God’s Holy Word, the Bible

Our Anglo-Israel teaching is based solidly on the Bible, God’s great gift to the world. The basic purpose of the Bible is to give to man an understanding of the God of Israel. The first words of Genesis are, “In the beginning God”, and this gives an indication of its first priority. The Name of God or synonymous terms for His Holy Name are repeated over and over on almost every page. The Bible most effectively acquaints the prayerful reader with every aspect of God – as our loving Father, as the Creator of all that is real and permanent, as Protector, Redeemer, Healer, as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, as righteous Judge of all the world.

The reader is led to the conclusion that man is the humble servant of God, and that to be a blessing to his fellowman, man must be obedient to the Commandments, Statutes, and Judgments as laid down in the Bible. He must be a faithful follower of Christ – human effort must harmonize with the Will of God at every point. Otherwise we shall build on sand. Ecclesiastes 3:14 tells us, “Whatsoever God doeth it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it or anything taken from it’ Nothing material can pass that test, since all that is material is destructible and eventually returns to dust. But God and all that He creates is forever, as the writer of Ecclesiastes observed.

These facts of God and man make us humble. They give us a humility which is the first requisite for further-progress. If a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself and the truth is not in him.

This is well illustrated in the ancient history of a certain Eastern king of olden times, who sought ceaselessly to exalt himself. With slave labour he built a magnificent kingdom, with a breath-takingly beautiful capital city. He himself was the absolute ruler and dictator. He acknowledged no power above his own. Dominating all else, he erected a huge statue of himself, towering over its surroundings. Around the base he wrote in flamboyant lettering, “My name is Ozymandius, King of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” Humility was evidently not one of his strong points.

Centuries later a traveller passed through the now desolate, desert land. Half buried in the sand lay the wreckage of the statue, and as an English poet wrote, “Nothing beside remains round that colossal wreck. The lone and level sands stretch far away.” No record of the proud king’s reign, no towering statue, no glittering city remains. “The lone and level sands stretch far away.” Nothing remains except the stark lesson of the transient nature of the life of mortal man. Psalm 103 reminds us, “As for man, his days are as grass … For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone …”

So we see that our lives, if they are to amount to anything, must be dedicated to that gospel truth of the Bible which endures for ever, to the glorification of God alone. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” Acquaint now thyself with the God of Israel and be at peace. His is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever – unchanging over the millennia of time.

The proud and boastful, but basically ignorant Ozymandius and all his works are almost forgotten except as a negative warning. But the teaching of the Bible, and the teaching and example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, grow brighter and brighter each passing day. He came, not to glorify Himself, but to glorify His Father and our Father in heaven, as the Lord’s Prayer records. That Truth of God, that Scriptural Truth which Christ Jesus lived and died and rose again to prove, will continue to expand until, as Isaiah 11:9 prophetically foresaw, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”