____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ August 9, 1998 ____________________________________________________ Studies In Hebrews #6 by Alex D. Ogden A Word Of Encouragement (6:9-20) In discussing the high priesthood of Jesus the writer touched on the idea of Jesus being a high priest ``after the order of Melchizedek'' (5:6,10). He has ``many things to say'' about Melchizedek but felt hindered in doing so because his readers had become ``dull of hearing'' (5:11). He thus took the time to address the dangers of such a condition (5:11-6:8). After rebuking and warning his readers so sternly the Hebrew writer continues by balancing his sternness with words of encouragement. He states that he is confident of better things from them than prolonged immaturity; things which accompany salvation (6:9). He reminds them that even though they had not grown and progressed as they should have, they still had accomplished some things for the Lord (6:10). He then exhorts them to ``show the same diligence unto the fulness of hope even to the end'' (6:11). They got off to a good beginning in the Christian life but had been sluggish in their growth. He, therefore, encourages them to go on as they had begun: with diligence. He further urges them to be ``imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises'' (6:12). If they would imitate the faith and patience of the men of old they would be able to receive the promise of ``entering into his rest'' (cf. 4:1). Our author here, and more fully in 11:8ff, presents Abraham as the supreme example of a man who received promises from God. God's faithfulness to His promise to Abraham is a token of His faithfulness in regards to two of His other promises, one concerning the Priesthood of Jesus after the order of Melchizedek and the other concerning entering into His promised rest. The specific promise of God under consideration here is that made to Abraham after his offering up Isaac: ``By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah...that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens...and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice'' (Gen. 22:16-18). This is a reaffirmation of the promises given to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3, but this time it is reinforced by the oath of God. When the promise was first made Abraham and Sarah had no children, without which the promise could not be fulfilled. In due time Isaac was born, with God's help, to fulfill these promises. Yet it was Isaac whom Abraham was commanded to offer up to God. By faith and patience (cf. 6:12,15) Abraham obeyed the will of God and ``obtained the promise.'' Much of God's promise to Abraham would not be fulfilled for many years; but in the restoration to Abraham of his son (cf. 11:17-19) upon whose survival the promise depended, Abraham did, in a very real sense, ``obtain the promise.'' Our author emphasizes the fact that when God repeated this promise to Abraham He confirmed it with an oath, swearing by Himself (6:13,16). When men swear an oath, they swear by someone or something greater than themselves. ``As the Lord liveth'' was the oath of Israel (cf. 1 Kings 1:29; 2:24; etc..). Since God has none greater than Himself by whom to swear, when He wishes to confirm His promises in this way, He must swear by Himself. ``As I live'' is found in divine oracles throughout the Old Testament (cf. Isa.49:18; Jer.22:24; Ezek.5:11; etc..). This oath was used to show the ``immutability,'' unchangeable nature, ``of his counsel'' (6:17). The writer shows we have ``strong encouragement'' by ``two immutable things'' (6:18). This encouragement will cause us to ``lay hold of the hope set before us'' which is an ``anchor of the soul'' (6:18,19). But what two immutable, or unchangeable, things give us strong encouragement? (1) The promise of God itself, because ``it is impossible for God to lie'' (6:18; cf. Tit.1:2). Since ``the Lord is not slack concerning his promise'' (cf. 11 Pet. 3:9) we can be encouraged to have a hope which is both ``sure and steadfast'' (6:19). (2) The oath of God by which the promise is confirmed (6:16). By these two unchangeable things we have a ``sure and steadfast'' foundation for our hope in the fulfillment of the promise. This hope, then, becomes an anchor for our soul. But to what immovable object does our anchor moor us to? Our writer tells us it is ``that which is within the veil'' (6:19). ``That which is within the veil'' is heaven and the throne of God itself (as is made clear in chapter 9). Our hope is fixed there because Jesus is there, seated at ``the right hand of the Majesty on high'' (cf. 1:3). Abraham rested his hope in the promise and oath of God; but we have more than that to rest our hope upon: we have the fulfillment of His promise in the exaltation of Christ, who ``as a forerunner...entered for us'' (6:20). With the promise of God, His oath and Jesus ascended to heaven as a forerunner for us, we have a hope which is a true ``anchor of the soul'' being both ``sure and steadfast.'' Melchizedek (7:1-3) It has been our author's desire to expand on the priesthood of Melchizedek since he introduced the subject in chapter 5:6. Now the writer develops this idea in detail as he discusses Jesus being a priest according to this order. In the first three verses of chapter seven, Melchizedek is described. Our author gets his information from Genesis 14:17-20 and Psalms 110:4, which are the only places in the Old Testament where Melchizedek is mentioned. The first thing stated about Melchizedek is that he was both ``king of Salem'' and ``priest of God Most High'' (7:1). This Salem was the city of Jerusalem (cf. Psa.76:2). It is stressed that Melchizedek was ``king of righteousness'' and ``king of peace'' (7:2). Our author makes an argument based on what the Biblical text did not say about Melchizedek (7:3). Nowhere do we find