Upside-Down World Upside-Down World –– page 3page 3William Tyndale’s Legacy William Tyndale’s Legacy –– page 5page 5

Why So Many Wars? Why So Many Wars? –– page 16page 16

OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD 1524GladTidingsGladTidings

Bible Talks, Study Classes, Sunday Schools and Youth Clubs areheld regularly by Christadelphians worldwide. The address ofyour nearest group can be obtained either from one of the Glad Tidings Distributors listed above, or from one of thecontact addresses listed on the back cover.

Bible VersionsThe version most used in this issue isthe New King James Version (NKJV)

but other versions are sometimesused.

D The New King James Version iscopyrighted by Thomas Nelson.

D The English Standard Version is published by Harper CollinsPublishers © 2001 by CrosswayBibles, a division of Good NewsPublishers. Used by permission.

D The New International Version is copyrighted 1978 by New York Bible Society

GladTidingsO F T H E K I N G D O M O F G O D

127th Year 1524A monthly magazine published by the Christadelphians (brothers and sisters in Christ)and available throughout the world.

Acknowledgements

Photographs:

Cover: Young Japanese girlshutterstock.com

Illustrations:

istockphotos.com shutterstock.com;clipart.com; wikipedia and UnitedNations photo library.

ContentsE11

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Publisher: The Glad Tidings Publishing Association A registered charity – Number 248352

Contents

Upside-Down World ....3

William Tyndale’sLegacy .......................5

Jerusalem – Whose City?...................................9

Truth is Beautiful......11

Bible Echoes...............12

Deuteronomy – MosesSays Farewell ..........14

Why So Many Wars? .16

Always just right.......19

Its objectives are – to encourage the study of the Bible asGod's inspired message to men; to call attention to theDivine offer of forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ; andto warn men and women that soon Christ will return toEarth as judge and ruler of God’s world-wide Kingdom.

127th Year 3

the forces the earthquake unleashed. The situation was made even worse

when the tsunami breached the seadefences at the Fukushima nuclearpower complex and drowned thebackup generators needed to cool thereactors. As their temperaturesincreased, buildings exploded, someradiation began to leak, people were

evacuated over a widearea, emergency meas-ures were taken, andfears of a nuclear catas-trophe became aworldwide concern. Forif a problem of thismagnitude could occurin a well prepared andextremely prosperousnation, people began towonder how they would

cope should a similar crisis befallthem.

Personal DisastersFor the Japanese people living in thelocalities concerned, every happeningbrought personal tragedy. It is estimat-ed that about 25,000 people died.Entire villages were swept away andtens of thousands of survivors havelost everything – families, homes andall their possessions. Because of thethreat of contamination and of air-borne or waterborne radiation, peopleare afraid to eat, drink or evenbreathe. Nothing seems safe forparents or for their children.

Once again the fragile nature of our21st century life is cruelly exposed andhuman vulnerability is laid bare. For allour apparent ability to cope, we arepuny compared with the enormous

Japan is one of the most orderly coun-tries in the world. It may be smallcompared with some countries, butthe Japanese economy is the thirdlargest in the world. It makes most ofthe world’s semiconductors and muchof its electronic gadgetry. And it is acountry which is as well prepared asany could be, should disaster strike.

Well PreparedBecause the country isprone to earthquakes,special precautionshave been taken.Houses are often builtof wood to be moreflexible against suddenmovement. An earth-quake early-warningsystem exists andearthquake drills take place regularly,so that people know what to do shoulddisaster strike. Because an earthquakeat sea could trigger a tsunami, Japanhas an elaborate tsunami-alert systemand there are specific escape routesposted in strategic locations. Sea wallsexist to protect coastal towns andspecial arrangements have been madeto safeguard power stations on thecoast.

But, as everyone now knows, noneof that was enough to cope with whathappened to northern Japan when amassive earthquake – measuring 9.0on the Richter scale – triggered a 10metre (30ft) high tsunami wave whichswept across Japan’s northern coastalregions sweeping cars, buildings andships far inland. It was a devastatingonslaught which caught everyoneunprepared because of the ferocity of

Upside-Down WorldUpside-Down World

4 Glad Tidings

Your faith toward God has gone out, sothat we do not need to say anything.For they themselves declare concern-ing us what manner of entry we had toyou, and how you turned to God fromidols to serve the living and true God,and to wait for His Son fromheaven, whom He raised from thedead, even Jesus who delivers usfrom the wrath to come (1 Thessalo-nians 1:8-10).

Be Prepared!It is one thing to try to be preparedagainst every contingency in life. Thetragic experience of the Japanesepeople shows us that life often deliversthe unexpected and that such thingscan leave us defenceless. But it is aquite different thing to know what iscoming and to be prepared for it, aswe should be. The apostle Paul onceused the metaphor of a Roman soldierto urge his readers to be as alert andready for action as combat soldiershave to be:

Stand therefore, having girded yourwaist with truth, having put on thebreastplate of righteousness, andhaving shod your feet with the prepa-ration of the gospel of peace(Ephesians 6:14–15).

