very early age. Originally published in The Cass City Chronicle (July 15, 2020).
Some know him as the smiling teller who used to wait on them at the Pinney State Bank. To others, he is known as an excellent baker and a grower of flowers. But Cass City’s Don Greenleaf is best known for what he readily admits is a gift given to him by God — his music. From playing at weddings and funerals to using his talents at church, Greenleaf has had a profound musical presence in his community, one born out of a love of music that began at a very early age. “We always had a piano in the house. My mother played and my grandmother played, but I always pretended all the time I was growing up that it was an organ,” he recalled. That love of organ music was deepened during a visit to an evangelistic meeting in Saginaw in the 1950s. “It was in the old auditorium in downtown Saginaw, which is no longer there. I saw my first organ there, and...that just did it. I remember running away from my parents and sitting on the front row so I could watch the man (playing).” Greenleaf’s parents encouraged their son’s musical interests, purchasing record albums of the same organist he watched so attentively in Saginaw. “I listened to those by the hour, I never got tired of them,” he said. In addition to record albums, Greenleaf’s parents ensured he had piano lessons. “I took lessons first from Ruth Esau,” he said. “But I could play the lesson by ear, so I wouldn’t read the music. I was in first grade.” As a boy, the Cass City native’s musical appetite and style was influenced by musicians near and far. Gospel musicians Helen Barth and Al Smith were particularly influential. “As I got a little older, my aunt brought home a player and radio combination type thing, it played 45s,” he said. “Well, then I would play from the piano. I would hear the songs...on there that Helen Barth and Al Smith were singing, and then I would play with it on the piano, one finger at a time.” Locally, it was Emmaline Bullis, the pianist at the First Baptist Church, who influenced the aspiring musician. “I used to try to emulate her,” Greenleaf said. “I used to see her every Sunday morning, every Sunday night. I just loved Emmaline and the way she played.” When Myrtle McColl donated a Hammond organ to the Baptist church in memory of her son in 1960, Greenleaf, then a sixth-grader, knew the Hammond was for him. “I had to learn that,” he said. “I can’t explain it. It was just a fascination. It was the sound, everything about it was fascinating to me.” Local organist June Deering instructed Greenleaf on the organ for a year, but she soon learned what Ruth Esau and other instructors had learned about her student— he could play by ear. “I wouldn’t study,” said Greenleaf, who progressed under the direction of his teachers, but as a young man longed for more instruction. “I didn’t read (music) well,” he explained, “and I didn’t know much about music, so I worked with a man who was a piano major at Northwestern University one summer in Bad Axe. And then I went to Gull Lake.” The Gull Lake Bible and Missionary Conference, held at Gull Lake Ministries in Hickory Corners, brought in well-known Christian preachers, evangelists and musicians each summer. Two of the musicians featured at Gull Lake, John Innes and Merrill Dunlop, had a profound impact on Greenleaf. After hearing them play, he realized that if he was going to be a better musician, he needed an intensive musical education. “I knew I couldn’t carry off the things that I heard anymore (by ear),” he said. “So, I went to Bad Axe and studied with Hazel Krueger for 12 years, classic music. That was when I was 25.” Greenleaf took his studies with Krueger seriously. “Mrs. Kruger had to take me right from the very bottom, right from the C-scale on. I learned scales and arpeggios — all those things, all technique, because I had never had any of that,” he said. “I knew I had to do it now or never. “I would get up early in the morning and practice before I went to work, and then I would take my lesson either in the evening or on Saturday afternoon,” Greenleaf added. “She would have me in recitals, and I would learn things by Bach and Mozart. I would memorize those things and then do them.” Since those early days, the Hammond organ has been Greenleaf’s instrument of choice. “The Hammond was invented by a clockmaker back in 1935,” Greenleaf said. “His clocks weren’t selling so well, so he was getting to the point where he needed a new invention. He was a marvelous inventor. So, he invented the Hammond organ with the tone wheel generator and with the drawbar system, whereby you could control every aspect of the harmonics you were using.” For Greenleaf, and many Hammond enthusiasts like him, a Hammond organ is nothing without a Leslie speaker, a unique invention of radio service engineer Don Leslie in the late 1930s. “Don Leslie used a rotating device in both the treble and the bass, and when you played the Hammond through it, it gave it a totally different sound,” Greenleaf said. “[It is] much warmer and much richer and just very, very different from what the Hammond sound (by itself) was. It was not produced as a substitute for the pipe organ, which it will never be, but with the proper equipment on it, you can produce pipe sounds.” Whether playing the organ or the piano, Greenleaf has had a prolific career as a local musician since the 1960s. “As time went on, I became church organist,” he said. “And then I played for several years at the Little Funeral Home. I played an hour before the service and two hours on the evening before. They had a full-sized Hammond, which was a real delight to me, because the church at that time did not have a full-sized Hammond.” In addition to playing at his church and at the funeral home, Greenleaf has played a variety of venues, including numerous weddings and