Theology beacon dictionary of theology

Christ is actually continuing in heaven what He started on earth, for in the Gospels we often see Him speaking, acting, and praying on behalf of others. John 17 is a most beautiful example of intercessory prayer, and Christ taught His disci­ples to follow His example. The NT abounds with instances of the people of God interceding for each other or for unbelievers, so that today intercession is an important element of any well-ordered prayer.

The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as making intercession for the saints according to the will of God (Rom. 8:27).

See INTERCESSION (PROBLEM OF), PRAYER, ADVO­CATE.

For Further Reading: Buttrick, Prayer, 104-6, 110-12; Pope, a Compendium of Christian Theology, 3:236 ff; Wiley, CT, 2:214, 299; ZPEB, 3:294. C. paul gray

INTERCESSION, PROBLEM OF. Why intercession is necessary and how it works is a knotty prob­lem. On the human level intercession provides an essential link in communication and some­times a basis for negotiation. Between God and man the intercessor represents the estranged sin­ner by proxy, until such time as the sinner pleads for himself. It could be that the goodwill of the intercessor, as a temporary substitute for the sinner, whose own will is still recalcitrant, can provide the holy God with a moral basis for con­tinued divine action on the sinner's behalf. Yet such an arrangement would have to be viewed as a derivative of Christ's once-for-all mediatorial action, as the perfect moral basis for clemency.

The force of any intercession depends on the person of the intercessor. God is pleased to ac­cept the prayers of an Abraham or a Moses who has earned the right to intercede by acquiring a personal relationship with God, and thus an au­thority, which God honors. By His own obe­dience and by His vicarious death Christ acquired this intercessory right in perfect mea­sure. Christians who pray for others are entering into that right reflectively.

Yet the idea of intercession must never be con­strued to be an attempt to wheedle a deserved boon or release from a reluctant deity. This dis­tortion forgets that God as the aggrieved party is the One who himself has provided in His Son the Intercessor. Intercession must therefore be viewed (1) as a one-on-one implementation of the Atonement, and (2) as an appeal to the bridge already established between God's holi­ness and man's sin. Intercession thus claims in behalf of another the merit of Christ's blood, not for the granting of a deserved blessing but un­deserved mercy. Justice would close the door; God is pleased to accept intercession, in Christ's name, as grounds for keeping it open.

See INTERCESSION, PRAYER, MEDIATION (MEDIATOR). For Further Reading: Hallesby, Prayer

In the OT, the dwelling place of disembodied spirits is a place called sheol—the nether world—which, at times, seems to be one vast do­main, but at other times seems to be divided into two compartments: Paradise, a place of bliss for the righteous; Gehenna (or Hades), a place of torment where dwell the wicked.

During the intertestamental period the idea of an intermediate state continued to develop.

In both the LXX and the NT the Hebrew term sheol is translated hades in the Greek, and be­comes "hell" in the KJV. The meaning of Hades in the Greek language originally paralleled that of Sheol, but it has finally come to mean the abode of the wicked dead.

Neither the OT or the NT tells us all that we would like to know about what happens after death, and varying opinions have sprung up concerning the intermediate state of both the righteous and the wicked. Some in the church take the position that the soul sleeps from the time of death to the resurrection. Others insist that if men do not accept Christ in this life, they will have a second chance after death. Still others define the intermediate state as "purgatory."

The traditional Protestant position rejects the idea of soul sleep, the second chance theory, and the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. It does hold, however; that at death the righteous

See hades, paradise, spirit, resurrection of the body. immortality

Mohammed professed to be called by Allah in A.d. 610 to recite the divine message. What he received he wrote in the Qu'ran (Koran). Islam believes that the author of the Koran is God. The beautiful Arabic style of the literature, they af­firm, could only be from God, not the illiterate prophet. Mohammed began to proclaim his vi­sion, and in A.d. 630 gained control of Mecca, the center of Muslim faith.

Islam has spawned many sectarian groups, but there is a common body of doctrine. The articles of faith are:

1. 
   Belief in Allah—He is One, standing alone and self-subsistent. Omniscient and omnipotent, he guides men by his revelation.
   
2. 
   Belief in Angels—The Koran speaks of an­gels who carry out Allah's commands. The an­gels support the prophets. Gabriel is the chief angel.
   
3. 
   Belief in Prophets—There are prophets both major and minor. Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus are major prophets, but Mohammed is the great­est of the prophets. Prophets are human. They are worthy of respect but not worship.
   

5. Belief in the Last Day—It is a day of resur­rection and judgment and provides the greatest incentive for the Muslim to perfect himself.

Islam possesses not only articles of faith but a code of law (Shari'a) which regulates conduct. These are the "Five Pillars" of Islam:

1. 
   The worship of God— The Muslim repeats the confession: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah."
   
2. 
   Prayer— Five times a day at specified times following a precise formula; e.g., at dawn he kneels twice, at midday four times.
   
