New Covenant Ways – BT19:  Church teacher-leaders push the bible, but God pushes the Holy Spirit!

 

 

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All through the history of revival you see the same pattern: authoritative teacher–leaders criticizing, resisting, and even persecuting the supernatural grace-gifts of the Spirit (a), carefully “cherry-picking” what grace-gifts of the Spirit they want to accept, and pounding home Sola Scriptura or “By scripture Alone” as if the bible is “the perfect that is come” (b) to justify the exclusion of the supernatural Holy Spirit. <Notes> a) tongues, interpretations, prophecy, healing, exorcisms, miracles: Mark 16:17-18; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30, b) 1 Corinthians 13:10.

 

So how does God react to all this resistance?  He “opposes/stands-firm against the proud/unteachable but gives unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace to the lowly/teachable” (a). Some of these objectors “wake up to smell the coffee,” but many don’t!  The early Church Father Irenaeus around 200 AD said that churches who were rejecting the supernatural manifestations of charismata grace-gifts of the Holy Spirit were also the ones devoid of the Holy Spirit’s fruit, like “a leafless terebinth, and as a garden without an abater (plower) – such men are of no use to God, in that they can bear no fruit.”  The Holy Spirit is the only way the garden of our lives can be cultivated and watered!  To quench or suppress any part of His work is to shut The Person out completely! <Notes> a) James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5 citing Proverbs 3:34.

 

The Cessationists, like the Church of Christ that I was saved in, the Baptists, Associate Reformed Presbyterians, and Presbyterian Church in America, don’t believe in the supernatural dunamis enabling-power and ongoing prophetic revelation of the Holy Spirit.  They say that all of that died out with the apostles!  The say that the Continuationism of the Lutheran, Methodist, Moravian, and Pentecostals is wrong, even though Tertullian’s writings also around 200 AD attest to it flourishing, as do: Hippolytus between 170-236 AD, Clement of Alexandria between 150-215 AD, Origen between 185-254 AD, Cyprian around 258 AD, Ephraem Syrus between 306–373 AD, and Augustine as late as 430 AD. The history of revival has also proved the Cessationists dead wrong!  Could this be why Paul even warned the Church against such suppression (a), and stressed to “earnestly desire to prophesy, and in possibility do not forbid speaking in tongues” (b)?  How can churches “cherry pick” what they want to obey out of the New Covenant of the NT?  Like the old covenant, it’s all or nothing!  See also Wikipedia’s “Cessationism versus Continuationism.” <Notes> a) 1 Thessalonians 5:19, b) 1 Corinthians 14:39.

 

I have to remember 2 visions and a dream the Lord gave me at 3 different times:  One was of a brick wall behind Christ’s torn veil in the dimly lit Jewish temple, the wall still blocking the way into the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence is.  He told me the wall was “the cares of this world, the pleasures of the flesh, the voices of demons,” and the little window high up on the wall that you could barely reach with great effort and certainly couldn’t fit through, was “seeing through the bible,” and He told me, “Speak to the wall for 7 days, ‘Come down in the name/authority of Jesus.” I did this literally for 7 days without it fully coming down, but then I realized that 7 is the number for completion throughout the bible, so most likely, the Lord wants me to continually do this until the wall is “completely” down.

 

In another vision, I was in a chair in the middle of a dimly lit room with bare, old wooden walls, with the chair only getting a little light from a high, near impossible-to-reach window to my right. The room was cold and lifeless except for the little bit of light from the window. God told me the little warmth I received in my study chair from all my bible study was from that high window on my right, the place of authority, the place a conservative like myself would place his confidence. However, the door out of this room was in front of me, and that door was Christ. Once I was outside in the bluest sky I’ve ever seen with the greenest lily-like grass and massive trees I’ve ever seen with flowers that turned as I walked past them, I saw twinkling diamond-like flakes of bread floating down from the sky all around me, and I was filled with immense, unconditional-love and joy. It was like I had never lived before!  It was like heaven, but God told me this is the zoe genuine-life of the Holy Spirit He was calling me to, but I had to get up out of that study chair!  Yet, here I am writing this study – it’s a hard habit to break!

 

In another dream, God said the MORE accurate books about God, the theology of God, were on the oldest top shelf of the Library of Congress long before 1452’s printing of the Guttenberg bible, but there was no ladder to reach them but an old rugged cross.  But no matter how you use the cross, even turning it upside down and using the cross-beam as a ladder, you will never reach the ‘True Theology of God,’ because even if you read the old scrolls at the top, they are still second-hand knowledge from mere men, because we don’t have the originals but only handwritten copies by scribes at that!  ‘The True Theology’ can only be received humbly at the foot of the old rugged cross as the angels descend and ascend upon it to deliver it to us by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, just as “the secrets of the kingdom are un-hidden to the little children and least among you first.”  Jesus said, unlike all the “other rabbis, Christ’s yoke of instruction is to learn from Him and this would be kindly useful because it’s custom fitted to us and His burdens/commandments/works forever light to carry, as a cloud is blown by the wind.”

 

Reflection:

 

 

God’s “perfect will” Plan A for learning about Himself and His will that has been restored from Mt. Sinai thru the chadash/kainos New Covenant is completely-different-in-kind and superior by definition and context than that of the old covenant’s gramma writings that we His “permissible will” Plan B due to the disobedience of the Jews, having absolutely nothing in common as the terms chadash/kainos mean.  As we’ve begun to see, God’s Plan A was for ALL of His people is NOW to learn like the OT Prophets did – directly from Him, akouo hearing/listening to understand His phone Voice of directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words, directly through revelation, wisdom, and understanding by the means of the Holy Spirit.  We were also meant to eido “mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know God even through visions and dreams, just as with all The Prophets.  A picture is worth more than a 1000 words!  Every member of the Body-of-Christ was meant to share prophecy with one another to build up their trusting-relying-faith and be built up in unconditional-love. That’s what all the passages about Body-Ministry and the Holy Spirit’s grace-gifts say!

 

Prayer:

 

 

Thank You Lord for taking control of the entire process of how to NOW know You and Your will.  Thank You for eliminating ancient writings that even few scholars fully understand or agree upon, let alone what are “holy books” and what aren’t.  The jury has been out all through history, even though religious people fight for what they think are ‘authoritative’ because their foundation is mislaid.  They could have had heard and seen Your Voice, Your visions, and Your dreams to know You like every prophet does, just as You promised for the entire Church age, but they opted to only know bits and pieces about You through writings and try to convince themselves they can confidently “take hold of zoe genuine-life by them,” but like Jesus said to the Pharisees and scribes, “they only testify about Me and yet you refuse to come to Me for zoe genuine-life everlasting.”

 

Thank You that the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant is no longer a ministry of gramma writings but of the supernatural enabling-power of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all the truth and to confirm the simplicity of the gospel logos message.  Praise Your name that little children and the least among us NOW will “see, enter, and receive the secrets of the kingdom before the so-called ‘wise and understanding ones” because NOW it has nothing to do with understanding gnosis informational-knowledge about You but drawing near to you in proseuche conversational-prayer until we “are completely-filled with the abundance of God by the means of the Holy Spirit,” just as your repeatedly exhorted us to do.  Thank You for eliminating all the middle-men teachers and being our “One Teacher.”  Nothing any more is lost in translation or dissemination!  Now it’s back to One on one!  Finally, we have your “perfect will” Plan A and we surrender completely to it!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, churches push the bible but God pushes the Holy Spirit, in revival the church leaders are the last to get the Spirit, church leaders are often the first to resist the Holy Spirit, Resisting the Spirit’s gifts quenches the fruit, Cessationism is wrong, Continuationism is correct, Historical proof

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT13c:  What value are the New Testament writings for Christians?

 

 

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I’ve searched high and low through every stated purpose by the New Testament writers, even every word of every NT writing, and can’t find even a hint that Jesus or any of the NT writers intended for their sayings or writings to be copied, collected, systematically organized, or distributed to all Christians for all ages to come as some form of “NEW graphe scripture” to be included with the palaios “old, antiquated, worn-out, useless” graphe scripture into anything resembling a “holy bible.”

 

As important as Jesus was as a rabbi teacher, you never see Him ask for anything to be written down or copied!  This was and still is unheard of with any important Jewish rabbi, for every “sound saying” of theirs was and is carefully written down by grammateus scribes or professional writers and copiers of gramma writings collected in graphe scripture, who were also ‘expert’ interpreters and teachers of it, and these were stored in books to be constantly referenced to in all subsequent teaching and writing. Yet, there is absolutely no mention of Jesus traveling with scribes!

 

Instead you see Jesus quieting their fears of not having His teaching recorded for quick access: “The Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (a), and “If I do not go away, the Parakletos (b) will not come to you. B ut if I go, I will send Him to you. . . When the Spirit of/belonging-to The Truth comes, He will guide you into ALL The Truth” (d). There is absolutely no hint that ANY of them were going to be “respected teachers,” the meaning of “rabbi,” or scribes to write down and copy Christ’s words for subsequent generations. All of the gospel accounts of Christ were written 37-77 years after Christ died (e)!  Remember, Jesus explicitly told them: “You are absolutely not to be called ‘rabbi’ for One is your Teacher and/coupled you are ALL brethren” (f).  See Teachers and Teaching.

 

<Notes> a) Luke 12:12, b) ‘Close-beside’ caller, summoner, or inviter; helper, succorer, or assistant; encouraging teacher, counselor, comforter, or consoler; defense-attorney, judicial-advocate, or court-intercessor, c) “The Truth” is shorthand throughout the NT for Jesus:  John 1:17, 14:6, 8:30-32 – see The Truth page, d) John 16:6-7, 13, e) Mark around 70 AD, Matthew and Luke around 80-90 AD, John 90-110 AD, f) Matthew 23:8 – see Teach One Another – BT10.

 

The notion that Christians were going to refer to “holy gramma writings” grapho written by more New Testament “rabbis” or scribes to spread the gospel logos message of The Truth did NOT come into the Church until 150-250 years after Jesus, the apostles and all their disciples were long dead!  If you carefully research Church history, you will see that ALL of these notions are simply ever-evolving “traditions of men,” just as Jesus criticized the Jews for doing (a), just as the NT writers warned Christians against (b)!  All these Catholic Church inventions come as a result of becoming legalistic, controlling people for power and financial gain, after they had fallen away from the Holy Spirit and the miraculous.  Without relationship you end up with religion! <Notes> a) Matthew 15:3, 6; Mark 7:8-9, 13, b) Colossians 2:8.

 

Instead you see Jesus consistently define who His sheep are, not as readers but as listeners: “They ongoingly, experientially, relationally ginosko know Me, in the same way as the Father ongoingly, experientially, relationally ginosko knows Me and I ongoingly, experientially, relationally ginosko know the Father” (a), but not by reading and studying scripture!  Jesus tells how: “They shall actually akouo hear/listen-to-understand/know My Voice. . . My sheep shall actually akouo hear/listen-to-understand/know My Voice, and/coupled I ongoingly, experientially, relationally ginosko know them, and/coupled they ongoingly follow Me” (b).  The Greek for “Voice” is phone – exactly what we listen to others on!  You don’t read a phone! J esus isn’t text messaging us!  Nor is Jesus grapho writing us gramma writings or personal epistles, nor asking anybody to do this for Him!  Contrary to what Billy Graham said, the bible is NOT “God’s love letter to us.” <Notes> a) John 10:14-15, b) vv. 16, 27.

 

Remember that the NT says that NOW Christians “are an epistle from Christ delivered by us, written absolutely in fact NOT by the means of ink but by the means of the Spirit of the living God, absolutely in fact not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (a) – see Logos Word of God – BT20.  This is a direct stab by Paul at the 10 commandments and the follow-up writings of the entire OT, but especially the 97.4% that is based on the “the Law of sin and death” – see Logos Word of God – BT5a. The NT “Great News” of the gospel is the solution to the really “bad news” of most of the OT. Yet, we’ve seen there is a thin 2.6% thread of prophetic hope for the Jews to hold to, but only UNTIL the coming of the Messiah and the gospel logos message (b) – see Logos Word of God – BT6.  I guess a lot of Christians simply don’t understand what “UNTIL” means!  All through this study you will see the word “UNTIL” emphasized to help you get the point! <Notes> a) 2 Corinthians 3:3, b) Matthew 11:13; Luke 16:16.

 

I believe many Christians and churches forget why any OT “sacred gramma writings” came into being in the first place. They were not God’s initial plan or “perfect will” Plan A but a reaction or “permissible will” Plan B to the Jew’s disobedience.  God’s “perfect will” Plan A was for ALL the Jewish people to meet Him on the mountain, and told Moses this, so He could teach them ALL directly through experiential, relational ginosko knowing of Him, which would then have resulted in genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge. However, out of fear or maybe guilt for possible exposure of sin in God’s holy presence, they assigned Moses to communicate with God directly and then to relay the information to them. The result of their disobedience birthed religion – the ministry of disseminated/distributed gnosis info-knowledge about God and His will from “the greatest to the least” through a top-down hierarchy of teachers – read the context of Exodus 20:19.

 

However, Paul tells Christians “Now, however, we already have been katargeo thrown-down-to-be-released-due-to-the-inactive-uselessness-of from the Law, already having died to that which we were bound to, in order for us to minister/serve by the means of the kainotes NEWness (a) of the Spirit and/coupled/namely absolutely in fact NOT by the means of the paliotes oldness (b) of [singular] gramma writing” (c). <Notes> a) from kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) from palaios:  old, antiquated, worn-out, useless, c) Romans 7:6.

 

If this is the case, why in the world would God have us now serve Him by following a new set of “holy gramma writings” and collect these portions into more graphe scripture?  It makes absolutely no sense!  I hear people say that Paul is just talking negatively about the Law ‘portion of’ scripture, which is the case for Romans 2:27, 29, or “the [singular] old covenant gramma writing that apokteino kills-to-death” in 2 Corinthians 3:6-7, but we have to remember that 97.4% of the OT is based on the old covenant Law, and also that Jesus and the NT writers referred to all ‘portions of’ the OT as “the Law,” as Jews today do – see Logos Word of God – BT5a.  But in all these cases, Paul is pitting the seen gramma writing(s) against the unseen Spirit as the basis from which God’s people will serve/minister from.  The first requires reading and study like the scribes and Pharisees did, but the second requires watching and listening in proseuche conversational-prayer like all prophets have to in order to learn from God directly!

 

Why would God perpetuate the result of the Jew’s disobedience in Exodus 20:19 above, which is the dissemination of gramma writings of graphe scripture, by continuing these into the completely-different-in-kind chadash/kainos New Everlasting Covenant?  How is this continuance of the palaios “old, antiquated, worn-out, useless” then defined as chadash/kainos “fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior?”  Or would God instead find a way to return to His original “perfect will” (Plan A) after man completely failed to accomplish God’s “permissible will” (Plan B)?  That is exactly what the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant promises so clearly in Hebrews 8:11 citing Jeremiah 31:34, “ou absolutely not in fact, me absolutely not in possibility, shall each [of His people] teach his neighbor (Jew or Gentile proselyte) and each his brother (family) to ‘definitively/wholly, experientially, relationally ginosko know the Lord,’ for they (His people) shall actually ALL eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know Me, from the least to the greatest.” Can you see how God redefines this “experientially, relationally ginosko knowing of the Lord” through teaching gramma writings of graphe scripture to NOW “eido mentally ‘seeing’ to perceive/know Me,” which is always the term used for prophetic-visionary knowledge?

 

Consequently, this is the exact emphasis we see in the NT:  God’s return to His “perfect will” Plan A for directly teaching by the means of His Holy Spirit, not just to 17 OT Prophets over 365 years from Jonah 790 BC to Malachi 425 BC, but to ALL of His people as “The One Teacher” (a) to “guide you into ALL The Truth” (b), so that “In these last days it shall actually be…that I will pour out My Spirit on ALL flesh…[further qualified as] your sons and daughters shall actually prophecy, . . . shall actually envision visions . . . shall actually dream dreams . . . [and finally qualified as] – that is, on My men and women servants . . . I will pour out My Spirit, and they shall actually prophecy” (c), and “the Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus” (d), for “the promised grace-gift of the Holy Spirit is for you, your children, and ALL those far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself” (e). Doesn’t that include you? <Notes> a) Matthew 23:8 – see Teach One Another – BT10, b) John 16:13, c) Acts 2:17-18, d) Revelation 19:10, e) Acts 2:38-39.

 

Therefore the apostle John was confident: “You’all have been anointed by the Holy One so you’all ALL eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know” or a more likely variant reading says, “you’all eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know ALL things” (a), and since “His anointing teaches you’all about EVERYTHING, you’all have absolutely in fact no need that anyone should teach you” (b). These verses are the exact reason many clergymen in the Catholic Church didn’t want John’s writings included in the NT canon! They had authoritative power and a paid livelihood being “the bishop-teacher-leaders” of the Church, and so this directly threatened them! <Notes> a) 1 John 2:20, b) 1 John 2:27.

 

But this is the same John who didn’t even bother writing down “The Gospel by John” until 57-77 years after the Christ’s death, and then pointed out that he could have written volumes about what Jesus said and did (a). The fact he didn’t should tell you something of the importance of such writings!  The purpose of what little he did write wasn’t to give us something to preserve, copy, study, and base doctrine from!  It was simply for his immediate readers “to have trusting-relying-faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by having trusting-relying-faith they may have zoe genuine-life everlasting in His name/authority” (b). Even the very records of “The Great Commission” of the Church by Jesus imply that God would never stop “confirming the gospel logos message with signs, wonders, miracles, and the Holy Spirit’s grace-gifts” (c), just as the early Christians proseuchomai conversationally-prayed God would do to bear witness/testify to their emboldened proclamation (d), which God was ever so happy to do (e). <Notes> a) John 21:25, b) John 20:30-31, c) Mark 16:17-20, d) Acts 4:23-31, e) Hebrews 2:4.

 

The term “graphe scripture” was never applied to anything but the collection of OT gramma writings by any Jew or Christian church leader until 208 AD, when in desperation in argumentation against the Monarchian Praxeas and Bishop Marcion of Sinope, who the Catholic Church had branded as heretics, the Latin theologian Tertullian first applied this term “graphe scripture” to a very loose collection of Christian writings at that time, and only some of these eventually ended up in the New Testament.  Boy, that sure isn’t a good reason to call the NT “scripture!”  And we’ve already seen that to make 2 Peter 3:15-16 says that Paul’s writings are the “other graphe scriptures” is the very “distorting and twisting” condemned by Peter of “hard to understand” passages in both prophetic ‘portions of’ scriptures primarily in Peter’s mind, but also the “other/different graphe scriptures,” that is, the non-prophetic ‘portions of’ such as the Law, historical Writings, and Psalms that comprise the OT.  The “distorters and twisters” did it with every ‘portion of’ scripture and now also with Paul’s writings about the 2^nd coming of Christ!  But now they are doing it by saying Paul’s writings are graphe scripture!  This is called eisegesis, not exegesis – see Logos Word of God – BT11!

 

It wasn’t until around 300 AD that we even have anybody seriously interested in determining the NT canon or “list of official books,” but especially after Emperor Constantine decriminalized Christianity in 313 AD, the writing of Church History by Eusebius in 330 AD, Constantine’s First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and Constantine’s commissioning of 50 bibles for his Church of Constantinople in 331 AD. It wasn’t until the Council of Laodicea, made up of 30 clergymen in 363 AD, did they “set out to judge which books were to be read aloud in churches,” which excluded Revelation. In 367 AD, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria gave us the current 27 book canon of the NT.  One guy!  Other canon lists that came after disagreed. It took Pope Damasus I in 383 AD to fix the canon in the Roman Catholic Church.  Still there were many challenges to it. The Eastern Church, “had a weaker feeling for the necessity of making a sharp delineation with regard to the canon. Similarly the canons of the Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Egyptian Coptic, and Ethiopian Churches all have minor differences.” Again, if you really dig into this, you will see that there were many political and financial motivations at work here, and there was little agreement that wasn’t somehow forced upon the Church. Many manuscript experts, historians, theologians, and segments of Judaism and the Christian Church still disagree as to exactly what belongs in the bible – check out Wikipedia’s “Biblical Canon”  and also “Development of the New Testament Canon.”

 

According to www.EarlyChristianWritings.com, there were at least 167 early Christian writings that millions of Christians enjoyed reading, but never considered as a “bible” for the first 200 years, and many of the early Church Fathers didn’t even agree on what NT books were “authoritative.” Additionally, 49 more writings came in the next 100 years. And these are just the ones we have found!  For example, Clemant of Rome from 88-99 AD, 1^st apostolic father of the Church, “had some letters of Paul’s and some form of the “words of Jesus,” but while he valued these highly, he did not refer to them as graphe ‘scripture,’ a term he reserved for the Septuagint.”  Furthermore, “Adolf von Harnack argued that Bishop Marcion of Sinope viewed the church at this time of 130-140 AD as largely an Old Testament church, claiming the theology of the Old Testament was incompatible with the teaching of Jesus regarding God and morality.  It was a Church without a firmly established New Testament canon, so he created a definite group of books which he regarded as fully authoritative, displacing all others.  The Church gradually formulated its New Testament canon in response to the challenge posed by Marcion.”   Justin Martyr, whose writings span the period from 145 to 163 AD, “mentions the ‘memoirs of the apostles’, which Christians called ‘gospels’ and which were regarded as on par with the Old Testament.”  We see Irenaeus by 180 AD arguing for 4 gospels even though Tatian’s Diatassaron showed “a powerful indication that the fourfold Gospel contemporaneously sponsored by Irenaeus was not broadly, let alone universally, recognized.”  Irenaeus only mentions 21 of 27 NT books, debates the inclusion of 1 Clement, Polycarps’ Epistle, and Shepherd of Hermas that others widely accepted.  This is just a sampling of the early Church’s confusion as to what they considered “authoritative” let alone going to the extreme and calling it “graphe scripture,” which wasn’t until 208 AD by Tertullian.

 

This isn’t even dealing with the many debates about the integrity of the Hebrew and Greek text – see Bible Info and Wikipedia’s “Textual Variants in the New Testament.”  If you think everybody agrees what the actual text of the New Testament is, guess again!  There are “around 400,000 textual variants of the NT, a staggering number when coupled with the fact that there are only 138,000 words in the Greek NT, meaning there are almost 3 variants per word.  However, less than 4000 (2.8% of the NT) have a good chance of being authentic and changing the meaning of the text,” writes scholar Tim Barnett 5/24/2016.  But what they don’t tell you is that many of these passages affect Christian doctrine significantly!  True, that 70% of all variants are easily-detected spelling differences that don’t alter the text.  Other variants are legitimate spelling differences but again don’t change the meaning.  The tricky part is the scholar’s judgment calls saying that other variants “do change the meaning of the text, but they could not possibly be in the original.”  If you dig down, you will find many scholars still debating these passages, and new manuscript discoveries could unravel all their assumptions, as they have in the past!  I’ve actually seen so many verses hinge on 1 word that I find that number 4000 to be low, and you can find plenty of scholars that agree!  There are also 3,415 languages the bible is translated into and numerous versions within each of these, even 900 English bibles.  If you don’t think much is “lost or modified in translation” you need to compare them – see Wikipedia’s “List of English Bible translations” and at www.biblegateway.com I last counted 63 NT versions and I’ve seen radical differences in meaning in so many passages!  The idea of building doctrine from any text other than the original Greek and Hebrew can only be riddled with error!

 

Furthermore, it wasn’t until 1611 when the Protestant King James decided to call the bible a “Holy Bible” though the idea of biblia sacra “sacred or holy books” or a biblia “bible” for short was first coined in the Middle Ages (465 – 1500 AD) by a Latin Catholic theologian.  However, it wasn’t until 1611 that King James decided to call the OT and NT collection “The Holy Bible.” One king gets to make this decision for everybody!

 

The more you dive into this, the more you realize that only “wise and learned/understanding” men can even start to scratch the surface of making any sense from all this – see Bible Info. This certainly can’t be God’s plan for knowing Him or His will?  Is this a perfect God’s “perfect will” (Plan A) or imperfect man’s attempts to get around God’s “perfect will” which then God “permits?”

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, are we going to believe what the NT says about the OT’s limited use to prepare Jews to be converted to Christ because it is palaios “old, antiquated, worn-out, and now useless,” and since then we have “the One Teacher” Holy Spirit?  Will we believe Jesus and the NT writers that they never envisioned more “NEW scriptures” because they spoke to specific people for specific reasons, like warnings and to simply build trusting-relying-faith, not create works of dogma or apologetics to be collected, especially when it turns out this idea of a New Testament was a late-coming, evolutionary fabrication over hundreds of years of powerful Catholic Church leaders trying to gain control of people, and to win arguments against the Jews and all those they label at the time as “heretics.”  With at least 4000 significant NT textual variants and ongoing debate over what’s even supposed to be in the NT canon, not to mention the OT text and canon that is a huge ball of wax, are we going to perpetuate “traditions of the elders or fathers” of the Church just like the Jews did, which Jesus constantly criticized, and even allow the decisions of earthly kings decide what we consider authoritative?  There is no NT discussion about writing, reading, copying, studying, teaching, or debating NT writings like the scribes and Pharisees did of the OT.  If fact, the NT looks down on this OT practice!  The NT emphasis is NOW on seeing and hearing Jesus’ Voice by revelation of the Holy Spirit.

 

Christians are NOW the writings of God because Jesus is NOW the “living, active logos Word of God” living in Christians by the Holy Spirit.  God writes His “only 2 commandments of trusting-relying-faith and unconditional-love” on our hearts, NOW giving us discernment between good and evil, and this is absolutely not asking us to read anything, or “that any man teach you because you have the anointing that teaches you all things, especially to meno abide/remain in Christ.”  See A 11-21-2021 Vision about Meno abiding.  Let’s not forget the New Covenant distinctive that “ou absolutely not in fact, me absolutely not in possibility, shall each [of God’s people] teach his neighbor (Jew or Gentile proselyte) and each his brother (family) to ‘definitively/wholly, experientially, relationally ginosko know the Lord,’ for they (His people) shall actually ALL eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know Me, from the least to the greatest.”  We can’t go back to the WAY of the OT to live the NT!

