Belonging to Christ is a Serious Matter

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Some Christians fail to show Christlikeness in spite of listening to sermons intended to help them live as Christians. In part, this is an effect of our fallen state. It may also be an effect of the Church's failure to teach about authority and the biblical understanding of purity. This post considers both topics.

Authority

To live as a Christ follower, the individual's will may not be the highest authority. The highest authority must be God Father, God Son, and God Spirit. Sermons that are weak on the authority of the Trinity may contribute to the individual's failure to respond to all three persons of the eternal Godhead. 

The Church may need to remind us to recognize and respect the temporal authority vested with rulers, heads of governments, and people who uphold the laws of the land. All are due respect for the office they hold even when one disagrees with their policies. The Apostles taught obedience to civil authorities alongside obedience to God's greater authority. Paul develops this in his writings, especially in Romans 13.

The individual may need to learn about the three types of authority in the Bible. They are derived authority, attributed authority, and achieved authority. 

Derived authority rests on individuals called by God to perform a specific ministry. This may include clergy, prophets such as Deborah and John the Baptist, wise teachers, and divinely appointed rulers. In the Ancient World derived authority was based on a close connection to the divinely appointed ruler. The closer the individual’s blood relation to the high king, the more prestige the person derived. In the time of Solomon, when genealogical archives were kept in the Temple, some Israelites became obsessed with records of their ancestors. They hoped to derive authority by proving that they were close relatives of the king. In modern society derived authority comes when an official takes of oath of office to serve the established authority. 

Attributed authority rests on people recognized by society as righteous. John the Baptist is an example. The people came out to him in the wilderness because they recognized that he was a holy man. Attributed authority came with the offices of king, judge, prophet, and priest. Consecration was done in a ceremony not unlike the sacramental ordination found in some churches today. Only men served as priests in the various ranks, each with its unique and limited authority. Each priestly rank and position was inherited. The greatest authority rested with the chief priest known as the “High Priest” in the time of the Second Temple (c. 560 B.C. - 70 A.D.). Most of the junior priests served at smaller, less prestigious temples and shrines until the time of King Josiah who wanted the Temple in Jerusalem to be the only temple. He ordered the destruction of other temples, even some that were dedicated to the High God (Deut. 12:1–5). In modern society attributed authority comes to those who have been recognized for their expertise in a certain field. This includes regularly ordained clergy, fully licensed physicians and medical specialists, lawyers, and judges.

The Hebrew men whose names begin with the Y represent attributed authority. The Y-names are based on the early Hebrew symbol of two feathers. The two feathers were a symbol of a man who judges and measures. Hebrew men with Y-names include Yitzak (Isaac), Yishmael (Ishmael), Yacob (Jacob), Yosef (Joseph), Yehuda (Judah), Yeshai (Jesse), and Yeshua (Jesus). The name Yeshua is derived from the earlier Nilotic name Y-Shu which referred to šw (Shu), meaning light. This referred to the first act of the Creator at the beginning (Gen.1:1). This is not the light of day. It is the eternal, uncreated light associated with the High God's son Y-shu (Yeshua), as proclaimed in John's Prologue.

Achieved authority comes from societal recognition of a person's righteousness or holy living. The biblical person who best exemplifies all three types of authority is John the Baptist. John's strict asceticism and denial of all worldly pleasures was widely recognized by the Judean population. His spiritual authority was such that many traveled into the wilderness to consult him or be baptized by him. His divine appointment is indicated by the Y in his Hebrew name, Yohanan. John embodied all three types of authority. No wonder Jesus claimed that he was the greatest of the prophets (Matt. 11:11; Lk. 7:28).

Purity

Most Christians view Judaism as a religion of rules and laws. Jesus himself criticized the hypocrisy of the Jerusalem elites who required obedience to the many laws while failing to obey them. The legalism of first century Judaism represents a compounding of rules over many centuries. Originally, the rituals were to protect the Hebrew people from impurity. 

The early Hebrew (4200-2000 B.C,) lived before the emergence of Judaism. They were a ruler-priest caste for whom ritual purity was absolutely essential because any impurity made it impossible for the priest to serve in the temples and shrines.

Among the biblical Hebrew morality was about avoiding the defilement of themselves and sacred spaces. This is evident in studies of the ancient moral codes which were to guard people and places from defilement or from committing defiling acts such as stealing the bread offered to the deity.

Morality was directly related to the Hebrew understanding of divine radiance and purity which they associated with the sun, the emblem of the High God. The temple entrances and the inner sanctums were aligned so that the light of the rising sun would shine there. Only priests who had purified themselves could enter the temple precincts. Admission to sacred shrines also required prior purification. Purifying agents include the sun, water, and blood.

Regarding the Hebrew priests who served at biblical On (Heliopolis), Plutarch wrote that the “priests of the Sun at Heliopolis never carry wine into their temples, for they regard it as indecent for those who are devoted to the service of any god to indulge in the drinking of wine whilst they are under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other deities are not so scrupulous in this respect, for they use it, though sparingly.”

It is significant that the terms for ritual purity in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Hittite, and Ugaritic are related to the idea of radiance. (See Feder, Yitzhaq. The Semantics of Purity in the Ancient Near East. 2014, p. 5.) There also is a linguistic correspondence between words for purity and blood. The Hebrew root thr meaning “to be pure” is related to the Hausa/Hahm toro, meaning “clean” and to the Tamil tiru, meaning “holy.” All are related to the ancient Egyptian tr, meaning “blood.” Christians understand that we are made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Among the early Hebrew priests, purification was a strict religious obligation, especially before entering the temples or shrines. The Hebrew priest was purified through ritual washing, shaving the body, fasting, and an intense period of prayer. Moses' half-brother Korah was a priest. His name means "shaved one." According to Numbers 16:17-18, Korah carried the censor to offer incense before God.

In the churches today one rarely hears a sermon on purity. One may hear that Christians are a holy priesthood, but that cannot be so where there is impurity. Pornography, obscene language, evil thoughts, harboring hatred... these impurities rule us while Christ calls us to walk in the light and be pure as He is pure.


Related reading: Why the Name Jesus?; The Hebrew Believed in a Messiah 6000 Years Ago; The Hebrew were a Caste