The Reception of God's Holy Spirit:
How the Hebrew Prophets _contradict_ Christianity's Teachings
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29 Dec. 2002
Updates and revisions: through 01 March 2007
My
studies of late have been exploring the different understandings
regarding God's Holy Spirit, which differ between the prophets of the
Old Testament and Christianity as presented in the New Testament.
Christians apparently understand that the words of the prophets are not theirs, but that of the Holy Spirit sent by God:
2 Peter 1:20-21 RSV
"First
of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a
matter of one's interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the
impulse of man, but by men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
Apparently
"the Holy Spirit" speaking via the prophet Ezekiel has the following to
say about what happens to an individual who has received God's Holy
Spirit:
Ezekiel 11:19-20 RSV
"And
I will give them one heart, and PUT A NEW SPIRIT WITHIN THEM; I will
take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
THAT THEY MAY WALK IN MY STATUTES AND KEEP MY ORDINANCES AND OBEY THEM;
and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 36:26-27 RSV
"
A new heart I will give you, and A NEW SPIRIT I WILL PUT WITHIN YOU and
I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart
of flesh. And I WILL PUT _MY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU_ AND CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES and BE CAREFUL TO OBSERVE MY ORDINANCES."
Deuteronomy 26:17
"...YOU WILL walk in his ways, and keep his STATUTES and his COMMANDMENTS and his ORDINANCES, and will obey his voice..."
Paul,
who claims to possess God's Holy Spirit, informs his Christian converts
that they are _not_ to observe God's commandments, statutes and
ordinances as Christ's death has abolished this need.
Ephesians 2:14-15 RSV
"For
he [Jesus] is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down
the dividing wall of hostility, by ABOLISHING in his flesh the LAW of
COMMANDMENTS and ORDINANCES..."
How
interesting that the present day controversy about the removing of
images of the Ten Commandments from public buildings should outrage
some Christians -apparently they are unaware according to Paul- that
Christ's death has abolished the observance of these commandments for
Christians.
If
Christians attempt to obey God's Commandments, Statutues and Ordinances
they are accused of nullifying not only Christ's sacrifice, but
foolishly attempting to "establish their own righteousness" before the
law:
Philippians 3:8-9 RSV
"For
his sake [Christ's] I have suffered the loss of all things, and count
them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ; and be found in him, _not having a righteousness of my own, based on law_, but that which is through faith in Christ..."
Colossians 2:13
"...God...
having forgiven us all our trespasses, having cancelled the bond which
stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it
to the cross...Therefore let no no one pass judgement on you in
questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon
or a sabbath."
Paul
argues that faith is reckoned as righteousness, claiming Abraham's
example. Strangely _overlooked by Paul_ is another verse in Genesis
that indicates the promise made Abraham was not because of his faith
but because of _his works_, he obeyed God and KEPT God's commandments,
statutes and laws. Paul also "_"overlooks"_ another very important
passage which states unequivocably that if Israel attempts to obey the
Law, it will be reckoned as righteousness to them by God. This is an
extremely important passage. Why ? Because Christians understand that
ALL of Holy Writ is God-inspired, via the Holy Spirit, who inspires
mortal men to write down God's message. Christianity in DENYING the
obeying of God's commandments, statutes, and laws by claiming that
Christ's death abolishes the Law, is in effect saying the Holy Spirit
was in error in equating righteousness with an attempt to obey the Law.
Romans 4:1-3, 13 RSV
For
what does scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to
him as righteousness...The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that
they should inherit the world, did not come through the law but through
the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are
to be heirs, faith is null and the promise is void."
Romans 9:30-32 RSV
"What
shall we say then? That gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have
attained it, that is righteousness through faith; but that Israel who
pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in
fulfilling that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith,
but as it were based on works. They have stumbled..."
Romans 13:8-10 RSV
"...he
who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law..."You shall love your
neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love
is the fulfilling of the law."
Romans 10:1-4 RSV
"...they
[Israel, the Jews] have a zeal for God but it is not enlightened. For
being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God [via Christ],
and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's
righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law, that everyone who has
faith may be justified...if you confess with your lips that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. For man believes with his heart and is so justified, and
he confesses with his lips and is so saved."
Ge 15:5-6 RSV (God speaking to Abraham)
"Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness."
Ge 26:3- RSV (God speaking to Isaac at Gerar in the Negev):
"...and
I will fufil the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. I will
multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your
descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of
the earth shall bless themselves: _BECAUSE_ Abraham _OBEYED_ my voice
and _KEPT_ MY CHARGE, _KEPT_ MY COMMANDMENTS, MY STATUTES, AND MY
LAWS."
Please
note that God does not say he is going to fufil his oath because of
Abraham's "righteousness or faith", but because he OBEYED God and KEPT
his charge, commandments, statutes and laws.
De 6:24-25 (RSV)
"And
the Lord COMMANDED US TO DO _ALL_ THESE STATUTES, to fear the Lord our
God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this
day. AND IT WILL BE RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR US, IF WE ARE CAREFUL TO DO ALL
THIS COMMANDMENT before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us."
Please
note that the text does NOT say "it will be righteousness for us" if we
possess the faith of Abraham. It is works, NOT faith alone, that
secures righteousness. James seems to agree that faith without works is
dead:
James 2:17-24 RSV
"So
faith by itself, if it has no works is dead...WAS NOT ABRAHAM OUR
FATHER_JUSTIFIED_BY_WORKS_, when he offered his son Isaac upon the
altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith
was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness"...You see that _A_MAN_IS_JUSTIFIED_BY_WORKS_ and NOT BY
FAITH ALONE...For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith
apart from works is dead."
Also
note that in De 6:24-25 "righteousness" secures Israel's LIVES,
she will NOT be destroyed or killed by her flesh-and-blood enemies
(Canaanites, Edomites, Ammonites, Philistines) versus the Christian
notion that Christians will NOT be spared from their enemies, they are
to willingly lay down their lives as martyrs emulating their lord and
master, Christ; their reward will be _after death_ when they obtain
immortality in a resurrection from the dead.
How
can the Holy Spirit be "real" if it contradicts itself, telling us via
Ezekiel that when an individual has God's Holy Spirit, God causes the
individual "to walk in" [obey] his statutes, ordinances and laws,
versus Paul's declaration these are not to be obeyed or observed ?
I
note that some verses in the New Testament speak of Christians obeying
Christ's "commandments," but the contexts suggest that these are _not_
the 10 Commandments presented in the Old Testament by Moses. Rather,
the "commandments of Christ" appear to relate to showing love to one's
fellow Christian brethren, giving generously of one's wealth for the
needs of the less fortunate Christian brotherhood, and abstaining from
the lusts, greeds, passions of "the non-Christian world."
Another
"anomaly" is that Ezekiel understood that the bestowal of God's Holy
Spirit was a "guarantee" that Israel would _never ever_ violate his
Commandments, Statutes and Ordinances, thus insuring they would dwell
forever in the Promised Land. God's in-dwelling Spirit would see to a
wholehearted compliance on his people's part for all generations.
Ezekiel does not envision God "testing" _anymore_ his people's loyalty
to him, for now his Holy Spirit is in them.
Contra
Ezekiel, Christianity does NOT see the Holy Spirit as capable of
assuring never-ending compliance to God's will. Instead, the Devil or
"evil one" is portrayed as having the power to seduce those who
accepted the Holy Spirit, making them into apostates. The end for these
"apostates" is God's retribution.
Hebrews 6:4-8 RSV
"For
it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once
been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become
partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word
of God and the powers of the age to come, if they COMMIT APOSTASY,
since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up
to contempt."
James 4:7
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
James 5:19
"My
brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one
brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from
the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a
multitude of sins."
1 Peter 5: 8
"Your
adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one
to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith...And after you have suffered
a little while, the God of all grace...will himself restore, establish
and strengthen you.
Peter condemns Christian apostates who return to the world, turning their backs on Christ's gift and message:
2 Peter 2:20-21
"For
if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled
in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than
the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known
the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the
holy commandment delivered to them."
Ezekiel
sees a restoration of Israel and Judah to their lands accompanying the
release from Exile, when God pours forth his Holy Spirit on his people,
guaranteeing they will dwell forever in their Promised Land. Contra
Ezekiel, Christians look forward to the destruction of the earth in
fire, and a new heavens and new earth in which only the righteous dwell:
2 Peter 3:12
"...waiting
for...the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will
be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But
according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in
which righteousness dwells."
Ezekiel
stated God would not allow back into the Promised Land those who were
unrepentant. Those he did allow in would receive his holy spirit ending
forever any more rebellion to his will. Christianity sees false
prophets ('rebels" to God's will) among Christians to be wary of.
1 John 4: 1-3
"Beloved,
do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they
are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world."
I note that the Holy Spirit speaking via John and -contra 2 Peter 2:20-21-
claims Christians are incapable of sinning beause God does not sin and
his Holy Sprit is in them. For John this is a sign that those
Christians who are engaged in sinful acts do not have the Holy Spirit :
1 John 3:8
"HE
WHO COMMITS SIN IS OF THE DEVIL; for the devil has sinned from the
beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works
of the devil. NO ONE BORN OF GOD COMMITS SIN; FOR GOD'S NATURE ABIDES
IN HIM AND HE CANNOT SIN BECAUSE HE IS BORN OF GOD. By this it may be
seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the
devil: WHOEVER DOES NOT DO RIGHT IS NOT OF GOD, nor he who does not
love his brother."
If
we were to apply the definition of 1 John 3:8 to Christianity through
the ages, including the present time, NO one would qualify as being a
"real" Christian as all DO SIN.
The Holy Spirit seems to "contradict itself in the following verse which declares that Christians do indeed sin:
1 John 1:8-10
"If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins...If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word
is not in us."
How
can the Holy Spirit "be real" in contradicting itself, claiming
Christians possessing it CANNOT SIN (1 John 3:8) and yet they DO SIN (1
John 1:8-10) ? How can the Holy Spirit "be real" if it informs Ezekiel
that people possessing it will obey all of God's laws, ordinances and
statutes, yet Paul claims Christians are _not_ to observe any of them
? Clearly the contradicting claims made by the alleged Holy
Spirit are evidence this is "not real," only a fable.
The
New Testament declares that for one's sins to be forgiven by God, one
must first confess that Christ is the son of God and then be baptized
into his death. That is to say, that ONLY the sacrifice of God's
first-born and only begotten son, can secure forgiveness of sin.
This
notion seems to be contradicted by the prophet Micah. It appears that
Micah understands that to be reconciled to God and forgiven for one's
sins, the sacrifice of one's firstborn is NOT acceptable, God desires
instead from an individual, "justice, loving kindness and to walk
humbly with God."
Micah 6:6-8 RSV
"With
what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on HIgh ?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old ?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of
rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God ?"
Micah goes on to assure Israel that God will forgive them their trespasses against him:
Micah 7: 18-20 RSV
"Who
is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance ? He does not retain his anger for
ever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have
compassion upon us, he will tread our iniquities under foot. Thou wilt
cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt show
faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as thou hast sworn
to our fathers from the days of old."
I
find it difficult on the basis of Micah 6:6-8 to "embrace" the
Christian notion that Jesus Christ, the firstborn and only begotten son
of God _had to die_ inorder for man to be reconciled to God and have
his sins forgiven.
