Skip to main content

Old Testament...

             The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)

 

            Some claim that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God as the God of the New Testament. “The Father”  is demanding, grumpy, and even cruel, while “The Son” is loving, tolerant, and compassionate. Anyone who has studied either testament, or both, can only shake his head at such a foolish claim.

            When you give a speech about a problem, you generally begin with an exploration of the problem. After that, you might move into a historical exploration of the problem's consequences and the efforts made to deal with it. Only after you’ve shown how big the problem is and how past attempts to solve the problem have failed is it likely to be useful to present a new and radical solution.

            The Old Testament explains and explores the problem, showing that the solutions attempted haven’t worked. Such discussions of problems often sound harsh. If you’re Conservative, consider how harsh the Liberals sound about all the problems in America right now, and how you are the cause of them all. If you’re Liberal, just change the perspectives to the other order.

          The New Testament is the new solution and its application. It’s not that the God of one is any different from the God of the other. It’s the stage of the discussion. God is the solution. He always was. He always will be. He doesn’t change. He’s provided the solution but if we reject it, we still face the problem that we have been unable to solve. Blaming God for our failings and our rejections of Him has been the norm since Eden, but it gets us nowhere

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...