A popular and witty saying among Bible Teachers goes like this,“
A text without context is a pretext.”
Pretext, in the spiritual context, is a justification to act or establish some religious beliefs based on a misapplication of a verse or two.” A good understanding of context will help a Bible reader know when to take passages as literal or symbolic. This we learned in a recent year-long zoom study of Daniel and Revelation. Both Daniel and Revelation are highly symbolic, but they also contain literal scenes and truths. It is the lazy man’s way to say, “The whole Bible is symbolic.” This implies no one can understand God’s word and therefore we are unable to apply its literal applications.
A powerful example using context and therefore discerning between literalism/symbolism is found in John 6.
“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is [drink indeed.” John 6: 53-55
Wow! That sure sounds like Jesus is promoting cannibalism! But, if the religious teachers and disciples had just listened closely to ALL the words of Jesus (Context), they would know He was using symbols of bread and drink to tell a very important truth about eternal life and living a strong life in Him. But, some of the disciples were so confused that they never followed Him again,
“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more (verse 66).
This they did even after hearing Jesus’ explanation,
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” Verse 63
If they had been listening to the context of what Jesus had said before, they would have been prepared for this symbolic reference to God’s word. Jesus said in Matthew 4,
“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Verse 4
Jesus is quoting from the Book of Moses in Deuteronomy 8:30. Here God’s words are like bread that gives live (Spiritual life). The Twelve seemed to understand Him. Jesus asked them a question that Peter quickly answered showing He and the others closest to Him understood,
“Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. (Verse 67, 68)“
Another form of spiritual nourishment is found in the story of the woman at the well. Jesus’ disciples brought Him some food and He said,
“I have food to eat of which you do not know” (John 4:32).The disciples wondered, “Where did He get food?” He said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me” (verse 34).
So, when we do the will of Christ, we’re feeding our souls.
What is the spiritual lesson from Jesus’ reference to eating His flesh and drinking His blood? Do we take it literal? No! Jesus compares His words to bread or food. His blood is believing and trusting in His sacrifice for us. We need his “flesh” and “blood” every day to live. Just as we need food every day to live literally, we need to eat God’s words (read), absorb it (understand), and apply it to stay alive.
We must thirst and hunger after righteousness and then be satisfied in our souls by God’s word. This must be a daily ongoing experience for the believer, otherwise, we will find ourselves growing skinny, weak, and then dying from lack of spiritual substance. We must feed ourselves; we can’t depend on someone else to eat for us.
The result of “eating His flesh” and “drinking his blood” is this: Jesus will
“raise us up in the last days.”
This term is used 4 times in this chapter alone. What does this mean? It is the resurrection when Jesus comes in the last day! Wow! What a wonderful thought. A different topic for a different time. Next time we will look at how some religious teachers of today have taken this story and tried to turn it into a literal application of eating his flesh and drinking His blood.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet
“But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Mathew 2:1-6
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The following is based on Matthew 2:1-18 and Luke 2: 1-18
Our journey from Persia where the great Hebrew Prophet resided many years ago has been difficult. First, as we studied the prophecies of Daniel, we knew that the Messiah and great Savior of the world would be arriving soon…in our own life time!
We have fought sandstorms, cold, and that never-ending heat! My back aches from the monotonous rocking of my camel’s steps. It is like riding on a slow-moving boat pushed back and forth continually by repetitive ocean waves; perhaps another reason they call them ships of the desert. Despite all this, I am sure our inconveniences will be rewarded! We have put our hearts and time into this journey. We are certain of the prophecies from the ancient scrolls are accurate.
The camels have done well, but like us, they enjoy the breaks we often take and the people we meet along the way. When we pass through the many villages, the beasts become the center of attention for the children who try to feed them hay and anything else they can find.
The adults are filled with questions about our journey and our destination. They want to know where we come from. Their wide eyes reveal they are impressed with the distance we have traveled. We are glad to share with them the news of the Messiah and what we know from the ancient scrolls. Some consider us crazy, but many listen and wish they could go with us. They call it an adventure, but we know it is more…so much more.
Night time is my favorite part of the day because of the brightness of the star in the east and the peace that comes from the quiet, disturbed only by the crackling fire and the occasional snort of a tired camel. Our conversation around the fire is pleasant and lulls me into a deep sleep. The star is a constant reminder of the accuracy of the scrolls and a confirmation of our journey. Many people we have met have seen the unusually bright star and wondered. They don’t know what it means but are comforted by its beauty and marvel that its magnificence is not diminished by the light of day. When we started, it was low on the horizon, but it is rising and become brighter as we have drawn nearer to our destination, Bethlehem!
I lean back on the saddle I have used as a pillow and enjoy the warmth of the fire. I am warm and content. My journal and mind are filling up with my notes. I make this entry under the light from the twinkling star-lit night.
Now, we are only one day out from Jerusalem. We hope to visit King Herod and celebrate with him the coming of the Messiah. The town is surely busy with activity and celebration even though it has taken us many months to get this far.
Our anticipation grows so much that we wake in the clearness of the so we can arrive in Jerusalem early in the morning to seek audience with the king before we head off to Bethlehem only about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to the south of the capital city.
So I rise with the others, full of energy and anticipation of the day ahead of us. We mount our ships of the desert, who match our excitement to start moving again. This is going to be a good day! I can feel it!
The early morning air is cold and the star brighter than ever! We hear music in the distance. As we approach the outskirts of Jerusalem, we are greeted by shepherds watching over their sheep. With wonder in their eyes, they run up to our caravan and ask us the usual questions about us, our destination, and home.
I tell them the story of our journey and our wish to see the new baby king. They are polite and respectful and let us speak first. When we have a pause, they begin to talk fast and together as if they will burst if their words are not heard. Wonder and curiosity force us to quickly dismount our camels and gather around them. They calm themselves and begin to talk one at a time. Then begins their beautiful story of the events when the Messiah was born.
“We were in the field at night when we heard the sound of singing and joy and there was light all around us that lit up the countryside like it was daytime….only brighter.“
Then the next one speaks with equal intensity.“We were afraid! I turned my eyes toward the ground”
A third young man, a little older says,“The brightness was coming from an angel who told us tofear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”
“The angel told us to go to the city of David where we would find Christ the Lordand we would find a babywrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.”
Another one talks before the older one finishes,”The music continued and many more angels appeared high in the night sky!”
It is starting to come all together for me. The older boy exclaims with confidence, “That star you have followed are angels. They began to sing again as your caravan approached us.”
The youngest one blurts out, “After the angels appeared to us, we left our flocks and raced towards Bethlehem. There we found a woman by the name of Mary and her husband Joseph and there in a manger was the baby they call Jesus.”
My heart pounds faster as I realize we now know the name of the king! His name is Jesus! In the Greek, it means “Jehovah is Salvation.” The Hebrew name is Joshua. His mission is in His Name!
Their eyes are bright and they all nod their heads in agreement when the older shepherd boy slows down his words and says with tears in his eyes. “Our hearts are changed! We can’t stop talking about that night and the baby Jesus. We have told everyone! Even Mary rejoiced at our story!”
The visit with the young men has inspired and energized us! We have also learned the name of the mother and father. It is an easier climb back on my camel. Our strength has been renewed as well as our urgency to get to Bethlehem. The music and praise in the heavens grow louder and brighter even as the yellow and orange of the sunrise pushes us toward Jerusalem and King Herod.
We arrive in Jerusalem by mid-morning. The smell of food awakens our hunger. But, our great desire to see the king as soon as possible overrides all our other senses.
There is a crowd to meet us. It is easy to notice they are not like the excited shepherds. They are curious and seem afraid and worried. Maybe it is our large caravan and the way we look. Our skin and clothes are different.
We finally arrive at the king’s palace and request an audience with him. To my surprise, we are immediately invited in. A few of us go and the others mix with the growing crowd outside telling them of our journey and the new story from the shepherds which they had already heard. And of course, the children ask many questions and try to feed the camels.
King Herod reflects the same aura as the people outside. He looks concerned. For a moment I wonder if we made a mistake coming here.
I am the first one to speak.
In my excitement, I blurt out words without considering that I am talking to a king.
“Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”
I begin to think this was not a good question and statement…asking a reigning king about a king that will rule the Jews in the future. The king struggles to stay polite and excuses himself. We can hear him calling all his wise men and priests together, who were standing close by. He tries to whisper so we can’t hear, but the cold palace lets his voice carry easily through its halls.
He is angry and demands they tell him where this Christ would be born. We hear them quote the same scrolls we studied before and after we left on our long journey. The word “Bethlehem of Judea” is heard clearly.
We look at each other with the same surprise. They have taken the words of their ancient prophets so lightly. I feel foreboding and regret rising up as the king invites us back into his private chambers.
A forced smile appears on his troubled face. He apologizes for not being more hospitable and invites us to have some food and something to drink. I am uncomfortable. The meeting is uncomfortable. We politely eat some of the food even though our hunger is of a different sort.
He asks about our trip and we tell him about our long journey, the star in the east, and the shepherds we met just outside of town. We sense we should not be telling the king anything and look for an excuse to leave quickly.
Then he asks us a question he was eager to know. It seemed to be the main reason for his talking with us hinged on this question.
“When was it you first saw the star and began the journey ?”
Reluctantly, I tell him it has been almost two years. He then says in almost a whisper and an evil voice,
“Go and search for him and when you find him, bring him here to the palace that I might worship him too.”
With a jump and quick turn around, he immediately leaves us and disappears back into the palace.
The attendant escorts us back to our caravan and the crowd that has gathered. We never expected to have such a greeting. I along with my friends have become suspicious and concerned. We are glad to get back on our camels and back to following the star which has turned us south towards the sleepy little village of Bethlehem.
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The sun has risen fast. It waits for no one. We continue our journey south towards Bethlehem. It is a short distance, but we travel slowly enjoying the final leg of our journey. It will be dark before we arrive.
The excitement of seeing the new king of the Jews comes back to our hearts as we travel along silently contemplating the events of last night and this morning. The crowds have disappeared.
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There before us, lies the twinkling lights of the little city of Bethlehem! The star is just above the peaceful town shining its clear light and casting shadows on the surrounding hillside. How beautiful it is! We feel happiness and express our joy and congratulations to each other. A journey of hundreds of miles has brought us to this moment! A small group of people come to greet us at the entrance to the village. We ask for Mary and Joseph.
The star is almost directly overhead, as a sweet girl escorts us to a tiny house near the edge of town.
Dismounting our camels, we hear the music again far up in the night sky. Mary greets us at the door as we crowd into the small clean home.
We feel the presence of royalty as the young toddler Jesus walks into the room. Emotions overcome us and we fall down and worship the child we know to be the fulfillment of thousands of years of prophecy. We have seen him in all the scrolls of the Jews many times. The face of God is in his! We can sense a power that searches our hearts. Many of us weep and then gather ourselves so we can give our gifts.
We bring in our offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh and we celebrate our time with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. They make our visit enjoyable and pleasant. We spend the night laughing and playing with little Jesus. I take him up in my arms and show him the camels. They are calm and peaceful as Jesus reaches out and touches them. He wants to touch all of them! Never before have I see such a face as the One who looks at me. The others demand their time to hold him, so I pass him to the other men. I still feel his warmth in my arms and on my chest. The journey has been worth every step and more. My heart wants to burst with joy! I feel alive!
The rest of the night is spent talking and eating. Too soon, our time with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus is finished. Before we leave we ask for permission to anoint Jesus with more gifts we brought. It is a special moment when we place the sweet smell upon the head of Jesus as he sits in his mother’s lap. We are content and feel the presence of God in the room and in the sparkling eyes of the little king.
I am in wonder about why more people do not understand, that here before us is Immanuel (God with us)! This little boy will grow up to save the world from eternal death! He will pay the penalty that we deserve and teach us spiritual things about the kingdom of God! It is all in the ancient scrolls!
We wish to stay, but feel we must begin our journey back. We promise to return when the child is older. We know from the writings of the prophet Daniel, that the young child will live to be only about 30 years old and then he will sacrifice himself for the sins of the people and rise on the third day to show his power over the clutches of the grave and death.
Our wish is to return when he is older, but in the meantime, we pledge among ourselves to share, in our homeland, the good news of the birth of Jesus. We will begin to tell our story with those we will meet along the way back to our home in the west.
We say our good-byes to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and begin to head back north through the city.
I am stopped in my tracks as I begin to consider our strange visit with King Herod.
An man appears to me and tells me to take a different path home and head due east instead of retracing our journey. The king is up to some evil and we don’t want to help him in any way. We probably made a mistake visiting him and giving him information about the approximate age of the baby Jesus. It is an unfortunate turn of events. We are going to miss the young shepherd boys on the way back. I was looking forward to telling them of our visit.
The star is gone as we begin our travel home. We stop to rest when we feel we have put some distance between us and King Herod. Around the fire, we talk about our great journey and look again at scripture. We come across a disturbing message from the prophet Jeremiah:
“Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
Jeremiah 31:15
Soon the voices and the fire go out and we sleep…exhausted from excitement and the sleep we missed,I can feel the warmth of my camel next to me. The trip home will be long, but it will go fast as we tell the wonderful story of Jesus along the way.
Later, the next day, we hear the news and fulfillment of that passage in Jeremiah that troubled us. King Herod had all the male children 2 years old and younger killed. What a cruel and foolish man!
We also got news that Joseph was warned of Herod’s intention and our friends Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus escaped to the safety of Egypt.
Later, we would learn Joseph took his family to a little town called Nazareth after Herod died.
More fulfillment of the ancient scrolls:
“And out of Egypt, I called my son.”
Hosea 11:1
Our journey to find Jesus was long and difficult, but we have been transformed by it. The scrolls, the star, the shepherds even the evil king Herod has made us wiser. But most of all, it has made us a believer in Jesus.
We will continue to study the ancient scrolls because now that we have seen Jesus ourselves, we can see Him in every story told there.
