The essential role of the Old Testament
I’m beginning to see why Satan has such antipathy toward the Old Testament and has created so much anti-Semitism.
No doubt, the Jews have brought upon themselves that hatred of the world by their exclusiveness and hoarding of money. [“For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves.” (Is. 52:3).] Abraham and Isaac were wealthy not because they sought wealth but because they sought Yahweh. Prosperity came to all the Old Testament greats for the same reason. The scriptures which they claim to be theirs and theirs only give lessons they have forgotten.
“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it….
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall flourish as a branch….
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” (Prov. 11:24-26,28,30).
“The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.” (Prov. 14:24).
“Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.” (Ecc. 11:1,2).
But there is a bigger reason for the hatred of the Old Testament and the Jews. They give credence to Christ as the Son of God and our only mediator.
The truth of God as revealed in His Son, the mighty power of redeeming love combined with perfect loyalty to God’s law as seen in the life of Jesus, stands up against three giant enemies today: secular atheism, papal religion, and fanatical New Age revivals.
Secular atheism outright denies the Bible altogether. It treats Biblical claims as fables and faith in the Bible as the utmost foolishness. Open rebellion to pure morality masked by humanistic moralism is the thinly veiled agenda behind this belief system. And the violent papal and foolhardy fanatical religions have a large part in the blame for the multitudes running to please the flesh in secularist hedonism.
Papal religion labors to hide the Old Testament because the first ¾ of the Bible raises the standard of righteousness to a law, a law that they didn’t create and that doesn’t aid them in their drive for power-getting. Rather, the Old Testament hinders their power-mania. The Bible teaches humility and service; they have institutionalized pride and self-exaltation. But they have craftily twisted the New Testament to buttress their desire for absolute power.
The Old Testament pains them in another way. One of Rome’s heftiest arguments for authority is age. Since they have existed for almost 2,000 years, age can turn error into truth. This spiritual alchemy has deluded hundreds of millions and, according to Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, will one day delude the whole world.
However, if the Bible is taken as a whole and we see its validity, the Old Testament has more authority than Rome because it is twice as ancient, and thus holds twice the primacy. Herein lays a great obstacle of the papacy to surmount. Hence the devil’s constant effort to completely hide or diminish the authority and influence of the ancient inspired Scriptures given to Israel.
On this same reason the church has attempted to anathematize and annihilate the nation of Israel. As long as there is an Israel, there is a people that reminds the world of the Old Testament and of the Lord’s true Sabbath—the seventh day Sabbath. The spurious day of worship peddled by Rome, along with all of the rest of her non-Christian sorcery, which were born in heathen sun worship, will always potentially be on the defense, so long as the Jews exist on earth.
The third and last group arrayed against the Old Testament is the New Age Christianity, mired in the miraculous and imaginary. This form of religion mirrors, in language and in practice, the spiritualism of the ancient yore. Its search for “God” and its delving into “the Spirit” do nothing but open the door for the prince of evil to come in and possess these devotees of a newly reconstructed Christianity.
The adherents of the New Age and the papal hierarchy love to quote the Bible, but only to prop up their own purposes. Either have a wonderful grasp of Bible language, but neither presents the truth of the Bible.
What is the truth of the Bible? How do they go wrong? By attempting to read it while avoiding repentance and justification. Without true, valid repentance, the heart is not humbled and determined to obey the Law of God. If they can’t accept the Law of God, they can’t get to the Law’s Author, God.
Both are the result of the prophecy in Amos: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 4:11).
Papal religion fell away from the apostolic church, as has the New Age from the Reformation. Both lost the truth of the word of God during their respective revivals, and wandered into dry places. Finally, to survive, both old and new apostasies accepted what Satan offered—an exciting form of godliness without the true power of the Holy Spirit. Both lost the truth about Jesus’ character and mission. Both received light and much power, but without the sweet love, joy, and peace that comes with the Spirit of the Law in Christ Jesus.
The very essence of Christ’s devotion to His Father was perfect obedience to a just Law of God, out of which came His redeeming love. For Jesus, self was hidden in God, as His love was imbedded in His Father. He came from not only a place without sin, but heaven itself, the source of purity and perfection, where sin cannot exist. In the Father’s presence even the glory of the heavens flee away; how much more, sin.