 

Let us not forget that the writing down God’s will was not God’s “perfect will” (Plan A) of coming into His presence to learn directly, but his “permissible will” (Plan B) because God’s people disobeyed His desire for intimate-fellowship learning.  But Jesus says “Come to Me, take My yoke (harness) of learning upon you, and listen to My Voice” if you want to be His sheep.  There is no reading or studying here, but direct meno connection to the Vine of Christ, all that is needed to “produce much fruit.”  Don’t we know the radical shift that we are to “minister/serve by the means of the completely-different-in-kind-superior kainotes NEWness of the Spirit and/coupled/namely absolutely in fact NOT by the means of the paliotes old-antiquated-worn out-uselessness” of [singular] gramma writing?”  We are supposed to be setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, not things on earth, including writings!  We are supposed to be knowing God NOW during the Church age by eido mentally ‘seeing’ to perceive/know Him through prophetic visions and dreams per Acts 2:17-19 and many other verses.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You that “You have kept hidden the secrets of the kingdom from the so-called ‘wise and understanding ones’ and un-hidden them to little children, even the least among us.”  There is NOW no more reason to collect, read, study, debate, or even teach biblical writings, whether old or newer in time.  However, like Paul, I find myself having to cite so much of the bible to those who practically worship the bible, so they can see that the bible actually points them away from writings to Jesus and His Holy Spirit.  The writings were only UNTIL the coming of Christ!  Thank You that NOW Jesus is the Logos Word of God and we are Your writings as personal epistles to show Christ to the world.  Shine through us by Your indwelling “One is Your Teacher” Holy Spirit.  NOW we go to You for everything in proseuche conversational prayer to hear Your Voice and prophetically ‘see’ Your will for us!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Jesus never asked anything to be written down, No New Testament writers stated they wanted their writings to be made scripture, Jesus and the New Testament says the Holy Spirit would continue to teach Christians as the One teacher, none of us to be called teachers, the idea of collecting writings into New scripture came hundreds of years later, Jesus defines Christians as those who hear His voice not read writings about Him, Christians are now the writings of God, God writes on Human hearts by His Spirit not scrolls with ink, Direct teaching was always God’s Perfect Will Plan A, Writings was God’s Permissible Will Plan B due to Israel’s disobedience, Now we serve God solely by the Spirit NOT by writings, The anointing of the Spirit eliminates human teachers, No Christian bible until 325 AD

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT13b:  What value is Old Testament scripture for Christians?

 

 

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That’s why we see the New Testament writers and earliest Church writings before 70 AD never use the Old Testament scriptures, and certainly not the 5 books of Moses old covenant or Law, except for very selective prophetic passages that would support the case for Christ, the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, and His gospel logos message, as we see in 2 Timothy 3:15 “from childhood (Timothy’s) . . . the sacred gramma writings – [the ones] which are able to make you (Timothy) wise for salvation through trusting-relying-faith in Christ Jesus … all (pas = usually means all/every of a specified category/class of) graphe scripture, [the] God-breathed [ones], kai and/thus are profitable for teaching/instruction . . .” – see Logos Word of God – BT7.

 

Careful examination will reveal that this citing of OT scripture was NEVER done for predominantly Gentile audiences, who could care less about ancient Jewish writings, but only done for Jewish audiences to convert them to Christ or to defend against Jewish teachers of the Law who were infiltrating the churches – see Logos Word of God – BT6 and – BT8.  If you carefully read the full context of all these citations (a), you will find this out to be true!  Knowing the dates of writings is also important because of the dispersion of the Jews from the Jewish Wars 66-135 AD and certainly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.  Much of the Church was certainly predominantly Gentile from 70 AD on. Why then are Gentile-Christians trying to use the OT scriptures in a WAY to learn God’s will that the NT writers never intended?

 

<Notes> a) Matthew 1:22, 2:5, 15-17, 2:23, 3:3, 4:4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 8:17, 12: 17, 11:10, 13:14, 35, 21:13, 26:24, 31, 56, 27:9; Mark 1:2, 7:6, 9:12-13, 11:17, 14:21, 27; Luke 1:70, 2:23, 3:4, 4:4, 8, 10, 17, 27, 11:49-50, 19:46, 20:17, 21:22, 37, 24:44, 46; John 1:23, 2:17, 6:31, 45, 8:17, 10:34, 12:14, 16, 38, 15:25; Acts 1:20, 2:16, 3:18, 21, 24, 7:42, 48, 8:28, 30, 34, 10:43, 13:29, 33, 40, 15:15, 23:5, 24:14, 28:23, 25; Romans 1:2, 17, 2:24, 3:4, 10, 21, 4:17, 23, 8:36, 9:13, 33, 10:15, 11:8, 26, 12:19, 14:11, 15:3, 4, 9, 21, 16:26; 1 Corinthians 1:19, 31, 2:9, 3:19, 6:16, 9:9, 10, 10:7, 11, 14:21, 15:45, 54; 2 Corinthians 8:15, 9:9; Galatians 3:10, 13, 4:22, 27; Hebrews 1:1; 1 Peter 1:10, 16, 2:6; and 2 Peter 1:19-21, 3:2.

 

The NT writers would have a fit with how the modern Church has incorporated so much of OT scripture into Christianity, especially since we’ve already seen the very negative things said about the OT “gramma writings” – see Logos Word of God – BT8, such as:  The scripture (maybe the whole of, but at least the Law portion) imprisons everything under sin, and even the prophetic ‘portions of’ scripture regarding the work of Christ are still only ‘milk’ for infants, only shadows, copies, symbols, types, antitypes and figures of the substance/reality that was to come, this being Christ and His gospel logos message of The Truth; The old covenant is palaios old “antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless” and katargeo thrown-down-to-be-inactive-useless and memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable because it cannot make anything perfect.  It was set aside because of its weakness and uselessness.  Reading the Law veils God’s glory and hardens your heart. The Law is the enabling-power of sin, arouses sin, and multiplies sin to make us slaves of sin to steal, destroy, and ultimately condemn us to death.  Trying to do the Law brings a curse upon yourself, severing you from Christ as you fall from unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace. So bad was the Law of sin and death with its commandments that it had to be nailed to Christ’s cross and paid for by Christ’s blood!

 

The NT writers also had very negative things to say about the teachers of the Law, experts of religious gnosis info-knowledge, the so-called “wise and understanding ones,” the philosophers of Greece, Rome, and “in-the-know” Mystery Religions and Gnostics, like: “avoid their irreverent babble and contradiction by what is falsely called ‘gnosis info-knowledge’;  avoid those who create obstacles contrary to the doctrine [of Christ] you have been taught; avoid irreverent babble leading to more ungodliness; avoid the lovers of pleasure rather than the lovers of God who have the appearance of godliness but then deny its [Spirit’s] enabling-power, who oppose The Truth regarding The-Trusting-Relying-Faith;

 

Avoid such quarreling about the Law, foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions for they are unprofitable and worthless; have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths; warn the person who stirs up division once, then twice, but then have nothing more to do with him; Sharply rebuke and silence those insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially from the [Jewish] Circumcision Party, who contradict sound doctrine so they may be sound in The-Trusting-Relying-Faith; If anyone teaches a different doctrine that does not agree with the sound [gospel] logos messages of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is congruent with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understand nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words . . . but O Man of God (Timothy), flee these things; destroy every argument and lofty opinion raised by them, taking every thought captive to obey Christ; charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the dispensation from God that is by trusting-relying-faith – see Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 1:3-4, 4:7, 6:3-11, 20; 2 Timothy 2:16, 3:4-8; Titus 1:9-13, 3:2, 9-10; 2 Corinthians 10:5.

 

We’ve already seen from early Church history that it wasn’t really until around 233 AD that the OT was used much at all after 70 AD, and it wasn’t until 208 AD that anybody referred to the NT writings as “graphe scripture.”  The idea of “sacred or holy books” didn’t even exists until after 465 AD and the term “holy bible” was invented by King James in 1611 – see Logos Word of God – BT18.  The more you look at the character and motivations of the people making these decisions almost single-handedly, it’s clear that this has nothing to do with a perfect God “winging it” with imperfect men!

 

The first rule of any effective speaker is to “know thy audience!”  After 70 AD when the Jewish Temple was destroyed by Titus of Rome, and the Jews slaughtered or dispersed – thus the “Diaspora” that lasted until 1948 when Israel was declared a nation, many subsequent Jewish revolts and wars in the Roman Empire until 136 AD made it dangerous to even associate with Jews, and thus the Church was almost entirely Gentile. That’s exactly why Church history from 70-233 AD reveals absolutely no use of the OT within the early Church in either worship services, preaching, or teaching – except the singing of some Psalms, and this was only during the earliest stages where some of the Church was still Jewish from the beginning of the Diaspora. However, the Jewish-Roman wars which are “often cited as a disaster to Jewish society, having a major impact on Judaism,” certainly squelched the Jewish influence on the increasingly Gentile Church. The bulk of early Christian scholarly work emphasized that Christ of the NT completely fulfilled and ended the OT so there was absolutely no need left for the OT.  Even “apologetic” defenses, like Tertullian’s An Answer to the Jews, of The Trusting-Relying-Faith (Christianity) against the Jews sloped off dramatically, especially later when there were no Jews!

 

We’ve also seen that so-called proof-texts for using “all as entirety/whole” of the OT scriptures, like 2 Timothy 3:16 (see Logos Word of God – BT7) or Romans 15:14 (see Logos Word of God – BT9) or 1 Timothy 4:13 (see Logos Word of God – BT10) just fall apart when you understand Greek and read the verse in context!  We also saw throughout so many BLOGs that pas “all” most often means “every of a kind/class/portion” and not “the whole/entirety of,” and regarding graphe scripture is always ‘the portion of’ that makes you “wise for salvation through trusting-relying-faith in Jesus Christ” per 2 Timothy 3:15.  These are prophetic “God-breathed” dabar/logion “oracles/utterances” of God that the Jewish-Christians used to convert Jews – see Logos Word of God – BT6, not the Law that teachers of the Law were using to try to get Jewish-Christians to abandon Christ – see Logos Word of God – BT8! All the Greek words for what is “profitable for education, apologetic refutation, correction, and childlike rearing” were commonly used in Paul’s (and the book of Hebrew’s) writings for dealings with obstinate Jews or weak, baby-like Jewish-Christians needing the ‘milk’ of stoicheion “rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of scripture instead of the “solid food” of the Spirit’s revelation and discernment of God’s will – see New Covenant Ways – BT16.  Unless you were a Jewish-Christian “weak-in-The trusting-relying-Faith” or you were ministering to a Jew, what would you need the OT prophecies for?  Know thy audience!

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, since we see narrowed OT use to the prophetic portions concerning Christ to convert Jews or argue against them and Psalms to sing by Jews primarily before 70 AD, dropping off dramatically to practically nothing after 136 AD until it was revived by 1 ambitious Catholic bishop (Origen) in 233 AD, don’t you think we should heed what the NT writers and early Church said about the OT – it was palaios old “antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless” and katargeo thrown-down-to-be-inactive-useless and memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable and thus pleroo filled-to-completion and teleo fulfilled-accomplished-completed-finished by Christ’s work?  If we don’t learn from history, we are bound to repeat its mistakes.  The Catholic Church slipped down the slippery slope and the Protestant Reformation only made a dent!  Many Christians are still in the dark as to the uselessness of the OT.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, I praise Your name that you have revealed the truth all through history for those who will learn from it and are set free because of it!  Thank You for showing us the finality of the OT scriptures!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, early Jewish-Church before 70 AD only used Messianic prophetic portions and only to convert Jews, Old Testament citations never made to Gentile audiences who wouldn’t care, The New Testament said many negative things about the Old Testament Law, The New Testament said many negative things about Law teachers, the mostly Gentile Church from 136-233 AD didn’t use much if any Old Testament since Christ fulfilled it, The idea of New Testament scripture was created in 208 AD, The idea of sacred books created in 456 AD, the idea of a Holy Bible created in 1611, Proof texts for ALL scripture being useful for teaching are poor translations and interpretation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT13a:  Old Testament scriptures were only for Jews UNTIL Christ finished them

 

 

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The Old Testament was simply God’s way of creating a “peculiar people” (a) for Himself.  We’ve already seen that God used the scriptures to hold His children by the hand as a paidagogos “household school-escort guardians” (b) or “epitropos household-guardians and/coupled oikonomos household-managers” (c) learning their stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals (d) from The Law and the logion oracle-utterances of God (The Prophets), but only UNTIL the coming of trusting-relying-faith in God’s Son Jesus made them adults (matured sons) to receive their promised inheritance, where the Holy Spirit’s teaching being the first-fruits. That’s why the New Testament only quotes from prophetic OT passages about the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant and Jesus’s gospel logos message to the Jews to “Come To Me,” as Jesus kept saying, to convert them. <Notes> a) 1 Peter 2:9 in KJV, BRG, PHILLIPS, NMB, b) Galatians 3:23-25, cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15, c) Galatians 4:2, d) Ephesians 1:13; Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:15; Titus 1:3.

 

But the bible students and teachers would rather go back to their scripture “tables,” even though Jesus said, “but it is they that testify/bear witness about Me” (a). Jesus didn’t lie when He said, “I did not come to definitively/wholly kataluo loose/tear down the Law and the Prophets (b) but to definitively/wholly pleroo fulfill-to-completion them . . . before heaven and earth passes away, every [detail of] the Law . . . definitively/wholly ginomai becomes/occurs” (c).  However, “Jesus, knowing that ALL (d) was now teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended said in order to definitively/wholly teleo finish-accomplish-complete-end the graphe scripture (e), ‘I thirst’ and soon after said, “It is teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended” and died (f).  There is no more pleroo fulfilling-to-completion left to do, because the glass was now full – Christ’s work was teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended.

 

<Notes> a) John 5:39; Luke 24:27, b) the most common division of the OT, c) Matthew 5:17-19, d) pas normally as “all/every of a kind/class/category/portion of,” in this context refers to every prophecy about His work as the Messiah e) in all 3 cases where graphe scripture is used with the definite article, it refers to a certain ‘portion of’ scripture that is the prophetic portions regarding Christ and His work – see Logos Word of God – BT5, f) John 19:28-30.

 

“I thirst” may indeed refer to “the scripture that was teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended” which was a citation from Psalms 69:21, “for My thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” However, it’s no coincidence that teleo in regards to “scripture” is never used elsewhere by John because he uses pleroo fulfill-to-completion instead.  However, Luke 22:37 refers to Christ’s death as “teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended IN Me that which has already been grapho written [with ongoing, routine results]” regarding a citation from Isaiah 53:12 “He was counted with the sinners.”  Both uses by Jesus indicate finality!

 

Some Greek grammarians note that “scripture” in the [singular] with the definite article without clear citation may actually refer to the whole/entirety of scripture (a), or at least all those “in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (b) concerning Jesus” being pleroo fulfilled-to-completion or teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended (c). Jesus kept His promise “before heaven and earth passes away,” which was a common hyperbole! <Notes> a) e.g., “imprisoning everything under sin” Galatians 3:22, cf. John 10:35; Romans 11:2, b) the most detailed division of the OT, c) Luke 18:31, 24:27, 32, 37, 44-45.

 

That’s why Paul could boldly say, “The Law has been katargeo thrown-down-to-be-inactive-useless” (a)!  Christ’s death so completely “finished” scripture, as least all the prophetic ‘portions of’ those referring to His work, that the “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (b), signifying the end of the OT separation of the common man from the presence of God in the “Holy of Holies” that was behind the curtain!  <Notes> a) katargeo: thrown down to be inactive and useless, terminated, destroyed, voided, annulled, and thus released from – Ephesians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 1:28, 13:11; 2 Corinthians 3:7, 11, 14; Romans 7:2, 6, b) Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, why are Gentile Christians trying to apply palaios “old, dated, ancient, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless” OT graphe scriptures that were designed ONLY for the Jewish people, acting for one purpose as: paidagogos “household school-escort guardians” or “epitropos household-guardians and/coupled oikonomos household-managers” to teach them ‘the milk’ OF stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals (writings) from the logion oracle-utterances of God (The Prophets)?  These are all Jewish terms for Jewish people!  Jesus pleroo fulfilled-to-completion and teleo finished-accomplished-completed-ended not only the prophetic ‘portions of’ scripture regarding Him and His work, but really the whole purpose of the Law, which is the basis of the other 97.4% of the OT – see Logos Word of God – BT5a.  So unless you are trying to convert Jews using the other 2.6%, there is no purpose for you to be reading the OT, especially with the stern warnings about doing so or teaching it – see Logos Word of God – BT6.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You for delivering us from “the graphe scripture that imprisons everything under sin” and delivering us from “a ministry of death and condemnation because of gramma writings” and now giving us a ministry of zoe genuine-life that is no longer by gramma writings on stone or with ink but by the Holy Spirit grapho written on human hearts.”

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, The Old scriptures only meant to hold the Jewish children’s hands as until Christ came, Jesus invited them to Himself but Bible students wanted writings, Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Prophets and He did, Jesus finished the scriptures regarding righteousness, the Law for righteousness was terminated by Jesus

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT18:  Study of scripture is a snare, trap, and trap-trigger or stumbling-block with retribution

 

 

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To understand the context of this, read New Covenant Ways – BT17.  Isaiah 28:8’s study “tables” of scripture are a “snare, trap, bait-trigger-stumbling-stone, and pay-back retribution” according to Paul in Romans 11:7-10, because these bible students and teachers (scribes and Pharisees) “failed to obtain what they were seeking . . . so they were hardened, God giving them a spirit of [drunken] stupor, eyes that would not see, ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”  Paul cites Psalms 69:22-23 to explain how:  “Let their table become a snare (a) and a trap (b), a bait-trigger-for-a-snare/trap/stumbling-stone (c) and [finally] a payback-retribution (d) for them: [by] letting their eyes be darkened so that cannot eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know (e) and/coupled their backs completely bent (f) continually.” Cursed!  Paul also says, “He drassomai snares (g) the wise” (h).

 

<Notes> a) pach, pagis:  alluring trick/trap for birds, thus stratagem, device, wile, b) moqesh, Greek thera: an alluring noose-trap for beasts, c) Hebrew missing, skandalon:  bait-trigger for a trap/snare causing it to be sprung, a stumbling-stone, d) antapodosis: recompense, specifically-matched rich reward for services rendered, sometimes positively as in Colossians 3:24, Luke 14:14, Romans 11:35, but also negatively of vengeance: as here and Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30, 2 Thessalonians 1:6.  The NET bible notes says: some prefer to vocalized the Hebrew text as ulyshillumim ‘and for retribution,” e) this is prophetic vision that God promised for ALL of God’s people for the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:34, f) also a metaphor of a captive under a securing, burdening yoke of slavery, but also figuratively of hardness of heart from error, g) drassomai: grasp with the hand, take, entrap, h) 1 Corinthians 3:19 citing Job 5:13.  We see this disdain and hiding of God’s prophetic-revelation from the “wise and understanding one” throughout the NT:  Matthew 11:25; Luke 10:21; Romans 1:22, 11:25, 12:16; 1 Corinthians 1:19-20, 25-27, 3:18-20 – see Least Among You – BT3.

 

If you stay at your desk long enough reading and studying scriptures to become “wise and learned/understanding,” like the Jews did bent over their learning “tables,” you will end up permanently bent over, frozen in your stiffness, become hard-hearted (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:14-15), and actually misunderstand so much about God, because you’re blinded from prophetically eido mentally ‘seeing’ to perceive/know  God and what God wants to do in the NOW – no matter how hard you study and how smart you think you have become!  Not only does my back hurt from all this but I’ve had repeated problems with blot clots in my legs from sitting too long and problems in my wrists from typing and using the mouse!  This is simply not God’s way, though it sure seems to be man’s “might and power” WAY of knowing God per Zechariah 4:6!  Another problem with studying OT scriptures is that it’s very easy to lose the forest through the trees, easy to miss The Unconditional-Love of God’s Messiah, when so much of scripture is littered with “If you do this____, then God will conditionally-love you by doing this ____.” Actually 97.4% of the OT is entirely based on God’s conditionally-loving favor that must be earned through obedience to 613 commandments – see Logos Word of God – BT5a!

 

We know Roman 11:9’s  skandalon “bait-trigger-for-a-snare/trap/stumbling-stone” is about the Jews “pursuing a Law that would lead to righteousness based on works, but didn’t succeed . . . because they did not pursue righteousness by trusting-relying-faith – they have stumbled over the proskomma lithos stumbling stone . . . a [Petra massive, bedrock-like] Rock of offense, but whoever has trusting-relying-faith in Him will not be put to shame” (a), where Paul references Isaiah 8:14, 28:16, 49:23, Psalms 118:22, and Joel 2:26-27!  Paul also says, “The gospel logos message of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us . . . the dunamis enabling-power of God, for it is written, ‘I will destroy/thwart the wisdom of the wise ones, and the sunesis rational ‘connect-the-dots’ understanding of the sunetos understanding ones I will hide/conceal’ (b). Where is the wise one, the scribe (c), the debater of this age (d)?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (e). For since . . . the world absolutely did not experientially, relationally ginosko know God through ‘wisdom,’ it pleased God through the ‘folly’ of what we preach to save those who have trusting-relying-faith. . . but we preach Christ crucified, a skandalon bait-trigger-for-a-snare/trap/stumbling-stone to the Jews, and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called [by God], Christ – the dunamis enabling-power and/coupled wisdom of God” (f).

 

<Notes> a) Romans 9:31-33, b) Isaiah 29:14, c) grammateus: not just professional writers or copiers of gramma writings of graphe scripture, but ‘expert’ interpreters and teachers of it, d) Jew and Gentiles prided themselves in all of this, e) Yes, study of scripture for wisdom is just as foolish, f) 1 Corinthians 1:17-24.

 

1 Peter 2:6-8 also cites Isaiah 8:14, 8:14, and Psalms 118:22, saying “they stumble because they disobey the logos message, as they were destined to do.”  But Paul noted in Romans 11:11-14, “their stumbling (ptaio:  stumble, fall, err, sin) . . . through their trespass (paraptoma:  falling away from closeness), salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous . . . their trespass means riches for the world . . . their failure means riches for the Gentiles. . . . Their rejection means the reconciliation of the world.” Yes, the “wise, understanding, bible students and teachers” of the Jews stumbled over their own graphe scripture, which is their sin, their failure, and their rejection of God’s Teacher, the Christ. The whole point of scripture stood in front of them as Jesus but they rather go back to their bible study!

 

Why did the Jews reject what God was doing right NOW in front of them?  Because they were snared and trapped in what God had done in the past in graphe scripture, snared and trapped by their tables for studying scripture, stuck in their “little here, little there, precept-upon-precept” approach to knowing God – see New Covenant Ways – BT17, stuck in their stoicheion fundamental, abc-like elementary teachings (a) common to all religions striving to ‘climb up to God’ one rule after another, even the Jewish one  approach to pleasing God.  Billy Graham, who just passed away at 99, once said, “Religion is like a vaccine: It gives you a little bit of something like the real thing to keep you from actually getting all of the real thing.” <Notes> a) Hebrews 5:12; Romans 3:2; Acts 7:38; 1 Peter 4:11.

 

But what about the King James Version (KJV) translation of 2 Timothy 2:15 that says: “Spoudazo study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly cutting-straight-along-a-pattern-of the logos message of [singular] Truth.”  Doesn’t this tell ALL Christians to be bible students?  Or at least “serious Christians” and for sure those who want to “serve the Lord?”  After all, haven’t we heard so many pastors tells us this?  No! – see Logos Word of God – BT18 for more details, but here is a summary: “The logos message of [singular] Truth” is actually the gospel of Jesus Christ, The Truth, concerning the only 2 commandments of  trusting-relying-faith and/coupled unconditional-love that Timothy as the “workman” and “man of God” was supposed to be preaching and teaching as Paul trained him to do after being prophetically-called to evangelism. All the more accurate translations rightfully translate spoudazo as “endeavor or be so diligent or zealous that causes you to rush forward,” which has nothing to do with studying the bible. Out of 54 bible translations, 10 (20%) got it absolutely wrong!  Many English bibles can lead your into great error – see Bible Info!

 

Reflection:

  

 

As Christian musicians, so we really want to fall into the same “snare, trap, and bait-trigger stumbling stone” of studying scripture on our “tables” like the Pharisees and scribes did, precept-upon-precept, line upon line?  Do we want to get God’s pay-back for this – bent backs forever, blinded eyes, and deaf ears – so that we can’t eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know God like the prophets do?  Do we also want to miss the forest through the trees – that the scriptures were intended for one thing, for the Jews to come to Jesus?  Do we want the kingdom of God to be kept hidden from us – it will be if we strive the same way they did to become “wise and understanding,” that is through bible study!  Or are we going to embrace the completely-different-in-kind NEW WAY to know God – directly by the Holy Spirit, which is by prophetic rhema words to get “Spirit-kind-of wisdom and understanding?”  Are we going to also get stuck in the “milk” of the stoicheion fundamental, abc-like elementary teachings of scripture or graduate to the “solid food” of discernment by the Holy Spirit – see New Covenant Ways – BT16.  The NT never tells you to study the bible – the so-called “proof texts” don’t even come close to saying this!  Instead, the NT says to have “the anointing of the Holy Spirit that teaches you all things so that you have absolutely in fact no need that any man teach you” – 1 John 2:20, 27.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Thank You Lord for keeping it simple enough for little children and “the least among you” by revealing the secrets of the kingdom to such as these and keeping it hidden from the so-called “wise and understanding” bible students, scholars, Pharisees, and scribes!  We’ll let them have their “snare, trap, bait-trigger, stumbling stone, and God’s payback of bent-backs, blind eyes, and deaf ears forever.”  Instead, we will be Your sheep because we will listen until we hear Your Voice and we will eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know You through prophetic visions and dreams, all by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Praise Your name for teaching us directly to eliminate all the middle men and all the questions that scholars argue constantly about concerning what the actual manuscripts texts are, the reliability of them, the meaning of ancient words, and even what belongs in the bible.  The WAY is no longer gramma writings but the WAY of the Holy Spirit!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, study of bible writings is a snare or trap with a trip wire with retribution, bible study can harden you like the Jews to blind and deafen you, the repayment for studying the bible is bent backs forever, bible students can become blind to prophetic vision for true knowledge, Peter and Paul talk about how the bible students stumble and fall into their trap, 2 Timothy 2:15 does NOT say to study the bible to show yourself approved

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT17:  Scripture’s precept-upon-precept study WAY to know God is a baited trap

 

 

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

 

For an understanding of how “The Word of God” radically changed between covenants, see Logos Word of God – BT19.

 

In Isaiah 28:5-29, God ridicules the Jewish teachers of Christ’s time for their “precept upon precept, line upon line, a little here, a little there” (a) expositional study and teaching of the scriptures, which ironically is the pride of Calvary Chapel and many other Precept Ministries. Verses 5-6 speak of “the day Yahweh will be . . . glory . . . beauty to a remnant of His people, when a Spirit of righteousness . . . and strength comes to those who turn back (repent) from the battle at the gate.”  It’s not a physical battle, but a verbal battle between the Jewish teachers and the Messiah. God tells these “scoffing rulers of Jerusalem” to instead “akouo hear/listen-to-understand the logos message of Yahweh.”  Let’s dive in deeper! <Notes> a) in Hebrew written as baby gibberish for infant-children, b) Isaiah 28:14.

