Stranger Things and Abortion: The Upside Down World of Forbidden Grief

By Kevin Burke 1/5/2018

     In the popular Netflix series Stranger Things we learn of a secret government program during the 1980’s in Hawkins, Indiana.

     Here in this government laboratory scientists perform human experiments to develop special mental powers, such as the ability to move objects with the mind and travel to different dimensions

     While some volunteered for the project, others were kidnapped and held as prisoners. Two of the subjects included a pregnant mother named Terry and her daughter.

     This child, known as Eleven (from the number tattooed on her wrist) was taken at birth and separated from her mother. Scientists told Terry that the baby had died.

     The mother suspected otherwise. As she came closer to the truth researchers used strong doses of shock treatment to silence her.

     An Upside Down Doorway to Hell | Using familiar themes found in science fiction and the Bible’s book of Genesis, Stranger Things tells a tale of how mankind’s pride opens the door to evil.

     Eleven (aka El) cultivated strong mental powers as she grew into early adolescence at the government laboratory. Through special experiments, she developed the ability to travel to other dimensions and move large objects with her mind.

     In one experiment, El travels into an altered reality. She wakes up on the other side of the world. There she encounters a Russian spy and gathers intelligence for the government.

Kevin Burke is a licensed social worker, Co-Founder of Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries and a Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life. He is a graduate of The Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work. Kevin’s presentations address the effects of abortion on men, couples and families and effective post abortion ministry for Clergy and Counselors.

The Rachel’s Vineyard ™ support group and retreat models are now offered in 49 states. The international outreach of Rachel’s Vineyard is now in over 70 countries. The Retreat manual has been translated into 22 languages with other translations in progress. We offer over 1000 retreats annually worldwide.

Kevin is the co-author of Redeeming A Father’s Heart-Men Share Powerful Stories of Abortion Loss and Recovery and Sharing The Heart of Christ: Safe and Effective Post Abortion Ministry for Clergy and Counselors, co- authored with Theresa Burke and Fr Frank Pavone. He has contributed and authored articles on the trauma and recovery after abortion. Kevin has been a guest on EWTN’s “At Home with Jim and Joy” and the “Gospel of Life” on Sky Angel Network.

He is a regular guest on national radio shows.

Kevin formerly served as the administrator of Mother’s Home, a crisis pregnancy residence that provides housing, computer job training and programs for women and their children. Kevin also worked as a clinical social work supervisor for Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia.

The Destiny of the Unsaved

By Nate Sala 8/18/2016

     The doctrine of eschatology as it pertains to the afterlife is a hotly contested issue. Christians vary in their particular interpretations of Scripture that split the issue into three camps: Universalism; annihilationism; and eternal punishment.

     Universalism holds to the notion that all will go to Heaven, although there are differing views on when, specifically, this will take place. Some hold to an immediate reconciliation while others require a previous “necessary period of purgation”. [J.R. Root, “Universalism.” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library).] Annihilationism is the belief that the unregenerate will cease to exist after death. As with universalism, Christians perceive different applications for annihilationism. Some think that God grants immortality to believers only and lets the rest “sink into nothingness” while others think that evil itself is the thing that dissolves the soul at death. [R. Nicole, “Annihilationism.” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) ] Lastly, eternal punishment is the view that consistently holds to all passages of eschatological Scripture. The notion hinges on the usage of the Greek aion (“old age”) and aionion (“eternal”, “everlasting”) in the New Testament (ex. Matt 18:8; 25:46; 2 Thess 1:9) that speaks to the duration of punishment for sins. [L.L. Morris, “Eternal Punishment.” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) ]

     Christians also differ on where the unregenerate go after death. In the Old Testament, the notion of “sheol”, “an intermediate state in which souls are dealt with according to their lives on earth,” [W.A. Van Gemeron, “Sheol.” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library)] was introduced. In the New Testament sheol was translated into “hades” and was emphasized to be an abode of punishment. While there is no principle difference between sheol and hades, Jesus established another word for a more nuanced concept of the sinner’s destination – “gehenna”. Taken from the Valley of Hinnom where the Israelites burned their children in worship to Molech, gehenna, “came to be used metaphorically for the hell of fire, the place of everlasting punishment for the wicked.” [V. Cruz, “Gehenna.” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) ] Therefore, the principle difference between all three terms hinges on the final judgment of God. While sheol and hades appear to be a temporary interim before judgment, as V. Cruz points out, gehenna is the final destination after judgment. [V. Cruz, “Gehenna.” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Reference Library) ]

