The Call
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”i
The Apostle Paul’s words ring out over the centuries as some of the last he ever wrote. They conveyed to young Timothy the importance of “passing on” the great teachings of the faith. This was foremost in Paul’s mind before he died. “Preach the Word!”ii What poignant words in our day when many who attend church hear messages on almost every subject except how to understand the Bible. The real significance of the Bible’s eternal message and the relevancy for every generation is substituted with the pop psychology’s pabulum and personal opinion.
One of the purposes of The Olive Tree Foundation USA* is to usher in a return to our Hebraic/Judaic roots and perspective in the American church. The Lord Jesus was a Jew and all of the early disciples who followed Jesus were Jews. These early disciples followed the customs of the Jewish people and lived their entire lives in Jewish culture. These men were “uneducated and untrained men” (Greek “agrammatoi kai idiotai”), but they knew the Word of God (Old Testament/TaNaK) and had a true knowledge of its context and meaning. Their understanding of the Word of God - coupled with the passion of experiencing the resurrected Jesus - (“They realized they had been with Jesus” iii) “turned the world upside down.” iv
In our generation, pastors are not trained to understand the Bible in its historical, geographical, linguistic and cultural context. The Bible seems irrelevant to many today, even pastors. Theological institutions must teach the Bible from its Hebraic perspective, otherwise much of its great richness is lost. Every Bible writer from Moses to the Apostle John believed that the people to whom they were writing understood the language, culture, customs, idioms and overall historical and geographical context in which they were writing.v We simply do not. We are Western in our orientation, not Middle Eastern. Therefore to properly understand the Holy Scriptures one must have at least a minimal understanding of the Biblical culture.
The late Dr. H. Leo Eddleman championed a concept that few Bible teachers and seminary leaders have emphasized and taught since his passing. Eddleman said, “I can teach a pastor more in one week on-site in Israel than I can in the best seminary in America in a full year of study.” vi There is no substitute for learning about a subject on-site, in the context where it happened. To see the sights, smell the smells and hear the sounds are of prime importance for which there is no equal.
For example, anyone who is a serious student of Civil War history is never considered an authority on the subject without visiting the battlefields; at minimum the places where decisive battles occurred. Yet thousands of theological students graduate each year from evangelical universities and seminaries to begin lifelong ministries teaching the Bible, without ever visiting the places where it all happened in the first century. Additionally, in most churches, the Bible that Jesus used is rarely preached and taught. This is a tragedy.
The Olive Tree Foundation USA is dedicated to reversing this trend and helping pastors and Bible students return to the ancient landmarks that have been removed.vii