Along
a similar note is the Jewish concept of God's ANNUAL forgiveness of
Israel's sins on Yom Kippur. The following is extracted from a brochure
accompanying a Medal issued by the Israel Government Coins and Medals
Corporation of Jerusalem explaining Yom Kippur's significance:
"Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the month of Tishri
according to the Jewish claendar, is unique in its holiness ("the Sabbath of
Sabbaths" - a day of solemn rest" as it is called in Leviticus 23:32). The
Jews were granted this holiest of days at Mount Sinai while receiving the
Torah. It was then that they became a people. The significance of Yom
Kippur, as it appears on the medal, is to serve as a vehicle for the group
forgiveness of a holy nation (the Jewish people) on a holy day (the Day of
Atonement). And in fact, to forgive each individual for his sins. This day
is the climax of the ten days of repentance which begins with the Rosh
Hashana holiday (the New Year) and culminates with the Day of Atonement.
The Torah declares that on Yom Kippur all sins will be forgiven: "for on
this day shall atonement be made for you, TO CLEANSE YOU; FROM _ALL_ YOUR SINS
SHALL YE BE CLEAN BEFORE THE LORD." (Leviticus 16:30).
But
our sages have interpreted that those sins made by man against the Lord
will be pardoned, while those mades against a fellow man will be
forgiven only upon direct reconciliation between man and his fellow
man."
Christians
understand that Christ in his role as THE WORD or LOGOS is the God of
the Old Testament who made Adam and Eve and who spoke to Moses, and who
spoke to the prophets via a Holy Spirit. Why did Christ tell his people
in Leviticius 16:30 he would cleanse them of ALL THEIR SINS _once a
year_ on Yom Kippur, then CHANGE HIS MIND in the New Testament and
declare sins can be forgiven ONLY by being baptized into his death ? In
other words why is CHRIST or the HOLY SPIRIT_CONTRADICTING_
himself/itself ?
The
notion that God graciously forgives the sins of ALL Israel once a year
at Yom Kippur, in addition to Micah's statement that God will NOT
accept a "first-born" sacrifice of a human-being, seems to me, to
effectively _negate_ Christianity's claims that Christ HAD TO DIE, in
order to obtain forgiveness of sins for mankind from God.
According
to Christian claims, the God of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ in
the role of The Logos, "The Word." Why would Christ as "The Logos" via
Micah, declare to his people that the shed blood of a Human Sacrifice
is unacceptable to God in forgiving sins, ONLY righteous behavior is
acceptable ?
Christianity
teaches that with Adam's fall sin entered into the world and that all
of Adam's descendants are tainted with this sin, and only Christ's
sacrifice upon the cross can end the cycle of sin for the generations
yet to come. This Christian notion seems to be contradicted by Ezekiel who appears to be of the understanding that God does not charge the sons with the father's sins:
Ezekiel 18:1-20 RSV
"The
word of the Lord came to me again: "What do you mean by repeating this
proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour
grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? As I live, says the
Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold,
all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the
son is mine: the soul that sins shall die. If a man is righteous and
does what is lawful and right- if he does not eat upon the mountains or
lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile
his neighbor's wife or approach a woman in her time of impurity, does
not oppress any one, but restores to the debtor his pledge, commits no
robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a
garment, does not lend at interest or take any increase, witholds his
hand from iniquity, executes true justice between man and man, WALKS IN
MY STATUTES, AND IS CAREFUL TO OBSERVE MY ORDINANCES- he is righteous,
he shall surely live, says the Lord God... THE SON SHALL NOT SUFFER FOR
THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHER. NOR THE FATHER SUFFER FOR THE INIQUITY OF
THE SON; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."
Ezekiel
suggests that the father's sins do _not_ transfer to the sons, yet
Christianity teaches just the opposite: Adam's fall and sin is
transferred to all his descendants until Christ appears to end the
cycle of sin:
Romans 5:18-19 RSV
"...as
one man's [Adam's] trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one
man's act of righteousness [Christ] leads to acquittal and life for all
men. For by one man's disobedience [Adam's] many were made sinners, so
by one man's obedience [Christ's] many will be made righteous."
Ezekiel
seems to also suggest that the "righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon himself" that is to say, the father's righteousness _cannot be
transferred to his son_, excusing the son of his sins. Yet this is just what Christianty argues!
Christ's righteousness _is transferred_ to his son, the Church. That is
to say, Christ's righteousness has "fufilled the Law" and Christians
are to no longer attempt their own righteousness by obeying the Law nor
the Ordinances! Why did Christ as "the Word" or Logos via the Holy
Spirit have Ezekiel utter these words which _contradict_ Christian
teachings?
I
am a Secular Humanist, a non-believer. It it seems apparent to me that
the New Testament authors have set out a program to nullify, point by
point everything held as Holy and binding on man in the Old Testament.
That is to say Christianity is refuting, denying and challenging the Old Testaments' portrayal of how man is to honor God.
Christianity
teaches that for an individual to receive God's Holy Spirit he must
first confess Christ is the son of God and the Lord and be baptized
into his death. This notion is contradicted by several passages in the
Old Testament where a number of men receive God's Spirit.
Bezalel
of the tribe of Judah recieves the "Spirit of God" giving him the
ability to devise designs in gold, silver and bronze for the Tabernacle
in the Sinai wilderness (Ex 31:1-4). Moses mentions God's prophets
having God's spirit (Nu 11:24-29). Balaam has God's Spirit (Nu 24:2).
Joshua has the Lord's Spirit (Nu 27:18). Othniel receives God's Spirit
(Judges 3:9-10). Jephthah receives God's Spirit (Judges 11:29). Samson
receives the Spirit of the Lord (Judges 14:6). Saul receives the Spirit
of the Lord (1Samuel 10:6). David receives the Spirit of the Lord (1
Samuel 16:14). Azariah receives the Sprit of the Lord (2 Chron 15:1).
Zechariah receives the Spirit of the Lord (2 Chron 24:20). Ezekiel
receives the Spirit of the Lord (Ez 2:2).
It
is quite clear from these passages that the "Spirit of the Lord" _does
not promise immortality in a life after death_ to an individual, it
imparts only wisdom, strength, valor and fortitude. In no case is the
"Lord's Spirit" in the Old Testament portrayed as waging war against
Satan and his Demons; the enemies Jepthah, Saul and David face are
merely mortal men not antagonistic supernatural powers. In no case is
the "Spirit of the Lord" DENIED these men because they have not "first"
confessed Christ is the son of God and been baptised into his death. In
no case are these men informed that having received "the Spirit of the
Lord" that they are now _absolved_ of any further obedience to God's
Commandments, Ordinances, and Statutes as claimed by Paul.
The
BIG ISSUE HERE is _WHY_ was Jesus Christ as the "Logos or Word" in the
Old Testament WILLING to (1) dispense "the Lord's Spirit" on his people
and (2) absolve them of ALL their sins "annually" with Yom Kippur, then
WITHDRAWS all this in the New Testament claiming that only those who
believe in Christ and are baptised in his name can receive the "Lord's
Spirit" and absolvement of their sins? Can a house divided against
itself stand?
As
is quite clear from all of the above, there was NO NEED for Christ's
birth and death, for he had set up in his role as the LOGOS a system
for forgiving his people their sins annually with Yom Kippur, and had
already given some individuals the Lord's Spirit (Saul, David, the
Prophets), and via Ezekiel had announced ALL his people upon the end of
a 40 year exile would receive the "Lord's Spirit" WITHOUT THE BIRTH,
DEATH, AND SACRIFICE OF GOD'S ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
From
my studies of the Old Testament it seems that the Torah or Law
delivered by God via Moses at Mount Sinai was within the capacity of
mankind (the Hebrews) to obey according to prophets like Moses and
Jeremiah. Micah certainly suggests this:
Micah 6:8 RSV
"...what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God ?"
Yet,
according to Ezekiel, only after the nation is given God's Holy Spirit
will they be able to whole-heartedly obey him. That is to say God
CONNED his people! He set before them a Law that was impossible for
them to obey because they did not have his Holy Spirit. Because they
didn't obey, God's anger consumed them repeatedly over some 2000 years
in that foreign nations afflicted them with war and exile. How can one
argue that God is "ethical and just" if he sets before his people a
task that they cannot achieve because he has denied them his Holy
Spirit? He promised via Ezekiel to give them his Holy Spirit at the
conclusion of a 40 year exile upon their return to the land and the
rebuilding of the waste places. God RENEGED ON HIS PROMISE. The books
of Ezra and Nehemiah reveal that his peoples still violated the Sabbath
and married foreign women, God obviously had not given his people his
Holy Spirit to enable them to obey him and keep his Torah. God is
cruel, sadistic, unjust and untrustworthy.
Had
he truly loved his people he would not have set them up for a fall,
giving him an excuse to cruelly and sadistically afflict them
repeatedly with disease, famines and wars.
Here's
another example of the Holy Spirit CONTRADICTING ITSELF, declaring that
anyone of Moabite descent for all eternity is _not_ to be allowed into
God's Holy Assembly, and this _irrevocable ban_ applies to both King
David and Jesus Christ because they have Moabite blood lines:
Nehemiah 13:1-3 RSV
"On that day they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and in it was found written that NO AMMONITE OR _MOABITE_ SHOULD _EVER_ ENTER THE ASSEMBLY OF GOD;
for they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and water, but
hired Balaam against them to curse them- yet our God turned the curse
into a blessing. WHEN THE PEOPLE HEARD THE LAW, _THEY SEPARATED FROM
ISRAEL _ ALL_ THOSE OF FOREIGN DESCENT."
The
Holy Spirit speaking through Moses is quite clear no one of Moabite
descent is ever, for all eternity, to be allowed to enter the assembly
of God. They are accursed by God forever (all eternity), not even to
the tenth generation are they allowed to enter. Note: A "generation"
can be reckoned as 25 years or 40 years. Multiplied by 10 this means
250 or 450 years into the future the ban would have been in effect had
Moabites been allowed in after the passage of the 10th generation.
However, the ban is "forever," not until the 10th generation.
Deuteronomy 23:3 RSV
"NO Ammonite or
_MOABITE_ SHALL ENTER THE ASSEMBLY OF THE LORD, _EVEN_ TO THE TENTH
GENERATION _NONE_ BELONGING TO THEM SHALL ENTER THE ASSEMBLY OF THE
LORD _FOREVER_;
because they did not meet you with bread and water on the way, when you
came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the
son of Beor...to curse you."
The
problem? If, in Ezra's days, the 5th century BC, NO ONE OF MOABITE
DESCENT IS TO BE ADMITTED IN TO THE ASSEMBLY OF GOD, then how can
Christ be the Messiah? Christ's genealogy is traced back to King David,
who was himself OF MOABITE DESCENT.
That
is to say both David and Christ ARE ACCURSED BY GOD because of their
Moabite ancestry via Ruth the Moabite who married Boaz, cf. Ruth
4:13-22 and 1 Chronicles 2:1-15 enumerating King David's descent from
Ruth the Moabite. In David's case, he is a "3rd generation Moabite" in
descent, he should NEVER had been allowed to be Israel's king or
Messiah.
cf.
also Christ's descent from David in Matthew 1:1-6, which also mentions
Boaz as David's ancestor and Ruth being his ancestress.
Matthew 1:5-6 RSV
"...and
Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and BOAZ the father of Obed BY
RUTH, and Obed the father of Jesses, and Jesse the father of David the
king."
