Building on the Foundation

  From his own day to ours, the apostle Paul has been a lightning rod of controversy. Many folks wrongly claim that Paul taught against God’s law. Even some of those who rightfully uphold God’s law accept this foolish notion and declare that Paul was a false teacher whose writings shouldn’t be in the Bible. Even during his own lifetime, some falsely accused Paul of breaking God’s law and teaching others to do likewise (Acts 21:20-24). Peter defended Paul from such accusations, observing that some of Paul’s writings are “hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:16). He then condemned “the error of unprincipled men” (2 Pet. 3:17; NASB). “Unprincipled” is Strong’s #G113, athesmos , which means “lawless.” Thayer’s Greek Lexicon adds that it describes “one who breaks through the restraints of law and gratifies his lusts.” So it wasn’t Paul who rejected God’s law, but rather those who twi...

  In the Gospel of John, we discover the following detail during Jesus’ ministry: “Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch” (John 10:22-23). In Hebrew, “dedication” is hanukkah (Strong’s # H2598), which appears several times in the Old Testament. For instance, when Moses dedicated the altar in the tabernacle, the word used for that dedication was hanukkah (Num. 7:10, 11, 84, 88). Again, Solomon’s dedication of the altar in the temple was a hanukkah (2 Chron. 7:9). Both dedications lasted seven days as God commanded (Ex. 29:37). The New Testament, of course, was preserved in Greek rather than Hebrew. But among the Jews of Jesus’ day, this would have been called the Feast of Hanukkah, it was at the temple, and it was in winter. To this day, the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah is in winter. So what is Hanukkah? Where did it come from? It isn’t among God’s commanded Holy Days, but is it okay for us to cele...