The Name

People unfamiliar with biblical languages often debate about the name of Jesus.  They might point out that there is no "J" sound in Hebrew therefore we must be pronouncing it incorrectly.  When one runs into a Hispanic man named Jesus (Haysoos) they might think this is sacrilege, or maybe a bit humorous.  Jews often greet each other with the phrase "Baruch Ha Shem" (Praise the Name).  So what is the name?  Various names are used in the Old Testament that represent God's authority.  In English they are often translated LORD or Lord, depending on which word is used.

The New Testament writers said Jesus was given a name above all names. (Philip 2:9)  Joseph was told by an angel that Mary would bear a Son and his name would be called Jesus, then two verses later the gospel of Matthew quotes from the Septuagint (LXX) Isaiah "Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel." (Isa. 7:14, Matt. 1:21-23)  So why do we not call Him Immanuel (God with us) instead of Jesus?  Take it one step further, why not baptize in the name of Immanuel?

If a police officer was to shout "stop in the name of the law" we would understand simply that he was calling upon the name of the authority given him by the civil law.  We would not suggest he was calling upon a guy named "Law".  So it is with the various names used for God.  Jews have been very cautious about using the name of God in vain out of reverence and respect for the authority it implies  Isaiah writes, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government." (Isa. 9:6-7)  It is not so much how we pronounce his name, but what is meant by proclaiming it.  When demons are cast out in His name they certainly understand the authority that is being called upon.  If a Greek or Russian Christian uses Isoos, or a Jewish Christian uses Yeshua, the devil and his cohorts understand without question what is going on.  If one is a fake Christian however the Devil knows that as well.  As illustrated in Acts chapter 19 when the sons of Sceva trying using the name of Jesus and the demonized man replied, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?"  He then tore into these guys and they fled the house naked and wounded.  If a police officer met such resistance he would have likely drawn his weapon and shot the man.  That is the power the civil officer carries.  We on the other hand, as ambassadors of a heavenly kingdom, have a different type of authority.  The name of Jesus carries with it the authority to save from sin, to deliver from evil, to heal the sick and to comfort the broken hearted.

Until the Restoration of all Things

"O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.  Behold your house is being left to you desolate!  For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Matt. 23:37-39)

"...that He might send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you , whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time." (Acts 3:20-21)

When Moses explained how God would scatter his people to the four corners of the world for disobedience he also left a promise of restoration.  "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back." (Deu. 30:4)  He said the world would ponder the plight of Israel, "And all the nations shall say, 'Why has the Lord done this to this land?'" (Deu. 29:24)  Later in history when Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem he warned the people that if they rejected God's counsel "this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?" (1 Kgs. 9:8) Jeremiah the prophet gave the same warning again a few years before Babylon invaded Israel (Jere. 7:15) in 587 B.C.

Restoration does not come without a struggle even when God is behind it.  When Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem to start restoring the walls and temple he was met with all kinds of opposition.  Since 1948 when Israel became a nation again there has been a constant struggle.  In our day we have seen people throwing a fit at President Trump for moving our embassy to Jerusalem.  Other Presidents gave lip service to doing it but did not have the backbone.

The Temple Mount

Jerusalem was captured by Muslim Caliph Omar 638 entering through the Golden Gate.  The Dome of the Rock was built in 691 over this prized piece of real estate.  Under the golden dome lies the bare rock where Jews claim Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac.  Muslims claim the son was Ismael and point to some marks on the stone where supposedly the midnight rider Muhammad touched down during a heavenly journey on el- Burek.  It might be noted however that Jerusalem appears nowhere in the Quran.  They like to lay claim to things and rewrite history.

Some of Herod's ancient building stones from the time of Christ are still visible on lower levels of the walls but some have been reused by Arabs for later construction thus appearing out of place historically.  Muslims later sealed the gate shut and put a cemetery in front of it in order to defile the gate ever being used again by pious Jews or Messiah's.  It was walled shut several times by Muslims but the final job was done by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1541.

Stone blocks from Herod's time show a distinct border line around the outside as seen here at the Western Wall.  Muslims have been known to throw stones down on praying Jews from above.  While Jews pray facing this foundation wall below the temple mount, up above the Muslims can be found praying facing their stone idol in Mecca.

Pavement crushed by stones toppled from above likely by Roman soldiers in 70 A.D.  Jesus foretold of this future event when his disciples stood marveling at the amazing temple that Herod had worked on for forty years, "As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down." (Luke 21:6)

Church of the Holy Speculators

"Church of the Holy Speculators"

was Mark Twain's description of church on Sunday morning

Critical of conventional religious fanaticism yet molded by his Presbyterian youth it has been said of Samuel Clemens that he was too orthodox on the doctrine of human depravity.  He is quoted as saying, "It's not what I don't understand about the Bible that bothers me; its what I do understand."

His pen name, Mark Twain (Two Fathoms), came from his experience in his early days of piloting a riverboat on the Mississippi River.  It seems he spent most of his life taking soundings on the human condition.  Mesmerized by the preaching of Henry Ward Beecher he took a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1867 with a boat load of preachers.  In this journey he experience the awe of Catholicism and some of the bizarre traditions and relics that people worshiped which caused him to question even further church tradition.  He saw with his own eyes the mess that Israel had become because of Muslim occupation.

Later he said that he predestinely stumbled into literature without intending it simply because he had failed at everything else.  He struggled with the bible his whole life though considered by many merely a Deist.  His sometimes irreverent satire brought both laughter and scorn because he would often address things that no one else had the courage to speak about publicly.  After his death several revealing manuscripts were found and later published in which he told the story of No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger (Satan) and his visits to earth.

One unsavory comment he made was regarding the scripture that addressed rebels in the Old Testament who marked out their territory against authority like a dog urinating on a bush he said,  "A person could piss against a tree, he could piss on his mother, he could piss on his own breeches, and get off, but he must not piss against the wall -- that would be going quite too far. The origin of the divine prejudice against this humble crime is not stated; but we know that the prejudice was very strong -- so strong that nothing but a wholesale massacre of the people inhabiting the region where the wall was defiled could satisfy the Deity." -- Mark Twain

This urination passage can be found six times and obviously caused Mark Twain a bit of consternation. (1 Sam. 25:22,34, 1 Kgs 14:10-12, 1 Kgs 21:19-21, 2 Kgs 9:8 etc.)  It is in reference to a basic pissing contest against those in authority.  But this is language most church folks avoid.

Invasion of Aliens

The history of Israel is often portrayed as an ebb and flow of peace and then war.  When they were seeking the direction of God there would be anointed leaders who would deliver them from their enemies.  Some were unlikely characters with many flaws.  When they became comfortable and got the idea that they could manage their affairs without God they would be invaded by foreigners.

The law of Moses predicts this scenario in no uncertain terms in a list of blessings and the consequences of disobedience in Deuteronomy chapter 28.  "And these blessings shall come upon you and overtake, if you obey the Lord your God.  And the Lord shall make you head and not the tail."  The curse of disobedience is as follows, "The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower."  "The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who shall have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young." (Deu. 28:43,49)