YOU can learn directly from God.

If you're religion is confusing to you, there's a reason. Get a red letter Bible, and read the words of Jesus to the priests and preachers of His day. Then understand this: There's no difference between them and the priests and preachers of our day. Why would there be? Just as there was in His day, there are some with good intent, but even they are learning from a corrupted system. Want the truth? Throw out everything you've learned from them, pick up the Bible, and read it for yourself. Not by chapter and verse as you were taught. Particularly in the New Testament, read the way they were written, as letters. And unless you're well versed in Old English, get a modern translation. One you can read and understand. Stick to the New Testament at first, so as not to be overwhelmed. And know this, it isn't the word of God the way you were taught. It's the word of God as understood by those who wrote it. Try to understand it from the point of view of those it was written to...we were taught to read it as if it was written to us!
The problem with that is, those the New Testament was written to were going through the transition from one Covenant to another. They were awaiting an event in their time. To learn about that event, one needs to consult historians, such as Josephus and his account of it in "Wars of the Jews."

Questioning the established theologies. The church teaches the law, just as it did when Jesus railed against it in His day. A discussion on the freedoms He gave us, and why true followers might want to operate on the outside. The truth is out there, but where?

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Covenant Fulfillment

The covenant relationship starts with Abraham. “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you....as for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.” This is the covenant of circumcision, which came long before the law. God promised Abraham his descendants would number as the stars in the heavens.

Passover regulations, restrictions, consecration of the firstborn, all happened before the law was handed down. Moses sat as a judge over disputes among the people during their wandering in the desert. His father in law, Jethro, saw this when he visited, and suggested he appoint officials to serve as judges. Moses did this, letting the simple cases be handled in this way, and only dealing with the harder cases himself. On the third month after leaving Egypt, God says this through Moses: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

It is at this point that God gives Moses the ten commandments. Then, this: “These are the laws you are to set before them...” to Moses. There are laws for personal injuries, protection of property, social responsibility, justice and mercy, Sabbath laws, festivals, etc. Moses wrote it all down, then took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.” Moses then took blood from sacrificed bulls and sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

At this point, God calls Moses up to the mountain to receive the commandments in stone. Regulations for the Ark, tabernacle, table, lampstand, altar, courtyard, garments for priests, and on and on were written down. The people became a people of rules and regulations, living their lives by the strict letter of the laws that were handed down.

Years later, after inhabiting the promised land, the Hebrews had judges to settle disputes and priests to serve God. Eventually, the elders of Israel came to Samuel, and told him to appoint a king to lead them. Samuel took their request to God, and this is what God told Samuel: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”

Samuel pleaded with the people, but they insisted, so he anointed Saul as their king. Saul later disobeys, and is rejected as king by God. Samuel then anoints David as king, while Saul is still holding the position. To David, after Saul's death, God gives this promise: “Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you....Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, your throne will be established forever.”

Israel had many kings, but Hoshea was the last of them. Shalmaneser king of Assyria put him in prison, and captured the land and deported the Israelites to Assyria. 2Kings 17 gives God's reasons for this. Shalmaneser brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and sepharvaim and settled them in the land.

Judah still had their land, however, yet troubles were there as well. They had King Josiah, who became king when he was eight years old, but he did right by God. In his eighteenth year, the High Priest found the Book of the Law in the temple, and presented it to the kings secretary, who presented it to the king. King Josiah renewed the covenant, and had the book read to all the people, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. Of course, four kings later and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon overtook Jerusalem, and set fire to the temple, and broke down the walls, and sent the people into exile. They just couldn't keep the covenant.

Cyrus of Persia, seventy years later, allowed the temple to be rebuilt, and helped the exiles to return to Jerusalem. The temple was rebuilt and the people rededicated themselves.

Now that is the literal story of the covenant. It's longer, with a lot of stories, but basically it's try and fail, try and fail. The people were never able to make righteousness work within the confines of the law, they kept falling away. Now lets start to look at the prophets testimony.

“The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: 'do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare....Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.” He is our sanctuary, but for the people of the rules, he is a stone that causes them to stumble. About those from the literal covenant, Isaiah says, “See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers!” Murderers of the spirit, preventing people from gaining access to their peace.

“I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” No more spiritual insight. Just a wasteland. Isaiah is full of what has happened to the people of the law...describing them as calling evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, calling them wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. They rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah (peace). Of the remnant, he says, “will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.” “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.”

“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the Lord, 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.'” Notice, in this new covenant, we aren't burdened with rituals and regulations. We're not given instructions to keep. In this covenant, God has taken on all the responsibility himself. He will call us, he will teach us, he will keep us and not count any wrong against us.