Clearly
the Holy Spirit is very muddled in declaring no one of Moabite descent
is _EVER_ to enter the Holy Assembly of God (much less be God's
Messiah) according to Nehemiah 13:1-3, and yet both David and Jesus are
of Moabite descent. The Holy Sirit has quite clearly CONTRADICTED
ITSELF in allowing men of Moabite descent to be God's Messiah or
"annointed" and members of God's Holy Assembly.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
13 November 2005 Update:
Ezekiel
is confronted with a serious problem as a prophet, why should his
audience, "the house of Israel" or the Jews, believe anything he has to
say ? He notes a proverb (Ez 12:21-28) that prophecies are frequently
of a failed nature and often for a period so far into the future as to
have "no immediacy" for the audience being addressed. He repeats
constantly to his audience that _WHEN_ God has accomplished the
predicted events, _THEN_ Israel _WILL KNOW_ God is real, and that a
true prophet has spoken, not a false one. Please note, Ezekiel hammers
"over and over again" that Israel WILL KNOW _WHEN_ God FULFILLS THE
PROPHECY ! That is to say, the only way for a person "to know" if
a prophet is false or not is to wait for the prophecy's fulfillment
(cf. De 18:21-22).
Ezekiel stresses to his audience that his prophecies are unlike others (other false prophets) for
God
_will not delay_ in fulfilling them, the events will take place in the
audiences' lifetime, at the end of a 40 year Babylonian Exile (Ez 4:6).
Ezekiel's prophecies are dated as late as the 30th year of the Exile
(Ez 1:1), so apparently his "last missive" is just 10 years before the
predicted release of Judah from the Captivity (Ez 4:6).
Ezekiel
gives very detailed information regarding "when" Israel's and Judah's
Exile or Captivity will come to an end. The data, however, is
conflicting. The Holy Spirit informs Ezekiel that the former kingdom of
Israel's punishment is 390 years (Ez 4:5) while Judah's is only 40
years (Ez 4:6). Israel's Exile under the Assyrians is generally dated
circa 721 BCE, subtract 390 years and we have a restoration circa 331
BCE, which almost coincides with Alexander the Great's defeat of the
Persian empire ca. 330 BCE. Judah's captivity appears to be either the
first deportation in 598 BCE (cf. Esther 2:6; Matthew 1:11), or more
commonly the second deportation in 587 BCE (cf. p. 186. Vol. 2. J. A.
Sanders. "Exile." George Arthur Buttrick, et. al. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Nashville, Tennesse. Abingdon Press. 1962). 598 or 587 BCE minus 40 years gives a restoration from Exile circa 558 or 547 BCE.
Ez
40:1 is dated the 25th year of Exile, and 14th year after the fall of
Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell in the 12th year of the Exile (Ez 33:21).
Ezekiel stated Judah's punishment by God would be 40 years (Ez 4:6).
Apparently Ezekiel expects that in just another 15 years his people
will be set free by God and restored to their lands. Jerusalem's final
fall to the Babylonians was circa 587 BCE, subtracting 15 years from
this date suggests to me a restoration circa 572 BCE; if one
wants to calculate 40 years of punishment from 587 BCE the restoration
would be circa 547 BCE. Babylon fell to Cyrus of Persia ca. 539/538
BCE, who allowed the captured nations to return to their homelands.
Irregardless of whatever chronology one "wants to use" for Ezekiel's
concept of a restoration after 40 years, it is quite clear the event
was envisioned for some time within the 6th century BCE for Judah.
Ez 12:21-28 RSV
"Son
of man, what is this proverb that you have about the land of Israel
saying, 'The days grow long, and every vision comes to nought' ? Tell
them therefore, 'Thus says the Lord God: I will put an end to this
proverb, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.' But say
to them, the days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision. For
there shall be no more any false vision of flattering divination within
the house of Israel. But I the Lord will speak the word which I will
speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed, but in
your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it
says the Lord God. Again the word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man,
prophesy against the prophets of Israel, prophesy and say to those who
prophesy out of their own minds: 'Hear the word of the Lord !" Thus
says the Lord God, woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own
spirit, and have seen nothing !...They have spoken falsehood and
divined a lie; they say, 'Says the Lord', when the Lord has not sent
them, and yet they expect him to fulfil their word."
Israel will "know" Ezekiel is a true prophet "when" God restores her to her lands:
Ez 39:25-29 RSV
"Therefore
thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and
have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my
holy name. They shall forget their shame, and all the treachery they
have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with
none to make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the
peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them
vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. Then they shall
know that I am the Lord their God because I sent them into exile among
the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will leave
none of them remaining among the nations any more; and I will not hide
my face any more from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of
Israel, says the Lord God."
Israel
will "know" Ezekiel is a true prophet when God not only restores them
to their lands but ends famines for evermore and breaks the "yoke of
servitude" of their oppressor, Babylon. Babylon's "yoke" was sundered
in 539 BCE when Babylon fell to Cyrus of Persia. Yet the house of
Israel -the Jews in Judah- suffered famines in Nehemiah's days (cf. Ne
5:1-5), and they were "a prey to the nations" when they were oppressed
by the Hellenistic Greeks, the Seleucids of Syria who under Antiochus
IV attempted to exterminate Judaism ca. 163 BCE, and the Ptolemies of
Egypt who under Ptolemy II captured Jerusalem on a Sabbath day when the
Jews refused to defend themselves, hauling thousands of them off to
Egypt as slaves, not to mention the Romans and the Emperor Vespasian
ca. 70 CE and Hadrian ca. 135 CE, who sent them into a an exile which
would last roughly 1813 years until 1948 and the re-creation of
the modern state of Israel.
Ez 34:25-31
"I will make with them a covenant of peace...they shall be secure in their land; and they
shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and
deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations...they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them prosperous plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land,
and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall know
that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of
Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. And you are my sheep, the
sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord God."
Israel
will know Ezekiel is a true prophet when God when God gives them his
Holy Spirit, to walk in his ways, no more famine, the desolate land is
restored. Judah did return under Cyrus after 538 BCE (2 Chronicles
36:20-23) but the land was still experiencing famines as late as the
days of Ezra and Nehemiah, times being so desperate that lands and
children were being sold by the poor to get by (Ne 5:1-5).
Ez 36:22--37
"Therefore
say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your
sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my
holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been
profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and
the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when
through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. For I will take
you from the nations, and gather you from all countries and bring you
into your land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall
be clean from all your uncleanesses, and from all your idols I will
cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and an new spirit I will put
within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my
ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers;
and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver
you from all your uncleanesses; and I will summon the grain and make it
abundant and lay no famine on you. I will make the fruit of the tree
and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer
the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your
evil ways, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your
abominable deeds. It is not for your sake that I will act, says the
Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your
ways, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God: On the day that
I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be
inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. And the land that was
desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was
in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, 'This land that
was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and
desolate and ruined cities are now inhabitated and fortified.' Then the
nations that are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord, have
rebuilt the ruined places, and replanted that which was desolate; I,
the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it."
Conclusions:
Ezekiel
realized that Israel had been lied to so many times in the past by
so-called false prophets that she had grown tired of hearing "alleged"
messages from God ! Ezekiel also acknowledged Israel's skepticism with
prophets because the predicted events were frequently many years into
the future thus having no immediacy for the audience, and usually
failed to come about.
I
cannot fathom Ezekiel's claim that God will act in 40 years time to
restore his people to their lands and break the Babylonian yoke they
bore as having "any immediacy" for his audience. I can imagine the
Jewish audiences' reaction to Ezekiel: Ho-hum ! Another false prophet
"padding" his predictions with events to transpire 40 years into the
future ! The 40 years came and went, and Ezekiel's prophecies did not
come about. He was a false prophet. What he "thought" was God's Holy
Spirit talking to him were only his own vain imaginings ! There
is no Holy Spirit, for had it been real it would have vindicated
Ezekiel, but it didn't. So Ezekiel's foolish prattle to his jaded,
skeptical Israelite (Jewish) audience was probably "rightly" ignored by
these people. That audience had been assured by Ezekiel via God's Holy
Spirit that God would NOT DELAY, he would accomplish his promises in
their lifetimes, within the next 40 years, not 500 years later, "after
their deaths," in the days of the Roman Emperors Augustus and Tiberius
Caesar with a Jewish preacher called Jesus of Nazareth.
We
have seen that the Holy Spirit made "numerous errors" via Ezekiel. It
claimed that Judah's punishment in Exile would end in 40 years time,
that Babylon would thereupon fall and God would replant his people in
their land. He would give them his Spirit so that they would
forevermore keep his commandmants, statutes, sabbaths, and ordinances,
guaranteeing they would always obey him and thus never ever again be
sent into another Exile. Ezekiel speaking via the Holy Spirit, stated
that God would metaphorically wash with water the sins of his people
away, and forgive them. This event would occur upon the restoration to
their lands and the rebuilding of the desolate places, the cities and
towns. The nation did not receive God's Holy Spirit, they still married
foreign women and worked on the Sabbath (Ezra 10:11; Nehemiah
13:15,-18; 23). The Romans drove the Jews into Exile in two rebellions,
circa 70 and 135 CE (the first under the Roman Emperors Nero and
Vespasian, the second under Hadrian), only in 1948 CE would Israel as a
country be reborn.
The
failed prophecies of Ezekiel are important for Christians and Jews to
ponder and reflect upon. His prophecies were never fulfilled in the
lifetime of his audience, nor to this day, some 2500 years later. That
the Holy Spirit or God's Spirit really exists is extremely doubtful,
for it had caused Ezekiel to utter failed prophecies.
Christianity
and Judaism hold the prophets of the Old Testament in great honor and
awe. For Christians, the prophets predicted Christ's birth, mission and
resurrection. If the prophet's prophecies are false, as I have
demonstrated in several articles on this website, then their ability to
predict Christ and his mission are ergo, false as well.
Some
Jews and Christians have turned a blind eye to the "immediacy" issue of
Ezekiel's prophecies. He was adamant that God would vindicate his Holy
Name by accomplishing the predicted events after the elapse of 40 years
in Exile for Judah. The attempt by some Christians and Jews to "excuse"
Ezekiel's failed prophecies as intended by God for another age, our
own, isn't going to wash with me. God had told his people how to
recognize a false prophet. Wait for a sign, the fulfillment of the
prophecy, which indicates its fulfillment is in their lifetime, not
hundreds or thousands of years into the future. Both Rabbis and
Christian Preachers or Ministers, to this day ignore God's warning, "Do
not believe until the prophecy is fulfilled" (De 18:21-22). They teach
_contra God's warning_ their congregations that the prophecies of
the Old and or New Testaments that were not fulfilled in those
audiences' days, will be fulfilled in the present day.
Partial
fulfillment of a prophecy carries no wieght with me. For God's prophets
to be vindicated and their prophecies being true, they must be
fulfilled _exactly in the manner predicted_ and _in the audience's
lifetime_. For me, God should be all-powerful, and able to cross all
his t's and dot all the i's, that is to say nothing is in error,
everything transpired exactly as predicted down to the smallest detail.
Some
may want to argue that a 6th century BCE Israel was "unworthy" thus God
changed his mind, and did not implement the prophecies. I don't buy
this argument because God announced that he would forgive his people
their sins against him, and that he was doing this not for their sakes,
but for his own glory. Israel couldn't do anything to "earn" God's
redemption.
Ez 36:22, 32 RSV
"Therefore
say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your
sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my
holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been
profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and
the nations will know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when
through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes...It is not for
your sake that I will act, says the Lord God; let that be known to you.
Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel."