So many scrolls to read, so little time.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
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My friends, join me in a Christmas worship of the One who gave all that we might have all. Let us fall on our knees this night as we think about the birth of Jesus and the visit of men who were seeking Him. They found Him! Have you?
Listen to my teaching, and you will be wise; do not ignore it.
Proverbs 8:33
A Brilliant Mind Falls Short
Albert Einstein was arguably one of the most brilliant minds of all times, yet he admitted his short-comings and “limited mind” on the topic of God. He did not believe in a personal God. He considered himself an agnostic or a “religious unbeliever.”
Einstein was not an atheist. He could see the work of a Creator in the order of the cosmos. He often complained about being put into the atheist camp:
“In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views.”5
“I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the booksbut doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.”6
In a 1947 letter, he stated, “It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously.”[12] In a letter to Beatrice Frohlich on 17 December 1952, Einstein stated,
“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”[13]
He also said, in an interview with the Saturday Evening Post (1929):
“As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”
When asked,
“Do you accept the historical existence of Jesus?”, He replied emphatically,
“Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”7
The Shortcoming of Scientific Intelligence-Lack of Knowledge
Here is the oxymoron of Einstein’s statements. It fits many who consider Jesus to be a wise teacher, but nothing more:
Albert had doubts about the existence of a personal God, but he found Jesus wise and appealing in many ways. That is personal. Despite all this, he would not follow God’s own instructions so that he could know him personally:
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
God, Himself, tells the reader of His word that it is possible to know and understand Him.
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these, I delight,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:24
It is possible to have a personal relationship with One who delights in things. Being delightful is a very human emotion. It is an emotion that God possesses. There are human beings (like God) who are loving, kind, and always do the right thing for others, often sacrificing their desires and comforts. They did not come to be this way by themselves. God is the author of these qualities! But, there is another author at work that has opposite attributes.
Here is the big hangup in the scientific mind. Scientists won’t accept the fact that evil had a beginning and the flames of its passion are whipped up by this entity in the minds and hearts of people every day. He is the author of destruction and death.
The scientific mind can’t, or won’t, consider the Bible as a viable book to read and study; therefore, they will not search for spiritual knowledge. And since they won’t search its inspired writers, their skepticism grows. The converted Paul said,
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14
They can’t see the order of the cosmos and life, as did Mr. Einstein. They would rather attribute it to chance and billions of years of blind luck. But, let’s be fair. There are some very good reasons for people to doubt the existence of God or, at the least, a personal God.
Real followers of Christ (not the religious) have found that the key to understanding God is Jesus. It is all about Him from Genesis to Revelation:
1 Corinthians 2:14
You search the Scriptures… these are they which testify of Me.-Jesus
John 5:39
At another time, Jesus revealed to his disciples an important truth about the God of the Old Testament and Himself.
“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
Luke 24: 44, 45
So if the scriptures are about Jesus, we can’t just say he is a “good teacher” or a “good moral man”….who suddenly and without warning appeared on the scene. He is the One who all the writers of the Old Testament wrote and sought over the millennia. But, when
“the time was right, God sent his Son…” Galatians 4:4
So, why wouldn’t a scientific mind desire to know Jesus and scripture? It is because it is not science and does not fit into the comfortable world of science and its sterile operational paradigms. The Bible is not a book of science, but rather a book about the human experience and spiritual truths. If God is all that He claims to be, then He is the author of science and the scientists are merely the discoverers of His science. For example, scientists did not create the laws of gravity, they discovered them.
Another couple of reasons for the scientific mind to dismiss the book that provides insight into many of the human experiences not addressed by science is the radical religionists and suffering.
The religious people are their own worst enemy! The ones who are not real followers of Jesus, but people who are ”religious,” portray the God of mercy and loving-kindness and his truth into undesirable rounds of ceremonies, does and don’ts, eternal torment, and guilt trips. Some even feel God desires them to terrorize people into belief. I am not just talking about our friends in the middle east. How often is eternal burning hell used as a weapon to scare the uninformed into belief?
You can’t blame unbelievers. For a long time, this was my main reason for unbelief and disdain for churches. There are no answers or peace in such a religious world. But, there is a path to truth in Jesus, who invites people into a one-on-one experience with Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Often I receive comments from readers of this blog and some of my Facebook sites who say that Jesus is “an imaginary friend.” While others ask, “Where was God’ when my (fill in a family member relationship) died from cancer or was killed in a car wreck, etc.
Einstein had similar feelings about the incompatibility of a caring God and the daily horrors of planet earth:
How many have asked….
“Why would God allow my family member to die of cancer?”
“Why has he allowed death and destruction to reign on this planet?”
“Where was God when...If there is a God, He is not in control.”
These questions pre-suppose that God should make our lives perfect and without sin, death, and destruction. To the uninformed, belief is contingent upon our feelings of what God should be to us. But, this is not according to what God reveals in His word. This author captures my next thoughts exactly:
God made man perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the Creator’s hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of God’s law–the law of love–that has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the suffering that results from sin, God’s love is revealed. It is written that God cursed the ground for man’s sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle–the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care–were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God’s plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.
God’s Love for Man. Page 9
When God made man as described in the opening chapters of Genesis, everything He made, He declared “good” or “very good.” There was not death, decaying, or the curse. But something went wrong. Evil ( in the form of a rebellious angel called Lucifer), began our journey of sin, death, and decay. He is the author of the bad things in this life, not God for it is written:
Everything good comes from God. Every perfect gift is from him. These good gifts come down from the Father who made all the lights in the sky. But God never changes like the shadows from those lights. He is always the same.
James 1:17 (ERV)
So when we blame God for the evil in this world, we demonstrate we do so without a knowledge of God and what He has been revealed to us through his word.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55: 8, 9
Einstein’s failure to understand the motives of God are the result of his incorrect assumption that God intended this universe as His ultimate perfect creation. Einstein could not get past the moral problems that are present in our universe. He assumed, as most atheists do that a personal God would only create a universe that is both good morally and perfect physically. Where Einstein erred was in that thinking that there was a god who designed the universe, but designed it in such a way as to allow evil without a purpose
It would be too inconvenient or dangerous to the dedicated scientist and to their worldview to consider there might be more to existence than what can be explained only through formulas, books, test tubes, and philosophies. Unbelieving professors that focus only on what can be seen and understood severely limit the God-created mind. Therefore, many won’t listen or follow any of Jesus’ words even though all are invited to follow Him down a path of discovery. So His words are chosen by unbelievers and religionists like fruit from the tree of knowledge to fit their own likeness of God. At the same time, other less palatable instructions are left to rot on the altar of narcissism and selfishness.
…while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
John 5:39
Ultimately, we cannot project limited human thoughts, philosophies, or reasoning upon God and create Him in our own image. He is supreme. We are not. He is omnipotent; we are not.
How can we intelligently base our decision to be an unbeliever based on cancer, which is often the result of our own actions i.e., smoking cigarettes or runaway eating of anything and everything?
The order and intelligence of the design of the universe leave us will little excuse for unbelief.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
Romans 1:20
Yes, you can know God personally, but you must search and desire to understand and gain knowledge, unlike what you will learn from the textbooks or even blog sites like this. Being a scientist does not mean you can’t study and read the Bible. If you do, at the least, you will find wisdom. Many scientists are believers in Jesus and have faith in God’s word.
I have concluded that unbelievers are uninformed! When I searched out Jesus through the Bible, I found Him. He is there if you will just look.
Listen to my teaching, and you will be wise; do not ignore it.
Proverbs 8:33
If you want to begin your Jesus journey through the Bible, I invite you to click on the site below to start a basic understanding of God’s word. These studies will lead you to a deeper understanding of spiritual things and the God who made the universe.
“Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” (Albert Einstein, “Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium”, 1941)
“My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.” (Albert Einstein in a letter to M. Berkowitz, October 25, 1950; Einstein Archive 59–215; from Alice Calaprice, ed., The New Quotable Einstein, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005, p. 206. )
G. S. Viereck, Glimpses of the Great (Macauley, New York, 1930), quoted by D. Brian, Einstein: A Life , p. 186.
G. S. Viereck, “What Life Means to Einstein,” Saturday Evening Post, 26 October 1929; Schlagschatten, Sechsundzwanzig Schicksalsfragen an Grosse der Zeit (Vogt-Schild, Solothurn, 1930), p. 60; Glimpses of the Great (Macauley, New York, 1930), pp. 373-374.
“If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about me.”
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel… By which also ye are saved… unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, ow that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”
Have you been able to see Jesus in the books of Moses (Generally accepted as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)? Have you seen Him in the other books of the Old Testament?
If you haven’t seen Jesus in the Old Testament you have missed 59% of the story about Jesus.
Come with me as we take a walk with two disciples who, after a three to four hour Bible study with Jesus had their lives changed. They went from massive disappointment to solid believers in Jesus. It can do the same for you.
This is written in first-person for a “reality” version of the story. At the end is some additional material which should appeal to your logic.
It was early in the morning and the sky was getting brighter as I walked the dusty road speaking in low tones with my friend Cleopas about the things which had transpired over the last few days. So many things! All very bad!
It started with the arrest of Jesus in the Garden east of the city. During the night and into the early morning of the Preparation Day (Friday) the soldiers and mob began to move Him between the governor and religious leadership. Then they beat Him to a pulp and eventually crucified our Friend and Leader on a Roman cross on the hill outside of Jerusalem later in the afternoon of the Preparation Day.
I watched from a distance as He hung His head and took his last breath. He said something at the end, but I was unable to hear because I was trying to stay far enough away so that no one would try to connect me with Him . I would certainly be labeled as a fanatic believer in this prophet who the clergy had called a blasphemer. This led to his death. I think I saw Peter off in the distance. He appeared to be on his knees with his face in his hands. His disappointment must be very great!
There had been an earthquake and the sun refused to shine. Darkness took over the land like a thick smothering blanket. Everything seemed out of place…frightening. The large curtain in the temple had been ripped from top to bottom by some unseen hand. There were even reports of people, considered saints, coming out of their graves and appearing to many in the city! (Matthew 27: 51-53)
My personal disappointment is great because I believed everything He had taught. I was amazed at His great miracles and works of kindness. His followers thought Him to be the Messiah prophesied by many of the prophets hundreds of years ago. He was going to set up His kingdom and deliver my people from the iron rule of Rome. We thought He was the coming king upon which hung on all our hopes.
But, it seemed like He did not want the office of king. I had left everything to follow Him and learn His teachings. My commitment all came to nothing on Friday afternoon when He died. Now only doubt, but also sadness and disappointment hung on Cleopas and me like a heavy smelly cloak belonging to someone else. I want an explanation, but the reality of deception was creeping into my thoughts and it made me feel sick and foolish.
On top of everything else, the body of Jesus is missing! The women followers said He was alive, confirmed by a couple of other disciples, but I know better. It is just wishful thinking on their part. No one could have survived the beating, the nails, the loss of blood, and finally the sharp sword in the side. I saw it and refuse to believe anything but what my eyes can confirm. There was no mistaking… the vision of so much blood and the pale appearance of death was real.
It is the first day of the week. Fresh days lie before us as we make our way to Emmaus to start over; a walk of about 8 miles. It will take me the usual 3 1/2 hours or so to walk…maybe longer today because of our conversation and a heavy heart. This will give us plenty of time to try and put all the pieces together….to try to understand and make sense of everything and to decide what to do with the rest of our lives.
All of a sudden, an unexpected stranger walks up from behind and joins us. He asks,
“Why are you so sad and what are you discussing?”
I find these two questions odd in the light of the excitement and well-known events of the weekend. Slightly agitated and amazed Cleopas speaks before I can open my mouth and he answers the question with a question. He throws in some sarcasm for good measure.
“Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem that does not know the things which happened there these last few days?”
I am even more amazed when the stranger asks,
“What things?”
In disbelief, we began to explain to the young manr the events of the weekend. Reviewing everything does not help my disappointment and we rush through them as a courtesy to the stranger.
“These things concern Jesus of Nazareth who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. Then they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see.” Luke 24: 19-24
Then the stranger calls Cleopas and me “foolish ones” and that we are “slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken” This is certainly not so! I have always believed the prophets. I have come from a family who believes in the Tanakh (Old Testament) and I have read it often. The prophets said, that the Messiah would come and deliver Israel from its enemies. But the stranger began to recite the writings of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy) and all the Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Micah, Malachi, etc) of the Tanakh and explain things I had missed in my readings.
The stranger clearly points out passages that were references to Jesus. For the next 3 hours, I am amazed at the knowledge and clarity of the stranger’s words. As I listened to the stranger recite our ancient books, I begin to see that it was necessary for Jesus to die for the sins of the world, but that He would be raised up the third day! How had I missed that? Why had we not believed Jesus when He said it was necessary for Him to die and that he would rise again? It was like I had been reading the scripture the way I wanted it to read instead of letting it talk to me! Indeed, we felt foolish but encouraged by the words of the stranger. My heart burned within me! I wanted to hear more! This was all exciting and new to me!
As we get near the village where we plan to rest, it is almost dark. I don’t want the stranger to go and I look for excuses for Him to stay the night so we can hear more. Thankfully, He agrees to have supper with us. As He breaks the bread, I recognize those hands and the manner in which He breaks it! I finally look across the table into his eyes at about the same time as Cleopas. It is Jesus! As soon as we recognize him, He disappears! We had been talking to Jesus the whole time and we didn’t recognize Him!
With intense excitement and joy, Cleopas and I jump up and run the 8 miles back to Jerusalem! We must tell the 11 who were behind closed doors who share our confusion and disappointment. When we arrive, we find them huddled in a group in fear and disappointment. Out of breath, we begin to tell them what had happened over the last several hours. As we are telling them, Jesus appears in the room!
