AT CHURCH

Halleluja!

Three years ago, our church underwent one of its most solemn moments. Sorka (all the names have been changed), who showed so much promise, had fallen back, left the ways of God and returned to the world. We pleaded with her, warned and exhorted her. We reminded her of the awful price our Lord had paid so that she would be holy. Nothing availed. Bent on sinning, Sorka shrugged our arguments away and followed her own course. Finally, we were forced to bring to the church a recommendation that she be excommunicated.

The church thoroughly reviewed the evidence of Sorka's misconduct, the action we had taken to encourage her to be faithful and then, reluctantly and tearfully, approved the proposed ban. Even Sorka's father voted in favour of excommunication - a solemn, moving moment for us all.

The church never ceased praying for her. Why should we? Excommunication is not an act of revenge, it is not a congregation lashing out in frustrated anger at someone who has wronged it. Excommunication is an act of godly love, a delivering of the body to Satan that the spirit might be saved. On many occasions, we besought the Lord to have mercy on Sorka and on us, and to restore her to himself. But there was no change. Information that we received from time to time indicated that Sorka was wholly given over to the world. One year passed, then another. Three years went by and we saw no change.

We continued to pray, but God did not seem to see fit to answer our prayers.

We have no complaint. God is the Lord. He does whatever he sees fit in the hearts of men and women, and none can call him to account, or deny the righteousness of his ways. Ours is the happy and holy duty of bowing to his will and singing his praises. True, Sorka is an individual and, as such, can make choices. But we had and have no doubt that God governs even the free choices of man, that he holds the hearts of the mighty in his hand and sways them according to his will. Nor do we doubt that God's will is always perfect, good and acceptable.

On Sabbath, March 31, we were astounded to see Sorka in the church. She asked to speak with the Elders, and there frankly confessed her sin and her shame, told us of her repentance and asked to be restored to the church fellowship. Choking with joy, we retrained ourselves and did not make it easy on her. She was asked to name her sin, to admit her guilt and to explain to us how she had professedly come to her senses. We then informed her that she would need to face the congregation, which had applied the ban, and request it to be removed. She would need to name her sin and to tell of her repentance, not because we have any interest in humiliating her or to delve into the sordid details of her moral failure, but because she would need to persuade the congregation that she was indeed repentant.

And so, Sorka stood before the church (we had cancelled the Sabbath School lesson for that morning) and sought its forgiveness, and God's, ending in a deeply felt prayer. There was not a dry eye in the building. We then read II Cor. 2:6-8, 10-11: Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that, on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him… But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also, for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

Sorka remained standing, facing the congregation, which was then asked, "Do you believe the sincerity of Sorka's repentance? Are you willing to forgive her and accept her again into the fellowship of Christ? Those in favour, please rise." As one man, the whole congregation solemnly stood, with many silently weeping. Sorka burst out in tears of relief. It was then our joy to announce to her: "Sorka, in the name of Christ and of his congregation, we hereby restore you to the fellowship of the church of God. None of us are better than you, we all have failings. Go, and sin no more".

Hallulujah, what a morning!

Sorrow

Following the service the Elders were asked to meet with one of the newer congregants. Earlier proceedings had been watched by this person with great interest and concern: "I fear God, and I fear you", we were told. "You obviously consider sin to be a serious issue." Yes, we do.

- "Then, I have a question: does your church accept sinners?

- "Well, it depends on what you mean. We're all sinners saved by a grace we do not deserve.

- "I am twice divorced. My present spouse was divorced once. We have both since been converted. We met at church and were married by Pastor X (who has no legal right to conduct weddings). Since then we have lived together as husband and wife. But my spouse is struggling (not always successfully) against an old habit. A few weeks ago, the Pastor came to me and said that I must send my spouse out of the house and break off all contact. Until I obeyed, I was not welcome to attend church. We were thrown into confusion by this demand and, since then, have not attended the worship of God. A few weeks ago we heard of Grace and Truth, decided to visit and have been coming regularly since. Would you accept us, weak as we are, into fellowship? Is there an inkling of a chance that we could some day be members?

Hearing this desperate story, we struggled against the furious mixture of sorrow, sympathy and fierce anger that surged in our hearts. How could anyone call himself a Pastor of God's flock, and then deal so peremptorily with the lives of others? We know the "Pastor" concerned. He can barely find his way in the Bible, let alone preach a Gospel message! Now he was high-handedly arrogating to himself power over the lives of others, and wielding it to their utter confusion.

