Hope That Does Not Disappoint

The Faulty Hope of Religious Tradition

The art of communication is being understood, and words are a form of communication. However, there needs to be a common understanding of the meaning between the speaker and listener of the words used. In linguistics, when two words from different languages sound the same but have a different meaning, these words are called false friends. The religion of Christian tradition taught in modern churches is full of false friends but because the theologically trained teachers of religion neglected to find out about the culture of the world into which Jesus was born, no-one is any the wiser. Take for instance the word hope. The hope taught in many modern churches is the afterlife, life after death, escaping hell and going to heaven when people die. This, say the teachers of Church religion, is where the Father’s house is. The Father’s house is the fairytale castle in the sky where faithful Churchgoers who have prayed the sinner’s prayer and believe the creeds and dogma of their own particular denomination or brand of Church religion go when they die.

Hope in the Bible

In Hebrew, one of the words commonly translated “hope” means to bind to something with a cord, and to live in the longing expectation of something good happening. Originally, within the Hebrew culture of the Bible, their hope had nothing to do with dying and going to heaven. In Luke 2, Anna the prophetess was hoping for the redemption of Jerusalem and Simeon was looking for the consolation (“paraklesis” or comforter in Greek) of Israel. In Mark 15, Joseph of Arimathea was waiting in hope for the Kingdom or Rule of God or Heaven upon the Earth. In Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus’ disciples were hoping that Jesus would redeem Israel back to Supremacy and in Acts 17, 23, and 24 Paul’s hope was resurrection from the dead. This was the original Messianic hope that the Kings and Prophets of old hoped for. This hope will be realised at Jesus’ second coming when He, as the Son of David, will establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon the Earth. That is why it says in 1 Peter 1:13 “Wherefore having girded up the loins of your mind, being sober, hope perfectly upon the grace that is being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ”.

The Hope of Inheritance

For Abraham and the ancient Hebrews, their natural hope was to father a son in their own image and likeness so that their son could perpetuate their generational seed line by bearing their image, reflection, character, behaviour or name in the next generation of sons. In order to do this a Hebrew son was given his father’s provision, protection, presence, and purpose and ultimately his father’s blessing. Jesus said in John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many rooms”, and just as the unborn sons lived in the house of their father’s body before they were born, the father’s true sons became their father’s house, and through their house or home, the fathers lived on. The true son was the embodiment or branch of the name or vine of his father if he bore the same fruit as his father in life. He did this by embracing his father’s God and his father’s purpose, behaving just like his father in every aspect of that life. Abraham fathered Isaac in his own image and likeness and gave Isaac his blessing and the inheritance of all that he owned so that Isaac could bear witness to Abraham and the wonderful fatherhood of God in the next generation of sons. In Hebrew, the word blessing meant a gift brought on bended knee, and the true son inherited his father’s blessing just as a father had an inheritance within the house of his true sons. Paul said in Ephesians 1:11-14 “in whom [Christ] also we did obtain an inheritance, being foreordained according to the purpose of Him who the all things is working according to the counsel of His will, for our being to the praise of His glory, even those who did first hope in the Christ, in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth—the good news of your salvation—in whom also having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory”. An inheritance was something that could not be earned, but it could certainly be lost by sons who disqualified themselves by not behaving like their father, cutting themselves off from their father’s vine. As such they did not bear the fruit of their father’s name. The earnest or guarantee of the living hope of an inheritance in God is the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood that changes people’s hearts by inspiring them to love as Jesus loves. This redeems the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood back into their hearts that was lost at the Fall. Those who live in love live in God; their hearts become to God an acquired or purchased possession that becomes God’s eternally inherited possession at the First Resurrection (see Revelation 20:5). However, it is only those who are counted worthy that are called by Jesus the Sons of Resurrection (see Luke 20:35). 

The Hope of Relationship

Jesus did not come to establish the hope of the Christian religion of Church tradition but rather the hope of relationship, a Father-Son relationship with God that all peoples everywhere can share. If you would like to understand how to escape the false-friend shackles of the Christian Church religion of tradition, truly understand the Biblical meaning of the word hope, and inherit the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of Almighty God that will dwell in your heart forever, then click here. Those whose hope is truly in the Lord will not be disappointed.