Understanding The Bible: Meaning

[DavidHenson]

The Bible, after a brief prologue in which God creates the universe and everything in it, concluding with Adam and Eve, can be summed up as being about the vindication of Jehovah God's name through the ransom sacrifice of Christ Jesus. That is what the Bible is all about from Genesis 3:15 - Revelation 22:21.

God created Michael first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Daniel 10:13, 20-21; 12:1; Revelation 12:7) Then Michael, as Jehovah's master worker, created everything through Jehovah's Holy Spirit or active force. (Proverbs 8:22, 30; John 17:5; Colossians 1:15-17; John 1:14; 17:5) The word Holy means sacred, or belonging to God. Spirit means an invisible active force, like wind, breath, mental inclination. Something that we can't see but that produces results that we can see. The first thing that was created was the spiritual heavens. This was followed by the spirit beings, often called angels. Then the physical heavens, or space as we know it, including Earth, the stars, sun and moon. Then everything on Earth eventually concluding with Adam and Eve.

The angels existed for a very long time before man was created, and they had time to mature, like children, so that they knew what was good and bad from their creator. (Job 38:4-7; Genesis 1:26)

By the time man was created the angels had already reached their potential.

On the seventh day, when the creation was complete, God "rested." This doesn't mean that God was tired or that he stopped working, it means he set aside a period of time in which we were allowed to mature, as the angels had done. (Isaiah 40:28; John 5:17) When we would have accomplished this we could, as the Bible says, enter into God's day of rest. In other words, the seventh "day" or more accurately, period, of creation continues to this day. So the knowledge of what is good and what is bad is the eventual possession of that maturity. The ability to decide for ourselves what was good and what was bad, predicated upon an acknowledgement of our own accord, of our creator, Jehovah's rightful sovereignty. You see this theme repeated throughout scripture, as instruction to the chosen people who would begin the process of salvation. (Genesis 3:22; Genesis 2:2; Deuteronomy 12:9-10; Numbers 14:30; Psalm 95:11; Hebrews 3:16-19; 41)

This is why, once Adam rejected that concept by deciding for himself what was good and bad before he had matured in able to best do that, Jehovah had to shorten his life from living forever to eventually dying. Because if he and his offspring, mankind, were allowed to live forever under those conditions, they would never reach that maturity and they would bring about an endless series of chaos and destruction.

So, in effect, Satan charged Jehovah with the crime of withholding some knowledge from mankind. He knew this wasn't true, but he wanted to try and seize control of the power that Jehovah's sovereignty represented even if it meant destroying all that it represented and everything else in the process. Even destroying himself. Like a jealous child breaking a toy so no one else can have it.

But to Jehovah justice is very important. You can't just wave away a crime due to the damage that has been incurred. So he allowed the charges against him to be tried, as in a court of law. He allowed Satan's theory to be tested in a manner of speaking. With the stipulation that 1. he wasn't going to allow it to prevent his original purpose for the angels and mankind from being fulfilled beyond what was necessary to establish his defense. That they should eventually live forever in peace, in heaven and on earth respectively. And 2. that justice would be done.

So immediately after Adam's sin Jehovah put in motion the plan for all of this to take place while Satan's theory was being tested. (Genesis 3:15) The founding of the world wasn't the creation of the earth, it was the beginning of society. Abel had lived at the start of end times and we live today towards it's conclusion. (Luke 11:50, 51; Matthew 25:34; Hebrews 9:26; Revelation 13:8; 17:8)

In a basic sense the steps were as follows.

1. Select a group of people. (Genesis 17:19-21)
2. Form a nation for those people. (Genesis 22:1-18)
3. Demonstrate to them what was going on by establishing a law which they couldn't keep due to their imperfection, or the incomplete nature of their lack of the aforementioned maturity. (Galatians 3:19-21, 24; Romans 7:6-7)
4. Provide a way out through a Messiah or Christ, namely, Michael, who volunteered due to his love for mankind and his father, Jehovah's purpose. So Michael came to earth as a man, Jesus the Christ.

