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Last Word - Holy Land
From time to time I come across the expression "The Holy Land". which is perhaps not surprising given that I am a church member. Most recently I saw it in a travel advert for holidays in "The Holy Land.....Galilee and Jerusalem". Presumably the name is given to the land where Christ lived, taught and died - and rose again.
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible has a map of "Palestine in the time of Christ". It shows, among other things, Phoenicia, Samaria, Judaea, Peraea and De Capolis. Is that The Holy Land? I ask, partly because I am inclined to claim the title "the world's worst geographer" and have to look for some source of authority if I need to identify almost any country or region.
The answer might begin to become clearer if we look at non-Christian people and put the question to them. Muslims would almost certainly point immediately to Mecca; Tibetans might invite us to look no further than Tibet. It might be unsafe to put such a question to some peoples, because whatever answer was given might be bitterly, not to say physically contested.
I am reminded of "The Pilgrim's Progress" when Christian sees the Delectable Mountains, just discernible, a long, weary distance away. Travellers had many dangers to face before they found the shepherds on the Delectable Mountains able to show the way.
Like those pilgrims, our understanding is incomplete. At his last earthly meeting with the disciples, Jesus said to them "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem". The Holy Land, I suggest, is of the Spirit and those who find it are led by the Spirit.
Bob Mclean
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