Revision as of 13:55, 9 October 2016

Perhaps you have wondered about the state of the Christian church. Have you observed that it is compromised and indistinguishable from the world? That it relies on politics, boycotts and movements rather than preaching the gospel in its attempts to change the world? That teaching from the pulpit is either a simple salvation message preached repeatedly to the same church members, or self-help improvement talks which could have been taken from almost any secular source? That you rarely here a significant message from the Old Testament, and rarely one from the New... sermons based in pretext rather than context? How is it that we have become so sick? When we answer that question, the solution is clear.

History

Greeks did not wish to become Jewish

We remind ourselves of our history: The first church was Hebrew. The Old Testament is Hebrew. When God added Gentiles to the church, they did not wish to become Jewish. ^[1] Basically they asked for 'Christianity Lite'. Paul chose to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified^[2], he did not teach them the law, nor the rich 'shadow of the good things coming' contained in the law.^[3] Since the Greeks (inclusive of Gentiles) did not need to obey the law, they did not need to learn it. This act of willful ignorance deprived them of the 'shadow' of the law (He 10.1) containing the 'mystery hidden from the beginning' ^[4] which speaks of Christ. (Eph 3:9)

Greeks fell into the traps

Before the first century was finished, the Greeks had built their own golden calf by deifying Mary.^[5] Soon, they had fallen into the very things they had been warned against.

They had established a priesthood by conquering the laity. ^[6]

They allowed Jews who were not true Jews ^{[7] [8]} to teach the church falsehoods about the Hebrew scriptures. They told the Gentile church that the Hebrew language has no vowels, yet confess to themselves that God is spirit because his name Yahweh is composed of vowels. They taught the Greeks that Moses wrote Genesis rather than their own confession that Hebrew is the language of God and was preserved through writings of the Fathers, passed from father to son. They taught the Greeks that the atomic level of meaning in Hebrew was the three letter root, while holding to the belief that the strokes of letter have metaphoric meaning which combine to form the metaphor of the letters which combine in two-letter 'gates' and that the meaning of words are derived from the combined metaphors of the letter and gates.

They had adopted the doctrine of Balaam, compromising with the world and paganism. ^[9]

The Judaisers re-instituted dietary restrictions as a new form of the Jewish law. ^[10] The Jewish sacrifices were modified into the mass where Christ is crucified again and again, ^[11] significantly symbolizing that their Christ cannot save permanently. ^[12] nor can the repeated bloodless sacrifice of bread cleanse from sin) ^[13]

By around 400 AD Augustine and Constantine had rid the church of anything that was truly Hebrew. Augustine even claimed that the Septuagint was more reliable than the original Hebrew. This translation to Greek hides the rich mystery of the gospel hidden in the Hebrew language and scriptures.

The reformers missed the primary teaching

The primary commandment of God is to love.... yet the reformers' hermeneutic was incapable of understanding this basic teaching of scripture, evidenced by their murders, and by their justification of murder, even today, as being merely a cultural norm. Murder has been murder since Cain. If one does not have love, his words (and his systematic theologies) are as tinkling brass. (1Co 13:1)

The 'Christianity Lite' lacked a proper Hebrew hermeneutic in order to properly understand scripture and bring the Greek churches into a unity of the faith. Many false unities have been attempted by ignoring the word. Through the debates concerning sensus plenior of the late 70's and early 80's, the experts have revealed their ignorance of Biblical understanding through their confessions of their inability to reproduce the exegesis of the NT authors. Some even level the accusation that Jesus and his disciples 'misappropriate' scriptures from the OT.

The solution is clear... learn to read the Bible as Jesus taught his disciples. We will know that we do it when we CAN reproduce the exegesis of the NT authors. Surely God has spoken in such a way as to make his will known. It is our arrogance, as Greeks, imposing Greek philosophy, logic and rhetoric upon his word that has caused such confusion.

