Prof Zebulon No E89

E) Israel (Since the Dispersion in 70 AD)

A story is told long ago about a king who had a court-jester who was a Bible-believing Christian. So, one day, the king, wanting to test his jester made the following statement : “If this Bible that you believe is so true, its proof ought to be simple. Give me only one word that proves that the Bible is true.” The jester thought it over a bit and said “I have a word that proves the Bible is true, king”. To which the king answered back : “What is this magical word? The Jew, your highness, the Jew.” The king knew the history of the Jew and he had to admit that his jester was right. When Titus, the Roman conqueror entered Israel to quell the uprising of the Jews in 70 AD, he did so with a sledgehammer. His soldiers killed, crucified and starved countless thousands of Jews for no other reason but for the fact that they were Jews. Those who managed to escape were scattered all over the world, left to the pity of the nations that would reluctantly take them in. I ask you, what nation could withstand this type of wholesale slaughter? Since the dispersion in 70 AD, the Jews had to live as immigrants in other countries. Some countries have been good to the Jews (USA, Canada) but the majority of host countries have been severely harsh to them; some to the point of trying to eliminate them completely. In a previous study (Vol 2 No 9), we looked at a verse in Jeremiah 31 that gave us the recipe for the destruction of the Jews – “If the sun, the moon and the stars were to cease and if the heavens were to be measured, then Israel would cease to exist”. We may not all agree, but the Jews are still God’s people and He has not finished with them yet.

F) Christian Living (Our conscience, final part)

This is the last of a study about our conscience. Up to now, we have seen that it is a warning system that God gave us. The Apostle Paul, in his letters, gave warnings about the effectiveness of our consciences. He warned about : a) Muddying it “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled” (1 Cor 8:7) b) Callusing it “For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols” (v10) c) Wounding it “But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ” (v12) d) Burning or searing it “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4:2). The battle, in our lives is fought on the inside, not the outside. There are three types of people in the world – Those who are in the battle; those who watch the battle pass in front of them and those who don’t even know that there is a battle. If we lose it on the inside, James says : “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. ¹⁵Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:14,15). If we want to win the battle with sin, there are only two ways to do it: 1) To fully inform our conscience by having a high understanding of Scripture, the Holy Law of God. I don’t mean spiritual snacking; I mean feasting on the Word. 2) To learn to respond to our conscience’s warning signals; remember the Spanish pilot? God is a loving heavenly Father who wants no one to perish; but, at the same time, He is a Holy God and cannot tolerate unpunished sin. (These three lessons were taken from a sermon by John MacArthur)