Bible Discussion Thread

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS (Part 1):

All of Paul's writings are at the beginning of the teaching section. And the second section of the New Testament teaching section is the Jewish literature section (Hebrews through Revelation). The book of Hebrews was written to the Hebrews (Jewish people).

We have to understand it from a Jewish standpoint. Even in the book of Revelation, there are 404 verses, but there are over 800 allusions or direct quotes of the Old Testament, the Tanak. It's very Jewish. All the symbolisms come from the Tanak. We have to understand the Jewish literature from a Jewish background.

We as Gentiles get lost. Sometimes people will take things out of Paul's writings, and some out of Peter's writings, and they try and connect the two. But Peter is talking about Jewish things, and Paul is talking to the Gentiles about something else. We have to be careful about how we connect these together.

Again, the Jewish literature by the writer of Hebrews, and James, and Peter, the apostle John, and Jude, the truth or the concept in their teachings will also match Paul's. It's just applied in a Hebrew or Jewish way to a Hebrew person. So, we can still learn from them. We just have to properly in context understand.

Now, when I said that the New Testament is like a proof text, it's because anything said, even in the Jewish literature, if it doesn't line up with Paul's teachings and understanding, if all of that doesn't line up with the teaching of Christ, then it's not of God.

We can discuss prophecy in the Old Testament and disagree with each other, but the bible is very clear about the prophecies of the Old Testament. Do people still prophesy like they did in the Old Testament? Do they still do that today?

Whatever the message is, even if it is presented as a "message from God", one's own belief, or whatever the presentation is, we must stay with the arrangement that I just mentioned. If what someone is saying to us is from God, Paul would have taught it.