Truth, righteousness and the gospelof peace are the things that we needto pursue if we want to be ready for theComing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hisadvent will indeed turn things upsidedown but, in this topsy-turvy world,that will amount to putting all theimportant things into their right placeby helping men and women to livetogether in peace and harmony withGod and with one another.

Editor

power of natural forces – includingearthquakes, volcanoes, rainstormsand hurricanes. All of these things canturn our world upside down. And thereare many other things in life which arecapable of doing that. Illness, bereave-ment, accidents, broken relationshipsand the realisation that our belief-systems are wrongly based – all thesethings can be shattering.

Upside DownWhen the apostle Paul reachedEurope, he told them how they couldbe saved from sin and its effects. Thatwas good news for some but a hugedisturbance for others. People whohad previously believed that their sal-vation lay elsewhere were now beingasked to completely change theirthinking and their understanding.Change of that sort is never easy andone community summed up their con-cerns in these striking words:

‘These who have turned the worldupside down have come here too’(Acts 17:6).

Paul was in the town of Thessaloni-ca, preaching the gospel of salvation,but it engendered fear and anxiety inthe minds of some of the townsfolk.They found this teaching revolutionary.For Paul declared that idols werepowerless; that there is only one trueGod and that His gracious purpose iscentred in the saving work of JesusChrist. Later, when writing to thebelievers at Thessalonica, the apostleemphasised, time and again, that theyshould be preparing for the Coming ofJesus Christ as King. In every chapterof the two letters he wrote, you canfind such references. For example:

From you the word of the Lord hassounded forth, not only in Macedoniaand Achaia, but also in every place.

127th Year 5

To LondonTyndale left the relative comfort andsafety of Gloucestershire to seek per-mission from the Bishop of London, sothat he could continue his work as atranslator. He was now unemployed,without either friends or any means ofsupport and he desperately needed asponsor. He started preaching in achurch in Fleet Street, London, whichwas attended by Humphrey Mon-mouth, a wealthy cloth merchant.Monmouth had connections with thesecretive Christian Brethren and hadlinks with the German trading mer-chants at a Steelyard near LondonBridge.

The Christian Brethren and otherswere sympathetic to the new ideascoming out of Lutheran Germany andhad imported the writingsof reformers and the trans-lation work of scholars. In1522, Luther’s translationof the New Testament intoGerman was brought ille-gally to England, by theseSteelyard merchants andthis was how Tyndale’swork would later reachEngland from the Conti-nent.

In 1524, Cuthbert Tun-stall, Bishop of London

introduced a licensing system tocontrol the importing of books and reli-gious tracts, hoping to reinforce thechurch’s authority over access to theBible. Few London printers were pre-pared to risk the wrath of the church.However, many printers in Cologne,Antwerp and Germany, were willing toprint for profit.

To GermanyThe Renaissance of learning wasmaking progress in Europe. Due to theenormous power of the English church,Tyndale concluded that he was notgoing to find support for his translationwork in England. So in April 1524 heboarded a ship for Hamburg, Germany,never to return. He probably went toWittenburg to complete his translation

of the New Testament, where hewould also have met MartinLuther.

Sadly, the excellent work thatTyndale did was not welcomedby Church authorities whowanted control of what peoplebelieved. Wherever he went,and he was forced to move onseveral times, Tyndale waspursued and was eventuallybetrayed and captured.

The primary source documentfor Tyndale’s translation workwas Erasmus’ 1524 third

Part Four: The Bible, Appointed to be Read …

William Tyndale’sWilliam Tyndale’sLegacyLegacy

In the latest article of this series, Peter Moore explained how William Tyndale resolvedto translate the Bible from its original Hebrew and Greek into English, so that ordinary

people could read it for themselves. He had been working as a private tutor in Gloucester-shire, England, but now sets out to find sponsors and supporters to enable this important

work to be done.

Sculpted Head Of WilliamTyndale from St Dunstan-

in-the-West Church,London

6 Glad Tidings

edition Greek New Testament whichwas accompanied by the Latin transla-tion and notes. Tyndale also had theChurch’s official 4th century Latintranslation of the Bible by Jerome andLuther’s 1521 September Testament.

Tyndale appears to have studiedGerman at Wittenburg University wherehe registered as a student under thealias, ‘Gillelmus Daltici ex Anglia’.Hidden from the authorities he learnedGerman in order to benefit from thescholarship and works of Luther.

To CologneAt Cologne in 1525 Tyndale met aFranciscan monk, William Roye fromGreenwich, who was also hiding fromthe authorities and who also studied atWittenburg under an alias. This was animportant contact for Tyndale as herewas someone with whom he couldcheck phrases and the use of idioms inhis translation.

The Archbishop of Cologne andothers enforced the Papal bull of 1501forbidding printing, publishing, pos-sessing or reading the Bible in themother tongue. Luther’s books andtracts were burned publicly in 1520 infront of the cathedral inCologne. However, Colognehad strong trading links withthe Steelyard in London andother English ports enablingTyndale to smuggle books toEngland and to receivefunds from London. In 1525he began printing the firstpages of his English NewTestament translation.Unfortunately, somedrunken printers boastedthat, ‘the whole of Englandwould soon be Lutheran’.The English Church, in col-laboration with Cologne

authorities, retaliated with a raid andthe confiscation of Tyndale’s printedpages.