3. 
   The fast of Ramadan—During the ninth month the faithful fast and abstain from sexual relations from dawn to sunset. When one is able to distinguish between a white thread and a black at dawn, it is time for the fast to begin.
   
4. 
   Payment of a religious tax—This is a respon­sibility of every Muslim. It is used for the benefit of the poor, for education, and even defense.
   
5. 
   Pilgrimage—Once in a lifetime every Mus­lim is expected to go to Mecca, especially during the sacred month Dhu-al-Hijja. At Mecca all pil­grims are attired with a white seamless robe.
   

1. 
   The Sunnis—These are the traditionalists who follow a moderate rationalism. In inter­preting the law of Islam, the community has re­sponsibility. In effect this means the scholars trained in law consider a case and reach a deci­sion or a consensus (the ijma).
   
2. 
   The Shi'ites—They rejected the principle of consensus and place the authority for final inter­pretation in the hands of the Imam, the divinely appointed spiritual leader of Muslims, usually descended from Ali, Mohammed's son-in-law. The Shi'ites debate fiercely over the question of descent. Iran is largely Shi'ite and believes that the 12th Imam, Mohammed al-Muntazar, who disappeared in a.d. 878, is the Imam from whom their leadership is descended.
   
3. 
   The Sufis—These are the mystics who de­veloped a monastic life-style and sought union with God. They moved toward pantheism, stretching the limits of Muslim orthodoxy.
   

"Israel" occurs first as the new name of Jacob who persisted one night along the Jabbok until he received a blessing (Gen. 32:22-32, esp. v. 28). This incident and two Bethel experiences (28:10-17; 35:9-15) show that Israel was called by God for the same purpose as Abraham had been. His descendants, "sons of Israel," were to become a company of nations and of kings (35:11; cf. 17:6), the possessors of the land in which Bethel was located (35:12; cf. 17:8 and 28:13), and those through whom blessing (or salvation) would come to the nations of the earth (28:14; cf. 12:3).

"Israel," as a shortened form of "sons of Israel," became the name of a people known from several references outside the Bible but most widely from the many hundreds of OT refer­ences. They were the people whom God deliv­ered from Egyptian bondage and with whom He made a covenant at Sinai (Exod. 24:1-8) to be His "own possession," a "kingdom of priests," and a "holy nation" (19:5-6, nasb, rsv; cf. Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:9). This covenant, along with the promise to Abraham and Jacob, was Israel's call to be the witness in the world to God, who loves and de­livers enslaved people.

During the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon (see 1 Samuel 1—1 Kings 10) "Israel" was the name of a nation, applicable in the main to all the tribes under one king. "Israel" was also the name of the Northern Kingdom following the di­vision early in the reign of Rehoboam in contrast to Judah, the Southern Kingdom (1 Kings 12, esp. v. 16; see also 14:19, 29). Israel, the people or the nation which came under scattering judg­ment, never fully became the means corporately whereby redemption blessing came to the world, for this blessing came individually through Jesus, the Descendant of Israel.

From the time of the Exile onward, "Israel" was replaced by the term "Jew" with little or none of its former national significance. However, it has regained this significance with the establishment of modern Israel in the Holy Land in May, 1948.

A major recent concern in numerous publica­tions has been with modern Israel's biblical or "theological" right exclusively to possess the Holy Land, as well as with any present redemp­tive role of Israel. Political sympathies and differ­ences in interpreting the Bible will continue to result in disagreement over these questions.

See dispensationalism, dispersion, judaism, church, mission (missions, missiology).

For Further Reading: Bright, A History of Israel, 105-373; IDB, E-J:750-70; ZPEB, 335-72.

l-THOU. "I-Thou" refers to a concept given classi­cal form by the contemporary Jewish philo­sopher and theologian Martin Buber, in his book, / and Thou. "Thou," in Buber's thought, has a spe­cial reference to man's relation to God. Here a kind of mystical oneness is found in which the particular things of the world (the It) are not dis­regarded but are seen in their temporal relation. The contrast between these two ways of thinking are expressed in Buber's own words as follows: The world of It is set in the context of space and time. The world of Thou is not set in the context of either of these. Its context is in the Centre, where the extended lines of relations meet—in the eternal Thou.

Buber does not mean that what happens in this attitude is an experience; nor does he mean that it is a "content" received. Rather man re­ceives a Presence and a power in which some­thing happens, a meaning is assured, a meaning which relates to this life and this world.

The writings of many contemporary theolo­gians, both Catholic and Protestant, reflect Buber's insight. Among Protestants are Emil Bru­nner, Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, and Paul Tillich. Catholics include Fer­dinand Ebner, Gabriel Marcel, Erich Przywara, and Ernst Michel.