The Church of Jesus Christ

For more of Melito click here.

What more can I add here?

Components of the Mystery of the Passover (46-71)

1. The Passover (46-47a)

46. Now that you have heard the explanation of the type and of that which corresponds to it, hear also what goes into making up the mystery. What is the passover? Indeed its name is derived from that event–”to celebrate the passover” (to paschein) is derived from “to suffer” (tou pathein). Therefore, learn who the sufferer is and who he is who suffers along with the sufferer.

47. Why indeed was the Lord present upon the earth? In order that having clothed himself with the one who suffers, he might lift him up to the heights of heaven[1].

2. The Creation and Fall of Man (47b-48)

In the beginning, when God made heaven and earth, and everything in them through his word, he himself formed man from the earth and shared with that form his own breath, he himself placed him in paradise, which was eastward in Eden, and there they lived most luxuriously.

Then by way of command God gave them this law: For your food you may eat from any tree, but you are not to eat from the tree of the one who knows good and evil. For on the day you eat from it, you most certainly will die.

48. But man, who is by nature capable of receiving good and evil as soil of the earth is capable of receiving seeds from both sides, welcomed the hostile and greedy counselor, and by having touched that tree transgressed the command, and disobeyed God. As a consequence, he was cast out into this world as a condemned man is cast into prison.

3. Consequences of the Fall (49-56)

49. And when he had fathered many children, and had grown very old, and had returned to the earth through having tasted of the tree, an inheritance was left behind by him for his children. Indeed, he left his children an inheritance–not of chastity but of unchastity, not of immortality but of corruptibility, not of honor but of dishonor, not of freedom but of slavery, not of sovereignty but of tyranny, not of life but of death, not of salvation but of destruction.

50. Extraordinary and terrifying indeed was the destruction of men upon the earth. For the following things happened to them: They were carried off as slaves by sin, the tyrant, and were led away into the regions of desire where they were totally engulfed by insatiable sensual pleasures–by adultery, by unchastity, by debauchery, by inordinate desires, by avarice, by murders, by bloodshed, by the tyranny of wickedness, by the tyranny of lawlessness.

51. For even a father of his own accord lifted up a dagger against his son; and a son used his hands against his father; and the impious person smote the breasts that nourished him; and brother murdered brother; and host wronged his guest; and friend assassinated friend; and one man cut the throat of another with his tyrannous right hand.

52. Therefore all men on the earth became either murderers, or parricides, or killers of their children. And yet a thing still more dreadful and extraordinary was to be found: A mother attacked the flesh which she gave birth to, a mother attacked those whom her breasts had nourished; and she buried in her belly the fruit of her belly. Indeed, the ill-starred mother became a dreadful tomb, when she devoured the child which she bore in her womb.

53. But in addition to this there were to be found among men many things still more monstrous and terrifying and brutal: father cohabits with his child, and son and with his mother, and brother with sister, and male with male, and each man lusting after the wife of his neighbor.

54. Because of these things sin exulted, which, because it was death’s collaborator, entered first into the souls of men, and prepared as food for him the bodies of the dead. In every soul sin left its mark, and those in whom it placed its mark were destined to die.

55. Therefore, all flesh fell under the power of sin, and every body under the dominion of death, for every soul was driven out from its house of flesh. Indeed, that which had been taken from the earth was dissolved again into earth, and that which had been given from God was locked up in Hades. And that beautiful ordered arrangement was dissolved, when the beautiful body was separated (from the soul).

56. Yes, man was divided up into parts by death. Yes, an extraordinary misfortune and captivity enveloped him: he was dragged away captive under the shadow of death, and the image of the Father remained there desolate. For this reason, therefore, the mystery of the passover has been completed in the body of the Lord.

I have posted on Melito some before, and find myself returning to him for a bit especially his homily on the Passover. He provides us with an accurate manner in using the Old Testament, and it is an example that is well served for the past few millenia. He does not create something that is not there, no drench the Prophets with our Hope, but stands in the good Tradition of using the New Testament to read the Old. For a New Testament example of this, we need to turn no further, dig no deeper than the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Note, if you will, the powerful images that Melito presents us with.

39. Therefore, if it was like this with models of perishable objects, so indeed will it also be with those of imperishable objects. If it was like this with earthly things, so indeed also will it be with heavenly things. For even the Lord’s salvation and his truth were prefigured in the people, and the teaching of the gospel was proclaimed in advance by the law[1].

40. The people, therefore, became the model for the church, and the law a parabolic sketch. But the gospel became the explanation of the law and its fulfillment, while the church became the storehouse of truth.