To WormsTyndale and Roye fled southwardstaking printed pages of Matthew’sGospel and manuscripts with them andthe work continued in the city ofWorms. Due to the presence of aJewish community, Worms was a goodplace to study Hebrew and work on thetranslation of the Old Testament.

The printing of Tyndale’s New Testa-ment was completed in 1525 and byFebruary 1526 copies were beingloaded onto Rhine barges destined forEngland where they were soon soldwith the secretive support of LondonSteelyard merchants. In England,Thomas More led an armed raid on theLondon Steelyard, searching for hereti-cal books and documents. Merchantssuspected of collaborating withTyndale were required to kneel andpublicly beg for forgiveness for theerror of their ways. In 1526, baskets ofheretical books – including Tyndale’sprinted New Testaments – were confis-cated and burnt at St Paul’s Cross,

outside London’s old StPaul’s Cathedral.

UnstoppableDespite all these obsta-cles, the steady flow ofsmuggled New Testa-ments continued. Flatprinted sheets and bookswere hidden in barrelsand casks and in sacksof flour. At Gravesend,Kent customs menboarded boats beforethey went up to Londonports to prevent themfrom taking cargoes

Purchasing Tyndale’s NewTestaments

127th Year 7

God, and is profitable for doctrine, forreproof, for correction, for instructionin righteousness, that the man of Godmay be complete, thoroughlyequipped for every good work. (2Timothy 3:16–17).

· When the King of England (inTyndale’s time, King Henry VIII)was claiming supremacy as thereligious head of the AnglicanChurch, in opposition to the Pope,the Bible said that he too wassubject to the law of God and thathe was himself in need of salva-tion from sin:

I exhort first of all that supplications,prayers, intercessions, and giving ofthanks be made for all men, for kingsand all who are in authority, that wemay lead a quiet and peaceable life inall godliness and reverence. For this isgood and acceptable in the sight ofGod our Saviour, who desires all mento be saved and to come to theknowledge of the truth (1 Timothy2:1–4).

Important ChangesTyndale’s translation differed in someimportant respects from the LatinVulgate, because he was translatingdirectly from the original Greeklanguage, rather than from a Latintranslation. Here are some of thosewords, the translation of which maynot seem that special to us, but whichwere very sensitive at the time.v ‘Congregation’ not ‘Church’

Tyndale correctly translated themeaning of the Greek word εκκλησιαor ecclesia as ‘congregation’ insteadof ‘Church’. ‘Ecclesia’ means ‘a bodyof people called out’. The word churchoriginally meant a place of worship. In

ashore before they docked. So smug-glers used the isolated creeks on theEssex, Norfolk and Suffolk coastlinesto take their cargoes ashore at lowtide. The flow of Bibles into Englandalong the North Sea coast wasunstoppable.

In 1526 a drought spoilt the Englishwheat harvest and hungry Londonerswere close to rioting. Cardinal Wolseytherefore encouraged the Steelyardmerchants to import grain from theContinent. Increased shipping move-ments created opportunities tosmuggle even more Bibles intoEngland, so perhaps it was anotherexample of God controlling theweather to confound the plans ofman:

Also with moisture He saturates thethick clouds; He scatters His brightclouds. And they swirl about, beingturned by His guidance, that they maydo whatever He commands them onthe face of the whole earth. Hecauses it to come, whether for correc-tion, or for His land, or for mercy (Job37:11–13).

Why Such Opposition?To understand why the church author-ities opposed the idea that ordinarypeople like us should be allowed toread the Bible in their own languagewe need to remember two things.There were two key principles of theEnglish Reformation.

¶ At a time when the Church author-ities regarded themselves as thesupreme authority on religiousmatters, the reformers regardedthe Bible as supreme and allchurchmen to be subject to it. Asthe New Testament says:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of

8 Glad Tidings

the third century AD the Catholicauthorities appropriated the wordchurch to mean the organised body ofthe clergy. Tyndale’s translation was athreat to that authority because theword ‘congregation’ recognised that itis the individual members who makeup the body of Christ, not the clergy.v ‘Repent’ not ‘Penance’

Tyndale translated the Greek,μετανοεω or metanoeo as ‘repent’ andnot, ‘do penance’. This challenged thevested interests of the Church in thelucrative market for the sale ofpardons and indulgences, which werereal money-makers for them.v ‘Love’ not ‘Charity’

He also translated agape or agapeas ‘love’ instead of ‘charity’. Again, theChurch objected to this, because itmight reduce lucrative donations andindulgences.

As we shall see later, the King JamesVersion contains many words andphrases that came from the pen ofTyndale which are still in use today.

Persecution The hunt by the Church authorities forTyndale proved fruitless. In 1526, Car-dinal Wolsey instructed Sir JohnHackett, the English ambassador tothe Low Countries to take legal actionagainst printers, booksellers and ship-ping agents to prevent further printingand shipping of Bibles. In England,Archbishop Warham was buying upTyndale’s New Testaments for burning.High profile arrests of Cambridgescholars took place and in 1528Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall began a cam-paign to arrest Lollards, Lutherans andreaders of Tyndale’s Bible.

