I have been on a long trip, took several years. It was a spiritual and intellectual trip, like going to college. I’ve traveled in Europe and the Far East, I have backpacked into beautiful areas, but this topped any trip I have ever taken.
It started in a red pickup, driving from Tacoma, Washington, to a little resort on the coast with Patty who I had just met. Patty told me that I was missing a lot of understanding of Christ because I hadn’t learned all about how God prepared the world for Him in the Old Testament. She gave me an entire book explaining why this was so.
I had almost memorized the New Testament, it is all about how our life is through Christ, the time of the Old Testament is past and we have what I knew all about now, how could going back help me know where we are at now! But I gave it a try. My book said that the torah is where I should start, that torah meant instructions rather than law as we sometimes say it means, and it is simply the first five books of the bible. It was more helps for our benefit leading to a closer walk with the Lord than hard orders. I was told that I probably had a hard time getting the correct understanding of what God was telling me because the people God was speaking through had a different way of understanding the world than we did, and we needed to know the difference.
Well, it was certain I had trouble with the torah. Just the fact that God told Joshua to kill all the people in the land God gave him and yet God is a loving God was a bit much. ( I found the answer to this)
I spent days on the net, looking for help. I found schools that wanted lots of money for training. I found sites that were funded by a denomination and felt it wouldn’t be strictly from a purely biblical standpoint. The book I read about it pointed out that in the 6,000 or so years since the torah, the very Hebrew language has changed much as the English language has changed in just 600 years. It said that the deep sea scrolls gave us a link to ancient Hebrew, so I needed to find someone knowledgeable about ancient Hebrew. I found these people were busy teaching in our colleges, not little old ladies on the net.
I found there was a loose organization that had taken over the idea that it was beneficial to study the OT closely as it linked to how Christ fulfilled it, but there was no central base, yet, setting out denominational guidelines so there is variation within the denomination. It follows what is called the Hebrew Roots movement. Following that often leads to other than strictly scripture the same way studying through denominations does.
I ran across a man who had studied ancient Hebrew language and culture for years and who knew God sent His Son and why. He gave classes on the net for free at a website called torahclass. I was off and running. He backed up every verse of the torah and sent me on to the NT to show how it was completed by Christ and what the epistles had to say about it. He told me about the life of the people the bible speaks of, how they lived and thought. He insisted everything breathed in scripture was truth and was one of a unit of that truth. When Paul said we are not under law, and we are told to obey, he said it is both truth we better find out why we are told and need to know both.
I went to my pastor, my family, my friends with some of what I learned. Almost to a person they turned on me like the Pharisees turned on Christ.
There have been surprising things happening, now. My pastor told me I probably have something, then turned on his heel and left. We have a class on archeology right in our church, now, teaching some of these things. One of our members is going to a class in town given by a professor with a knowledge of ancient Hebrew, as opposed to modern Hebrew. I and a classmate understand bible in the same way on our Wednesday evening bible study.
This has not been an easy journey, it has been frustrating and challenging. But it has led to a closer walk with my Lord, to beauty, to completeness. It has been the best journey of my long life.
It started in a red pickup, driving from Tacoma, Washington, to a little resort on the coast with Patty who I had just met. Patty told me that I was missing a lot of understanding of Christ because I hadn’t learned all about how God prepared the world for Him in the Old Testament. She gave me an entire book explaining why this was so.
I had almost memorized the New Testament, it is all about how our life is through Christ, the time of the Old Testament is past and we have what I knew all about now, how could going back help me know where we are at now! But I gave it a try. My book said that the torah is where I should start, that torah meant instructions rather than law as we sometimes say it means, and it is simply the first five books of the bible. It was more helps for our benefit leading to a closer walk with the Lord than hard orders. I was told that I probably had a hard time getting the correct understanding of what God was telling me because the people God was speaking through had a different way of understanding the world than we did, and we needed to know the difference.
Well, it was certain I had trouble with the torah. Just the fact that God told Joshua to kill all the people in the land God gave him and yet God is a loving God was a bit much. ( I found the answer to this)
I spent days on the net, looking for help. I found schools that wanted lots of money for training. I found sites that were funded by a denomination and felt it wouldn’t be strictly from a purely biblical standpoint. The book I read about it pointed out that in the 6,000 or so years since the torah, the very Hebrew language has changed much as the English language has changed in just 600 years. It said that the deep sea scrolls gave us a link to ancient Hebrew, so I needed to find someone knowledgeable about ancient Hebrew. I found these people were busy teaching in our colleges, not little old ladies on the net.
I found there was a loose organization that had taken over the idea that it was beneficial to study the OT closely as it linked to how Christ fulfilled it, but there was no central base, yet, setting out denominational guidelines so there is variation within the denomination. It follows what is called the Hebrew Roots movement. Following that often leads to other than strictly scripture the same way studying through denominations does.
I ran across a man who had studied ancient Hebrew language and culture for years and who knew God sent His Son and why. He gave classes on the net for free at a website called torahclass. I was off and running. He backed up every verse of the torah and sent me on to the NT to show how it was completed by Christ and what the epistles had to say about it. He told me about the life of the people the bible speaks of, how they lived and thought. He insisted everything breathed in scripture was truth and was one of a unit of that truth. When Paul said we are not under law, and we are told to obey, he said it is both truth we better find out why we are told and need to know both.
I went to my pastor, my family, my friends with some of what I learned. Almost to a person they turned on me like the Pharisees turned on Christ.
There have been surprising things happening, now. My pastor told me I probably have something, then turned on his heel and left. We have a class on archeology right in our church, now, teaching some of these things. One of our members is going to a class in town given by a professor with a knowledge of ancient Hebrew, as opposed to modern Hebrew. I and a classmate understand bible in the same way on our Wednesday evening bible study.
This has not been an easy journey, it has been frustrating and challenging. But it has led to a closer walk with my Lord, to beauty, to completeness. It has been the best journey of my long life.