 

We know the entire passage is about the Messiah’s teaching ministry because 4 NT verses (a) all cite Yahweh’s “logos message” in Isaiah 28:16 that God has “laid a Foundation in Zion (Jerusalem), a Stone, a tested Stone, a precious Cornerstone, of a sure Foundation:  whoever has trusting-relying-faith will not panic-in-hurry-and-be-disgraced (b).”  God says in v. 28:23, “Incline your ear and/coupled akouo hear/listen-to-understand My Voice; give attention and/coupled akouo hear/listen-to-understand My utterance-message (c).”  God is trying to teach His people directly, but we will see they would rather learn by rote like little children in school indirectly from gramma writings in graphe scripture!   Speaking of Christ (d) in v. 28:24 as “He who plows for sowing,” God says “He is rightly instructed, for His God teaches Him,” and in summary in v. 28:29, “He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.” Likewise Christ’s birth was prophesied by Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” <Notes> a) Matthew 21:42; Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6; Acts 4:11Matthew 21:42, Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:6, and Acts 4:11, b) Hebrew: react in panic; Greek: be ashamed or disgraced, c) imrah:  utterance, logos:  message with focus on content, d) Greek for “Messiah.”

 

Isaiah 28:6 says:  “The battle is at the gate,” the entrance WAY to Jerusalem, symbolic of the people of God, and this battle is for their hearts/minds/inner-being!  The Jewish “priests and prophets” in Christ’s days in v. 28:7 “reel with wine, stagger with strong drink, reeling in [prophetic] vision and stumbling in [priestly] reasoning-judgment.” Why are they so off balance?  Why does God then say: “their [sacred] tables have no room on them because of their own vomit?”  God’s not talking about having more room for plates of food and more wine! They have had enough!  We know these “tables” refer to the places where the long manuscript scrolls of scripture were rolled out, read, compared, and studied by the “priests and prophets,” just as they still do today!  Their own obsession with rolling out scripture scrolls to study them, and their “craving for debate, arguing over words, and controversies about the Law that breed quarrels only ruins the hearers” (a). <Notes> a) 2 Timothy 2:14.

 

The Jews consider this study a high form of worship to this day!  But to God it was like a “vomit” of written words, leaving no room at their “tables” to akouo hear/listen-to-understand directly from God, that is, from their own true Prophets because they killed all of their own Prophets (a) and NOW they won’t listen Christ and they will kill Him, also.  Stephen said to them:  “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you” (b).  How many scholars, churches, and pastors would this be said of, who also “despise prophecies” despite stern warnings not to (c)?  Instead, they “listen to the dabar/logos messages (d) of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth (e) of Yahweh.”  The Church of Christ I was saved in was just like this!  <Notes> a)Matthew 23:37; Luke 11:47, 13:34; Acts 7:52; Romans 11:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:15, b) Acts 7:51, c) 1 Thessalonians 5:20; 1 Corinthians 14:1, 39, d) dabar: of words, message, saying, sentence or section of discourse, report, counsel, charge, reason, a way or manner; logos: message content, e) what comes out of mouths is prophetic-rhema words and that’s what forms the content of the dabar/logos messages.

 

Nowadays, instead of just “tables” with exposed scrolls, scholars piece together manuscripts under UV-safe air-tight glass and use digital, high-resolution satellite cameras and computer analysis to aid the lengthy process of determining scribe’s insertions/corrections in margins, erasures, corrections, and even previous underlying text, and putting the pieces together to form what they believe was the original text. It’s very complicated and time consuming!  There are a “around 400,000 textual variants of the NT, a staggering number when coupled with the fact that there are only 138,000 words in the Greek NT, meaning there are almost 3 variants per word.  However, “less than 4000 (2.8% of the NT) have a good chance of being authentic and changing the meaning of the text,” writes Tim Barnett 5/24/2016. Nevertheless, if you read the scholarly papers, there is much ongoing debate just about everything in “textual criticism.” That’s what these scholars do for a living:  “craving debate, arguing over words, and controversies about the manuscripts that breed quarrels.”  They make lots of money doing this also!

 

When you stop buying into Christian propaganda and really look at the manuscript evidence and Church history of the Canon of what’s supposed to be in the bible, it’s easy to have your trusting-relying-faith seriously shaken!  A lot of people go to seminary and after learning all this, lose their trusting-relying-faith, so these schools have the nickname “cemetery” for a reason!  Many people have abandoned their trusting-relying-faith, because their trusting-relying-faith was based on doctrines that rely on manuscript accuracy!  That’s all they had to stand on!  And when they actually see how 4000 textual variants do change meaning, and in many cases significantly, they are blown away.  I was one of those Christians, taught by the Church of Christ from 1980-1983 to be really good at bible study.

 

When Mountain Avenue Church of Christ split in 1983 because of a leadership coup, many people fell away from Christ because they had no inner reality, no actual connection to “the living Word” of Jesus Christ.  The church didn’t even believe in the enabling-power of the Holy Spirit for today, His Spirit-baptism, or His grace-gifts!  If I hadn’t sought God on my own in proseuche conversational-prayer for a month and got massively “filled with the abundant-fulness of God . . . by the means of the Holy Spirit” per Ephesians 3:19 and 5:18, even though I didn’t even have terms for it then – see “My Story” at About Us, it’s possible I would have left The Trusting-Relying-Faith too because I told God that if He didn’t show Himself to be real I was going back to my old way of life figuring out that I had only been brainwashed by religion.  It didn’t matter that I had 10 notebooks filled with personal bible studies and could evangelize on campus with my bible.  It was empty words!

 

What you really need to ask yourself is this: “Did God really want us to work this hard just to know Him and His will, or make this knowledge accessible only to ‘the wise and learned/understanding ones’ – see Bible Info?   Many manuscript scholars often sit on their findings for many, many years before the public ever gets to see their translations!  What are they afraid of?  I think most of it has to do with securing publishing rights, more grant money, and selling books!

 

That’s why God asks in Isaiah 28:9, “to whom will He (Christ) anagello announce-declare [in detail] tidings (a) or yarah throw out-instruction and/coupled to whom will He make to discern-understand (b) the shemuah/aggelia announced-message (c)?” Certainly not these “deceiving prophets and drunk priests” who were still so immature from God’s viewpoint, “just weaned from milk drawn from the breasts” (v. 28:9), certainly not to these teachers who God mimics with a Hebrew baby’s song for their study-teaching approach:  “precept (d) upon precept . . . line (or rule) upon line, here a little, there a little.” The NET bible says the repetitive syllables of “indeed a little there, a little here” or “command after command, command after command” are gibberish that resembles baby talk, which fits the context perfectly.  That was their method of studying the scripture to understand God and His will as a series of “precepts, regulations, ordinances” of the Law “taught by humans” by rote (e) – a very slow, difficult, tedious process with comparatively childish results!

 

<Notes> a) The term eu + aggelion for good tidings/news is used 76 time for the Great News of ‘gospel’ throughout the NT, b) biyn: mentally distinguish for understanding and discernment – see New Covenant Ways – BT16, diligently/eloquently instruct. The Greek is anagello again, c) shemuah: something heard, announcement, news report, rumor, tidings, fame, doctrine; aggelia: thing announced, a precept or message – see logos message, d) command, ordinance, oracle, e) Romans 2:26; Colossians 2:20, 22; Hebrews 9:1, 10; Ephesians 2:15.

 

It’s all about context!  Isaiah 28:1-9 is a chastisement and a warning by God to Ephraim directed to the false teachers and prophets through the Prophet Isaiah about their drunkenness and to stop corrupting the spoken word of God through the addition or replacement of these written prophecies of actual God-ordained Prophets, (who were all killed) with words from false prophets and teachers, who embraced idolatry; thereby contaminating the truths in graphe scripture about the God whom they were commanded to worship (cf. Isaiah 8:19-20).  What these false prophets and teachers add with their Oral Traditions (expository commentaries) is childish gibberish!  Why?  Because the written words are for little children and now they are adding more to it!  What they should be doing right now is listening to their true Prophets speak, but they go back to writings!  MSG bible says:  “We’re not babies in diapers to be talked down to by such as you – ‘Da, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah, blah. That’s a good little girl, that’s a good little boy.’”

 

The NET bible is accurate on its translation notes:  “The present translation assumes that the repetitive syllables are gibberish that resembles baby talk (cf. v. 28:9b) and mimics what the people will hear when foreign invaders conquer the land (v. 28:11),” but we will see this also is about the Spirit’s ministry of tongues for the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  “In this case the Hebrew zeer for “a little” refers to the short syllabic structure of the babbling – cf. CEV bible “senseless sound after senseless sound,” also in Revised English Bible and see pg. 1010 of Koehler, L., W. Baumgartner, and J. J. Stamm. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament.

 

EXB bible makes a note:  “It may be referring to the people mocking the words of the prophets as nonsense,” but it’s actually God mocking the teachers!  TLB bible says: “he tells us everything over and over again, a line at a time and in such simple words.”  NOG bible says:  “They speak utter nonsense.”  Gill’s exposition notes:  “Signifying, that they must be dealt with as children were, when first instructed in the rudiments of a language, first had one rule given them, and then another, and so one after another till they had gone through the whole.”  This is exactly the NT’s argument about the Jewish people needing child-like, hand-holding ‘rote’ padagogos child-hand-holding (that a household servant-manager does) or paideuo child-training of the stoicheion elementary ‘abc’ fundamentals of the gramma writings of graphe scripture (a) that was baby’s “milk” but that the “solid food” was discernment by the Holy Spirit – see New Covenant Ways – BT16. <Notes> a) Hebrews 5:12-13; Romans 3:2; Acts 7:38; 1 Peter 4:11.

 

Matthew Henry notes:  “Those that teach are drunk with wine, or intoxicated with false doctrines and notions.” Barnes notes: “There is a constant repetition of the command, without ornament, imagery, or illustration; without an appeal to our understanding, or respect for our reason; it is simply one mandate after another, just as lessons are inculcated upon children.”  Keil and Delitzch note: “the short words are intended to throw ridicule upon the smallness and vexatious character of the prophet’s interminable and uninterrupted chidings,” but once again, it’s actually God mocking these teachers using that gibberish!  What amazes me is how many scholars get some of the details correct, but they don’t have the discernment of the Holy Spirit, don’t read carefully in the Isaiah 28 context, and don’t see how the NT uses this passages.  The NT is the “substance and reality” of the OT “shadows and copies.”  You must always interpret backwards for the greater light of the NT!

 

The promised Christ will certainly not ongoingly teach His people this WAY as did the teachers of Christ’s day that Isaiah 28 mocks!  We know His WAY is supernatural because in 1 Corinthians 14:21 Paul cites Isaiah 28:11 in reference to the Holy Spirit’s supernatural grace-gift of tongues as a sign to these unbelieving Jewish “prophets and priests” saying: “For by people of strange-gibberish (a) glossa tongues/languages and/coupled with foreign/different lips Yahweh (God) will speak to the people, saying ‘This is rest . . . to the weary; this is repose’ – Jesus says He will give rest to the weary (b) – but they still refused to akouo hear/listen-to-understand” (c).  Again, the problem isn’t the teachers “reading and studying” but not “listening” to WHO was speaking – Jesus and His disciples!  In the context of 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 (d), these “gibberish tongues/languages” are the supernaturally-enabled glossa tongues/languages of “men and angels” (e), that on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:5-6 “there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound [of the Holy Spirit rushing onto the disciples] the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.”

 

This is “the people of strange-gibberish (a) glossa tongues/languages and/coupled with foreign/different lips” of 1 Corinthians 14:21 citing Isaiah 28:11.  It’s for the entire Church age, what the Holy Spirit gives Christians for proseuche conversational-prayer, singing, and even communication within Church services when it is also interpreted by the Holy Spirit – see Grace-Gifts.  God is speaking by His Spirit to the Pharisees and scribes who we shall see are mocking these prophets, but God mocks them saying their rote way of learning about God by the gramma letters is actually gibberish.  I learned Greek that way, by rote, saying the words over and over and over. <Notes> a) stammering, buffoon, mocking, gibberish, foreign-sounding, b) Matthew 11:28, which is true Sabbath Rest from the works of the Law: Hebrews 4:1, 9, c) Isaiah 28:12, d) see also Mark 16:17; Acts 2:4, 11, 10:46, 19:6, e) 1 Corinthians 13:1.

 

Ironically, these “strange glossa tongues/languages” they mocked were the actual “logos message of Yahweh” even though they come in the form of and will sound to the unbelieving “prophets and priests” just as gibberish and baby-like, just as the way God views their own “precept upon precept….here a little, there a little” teaching of the graphe scripture!  That’s exactly what happened starting on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-21. When 120 disciples were “filled by the means of the Holy Spirit and/coupled began to speak in heteros other [of a different class] glossa tongues/languages as the Spirit gave them utterance,” many “devout people from every nation under heaven….were astonished because each one was hearing them (all) speak in his own language, and they were amazed and astonished . . . because we hear them telling in our own dialektos dialect-languages/tongues the mighty works of God, and all were amazed and perplexed.”

 

Whew! 120 Christians heard by people from “every nation under heaven” – that’s supernatural! Yet, others mockingly said [because they obviously didn’t understand a word], “they are filled with new wine [highly intoxicating, making them like stammering, gibberish-speaking drunks],” but Peter had to correct them: “These people are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only 8-9 am (the third hour),” and then he cites Joel 2:28-29’s completely-different-in-kind New Covenant prophecy: “I will pour out My Spirit . . . your sons and daughters shall actually prophesy, … envision visions…dream dreams…[and to summarize] on My servants I will pour out My Spirit and they shall actually prophesy.” What they heard in “strange tongues/languages” that appeared as gibberish to the mocking Pharisees and scribes was actually Isaiah 28:11 and Joel 2:28-29 prophecy, which is always the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God, now were being promised (a) for ALL of God’s servants throughout the “last days” or Church age (a), and it just started right then – see Promised Holy Spirit! <Notes> a) Acts 2:17, 38-39.

 

We know from the context of Acts, these “others who were mocking” were the unbelieving Jews, many of which were the false “prophets and priests” of Isaiah 28, who were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribe teachers of Christ’s day that Jesus constantly argued against.  Isaiah 28:13 says that these Jewish teacher-leaders “may walk” a bit forward in their knowledge of God’s will from graphe scripture, but “they soon fall backwards, but finally on their backs to injury,” described in v. 28:6 as the “reeling” of a drunk because their study “tables are filthy with vomit” from v. 28:8, unaware that they have been in v. 28:13 “lured into a trap, and finally captured.”

 

The learning “table” of the Jewish teachers and scribes (a) surely lured them in with potential knowledge of and forward progress toward God, but then they soon fall backwards into the clenches of the snare and are crushed to death!  The “wise and learned” were fooled!  This will not stop the Messiah from “doing Yahweh’s deed – and strange it is; His work is alien” in v. 28:21 to so many religious people, so used to study.  To understand the different WAYS to know God, see the Knowledge page.  <Notes> a) grammateus: not just professional writers or copiers of gramma writings of graphe scripture, but ‘expert’ interpreters and teachers of it.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, are we also “stumble over prophecy and tongues” and be “snared, trapped” by the gibberish idea of learning about God through gramma writings of graphe scripture one line upon line, one precept upon precept?  Then God will mock us also and “pay us back with bent-backs forever” – see New Covenant Ways – BT18.  We cannot go back to the WAY of the false prophets who prophecy from their mind and the false teachers who don’t actually know God even though they know all about God through their bible.  This is all old covenant WAY that has been replaced by the completely-different-in-kind NEW covenant WAY of prophecy by the means of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, “My sheep hear My Voice” – not read about Me from writings of men, only some of which were collected over 100s of years!  We must graduate from this child-like, gibberish, rote learning!  That’s exactly what the NT says over and over!

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, help us move past the gibberish, “milk” of the gramma writings of graphe scripture, even NT writings.  Let us embrace the promise You came to replace it all – the Holy Spirit being our “One Teacher” so that “we have absolutely in fact no need that any man teach us for we have the anointing that teaches us all things” (1 John 2:20, 27)

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Isaiah 28 mocks Pharisee & scribe bible students for their childlike teaching, precept upon precept teaching is childish to God compared to prophecy, studying and debating scripture failed the Jews to know God, the Bible students killed all the prophets and Jesus, Study tables of the Jews were defiled because they shut up prophetic vision by relying on study, Many problems with bible scrolls even today, The living word is not bible writings, bible students mock prophecy but God mocks the bible students, prophecy and tongues was the way God preached the Gospel to start the Church, Pentecost

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT16:  New Covenant has a completely-different-in-kind WAY to know God’s will

 

 

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

 

For more on this subject, see Bible Info – BT2 and Least Among You – BT8 .

 

The New Covenant promises a completely-different-in-kind New (a) Way to know the will of God than through the gramma writings of graphe scripture.  It is NOW through the ‘living, … active, . . . sharper than a 2-edged sword logos message of God that . . . kritikos critically-discerns (b) the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (c) that can only be “living IN us” to create “metamorphic transformation by renewal of the mind” (d) through the Spirit’s own teaching (e) in order to help us “to ongoingly dokimazo scrutinize-to-discern (f) what is the will of God.” (g). The Holy Spirit’s discernment is the “solid food for the mature sons of God” (h) to move Jewish-Christians past the “baby milk” of stoicheion “rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals” (i) of the prophetic OT scriptures concerning the Messiah – see Logos Word of God – BT6!  Paul’s advice to all Christians (j) in Ephesians 3:6 and 5:8-10 is “the Gentiles are fellow heirs . . . partakers of ‘The Promise’ in Christ Jesus through the gospel . . . at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk/live as children of light….and/coupled routinely try to dokimazo scrutinize-to-discern (f) what is pleasing to the Lord.” This is NOT bible study!

 

<Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) kritikos: ‘critical,’ discriminate, skilled judging, c) Hebrews 4:12, d) Romans 12:2, e) Luke 12:12, 14:26, f) dokimazo: test, examine, or discern to demonstrate or prove something is acceptable, genuine, approved, good, and approved, g) Romans 12:2, h) 1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12, 14, i) Galatians 2:8, 20, 4:3, 9; Hebrews 5:12, j) Ephesians was originally a circulatory letter.

 

Also, it’s incredible how often I hear preachers say that theology and doctrine is “solid food” compared to the gospel’s “milk,” but the NT doesn’t even come close to saying this!  For all the study it has taken for me to do so many research papers over many years in 5 bible colleges, I can accurately say it’s more like gristle – you have to chew on it a long time to get a little bit of nutrition!  I did much of it originally to try to satisfy my own hunger for the truth, but later to help those of you that are where I was long ago – see Bible Info.  We’ve already seen that the “baby milk” is prophetic scripture for Jewish-Christians, and now we’ll see that the “solid food” is the gospel of Jesus Christ with discernment, wisdom, and understanding NOW available by revelation of the Holy Spirit!

 

However, “We received . . . the Spirit . . . that we might eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know the things freely give us by God (cf. Jeremiah 31:34 eido knowing of God), and we impart this in logos messages not taught by human wisdom but taught by the means of the Spirit, interpreting-comparing-contrasting things (including people) of the Spirit to things (including people) of the Spirit (a). The natural man absolutely in fact cannot experientially, relationally ginosko know the things of the Spirit of God because they are Spirit-kind-of anakrino discerned-by-close-examination (b)” (c). Paul didn’t use the bible to understand the eido “seeing” of prophecy, visions, and dreams (Acts 2:17-19) as they were “taught by the Spirit” to know what to preach – he relied on more of the Spirit’s grace-gifts! <Notes> a) in context to ‘test’ Paul’s prophecies, he doesn’t tell Christians to do bible study but to call the other people of/belonging-to the Spirit together to get a consensus, b) anakrino judge/distinguish vigorously ‘down to up’ by closely, even forensically, examining, investigating, or interrogating, thus a careful study or evaluation, c) 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.

 

Paul also wanted to treat the Corinthians as “people of/belonging-to the Spirit” but he had to still treat them like the “natural men” they were when they first became “babies in Christ” because NOW they were still “feeding on milk, not solid food” (a). Later Paul said, “Ongoingly peirazo test/try-to-prove yourselves to see whether you are in The-Trusting-Relying-Faith.  Ongoingly dokimazo scrutinize-to-discern (c) yourselves, or do you not eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know this about yourself that Jesus Christ is IN YOU – unless indeed you fail to meet this dokimos scrutinizing-discerncernment” (d)!  Paul doesn’t tell them to “Look up a bible verse about the indwelling Christ and stand on it by trusting-relying-faith” but to use the “eyes of their heart” (e) to look within themselves to see if Jesus was indeed living in them!  Although the Thessalonians had been confused by false teachers concerning Paul’s end-times prophecies, Paul warns with 4 connected imperatives:  “Ongoingly do not quench the Spirit; Ongoingly do not despise (f) prophecies (g); Instead ongoingly dokimazo scrutinize-to-discern (c) everything; Ongoingly hold fast to what is good” (h).  There is no bible study here!

 

<Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, b) peirazo:  test/try in order to prove positively or tempt negatively, depending on the context, c) dokimazo: test, examine, or discern to demonstrate or prove something is acceptable, genuine, approved, good, and approved, d) 2 Corinthians 13:5, e) just like Ephesians 1:18, f) show contempt of, g) directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God, h) 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21.

 

Hebrews 5:12-14 also complains about baby-like Jewish-Christians being tempted by Jewish teachers to go back to the Law of Moses, that “though by this time you out to be [Christian] teachers, you need someone to teach you again the stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals belonging to the oracles (a) of God, needing [this] milk, not solid food . . . being an infant-child . . . but solid food is for the mature-grown-up, those through-the-realizing-channel-of hexis constant-practice of their aistheterion perceiving-understanding-judging-mind, [are] routinely gumnazo training [like an athlete in a gymnasium] towards-reaching diakrisis judging-through-discernment-to-carefully-distinguish (b) both good and/coupled evil” (c).  Scripture’s “black and white” rote teaching of “good and evil” in Law and even the Messianic prophetic ‘oracles’ Jewish-Christians used to convert fellow Jews to Christ with, were all just ‘‘abc’’ baby food or ‘milk’ in these writers’ minds. <Notes> a) written OT prophecies: Romans 3:2; Acts 7:38; 1 Peter 4:11, b) diakrisis: used of the Spirit’s grace-gift of discernment: 1 Corinthians 12:10, c) Hebrews 5:12-14.

 

Paul strongly urges Christians who have already “learned (a) Christ . . . and were taught by the means of Him, . . . to definitely/wholly put off [yourself] your old self (b) . . . and/but be ongoingly renewed (c) by the means of the Spirit of/belonging-to your mind” (d).  As the Hebrews writer does, Paul often uses the invisible “mind” (e) as something distinct from man’s “spirit” (f), but still interchangeably with “inner being” (g), “inner self” (h), or “heart” (i) – see Identity. This renewal by the Spirit not bible study!  <Notes> a) been informed by, b) it’s behaviors as dirty clothes, c) renovated, refreshed, made new again in time, d) Ephesians 4:20-23, e) Romans 7:23, 25, 8:5-7, 27, 11:34, 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16, f) 1 Corinthians 14:14-15, the place of the Holy “Spirit that is of/belongs to the mind” – Ephesians 4:23, g) Romans 7:22; Ephesians 3:16, h) 2 Corinthians 4:16, i) Romans 8:27; kai as coupler in Philippians 4:7 and 1 Peter 3:8 and Revelations 2:23; Hebrews 8:10, 10:16; James 4:8.

 

Paul continues in Ephesians, “And/coupled to definitively/wholly put upon [yourself] the new self (a) . . . be imitators of God . . . walk in unconditional-love . . . walk as children of the light . . . routinely try to dokimazo scrutinize-to-discern (b) what is pleasing to the Lord . . . to be wise, buying back (c) the time because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but routinely sunesis ‘connect-the-dots’ to understand what the will of the Lord is,” strongly urging them not to be “unwise” or “foolish,” not “getting drunk with wine which is debauchery,” but instead “being routinely pleroo filled-to-completion by the means of the Holy Spirit [to the brim defined as] all the pleroma full-complete-abundance of God (d). <Notes> a) its behaviors as fresh clothes, b) dokimazo: test, examine, or discern to demonstrate or prove something is acceptable, genuine, approved, good, and approved, c) making best use of, taking advantage of, d) Ephesians 4:24, 5:1-2, 8, 10, 17-18, 3:19.

 

Colossians 3:10 says, “the new self, … is ongoingly being renewed (a) towards-reaching genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge kata down-from/according-to the image (Christ) of/belonging-to its Creator (God).” That’s how you genuinely, experientially, relationally epiginosko know the will of God and what is pleasing to Him – not by reading, studying, and memorizing scripture, but “sunesis ‘connecting the dots’ understanding through dokimazo scrutinizing-to-discern or diakrisis judging-through-discernment-to-carefully-distinguish or anakrino discerning-by-close-examination – all of this is taught by the means of the Holy Spirit!  And the best way is to dive all the way in by “being routinely pleroo filled-to-the-brim by the Spirit of holiness!” That’s really the best use of your time! <Notes> a) anakainoo:  completely-different-in-kind renovation.

 

In Philippians 1:9-12, Paul proseuchomai conversationally-prays for their unconditional-love to abound by the means of genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge and/coupled all (a) aesthesis cutting-through-to-size-up-discernment (b) so that you can dokimazo scrutinizing-to-discern (c) what is best, and thus be pure and blameless for the [Judgment] Day of Christ.” There is no bible study here! <Notes> a) pas normally as “all/every of a ‘portion/class/category of,’ b) aesthesis:  sensory-discernment that cuts through hazy moral/ethical matters to size things up – see aistheterion perceiving-understanding-judging-mind in Hebrews 5:14, c) dokimazo: test, examine, or discern to demonstrate or prove something is acceptable, genuine, approved, good, and approved.

 

In Colossians 1:9-12, Paul proseuchomai conversationally-prays “that you might be filled-to-completeness with [the content of] the genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God’s will by the means of all (a) wisdom and/coupled sunesis ‘connect-the-dots’ understanding [that both together are] Spirit-kind-of, in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: 1) bearing fruit in every good work, and/coupled 2) routinely growing in the genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God, and 3) routinely being strengthened by the means of all (a) dunamis enabling-power, kata down-from/according-to the might of His glory . . .”  Again, no bible study!  This is a slap in the face Gentile philosophers and Jewish scholars. <Notes> a) pas normally as “all/every of a ‘portion/class/category of.”