In 1529, Tunstall visited the LowCountries and took the opportunity tobulk buy New Testaments for burning

in London. But this ‘buy and burn’strategy only provided more funds forTyndale to continue producing yetmore Bibles! In 1530 a mediator wasdispatched to find and try to persuadeTyndale to return to England under aguarantee by the Crown for his safepassage. Tyndale rejected this offerand kept himself well hidden. In 1534he published his revised New Testa-ment.

Friend?By 1535, a man named Harry Philipshad befriended Tyndale. Philips bor-rowed 40 shillings from Tyndale to takehim out for a meal in Antwerp and asthey returned, led him into the arms ofhis captors. Tyndale was taken to thecastle of Vilvoorde where he remainedfor sixteen months before his execu-tion in October 1536. He was partiallystrangled and still alive when theflames engulfed him at the stake. Hislast reported words were, “Lord openthe King of England’s eyes”.

Tyndale’s great self-sacrificinglegacy, as we shall see in later articles,God Willing, was to give the Englishspeaking world access to the pricelessWord of God.

Peter MooreNext: 16th Century Bibles

127th Year 9

The question of the true owner-ship of Jerusalem has oftenbeen posed and people whobelieve in the authority of theBible as the Word of God willknow that the real answer tothis age-old query is to be foundin the pages of Scripture. There,and there alone, we will findGod’s position on the matter.

Bible PassagesHere is a brief overview of somerelevant passages. You mightlike to look them up for yourself to seethe full wonder of the purpose of Godwith Jerusalem. The first is a passagewith a location which is easy toremember:

Thus saith the Lord GOD; This isJerusalem: I have set it in the midst ofthe nations and countries that areround about her (Ezekiel 5:5).

God is speaking and here He statesthat HE has chosen the location of thecity. Clearly it is HIS city and the LordGod Himself takes ownership of it. Thepassage does not say that Jerusalemis in the middle of hills and valleys,which would be true. Nor is the pointthat it is in the midst of villages andtowns, which is also true. It states thatGod has set this city in the midst of‘nations and countries’. That gives thestatement a truly international statuswhich, as we shall see, is perfectlyappropriate in the light of what is dueto happen there.

This was said about Jerusalem at atime when cities such as London, NewYork, Paris and Moscow did not exist.Other great cities did: cities like

Babylon, Nineveh, Thebes and Alexan-dria. They each had been, were, orwere becoming, great cities of theancient world. Yet it is Jerusalem ofwhich the prophet speaks. Perhaps wecan imagine the scorn in the mind ofsome non-believers at that time thatsuch a small and apparently insignifi-cant city should be chosen.

OwnershipThis one Bible passage answers thequestion which is now frequentlyasked: “Does Jerusalem belong toArab, Jew, Palestinian or the Turk?’ Itbecomes irrelevant when consideredfrom a Biblical standpoint. Jerusalembelongs to the Creator of heaven andearth. He has chosen not only the city,but its location too and He is in controlof its history and destiny.

Fascinating as it is to see how muchis implied in a single short passage ofScripture, (illustrating the need for allof us to read the Bible carefully andattentively), it is necessary to considermore Scripture to get details of whatGod intends for the city. Here’s theprophet Jeremiah:

Jerusalem – Whose City?Jerusalem – Whose City?

At that time they shall call Jerusalemthe throne of the LORD; and all thenations shall be gathered unto it, tothe name of the LORD, to Jerusalem:neither shall they walk any more afterthe imagination of their evil heart(Jeremiah 3:17).

This widens our knowledge of theplan of God with His chosen city. It willcontain a throne and all nations will begathered to it. This gives purpose to itsposition ‘in the midst of nations andcountries’, for Jerusalem is strategi-cally positioned between Africa,Europe and Asia. When will theseevents take place? No date is given,but a clue as to the time period is tobe found in the phrase “At that time”,matching the words “and I will bringyou to Zion” in verse 14. So the exal-tation of Jerusalem to this new statuswill be when the Jewish people are intheir land and have become obedientto God’s commands.

Teaching of JesusSome words of the Lord Jesus Christadd more detail to this prophetic sce-nario, for he once said this:

I say unto you, Swear not at all;neither by heaven; for it is God’sthrone: Nor by the earth; for it is hisfootstool: neither byJerusalem; for it isthe city of the greatKing (Matthew5:34,35).

Jerusalem has acolourful history. Thecity started its history,as recorded in Scrip-ture, under the nameof Jebus, (meaning,‘trodden down’). Itwas captured by theIsraelites under the

leadership of Joshua, when Godhelped them to conquer the land, itsname then being changed toJerusalem, (city of peace). Yet it hasseldom been a city of peace – evennowadays. But, as Jesus was indicat-ing, its future destiny is that it willbecome the centre of world control,(when all nations are gathered to it),and the throne to be established therewill be called the throne of the LORD.That is the one upon which the LordJesus Christ – “the great King” – willsit, when he is in control of all lands.

God loves JerusalemHere’s another quotation to broadenour view further:

The LORD loveth the gates of Zionmore than all the dwellings of Jacob.Glorious things are spoken of thee, Ocity of God (Psalm 87:2,3).