Everyone jumps back. They think they are seeing a spirit, but Jesus tells them it is Him and that He is not a spirit. To prove it, He invites them to touch Him and He asks for something to eat. They give Him some fish and some honeycomb. After everyone settles down and the scales of their eyes begin to fall away, Jesus repeats the same type of study Cleopas and I heard on the road to Emmaus. This time, He uses the entire Tanakh including the Psalms to explain how He is found all through scripture. All the disciples begin to understand that He had to die, but that He would rise on the third day. How could we have missed this? It was right there!
Then He said to us,
“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. (And He opened our understanding that we might comprehend the Scriptures.”) Luke 24:44
Do we need Jesus to open our understanding of Scriptures? Have we missed Jesus as we have read the Old Testament? What did Jesus teach these two disciples when He explained passages from all the books of the Old Testament? Is the Old Testament not relevant to New Testament Christians? Have we misunderstood Jesus? What does the entire Bible teach about Him?
Next, we will take a look at Jesus through the eyes of one who is a well-known doubter Thomas and attempt to understand why the resurrection of Jesus is an absolute cornerstone of the Christian faith. In fact, without it, Paul says we are most pitiful of all men. But, after we see through the eyes of Thomas we will exclaim as he did:
What is the possibility of one man fulfilling only eight of the Old Testament prophecies?
It is 1 x 1028 or 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Given this and the time span between the writings of the Old Testament and the fulfillment by Christ in the New Testament, the prophecies were either given to the prophets by God, or the prophets just wrote them down as they thought they should be. With Christ fulfilling all eight prophecies, what are the odds the prophets were just guessing?
“Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me”
Psalm 40:7.
“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”
Revelation 19:10.
“…all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me”
Jesus Christ, Luke 24:44.
“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.”
Jesus Christ, John 5:46.
“To Him give all the prophets witness”
Acts 10:43.
353 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ!
Prophecy
Fulfillment
1. Gen. 3:15
Seed of a woman (virgin birth)
Galatians 4:4-5, Matthew 1:18
2. Gen. 3:15
He will bruise Satan’s head
Hebrews 2:14, 1John 3:8
3. Gen. 3:15
Christ’s heel would be bruised with nails on the cross
Matthew 27:35, Luke 24:39-40
4. Gen. 5:24
The bodily ascension to heaven illustrated
Mark 16:19
5. Gen. 9:26, 27
The God of Shem will be the Son of Shem
Luke 3:36
6. Gen. 12:3
Seed of Abraham will bless all nations
Galatians 3:8, Acts 3:25, 26
7. Gen. 12:7
The Promise made to Abraham’s Seed
Galatians 3:16
8. Gen. 14:18
A priest after the order of Melchizedek
Hebrews 6:20
9. Gen. 14:18
King of Peace and Righteousness
Hebrews 7:2
10. Gen. 14:18
The Last Supper foreshadowed
Matthew 26:26-29
11. Gen. 17:19
Seed of Isaac (Gen. 21:12)
Romans 9:7
12. Gen. 22:8
The Lamb of God promised
John 1:29
13. Gen. 22:18
As Isaac’s seed, will bless all nations
Galatians 3:16
14. Gen. 26:2-5
The Seed of Isaac promised as the Redeemer
Hebrews 11:18
15. Gen. 28:12
The Bridge to heaven
John 1:51
16. Gen. 28:14
The Seed of Jacob
Luke 3:34
17. Gen. 49:10
The time of His coming
Luke 2:1-7; Galatians 4:4
18. Gen. 49:10
The Seed of Judah
Luke 3:33
19. Gen. 49:10
Called Shiloh or One Sent
John 17:3
20. Gen. 49:10
Messiah to come before Judah lost identity
John 11:47-52
21. Gen. 49:10
Unto Him shall the obedience of the people be
John 10:16
22. Ex. 3:13-15
The Great “I AM”
John 4:26, 8:58
23. Ex. 12:5
A Lamb without blemish
Hebrews 9:14; 1Peter 1:19
24. Ex. 12:13
The blood of the Lamb saves from wrath
Romans 5:8
25. Ex. 12:21-27
Christ is our Passover
1Corinthians 5:7
26. Ex. 12:46
Not a bone of the Lamb to be broken
John 19:31-36
27. Ex. 15:2
His exaltation predicted as Yeshua
Acts 7:55, 56
28. Ex. 15:11
His Character-Holiness
Luke 1:35; Acts 4:27
29. Ex. 17:6
The Spiritual Rock of Israel
1Corinthians 10:4
30. Ex. 33:19
His Character-Merciful
Luke 1:72
31. Lev. 1:2-9
His sacrifice a sweet smelling savor unto God
Ephesians 5:2
32. Lev. 14:11
The leper cleansed-Sign to priesthood
Luke 5:12-14; Acts 6:7
33. Lev. 16:15-17
Prefigures Christ’s once-for-all death
Hebrews 9:7-14
34. Lev. 16:27
Suffering outside the Camp
Matthew 27:33; Heb. 13:11, 12
35. Lev. 17:11
The Blood-the life of the flesh
Matthew 26:28; Mark 10:45
36. Lev. 17:11
It is the blood that makes atonement
Rom. 3:23-24; 1John 1:7
37. Lev. 23:36-37
The Drink-offering: “If any man thirst”
John 7:37
38. Num. 9:12
Not a bone of Him broken
John 19:31-36
39. Num. 21:9
The serpent on a pole-Christ lifted up
John 3:14-18, 12:32
40. Num. 24:17
Time: “I shall see him, but not now.”
John 1:14; Galatians 4:4
41. Deut. 18:15
“This is of a truth that prophet.”
John 6:14
42. Deut. 18:15-16
“Had ye believed Moses, ye would believe me.”
John 5:45-47
43. Deut. 18:18
Sent by the Father to speak His word
John 8:28, 29
44. Deut. 18:19
Whoever will not hear must bear his sin
Acts 3:22-23
45. Deut. 21:23
Cursed is he that hangs on a tree
Galatians 3:10-13
46. Joshua 5:14-15
The Captain of our salvation
Hebrews 2:10
47. Ruth 4:4-10
Christ, our kinsman, has redeemed us
Ephesians 1:3-7
48. 1 Sam. 2:35
A Faithful Priest
Heb. 2:17, 3:1-3, 6, 7:24-25
49. 1 Sam. 2:10
Shall be an anointed King to the Lord
Mt. 28:18, John 12:15
50. 2 Sam. 7:12
David’s Seed
Matthew 1:1
51. 2 Sam. 7:13
His Kingdom is everlasting
2Peter 1:11
52. 2 Sam. 7:14a
The Son of God
Luke 1:32, Romans 1:3-4
53. 2 Sam. 7:16
David’s house established forever
Luke 3:31; Rev. 22:16
54. 2 Ki. 2:11
The bodily ascension to heaven illustrated
Luke 24:51
55. 1 Chr. 17:11
David’s Seed
Matthew 1:1, 9:27
56. 1 Chr. 17:12-13
To reign on David’s throne forever
Luke 1:32, 33
57. 1 Chr. 17:13
“I will be His Father, He…my Son.”
Hebrews 1:5
58. Job 9:32-33
Mediator between man and God
1 Timothy 2:5
59. Job 19:23-27
The Resurrection predicted
John 5:24-29
60. Psa. 2:1-3
The enmity of kings foreordained
Acts 4:25-28
61. Psa. 2:2
To own the title, Anointed (Christ)
John 1:41, Acts 2:36
62. Psa. 2:6
His Character-Holiness
John 8:46; Revelation 3:7
63. Psa. 2:6
To own the title King
Matthew 2:2
64. Psa. 2:7
Declared the Beloved Son
Matthew 3:17, Romans 1:4
65. Psa. 2:7, 8
The Crucifixion and Resurrection intimated
Acts 13:29-33
66. Psa. 2:8, 9
Rule the nations with a rod of iron
Rev. 2:27, 12:5, 19:15
67. Psa. 2:12
Life comes through faith in Him
John 20:31
68. Psa. 8:2
The mouths of babes perfect His praise
Matthew 21:16
69. Psa. 8:5, 6
His humiliation and exaltation
Hebrews 2:5-9
70. Psa. 9:7-10
Judge the world in righteousness
Acts 17:31
71. Psa. 16:10
Was not to see corruption
Acts 2:31, 13:35
72. Psa. 16:9-11
Was to arise from the dead
John 20:9
73. Psa. 17:15
The resurrection predicted
Luke 24:6
74. Psa. 18:2-3
The horn of salvation
Luke 1:69-71
75. Psa. 22:1
Forsaken because of sins of others
2 Corinthians 5:21
76. Psa. 22:1
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46
77. Psa. 22:2
Darkness upon Calvary for three hours
Matthew 27:45
78. Psa. 22:7
They shoot out the lip and shake the head
Matthew 27:39-44
79. Psa. 22:8
“He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him”
Matthew 27:43
80. Psa. 22:9-10
Born the Saviour
Luke 2:7
81. Psa. 22:12-13
They seek His death
John 19:6
82. Psa. 22:14
His blood poured out when they pierced His side
John 19:34
83. Psa. 22:14, 15
Suffered agony on Calvary
Mark 15:34-37
84. Psa. 22:15
He thirsted
John 19:28
85. Psa. 22:16
They pierced His hands and His feet
John 19:34, 37; 20:27
86. Psa. 22:17, 18
Stripped Him before the stares of men
Luke 23:34, 35
87. Psa. 22:18
They parted His garments
John 19:23, 24
88. Psa. 22:20, 21
He committed Himself to God
Luke 23:46
89. Psa. 22:20, 21
Satanic power bruising the Redeemer’s heel
Hebrews 2:14
90. Psa. 22:22
His Resurrection declared
John 20:17
91. Psa. 22:27-28
He shall be the governor of the nations
Colossians 1:16
92. Psa. 22:31
“It is finished”
John 19:30, Heb. 10:10, 12, 14, 18
93. Psa. 23:1
“I am the Good Shepherd”
John 10:11, 1Peter 2:25
94. Psa. 24:3
His exaltation predicted
Acts 1:11; Philippians 2:9
95. Psa. 30:3
His resurrection predicted
Acts 2:32
96. Psa. 31:5
“Into thy hands I commit my spirit”
Luke 23:46
97. Psa. 31:11
His acquaintances fled from Him
Mark 14:50
98. Psa. 31:13
They took counsel to put Him to death
Mt. 27:1, John 11:53
99. Psa. 31:14, 15
“He trusted in God, let Him deliver him”
Matthew 27:43
100. Psa. 34:20
Not a bone of Him broken
John 19:31-36
101. Psa. 35:11
False witnesses rose up against Him
Matthew 26:59
102. Psa. 35:19
He was hated without a cause
John 15:25
103. Psa. 38:11
His friends stood afar off
Luke 23:49
104. Psa. 38:12
Enemies try to entangle Him by craft
Mark 14:1, Mt. 22:15
105. Psa. 38:12-13
Silent before His accusers
Matthew 27:12-14
106. Psa. 38:20
He went about doing good
Acts 10:38
107. Psa. 40:2-5
The joy of His resurrection predicted
John 20:20
108. Psa. 40:6-8
His delight-the will of the Father
John 4:34, Heb. 10:5-10
109. Psa. 40:9
He was to preach the Righteousness in Israel
Matthew 4:17
110. Psa. 40:14
Confronted by adversaries in the Garden
John 18:4-6
111. Psa. 41:9
Betrayed by a familiar friend
John 13:18
112. Psa. 45:2
Words of Grace come from His lips
John 1:17, Luke 4:22
113. Psa. 45:6
To own the title, God or Elohim
Hebrews 1:8
114. Psa. 45:7
A special anointing by the Holy Spirit
Mt. 3:16; Heb. 1:9
115. Psa. 45:7, 8
Called the Christ (Messiah or Anointed)
Luke 2:11
116. Psa. 45:17
His name remembered forever
Ephesians 1:20-21, Heb. 1:8
117. Psa. 55:12-14
Betrayed by a friend, not an enemy
John 13:18
118. Psa. 55:15
Unrepentant death of the Betrayer
Matthew 27:3-5; Acts 1:16-19
119. Psa. 68:18
To give gifts to men
Ephesians 4:7-16
120. Psa. 68:18
Ascended into Heaven
Luke 24:51
121. Psa. 69:4
Hated without a cause
John 15:25
122. Psa. 69:8
A stranger to own brethren
John 1:11, 7:5
123. Psa. 69:9
Zealous for the Lord’s House
John 2:17
124. Psa. 69:14-20
Messiah’s anguish of soul before crucifixion
Matthew 26:36-45
125. Psa. 69:20
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful.”
