Blessed are the Pure in Heart (Bible Studies in the Old and the New Testaments)

A deeper look at the Old Testament yields a very important piece of information- the purity terminology used both in the ritual and in the spiritual contexts are the very same. This powerfully indicates that the ritual prescriptions of the Old Testament also have spiritual meanings. What ethical message does this have for Christians? That question is really the subject of this book which can be used for both personal and group Bible Study.

Dr. Melle Oosterhuis was born in 1949 to missionary parents in Indonesia. He grew up in the Netherlands and started studying forestry with an intention of returning to tropical mission fields to serve in forestry related to mission. It was during this time that he felt the calling to study theology. He enrolled in the Theological University in Kampen, Netherlands and completed his Masters in Old Testament Studies. He then embarked on a pastoral career that spanned over 40 years in the Reformed Churches in Netherlands. During this time, he pursued a PhD in Old Testament Studies and submitted his thesis on Purity Terminology in the Old Testament. Since his retirement as a Pastor, he has served as the moderator for the General Synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands for two terms. He has been happily married for 46 years to his wife Hannie, and God has blessed them with 7 children and 18 grandchildren.

Blessed are the pure in heart!

In his sermon on the mount Jesus congratulates the pure in heart.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. The pure in heart are acknowledged as the real believers. They are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven where they will see God.

Purity in heart seems the prerequisite to see God.

As such in these words of Jesus echoes the teaching of the entire Old Testament.

This is the main message of Moses and his rules about the worship of God.

It is also the message of all the prophets ever since Samuel. The encounter with God in the worship requires first of all a pure heart.

And this message is taken over by Jesus and the apostles.

It is one of the main issues of the New Testament.

This is what I step by step discovered during my PhD studies on purity in the Old Testament, first of all to my own surprise. At face value the purity stipulations in the law of Moses have nothing to do with our hearts. They seem part of a rather ritualistic system, that concentrates on the outside of religion. Infact the purity rules turn out to be an appeal to integrity in the encounter with God. As such they teach the same message as the prophets did. And as such those stipulations keep their value also in the New Testament.

Many people encouraged me to publish these insights on a more popular level for a broader public. Since I did so in Dutch, friends asked me to do it also in English and this resulted in the book Blessed the pure in heart.

**Contents and Sample Pages**