According to the Bible our soul is our life, represented by our blood, so blood is sacred. (Genesis 9:6; Leviticus 17:11, 14; Ezekiel 18:4) To kill someone, or take their soul, requires the payment of the killer's own soul because it is taking something sacred to Jehovah. So the blood sacrifices represented a respect for or acknowledgement of his created life granted to us. For example, if a person was found murdered and no one knew who did the killing then they had to sacrifice a bull and spill its blood on the ground as a symbolic acknowledgement of God's possession. Sacred life. A sort of gesture of justice. (Deuteronomy 21:1-9)

Since we inherited sin through Adam then the only man who could pay the price for the blood of Adam, which had been perfect and without sin from the start until he did sin - was the blood of a man who was without sin.

[BigJohn]

Nice synopsis.

[DavidHenson]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Nice synopsis.

Some people like little bits of interesting trivia about the Bible, some people like flowery or poetical repetition of prayer and ritual, and some like academic prestige . . . enshrouded in mystery and delivered to the unsuspecting unordained . . . but no one wants to hear about the meaning of the Bible. They've heard it all before. All ten billion interpretations. None of them making any more sense then the other.

[Miss Hepburn]

David, are you a theology teacher, by any chance, or did you take theology courses?
Cuz this was quite comprehensive! Impressive!

I have heard this before about Jesus being Michael.
I don't know, makes no difference to me --but I have read on forums there can be some disagreements to that.
So this could get interesting!!
As I recall, Jehovah Witnesses are the main one's that believe Michael was Jesus, right?
You certainly bring a lot to the Christianity section!

[davidmartin]

i would present a slightly different view of the bible - it's about reconnecting with the original true God against the false ideas of God as a punisher and establishing a relationship with the loving God and most importantly rejecting harsh, judgmental ideas about God that are just not true. Both these options are available when studying scripture. I chose the loving God interpretation from the same scripture

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by davidmartin

i would present a slightly different view of the bible - it's about reconnecting with the original true God against the false ideas of God as a punisher and establishing a relationship with the loving God and most importantly rejecting harsh, judgmental ideas about God that are just not true. Both these options are available when studying scripture.
chose the loving God interpretation from the same scripture

Me, Too!!!!

[DavidHenson]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

As I recall, Jehovah Witnesses are the main one's that believe Michael was Jesus, right?

In response to your post (#4). No, I'm no theology scholar. If I were I would be preaching the pagan tradition adopted by the church 400 years after Christ. Traditions of men, Jesus called them, when the same sort of thing had happened to the Jewish leaders of his day. The Sadducees and the Pharisees.

Now, it is interesting that when I've discussed this on other forums people associate it with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but in an article I posted years ago on an old website now found on the Internet Archive, The Wayback Machine, I list a few of the people who were of the opinion that Jesus was Michael come to earth. For example, Clarke's Commentary, W.E. Vine, Geneva Study Bible, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Calvin Commentaries, Brown's Dictionary of the Bible, The NIV Study Bible, Smith's Bible Dictionary and Today's Dictionary Of the Bible. You can read the quotes I gave from those here.

You may recall my introductory thread here at Spiritual Forums where I pointed out that nothing I say is original. It all comes from somewhere else. The same applies to the Jehovah's Witnesses. The modern day teachings of the Bible and theology come from either of two places. The writings themselves or traditions adopted by the church beginning about 400 years after Christ.

[DavidHenson]

Originally Posted by davidmartin

I chose the loving God interpretation from the same scripture

Why have you done that?

[BigJohn]

Some translations use the expression "sons of God" whereas other translations might use angels................

If Jesus is the first son of God then it might be said, he is the first angel created.

If you have read some of my previous comments, I have indicated it probably was Jesus who was at the 'Burning Bush' and was also active when Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt.

[DavidHenson]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

If you have read some of my previous comments, I have indicated it probably was Jesus who was at the 'Burning Bush' and was also active when Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt.

Right. And it will be him again who destroys the world.