     As mentioned earlier, the notion of eternal punishment is the most respectful of the range of eschatological passages and is, therefore, the correct view to hold on this issue. Dan 12:2 says that some of the dead will awaken to “everlasting contempt” while Heb 6:2 speaks of “eternal judgment”. Matt 25:46 clearly showcases the dichotomy of eternalities as those who are righteous go to “eternal life” while the unrighteous to “eternal punishment”. Jesus cannot be any clearer by employing the Greek “aionio” which means “eternal”, “everlasting”, and “forever”. There is no other meaning in view, especially in light of the clear parallel Christ draws between “punishment” and “life”.

     An annihilationist might argue that “punishment” is open to interpretation and that Christ is simply contrasting life to non-life in Matt 25:46. However, the key word in play (“eternal”) is tied to the parallel between both “punishment” and “life” requiring that both concepts last an equal duration. If an annihilationist wishes to get rid of eternal punishment and refer to it as the momentary ceasing of existence, then it stands to reason that Christ’s granting of the righteous individual’s “life” can only last momentarily as well.

     English and Forensics Teacher. B.Sc., M.Ed. University of Nevada Las Vegas. Lives in Las Vegas with his wife, two sons, and dogs.

The Hebrew Manuscripts and the Early Versions

By Gleason Archer Jr.

The Pre-Christian Manuscripts

A Survey of Old Testament Introduction

How To Know When God Is Talking To You

By Mike Mobley

     I think many people are searching for this answer whether they follow Jesus or not. If there’s a chance we can hear from God Himself on a question we have or something we are going through, don’t you think we would want to hear from Him? Or at least, know how to?

     I struggled with this thought for awhile before following Jesus and after I started to follow Him because I heard many different claims of people “hearing” from God and I had no idea what that meant because I thought I never heard from Him. Something must have been wrong with me, right?

     There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to hearing from God and I think that is part of the problem. With so many stories and experiences out there through books, videos, posts, etc. it’s hard to know if there is a way to really know if we are hearing from God.

     Here’s the good news.

     God is not a God of confusion. He is not a God who would want to confuse people by having them constantly question if they can hear Him or not. The simple fact that He sent His one and only Son to die for us proves the point that He is not a cruel God…and in fact, a loving God. Not only that, He has made it very clear on how we can hear from Him. It’s our choice whether or not we will believe Him with how He says He speaks.

(2 Ti 3:16–17) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ESV Click here to go to source

Read The Psalms In "1" Year

Psalm 5

8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.

11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
you cover him with favor as with a shield.

The Heart of Christian Husbanding

By David Mathis 9/29/2016

     Husbands in Sri Lanka may not have the same expression, but forty years of marriage have taught Ajith Fernando a similar lesson.

     Living in the impoverished and war-torn island-nation south of India also has taught Fernando that a husband doesn’t need money to make his wife happy. What she wants most isn’t something he can buy, but it is something that’s very costly to give: himself. She doesn’t want his shell, but his attention, his energy, his creativity and awareness and engagement — and especially when it’s most difficult.

     Americans have no corner on the market of marital happiness, and many husbands today would profit greatly to get themselves outside their cultural assumptions, patterns, and blind spots and hear from a veteran Christian husband born, raised, and husbanding in a society and environment very different from our own.

     Learn from the Sri Lankan | Ajith Fernando is an internationally known and loved Christian author and teacher, called “the Asian John Stott” by some. He was born in Sri Lanka, came to the United States for graduate studies, and returned to his native country, which was engulfed in conflict, and served for 35 years as the national director of Youth for Christ. Most of his career he has served in the perils, pains, and relentless frustrations of the Sri Lankan civil war that began in 1983 and lasted more than 25 years, until 2009.

     One thing, among many, Fernando has learned, while living simply in an impoverished and embattled land, is that “date night” doesn’t need to be expensive. Profitable time away with your wife from the rough and tumble of everyday life is not about having money in your pocket, but about having a heart to make your wife happy.

