One In Jesus

One of the most commonly cited verses in Church of Christ theology is —

(Col 2:13-14 ESV) 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,  14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

The ESV gets this translation right, but the NIV bungles it –

(Col 2:14 NIV) having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

This is a key proof text in the argument that we aren’t “bound by the Old Testament” and therefore should be “New Testament Christians.” But the current version of the NIV is a bad translation, and the ESV gets it right. Continue reading →

The book of Hebrews, of course, addresses the superiority of Christianity to Judaism. This has led many to treat Judaism as repealed — as a mistake that God has now corrected.

I suppose this attitude is the origin of the term “New Testament Christianity” — since I’m not familiar with an Old Testament Christianity. The idea seems to be that the Old Testament is a dead letter, meaningless to the true Christian.

Some of this comes from the “dispensation” theory popularized by the notes in the Scofield Bible in the 19th Century and given near-scriptural status in the Churches of Christ by the Jule Miller filmstrips, which were used to convert many to the Church of Christ point of view. Continue reading →

We should next consider what Jesus says about the entry of the Gentiles into the Kingdom. The difficulty, of course, is that Jesus said quite a lot about the Kingdom, and we often disagree as to when he was speaking about Gentiles.

For example, the Parable of the Prodigal Son is often taken to be about a lost personal relationship with God, but many scholars see the prodigal son as representing the Gentile nations and the older son representing the Jews. And so, the analysis gets complicated — but very interesting. Continue reading →

Some of the readers have brought up the question of Israel’s final fate. I should have thought to cover the question, and am attempting to correct that oversight now.

In Romans 9 – 11, Paul prays for and certainly hopes for a massive return of the Jews to the Kingdom, and there’s an argument that his prayer will be fulfilled, found largely in Romans 11:26.

(Rom 11:25-27 ESV) 25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;  27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” Continue reading →

Reader Ted Bigelow, aka Simple Elder, asked me a series of questions in the comments regarding the relationship of the current church with Israel. The same issue has come up in earlier comments from other readers, from several different directions.

And so I figure it’s time to address what is actually a very controversial question — and we’ll see that the New Testament addresses the question from different angles with differing metaphors.

Therefore, we cannot simply pick a verse that seems to support our preferred view and declare victory! As is so often the case, we have to take into account the totality of the evidence — and only then can we take a position. Continue reading →