IS GOD A RESPECTOR OF PERSONS?

   As we look to the world today, there are many questions which immediately come to mind regarding our social action with our fellow citizens and countries, some of whom we consider to be friendly and some of whom we regard as neutral or belligerents.

   We seem to view the world through the eyes of  those of our leaders, media, political pundits and Hollywood movies which we unwittingly allow to set our standard of morality, opinion, and our National character; for example “America is great, because America is good“ ; “It is in our National interest to help to bring democracy to the World.”    Such glib statements are often lame excuses for the unlawful invasion or plunder of  foreign lands.

    Since I am a christian,  I would turn to the scripture of the King James Bible to try to place a perspective on these and other questions that arise in this critical time.  In Genesis 12, we find what we term the “Abrahamic Covenent” where the Lord God said unto Abram: “ Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house unto a land that I will shew thee.  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will blesse thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt bee a blessing.  And I will blesse them that bless thee, and curse him, that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”  In the 13th Chapter of Genesis, Abram and Lot separated after their herdsmen had strife over their cattle.   Abram told Lot to choose which way he would go and he would take the other;  Lot chose the well watered Sodom.

   Here we see that this covenant was made with one man, Abram, and his seed after him;  all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abram; that he would be the father of many nations;  and that his seed would be as the stars of the heavens or as the sands of the sea.  In Genesis 18:19, The Lord spoke saying: ”For I know him, that hee will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keepe the judgement, that the LORD may bring upon Abraham, that which hee hath spoken of him.”  The author is stating here that Abraham will keep his faith with the Lord, for He knows him.

   This covenant was repeated through Isaac, Jacob and unto the nation of Israel, but it seems to me that it is conditional, for these reasons.  A covenant is made between two parties, which agree to uphold the conditions of the covenant.  Israel suffered when they turned from the Lord and prospered when they returned to Him.  The wandering for 40 years in the wilderness of those Israelites who had been brought out of Egypt should also show us that the covenant was conditional.  This, to me,  is made clear through such passages as Deuteronomy 4:25-26, Deuteronomy 7:12-13, Deuteronomy 11:16-17, and Deuteronomy 11:31-32.  Thus, the binding effect of the covenant depended on the behavior of the Israelites, not on their birthright as Israelites.

   Moving to the New Testament we find  that Jesus Christ, when he gave of himself to the baptism of John the Baptist, saw many Pharisees and Sadducees.  He said unto them; “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you of the wrath to come?  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance and think not for yourselves, Wee have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.  And now also the axe is layd unto the root of the trees:  Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruite, is hewen downe, and cast into the fire.”  Christ also railed against the Pharisees in Matthew 23 and John 8, when he referred to them not as the children of Abraham, otherwise, they would do the works of their father and they would believe on him, but they were the children of the devil, who was a liar from the beginning.   From a Christian viewpoint, such statements seem to assert rather stridently that being a jew by birth was not important, and that anyone could be covenanted in if he would do the works of the Father.

   Peter, a devout Israelite, had a vision as Cornelius was on his way to his house to learn of  salvation through Christ, in which he saw a sheet coming down from heaven filled with unclean animals and a voice spoke to him saying that he should rise - kill and eat to which Peter replied to the Lord that nothing unclean has  touched his lips.  This happened three times and on the third time, the Lord said unto Peter whatsoever God has cleansed, call not thou that unclean.  Peter replied that truly he perceived that GOD IS NO RESPECTOR OF PERSONS - meaning that salvation was not simply meant for the nation of Israel, but it was come to the gentiles also.  Later, as the church at Antioch was meeting with James and the church of Jerusalem, Paul had to rebuke Peter for knowingly and willingly separating himself from Cornelius and his christian brethren and associating with the Israelite brethren, thereby placing himself back under the same law which  God had freed him from in his vision.

   Saul of Tarsus held the coat of Stephen as he was martyred, and had tried his best to wipe out the christian movement.  Saul’s name was changed to Paul after he had seen the Lord “as one”- a vision in which he saw more the essence of Christ rather than the person of Jesus in actual chronological time.  In Romans and in Colossians Paul tried to explain this :oneness” when he stated; “There is then therefore no Iewe nor Greek, no Bond nor Free, no Male nor Female, but we are all one through our Lord Ieusus Christ.”  Paul , who was beaten five times within an inch of his life (forty stripes save one), and who was left for dead several times, and who unmistakably  considered himself as a missionary to the gentiles, seemed to be asserting that in God’s eyes “Jewness”, “Greekness”, “slaveness”, etc. were unimportant accidental characteristics.