God not only chose Jerusalem, buthe loves it. (Zion is a part of the city ofJerusalem.) This deserves our closeattention. God loves Zion, therefore itought to be highly esteemed by peoplewho wish to align themselves with thepurpose that Almighty God has for theearth.

Another Bible passage adds to ourknowledge of this important city in the

10 Glad Tidings

following words:

Great is the LORD, and greatly to bepraised in the city of our God, in themountain of his holiness. Beautiful forsituation, the joy of the whole earth, ismount Zion, on the sides of the north,the city of the great King. God is knownin her palaces for a refuge (Psalm48:1-3).

Our attention here is drawn to thepurpose of God to make Jerusalem thejoy of the whole earth, the city of thegreat king, words alluded to by theLord Jesus, as quoted in the earlierpassage (Matthew 5:35). The word sit-uation in this passage meanselevation. God’s intention is to elevatethe city as capital of the world.

Pray about itWith these passages in view itbecomes clear that the ownership anddestiny of Jerusalem is in no doubt.And there is something positive that

127th Year 11

we can do as we await the fulfilment ofthese great promises. For the Psalmistsays:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: theyshall prosper that love thee. Peace bewithin thy walls, and prosperity withinthy palaces (Psalm 122:6,7).

Since the ultimate peace ofJerusalem is assured, we should prayfor its peace in order to align our mindswith the Divine mind and purpose, asdeclared in His Word, the Bible. Bypraying for the peace of Jerusalem weare showing that our hopes are in thefulfilment of the purpose of God onearth. It is the same when uttering theLord’s Prayer, and saying Thy kingdomcome. What we are asking for is thatGod’s Kingdom will be set up on earthand that in God’s mercy we may havea part in it.

David RadfordQuotations are from the KJV

Truth is BeautifulTruth is Beautiful

I ask you now to pause awhile,To consider all that is around:The joyfulness expressed in sound,Such beauty in the colours found,And shapes alive; so ne’er be bound –Just let your face express a smile!

It’s something you will ne’er regret,To know the truth of what you’ve seen,To be fully aware of what has beenAnd exercise senses so serene,Aware of Him on whom we lean,Believing truth is beautiful even yet!

Bill Guy

12 Glad Tidings

One of the things Ifind so amazingabout the Bible isthe way it linkstogether in unex-pected ways.

I use a Bible Readingplan every day – the BibleCompanion – which allo-cates a portion to readfrom three different booksof the Bible and I’venoticed that there areoften similar ideas in all three read-ings. A few years ago, I began notingany common themes that appeared inthe back of my Bible, and now I havequite a long list.

This Reminds Me…Sometimes I read a verse and think,“That reminds me of something….”Here’s an example.

One from the crowd said to (Jesus),“Teacher, tell my brother to divide theinheritance with me.” But he said tohim, “Man, who made me a judge oran arbitrator over you?” (Luke12:13–14).

Jesus then used this incident toexplain that we ought to look beyondmaterial things to spiritual things,because money and goods don’t last.However, the thing that caught myattention was “who made me a judgeor an arbitrator over you?”

We know that Jesus will judge theworld at his return to the earth (e.g.Acts 17:31), but the time for that sortof judgement had not yet come. Theinheritance the man was speakingabout was not a lasting one, but had to

do with this life and itspossessions. When Jesusjudges us, he will givethose who he chooses aneternal inheritance.

Unexpected TurnThe verse this remindedme of was a bit unexpect-ed. If you turn to Exoduschapter 2, you readabout the early life ofMoses in Egypt. An inci-

dent recorded there doesn’t seem tobe in any way related to the passage inLuke.

When (Moses) went out the secondday, behold, two Hebrew men werefighting, and he said to the one whodid the wrong, “Why are you strikingyour companion?” Then he said, “Whomade you a prince and a judge overus? Do you intend to kill me as youkilled the Egyptian?” So Moses fearedand said, “Surely this thing is known!”(Exodus 2:13–14).

Jesus knew his Old Testament sowell. I don’t believe it was a coinci-dence that he used such a similarphrase to the one used by the Hebrewagainst Moses: “Who made you aprince and a judge over us?

Perhaps the man he spoke toshould have recognised those words.Moses was a prince of Egypt at thattime. Yet the Hebrew was questioninghis authority, perhaps knowing that hewas not really an Egyptian.

Eternal PossessionThe man who wanted Jesus to dividethe family inheritance was giving Jesus

Bible EchoesBible Echoes

127th Year 13

authority, but for the wrong reasons.He was focusing on the wrong things.He wanted Jesus to sort out his mate-rial possessions and was forgettingthat Jesus paid little attention to suchthings. He once said:

“Foxes have holes and birds of the airhave nests, but the Son of Man hasnowhere to lay His head.” (Matthew8:20).

It was the same with Moses. Heturned his back on material things,when he left Egypt. If the Hebrew whochallenged Moses was still alive fortyyears later, he would have been one ofthe thousands who followed Moses outof Egypt into the wilderness. At longlast he would have come to acceptthat God had given Moses authority todo this task, although he no longerlooked like a prince.