evangelistic crusades in Bad Axe and Akron. “I love to accompany. That’s my favorite thing to do,” he said. Today, Greenleaf continues to play at funerals and community events. He also plays the organ and, occasionally, the piano, at First Baptist Church each Sunday. But as much as he enjoys playing for the benefit of others, Greenleaf says his music is ultimately an offering back to God. “Everyone isn’t given a gift in music; they’re given a gift of some sort, but I realize that God just gave you that. I was able to develop it to a degree — not to the degree that I would like, because I would like to be a classical musician if I could carry it off. “But probably that would never be the heart of what I wanted to do. The purpose of the music is to give back to God what He’s given to you and to glorify Him." Marton, a 90-year-old friend, recently decided it was time to move into an assisted living center. Just a few weeks ago, we began the process of cleaning out his house, starting with his office.
His desk likely hadn’t been cleaned out in 20 years. Everything was covered with a fine layer of dust, time’s all-encompassing blanket. There were computer program manuals from the late 90s, birthday cards from some of his friends and family members, and a stack of printer paper. But then I saw it. Underneath the pile of paper was a small, yellowed card with a picture of an Orthodox Jewish man on the front, Hebrew script scrawled underneath. Carefully, I lifted the fragile card from the back of the desk and examined it. The man in the picture was clad in all black, a wide-brimmed hat on his head. His soulful, hooded eyes stared back at me, no smile visible beneath his full, gray beard. Unable to read the Hebrew, I took the card out to Marton in his living room. “Marton,” I said. “I just found this in your desk.” Marton looked at it. “My goodness! My goodness!” he kept saying, as he reached for his reading glasses. “Where did you find it?” “It was in your desk, at the back. What is it?” “I haven’t seen this in years. I thought I lost it. This is the picture!” Marton explained to me that the card was a precious keepsake of the most horrific event of his life. In the 1930s, Marton was a young boy living in a poor Budapest neighborhood. His family’s life revolved around the synagogue, where he prayed several times a day and attended school. Life was not without its difficulties, but it was a peaceful one. The tranquility came to a screeching halt, however, in 1944. That’s when the Nazis marched into Budapest. Marton and his family, along with many of their neighbors, were told they would be relocated to a cordoned-off area, a ghetto. Before moving into the ghetto, though, the Ackerman family was first taken to a horse-racing track, where the men and women were divided into two groups. “My brother and I went to one side, and the other part of my family went on the other side,” Marton told me. “This was the first time I was away from my mother.” At the race track, 15-year-old Marton encountered the complexities of human nature and of the war in particular. After being ordered to hand over his wallet by a member of the Arrow Cross Party, something strange happened. “I gave him my wallet that had only my Mexican birth certificate and a picture of the Belzer Rebbe that my grandmother gave me,” Marton said. “I told him it was my grandfather. He gave me back my wallet with the birth certificate and the picture. Surprisingly, this man gave me 100 pengő. It was a big sum at that time, for me at least. I had never seen a 100 pengő. He said, ‘Good health. Good luck.’ To this day, I do not know why he did that, but it helped me survive the war. I later used it to buy apples and potatoes from the farmers.” Marton studied the picture, a slight, sad smile on his face. The photograph I found underneath the stack of paper was the same photograph the Nazi official gave back to Marton, along with his birth certificate and the money. The man in the photograph, “the rebbe,” is Aharon Rokeach (1880-1957), a revered Hasidic rabbi from Ukraine, who allegedly had miracle-working powers. After gazing at it for several minutes, Marton turned to me and handed the picture back. “You keep it,” he said. “I want you to have it.” As I held the picture in my hands, looking into the rebbe’s sad eyes, I kept shaking my head. I was holding a piece of paper that had survived one of the most horrific periods in world history, not only an artifact of history, but a symbol of God’s faithfulness to His Chosen People, too. I thought of God’s words to the prophet Jeremiah. He said the only way the Jewish people can be destroyed is for the forces of nature themselves to be destroyed: Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts is His name): “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the Lᴏʀᴅ, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.” (Jeremiah 31:35–37) Throughout the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to set up stones as memorials of significant events. After the children of Israel crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, for example, God told them to take a pile of 12 stones into their camp “that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’” (Joshua 4:6). That memorial would serve as a teaching moment for the parents of the next generation to tell of God’s faithfulness to His people. The little picture of the rebbe is just such a memorial. While the man in the picture was once hailed as a miracle-worker, the true Miracle-worker is the God of Israel. And someday, when my children ask what the picture of the rebbe means to me, I will tell them the story of God’s faithfulness to His chosen nation, Israel, and of His faithfulness to me and to all generations (Psalm 119:90). This article was originally published in Israel My Glory magazine in the May/June 2020 issue.
