According to many Jewish authorities Christ's mission was ad hoc and not foretold
According to many Jewish authorities Christ's mission was ad hoc and not foretold by the pentateuch nor the prophets. If this is the case than what on earth did all that symbolism in the tent and in the temple mean? Does it not point to, ultimately,that the believer must offer himself upon the living altar of God?
And if this is the case how come no one teaches this?
True or not, Christianity has to get down to brass tacks and throw out this pseudo-sanctimonious etherealism and start offering itself upon the Altar.
Instead it wants to grub your money, sell you books, confuse you with every wind of doctrine and mortgage your soul for the sake of the church building.
You have 150,000 denominations to mortgage your soul for. Now enter the great super market of Christianity and take your pick off the shelve of anything you are comfortable with and does not rock your boat.
For the South, it was the justification of slavery.
In England, the King wants a divorce.
In Rome, the Vatican wants to confiscate your land and wealth for not being Catholic and throw your butt in the dungeon and torture the living daylights out of you with all sorts of instruments.
Fundamentalist want to sell you every book of theirs upon the planet or just take your donation anyway.
"God is going to strike me dead unless I get two million bucks and I ain't coming down from this prayer tower until one or the other happens." with all due respect Oral Roberts,
Instead of sacrificing yourself, you rather sacrifice our hard earn money to save the infrastructure of your church and medical center, that we neither asked for nor cared about. Aren't there enough medical centers and churches. why do we need one in the middle of nowhere. Are there not enough bridges to nowhere in Alaska?
To these wolves in sheep's clothing, we have to say, not so fast, set the example and sacrifice yourself. Take your hands out of our wallet and grimey paws off our land and wealth and stick your own butt in your torture chamber and have at it.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael on -
The symbolism points to the believer offering himself as a sacrifice once he has eaten of the manna from heaven. Christianity is predicated upon Christ being this hidden manna and by communion the follower becomes apart of the living altar of God and offers himself as a sacrifice as also apart of the singular Lamb of God. "Those that service the Altar are partakers with the Altar".
The theology of the new testament is that the believer: "... present your body as a living sacrifice.."
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Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on -
There's a huge difference between what the Bible teaches and what the various Christian religions teach. I don't believe the Bible teaches what you're claiming here . . . unless you really do some stretching.
Others would say that Jesus was the final sacrifice that purchased redemption for all of mankind who are willing to claim it. Thus there's no need to "present your body as a living sacrifice".
And isn't, "Those that service the Altar are partakers with the Altar", a reference to the kohanim (priestly class of the Levites)?
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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And allegorically applied to the Melchizedek Priesthood. This is a far more mysterious priesthood in which ones body and new spiritual birth is everthing that the Jewish Temple symbolically represented.
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Permalink Reply by Malcolm on -
If this is the case than what on earth did all that symbolism in the tent and in the temple mean?
To what symbolism specifically are you referring?
Does it not point to, ultimately,that the believer must offer himself upon the living altar of God?
I can't think of anything in the OT that implies that.
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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The ears of the priest were anointed in blood as well as the horns of the Altar connoting the oneness.
Moreover, the priest could not pass into the inner sanctuary, representing God's Throne without the vicarious death of a sacrificial animal. This ceremonial observance signifies a far more potent one to come that will actually allow a priest to enter the true heaven of heavens.
However in side the temple there were 12 menorah placed next to piles of shows bread.
The menorah's show that the future priest must have the seven spirits of God and also to have been transformed by the hidden manna that was kept in the Ark of the Covenant.
This hidden manna stands for some living way that God would literally commune with his people such that they may enter within the veil after transformation, and thus the show bread representing this transformation of the person. In the new testament this is expressed as "You must eat my flesh and drink my blood"
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Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on
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I've been re-reading the Bible and am currently up to 2 Chronicles. That's 444 pages, so far, of mostly dull reading . . . but some of it is pretty interesting to me. Anyway, I recall in-depth details of the temple's construction and furnishings but not much about their significance. Perhaps I just didn't understand or I missed the kind of connections your interpretations suggest. I do remember the ears of the priest anointed with blood and the horns of the altar but don't recall how this connotes oneness.
It sounds like you've studied the Old Testament (Jewish bible?) quite a bit, so I'll accept your interpretations of them. But the Old Testament links to Jesus, as you describe them, are definitely speculation as far as I can see.
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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The Old Testament alludes to a far more superior Priesthood. In fact Levi being in the loins of his father Abraham tithed to the Melchizedek priest of Salem (the future Jerusalem).
This priesthood as I mentioned above, is the fulfillment of everything the the Jewish Temple symbollically represented.
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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Genesis 14:18-20
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And praise be to God Most High,
who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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Leviticus 8:24
24 And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs of their right hands, and upon the great toes of their right feet: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.
Menorah and Shulchan
Leviticus 24:1-4 describes the commandment to light the menorah in the Mishkan and is almost exactly the same as Exodus 27:20-21. Leviticus 24:5-9 discussed how to offer the lechem hapanim (show bread) on the table in the Mishkan. This is a repetition, with more detail, of Exodus 25:30.
Leviticus 24:1-4
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.
3Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations.
4He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.
5And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
6And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD.
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