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    The God of Abraham Praise: A Short Course in Christian Belief
    The God of Abraham Praise: A Short Course in Christian Belief
    The God of Abraham Praise: A Short Course in Christian Belief
    Ebook124 pages2 hours

    The God of Abraham Praise: A Short Course in Christian Belief

    By Daniel Kreller

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    About this ebook

    As the subtitle suggests, “The God of Abraham Praise,” is a short course in Christian belief. It consists of 15 lessons and three appendices. I wrote this course for my pupils who were preparing for their confirmation in the Episcopal Church in the spring of 2011. I entitled the course, “The God of Abraham Praise,” after a hymn by that name written by Thomas Olivers and first published in 1775. As the story goes Olivers was drawn to worship in a London Synagogue one evening and he heard a noted singer Leoni sing an ancient Jewish melody with words attributed to Daniel ben Judah a 15th century Jewish judge in Rome. The text was based on the 13 Creeds of the great sage Maimonides. Olivers paraphrased the text and gave it a distinctive Christian flavor.

    In my faith journey I too have been drawn to the synagogue, not literally but figuratively, to understand and appreciate the Jewish origins of the Christian faith. And why not, for Jesus was a devout Jew as were all of his first disciples. I trust the reader will find in this course an orthodox statement of Christian belief. At the same time a reader unfamiliar with the Jewish roots of Christianity may find this presentation of the faith novel. I trust that Jewish readers who bear the faith of Abraham will come to understand Jesus more. And I trust that Christian readers who understand Jesus will come to appreciate the Abrahamic faith more.

    The 15 Lessons are: The Name of God; The Creator; Things Visible and Invisible; God’s Idol; The Call of Abraham; The Call of Moses and the Exodus; The Giving of the Law; The Holy Land; The Birth of the Messiah; The Baptism and Temptation of Messiah Jesus; The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee; The Ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem; The Ongoing Ministry of Jesus; The Ongoing Ministry of the Church; and The End of the Age. Appendix 1 is on The Lord’s Prayer and Prayer. Appendix 2 is on The Apostle’s Creed and the Trinity. Appendix 3 is on the Sabbath and Sunday.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDaniel Kreller
    Release dateJul 1, 2011
    ISBN9781465822321
    The God of Abraham Praise: A Short Course in Christian Belief
    Author

    Daniel Kreller

    The son of a Baptist minister, I was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1977. I studied for the ministry at Princeton, General, and Union Seminaries. I served as a parish priest for 40 years. I have a particular interest in the healing ministry and the Jewish roots of Christianity. I am married and have a grown son and daughter.

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      Book preview

      The God of Abraham Praise - Daniel Kreller

      The God of Abraham Praise

      A Short Course in Christian Belief

      The Rev. Daniel W. Kreller

      Published by Daniel W. Kreller at Smashwords

      Copyright 2011 Daniel W. Kreller

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Lesson 1 – The Name of God

      Lesson 2 – The Creator

      Lesson 3 – Things Visible and Invisible

      Lesson 4 – God’s Idol

      Lesson 5 – The Call of Abraham

      Lesson 6 – The Call of Moses and the Exodus

      Lesson 7 – The Giving of the Law

      Lesson 8 – The Holy Land

      Lesson 9 - The Birth of the Messiah

      Lesson 10 – The Baptism and Temptation of Messiah Jesus

      Lesson 11 – The Ministry of Jesus in Galilee

      Lesson 12 – The Ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem

      Lesson 13 – The Ongoing Ministry of Jesus

      Lesson 14 – The Ongoing Ministry of the Church

      Lesson 15 – The End of the Age

      Appendix 1 – The Lord’s Prayer and Prayer

      Appendix 2 - The Apostle’s Creed and the Trinity

      Appendix 3 - Sabbath and Sunday

      Appendix 4 - Life Eternal

      Cover Art

      About the author

      Preface

      The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;

      Ancient of everlasting days, and God of love; the Lord, the great I AM,

      by earth and heaven confessed; we bow and bless the sacred Name for ever blest.

      He by himself hath sworn: we on his oath depend;

      we shall, on eagle wings up borne, to heaven ascend; we shall behold his face,

      we shall his power adore, and sing the wonders of his grace for-ever more.

      There dwells the Lord, our King, the Lord, our Righteousness,

      triumphant o’er the world of sin, the Prince of Peace:

      on Zion’s sacred height His kingdom he maintains,

      and, glorious with his saints in light, for-ever reigns.

      The God who reigns on high the great archangels sing,

      and Holy, holy, holy, cry, "Almighty King!

      Who was and is, the same, and evermore shall be:

      Eternal Father, great I AM, we worship thee."

      The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high:

      "Hail, Father Son, and Holy Ghost!" they ever cry; hail, Abraham’s Lord divine!

      with heaven our songs we raise; all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.

      Words: Thomas Olivers (1725-1799)

      As a hymn it is sung to the tune of Leoni, a Hebrew melody

      * * * * *

      Lesson 1 – The Name of God

      On one occasion the disciples of Jesus asked him to teach them how to pray. He agreed and taught them the prayer that we know as the Lord’s Prayer, or the Our Father. It is a simple prayer with few words. Yet, it conveys a lot of information. One form of the prayer is recorded in Matthew’s Gospel in the 6th chapter beginning in verse 9. It reads:

      Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name.

      Your kingdom come, your will be done;

      On earth as it is in heaven.

      Give us this day our daily bread.

      Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

      Do not bring us to the time of temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

      To this prayer we add an additional sentence of praise when we recite it in the liturgy, For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever and ever. At the end of the prayer we add the word, Amen, a Hebrew word that means, let it be so.

      Christians are so familiar with this prayer that we don’t consider it at all unusual. But it is unusual. In Jesus’ day it was very rare to address God as Father. There are only a few instance of this address recorded in all of the Hebrew Scriptures. One is in Psalm 89:26 where God says his anointed servant David shall cry to me, You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation! David had a special relationship with God. God had chosen him to be king in Israel and God promised to establish his kingdom through his offspring, forever. When David calls God Father, he at the same time implies that he is God’s child, God’s son, and relates to God in a very personal and intimate way.

      Jesus was born about 1,000 years after David in David’s hometown of Bethlehem. He was considered a descendant of David through his stepfather, Joseph. So when Jesus prayed he did so following the example of his illustrious ancestor crying out to God, Father. Again this implies a special intimate relationship with God as His child and son. And he also cried out to God as the Rock of my salvation. In the prayer Jesus cites three basic ways God saves us, by providing food, by granting forgiveness, and delivering us from evil, just like an earthly father does for his child. The remarkable thing is that Jesus directed all of his disciples to pray in this way. Even though they were not descendents of David, they, he declared, should address God as Father and consider himself or herself as a son or daughter of God.

      As I said, it was rare in Jesus’ day to address God as Father. It is commonplace now for Christians to address God this way. It has become common for Jews to do so as well. But this address is not used by the other religions of the world. For example, in Islam, the second largest religion by numbers after Christianity, it is actually prohibited. Allah, the name for God in Islam, is not a father but a Master and his followers are not children but slaves. The term Islam means submission and in the practice of Islam one finds peace through submission to the will of Allah as a dutiful servant. But from the very early days of the Christian church the belief in the Fatherhood of God and our status as children of the Heavenly Father has been one of its greatest affirmations. So the apostle John wrote in his first Epistle in chapter 3 verse 1, See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.

      Father, of course, is not a personal name but a title. We don’t feel it is appropriate to address our human fathers by their personal names. My own father’s name was Bert but I never called him that as a matter of respect. Jesus in formulating the prayer he taught his disciples showed the same kind of respect for his Father. Jesus knew the personal name of God, as do all devout Jews for his name appears frequently in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus refers to the personal name when he prays, hallowed be your Name. But he seemed to show the same reluctance as his fellow Jews in pronouncing the personal name of God. Today when Jews read the personal Name of God in the Hebrew Scriptures they substitute the term Adonai (Lord) or Ha Shem (the Name). Our English translations of the Bible have adopted this same practice so whenever you come across the word Lord in the Old Testament you can be sure the actual Hebrew text names the personal Name of God.

      So what is the actual personal Name of God? It is Yahweh. This Name was revealed to Moses when God appeared to him in the burning bush. God was directing Moses to go down to Egypt to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. Moses asked God whom shall I tell the people sends me, what is your Name? God replies in Exodus 3:15, Thus you shall say to the Israelites, Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you; this is my Name forever, and this is my title for all generations. We seldom pronounce this Name for following Jesus’ guidance we typically refer to Yahweh as the Father, or follow the custom of referring to Yahweh as the Lord. But in another sense we continually pronounce the Name for Jesus’ own name is a derivation of the name Yahweh. In Hebrew the name of Jesus is Yeshua and it means Yahweh saves. So every time we pronounce the name Jesus we are also pronouncing the Divine Name, Yahweh, and affirming like Jesus and David before him that He is our savior.

      All personal names have some meaning and Yahweh’s name is no different. In the same text where Moses asks God to reveal his Name, Yahweh replies, I am who I am. Or, the Hebrew words could also be translated as, I will be whom I will be. When Yahweh’s name is translated as, I am who I am, it affirms his attribute of eternal existence. He alone has life in himself and has always and will always exist. When the name is translated as, I will be who I will be, it affirms his attribute of freedom. There is no constraint upon his choices but he can freely chose to do whatever he wills. Both attributes are appropriate for the one who is God, the highest or Supreme Being. God is not a personal name rather it is title, referring to the office of the deity. In Hebrew the word for God is Elohim. And so the quintessential Hebrew confession of faith called the Shema is "Hear, O Israel: Yahweh (the Lord) is our Elohim (God), Yahweh (the Lord) alone. You shall love Yahweh (the Lord) your Elohim (God) with all your heart, and with your soul, and with your might. (Deuteronomy 6: 4,5) As a devout Jew, Jesus would have recited this confession of faith frequently, probably daily. Contractions of both Yahweh and Elohim appear in the names of many Biblical characters. We already noted that the name Jesus is a derivation of Yahweh. I was named after the Hebrew prophet Daniel whose name means God is my judge. Dan is the Hebrew word for judgment and el is the contraction of Elohim. And some other familiar Hebrew words also contain the contraction of Yahweh or Elohim. Hallelujah combines the Hebrew word for praise, hallel, and the contraction of Yahweh, jah. Bethel, a commonly used name for synagogues, combines the Hebrew word for house, beth, and the contraction of Elohim, el. Thus, it means House of God.

      The Hebrew Scriptures were written long before books were invented. At that time vellum, specially prepared animal skins were sewn together to form scrolls. Scribes wrote out the text by hand on the scrolls. The scrolls were rolled up on two spindles for

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