FROM ATHENS TO JERUSALEM

THE GREEK MIND & THE HEBREW MIND

The Greek understanding of who man is and how he thinks is very different to the Hebrew (biblical) understanding of who man is and how he thinks.

According to the Greeks man is “a rational animal”. He is distinguished from animals by his ability to use abstract thinking.  The Greek philosophers, especially Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, developed this understanding. It is to Aristotle we owe the definition: “Man is a rational animal.” He was a student of Plato and became the personal tutor of Alexander the Great. The Greek view of man as a thinker controlled by his mind was revived in the late Middle Ages by Thomas Aquinas and was reformulated by Descartes and enlightenment philosophers of the 17^th and 18^th century.

Knowledge Limited to The Five Senses

With this understanding of who we are, the Greeks went on to develop the theory that all information comes through the five senses. If all knowledge must come through the senses, the possibility of knowing God is automatically excluded because He is unseen. At most we can infer His existence by induction, but we cannot hear from Him directly.

Greek anthropology (understanding of who man is) has not only influenced scientific thought, but it has also had a huge influence on Christian thought, through Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin. It has affected western theology deeply because, while acknowledging that God spoke through the prophets, through Jesus and the apostles, the Greek mind set leaves no place for Him to speak to ordinary human beings today. 

Because western Christianity, has followed the Greek mind the fact that God spoke to the prophets and apostles came to be seen as a rare exception requiring a special intervention of God. God became silent, virtually dead, boring or irrelevant. With this mindset the Bible is understood as the record of God’s speech, to be understood only with the mind while His direct communication with His followers is virtually excluded.

The Hebrew Mind

The Hebrew/Biblical view of man differs from the Greek view in two major ways

·        in  their understanding of who man isand

·        in their understanding of how he thinks

In the Hebrew/Biblical understanding, man is not simply a rational animal with a soul and a body. He is a being made “in the image of God” with a spirit, a soul and a body. Therefore he receives knowledge not only though the five senses but also though his spirit. He is a spiritual being with a capacity to communicate with and hear from God even while he sojourns on the earth. Man differs from the animals not because he can communicate with language, use tools, or exercise intelligence but because he alone has the capacity to communicate with God. The Hebrew/Biblical viewpoint is not just slightly different from the Greek view – it is in total contrast with it.  The silent God of pagan temples and the non-communicative Allah of the Moslems is a direct consequence of Greek anthropology -  totally different than the God of the Bible.

We Can Hear From God

The Hebrews understood that information comes to us not only through the five senses but also through the spirit. In other words we have two sources of information:

•         The senses, which receive information from the physical world; and

•         the spirit of man, which receives information from the spiritual world.

 Through his spirit, man is in contact with the spiritual world and through it he can commune with God and hear from Him. The Hebrews and early Christians understood that we live in a spiritual world inhabited by many beings (including angels, other heavenly beings and demons) but only one God.  Not all of these beings can be trusted or believed. We have a responsibility to worship God alone and to avoid communication with any spirit that does not honor Him. Both Moses and Jesus warned against communication with dark and fallen spirits and forbadeidolatry and occultism. But while warning us against communicating with evil spirits, they do exhort us to listen to and hear from God Himself.  As John writes: “Believe not every spirit but test the spirits.” He assumes we can hear in the spirit but warns us not to communicate with any spirit, which does not acknowledge the Lord or brings  any message contrary to the Bible.

Because our anthropology has come from the Greeks rather than form the Hebrews western Christians  have tended to confine all knowledge of God to the pages of the Bible, and to exclude direct communication from Him. A  return to the Hebrew mind however will help us to see that the Bible is not a book that excludes communication with God.  On the contrary it is  the book, which gives sound advice and parameters for the correct communication with the unseen God.

This ability to communicate with and hear from God is not diminished by the New Testament revelation or by the completion of the Biblical Canon. In fact it is enormously expanded when we are born again. “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father.” (Galatians 4:6) The gift of the Holy Spirit far from diminishing two-way communication with God restores increases and enhances our intimate communion with Him.

Jesus emphasized this aspect of our identity when He declared, “My sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow.” (Jon 10) There are many voices in the spiritual and natural world but when we follow Him, the Good Shepherd, we will live under the shadow of His protection.