Restraining ourselves from saying any more, we welcomed the congregant into our fellowship and promised to do all in our power to assist them both. In response to a question concerning the future of their marriage, we said that what really needed to be done is to put their house in order, wed legally and work together for the resolution of any difficulties in their marriage. "Marriage is for keeps, we explained. "It is not a revolving door but a one-way street, leading to heaven and to a godly life, if you but submit, both of you, to the ways of God.

The Building

The Orthodox are seeking to bring an end to construction, or at least to render the process too expensive for us by contending every step we take. Our response must be to accelerate construction maximally.

Volunteers are bringing us a long way forward. A foreman from the Netherlands has been providing his services, and plans to continue to do so until August, when he is expected to be replaced by a young lady from the USA, with extensive experience in building, who plans to be with us for at least another six months. Volunteers from the USA and Germany are assisting the work, which has been delayed due to Orthodox pressure.

This is the first time a church is being constructed in a purely Jewish area in Israel and there are many opponents. But the precedent established will be an aid to other congregations who will be seeking to construct their houses of worship. That is precisely why we are being opposed with such determination. But our determination will easily match theirs, and the goodness of God is greater than all their ungracious intentions. The House of Grace and Truth will undoubtedly be constructed and will become a focal point for our congregational life as well as serve the larger community of faith in the country. We ask you to continue to stand with us.

HaGefen Publishing

With the intent of introducing the Children's Bible to the Public in Israel, a large advertisement was placed just before Passover in a leading Hebrew newspaper, presenting the Bible with a demonstration of the translated text versus the Masoretic original.

The response to the Bible from the Christian community in Israel has been enthusiastic on the whole. The following is a translation of a review in a (rival) magazine serving the local Jewish Christian community:

THE PENTATEUCH IN TODAY'S LANGUAGE/ Menachem BenHayim, KIVUN

If the translation of the Torah (Pentateuch) into Greek (the Septuagint) was considered by the sages sufficient cause to declare a day of mourning (8th of Tevet), what would the reaction be to the translation of the Torah into modern Hebrew (in limited vocabulary) for children?

The crowd gathered in Moshav Yad HaShemona at the end of November, 2000, to celebrate the new release of the Bible in a modern language version, was pleased with what they saw. People purchased copies for their children and for themselves.

According to the organiser of the event, Eitan Kashtan of HaGefen Publishing, 180 copies of the book were sold to some 150 participants.

It cannot be denied that the reading of the Bible is a challenge to many Israelis, both native born and immigrant. The Israeli youth, and in particular the non-religious youth, is usually ignorant and boorish in anything to do with the language of the Bible. "The biblical language doesn't speak to us", acknowledged Yoel, one of the participants, whose youthful days are not too long gone.

A similar thing happened to English speakers with the classical translation of the scriptures authorised by King James in 1611. Three hundred and fifty years later, heavy pressure was created to produce new translations of the Scriptures into more modern language. As expected, the new translations were received with much hostility by conservative and traditional elements among readers of the Bible, and 'parties' were arranged to burn books published by one of the translators - an ironic comment on 'progress,' as in the past, the translators themselves, or their bones, (Wycliffe and Tyndale) were burned.

In the case of this new publication in Hebrew, we are of course talking of the holy original, not a translation from a foreign language. There are those who question, whether this be sacrilege? Would it not have been more reverent to provide a Bible in traditional form, adding a translation into modern Hebrew on the facing page as did Onklus when Aramaic was the language of the people?

The representative of the organisation funding the project, who was present at the event, revealed that this idea had been brought up before him by a member of the "The Bible Society", alongside HaGefen's proposed program, which was the one eventually accepted. Baruch Maoz, then manager of HaGefen, was always opposed to the idea of translating the Bible into modern Hebrew, and argued that he still objects to a translation bound together with the original, in the way the Bible Society had proposed. He claims that the new version is intended only for children.

The new version is eye catching, with its elegant design, from the cover to the inside pages, and an abundance of bright and colourful illustrations. The book has received both positive critique ("how good for the youth and for those who find the Biblical language difficult") and negative ("How awful that the Biblical language has been chopped, and its poetic passages turned to common prose").

The initiators of the project have announced that they will continue on to the last book of the Old Testament, and from there to a new translation of the New Testament in the same "youthful" spirit. Although I would prefer to see the Bible in both its original text and the modern language translation side by side, I welcome any attempt to bring to Hebrew readers a new version, which would encourage a wider public to read the Scriptures more freely. May the Lord grant that both these bodies - HaGefen Publishing and The Bible Society - would find a way to cooperate in order to promote this large and important project, both to the Messianic believers and to all Hebrew readers who love the Scriptures.