Matthew 26:38
126. Psa. 69:21
Given vinegar in thirst
Matthew 27:34
127. Psa. 69:26
The Saviour given and smitten by God
John 17:4; 18:11
128. Psa. 72:10, 11
Great persons were to visit Him
Matthew 2:1-11
129. Psa. 72:16
The corn of wheat to fall into the Ground
John 12:24-25
130. Psa. 72:17
Belief on His name will produce offspring
John 1:12, 13
131. Psa. 72:17
All nations shall be blessed by Him
Galatians 3:8
132. Psa. 72:17
All nations shall call Him blessed
John 12:13, Rev. 5:8-12
133. Psa. 78:1-2
He would teach in parables
Matthew 13:34-35
134. Psa. 78:2b
To speak the Wisdom of God with authority
Matthew 7:29
135. Psa. 80:17
The Man of God’s right hand
Mark 14:61-62
136. Psa. 88
The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary
Matthew 27:26-50
137. Psa. 88:8
They stood afar off and watched
Luke 23:49
138. Psa. 89:27
Firstborn
Colossians 1:15, 18
139. Psa. 89:27
Emmanuel to be higher than earthly kings
Luke 1:32, 33
140. Psa. 89:35-37
David’s Seed, throne, kingdom endure forever
Luke 1:32, 33
141. Psa. 89:36-37
His character-Faithfulness
Revelation 1:5, 19:11
142. Psa. 90:2
He is from everlasting (Micah 5:2)
John 1:1
143. Psa. 91:11, 12
Identified as Messianic; used to tempt Christ
Luke 4:10, 11
144. Psa. 97:9
His exaltation predicted
Acts 1:11; Ephesians 1:20
145. Psa. 100:5
His character-Goodness
Matthew 19:16, 17
146. Psa. 102:1-11
The Suffering and Reproach of Calvary
John 19:16-30
147. Psa. 102:25-27
Messiah is the Preexistent Son
Hebrews 1:10-12
148. Psa. 109:25
Ridiculed
Matthew 27:39
149. Psa. 110:1
Son of David
Matthew 22:42-43
150. Psa. 110:1
To ascend to the right-hand of the Father
Mark 16:19
151. Psa. 110:1
David’s son called Lord
Matthew 22:44, 45
152. Psa. 110:4
A priest after Melchizedek’s order
Hebrews 6:20
153. Psa. 112:4
His character-Compassionate, Gracious, et al
Matthew 9:36
154. Psa. 118:17, 18
Messiah’s Resurrection assured
Luke 24:5-7; 1Cor. 15:20
155. Psa. 118:22, 23
The rejected stone is Head of the corner
Matthew 21:42, 43
156. Psa. 118:26a
The Blessed One presented to Israel
Matthew 21:9
157. Psa. 118:26b
To come while Temple standing
Matthew 21:12-15
158. Psa. 132:11
The Seed of David (the fruit of His Body)
Luke 1:32, Act 2:30
159. Psa. 129:3
He was scourged
Matthew 27:26
160. Psa. 138:1-6
The supremacy of David’s Seed amazes kings
Matthew 2:2-6
161. Psa. 147:3, 6
The earthly ministry of Christ described
Luke 4:18
162. Prov. 1:23
He will send the Spirit of God
John 16:7
163. Prov. 8:23
Foreordained from everlasting
Rev. 13:8, 1Peter 1:19-20
164. Song. 5:16
The altogether lovely One
John 1:17
165. Isa. 2:3
He shall teach all nations
John 4:25
166. Isa. 2:4
He shall judge among the nations
John 5:22
167. Isa. 6:1
When Isaiah saw His glory
John 12:40-41
168. Isa. 6:8
The One Sent by God
John 12:38-45
169. Isa. 6:9-10
Parables fall on deaf ears
Matthew 13:13-15
170. Isa. 6:9-12
Blinded to Christ and deaf to His words
Acts 28:23-29
171. Isa. 7:14
To be born of a virgin
Luke 1:35
172. Isa. 7:14
To be Emmanuel-God with us
Matthew 1:18-23, 1Tim. 3:16
173. Isa. 8:8
Called Emmanuel
Matthew 28:20
174. Isa. 8:14
A stone of stumbling, a Rock of offense
1Peter 2:8
175. Isa. 9:1, 2
His ministry to begin in Galilee
Matthew 4:12-17
176. Isa. 9:6
A child born-Humanity
Luke 1:31
177. Isa. 9:6
A Son given-Deity
Luke 1:32, John 1:14, 1Tim. 3:16
178. Isa. 9:6
Declared to be the Son of God with power
Romans 1:3, 4
179. Isa. 9:6
The Wonderful One, Peleh
Luke 4:22
180. Isa. 9:6
The Counsellor, Yaatz
Matthew 13:54
181. Isa. 9:6
The Mighty God, El Gibor
1Cor. 1:24, Titus 2:3
182. Isa. 9:6
The Everlasting Father, Avi Adth
John 8:58, 10:30
183. Isa. 9:6
The Prince of Peace, Sar Shalom
John 16:33
184. Isa. 9:7
To establish an everlasting kingdom
Luke 1:32-33
185. Isa. 9:7
His Character-Just
John 5:30
186. Isa. 9:7
No end to his Government, Throne, and Peace
Luke 1:32-33
187. Isa. 11:1
Called a Nazarene-the Branch, Netzer
Matthew 2:23
188. Isa. 11:1
A rod out of Jesse-Son of Jesse
Luke 3:23, 32
189. Isa. 11:2
Anointed One by the Spirit
Matthew 3:16, 17, Acts 10:38
190. Isa. 11:2
His Character-Wisdom, Knowledge, et al
Colossians 2:3
191. Isa. 11:3
He would know their thoughts
Luke 6:8, John 2:25
192. Isa. 11:4
Judge in righteousness
Acts 17:31
193. Isa. 11:4
Judges with the sword of His mouth
Rev. 2:16, 19:11, 15
194. Isa. 11:5
Character: Righteous & Faithful
Rev. 19:11
195. Isa. 11:10
The Gentiles seek Him
John 12:18-21
196. Isa. 12:2
Called Jesus-Yeshua
Matthew 1:21
197. Isa. 22:22
The One given all authority to govern
Revelation 3:7
198. Isa. 25:8
The Resurrection predicted
1Corinthians 15:54
199. Isa. 26:19
His power of Resurrection predicted
Matthew 27:50-54
200. Isa. 28:16
The Messiah is the precious corner stone
Acts 4:11, 12
201. Isa. 28:16
The Sure Foundation
1Corinthians 3:11, Mt. 16:18
202. Isa. 29:13
He indicated hypocritical obedience to His Word
Matthew 15:7-9
203. Isa. 29:14
The wise are confounded by the Word
1Corinthians 1:18-31
204. Isa. 32:2
A Refuge-A man shall be a hiding place
Matthew 23:37
205. Isa. 35:4
He will come and save you
Matthew 1:21
206. Isa. 35:5-6
To have a ministry of miracles
Matthew 11:2-6
207. Isa. 40:3, 4
Preceded by forerunner
John 1:23
208. Isa. 40:9
“Behold your God.”
John 1:36; 19:14
209. Isa. 40:10.
He will come to reward
Revelation 22:12
210. Isa. 40:11
A shepherd-compassionate life-giver
John 10:10-18
2101. Isa. 42:1-4
The Servant-as a faithful, patient redeemer
Matthew 12:18-21
212. Isa. 42:2
Meek and lowly
Matthew 11:28-30
213. Isa. 42:3
He brings hope for the hopeless
John 4
214. Isa. 42:4
The nations shall wait on His teachings
John 12:20-26
215. Isa. 42:6
The Light (salvation) of the Gentiles
Luke 2:32
216. Isa. 42:1, 6
His is a worldwide compassion
Matthew 28:19, 20
217. Isa. 42:7
Blind eyes opened.
John 9:25-38
218. Isa. 43:11
He is the only Saviour.
Acts 4:12
219. Isa. 44:3
He will send the Spirit of God
John 16:7, 13
220. Isa. 45:21-25
He is Lord and Saviour
Philippians 3:20, Titus 2:13
221. Isa. 45:23
He will be the Judge
John 5:22; Romans 14:11
222. Isa. 46:9, 10
Declares things not yet done
John 13:19
223. Isa. 48:12
The First and the Last
John 1:30, Revelation 1:8, 17
224. Isa. 48:16, 17
He came as a Teacher
John 3:2
225. Isa. 49:1
Called from the womb-His humanity
Matthew 1:18
226. Isa. 49:5
A Servant from the womb.
Luke 1:31, Philippians 2:7
227. Isa. 49:6
He will restore Israel
Acts 3:19-21, 15:16-17
228. Isa. 49:6
He is Salvation for Israel
Luke 2:29-32
229. Isa. 49:6
He is the Light of the Gentiles
John 8:12, Acts 13:47
230. Isa. 49:6
He is Salvation unto the ends of the earth
Acts 15:7-18
231. Isa. 49:7
He is despised of the Nation
John 1:11, 8:48-49, 19:14-15
232. Isa. 50:3
Heaven is clothed in black at His humiliation
Luke 23:44, 45
233. Isa. 50:4
He is a learned counselor for the weary
Matthew 7:29, 11:28, 29
234. Isa. 50:5
The Servant bound willingly to obedience
Matthew 26:39
235. Isa. 50:6a
“I gave my back to the smiters.”
Matthew 27:26
236. Isa. 50:6b
He was smitten on the cheeks
Matthew 26:67
237. Isa. 50:6c
He was spat upon
Matthew 27:30
238. Isa. 52:7
Published good tidings upon mountains
Matthew 5:12,15:29,28:16
239. Isa. 52:13
The Servant exalted
Acts 1:8-11; Eph. 1:19-22, Php. 2:5-9
240. Isa. 52:14
The Servant shockingly abused
Luke 18:31-34; Mt. 26:67, 68
241. Isa. 52:15
Nations startled by message of the Servant
Luke 18:31-34; Mt. 26:67, 68
242. Isa. 52:15
His blood shed sprinkles nations
Hebrews 9:13-14, Rev. 1:5
243. Isa. 53:1
His people would not believe Him
John 12:37-38
244. Isa. 53:2
Appearance of an ordinary man
Philippians 2:6-8
245. Isa. 53:3a
Despised
Luke 4:28-29
246. Isa. 53:3b
Rejected
Matthew 27:21-23
247. Isa. 53:3c
Great sorrow and grief
Matthew 26:37-38, Luke 19:41, Heb. 4:15
248. Isa. 53:3d
Men hide from being associated with Him
Mark 14:50-52
249. Isa. 53:4a
He would have a healing ministry
Matthew 8:16-17
250. Isa. 53:4b
Thought to be cursed by God
Matthew 26:66, 27:41-43
251. Isa. 53:5a
Bears penalty for mankind’s iniquities
2Cor. 5:21, Heb. 2:9
252. Isa. 53:5b
His sacrifice provides peace between man and God
Colossians 1:20
253. Isa. 53:5c
His sacrifice would heal man of sin
1Peter 2:24
254. Isa. 53:6a
He would be the sin-bearer for all mankind
1John 2:2, 4:10
255. Isa. 53:6b
God’s will that He bear sin for all mankind
Galatians 1:4
256. Isa. 53:7a
Oppressed and afflicted
Matthew 27:27-31
257. Isa. 53:7b
Silent before his accusers
Matthew 27:12-14
258. Isa. 53:7c
Sacrificial lamb
John 1:29, 1Peter 1:18-19
259. Isa. 53:8a
Confined and persecuted
Matthew 26:47-27:31
260. Isa. 53:8b
He would be judged
John 18:13-22
261. Isa. 53:8c
Killed
Matthew 27:35
262. Isa. 53:8d
Dies for the sins of the world
1John 2:2
263. Isa. 53:9a
Buried in a rich man’s grave
Matthew 27:57
264. Isa. 53:9b
Innocent and had done no violence
Luke 23:41, John 18:38
265. Isa. 53:9c
No deceit in his mouth
1Peter 2:22
266. Isa. 53:10a
God’s will that He die for mankind
John 18:11
267. Isa. 53:10b
An offering for sin
Matthew 20:28, Galatians 3:13
268. Isa. 53:10c
Resurrected and live forever
Romans 6:9
269. Isa. 53:10d
He would prosper
John 17:1-5
270. Isa. 53:11a
God fully satisfied with His suffering
John 12:27
271. Isa. 53:11b
God’s servant would justify man
Romans 5:8-9, 18-19
272. Isa. 53:11c
The sin-bearer for all mankind
Hebrews 9:28
273. Isa. 53:12a
Exalted by God because of his sacrifice
Matthew 28:18
274. Isa. 53:12b
He would give up his life to save mankind
Luke 23:46
275. Isa. 53:12c
Numbered with the transgressors
Mark 15:27-28
276. Isa. 53:12d
Sin-bearer for all mankind
1Peter 2:24
277. Isa. 53:12e
Intercede to God in behalf of mankind
Luke 23:34, Rom. 8:34
278. Isa. 55:3
Resurrected by God
Acts 13:34
279. Isa. 55:4a
A witness
John 18:37
280. Isa. 55:4b
He is a leader and commander
Hebrews 2:10
281. Isa. 55:5
God would glorify Him
Acts 3:13
282. Isa. 59:16a
Intercessor between man and God
Matthew 10:32
283. Isa. 59:16b
He would come to provide salvation
John 6:40
284. Isa. 59:20
He would come to Zion as their Redeemer
Luke 2:38
285. Isa. 60:1-3
He would shew light to the Gentiles
Acts 26:23
286. Isa. 61:1a
The Spirit of God upon him
Matthew 3:16-17
287. Isa. 61:1b
The Messiah would preach the good news
Luke 4:16-21
288. Isa. 61:1c
Provide freedom from the bondage of sin
John 8:31-36
289. Isa. 61:1-2a
Proclaim a period of grace
Galatians 4:4-5
290. Jer. 23:5-6
Descendant of David
Luke 3:23-31
291. Jer. 23:5-6
The Messiah would be both God and Man
John 13:13, 1Ti 3:16
292. Jer. 31:22
Born of a virgin
Matthew 1:18-20
293. Jer. 31:31
The Messiah would be the new covenant
Matthew 26:28
294. Jer. 33:14-15
Descendant of David
Luke 3:23-31
295. Eze.34:23-24
Descendant of David
Matthew 1:1
296. Eze.37:24-25
Descendant of David
Luke 1:31-33
297. Dan. 2:44-45
The Stone that shall break the kingdoms
Matthew 21:44
298. Dan. 7:13-14a
He would ascend into heaven
Acts 1:9-11
299. Dan. 7:13-14b
Highly exalted
Ephesians 1:20-22
300. Dan. 7:13-14c
His dominion would be everlasting
Luke 1:31-33
301. Dan. 9:24a
To make an end to sins
Galatians 1:3-5
302. Dan. 9:24a
To make reconciliation for iniquity
Romans 5:10, 2Cor. 5:18-21
303. Dan. 9:24b
He would be holy
Luke 1:35
304. Dan. 9:25
His announcement
John 12:12-13
305. Dan. 9:26a
Cut off
Matthew 16:21, 21:38-39
306. Dan. 9:26b
Die for the sins of the world
Hebrews 2:9
307. Dan. 9:26c
Killed before the destruction of the temple
Matthew 27:50-51
308. Dan. 10:5-6
Messiah in a glorified state
Revelation 1:13-16
309. Hos. 11:1
He would be called out of Egypt
Matthew 2:15
310. Hos. 13:14
He would defeat death
1Corinthians 15:55-57
311. Joel 2:32
Offer salvation to all mankind
Romans 10:9-13
312. Jonah 1:17
Death and resurrection of Christ
Matthew 12:40, 16:4
313. Mic. 5:2a
Born in Bethlehem
Matthew 2:1-6
314. Mic. 5:2b
Ruler in Israel
Luke 1:33
315. Mic. 5:2c
From everlasting
John 8:58
316. Hag. 2:6-9
He would visit the second Temple
Luke 2:27-32
317. Hag. 2:23
Descendant of Zerubbabel
Luke 2:27-32
318. Zech. 3:8
God’s servant
John 17:4
319. Zech. 6:12-13
Priest and King
Hebrews 8:1
320. Zech. 9:9a
Greeted with rejoicing in Jerusalem
Matthew 21:8-10
321. Zech. 9:9b
Beheld as King
John 12:12-13
322. Zech. 9:9c
The Messiah would be just
John 5:30
323. Zech. 9:9d
The Messiah would bring salvation
Luke 19:10
324. Zech. 9:9e
The Messiah would be humble
Matthew 11:29
325. Zech. 9:9f
Presented to Jerusalem riding on a donkey
Matthew 21:6-9
326. Zech. 10:4
The cornerstone
Ephesians 2:20
327. Zech. 11:4-6a
At His coming, Israel to have unfit leaders
Matthew 23:1-4
328. Zech. 11:4-6b
Rejection causes God to remove His protection
Luke 19:41-44
329. Zech. 11:4-6c
Rejected in favor of another king
John 19:13-15
330. Zech. 11:7
Ministry to “poor,” the believing remnant
Matthew 9:35-36
331. Zech. 11:8a
Unbelief forces Messiah to reject them
Matthew 23:33
332. Zech. 11:8b
Despised
Matthew 27:20
333. Zech. 11:9
Stops ministering to those who rejected Him
Matthew 13:10-11
334. Zech. 11:10-11a
Rejection causes God to remove protection
Luke 19:41-44
335. Zech. 11:10-11b
The Messiah would be God
John 14:7
336. Zech. 11:12-13a
Betrayed for thirty pieces of silver
Matthew 26:14-15
337. Zech. 11:12-13b
Rejected
Matthew 26:14-15
338. Zech. 11:12-13c
Thirty pieces of silver cast in the house of the Lord
There are Christian jargons, we often use, which sound good to many church members but are confusing to non-religious folks. These religious catch-phrases can sometimes imply something confusing and misleading. The phrase “New Testament Church” is one of those. What does it mean?