Ezekiel
had "tied" God's hands, he had boldly proclaimed God would accomplish
the prophecies at the elapse of a 40 year Exile of Judah, sometime in
the 6th century BCE. Although there was a return from the Exile in the
6th century BCE, other details were unfulfilled. Famine stalked the
land. God did not give the returnees his Holy Spirit as they still
profaned his Sabbath by working and marrying foreign women. Eventually
the Romans sent the returnees' descendants into Exile, an event which
was not supposed to ever happen according to the Holy Spirit speaking
via Ezekiel.
The
Christian claim is that one "has died" via baptism and become one with
Christ in death, and thus one is "dead to sin." For me this is
doubletalk. No-one is dead to sin. With the so-called Holy Spirit
dwelling within the Christian he still sins, so he is obviously_not_
dead to sin.
Christianty
understands a person having received the Holy Spirit, still has the
power (self-will) to turn his back on it and rejoin the non-Christian
world. This notion is the _antithesis_ of Ezekiel's understanding. Once
God has poured out his Holy Spirit on the those whom he allows to
return to the land from the Exile, they will never ever again sin
against God, nor will their descendants. The Holy Spirit is an
"all-powerful-tyrant", it simply will NOT allow sin to happen, for God
does not sin. Yet Christianity claims those possessed of the Holy
Spirit can OVERPOWER this spirit with their will and return to the
lusts and greed of the world ! A Christian by definition has the Holy
Spirit in him via baptism. If he is still sinning he has no Holy
Spirit. If he still sins AND possesses the Holy Spirit then the Holy
Spirit is quite a "weakling" in its inability to cause man to end his
sinning. Ezekiel understands that the Laws, Ordinances, and Statutes
will be obeyed. Paul says none are to be observed. Having a Holy Spirit
in you and NOT obeying the Laws, Ordinances and Statutes because you
are intuitively doing the "right thing" is like mixing apples and
oranges, they are different concepts. Either the Holy Spirit has the
power to end for all time man's sinning as well as his descendants (as
Ezekiel claims, for he doesn't envision God pouring out his Holy Spirit
from generation to generation on a "confessional personal basis" like
Christianity) or it doesn't have this power (as ackowledged by the
Christians).
Christians
claim the Holy Spirit can be obtained ONLY via baptism and accepting
Christ as the son of God _VERSUS_ the Hebraic concept, the Holy Spirit
is poured out on the nation, NOT because they confessed Jesus is God
and they have been baptised into his death, but because God is gracious
and is defending his Holy Name which has been profaned by Israel in the
Exile. In other words, Christians MUST EARN salvation through resisting
Satan _after receiving_ the Holy Spirit VERSUS Israel is SAVED because
she has the Holy Spirit and God will TEMPT HER or future generations NO
MORE (Why should God tempt God ?). Christians claim they can still
RESIST the Holy Spirit and OVERPOWER it _versus_ the Hebraic concept
that the Holy Spirit CANNOT be OVERPOWERED for all eternity, even
future generations will be born with the Holy Spirit in them at birth,
so that they will automatically observe Torah and possess forever the
Holy Land. Christians claim that this life is a contest to prove one's
loyalty to God by resisting Satan; they can expect "only tribulation in
this life", their rewards will be after death _VERSUS_ the Hebraic
notion that REWARDS are IMMEDIATE NOT DEFERRED, once the Holy Spirit is
in Israel God will shower them in their lifetimes with wealth, health
and victory over their enemies- they will NOT have "to prove their
loyalty" via trials against the Devil and Demons because God's Holy
Spirit is in them and God has no need to tempt his own Holy Spirit.
In
essence, I understand that everything Christianity teaches about the
Holy Spirit is the ANTITHESIS of the Hebraic concepts as presented by
Ezekiel.
15 Nov. 2005 Update:
Ezekiel
said Judah would be restored from the Captivity in 40 years (Ez 29:13).
God announced via Isaiah that because he was a merciful and forgiving
God, he would "pardon" his people's trespass against him! He would put
his holy spirit in them (Isa 44:3) guaranteeing they would never again
trespass against him. God did not keep his promise. He did not give
them his Holy Spirit upon restoring his people to their land under
Cyrus. They were oppressed by the Seleucid Greeks and Ptolemies as well
as the Romans who drove them from their land for rebellions in 70 and
135 AD. Yet God had assured his people with the restoration they would
no longer be oppressed, because HIS Holy Spirit would be poured out on
the nation making it posible for them to keep his Torah and never again
be expelled from their "promised" land.
One
of the _most glaring_ of the many failed prophecies appearing in the
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), is Yahweh's declaration that upon the
restoration of his people from the Babylonian Exile, that he will NOT
PERMIT the rebels among his people to return to the "promised land" !
He will liberate them from the Babylonian Captivity, but they will NOT
be permitted "a return" to their ancestral lands.
As
we learn from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, this declaration from
Yahweh was NOT realized, as the people who did return and settle in
Judah continued violating the Torah (Law) by marrying foreign women and
violating the Sabbath. Had Yahweh prevented such "rebels" from
re-entering the land these Torah-violating practices would never have
arisen. That is to say, the alleged Holy Sprit that inspired Ezekiel to
utter these words was quite wrong, rebels to the Torah DID RETURN TO
THE LAND and subvert Torah authority. God was apparently _impotent_ in
keeping such rascals out. And, had God poured out His Holy Spirit on
those whom He allowed to return, as He had promised via Ezekiel, the
re-admitted "non-rebels" would NOT have engaged in anti-Torah
behaviors. Ezekiel was quite "specific" about WHEN God would pour out
His Holy Spirit on his people, and cleanse them of their inquities, it
would occur upon the return to the land and the rebuilding of the
ruined cities. It is an established fact that under Cyrus, the Jews
were allowed to return to their lands and they did rebuild the
desolated places. Yet Yahweh failed to keep his oath, he allowed rebels
to return to the land and continue defying Torah by violating the
Sabbath and marrying foreign wives.
Ezekiel 20:33-34, 38 RSV
"As
I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and outstretched
arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you. I will bring
you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you
are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with
wrath poured out...I WILL PURGE OUT THE REBELS FROM AMONG YOU, and
those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land
where they sojourn, BUT THEY SHALL NOT ENTER THE LAND OF ISRAEL. Then
you will know that I am the Lord."
Ezekiel 36:24-28, 33-36 RSV
For
I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the
countries, and bring you back to your own land. And I will sprinkle
clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleanesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I
will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take
out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. AND
I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU, AND CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES
AND BE CAREFUL TO OBSERVE MY ORDINANCES. You shall dwell in the land
which I gave your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be
your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleanesses...Thus says
the Lord God: ON THE DAY I CLEANSE YOU FROM ALL YOUR INQUITIES, I WILL CAUSE THE CITIES TO BE INHABITATED AND THE WASTE PLACES TO BE REBUILT.
And the land that was desolate shall be tilled...Then the nations that
are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the
ruined places, and replanted that which was desolate; I the Lord, have
spoken, and I will do it."
Judaism,
by turning a "blind-eye" to the timetable (the return from the
Babylonian Captivity being the event) set by the prophets, Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, regarding "just when" Yahweh would accomplish His
promises as noted by Moses in Dueteronomy 30:1-10, a restoration of the
nation to its lands and His keeping out rebels, and pouring out His
Holy Spirit on the remnant allowed to return by Him, has kept alive for
centuries the failed promise of ALL Israel one day in the future being
gathered from from all over the world to dwell in its "promised
land." Judaism has also empoyed another "flawed methodology", the
ignoring of God's alleged statement that they are NOT TO BELIEVE UNTIL
THE PROPHECY IS FULFILLED. For over 2000 years the prophecies of the
prophets regarding Israel's restoration have remained unfulfilled, yet
the Rabbis encourage their people to believe in the prophets CONTRARY
to God's warning that the only way to know if a prophecy is false is
that it is not fulfilled in the lifetime of the audience hearing it.
Is
there a "way out" for Bible-believers (Jews and Christians) regarding
the failed prophecies ? Perhaps. They could argue that God can change
His mind at any time and He is not answerable to anyone for His
decision NOT to follow the timetable of a restoration from the
Babylonian Exile of 40 years (Ez 4:6) or of 70 years (Jer 29:10). The
problem ? If we allow this as "an excuse," then what point is there in
studying Old and New Testament prophecies as "proofs" God really exists
? They are meaningless if God can "change His mind" and decide NOT to
implement the prophecies _in the lifetimes of the audiences
hearing them_, thus NULLIFYING His advice via the Holy Spirit to His
people that the ONLY way to know if a prophet is false or not, is to
NOT BELIEVE until the prophecy is fulfilled (De 18:20-22).
06 Dec 2005 Update (an exchange with an individual on the Holy Spirit):
Walter had written:
Christianty understands a person having received the Holy Spirit,
still has the power (self-will) to turn his back on it and rejoin
the non-Christian world.
XXXXXX responds:
That's right. If the person didn't still have the power to turn his
back on it and rejoin the non-Christian world, then the receipt of
the Holy Spirit would include the loss of free will never to be
regained. Of course, this is wrong.
Walter replies:
Well we do agree on one point, the reception of the Holy Spirit by
Israel, causing her to not sin is in a sense an END of "free will."
Christ is alleged to have said "Not my will but thine (God's) be
done." Here his will is subordinated to the will of God. How can
Israel possess the land for ever if she continues sinning ? She
can't. Why couldn't she stop sinning ? She didn't have God's Holy
Spirit. How can she continue sinning and have God's Spirit ? Israel
loses her free will (the power to sin). It is no longer what Israel
wills but what the Holy Spirit wills -free will no longer exists
(that's why I call it a tyrant).
XXXXXX said:
If God was going to give man
free will, why would Catholics take that free will away with their
initial sacrament? Of course, they don't.
Christianity understands an adult as receiving the Holy Spirit
through an act of the will, not an act of the Holy Spirit.
Walter replies:
The New Testament declares that an individual must "believe" Christ
is the son of God, and be baptized into his death, symbolically his
Free Will is killed in the waters of baptism, a type of watery
grave. When he rises from the waters of death he is now "dead" he
has now the Holy Spirit replacing his Free Will. The reality ? The
Holy Spirit has NOT replaced man's Free Will, its still there,
defying God and sinning. This is where Christianity _differs_ from
Ezekiel, he does not see Israel "sinning" after the reception of the
Holy Spirit and thus losing her Promised Land. Christianity -more
realistically- "acknowledges sinning is still going on" among
individuals after their baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit.
How to account for this enigma? Christianity accounts for
this "anomaly" by positing _CONTRA Ezekiel_ that the Holy Spirit
cannot "end" man's Free Will, replacing it with the Spirit's Will.
So, Christianity now has an explanation for the phenomenon
of "apostate Christians" who have triumphed over the Holy Spirit by
excercising their Free Wills. If the Hebrews had bought "into" this
Christian notion, then Israel would have lost her Promised Land
because she still would be able to sin against God.
As I noted earlier, the Holy Spirit is given to the nation upon its
return from the Babylonian Exile. It is NOT given on an individual
case by case confession Christ is the son of God followed by baptism
into his death. You suggest this is "elitist," the Holy Spirit being
given ONLY to Israel, whereas you apparently think Christianity's
notion is "superior" and non-elitist because gentiles can receive
the Holy Spirit if they confess Christ is the son of God and are
baptized. You sound like a Christian apologist, are you ?
Christianity gets its "elitism" from Israel- ONLY Christians will
be "saved" the rest of humanity is consigned to hell-fire and
eternal torment.