any mention of his parents or descendants. Neither is there any record of his birth or his death. These are ideas which are predominant in the Old Testament with famous characters. The writer is saying that as far as the biblical text is concerned, this king/priest had no beginning and no ending, no ancestors and no descendants. He is likened unto the Son of God Himself, who being God has no beginning and no ending, no ancestors and no descendants. Already we can see how Jesus is a High Priest ``after the order of Melchizedek.'' Our writer will, however, make the concept even clearer as he continues. ___________________________________________ The History Of Easter by Bob Buchanon Men have always been prone to forget the simple way of God and have tried to worship Him as they please instead of how He pleases. To do so is to ignore the warning of Christ: ``But in vain do they worship me teaching as their doctrine the precepts of men'' (Mark 7:7). Soon after the establishment of the Lord's Church on Pentecost (Acts 2) men began to fall away from the simple doctrine and brought error into the doctrine and practice of the church. Such a falling away was foretold by Christ and the apostles (Mat. 7:15-20; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Thess. 2:3-4). It is a shock to many to learn that there is no authority in the Bible for the observance of an annual religious holiday known as Easter. The observance of Easter is a heathen origin, handed down to us through the commandments of men, not God. The word ``Easter'' comes from German mythology and is derived from Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. The Teutonic tribes worshipped this goddess at least 300 years before the birth of Christ with rituals that were often horrible and obscene, even to the offering of human sacrifices. After the introduction of Christianity among the Germanic nations, the name Easter was carried forth into their new religion to denote the rising of the spring sun and to designate the festival of the Resurrection. Some of these vain worshipers in the church adopted Easter as a church festival in the second century. Some of those that had been converted to Christianity from the Jewish religion later adopted the celebration of Easter, but insisted that it be on the 14th or 15th of their month, Nisan, in keeping with the Jewish Passover. Others were opposed to this date and to this combination of heathenism and Judaism, and therefore dissension and division followed in the churches. In an attempt to settle the great controversy, Constantine, Emperor of the Roman Empire, called the council of Nicea in 325 to settle several church practices which were not authorized by the Word of God, Easter being only one of them. The Council ruled that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. The Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches observe the date set by the Nicean Council. The eastern branch of the Catholic Church has another date for the Easter observance. Because the Eastern churches have reckoned from a different calendar than that used by the Western churches, their Easter has usually come either before or after the Easter observed in the West. Despite the fact that Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar as the state calendar in 1923, the Eastern churches continued to reckon Easter according to the Julian calendar and therefore the Easter date of the Eastern and Western churches rarely coincides. The inconvenience caused by a moving Easter and the other holy days has long been recognized, and many conferences have held in an attempt to fix the date. In the Western churches Easter never occurs before March 22 or after April 25. In 1761 and 1818 it fell on March 22 and in 1886 and 1943 on April 25. Easter will not occur again on these dates during the remainder of the twentieth century. EASTER DATES 1956 April 1 1971 April 11 1986 March 30 1957 April 21 1972 April 2 1987 April 19 1958 April 6 1973 April 22 1988 April 3 1959 March 29 1974 April 14 1989 March 26 1960 April 17 1975 March 30 1990 April 15 1961 April 2 1976 April 18 1991 March 31 1962 April 22 1977 April 10 1992 April 19 1963 April 14 1978 March 26 1993 April 11 1964 March 29 1979 April 15 1994 April 3 1965 April 18 1980 April 6 1995 April 16 1966 April 10 1981 April 19 1996 April 7 1967 March 26 1982 April 11 1997 March 30 1968 April 14 1983 April 3 1998 April 12 1969 April 6 1984 April 22 1999 April 4 1970 March 29 1985 April 7 2000 April 23 Why should the Christian's hope of a resurrection to a future life be stained and polluted by this clumsy mixture of heathenism and Judaism and Catholicism? Many people have borrowed this pagan observance without questioning its origin. Easter has become to many the one time of the year that they attend church services. It is a commercialized, traditionalized, and denominationalized day of show and tell--showing off the new Easter clothes and telling where they were purchased and how much they cost. The words of Paul would be appropriate: ``ye observe days and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain'' (Gal. 4:10-11). We'd like to hear from you to know what you thought of this article. Simply write: Bob Buchanon--P. O. Box 237--Bowling Green, KY 42102-0237 U.S.A. ___________________________________________ NEWS & NOTES We rejoice in the recent conversion of Lancia Music. She was baptized into Christ early Saturday morning so that her sins could be forgiven by the blood of Christ. I'm glad to say that the test results, due to the melanoma that John Pitman had removed, turned out good; but he had a pretty bad fall the other week that has hurt his back. Let us be praying for him. It is with regret that I mention that the upcoming gospel meeting in Louisa with Carl Hollis had to be canceled. ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________