Right!

Submitted by Servant of Christ (United States), Dec 19, 2006 at 19:49

John the Baptist denied that he was the Elijah in the Gospel of John and anyway it says in Malachi 4:5 that God will send a dreadful day but where is this dreadful before Jesus came.

I told you that John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah the man. He never denied having the spirit of Elijah upon him. The Gospel of Luke says that John had the spirit of Elijah.

The dreadful day has not happened. If John came before Jesus, and Jesus came before the dreadful day, then hasn't John come before the dreadful day?

The KJV says:

31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their G-d, and they shall be my people.34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The third verse is quite specific -- this is the covenant: my "law," (actually "Torah" in Hebrew, which is better rendered as 'teaching' than as 'law'), will be in everyone's heart, and (fourth verse) no one will teach anyone else about G-d, because all will know G-d. Since Jesus didn't bring this about, he can't be this new covenant.

What are you trying to say? No, it does not say, "Nobody will need anyone to teach them about God". It says that everyone will know Him. The New Covenant was brought by Christ Jesus. We are justified through his blood and by his Spirit. His Spirit is our Comforter and Counselor and dwells within us.

This is another verse which you have tooking out of its context.

The LORD says to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet." (Psalm 110:1 NIV

This is a perfect example of the old adage "it loses something in the translation." At first glance, this would seem like G-d is talking to Himself. However, this simply is not the case. The name, which KJV capitalizes above, is the designation for the four-letter sacred name of G-d. The "Lord" which is not entirely capitalized above is the Hebrew word "adoni," which means "my master." In modern spoken Hebrew, it is used as one would use the word "sir" in English.

King David, while not allowed to build the Temple, did everything he could to prepare the way for it to be built, and among the things he did was compile the book of Psalms to be sung by the Levites in the Temple. This Psalm was meant to be sung by the Levites, and thus reflects their point of view, for they would call their king "adoni."

David wrote this psalm. So who would he call Lord/sir/master? No, it was not the priests who wrote this. As it is written:

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?"
"The son of David," they replied.

43He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says,
44" 'The Lord said to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
under your feet." '45If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" 46No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22:41-46 NIV)

In the Hebrew, this passage is in the past tense! For example, the word which the Christian Bibles render as "his name shall be called" is the two words "vayikra shemo," which properly translated, should be "called his name" or "his name was called." The word "vayikra" is the first word to appear in the book of Leviticus, and a quick check will show that all Bibles render "vayikra" there properly, in the past tense.

This passage is, in reality, about the wonders performed by the Lord for Hezekiah, king of Judah. "Hezekiah" means "Strong/mighty is G-d." This passage is Isaiah's praise of the Lord for his salvation in the affair of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem. We find an allusion to this in that the rare usage of the term "the zeal of Lord" is used elsewhere in reference to Hezekiah's victory.

But does Hezekieah mean Everlasting Father, Counselor, or Prince of Peace?

The fact that the New Testament doesn't even quote this passage shows what a weak proof text it is.

So have you begun to accept that the New Testament is reliable and inspired?

God Bless You

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".