41. Therefore, the type had value prior to its realization, and the parable was wonderful prior to its interpretation. This is to say that the people had value before the church came on the scene, and the law was wonderful before the gospel was brought to light.

42. But when the church came on the scene, and the gospel was set forth, the type lost its value by surrendering its significance to the truth, and the law was fulfilled by surrendering its significance to the gospel. Just as the type lost its significance by surrendering its image to that which is true by nature, and as the parable lost its significance by being illumined through the interpretation,

43. So indeed also the law was fulfilled when the gospel was brought to light, and the people lost their significance when the church came on the scene, and the type was destroyed when the Lord appeared. Therefore, those things which once had value are today without value, because the things which have true value have appeared.

44. For at one time the sacrifice to the sheep was valuable, but now it is without value because of the life of the Lord. The death of the sheep once was valuable, but now it is without value because of the salvation of the Lord. The blood of the sheep once was valuable, but now it is without value because of the Spirit of the Lord. The silent lamb once was valuable, but now it has no value because of the blameless Son. The temple here below once was valuable, but now it is without value because of the Christ from above.

45. The Jerusalem here below once had value, but now it is without value because of the Jerusalem from above. The meager inheritance once had value; now it is without value because of the abundant grace. For not in one place alone, nor yet in narrow confines, has the glory of God been established, but his grace has been poured out upon the uttermost parts of the inhabited world, and there the almighty God has taken up his dwelling place through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen.

Brian D. McLaren: Convenient “Truths” - On Faith at washingtonpost.com.

Convenient “Truths”

Friends, here is an article from J. Lee Grady. I believe that he helps to answer some questions. I might do a further post myself on angels, especially angels in the Church.

Angels, Deception and a Cry for Biblical Truth| Christianpost.com.

Angels, Deception and a Cry for Biblical Truth

Weird teachings about angels have become the norm in some charismatic circles today. It’s time to demand sanity on the subject.

Thu, Aug. 21, 2008 Posted: 10:48 AM EDT

Weird teachings about angels have become the norm in some charismatic circles today. It’s time to demand sanity on the subject.

At a growing Brazilian church in Boston, a pastor told his congregation he was having regular conversations with an angel. Weeks later he set a chair on the stage for the heavenly visitor, whom he said was attending Sunday services even though no one could see him. The pastor eventually wrote a book containing messages he had supposedly received from the angel. The man’s teachings became so bizarre that he was eventually removed from his denomination for promoting heresy.

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Tarry not, I entreat, for another to teach you; you have the oracles of God. No man teaches you as they; for he indeed oft grudges much for vainglory’s sake and envy. Hearken, I entreat you, all you that are careful for this life, and procure books that will be medicines for the soul. If you will not any other, yet get you at least the New Testament, the Apostolic Epistles, the Acts, the Gospels, for your constant teachers. If grief befall you, dive into them as into a chest of medicines; take thence comfort of your trouble, be it loss, or death, or bereavement of relations; or rather dive not into them merely, but take them wholly to you; keep them in your mind. This is the cause of all evils, the not knowing the Scriptures. — St. John Chrysostom, Homily on Colossians 3

What a powerful thought as to the importance of the Scriptures to the Christian.

Here.

Some of his points

Pt 1

As I mentioned last time, one of the objections to the printing of the Deuterocanon in the KJV is:

No apocryphal book is referred to in the New Testament whereas the Old Testament is referred to hundreds of times.

The Deuterocanon is a collection of eleven books that are sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Apocrypha. “Deutero” means “second” and so the deuterocanonical books refer to a second canon, the first canon being the Old and New Testaments. The deuterocanonical books include: Tobit, Judith, Esther 10:4-16:24, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch (Letter to Jeremiah), Song of the Three Children, History of Suzanna, Bel and the Dragon, and 1-2 Maccabees. These books are considered to be inspired by the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. Note, it was not until Luther that the canoncity of these books were called into question. Of course, Martin Luther called into question, and tried to prevent the inclusion of Esther,  Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation as well. To him, these books were antilegomena, although it is reported that he changed his views somewhat later in life.

Of course, the easy answer to the above mentioned charge is that neither Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, nor the Song of Solomon is quoted by the New Testament. Others would add Lamentations, the Chronicles, as well as perhaps Judges and Joshua to that list.

The statement bu KJV-Only advocates is misleading in of itself. Only in Hebrews (8.13) do we find a mention of the Old Testament/Covenant, but that is in reference to the actually Covenant of between God and Israel, not to the collection of books that came to be called the Old Testament. It was actually Tertullian who first developed the idea that the two sections of books are testaments (vetus testamentum (”old testament”) and novum testamentum (”new testament”)). Tertullian, however, never separated the Deuterocanon out of the Old Testament, as he regularly quoted from them.

