“And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.””
Job 1:21
"Go ahead and play while you wait, hon."
The woman set a wooden triangle on my table. Fourteen pegs. One empty hole. She left before I could ask the stakes.
A trial. Before the meal. Eight hundred years of my house, and never a host bold enough to test a man at breakfast.
The rules were carved in the wood. Jump a peg, remove it. Clear the board. I studied it like a battlefield.
I jumped. I jumped again. Seven pegs left.
The sign named me for it. "Leave 4 or more: just plain eggno-good." I did not know the rank. I knew the shame.
The waitress came back with water. "Oh, nobody beats that thing, sweetie."
Mercy. She was sparing me in front of the boy. "You honor me."
She blinked. "You want the pancakes?"
The second trial. I reset all fourteen. Jump. Jump. Sweating onto a placemat shaped like Tennessee.
Five left. "Pretty smart," said the sign. A full rank, and no sword had been drawn.
The boy leaned over. "You're doing it wrong, mister. You gotta go backwards."
Backwards. The child was a master sent to test my humility. I thanked him.
The waitress set down a plate I had not ordered. "On the house. You've been at it twenty minutes."
A vigil. I stood and bowed the way my father bowed at funerals.
"...it's hash browns, buddy," said a man at the register.
I sat back down. One peg left standing. The sign said "you're genius." My eggs were cold. My hand would not close.
But a boy taught a stranger to think backward, and a woman fed me for trying. A house that hands you a riddle before the bread believes you can win.
@writeontheedg3@Guitardo7 And Hebrews says that unlike the OT high priest who stand repeatedly, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God having offered a one time sacrifice of himself…for sins. That’s not a western concept. It’s a Hebrews concept - you don’t believe Hebrews.
Ok. This was what you said your position is, “Jesus is only a purification offering and not for sin,” and now you’ve reiterated it.
The text of Hebrews 10 I offered directly refutes this claim and explicitly details what Jesus death does. The whole text is still above. Here is the word for word refutation - “Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins”
Appreciate this, @albertmohler. I’ll add:
1. If you pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” you’re political.
2. If you believe that God’s Word is sufficient for all things pertaining to life and godliness, you’re political.
3. If you believe we’re called to love our neighbors as ourselves, you’re political.
4. If you believe we’re supposed to be salt and light in the world around us, you’re political.
5. If you believe that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord, you’re political.
6. If you believe that Christians are to work for the common good of all people, you’re political.
7. If you believe Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, you’re political.
Staying out of the public square doesn’t make us more faithful, it just means someone else will shape the world our in which our children and neighbors live.
I missed this the first time through. I couldn’t make sense of some of what you said. I know it makes sense to you, but some of that is incoherent…but it’s astonishing to say Jesus is only a purification offering and not for sins. Even if Hebrews is only for Jews, believing Jews would still be sanctified, that is made holy righteous by Jesus blood. The contrast of the old and new covenant, the old priesthood and Jesus priesthood is plain and stark. That position is directly refuted and impossible to be true.
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every •priest stands daily at his service•, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:10–14, ESV)
At this point you choose not to see. These snips of passages contain some of the STRONGEST language describing Jesus death, resurrection and ascension: sanctified, purified, eternal redemption, bore the sins of many - to sweep them under the rug is not only ridiculous, but undermines the very faith you claim to stand on - not to mention the rest of the testimony of Hebrews!
@mark_petereit Not disagreeing on what Adam should have done. “Listened” is the language of God’s charge to Adam.
“And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you••, ‘You shall not eat of it’(Genesis 3:17, ESV).”
Why should this question be considered? Just as sin came into the world through one man (Romans 5:12, Genesis 3:17)…Eve is not a man. Adam’s sin is inescapably linked to who he listened to - Eve, thus requiring a fantasy where Adam listened to someone else (Genesis 3:12). There is nothing to consider.
Those who argue that Adam’s sin is inherited by all people should consider a question: Did Eve inherit Adam’s sin? If Adam had fallen and Eve had not, would she have become guilty through his transgression alone?
If you are awake these days, thinking and considering, these words should shake you to your soul: "What made Barmen necessary wasn't that German pastors suddenly stopped believing the Bible. It's that they let a second authority — Volk, blood, nation, historical destiny — function alongside Scripture as a source of guidance and identity, and nobody named that move as the error until it had already captured the institutions."
Ninety years later, across the ocean....