John was the lead pastor of a medium-sized church for 10 years. Things had been running relatively smoothly until the news broke that John’s daughter had been physically abused by her husband, a young man who grew up in the church. Many sided with the young man’s family, and soon John and his wife felt the pain of rejection. Suddenly they were jobless, with no church, no money, and no hospital insurance. John and his family were in the middle of a crisis. Yet John clung to the promises of God’s Word, particularly God’s commitment to provide for and protect His children. Consequently, divine peace guarded his heart and mind through Christ (Phil. 4:6–7). Not surprisingly, the Lord showed Himself faithful. All the bills got paid, including John’s daughter’s tuition for Bible college; and eventually the Lord brought the family to the vibrant church John pastors today. John’s story is one of millions over the years that testify of the faithfulness of God. Scripture overflows with similar accounts of how God keeps the promises He has made to His people. Although He made many to Israel, He also has made many to the church. Two big ones are the promise of His presence and the promise of redemption. The Promise of His Presence Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon individuals temporarily (1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6; 16:14). A unique promise God made to the church, however, was that His presence not only would dwell with Christ’s followers, but that it would be in them: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). The Lord promised His disciples that, after His death, the Father would give them “another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (Jn. 14:16). The reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit runs throughout the New Testament (Rom. 5:5; 1 Cor. 2:12; 6:19; 2 Cor. 5:5). In fact, God seals believers “with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:13–14). If we have placed our faith in Christ alone, not in our good deeds, for the forgiveness of our sins—if we sincerely believe Jesus took the punishment we deserve, died in our place because He loves us, and arose from the grave—God seals us with the Holy Spirit. Everywhere we go, the Lord is with us because He lives in us. This means there is no doctor’s visit, no job interview, no tragedy, and no graveside where the Lord will leave us alone. But wait, there’s more! Not only is He always with us, but He also ministers to us continually. The Holy Spirit bears witness to us of our salvation (Rom. 8:16); teaches us the Bible (Jn. 16:13); intercedes for us in prayer (Rom. 8:26); comforts us in time of need (2 Cor. 1:3–4); empowers us to serve Him (Eph. 3:16); and even lovingly chastens us when we sin, as a father chastens his children (Heb. 12:6). God’s commitment never to leave true believers is a precious promise that should encourage us to live holy lives for Him. The Promise of Redemption The term redemption intimately relates to the imagery of slavery. We are in bondage to the Evil One until we are born again, when He delivers us from the power of darkness and places us “into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13–14). The apostle Paul reminded his protégé Titus that Jesus “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Ti. 2:14). Using His own blood as payment, Jesus bought us off the auction block of sin—He redeemed us—to be a special people for Himself. Not only can we look back at our redemption from slavery and our insertion into the family of God, but we also can look forward to a future redemption. We have been sealed “until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:14). The word guarantee refers to a down payment someone would make when purchasing land or another commodity. The Holy Spirit constitutes that down payment. He guarantees that one day we will be fully redeemed—body and soul/spirit. The final redemption of our bodies will occur when Christ returns for His church (1 Cor. 15:51–52). Even though believers are free from bondage to sin, we still possess old natures that are susceptible to temptation and sinful behaviors (Jas. 1:14–15). We still live in a world where cancer and heart disease and dementia exist, and chances are good that at least one of these ailments or others eventually will afflict us. But this world is not all there is. One day the trumpet will sound, calling us home to be with Him: For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Th. 4:16–17). In a split second, the graves of believers around the globe will burst open and release the dead in Christ, and those living will be caught up with them in the air. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ, they will have new, glorious bodies that will be eternally free from sickness, disease, and sin. Best of all, we will be physically with the Lord forever (v. 17). The Promise Keeper Most promises are plentiful, cheap, and often broken. Mercifully, we have a God who always keeps His promises. Time does not fog His memory or diminish His faithfulness. He is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). He has been faithful to His promises to the nation of Israel, and He will be faithful to His church. Regardless of the hardships we suffer, as John and his family did, we know we have a God who keeps His Word. He has promised the Holy Spirit and redemption to those who call on His name, and those are promises worth building our lives on. This article was originally published in the May/June 2020 issue of Israel My Glory magazine.