AuthorityJesus did not look like a prince. Hewas an ordinary working man. Thework he had come to do, in obedienceto his Father, would not make peoplerich in terms of possessions. But itwould give them the hope of everlast-ing life, a prospect which constitutestrue riches indeed. Yet the man withthe question about his inheritance sawsomething in Jesus that made him

trust his authority. Probably it was the fact that Jesus

was not trying to gain anything forhimself, and his conduct reflected histeaching. And his teaching was verypowerful for “he taught them as onehaving authority, and not as thescribes” (Matthew 7:29).

Making a ChoiceThe task Moses was given was to bringthe people of Israel to the PromisedLand, where God had promised aneverlasting inheritance to the seed ofAbraham. Had he stayed in Egypt hewould have been a much richer man,in this world’s goods, but he wouldhave missed out on the true richesthat God offers.

One Bible writer sums up the choicethat faced Moses, a choice which nowfaces us every day:

By faith Moses, when he became ofage, refused to be called the son ofPharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather tosuffer affliction with the people of Godthan to enjoy the passing pleasures ofsin, esteeming the reproach of Christgreater riches than the treasures inEgypt; for he looked to the reward(Hebrews 11:24–26).

Echoes like this are given to us toremind us that the Bible is the Word ofGod. He was there when the Hebrewspoke to Moses and when the manspoke to Jesus. It was part of God’splan that Moses should lead Hispeople out of Egypt into a promisedpossession and it is equally part of thatgreat plan that Jesus is leading peopleout of the slavery of Sin and towardsthe promise of God’s Kingdom, whichis to be set up on earth when Jesusreturns as God’s appointed King.

Rachel Yuile

The title of the fifth book of the OldTestament, Deuteronomy, means‘repetitions’ and they come at a strate-gic time in Moses’ life. He was now120 years old and had brought theinfant nation of Israel right to theborders of the Promised Land, thoughhe had been told that neither he norhis brother Aaron would be allowed toenter (Numbers 20:12). So he knewhis life was ending and that posed aproblem for him.

Forgetful PeopleMoses knew from bitter experiencethat without his firm hand on the reins,the people he had encouraged in theway of the Lord would rebel and goback to idol worship. To give them thebenefit of his vast experience in thehope they would remember and actupon it, Moses decided to run throughall the important points of the Law fora second time, and finish with a song,that would perhaps lodge his warningsin their memory. We can imagine themgathered in front of the old man, tearsin their eyes, as he spoke to them forthe last time.

First he summarised for them theevents of the forty years ofthe wilderness wandering,listing the places they (ortheir parents) had seen andreminding them of theirmany lapses of faith. Heexplained that the laws ofGod, which he had handeddown to them at Sinai, werethe best laws on earth. They

would bring them happiness and pros-perity, if they kept them, and to sink tothe evil practices of the nations aroundthem would be a disaster.

It was their duty to teach God’s wayto their children. Then he explained tothem that the long journey and theoccasional hardships they had sufferedwere God’s way of testing them to seeif they would still believe in Him whentimes were tough. Soon they wouldleave their tents behind and live incomfort in the Land. It would be easythen to forget that God had deliveredthem from slavery and given them theLand. They should remember that theywere not being given it because theywere particularly good people, butbecause the present inhabitants wereunworthy and their religious practicesunacceptable to God. They must notintermarry with them or copy their idol-atry.

More ExplanationsMoses took them through the principalcommandments of God’s law, and therules of inheritance by which everyfamily was guaranteed a livelihood

from the soil. He looked atthe feasts they mustobserve as part of theirworship, and laid down acode of conduct for aKing, should they ever begiven one. He underlinedthe importance of truejustice. Murder must bedealt with by fair trial with

proper witnesses, and manslaughter

14 Glad Tidings

The Books of the Bible – 4

Deuteronomy – MosesDeuteronomy – MosesSays FarewellSays Farewell

127th Year 15

carefully distinguishedfrom killing with intent.Slander, hatred, andoppression of the poorwere all unlawful. Rather,they must support eachother and show tolerance,even when foreignerschose to live in their land.Social justice and reve-rence for God were thetwin arms of the nationalcode that he laid beforethem.

To reinforce yet again the importanceof God’s law, Moses made them agreeto hold a national assembly when theyreached the Promised Land, and torecite out loud the main points thatwould bring them God’s blessing, orHis cursing should they be disobeyed.To drive the message home they wereto write them down on plastered rockfor a reminder to subsequent genera-tions.

Prophetic OracleMoses’ speech rose to a climax as hesaw with the eye of inspiration the longcenturies ahead. He foretold that afteran initial burst of enthusiasm for Godthey would turn their backs on Him,and suffer the judgments of His wrath.He could see famines and invasions,interspersed with repentance, andthen a final dispersion from the land.These chapters (27 to 29) are aremarkable prophecy of what actuallyhappened to Israel, culminating in theRoman destruction of the nation in AD70. But his vision went beyond, pre-dicting a merciful God who would havecompassion on His wayward people,by restoring them to His land and Hisfavour:

If any of you are driven out to the far-

thest parts under heaven,from there the Lord yourGod will gather you, andfrom there He will bringyou. Then the Lord yourGod will bring you to theland which your fatherspossessed, and you shallpossess it. He will prosperyou and multiply you morethan your fathers(Deuteronomy 30:4–5).

