Big Ideas in a Small Package

My sister Regina published a charming little book recently, but don't let the words "charming" and "little" fool you. In it she addresses some profound and difficult questions such as,

• If everything I am and have was given by God and still ultimately belongs to Him, what can I possibly hope to give to Him? The only thing we have that He wants is our will to love, trust, obey, and worship Him.
• Sometimes the things that we see as intrinsic parts of our nature are the very things that God has tasked us with overcoming. Our mission in life isn't necessarily to accept our limitations. Quite often, we are meant to destroy them, or at the very least, to master them.

Check it out here: May I Have This Dance: stories of encounters with Jesus by Regina McCollam.

The Timing of the Triumphal Entry, Last Supper, Crucifixion, and Resurrection

I set out to answer one simple question: Does the Feast of Firstfruits fall on the day after the weekly Sabbath of Unleavened Bread or on the day following the first High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. I thought the question could be easily answered by verifying the translation of the two Torah passages that define this feast, but I quickly discovered that the question isn't so simple. The original Hebrew is ambiguous, and prominent rabbis debated the question thousands of years ago. Convinced that the Spring Feasts are prophetic of the events surrounding Yeshua's Crucifixion and Resurrection, I hoped the Gospels would have the answer. Unfortunately, they are also ambiguous.

There are three major events of the Passion Week that need to be placed on the monthly and weekly calendars before a definitive answer can be had.

1. The Triumphal Entry
2. The Crucifixion
3. The Resurrection

The traditional Roman Catholic chronology puts the Triumphal Entry on Sunday, the Crucifixion on Friday, and the Resurrection on the second Sunday. Most Protestants follow the Catholic tradition, however there is a minority opinion that the Crucifixion had to occur on Thursday in order to align with three other factors:

1. Yeshua promised to rise after three days and three nights.
2. The timing of the Feast of Firstfruits.
3. The timing of the presentation of the Passover Lamb.

Triumphal Entry

Many non-Catholic Christians and Messianics say Yeshua's entry into Jerusalem had to happen on 10 Nisan to fulfill the command in Exodus 12:3-6 that the Passover lamb must be presented for inspection on that date. However, the rabbis teach that this command only applied to the first Passover in Egypt and was not to be followed afterwards. It seems to me out of character for God to tie a sacred ritual to a single date in history for two reasons. First, all of the other Moedim are prophetic and are repeated annually. Second, although it might only be my own desire to fit data into patterns, God seems to be a God of patterns. What has happened before, will happen again. What happened to the fathers, will happen to the sons. For this reason, I side with the Christian tradition of placing Yeshua's Triumphal Entry on 10 Nisan. At least in my own mind, that settles the day on the monthly calendar, but what about the day of the week? The Torah only says 10 Nisan, so it will be on a different day each year. With a few minor exceptions Christians place this day on Sunday in the year of Yeshua's Crucifixion without regard to the date, but I found nothing in the Gospels to indicate the day of the week, so this is based purely on tradition and not Scripture.

Matthew and John tend to be more precise in their chronology than Mark and Luke, or at least they are more precise in their wording. John states that "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany" (John 12:1). All of the Gospels and the Acts use the term "Passover" to refer not to the Passover of Torah (14 Nisan), but to the first day of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15). According to a strict Greek calculation then, six days before the Passover would be 9 Nisan. If the fuzzy-count theory of Jewish days is used (see Resurrection section below), then this could be 10 Nisan, but certainly no earlier than 9 Nisan.

Anti-Zionism vs Anti-Semitism

Anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism. One can be completely opposed to the State of Israel and still love the Jewish people. One can even believe that the people who call themselves Jews today aren't the same as the people whom the Bible calls Jews without being anti-Jew. I believe all of those ideas are misguided, but the people who believe them can still be good and reasonable people. I have nothing against them personally.

On the other hand, sometimes you come across someone like "Vin DiCator" in the conversation shown below, whose rabid anti-Semitism is so full of confusion and lies that I find it difficult to believe that he is not suffering from either a strong demonic influence or severe mental illness. Maybe both.

(Click to zoom in.)

Also notice the striking similarities between Vin's tactics and those described in "The Gamma Identifier" at Alpha Game.

Live Long and Prosper

Reproduced from my old blog in honor of Leonard Nimoy's passing...

When Who Wants To Be a Superhero was first advertised I thought it might be fun to watch an episode or two, but was sure it would be a complete failure. I was partly right. It was a fun show. Mostly juvenile, but not a complete failure

I was brought up by Captain Kirk and Commander Spock to value an archaic-seeming set of principles: loyalty, honesty, justice, mercy, generosity, and honor. I was pleased to see Stan Lee explicitly promoting the same. He has kicked contestants out of "the lair" for not actively displaying courage, kindness, selflessness, and leadership. It would be nice if there were more shows demonstrating honorable behavior, but at least Lee is talking about it.

Addendum: I had four fathers in addition to Kirk & Spock, six fathers in all. My real father taught me about self-sacrifice and service to others. Asimov taught me rationalism. Lewis taught me spiritual awareness, humility, and faith. Heinlein taught me self-sufficiency and liberty. Altogether, I don't think that was a bad combination. It was certainly not the village Hillary had in mind.

Nutrition, Health, Fitness

If you need to talk to a dietitian who will give you straight information based on real life experience and common sense, talk to Paula at Noble Nutrition. She also teaches Pilates & Barre with her twin sister, Patti, of Noble Grace Pilates.

The Means of Our Deliverance

So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer deliverance than they imagine; nay are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.

-Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

The Battle Belongs to YHWH

Isaiah 41:13-14 For I the LORD thy God hold thy right hand, who say unto thee: ‘Fear not, I help thee.’ (14) Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I help thee, saith the LORD, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Luke 22:36 He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.

Those in covenant with God need fear no one but Him. He sustains us and protects us. This doesn’t mean that we don’t need to prepare for trouble. (God doesn’t reward laziness.) It only means that we don’t need to worry about the outcome. Set aside emergency supplies. Buy some silver. Buy a gun and ammunition, and learn how to use it. But have no fear of the future. As God told Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20:16, prepare for war and march out to face the enemy, but God will provide the victory.