Paul's Passing Thoughts

I have a bit of a problem lately. It is difficult to conduct this ministry according to priorities because everything we have been saying for the past ten years is now evident everywhere you look on the internet or in the news. I feel strongly that our new publication, “The Church Lie and the Biblical Alternative” speaks to the crux of the issue, and that it will be widely read for the following reason: unless you have been vacationing on the moon for the past year, you know that church is imploding before our very eyes and people are going to be looking for answers.

So, on my way to getting back to the final tweaking of the book, I stumbled upon the above John Piper tweet. Church loves to twist Hebrews 7:25 to promote its progressive justification false gospel. Supposedly, this verse means that Jesus continues to intercede for those who trust Him for progressive justification experienced subjectively in sanctification. In other words, all good works are only experienced by us, but not performed by us. Justification AND sanctification are both substituted 100% by Jesus.

As stated by the who’s who of church constantly, “Christians” remain unchanged except for their ability to see the depths of their sin which is defined as “faith.” This enables them to return to the same gospel that saved them daily resulting in Jesus doing Hebrews 7:25 and thus keeping them justified. Hence, Jesus is a priest that ever lives to intercede for our justification as we remain faithful to church where we “ratify anew” the New Covenant for “believers and unbelievers alike.”

In classic cult doublespeak, “Yes, but of course, Jesus’ death was a one time historical event,” but that one time event is then reapplied for all future sins. Sin is not ended, but only covered IF we remain faithful to church where we obtain the “means of grace” which is cultic code for “means of ongoing salvation.”

“Sacrament”? What’s a sacrament? And obviously, where is the only place where you can get sacraments conducted by a “lawfully appointed minister (WMC)”? The above screenshot is from a tweet by one who would be considered a mainstream evangelical.

This is what Hebrews 7:25 is supposedly referring to, viz, ongoing intercession for justification; ie, the justification by faith false gospel.

So, what is Hebrews 7:25, and the one other verse like it (Romans 8:34) really saying? Well, since such a rendering of the verse contradicts justification by new birth, we know it’s not that, so what is it? A Greek word study of the verse is extremely complicated so we will skip that and go straight to some commonsense interpretive methods. This is where multiple translations are not a bad thing, but a VERY good thing. What you have with multiple translations is a vast resource of differing judgements on any given passage by Greek and Hebrew scholars. That’s a valuable resource. More on that shortly.

The first thing you want to do is use word study software like E-Sword to find out how the same word is used in other passages. You also want to research how other words that carry the same idea are used. Just because the specific word is “house,” doesn’t mean conclusions cannot be drawn from a different word like, “dwelling” or “abode” or “tabernacle.”

In my case, such a word study found the following: “prayer,” “supplication,” and “intercession” are closely related; in fact, it can be argued that these are three different kinds of prayers. Obviously, a prayer is an intercession for someone, right? Consider 1 Timothy 2:1-2,

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions [supplication], prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

If you think about it, for the most part, these four things are primarily executed by prayer. I also want to add that what we intentionally ponder and wish for according to God’s will counts as a type of prayer also.

In addition, keep in mind that “save” doesn’t always refer to the salvation of the soul. Consider Philippians 1:19,

For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

Certainly, Paul wasn’t saying that he was going to be saved through the prayers of the saints as he was already saved. In James 5:16 we find,

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Those who are already righteous don’t need prayer for salvation from those who are already righteous as well. Christ saves to the uttermost, which means being saved from a number of other things in this life aside from eternal damnation. We don’t know how to pray many times because of our weakness, so…

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

The Spirit intercedes for us like Jesus does.

Therefore, it is not any surprise that we find this rendering of Hebrews 7:25 from the Wycliff Bible:

Wherefore also he may save without end, coming nigh by himself to God, and evermore liveth to pray for us. [Wherefore and he may save into without end, coming nigh by himself to God, evermore living to pray for us.]

Jesus is not only our High Priest for a one time finished act of saving our souls and justifying us, but He intercedes for us continually in regard to every need in our life. He is a High Priest that ministers to the whole person; that’s the point of Hebrews 7:25.

Romans 5:9 – Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

I don’t believe ‘wrath” here only pertains to eternal wrath (damnation), I believe we are also saved from the wrath occurring in this present age. Christ is our savior in regard to every aspect of life, not just salvation of the soul.

What is the significance of this? Well, if church is selling salvation of the soul on the installment plan and using verses like Hebrews 7:25 to do so, what is going to be the emphasis at church? Right, salvation of the soul only, which is why churchians don’t do life very well. One of our sons recently started going back to church and like most grown-up boys in our age, he doesn’t put much stock in what mom and dad says. Nevertheless, he complained last week, “All they talk about at church is salvation” prefaced with the confusion of this because we are already saved. This is why I am anxious to get the new book published; I want to be able to hand it to people in order to answer their questions about church which are many. There are also many who know they needed to get out of church because it’s a crazy train getting ready to bounce completely off the rails, and it would be nice to know why they had to leave. In addition, many are asking where we go from here. If not church, then what?

Church can’t be about doing life well coupled with the idea that our High Priest of the New Covenant is constantly interceding in our present-day lives because that’s not what church is selling.

Church is a sanctuary city with a gospel for getting murderers, hypocrites, liars, pedophiles, and swindlers of every sort into heaven. And on every Sunday, the depth of such depravity determines the vigor in which the praise band leads the celebration. That’s what they call, “grace.”

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