Bits and Pieces

This blogsite has given me a wonderful opportunity to place my thoughts and my understanding before those who may choose to read them; this is a personal blessing I had almost given up hope would ever happen in this lifetime. Each week I try to record what I have to say in not less than four and not more than six “Microsoft Word” pages. Some subjects require even more explanation; in these cases I have found that splitting them over two or more weeks works quite well. This leaves me with those subjects which are little more than snippets of information -- I have decided that these occasional little bits and pieces should be dealt with in this way!

The Hours of the Day

How perfectly do we understand the scriptural use of the word “hour” when referring to the timing of an event? I am somewhat concerned that the biblical passage which records the time of Jesus’ crucifixion may have created an error, or at least a misconception in the minds of many of us.

Mark 15:25 “Now it was the third hour, and they crucified [Jesus].”

In the Authorized King James Version of the Bible there is a marginal reference to this verse which states simply “9 a.m.” From this, many of us have come to accept that the third hour of the day is in fact 9 o’clock in the morning; the sixth hour would then be 12 o’clock noon; the ninth hour would refer to 3 o’clock in the afternoon; and so on and so forth. We may therefore have a mental picture of our Lord being crucified at 9 o’clock in the morning; the sun being blotted out at 12 o’clock noon; and the darkness remaining until the death of our Savior at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

For many years it has been my habit to use every little snippet of available information to better understand all that has been recorded for us in Scripture. Whenever I can better define my understanding by clarifying or perfecting even the smallest truth, I believe this adds to my overall understanding and therefore adds to and strengthens my faith.

Matthew 27:45-46 “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is [to say], ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”

If the third hour of the day is in fact 9 a.m. then the second hour would be 8 a.m. and the first hour would be 7 a.m. making 6 a.m. the twelfth hour of the night. I am quite willing to accept all this as truth; but I wonder if it is really necessary to be so precise in stating that “the third hour is 9 a.m.” I believe it would have been far more instructive if the marginal reference had suggested “from 8 to 9 a.m.” instead of the more precise 9 a.m. The first hour would then have been from 6 to 7; the second hour would have been from 7 to 8; and “the third hour of the day” would have been the hour from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m.

It should be noted that if the following passage from the book of Amos refers not only to the end-time, but also to the time of the crucifixion, it does specify 12 o’clock noon as the time for darkness to cover the Earth. Whether or not this is helpful to our discussion is for each of you as individuals to determine for yourselves; but I would caution you to place the passage from Amos in its proper context before trying to equate it with the time of Jesus’ death.

Amos 8:9 “‘And it shall come to pass in that day,’” says the Lord GOD, ‘that I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight.”

I should also point to a passage from the New Testament book of John which has caused a little confusion in the minds of some; if only for a short time:

John 19:13-14 “When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And [Pilate] said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’”

We need to keep in mind that Jesus was brought before Pilate not long after his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. His various trials took place in the middle of the night; so when it says that Jesus was brought before Pilot at the sixth hour it is referring to the sixth hour “of the night.” According to the marginal direction of Mark 15:25 we must believe this means midnight; but then again, it may be a little more correct to say that Jesus was brought before Pilate about the sixth hour -- from 11 p.m. to midnight!

A Strange Reaction

Many years ago, an incident took place during one of the regular Worldwide Church Bible studies that had a profound and lasting influence on me. It involved the local pastor of the congregation I was attending before my disfellowship. To this day I still have difficulty trying to comprehend his reaction to what should have been a simple and easily answered question.

In the early 1970’s there was a 6-volume edition of the “Bible Story” being offered by the Worldwide Church; it was written and illustrated in a very entertaining way and I took pleasure in reading it to my children before settling them down to sleep. One evening we were reading about the feast of King Belshazzar of Babylon (as it is recorded in the 5th chapter of the book of Daniel) and we had come to the part where the fingers of a man’s hand supernaturally appeared and wrote on the wall the words: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” Notice the interpretation given by Daniel:

Daniel 5:25-28 “[Daniel said to the King:] ‘This is the inscription that was written: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and [to the] Persians.’”

To be perfectly honest, it was my eleven-year old son who noticed that the word first written on the wall as “UPHARSIN,” was now being referred to as “PERES.” He asked me for an explanation and I had absolutely no idea what to tell him -- it didn’t seem to make any sense to me so I had what at the time I considered to be an inspiration -- silly me!

I told him that when he had a question he couldn’t answer, and I was unable to help him, he should go to the ministry and ask them for an explanation. “In fact,” I told him, “this would be a perfect question for you to ask the ministers at the next Bible study.”

The evening of the next Bible study I prepared the question and put my son’s name on the request form. My son and I share the same name, and to this day I cannot remember whether I did or did not put (Jr.) after his name -- but in retrospect, I really don’t think it would have made any difference.

