In Touch Quarter 2 - 2017

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Editorial About us CFI-UK seeks to bless Israel by means of practical and moral support, and to serve the Church in teaching about God’s purposes for Israel and the Hebraic heritage of our faith. CFI also produces a monthly Prayer Letter, an audio Middle East News Report and distributes the Haverim Hebraic teaching CDs. Please send for full details of projects in Israel and also of the many teaching resources available. As an educational charity, we carry a variety of resources relevant to our purpose. We do not necessarily endorse every view expressed by our guest writers or authors of these resources. Published by: CFI Charitable Trust PO Box 2687 Eastbourne BN22 7LZ Tel: 01323 410 810 Fax: 01323 410 211 Email: info@cfi.org.uk Websites: www.cfi.org.uk www.keshercourse.org.uk facebook.com/cfiuk twitter.com/cfi_uk Registered Charity No. 1101899 Registered Office c/o Caladine, Chantry House 22 Upperton Road Eastbourne, BN21 1BF Company No: 0498515 VAT Registration No: GB678780275 Front Cover Image: View over Jerusalem 2 IN TOUCH • 2 nd Quarter 2017 Jacob Vince In previous editorials I have expressed my preference for referring to the four quarters of the Bible - Law, Prophets, Psalms and Apostles (see Luke 24:44 and Acts 2:42) – rather than the Old Testament and New Testament. Recently I discovered when the terms old and new were first used to categorise the collection of the books of the Bible, and also by whom. Believe it or not, it was Marcion who first used the terms in this way. He saw the God of what he referred to as the Old Testament as inferior to the God of the New Testament – an early form of replacement theology. In this he was roundly condemned as a heretic, to the credit of the Early Church Fathers. However it appears they retained Marcion’s categorisation of Old and New Testament, and indeed the Septuagint order of the books rather than the Hebrew order, which is the one Jews use right down to today and the one Jesus himself used in his day (Luke 24:44). Following this four-quarter designation I want to focus on some words that the apostle Peter writes in his second and final recorded letter. Peter writes this: ‘Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.’ And this is the key sentence, ‘I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles’ (2 Peter 3:1-2). So here we have the commendation of the word spoken through the prophets alongside the word spoken through the apostles. I expect we know well the introduction to the letter understood as written to the Hebrews, where the writer states: ‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has Prophets and Apostles www.cfi.org.uk spoken to us by his Son’ (Hebrews 1:1-2) Some in the church would take this to mean that the words spoken by the prophets are no longer important because now he has spoken to us by his Son. However, the earlier extract from Peter’s second letter contradicts this approach. Peter wants his readers to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets. Of course it makes sense when taking the Hebrews passage as our guide that God speaks by his Son, or to put it another way, that Jesus is God’s word in the flesh. However, Jesus himself refers constantly to the written word of the Scriptures, contained in the first three quarters of the Bible, and then entrusts its final quarter to his immediate apostles and also, in due course to the apostle Paul, to write and record their witness statement (Luke 1:1-2) regarding ‘all that Jesus began to do and to teach’ (Acts 1:1). Indeed, at the close of the Apostles’ section, in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, John was specifically requested to write this down. ‘Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later’ (Revelation 1:19). So we see that the written word itself tells us about Jesus the living Word. As the apostle John writes toward the end of his first letter, ‘And this is the testimony God has given us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son … I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God’ (1 John 5:11-12). These are indeed powerful written words, telling believers about the living Word. It is interesting that John calls this his testimony, which is a better word than testament. Either way, it is a written record of what has been seen by closeup eye witnesses, in the same way that the foreseers of old, the prophets, saw from afar what was to come. Both sets of records, or testimonies, are necessary and this is why the apostle Peter writes, ‘I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles’ (2 Peter 3:1-2).
Report Ministers’ Israel Study Tour 2017 Revd Andrew Byfield Waking up with a view over the Mediterranean Sea took my breath away. I had seen this stretch of water at various points before (along the French and Italian coasts) but seeing its eastern-most shore in the Promised Land was surprisingly moving. I sat at my breakfast table and ran a Bible search on ‘Mediterranean Sea.’ Up came the verse from the book of Joshua, ‘Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.’ (Joshua 1:4). Now here it was in front of me. Later that first day we headed south to the Gaza border. Before leaving the UK I had visited the Foreign Office website. It expressly warned not to go near this spot! There were nerves as we stared into Gaza City, well within reach of Hamas rockets. It was worth it. Seeing the Israeli efforts to love their neighbour by sending tens of lorryloads of aid into the Gaza Strip every day was a stunning experience and one no western media outlet had ever told me about. Friends at home were equally surprised when I told them on my return. We spent the next night in Ramallah, another trouble spot I had been warned about by years of western press coverage. There we met an Anglican Vicar of the town. Over dinner I felt somewhat ashamed of my ignorance of the plight of Arab Christians. Combined with hearing the Palestinian Authorities’ take on the Arab-Israeli conflict earlier that day, it was all such a stark contrast to the narrative coming from those just a few miles away in Israeli territory. That tension has still not resolved itself in my mind months later. Perhaps it never will. Before we had time to process it we were off again, this time in search of the shores of Lake Galilee and the stunning remains of Capernaum. Gazing into Simon Peter’s house and the synagogue where Jesus cast out a demon suddenly brought the gospel accounts into sharp focus for me. That experience was to be repeated again and again throughout the next few days as we took the journey south to Jerusalem. Over lunch in Galilee our tour guide happened to mention something I had never heard of before, ‘Jerusalem Syndrome’. Apparently medics recognise it as a genuine condition. So overwhelmed with emotion and deep connection to their religious roots are visitors to the great city that they struggle to cope. There is apparently to this day in Jerusalem a wing in the hospital laid aside for sufferers. It seemed laughable at the time, but later in the week seeing the place with my own eyes I could vaguely understand why it happens. Seeing the magnificence of the Temple complex. Walking the Palm Sunday route down Ministers’ Israel Study Tour 2017 at Shiloh the Mount of Olives from Bethany. Staring into the Garden of Gethsemane where the Lord chose to go to the cross for me. Visiting Skull Hill and the Garden Tomb. It was hard to come away from all these places without being deeply moved and affected for many weeks to come. For me, though, it was the tiny stone crypt a few days later in Bethlehem, said to be the location of the Christmas manger, that left the deepest impression. I had expected nothing more than a tourist trap, a place full of cheap souvenirs. Combined with not being one given to strong emotion my expectations were low. However, entering that little chamber I was overcome with a profound sense of the presence of God. Hard to fathom that here was the place the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. On the way home we visited the Dead Sea and Masada, the arid landscape reflecting the chilling history of the place. Personally I found them ideal surroundings to reflect on all we had seen so far on the trip: the massive political questions in the seemingly intractable conflict between Arab and Israeli; and the vivid biblical sites making Bible stories come alive in three dimensions. It was a trip I will never forget and I am so thankful to God and to the trip’s organisers for the opportunity to go to the land of Israel. facebook.com/cfiuk twitter.com/cfi_uk 2 nd Quarter 2017 • IN TOUCH 3
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In Touch Quarter 2 - 2017

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