The relationship between knowledge and belief

Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? (12:24)

Jesus begins with his answer by pointing out the fundamental limitation of the Sadducees who questioned Jesus with intention of finding fault. Jesus’ word ‘you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God’ pointed out their fundamental error in their understanding. The error of understanding naturally results the error of judgment and it resulted to make an awkward question.

Today’s content exactly fit to Korean Christianity. We are regarded ‘knowledge’ insignificantly. Rather, belief has priority over everything. Of course faith is important and more to say it is the absolute one. The doctrine of righteousness by faith, the righteousness is recognized by faith, is the core of Christian belief. Problem is superfluous of such phenomena. Such surplus breaks the balance of Christianity. That is, we regard the matter of ‘knowledge’, the matter of understanding, as confronting to faith.

This is a great misunderstanding. The existence of faith without knowledge, that is, understanding, is impossible from the beginning. We cannot believe if we do not understand. Here knowledge and understanding point out not only a demonstratively certain thing but also a complete hope and waiting for a certain object which cannot but reliable.

Anselm, if I’m not wrong, said, “We believe to know.” It is natural to ask faith in the tension of acknowledgement and dialectical relationship. The faith monism that is revealed to us today has danger to run up to fanatic belief at the point of fundamental breakdown of such tension.

This is the time to restore the rightly known faith. The ‘knowledge’, that is, the understanding is the activity of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth as already told in John’s gospel. The humanities Bible reading of the Daegu Bible Academy pursues the very point. Let us believe with proper understanding.

Seven men and a woman

At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"(12:23)

The Sadducees’ story is continued. It was their question, “If seven brothers married the widow and died, whose wife would the woman is?” It was so wicked question. They wanted to confirm the fact that there would be no resurrection through this difficult question to answer. More basically, they intended to put Jesus into trouble through this question. Whatever their motivation is it also can be a curious question for us.

At the resurrection what will be our family relationship especially the relationship of husband and wife? We console the bereaved family in funeral ceremony by saying, “The deceased is waiting for you nesting in God. You also soon can meet the deceased in the kingdom of heaven so till that time you can endure a temporal sorrow of separation by expecting the day of joyous moment.” Mostly console the bereaved family in this way. Here is an expectation to remember the things of this world even in Heaven. If there is no such memory meeting again in Heaven has no meaning.

Husband and wife relationship is very unique among many relationships in this world. Commonly this relationship is called oneness of body and mind. Occasionally I can see the meeting of the dispersed family in a TV program. One year after their marriage in North Korea they had to be separated due to the Korean War. A husband came to South but a wife remained in North. The husband remarried within a year but a wife didn’t marry. They have lived in that way and meet again after 50 years. Twenty’s young couple meets again at the age of seventy. Despite getting old age still they have kept charity of youth in their mind.

We don’t know the future of marriage system but till it is very important system to make our life affluent. A couple is living as the closest friend in this world. If they accord with their philosophy and belief then it is wonderful but it still good though it doesn’t accord with each other.

Levirate marriage

Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. (12:20-22)

The Law written in Deuteronomy 25:5f describes very unique content. It is related to the levirate marriage that deals with what to do of a wife after her husband’s death. The content is following.

A widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. If a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, "My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me." Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, "I do not want to marry her," his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line." (Deut. 25:6-9)

According to this tradition, the activity to bear a descendant had taken the highest value in Israel. It can be confirmed through the action of the widow by spitting on a brother-in-law who refused to marry his brother’s wife. I don’t know how such levirate marriage widely practiced in Israel in those days.

As much as I know there is no such custom in Korea. It seems the polyandry still remain in China and a remote place of Tibet. It is the custom that brothers become the husbands of a woman. How does a marriage system of a species named human can be changed in the future?

If there is another way to multiply a descendant except general marriage, the marriage system eventually may disappear. It is said such phenomena become serious even to be a social problem. Then what will be family relationship in the world of resurrection?