The Creche And The Gap

By George Weigel 12/20/2017

     For the past decade or so, I’ve been assembling a mid-sized Judean village of Fontanini crèche figures, including artisans, herders (with sheep), farmers (with chickens and an ahistorical turkey), vintners, blacksmiths, musicians, weavers, and a fisherman or two (one awake, another sleeping). Like the colossal Neapolitan crèche at the basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Rome, it’s a reminder that the Lord Jesus was born in the midst of humanity and its messy history: the history that the Child has come to set back on its truest course, which is toward God. The messiness of history is a caution against letting sentimentality take over Christmas; so are some challenging truths about Mary, Joseph, and their place in what theologians call the “economy of salvation.”

     Why challenging? Because Mary and Joseph were called both to form their son in the faith of Israel and to give up, even renounce, their human claims on him, so that he might be what God the Father intended and the world needed.

     When Luke tells us that Mary kept all that had happened to her and to her boy “in her heart” (Luke 2:52), we may imagine that she was pondering what the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar once described as a great detachment: At his birth, Jesus “detached himself from her in order to tread his way back to the Father through the world.” Some will welcome the message he will preach along that messianic pilgrimage; others will be resistant. And that resistance (in which the Evil One will play no small part) will eventually lead to Calvary, where the sword of sorrow promised by ancient Simeon in Luke 2:35 will pierce Mary’s soul. Then, in the tableau at the foot of the Cross, as captured by Michelangelo in the Pietà, Mary will offer the silent affirmation of God’s will to which she once gave vocal assent at the Annunciation: “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

     The last recorded words of Mary in the New Testament—“Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5)—underscore that the role of Mary, who receives the Incarnate Word of God at the Annunciation and gives birth to him in the Nativity, is always to give her Son away: to point beyond herself to him, and to call others to obedience to him. Thus what Balthasar described as a “detachment” applies to Mary as well as to Jesus: Mary detaches herself from whatever her own life-plans might be, and from whatever her maternal instincts to keep her Son close might be, in order to fulfill the vocation planned for her from the beginning—to be the model of all Christian discipleship, which is the abandonment of my will to God’s will for my life.

     Then there is Joseph, another model of self-gift and self-renunciation. Hans Urs von Balthasar again:

• 1     Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II
• 2     Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II
• 3     Letters to a Young Catholic
• 4     The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II--The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy
• 5     Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches
• 6     The Truth of Catholicism: Inside the Essential Teachings and Controversies of the Church Today
• 7     The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism
• 8     The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God
• 9     Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism: A Call to Action
• 10     Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church
• 11     By George Weigel - Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999-10-16) [Hardcover]
• 12     Tranquillitas Ordinis: The Present Failure and Future Promise of American Catholic Thought on War and Peace
• 13     The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II -- The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy
• 14     Building the Free Society: Democracy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching
• 15     The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism
• 16     Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II
• 17     The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform And The Future Of The Church
• 18     God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church
• 19     Against the Grain: Christianity and Democracy, War and Peace
• 20     Freedom and its Discontents: Catholicism Confronts Modernity
• 21     Soul of the World: Notes on the Future of Public Catholicism
• 22     Practicing Catholic: Essays Historical, Literary, Sporting, and Elegiac
• 23     Just War and the Gulf War
• 24     Idealism Without Illusions/U.S. Foreign Policy in the 1990s
• 25     A New Worldly Order: John Paul II and Human Freedom
• 26     Being Christian Today
• 27     Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy
• 28     Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism
• 29     Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church
• 30     American Interests, American Purpose: Moral Reasoning and U.S. Foreign Policy
• 31     A New Worldly Order: John Paul II and Human Freedom
• 32     The American Search for Peace: Moral Reasoning, Religious Hope, and National Security (Endowment for the Arts; 24)

Israel's Four Temples

(1) Solomon's Pre-exhilic temple.

     ( Kings and  Chronicles )

     The crowning achievement of King Solomon's reign was the erection of the magnificent Temple (Hebrew- Beit haMikdash) in the capital city of ancient Israel - Jerusalem. His father, King David, had wanted to build the great Temple a generation earlier, as a permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. A divine edict, however, had forbidden him from doing so: "You will not build a house for My name," God said to David, "for you are a man of battles and have shed blood" ( I Chronicles 28:3 ).

     The Bible's description of Solomon's Temple (also called The First Temple) suggests that the inside ceiling was was 180 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 50 feet high. The highest point on the Temple that King Solomon built was actually 120 cubits tall (about 20 stories or about 207 feet).

