This is part 1 of 4 in the teaching series, "Jerusalem, My Home" by Rebecca J. Brimmer, International President and CEO of Bridges for Peace. May you be blessed by reading this teaching letter.
Jerusalem, My Home
What do you think of when you hear the word “Jerusalem”? Perhaps you think of the Mount of Olives splitting in two, when Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) returns. “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south” (Zechariah 14:4). Perhaps you think of wars––past and future. Maybe you think of the prophecy in Zechariah (12:3), which says all nations will come up against Jerusalem. “And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.”
Many believers think about the rebuilding of the Temple, prophesied by Ezekiel (chapters 40–47). Maybe you think about the turmoil Jerusalem has faced in recent years as terror attacks ravaged the city. Perhaps you are reminded of the time when Yeshua spoke to His disciples of future events which would precede His return. He said, “…Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24b). Many biblical scholars believe that this prophecy was fulfilled on June 7, 1967, the 28th of Iyar on the Hebrew calendar, when Jerusalem came under Israeli sovereignty again. This year, the 28th of Iyar falls on May 16, the 40th anniversary of that event. This annual celebration is called Jerusalem Day. The streets are filled with music, dancing, and happy faces. Flags wave, and the people rejoice in a festive parade through the streets.Certainly we are living in momentous days when the words of Israel’s prophets are being fulfilled in Jerusalem, and the words of Yeshua are living in front of our eyes. I reflect on all these things and more when I consider Jerusalem. But, there is another dimension to my thoughts. Having lived in Jerusalem for the past 17 years, when I think of Jerusalem, I am thinking about my home.
Jerusalem of Significance
Jerusalem is unique. In the entire world, there is no other place like Jerusalem. Did you know that you always “go up” to Jerusalem? It is said that if you were in a helicopter flying over Jerusalem and you fell out, you would still fall “up to Jerusalem”!
Geographically, ancient Jerusalem did not have any of the characteristics that make a city great. It was located off the main trade route along the coast. It had no great water source, only the Gihon Spring. It was not an important location for an army to conquer. Yet, Jerusalem is filled with the history of the events of the Bible and of the world. In fact, the name “Jerusalem” is mentioned a total of 881 times in the Bible (667 times in the Old Testament, and 144 times in the New Testament). Interestingly enough, it is never mentioned in the Koran. Additionally, scholars say there are over 70 poetic or descriptive names for Jerusalem. The Hebrew name Yerushalayim (first mentioned by this name in Joshua 10:1) means “city of peace” and has a plural ending. Thus, it is a city of double peace!
By Rebecca J. Brimmer
International President and CEOPhotos
www.israelimages.com/David Rubinger
Philipe Ryckner
All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
© 2010
Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.
Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.
For the full version of this teaching letter please visit www.bridgesforpeace.com or click on the link provided http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/pics/TLWEB0507.pdf.
1 comment:
A response to the J... of Christianity
I am confused, and it didn't help me that I could not access the website you provided, www.netzairm.co.il and so this did not help.
But, first let me just address a few things that popped up in your post that I wish to ask you about.
First, you call Him J..., why? I understand the Hebrew translation you use, that is clear. But you make it seem as though to say "J..." is something related to Anti-Torah, Roman pagan, Sudducean rhetoric which confuses me since the name "J..." is just the English translation from the Herbew. I mean it changes in Koine Greek or Spanish for that matter. So this was confusing to me. I have read few things in my life where people have refused to use the English translation and so this I am interested in.
Second, what would be your stance with the other gospels? You talk about the "Gospel of Matthew" as if it has been corrupted or is invalid and it seems you link this with Roman pagans of the 4th century or post 135CE people which still baffles me with your strange use of a timeline. By the way, the Sadducees ceased to exist after 70AD with the destruction of the Jewish orders from the Romans. The one sect that did survive, although it suffered, was the Pharisee movement.
Anyway, back on topic and asking the questions. If I am stating you wrong I do apologize, your article was hard to follow. Anyway, I would take a different approach on the formations of the gospels, or the epistles for that matter. You see the gospels pretty much compiled after Christ and before the Jewish War (to make a rough outline)were obviously documented and seen to possess enormous value (which is an understatement). These were the teachings and life of Christ, everything He did, went, and a rough idea of all of this along with the central part of his teachings. These were written by His followers as what we call, original autographs. As you can see, this is a long time before your Roman pagans and Sadducees came along. We do not posses the original autographs now, but we do have thousands of documents that were copied from the original autographs that testify that these were not corrupted. So, what are you saying then? Despite having these thousands of documents, the "gospels" were tainted by mysterious pagans and Jews in a time period from 135-300s? I would need to see solid proof for this my friend because back tracking with transliteration, translation, textual criticism and scribal authenticity shows that what we possess as the gospels and for that matter as the Bible is quite perfect (and this is well documented and attested by hundreds of translators and scholars throughout history). In fact the scribal errors are so minute that the message would not change, history would not change, nor practically everything else. This is not a religious rant but a textual one and a archaeological one.
Third and last, I understand Hellenism, Roman paganism, Jewish mysticism for that matter, but what I don't understand is who you are talking about in reference to arch-antithesis ANTI-Torah apostasy? Who are the people you refer to and how did they conspire to kill J... if they came a few hundred years later? I don't want to sound like I am bullying, as I said it is hard to follow your article or make sense of your point.
Anyway, perhaps you can shed more light on what you are trying to say and we can go from there.
Peter Fast
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