Relevant preaching. Authentic worship music. A community atmosphere. Many American churches today use those phrases to advertise the uniqueness of their “worship experience.” We didn’t use that terminology at the small Baptist church in Michigan where I grew up; but for a little boy, it was certainly a memorable experience to go there. First, there was the Hammond organ. It was about the same size as my mom’s piano, but somehow it had enough sound packed inside to shake the auditorium. I was fascinated watching the organist as he played with both his hands and his feet, manipulating the deep tones into music offered up to the Lord. There was also the tank at the front of the building where, every so often, the pastor would don his maroon robe and dunk people underneath the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For a boy who couldn’t swim, baptism was scary stuff. Then, there were the giants. The giants are what I remember most. They were farmers, businessmen, and factory workers. Some were wealthy, others were not. But all of them were giants in my eyes, not because of their height or social status, but because of their moral stature and the strong stance they took for the Word of God. Qualities of Leaders Like the deacons the apostle Paul described, these men were “reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience” (1 Tim. 3:8–9). Though possessing feet of clay like everyone else, each one had an impeccable testimony for Christ in his home, workplace, and community. These were leaders—not bombastic or authoritarian—but men who knew God’s Word and sought passionately to edify the congregation and reach the community with the gospel. They served, they taught Sunday school, they drove the church bus, they set up for Vacation Bible School, and they helped children in the youth program learn their memory verses. They strove to rightly divide the Scriptures and help others do the same. Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Rosalie de Rosset wrote of similar giants in her church when she was growing up in the 1960s: In my home church there were historians, keepers of the gate, guardians of my soul—those who understood that people my age should not run the format of a church or be the measure of what is important. These were the people who understood that when adolescent heat and trendiness pass, we must retain in our memories something bigger and better, something not adolescent to have in our keeping as treasures for when we grew up. They made sure our inheritance was not swallowed up by what seemed important in the sixties or at sixteen. These guardians of our souls knew that popular trends and teenage moods come and go, and that they must give us a solid memory and understanding of what was better, more mature, classic.1 Giants, historians, keepers of the gate, guardians of our souls, pillars. Whatever we call them, the church needs them. It has always needed them. And today it needs them desperately. Assaults on truth abound. The dense, cultural fog of skepticism and doubt has crept through the church walls in the West. People are questioning the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity and sufficiency of Christ, sexual identity, the need for marriage, the value of human life, man’s purpose, and the very nature of what it means to be human. We need men and women of substance who know the Lord intimately—and who know His Word and how to rightly divide it—to guide a generation floundering in a sea of moral relativism. Building Leadership How do we develop these giants in our local churches? How do we grow to become them ourselves? 1. We devote ourselves to God’s Word. American Christians have no lack of books about the Bible. Bookstores and online retailers offer thousands of titles, many of which cater to a niche audience within the Christian community. Let’s not forget, though, that the Scriptures alone are God’s means of instruction for His church (1 Pet. 2:2). I’m always inspired and, yes, convicted when I read how the Bereans analyzed what Paul and Silas were teaching in the synagogue, daily searching the Scriptures “to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). We must remember that the authority of Scripture is not merely an item we include in our church doctrinal statements; it’s a life-or-death belief for the body of Christ. As individuals and congregations, we need to devote ourselves to the Scriptures, letting the Spirit of God freely apply them to every area of our lives. 2. We serve in our local churches with purpose. It’s easy to serve aimlessly in ministries! The work at hand—what we do—can quickly blind us to why we’re doing it. Parking cars, passing out bulletins, playing our instruments, teaching a class, baking cookies. None of these things, in themselves, are bad; to the contrary, they are all good (especially the cookie-baking!). But we must not do them simply to be doing something. We need purpose. Before engaging in any act of service, we should ask ourselves why we are there and then ask the Lord to use us for His glory (Col. 3:17). The Lord equips willing, not necessarily talented, people to accomplish His will. 3. We disciple other believers. When I was 19, the pastor of our small church, one of the “giants,” began discipling me. Originally, we met every Tuesday for an hour or so to go through a lesson from a book. That formal discipleship, however, quickly developed into an organic, honest relationship. We went to lunch and talked over doctrinal questions I had. He took me to visit sick members of our congregation and to pray with them. We attended a men’s conference together, and I think I learned more from him during the drive than I did attending the conference. Paul charged Pastor Timothy not to keep the things he had taught him to himself, but to “commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). As well-known Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe wrote, “We are stewards of the spiritual treasure God has given us. It is our responsibility to guard the deposit and then invest it in the lives of others. They, in turn, are to share the Word with the next generation of believers.”2 Discipleship is a lot of work; but it’s how the Lord develops spiritual giants for His church. 