The Kingdom of God (10)

The Kingdom of God (10)

“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’” (1:15)

Meditation about the topic of “the kingdom of God” should be finished today. The kingdom of God is the foundation of Christian faith as well as its goal, so furthermore we should discuss. And more discussions should be added to the before-mentioned topic like the resurrection and the kingdom of God, and relationship between the kingdom of God and other religion, and also we should deal with the problem between peace, one of the characteristics of the kingdom of God, and violence in today’s world. There must be lots to talk about the kingdom of God and ethical problems, too. Would it be necessary for sex in the kingdom of God? What about relationship between the kingdom of God and the aliens? Judgment and the kingdom of God as well as salvation and the kingdom of God, all of these could be topics for the kingdom of God. But for more study of Mark’s Gospel, let us put them off, and as a final discussion, think about the kingdom of God and building up a welfare country.

If it might be possible to keep on living just like here, what kind of living could it be in the kingdom of God? Life in the kingdom of God should be the most desirable in a completed well-being condition. To use a common word, it is a state of eating well and living well. In the kingdom of God, no one is sick, lonely, and sad. That state could be described a perfect well-being condition. But think about it. Does it mean a perfect life if you could live in the perfect welfare? Nobody agrees to this idea. Already in this world we have experienced that it is not true. Welfare could improve our quality of life, but not change fundamentally. It is like using a washing machine, being replaced hand wash. Of course by using a washing machine, our quality of life could be changed, but it could not guarantee a perfect life. On the opposite, it must be a mystery of life that foundation of life could be collapsed, when we focus just on the welfare of life. Only when we could taste a mystery of life not to be solved by the problem of well-being condtion, we could taste just a little bit of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God oriented churches should focus only on mystery of life, that is through Jesus Christ they should pursue mystery of life.

But today’s churches are moving on the opposite way. Mega churches and medium size churches are doing competitively lots of social activities for well-being condition. Long time ago they had been competing to build up education center and cemetery for the church, but now for the welfare center. Of course in the early churches they used to have tradition to help widows and orphans, so we cannot regard welfare activities as only in a negative way. Furthermore, it is impossible for the government to help all of the handicapped people, alien workers, not fed children or old people, so that the church must do something more actively.

But also the church should have a theological insight for these activities. Without consideration why the church should do this kind of things, it could be a big problem if they do because of other churches’ social activities. Theologically speaking, the social activities for well-being state could not be fundamental purpose for the church, but instead they are symbolic movements for change into the horizon for the eschatological kingdom of God. The welfare should remain a symbol. If it comes into the center of the church, it could lose the foundation of the church.

The church is not pursuing salvation through welfare. For welfare has only relative value. The church should do their best to hold an absolute life. Absolute life means the kingdom of God. It means God’s reigning. The most precious job the church should carry out is to proclaim that the kingdom of God is coming to us. Everything except that is just appendix. Which shall we rely on for the future of the church?

Lord, how could we send a message about life in the kingdom of God in this world, just pursuing the well-being state first? Give us wisdom. Amen.

Kingdom of God (9)

“‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’” (1:15)