Ezekiel does NOT see God "tempting" Israel anymore with false
prophets, for now she has his Holy Spirit. Christianity begs to
differ, Christians must excercise their free wills to resist the
Devil and his demons and "EARN" salvation by striving against their
free will which wants to sin (a foreign notion to Ezekiel).
For me this Holy Spirit nonsense (Hebraic or Christian or Buddhist)
is just a bunch of philosophical double-talk, it doesn't exist.
All religions have come to realize man's suffering is caused by free-
will, man's desire to triumph over his fellowman, what Darwin so
correctly called "the struggle of the species." All societies seek
to control non-social behaviors by various means. The concept of
self-negation, denying the desire to sin (free will), is promoted as
right and wrong. Animals have no sense of right and wrong they do
whatever their (free) will wants. For me man is an animal who has
fooled himself into believing in a God and and a Holy Spirit in
order to control his fellow man.
Freewill for me is the power to choose to do right and wrong. The
prophets understand that after receiving God's Holy Spirit that
Israel will ALWAYS do RIGHT and NEVER do WRONG. If she "has the
power to do wrong" and NEVER excercises this power, then I see _no_
freewill here.
Isa 60:21
Your people SHALL BE RIGHTEOUS; they shall possess the land FOR
EVER...that I might be glorified.
60:15
...I will make you majestic FOR EVER, a joy from age to age...
I see NOTHING here about Israel _ever excercising_ the option to do
WRONG, for if she had that option, why is she _UNABLE_ to excercise
it ? If she excercises the will to do WRONG she will then "make a
fool of God," for he has declared she will be a joy to him for ever
through all future generations.
Ez 36:26-29
A new heart I will give you, and a NEW SPIRIT I will put within
you...I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT WITHIN IN _AND CAUSE YOU_ to walk in my
statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. You shall dwell in
the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people,
and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your
uncleannesses..."
I do NOT understand Israel's freewill is being excercised in obeying
God's laws and ordinances, for God says ... I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT
WITHIN IN _AND CAUSE YOU..."How can Israel "choose to obey God if
_God is CAUSING_ her to obey him via his Spirit ?
As I have said before, the Hebrew prophets do not see Israel ever
sinning again against God and thus losing her land again _contra_
the Christian notion that the Holy Spirit _cannot_ prevent apostasy
and the exercising of a free will.
The Holy Spirit is accepted as REAL among all Chistians. ALL
branches of Christianity, be they Catholic or Protestant all claim
this Holy Spirit guides them in correct doctrines. Yet these
doctrines CONTRADICT each other from church to church. It is quite
clear to me that if the Holy Spirit is incapable of _contradicting_
itself, then the contradicting dogmas and articles of faith which
vary from denomination to denomination would have to be all wrong
and under Satan's power, he being the "father of error and
contradiction." Under this paradigm, only ONE denomination is
obeying the Holy Spirit. But which ? The failed prophecies of the
Bible, Old as well as New Testament are "proof" for me that the Holy
Spirit does not exist, for it caused the prophets to err.
Regards, Walter
Inerrancy Claims for the Bible ("Whistling in the Dark")
Those
who believe the Bible is the word of God make the claim it is
consequently _inerrant_ and posseses no error. Any finding of Science,
Archaeology, Anthropology, or Geologogy which "contradicts" Holy Writ
is automatically wrong.
Is
the Bible really "inerrant" ? It exists in several recensions in
today's world. Today's Jews tend to use the Massoretic Text; the
Samartitans have their own text which consists only of the Pentateuch
(the first five books of the Hebrew Bible); the Greek Orthodox
Christians use a Greek Septuaginta translation made in the 3rd century
BCE by Jews for Jews at Alexandria, Egypt; Syrian Christians use an
"Aramaic" text called the "Peshitta"; Catholics use a text which is a
mix of the Massoretic and Septuaginta, derived from a Latin Vulgate
composed by Jerome; Some Protestant groups rely on the King James
Version of 1611, while others opt for a Revised Standard Version.
What
is readily apparent in _all_ these recensions is that they DISAGREE
amongst themselves and CONTRADICT each other in "the fine details." Please click here
for the PROBLEM of contradicting recensions of the New Testament noted
by scholars and scroll down to section 7 on the "un-uniformity" of the
NT Texts (presented most interestingly by a Moslem scholar refuting
Christianity via the research of a number of Christian scholars).
Some
Conservative scholars, faced with these _undeniable_ "contradictions
and errors" among _all_ the above recensions have been forced to admit
_they do NOT know_ which text or recension is the "inerrant" text, free
of any and all errors!
Some
scholars have opted for a "rationalization/speculation" which argues
that the original text "_must have been_" error-free" or "inerrant" but
that consequent transmissions or recopyings of the text through the
millennia introduced copyiest errors. The problem? This rationale
implies _God is impotent and unable_ to protect his holy word from
corruption and error. It also implies that todays various faiths and
their doctrines are built upon _errant_ texts.
Yet
these "defenders of the faith," acknowledging they possess "errant
texts" which contradict and disagree with each other, argue that these
"errant texts" should be regarded as the "true and inerrant" word of
God, and Science which dares to contradict God's "inerrant word" is
wrong.
The
reality, dear reader, is that the Hebrew Bible and particularly the
book of Genesis, is a later Hebrew re-working and transformation of
SPECULATIONS made by Sumerians in the 4th-3rd millennium BCE regarding
the origins of the world and man's creation.
The
claim that Genesis "is true" is really based on SPECULATION, not proof.
No one knows if God revealed the origins of the world to Moses or not.
How do we know that Moses did not "dream-up" the origins of the world
and falsely claim it came from God? How do we know Moses wrote the
Genesis account and not someonelse in another age? How do we know a
serpent really convinced Eve to err? How do we know Adam and Eve were
expelled from Paradise? No _proof_ exists for any of these
"assertions". All we have are the SPECULATIONS of the ancient Hebrews
set down in the Bible and the _unsubstantiated_ claim that all this was
"revealed" to Moses.
I
have already pointed out the problem in regards to claims of a
"revelation" from a God -they are unverifiable. The ONLY
revelations which are "subject to some form of verification" are
specific claims to prophecies being fulfilled. I have already pointed
out that my investigations revealed the prophets erred and their
prophecies were NOT fulfilled.
In
the end, one is left with choosing which groups' SPECULATIONS are
believable: The _speculations_ of the ancient Hebrews preserved in
Genesis, or the _speculations_ of modern Science, Anthropology,
Archaeology and Geology?
Both groups claim they have the "correct" understanding of the origins of the world and of man.
The
bible-believers DO NOT POSSESS AN INERRANT ERROR-FREE HOLY TEXT- in its
place they offer their SPECULATIONS about a _supposedly_ now
"non-existent" INERRANT TEXT, which the Hebrew God, for unknown
reasons, allowed to be miscopied over several millennia and evolve into
the present day plethora of CONTRADICTING recensions.
Professor
Steibing on three different and _CONTRADICTING_ dates for God's
creation of the world found in the book of Genesis as calculated by
Jewish, Catholic and Protestant scholars:
"Most
scholars [prior to the 19th century AD] agreed that the world was only
about six thousand years old, though there was considerable
disagreement over the exact date of the creation. Jewish rabbinical
calculations from the Hebrew Massoretic Text showed that the world
began 3,740 years before the Christian Era. Roman Catholic tradition,
based on the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, placed the
creation in 5199 B.C. And most English-speaking Protestants accepted
the seventeenth-century Archbishop James Ussher's calculation of the
time of creation, 4004 B.C. Ussher's dates were placed in the margins
of early eighteenth-century editions of the King James version of the
Bible, making them seem even more authoritive." (p. 32. "The Discovery
of Prehistory." William H. Steibing Jr. Uncovering the Past. New York & Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1994 [1993 Prometheus Books])
There
is yet "another problem" in regards to inerrancy claims, and that has
to do with the Holy Spirit. We are informed that this Spirit is alive
and well today and that all of Holy Writ is God-inspired. The Holy
Spirit also guides the pious against "error" in doctrine and belief,
against the wiles of Satan, the "father of error."
For
several centuries Christendom has waged war on various Christian sects
claiming they were not led by the Holy Spirit but were "in error" and
under Satan's influence, teaching the false doctrines of men for God's
word. The Catholics eventually "excommunicated" the Greek Orthodox over
doctrinal disputes and the Orthodox "returned the favor." Then arose
Luther and Protestantism, a movement claiming Catholicism had "erred"
and strayed from correct doctrines, when reforms were rebuffed by the
Papacy the Protestants created their own churches and were
excommunicated. Each group, claimed they possessed the correct
doctrines" and were being led by the Holy Spirit and each claimed the
others were in "error" and being duped by Satanic forces.
How
can the Holy Spirit "be real" if _it could not prevent errors_ from
creeping into the various recensions, and how can _all_ the various
congregations, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Samaritan, Jewish, Aramaic
Syrian, and Protestant _all_ be "led" by it ? They all can't be right,
and no one knows who is right. It would appear that "the imaginary
Satan" has triumphed. He has succeeded in corrupting the Holy Text with
contradictions, such that no-one knows which is the correct inerrant
text, and no-one knows which system of belief has the one true
doctrine. Yet out of this mess of confusing and contradicting
doctrines, comes a claim for the "inerrancy" of the Holy Text !
In
a Court of Law the witness who CONTRADICTS HIMSELF is regarded with
suspicion and distrust. If errors are discovered in his testimony, one
learns "to question" all the witness' assertions. The various
biblical recensions, all claiming to be God's witness, CONTRADICT
themselves in various details (Please click here
for contradictions in the ages of the pre-flood patriachs in Genesis in
the Hebrew Massoretic Text and the Greek Septuaginta which was the
"original" Bible of Christendom). As "witnesses" they must be treated
with suspicion and only those claims which can be proved by examination
of the evidence can be allowed. The disciplines of Archaeology, Geology
and Anthropology have cross-examined "the witness," the alleged Holy
Spirit, and the texts it supposedly generated by the hands of pious men
and have found it "wanting". Science does _not_ support the biblical
presentation of the origins of the world or of man as presented in
Genesis.
The
faithfuls' response is that Satan has "duped" the Scientists
(Geologists, Archaeologists and Anthropologists), and that the Bible is
God's trustworthy inerrant word.
Christians
and Jews generally agree that the Holy Bible is without error or
"inerrant" as it is understood to be God's holy word, given to Moses
and the Prophets via God's Holy Spirit.
What
many believers are _not_ aware of is that the Bible, both the Old and
New Testament exists today in a plethora of _contradicting_ recensions.
How can it be God's holy word if it exists with contradictions between
the recensions ? How can one determine which recension is error-free ?
Is any recension error-free ? If not, why has God allowed his holy word
to be "corrupted" with man-made errors ? If all the texts are "errant"
this suggests the possibility that the churches built upon these texts
may be errant in their espoused doctrines and dogmas. Has Satan and his
Demons succeeded in thwarting God by successfully "corrupting" God's
holy word with innumerable contradicting man-made errors ?
As
will be seen below, "some" professional bible scholars have acknowleged
that _all_ texts to some degree possess errors and variant readings.
The "original" pristine texts written by Moses and the Prophets do not
exist. I would have to say from a former Fundamentalist
Protestant upbringing, that the Bible as we have it today is NOT
inerrant, it exists only in errant forms.
Scholars
studying the Hebrew Bible have noted that the earliest known copies,
dating from the mid- 3rd century BCE and found in association with the
Dead Sea Scrolls near Qumran, possess variant readings among
themsleves. They have attempted to come up with an explanation as to
why these texts possess these variations.