   The point that I am coming to, by way of this rather lengthy letter, is that although the veil of  the Holy of Holies has been rent asunder, we as mortal, sinful people are motivated to build it back by trying to do good.  But the way we seek to measure our own goodness, I question.   We like to think that we are good, because we look at others that we consider as being worse than we are and compare ourselves to them rather than look to him who had no sin and compare ourselves to HIM.  We have the tendency to gossip about other believers simply because they do not worship in the same manner that we do or hold to our doctrinal beliefs.  Religious rites and doctrines are usually adopted as matters of faith, not on the basis of reason or direct experience of persons and objects of veneration.  What we believe may be very far from the truth.  We may believe things which we simply otherwise cannot know.   We may believe because of our environmental surroundings or because of the beliefs of our parents, or our friends and relatives.  Because of peer pressure, we might go along to get along and perhaps even sometimes accept beliefs that we really feel in our hearts are wrong.  Sometimes, we would rather hurt those who may be validly seeking Christ that we do not know than feel we are betraying our friends.  We may be a  respector of persons, but God is not.

   The Quran, the Talmud, the Christian Scriptures and the Jewish Scriptures have much in common;  for example, they all contain the Ten Commandments.  Both the Muslims and those who practice Judaism believe they are the “Children of Abraham:, but as we have seen by Christ’s, Peter’s and Paul’s teachings, we may also believe ourselves to be the “Children of Abraham.”  The big difference is that our kinship to God  comes by faith and actions, and not by mere words or an accident of biological birthright.

    So, is God a respecter of persons?  It is my belief that everyone, regardless of race, creed, color or nationality must come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the door through which all men must pass, who stands at the door and knocks, who is waiting for you to open it unto Him.  Those who practice Judaism are still waiting for the Messiah to come, one who would sit upon the throne of David and place all the nations of the world under the thumb of Israel.  The nations of Islam believe that the true Messiah was Mohammed, although they do believe that Yeshua  was a good man and a prophet.  We, who say that we have accepted Christ as the Messiah and the only way to salvation, have the tendency to give Him lip service although our hearts are far from HIM.  We profess to be a christian nation although we have in this nation rampant immorality.   We begrudgingly and sometimes willingly accept homosexuality and abortion.  Our divorce rate is abysmal and we have a hard time deciding very often whether we love the brethren more than we love a good movie, a good party, or a good football game.  God said that His Spirit would not always strive with man; and perhaps at this very moment, like Belshazzar, we are being weighed in the balance, and will be found wanting?

   So, is God a respecter of persons?  Evidently, our Founding Fathers did not think this to be so,  for in the opening words of the Declaration of Independence we read:  “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  If truly all men have certain inalienable rights, do they then not have it within their own power to follow their own destiny?   Are they not all deserving of the right to choose without coercion?  Do they not all deserve the right to live in relative freedom from undue influence by others?

   Our Founding Fathers believed in LIBERTY, the right of reasoned personal choice, with the full acceptance of the rights and commensurate responsibilities.  They warned us of the dangers of foreign entanglements and of standing armies.  They were more concerned with posterity than with their own lives and property.  Our first school textbooks were the christian scriptural texts.  Although there were many problems which arose, I feel that our Founding Fathers did  their best to create a just and equitable system of government.   And they were not respectors of persons!

   Today, we find our nation trillions of dollars in debt to a system which does not believe in justice and equity, does not believe in the principles of Liberty, seems to move farther toward the system of plunder of the masses which Frederic Bastiat warned us of.  I can readily understand how those in power, when facing a problem that may seem insurmountable would  readily move to protect themselves at the expense of the people they have chosen to lead.  But the end result can only be a tyrannical system that leads to an ultimate fascist or socialistic state.

   We, as a professing christian nation are now facing choices.   Should we as a people think more of our posterity than of ourselves?   Should our leaders cut most of our domestic programs, placing undue hardships on our people.   Should we cut defense, foreign aid, and domestic programs?  We have choices to make and those choices have consequences.

   On October 3, 2001, I.A.P. News reported that according to Israel Radio (in Hebrew Kol Yisrael)  an acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly session last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign Minister Shimon Peres.  Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and “turn the US against us.”  Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying “don’t worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America.”  Senator J. William Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee on CBS “Face the Nation” on 10/07/1973, stated;  “The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate.”  In May of this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of congress and received 29 standing ovations while intentionally embarrassing President Obama.   If we as a nation expect to be a free sovereign people and live within a nation that embraces the principles of  LIBERTY, are we going to submit to Israeli domination or to the vision of our Founding Fathers?