     According to ( II Chronicles ):  3:3 - "The length by cubits after the ancient measure was threescore cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits".  3:4 - "And the porch that was before the house, the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height a hundred and twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold."

     Solomon spared no expense for the building's creation. He ordered vast quantities of cedar wood from King Hiram of Tyre ( I Kings 5:20-25 ), had huge blocks of the choicest stone quarried, and commanded that the building's foundation be laid with hewn stone. To complete the massive project, he imposed forced labor on all his subjects, drafting people for work shifts that sometimes lasted a month at a time. Some 3,300 officials were appointed to oversee the Temple's erection ( 5:27-30 ). Solomon assumed such heavy debts in building the Temple that he is forced to pay off King Hiram by handing over twenty towns in the Galilee ( I Kings 9:11 ).

     When the Temple was completed, Solomon inaugurated it with prayer and sacrifice, and even invited non-Jews to come and pray there. He urged God to pay particular heed to their prayers: "Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built" ( I Kings 8:43).

(2) Zerubbabel's post exilic temple

     ( Ezra 1-6, John 2:20 )

     The present paper covers the first twenty-three years of the Persian period. The biblical sources of information are the first six chapters of  Ezra, the first eight chapters of  Zechariah, Haggai, and some of the  Psalms, with such inferences as may be drawn from the accounts of earlier and later times. The apocryphal book of I Esdras gives an account that sometimes differs from that of  Ezra; and Josephus commonly follows I Esdras. Outside the Bible, a few facts are to be gleaned from inscriptions of the Persian kings, and from the Greek historians. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3157983?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

     The chronology. In the canon of Ptolemy, the years of the period are named for the following kings:
B. C. 538-530 are the 9 years of Cyrus.
B. C. 529-522 are the 8 years of Cambyses.
B. C. 521-486 are the 36 years of Darius Hystaspes.

     As a matter of fact, the king known as Gomates, or the pseudo-Smerdis, was on the throne for some months between Cambyses and Darius. It follows that the Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes of  Ezra 4:6, 7 were Cambyses and Gomates, and that Josephus is mistaken in attributing to Cambyses the acts which  Ezra attributes to Artaxerxes.

     The dated events.-55o-54o B. C. Medo-Persian conquests, including the empire of Croesus, the Greeks in Asia Minor, and countries farther east. Visions of  Daniel, chaps.  7 and  8 . 539 B. C. Cyrus captures Babylon. Organization of his empire under 120 satraps, with Daniel for one of three presidents,  Dan. 6:1-3.

     538 B. C. 1st year of Cyrus. Daniel's supplication for the restoration of Jerusalem,  Dan. 9. The decree of Cyrus, and the going up of Zerubbabel,  Ezra 1. In the seventh month, the dedication of the altar, the feast of tabernacles, and the re-establishment of the sacred year,  Ezra 3:1-6.

(3) Antichrist's temple

     ( Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 11:1-2 )

Daniel 9:27 (KJV 1900)  27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Matthew 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

2 Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Revelation 11:1–2 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

(4) Millenial temple

     Although some scholars question the reality of a literal, future Temple, the prophet  Ezekiel described it in great detail. He provided its dimensions ( Ezek. 40—43 ) and spoke of a future priesthood (chap.  44 ), future worship (chap.  45 ), and future manner of worship (chap.  46 ). Three times he declared that God will establish His sanctuary in the midst of Israel forever ( 37:26–28 ).

     What will worship be like in the Millennial Temple? It will be similar to Old Testament Levitical worship, yet different. This Temple will be filled with God’s glory ( 43:1–5 ), as in the day of Solomon’s Temple. Only priests from the sons of Zadok will minister there, oversee worship, and serve at the Lord’s table ( 44:15–16 ).

     Both Jewish people and Gentiles will be required to sacrifice animals at the Temple ( Isa. 56:7; 66:20–23; Jer. 33:18; Ezek. 45:13–17; Mal. 3:3–4 ). The Lord will appoint a prince to receive the gifts and oversee the sacrifices used “to make atonement” for the house of Israel (  Ezek. 45:15, 17, 20 ).

     Presented will be burnt, sin, trespass ( 40:39 ), grain ( 45:24 ), and peace offerings ( 46:2 ). The prince will offer sacrifices at “the feasts, the New Moons, the Sabbaths, and at all the appointed seasons of the house of Israel” ( 45:17; 46:1 ). Only morning sacrifices will be offered daily ( 46:13 ).