Admittedly,
all the below is "speculative," and there are several competing
theories. Some scholars have suggested that in the beginning there was
one text, called an "Ur-text,"and that later copyings introduced
errors, editings, and consequently a number of variant recensions.
Some, holding to this view, attempt to recover the original reading by
studying the oldest known examples from the mid- 3rd century BCE. The
problem ? This century bears witness to numerous variations among the
manuscripts. It is probably _impossible_ to determine which variant is
to be preferred over all the others in order to recover the original
"pristine" text (called an "Ur-text").
Professor Tov:
"At
some point scholars have to form an opinion on the question of whether
or not there once existed an (one) original textual form ("Ur-text") or
several pristine forms of the biblical books...The majority opinion
holds that there once existed an Ur-text...Because of these problems,
most of the existing critical editions of the OT are not eclectic but
"diplomatic"; that is, they reproduce a particular form of the textus receptus
("received text") of the OT as the base text, while recording divergent
readings (or "variants") from Hebrew and non-Hebrew sources in an
accompanying critical appartus. In contrast, most modern translations
of the OT are by nature eclectic: while adhering basically to the MT,
they often replace some MT readings with parallel ones from the
versions (mainly the Septuaginta) and the Qumran scrolls." (p. 394.
vol. VI. Emanuel Tov. "Textual Criticism (OT)." David Noel Freedman.
Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
"Except
in the case of photographic reproductions of the same text, no two
printed editions of the Hebrew Bible are identical. The differences
among them generally have to do with minimal, even minute, details of
the text (single consonants, vowel signs, accents, text arrangement,
numbering of verses, division into chapters and verses, Massoretic
notes). In a few cases, however, they concern entire words (e.g., some
editions of Prov 8:16 read sedeq, "righteousness," but other 'ares,
"earth"). Older printed editions contain several misprints and this is
even true of many modern editions...Disregarding these printing errors,
most variations between the printed editions go back to differences in
the manuscripts on which they are based...the differences between the
Massoretic manuscripts are small, while the older sources such as the
Qumran scrolls often display major variations among themselves." (pp.
394-395. Vol. VI. Emanuel Tov. "C. Textual History [Textual Criticism,
OT]." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
"Printed
editions. Many scholars believe that the most ideal edition would be
one based on a single manuscript, since it would be a faithful
representation of one existing system. Such editions have appeared
recently...In the past, editors composed their respective texts from a
variety of manuscripts that they deemed suitable, rarely mentioning
their sources for the individual elements of the text. Moreover they
allowed their own grammatical ideas to influence the text. Even though
the differences between the printed editions are minor, these small
variations are important for the grammatical analysis of the text." (p.
399. Vol. VI. Emanuel Tov. "C. Textual History [Textual Criticism,
OT]." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
"...many
copyists took liberty to insert changes in the text...Textual variety
was characteristic of Palestine as a whole... (p. 406)...Vulgar texts
are known from diiferent places in Palestine. Their copyists took
liberty to insert in them all kinds of changes and corrections as well
as to innovate the spelling, often drastically, as witnessed in many of
the Qumran scrolls. Typical representatives of this group are the texts
produced by the Qumran school of scribes. These texts are usually
written carelessly, and the contain many corrections and erasures...The
nonvulgar texts can also be named "precise" or "conservative," but
these terms may be misleading since these texts differ from each other.
These internal differences reflect the textual diversity in the Second
Temple period, and all of them reflect elements of the so-called
original text which have been changed in the other texts. It is hard to
say which text is closer to the so-called Ur-text; if a personal
impression may be allowed here, it seems that often the Septuaginta is
closer to that text than the Massoretic Text...The vulgar and nonvulgar
texts described here were current in Palestine in the last three
centuries BC and in the first two centuries AD...After several
centuries of textual diversity we note a period of textual unity at the
end of the first century AD....caused by political and socioreligious
events and developments."
(p. 407. Vol. VI. Emanuel Tov. "C. Textual History [Textual Criticism, OT]." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
"The
relationship between Textual Witnesses: The most important textual
witnesses to the Old Testamant [OT] are Massoretic [MT] with Hebrew
Vorlage and of the Septuaginta [LXX]...independent Qumran texts and
those written in "Qumran" orthography and language, the proto-Samaritan
sources, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. All other sources (such as the
Peshitta, Vulgate, Targums, the Hebrew texts from Nahal Hever, Wadi
Murabb'at, Masada, and the many Qumran texts) are less significant for
the history of the OT text since they are virtually identical with MT.
(p. 404. Vol. VI. Emanuel Tov. "C. Textual History [Textual Criticism,
OT]." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
My Conclusions on the Hebrew Bible:
The
earliest "Witness Texts" to the Hebrew Bible are the Proto-Massoretic,
Samaritan, and Septuaginta of the mid third century- 1st century BCE
and they exhibit numerous textual variations. The attempt to
reconstruct or recover an original pristine Ur-text has not been
successful. Today's translations of the Hebrew Bible vary from
publisher to publisher due to each editor choosing what portions of
variant readings from different texts/manuscripts to "include/exclude"
in his version, hence the reason why today's Bibles possess so many
different variants or readings/renderings of verses.
The New Testament:
"The
Basic Transmission Process. The discipline of textual criticism is
necessitated by the nature of the process by which the New Testament
text has been transmitted to us- through manuscripts, that is, through
copies of copies made by hand down through the years, Since- like
virtually all ancient literature- no autographs [originals] are extant
for the NewTestament, its most likely original text must be
reconstructed from these imperfect, often widely divergent, later
copies." (p. 414. vol. VI. Eldon Jay Epp."Textual Criticism (NT)."
David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
"Textual
criticism has been occasioned by the divergent nature of the texts in
our manuscript remains, and is necessitated by the quantity of
manuscript evidence. But necessity also arises from scribal errors and
alterations in the transmission process. Among our earliest
manuscripts, some show signs of being copied with workmanlike
care...while others appear to have been copied by rather careless
scribes...Scribal habits, including errors andalterations, need to be
analyzed carefully. Commonly they are divided into two categories:
unintentional and intentional alterations." (p. 416. vol. VI. Eldon Jay
Epp."Textual Criticism (NT)." David Noel Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
""Changes
made intentionally by scribes as they copied texts were motivated, in
virtually all cases, by a desire to improve the text or to correct it
in accordance with what they believed to be its true reading.
Purposefully destructive change, at least as perceived by thescribe, is
unknown. Moreover, it is customary to say that a slavish scribe- and
better still, one of only modest intelligence- is to be preferred to
one who thinks for himself. It is the thinking scribe who is more
likely to make intentional alterations in the text, inevitably in good
faith and out of worthy motivations, including occasional changes made
to introduce or promote a viewpoint not in the text being copied. As a
class, intentional alterations are far fewer than accidental ones, yet
they can excercise far more influence in the transmission process." (p.
417. vol. VI. Eldon Jay Epp."Textual Criticism (NT)." David Noel
Freedman. Editor. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York. Doubleday. 1992)
Professor
Steibing on three different and _CONTRADICTING_ dates for God's
creation of the world found in the book of Genesis as calculated by
Jewish, Catholic and Protestant scholars:
"Most
scholars [prior to the 19th century AD] agreed that the world was only
about six thousand years old, though there was considerable
disagreement over the exact date of the creation. Jewish rabbinical
calculations from the Hebrew Massoretic Text showed that the world
began 3,740 years before the Christian Era. Roman Catholic tradition,
based on the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, placed the
creation in 5199 B.C. And most English-speaking Protestants accepted
the seventeenth-century Archbishop James Ussher's calculation of the
time of creation, 4004 B.C. Ussher's dates were placed in the margins
of early eighteenth-century editions of the King James version of the
Bible, making them seem even more authoritive." (p. 32. "The Discovery
of Prehistory." William H. Steibing Jr. Uncovering the Past. New York & Oxford. Oxford University Press. 1994 [1993 Prometheus Books])
For all the details on various Bible recensions possessing DIFFERENT CREATION DATES and FLOOD DATES please click here for all the details and scroll down to the 28 Jan 2006 Update.
Like
the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, no pristine original manuscripts
exist of the New Testament. All possess variant texts. Some exhibit
scribal carelessness, and others reveal deliberate alterations. The
present day translations reflect choices made by the translator, who
does not usually advise his readership that the text they are reading
is in reality a "composite" of readings made from variant manuscripts;
hence the reason for the differing versions which exist in modern
editions of the New Testament.
Many
"of the faithful," Jewish and Christian, are unaware of all of the
above- that the texts they believe to be the "inerrant" word of God are
in fact drawn from earlier copies known by scholars to be "errant"
and possessing all kinds of copyist errors, including deliberate
alterations of the texts. They in good faith accept these _errant texts
as "proof" of the inerrancy_ of God's holy word.
For
me, the "proof" that the Bible is God-inspired (of the Holy Spirit) and
inerrant would be that no error would exist within its pages or in its
various recensions (God is NOT impotent and unable to preserve his holy
word) and _all_ the prophecies were fulfilled down to the smallest
details _exactly in the manner predicted_ in the lifetimes of the
audiences hearing them so that these audiences would know if a false
prophet was speaking or not (God does not make mistakes). The fact that
the various recensions do have errors and contradict each other in
various details is "proof" for me this is not an "inerrant" text, its a
creation of fallible men who do make mistakes and who do err, and the
claims to the existence of a Holy Spirit, a God, a Satan and Demons are
all bogus unsubstantiated "speculation."
That
is to say, the "imaginary" Satan is understood by Christians to be "the
father of error", it follows that _any_ composition created by Satan or
written under Satanic influence, will, by necessity, be FULL OF ERRORS,
as "Error is Satan's HALLMARK" in all that he does. It is then, quite
"impossible" for Satan to create a composition and pass it off as God's
handiwork, because Satan's works will ALWAYS POSSESS ERRORS. We should
expect that God's written documents or compositions inspired by the
Holy Spirit SHOULD BE DISTINGUISHABLE FROM SATAN'S by possessing NO
ERRORS WHATSOEVER. The problem ? _ALL_ Bible recensions POSSESS ERRORS,
_ergo_ ALL BIBLES are SATANIC CREATIONS. IF the Bible was _really_
God's or the Holy Spirit's creation it would be distinguishable from
Satan's work by having NO ERRORS WHATSOEVER _FOR ALL OF ETERNITY_.
Christian
Apologists of course are LOATHE "to impute error" to the Holy Spirit or
God so they dismiss the errors found in all Bible recensions as
man-made and of no big-deal, not compromising God's message. Error is
blamed on human fallibility not the Holy Spirit. Only the original
compositions, called "autographs", now univerally acknowledged to be
lost, were INFALLIBLE and FREE OF ERROR. This of course is "_pure
speculation_" on the Christian Apologists' part.
The
Apologists think they are absolving God and and Holy Spirit of blame in
claiming the errors in today's Bibles are man-made. The reality is that
this Apologetic is a slap-in-the-face to God and his Holy Spirit, for
it implies both were _impotent or didn't care_ and were UNABLE to
preserve the holy word from Satan who led the scribes and translators
down through the ages into making numerous textual errors, in defiance
of the Holy Spirit.