Bible.org provides 5 characteristics of a New Testament Church. The very first characteristic is, ” A New Testament church is a church which derives its doctrine from the New Testament.” Is this true? New Testament Church sounds right, but a closer look at the Bible teaching on the church reveals where the doctrines of the church originated.
The church foundation of Jesus is a radical change from the Israelite system of worship and mission. The church of the New Testament was raised up by the Apostles and disciples under the guidance of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ ascension to the Father and the Spirit descending on the day of Pentecost. In today’s language, they were “Church Planters.” To say this church-planting program was successful is an understatement! But, there has been division about doctrine and teachings throughout the centuries.
The 13 inspired writers of the New Testament wrote about their experience with Jesus and provided direction and instruction for the creation and administration of the new church plants (As found primarily in the book of Acts and the writings of Paul). The question we want to clarify is this: Was the doctrine of the “New Testament churches” different than the writers of the Old Testament as expressed by Bible.org? Did the Apostles direct that the Old Testament teachings (doctrines) be ignored in favor of the new teachings? As we will see, the answer to this question is No. However, there were some elements of the Old Testament services that have little application since the cross but are valuable to study because of their significance to the original people of God. But, be careful, there many who confuse this premise and may throw out the baby with the bath water!
Doctrine and the Church
When Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, he encouraged his young protege to follow the Holy Scripture he had known since he was a child:
“..and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:15
Young Timothy was raised up from childhood on the writings of the Tanakh, which is the Old Testament. Timothy did not have a New Testament pocket Bible, but rather the writings of Moses, the major and minor Prophets, and the Psalms. The entire Old Testament can be grouped under one of these headings. All of these were able, according to Paul to make Timothy and any reader “wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”So, Timothy could be wise from the Tanakh about salvation and Jesus Christ. Many would consider this primarily a New Testament teaching, but make no mistake, it is found throughout scripture.
Paul then tells Timothy that these scriptures of the Tanakh were good for teaching including doctrine:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16
Don’t miss this! The reference Paul makes to “All Scripture” refers to what we Gentile Christians call the Old Testament! Timothy, as did Paul, got their doctrine from the Old Testament! In fact, The New Testament church members got their doctrine from the Old Testament, but connected Jesus with it as the Apostles began to preach about Jesus! Many who ignore the teachings of the Old Testament create a handicap in their experience because those divenly inspired books teach about Jesus, righteousness, and salvation from the start in Genesis all the way to Malachi. It is the basis for the beliefs of the New Testament writers and followers of Jesus.
All the writers of the New Testament taught from the Tanakh or the Old Testament. Why? Because the New Testament writings would not be written and canonized for many years after Jesus ascended to God the Father. The earliest texts were written sometime after 50 AD, some 20 years after the cross and the beginning of the original church plantings. The oldest New Testament letters came from Paul’s epistles including the two letters to young Timothy. The New Testament with its 27 books was not brought together and canonized until decades later, after the new churches were up and running. The earliest estimate is around 120 AD. Almost 100 years after the resurrection of Jesus!
When Jesus taught His disciples, he used the Tanakh only. That was all that was available. His explanation about His ministry and prophecies about Him are found in the Tanakh. It was the words of these books Jesus used to open the eyes of the disappointed and fearful disciples walking away from Jerusalem and the horrible scenes of the crucifixion to Emmaus and those who stayed behind cowered behind locked doors prior to His appearing to them. Look closely at this amazing story found in the book of Luke 24. Here are a few highlights:
Jesus and the two disciples leaving Jerusalem and the site of the crucifixion:
And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Luke 24:27
Jesus and the many disciples hiding in the room fearful for their lives on the First Day of the week:
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for FEAR of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. John 20:19
The disciples were not assembled to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, they were together afraid they would be killed by the Jews or the Romans. At this point, they didn’t believe Jesus was resurrected, It would take Thomas eight days after the following event to convince him that Jesus was alive.
” Then He said to them (the disciples in the locked room), “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Luke 24: 44-45
Jesus and Doubting Thomas:
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. John 20: 26-28
Jesus referred His disciples to the Tanakh about the prophecies and elements of faith in Him i.e. His life, death, resurrection, His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary as well as His ascension, judgment, and His 2nd coming. All of this is in the books of the Old Testament. Often Christians ignore these books in favor of the easier to read and understand New Testament! But, the basis for belief and faith is found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. As Paul told Timothy, the scripture (Tanakh) is good and profitable for righteousness to make us complete in God and equipped to do the will of God.
To ignore the words of the Tanakh is to restrict the Christian experience. It is like trying to build a house on 1/3 of the instructions!
New Testament and Old Testament -The Two Witnesses
Please do not be confused. All of th discussion thus far is not to minimize or say that the New Testament is less than the teachings of the Old Testament. On the contrary! Both were inspired by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament writers wrote what they saw and what they learned through Jesus. As we have seen, Jesus threw light on the writing on the Tanakh to reveal himself and to claify things made confusing by the religious leaders of that day. He also gave them the Holy Spirit to write about their experience with Jesus. In fact, Peter referred to Paul’s writing as Scripture:
… as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. 2 Peter 3: 15-16
Untaught and unstable people will make general statements about the Old Testament and the New Testament such as:
“Oh, the Old Testament has been done away with. I only go by the New Testament.” OR
“The law of God (10 commandments) were nailed to the cross. We don’t go by them anymore. We live by faith.”
To further confuse things, verses like the following will be used as evidence that the Tanakh is null and void:
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. Hebrews 9:16
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Corinthians 3:6
There was a change after Jesus came, but it was not an elimination of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. They all are made clearer under Jesus. There is a prophecy in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah or the Lord’s Servant which states Jesus will magnify (expound or make larger and clearer) the law.
…he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. Isaiah 42:21
Jesus did this very thing…clarifying, but also adding honor to the law. These clarifications cut across the traditions and authority of the religious leaders of the day and have the same effect today. For example regarding the 10 commandments, He enlarged the law so we could see it better when He said,
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5: 27-28
The religious leaders and the people now saw clearer the spirit of the law i.e. a sinful heart that desires to commit adultery. But this does not make the actual act permissible. The breaking of this law literally begins with a sinful heart. The spiritual application does not eliminate the literal application. If it did, our spouses would have a hard time dealing with our breaking of the literal law. Wouldn’t you agree?
To try to obtain righteousness and salvation by the letter of the law is destined for failure, but a changed heart that obeys God from within will also obey the letter…not for salvation purposes, but because it is the fruit of salvation.
Jesus was quick to tell His disciples that He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill. Some would say that fulfill means He kept the 10 commandments and we don’t have to any more. How absurd is this! We can now lie, cheat, and steal because Jesus “fulfilled” the Law?! Listen closely to the words of Jesus Himself.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5: 17-20
Jesus told us we are not even to think He came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. Both of these he fulfilled in doing the law and being the fulfillment of the prophecies! He emphasizes that not even the smallest stroke of the pen in the law will change until heaven and earth passes away which is the final fulfillment of prophecies found in both the Old and New Testaments. The heavens and earth have not passed away yet, so I would say, the law is still valid. Christ does not minimize the law rather He minimizes those who don’t teach and do them!
Now comes the big ending. Our righteousness has to exceed the scribes and Pharisees who often bragged about the meticulous keeping of the law! If we fail here, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven! So I would say the law of God as contained in the 10 Commandments is very important. But keep in mind, the only righteousness we can obtain is found in Christ alone, not by works or even an attempt to keep the law with a sinful heart. The righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees is Christ working in us to will and do His good pleasure from a renewed and sincere heart.
for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
Righteousness does not exclude obedience. The topic of righteousness by faith we will explore at another time, but the main idea is that without Jesus we can do nothing, including obedience to His law, but through Him we can do everything.
What Ended at the Cross?
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Galatians 3: 24,25
The laws in the Bible are grouped as Sacrificial, Ceremonial, Moral, Health laws, and sometimes all of the writings of the Old Testament. So, what was ended at the cross that we don’t have to follow? It was not the moral law! But it was the sacrificial laws and ceremonies!
Why would the moral law end? Is it still not a sin to lie cheat, steal, kill, covet, have other gods, etc? Of course, the definition of sin has never changed, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4
The laws regarding diet were meant to keep the Israelites healthy. Why would they end? They had no religious meaning. They were never given as a requirement for salvation, but to rather what the great Creator knew would make them healthy. If they followed God’s command, He promised to keep them free from diseases:
I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. Exodus 15:6
Do not confuse the unclean foods from foods that were actually unclean. Food sacrificed to idols was considered unclean, but were not necessarily unclean animals. Paul stated he had no problem eating foods sacrificed to idols, but he respected those who wished not to do so and would not weaken someone’s faith because of what He ate.
Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God but one… However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled… Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. ” 1 Corinthians 8: 4, 7, 13
Peter never ate unclean meat even when he was told in a vision three times to eat them. He understood later that the purpose of the vision was to show that the Gentiles were not to be considered unclean
But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean… But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean Acts 10: 14,28
My digestive system and body is no different from those who received these health laws. I can benefit from abstaining from unclean food just as did the disciples. Science has caught up with God’s word. These unclean foods as described in Leviticus are not healthy to eat.
The optimal diet is found in the garden of Eden before sin entered into the world. It is a plant-based diet. Since there will be no death in heave and the new heaven and the new earth that the Lord will make, animals will not be slaughtered for food. Our diet will return to a plant based diet.
Nailed to the Cross
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; Colossians 2: 13-14
No doubt, something was “nailed to the cross” and “taken out of the way.” Is it the 10 commandments? Is it the health laws meant to keep Israel and any other person from the diseases? Was it all of the Old Testament?
There are two key words that tell us what was nailed to the cross: 1.) handwriting 2.) ordinances. These ordinances written by Moses’ own hand were against us and contrary to us. What was against us and contrary to us? How could the moral law, written by the finger of God, to document in stone how we are to relate to God and our neighbor be against us? The context of this chapter has to do with legalism and circumcision and the dreadful duty of sacrifices. Doing these things were contrary to our nature and burdens to the good news of Jesus’ sacrifice. They would be difficult to maintain with the conversion of the Gentiles and the spreading of the gospel.
These ordinances (ceremonial and sacrificial laws) had their purpose. God initiated them for the nation of Israel as a “School Master” to teach them about Jesus and His coming sacrifice for our sins. But the blood of bulls and goats and lambs did not save anyone. Each participant in the daily sacrifices looked forward, by faith, to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. Just as today, we look backward in faith to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for salvation. The cross is the central meeting point for both systems of worship and teaching.
This chart will help demonstrate the difference between God’s 10 commandments and the ordinances that were against us.
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Galatians 3: 24-25
The ceremonial laws taught about the plan of salvation in Christ and were the shadows that pointed forward to the Cross.
Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Colossians 2: 16, 17
There were meat and drink offerings under the sacrificial system and special days for them to celebrate that were “shadows” Their substance was found in the “body of Christ” There were special celebration Sabbaths that had nothing to do with the weekly Sabbath. These Sabbaths were sometimes counted from days different than the first day of the week.
