Biblical Theology

[Arminian]

OK, I've edited as much as I'm going to.

[GrayPilgrim]

Arminian,

You do realize that Solly does not get online over the weekend? As he generally is working on his Sunday message.

[Arminian]

Gray,

You do realize that Solly does not get online over the weekend? As he generally is working on his Sunday message.

No, I didn't know that. I guess Jaltus will have to send it to him. I have to delete it within the next hour. The editing I had to do was minor and mostly had to do with the alignment of the two lists. Stoßkolben

[GrayPilgrim]

[Arminian]

Sheesh! What an editing nightmare! It should make sense now......

[John Reece]

Superb, Arminian.

Saved in my word files .

[Arminian]

Thanks John. I did some more editing, if you care....

[John Reece]

07-21-2003 @ 11:15 PM post located here
Arminian:

Thanks John. I did some more editing, if you care....

Indeed I do care!

But I probably missed the additional editing, because my computer malfunctioned almost immediately after my post above, and I just got it back from the repair shop . . .

[Arminian]

John,

I forgot to mention that there was another post (in two parts) that I posted for Solly. Jaltus may have a copy he can send you. If not, I can repost it when I get home. (I'm on vaction now....getting ready to run laps.)

[John Reece]

Today @ 10:42 AM post located here
Arminian:

John,

I forgot to mention that there was another post (in two parts) that I posted for Solly. Jaltus may have a copy he can send you. If not, I can repost it when I get home. (I'm on vaction now....getting ready to run laps.)

Thanks, Arminian.

I want all I may have missed.

I have copied the post above to my files.

Blessings,

John

[Arminian]

I haven't had any time to write, but I was recently "tricked" into writing about Paul's view of "life" and "death" elsewhere. In my opinion, that deserves 30 pages to itself.

I've written about the Israel of God in Romans, Galatians and Ephesians in the recent past, but never in Paul's Corinthian letters. I'm doing some of that now, because it's an easy project.

……….

There is only one body of believers. And the Jewish opposition to Paul agreed, too. They said that there is one body. They said that physical Israel was that body. Gentiles, though, were “outside” that body on the basis of physical birth. They could join that body (God’s elect) by becoming Jews; that’s what Judaizing and proselytizing was all about. Gentiles became Jews. Jewish literature reflects that requirement:

when Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he believed
firmly in God, and was circumcised, and joined the house of
Israel, remaining to this day. (Judith 14:10)

I've demonstrated in the past that Eph 2 and Rom 11 are referring to this one household/tree which Gentiles are now able to participate in without first physically becoming Jews. We might also note (contra Hays) what Paul says in his Corinthian argument. Notice carefully what Paul says to the Corinthian believers, both Jew and (predominantly) Gentile:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers
were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and
all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and
all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same
spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock
which followed them; and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:1-4)

That’s an amazing statement by Paul to Gentiles (as if Eph 2:11f and Rom 11 aren’t enough!). To Jews and Gentiles alike (Jewish and Gentile “believers,” that is) he refers to those who were under the cloud as “our fathers.” Did the “fathers” of the Gentile believers in Corinth “pass through the sea”? You bet they did. How? Because the Gentile believers in Corinth are no longer “Gentiles,” for there is (in salvation terms; covenant language) no such thing as a “Gentile.” For the Gentile who believes has become a Jew.

Not a “physical” Jew, mind you (which is why the Jewish leadership was so opposed to Paul). Gentiles who believe are made Jews. They become members of God’s household, God’s Israel, God’s tree: Israel, that is, the TRUE ISRAEL. We know who that “true Israel” is. And we know who that “true Israel” is not.

First, not all of those who are physical descendants of Israel are the true Israel of God, nor are they the true descendants of Abraham simply because they are physical descendants of Abraham. Why? Because it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. Membership on God’s household is NOT on the basis of physical descent from Abraham. The physical Israelite is not guaranteed membership in God’s Israel simply on the basis of physical birth.

Second, Gentile believers ARE members of God’s Israel. They are no longer “Gentiles.” These Pauline analogies cannot be clearer. God’s Israel is an olive tree. Some of the natural branches (disobedient physical Jews) are broken off because they don’t “believe.” Some of the natural branches (the remnant of faithful Jews) remain because they do “believe.” And Gentiles also become branches on this one tree by “believing.”