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, are we going to be stuck in the OT way to know God and His will or experiment with other religions or philosophies?  Why not trust what the NT says is the completely-different-in-kind WAY.  It’s no longer through any biblical writings – that was the palaios/palaioo/palaiotes “old, dated, or ancient in time, worn out by use, worse for wear, and obsolete” WAY of the gramma writings of graphe scripture.  God never promised more, but He did promise the Holy Spirit Parakletos “One Teacher” who speaks directly-spoken prophetic rhema words so that the logos message is now longer bible writings but is the “living and active” Jesus in us as His Holy Spirit!  This “constant-practice-of-athlete-like-training of mental ‘seeing’ to perceive/know, this inward scrutiny, this discernment by close examination, this internal Spirit-kind-of wisdom, this Spirit-kind-of ‘connect-the-dots’ understanding, this interpreting-comparing-contrasting Spirit-kind-of-things/people to Spirit-kind-of-things/people, this eyes-of-the-heart inspection” by the means of the Spirit  and His filling-to-completion with the complete-abundance of God IS the “solid food” WAY to learn Christ, the will of God, good vs. evil, what is pleasing to Him, and to be renewed time & time again and even completely-in-kind-renewed through genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of God.  However, the old gramma writings were the gnosis “puffing-up” head-knowledge “milk” and rote stoicheion “rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals” of writings designed ONLY for the Jews and only until Christ comes to them directly.  Why would any Gentile want any part of what was ONLY for the Jews and only for a certain time?

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank YOU so much for giving us a very simple, direct WAY of learning by the means of “the One Teacher” Holy Spirit everything we need for righteousness, holiness, sanctification, or godliness who shows not partiality, that even little children and “the least among you” will understand before the “so-called wise and understanding ones” – see Least Among You – BT8.  Now we need absolutely no gramma writings or graphe scripture and “absolutely no need that any man teach you because of the anointing that teaches you all things” (1 John 2:20, 27).

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, New Covenant way to know God’s will no longer by writings, New Covenant way to know God’s will is by Spirit’s discernment, The Holy Spirit of Christ is the Living active discerning Word of God, The Holy Spirit’s teaching is what transforms us into Christ’s image, prophetic writings were baby milk for Jewish Christians, discernment by the Spirit training is solid food, Eido mental seeing is the knowledge of God now promised in Jeremiah 31:34, New Testament message was Spirit taught not learned from writings, despising prophecy quenches the Spirit because it’s the way the Spirit teaches now, Jewish-Christians tempted to fall from Grace by going back to writings, learning Christ is yoking to Him for direct learning not thru writings, Renewing of the mind or heart is by the Spirit through gazing at Christ not by writings, knowledge of God’s will is not by gnosis information gathering, knowledge of God’s will now by experience of Spirit’s wisdom and understanding

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT14:  New Covenant brings a completely-different-in-kind WAY to receive

 

 

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Jesus was “The Way” to the Father (a) for “through Him we have obtained access by trusting-relying-faith into this unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace” (b) “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our trusting-relying-faith in Him (c).  This is true because through Christ, now we “have access to the Father by the means of one Spirit” (d).  Since Jesus is seated in heaven, now the only Way we can thus meet face-to-face with the Father is by the dunamis enabling-power of the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord.  This is exactly why Paul is baffled in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 that Jewish-Christians think that reading Moses (e) is “the way” to be transformed by God’s glory.  Wrong!  <Notes> a) John 14:6, b) Romans 5:2, c) Ephesians 3:12, d) Ephesians 2:18, e) the 5 books of Moses is the Law or old covenant that is the basis of 97.4% of the OT – see Logos Word of God – BT5a.

 

The Holy Spirit is “the completely-different-in-kind New Way,” just as Paul says in Romans 7:6, “Now that we are released-freed-from (a) the Law, having died to that which held us captive, we NOW ongoingly serve (b) by the means of the completely-different-in-kind New Way (c) of the Spirit, and/coupled absolutely in fact no longer by the means of the palaios ‘old, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless’ way of the gramma writing.”  Sure seems like a lot of Christians are doing the opposite! <Notes> a) katargeo: ‘thrown down to be inactive and useless,’ terminated, destroyed, voided, annulled, and thus released from – also used of the Law in Ephesians 2:15, b) minister, obey, etc., c) kainotes from kainos: walking in newness of zoe genuine-life – Romans 6:4.

 

“The narrow/strait gate” or “door” (a) and “the way/road that is routinely compressed/contracted/troubling-difficult that leads to zoe genuine-life” that “few find” that Jesus speaks about (b) is absolutely not about keeping the 613 commandments of the Law.  Jesus is the “door of the sheep” and only “if anyone enter by Me will he be saved and be able to go in and out and find pasture/rest” (c). Likewise, Jesus said “I am the Way, The Truth, the zoe genuine-life . . . absolutely no one comes to the Father except through Me” (d). <Notes> a) Luke 13:24, b) Matthew 7:13-14, c) John 10:7-9, d) John 14:6.

 

Hebrews 10:1, 19-22 says:  “For since the Law has but a shadow (a) of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never . . . make perfect those who routinely draw near (b). . . but now we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the completely-different-in-kind New (c) and/coupled Living Way that He (Christ) opened-up for us through the [separating] curtain (d), that is, through His flesh.”  It seems a lot of Christians want to go back to the Jews’ old ways. <Notes> a) skia: shade cast backward from an object, cf. Hebrews 8:5, Colossians 2:8, b) proserchomai is a Hebraism for approaching God for worship, but closely akin to proseuchomai conversational-praying, c) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, d) into the Holy of Holies, the presence of God.

 

Is it any wonder that early followers of Christ called themselves “The Way” (a), for the term “Christian” was originally a derogatory term used by the Romans who hated the Christians. The early “followers of the Way” were the ones who “proclaimed the Way of salvation” (b), “the Way of the Lord, the Way of God” (c), “the Way of The Truth” (d), and “the Way of the Righteousness” (e).  It’s too bad that this term didn’t ‘stick’ for followers of Christ, The Way. <Notes> a) Acts 9:2, 19:9, 23, 22:4, 24:14, 22, b) Acts 16:17, c) Acts 18:25-26, d) 2 Peter 2:2, e) 2 Peter 2:21.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, don’t we want to be pointing people down the road or way of Jesus Christ who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life?  Why are we having them read 97.4% of the OT that is about Moses and His Law, that was ONLY written to safeguard the Jews UNTIL Christ came.  The other 2.6% are prophetically true now in Jesus and what He is doing by the means of the Holy Spirit.  Most of the early Church abandoned the entire OT after 70 AD, especially because they rightfully saw it completely fulfilled and mostly Gentile Church had no needed of something that had fulfilled its purpose – to start the Church!  Why are we going back to “the palaios ‘old, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless’ way of the gramma writing” when we have “the completely-different-in-kind New Way of the Spirit, which we NOW are to ongoingly serve God?”  We have a completely-different-in-kind Way to approach God than the Jews had – shouldn’t we stick to it?

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, let us never swerve from the Road or Way that you have NOW put us on through Christ and His Holy Spirit.  Let us never go back to gramma writings when we NOW can learn from You directly just as you promised in Jeremiah 31:34 and so many other verses!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Jesus is the narrow Way to the Father by bold faith into Grace, boldness & confidence before God, The Holy Spirit gives us access to God, Jesus is the door or gate to God, The Law is a shadow but Christ the reality, The Law can’t make anybody perfect, Jesus and His Spirit are the Living Way into God’s presence, Followers of the Way not Christians a derogatory term by Rome

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT13:  The Old Testament was meant for Jews NOT Gentiles

 

 

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If you do your homework, you will find that not one Old Testament passage cited in the NT was directed to Gentile-Christians, because they had no regard, and still don’t, for any of the Jewish writings. Even the very Jewish apostle Peter, who had so many problems letting go of his Jewish legalism, – Paul publicly criticized Peter for such hypocrisy (a) – only recognized the prophetic ‘portions of’ the OT: “We have the prophetic logos message [now] more fully confirmed, to which you (b) will do well to pay attention . . . knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of/belonging-to scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (c). <Notes> a) Galatians 2:11-14, b) his Jewish readers since he was the apostle to the Jews, c) 2 Peter 1:19-2.

 

Peter also focuses on the “directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of the holy prophets” (a) and “the prophets who prophesied about the unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace that was to be ours, this concerning our salvation” (b), and tells Christians to use their gift and “whoever speaks [in churches] as one who speaks logion oracles (c) of God” (d). <Notes> a) 2 Peter 3:2-4, b) 1 Peter 1:10, c) logion:  divine, prophetic declarations or utterances: Acts 7:38; Romans 3:22; Hebrews 5:12, d) 1 Peter 4:11.

 

Make sure to read:  New Covenant Ways – BT13a:  The OT scriptures were only for the Jews and only UNTIL Christ finished them

 

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, shouldn’t we also only be speaking anointed, prophetic, spontaneous utterances from God?  Why would we direct any non-Jewish person to writings written only for the Jews?  Do we want to confuse them?  Do we want them to fall into the Law of sin and death?  Instead we should be asking God to confirm His gospel logos message and then have the trusting-relying-faith to expect signs, wonders, healings, miracles, and prophetic messages just as Mark 16:11-20 charged us to do.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, forgive us for using “elementary ‘abc’ fundamentals” intended only for converting Jews, and so inadvertently enslaving so many people to “the Law of sin and death.”  We repent and instead of learning about You from palaios “old, antiquated, worn-out, useless” gramma writings, we will NOW take obedient-steps of trusting-relying-faith to expect You to teach us directly so that we eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know You in order that “we have absolutely in fact no need for any other teacher.”  Your Holy Spirit is NOW our “One Teacher” so that we dare “not call any man teacher.”

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Peter only appealed to Old Testament prophetic writings and only for Jewish Christians, Not one Old Testament passage was addressed to Gentile Christians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT12:  Legalistic Christians insist on having many commandments

 

 

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Legalistic Christians don’t think trusting-relying-faith in Christ’s unconditional-love is enough!  They want to hold onto something of the old covenant, like maybe the 10 commandments or least the 2 greatest commandments of “loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul” and “loving your neighbor as yourself” for “the whole Law is fulfilled by this one logos message” (a) or “all the other commandments are summed up in this logos message” (b), and furthermore “on these 2 commandments rely ALL the Law and the Prophets” (c).  However, Jesus only briefly acknowledged and commented on these in an answer to a lawyer’s trick question (d).  He never taught them to His disciples!  You cannot take verses out of their context to create doctrines! <Notes> a) Galatians 5:14, b) Romans 13:9-10, c) Matthew 22:40, d) Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28.

 

Christ sure didn’t come to preach “the Law and the Prophets” as “the kingdom of God that is near,” but that’s what some say by taking verses like these and Matthew 7:12’s teaching about the Golden Rule of “doing unto others as you would have them do to you – for this IS the Law and the Prophets” out of context!  Paul’s citation above in Galatians 5:14 of “the whole Law is fulfilled by this one logos message” was to exhort stubborn Jewish-Christians to not use their newfound freedom from the OT Law to be unloving to each other.  Paul’s citation above in Romans 13:9-10 of “all the other commandments are summed up in this logos message” was only to prove to stubborn Jewish-Christians to stay out of debt to avoid conflict with civilians and arbitrating governing authorities.  We know from all of Paul’s other very negative comments about the Law – see Logos Word of God – BT8, he would never endorse following ANY part of it, even such an easy commandment to do like the seal of circumcision (a), for “it is evident that absolutely in fact no one is justified or made/declared righteous before God by the Law” (b), “but through trusting-relying-faith in Jesus Christ” (c). <Notes> a) Galatians 5:3, b) Galatians 3:11, c) Galatians 2:16.

 

It is true James reminds his Jewish-Christian readers in James 2:8 that “loving your neighbor as yourself” is the “royal Law kata down-from/according-to graphe scripture” (OT writings) and that “if you really do pleroo fulfill-to-completion” this Law, then “you are doing kalos perceived-as-good, advantageous, winsomely attractive, noble, or right.”  But the reason he is arguing this is because they are showing “partiality, [and by doing so] they are committing sin and thus are convicted by the Law as transgressors” (a).  He isn’t saying this to Gentile-Christians, because the whole book is written ONLY to “the 12 tribes in the dispersion” (b)! This audience still prided themselves in the Law, so James uses this to his advantage. He reminds them that it’s “all or nothing” – “for whoever keeps the whole Law but fails in just one point has been guilty of all of it” (c), so now by showing partiality they are nothing by Lawbreakers!  <Notes> a) James 2:9, b) James 1:1, c) James 2:10.

 

Was James’ point to guilt them into following the whole Law?  No!  But to remind them that since they were completely free from it, having been shown mercy by God through Christ, they were then to show mercy on fellows Jewish-Christians who were perceived as not followers of the Law simply because they were poor, for many Jews believed poverty and trials proved you were a sinner under God’s judgment, just as Job’s friends thought of Job!  We also know that James was biased toward the Jews, even being hypocritical as Peter was, fearing the Circumcision Party (a).  Paul called Peter out as a hypocrite (b) and had no regard for the Circumcision Party (c).  Protestant Reformer Martin Luther had good reasons for not including the Book of James in the NT canon, but it does help us see the struggles of Jewish-Christians understanding the freedom from the Law that the gospel logos message declares. It wasn’t a smooth transition in the early Church.  <Notes> a) Galatians 2:12, b) Galatians 2:11-14, d) Titus 1:10.

 

Much of James is written against such judgment of others, as he says now in James 2:12-13, “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under ‘the Law of freedom [from slavery].’ For judgment is without mercy to [singular] person who has shown no mercy (a). Mercy triumphs over judgment.”  So James understands from a different perspective than Paul’s that “The Law of Christ” – which Paul says is “outside the [Mosaic] Law of God” (b) – that we know is no-strings-attached, unearned, unmerited, undeserved “unconditional-love” for your brethren (c) is based on Christ’s completely-different-in-kind NEW commandment (d).  It doesn’t “judge or condemn others but shows mercy, just like it was shown to you,” and like Paul says: “That Law of Christ bears with one another’s burdens” (e).  So James and Paul eventually come to the same conclusions. <Notes> a) cf. Matthew 6:15, 18:35, b) 1 Corinthians 9:21, c) 1 John 4:21, d) John 13:34, 15:12; 1 John 3:23 – see Logos Word of God – BT16, e) Galatians 6:2.

 

If you look up everything the NT says about “the Law of commandments” you will find that ALL of them have already been: “pleroo filled to completion, teleo fulfilled, accomplished, completed, finished, telos ended, violently put to death, nailed to the cross, katargeo nullified, abolished, set aside, done away with, parerchomai passed away, are no longer kurieuo ending-ruling-over us, so we are no longer under the dominion of it, and freed [from the slavery of] from it.  It is palaios/palaioo/palaiotes not just old, dated, or ancient in time, but also worn out by use, worse for wear, and obsolete, and aphanismos eminently to disappear/vanish.”  The NT uses many words to say the same thing!  There are absolutely NO old commandments left for any of us to DO!

 

However, legalistic Christians try to turn the New Covenant into hundreds of more entole official, universally binding commandments. For example, Christians Assemblies International lists 1050 New Testament commandments, Biblical Research Reports lists 684, Patheos.com lists 800, and Stanmurrel.org lists 855. This is just crazy-like bondage!  Paul would be screaming!  They are guilty of “distorting the gospel logos message of Christ” (a), “proclaiming another Jesus . . . a different Spirit . . . a different gospel logos message” (b). Paul would scream: “Didn’t anybody really read what I wrote?” <Notes> a) Galatians 1:7, b) 2 Corinthians 11:4.

 

So many of Paul’s letters warn Jewish-Christians about being “taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit, kata down-from/according-to human traditions, kata down-from/according-to stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals, and not kata down-from/according-to Christ . . . enslaved to those things that by nature are not God . . . turning back to asthenes weak-worthless-beggarly-poor and/coupled ptochos beggarly-helpless-destitute stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals to be enslaved again – observing days, months, seasons, years, festivals, moons, Sabbaths, and regulations of foods, drink, etc.

 

These are a shadow (a) of the things that were to come, but the substance/reality belongs to Christ. If with Christ you died to the stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of/belonging-to the world, then why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit/subject-to dogma (decreed regulations, edicts, ordinances) – ‘Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch’ – . . . kata down-from/according-to the entalma ‘religious-injunctions, ordinances, precepts’ (focusing on consummating-performance of these) and/coupled teachings of/belonging-to the/these men (e.g., The Oral Torah, the Traditions of the Fathers).  These have indeed an appearance of wisdom . . . but they are absolutely in fact of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (b)  See Holiness/Sanctification. <Notes> a) skia: shade cast backward from an object, cf. Hebrews 8:5, 10:1, b) Colossians 2:8, 11, 14, 16-17, 20-23.

 

Paul isn’t talking to Gentile pagans, but to Jewish-Christians about spiritual “circumcision” (a) and the Law’s “record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands being cancelled, set aside by God by nailing it to Christ’s cross (b). The “food, drink, festival, new moon, and Sabbath” issues concerned Jewish-Christians being “judged” by Jews for not doing them anymore, because they are simply OT prophetic “shadows of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (c). Paul’s argument is that Christ, His logos gospel message, and His Spirit’s ministry are absolutely not part of anything that was already “in the world,” and that includes OT graphe scripture and the Jew’s expansion of it in the Oral Law or Traditions of the Elders.  The “stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of the world” including its Jewish religion are “a mere shadow of the reality of Christ that was to come!”  Why in the world would Jewish-Christians want to go back to the shadows when they have the reality of Christ?  Why in the world would Gentile-Christians today want to get involved with the OT shadows in the first place? <Notes> a) Colossians 2:11, b) v. 2:14, c) vv. 2:16-17.

 

Paul reminds Jewish-Christians in Galatians 4:1-2 that when they (he includes himself) were just Jews “under the Law,” they were then: “under epitropos household-guardians (a) and/coupled oikonomos household-managers (b) UNTIL the date set by the father (c).” <Notes> a) epitropos: household managers, esp. of minor children, b) oikonomos: household managers, overseers of finances and minor children – cf. paidagogos: ‘minor children school-escort guardian’ of Galatians 3:24, 25; 1 Corinthians 4:15, c) to receive their inheritance as mature sons.

 

“In the same way, we also, when we were [still] children, were enslaved to the stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of the world. . . But NOW that you [as Jewish-Christians] have come to experientially, relationally ginosko know God . . . , how can you turn back again to the asthenes weak-worthless-beggarly-poor and/coupled ptochos beggarly-helpless-destitute stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of the world (a) . . . whose slaves you want to be once more (a)?” (b). But remember, this guardianship was only supposed to be UNTIL the “children receive their inheritance as rightful heirs.”  Before then, they are “still children no different from a slave/hired servant” (c).  Really, you want to go back to that? <Notes> a) again, he is including the Jewish religion they were “turning back to . . . to be once more slaves”, b) Galatians 4:2-9, c) Galatians 4:1, 5; Colossians 3:24.

 

The audience and context of these passages is NOT Gentile with their Gentile philosophies but particularly Jewish with their Jewish adherence to the OT commandments, even to their Oral Torah or Traditions of the Elders.  Paul wrote this in 53-54 AD, long before the Jewish Wars dispersed the Jews.  Paul had not yet turned to the Gentiles but was mostly preaching to Jews.  This has to be true because Paul includes himself as once one of these “children” that needed to “grow up” from being “milk-fed” by the prophetic scriptures to become mature “sons in order to receive Christ’s inheritance” (a) – see also Logos Word of God – BT6. <Notes> a) Galatians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 3:2.

 

This same logos message was given to lapsing Jewish-Christians around 63-64 AD right before the Jewish Wars dispersion who needed to “leave the stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals about the Messiah and go onto maturity” (a) contained in the OT prophetic scriptures (b), who were still “being un-skilled in the logos gospel message of [Christ’s] righteousness, since they are still a little child” (c). The book of Hebrews is full of one OT prophetic passage after another, likely the same ones that they were once converted as Jews to Christ by, because the writer is desperately trying to convince these Jewish-Christians to stick with Christ. <Notes> a) Hebrews 6:1, b) “oracles of God”: Romans 3:2; Acts 7:38; 1 Peter 4:11, c) Hebrews 5:12-13.

 

Hebrews 6:1-2 details some of these specific stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental doctrines of Christ: 1) turning from the dead-lifeless-useless works of the Law and instead trusting God (a), 2) the uselessness of ceremonial washings (b), 3) priesthood ordination by the laying on of hands (c), 4) the resurrection of the dead (d), which the Pharisees believed in but the Sadducees didn’t, that is key to the gospel logos message, and 5) the judgement of God which will now be by Christ.  I’ve heard so many pastors bastardize this scripture because they don’t know the audience nor read things in context nor understand the original language!  Thus they try to apply these to Gentile-Christians. <Notes> a) His plan through Christ, b) to cleanse them, now that they have Christ’s cleansing, c) useless now that they have Christ as their High Priest, d) Christ’s resurrection being the basis of our “blessed hope.”

 

Why are so many Christians so eager for more “milk” of the OT prophetic scriptures designed for Jewish conversion to Christ, when most Christians now are Gentiles?  Why will they not move onto the “solid food for the grown-ups, for those who have had their sense-perception exercised-trained by constant practice (as in gym) to distinguish (a) good from evil” (b)? – see Least Among You – BT8.  Why, like very young children do so many Christians need everything in black and white, learning by rote, even having their “chores” written down for them?  That’s what scripture was!  The stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals in writing!   But the NT writers are saying, “Time to grow up!”  The Lord told my wife: “Compared to hearing from Him prophetic-rhema words directly, using scripture to learn was like relying on a tricycle when He gave us the ability to fly!”  <Notes> a) diakrisis: ‘judge through’ or discern, b) Hebrew 5:14.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, do we want to be called a “legalistic Christian” because we hold onto any of the 613 commandments of the OT or create 100s or 1000s more from the teachings of the NT, when the NT makes it crystal clear that there are NOW only 2 commandments of “definitively/wholly having trusting-relying-faith in the Son whom the Father has sent and/coupled ongoingly having unconditional-love for one another, just as Christ gave us this singular commandment” per 1 John 3:23 and so many other verses?  The gospel logos message doesn’t include anything of this world’s religions, especially the OT one.  By definition the New Covenant is completely-different-in-kind and superior, including NOTHING from before it.  Everything part of the old covenant has been finished, nailed to the cross, abolished, and made obsolete.  NOTHING carries forward.  Christians are to be set completely free from the entire old covenant or Law, which makes up 97.4% of the OT – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, so “the scripture imprisons everything under sin.”

 

Only 2.6% of scripture, the Messianic portions of prophecy, was used to convert Jews and once they were, they were encouraged to move past this “milk” to the “solid food of the discernment of the Holy Spirit” to then “determine good and evil” – the OT scriptures had then completely fulfilled their purpose for these Jews.  The early Church didn’t even use these 300-450 verses for Gentiles because they had the Holy Spirit to teach them everything, “so they had absolutely in fact no need for any man teach them” (1 John 2:20, 27).  This “milk” and “abc fundamentals” were ONLY UNTIL Christ came and they could receive their inheritance of the Holy Spirit “One Teacher.”  To go back to “the shadows, copies, figures, symbols, types, antitypes” that the OT was when you had “the substance and reality” was childish, foolish, and threatened to enslave them once again to the Law.  No Gentile should even read the OT – it was designed for 1 purpose for the Jews and it was finished.  Gentiles have absolutely NO need to be confused and brought into slavery of the Law, the very power of sin that multiplies sin.  They have everything they need IN Christ and His Spirit.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You so much for freeing us as Gentiles from all graphe scripture.  I know that You still use these 300-450 verses to convert Jews, but also You are winning them and so many Gentiles by the Gospel logos message that is accompanied with demonstrable-proofs of signs, wonders, miracles, healings, and prophetic knowledge by the dynamite-enabling-power of the Holy Spirit.  Thank You that through the blood of Christ and His Holy Spirit we have everything we need for righteousness, holiness, and godliness.  We are free from gramma writings to learn about You, because NOW under the completely-different-in-kind NEW Covenant we are learning from You directly through eido mentally ‘seen’ to perceive knowledge just as You promised in Jeremiah 31:34.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, legalistic Christians can’t rely just on faith, legalistic Christians hold onto Old Testament commandments, legalistic Christians create commandments out of New Testament teachings, Paul & James quoting of Law of loving your neighbor was for sake of argument, Paul and James never taught Christians to follow the Law, Paul teaches to follow the Law of Christ, James teaches to follow the Law of Freedom – Mercy over judgment, The Law of commandments was fulfilled finished crucified abolished passed-away, The Law no longer rules or has dominion over Christians to be under it, Christians are freed from the Law because it’s obsolete and vanished, The Law is a shadow of New Testament realities, All religions teach rules but they don’t curb the indulgence of the flesh, The scripture imprisoned everybody under sin, the Law was a guardian for children to bottle-feed with milk only until Christ came

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT5b:  Old commandments will absolutely not make you holier

 

 

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Many Christians think that learning about “OT commandments for righteousness” will thus make them holier, but we see Paul has said the opposite – “the Law came in to increase the trespass” (a) and “in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and/thus through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure” (b) for “the dunamis dynamite-enabling-power of sin is the Law” (c).  I had a roommate that bragged about reading through the book of Leviticus and later I found him increasingly addicted to video games and drugs.  Another roommate said bragged about this too and his screen saver increasingly had half-naked women on it instead of pictures of race cars!  The Law fuels sin!  Paul urges Christians that “sin shall actually have absolutely no dominion over (d) you, because you are ongoingly absolutely in fact not under Law but under unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace” (e). <Notes> a) Romans 5:20, b) Romans 7:13, c) 1 Corinthians 15:56, d) rule, lordship, authoritative dunamis dynamite-enabling-power  over, e) Romans 6:14.

 

Sin’s dunamis dynamite-enabling-power comes from trying to be “led” or “walk/live” by commandments of the Law in order to be “right and pleasing” to God!  Paul says “the cravings of the flesh oppose the cravings of the Spirit, but if you are led by the means of the Spirit, then you are absolutely not under the Law. Now the works of the flesh are evident….[naming many sins]” (a).  Remember the “works of the flesh” aren’t just sins of the body – but the “dead, lifeless works of the Law” – see New Covenant Ways – BT6.  In the same breath, Paul relates “works of the flesh” as “cravings of the flesh” to being “under the Law” and contrasts this against “cravings of the Spirit” and being “led by the means of the Spirit.”  <Notes> a) Galatians 5:16-18.

 

You simply can’t seek to please God through obedience to commandments of the Law and also be “led by the means of the Spirit” – you have to choose!  The former leads you into more sin; the latter frees you: “But I say [with strong urging], ongoingly walk/live by the means of the Spirit and [then] you definitively/wholly will absolutely in fact not teleo execute-accomplish-finish the cravings of the flesh” (a). More rules aren’t the answer – more Spirit is!  The “promise” of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant isn’t more gramma writings or commandments within them or even to now have the ability to go back and do the old ones!  Perfecting the flesh will never lead to the things of the Spirit – see Might & Power – BT3. <Notes> a) Galatians 5:16.