From that rarefied place God sent His Son. Of all humanity, only the Son could say, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me,” and “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” (Jn. 14:30;8:46). “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:3).
But how can we be sure that these words are not simply the human bent of wishing, and of exaggerating and exalting human heroes? Because of the Old Testament.
In that Testament we have concrete evidence of Christ in the prophecies and the animal sacrificial system since the beginning of the fall. All the hard facts of Christ are piled high and deep during the 4,000 year span which concluded the Old Testament. At the very end of it, in Zechariah, we find a great climax of Messianic prophecies.
In the first eleven chapters of Genesis we have the most archaic or all ancient accounts. The language even testifies to its antiquity. The first human pair was so far distant in time that innocence pervaded the world, and clothing nakedness was not yet thought of. But thereafter skins were worn until far after the flood. Archeologists have believed animal-skin wearing people to be cavemen. However, they were simply the post-flood descendents of Noah and the antediluvians who originated from Adam and Eve, the first skin-wearers.
The Old Testament description of the Garden of Eden is that of a primordial jungle of a misty past. Dense fogs watered the vegetation daily. Wild animals ate vegetation only; none were predatory. Such a condition of the world speaks of a most ancient prehistory. The simplicity of the very basics of life also tells of its remote ancestry.
The age of the Old Testament gives validity and primacy to the Bible as a whole, and therefore to Christ and His propitiation. The validness of Genesis also pulls the creation account out from the harassment of intimidating intellectuals who have narrowed their minds. And now that the Church has sided with the evolutionists to undermine the foundation of the Bible, those who desire faith in the Bible as the word of God must rely more fully on the Old Testament than ever before.
Certainly, Satan’s greatest effort in making the whole world his followers will be to destroy the Bible’s reputation. For the Church to grasp primacy, it must rob that primacy from the Bible. The Church must usurp its authority from the Bible, and the God of the Old Testament.
If Satan cannot yet bring everyone today under the control of the Church, which is to eventually be the case, until that day, he will ensnare the fanatical camp into ignoring the Bible, founded in the bedrock of the Old Testament, for preference to “the Spirit” and the search for “God” in the “heavenlies,” and the hedonistic camp in preference to the groundless daydream of a better world free from all religion, even the true one.
“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1Cor. 1:22-25).
No doubt, the Jews have brought upon themselves that hatred of the world by their exclusiveness and hoarding of money. [“For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves.” (Is. 52:3).] Abraham and Isaac were wealthy not because they sought wealth but because they sought Yahweh. Prosperity came to all the Old Testament greats for the same reason. The scriptures which they claim to be theirs and theirs only give lessons they have forgotten.
“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it….
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall flourish as a branch….
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” (Prov. 11:24-26,28,30).
“The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.” (Prov. 14:24).
“Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.” (Ecc. 11:1,2).
But there is a bigger reason for the hatred of the Old Testament and the Jews. They give credence to Christ as the Son of God and our only mediator.
The truth of God as revealed in His Son, the mighty power of redeeming love combined with perfect loyalty to God’s law as seen in the life of Jesus, stands up against three giant enemies today: secular atheism, papal religion, and fanatical New Age revivals.
Secular atheism outright denies the Bible altogether. It treats Biblical claims as fables and faith in the Bible as the utmost foolishness. Open rebellion to pure morality masked by humanistic moralism is the thinly veiled agenda behind this belief system. And the violent papal and foolhardy fanatical religions have a large part in the blame for the multitudes running to please the flesh in secularist hedonism.
Papal religion labors to hide the Old Testament because the first ¾ of the Bible raises the standard of righteousness to a law, a law that they didn’t create and that doesn’t aid them in their drive for power-getting. Rather, the Old Testament hinders their power-mania. The Bible teaches humility and service; they have institutionalized pride and self-exaltation. But they have craftily twisted the New Testament to buttress their desire for absolute power.
The Old Testament pains them in another way. One of Rome’s heftiest arguments for authority is age. Since they have existed for almost 2,000 years, age can turn error into truth. This spiritual alchemy has deluded hundreds of millions and, according to Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, will one day delude the whole world.
However, if the Bible is taken as a whole and we see its validity, the Old Testament has more authority than Rome because it is twice as ancient, and thus holds twice the primacy. Herein lays a great obstacle of the papacy to surmount. Hence the devil’s constant effort to completely hide or diminish the authority and influence of the ancient inspired Scriptures given to Israel.
