By Farther Steps 2.0

I'm toying around with iBlog and working on a new version of BFS. What do you think?

Edited: I updated the URL for BFS 2.0. It no longer has that nasty "B1995945177" bit in it. Now located at simply:
http://homepage.mac.com/byfarthersteps

I will not be posting at this blog any more. If you want to keep up with me, please update your bookmarks to my .Mac site. It came together much quicker than I thought it would. Thank you iBlog! :)

That is all.

God's Plan for Jesus

Acts 2:23
Jesus was handed over to sinful men. God knew this and planned for it to happen. You had sinful men take Him and nail Him to a cross.

Acts 4:27-28
Truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.

Isa 53:6 & 10
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;

This is Good Friday.

Continuity and Discontinuity Fulfillment

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. - Hebrews 13:7-10

Why does the author of Hebrews, right in the middle of this thought drop in the unchangeableness of Jesus? Before and after it he is speaking of the church leaders "who spoke to you the word of God" and so the church is not to " be led away by diverse and strange teachings". I think the obvious answer is that what these guys are teaching doesn't get changed or overruled by some new guys showing up with new teaching since Jesus didn't change. He is our unchanging standard in teaching. If something new comes along we need to test it to see if it presents a changed or changing Jesus.

So now notice how he ends the section, he talks about those who serve at the tabernacle (the tent used before Solomon built the temple; it is significant) who do not have a portion in this new altar. In the Old Covenant the priest shared in a portion of the sacrifice, it is how they fed themselves and their families. But now something is new, there is a new altar in which those guys don't have part of. So did something change? What about that bit just before it where Jesus doesn't change? Something significantly changed. Remember earlier I mentioned that Moses was a servant in the house Jesus built. The tabernacle was built under Moses' direction. Moses gave the law concerning the priests. Didn't something just change if those guys now can't get food that way?

Obviously Jesus didn't "change" things here. What was pictured in the tabernacle was fulfilled in Jesus. You can't keep doing the picture when the reality comes. Imagine if you were going to take your family to Disneyland. You talked about it and showed brochures from it. Your family planned out what rides each would ride and in what order. Imagine if you even went so far as to build a model of Disneyland in your backyard! (Disney would sue) Now the day arrives and you're ready to go. Your eight-year old decides to stay in the backyard and watch the miniature Matterhorn. He refuses to take his ticket to Disneyland and clings to the paper mache mountain. He has no part in the family trip but is clinging to image. Did the Matterhorn change? Now, it has "come" and has been rejected. Even though junior is still holding on to the image, you are going to tear that mess down when you get back from Anaheim. It isn't a change it is a fulfillment.

That is what is going on in Hebrews. Jesus didn't change, what was pictured in Old Testament Judaism was the same thing that that came in Jesus' death and resurrection. So now if someone comes along and says something that doesn't follow Jesus' incarnation they are not to be followed. Jesus didn't change and suddenly move us back to Old Covenant worship.

Millennial Comfort

The other day I was walking across the parking lot at work when the bell in the large, classical Presbyterian church rang. For a moment I thought about what it would be like to live in a country where church and state are united and the church is not compromised. I felt at ease for a second thinking of Christians, real Christians running the nation. I felt like I had nothing to fear.

After a brief moment the feeling passed. The Presbyterian church the bell rang from is part of a liberal denomination and so it is very likely that it teaches a hollowed out Christianity. The unity of Church and state has never left Church unscathed, she soon becomes polluted by men seeking power not Christ. Sin has so corrupted man that we can never achieve peace like that while man rules (sorry, no post-millennialism). Peace on earth like that can only come when Christ rules the nations with a rod of iron. What I got a fleeting glimpse of was the New Heavens and New Earth. No man-made institution.

More Spam Fun

I'm sure we've all gotten that e-mail claiming that someone has $1.5M in an account and they need to get it out of X country. They ask you to open an account they can transfer it to and you can keep some. It is a scam to get your personal information.

Usually it is the widow or son of some assassinated or deposed ruler. Here's a new twist:

From Amed Hassan,
Abidjan (Ivory Coast),
Tele: 22507599685.

Dear,

I am Mr Amed Hassan from Ivory Coast. I am an orphan of 18years old,
being that I lost my father a couple of a year, and some months ago. My
father was a serving director of the Cocoa exporting board until his
death .

It goes on from there. I guess the spammers are finding little sympathy for deposed dictators and now are turning to 18 year old orphans. Egh.