Back to Corinthians:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers
were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and
all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and
all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same
spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock
which followed them; and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10:1-4)

Paul says that those who passed through the sea were the fathers of the believing Gentiles and Jews. That is “family” language, covenant language. These fathers ate and drank the same spiritual food from the same source. That source was Christ. Now look at what Paul draws from that experience of these believing Jews’ and Gentiles’ “fathers.”

I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. Is not the cup od
blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is
not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?
Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we
All partake of the one bread. (Cor. 10:15-17)

Paul is making the argument that “we who are many” (from diverse “ethnic” origins, again, Jewish or Gentile) are now in Christ made into one body. These all partake in one bread, the body of Christ. The bread of which they partake represents their unity.—all believers (Jew and Gentile) share in the body of Christ.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to
be unaware. You know that when you were Gentiles, you were
led astray to dumb idols, however you were led (12:1-2)

Paul says that these believing Gentiles “were Gentiles.” The imperfect tense of the “to be” verb indicates that Paul thinks of these Corinthians as no longer Gentiles. Because they are believers, they are incorporated into God’s Israel. They partake of the same body that their “fathers” did who passed through the sea. Just like the other analogy where the Gentile believers are members of the olive tree (Israel) to share in it richness. The Gentile believers are NO LONGER “Gentiles” but are NOW Jews, members of God’s Israel.

[Arminian]

In the Scriptures (both OT and NT) the “exodus” imagery is used by the respective authors as a “picture” of the “final exodus” when God in finality delivers His Israel form exile and bondage. It is, you know, a great portrait of God’s deliverance. And the subsequent Biblical authors are sure to use it to illustrate the future time (that “day”) of God’s final redemption.

I will cite a few examples so that we can understand what we are looking at. Then I will make a significant observation about the nature of that “new exodus” of “God’s Israel” about which these authors write.

First, the Scriptural portraits of the “new exodus” of “God’s Israel.” I have retained the poetic form found in the Hebrew text so that the unique literary style is preserved, such as parallelism. (Hebrew imagery and allusions are difficult for those unfamiliar with them. Perhaps someone can post on that topic as well.)

Note how Isaiah uses the imagery as he writes to the exiles during the Babylonian captivity:

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the islands of the sea.
And he will lift up a standard for the nations,
And will assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be cut off;
Ephram will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephram.

And there will be a highway from Assyria
For the remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel
In the day that they came out of the land of Egypt.
(Isa 11:11-13, 16)

Isaiah again:

Thus says the LORD,
Who makes a way through the sea
And a path through the mighty waters,
Who brings forth the chariot and the horse,
The army and the mighty man
They will lie down together and not rise again;
They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick:
Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder the things of the past.
Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.
The beasts of the field will glorify Me;
The jackals and the ostriches;
Because I have given waters in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to my chosen people.
The people whom I have formed for Myself,
Will declare My praise. (Isa 43:16-21)

Isaiah again:

Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this,
Send it out to the end of the earth;
Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts.
He made water flow out of a rock for them;
He split the rock, and the water gushed forth. (Isa 48:20-21)

Awake, awake, pun on strength, O arm of the LORD;
Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.
It was not Thou who cut Rahab in pieces,
Who pierced the dragon?
Was it not Thou who dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
Who made the depths of the sea a pathway
For the redeemed to cross over?
So the ransomed of the LORD will return,
And come with joyful shouting to Zion;
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy. (Isa 51:9-11)

Micah, the prophet:

Shepherd Thy people with Thy scepter,
The flock of Thy possession
Which dwells in itself in the woodland,
In the midst of a fruitful field.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
As in the days of old.
As in the days when you come out from Egypt,
I will show you miracles. (Mic 7:14-15)

Jeremiah, the prophet:

Therefore behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when
it will no longer be said, “As the LORD lives, who brought up
the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, “but, “As the LORD
lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the
north and from all the countries where He had banished them.”
For I will restore them to their own land which I give to their
Fathers. (Jer. 16:14-15)

Ezekiel, the prophet, was ministering to the exiles in Babylonia. Note that Ezekiel frames his whole prophetic word in terms drawn from the exodus. The Babylonian captivity is pictured in imagery of Egypt and Pharaoh. Israel is not “literally” in Egypt and not “literally” being held by the Pharaoh. This is Ezekiel’s typological imagery employed to depict the Babylonian captivity and the coming power of God, just as in the days of Egyptian captivity!

Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and
Prophesy against him and against all Egypt. Speak and say, Thus
Says the Lord GOD,
Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
The great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers,
That has said, “My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.”
And I shall put hooks in your jaws,
And I shall make the fish of your rivers cling to your scales.
And I shall bring you up out of the midst of your rivers.
And all the fish of your rivers will cling to your scales.
And I shall abandon you to the wilderness,
You and all the fish of your rivers;
You will fall on the open field;
You will not be brought together or gathered.
I have given you for food to the beasts of the earth
and to the birds of the sky.
Then all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am the LORD,
Because they have been only a staff
made of reed to the house of Israel,
When they took hold of you with the hand,
You broke and tore all their hands;
And when they leaned on you,
You broke and made all their loins quake.
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD,
Behold, I shall bring upon you a sword,
and I shall cut off from you man and beast.
And the land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste
Then they will know that I am the LORD.
Because you said, “The Nile is mine, and I have made it.”
Therefore, behold, I am against you and against your rivers,
and I will make the land of Egypt and utter waste and
desolation, from Migdol to Syene and even to the broader of Ethiopia. (Ez. 29:1-10)

And the Psalmist:

Yet God is my king from of old,
Who works deeds for deliverance in the midst of the earth.
Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength;
Thou didst break the heads of the sea monsters n the waters.
Thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
(Ps. 74:12-14)

Second, it’s important to realize something very significant here. We need to see how the inspired author saw things, and then compare how the Jews of Paul’s day (the Septuagint translators during the intertestamental period) saw things from their perspective.

In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of
The land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border. And
It will become a sigh and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the
land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of
oppressors, and He will send a Savior and a Champion, and
He will deliver them. Thus the LORD will make Himself known
to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They
will even worship the sacrifice and offering, and will make a
vow to the LORD and perform it. And the LORD will strike Egypt,
striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will
respond to them and will heal them. In that day there will be a
highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Egyptians will
worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third
party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,
whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt
My people. and Assyria the work of My hands,
and Israel My inheritance.” (Isa 19:19-25)

Possibly you have noticed (and possibly not, as it is not as readily noticeable in the English translations) that this prophetic word is cast in the same terminology as the exodus story was (cf. Exod 3:7-10; 8:16-24). But notice the stark difference. Here we see in this prophecy of Isaiah an inversion and transfer of a national tradition of redemption to the very people – the Egyptians – who were the original enslaver. Then enslaver here is the enslaved; the oppressor here is he oppressed.

That is, here the redemptive event, the “new exodus” (always represented in images of Israel’s exodus from Egypt), becomes a universal reconciliation. “Israel” takes on an explicitly new character. Egypt will share in this “new exodus” event. The “new exodus,” then, is more than the prototype. In the “new exodus” Egypt will be called “My people” (comp. Exod 3:10).

This fits with Isaiah’s overall theme of “all nations” as participants in the future deliverance. This is why Paul cites so heavily from the Book of Isaiah. I noted the Isaiah citation from Romans 15 already.

But one very significant point about this Isaiah prophesy about Egypt being “My people.” The Jews of the Second Temple period (the Intertestamental period) understood fully what this meant, that “Gentiles” were to be included in the future “new exodus,” that they would also be called “My people.” And this went 180 degrees against their exclusivistic Jewish beliefs. This was the Jewish covenant and all others could only participate by becoming Jews – proselytism! This remained the attitude of official Judaism throughout the Second Temple period. I’ve noted this belief system often.

So, then, it is exceedingly significant to note that the LXX (Septuagint) and Targumim reflect this uneasiness about Isaiah’s claim here. How can “Gentiles” be referred to as “My people”? They simply CANNOT. So, whereas the Hebrew text reads, “Blessed is Egypt My people,” the LXX translators have tendentiously altered it to read, “Blessed be my people who are in Egypt." The Targumim have altered the reading likewise!

But Paul knows better. Paul understands Isaiah to be referring to the Gentiles and the Jews together making up God’s Israel, “My people.”

This “new exodus” theme carries into the NT writings quite pervasively. We have already seen Paul’s allusion to it in Corinthians. And we remember that Paul understands the “fathers” who passed through the sea (who went through the exodus experience) to be the fathers of the Gentile believers.

As we shall see, Paul knows his Scriptures – Paul KNOWS his Scriptures!

“Tell me…. do you hear what the law says?” (Gal 4:21)

[Arminian]

The administrator has specified that you can only edit messages for 1440 minutes after you have posted. This limit has expired, so you must contact the administrator to make alterations on your message.

[Solly]

Please get your assignments in on time Arminian.

[Arminian]

[greek]:saywhat:[/greek]