On this same reason the church has attempted to anathematize and annihilate the nation of Israel. As long as there is an Israel, there is a people that reminds the world of the Old Testament and of the Lord’s true Sabbath—the seventh day Sabbath. The spurious day of worship peddled by Rome, along with all of the rest of her non-Christian sorcery, which were born in heathen sun worship, will always potentially be on the defense, so long as the Jews exist on earth.
The third and last group arrayed against the Old Testament is the New Age Christianity, mired in the miraculous and imaginary. This form of religion mirrors, in language and in practice, the spiritualism of the ancient yore. Its search for “God” and its delving into “the Spirit” do nothing but open the door for the prince of evil to come in and possess these devotees of a newly reconstructed Christianity.
The adherents of the New Age and the papal hierarchy love to quote the Bible, but only to prop up their own purposes. Either have a wonderful grasp of Bible language, but neither presents the truth of the Bible.
What is the truth of the Bible? How do they go wrong? By attempting to read it while avoiding repentance and justification. Without true, valid repentance, the heart is not humbled and determined to obey the Law of God. If they can’t accept the Law of God, they can’t get to the Law’s Author, God.
Both are the result of the prophecy in Amos: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 4:11).
Papal religion fell away from the apostolic church, as has the New Age from the Reformation. Both lost the truth of the word of God during their respective revivals, and wandered into dry places. Finally, to survive, both old and new apostasies accepted what Satan offered—an exciting form of godliness without the true power of the Holy Spirit. Both lost the truth about Jesus’ character and mission. Both received light and much power, but without the sweet love, joy, and peace that comes with the Spirit of the Law in Christ Jesus.
The very essence of Christ’s devotion to His Father was perfect obedience to a just Law of God, out of which came His redeeming love. For Jesus, self was hidden in God, as His love was imbedded in His Father. He came from not only a place without sin, but heaven itself, the source of purity and perfection, where sin cannot exist. In the Father’s presence even the glory of the heavens flee away; how much more, sin.
From that rarefied place God sent His Son. Of all humanity, only the Son could say, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me,” and “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” (Jn. 14:30;8:46). “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:3).
But how can we be sure that these words are not simply the human bent of wishing, and of exaggerating and exalting human heroes? Because of the Old Testament.
In that Testament we have concrete evidence of Christ in the prophecies and the animal sacrificial system since the beginning of the fall. All the hard facts of Christ are piled high and deep during the 4,000 year span which concluded the Old Testament. At the very end of it, in Zechariah, we find a great climax of Messianic prophecies.
In the first eleven chapters of Genesis we have the most archaic or all ancient accounts. The language even testifies to its antiquity. The first human pair was so far distant in time that innocence pervaded the world, and clothing nakedness was not yet thought of. But thereafter skins were worn until far after the flood. Archeologists have believed animal-skin wearing people to be cavemen. However, they were simply the post-flood descendents of Noah and the antediluvians who originated from Adam and Eve, the first skin-wearers.
The Old Testament description of the Garden of Eden is that of a primordial jungle of a misty past. Dense fogs watered the vegetation daily. Wild animals ate vegetation only; none were predatory. Such a condition of the world speaks of a most ancient prehistory. The simplicity of the very basics of life also tells of its remote ancestry.
The age of the Old Testament gives validity and primacy to the Bible as a whole, and therefore to Christ and His propitiation. The validness of Genesis also pulls the creation account out from the harassment of intimidating intellectuals who have narrowed their minds. And now that the Church has sided with the evolutionists to undermine the foundation of the Bible, those who desire faith in the Bible as the word of God must rely more fully on the Old Testament than ever before.
Certainly, Satan’s greatest effort in making the whole world his followers will be to destroy the Bible’s reputation. For the Church to grasp primacy, it must rob that primacy from the Bible. The Church must usurp its authority from the Bible, and the God of the Old Testament.
If Satan cannot yet bring everyone today under the control of the Church, which is to eventually be the case, until that day, he will ensnare the fanatical camp into ignoring the Bible, founded in the bedrock of the Old Testament, for preference to “the Spirit” and the search for “God” in the “heavenlies,” and the hedonistic camp in preference to the groundless daydream of a better world free from all religion, even the true one.
“For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1Cor. 1:22-25).
posted by David | 4:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home