The Sabbath of the 10 Commandments was from the beginning and was not a shadow like the feast days and sacrifices. It is a commandment for all mankind initiated on the 7th day of Creation. It was a day to remember because of God’s creative and redemptive powers. He is Lord of the Sabbath which makes it the Lord’s day.
So, the sacrificial and ceremonial laws were nailed to the cross. We no longer need to sacrifice lambs in faith because it was only a shadow and figure of the true Lamb of God. When Jesus died on the Cross, type (sacrificial law) had met Antitype (Jesus). The system of priests, sacrifices, and feast days all ended. They were blotted out as demonstrated by what happened in the temple on the day Jesus died:
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom Matthew 27: 50, 51
This large veil in the temple split open and the Most Holy place, allowed to be seen by a priest once a year, was now open for all to see signifying that we had direct access to the throne room of God through Jesus.
Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
Those services performed by earthly priests every day were but a shadow of the heavenly sanctuary and its services that are conducted now by Jesus as our one and only high priest.
For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. Hebrews 8: 4-5
The New Testament Church
There have never been two methods of salvation i.e. works VS Grace. God’s people from the Old Testament days knew of grace and faith as well as the people of God in New Testament. Both are saved by faith through the blood of Jesus alone and not by any amount of works. Good works originate from God and are evidence of salvation and a new birth experience not as a method of salvation.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Hebrew 10: 4
To imply the Old Covenant was a method of salvation of works and the New Testament is by Grace alone shows a lack of knowledge of the plan of salvation. Man sinned. Death passed upon all men for all have sinned and have an ancestry of sinners. Jesus paid for the penalty of sins (eternal death) and He will resurrect them to eternal life when He returns. Man is saved by Grace alone through faith and not of works. It has always been that way. But our works or obedience demonstrates real faith.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2: 8-9
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. James 2: 18
The New Testament Church, therefore, includes the teachings of the Old Testament, but the ceremonial laws and sacrificial laws ended at the cross of Jesus. They met their significance in the body of Jesus. But the prophecies and the moral laws continue today. Pick any of the 10 commandments. It was a sin back then to break it and it is a sin today.
Want to be healthy? Follow the health laws God gave to the children of Israel.
The New Testament Church received its instructions from Jesus and the Holy Spirit for organization, leadership, and the work of taking the good news of Jesus to the world. This is found in Acts and the letters of the Apostles to the growing Christian churches. However, It is supported by the willing giving of tithes (10%) and free-will offerings (An Old Testament teaching).
The moral law uplifts the principals of love to God and to our neighbors as demonstrated by the 10 commandments. These laws are divided into two tables and written by the finger of God. Each commandment lines up under one of the two loves: Love to God and Love to our neighbor.
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Mathew 22: 27-30
The New Testament Church upholds the entire word of God knowing that the gospel is not limited to only 27 letters.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16
The sacrifices and ceremonies of the Old Testament were taken out of the way by the death of Jesus. He replaced them with only two ceremonies: Baptism and the Ordinance of Humility (The washing of feet and followed by the Lord’s Supper.
Conclusion:
The church after the death, resurrection, and ascension is built on the rock of Jesus who is revealed throughout the Old Testament. The administration and structure are clearly described in the New Testament. The church’s members and workers include not just Jews, but everyone else without the respect of persons if they are “in Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
Without a doubt, God’s marching orders are communicated through 27 letters of the New Testament to church members and leaders. But, its teachings and clarifications are founded on Jesus’s teachings who never once indicated that the Old Testament writers (also inspired by God) were to be ignored. On the contrary, the Tanakh is considered “Scripture” providing the backbone and depth of understanding to the New Testament church. its teachings provide a deeper understanding of Jesus, and the things yet to come…
The phrase, New Testament church can be misleading. The more Biblical pronouncement should be: “We are all members of the body of Christ.” “We base our doctrine on All Scripture.”
so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Romans 12:5
We have studied the topic of hell and the error of teaching that the God of John 3:16 tortures the lost non-stop without mercy for eternity. A few verses misapplied weave the terrible story of wrath so horrendous that it cannot be satisfied. The story paints a picture of people you and I have known for a lifetime have no way to escape the terrible agony of frying in the pan of a burning hell.
So far, we have seen this horrific misconception falls under the weight of a multitude of Bible passages that says clearly, the lost will die with no hope of eternal life and happiness (aka the second death). We have discovered using a systematic approach that it is not true that Jesus taught more about hell than heaven:
The parable of Jesus about the Rich Man and Lazarus is not a story of literal events, but a parable with a different objective than scaring people into a saving relationship with Jesus. (Check out this link for the complete study)
This time, we look closely at verses seemingly supportive of the idea of eternal torture. We will view comparable verses to get clarity.
1.) “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Jesus clearly teaches in this text that the soul is not naturally immortal. It can and will be destroyed in hell. But what does He mean about killing the body, but not the soul? Is it possible for the soul to exist apart from the body? Some say it is, but the Bible indicates otherwise.
The Hebrew word “psuche” has been translated “soul” in this text, but in forty other texts it has been translated “life.” For example, Jesus said,
“Whosoever will lose his life [psuche] for my sake shall find it.” Matthew 16:25.
Obviously, “psuche” could not mean soul in this instance, or people could be said to lose their soul for Christ’s sake. It is properly translated “life.”
But what of Matthew 10:28? Put in the word “life” instead of “soul” and the text makes perfect sense in its consistency with the rest of the Bible. The contrast is between one who can take the physical life, and He who can take away eternal life. Here is proof in the words of Jesus:
“And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell.”
In other words, the word “soul” here means not only life, but also eternal life. Notice that Luke says everything just like Matthew except that he does not say “kills the soul.” Instead, he says, “cast into hell.” They mean the same thing. Men can only kill the body and take away the physical life. God will cast into hell and take away eternal life. Not only will their bodies be destroyed in that fire, but also their lives will be snuffed out for all eternity.
“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”
It is well to notice that Jesus did not say that the wicked would suffer “everlasting punishing.” He said “everlasting punishment.” What is the punishment for sin? The punishment is destruction, and it is of eternal duration
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;”
2.) “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
In this verse, the word “hell” is translated from the Greek word “Gehenna,” which is another name for the Valley of Hinnom just outside the walls of Jerusalem.There the refuse and bodies of animals were cast into an ever-smoldering fire to be consumed. Maggots that fed on the dead bodies were constantly destroying what might escape the flames. Gehenna symbolized a place of total destruction.
Jesus taught in this verse that the fire of hell could not be quenched or put out by anyone. Isaiah said,
“They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame.”
And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
The flames and worms of Gehenna represented the total annihilation and obliteration of sin and sinners. With the fires of Gehenna burning before their eyes, Jesus could not have spoken a more graphic word to the Pharisees to describe the final total destruction of sinners.
Ask a fireman if they have seen an “unquenchable fire.” They will tell you it is a fire they cannot put out, but eventually, it will go out once it has consumed the fuel it is burning. It does not continue to burn with no end.
Those who cite this text to support their doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul are thrown into a real dilemma. Why? Because the fire and worms are working, not upon disembodied souls, but bodies! Christ said, the
In Isaiah 66:24, the same Gehenna picture of hell is presented with the unquenchable flame and the destroying worms. But in this case, the word “carcasses” is used, revealing the fact that the fire consumes dead bodies, not disembodied souls.
And they shall go forth, and look
Upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me:
For their worm shall not die,
Neither shall their fire be quenched;
And they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Isaiah 66:24
3.) “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Some have assumed from this verse that souls go to their reward immediately after death, contrary to scores of other Bible texts. But notice two things wrong with this assumption. First, even though Jesus told the thief,
“Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise,”
Yet, three days later, He told Mary that He had not yet ascended to His Father.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father:
His Father is in Paradise. Here is the evidence Revelation 2:7 says the tree of life
“is in the midst of the paradise of God,”
and Revelation 22:1, 2 describes the tree of life by the side of the river of life, which flows, in turn, from the throne of God.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
So there is no question about Paradise being where the Father’s throne is located. The question is: How could Jesus tell the thief that he would be with Him in Paradise that day when He did not go there until three days later?
The apparent contradictions clear up when we consider that the punctuation of Luke 23:43 was added by uninspired men when our English Bible was translated. They placed a comma before the word “today,” when in reality, it should have been placed after “today.” Then the verse would correctly read,
“Verily I say unto thee today; thou shalt be with me in paradise.”
In other words, Jesus was saying, “I give you the assurance today when it seems I can save no man; today when my own disciples have forsaken me and I’m dying as a criminal dies—yet I assure you of salvation right now.”
Please notice that the thief did not ask to be taken to Paradise then. He asked,
“Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”
That’s exactly when he will be remembered and taken into that Kingdom.
4.) “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: … We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
In verses 1-8, Paul contrasts the present mortal state with the future immortal life in heaven. Notice the expressions he uses for the two conditions:
Mortal
Immortal
earthly house
building of God
this tabernacle
house not made with hands
mortality
our house from heaven
in the body
absent from the body
absent from the Lord
present with the Lord
He also speaks of being clothed with “our house which is from heaven” (verse 2), and again, he longs “that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” Verse 4.
But the key to the entire discourse lies in the description of a third condition. After desiring to be clothed upon with immortality, Paul states that “being clothed we shall not be found naked.” Verse 3. Putting it yet another way, he said,
“not for that we would be unclothed.”
Verse 4.
Clearly, the naked or unclothed state was neither mortality nor immortality, but death and the grave. Paul realized that one did not pass instantly from being clothed with this tabernacle into being clothed with our house from heaven. Death and the grave came in between, and he referred to it as being unclothed and naked.
In another text, Paul spelled out exactly when that change from mortality would take place. In 1 Corinthians 15:52, 53, he wrote,
“The trumpet shall sound and this mortal must put on immortality.”
That will be when Jesus comes.
5.) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
There has been considerable misunderstanding of these verses of Scripture. It has been preached that Christ actually descended into the lower regions of the earth and preached to lost souls that were imprisoned in some purgatory or limbo.
This is very far from what the text actually says. Let’s look at it closely now and get the real message of these verses. It says that Christ suffered once for sin so that He might bring us to God by being put to death in the flesh. But He was quickened by the Spirit by which also He went and preached.
First of all, notice how Christ preached to those spirits in prison. He did it by the Spirit, and that word is capitalized in your Bible. It actually refers to the Holy Spirit. So whatever Christ did in preaching during this period of time, He did it through or by the Holy Spirit.
With that in view, let’s ask this: When was the preaching done? The answer is plainly given in verse 20,
“When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.”
So, the preaching was actually done while the ark was being built—during the preaching of Noah to that antediluvian world. Now, one more question: To whom was the preaching done? The text says here “to the spirits in prison.”
Throughout the Bible, we find this terminology used in describing those who are bound in the prison house of sin. David prayed,
What Peter is telling us here is simply that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, was present while Noah preached; Christ was there through the Holy Spirit to speak conviction to their hearts and appeal to them to come into the ark. There is absolutely nothing here that indicates that Jesus departed from the body during the time He was dead to go to any subterranean place to minister to wicked spirits. The three questions are clearly answered in the text itself that He preached by the Holy Spirit, He did it while the ark was being prepared, and He did it to the spirits in prison or to those individuals whose sinful lives were bound in the prison house of sin.
6.) “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
The words “for ever” do not necessarily mean “without end.” In fact, the Bible uses the term 56 times (“for ever” can be found in your biblical concordance under “ever”) in connection with the things that have already ended.
In Exodus 21:1-6 the Hebrew servant was to serve his master “for ever,” but it was obviously only as long as he lived. Hannah took her son Samuel to God’s house to abide “for ever,” but she plainly limited that time to “as long as he liveth.” 1 Samuel 1:22, 28.
“For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.”
The desolation of Edom was to continue “for ever and ever.”Isaiah 34:10. Christ is called “a priest for ever” (Hebrews 5:6), yet after sin is blotted out Christ’s work as a priest will end. The Bible states, “The wicked … shall be destroyed for ever.”Psalm 92:7.
“And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.”
This spiritualistic séance has been cited as evidence for life after death. However, here are points to the contrary:
Wizards had been sentenced to death and banned from the land (verse 3; Leviticus 20:27).
God had left Saul and would not communicate with him (verse 15).
Samuel was supposedly “brought up.” Other expressions: “ascending out of the earth,” “Cometh up,” and “Bring … up.” Is this where the righteous dead are—down in the earth? Not according to those who believe in the immortal soul. 4. Samuel is described as “an old man covered with a mantle.” Is this the way immortal souls appear? And where did the soul get the body? They’re supposed to be disembodied. Was there a resurrection? Did God obey the beck and call of the witch, and raise up Samuel? If not, can Satan raise the dead?
The apparition of Samuel told Saul, “Tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me.” Saul committed suicide on the battlefield the next day. Where did Samuel dwell, if the wicked Saul was to go to the same place?
The record never says that Saul saw Samuel. He received his information as second hand from the witch, and only concluded it was Samuel from her description. The truth is that the devil deceived the dissolute old woman, and she deceived Saul. It was nothing more than a devil-generated séance.
The enormity of Saul’s sin is revealed in these words, “So Saul died for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; And inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him.” 1 Chronicles 10:13, 14.
A careful study of these difficult passages show that they line up with the true fate of the lost. It is not a non-ending torture chamber but a fate of eternal death and destruction. It will be as if they had never been. Because of this, when we arrive in heaven, there will be tears for them knowing they have passed away forever. These tears will be wiped away by a loving and understanding Savior who guarantees no more pain, sorrow, crying, or pain.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4
If there were some space in the universe where uncle Bob was roasting in agony, would that be heaven for you? Would those tears ever go away?
NO! God loves His creation so much that He sent His only Son to die for us so that we don’t have to die forever. We will not perish like the lost but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
“Perish” is the second death, where the destruction of the fire from God destroys or devours the wicked. The saved are rescued from the fires of eternal death. The word “perish” is the Greek word apollymi . It means to destroy.