That is the core of the gospel (good news). God redeemed us from ourselves, setting aside the old covenant of responsibility for ourselves, and bringing us a new covenant where he himself bears our burden and gives us rest. The old covenant of the law was fulfilled in death, as that was the only real outcome it could have. The new covenant is fulfilled in each of us individually, as we pass from death to life. Living in the old covenant leaves us in a cycle of trying and failing, and ultimately always results in failure. Living in the new covenant always ends in successful communion.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Israel Our Example

I'm doing a study on the covenants and the law, to explain the name of my you tube channel.  In doing this study, I of course get sidetracked as always.  I can't read the story of Abraham, for instance, without reflecting on what he was thinking as he was on his way to sacrifice his son.  I used to think it was a joke, God making him wait until he was 100 years old, then giving him his son and then telling Abram to give him back.  "No, no, I was only kidding, Abraham..."  Now I see it as trying to relate to us what it meant to Him to give up His son.

Anyway, it occurred to me that God repeatedly tells the people of Israel, that they would be his people.  He would establish Israel forever.  Of course, we all know that the true Israel is the believers in love and mercy, not those who were literal descendants.  But...his people Israel WERE still an example to the world.  They were the perfect example of how to piss God off.  They just couldn't help themselves, actually.  Seriously, they were an example of how not to go about having a relationship with God.  Their religious system will forever go down as the system of laws that neglects mercy.  To make mankind work, for us all, we have to serve each other.  When someone is going through their life as a user, or a taker, not giving back, they upset the natural order that is necessary for us to survive in the long run.  Eventually, if everyone were takers, we as a people would completely destroy everything around us.  Witness what corporate rule is doing to the environment around us that we depend on (ultimately for the survival of all).  Take morals out of the hunt for money and that's what happens.

It has been bothering me that the purpose of the cross was the fulfillment of the law, and Christ in this act did away with the 'old' covenant and set it aside for the new, wherein the laws are written on our hearts.  Well, the part that has bothered me isn't so much that, as the idea that after the destruction of the temple and setting aside of the law, the church itself merely picked it up and embraced it.  The whole thing started all over again, with all the rules and regulations, only now it was spread all over the whole world.  I couldn't figure out why God would allow that to happen, if He were the one doing the destroying of it within his people. 

I see it now.  Rules are man's natural inclination towards order.  The example was put forth on all of our behalf, to show us all why it doesn't work, and to show those who desire it what does work.  Israel and their covenant laws really were an example of the people of God for the whole world.  Only they weren't the example we expect when we think of an example.  They were an example of failure, because no effort of man's will work when approaching God, or the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of Man, or however you think of him.  Only approaching in a spirit of love and mercy will suffice.  Thinking you are acting on God's behalf is nothing more than puffing yourself up.  If God can orchestrate the whole charade of the Jewish nation just to show all of us how NOT to live for God, I don't think He really needs our help, and anything WE do is going to be a microcosm compared to HIS works.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Eschatology

I've come to the view that most of the prophecies I used to believe were future and near at hand were actually fulfilled in the first century.  It always bothered me that Jesus said these things would happen within that generation, and yet we use verses from other locations to explain away why it was taking him so long.  The issue has been the form we have been looking for him to come back in.  A study of clouds and their symbolism in the bible shows we should have been looking for his return in the spirit, not physically manifested coming down out of the sky.  I have long believed the kingdom of God is within, and the indwelling of the Spirit as doctrine.  But not to connect the dots of that to the second coming is because I have ignored the subject.  We are in the next age, and have been for two thousand years.  By the time we realize it, it will be past us and we'll  be into the next age!  ☺ 

The redemption of mankind happened at the cross.  The judgment of Israel happened in AD70.  There are some rather interesting descriptions of that event by Josephus if anyone cares enough to get that far and read his witness of the event.  The 'parousia' either was at Pentacost, (what I think) or sometime in between, or at the event itself.   There are differing opinions about that within the Preterist groups, which believe this eschatological view, but the point is that it already happened, and fulfilled eschatology makes Revelations much more understandable.  I still think some of it has to do with this age, but it's more commentary than prophecy that does.  For instance, the condemnations you read of about the Pharisees easily apply to the Institutionalized Churches (IC) of history since, including today, although we are seeing more of a movement toward grace teaching today.  Too bad they still mix in so much law.

I'm also coming around to the view of the Universalists, although for me it's not so much a belief as a hope.  No one really knows about the afterlife, after all, and there are arguments for some not reaching life.  I think though that if God WANTS all men to be saved, then it is likely that all men will be saved.  It may be after the age of faith, but at some point it would seem all would be drawn in.  Eternal damnation is an impossibility according to the bible, since the tree of life is in heaven and to eat of it you must dwell there.

Short post today, just wanted to update my progression...

Followers