4. We teach apologetics to our congregations. Skepticism and agnosticism seem to be the gods of our age. Certainly, our culture’s incessant scoffing at the notion of absolute truth and the church’s seeming emphasis on style over doctrine have contributed to this problem. It’s difficult to imagine when apologetics have been more crucial. So we should “be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks [us] a reason for the hope that is in [us], with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15). In my opinion, we need to put more of our time and financial resources into equipping the saints, rather than entertaining them. To be sure, there are many grounded churches that are faithfully equipping their young people, and we thank God for them; but we need more. A generation of believers who cannot articulate what they believe and why will set the church afloat in perilous waters. Developing giants requires the power of the Holy Spirit. But if we commit ourselves to the Lord, His Word, and His will, I’m convinced He will use us to accomplish His purposes for the good of His church and for His glory. ENDNOTES Rosalie de Rosset, Unseduced and Unshaken: The Place of Dignity in a Young Woman’s Choices (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2012), 120. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2007), 775. ![]() This article was originally published in The Cass City Chronicle (Cass City, Michigan) in the April 1, 2020 edition. Editor’s note: The following story was submitted by former longtime Cass City area resident and historian Ty Perry, who today resides in Las Vegas with his wife and daughter. “Recently, I was thinking about the Covid-19 pandemic and how similar the reactions/precautions are to those of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918,” Perry commented. “I decided to do some digging around on the Chronicle archives to read about what was happening in town at that time, and I was fascinated by the similarities.” Dr. Loring Miner was doctor to Haskell County, Kansas’ 1,720 residents. He enjoyed reading Greek classics and tending his small medical parish. But in the first two months of 1918, his life and practice suddenly became less routine. The people of Haskell County were presenting with influenza symptoms, if they ever were able to present with them in the first place. Many of the county’s strongest and healthiest young people were dying unexpectedly, first experiencing chills, fatigue, and fever, then developing pneumonia and suffocating to death. Although the illness’ spread was localized and soon ended, Dr. Miner was concerned. He alerted officials at Public Health Reports, a weekly medical journal that notified physicians of outbreaks, to the strange case of Haskell County. His warnings went unheeded. In the fall of 1918, however, people around the world began experiencing similar symptoms to those of Dr. Miner’s patients. Throughout Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, healthy young people fell victim to the flu symptoms, which quickly morphed into pneumonia. Victims’ skin turned blue and their lungs filled with fluid, ultimately suffocating them to death. Soon, the disease became known as Spanish Influenza, due to its especially deadly impact on the people of Spain. In Cass City, word of the pandemic had residents and civic leaders on edge. A special meeting of the village council was held on October 12 “for the purpose of taking action regarding ‘Spanish Influenza’.” The only problem was that little could be done. There were no vaccines or antibiotics. The only thing officials could do was to advocate quarantine and good hygiene. Dr. F.L. Morris, the village health officer, reported that, while no cases of the flu had been reported in the town, precautions should be taken to prevent it. The village council responded by banning all public gatherings and closing the town’s “school, churches, lodges and theaters”, from Sunday, October 13 through Monday, October 21. Hopefully, by then the mounting tide would be stemmed. Word of the global scale of the pandemic and its vicious spread alarmed Dr. Morris, aware that the end was not in sight, suggested the ban on public gatherings be extended indefinitely. At the October 25 village council meeting, Morris reported that there were several confirmed cases of the flu within the village limits, a startling fact considering there had been no cases reported just a week earlier. “Influenza cards” were printed and placed on the doors of infected homes as warnings to would-be visitors to stay away. Dr. Morris told the Chronicle that the flu “is infectious by direct contact and if we do not run into it, we stand 99 chances of not getting it. So we will ask you again, be patriotic and stay at home. There are several cases in the country and it has been deemed wise not to open the windows at the post office on Saturday night and please do not congregate there or any other place.” Unfortunately, some in the community did not heed the doctor’s orders. Thinking their symptoms were mild or that they had become well, the sick gathered with healthy members of the community and transmitted the flu to them. The train depot closed, because all of its staff had contracted the flu, doubtless caused by their frequent contact with people going to and from the city. In Caro, the sugar factory was forced to close, due to a shortage of healthy men to work it. By November 15, there were 80 cases of the illness in Cass City and the village had run out of cards to put on the doors of those infected. So bad was the spread of the flu that William C. Gorgas, Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army, offered the following guidelines for the public to avoid contracting it: 1.) Avoid needless crowding; influenza is a crowd disease 2.) Smother your coughs and sneezes; others do not want the germs you would throw away. 3.) Your nose, not your mouth, was made to breathe through. Get the habit. 