So,
in the final analysis, ALL BIBLE RECENSIONS ARE FULL OF ERRORS,
revealing they are Satan's handiwork, and the Bible is not the
handiwork of God or his Holy Spirit, for God's handiwork _ought to be_
distinguished from Satan's handiwork by an absence of ALL ERROR FOR ALL
ETERNITY. Why ? because Christian Apologists claim the Holy Spirit is
still alive today and guiding the scribes and translators of todays
Bibles, and this Holy Spirit also guides the Church in correct
doctrines from the Biblical texts. The errors in today's Bibles are
proof the Holy Spirit does not exist and is bogus. The contradictory
dogmas and beliefs embraced by thousands of Christian denominations,
each in the past accusing the others of being in error and led by
Satan, reveal Christianity's notion of a Holy Spirit's existence is
false. For why would the Holy Spirit allow Christianity to fragment
into so many contradicting denominations and give them Bibles full of
man-made errors ? In past ages Christians tortured fellow Christians
into confessing heresy, then they burned the heretics alive at the
stake in public pageants called Auto da Fe's (Roman Catholic).
Protestants returned the favor (in England Catholics wre burned alive
by Protestants). The wars of the Reformation of the 1500's and 1600's
witnessed the savage butchery of Protestant against Catholic, each
claiming the Holy Spirit led them into victory over each other, and
that torture and burnings were with the Holy Spirit's blessings ! What
nonsense ! The Holy Spirit told Christians to "turn the other cheek to
their enemies and to pray for them", not torture, burn alive and kill
fellow Christians ! No, dear reader, there is NO Holy Spirit, NO God,
NO error-free Bible. All of the foregoing Christian behaviors better
fit the God of this earth, Satan.
Of
course, I am being "tongue-in-cheek facetious" (playing the Devils'
advocate) in the above discussion of the Bible being Satan's work, for
I am a Secular Humanist who understands _all_ religions are bogus, they
are the creations of men's imaginations, projecting man's loves, hates,
fears and lusts onto imaginary gods.
Another
problem regarding the existence of a HOly Spirit is the Errors in
translations, by translators who claim the Holy Spirit is guiding them
in making "correct" translations, assuring thereby, correct doctrines
and dogmas for the faithful and the Church.
For an example of a translational error cf. Isaiah 45:7
(Cf. the below from an article by Glenn Miller of the Christian Think Tank)
Isaiah 45:7: (TANAKH)
"Who fashions light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates evil, I am HaShem who does all this."
Glenn Miller:
"In
the piece I wrote on this subject, I stated rather simply that God does
not "create" evil. I described evil (metaphysical, ethical evil) in the
piece as something along the lines of moral malignancy or interpersonal
treachery or some such. The writer here appeals to a verse, which at
the surface would seem to be a direct contradiction of my position
(taken at the linguistic "surface" as well). The writer here is
obviously aware that God and Glenn might be using the word 'evil' in
two different senses (calling it "open to discussion"), and it is this
very fact which can be easily seen from the simple word usage in the
Isaiah text, in the OT/Tanakh, and in the Rabbinic literature.
It
might seem odd to TANAKH readers that I would devote attention to such
a peculiar comment/disagreement as this, but I want to use an aspect of
this as an example of 'mistakes believers make' and 'mistakes skeptics
make'-that of assuming that a word has only one meaning. [I speak
first-hand from this, since I personally have made this mistake many,
many times in my theological history!!!!]"
Miller
is quite correct about a word having a range of DIFFERENT meanings
depending on its context. He then provides a "range" of meanings for
the Hebrew word ra, and concludes that the King James Translators
choice of the word "evil," was a poor and misleading choice because it
causes some readers to understand God is the source of evil.
What
I find most remarkable here is that what Miller is pointing out is that
NOT all translators AGREE on a word's meaning within its Hebrew (Old
Testament) or Greek (New Testament) context.
Supposedly,
according to Christian Apologists the Holy Spirit is alive and well
today (this 21st Century AD) and guiding the pious translators in their
"correct" choice of words in rendering the meaning of the texts from
the Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek texts.
Miller's
argument shows me quite clearly that the Holy Spirit is bogus and not
real. For if it really existed, it would guide FOR ALL TIME AND
ETERNITY DOWN THROUGH THE AGES _ALL_ pious God-fearing translators in
choosing the "correct" English words, so that NO ERROR would arise in
understanding the holy texts by the reader. The fact that translators
DOWN THROUGH THE AGES CANNOT AGREE AMONGST THEMSELVES on the
appropriate choice of words or meaning of a text, speaks loud and clear
there is NO HOLY SPIRIT at work here, only error-prone mortal men
"wrangling" with each other, denying OTHERS have the "correct"
translation.
A
good of example of this "wrangling" can be witnessed at the on-line
b-Hebrew list where Jewish and Christian professional scholars gather
to exchange their views on the meanings of Hebrew words or on what a
particular verse means or does not mean. Of course "some" of these
individuals see themselves as God-fearing pious men and women and they
are eager "to know" or sometimes "pontificate on" the "correct" meaning
of a word or phrase or verse in Hebrew. One thing is quite clear to me
from observing the sometimes heated exchanges between Jews and
Christians (including Secular Humanists), is that the Holy Spirit that
they claim is alive and well and guiding them, has done _in my
estimation_ a "sorry job" in clarifying the Hebrew text to everyone's
satisfaction. The disagreements are "proof" for me there is NO Holy
Spirit alive and well today guiding the translators. If there was one,
there wouldn't be any confusion over what a word or verse means or
doesn't mean and there would be NO NEED for the existence of the
b-Hebrew list. If you are interested in becoming a member of the
b-Hebrew list please click on the following url:
There
is yet one more problem regarding claims for the Holy Spirit and that
is its alleged role in prophecy, especially from a Christian point of
view. We are told it was the Holy Spirit that spoke to the Prophets,
causing them to utter their prophecies. As I have already noted, my
investigations into the Bible's prophecies revealed most if not all
were unfulfilled in the lifetimes of the audiences they were intended
for and unfulfilled to this present day. So this "fact" speaks volumes
against the notion that the Holy Spirit is "real." Had it been "real"
the prophecies would have been fulfilled in the lifetimes of the
audiences hearing the prophet's words and the "manner" in which the
events were to unfold would be without error.
2 Peter 1:20-21 RSV
"First
of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a
matter of one's interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the
impulse of man, but by men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
For
me, the "proof" that the Bible is God-inspired (of the Holy Spirit) and
inerrant would be that no error would exist within its pages or in its
various recensions (I understand that God should NOT be impotent and
unable to preserve his holy word) and _all_ the prophecies were
fulfilled down to the smallest details _exactly in the manner
predicted_ in the lifetimes of the audiences hearing them so that these
audiences would know if a false prophet was speaking or not ( I
understand that God should not make mistakes). The fact that the
various recensions do have errors and contradict each other in various
details is "proof" for me this is not an "inerrant" text, its a
creation of fallible men who do make mistakes and who do err, and the
claims to the existence of a Holy Spirit, a God, a Satan and Demons are
all bogus unsubtantiated "speculation."
Please click here
for my article -citing the research of professional Jewish and
Christian scholars- titled "Is the Bible Inerrant or Errant ? (The
Problem of Textual Criticism)."
Please click here
for my article on early Christendom's "First" Bible, the Greek
Septuaginta, "the foundation stone" of Christainity and its "errant"
readings when compared to the Jewish Massoretic Text.
********************************************************************************************************************
The Original Article
29 Dec. 2002
I
must admit to being fascinated as to how differently Judaism
understands the Old Testament vs. the Christian understanding in
regards to the Messiah and the reception of God's Holy Spirit.
After
collecting together various statements in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
I have concluded that those verses which present the "preconditions
which must be met and in place" for an individual to receive the Holy
Spirit from God --that strangely-- the New Testament Texts
have "avoided" citing these OT texts. By turning a "blind-eye" to these
texts, Christianity was able to present a different set of
"pre-conditions" for obtaining the Holy Spirit of God. Also possible
was a different portrayal of the Messiah, again by ignoring and turning
a blind-eye to these OT verses.
The
OT nowhere states that God is sending "his son" to the earth to die for
mankind's sins. Nowhere does it state that the Messiah MUST die and
that his shed blood will be an atonement for man's sins and that this
shed blood will reconcile God to man.
Contrary
to Christian teachings, my readings of the OT texts, reveal that the
prophets understood that the following "preconditions" had to be in
place:
1) The Nation must first go into Exile as punishment for despising God and
not whole-heartedly observing His Torah.
2) Upon the "restoration" from Exile, God would graciously pardon and
forgive the "returning remnant" of the Exile.
3) God would not only pardon "the returning remnant," he would create a New
Covenant with them, he would personally engrave in their hearts and minds an
observance of Torah, and to make all this possible for evermore, he would
pour out on ALL his people His HOLY SPIRIT -there is nothing suggesting His
Messiah must first die, then ONLY those who are baptized in this Messiah's
name will be saved and have God's Holy Spirit (cf. Jer 32:37-41; Isa 43;25;
44:3, 22; 48:20; 49:3,6).
4) The prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekeil, ALL realized that the reason
the nation failed to obey Torah, was that they didn't have God's Holy Spirit
in them to make this possible- in other words they could not attain
righteousness by their own actions, they being told that If they obeyed
Torah it would be counted "as righteous" on their part (De 7:24-25). The
Solution for the National dilemma- the Exile- was to have God graciously
pardon the returning remnant and pour out his HOLY SPIRIT on all of them. Of
course, as we all know, this did not happen. Yes, there was a return from
Exile, but they still married foreign women and profaned the Sabbath in Ezra
and Nehemiah's days, a hundred years after the return from the Exile, so God
DID NOT pour out his Holy Spirit making it possible for them to observe
Torah.
5) The reason given by the prophets as to WHY God will pour out his Holy
Spirit upon the returnees from Exile was that God "for his own sake, would
not remember their sins" (Isa 43:25); and that "He, God, might be glorified"
by replanting his people and forgiving their trespass against him (Isa
60:21-22). Ezekiel stated that "on the day that I cleanse you from your
iniquities I will cause the cities to be inhabited and the waste places to
be rebuilt (Ezek 36:26). The return from Exile was ca. 539 BCE and the
returnees did begin rebuilding the waste places and reinhabiting them.
The concern of the propets is that Israel is in Exile for depising God and
his Torah. How is the land to be returned to the people ? Through God's
grace, he will bring them back, replant them, and give them his Holy Spirit
making it possible for them to obey his Torah and forevermore enjoy the
bounty of the land never again to be uprooted and sent into another exile
(Jer 31:31-34, 38-40; 32:37-41).
My study of Isaiah 42, the so-called "Suffering Servant" suggests that it
not an individual being portrayed (Jesus the Christ), but the nation, Israel
and Judah, also called Jacob. They "suffer or are "afflicted by God" because
He has turned on them in His wrath, chastising them with Exile for despising
Torah. Yet the "Suffering Servant" will know God's future grace, He will
restore Jacob to his land and pour out His Holy Spirit on His returning
people.
The Christian Claims :
Christ
is called "the Word" (Greek: Logos), by whom God the Father, made the
world (John 1:1, 14). Thus the God who makes the world in Genesis is
understood by Christians to be Christ. It is Christ as a "Logos-God"
who utters the words which create the cosmos and all that is in it,
including mankind.
John 1:1 (RSV)
"In
the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was
God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through
him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men."
A
related notion is that no man has at any time seen God (John 1:18).
That is, the claims in the Old Testament that Adam and Eve, Abraham,
Isaac, Moses, the Prophets, saw God, are contradicted by Christianity,
they actually beheld his son Christ in his role as the "Creator- Word"
or Logos. Only the Son beholds the Father in Christian understanding,
and it is the son ONLY who makes known the Father to mankind.