Because western Christianity has succumbed to the Greek mind, which excludes hearing from God, God has been pushed out into a realm beyond  our experience. His very existence can only be inferred from His works. Some Christians go so far as to imply that hearing from God is unnecessary, and that since we have the Bible and the words of Jesus, the prophets and the apostles, we can simply study and apply their teachings. Paul addressed this clash of viewpoints when he wrote: “the intellectual (soul dominated) man does not understand the things of the spirit because they are foolishness to him.” (1 Cor) As a classic Hebrew he insisted that the Greek understanding of man as a soul and a body is insufficient to understand the things of the spirit. They can only be grasped through our spirit and not with our mind. The failure of Greek anthropology to distinguish between spirit and soul makes it inadequate for the explanation of spiritual realities.

A New Renaissance

This “greekified” Christianity has left western Christians with a God who has spoken in the past but who does not speak today except through the recorded word. It has greatly weakened the capacity of westerners for communication and relationship with God.

The problem created by the contrasting mindsets of Hebrew and Greek culture  is not simply a matter of western failure to understand Hebrew idiom and Biblical culture. It is more than a failure to interpret the Bible in the light of its Hebrew roots. It goes far deeper. The problem is with our view of man – our philosophical anthropology.

·        Is man a rational animal (as the Greeks taught) who has heard from God in the past?

·        Or is he a spiritual man (as the Bible teaches) who is made to hear from God through his spirit (inner man) and related to the physical world though his senses?

Christianity has been in a Babylonian captivity to Greek thought and the Greek concept of who we are and how we think for 1500 years.  As we recover the Hebrew worldview, we rediscover that we are  not simply thinking beings but beings made  for communication with God. In the Messiah’s Cross God was ‘reconciling the world to Himself’ to restore us to  communication with Himself and to our true identity as children of God.

The return to a proper Biblical anthropology is one of the main keys to the recovery of the authority and rule of God on the earth today. Whenever there has been a real renaissance there has been a fresh discovery of who man is and how he learns. As He enters into partnership with followers, who can hear His voice and follow His word, he can enter into a fuller leadership of His people.

A new wedding of the Spirit and the Word will release not only a revival but also a complete renaissance of western culture, faith and a renaissance of Christianity itself., arising from a rediscovery of who we are and how we relate to God.

The Resurrection Is Greatest Fact of History.

Christianity is not founded on a belief in the teachings of Jesus or even on the belief that He is the Messiah. It is founded on HISTORICAL FACT.

If the resurrection is a fact then Jesus is the Messiah. If it is not a fact then He is not. Paul writes,  “If Christ is not raised, your faith is foolish; you are yet in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15.17)

In his book “Resurrection” the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says that he is “not particularly concerned’ with arguing for an objectivist view of the resurrection. He believes in the bodily resurrection. It is just not that important!

The resurrection is the greatest fact of history. It is the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah and that His death has successfully atoned for the sin of mankind. No one else in history has conquered death. The resurrection is the evidence of the concreteness of His victory. The atonement for mankind is not just a belief -  it a fact of history. It was a plan settled in eternity before the foundation of the world but made concrete in objective history by his bodily resurrection.

Why was the resurrection necessary?

1) Because the Psalms predict that the Messiah should not experience corruption;

2) Because the resurrection is the only evidence of the success of Jesus’ sacrifice. When the High Priest went alone into the holy of Holies to make atonement for sin there was no way of knowing if the sacrifice was accepted by God unless He emerged from the Holy of Holies alive.

Jesus brought His blood into the Holy of Holies of heaven and placed it on the Mercy Seat, which is in heaven. His resurrection is the evidence that His sacrifice for the sins of Israel and the world is accepted.  If He is not resurrected Jesus is simply a martyr and we are still in our sins. That is why He Himself says: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory.” (Lk 24:26)

It remains for this fact to be preached so that  people can put their faith in it for the remission of sin, reconciliation with God, the receiving of a new heart and the victorious life that follows.  If Jesus is not raised then we are still in our sins and His once for all sacrifice is not real. But He IS risen. It’s a fact and not just a belief. My belief does not make it true or false, my belief simply acknowledges and embraces this great fact and its consequent blessings.

ENJOY YOUR RESURRECTION LIFE!

WHAT OTHERS SAY

A More Glorious Way

 “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,” nor has it entered into the heart of man, “the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor 2:9) You have read that "the 'letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6). 1 have a deeper revelation of this truth to give you if you can receive it. For the Spirit operates in a different realm than the Word. The Word deals with you on the plane of your everyday living. It governs your conduct in daily affairs, guides you into the knowledge of the doctrines of God, the understanding of My divine will, and instructs you in the walk of the Christian.