     The feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread will be kept to commemorate Israel’s deliverance from Egypt ( 45:21–24 ). All nations will appear in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles; those failing to obey will be denied rain or receive a plague, as in Egypt’s case ( Zech. 14:16–18 ). The “year of liberty” (Jubilee, cf.  Lev. 25 ) will be observed at its proper time ( Ezek. 46:17 ). However, the feasts of Pentecost, Trumpets, and Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) will not be kept in the Millennium.

     The question most people ask when reading  Ezekiel 43—46 is, “If Jesus’ sacrifice is the only efficacious, once-for-all sacrifice to expiate sin ( Heb. 9:12 ), why will animal sacrifices that could never take away sin ( 10:4 ) be offered when Christ reigns?” We know the Millennial sacrifices will not remove sin, just as the Levitical ones could not.

     Some scholars believe the offerings during the Millennium will be memorials, similar to keeping the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Christ’s death. They reason that, because Millennial saints will live in an ideal setting where the awfulness of sin is glossed over, the blood sacrifices will visibly remind people that only Christ’s blood can take away sin. Two problems mar this interpretation: (1) Nothing in the text indicates the sacrifices are memorial in nature, and (2) the prophet  Ezekiel said the sacrifices are to make atonement.

     Consequently, the offerings must be much more than memorials. The word atonement (Hebrew, kippur;  Ezek. 45:15, 17, 20 ) means to “cover” or “propitiate.” Under the Levitical system, God required sacrifices to atone for sin and to cleanse buildings, the altar ( 43:20–27 ), the Levites ( 44:25–27 ), and the sanctuary ( 45:18 ). Blood sacrifices covered the worshiper’s sins ( Lev. 17:11 ) and propitiated, or satisfied, God under the Mosaic Law.

     Animal sacrifices at the future Temple will not be efficacious, but they will be needed to cover the worshipers’ ceremonial uncleanness. Why?Because God will be dwelling on Earth in the midst of sinful people who live in their natural bodies. The sacrifices will ensure that impure people will not defile God’s holy Temple when coming to worship Him.

     Sacrifices in the Millennium will not be a substitute for God’s plan of salvation or change the way a person is redeemed. Salvation will be through faith in Christ and His shed blood on the cross. Nor will these sacrifices diminish Christ’s work on the cross ( Heb. 10:10 ). It was Christ’s death, not the Levitical system, that made it possible for sins to be removed permanently. Israelmyglory

The Continual Burnt Offering

By H.A. Ironside - 1941

January 8

All thy griefs by Him are ordered.
Needful is each one for thee;
All thy tears by Him are counted.
One too much there cannot be;
And if whilst they fall so quickly
Thou canst own His way is right,
Then each bitter tear of anguish
Precious is in Jesus’ sight.

Far too well thy Saviour loves thee.
To allow thy life to be
One long, calm, unbroken summer’—
One unruffled, stormless sea;
He would have thee fondly nestling
Closer to His loving breast.
He would have that world seem brighter
Where alone is perfect rest.

The Problem Of The Old Testament

By James Orr 1907

To deepen our impression of this unity of the Bible, and at the same time carry us a step further into the heart of our subject, we notice again that the Bible consists of two parts—an Old Testament and a New,—and would observe how the second of these parts folds back upon the first. The Old Testament is one group of writings, mostly in Hebrew, and the New Testament is another group of writings, in Greek, with centuries between them. Yet how manifestly is the latter the counterpart and completion of the former! The argument from prophecy has often been overdriven, and may easily be run into exaggeration and triviality; but if we take the Bible’s own way of putting it, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” (Revelation 19:10) it is difficult for any candid mind to deny that the spirit of the Old Testament fulfils itself in the New. This, again, is a result largely independent of critical discussions. Take, for example, that wonderful picture of the suffering Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 53, which the Church has always, and rightly, regarded as Messianic. Dismissing for the moment all critical considerations as to age, authorship, or original reference, let anyone steep his mind in the contents of that chapter, then read what is said about Jesus in the Gospels, and, as he stands under the shadow of the Cross, say if there is not the most complete correspondence between the two. In Jesus of Nazareth, alone in all history, but in Him perfectly, has this prophecy found a fulfilment. The meekness, the pathos of undeserved suffering, the atoning function, the final triumph, will suit no other.