We have seen the begin-ning of this restoration in

the last 100 years as the last act ofthe Divine drama begins which will, atlast, see Moses raised from the deadand entering into the Promised Landas part of his inheritance for suchfaithful service.

Last ActAs a final act, the aged leader wrote acopy of the Law in his own hand anddelivered it to the priests as an archiveto be preserved. His last words to thepeople, at the advanced age of 120years, comprised a song about Godand their future, which they mustmemorise and teach their descen-dants, followed by a one-by-oneprophetic blessing of each of the 12tribes.

Then, after many sad farewells, heclimbed alone into Mount Nebo, wherehe was permitted briefly, perhaps on aday of startling atmospheric clarity, tosee for the first and last time, thewhole land that God had long agopromised to Abraham. He would haveglimpsed the extent of it – fromfaraway Lebanon to the MediterraneanSea. Then he sank into the long sleepof death, from which he will awake onthe day of glory.

David M Pearce

16 Glad Tidings

Over the last 4,000 years barely 300have been without military conflict!Since the dawning of time men havesought to kill other men in mindlessgames of power, greed and economicexpansion – freedom for some, at thecost of loss of life for others:

î North American Indians slaugh-tered as the white man spreadacross the continent,

î South American natives routed inthe Conquistadors’ relentlesssearch for gold,

î African tribes exploited in the nameof progress, and

î Millions of Europeans killed as theNazis sought control of Europe.

Why can’t men and women live atpeace with one another?

New World OrganisationToday nations are being organised intoa new world order which is controlledsolely by economic interests which aredictated by international banks, globalcorporations and the ruling elite (themost wealthy and influential peoplewhose ideals are forced on themasses). Such people are only con-cerned with maintainingtheir power, by whatevermanipulation is necessary,including war.

Lord Curzon was Viceroyof India and in 1898 hemade this chilling state-ment which has proved tobe remarkably prophetic:To me, I confess thatcountries are pieces on a

chessboard upon which is beingplayed out a great game for the domi-nation of the world.

Increasing KnowledgeWhat is the result of our increasedknowledge about many things? Toooften it merely means getting powerover those that don’t have such knowl-edge. The world we are living in shouldbe characterised by growing coopera-tion and mutual help between nations,better education, more mechanicalaids, an increasing reduction indisease and faster communications.Yet these are the terms we readilyrecognise:

î Exploitation,

î Wealth and Debt,

î Weapons of untold destructivepower, and

î Commercialism.

GreedWhat exactly drives all this acquisitionand application of knowledge? Nothingother than money, and the desire formore money. The first canals in Britainwere not built because they could be

built, but so that goods couldbe transported to grow busi-nesses. The first navies wereformed so that commercecould be protected away fromhome waters. Armies wereformed to protect nationalinterests, investments and theneed for new resources. And itstill goes on. Nations arealready staking their claims to

Why So Many Wars?Why So Many Wars?

to draw nations in ona wider scale – as isnow happening inLibya. This is justwhat the Bible fore-tells will also happenin Israel.

All NationsInvolvedAfter the 1914-1918 Great Warworld leaders set upthe League ofNations (the precur-sor to the United

Nations). One of its key objectives was,and still is, to prevent future warthrough disarmament, open diploma-cy, restrictions and penalties, thusaiming to make war unattractive to allnations. Despite these laudable objec-tives, conflicts and wars continue. Infact, new warfare delivery agents haveemerged – weapons of mass destruc-tion: biological, chemical, and nuclear.

In the riverside gardens at the UnitedNations complex in New York is asculpture by artist Evgeniy Vuchetichwhich depicts a man beating a swordinto a plough, an action which is basedon this Bible quotation:

He shall judge between the nations,and rebuke many people; they shallbeat their swords into plowshares, andtheir spears into pruning hooks; nationshall not lift up sword against nation,neither shall they learn war anymore(Isaiah 2:4).

The War to End WarsGod has indeed predicted that this willbecome a reality, but only after amomen tous war in the Middle Eastthat will at last be a war to end allwars. This is what another inspired

127th Year 17

control the fuel reservesin the Arctic which arebecoming availablethanks to the recedingicecap.

The Middle EastWhy do you think somany countries areinter ested in the MiddleEast? It’s not the peopleor the need to gain moreland. It is because themajority of the planet’sremaining accessiblecheap oil reserves arelocated there. All the industrialisednations have an enormous thirst for oilto maintain their econo mies; thereforethey need to protect their oil supplies.

This is being done by a combinationof diplomacy and threat; the threatbeing the large scale presence ofarmed forces in the region and thediplomacy takes the form of sanctionsor co-operation agreements. However,due to the nations’ conflicting interestsand the hate between Arabs and Jews,the region is best described as a tinderbox waiting to explode into a largescale regional war.

