The concept of the church being the bride of Christ comes only from Paul. But Christ’s parables reveal that the Jews and Gentiles were not the bride. John and Jesus Himself revealed that neither Jews nor Gentile believers are the bride but friends of the Bridegroom. If church is not the bride of Christ, who is?
The people who transliterate everything to Hebrew need to stop their stupidity. Knowing God’s name is, is not about how to spell or pronounce but knowing who He is. He is same in any language no matter how we pronounce it.
What does it mean to be a living stone and a holy priesthood? A living stone is chiselled of sins, fit for building the spiritual house for God to dwell. A holy priesthood means, without sin and being holy to God. Only the priest who is holy can offer sacrifices of righteousness acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Scripture only supports theocracy where the Father is the king of the kingdom of Israel and Son is the king of His kingdom of Heaven. If Christ is our King, we need to ask Him to appoint leaders and the decision for who should lead must never come from us. We call Christ as our King. Don’t you think He has a say? The approved Scriptural method to know the decision of God when there is some contention on who must be a leader for the congregation must be by casting lots after prayer.
Based on internal Scriptural evidence, entry into the land and conquest (chapters 2–12) is inconsistent with Division of the land (chapters 13–22) on the details. There can be many plausible explanations for these inconsistencies but it seems multiple sections of the book of Joshua were written by multiple scribes in different periods of time based on eyewitness accounts recollected much later.
The doctrine of Trinity is found throughout the Bible. Yet, many try to neglect it and provide alternative explanations to hide the triune nature of God. For them, there is no hope of resurrection, for the Word spoken by God in the garden of Eden will make sure they die for His Word will not return to God void. Therefore, I urge them to accept Jesus Christ as God who broke the curse of death spoken by God.
The years found in most English bibles are based on Masoretic. However, the years in Septuagint, a Greek translation made 300 years before Christ have different years. After converting the years into Phoenician, we can easily see that the symbols at the margin or at a folding were missing indicating a worn out manuscript was used to copy the Masoretic texts.
The Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 9:6-7 about the Child whose name is Mighty God and Everlasting Father was just reduced to nothing through Jewish translations with anti-Christian bias. All translations agree that this Child will establish his Kingdom through justice and righteousness forever. The only everlasting kingdom mentioned by the prophets to be everlasting is the Kingdom that will be set up by God Himself and the ruler is the Messiah.
What is the name of the LORD? YHWH is not the personal name of our God. For Abraham, He revealed as El Shaday. For Israelites, He revealed as YHWH. Christ will have a new name in future. His name is Holy and is beyond just calling Him. If we are called by His name, yet disobey, it profanes His name. His name is hidden and beyond understanding. His name is not about pronunciation and spelling but rather it is who He is.
God can speak to soothsayers, diviners and sorcerers to deliver a blessing for His people. God can speak to all people, even idol worshippers to let them know what will happen to them, even though they don’t know Him. God can speak to pagan kings like Pharaoh to save a nation from famine and to exalt His servant. God can speak to pagan kings like Abimelech to warn him of his sin. God can speak to pagan kings like Nebuchadnezzar to let him know of his thought and exalt His servant. Just because God speaks to someone does not mean God acknowledges them or their actions.
The book of Leviticus is entirely a priestly source, filled with rules to live in the land of Israel and rituals. It was written sometime after 1467 BC but later revisions and clarifications regarding the feasts days can be clearly noticed.
The book of Numbers gives a detail about Hormah being named for a particular reason during their journey outside the promised land. The same is named again with the same name after they entered the promised land. This post explains what causes this confusion.
In the book of Exodus, we read the feast of Tabernacles on the seventh month as feast of Ingathering occurring on year end. The reason is, the feast occurs on seventh month in the calendar given by God based is based on seasons in ancient Israel. However, the feast of Ingathering occurs at year end in Egyptian calendar based on the seasonal cycles of river Nile.
The book of Numbers is a long and complex history of children of Israel which includes two census, but its final form is considered to be a Priestly redaction of a Yahwist source. As the book itself says, the it’s original sources may have been written as old as 1428 BC of Moses spoke in the plains of Moab by the Jordan. However revisions to the book of Numbers can be clearly around 1095 BC due to terms like ‘prophets’ not used by children of Israel prior to Samuel.
Just like the book of Exodus which preserves the truth about the scribe’s familiarity about Egyptian calendar, the book of Deuteronomy preserves the lack of references to feasts with respect to God’s calendar, proving that they were still in wilderness when the book was first written about 1428 BC. However, some content were claimed to be added by Joshua some 25 years later and revisions by scribes can be clearly noticed as late as 896 BC.