Yesterday I said that it is the foundation of Christian faith to wait for the kingdom of God described as a new heaven and earth, because life experienced in this world is imperfect. Now we should ask questions what the characteristics for the heavenly kingdom could be in details. Jesus said the kingdom of God does not belong to what to eat or what to drink, so we could think that it must be mental values like justice, peace, joy, liberty. But if precisely speaking, those characteristics could be experienced already in this world. Even though it is imperfect, but we could experience justice and peace in the world, and we try hard to reach to achieve those.
What could it be in a different level from these experiences? In a word we could say it is “an everlasting life”. Everlasting life could not be attained, and even in a sense it is impossible for us to experience while living in this world. We are living in here by a limited way of living. Of course the word itself means a life without limit. But in here it is so hard to understand a life “without end”. Even if we could live for 1 billion years, it does not mean an everlasting life. Even 10 billion years does not mean either. And then does an eternal life mean an endless life?
Think about it. “Without end” means an endless repetition. Mostly we have three meals a day, excrete, meet people, and enjoy our hobbies. Of course we should make money for a living. Is it possible for us to be happy with this kind of everlasting life? Perhaps some people might think that our daily lives are not alike at all everyday. We are growing up, more mature, and having more possessions and social status, and also getting old too. But basically we could not avoid this kind of repetitive lives.
If a life in the kingdom of God means something like this, it must be very puzzling, I think. Like description in the Revelation, even though life without pain or sorrow could be so satisfactory, it could not be an appropriate characteristic for the kingdom of God. For even though it is very pleasing event, if it repeats everlastingly it could not be a blessing, but a disaster.
The kingdom of God does not mean a place where an everlasting life would be guaranteed in a way we experience in this world everlastingly. Everlasting life in the kingdom of God does mean that totally a different new way of life will begin. It might be a big misunderstanding if we regard it as a simple meaning of time. Basically if we could not get out of time we experience in this world, the everlasting life does not mean anything at all. In this sense, Christians are not the people simply waiting for an everlasting life, but for a changed life. To be more concrete, they are the people with hope that they could be changed by Jesus’ resurrection. For the everlasting life could be meaningless if not like caterpillars being changed into butterflies. For the word “everlasting” means change, not simple extended time.
And then we could experience an everlasting life of the kingdom of God in this world. It is the life being in accordance with Jesus’ resurrection. And then what is Jesus’ resurrection? How could we experience the accordance with Jesus’ resurrection?

Lord, please help us to understand everlasting life deeply and in a new way. Amen.

The Pentateuch

Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.(12:19)

The Sadducees’ question began in earnest. They quoted the Mosaic Law, Deuteronomy 25:5 and following verses. It is a little difficult to follow it with contemporary’s view but interesting. We can meditate the detail content tomorrow and think a little today about the Mosaic Law, that is, the Pentateuch itself.

Normally Genesis, Exodus, Levites, Numbers and Deuteronomy are called as the Pentateuch or Torah. Historically these five books were accepted as the word of God first and foremost. For your reference, the Prophets (Neviim) has the next authority and Writings (Ketuvim) was accepted as the Bible much later. The Pentateuch is the most deceive Bible to proscribe the faith of Israel.

Moses was known as the author of the Pentateuch. However, nobody think Moses is the author of these books after complication of scientific research about the Bible. It is confirmed by that there are the record of Moses’ death and some incident and custom that happened much later of Moses’ times. However, who is the author of the Pentateuch is not much important. The reason is following.

First, the ancient document cannot find out historical background of the author because these documents have passed through a long time oral tradition. Second, like other ancient documents the Old Testament also has a strong contemporary interpretation rather than a practical report for the past history. Third, the Pentateuch doesn’t consider Moses’ authority but says Gods’ choice and his revelation. Fourth, despite above reasons the Pentateuch is enough to be a God’s revelation that has said through history.

Those who deny the resurrection

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. (12:18)

Yesterday I told you the fact that one of the Sadducees’’ religious character was to follow the orthodox law. Their assertion that there will be no resurrection also was rooted in such attitude. It signifies their assertion that soul and body will be vanished together is not wrong.

The Old Testament generally doesn’t say about the life after death. Mainly the scripts written in the late period of Israel’s history only hint resurrection idea. Isaiah 26:19 is one of the representatives of this idea. “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” We can summarize it in this way that the resurrection idea of the Jews blossomed from the later period of Israel’s history; speak to in detail, revelation literature. The Sadducees couldn’t recognize resurrection for they were devoted to the classical and orthodoxy law.

Even today there are many Sadducees who don’t accept resurrection. They don’t accept resurrection based on the knowledge of natural science. They regard a demonstrative fact as the truth. Even Christians also do not believe it though they say outwardly to believe resurrection. Or on the contrary there are some people who regard resurrection as mere incarnation level. As we can see it from the following story, the Sadducees argued with Jesus understating resurrection in this way. They thought marriage life would be extended even in the kingdom of heaven.

Knowing the point what resurrection is the more important point than the argument whether there is resurrection or not. If we think resurrection merely as the reborn of the dead, that is, thinking it as a simple extension of life then there will be no such resurrection as the insistence of Sadducees. The right recognition and hope is possible only to know the creation from nothing and the mystery of life by Jesus’ resurrection.