A simple example

The parable of the mustard seed is taught this way: The kingdom starts off small and grows larger and larger. If we have faith like that we can do miracles that no one seems to be able to do (move the mountain to the sea.). We argue if the birds are angels, demons, or gentiles. Then we wonder and or defend that Jesus said it was the smallest seed, when everyone else knows its not. This is NOT biblical preaching!

Jesus was the seed of the woman in Genesis. He was the least of all the seed because he served us all through his death on the cross. The word for mustard in Greek is similar to 'bruised by anger' in Hebrew. The prophecy of the seed of the woman speaks of his incarnation, kenosis, tribulation, temptation and final obedience on the cross.

He grew to be the great herb. Genesis says the grass was given to cattle to eat, and the herbs were given to men to eat. The greatest thing men can eat is the body of Christ. He is the great herb. Eating is a metaphor for learning, so he became the great teacher. We also celebrate the cattle eating the grass when we put baby Jesus in the manger with the grass. We have the same symbol of eating his body at the beginning of his life as we have at the end.

The tree is the cross... and those birds? If you live in the spirit you rest in the cross.

Lets move a mountain. The two mem's in the Hebrew word for water have metaphoric meaning for the Father and the Son. The Father is Spirit and the Son is Truth. Jesus told the woman at Sychar that though she worshiped on the mountain, she would worship in Spirit and Truth. The mountain would be moved to the water.

The parable of the mustard seed speaks of Christ at every turn and is revealed by the word itself. The parable contains a riddle: Eze 17:2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;

NT authors teach how to read the scriptures

The New Testament authors teach us HOW to read the OT. This hermeneutic has rules discerned from scripture using the hermeneutic. One of the rules is that when something becomes a metaphor, it is always the same. This keeps it from free-for-all allegory and actually makes it self-correcting.

The Greek hermeneutic has recreated Mars hill within the church. Everyone was willing to accept Paul until he said that his God was the only God. In the church we are willing to accept ANY interpretation as being equally valid as long as it does not step on our toes. But God's word is sure and fixed. He did not leave it to the frailties of human understanding. He wrote it in such a way that we can know.

The fix of the church is what it has always been: a true understanding of his word.

What now?

I have not attempted to convince you of this Hebrew hermeneutic, but only to tease. I would cherish the opportunity to present it more completely, and even more-so, to share Christ from places in scripture you could only imagine. Ge 38, called the worst chapter of the Bible by some, has a beautiful prophecy of the birth of Christ given in great detail.

This hermeneutic has some similarities to modern the Jewish hermeneutic, but only uses those things which can be demonstrated in the NT.

This final thought is that the Greek church has assigned the wrong genre to the scriptures and therefore has no chance of understanding it in depth.

Why did the chicken cross the road? The known answer is, 'to get to the other side'. But this answer is wrong. The real answer is 'to get to the other side'. Though I used exactly the same words, my intentional meaning was quite different. When someone dies, we say they went to the other side. When you see the chicken carcasse in the road, you ask why it crossed the road. To get to heaven, is the answer.

We have been taught to read the Bible literally... and we may, since the literal contains sufficient information for salvation. But is also has a spiritual layer written in prophetic riddle, which can be deciphered in a way which can be validated and verified.

I hope this blesses you, but even more-so that it gives you an awe of God hearing that his word can be confirmed down to the strokes of the letters themselves.

References

1. ↑ Ac 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
2. ↑ 1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3. ↑ Heb 10:1 ¶ For the law having a shadow of good things to come, [and] not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
4. ↑ Eph 3:9 And to make all [men] see what [is] the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
5. ↑ "Orthodox Christians see the realization of salvation in the deification of Mary." http://www.antiochian.org/node/17079
6. ↑ 'Nicolaitan' means 'conquerors of the laity' Re 2:6
7. ↑ Re 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
8. ↑ Re 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
9. ↑ Re 2:14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
10. ↑ "The Christian tradition of fasts and abstinence developed from Old Testament practices," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_and_abstinence_in_the_Roman_Catholic_Church
11. ↑ "In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner." http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/are-we-re-crucifying-jesus-in-the-mass
12. ↑ Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
13. ↑ Heb 9:2 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.