And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them….” Revelation 20:9
Destruction of death, the grave, and the lost will wipe the universe of the effects of sin. Then God creates a new heaven and a new earth where dwells righteousness.
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
2 Peter 3:13
“The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation, from Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love.“
They rejected Jesus just as Daniel and the other prophets predicted. God used that very rejection for our salvation. Romans 11:11 says, “By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles.”
But that did not negate God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others. Those promises began to be fulfilled in the 19th century when Jews started returning to the land in large numbers. They were returning to the place deeded to them by God Himself — the Promised Land. That led to the rebirth of Israel as a nation in 1948. They would regain control of Jerusalem in 1967.-Hal Lindsey
This statement above is this true or not? How do we know? Were God’s promises conditional or non-conditional? Is the literal city of Jerusalem the promised land of God?
The Jewish Nation in End Time Events-The Element of Faith and Obedience
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Hebrews 11:13
In that great faith chapter of Hebrews 11, we learn very much about the true identity of the people of God. Connected to each name is the experience of faith.
The Faith Hall of Fame starts with Abraham the father of the literal nation of Israel and the Jews. This chapter goes on to mention Isaac, Jacob, Esau and other great men of faith. All desiring a “better country.” This better country is not on this earth but in heaven where God is not ashamed to be called their God.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:16
Here is the prize of all believing sojourners on earth; a heavenly city dwelling with the Creator of the universe! There is no city, building, or place on earth that is eternal. God has prepared a city for those who are not ashamed to call Him God! It is not limited to only literal Jews and a little strip of land in the Middle East.
The passage in Hebrews 11:6 sounds much like the promise of Jesus. It is the ultimate promise!
“Letnot your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.In My Father’s house are manymansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.I go to prepare a place for you.And if I go and prepare a place for you,I will come again and receive you to Myself; thatwhere I am, there you may be also.
John 14: 1-3
For the follower of Christ, including those who looked forward to the appearance of the Messiah, the ultimate promise is to live forever where Jesus has gone to prepare a land for them…the promised land. It is one that the patriarchs and disciples died not having received the promise.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Hebrews 11:13
Throughout the Old Testament is the story of God raising up a people based on a promise to Abraham. His offspring were to become His people with a specific purpose, but we see a pattern of failure, judgment, repentance, restoration and then it starts over failure, judgment, repentance, restoration.
The questions before us are this: Will God finally restore literal Israel? Will the temple be rebuilt in Jerusalem? During the 7 years of tribulation as taught by Lindsey and others be a period where all Jews accept Jesus and take the gospel to the world as indicated in many of the popular teachings?
It all comes down to how you answer these two questions: Are God’s promises conditional or unconditional? Were they meant only for the literal nation of Israel?
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The Importance of Faith
All followers of the true God live their life by faith. True faith is rare. Faith (aka trust) is sadly lacking when Jesus returns as described by His rhetorical question:
“…when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Luke 18:8
When faith is exercised, it pleases God. When faith is absent, it is impossible to please Him. Someone once said that God cannot be pleased by any actions on our part. This is false.
But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that Heis and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6
God makes a way (a condition) for faith to grow inside the heart of the weak follower. God’s word produces faith. Little time with God and His word produces little faith, but much time produces great faith.
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17
The ultimate promises are all future i.e., resurrection, eternal life with a healed body and mind, the new earth, eternity with Jesus. Of course, there are many promises that can be appreciated and realized now, but it too is by faith. For example, here are a couple of promises you can experience today, but please notice the condition:
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3
Think about it. God will keep you and me in perfect peace.! The condition is to manage our mind by faith so that is “stayed” on Him. It requires that the mind be constantly focused on God. However, many Christians fail at perfect peace because the world clamors for the mind and they give in. The voice of God cannot be heard for the loud shouting of the daily life.
A struggling follower of Christ often wonders why their trust in God is not stronger. They pine that they have no peace. The answer is by keeping the mind “stayed” (focused) on God. The way to keep it stayed on God is to fill it up with His voice…His words, His creation! When a person replaces doubt with the lofty thoughts of God, faith or trust in Him will grow.
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Romans 10:17 (NIV)
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As we will see in this study, God has two types of promises: conditional and unconditional. A good example of an unconditional promise is the sure word that God will never destroy the earth again with a flood. The rainbow signifies God’s unconditional promise.
When God made promises to the literal nation of Israel, they fall into one of these categories. They are easy to see in their context and the sentence itself.
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Two Types of Promises and Faith
The literal nation of Israel is a lesson on failure. They often failed to believe and to exercise faith.
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
Hebrews 4:2
But the Gentiles that did not pursue it believed the message:
But Isaiah is very bold and says:
“I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”But to Israel he says:
“All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.”
Romans 10: 20-21
Often well-meaning teachers/preachers try to separate faith and obedience because of the fear of legalism. But obedience is not legalism IF the obedience comes from a heart changed by the love of Christ. Jesus proclaimed this when He said,
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
John 14:15
As we study the covenants of God, we will see that the failure of the old covenant relates to the heart and a failure to love God back! Real faith in God produces obedience to Him based on a heart of love.
For us to understand the promises of God and the failed faith of Israel, we must go back to the beginning and move forward. The promises of God were either conditional or non-conditional. In this study, we will look, briefly, at the major promises of God to the literal nation of Israel throughout the Old Testament.
Unconditional promise #1 The promise of victory over Satan through The Messiah.
The first promise (long before there was a Jew or a nation of Israel) comes right after creation when perfect Adam and Eve succumb to the temptations of Satan. They failed because they did not believe God when presented with contradictory words. God said to them, they would begin to die and lose their right to the tree of life if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil But, they listened to the enemy:
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Genesis 3:4
God made a promise to give the fallen couple hope. It had no strings attached and it was for all of mankind, not just the literal nation of Israel:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’
Genesis 3:15
From that point forward there would be a conflict between the offspring of the woman (symbol of the church) and the offspring of those who would purse evil and set themselves up as the enemy to the woman (church). In the end, the serpent ( Satan) would receive a deadly wound by the crushing of his head by the woman. Notice that the gender designation changes in this promise. The woman is described as a “He”. “He: would receive a strike at “his heel” (only an attempt to kill). Here is the first promise of God dealing with the sin problem and ending the life of Satan in the future by the coming of the Savior.
But there is an unfavorable promise God gives to the human race. The earth is cursed and man must toil and fight elements to obtain his food, then he will return to the dust of the ground.
By the sweat of your brown you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’
Genesis 3:19
Unconditional Promise #2-God Will Never Destroy the Earth By Flood Again
It did not take long for the “seed” of Satan to become exceedingly wicked.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
The people of the earth had become so wicked that God seemed to have regrets for making man.
And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Genesis 6:6
The only person that found favor and grace was Noah. He “walked”with God, which is an expression of obedience. Noah was commanded to build an ark to save himself and his family from the destruction soon to come upon the earth by flood.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6: 8-9
And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood;
Genesis 6:14
Covenants are similar to promises. They either have an unconditional promise from God or the human side of the agreement will fail to live up their end of the agreement. Often God gives a sign as His promise, but He never fails on His part of the agreement.
God made a covenant with Noah and all of creation as found in Genesis 8 and 9. A whole study could be made on this covenant, but it is important to notice that this covenant was unconditional. Man does not have to enter into an agreement to obtain the benefits of the pronouncement of God.
And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
Genesis 9: 12-13
When man enters into the covenant with God, their promises are faulty and often not kept.
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Hebrews 8:6
A non-contextual reading of this verse makes it sound like God had good promises at first, but things didn’t work out so He established better promises. But, let’s read on:
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says theLord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded (neglected-stopped caring-turned my back) them, says the Lord.
Hebrews 8: 7-9
The first covenant made with the house of Israel and Judah had a problem. What was it? “…they did not continue in My covenant…” Because of this, what did God do? “(He) disregarded them.”
It was God’s covenant that the people agreed they would obey:
Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
And ye shall be unto me a kingdom ofpriests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 19:5, 6
Notice that God said, IF… Their charge was to obey…They agreed to obey, but as Hebrews and the rest of the Bible, they failed to obey.
And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him.
And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
Exodus 19: 7, 8
Right after this, the new covenant is explained:
But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Hebrews 8:10
In the new covenant, it is a relationship (which was missing in the old,) I will be their God and they will be my people. The law of God is in their minds and hearts. So the new covenant is much like the first except that God writes His laws on the heart and mind of those that are His people. It is a better promise.
If you have entered into the new covenant, you will hear the voice of God and obey. In fact, the last group of people on earth before Jesus comes has faith (trust in God) and they are obedient to the same words delivered to the children of Israel. But, it is love for God that stimulates obedience.
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:10
Jesus said the same words about the same law:
If ye love me, keep my commandments
John 14: 15
The last day people will have patience. They will obey the commandments of God. They will have faith like Jesus.
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 14: 12
Next time we will look at the conditional commandments of God and how his promises are fulfilled in a people that are not literal Israel but are Israel in the heart. Literal Israel failed in the covenant by disobeying. In the new covenant, the people of God are identified as those who are in Christ, not by birth.
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Romans 2: 28, 29
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:29
In summary, God has both conditional and unconditional promises. When we enter into a conditional promise or covenant, we must be careful to not become legalistic, but rather humble….knowing that we can do nothing, including obeying, without Jesus and the new heart he gives us. Literal Israel failed by entering a covenant with God and attempting to keep a promise through their own carnal strength.
The promises of God to Israel were conditional. They failed. Now God has raised up a people from the Gentiles and we are grafted in and benefit from the promises intended to Israel first and then to the Gentile.
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
I am not (as well as a majority of people on planet earth) a scientist…at least not by dedicated study and degree, According to The US Science and Engineering Workforce study (11/2017), there are about 7 Million scientists in the US.or approximately 2-3% of the population. An even smaller percentage is dedicated to the sciences of life and our beginnings.
But, like Solomon, (if I can be so bold to compare myself to the wisest man to ever live outside of Jesus) I am fascinated by the study of our world. I love science when fairly applied using the fundamentals of discovery.
But, most scientists enter the world of discovery with a pre-determined outcome of the evidence because of personal, philosophical, and ancestral world-views about life rather than letting the facts lead to truth. If Christians are honest, we have the same fault of pre-determining truth by traditions and our own worldview.
But, the laws of non-contradiction is correct, and I believe it is, we can’t both be right about the existence or non-existence of God. The difference between the scientist and the Christian is not a matter of intelligence, but rather how much confidence we place in the authorities in our fields of interest and our own unpressured study.
For the follower of Christ, our confidence is in the written word and the unscientific proclamations of its writers. The Bible, when studied with an open mind, makes sense and provides the proof of a Creator using faith and the scientific method of observation. But most of all, the conclusion adds meaning to life and peace to the soul. Here the evolutionist has no card to play.
“Oddly enough, of all the worlds in collision today, it is the scientific world that is increasingly giving the greatest and most shocking evidence in favor of God’s existence.” (The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict,–Josh McDowell– p. 10)
Scientists today who are fair with the evidence around us question some of the so-called scientific icons of life existence and beginnings. When the scientific community proclaims that a theory, such as Darwinism or evolution, is irrefutable fact, it goes against its own.scientific methods of testing and verification. When it doesn’t allow for further discovery, it has become like the stubborn Bible-thumping people it despises and minimizes.
“Over the years, scientists such as Michael Behe have challenged the ‘facts’ of science from a scientific methodology. Works such as Behe’s BLACK BOX THE BIOCHEMICAL CHALLENGE TO EVOLUTION in which he states evidence from biochemistry that refutes Darwinian evolution, have ushered in a new age of critique of Darwin’s theory.” (ibid)
Our Creator made us with eyes to see and ears to hear the things of this world. He also created the brain as command-central. All three, among other parts, had to be working at one time to function. There was no eye rolling around trying to see because it didn’t have a brain or a command-central with nothing to command. There was no heart waiting for the evolving of blood and veins or vice versa…All had to be present at once to have functional value.
Another wise man (David) said,
“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1 (first part)
The Hebrew word for “fool” is “nabal.” It indicates not only “stupidity” but also “vileness.” The remainder of the verse would confirm this thought….
“They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.”
Psalm 14:1 (second part)
Paul added to the idea of David’s fool statement when he said that man is “without excuse” concerning the existence of God due to the ability to observe creation.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,”
Romans 1: 20
No, I am not a scientist and it is extremely likely that you are not either, but God has given us the ability and the tools for inductive and deductive reasoning powers to see and understand not only his existence but the deep things of His being even the complicated topic of the Godhead.Like the scientists of this world, God invites us to base our faith (trust) in Him on evidence and substance of things we can’t see. This is faith!
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
It is peace to the soul to “Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves” Psalm 100: 3
“I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, . . . and never shalt thou be any more.”
Ezekiel 28: 18-19
In part 1, we discovered Lucifer, before his fall, maintained a high position of the kingdom of God (heaven). He is shown in Ezekiel 28:14 as the anointedcherub who covers...But discontent and pride mysteriously rose up in his heart. He rebelled against God and there was a war unlike what we see on earth. Lucifer (light bearer in Hebrew) was cast as a fallen angel to earth and one-third of the angels joined in this rebellion of God which continues to this day.
Lucifer became Satan (adversary-one who withstands). This occurred before the creation of mankind. Since that day of rebellion in heaven, there has been a Great Controversy between Christ and Satan. It was Satan’s design to lie and lead man and woman to distrust God. He is “the father of lies…and a murder.” Jesus said,
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginningand does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
John 8:44
Through lies, he has spun a web to trap his victims into thinking God has his sinful qualities and blame God for all the evil things that occur on earth when it is Satan who promotes death and destruction. This misrepresentation of God’s character will lead, Satan’s captures to join in his rebellion which will lead them down the broad path of ultimate destruction.
