TOUGH QUESTIONS PART ONE

TOUGH QUESTIONS (PART ONE)

            There are tough questions to be asked concerning scripture that most people don’t really want to ask. There are apparent paradoxes, places where one prophet said one thing and another prophet said another and they seem to be in direct opposition.

            But if we believe that the Bible is infallible and written and guided by the hand of an infinite and all-knowing God, then solving these paradoxes will actually guide us to a greater truth behind them that will become revelation to us.

            One of those big questions is why did Jesus say, “IF you love Me you will keep My commandments, while Paul tells us that the Law is not of faith… that it was a temporary tutor to lead us to Christ where its work is finished.

            Another question is found in Hebrews 9 where there is a dispute between some biblical scholars as to when Jesus actually entered into the Most Holy Place to minister as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek? Did He go directly to the Most Holy Place as our High Priest or is there a coming judgment an antitypical Day of Atonement when the sheep will be separated from the goats, or the wheat separated from the tares?

            Another question to be asked is, “What about the Sabbath?” If the Jewish Sabbath is still holy and if it came before the Law as a part of creation, then why do we worship on Sunday and what will we do, if as the Adventists claim Sunday becomes a forced day of worship during the Tribulation which is directly tied to the Mark of the Beast?

            Many solve this problem by saying that we won’t be here when that time comes and so it is a problem for the Jews and not for us. Well, that sounds good, but in truth we really don’t know for sure what constitutes the great tribulation and what constitutes the beginning of sorrows. There is not a clear line in either Jesus’ outline of end time events in Mt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 or even in the book of Revelation between when the church is here and when it is gone.

            Paul tells us in 2 Thess. 2:3, 4 that we will be here to see the great apostasy and the man of sin revealed and that man of sin is none other than the antichrist… So according to Paul we will see the antichrist. But how much of him will we see and how much of his persecution will we have to endure before we are caught away?

            It should be a bit disconcerting that in nearly every place where we see the saints in heaven such as Revelation 7 and Revelation 15, they have come out of great persecution and they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And they loved not their lives even unto death. Rev. 12:11

            Far too often we take for granted the traditions and interpretations of prophecy and scripture of those who came before us and we don’t any longer study these things with fresh and inquisitive eyes. Nor do we seriously ask the Holy Spirit to teach us with the idea that He may change some of our traditions.

            Another question we must ask ourselves is this: Does the arrival of Israel back in their land as promised many times in Scripture change how we look at end time Bible prophecy, or should we just ignore Israel and stick with our older traditions.

            May I suggest that each of these questions can make someone squirm in their seats and that they often choose to turn a blind eye to the answers?

            And another question is who am I to even pretend to answer questions that have been a subject of debate in many cases for centuries. Whole denominations have been separated by these questions almost to the point where Christians will shoot at each other over the answers.

            The answer to that last question is that I am not going to try to answer definitively one way or the other, nor am I going to try to provide new doctrine for you or me. And the only reason I am asking these questions now is that we are rapidly approaching a great conflagration… a great final confrontation between truth and error, sin and righteousness…wheat and tares and we all need to understand the issues clearly in our minds so that if something doesn’t go exactly the way our traditions have outlined it, we will not be soon shaken.

            So the questions we will deal with over the next few days are these:

1.     What about the law? Do we keep the Ten Commandments or are they done away?

2.     What about the High Priesthood of Jesus? Does the Melchizedek Priesthood change everything and when did Jesus actually enter prophetically into the Most Holy Place as our High priest?

3.     What about the Sabbath? Is it still required of us or has it been replaced by the resurrection? And what would you do if a Sunday Law was enforced upon the world by the antichrist? Would you simply go along with the crowd, or would ye see this as a time to make corrections in your life even in the face of death?

            Well, as always I don’t pretend to be an authority on these things and I do not intend to make doctrine or even to argue doctrine. Rather I intend to look at the eternal concepts behind these things and to help us to take a firm stand on what we believe rather than sweeping the issues under the rug in hopes that we will never have to face them with a guillotine waiting at the end of the line.

            Even now, Christian genocide is taking place in Sudan and in various parts of the world like Sri Lanka, China, and in every Muslim country. What are the issues that Christians are facing as they are confronted with a choice of renouncing Jesus or facing a knife to the throat?

            We are in a pressure cooker and the pressure is rising rapidly and the questions I have posed here may seem insignificant… food for intellectuals to maul over, but not for daily consumption. Well, that may be true or it may not be true, but according to Jesus we are entering into a time of great deception such as the world has never seen and I believe that we are actually witnessing the great falling away or apostasy taking place right now.

            Many Protestant churches are going back to Rome, seeking shelter and safety in numbers. Many churches are becoming compliant with political correctness. Biblical truths are being trampled on as much of the Christian world set’s scripture aside for global unity.

            Do you want to be a remnant person as being described in Revelation 14:12 as keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony of Jesus? And what on earth does that mean if as Paul says, that the Law cannot save us. Did Jesus as our faithful High Priest provide a greater and higher way for us to fulfill the 10 Commandments other than the way they were observed in the Old Testament times?

            And lastly, why do I feel that I have just jumped into a cauldron of boiling water? Rick… are you out of your mind?  Well, time will tell… but as always I will try to paint a big picture into which our questions will fit and maybe we can all gain understanding in the process.