 

That’s what Paul is going to say in Romans 8:1-11, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law (a) of/belonging-to the Spirit of zoe genuine-life has already set you free in Christ Jesus from the Law (b) of/belonging to sin and death. 3 For God has already done what the Law (b) made asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent by the flesh (c) adunatos absolutely-powerless-to-do.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the [singular] righteous requirement (d) of the Law (b) might be pleroo fulfilled-to-completion in us, who already walk not in possibility kata down-from/according the flesh (c) but kata down-from/according the Spirit [These are statements of fact for Christians – see v. 9]. 5 For those who live kata  down-from/according the flesh (c) actually, ongoingly set their minds (e) on the things of the flesh, but those who live down-from/according-to the Spirit [actually, ongoingly set their minds] on the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mindset (f) on the flesh (c) is definitively/wholly death, but the mindset (f) on the Spirit is zoe genuine-life and peace. 7 For the mindset (f) on the flesh (c) is hostile to God, for it absolutely in fact does not submit to God’s law [of the Spirit] (g); indeed, absolutely in fact is not dunamis powerfully-enabled to. 8 Those who are [located] IN (h) the flesh (c) are absolutely in fact not dunamis powerfully-enabled to please God. 9 You, however, are absolutely in fact not [located] IN the flesh (c) but [located] IN the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells [located] IN you. Anyone who does absolutely in fact not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. 10 But if Christ is [located] IN you, although the body (c) is already dead-lifeless-useless (i) because of sin, the Spirit is zoe genuine-life because of righteousness (j). 11 If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells [located] IN you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will (k) also give zoe genuine-life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  This is referring to the “blessed hope” of our body’s glorification (l).  Wow, what an incredible understanding!

 

<Notes> a) nomos generically means instruction, principles, ways, b) context: instruction, principles, ways of 613 Mosaic OT commandments, c) see Identity:  outer man or bodily members, will-power, d) i.e., obedience to the entire OT Law in order to be blessed by God with zoe genuine-life – Galatians 5:3, e) verb phroneo: a worldview/outlook/mindset of the inner being, not a particular preoccupation, f) noun of phroneo, g) by proximity and flow of argument, this is referring to ‘the law of the Spirit” and not the Mosaic OT Law.  “Pleasing God” in the New Covenant is following the Spirit, not following the Mosaic Law. h) the preposition en with the dative can be location IN, accompanied WITH, or BY the means of as determined by context, i) just as “dead works of the Law” are – Hebrews 6:1, 9:14, j) in context, Christ’s righteousness, not ours, k) future tense: a reference to bodily resurrection, l) Titus 2:13; Ephesians 1:12; Colossians 1:27; Galatians 5:5; Romans 8:23-25; 1 Peter 1:3.

 

Again, Paul is using OT words for Jews, unlikely Gentiles, and reframing/reapplying them for New Covenant “realities” to replace the OT “shadows” of scripture – see Bible Info – BT1. Romans 8:2-3 clearly shows that the “Law of sin and death” is the OT Law of God that Paul once considered “good, holy, righteous, and Spirit-kind” from Romans 7:12, 14, 16 as it dwells in his Jewish-Christian mind/inner-being/heart but that also “become weakened asthenes (beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent) by the flesh’s outer-being or bodily members,” but psyche/soul consists of intellect, emotions, and the will, and this is still part of the flesh, albeit the “power” of man’s “might and power” (Zechariah 4:6), and thus still weakens the Law.

 

Reflection:

 

The solution to “sin and death” isn’t more “Law of commandants for righteousness” or even to uphold the current OT Law. The solution has already happened to Christians:  The Holy Spirit is the completely-different-in-kind “nomos law of instruction/principles/ways” and is the same WHO that has already set us free from the OT “Law of instruction/principles/ways” that only brought us sin and death!  Complete obedience to the entire OT Law (a), which is “the [singular] requirement of righteousness” (b) was completely met by Christ, completely condemning sin [located] IN His flesh (c), so that “so one act of righteousness leads to justification/righteousness and/coupled zoe genuine-life for all men. . . .  so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made/declared-righteous/justified” (d). <Notes> a) Galatians 5:3, b) Romans 8:4, c) Romans 8:3, d) Romans 5:18-19.

 

Therefore, now no Christian is “of/belonging-to” or “kata down-from/according-to the OT Law” but “of/belonging-to” or “kata down-from/according-to the Spirit’s Law.”  These are facts!  Every Christian is “of/belonging-to” or “[located] IN the Spirit” not “of/belonging-to” or “[located] IN the flesh,” exactly because the “Spirit of God dwells [located] IN them,” they “have the Spirit of Christ,” and thus “belong to Him” (a). They presently/ongoingly have the completely-different-in-kind mindset/worldview of the Spirit, not just the appetites of their bodily members or psyche/soul!  Our poor English translations obscure that Paul is talking about facts that we should be praising God for!  These are NOT exhortations to create better Christians but for Christians to know who they are and live from that reality – see Identity! <Notes> a) Romans 8:9.

 

The Law Christians should follow is NOW “the Law of the Spirit” not the OT Law of God that is in context the Law of Moses! The former results in “zoe genuine-life and peace” and the latter “sin and death!” The former is the only way to “please God” NOW because “the flesh” working through the OT Law to “multiply sin and give it power and making it exceedingly sinful” absolutely cannot please God because of the weakness of the flesh!  But Paul is a realist in Romans 7:23, 8:10 – the Christian still has the flesh’s outward-being or bodily members (and psyche/soul) that is absolutely useless, as good as dead, because of sin, but the GREAT NEWS of the gospel is we have the indwelling Holy Spirit because of Christ’s righteousness (not ours), and one day we will even have our sinful bodies resurrected and glorified!  That is our blessed hope.

 

Meanwhile, if you are stuck in sin and death, it could because you are stuck, as Paul was as a Jewish-Christian, in the OT Law of commandments trying to “measure up” to God, find approval, and please Him. Like Paul did in Romans 7:24-25, you will need to come to the same point of total surrender of control and say: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver/save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God thru-the-realizing-channel-of Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Then you can get out of the obsession on the problem of sin and the despair of Romans 7 and get onto experiencing the freedom of Romans 8 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are [located] IN Christ Jesus, for the [New] Law of the Spirit of zoe genuine-life has set you free IN Christ Jesus from the [old] Law of sin and death, for God has done what the [old] Law, asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent by the flesh, adunatos absolutely-powerless-to-do.” Thank God for Jesus and His Spirit of holiness!

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, although I wish Paul had written better Greek and wasn’t so wordy like a lawyer, thank You for revealing to him that everything the Law was, and 97.4% of the OT that is based on it – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, failed to produce the righteousness, holiness, goodness, and Spirit-likeness that You intended, not by Your fault but because of the asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotence of our flesh.  The result is an explosion of sin leading to death.  Thank You that Jesus came to do away with it all, by fulfilling in His flesh perfect righteous obedience, taking our sin INTO His flesh, dying under the judgment, paying the price of our sin, and then giving us His righteous holiness by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Praise the Lord for propitiation or atonement!  He ended the old covenant to give us a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant righteousness and ways to learn and please God – by the means of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, The Law increases awareness of sin but also multiplies sin, the power of sin is the Law, the craving of the Spirit and flesh oppose each other, the Law has dead works that are flesh too, The Law of sin and death, New Covenant pleasing of God is obeying the gospel of faith and love, Christians now are called to follow the Spirit of Christ, The Law of the Spirit sets us free from the Law of sin and death, the Law of Christ is simply to unconditionally love one another as He loved us, If you are stuck in the O wretch man that I am of Romans 7:25 go to the Holy Spirit of Romans 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT4b:  Christians are to have absolutely nothing to do with the Old Testament Law

 

 

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Paul makes it clear that Christians should have absolutely nothing to do with the old covenant or Law – we are to be freed from its yoke of slavery:  “The Law of the Spirit of zoe genuine-life has set you free [from slavery] in Christ Jesus from the [OT] Law of sin and death, for God has done what the Law [of commandments], asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent by the flesh, was adunatos absolutely-powerless-to-do” (a) and “everyone who has trusting-relying-faith is freed from everything from which you absolutely in fact could not powerfully-be-enabled to be freed [from slavery] from by the Law of Moses” (b), which Paul argues is everything!  Paul continues: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom [from slavery]” (c) and warns of “those (d) who have slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us back into slavery” (e).  Even Peter says, “Live as people who are free . . . but living as bond-servants (f) of God” (g). <Notes> a) Romans 8:2-3, b) Acts 13:39, c) 2 Corinthians 3:17, d) false brothers, teachers of the Law, e) Galatians 2:4, f) freed slaves who chose to still serve their masters, g) 1 Peter 2:16.

 

Christians are to no longer be under the Law, for “Whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law” (a), and “All who are out-of/from the works/doings of the Law are under a curse” (b), and “Now BEFORE trusting-relying-faith came, we were held captive under the Law, imprisoned UNTIL the coming trusting-relying-faith would be revealed. So then the Law was our [minor-children] school-escort guardian (c) UNTIL Christ came that we would be made/declared righteous by trusting-relying-faith. But NOW that trusting-relying-faith has come, we are absolutely in fact no longer under a supervisor-guardian (c), for in Christ Jesus you are ALL [mature] sons of God through trusting-relying-faith” (d).  This is similar to “under epitropos household-guardians and/coupled oikonomos household-managers UNTIL the date set by his father” for their inheritance as mature son. <Notes> a) Romans 2:12; Jews – 1 Corinthians 9:20, b) Galatians 3:10, c) paidagogos: servants hired by the upper class to take their little boys to/from school UNTIL the age of manhood. Cf. ‘the 10,000 supervisor-guardians’ 1 Corinthians 4:15, d) Galatians 3:23-26.

 

The works of the Law are called “dead-lifeless works” and Jewish-Christians should have “repented/turned-from them” (a) and had their “consciences purified/cleansed from them to serve the living God” (b), but the context shows that Jewish teachers of the Law have convinced them to return to these commandments of the Law. However, Paul says Christians “are absolutely not under Law but under unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace” (c), so that “if you are led (d) by the Spirit, [then] you are not under the Law” (e). <Notes> a) Hebrews 6:1, b) Hebrews 9:14, c) Romans 6:14-15, d) guided, directed, conducted, carried, driven, impelled, e) Galatians 5:18.

 

Why would Christians want to become slaves again of the OT Law, which is only at best biblical gnosis info-knowledge about God and His will that “puffed up the heads” of the Pharisees and scribes per 1 Corinthians 8:1?  That’s exactly Paul’s question of Jewish-Christians in Galatians 4:9, “But now that you have come to experientially, relationally ginosko know God, or rather to be experientially, relationally ginosko known by God, how can you turn back again to the asthenes weak-worthless-beggarly-poor and/coupled ptochos destitute stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”

 

In context, Paul’s not just talking about Gentile rules-based religion or just about Jewish “Traditions of the Elders” or Oral Torah commandments, but including the entire old covenant Law they were “once slaves of” (a) which he says is still “of this world,” and he further warns, “For freedom Christ has set us free [from slavery] – stand firm therefore, and/coupled absolutely do not submit again to a yoke (b) of slavery” (c).  You’re either tied to Moses, the traditions of men or of their religions, or tied to Jesus, but not to both! <Notes> a) Galatians 2:4, 4:1, 7, 22-25, 30-31, 5:1, b) instructional harness for training animals, which if it doesn’t fit right can be a burden, c) Galatians 5:1.

 

Yes, the scriptures were their ‘yoke or harness’ of learning about God and His will, but it it was a “yoke of slavery!”  In Colossians 2:20-23, Paul says: “If with Christ you died to the stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of this world, why, as if you were still alive in this world, do you submit to [its] regulations – ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ kata down-from/according-to human precepts and/also [human] teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom . . . but they are of absolutely-in-fact-no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”

 

Again these “food and drink, festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths” (a) are all laid out in the OT Law of commandments, albeit expanded on by the Jewish Oral Law (b), but these are simply “skia shadows (c) of things to come” (d) or “copies and shadows of the heavenly things” (e) or “good things to come” (f), mere “types of what was to come” (g) and simply “symbolic” (h) to “correspond to” (i) other realities (j). <Notes> a) Colossians 2:16, b) Traditions of the Elders, c) skia: shade cast backward from an object, d) Colossians 2:17, e) Hebrews 8:5, f) Hebrews 10:1, g) Romans 5:14, h) Hebrews 9:9; Revelation 11:8, i) antitupos: antitype – the counterpart or figure that happens afterwards that shows a prior event to be a type, j) 1 Peter 3:20-21; Galatians 4:25.

 

However, Christians who now have “the true form of those realities” (a) by trusting-relying-faith, that is, “the substance/reality that belongs in Christ” (b), were to leave the OT “shadows, copies, types, symbols, and corresponding figures” behind, “for the kingdom of God is not a matter of [rules about] eating and drinking but of righteousness and/coupled peace and/coupled joy by the means of the Holy Spirit” (c). Why are so many Christians and churches, who should be “[mature] sons and heirs of the kingdom” still reveling in the copies, shadows, types, and corresponding symbols or figures meant for “children that are still no different than slaves” (d)? <Notes> a) Hebrews 10:1, b) Colossians 2:17, c) Romans 14:17, d) Galatians 4:1.

 

Again, Christians are to make a clean break from the OT Law: “Now that we are released/freed from (a) the Law, having died to that which held us captive, we now ongoingly serve/minister by the means of the completely-different-in-kind New Way (b) of the Spirit, and/coupled absolutely in fact no longer by the means of the palaios ‘old, antiquated, worn-out, useless’ way of the gramma writing” (c). When will we really believe this? <Notes> a) katargeo: ‘thrown down to be inactive and useless,’ terminated, destroyed, voided, annulled, and thus released from – also used of the Law in Ephesians 2:15, b) kainotes from kainos: Walking in Newness of zoe genuine-life, Romans 6:4, c) Romans 7:6.

 

Jesus came to “proclaim liberty to the captives” (a), not just “slavery to sin because we practice sin” (b) or when we “obey sin” (c) – for certainly “no one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s sperma Seed lives in him, so he cannot keep on sinning” (d) – but Jesus came to also free us from “the Law [that] held us captive” (e), that was “holding [us] captive under the Law, imprisoned UNTIL the coming trusting-relying-faith would be revealed” (f). It’s crazy so much of the modern Church is so eager to start following OT traditions again!  Absolutely crazy!  <Notes> a) Luke 4:18, b) John 8:34, c) Romans 6:16-20, 7:23, d) 1 John 3:9, e) Romans 7:6, f) Galatians 3:23.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, why are we having anything to do with the Law of commandments for righteousness that enslaved the Jewish people?  It kept us powerless because of the weakness of sinful flesh.  The works/doing of the Law were dead or lifeless anyway – they didn’t produce any life but actually killed us.  A completely-different-in-kind NEW Law of the Spirit as set us free, and our only part is trusting-relying-faith.  This is how we now serve God, not by following gramma writings, but by being led by the Spirit.  Christians shouldn’t be spoken to by the Law because we aren’t under it or its curse.  The entire OT imprisoned the Jews as slave-children until they were mature enough to receive the inheritance of Christ.  The Law was like every other religion – abc fundamentals or rules & regulations that promise life but deliver death, promise self-control but actually fuel sin.  The entire OT was just “shadows, copies, types, symbols, and figures” of NT realities in Christ.  Why are Christians going backward in time?  We were to have nothing to do with 97.4% of the OT which is Law-based – see Logos Word of God – BT5a.  The Spirit’s guidance replaced guidance of biblical writings.  Christ living in us by His Spirit is how we are taught and obey now.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, give us understanding of the radical difference between covenants and how often we are called to leave the old one behind and having nothing more to do with 97.4% of the OT that is Law-based.  In fact, we are supposed to be leaving gramma writings behind entirely because our yoke/harness is to Christ, our One Teacher His Holy Spirit, and this is how we are to now learn – directly!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Christians not to do any part of Old Testament or Covenant Law, Christians to be freed from the yoke or slavery or prison of Old Testament Law, Christians are no longer under the Old Testament Law or curse or household-guards of it, Christians are to repent from dead works of the Law, Christians are to be purified from works f the Law, Christians are under the opposite of Law that is Grace, Judaism is like all other world religions with its weak poor destitute ABC writings about God, gnosis head-knowledge vs ginosko relationship knowledge of God, do & don’t do commandments are to teach children by rote, the Holy Spirit is the teacher for sons of God for the New Covenant, Christians are to run from the Old Testament Law’s slavery that explodes sinfulness, Old Testament Law promises holiness but explodes sin

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT5a:  Old Covenant failed to stop sin so replaced by a superior New Covenant

 

 

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The OT prophecy about the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34 we explored in New Covenant Ways – BT2a is cited extensively in the NT (a), exactly because the New Covenant is the distinguishing point of the NT (b). That’s because “a kreitton more-useful-serviceable-helpful-better hope [than the old covenant] is introduced through which we now proserchomai draw near (i) to God” (c) through “a kreitton more-useful-serviceable-helpful-better Covenant” (d) than the old covenant, precisely because “a former commandment is set aside (e) because of its asthenes beggarly-poor-weakness-feebleness-impotence and anopheles unprofitable-uselessness, for the Law made nothing perfect-complete” (f), being that it is “memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable” (g), “for since the Law has but a shadow (h) of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, . . . make perfect-complete those who routinely proserchomai draw near (i) (j), exactly because the “Law is powerless to perform in that it was asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent thru-the-realizing-channel-of the flesh” (k).

 

<Notes> a) Hebrews 8:8-13, 10:16-17, Romans 11:27, b) Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 9:15, 12:24, c) Hebrews 7:19, d) v. 7:22, e) athetesis: abolished, disannulled, put away, f) v. 7:18-19, g) v. 8:7, h) skia: shade cast backward from an object, cf. Hebrews 8:5, Colossians 2:8, i) proserchomai:  a Hebraism for “seeking an audience with, approaching, inquiring of, calling on to visit, or be heard by” God, thus closely akin in spelling and meaning to proseuche conversational-prayer and proskuneo worship, j) Hebrews 10:1, k) Romans 8:3.

 

It gets much worse: “Our sinful passions are aroused by the Law . . . to bear fruit for death” (a), such that “sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment [not to covet], produced in me all kinds of covetousness . . . when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died” (b), thus “the dunamis enabling-power of sin is the Law” (c).  It’s called “the Law of sin and death” (d) for a reason! The “New Covenant [is] absolutely not of/belonging to the gramma writing but of/belonging to the Spirit, for the gramma writing kills, but the Spirit gives zoe genuine-life” (e). <Notes> a) Romans 7:5, b) Romans 7:8-9, c) 1 Corinthians 15:56, d) Romans 8:2, e) 2 Corinthians 3:6.

 

God didn’t give us the “Law of commandments for righteousness” (a) to stop us from sinning! “The Law is powerless to perform in that it was asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent thru-the-realizing-channel-of the flesh” (b), because Jesus said “the flesh is inherently asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent (c).  <Notes> a) Romans 10:4-5, b) Romans 8:3, c) Matthew 26:41.

 

Paul echoes this: “through the Law comes the genuine, experiential, relational epignosis knowledge of sin” (a), for “I would not have eido mentally ‘seen’ to perceive/know what it means to covet something if the Law had not said ‘Do not covet’” (b), so now “the Law counts sin” against us (c), and worse: “the Law came in to increase sin” (d), by “arousing our sinful passions” (e), and “Through the commandment [sin] might be shown to be sin. Because sin produces death in me from the ‘good’ Law, and thus sin has become sinful beyond measure or exceedingly sinful” (f). Why in the world are Christians eager to read OT Laws of obedience, which is not only the first 5 books of Moses, but throughout 97.4% of the OT – see Logos Word of God – BT5a? For more negative aspects of the Law, see Logos Word of God – BT8. <Notes> a) Romans 3:20, b) Romans 7:7, c) Romans 5:3, d) Romans 5:20, e) Romans 7:5, f) Roman 7:13.

 

“Sin shall absolutely not have dominion (a) over you, because you are ongoingly absolutely in fact not under the Law but under unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace” (b). “The scripture (c) imprisoned everyone (d) under sin . . . held captive under the Law, imprisoned UNTIL the coming of trusting-relying-faith would be revealed” (e).”  And “even the Gentiles, who do not have the Law, by nature do what the Law requires, they are then a Law to themselves . . . They show that the work of the Law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, that is, their conflicting thoughts either accusing or excusing them” (f), so “we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (g). <Notes> a) rule, lordship, authoritative power over, b) Romans 6:14, c) whole/entirety of scripture may be in mind, but at least 97.4% of it that is Law-based, cf. singular “scripture” with definite article:  John 10:35, 19:28-30; Romans 11:2, d) Jew and Gentile, e) Galatians 3:22-23, f) Romans 2:14-15, g) Romans 3:9.

 

Thus Paul asks why Jewish-Christians, after “coming to experientially, relationally ginosko know God,” would want to “turn back again to the asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent and/coupled ptochos beggarly-helpless-destitute stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of the world (a) to be slaves once more?” (b), “submitting again to an [Law instructional] yoke of slavery” (c)? Paul would ask Gentile-Christians, “Why would you want to read, study, memorize, or try to do the Jewish Law in the first place? Isn’t your ‘accusing or excusing conscience’ (d) enough of a ‘prison’ for you?” <Notes> a) the building blocks, basis, rudiments, postulates, axioms, sounds, etc. for language, art, music, sciences, etc., but the context is the Law’s rules, b) Galatians 4:9, c) Galatians 5:1, d) Romans 2:15.

 

Jews under the Law were “once slaves to sin” before they became “obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, having already been set free from sin, having become slaves of righteousness . . . having already been set free from sin and becoming slaves of God” (a), but Paul then explains that is absolutely not slavery to OT righteousness, since “now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Law” (b). Thus “if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin [in its members], the Spirit (Christ within you) is zoe genuine-life because of righteousness” (c) – not our own, but “a righteousness that is by/through trusting-relying-faith in Jesus Christ” (d). <Notes> a) Romans 6:17-18, 6:22, b) Romans 3:21, 4:13, c) Romans 8:10, d) Romans 1:17, 3:22, 9:30.

 

That’s because “by the means of Christ everyone who has trusting-relying-faith is freed from everything from which you could not be freed [from slavery] by the Law [of 613 commandments] of Moses” (a), because “we know that our old self was crucified with Christ (b) in order that the body of sin might be definitively/wholly made inactive (c), so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin, for the person who has died has been set free from sin” (d). <Notes> a) Acts 13:39, b) context: in water-baptism, c) katargeo: ‘thrown down to be inactive and useless,’ thus terminated, destroyed, voided, annulled, and finally released from, e.g., ‘of the Law’ in Ephesians 2:15 and our ‘release from it’ in Romans 7:6, d) Romans 6:6-7.

 

Therefore, there’s only one way to get free: “For the Law of the Spirit of zoe genuine-life has set you free in/by Christ Jesus from the Law of sin and death” (a), “for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (b), and “for freedom Christ has set us free” (c), and so “live as people who are free, . . . living as servants of God” (d). The completely-different-in-kind “Law of Christ to carry one another’s burdens” (e) that is “outside the [OT] Law of God” (f) is none other than the “Law of the Spirit of zoe genuine-life” (g) and only this is considered “the perfect Law, the Law of freedom” (h) where “mercy triumphs over judgement” (i). <Notes> a) Romans 8:2, b) 2 Corinthians 3:17, c) Galatians 5:1, d) 1 Peter 2:16, e) Galatians 6:2, f) 1 Corinthians 9:21, g) Romans 8:2, h) James 1:25, 2:12, i) James 2:13.

 

Christians were to “have died to the Law through the Body-of-Christ so that we can belong to another, Christ” – no longer Moses, the Prophets, or the scripture they created (a), but released from the Law since we died to that which held us captive (b), because Christ bore our sins in His body so we might die to sin (c) and thus Christians have already died to sin (d) by dying with Christ (e) through water-baptism (f). Therefore, Paul can confidently say: “thru-the-realizing-channel-of the Law I died by the means of (g) the Law so that I might live by the means of (g) God, having been crucified with Christ . . . I now live by trusting-relying-faith in the Son of God” (h). <Notes> a) Romans 7:4, b) Romans 7:6, c) 1 Peter 2:24, d) Romans 6:2, e) Colossians 3:3, f) Roman 6:3-10, g) or as indirect object: to/for, h) Galatians 2:19-20.

 

With so many negative things said about the Law, why would Christians want to have anything to do with it, especially since “Christ’s ministry is as much more excellent than the old as the Covenant He mediates is kreitton more-useful-serviceable-helpful-better . . . for if that first [old] covenant had been not memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable (a), there would have been no need to look for a second . . . in speaking of a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, He makes the first one obsolete . . . and it is ready-at-hand to vanish away (b). . [to Jesus,] the mediator of a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, to the sprinkled blood [of Christ] that speaks a kreitton more-useful-serviceable-helpful-better thing (c) than that of the blood of Abel (d) . . . [to] our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of The Eternal Covenant” (e). <Notes> a) implying it’s flawed, b) aphanismos: be destroyed, figuratively abolished, c) i.e., redemption and forgiveness, d) i.e., justice and judgment, e) Hebrews 8:6-7, 13, 12:24, 13:20.

 

This was all predicted by Ezekiel 590 years earlier: “And I will give you a completely-different-in-kind New (a) heart, and a completely-different-in-kind New (a) Spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh (b) and give you a heart of [soft, pliable] flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause (c) you to [imperfect: progressively] walk in My statutes (d) and [imperfect: progressively] be tereo careful-to-watch/guard-to-maintain My judgments (e). . . . I will make a [New] Covenant of peace with them. It shall be an Everlasting Covenant with them” (f). <Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) natural man, c) make to do, d) ordinances, decrees, prescribed limits, e) formal decisions and decrees, f) Ezekiel 36:26-27; 37:26, cf. 11:20.

 

The NT is clear that just as “a former commandment is set aside (a) because of its asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotence and/coupled anopheles unprofitable-uselessness, for the Law made nothing perfect-complete” (b), the entire “Law of entole commandments expressed in ordinances (c) has been abolished (d) in Christ’s flesh” (e), “for Christ is the end (f) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who has trusting-relying-faith” (g), “having wiped out (h) the grapho handwriting of [authoritative, universally-binding] dogma doctrines-propositions-decrees-laws-ordinances that was against us. He has already taken, with ongoing results, it out of the way (or our midst), having definitively/wholly nailed it to the cross” (i). <Notes> a) athetesis: abolished, disannulled, put away, b) Hebrews 7:18- 19, c) dogma: authoritative, universally binding doctrines or decrees, d) katargeo: ‘thrown down to be inactive and useless,’ terminated, destroyed, voided, annulled, and thus released from – see Romans 7:6, e) Ephesians 2:14-15, f) telos: termination, conclusion, g) Romans 10:4, h) obliterated, blotted or washed out, i) Colossians 2:14-15.

