Video Transcript
We’re looking at the differences between Eastern and Western cultures and how it affects the relationship we have with God and the Bible. You may have seen some scriptures mention the differences between Jewish people and Greeks. Scripture often juxtaposes these two cultures because they really couldn’t be more different. 1 Corinthians 1:22 says, Jews demand a sign and Greeks look for wisdom. The Jewish people want to see it miraculously, the Greeks want to understand it philosophically. Paul shares the gospel to the Athenians. When they hear him share the gospel, they say, “May we know what this new teaching is that you’re presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ear, and we would like to know what they mean.” And then it says in verse 21, “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking and listening about the latest ideas.” Kind of sounds like us today. We’re listening to Ted Talks and YouTube videos.
How does this affect the way that we read scripture or relate to God? One of the biggest impacts it makes on our culture is how we view logic. Greek logic, which you will see being used with people in the Western world, is very linear. It’s step by step whereby each premise ultimately leads to a final conclusion. The only issue with this form of logic is it’s always through the perspective of the human being’s perception of reality, leaving no room or space for heavenly perspective. The Hebrew people thought more in what has been called block logic, where they would have a human perspective in one block and a heavenly perspective in another block. This makes perfect sense in the Hebrew mind, but drives Westerners mad because it often creates paradoxes or what we feel like are contradictions.
For example, in Exodus 8:15, it says, “When Pharaoh saw there was relief, he hardened his heart.” But then it says in Exodus 7, God says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”. And if you’re like me, you’re thinking, well, which is it? Well, you’re thinking like a Greek. The Bible is filled with these paradoxes. Isaiah 45 says, God is wrathful, but Habakkuk 3 says he’s merciful. The New Testament refers to Jesus as the lamb of God and the lion of Judah, hell is described as both a fiery lake and a place of darkness. Jesus says, whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. But he also says, no one comes to the Father unless the Father draws him. In Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is the prince of peace, but in Matthew 5:9, he says, I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
The Westerners are driven mad. While the ancient Hebrew people see no violation of logic as one block is the perspective of humans, and one block is the perspective of the divine, transcendent God. Man’s perspective is that Pharaoh hardened his heart, but the heavenly perspective is that God did. Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik said, “We Jewish people are practical. We are more interested in discovering what God wants to do than we are in describing God’s essence. Judaism is never afraid of these apparent contradictions. It acknowledges that the full reconciliation of the two is possible only with God. He is the coincidence of opposites.”
The Western logic struggles with this predetermined destiny of God. If he knows everything, then where is our free will? What’s the whole point of everything? But we may not realize that we’re thinking like a Greek, and there’s a Greek idea called fate. Fate was a predetermined future that could not be altered. The Hebrew view of predetermination would be described not as fate, but as providence. Providence does not believe in an unaltered future like fate. Fate leaves no room for God to be all powerful or show mercy or scripture often says, change his mind. It may seem like we have to choose either God has predetermined the future or we have free will, but the Hebrew mind never took either side. They live in harmony with both. Author Marvin Wilson says about the Jewish people, “Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are not incompatible.”
At the end of the day there are differences in the way that Hebrews and Greek see the world. These customs have been passed down to today and shape not only the way we see the world, but the way we see God. As Westerners, let’s be careful not to put God in a box and force him to choose one or the other. Joshua asks the angel of the Lord, “Are you for us or our adversaries?” And God’s response? “No.” His ways are higher than our ways, and sometimes the paradoxes, as hard as it is to reconcile, show the omniscience of God. He doesn’t come to take sides. He comes to take over.