If it were not for the first coming of Jesus to set the record straight about the nature and purpose of God and to pay the price for our sins (death) we would have all been lost and continue in sin and our destructive habits.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
The same spirit that prompted rebellion in heaven still inspires rebellion on earth. Satan has continued with men the same policy which he pursued with the angels. His spirit now reigns in the children of disobedience. Like him they seek to break down the restraints of the law of God and promise men liberty through transgression of its precepts. Reproof of sin still arouses the spirit of hatred and resistance. When God’s messages of warning are brought home to the conscience, Satan leads men to justify themselves and to seek the sympathy of others in their course of sin. Instead of correcting their errors, they excite indignation against the reprover, as if he were the sole cause of difficulty. From the days of righteous Abel to our own time such is the spirit which has been displayed toward those who dare to condemn sin.
By the same misrepresentation of the character of God as he had practiced in heaven, causing Him to be regarded as severe and tyrannical, Satan induced man to sin. And having succeeded thus far, he declared that God’s unjust restrictions had led to man’s fall, as they had led to his own rebellion.
But the Eternal One Himself proclaims His character:
“The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.”
Exodus 34:6, 7.
In the banishment of Satan from heaven, God declared His justice and maintained the honor of His throne. But when man had sinned through yielding to the deceptions of this apostate spirit, God gave an evidence of His love by yielding up His only-begotten Son to die for the fallen race.
In the atonement the character of God is revealed. The mighty argument of the cross demonstrates to the whole universe that the course of sin which Lucifer had chosen was in no wise chargeable upon the government of God.
In the contest between Christ and Satan, during the Saviour’s earthly ministry, the character of the great deceiver was unmasked. Nothing could so effectually have uprooted Satan from the affections of the heavenly angels and the whole loyal universe as did his cruel warfare upon the world’s Redeemer. The daring blasphemy of his demand that Christ should pay him homage, his presumptuous boldness in bearing Him to the mountain summit and the pinnacle of the temple, the malicious intent betrayed in urging Him to cast Himself down from the dizzy height, the unsleeping malice that hunted Him from place to place, inspiring the hearts of priests and people to reject His love, and at the last to cry, “Crucify Him! crucify Him!”–all this excited the amazement and indignation of the universe.
It was Satan that prompted the world’s rejection of Christ. The prince of evil exerted all his power and cunning to destroy Jesus; for he saw that the Saviour’s mercy and love, His compassion and pitying tenderness, were representing to the world the character of God. Satan contested every claim put forth by the Son of God and employed men as his agents to fill the Saviour’s life with suffering and sorrow. The sophistry and falsehood by which he had sought to hinder the work of Jesus, the hatred manifested through the children of disobedience, his cruel accusations against Him whose life was one of unexampled goodness, all sprang from deep-seated revenge. The pent-up fires of envy and malice, hatred and revenge, burst forth on Calvary against the Son of God, while all heaven gazed upon the scene in silent horror.
When the great sacrifice had been consummated, Christ ascended on high, refusing the adoration of angels until He had presented the request:
“I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.”
John 17:24.
Then with inexpressible love and power came forth the answer from the Father’s throne:
“Let all the angels of God worship Him.”
Hebrews 1:6.
Not a stain rested upon Jesus. His humiliation ended, His sacrifice completed, there was given unto Him a name that is above every name.
Now the guilt of Satan stood forth without excuse. He had revealed his true character as a liar and a murderer. It was seen that the very same spirit with which he ruled the children of men, who were under his power, he would have manifested had he been permitted to control the inhabitants of heaven. He had claimed that the transgression of God’s law would bring liberty and exaltation; but it was seen to result in bondage and degradation.
Satan’s lying charges against the divine character and government appeared in their true light. He had accused God of seeking merely the exaltation of Himself in requiring submission and obedience from His creatures, and had declared that, while the Creator exacted self-denial from all others, He Himself practiced no self-denial and made no sacrifice. Now it was seen that for the salvation of a fallen and sinful race, the Ruler of the universe had made the greatest sacrifice which love could make; for
“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”
2 Corinthians 5:19.
It was seen, also, that while Lucifer had opened the door for the entrance of sin by his desire for honor and supremacy, Christ had, in order to destroy sin, humbled Himself and become obedient unto death.
God had manifested His abhorrence of the principles of rebellion. All heaven saw His justice revealed, both in the condemnation of Satan and in the redemption of man. Lucifer had declared that if the law of God was changeless, and its penalty could not be remitted, every transgressor must be forever debarred from the Creator’s favor. He had claimed that the sinful race were placed beyond redemption and were therefore his rightful prey. But the death of Christ was an argument in man’s behalf that could not be overthrown. The penalty of the law fell upon Him who was equal with God, and man was free to accept the righteousness of Christ and by a life of penitence and humiliation to triumph, as the Son of God had triumphed, over the power of Satan. Thus God is just and yet the justifier of all who believe in Jesus.
But it was not merely to accomplish the redemption of man that Christ came to the earth to suffer and to die. He came to
“magnify the law” and to “make it honorable.”
Isaiah 42:21
Not alone that the inhabitants of this world might regard the law as it should be regarded; but it was to demonstrate to all the worlds of the universe that God’s law is unchangeable. Could its claims have been set aside, then the Son of God need not have yielded up His life to atone for its transgression. The death of Christ proves it immutable. And the sacrifice to which infinite love impelled the Father and the Son, that sinners might be redeemed, demonstrates to all the universe–what nothing less than this plan of atonement could have sufficed to do–that justice and mercy are the foundation of the law and government of God.
In the final execution of the judgment, it will be seen that no cause for sin exists. When the Judge of all the earth shall demand of Satan, “Why hast thou rebelled against Me, and robbed Me of the subjects of My kingdom?” the originator of evil can render no excuse. Every mouth will be stopped, and all the hosts of rebellion will be speechless.
The cross of Calvary, while it declares the law immutable, proclaims to the universe that the wages of sin is death. In the Saviour’s expiring cry,
“It is finished,”
the death knell of Satan was rung. The great controversy which had been so long in progress was then decided, and the final eradication of evil was made certain. The Son of God passed through the portals of the tomb, that
“through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”
Hebrews 2:14.
Lucifer’s desire for self-exaltation had led him to say:
“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: . . . I will be like the Most High.” God declares: “I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, . . . and never shalt thou be any more.”
Isaiah 14:13, 14; Ezekiel 28:18, 19.
When
“the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;. . . .all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”
Malachi 4:1.
The whole universe will have become witnesses to the nature and results of sin. And its utter extermination, which in the beginning would have brought fear to angels and dishonor to God, will now vindicate His love and establish His honor before the universe of beings who delight to do His will, and in whose heart is His law. Never will evil again be manifest. Says the word of God:
“Affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1:9.
The law of God, which Satan has reproached as the yoke of bondage, will be honored as the law of liberty. A tested and proved creation will never again be turned from allegiance to Him whose character has been fully manifested before them as fathomless love and infinite wisdom.
“Grow up! It is silly to believe in the man-in-the-sky stuff!”
“Your belief is based on myths, the human need for comfort, and blind faith.”
“There is no evidence for your faith.”
How many times have Christians heard this? In this series, we are going to explore the misconceptions associated with Christianity and the reasons and evidence for belief in Jesus Christ.
I have learned over the 40 years, as a believer in Jesus, that people who make derogatory statements like the ones above are simply uninformed. But even if they are informed, it does not guarantee an acceptance of the truth about Jesus and the word of God.
Benjamin Warfield from Princeton University put it this way,
“We are not absurdly arguing that *Apologetics has in itself the power to make a man a Christian or to conquer the world to Christ. Only the Spirit of Life can communicate life to a dead soul….But we are arguing that faith is, in all its exercises alike, a form of conviction, and is, therefore, necessarily grounded in evidence.”
*Note: Apologetics (in the Greek language apología) is not about "aplogizing" in the modern sense of the word, but rather a reasoned defending the faith.
As Christians, we are directed by Peter (one who was an eyewitness to the life of Christ) to:
….always be ready to give a defense (apología) to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.
1 Peter 3:15
We are also told by Paul, another eyewitness and major player in the growth of Christianity, that
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Herein is the problem with the great loss of faith by our young children who enter college and face mature men and women armed with questions and doubts determined to convert their minds into their own agnostic/atheist beliefs.
We raise our young children in almost sterile environments complete with band memberships, Christian socials, and fun things, which are OK. At night we tell them nice Bible bedtime stories, also good, but we don’t give them the evidence, substance, nor the reasons for their faith in Jesus. Many are ignorant of the Bible itself and its faith-giving prophecies. Perhaps even more crippling is the absence of a personal experience with and dedication to Jesus.
Even us adults may find ourselves in a state of doubt and an anemic Christian experience because our faith is not based on facts, but rather feelings and family tradition.
Faith is not blind, it has substance and evidence. I agree with those who say, “my heart cannot rejoice in what my mind rejects.” God invites us to think and use our minds, not just our heart (feelings)
Jesus quoted from the Old Testament when he said,
“…you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
Mark 12:30
The Christian experience includes the mind (reasoning) and not just the emotion. God asks us to “reason together” with him (Isaiah 1:18). Reasoning involves communication and this communication is performed through prayer and the opening of the heart to what He has already revealed to us in scripture. But, it also involves having “facts” for faith in Jesus.
The order of the three “f’s” in Christianity must occur in this order: Facts, Faith, Feeling. The facts about Jesus give you reasons for your faith (trust in Jesus), and all this give you the peace and all the feelings that come from the promises of God’s word.
An experience that starts and based only on feelings is destined to wither under the heat of life’s events. Faith cannot be mustered up by mental exercises. The faith and feelings will come only by the facts. This is what Paul stressed when he said,
So then faith comes by hearingand hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17
As one evangelist, I knew, said,
“Little time in God’s word equals little faith, but much time in God’s word equals much faith.”
When Jesus Christ and the apostles called upon a person to exercise faith, it was not a ‘blind faith” but rather an “intelligent faith.” The apostle Paul said,
I know whom I have believed”
2 Timothy 1:12
Jesus said,
You shall know (not ignore) the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:32
For me personally and many like me, I could not exercise blind faith about Jesus, I needed substance and evidence. I found it in three sources: 1.) The prophecies about Jesus, 2.) History, and 3.) Eyewitness accounts.
“*The Christian faith is an objective faith; therefore, it must have an object. The Christian concept of ‘saving’ faith is a faith that establishes one’s relationship with Jesus Christ (the object), and is diametrically opposed to the average ‘philosophical’ use of the term faith in the classroom today.”
“Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it” (Paul Little)
For the Christian, historical facts are critical. Paul drives home this point when he described the historical fact of the resurrection:
“And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.”
1 Corinthians 15: 14, 17
The Stories of the Bible Are Not Myths
“Critics sometimes charge, ‘Events such as the virgin birth, the resurrection and ascension, Jesus’ turning water into wine and walking on water didn’t really happen. They were inserted to elevate Jesus to the status of a divine figure, though, if he lived at all, he was no more than a mere mortal.” “A professor of a world literature class to which I spoke asked the question, ‘What do you think of Greek mythology?’ I answered with another question, ‘Do you mean, were the events of the life of Jesus, the resurrection, virgin birth, etc., just myth?’ He answered ‘Yes.’ I replied that there is an obvious difference between the events recorded about Christ in the Bible and the stories conveyed in Greek mythology that bear a vague similarity. The similar stories , such as resurrections, and others, of Greek mythology were not applied to real flesh-and-blood individuals, but instead to non-historical, fictional, mythological characters However, when it comes to Christianity, these events are attached to the historic Jesus of Nazareth who the New Testament writers knew personally, the professor replied, ‘Your’re right, I never realized that before.”
The Bible Contains Eyewitnesses Unlike Mythology or the Writings of Other Religious Works
Peter was an eyewitness who refutes the events as fables:
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
2 Peter 1:16
John saw and touched Jesus:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested (made known) to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1: 1-3
Luke, an educated physician put together a narrative from a “perfect understanding” of the events.
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us,it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,
Luke 1:1-3
Luke followed it up with “infallible proofs” as Jesus was seen by many for “forty days” after the cross.
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Acts 1: 1-3
Paul saw Jesus after 500 people saw him “at once” ( a congregation of people), then James and all the apostles saw Him.
After that, He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all, He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
1 Corinthians 15: 6-8
John was an eyewitness to Jesus’ miracles and signs, most were not even written down!
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name….And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
John 20: 30-31, 21:25
Luke states they were all witnesses even His death, resurrection, and having meals with Him afterward.
And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they[ killed by hanging on a tree.Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.
Acts 10: 39-42
Peter witness not only His sufferings but also looked forward to the second glorious return as taught by Jesus before he died!
The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:
1 Peter 1:5
His followers listened and watched as Jesus ascended to heaven as promised.
Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
Acts 1:9
Peter discloses to hecklers to the Pentecost that they also saw and know the actions and events of Jesus life
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—
Acts 2:22
After Festus called Paul mad, Paul discloses that all that Jesus did was in the open and King Agrippa must have known about it. Further, Paul appealed to King Agrippa’s knowledge of the prophets and the fulfillment of their words in Jesus.
Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!”
But he said, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention since this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.”
28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
Acts 26: 24-28
Conclusion
The Christian beliefs are not based on blind faith nor myths and fables. They are based on substance and evidence. Like all historical characters, there were eyewitnesses. Faith is based on substance and evidence, but even the evidence is not enough to convert a person. That person will only be convinced and converted if they yield to the encouraging the work of God’s Spirit which brings conviction about sin and its ultimate results. Once the person goes “all-in” with Jesus, they will discover a life of peace, real joy, and hope in the coming events proclaimed by Jesus and God’s word.
Next time we will continue our study on misconceptions about Christianity.
*Much thanks to Josh McDowell and his book The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict. Volume I and II