 

Reflection:

 

 

Why are Christians still trying to read, study, and memorize these? They have been bloodied with Christ’s blood!  Shouldn’t “we have died to the Law through the Body-of-Christ so that we can belong to another, Christ” – no longer Moses, the Prophets, or the scripture they created per Romans 7:4?  Shouldn’t “we be released from the Law, having died to that which held us captive, so that now we ongoingly serve-minister-obey by the means of the completely-different-in-kind New Way of the Spirit and/thus absolutely in fact not in the palaios “old in time, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless” way of the gramma writing” per Romans 7:6?

 

But John 19:28-30 records:  “Knowing that ALL (pas as ‘every of a portion/category/class’) was already now finished [with ongoing results] (a), Jesus said in order to definitively/wholly finish the [entirety of the Messianic class of] scripture (b), “It is teleo finished,” and then He died.  Jesus did indeed “fulfill (c) the Law before heaven and earth passed away,” just as He promised (d).  Jesus told His disciples, “Everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (e) must be pleroo definitively/wholly fulfilled” (f). <Notes> a) perfect tense of teleo: once-for-all completed/concluded/ended, b) singular with article: the whole of the OT, or at least those pertaining to Him and His mission to end the Law: cf. [singular] “scripture” with definite article:  John 10:35; Romans 11:2; Galatians 3:22-23, c) pleroo: to completion and terminated, d) Matthew 5:17-18, e) the 3 divisions of the OT, f) Luke 24:44.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You that you didn’t leave 1 commandment or requirement of the Law unfinished and also fulfilled all the prophetic ‘portions’ of scripture regarding Yourself.  Your life finished the purpose of the entire OT, to prepare the Jewish people for You.  Thank You that Christians have died to 97.4% of the OT which is Law-based.  Now we belong to You instead of a book, and we learn now directly by the Holy Spirit, no longer through gramma writings.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Old Covenant failed to stop sin so replaced by a superiorly-better New Covenant, Jeremiah 31:31-34 New Covenant cited often in the New Testament, Law of commandments set aside because of its impotence and uselessness to perfect us, The Old Testament is but a shadow of New Testament realities, The Law arouses and multiplies sin to kill us, the power of sin is the Law, the Law of sin and death, New covenant has nothing to do with writings but the Spirit, Scripture ABC writings imprison and enslave us under sin, The Law gives sin dominion over us, Grace frees us from the dominion of sin, Faith in Christ frees us by the Spirit from the Old Testament Law, Christians die to the Law in water-baptism, The Old Covenant was ended

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT4a:  The GREAT NEWS Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with OT commandments

 

 

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The Lord showed me once in a dream that many churchmen were adding different colors of paint to a big bucket of “Pure White” paint, the gospel logos message, to paint their church walls because they were convinced it would be better.  Although some of their walls were close to being “Pure White,” they were no longer “Pure White.” My heart was broken and I cried out, “Lord why am I so grieved.” And He said, “Look at how everybody tries to add to what I have done for you!” I knew my heart was breaking because His was!  Whatever they now have in their churches, it was no longer the gospel logos message, regardless of what they said!

 

However, Paul warned in Galatians 1:6-8, “I’m astonished that you are so quickly deserting God who called you by the unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, not that there is another one, but apparently there are some who trouble you and want to distort-twist (a) the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”  That’s the exact context: Jews trying to get Jewish-Christians to “reverse course” back to “the Law of commandments for righteousness” that should be “behind” them. <Notes> a) meta + strepho: turn around/go back or behind, reverse course.

 

The modern Church has already “reverse coursed” to a “different gospel” because 99% of church people you ask: “What is the 2 greatest commandments?” will quote the OT Law of “Unconditionally-loving the Lord with all you heart…soul, and unconditionally-loving your neighbor as yourself.”  This is certainly “looking behind” you!  It even “sums up The Law and The Prophets” – how much worse can you get?  These Christians are thus followers of the Mosaic Law!

 

Instead, the NT “looks ahead” by stating there are now ONLY 2 entole official, universally-binding commandments for Christians, which is to “definitively/wholly having trusting-relying-faith in the name/authority of God’s Son Jesus Christ and/coupled ongoingly unconditionally-loving one another, just as Jesus has given us a commandment (a)” (b). Much more will be said about this in the Only 2 Commandments and Logos Word of God – BT14 pages.  <Notes> a) My completely-different-in-kind New Commandment: John 13:34, 15:12, b) 1 John 3:23.

 

How come today’s Church doesn’t have Paul’s mindset:  “I’ve resolved to absolutely in fact not to have already [with ongoing results] eido mentally ‘seen’ to perceive/know anything among you except Jesus Christ and/coupled Him having been crucified” (a)? Why don’t we stick with this: “Far be it from me in possibility to boast [in anything] except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . for absolutely in fact neither circumcision or uncircumcision (b) ongoingly counts (c) for anything except being a completely-different-in-kind NEW creation” (d).  Paul said that same thing in 1 Corinthians 7:19 “For neither circumcision counts (c) for anything nor uncircumcision,” but here he adds “except keeping the commandments of God.”  What are these?  The OT commandments?  No!  <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 2:2, b) i.e., whether you have the old covenant’s ‘seal’ of righteous approval or not, your declaration that you are a Law-follower, c) ischuo: is strong, forceful, robust, sound, able, serviceable, d) Galatians 6:14-15.

 

Paul really doesn’t clarify this in this passage, but it definitely has to doing with “being a completely-different-in-kind NEW creation!”  However, Paul does make it clear in Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus absolutely in fact neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts (a) for anything except trusting-relying-faith thru-the-realizing-channel-of unconditional-love routinely, actively, energetically, and effectively being worked/done.”  We know from 1 John 3:23 that trusting-relying-faith in Jesus and unconditionally-loving one another are indeed the only 2 entole commandments of God in the NT and both have everything to do with “being a completely-different-in-kind NEW creation!” <Notes> a) ischuo: is strong, forceful, robust, sound, able, serviceable.

 

Reflection:

 

 

Paul absolutely doesn’t mix the “Law of commandments for righteousness” with Jesus, the cross of crucifixion, and the only 2 commandments of trusting-relying-faith and unconditional-love!  Then why in the world do we hear so many sermons that mix so much of the OT that has nothing to do with what Paul says “counts?” Is sure seems they are “majoring in the minors” – actually betting on the wrong team!

 

Prayer:

 

Lord, forgive us for ever looking behind into the “old, worn-out, decayed, rag-like, withered, lifeless” things of the old covenant and ever trying to “borrow” any of them for the completely-different-in-kind, superior New Covenant by Your precious blood.  Cleanse us from this sin of tainting the pure, perfect, white of the GREAT NEWS gospel logos message!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Prophetic visions and dreams, Adding commandments to the gospel taints its purity so no longer the great news, cursed are those that preach a different gospel, The 2 greatest commandment for Christians are NOT in the old testament, The only 2 commandments in the New Testament are faith in Christ and loving others like Christ did, Paul had one focus on Christ and Him crucified but why don’t we, Keeping Old testament commandments or NOT counts for nothing but only the commandments now of faith and love, why are we mixing old and new testament commandments when Paul doesn’t

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT2b:  The New Covenant is absolutely ‘NEW,’ so nothing like the old and worn-out

 

 

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Again, every time God wants to emphasize that something is “NEW” not just in time, as with “younger” translated from the Hebrew tsa’iyr or the Greek neos, but instead “fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior,” then God uses the Hebrew chadash or Greek kainos.  Absolutely nothing is carried from the old (previous) into the NEW (current) by definition, just as an invention can’t “borrow” from previous inventions in order to be lawfully patented. In mathematical set theory, the two circles/spheres don’t even touch let alone overlap to create a union!  We saw this in New Covenant Ways – BT2.

 

God also frequently uses the double absolute negatives ou ou or ou me, or just ou to express absolute prohibition, something few bibles translate correctly – see Bible Info, but I always insert the word “absolutely in fact absolutely, absolutely in fact and in possibility, or just absolutely in fact,” respectively, to indicate this. Also as we’ve seen, when God says something is “palaios old” like the “old covenant,” He doesn’t just mean “old, dated, or ancient in time,” but also that it is “worn out by use, having suffered more or less from the injuries and ravages of time, thus worse for wear, even obsolete.”

 

One of the biggest problems in the Church’s teaching is not understanding the absolute difference between the NEW and old covenants. All the NT writers battled against this!  Legalistic Christians and churches are always trying to drag something over from the “ancient and worn out” into the “fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, and superior.”  The NT isn’t “Part 2” of God’s OT “Part 1” plan of God – it’s a radical diversion from it!  We must thoroughly understand this!  Otherwise, “borrowing” from the OT is exactly the foundational problem of The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church.

 

So many Christians are trying to mix the old covenant’s “Law of commandments for righteousness” that earn, merit, or deserve God’s conditionally-loving favor by their own obedience to His explicitly-stated conditions of the New Covenant’s gospel logos message (a) of unearned, unmerited, and undeserved unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace that is received solely by trusting-relying-faith (b).  However, water and oil will never mix no matter how much you try to mix them together!  You can’t mix the bad news of “the Law of sin, judgment, and death” (c) with the “Great News of the gospel” – they are polar opposites!  One is the problem and the other is the solution!  As we will see, Jesus said trying to “put the NEW wine into old wineskins” or “trying to sew new cloth onto an old garment” only ruins both – see New Covenant Ways – BT7.  <Notes> a) means ‘Great News,’ b) pistis: relational conviction of trusting reliance, c) Romans 2:12, 27; 8:2

 

And the context of “NEW wine in old wineskins” in Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22, and Luke 5:33-38 was about the OT practice of “fasting,” which Jesus and His disciples no longer practiced. Sure Jesus said, they would indeed fast, but the context of that is the short period of “mourning” after His death, for fasting was a common practice during mourning. Believe me, when Christ ascended, they was no longer any need for fasting!  Then why do many churches and Christians still fast?  To follow OT rules of holiness?  To follow rabbinical teaching of holiness?  To mourn Christ’s death again?  Shouldn’t we be more like the disciples who were eating and drinking with Jesus?

 

If you examine ancient manuscripts closely (a), you will see many verses about “proseuche conversational-prayer” in the oldest, most reliable manuscripts that have nothing to do with “fasting,” but then we see the word “fasting” added into later manuscripts after the Catholic Church started pulling in more and more OT rituals to justify their corruption of Christianity. Many Catholic theologians readily embraced Greek philosophies that espoused fasting as a religious discipline (b). There is no mention of early Church fasting except in the very earliest Jewish stages, which is a carry over from Levitical ordination (c). <Notes> a) that’s what textual criticism does, b) Colossians 2:18, 23, c) Acts 13:2-3, 14:23.

 

Reflection: 

 

 

Why are Christians violating the very differences between covenants by trying to mix them?  Don’t they know that both covenants will be ruined by this?  Why are we having anything to do with what is “worn-out and obsolete,” when we have what is “superior?”

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, keep us from ever watering down the pure, perfect, holy, righteous GREAT NEWS of the gospel with anything that came before it!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, New Covenant is completely different in kind so absolutely nothing like the Old Covenant, The New Covenant shares nothing with the Old Covenant, The New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant, Mixing the covenants is false teaching legalism quenching the Spirit, Mixing covenants ruins both, New wine in old wineskins ruins both, Grace and Law can’t mix because they are opposites, Law is the problem but Grace the solution, fasting was added to praying by Catholics, fasting is part of the Law and Jewish traditions, fasting is part of the old wineskins, New Wine is the Spirit and blood of Jesus

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT2a:  We all need to know how completely-different-in-kind the New Covenant is

 

 

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By definition and context of every passage that speaks about it, the New Covenant absolutely does not share anything with the old covenant.  In Jeremiah 31:31-33 God even says “Indeed, a time is coming . . . I shall indeed make a completely-different-in-kind New (a) Covenant . . . absolutely not in fact (b) kata down-from/according-to the covenant that I had made with their fathers . . . My covenant that they broke, . . . for this is The Covenant I will make . . .”  Kata means that the “NEW” is absolutely not in fact (b) derived from the previous (old) covenant!  <Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) ou:  an absolute negative – not in fact.

 

In set theory, the 2 circles/spheres can’t even touch!  And the very first thing that God says to show us how the 2 covenant “circles/spheres” are completely-different-in-kind is in Jeremiah 31:32 – “the (old) covenant they have broken, the covenant that I made with their forefathers” was already introduced in Jeremiah 11:10, “the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My logos messages but went after other gods to serve them . . . they have broken My covenant that I made with their fathers.”  We will next explore why “their breaking of the old covenant” is completely-different-in-kind than the nature of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  But for now, understand that as a Christian and Christian musician we shouldn’t ever try to mix elements of one covenant with that of the other.  No matter what direction you go, you will end up ruining both of the covenants – see New Covenant Ways – BT7!  And this is exactly what has been going on for a long while to create The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church!

 

God had told the Prophet Jeremiah 600 years before Christ in Jeremiah 32:38-40: “And they shall be My people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and One Way, that they may be in reverential awe of Me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make with them an Everlasting Covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.  And I will put the reverential awe of Me in their hearts, that they will definitively/wholly not turn (NET: ever again) from Me.”

 

However, God expounded on this much more in Jeremiah 31:31-34: “I will make a New (a) Covenant . . . ou absolutely not in fact kata down-from/according-to the [old] covenant that I had made . . . My covenant that they broke . . . For this is the [New] Covenant that I will make . . .

 

1.  ‘I will put My torah/nomos (b) within them, and/coupled I will write it on their hearts, and/coupled

 

2.  I will be their God and/coupled they shall be My people, and/coupled

 

 3. Absolutely in fact and in possibility (c) no longer shall each one teach his neighbor (d) and/coupled each one his brethren (e), saying, ‘experientially, relationally yada/ginosko know Yahweh,’ for/since they shall ALL (f) experientially, relationally yada or eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know Me – from the least of them to the greatest’ – declares Yahweh,

 

4.  For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

 

<Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) instructions, ways, principles, commandments, c) ou me:  a rare double negative used for special emphasis – absolutely not by any means whatsoever, d) fellow Jews, Gentile proselytes, e) family members, f) pas: every of a particular portion, class, or category as defined by the context – in this case God’s saved people; rarely does pas mean the whole or entirety of.

 

Notice that in all 4 declarations of the New Covenant, there are NO CONDITIONS for man to meet in order to receive God’s blessing, favor, or unconditional-love – this is completely-different-in-kind from the 613 commandments of the old covenant in which each one required every person to ergo “work/do” to merit, earn, and deserve God’s conditionally-loving favor.  That’s why the unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace is completely unique to Jesus Christ (a) and His completely-different-in-kind New Covenant (b), because it is exactly opposite of 97.4% of the OT which is Law-based (c) – see Logos Word of God – BT5a. <Notes> a) John 1:17, b) Hebrews 10:29, c) Romans 6:14-15; Galatians 2:21, 5:4.

 

Not only is fallible man left out of the declarations of the New Covenant, but all the previous dissemination of the knowledge of God and His Will!  Man is completely left out of the success of the entire contract – that’s what the meaning of covenant is: a mutual contract for a binding relationship!  But usually there are terms stipulated for both parties.  That’s why this one stands out – there are no terms written for God’s people to fulfill.  God takes complete control to insure complete success, because the last covenant relied on men and “they had broken it” because of the “weakness of the flesh” (a) <Notes> a) Romans 8:3.

 

The writer of Hebrews (a) in Hebrews 8:6-12, 10:15-17 uses this prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34 to justify Christ’s “better ministry” based on a “better Covenant” that has “better promises,” for “if the first covenant had been not memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable, there would have been no occasion to look for a second, for He does find memphomai fault-blame-rejectable-condemnable with them (the Israelites) . . .” So God has given us “the completely-different-in-kind New (b) Covenant in His blood” (c), “the blood of the Everlasting Covenant” from the “Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep” (d), “a completely-different-in-kind New (b) Covenant absolutely in fact not by the means of the gramma writing (e) but by the means of the Spirit, for the gramma writing (e) kills but the Spirit gives zoe genuine-life” (f).

 

<Notes> a) likely Barnabas, though some believe Paul but the Greek is too polished, b) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, c) Luke 22:20, d) Hebrews 13:20, e) singular with the article, either of the entire OT scripture or 97.4% of that is Law-based – see Logos Word of God – BT4, f) 2 Corinthians 3:6.

 

Ezekiel 37:26-27 speaks of this “Everlasting Covenant of peace I will make with them . . . I will be their God, and they shall be My people,” which he introduced earlier in Ezekiel 11:19-20, “And I will give them One heart (a), and a completely-different-in-kind New (b) Spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart (a) of stone from their flesh (a) and give them a heart of flesh (a), that/to (c) they will ongoingly walk in My orders/commands and [will ongoingly] safe-to-guard-watch (d) My rules (e) and [will ongoingly] do/accomplish them.  And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.”  Here there is a radical shift in obedience, from self-determined under the old covenant to Spirit-determined under the NEW.

 

<Notes> a) see Identity concerning the Hebrew use of inner-being, heart, and mind synonymously in contrast to flesh or body, b) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior – see also New Covenant Ways – BT2 for God’s many NEW things He creates, c) conjunction that introduces the ‘how’ or ‘result’ of the previous action, d) phulasso, close to tereo: maintain to guard/watch/keep, e) just/equitable ordinances.

 

This is even clearer in Ezekiel 36:25-28, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean (a) from all your uncleannesses, . . . And I will give you a completely-different-in-kind New (b) heart, and a completely-different-in-kind New (b) Spirit I will put within you. And/coupled I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and/thus will actually cause/make you to ongoingly walk/live My orders/commands and/coupled be ongoingly safe-to-guard-watch (c) My judgments/decrees. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” God’s indwelling Spirit is now the enabling-power of obedience!

 

<Notes> a) purified – see Holy Spaces, b) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior – see also New Covenant Ways – BT2 for God’s many NEW things He creates, c) phulasso, close to tereo: maintain to guard/watch/keep.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, shouldn’t we know that God’s torah, nomos “instructions, ways, principles, commandments” are absolutely no longer written on tablets or paper!  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:3 that NOW Christians are “epistle personal-writings of Christ, written absolutely in fact not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, absolutely not in fact on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts” – see Logos Word of God – BT20.  We shouldn’t be reading, studying, and memorizing OT scripture or even NT writings in order to motivate ourselves to work for God, because God promises to work from within us by His Spirit speaking directly to us His will!  How did so many Christians get so enamored with bible writings?  This was a historical development of a Catholic Church that fell away from the Holy Spirit and entrenched themselves into apologetics and dogma.  Much has been written about this slide into the “snare, trap, and retribution” of the scribes and Pharisees – see New Covenant Ways – BT17.  This “borrowing” from OT methodology to know God is part of The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You so much that You are NOW our “One Teacher” by Your Holy Spirit and we know that no error will come from You.  Thank You for freeing us from just about every error possible in the copying of manuscripts and their interpretation by fallible men who teach them.  Thank You for freeing us entirely from biblical writings and teaching us directly.  Thank You for taking control of every aspect of the New Covenant.  We put all our trusting-relying-faith in You, the blood of Your Son, and His Holy Spirit for Your kingdom to come and will to be done in our lives as it already is in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Music Education, Music Teaching, Drum Education, Drum Teaching, The New Covenant is completely different in kind than the Old Covenant, The New Covenant doesn’t share anything with the Old Covenant, The New Covenant is an eternal or everlasting covenant, The New Covenant has only 4 conditions and God does them all perfectly, The Old Covenant has 613 conditions for man who failed all them, God’s Law is not written on hearts no longer tablets or paper, There is no more teaching to know God or His will by writing, God does the teaching directly, Man no longer works for forgiveness because God gives it, God’s Spirit now cause God’s people to obey Him

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT11:  How does ‘NEW wine and old wineskins’ relate to Christian music?

 

 

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I, like many Christian musicians, came from a long career of “might and power” flesh performance, even within “religions of this world.”  I was secular music student from 1968 until 1980 when I became a Christian through the Church of Christ, and although they didn’t allow instrumental music, I did play for some parties they had!  Since then, I’ve played with 100s of musicians in at least 22 secular groups and 15 churches.  I honestly haven’t seen that much difference between most Christian and secular musicians – most are still performing for their own pleasure, money, ego, or desire to be “more right, pleasing, honoring” with God.

 

Many Christians are very proud to be serving God by playing FOR God. Our rehearsals were often more fleshly with impatient, hot-tempers, worry, etc. than the other 22 secular groups.  This was a terrible testimony to church music!  This is ALL “by the flesh” that can not lead –> to “by the Spirit” music.  It’s really no different than living under the old covenant – performance FOR God to be pleasing to Him.  It’s all still “might and power,” no matter the motive (Zechariah 4:6).

 

But then a few of us were later blessed to be “enlightened and tasted the heavenly grace-gift [of the Spirit], and/coupled have shared in/by/with the Spirit, and/even have tasted the greatness of the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God and/coupled the enabling-powers [of the Spirit] of the age to come” (a).  The result was supernatural anointed, prophetic, spontaneous music WITH God.  The real danger is if we then “fall away” from this and go back to our own “might and power,” how then can they “be restored again to repentance, since they would be again crucifying the Son of God, which would be to their own harm, setting themselves up to contempt?” (b).  <Notes> a) Hebrews 6:4, b) Hebrews 6:5-6.

 

As for myself, after I started playing by the Spirit in 1985 but especially since 2010, I’ve only been hungry for more!  I’ve played in so many secular bands, some that I just had to quit because they were so worldly, and some churches I also had to quit because they were just as worldly!  And some secular groups are fairly neutral, and although as a hired musician they have been important for income, I would drop them in one second for an opportunity to play by the Spirit.  However, I haven’t found too many churches or other Christian musicians that really want to go down that road!  I’m really hoping that this BLOG ministry will foster more opportunities!

 

However, interesting things have happened during my secular gigs since “I tasted the greatness of the directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words of God” to me, where God said: “You are an anointed musician who knows what it means to be filled by My Spirit, who knows what it is to play by My Spirit, and one day you will play in My courtyards with many others that I have chosen.”  As I’m playing these secular gigs, I’m aware of this new identity, feel a inner joy, find myself smiling more, feeling more confident and less fearful, and often watching myself play so much more intuitively without as much analysis, yet playing so much better, and getting complemented every time.  I just say to them that I’m really having fun and feeling very grateful.  I’m still trying to process this big difference!  See Mike’s Story and Mike’s Drum Declarations.  Ironically, no church around me has taken up my offer on the bottom of the Meet-Ups page.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, I ask that your turn more of Your Christians musicians on to what I means to play their instrument under a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, where they can now totally surrender their flesh’s “might and power” skill and simply allow You to play through them by the enabling-power of the Holy Spirit.  Now instead of playing FOR You we can play WITH You.  What a grand difference!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Christian musicians playing in the flesh by might and power, Zechariah 4:6, Playing FOR God to please God and merit His favor is Law flesh, NO Flesh music can lead you into Spirit music, Surrender of flesh dependence required to play Spirit music, God has been leading me step by step out of flesh playing

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT10:  How can “New wine” of Christ’s blood be put into the “old wineskins?”

 

 

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The “NEW wine” of Christ’s blood purification and righteousness will cause the “old wineskins” of OT commandments for blood purification and righteousness to burst to “actually, apollumi absolutely, permanently destroy them.”  But how?  Jesus told Jews who thought catastrophes came upon some people because God was judging them for being sinners, that “unless you repent/turn, you will all likewise be actually, apollumi absolutely, permanently destroyed.”  Unless they turned to Jesus, they all were going to be judged as sinners!  Their OT rules were absolutely NOT going to save them, but only His atoning blood!  Jesus warned the Jews concerning the Christians:  “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit.  And the one who falls on this stone (a) will be broken/shattered to pieces, but upon whomever it falls, it shall actually crush him into powder” (b). <Notes> a) lithos: the stone the builder rejected that became the cornerstone of the entire building – Matthew 21:42, b) Matthew 21:43-44 citing Isaiah 8:15.

 

Sure, total surrender through repentance and publicly confessing your sins and coming to Jesus for water-baptism to make Him “Lord” (owner and master) is a painful process, often with many tears of sorrow.  I bawled like a baby when I became aware of the holiness of God, the wickedness of my sin, and my desperate need for a Savior!  But the alternative is to face eternal judgment and be crushed into utter dust!

 

The OT Law of commandments being held in trusting-relying-faith by a Jew or fallen-away Jewish-Christian will absolutely crushed them into dust, despite their beliefs. Remember that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (a), and under the Law almost everything is purified with blood.  Trying to simply add the New wine’s “purifying blood of Christ” into the “old wineskins” of “the Law of commandments for righteousness” utterly destroys the effectiveness of the Law in keeping a Jew right with God under the Law, because according to the Law, there are only 613 ways to be righteous, and Christ is not one of them.  So they have broken the Law and are doomed.  These people are between covenants (no man’s land) and just as damned as the Gentile world!  Remember that “whoever does not have trusting-relying-faith in the Son is condemned already” (b).  <Notes> a) Hebrews 9:22, b) John 3:18.

 

The Jewish-Christian that has the “New wine” blood of Christ, but tries to put this into the “old wineskins” of the Mosaic Law, actually profanes (treating as common) the blood of Christ and they have falling away from New Covenant unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace because they’ve gone back to putting their trusting-relying-faith in the old covenant.  They are also between covenants!  There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (a).  They once knew “The Truth” of Jesus as the ONLY “Way” to the Father (b), and then rejected The Truth!  How can they be saved?  The old covenant was only to prepare Jews for the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant, but if they have had it and then rejected it, how can they then be saved?  There is no hope for them!  However, those who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law (c).  It’s much better to have sinned without the Law then to have been under the Law, left it for Christ, but then rejected Christ and went back to the Law.  Nothing can save them now because the Law was only to prepare them for the Christ (Anointed One, Messiah, Savior) that they then rejected!  On judgment day, they will be crushed to dust!  <Notes> a) Hebrews 10:26, b) John 14:6, c) Romans 2:12.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, we simply can’t straddle the fence between 2 opposite covenants – one merited and one unmerited favor.  The New Covenant of Christ’s blood righteousness doesn’t fit into 613 OT commandments for righteousness.  To do one covenant breaks the other.  The old covenant will crush you to death as a Jew just as much as a Gentiles will be condemned on Judgment Day, because the whole purpose of the old was for the NEW.  To reject the NEW gives you NO hope!