Christ
is understood by Christians to be the God who led Israel in the
wilderness and who appeared at Mount Sinai and who gave his people the
Decalogue or Ten Commandments (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
1 Corinthians 10:1-4
I
want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud,
and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all
drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural
Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ."
John 1:18 (RSV)
"No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known."
Christians
understand that the Messiah's purpose was to die and through his
innocent shed blood, mankind could be reconciled to God the Father, and
be saved, to enjoy eternity in God's company. Only by confessing the
name of Christ, believing in him and via baptism, can God's Holy Spirit
be bestowed on Man. This is quite a contrast to Hebraic belief. The Old
Testament does not appear to be aware of a need for a Messiah to be
offered as a living sacrifice to obtain God's grace, that is, his
forgiveness, mercy and the bestowal of his spirit on men so that they
might be able to keep his laws and be reconciled to him.
Whereas
God forgives his people by restoring them to thier land for all
eternity, Christianity understands that ALL the earth, not just the
land of Israel-Judah, will belong to God's chosen ones.
God's
covenant in the OT is with Israel-Judah, NOT with ALL mankind (the
Gentiles). The restoration of the Promised Land and the guarantee it
will never be lost again, is the driving motivation of the Prophet's
utterances, not saving the world , although they envision one day all
knees bending to God.
The Prophets :
Who
is the suffering servant of Isaiah 42 ? Christians claim it is Christ.
My study of the verses suggests the suffering servant is not an
individual, its "the nation" of Israel-Judah also called "Jacob." The
servant's suffering is that he went into exile and suffered affliction
at the hands of God for his sins. When Jacob is restored from Exile he
will be forgiven, and become a light to the nations and a witness of
God's glory, because of righteousness which will be practiced by the
nation.
Jer 30:3-16 suggests Jacob to be brought back from Exile
Jer
30:21-22, suggests their prince shall be one of themselves, their ruler
from their midst, he shall draw near to God, you will be my people and
will be your God
Jer
31:1-12 suggests the restoration is when God will be reconciled with
his people (31:5, 6 Samaria replanted, Ephraim resettled)
Jer
31:31-34 envisions a "New Covenant," God will put his law in their
hearts, there will be no need to be taught God's ways by men anymore;
God will forgive their iniquity, he will remember their sin no more
upon the restoration.
Jer 31: 38-40, suggests that Jerusalem is to be restored and never again uprooted or destroyed for evermore.
Jer
32:37-41, reiterates that upon the restoration, God will give them one
heart, and one way, to fear him for ever, an everlasting covenant... "I
will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from
me...I will plant them in this land, in faithfulness with all my heart
and all my soul."
Jer
50:1-4, After the demise of Baylon, a weeping repentant Judah and
Israel will be restored and enter into a new everlasting covenant with
God
Jer 50:19-20, No iniquity shall be found in a restored Judah and Israel, for the remnant will be pardoned.
Paul
stresses that for Christians "righteousness" is obtained through
Christ's sacrifice. They are not to attempt to establish "their own
righteousness" in observing Torah. Torah observations are null and void
for Christians because of Christ's atoning death. This is a direct
contradiction to God's statement via Moses, that if Israel observes
Torah, this act of observance, will be reckoned "as righteousness" :
De 6:24-25 (RSV)
"And
the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our
God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this
day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us."
Abraham's faith accounted "as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6) cited in Romans 4:3 Galations 3:6; James 2:23
Evidently Paul as a Jew was well aware from his acquaintence with the
prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, that Israel was unable to
attain righteousness through their own efforts, for these prophets had
stated that only after God had poured out his spirit upon ALL his
people would they be able to whole-heartedly observe his laws and
ordinances, so Paul realized that only with God's spirit in their
hearts and minds could individuals come to be reconciled with God.
Whereas
the OT prophets understood God Holy Spirit would be poured at at one
time upon the whole nation, that event being "the remnant returning"
from the Babylonian Exile, Christians understand that God's Holy Spirit
is NOT to be dispensed in ONE fell swoop on thousands of people. It is
poured out "one-person-at-a -time," as they confess Christ is the Son
of God and become baptized into his death- quite a different notion
from the Hebraic notions, that is, God sets "NO PRE-CONDITIONS" on the
returning remnant, He will graciously forgive ALL and give them
ALL in one fell swoop, his HOLY SPIRIT to enable them to wholeheartedly
keep his laws and thus abide forever in the land, vs. the Christian
notion, that THERE ARE *PRECONDITIONS*, confessing Christ and being
baptized into his death.
The
prophet, Isaiah came to understand that the Covenant made with God at
Sinai and renewed at Shechem under Joshua, failed to be adhered to by
Israel and Judah. The reason given was that man was unable to adhere to
the covenant without the spirit of God being in him. The solution for
Jeremiah was to have God forgiving his people upon the return from
Exile, and that God would bestow upon his people his spirit and write
on the hearts of his people his law, enabling them to fear Him, and
keep the Torah whole-heartedly. Jeremiah understood God was going to
put his spirit in his people upon their return because he was gracious-
no mention is made in Jeremiah of a Messiah having to die and shed his
blood to obtain God's graciousness for his people. God punishes his
people for their sins, or Torah violations but he forgives upon the
restoration from Exile, and he personally gives them his holy spirit
making it possible for them to keep his law.
Isaiah sees "survivors"" in that day in Zion being holy (Isa 4:2-3)
Their sin ? They rejected the law, and despised the word of the Holy one of Israel (Isa 5:24)
In that day- God to call Egypt and Assyria to punish his people (Isa 7:18-20) Immanuel Isa 7:14-17
Assyria to devastate Judah at God's doing (Isa 8:7-8)
Assyria
to punish Judah, then Assyria is to be punished with wasting sickness
at Jerusalem, the remnant of Judah is to abandon Assyria as their
"lover" (ally) and turn to God (Isa 10:12-27)
The shoot of the stump of Jesse appears to refer to the remnant in Judah after Sennacherib left (Isa 11:11-12) ?
King of Babylon and Assyria to be broken by God (Isa 14:22-25)
Assyria to rule Egypt (Isa 20:3-6)
Eli'akim to replace Shebna (Isa 22:15-25)
When god hears the weeping of his people he will be merciful (Isa 30:19-21)
Assyria to be destroyed at Jerusalem by God (Isa 31:7-8)
The Judaean remnant of the Assyrian destruction to rebound and remultiply selves (Isa 37:31-32)
God pardons iniquity at Jerusalem (Isa 40:1-2)
Isa
42 The Servant who has God's spirit, to teach "the nations of the
world" God's way (the servant appears to a chastened Jacob/Israel, Isa
42:16-25; 43:1, 10, 21, 25, 28, 44:2, 3 8)
Isa 43: 25 " ...I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins."
Isa 44: 3 "...I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants..."
Isa 44:22 "I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you."
Isa 48:20 "...The lord has redeemed his servant Jacob."
Isa
49:3,6 "And he said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be
glorified...I will give you as a light to the nations..." (Israel is
the servant, the light to the nations, not a person, not a messiah)
Isa 55:3 an everlasting covenant with the restored from the Exile
Isa 59:20-21 The Covenant- My spirit upon you, my word in your mouth, and children's mouth for ever
Isa 60: 21-22 That God might be glorified, he will replant Israel and Juda and his people will be righteous
Isa 61: 8-9 An everlasting covenant with the restored
Ezek 34:25 A covenant of peace
Ezek
36:24-28 A New heart, my spirit in you, walk in my statues, observance
my ordinances, you shall dwell in the land, I will be your God
Ezek
36:33 On the day that I cleanse you from ALL your iniquities I will
cause the cities to be inhabited and the waste places to be rebuilt.
Ezek 37:26 An everlasting covenant, bless them, multiply them, dwell with them in the Temple sanctuary
Ezek 37:28 Then the nations will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore.
Ezek 39:29 I will pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel...( upon return to the land from Exile)
Christ
condemns his people as being "Seekers after Signs," refusing to believe
that he is the Messiah. Yet in the Old Testament, Christ as God told
Moses that Israel _is to seek after a sign_
the "sign" being the _fulfilment_ of the prophecy-
so as to not be "mislead" by false prophets (De 18:21-22). Why
is Christ as the Creator Word or Logos in the OT ridiculing in the NT
His people for their observance of His words of warning in De 18:21-22 ?
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (RSV)
"If
you wonder, "How are we to recognize a word that the Lord has not
uttered ? here is the answer: WHEN a word spoken by a prophet in the
name of the Lord IS NOT FULFILLED and does not come true, it is not a
word spoken by the Lord. The prophet has spoken presumptuosly; have no fear of him."
Matthew 12:38-40 (RSV)
"At this some of the scribes and Pharisees said, "Teacher, we would like you to show us a sign." He answered: "It is a wicked, godless generation that asks for a sign, and the only sign that will be given it is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Just as Jonah was in the sea monster's belly for three daysand three
nights, so the son of Man will be three days and three nights in the
bowels of the earth."
In studying the differences between the OT and the NT in regards to the Holy
Spirit, I was struck by how much the OT (or Hebraic) understanding was in
harmony with Pre-Hellenistic Greek religious concepts (i.e., pre- 330 BCE).
Scholars who have studied the phenomenon of the birth and growth of
Christianity have noted that the Hellenistic world had a "great impact" on
ALL religions of the Mediterranean littoral.
Before Alexander the Great, the Greek religion was considered for the most
part, in its more archaic form, a Polis religion, created to meet the needs
of "the community" and NOT so much "the individual." But after Alexander the
Great, a falling away began from Polis-centered religious belief, the
importance of the individual over the Polis arose, individuals seeking new
forms of belief, turning to Dying and Resurrected Saviours (Attis, Adonis,
Dionysus, Persephone).
I note that the OT Prophets saw God's HOLY SPIRIT being dispensed on THE
COMMUNITY,
the stress is NOT on individuals making a committment to God. God will
graciously bestow his Spirit on ALL the returnees from the Exile,
because he is merciful and forgiving. There is nothing here in the Prophets
that I can see, that one has to make a conscious effort to follow God as a
precondition. He promises to forgive ALL his people upon the restoration
from Exile and to place in ALL their hearts, His HOLY SPIRIT, enabling to
keep his commandments and thus to enjoy the land's bounty for evermore and
to never ever be driven into Exile again.
Jer 50: 18-20 (RSV)
"Therefore,
thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing
punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king
of Assyria. I
will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in
Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and
in Gilead. In
those days and in that time, says the Lord, iniquity shall be sought in
Israel, and there shall be none; and sin in Judah, and none shall be
found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant."
I see Christianty's focus on THE INDIVIDUAL vs. the OT focus on the NATION
as a reflection of a Hellenized form of Judaism vs. a Pre-Hellenized Judaism
(the OT). I have an article at my website which explores more deeply the
Greek influence on the New Testament writers. Cf. the following url
Conclusions:
By
ignoring certain OT verses in the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and
Ezekiel, the writers of the New Testament were able to present a
differing view on the Messiah and the recieving of God's Holy
Spirit. The OT prophets understood that God was gracious and
merciful and that he had set **NO PRECONDITIONS,** he would forgive ALL
the returnees from the Exile and pour upon ALL of them his Holy Spirit.
By contrast, the New Testament writers had **PRECONDITIONS** in place
before God's Holy Spirit would be bestowed, on an individual
case-by-case basis, confessing Jesus as the Christ and Son of God, and
baptism into his death.