4.) Remember the three C’s--a clean mouth, a clean skin, and clean clothes 5.) Try to keep cool when you walk and warm when you ride and sleep. 6.) Open the windows always at home at night; at the office when practicable. 7.) Choose and chew your food well. On November 11, the armistice was signed by the Allies and Germany, bringing World War I to an end. But for Cass City residents, the good news would soon be mingled with tragedy. In early November, a 32-year-old Cass City native, Edward Kissane, visited Port Huron. A few days after his return to town, Kissane’s neighbors noticed that they had not seen him around his place for a while and decided to check on him. What they found was a severely sick Kissane, who was beyond medical help. He died on November 15, the first and only casualty of the flu inside the village limits. Despite Kissane’s untimely death, by November 22 local and state officials were cautiously optimistic that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Morris, who had himself contracted the flu a few weeks earlier, announced that the number of cases in the town had diminished significantly, but warned that residents should continue to exercise caution. Michigan Governor Albert Sleeper issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in which he thanked God “that a dread epidemic has been stayed, through the prompt measures taken by the public health authorities throughout the State and the intelligent cooperation of the whole people.” While isolated cases of the flu continued to be reported throughout the town--the Brock family on Woodland Avenue, for example, was sick with the flu and pneumonia--Dr. Morris was encouraged by the decline in its spread. On December 1, the ban on public gatherings--one that village officials originally thought would last just eight days--finally came to an end after 48 days. A community church service was held at the Baptist church in thanksgiving. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population, 500 million people, contracted the flu. Globally, some 50 million people died as a result of the illness, 675,000 of those deaths being Americans, one of them Edward Kissane of Cass City, Michigan. The origin of the Spanish Flu is still unknown, although some scholars trace it back to Dr. Mine’s patients in Haskell County, Kansas. How such a global pandemic could begin in a rural Kansas town remains an unanswered question. Despite more than a century of medical and technological progress, the world finds itself in a similar situation to that of 1918. Currently, no vaccine is known to prevent Covid-19, and medical and community leaders are urging the public to practice “social distancing” and good hygiene. While we have no evidence that the Spanish Flu caused a local shortage of toilet paper or other supplies, we do know that the public was concerned. In fact, one local drug store advertised that the “Spanish Influenza Strikes Quickly-- Don’t be caught unprepared--an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It all goes to show that what goes around comes around. This article was originally published by The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry on January 31, 2020
The curtain falls as the tragic scene ends. Moments later, as it rises for the next scene, we find that the set has been rearranged and everything—from the characters to their clothing and language—is different. Such is the case with the closing of the Old Testament curtain and the opening of the New Testament. Although the testaments are two scenes of the same “play,” the set, over a 400-year period, changed dramatically. During this period, two new groups of characters appeared: the Sadducees and the Pharisees. While the Gospel writers describe Jesus’ interactions with both of these groups, most Christians know little about them. The more we know about these groups and their origin, the better we can understand Jesus’ discussions with them. But in order to understand where these groups came from and who they were, we need some historical background on what took place in the 400 years between the testaments. A CHANGING WORLD When Malachi wrote the last of the Old Testament books, the Persians were the globe’s superpower. But in 333 BC, they were defeated by Alexander the Great, ushering in a period of Greek (Hellenistic) dominance. Tutored by Aristotle, Alexander believed fiercely in Greek thought and culture and sought to spread it to the lands he conquered, including Judea. Although Hellenism, with its pagan deities and immodest cultural practices, is incongruous with biblical teachings, Alexander is portrayed positively in Jewish traditions.1 Hellenism, however, soon became the arch enemy of many pious Jews. When Alexander died in 323 BC, his kingdom was divided by four of his generals—Cassander, Antigonus, Seleucusy, and Ptolemy, the latter of whom took control of Judea.2 In 200 BC, the southern part of the Jewish homeland was won from the Ptolemaic dynasty by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III. After Antiochus III’s death, the throne was ascended by Seleucus IV, who was assassinated 12 years later. It was then that the infamous Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (God manifest) rose to power. Though he considered himself to be divine, the king was referred to by the Jews as Antiochus “Epimamese” (The Madman),3 and for good reason. He began an aggressive and violent campaign of compulsory Hellenization of the Jewish people. When his efforts met opposition, he persecuted the Jewish people, throwing circumcised infants and their mothers