 

Prayer:

 

Lord, we totally surrender all hope for righteousness outside the blood of Christ and the enabling-power of His Spirit of holiness.  We dare not put the “New wine” of Christ’s blood into any part of the “old wineskins” of the OT Law of commandments for righteousness.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, The New wine blood of Christ will break those who fall on this Rock, Coming to Jesus is humbling, The Old Testament wineskins of Law can’t hold the Grace of Jesus because they are opposites, You can’t add Grace to Law or Law to Grace because both ruined since opposites, The Law profanes the blood of Christ, The Law demands works but Grace requires faith

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT8:  What are the “wineskins” of the NEW and Old Covenants that can be ruined?

 

 

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Just as the “old wineskins” are OT commandments that ‘prescribe the blood atonement’ and how to be “righteous with God,” the “new wineskins” of the NT are are completely-different-in-kind NEW commandments of a completely different-in-kind NEW covenant, that prescribe the ‘blood atonement of Christ’ and how to NOW be “righteous with God.”  Each covenant has its own “unique” set of commandments regarding both atonement and righteousness – that’s the very definition of chadash and kainos for “NEW” (a).  The NEW Covenant has only 2 entole commandments that have replaced ALL 613 of the old covenant commandments:  “to definitively/wholly have trusting-relying-faith in the name/authority of His Son Jesus Christ and/coupled to ongoingly unconditionally-love one another just as He (Christ) has given us [singular] entole commandment” (b).  Notice the coupling of “trusting-relying-faith and/coupled unconditional-love” that you see throughout the NT (c). <Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) 1 John 3:23, c) 1 Thessalonians 3:6, 5:8; 1 Timothy 1:14, 2:15, 6:11; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:22; Revelation 2:19.

 

There is only one “work-doing of-from God in order to be saved” and that is “to have trusting-relying-faith in Him whom God has sent” (a) – see Logos Word of God – BT15, which is why you must “obey the gospel logos message” (b) as expressed so well in John 3:16-18, “God so unconditionally-loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever is routinely having trusting-relying-faith in Him should not perish but have zoe genuine-life everlasting . . . Whoever is routinely having trusting-relying-faith  in Him is not condemned, but whoever is in possibility not routinely having trusting-relying-faith is condemned already, because he has already [with ongoing effects] in possibility not had trusting-relying-faith in the name/authority of the only Son of God.”  Jesus declared: “I eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know that His (the Father’s) commandment is eternal zoe genuine-life and this is what I speak” (c).  <Notes> a) John 6:29, b) Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17, c) John 12:50.

 

In order for a Jew to become a Christian, they MUST no longer put their trusting-relying-faith in OT commandments about blood purification and righteousness for God’s earned, merited, deserved, conditional-loving-favor contained in the Law but totally-surrender by putting their trusting-relying-faith instead in the unearned, unmerited, undeserved, unconditional-loving-favor-of-Grace of God that would sacrifice His only Son for our atoning blood purification and righteousness. Certainly, “Christ unconditionally-loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering (a) and sacrifice to God” (b). <Notes> a) like the smell of burning blood on the sacrificial alter, b) Ephesians 5:2.

 

The only entole officially-decreed, universally-binding, commandment that Christ Himself added in 1 John 3:23 above that was completely-different-in-kind “New” than ALL other OT commandment, was “My completely-different-in-kind NEW commandment” is to “ongoingly unconditionally-love one another (mutually or reciprocally) – just as I have unconditionally-loved you, you also are to ongoingly unconditionally-love one another” (a) – see Logos Word of God – BT16.  This is called “the Law of Christ” (b), which means the first half of 1 John 3:23 can now be viewed as “the Law of the Father,” which Jesus faithfully preached.  <Notes> a) John 13:34; 15:12; 1 John 3:23, b) 1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2.

 

Reflection:

 

 

Clearly the completely-different-in-kind “New wineskins” are the logos message of Christ, “the cup” that is Christ Himself, and the preached gospel logos message about Himself and His New Covenant, which all about “definitively/wholly having trusting-relying-faith in Him, that is, trusting-relying-faith in the Father and Son’s logos message of unconditional-love for us.  In order to be saved you must totally surrender through repentance by publicly confessing “Jesus is Lord” (owner and master) and be water-baptized to die with Christ, transfer your sin to Him, and be raised with Him by the enabling-power of the Holy Spirit for Christ to transfer His righteousness to you in order to be born again (or born from above) by the atoning, propitiating blood of Jesus – see Salvation.  The only other complete-different-in-kind “New” entole commandment part of this completely-different-in-kind New Covenant is directed to the saved:  “ongoingly unconditionally-love one another (reciprocal or mutual) – just as I have unconditionally-loved you, you also are to ongoingly unconditionally-love one another (reciprocal or mutual).”  The are the “New things” of God.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, thank You so much that the completely-different-in-kind “New wineskins” that contain Your “New Wine” blood of the atonement and our righteousness NOW under a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant are simply that are so often coupled throughout the NT – “trusting-relying-faith” in You “and/coupled unconditionally-loving one another” as You did us.  Thank You for keeping the New Covenant simple for us little children and other “least among you” for which the kingdom belongs – only 2 commandments NOW to keep careful guard over.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, old wineskins are 613 Old Testament commandments and many rituals for righteousness, new wineskins are only 2 New Testament commandments of faith and love, Faith in the Son is the only commandment from the Father to get saved, Love one another as I have loved you is the only commanding by Christ to the saved

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT7:  New Wine can’t be put into old wineskins or both are ruined

 

 

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Even the context of the “New things” (a) of God passages in New Covenant Ways – BT2 indicate how “completely-different-in-kind” they are from the palaios “old in time, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless,” because God really wants to make sure that we do NOT even try to mix them!  Oil can’t mix with water no matter how much you try!  And if we keep insisting on putting “New wine into old wineskins, the wine will burst the skins – and the wine will actually, ongoingly be spilled out [onto the ground] and/coupled the wineskins shall actually, absolutely, apollumi be-permanently destroyed.  But New (a) wine is for New (a) [plural] wineskins” (b). From Luke 1:15, John 19:30, and Ephesians 5:18 we can see the association of “wine” with the Holy Spirit.  We also see “wine” referred to as the “blood of grapes” (c), and human blood associated to the imagery of “wine” (d). <Notes> a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, b) Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-38, c) Genesis 49:11; Deuteronomy 32:14, d) Isaiah 49:26; Revelation 14:20.

 

All this imagery prepares us for the 4 Passover cups of wine that Jews are commanded in the Mishnah oral Law to drink to express the 4 deliverances promised by God in Exodus 6:6-7.  But these were all “shadows and copies” (a) to prepare the Jews for what Jesus would say on the last Passover before His death:  “This cup that is poured out for you [is] the completely-different-in-kind New (b) Covenant in/by-the-means-of/with the blood of/belonging-to Me” (c).  <Notes> a) Hebrews 8:5, 10:1; Colossians 2:17, b) a) chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior, c) Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25.

 

Thus it is clear that when Jesus referred to the “New wine” He was referring to “My blood of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.”  Now in the context of the “wineskin” passages above (a), the “New wine” is certainly superior to the “old wine” that is meant only for “old wineskins” – remember that palaios means “old in time, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless.”  Hebrews 12:24 refers to “Jesus, the mediator of a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant and/coupled ‘the sprinkled blood’ that speaks superior things (b) than the blood of Abel” (c).  <Notes> a) Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37-38, b) kreitton:  better, more useful, serviceable, or helpful, c) “life for a life” justice of the Law.

 

The “sprinkled blood” of the New Covenant is superior to what Moses did over the people as they came under the old covenant Law (a) and the Law’s sacrificial “shedding of blood that is required for forgiveness of sins” (b), exactly because “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (c).  No, the New Covenant’s “sprinkled blood” is superior to the Law’s blood, for it is the “obedience of Jesus Christ . . . sprinkling with His blood” (d) under the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant that takes away the sins of the world, and not just for Jews (e).  We have to remember concerning the OT: “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance/reality belongs to Christ” (f).  <Notes> a) Exodus 24:8; Hebrews 9:19, b) Hebrews 9:22, c) Hebrews 10:4, d) 1 Peter 1:2, e) Matthew 26:28; Romans 3:25, 5:9; Hebrews 10:19; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 1:5, f) Colossians 2:17.

 

OT sacrificial “blood” atonement symbolized by “old wine” is inferior to the New Covenant’s sacrificial blood atonement or “New wine” of Jesus.  The “old wine” was the sacrificial blood atonement that cries out for justice based on the Mosaic Law of God.  The “old wineskins” that symbolically held or contained this “old wine” of “sacrificial blood rituals for atonement of sin to satisfy the Law’s justice of God” are clearly the old covenant Law of commandments contained in the gramma writings collected into graphe scripture.  The “old wineskins” of gramma writings of 613 commandments that dictate how to satisfy God’s justice for the “old wine” of “sacrificial blood rituals for atonement of sin” are absolutely inferior to the completely-different-in-kind “New wineskins” that contain the completely-different-in-kind “New wine” of Christ’s universal and perfect “sacrificial blood for atonement of sin.”

 

One ritual replaced ALL rituals!  Well, we know the “New wine” is Christ’s perfect atoning blood, but what are the “New [plural] wineskins” that contain the “New wine” that Jesus was referring to?  “The cup” that holds physical wine was symbolic of Christ’s body that was holding His blood of the New Covenant!  What are the [plural] things (commandments) that make up “the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant in My blood?”

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, we need to be careful to not try and put the completely-different-in-kind New Wine of Christ’s atoning blood into the “old in time, antiquated, worn-out, weak, worthless, shadows and copies” of the OT with its 613 commandments and many rituals.  If we try to mix the 2, both will be ruined.  This “borrowing” from the old and mixing with the New is exactly what builds The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, help us to never mix the superiority of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant in Your blood with anything that came before it.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, New wine of Christ’s holy blood bursts the Old wineskins of the Old Covenant holiness, Blood of Abel and Old Testament cries out for justice, Blood of Christ cries out of Mercy, Christ’s blood atonement replaced all Old Testament holiness, New Wine of the New Spirit for holiness ruins the Old Testament wineskins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT6:  “Working” the Old Covenant’s “Law of Sin & Death” is “Flesh” too

 

 

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

 

For a detailed discussion about the flesh and how it relates to the other parts of man and the indwelling Holy Spirit, see the Identity page.

 

The “working” of the Old Covenant’s “Law of Sin and Death” is just as much flesh as any of man’s natural abilities and actions are, exactly because the Law depends entirely on the flesh’s obedience. The sarx flesh is simply “the natural man’s bodily substance plus his external and internal abilities and actions, including his human appetites and ambitions,” which we see in the bible not only refers to man’s innate or learned mental and physical abilities and external resources or by-products that are often sinful, but often also refers to man’s religious study and works to be righteous, approved, or pleasing to God, including the study and working of the OT’s Law of commandments. The context always tells you what is mind!

 

So many times, Christians think a verse is talking about their sinful passionate flesh, when it’s actually talking about their religious efforts to please God – but both are still man’s flesh!  The problem with human flesh, even if intended for good, is that: “the flesh presently/ongoing is-defined-as asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent” (a). And remember, “Whatever already having been [with ongoing effects] generated out-from the flesh presently/ongoingly is-defined/exists-as flesh and/coupled whatever already having been [with ongoing effects] generated out-from the Spirit presently/ongoingly is-defined/exists-as Spirit” (b).  And Christ’s opinion of the flesh isn’t good:  “the flesh presently/ongoingly opheleo oudeis absolutely in fact is-useless or profits nothing – [only] My directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words are Spirit and zoe genuine-life” (c). In context, Jesus is pitting His directly-spoken/heard Spirit-words against the written words of scripture and its prescribed works that the Jews prided themselves in studying and trying to do/work – His words are living and powerfully-enabling, but the gramma writings of graphe scripture aren’t. <Notes> a) Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38, b) John 3:6, c) John 6:63.

 

The Lord showed me in proseuche conversational-prayer once that “directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words, Spirit, zoe genuine-life, and flesh” were not random words Jesus threw together as so many bible translations leave you believing. They are all integrally related!  Adam was just of lump of clay as “the flesh” and it only became “living” when God’s “pneuma breath or Spirit of zoe genuine-life” was blown into him (a). All of man’s religious efforts (the “might and power” of Zechariah 4:6) even if they are based in OT scripture as the work-mentality of the old covenant or Law, are still just a “asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent and anopheles unprofitable-useless” ball of clay called “flesh.” Only Christ’s directly-spoken/heard prophetic rhema words, which are out-from the Spirit, can give zoe genuine-life, power, and beneficial-usefulness (b), and in Christ alone are all things are held together (c), being all the dwelling-fullness of God (d). <Notes> a) Genesis 2:7; Job 33:4; Acts 17:25; Nehemiah 9:6; 1 Timothy 6:13; 1 Corinthians 8:6, b) John 1:3-4, 10; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2, c) Colossians 1:17, d) Colossians 1:19.

 

In fact, Paul says Christians are the ones “born kata down-from/according-to the Spirit” who are being persecuted by Jews “born kata down-from/according-to the flesh” (a), especially since Christians (not Jews) “are actually the circumcision, who routinely ritually-worship-serve God by the means of the Spirit of God and/coupled glory (b) in Christ Jesus and/coupled/thus have already put [with ongoing results] absolutely in fact no confidence (c) in the flesh” (d).  In the context (e), Paul is speaking of Jews by human birth who boast in circumcision, ritual-worship-serving the one true God, and placing their trusting-relying-faith in the graphe scriptures (f).  Paul is pitting these Jews against Christians who are Spirit-born and boasted in Christ instead of the Law or the graphe scriptures. <Notes> a) Galatians 4:29, b) joyfully boast, exult, take pride in, c) persuasion, trust, assurance, d) Philippians 3:3, e) vv. 3-8, f) John 5:39 – so much so they diligently studied and taught the scriptures, and wrote many commentaries on it as the Oral Torah, within many schools of interpretation.

 

Even Paul himself, an expert teacher of the graphe scriptures under the famed Gamaliel, “counted all of this as a loss (a) compared to the surpassing worth of experientially, relationally ginosko knowing Christ.”  We also know that Paul considered the “flesh” to include “works of the Law” in Galatians 3:3 saying: “Are you so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you ongoingly being made perfect (b) by the flesh?” In other words, “Unless one is born of water (c) and/coupled the Spirit (d), he cannot enter the kingdom of God. “Whatever already having been [with ongoing effects] generated out-from the flesh presently/ongoingly is-defined/exists-as flesh and/coupled whatever already having been [with ongoing effects] generated out-from the Spirit presently/ongoingly is-defined/exists-as Spirit” (e).  How can you mix the two and how can you start with the Spirit and finish with the flesh?  It is simply impossible, but that doesn’t stop religion from trying! <Notes> a) a gross liability, like a pile of feces-laden garbage, b) epi + teleo: on/at/upon completion, fulfillment, finish, c) a common rabbinic teaching of water-baptism in Christ’s day, d) this is called Spirit-baptism, e) John 3:5-6.

 

The flesh as “all of man’s external and internal resources and abilities, including the Law” is the exact Hebrew meaning of “chayil/megas-dunamis great-might and koach/ischus power” in Zechariah 4:6’s prophecy when Yahweh declares, “absolutely in fact no longer by great-might nor power, but by My Spirit” in regards to the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  Remember that in New Covenant Ways – BT4 in Jeremiah 31:31-34, the 4 parts of the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant leave man completely out of the picture – God does them all!  For a detailed discussion of ministering FOR God, even in music, with “might and power” versus ministering WITH God “by My Spirit,” see Skill page.

 

When the writer of Hebrews 6:1 wants the Jewish-Christians to “go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance (b) from dead-lifeless-useless . . . works of the flesh” (a), the Hebrews writer is NOT talking about “our sinful passions . . . at work in our members to bear fruit for death” that Paul speaks of in Romans 7:5, that so many Christians erroneously read this into the text.  However, in context “works of the flesh” are what were contained in the “stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of the Messiah” found in about 300-450 OT prophecies (“oracles”) concerning Jesus, which Jews were taught in order to be converted to Christ – see Logos Word of God – BT6.  This continued for awhile, at least in some parts of the early Jewish-Church, because Justin Martyr’s First Apology (155-157 AD) stated that: “The Sunday meetings of the congregation consisted ONLY of readings from the Jewish OT prophets, the Memoirs of the Apostles, prayers, and a meal.” – see Logos Word of God – BT18.  See how simple church services were! <Notes> a) Galatians 5:19, b) turning away.

 

In the context of Hebrews 6:1, these “dead-lifeless-useless works” were the commandments of the Law, “the works of the Law” (a) or “Law of works” (b), that actually “arouses our sinful passions . . . to bear fruit for death” (c). The solution isn’t more Law, but is “the blood of Christ . . . without blemish (d) . . . to purify our conscience from [these] dead-lifeless-useless works [of the Law] to [now be able to actually] latreuo ritual-worship-serve the living God” (e).  Although the Jews prided themselves in this latreuo ritual-worship-service of worship at the temple, it’s actually Christians – wherever they are – that are accomplishing latreuo ritual-worship-service – see Worship – BT2.  <Notes> a) Romans 3:20, 28; Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 5, 10, b) Romans 3:27, c) Romans 7:5, d) a pure sacrificial Lamb, e) Hebrews 9:14.

 

Here’s a great case of misunderstanding what the “flesh” is:  Paul spends a lot of time talking so much about the OT Law in Romans (a), having so much to do with sin: “through the Law comes the intimate knowing of sin” (b), “the Law counts sin against us” (c), “the Law increases sin” (d), because “our sinful passions aroused by the Law” (e).  “The Law makes sin known” (f), and “Sin uses the Law to produce all kinds of sins” (g), so that “when the commandment comes, sin comes alive and I died” (h), because “sin uses the Law to deceive me and through the Law kills me” (i).  Thus “sin produces death in me through the good, Spirit-kind-of-Law to show sin as sinful beyond measure” (j), resulting in every Christian including Paul ultimately while on earth “fleshly, sold as a slave under sin” (k).  <Notes> a) 2:12-27, 3:19-21, 27-31, 4:13-16, 5:13, 20, 6:14-19, 7:1-9, 12-16, 21-25, b) Romans 3:20, c) v. 5:13, d) v. 5:20, e) v. 7:5, f) v. 7:7, g) v. 7:8, h) v. 7:9, i) v. 7:11, j) v. 7:13, k) v. 7:14.

 

So many Christians suddenly think that Paul is talking about something completely-different-in-kind than the OT Law of commandments when he then says in Romans 8:2, “the Law of/belonging-to the Spirit of zoe genuine-life has set you free [from slavery] in Christ Jesus from the Law (a) of/belonging-to sin and death!”  O yes, there appears to be a completely-different-in-kind (b) “Law of the Spirit” introduced here!  It is common through Paul’s writings to take words, like “Law,” that are very familiar to Jews of the old covenant, and radically re-apply them for the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant.  The OT “Law of righteousness” actually brings “sin and death,” but the NT “Law of the Spirit” actually gives righteousness and zoe genuine-life!  Here Paul isn’t really redefining the word Torah, Nomos “Law” because it essentially means “instruction, principles, way.”  <Notes> a) some bibles use lower case “law” because they believe there is a shift, b) This certainly would fit the New Covenant which by definition is chadash, kainos: fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior.

 

Compare this to Paul’s use of stoicheion as “rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals” he uses to talk about “the instruction of God” writings given to the Jews as if trained by God as little children.  The Mosaic Law of instruction ends up being a “Law of sin and death,” even though it promised “righteousness and zoe genuine-life,” but NOW there in a completely-different-in-kind New Law of instruction by the Holy Spirit that actually gives righteousness and zoe genuine-life.  Which do you want?

 

We see more of this redefining of “Law” earlier in Romans 7:21-25, “I find there to be a law (principle) that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand, for though I delight in the [Mosaic] Law of/belonging-to God in my inner being (a) I see in my members (c) a second (a) law (principle) waging war against the [Mosaic] Law of my mind (a) and making me captive to the law (principle) of/belonging-to sin that dwells in my members (c). . . . thus I (d) serve the [Mosaic] Law of/belonging-to God with my mind (a), but with my flesh (c) I serve the law (principle or Mosaic) of/belonging-to sin.”  <Notes> a) Paul as all Hebrews use the inner-being, heart, and mind interchangeable – see Identity, b) heteros: numerically different, not qualitatively different, c) Paul also uses the outer being or body often the same as flesh, though flesh also includes the unredeemed psyche or soul of man with its intellect, emotions, and will-power  – see  Identity, d) as a converted Jew, e) and many Gentiles for that matter, who have a “law” in their conscience.

 

Paul is simply splitting himself into two as a Jewish-Christian, using language Jewish readers were very familiar with, into 1) inner being/mind/heart, and 2) outer being/flesh/bodily members, expressing what every single Jewish-Christian (e) have felt in Romans 7:15-17, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate to do. . . . thus I agree with the [Mosaic] Law that it is good (and Spirit-kind-of v. 7:14). Therefore, now [I then conclude] it is no longer ‘I’ who do it, but ‘sin’ that dwells within me, for I know that nothing good dwells within ‘me,’ that is, in my flesh.”

 

Again, Paul isn’t talking about 2 completely-different-in-kind sets of principles or instruction, although I’ve capped one and not the other.  We know from the context above, the same [Mosaic] Law of God that is “good and spiritual” in the mind/inner-being/heart is actually wreaking havoc in the flesh/outer-being/body. That’s Pauls’ argument:  The Law of God has become “the Law of sin and death” in the flesh!  It was intended for one thing (holiness & life) but produced another (sin & death).  Why do Christians want anything to do with any of the 613 commandments of the Law?

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, since so much is negatively written about the use of our own “might and power” flesh even in trying to obey any of the 613 commandments FOR God, this only ends up in frustration saying, “O, wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from the body of death?”  Then why are even trying to obey any of them?  That’s the old covenant!  Christians were supposed to have died to ALL of them with Christ and be in a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant by the blood of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Obeying the Law is fleshly and thus: “asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent and anopheles unprofitable-useless” and thus are “dead-lifeless-useless works.”  Yet I hear so many Christians espouse the 10 commandments and the 2 greatest of “Loving God and Loving your neighbor as yourself” that sum up the Law and The Prophets – the entire scripture.  What?  Don’t they know that if they try to keep 1 they are obligated to keep all 613 and to break 1 is to break the entire Law?  Christ came to set us free from this yoke of slavery!  Why would they want to go back into that bondage?

 

It’s a “Law of sin and death” – that’s where any part of it will take you.  The demons use the Law to accuse the brethren day and night.  They use it to fuel sin.  Any focus on the Law increases sin!  Our focus is supposed to be on the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  We are supposed to rebuke the demons that use the Law, not read and study the very ammunition they use against us?  We are supposed to focus on being filled by the Holy Spirit so that we can see a NEW Law at work in us that will oppose the unredeemed flesh!  To starve the flesh, stay away from the Law and instead feed the Spirit.  Paul’s message is if you set your mind on the things of the Spirit, that’s what will grow.  Leave the Law behind – it was ended.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, praise Your name that you completely ended all 613 commandments of the Law and absolutely not 1 of them still applies for a Christian because we died to them all with You – all of them were nailed to the cross. We want no part of that “fleshly” obedience that the Law was.  Now our mindset can be on You as the Holy Spirit and have only 2 entole commandments to obey – enduring trusting-relying-faith in You to the end and unconditionally-loving others as You have (1 John 3:23).  Thank You for making it so much simpler for us, little children!  Now we can have a relationship WITH You and no longer just a religion FOR You.  Thank You for Your cleansing blood and Your empowering Holy Spirit.  This is now our focus!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Trying to do the Old Covenant Law FOR God is still flesh’s Zechariah 4:6 might & power, flesh is impotent, Only the Spirit in Christians is able to please and serve God, All Paul’s accomplishments as a Jewish teacher were worthless flesh, you can’t perfect the Spirit with flesh, flesh generates flesh, Spirit generates Spirit, Law’s commandment are dead works of the flesh, Paul redefines Old Testament terms for the New Testament, We are slaves to the Law of sin and death until the Law of the Spirit sets us free

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT5:  Our “flesh” is why the old covenant failed miserably and was ended

 

 

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

 

For a detailed discussion about the flesh and how it relates to the other parts of man and the indwelling Holy Spirit, see the Identity page.  In fact 97.4% of the OT is the Law – see Logos Word of God – BT5a – that certainly depends on the “might and power” (Zechariah 4:6) or “flesh” of man being obedient to the Law’s commandments.  It failed miserably, so God replaced it with a completely-different-in-kind New Covenant (Hebrews 8:7) that relies ONLY on “by My Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6), as we’ve seen in the previous BLOGs.

 

Paul explains in Romans 8:3 that the “Law failed to accomplish” because it was “continually weakened (astheneo:  made beggarly-poor, weak, feeble, impotent) dia thru-the-realizing-channel-of-the flesh.”  Hebrews 7:18-19 says: “a former commandment [against covetousness as an example of the whole Law] is athetesis abolished-cancelled-disannulled because of its asthenes beggarly-poor-weakness-feebleness-impotence and/coupled anopheles unprofitable-uselessness, for the Law made absolutely nothing in fact teleioo consummated-to-the-intended-aim . . . [and so] a kreitton more useful, serviceable, helpful, better hope is introduced.”

 

Paul explains in Romans 5:20 why the Law was introduced if God knew it was going to fail to reach its intended aim:  “Now the Law came in to increase/multiple the trespasses” – it wasn’t meant to stop sin but increase it!  Why are some Christians and musicians “borrowing” from any of the 613 failed commandments to improve their relationship with God?  It only increases failure!  But is it the Law’s fault?

 

The real problem has always been our “flesh.”  Jesus explained that concerning the things of God, “with man it is impossible” (a) because without “trusting-relying-faith it is impossible to please God” (b).  Works FOR God will never do, because Jesus said “the sarx flesh is asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent” (c) and concluded “the flesh is opheleo oudeis absolutely in fact useless or profits nothing” (e).  Paul also often talked about “the astheneia beggarly-poor-weak-feeble impotence of the flesh” (d), which is exactly the reason the “holy, righteous, good” Law of God utterly failed (f) and why “if the first covenant had been not memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (g).  The old covenant was rejected! <Notes> a) Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27, b) Hebrews 11:6, c) Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38, d) Romans 6:19, cf: 1 Corinthians 15:43; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Hebrews 4:15, 5:2, 7:28; Romans 8:26, e) John 6:63, f) Romans 8:3, g) Hebrews 8:7.

 

The “flesh” greatly limits our view, mindset, and judgment, and its sin leads us to death (a).  Our “flesh” is the problem, the very reason the Law was flawed and failed!  Nothing changes as a Christian when it comes to the flesh – you still have it, so ALL parts of the Law will still fail, because the flesh is not redeemed until our glorification at Christ’s coming, called “the blessed hope” (b).  <Notes> a) 2 Corinthians 5:16; John 8:15; Romans 7:5, 8:6, 13, b) Romans 8:23-25; Titus 2:13; 1 Peter 1:3.