The result is not different if we enlarge our view to the consideration of the religion of Israel as a whole. The religion of Israel has been called a religion of hope. Its face is always to the future. (Gen 12:3) The system of things in the Old Testament presents itself prevailingly as something provisional, temporary, incomplete. There is growth in the Old Testament—from the patriarchal stage to the Mosaic; from the Mosaic to the prophetic; but it is like the plant developing from stalk to bud, and from bud to flower, there is a final stage yet to come—that of the ripened fruit. The old covenant is to give place to a new,—a more inward and spiritual,—when the law of God shall be written on men’s hearts; the old national forms are to break up, and Jehovah is to become the God of the whole earth; in their deepest abasement and humiliation the people of Israel never lose the assurance that from them the light is to go forth which shall illumine the darkness of the whole world—that the Gentiles shall come to their light, and kings to the brightness of their rising. These things are not to be brought about without instrumentality, and here we find, trait after trait, the figure of the Messiah shaping itself,—the King who is to reign in righteousness, the Immanuel-Child, with the wondrous fourfold name, who is the guarantee for the perpetuity of the throne and kingdom of David, the Servant of Jehovah, who is to bear the people’s sins, the Branch who is to build again the temple of Jehovah. The Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh, and the kingdom of God will come.

Now, let anyone open his New Testament, and say if there is no counterpart to, and completion of, all this there. Something higher, grander, diviner, no doubt, than even the prophets could imagine; yet bringing to pass in every essential respect all that they foretold, all that lay in the bosom of that old covenant waiting its realisation. May we not say that the Christian Church itself is a living proof of the truth of these predictions? Is it not Israel’s God we worship? Is it not Israel’s faith that beats in our hearts? Israel’s Messiah we trust in for salvation? Israel’s privilege to which we are admitted? Every time we sing these old Hebrew psalms, which are to this hour so marvellous an expression of the faith, and hope, and aspirations of the soul seeking after God, do we not declare that we belong to the same spiritual city as the men who wrote them? When, accordingly, the New Testament gathers up all these types and prophecies of the Old Testament, and sees them fulfilled in Christ,—calls Him, for example, the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” the “chief corner stone, elect, precious,” which God has laid in Zion, identifies Him with that Servant of whom it is declared that the Spirit of Jehovah was upon Him, to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,—do we not feel that it is justified in so doing? When the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews sees all the old rites and institutions glorified in the light of the new religion, and represents them as types and shadows which have fulfilled their function, and pass away now that the reality has come,—do we not recognise that he is giving us the truest rationale of that old economy? When the Book of Revelation tells of Paradise restored, and figures the tree of life growing in the midst, do we not feel that the end of revelation, in very truth, looks back to its beginning, and that here the ruin of Eden is repaired, and the curse of man’s first disobedience, which “brought death into our world, and all our woe,” finally abolished? There is again nothing mechanical in this relation of the Old and New Testaments. The connection is vital, not external, but is on that account all the more wonderful, and without parallel.

III. TELEOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF THE HISTORY

The Problem of the Old Testament

By John F. Walvoord

Other Prophecies Related to the Abrahamic Covenant

     The promise of the land is prominent throughout the book of  Genesis and supports the conclusion that God meant literally the future land of Israel. Other aspects of the Abrahamic covenant are also fulfilled. Coupled with the promise of the land is the continued promise of descendants to Abraham. Though all the children of Abraham fulfilled the promise that his descendants would be like the stars of the heaven and the sands of the sea in number, the narrative is clear that the promise of the land was limited to a particular line of descendants — Isaac, Jacob, and his twelve sons.

     The promise that kings would descend from Abraham would be subject to later fulfillment, especially in the history of Israel when Saul, David, and Solomon were made kings. The promise that Abraham would be a great man was certainly fulfilled in the many chapters devoted to him and his descendants in the book of  Genesis. Taken as a whole, the book of  Genesis confirms that God made literal promises to Abraham that would be literally fulfilled in time and in eternity.