But in the Spirit, there is a life awaiting that would draw you out beyond the confines of the natural world. The Spirit of God operates in the realm of the supernatural and the infinite. Do not hold back in wonder and disbelief. Accept My Life in the Spirit as it is. .. I am calling you to give My Spirit within you liberty to move out into dimensions of the infinite.

Breathtaking? Perhaps. But how could you expect anything less of Me? Push open the door. In the dazzling light of My presence you will see much that is now obscure to you because .. I have better things for you- things in keeping with Myself. You have not truly known Me. You have been hindered in your comprehension by what you have read and been taught. You can know Me in the spirit only when you go deeper in your worship. I am not found in textbooks but in sanctuaries. You are not changed by knowledge but by love. Only the heart that is melted in devotion is pliable in My hand. Only the mind that is open to the spirit can receive divine revelation”.

        (“Come Away My Beloved” by Frances  Roberts )

© © ©  ©

The Word & The Spirit

“It seems to me that a silent divorce has taken place between the Word and the Spirit in the church ... The need of the hour is for a remarriage of both the Word and the Spirit.” – R.T. Kendall

© © ©  ©

Signs And Wonders Movement

“A new signs and wonders movement is coming which is significantly greater than what was seen in the days of the post-World War II healing evangelists. Part of the fruit of this movement will be healing centers which will be built around the world, devoted to praying for the sick and casting out demons (Luke 10). One of the distinctives of this movement will be raising the dead. This will break barrenness off the church and such great fruitfulness will result that whole cities will turn to Christ and be transformed.” (US apostolic Council 1999 Nov. 30th overseen by Peter Wagner)

© © ©  ©

Dear Friends

We pray that all is well with you since we last wrote.

Since then we have been home based, planning the year and getting our lives in order.  We spoke weekends at several churches, including ”Shekinah Glory Fellowship” which is pastored by Rich & Dottie Kane at Pompano Beach Florida, “Christ the Rock Fellowship” in Boca Raton. Pastor Perry Comas, “Grace Covenant Church” in Chicago. Pastor Derek & Dede Kuhn; Word & Worship Center in South Miami, Pastor Cecil & Julie Warren; and Vero Beach Worship Center”, pastored by Dan Zink

The vision to see a “Healing Room” established in our local area was given to our Ft. Pierce Bible study, about three years ago. The group prayed fasted and worked to see it established and now the Treasure Coast Healing Room has been established under the capable and inspired leadership of Larry & Jeannie Deutschman. The Healing room meets at Open Door House Of Prayer 33^rd Ave, Ft. Pierce. each Thursday evening.

Our Wednesday morning Bible study, “The 120 Club” also now meets at the Open Door House of Prayer and flourishes in our presence or absence.

We leave in early April for three months ministry time in Ireland and U.K. We have an itinerary of about 70 meetings which is an expression of the growth and development of interdenominational and post- denominational Christianity in our land. Our vision is to see a renaissance of Christianity in Ireland that will transform the land and greatly impact the whole of Europe.

In July we will be speaking at the DOC (Disciplined Order of Christ) conference in Asheboro N.C. and also are planning  meetings in Natchez, Mississippi and surrounding area.

As you can see we need prayer for the strength of the Lord to accompany us and for lives to be transformed and refreshed from His presence as we minister. Our ministry stands on the prayers of our intercessors.

With deepest thanks to all of you who help us with your prayers and financial support - we need you! Let us know if we can serve you in any way

One in His great love and service,

Reconciliation Outreach

Paul & Nuala O’Higgins

Invite you join us on our

BIBLE STUDY TOUR    TO ISRAEL

10 GLORIOUS DAYS

Oct 23^rd  – Nov 1^st 2008

$1,395 (950 euros approx)

(+$70 tips & taxes)* (Land only)

 Walking, (not running) where Jesus walked

Full Touring of Israel,              (including Galilee & Dead Sea)

Half Board (breakfast & dinner daily)

             4 & 5 star hotels

Jerusalem, TelAviv, Tiberias, Dead Sea

 Send  payment in U.S. dollars to      

        “Tour Host International",

            P.O. Box 28476,       

          Chattanooga TN 37424,

            Tel 423-954-9999

email tourhostinc@comcast.net

Deposit of $350 due A.S.A.P.

Balance due 60 days before tour.

(Make your own air arrangements or if flying from U.S call T.H.I. for info.)

For more details and brochure contact “Tour Host International” email: paulandnuala@bellsouth.net or download information from our web site: www.reconciliationoutreach.net