 

The NT uses “flesh” just like Zechariah 4:6 uses “might and power” – see Identity for more details.The Greek word sarx simply means “of human origin or empowerment, thus carnal” because “what is born of the flesh is-defined-as/exists-as actually, ongoingly flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is defined-as/exists-as actually, ongoingly Spirit” (a).  In many cases, “flesh” is viewed neutrally as simply being human (b).  Sometimes, it is viewed positively as with marriage intercourse and communion (c).  Of course we’ve seen the NT emphasis that Jesus was physically “flesh” yet sinless (d), even that Christ’s “flesh” refers figuratively to the whole of Jesus as God’s bread of life (e).  So the “flesh” isn’t always viewed negatively!

 

<Notes> a) John 3:6; Galatians 4:29, b) Matthew 16:17, 24:22; Mark 13:20; Luke 3:6; John 17:2; Acts 2:17, 26; Galatians 1:16, 2:16, 20, 4:13-14, 23, 6:12-13; Ephesians 5:29, 6:5, 12; Philippians 1:22-24; Colossians 1:24, 2:1, 5, 23, 3:22; 1 Corinthians 1:26, 10:18, 15:39; 2 Corinthians 1:17, 11:18, 12:7; Romans 2:28, 3:20, 4:1, 9:3, 5, 8, 11:14; Hebrews 2:14, 9:10, 12:9; James 5:3; Philemon 1:16; 1 Peter 1:24, 3:21, 4:6; Jude 1:8; and Revelation 17:16, 19:18, 21, c) Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:8; John 1:13-14; Ephesians 5:31; 1 Corinthians 6:16, d) Luke 24:39; John 1:14; 1 John 4:2; 2 John 1:7; Acts 2:31; Ephesians 2:15; Romans 1:3, 8:3; 1 Peter 3:18, 4:1; Colossians 1:22, 2:11-13, 18; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 5:7, 10:20, e) John 6:52-56, 63-35, 48, 51.

 

However, “flesh” is often viewed negatively as “any effort unaided by God’s Spirit, including that which comes from the body or bodily members of man,” and this exactly correlates to “man’s external resources” that Zechariah’s 4:6 “might” depicts in the Hebrew/Greek.  “Flesh” is also negatively defined as “any effort from the psyche soul of man as the mind (reasoning, intellect, etc.), emotions, and will of man” – see Identity.  And this exactly correlates to “man’s internal abilities” that Zechariah’s 4:6 “power” depicts in the Hebrew/Greek.

 

Thus Zechariah 4:6 “absolutely not in fact by might and power” refers to both the external and internal aspects of the “flesh,” which Jesus said even includes their “works of righteousness” outside the Spirit (a) – that is the definition of “religion FOR God” as opposed to actual relationship WITH God.  Paul said:  “All those who put their trusting-relying-faith in the works of the Law are under a curse” (b). Why are Christians messing around with ANY of the 613 commandments?  We can only be saved apart from works (c), for “by works of the Law absolutely in fact no human being will be justified/made right” (d).  Certainly the flesh can be cast into Hell (e) once God takes His breath of life (spirit) out of man.  <Notes> a) John 6:63, b) Galatians 3:10, c) Titus 3:5; Romans 4:6, d) Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16, e) Matthew 10:28.

 

Paul explains in Romans 8:5-10 that “what is born as flesh is separate from what is born as Spirit and so the phroneo/phronema mindsets-paradigms-worldviews of the two are completely-different-in-kind – there’s that set theory again of 2 circles that don’t touch, let alone intersect or overlap.  One “circle or sphere” has “flesh-kind-of things” in it and the other “Spirit-kind-of things” in it.  People either live kata “down-from/according-to the dictates/desires of” one circle of influence/dominion or the other.  The “flesh” circle is hostile to God because it cannot and does not submit to God’s torah, nomos instruction/law, and so cannot absolutely in fact please God.

 

Too many people assume Paul is talking about the Mosaic Law of God, but to the non-Christian Jew they are certainly “under the Mosaic Law” (a), and even the non-Christian Gentile has a “law in their conscience accusing/excusing them” (b).  But Christians are “not under the Law (Jewish or Gentile) but under unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace” (c) but “under the Law of Christ” (d), which nomos/torah instruction would then be the only entole commandment given to the saved, whether Jew or Gentile, which is to unconditionally-love one another as Christ did us – see Logos Word of God – BT16! <Notes> a) 1 Corinthians 9:20, b) Romans 2:15, c) Romans 6:14, d) 1 Corinthians 9:21.

 

The “Spirit” circle/sphere is where zoe genuine-life and peace are found. The indwelling Spirit of God puts a Christian into the “Spirit” circle, making you the property of Christ, making you righteous/justified with God because of Christ’s obedience, even if your flesh’s soul and body is still dead because of sin.  It is a dangerous thing for Christians and musicians to “borrow” things from the “flesh” circle to use in the “Spirit” circle/sphere, even if FOR God as religion often does.  This “borrowing” is what creates The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit, whether “borrowing” from the old covenant or the world.

 

What people are proud of or boast in is also completely-different-in-kind within the two circles/spheres.  Boasting or pride in the “flesh” is spoken of often (a), but “God opposes the proud” (b), for “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” (c).  I have heard a lot of Christians and musicians boast quite a bit of what they have done and their speech is laced with “I, me, and my.”  I counted “my church” 7 times from a pastor who went on a feverish, defensive rant.  I think all of us struggle with self-preoccupation.  We always find our own picture in an album the fastest.  <Notes> a) 2 Corinthians 11:18; Galatians 6:4, 13; Philippians 3:3-4; 1 John 2:16, b) James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; 2 Timothy 3:2, c) Luke 1:51.

 

I’ve heard musicians talk about “their quality gear and dedicated skill being used FOR the Lord,” as if it pleased Him.  I will never forget an anointing on my forehead by an Alaskan prophetess who had heard about a Holy Spirit class I had just found out about and a group of us attended.  She told me, “You have the mind of Christ.  You will say and do things that others will laugh at and say that it can’t be done.  Politely ignore them and continue, but watch the use of ‘I, me, and my’ because this will quench the Spirit and so stop His work.”

 

So we see many verses that speak very negatively of the “flesh” as part of the unredeemed world of the sinful, natural men, even religious men, who are essentially selfish, self-centered, self-serving, and ruled by their bodily or sensual passions at the expense of God and others, leading these worldly men towards destruction and eternal death per:  Matthew 5:29-30; Roman 6:6, 12, 7:5, 18, 25; 8:4, 7, 9-10, 12-13, 13:14; Galatians 5:13, 24; Ephesians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 5:5, 6:18; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Peter 2:11, 4:2; 2 Peter 2:10, 18; 1 John 2:16; and Jude 1:7, 18, 23.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, regarding worship music in completely-different-in-kind New Covenant churches, why are we involving any of man’s external resources or internal abilities that Zechariah’s 4:6 “might and power” speaks of, which is this worldly “flesh,” especially if it’s the very reason the old covenant failed miserably due to the “asthenes beggarly-poor-weakness-feebleness-impotence and anopheles unprofitable-uselessness” of the “flesh” that is absolutely unable to accomplish God’s will, if you are religious doing it FOR God?  How will any of our ergo “works/doings” help accomplish anything of God’s?  Jesus said in John 15:5, “Apart from Me you can do absolutely in fact nothing” – nothing in His kingdom!  Even connected to the Vine, do our human efforts of our flesh’s soul and body amount to anything?

 

Remember that absolutely nothing in the “flesh” circle/sphere belongs in the “Spirit” circle/sphere – oil and wine don’t mix, and you can’t put new wine in old wineskins or both are ruined.  Law and Grace are opposites:  the first earned, merited, and conditional, but the second is unearned, unmerited, and unconditional.  Absolutely nothing in the “flesh” circle/sphere can please God because it’s not in fellowship with Him by trusting-relying-faith, because that is ALL in the “Spirit” circle/sphere.

 

There is a mindset/paradigm/worldview and a pride associated with it for people in each circle/sphere, and they are completely-different-in-kind – one leads to death and the other to zoe genuine-life and peace.  All of man’s religions, including the Jewish religion, or based on our working/doing FOR God, and so ALL of this belongs in the “flesh” circle/sphere.  A lot of Christian religions are doing the same.  However, only working in/by/with God by the means of the Spirit is IN the “Spirit” circle/sphere – that’s what Zechariah 4:6 prophesied for the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant!  In which circle-sphere-mindset-paradigm-worldview is your “doing” of life and music being born out of, and to what end is its growth?  For more about the difference between the flesh’s body, soul, and spirit see the Identity page.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, we totally surrender our flesh’s mind, emotions, will, and bodily members to You.  We offer none our our works/doings to You but completely have trusting-relying-faith in the perfect and complete work of Christ to make us perfectly righteous, holy, and godly in Your sight.  Now we call for Your Holy Spirit “to fill us completely with all your abundant-fullness, to work in us both to desire and do Your good pleasure.”  Now there are only 2 commandments – continue to have trusting-relying-faith in Your Son and to unconditionally-love others just as You did.  Praise Your name that it’s been dumbed down for even the “least among you” so that there will be no partiality.  We choose to live in that realm of the Spirit, so every day we “offer our bodies as living sacrifices for You.”

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Our “flesh” is why the old covenant Law failed miserably and was ended, the Law of commandment relies on man’s flesh or might & power, The flesh is pitifully weak and powerless to achieve holiness, The New covenant relies solely on God’s Spirit to be everlasting, The Law wasn’t given to create holiness but to increase sin, The Law was given to lead God’s people to Grace by a Christ, Zechariah 4:6 might and power is man’s flesh external resources and internal abilities, Old Testament religion FOR God versus New Testament relationship WITH God, Flesh things include the Law have nothing to do with Spirit things, Christians The world is under the Law until they come to Christ, Me myself and I language of pride is the flesh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT4:  Old prophecies in the New Testament about the New Covenant

 

 

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Hebrews 8:11 cites Jeremiah 31:34 because it radically distinguishes the New (a) Covenant, which is most of the New Testament (NT), from the old covenant, which isn’t just the 5 books of Moses or Law but the basis of 97.4% of the Old Testament (OT) – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, for the definitions of the Hebrew chadash and Greek kainos mean “fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior.”  In Jeremiah 31:31-32 God drives this home: “I will make a New (a) Covenant . . . absolutely in fact not like the covenant that I had made . . . My [previous] covenant they (b) broke.”  <Notes> a) chadash, kainos, b) the Jews the Lord led out of Egypt.

 

One radical difference is that the “Law” (a) of God will no longer be commandments written on stone or paper for God’s people to learn from human teachers, read, study, debate, or memorize in order to experientially, relationally yada/ginosko know the Lord.  This time, according to Jeremiah 31:33-34, God says: “I will put My ‘Law’ within them – I will write it on their hearts, . . . and/coupled absolutely in fact and in possibility (b) no longer/again shall each person teach his neighbor (c) and/also each person [teach] his brethren (d) (e) to experientially, relationally yada/ginosko know the Lord,’ for My people shall all experientially, relationally yada know or eido mentally ‘see’ to perceive/know (f) Me – from the least of them to the greatest.” <Notes> a) Torah, Nomos basically means instruction, b) ou me:  the strongest absolute negative possible, like bolding, capping, and underlining – see Teaching, c) fellow Jews, d) family members, e) the two cover all people, so 1 John 2:27 says “you have need of absolutely in fact need of NO man teach you, f) eido is prophetic vision.

 

You can’t use any stronger language to say that the New Covenant Ways are completely-different-in-kind!  One is attempted knowledge of God and His will through reading and teaching, and the other is through actual knowledge of God and His will thru  prophetic vision!  One relies on flawed men all the way down a hierarchal chain and the other relies only on God.  One shows partiality to the “wise and understanding/learned ones” and the other shows no partiality, even saying that God reverses the order on who gets “the secrets of the kingdom un-hidden to them” – the little children (a).  It’s very upsetting to hear Christians and churches say the NT is a continuation of the OT, but just better.  That’s just crazy!  <Notes> a) Matthews 11:25, 13:11; Luke 8:10, 10:21.

 

Here’s another radical difference between the old and the NEW – the old was taught from the top-down through a hierarchy of authoritative teachers, from Moses all the way down to the children, slaves, and certainly the Gentiles.  Jesus destroys this hierarchy, bypassing ALL the middlemen – no more teachers!  In fact the NT explains that the kingdom of God comes to the so-called “the least or last” first, and the so-called “greatest or first” last (a) – see Least Among You. <Notes> a) Matthew 20:8, 16; Mark 9:35, 10:31; Luke 13:30.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, shouldn’t we know the radical difference between the New Covenant and old one, and not mix them when God warns us not to?  Why are we mixing a religion of indirect knowledge that relies on flawed men with a direct relational knowledge of God that is without a single flaw?  Why are we mixing a religion of works for earning God’s favor through our obedience to ANY of 613 commandments, even on the 2 greatest OT commandments of “Loving God and neighbor” that sum up the Law, with a relationship based on the unearned, unmerited, unconditional-loving-favor of grace?  The former puts our trusting-relying-faith in our own “might and power” per Zechariah 4:6 and the latter puts it in Jesus Christ “by My Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts.”  God’s instruction is either on paper in a bible or it’s in human hearts by His Spirit – it’s one covenant or the other!  It’s either gnosis head-knowledge that just “puffs you up” or eido prophetic knowledge.  Oil and water will never mix!

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, give us the courage to not just know the radical difference between covenants but then to never try to live with 1 foot in each, because You ended one to begin the other.  Forgive us for not having the trusting-relying-faith to leave a religion of works completely behind to totally surrender to Jesus Christ and the grace of is perfect, complete work – His act of obedience is enough for us!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Old Testament prophecies in the New Testament about the New Covenant, New Covenant radically different than Old Covenant, Can’t mix the two covenants, Hebrews 8:11, Jeremiah 31:31-34, no more biblical writings needed, no more hierarchy of bible teachers needed, God NOW prophetically reveals Himself and Will directly to the least before the greatest

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT3:  New Covenant Ways replaced and ended the old covenant ways

 

 

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Many Christians and musicians simply have not grasped the complete difference between the old covenant “way” of obedience FOR God that puts your trusting-relying-faith in your own “might and power” (man’s external resources and internal abilities) of Zechariah 4:6 and the completely-different-in-kind New Covenant “Living Way” that puts your trusting-relying-faith  in “by the means of My Spirit, says Yahweh of hosts.”  But even if they do understand, many haven’t fully surrendered control to it!

 

However, I’ve found in most cases that they simply haven’t read or fully understood the OT prophesies about the New Everlasting Covenant replacing and ending the old covenant Law that is 97.4% of scripture – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, because only 600 prophecies remain about Christ and His gospel logos message.  Some key prophecies are:  Jeremiah 31:31-34, 32:38-41, 33:8-9, 50:5-6, 20 or Isaiah 55:3-4, 61:8-11 or Ezekiel 11:19-20, 16:60-63, 34:1-31; 37:23-28 or recognized these OT references in the NT such as:  Hebrews 8:8-13, 9:15, 20; 10:16-17, 29, 12:24, 13:20; Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:3, 6 – see Logos Word of God – BT20; Romans 11:27.  Let’s talk about some of these!

 

All of these verses are vital to understand because as we’ve seen in the last BLOG the “NEW” is superior to the “old, worn-out, decayed, rag-like, withered, and lifeless,” especially since the NEW is:  “a kreitton more useful, serviceable, helpful, better Covenant” (a).  It is “a kreitton more useful, serviceable, helpful, better Covenant because it is enacted on more kreitton useful, serviceable, helpful, better promises” (b).  And “for if that first covenant had been not memphomai faulted-blameworthy-rejectable-condemnable, there would have been no occasion to look for a Second” (c).  Also, “in speaking of a New Covenant, He already has made [with ongoing results] the first one obsolete (e) and moreover is presently and routinely being made obsolete (e) and/coupled presently and routinely gerasko failing from age into obsolescence aphanismos ready/near to disappear/vanish.”  I question why so many Christians want anything to do with any of the old covenant, which is 97.4% of the OT.  Notes> a) Hebrews 7:22, b) Hebrews 8:6 , c) Hebrews 8:7, d) Hebrews 8:13, e) palaioo: not just old, dated, or ancient in time, but also worn out by use, or worse for wear, obsolete.

 

Paul said in Romans 10:4 “Christ is the end (a) of the Law for righteousness to everyone who has trusting-relying-faith.”  But “Law” is used synonymously for “old covenant,” but this doesn’t just mean the first 5 books of the OT but is the essence of ALL OT scripture, just as Jesus, other NT writers, and all Jews today view graphe OT scripture – as the Law or Torah, Nomos Instruction of God given through “commandments expressed in ordinances, regulations, and precepts” (b).  Christ fulfilled/completed the Law and the Prophets – the very reason He came (c), the very reason the earliest Jewish-Church records show that they discarded use of the OT entirely, except singing/playing psalms (d) and using prophetic verses to help convert Jews and keep Jewish-Christians from lapsing (e). <Notes> a) telos: terminating end point, conclusion, b) Ephesians 2:15; Romans 2:26; Hebrews 9:1, 10; Colossians 2:20, c) Matthew 5:17, d) see Logos Word of God – BT18, e) see Logos Word of God – BT6.

 

After the Jewish wars of 66-73 AD, the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and dispersion of surviving Jews, the Church became almost entirely Gentile and we see a complete drop off of OT use until 233-254 AD when Origen single-handedly convinced the Catholic Church to use it, to the great demise of the Church.  Legalism quickly set in after slipping on the slippery slope!  Few Protestant churches took the trouble to go back and reform the early errors of the Catholic Church.

 

Paul said in Galatians 3:24 that “the Law WAS our guardian UNTIL Christ came,” for “these things [of the Law] are a shadow of the things that were to come, but the substance/reality belongs to Christ” (a).  Hebrews 9:9-10 says that the OT “regulations for the body were imposed UNTIL the time of reformation.”  Paul says, “Why then the Law?  It was added because of sin, UNTIL The [singular] Offspring should come” – and that was Christ (b).  He says:  “Circumcision or uncircumcision (key sign of the Law) counts for absolutely in fact nothing” (c), because the Law has been nullified/abolished by Christ death fulfilling-completing it, and so the veil of darkness blocking the ‘seeing’ of God’s glory is removed (d)!  There’s so many more verses (e), but you get the point!  The “old” has been replaced by the completely-different-in-kind “NEW” because the former is “worn-out, withered, dead, and obsolete” and the latter is a “fresh, completely-different-in-kind, superior” creation.  <Notes> a) Colossians 2:17, b) Galatians 3:19, c) Galatians 5:6, d) katargeo:  Romans 7:6; Ephesians 2:15; 2 Corinthians 3:14, e) Logos Word of God – BT8.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, do we want to perpetuate ignorance of the radical change of covenants and try to drag anything from the “old, shadowy, worn-out, decayed, rag-like, withered, lifeless, obsolete, nullified, and ended” one into the “completely-different-in-kind and superior” NEW Covenant, like the Catholic Church did, helping create The Great Wall quenching the Holy Spirit in the Church?

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, give us the courage to understand the radical difference between the 2 covenants so that we will never try to mix them.  Forgive us for tainting the pure-white, perfect New Covenant that You shed Your blood for.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, New Covenant replaced and ended the Old Covenant, Christian ignorance keeps them imprisoned due to false doctrine, 97.4% of the Old Testament is Law-based, 2.6% of the Old Testament is New Covenant-based, New Testament realities are way better than Old Covenant shadows, Catholic Origen brought Old Testament use into the Church, The Old Testament Law was only a Jewish guardian of children until Christ came, The Old Testament was fulfilled and nullified by Christ’s life & death, The New Covenant is completely different in kind and superior to the Old Covenant

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT2:  God’s “New Things” are completely-different-in-kind and superior

 

 

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The New covenant, New king, New thing, New commandment, New teaching, New Spirit, New life, New man, New creation, New heart, New name, New heavens, New world, New earth, New Jerusalem, New tongues, and New song are completely-different-in- kind, because “NEW” (chadash, kainos) doesn’t mean “new or younger in time” (tsa’iyr, neos), but instead:  “fresh, completely-different-in-kind, unprecedented, sharing nothing with its predecessors, unique, and superior.”  God didn’t just compare a young, green banana in time with an old, brown banana in time, because in time the green banana would become brown and rot too.  When God created these “NEW things” above, He didn’t just do this in time scale, because as you can see that wouldn’t be good enough!  No, God stepped outside of time to create these completely-different-in-kind “NEW things” so they would remain “NEW” regardless of time, so He made them “completely-different-in-kind and superior to ALL that came before.”  Wow!

 

So what are the “old things” that contrast with God’s completely-different-in-kind “NEW things?”  There are many Hebrew and Greek words God uses, but unfortunately in English they are all translated simplistically as “old.”  See Bible-Info for “lost in translation” issues. The Hebrew word belo means “worn-out things, rag-like” which comes from balah meaning “old, worn-out, or decayed.”  The Hebrew word yasha’n means “old in time, dated or no longer used, withered, or flabby like a lifeless plant.”  The Hebrew word attiq means “antique, aged or ancient.”  In the OT, all these Hebrew words are translated into the same Greek word palaios from the verb palaioo for the Septuagint LXX translation for the Greek-speaking world.  It means:  “not just old, dated, or ancient in time, but also worn out by use, or worse for wear.”

 

Did you catch that?  God consistently compares His “completely-different-in-kind NEW creations with “old in time” stuff, because it’s just not old in time, but it is “worn-out like rags, withered, and lifeless.”  Can you see why God’s “NEW things” are superior?  God isn’t just making micro-evolutionary improvements but creating a “completely-different-in-kind and superior” thing!  And with every patented invention, absolutely nothing from the previous inventions can be “borrowed” and used in the “NEW” invention.  In mathematical set theory of 2 circles or sets that contain items/properties, nothing in 1 set can overlap with the other to share any common items/properties, and in fact, the 2 sets/circles don’t even touch!  Absolutely nothing in the “old” can be included in the “NEW!”  This is not just a definition of words but fact that is seen in the use of the words in every scripture!  Context defines words!

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, shouldn’t we be more interested in the completely-different-in-kind NEW things God wants to do, especially New Songs?  Why are we holding on to “old, worn-out, decayed, rag-like, withered, lifeless” things?

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, give us the courage to “let go of the old in order to receive the completely-different-in-kind and superior NEW.”  We say, “Yes, Lord, Yes!”

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Music Education, Music Teaching, Drum Education, Drum Teaching, Old covenant or Testament replaced by New covenant or Testament, New things of God are completely-different in kind not just time, Old things to God are not just old in time but worn-out ragged withered decayed out-of-use lifeless, God replaces old things with New different things

 

 

 

 

 

New Covenant Ways – BT1:  Absolutely nothing from the old was meant for the New

 

 

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Absolutely nothing from the old covenant was intended to be used in the New Covenant, because the bible says that the ‘old’ is finished and replaced by the ‘New,’ but it doesn’t stop people from twisting the OT scriptures or NT writings to try.  That’s what I found after studying everything I could find on the subject and writing many papers on the subject.  The Law or old covenant’s scripture isn’t just 613 commandments or the books of Moses, the first 5 of the bible, as the Jews technically classify them as.

 

All the NT speakers referred to every part of the OT as “Law,” just as most Jews do today, because all of OT graphe scripture is God’s instruction or Torah to the Jews.  Every reference that Jesus made to scripture was either to answer a trick question put forth by experts to trap Him, or to show the limitations and insufficiency of scripture and the “traditions of the Fathers” of the Oral Tradition built around it, or to show that He came to fulfill scripture – which He did completely by the time of His last breath!  He never taught His disciples scripture, certainly not the Law that makes up 97.4% of it – see Logos Word of God – BT5a, nor elaborated on its implications as all the other rabbis have ever done.

 

There was only about 450 OT prophecies of Jesus and His New Covenant, and we know that early Jewish-Christians used these to convert Jews to Christ, about 2.6% of the OT – see Logos Word of God – BT6 (a), just as Timothy was converted by his grandmother using these select scriptures – in context, that’s what Paul says:  “Pas every-of-a-category-of [singular] scripture [is] [singularly] God-breathed and/thus profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God (Timothy) may be complete, equipped for every good work” (b).  These are the only “ones that make you wise unto salvation through trusting-relying-faith in Jesus Christ,” because pas in Greek doesn’t often mean “the whole/entirety of” anything but “all/every of a certain type/category/class” of something.  <Notes> a) the book of Hebrews uses many of these because it was written to keep Jewish-Christians from going back to the Law, b) 2 Timothy 3:15-16.

 

Paul was always “reproofing, rebuking, admonishing, and correcting” the teachers of the Law, his opponents who infiltrated the churches and caused division, and he told his trainees to avoid them (c).  Paul only taught “the righteousness of God that is through trusting-relying-faith in Jesus Christ” (d).  The “man of God” in mind is Timothy, an evangelist of the logos gospel message, not a teacher of the Law (e).  The “good work” above that Paul taught was the result of God’s unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace abounding to you, now being God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus that Christ will establish in us and will complete in us at His coming, which is directly coupled (by the conjunction kai) to experiential, relational knowledge of God (f).  Therefore it’s entirely false to hold up the bible and say Paul taught that “the whole/entirety of scripture is God-breathed and/thus profitable for teaching!”  It’s just not what he said!  See also Logos Word of God – BT7.  <Notes> c) 1 Timothy 1:4-7, 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:16, 23-25, 3:5; Titus 1:13-14, 3:2, 9-10; Romans 16:17, d) Romans 3:22, e) 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 1:6, 8, 4:2, f) 2 Corinthians 9:8, Ephesians 2:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:17; Philippians 1:6; Colossians 1:10.

 

The early Gentile church abandoned the use of the OT, considering it completely fulfilled by Christ and thus irrelevant.  We know this from early Christian writings from 70-200 AD. The scriptures were but “shadows, copies, types, and symbols that correspond to good things to come, and only a hired servants to escort little children to school until they were of age for their inheritance” (a).  The NT also states this often, especially in Paul’s writings to Jews unwilling to be converted!  Christians have been set free from the Law because they died to every one of its 613 commandments, which were nailed to the cross, so they are no longer obligated to be taught or guided by it.  <Notes> a) Galatians 4:25; Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5, 9:9, 10:1; Galatians 3:23-25, 4:1-5; 1 Peter 3:21; Romans 5:14; Revelations 11:8.

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Music Education, Music Teaching, Drum Education, Drum Teaching, Old covenant or Testament replaced by New covenant or Testament, Can’t mix Old & New Testament, Only 2.6% of Old Testament is about Jesus and New Covenant, Messianic scriptures used to convert Jews, 97.4% of Old Testament is Law-based, Most Jews view the Old Testament as Law, Law teachers banned from churches, early Church limited their use of the Old Testament