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Translated by Henry Beveridge

     3. Ancient writers sometimes manifest a superstitious dread of making a simple confession of the truth in this matter, from a fear of furnishing impiety with a handle for speaking irreverently of the works of God. While I embrace such soberness with all my heart, I cannot see the least danger in simply holding what Scripture delivers. when Augustine was not always free from this superstition, as when he says, that blinding and hardening have respect not to the operation of God, but to prescience (Lib. de Predestina. et Gratia). But this subtilty is repudiated by many passages of Scriptures which clearly show that the divine interference amounts to something more than prescience. And Augustine himself, in his book against Julian, [173] contends at length that sins are manifestations not merely of divine permission or patience, but also of divine power, that thus former sins may be punished. In like manner, what is said of permission is too weak to stand. God is very often said to blind and harden the reprobate, to turn their hearts, to incline and impel them, as I have elsewhere fully explained (Book 1 c. 18). The extent of this agency can never be explained by having recourse to prescience or permission. We, therefore, hold that there are two methods in which God may so act. When his light is taken away, nothing remains but blindness and darkness: when his Spirit is taken away, our hearts become hard as stones: when his guidance is withdrawn, we immediately turn from the right path: and hence he is properly said to incline, harden, and blind those whom he deprives of the faculty of seeing, obeying, and rightly executing. The second method, which comes much nearer to the exact meaning of the words, is when executing his judgments by Satan as the minister of his anger, God both directs men's counsels, and excites their wills, and regulates their efforts as he pleases. Thus when Moses relates that Simon, king of the Amorites, did not give the Israelites a passage, because the Lord "had hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate," he immediately adds the purpose which God had in view--viz. that he might deliver him into their hand (Deut. 2:30). As God had resolved to destroy him, the hardening of his heart was the divine preparation for his ruin.

4. In accordance with the former methods it seems to be said, [174] "The law shall perish from the priests and counsel from the ancients." "He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no way." Again "O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?" These passages rather indicate what men become when God deserts them, than what the nature of his agency is when he works in them. But there are other passages which go farther, such as those concerning the hardening of Pharaoh: "I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go." The same thing is afterwards repeated in stronger terms. Did he harden his heart by not softening it? This is, indeed, true; but he did something more: he gave it in charge to Satan to confirm him in his obstinacy. Hence he had previously said, "I am sure he will not let you go." The people come out of Egypt, and the inhabitants of a hostile region come forth against them. How were they instigated? Moses certainly declares of Sihon, that it was the Lord who "had hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate," (Deut. 2:30). The Psalmists relating the same history says, "He turned their hearts to hate his people," (Psalm 105:25). You cannot now say that they stumbled merely because they were deprived of divine counsel. For if they are hardened and turned, they are purposely bent to the very end in view. Moreover, whenever God saw it meet to punish the people for their transgression, in what way did he accomplish his purpose by the reprobate? In such a way as shows that the efficacy of the action was in him, and that they were only ministers. At one time he declares, "that he will lift an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth;" at another, that he will take a net to ensnare them; and at another, that he will be like a hammer to strike them. But he specially declared that he was not inactive among theme when he called Sennacherib an axe, which was formed and destined to be wielded by his own hand. [175] Augustine is not far from the mark when he states the matter thus, That men sin, is attributable to themselves: that in sinning they produce this or that result, is owing to the mighty power of God, who divides the darkness as he pleases (August. de Prædest. Sanct).

5. Moreover, that the ministry of Satan is employed to instigate the reprobate, whenever the Lord, in the course of his providence, has any purpose to accomplish in them, will sufficiently appear from a single passage. It is repeatedly said in the First Book of Samuel, that an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and troubled him (1 Sam. 16:14; 18:10; 19:9). It were impious to apply this to the Holy Spirit. An impure spirit must therefore be called a spirit from the Lord, because completely subservient to his purpose, being more an instrument in acting than a proper agent. We should also add what Paul says, "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth," (2 Thess. 2:11, 12). But in the same transaction there is always a wide difference between what the Lord does, and what Satan and the ungodly design to do. The wicked instruments which he has under his hand and can turn as he pleases, he makes subservient to his own justice. They, as they are wicked, give effect to the iniquity conceived in their wicked minds. Every thing necessary to vindicate the majesty of God from calumny, and cut off any subterfuge on the part of the ungodly, has already been expounded in the Chapters on Providence (Book 1 Chapter 16-18). Here I only meant to show, in a few words, how Satan reigns in the reprobate, and how God works in both.

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     Institutes of the Christian Religion