The tension exists because whilstdeveloped nations want the oil, peopleliving in those countries have their ownpriorities and their own political aims.With the opportunity to obtain armsfrom sympathetic nations or dealers,conflicts often break out. At presentmany of them, as in Libya, amount toall out civil war, but often the conflictsbetween rival nations have an evengreater effect.

The re-establishment of the nation ofIsrael in 1948 and the resultant oppo-sition of Arab neighbours has been amajor cause of instability in the MiddleEast and this is something that is likely

18 Glad Tidings

On account of My people, Myheritage Israel, whom they

(Israel’s enemies) havescattered among thenations; they have alsodivided up My land(Joel 3:2). Because of this, Godwill bring the nationswho attack Israel to theValley of Jehoshaphat;

and enter into judgmentwith them there. The scattering of the

Jewish people happened fromBC 733 to AD 70. The partitioning

began with the UN resolution of 1947,and the current peace process relieson dividing Israel further, into a twostate nation, and further dividingJerusalem. Let the nations of the worldbeware!

Signs of the TimesWe should not ignore these prophecy-fulfilling signs of the times. We areliving in a period when this final worldwar could happen. At a crucial point inthis coming war, the Lord Jesus willreturn. When he succeeds and takescontrol of the world, Jesus will prove tobe a strong and just leader whose ben-eficial influence will span the globe.People will be confronted with thechoice to comply, or to be banishedforever from the Kingdom of God whichwill be established on earth.

We live in exciting times. The Biblehas far more to say and is certainlyworthy of attention. So rather than letit gather dust on your bookshelf, takeit down and read it for yourself to seewhat needs to be done so you can beready for the Coming of the King.

David Bilton

prophet says of thatmomentous happening:

It shall happen inthat day that I willmake Jerusalem avery heavy stonefor all peoples;all who wouldheave it away willsurely be cut inpieces, though allnations of the earthare gathered againstit (Zechariah 12:3).

Behold, the day of the Lord iscoming, and your spoil will be dividedin your midst. For I will gather all thenations to battle against Jerusalem;the city shall be taken, the housesrifled, and the women ravished. Half ofthe city shall go into captivity, but theremnant of the people shall not be cutoff from the city. Then the Lord will goforth and fight against those nations,as He fights in the day of battle(Zechariah 14:1–3).

In other words, at a time whenJerusalem is a massive irresolvableproblem to the world and a real barrierto peaceful progress in the region, warwill suddenly break out with all theinterested parties heavily involved. Thisis a grim prediction, precise in itslanguage. The Middle East andJerusalem is never far from the focusof attention of the world’s media andthe peace process is high on thenational agenda, particularly that ofthe USA, the European Comunity andRussia.

Partitioning IsraelAnother important prediction in thebook of Joel explains that God willintervene to ensure a satisfactoryoutcome for His people:

127th Year 19

Most of us live reasonablycomfortably on Planet Earth,especially since, of all theother planets in the solarsystem, only Earth is able tosustain life.

It just happens to orbit the Sun in themiddle of a band called The Region ofTolerance, where the temperature isjust right for us. Take our two neigh-bouring planets, Venus and Mars.There could be no possible life onVenus: it is far too hot, with a surfacetemperature of 400 degrees C and it issurrounded by a thick cloud of 90%CO2 gas, and has an atmosphericpressure of 100 times that on Earth.

Life on Mars would be equally impos-sible: it would be far too cold. Thedaytime temperature rarely reaches 25degrees C and at night it plunges tominus 80 degrees. Mars has very littleatmosphere, the pressure being abouta fiftieth that of Earth. But the mostserious problem is the total lack ofwater, for on Mars it never rains.

Just right!Planet Earth just happens to be right

for human life with an atmosphereconsisting mainly of 78% nitrogen and20% oxygen; an excellent mixture forbreathing and, because we have anatmosphere, the sun’s rays fill it to giveus daylight. Earth’s atmosphere alsoprotects us from falling rocks, whichrain down from outer space. We canoften see them brightly burning atnight time: we call them shootingstars.

Our atmospheric pressure of 14.7psi, is also just right for us, as is our

average temperature, and because theaxis of our planet is tilted about 23degrees from vertical, it is changedaround every 12 months to give usseasons. Without these conditionssome plants and animals would notexist.

How Come?Why is it that we happen to exist on aplanet where everything is so suitablefor life? Some scientists say that allthese favourable conditions cameabout by sheer chance, including lifeitself. But true science deals with factsnot speculations. Our existence on thisplanet just cannot be because of along string of coincidences. Behind itall there must be Intelligence. And theconcept of our existence being due tointelligent design is much more likelythan a succession of chance acci-dents.

Nature itself screams out ‘design’,wherever one looks, and even more sothrough a microscope. Design sug-gests Creation, and Creation meansGod. With God in the equation, theproblems dissolve, and we are led toHis Word, the Bible. We are on thisplanet because God wishes us to knowsomething about Him and His purpose.Without God this wonderful planet hasno meaning whatsoever.

Thanks to the Bible we learn thatPlanet Earth is yet to enjoy a gloriousfuture, of which you can become part.Whatever else you do, please makesure you investigate this Good News,and please do it soon.

Malcolm Edwards

Always just rightAlways just right

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