from Jerusalem’s walls4, murdering 40,000 Jews, and enslaving another 40,000 over a three-day period.5 He also forbade the Jewish people from keeping the Sabbath or observing the feasts of Israel,6 and he sacrificed a pig in the Temple, desecrating it.7 While many Jews were captivated by the Hellenistic frenzy, changing their names to Greek ones and adopting Greek practices, one group refused to adapt. The Maccabees, later known as the Hasmoneans, a priestly family zealous for the Law of God, with other Jewish rebels, launched guerilla warfare against Antiochus’ powerful forces, eventually wresting back control of Jerusalem in 164 BC.8 This victory and the subsequent purification of the Temple in 165 BC is remembered each year by the Jewish people in the festival of Hanukkah. THE SADDUCEES Culturally Liberal, Religiously Conservative Although the nation rededicated their Temple to the God of Israel, many among the Jewish people had already imbibed Hellenism. Chief among these “Hellenizers” were the Sadducees. The Sadducees (a name probably derived from the Hebrew word for “righteous”) were aristocrats, members of the high priesthood whose interests revolved almost exclusively around the Temple. They were members, together with the Pharisees, of the Great Sanhedrin, “a kind of Jewish Supreme Court made up of 71 members whose responsibility was to interpret civil and religious laws.”9 While liberal in their tolerance for and acceptance of Hellenism, the Sadducees were strangely conservative when it came to the interpretation of the Law. They held to a strict, literal interpretation of the Torah (the five books of Moses) and accepted only the authority of the Torah, even to the exclusion of the Writings and the Prophets. This position resulted in their denial of certain doctrines, such as the existence of spirits and angels and of the resurrection, since they saw no reference to such teachings in the Torah.10 Viewed as elitist, aloof, and corrupt, the Sadducees were not popular with the common people. While the Temple and the service of God were their official concerns, in truth they were highly political, a fact that did not sit well with commoners. Jesus and the Sadducees Jesus regularly interacted with the Sadducees during His earthly ministry. One of the most famous incidents occurred when they came to Him with a question concerning marriage and the resurrection. Of course, their question was a ruse, because the Sadducees denied that a resurrection would ever happen. Knowing their hearts, Jesus answered their question by telling them that they were ignorant of the Scriptures and God’s power, and by affirming that the resurrection will indeed take place (Mt. 22:30). Although Jesus’ response shut the mouths of the Sadducees, it didn’t keep them from persecuting the followers of Jesus. Later, they put Peter and John in jail for their proclamation of the gospel and the resurrection (Acts 4:1-3). In AD 70, following a Jewish revolt, the Romans destroyed the Temple and took control of Jerusalem, leading “to the total loss of Jewish political authority in Israel until 1948.”11 For the Sadducees and Pharisees, this was a watershed moment. With the Temple went the Sadducees’ position and purpose as the priestly aristocratic class, and they quickly disappeared from the pages of Jewish history.12 The theological positions of the Sadducees went with them into extinction. Judaism today upholds many of the doctrines the Sadducees denied, including the resurrection, angels, and spirits. Modern Judaism, then, takes its theological cues not from the Sadducees, but from their opponents, the Pharisees. THE PHARISEES The People’s Scholars Christians meet the Pharisees on the pages of the New Testament, usually as the antagonists of the Gospel narratives. The apostle Paul was a Pharisee before he became a believer in Jesus. But who were these men? The Pharisees stood in stark contrast to their aloof, Temple-focused Sadducean counterparts. Whereas Sadducees were aristocratic and removed from the people, the Pharisees were the common man’s scholars. While the Sadducees were Hellenistic, the Pharisees were staunchly opposed to Greek influence. In fact, the term Pharisee is derived from the Hebrew word parush, meaning “separated,” or “isolated,”13 because they sought separation from the worldly influences of Hellenism and separation unto God and His Law.14 While the ideological predecessors of the Pharisees (the Hasideans) originally joined the Maccabees in their efforts to rid Judea of Hellenistic influence, the Pharisees, a generation later, separated from this group for a couple of reasons. First, from the events of Hanukkah emerged the Hasmonean dynasty. This was a succession of rulers over Judea who combined the offices of king and high priest, a violation of the Hebrew Scriptures.15 Second, contrary to the original aims of the Maccabean Revolt to rid Judea of Hellenism, the Hasmonean Dynasty “declined into worldly pomp and Grecian ways,”16 corrupting Judaism and Jewish culture. Theologically, the Pharisees believed in spirits, angels, the resurrection, and the coming Messiah and His kingdom on Earth, which put them in opposition to the Sadducees.17 Additionally, in contrast to the Sadducees, their evident love of the Torah, disciplined lives, and the passion with which they taught their fellow Jews the precepts of the Word of God in the synagogue earned them the respect and admiration of their fellow Jews.18 As students of the Law, particularly the commands surrounding tithing and purification rites, the Pharisees debated how to apply various passages of Scripture in a rapidly changing world. The traditional interpretations and applications of ancient sages, then, became increasingly important to the Pharisees, and, “beginning with Scripture itself, the Pharisees quoted the ‘case decisions’ of