When the question was read out, the head pastor of our local congregation stepped to the lectern and began to personally respond with a belligerence that was most difficult to understand. He berated the person who would waste the time of the Church and the congregation with something so inconsequential and unedifying; he made it clear (at least to me) that his tirade was meant for me personally. He never did address the question!

To this day I still do not fully understand his reaction, but at the time my concern was for my son; I know he had looked forward to hearing his question asked at Bible study and I had no idea what this shameful exhibition from our pastor would do to him. I need not have worried; that evening, my eleven-year old son showed far more class, confidence, and control than did this Ambassador College trained professional.

By the way: the word “upharsin” has been translated from the Chaldean word “parac.” The word “peres” has been translated from the same word “parac.” According to the Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible the word “parac” means to split-up, or to divide, and refers to the rending away of the kingdom from Belshazzar to become the joint-kingdom of the Medes and the Persians. Why the translators have chosen to use two different words to explain the same meaning of “division” I have absolutely no idea!

Lucifer was their King

As I watched the excellent movie “David and Bathsheba” with Gregory Peck and Rita Hayworth there was a scene which describes with some eloquence a possible justification for the angels that sinned when they followed Lucifer in his rebellion against God.

For those who do not know the story, Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite when she became the lover, then the mistress of David, King of Israel. When Nathan the prophet sought to condemn Bathsheba as an adulteress, King David (Gregory Peck) said in her defence: “I made her come to me. I was the king, could she refuse her king?”

At the time of Lucifer’s rebellion he had one-third of all of God’s angels under his direct command. God had placed Lucifer in a position of authority over these angels and had given them a commission that they should watch over the Earth. If Lucifer chose to rebel against God, and if he chose to lead his subjects in open rebellion against God, at what point would it have been correct for those angels to refuse to obey Lucifer?

If at any time they had refused, would they not have been in direct disobedience to Lucifer; and in so doing would they not have also been in direct disobedience to the commandment of God that they honour and obey Lucifer?

Consider for a moment that until the time leading up to Lucifer’s rebellion there may have been no such thing as sin! In fact, at the time leading up to Lucifer’s rebellion, disobedience to the edicts of God must have been completely unknown. If this is so, then I cannot even visualize the concept of disobedience being understood by the angels that followed him!

Job -- Righteous or Not

The LORD of the Old Testament was conversing with Satan about the man we have come to know as Job: and the Lord said in Job 1:8 “There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and avoids evil.”

If ever a man could expect to be protected from all things evil then surely it should have been Righteous Job; however, God allowed Satan to afflict Job in the most horrible ways. The question must then be asked: “Why would God allow such a thing to happen?”

You need to read the whole story of Job, as it is recorded in the book of the Bible by that name; in it you may discover a very important lesson which all of us who strive to be true Christians need to learn. Many believe the sin of Job was an excess of vanity due to self-righteousness. This may be true; but God described Job to Satan as a truly righteous man! I doubt that any man can be truly righteous when he harbours within himself the sin of vanity -- or as is suggested by many “self-righteousness!”

It is true that no matter what we do in our service to God, no matter how obedient we are to His commands and desires, we can do nothing more than it is our duty to do. However obedient and righteous any mortal man may be we are still unprofitable servants -- we can only hope to return to God a small portion of that which is His due and nothing more.

Therefore, the question must remain that if Job was a truly righteous man, why would God allow Satan to afflict him so horribly? My honest answer is that I simply do not know -- except perhaps that the Jewish Talmud may be correct when it suggests that the book of Job is a parable, a story, and that Job as a real person never did exist!

The Fear of the Lord

How can the belief in a loving, forgiving, and benevolent God, square with the atrocities which exist in the world today and with the horrors prophesied for the days to come?

Many scriptures can be used to shed light on this question but perhaps we can use a short passage from the Proverbs of Solomon as a single definitive answer. Notice:

Proverbs 1:24-29 “Because I have called, and you refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regards; but you have set at nothing all my counsel, and did not want my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear [6343] comes; when your fear [6343] comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind; when pain and sorrow come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear [3374] of the Lord.”

In the previous passage the word “fear” is used three times but has been translated from two very different Hebrew words. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible tells us that “fear” [6343] = “pachad” = alarm (properly: the object feared) -and- “fear” [3374] = “yiraw” = fear: reverence.

With this in mind, the last part of the previous passage could have been rendered: “…for that they hated knowledge and did not choose to regard me with the deepest respect and affection!”

Note: I have enjoyed putting these bits and pieces together. Throughout my notes I have recorded many thoughts and comments not worthy of a full essay but which may well be of value in further offerings of “Bits and Pieces.” I hope to do this again sometime soon.

Next week I expect to begin a two part series on a subject I would much rather not have to discuss. The reasons for my separation from the Worldwide Church of 1974 have always been a very private matter to me; I have occasionally alluded to those reasons but have never discussed them fully and openly with anyone. Over the next two weeks I shall try to clarify my side of the story in the two-part series “Shearing the Sheep” and put to rest with one quick blood-letting a subject I don’t even enjoy thinking about.