CrossEyed2
Footballguy
Those of you who have been around for a while are probably familiar with my past postings here. I was always a staunch defender of Christianity and the church. I was a pastor for 8 years, and served in ministry full-time for another three years.
But over the last couple of years, and especially the past year, I've learned a lot of things. And one of the more surprising things I learned is that, if you want to truly learn what the Bible teaches, you probably have to get away from the church.
Now I'm not talking about salvation by grace through the death and resurrection of Christ. That part they get. But the rest of it? The church has thoroughly mangled the truth of God's word. Most Christians can't really understand the New Testament properly because they are so uninformed about the Old Testament.
The biggest problem, in my opinion? Dispensationalism. Not understanding that there is no distinction between Israel (the people, not the current nation) and the church has led to a myriad of unbiblical teachings. The church didn't start at Pentecost in the first century, the church started at Sinai when Yahweh gave Moses the commandments. That's when Yahweh, the bridegroom, married Israel, the bride. Then, because of her unfaithfulness, Yahweh divorced the northern kingdom, the house of Isreal. The northern 10 tribes were scattered throughout the world. Yet God promised that He would bring her back. But how could that happen, His own law says that once a bride is given a certificate of divorce and defiles herself, the first husband can never take her back. The Bible declares, in no uncertain terms, that Israel defiled herself: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?"
So how could God ever reunite with Israel without breaking His own laws? Well, the only thing that releases one from the law of marriage/divorce is death. And that's why Yahshua had to die. His death released God from the law of marriage/divorce. So when He returns again He is free to marry His bride, Israel, once again. The bride is also made new by grace, through faith, as Paul explains in Romans 6 : "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
So the groom died, and the bride died, but both were brought back to new life. And when Yahshua returns, the Millennial Kingdom will see the reunification of the house of Israel (northern kingdom) and the house of Judah (southern kingdom) and the marriage of Yahshua (the bridegroom) and a united Israel (the bride). The unification of the house of Israel and the house of Judah is what Ezekiel is talking about in Ezekiel 37. The bones being brought to life and the two sticks coming together to form one stick are both about Yahshua's return and the millennial kingdom. And what we think of as the "church" are a group of people that includes both physical descendants of the scattered northern 10 tribes, as well as "foreigners" who choose to join themselves to Israel. Either way, we are told that believers are grafted into Israel, the olive tree.
But you won't find these truths taught in most churches. That's the disappointing part. I had to, essentially, leave the church in order to learn the truth. I do still attend worship services because I do want my kids to learn about God from other people, not just myself and my wife. But nowhere near as consistently as I used to.
I told my wife the other day, I've never been more interested in God's word, and I've never been less interested in the institutional church.
I would love for this thread to be a place where we could have meaningful discussions about some of the topics that the church either gets wrong, or just plain ignores.
But over the last couple of years, and especially the past year, I've learned a lot of things. And one of the more surprising things I learned is that, if you want to truly learn what the Bible teaches, you probably have to get away from the church.
Now I'm not talking about salvation by grace through the death and resurrection of Christ. That part they get. But the rest of it? The church has thoroughly mangled the truth of God's word. Most Christians can't really understand the New Testament properly because they are so uninformed about the Old Testament.
The biggest problem, in my opinion? Dispensationalism. Not understanding that there is no distinction between Israel (the people, not the current nation) and the church has led to a myriad of unbiblical teachings. The church didn't start at Pentecost in the first century, the church started at Sinai when Yahweh gave Moses the commandments. That's when Yahweh, the bridegroom, married Israel, the bride. Then, because of her unfaithfulness, Yahweh divorced the northern kingdom, the house of Isreal. The northern 10 tribes were scattered throughout the world. Yet God promised that He would bring her back. But how could that happen, His own law says that once a bride is given a certificate of divorce and defiles herself, the first husband can never take her back. The Bible declares, in no uncertain terms, that Israel defiled herself: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?"
So how could God ever reunite with Israel without breaking His own laws? Well, the only thing that releases one from the law of marriage/divorce is death. And that's why Yahshua had to die. His death released God from the law of marriage/divorce. So when He returns again He is free to marry His bride, Israel, once again. The bride is also made new by grace, through faith, as Paul explains in Romans 6 : "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
So the groom died, and the bride died, but both were brought back to new life. And when Yahshua returns, the Millennial Kingdom will see the reunification of the house of Israel (northern kingdom) and the house of Judah (southern kingdom) and the marriage of Yahshua (the bridegroom) and a united Israel (the bride). The unification of the house of Israel and the house of Judah is what Ezekiel is talking about in Ezekiel 37. The bones being brought to life and the two sticks coming together to form one stick are both about Yahshua's return and the millennial kingdom. And what we think of as the "church" are a group of people that includes both physical descendants of the scattered northern 10 tribes, as well as "foreigners" who choose to join themselves to Israel. Either way, we are told that believers are grafted into Israel, the olive tree.
But you won't find these truths taught in most churches. That's the disappointing part. I had to, essentially, leave the church in order to learn the truth. I do still attend worship services because I do want my kids to learn about God from other people, not just myself and my wife. But nowhere near as consistently as I used to.
I told my wife the other day, I've never been more interested in God's word, and I've never been less interested in the institutional church.
I would love for this thread to be a place where we could have meaningful discussions about some of the topics that the church either gets wrong, or just plain ignores.