famous rabbis who had been consulted concerning the application of Scripture to individual problems.”19 Their charge soon became, “make a fence round the Torah” in order to keep the people from transgressing the Law of God. The Pharisees’ desire to keep Israel separate from the corrupting influences of Hellenism was good. But whenever man adds to the Word of God, problems ensue, and such was the case with the Pharisees. Inevitably, the Jewish people would ask why they should follow the teachings of mere men, no matter how outwardly religious they were. In response, the Pharisees taught that God not only gave Moses the Torah (the Written Law) at Mt. Sinai, He also gave him “a divine commentary on the written code.”20 Later, this “Oral Law” was written down and given equality with, and even supremacy over, the Scriptures. In fact, the Mishnah (the first written form of the Oral Law) says, “There is greater stringency in respect to the teachings of the scribes than in respect to the torah.”21 In their quest to keep Israel from violating God’s Law, they had become a law unto themselves. Jesus and the Pharisees Jesus had numerous interactions with the Pharisees, most of them centered on the disparity between their Oral Law and God’s Word. He charged them with taking “Moses’ seat” (Mt. 23:2), granting themselves authority as God’s spokesmen, though God never gave it to them. The Lord denounced them numerous times as hypocrites, who bound “heavy burdens” on the people, used their self-imposed position to get “the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,” took advantage of widows for their own financial gain, and paid inordinate attention to the minutiae of the Law and its interpretations while neglecting “justice and mercy and faith” (vv. 4-30). Jesus’ message largely fell on deaf ears among the Pharisees, but there were some who placed their trust in Him. Besides Paul, one of the most notable examples of a Pharisee who believed in Jesus is Nicodemus, who came secretly to Jesus by night and asked how a man could be born again (Jn. 3). He, together with Joseph of Arimathea, a fellow member of the Sanhedrin, took Jesus’ body to the tomb following His death (Jn. 19:38-39). WHERE ARE THEY NOW? When the Temple was destroyed in AD 70, the world of the Sadducees and Pharisees was greatly shaken. But the Pharisees fared far better than their Sadducean counterparts. Whereas the Sadducees went extinct soon after the Temple’s destruction, the Pharisees thrived. One of the reasons for their success was that their teachings were not centered on the Temple, but on the Oral Law, which was not limited to the land of Israel. Additionally, the Pharisees were more in touch with the needs of the common people. Therefore, their focus was on holy living for all Israel, not just the few, which meant the further development of Judaism without the Temple. This new Judaism was one of replacements. Whereas the Temple was once the center of holiness, the Pharisees taught that the people of Israel were the dwelling place of God. Instead of a high priest, the sage or rabbi was the spiritual leader of the community; and the blood sacrifices of the Temple were replaced by fulfilling commandments (mitzvot) and doing good works (maasim tovim).22 This new religious system became known as Rabbinic Judaism, because it was rooted in the Oral Law, the ancient sages’ teachings on the Torah. Since it revolved around the Oral Law, not the Temple, Rabbinic Judaism was mobile, going with the Jewish people wherever they were forced to settle throughout the Diaspora. Today, synagogues can be found all over the world, including surprising locations, like China, South Korea, and India, due in large part to the work of the Pharisees 2,000 years ago. Endnotes 1 Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 69. 2 Joshua J. Mark, “Alexander the Great,” https://www.ancient.eu/Alexander_the_Great/, (November 14, 2013). 3 Rabbi Paul Steinberg, “Antiochus the Madman: An in-depth view of the Greco-Syrian emperor in the story of Hanukkah,” myjewishlearning.com/article/antiochus-the-madman/. 4 Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC–1492 AD, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013), 88. 5 Ibid., 113. 6 2 Macc. 6:1, 6. 7 Jewish Virtual Library, “The Maccabees/Hasmoneans: History & Overview (166 – 129 BCE),” jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-maccabees. 8 Ibid. 9 Jewish Virtual Library, “Ancient Jewish History: Pharisees, Sadducees & Essenes,” jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pharisees-sadducees-and-essenes. 10 Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 115. 11 Jewish Virtual Library, “Ancient Jewish History: The Great Revolt (66 – 70 CE),” jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-great-revolt-66-70-ce. 12 H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 325. 13 W.D. Davies, Introduction to Pharisaism, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967), 6. 14 Ibid., 9. 15 Simon Schama, The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words, 1000 BC–1492 AD, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013), 115. 16 Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, (Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 206. 17 Charles Guignebert, The Jewish World in the time of Jesus, (Hyde Park: University Books, 1965), 167. 18Charles F. Pfeiffer, Between the Testaments, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 58. 19 Ibid., 113. 20 Louis Finkelstein, The Pharisees: The Sociological Background of their Faith, (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1962), 266. 21 Mishnah Sanhedrin 11:3. 22 Jacob Neusner, A Short History of Judaism: Three Meals, Three Epochs, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1992), 53. |
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