Daily Meditations

Hebrews 6:2c Eternal Judgement This is the last of the  “elementary teachings”  that should be familiar to all believers, let alone the new or immature ones! The doctrine of  “eternal judgement”  was very much at the forefront of the Gospel message preached in times past and was regularly taught in the village chapel in which I grew up. Too often today, God is presented only as all-loving, and merciful and compassionate, which He is, but His righteousness and His judgement go hand in hand with His love for our world. We are commanded NOT to make God in our own image, to present Him exactly as people would like to see Him rather than who He really is. This God flooded the world in the time of Noah. He sent catastrophic judgements on Sodom and Gomorrah for their filthy and ignorant behaviour. He condemned the Egyptians to a night of horror as their firstborn sons were killed, in order to allow the Israelites to escape the land. Later, the entire Egyptian army was drown...

Hebrews 6:2b The resurrection of the dead You won’t find “ the resurrection of the dead”  amongst the “ elementary teachings”  in the Old Testament nor was it taught in the synagogues of the Jewish readers of Hebrews. This was a new doctrine, only possible and only understood once Jesus had come to earth and risen from the dead. It was already apparent to these new believers that resurrection was not just a phenomenon enjoyed by the Son of God but one that would enfold all who were genuinely saved by Him. Paul, of course, talks about this extensively, particularly in 1 Corinthians 15. There was no question in the minds of these early saints that they would enjoy the same victory over death as Jesus Himself had enjoyed. What evidence did they have? I think that the main reason is found in what we read in Matthew 27:51-53  “The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the Holy City and ap...

Hebrews 6:2a The laying on of hands The 4 th  of the 6 “elementary teachings” is the “laying on of hands.” Frankly, in the Christian circles that I grew up in, this was a phrase that was unheard of, even though the preachers and teachers prided themselves on their Biblical knowledge and application! This was seen to be an Old Testament ritual. When a man brought an animal offering to the Temple for a peace offering or sin offering, he laid his hands on its head to demonstrate his personal identification with the sacrifice. In other words, he was transferring his identity to the animal. Perhaps the main point of the writer of Hebrews is simply that you don’t have to worry any more about laying your hands on Temple sacrifices, just lay hold of Yeshua, He is your ultimate sacrifice once for all. In its time that would certainly be a valid form of teaching for young and immature believers. But what about us? In Acts 8:18 the Apostles laid hands on those who had believed, to outwardly s...

Hebrews 6:2 Instruction about baptism So we come to the next of the  “elementary truths of God’s Word.”  In the NIV this is describes as  “instruction about cleansing rites”  although a footnote in some Bibles replaces this with  “baptisms.”  The English Standard Version talks about “washings”, the King James uses the word “baptisms” as does the New King James and the Amplified Version replaces this with “ritual purifications.” And so we go on. If the word is correctly translated “baptisms” it is probably embracing the baptism of John, the baptism of converts to Judaism, and the baptism in water sanctioned and taught by Jesus which is practiced by His church. He also talked about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that still causes controversy in the church today! If, however, we are talking about ritual cleansing rites then we are into another whole ball game, the Jews had baptismal pools outside the Temple but also in their synagogues, these were called Mikve...

Hebrews 6:1 continued Faith in God We now come to the second of the  “elementary truths”  which is  “faith in God.”  It seems very simple and, at first sight, needs little explanation! It’s only when we stop and reflect on this phrase that we begin to realise how profound it is.  There are many, many levels of faith in God. They start with the basic belief that God, Yahweh, exists. There is a Being who transcends mankind, the earth we live in and the heavenly realms above, He is the all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing One who we call the Lord God. That simple statement is, for many, the beginning and the end of faith, they never make it beyond the stage of accepting the existence of a superior deity who rules over all. Having made that step of faith we now have to recognise our dependency and how we might please and show respect to such a great Being. We also must dismiss all inferior gods and the worship of created things rather than the Creator. That, in effe...

Hebrews 6:1 Repentance from acts that lead to death This chapter of Hebrews begins by setting out what the writer regarded as being “elementary teachings!” In other words, these are the doctrines and truths that should be taught to young believers and were regarded as the milk of the Word, as opposed to the meat that should be part of the diet of those who are mature in the faith. Let’s just list these elementary truths before we look at them in more depth: - 1.       Repentance from acts that lead to death 2.       Faith in God 3.       Instruction about cleansing rites 4.       The laying on of hands 5.       The resurrection of the dead 6.       Eternal judgement Each of these is regarded as elementary but we have to ask, are these the primary teaching modules used by most churches for new converts? Are these subjects that we are all fa...