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Yevette Mearns (1^st) Hannah Allen (2^nd) Kinlee Mearns (10^th) Talia Gradney (11^th)

Jo Anna Ross (13^th) Sarah Cruthirds (28^th)

"Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12).

Humor can be funny, but it also can tell many truths. The following came from beliefnet.com called Five Jewish Men.

"Five Jewish men influenced the history of Western civilization.

Moses said the law is everything.

Jesus said love is everything.

Marx said Capital is everything.

Freud said sex is everything.

Einstein said everything is relative."

That might or might not be funny. It also could be misleading in a number of ways if we do not understand the context of each. Let’s take a look at this.

Moses said the law is everything. That is probably how many Jewish scholars would look at this. Did Moses really see the law as everything? He had tremendous faith in God. He had to; the people he led were very difficult to deal with. Both God and Moses at times wanted to destroy them. The law was given by God to Moses and is summed up in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). There are six hundred and thirteen laws recorded. Some concerned civil and ceremonial aspects of the Jewish culture. Others were religious in nature, relating to the sacrificial system and Tabernacle. Then there are the moral laws dealing with relationships and the braking of moral law like murder and sexual immorality.

Christians have often seen the Mosaic law as a legalistic system, based more on how it developed in later generations, especially around the Pharisees. It is definitely a legal code for the nation to live by. Keep in mind however, it was also a gracious law. God provided not just how to live but a means of finding forgiveness. David sought forgiveness and found it (see Psalm 51 and 1 Samuel 11-12). It was a method of fellowship between God and His chosen people. "Be holy as I am holy." When the people walked faithfully with God, and observed the law, God was with them and blessed them.

Israel did not heed the instruction in the law for very long. Several times in the book of Judges we are told that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what they wanted. Both Hezekiah and Josiah initiated reforms and the historians mention that both restored the Passover to the religious life of the nation. God’s love is seen in the law as well as providing for the nation in the Wilderness. God is the same in the Old as in the New. It is the people, and in particular, the religious leaders who misunderstood the love and grace of God. Just read the parables of Jesus to see this.

The law was important, a means of training until God was revealed in Christ (see Galatians 3:21-22). The law was important but not everything. It was not intended to replace God, which again we see happening by the time of Jesus.

Jesus said love is everything. "God is love." He loved the world so much that He sent His Son into the world to give Himself as a ransom for sinners (see John 3:16, et. al.) Love is seeking the best of another even if it means dying for them. The full extent of that love is seen in the cross, the death of Christ. Love is seen in action with one another, one’s neighbor, and one’s enemy, as well as in loving God who we have not seen (see 1 John).

That love has been misunderstood should not surprise us. The word has been used in so many contexts that it has become meaningless. One can love gardening or hot dogs or a favorite television program. The Greek has four different words for love, two of which are used in scripture. We just lump everything into one word.

Some have assumed that love is the highest principle but then have misapplied it. God is love therefore there will be no judgment and sin will be ignored. We should not only love all, but accept them and their sins, for God is not judgmental in these areas. Yet the New Testament is clear that God will come in judgment and put everything to the right, as N.T. Wright would say. In Jeremiah, God said that "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (31:3). That was in a context of a nation going into captivity.

Love is the highest principle! But that does not mean we can justify sin and sinful actions, nor ignore the plight of the suffering. We also must not ignore the judgment of God. Jesus came to die for our sins in His great love, but it is a costly love that cannot ignore sin.

Marx said Capital is everything. Karl Marx lived in poverty most of his live and his philosophy was not received that well in his day. It would be those that followed that would enhance and build on that philosophy. What Marx saw was the inequality of man, some rich and some poor, and that there had to be a better way. His system, which we now know as communism, was that all should share equally in wealth, that no one should have more than another.

Lenin and Stalin of Russia, Mao of China, and Castro of Cuba all attempted to develop this system by government controls. Everyone would be equal, though some would be more equal than others (1). In order to accomplish this, there were several things that had to be dealt with. Christianity had to be eliminated from society. Churches were closed and religious leaders arrested, imprisoned and murdered. There would be no criticism of government and no free speech. The government knew what was best. There were five, ten and twenty year plans, all of which failed. Famine was prominent and millions died at the hands of government (2). Communism was an evil system that self-destructed in selfishness.

Another form of this is socialism. While there are many more freedoms in socialism, equality is still a major concern. But it is government that knows what is best. Religion is something that should remain a personal idea and never brought into the public realm. It is easy to point out the sins of capitalism, and there are many, but socialism has its sins, some the same as capitalism. There is greed in both systems.

Money isn’t everything, nor is power and control. Jesus is Lord. We understand that God put nations where they are (see Acts 17:26). He is the one we are to trust in. Some of us will be blessed materially, others of us will suffering. Our purpose is to bring glory to God, not glory to money. People see wealth and want it without the costs. A question to be asked is, is the cost too much to obtain wealth? Is it worth losing faith, family, and self-respect to obtain it? Only in Christ can those questions be answered to the benefit of all.

Freud said sex is everything. Freud was a psychologist who has influence the behavior of several generations. He saw all the psychology problems with humans as being related to sex. His idea was to free man from the religious elements to allow for open expressions of sex. That led to what became know as "free love" and what we now see filling movies and television, sex without responsibility. Out of wedlock children and abortion have become all to common in our society. The mores of the past have been eliminated. Shame is no longer a means to bring about responsibility because few can be shamed. Just look at what people wear during the summer months. It is extremely embarrassing but there is no shame.

Movie critics glory in steamy scenes thinking this is great acting. Watch the old time movies of the thirties and forties and one see something totally different. Music has become abusive in this same category. Rap has a bad rap for abusive lyrics. Sex has become an obsession that it is seen in ads and commercials, in books and even news broadcasts. One can tell which months are sweep months by the stories on sex that are shown. Then we wonder why there is a rise is sexual abuse, especially with children.

Einstein said everything is relative. Einstein was a discoverer of a number of important ideas in mathematics and other areas, and in his theory of relativity. That idea was a scientific discovery, not a moral discovery. But some have taken this idea and applied it to morality. Everything is relative, there is no truth. Truth cannot be known. It is your truth and my truth, and they might not be the same.

This comes under various names: existentialism and postmodernism. Modernity thought that by human reasoning, one could solve all the world’s problems without God. So man reasoned. He found nuclear power and nuclear bombs. He discovered cures for diseases and created biological weapons. He found chemicals that would aid in the growth of food and chemicals that could kill others. He found ways to save life and ways to euthanize people. Postmodernism has rejected man’s reasoning and now looks beyond one’s self. There is something more but what is it?

Because of modernity’s relationship with religion, postmodern people reject organized religion. And why not? We all have heard of some of the reasoning that Christians do and are shocked. One comment that I heard came from a leader who in response to a request to pray before making a decision, said, "God has given us a mind to reason with, so we do not need to spend time in prayer." Or as another said about prayer, "it is a command and nothing will change through prayer."

We do need to encourage reasoning well but first we must connect with our postmodern society. That is the difficult part. None of this is Einstein’s fault. It came from those seeking to reject God and scripture. Building a relationship can then lead to building an understanding of scripture that is both proper and Biblical.

Each of these Jewish people have influenced the world in which we live, some for good and some for evil. Others have misrepresented what they taught. Some do not wish to consider the evil aspects of some teachings and consequences. Our challenge will be to correctly present Moses and Jesus and to show the foolishness of Marx and Freud and to correct the views of Einstein.

George B. Mearns

(1) See George Orwell’s novels, 1984 and Animal Farm.

(2) See R. J. Rummel, Death by Government and Power Kills.