(Follows is a synopsis of our first study together)
November 9, 2002
 

Gene and I welcome you all to our first Fireside Gathering.

Tonight, as part of our gathering, we hope to introduce you to one of the most controversial books in history, the Bible.  While some of you here are intimately familiar with it, others are not.  It is indeed a book which has divided families and caused disagreement and dissension throughout the ages.  It is however the only book I have found in my lifetime that offers a remedy for suffering, freedom from fear, and answers to the question, "Why am I here?"

But it is so much more than even that.

Most of us approach the Bible with questions.  Some of us are even fearful of it.  Many of us have not read it in its entirety, yet all of us have an opinion about it.  In fact, it is the one book people frequently speak authoritatively about, yet, almost remarkably, haven't thoroughly read.

Some religions even forbid private, individual study of the Bible.  The Bible states, however, "...Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by the word of God." (Romans 10:17)

If our churches do not teach us His word, and if we are prohibited from private study, how then do we determine God's will for us?

How can we determine what anyone's will is?

Our English Bibles have been divided into two sections called testaments--the Old Testament, and the New Testament.  Why do you think that the word testament was chosen to represent what could just as easily have been referred to as "volume 1 and 2" or  "The Old Story/New Story," or,
"Part 1 and Part 2"?   How does this word "testament" then correspond to learning God's will?

In our society, in order for there to be a testament, what events have to occur?

There must first be a testator.  A testator is one who declares which of his/her possessions are to be dispersed to others at (the testator's) death.  This is done via a document which delineates all possessions to be dispersed, his/her "estate", and to whom--referred to as "beneficiaries."  Many times such beneficiaries are in fact relatives, or heirs, to an estate.  Then, in order for such a document to become legal, it must be signed by witnessed by two or more witnesses, not related to the testator.

The aforementioned document, then, delineating the details of a testator's estate, is called a testament or more specifically, a "Last Will and Testament."

The Greek word for "testament" in the Bible -- daitheke or daitheke--is also translated, "covenant," that is, "a binding agreement or document," (in this case sealed in blood), "transferring property and/or privileges to legal 'heirs', upon the death of the testator."

We can therefore understand that the Bible is God's own Will and Testament to His heirs.  And those who seek to know His will may be counted as heirs.  Therefore, to learn His will, then, we must read His testament(s).

Who were those witnesses, then, to God's testaments, enabling their legality?

Well, from among them came 40 authors who wrote as witnesses to His will the sixty-six books collected together as Testaments, many of which were even signed.

One of the greatest witnesses to God's will for His heirs was the author of the book of John (in the New Testament).  It is also one of the most unique books of the Bible.  It is a booked penned with all the love one human being could possess for another, and yet is imbued with the legal weightiness of a courtroom testimony.  Within its chapters we can find answers to any and all questions we may have concerning the true nature and purpose of God.   And John brings to bear both His love of the person of Jesus Christ, and his own testimony of just whom Jesus Christ truly was, within the opening verses of this amazing book.  For John knew both to whom he wrote his testimony--and he understood precisely what he testified of.  He also declares multiple witnesses to his own personal testimony.   This gives his testimony more than ample legal weightiness, for at the time only two witnesses were requisite.

It is also my own opinion that, should we find ourselves unable to read any of the rest of the glorious books of the Bible, just about everything we need to know to ascertain God's will for us, His heirs, can be found within the pages of the incredible book of John.   (At this point those who attended the first Fireside gathering contributed questions, which were saved for later, in hope that such questions might indeed be answered as suggested, by the time we finished reading this book).

And so we begin to read; word by word, line by line:

(John 1:1-2)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God; He was in the beginning with God."

Just as God revealed the Messiah's birth through shepherds 2000 years ago, the apostle John reveals the very truth of Jesus Christ as the Word incarnate (made flesh) in the opening verses of his book.  And in an incredible way of upsetting our value system by demonstrating God's preference of the "foolish things of this earth" versus the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27), John demonstrates that in the least likely word of these two verses, God's own holy eternal name is revealed--just as the miraculous birth of Christ was revealed through shepherds.  And John also demonstrates that Jesus Christ did not just suddenly appear in a manger in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, but, in fact, has existed since "In the beginning."

The Hebrew and Greek words for "beginning" mean in the time of the origin of all things.  So at the time of the origin of all things was this "Word".  The Greek word is LOGOS or LOGOS, meaning "thought or reasoning realized."  First century Greeks had really popularized the term LOGOS, attributing it to several of their pagan deities.  But LOGOS in is notably singular in form, and masculine in gender, and not used carelessly here by John.

His use connotes a single, unique man in time.

John goes on to write, "and the Word was with God..."  The Greek word for "with" is SUN or sun, a primary preposition denoting 'union', including completeness.  It is the same word sometimes used in the Bible for "(to) know." This word however expresses a greater "knowing" than mere superficial knowledge.  It refers to a deeper, intimate knowledge.  "The Word was with God..." tells us that Logos was deeply and intimately known to God.

The John hits us with a one-two punch: "...and the Word (Logos) was God..."

Now within this tiny, unremarkable passive past tense verb "was," John reveals a most remarkable truth.  The Greek word for "was" is the word EIMI or "EIMI",
an odd little verb termed the imperative form of a verb connoting (divine) existence.  It is all tenses and one tense and a declaration of eternal existence.  Past, present, future: i.e., "(I) Exist, I have existed, shall exist." In fact, in one this most remarkable demonstration of God's upsetting of our value system, John reveals God's own holy eternal existent name through the tiny word "was" four times in this particular passage, the same name which was uttered to Moses at Mt. Sinai (n the book of Exodus chapter 3, verse 14) --

God said to Moshe, "I AM THAT I AM," and he said, "You shall tell the children of Yisra'el this:  HWHY (I AM) has sent me to you."

--the same name the Israelites feared to utter; the great  HWHY,Yahweh, the I AM of later John, chapter 8.

The way we know that the Hebrew YHVH is the same as EIMI, is that in 300 AD, Alexander the great hellenized the Jews, making them good little Greeks, causing them to rewrite the Torah (the old testament written in Hebrew) in Greek.  So when we read Exodus in Greek (via the Septuagint), we find that the great YHVH to be the great "I AM" or EIME that is HWHYof Exodus 3:14, and the same I am found throughout the Bible, but especially in Jesus great I AM passage
of John chapter 8.

Yet, remarkably, the apostle John reveals to all who have ears and eyes, the holy eternal existent name of God, right there in the opening words of his book, right where he tells us, "...and the Word was God..." Not in his word for GOD (Theos), or the word for WORD (Logos), but through a tiny almost unnoticed verb, the verb "was"--eimi, John shares with us the revelation of the great I AM ( Hyh).  John shows us four more times, not only was the WORD (Logos) a single special man, known intimately by God ("...the Word was with God"), but He WAS indeed God ("...and the Word was God"...EIMI), and has been since the beginning,
"...The same was in the beginning with God,"just in case we didn't get it all the other ways he worded it.

And so begins my personal favorite book of the Bible, written by that apostle who so loved Jesus, the one who humbly refers to himself not by name, but simply as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."   John the beloved apostle irrevocably and repeatedly pronounces Jesus Christ's deity, HWHY ,right from the beginning.

And for all of us heirs who desire to know what was left to us in His will, that is a truth we can take to the bank.

Hopefully this has answered at least one of your questions so far....

Next month's FIRESIDE study will continue, beginning at John 1:3.

Grace and peace be with you all until then.

--betty

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