It would be unwise for me to post a complete list of Deuterocanonical quotes by the New Testament writers, however, here is a good place to start. Regular readers to this blog will note, either with joy or the fires of heresy hunters, that I most often use Wisdom as a weapon and have even posted on 1st Maccabees. For the record, I have also found great solace in Sirach, although I have not had much time to study this ancient book. (Although in the depths of prison, John Bunyan of Pilgrim’s Progress fame, received a moment of inspiration, and after years of searching, found the passage in Sirach 2.10 - Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken? or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him?)

Before we go one, I should state that my favorite bible is the Cambridge, Calf-skin leather KJV, black letter and with the Protestant Apocrypha. What is of special interest to me is that the original cross references include links to the Apocrypha and that the Apocrypha includes links to the Old and New Testaments. If the KJV translators, these supposedly inspired men (Trinitarians the lot of them) thought that the Apocrypha was of no or little help to the Christian, then why was so much, or any really, time devoted to translating it and creating a system of cross references to it and from it?

In the following list, I have not even begun to scratch the surface of the quotes and allusions found in the New Testament relating to the Deuterocanon. I have used the King James Version for both the Deuterocanon and the New Testament. What we can take from this is that it was not the early Church Fathers that used the Deuterocanon, but the New Testament writers. In future posts, I will attempt to explore the use of Wisdom in Luke-Acts as well as in the Christology of John. In my commentary on Wisdom, I will further show that this book alone was a silent tool wielded by Paul in his composition and thought.

I have not done justice to these books, this I know, but I hope that I have excited some interest in realizing that the Deuterocanon should be studied by serious students of the New Testament.

See the list (very partial)

Good information on reading the Greek New Testament here

And how Greek is unique here

Funny joke here (think about it)

Good article about Chinese Nestorian Christianity

Rapture service article here

A ‘new take‘ on Justification

I like this blog, but the article is nice too.

Great article on the NETS (Septuagint, LXX)

Something on bible translation

Here is something on the Stone-Campbell Atonement Theology.

I started writing this in preparation for a sermon that I am working on. Can you guess what it will be about? I will update it later, but I just thought that I would go ahead and post it now. This is, of course, on the model of the song “He Is”.

What is the Church?
In the Torah
Genesis – She is the Garden of Eden, where God walked with Adam in the cool of the evening.
Exodus – She is the Promised Land
Leviticus – the heavenly example of the earthly tabernacle
Numbers – Israel in the wilderness always attacked
Deuteronomy – worth traveling on for

Joshua/Judges – she is worth fighting for, and the choice for a family
Ruth – a gentile who forsook all to follow God
The Kingdoms and the Chronicles – she is the mighty kingdom, the temple and the hope.

Ezra – she is worth coming home to

In Nehemiah – she is the great walled city, rebuilt by the King’s decree

In Esther she is the loyal wife raised up at the moment to save God’s people.

In the Job, David and Solomon, she is wisdom, our mother, our strong tower,

In Solomon’s Song she is the bride of God.

In Isaiah she is the obedient and faithful wife.
In Jeremiah she is the new covenant.
In Lamentations she becomes the unseen hope in the middle of hopelessness.
In Ezekiel she repines to be home
In Daniel she is the kingdom that breaks all others, the stone untouched by hands.
In Hosea she is saved and loved by her husband.
In Joel, she is God’s mighty army.
In Amos she is the rising tabernacle of David and the plumbline
In Obadiah she receives the messenger of the Lord.
In Jonah she is God’s unquestionable reason.
In Micah she is God’s justice.
In Nahum she is God’s remembrance.
In Habakkuk she is the work among the gentiles.
In Zephaniah she is the restoration.
In Haggai she is the glory of the latter.
In Zechariah he is the daughter to whom the King cometh.

In Malachi she awaits her Messiah.

In Matthew she is called.
In Mark she is the kingdom of God
In Luke she is the people of God, the people of God and the people of God
In John she is the vine and the flock of the shepherd and she is comforted.
In Acts she is in the upper room.
In Paul she is established, strengthened, set aright – she is protected, overseen and guided.
In Hebrews she is past, present and future
– the tabernacle, the temple and heaven
– she is the mountain of the living God
– she is can be approached, touched, and lived
In James she has a holy name.
In Peter she is the ark, the priesthood, and a people purchased for redemption, she is Joy unspeakable and full of Glory.
In John she is the elect lady.
In Jude she long ago told about.
In Revelation –
She is the bride
The one going up
The one coming down
She is tried, true and perfect.
She is home.