Miscellaneous questions

[Steve Lortz]

So there all the surviving scribes were, sitting in Babylon copying and editing and redacting the material they carried with them from Jerusalem, and they were confronted with ONE HELL OF A CONTRADICTION!

They read in II Samuel 7:16 that God promised David "And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever."

And yet, there they all were, sitting in Babylon, with no descendant of David on the throne.

How to deal with this?

The conclusion of the Deuteronomist was that God had withdrawn His blessing because of Israel's waywardness, and He would not bless Israel again until Israel took the initiative, repented, and returned to the ways prescribed in Deuteronomy. A big, BIG chunk of the Old Testament was written with the paradigm of the Deuteronomist in mind. This led to a history of doom, a doomed humanity, a doomed nation and a doomed messiah. The old covenant was DOOM!

And yet there was another thread woven into the Old Testament, the thread of the prophets. Through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the "lesser" prophets, God promised that He was going to establish a new covenant with His people, not for the sake of His people's works, but for the sake of His own name. A covenant based on faith rather than works.

These two threads seem contradictory because they ARE! But they are both in there because they were BOTH God-breathed! Both threads are necessary in order to understand the depth of meaning in the salvation God brought through the obedience of Jesus Christ!

The contradiction is resolved on the cross of Christ, and in his resurrection, and in the outpouring of Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

If we try to resolve the contradiction in any other way, we cannot help but misunderstand what it means that salvation is by grace THROUGH faith. (Fortunately for us, we don't really have to understand it to receive it!)

I always find it provocative to consider that there are four gospels, and Ephesian 3:17-19 say "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."

Four gospels - four dimensions!

Wierwille's efforts to harmonize the gospels destroyed the dimensionality necessary to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge!

So, if you've been keeping one of your eyes at a time shut, and trying to resolve the contradictions you see that way, get BOTH your eyes open and see the depth!

Love,

Steve

[Ham]

If you consider AND to know the love of Christ, you now have five dimensions. But where is the fifth gospel?

[Raf]

Does anyone seriously think that the story in Genesis about the Tower of Babel chronicles the origin of different human languages? I mean, we know that is not the case, don't we?

[Raf]

Bump