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Believers and seekers Questions – Part 3

All the answers are in His Word, check it out.

1. Why do some Christians struggle with reading the entire Bible, and is it really about fear of contradiction or something else entirely?

I love the Bible and read it avidly. But, I’ll admit that many parts can be tedious and difficult. Some things that i found helpful to learn:

After Solomon, the kingdom divided. So, it’s really important to know which kingdom (Northern Israel/Samaria or the Southern Judah) is the subject of that narrative, or prophet’s message.

Learn the timeline of the history of the nation(s) of Israel.
Realize that not everything stated in the Bible is being commanded, or taught. There are many horrific things that happened, which are recorded for history, but which God was DISPLEASED with, and which are against His commands. For instance, the book of Judges key verse is in Judges 17:6 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” which is repeated in Judges 21:25. In other words, they were NOT doing what was right in the sight of God – they were doing what they wanted to believe was right.

Much of the Bible is about what was done in violation of God’s covenant(s), and which displeased Him, and about His warnings to the people who most often rejected Him, and then about the judgements that came upon them for it.
Always look for the redemption narrative. God always made (and still makes) promises to people who will trust Him and obey Him. God redeems people who turn to Him, stop rebelling and repent of evil. In every generation, even with those who did great evil, God works to lead people’s hearts back to Him and to save them from judgment when they will acknowledge and obey Him. God’s redemption is the purpose and theme of the entire Bible – from beginning to end. If you miss that, you miss the point.

2. Beyond spiritual deception, what human factors have allowed the Trinity doctrine to remain so widely accepted for centuries?

One and only one: The Triune nature of God is apparent from the very beginning of the Bible (Genesis) to the last (Revelation). Although veiled in the Old Testament (in that it is not explicitly taught), it is apparent with hindsight. All three persons of God are involved in the Creation (the very nature of God is stated in plurality at the very first chapter). All three persons are revealed in many of the key events across the Torah, the Prophets and the also within the historic chronicles.

Even the Shemah (“behold oh Israel… the Lord thy God is one…”) the word for one there can also mean “unity”, and definitely is not the Hebrew word for singular.

So, it’s not human factors at all, but the divine revelation of himself.

3. Why would the gospel writers choose different phrases for Jesus’ last words, and what does this say about their individual narratives?

The writers do not claim “last words”. They simply state what they saw and heard. Looking at the four Gospel accounts, we see that there are 7 in total. That is significant – because God uses 7 to demonstrate both completion and rest to us.

Of course, each of those seven statements were prophesied elsewhere in the Old Testament scripture, in passages that are considered by scholars to be the “Messianic prophecies”. So, we see that even in His suffering, Jesus is fulfilling prophecy.

This is crucial to understanding what Jesus said “no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down…”
and what Peter said, that this was done according to the “…determined purpose and foreknowledge of God…”. Jesus was no martyr! This was planned for our redemption long before it happened.

The fact that it takes all four writers to put the seven statements together shows us that the Holy Spirit is the designer and author of the text.

4. How do Christians defend their belief that Jesus fulfills the Hebrew Bible prophecies, despite Jewish objections?

Jewish objections are part of the story. What about the Jewish followers who turned the gentile world upside down with a message of a Jewish Messiah risen from the dead? Kind of funny we think of Christianity as a gentile religion, really.

Well those Jewish unbelievers were foretold by the very prophets who spoke of the coming Savior.

But, you know there’s over a million Jews in the world today who believe Jesus is the Messiah/Christ right now? Yeah. Hey, there’s even about 200 Messianic congregations in Israel today. Not 200 people, 200 congregations!

So, do we have to prove anything to the Jewish unbeliever? No. They need to search their own scriptures – because it says all over them that it will be a Messiah that they rejected who delivers their nation from peril in the end of this age.

So, NOW is the time, TODAY is the day of Salvation. and time is running out.

5. As a Christian who follows the examples of the Church Fathers over the example of Messiah, can you explain biblically whether the Torah of Yah Almighty was intended to bring a life of faith, love, and obedience—or merely reveal sin (Romans 7:10)?

It’s really both, isn’t it? The commands were manifold. The moral law compelled a person to moral perfection, which is the part none can keep. The civil law enabled society to maintain a just and fair society in that era of time, better than any other society ever had. Finally, the ceremonial law gave a means of redemption (although only temporal and needing annual renewal).

If you track with the corrections and rebukes of the prophets, it was always the nation’s failure to keep the civil and ceremonial law that was the issue that God had with their nation. Their failure to keep the practices of correcting injustice and of failing to keep the redemptive ceremonies, meant the the nation had no remedy for the moral failings that would inevitably happen.

So, yes, the Torah did give both moral structure and national culture. And yes it was imperfect because they needed to offer sacrifices year after year.

In the New Covenant, Jesus has solved both problems: He has once for all times made the perfect sacrifice to redeem man’s sin; and He also has made it possible for the repentant to receive the Holy Spirit who leads us to fulfill the law by love.

A true believer will love the Lord his/her God with all their heart, soul, strength, mind – and love their neighbor with the charity they themselves would ask. Against such things there is no law. Love, that is true love, is a fulfillment of the Moral Law and Civil Law. The Ceremonial Law was fulfilled by Christ in his sacrifice, burial, resurrection, and in His pending return.

But, let’s make no mistake: Paul (who was commissioned to proclaim it) revealed that the Torah laws were made obsolete FOR THE CHRISTIAN. Because receiving Christ is to have come to receive the fulfillment of the Law.

All of the rest of mankind remains under the curses of the Old Covenant, since all of the blessings are now available ONLY under the New Covenant. So a person attempting to keep the Old Covenant must be entirely frustrated because it has been rendered impossible to keep now. Attempting to keep it can only result in vain form and formality, not in substance of the Spirit. The Spirit is given to those who obey Christ, according to Him being the mediator of the New Covenant (Better Covenant).

Mission 1711