- 3 days ago
The problem with creeds and statements of faith is that they distill complex theological ideas into dogmatic sound bites.
There is some value in this--I have a SoF on my own site--but they tend to make people doctrinally lazy, replacing real understanding of Scripture with mindless acquiescence to other people's opinions.
The creed becomes a tribal identity marker and a lens through which Scripture must be reinterpreted. Any doctrine that appears to contradict the creed becomes a threat to the believer's identity that must be defeated at all costs.
In this video, I examine a single item in one church's statement of faith and show why it's not so much a statement of faith as a statement of division, a public proclamation that "We don't want you in our church if you don't agree with us on this esoteric, complex doctrine that isn't actually in the Bible." I reference a lot of scripture including these passages:
Exodus 25, 29, 40
Numbers 25
Deuteronomy 29
Jeremiah 31, 33
Ezekiel 43
Zechariah 14
Hebrews 2, 7, 8, 9, 12
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
There is some value in this--I have a SoF on my own site--but they tend to make people doctrinally lazy, replacing real understanding of Scripture with mindless acquiescence to other people's opinions.
The creed becomes a tribal identity marker and a lens through which Scripture must be reinterpreted. Any doctrine that appears to contradict the creed becomes a threat to the believer's identity that must be defeated at all costs.
In this video, I examine a single item in one church's statement of faith and show why it's not so much a statement of faith as a statement of division, a public proclamation that "We don't want you in our church if you don't agree with us on this esoteric, complex doctrine that isn't actually in the Bible." I reference a lot of scripture including these passages:
Exodus 25, 29, 40
Numbers 25
Deuteronomy 29
Jeremiah 31, 33
Ezekiel 43
Zechariah 14
Hebrews 2, 7, 8, 9, 12
From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).
This content is free, but I accept contributions via Paypal at https://jaycarper.com/paypal.
Follow me on X: https://jaycarper.com/twitter
Follow me on Facebook: https://jaycarper.com/fbat
Follow me on Whole Bible Community: https://jaycarper.com/ttn
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LearningTranscript
00:04Jay Carper here from American Torah, and I've got a, not a specific Bible passage that I
00:11want to talk about.
00:12In fact, I don't know if you can see all those bookmarks in my Bible, but I've got a lot
00:16of different passages I want to go to on this one.
00:21I want to talk about creeds and statements of faith, and I'm going to use one statement
00:26from one organization's statement of faith to illustrate my main point, and in talking
00:34about that particular statement of faith, or that particular single item in one statement
00:40of faith, I'm going to go to a lot of different places in the Bible, and, you know, here's
00:47the problem with creeds and statements of faith.
00:50faith, they're not all bad, but what they really do, what they're designed to do, is
00:55to distill really complex topics down into very simple dogmatic soundbites, and these
01:02tend to replace the actual truth of Scripture in people's minds.
01:06They start thinking of the creed or the statement of faith as their authority instead of Scripture.
01:14So then the statements become truth rather than a summary of opinions about the truth.
01:20The statement of faith isn't a bad thing.
01:23It's, it kind of, it tells people who you are, and that could be good, as long as you're
01:31not building your identity around that statement of faith.
01:34The statement of faith should be describing you, not defining you, if that makes sense.
01:42It's many statements of faith, have two different sides to them.
01:48Traditionally, they have just a list of positive things.
01:51Here's what we believe.
01:51We believe this about God, and this about the Bible, and this about marriage, and, you
01:55know, on and on.
01:57And this tells outsiders who this church or this organization is, so that they can say,
02:06oh yeah, I agree with this, more or less, and I want to be part of this.
02:09Or they can say, eh, this doesn't really work with me.
02:12I'm going to go somewhere else.
02:15But increasingly, organizations are publishing negative statements of faith, you know, preemptively
02:23rejecting people.
02:24It's about defining the outsiders rather than defining yourself.
02:29So a negative statement of faith says, we don't believe this.
02:34We don't believe this about God.
02:36We don't believe this about the Bible.
02:39Whatever doctrines, they want to say, we don't want any part of that.
02:44So we're just going to say straight out, if you believe this, don't come here.
02:48I mean, that's really the intent of a negative statement of faith.
02:52This has some value, too.
02:53You don't want people who believe that God is everything, you know, pantheistic.
03:00The trees and the rocks and the cicadas that are making so much racket back here, whatever
03:04those are, all of these things are God.
03:10Well, those people really aren't going to fit in with your fellowship.
03:13So you just say, we don't believe in this about God.
03:16You can do that with the positive statement of faith or the negative either way.
03:19But if you specifically want to target those people, maybe they become a problem.
03:23Maybe this idea is really popular where you live.
03:27So you say, we believe this about God.
03:30We don't believe this about God.
03:32That tells those people, you don't belong here.
03:35You're part of that other group.
03:37Don't come here.
03:38So there is some value in that.
03:40But there's also a lot of danger because you're starting to build walls.
03:46And what you have to be sure is, is this a wall that you're supposed to be building?
03:50Are you supposed to be separating yourself from these people?
03:54So just to illustrate this, I'm going to go through one statement and one statement of
04:00faith that somebody brought to my attention.
04:02Somebody read this on a church's website and said, what do you think about this?
04:06I mean, this seems kind of maybe a little too simplistic.
04:10And it really is.
04:11And that's really what statement of faiths are designed to do.
04:14They're supposed to be simplistic.
04:16They're supposed to take complex ideas that you would have to go to multiple places in
04:21scripture to really spell it out and distill it down into a single statement, a soundbite.
04:28That's not necessarily a good thing if it takes the place of thinking and searching the
04:33scriptures for yourself.
04:36So I've broken this.
04:38This is actually, apparently they feel really strongly about this particular belief because
04:42they had to write a long paragraph.
04:44Most of their, excuse me, most of the items in their statement of faith are pretty short,
04:50you know, one or two sentences at most.
04:51This one was a long paragraph, so it begins with this.
04:57We do not believe in renewed covenant theology, which believes the new covenant isn't new,
05:02but rather a mere reboot of the old.
05:04So far, so good.
05:07Although proponents of this ideology attempt to confirm the validity of the Torah, they
05:11do so at the expense of scripture itself.
05:14Now we're getting into the territory of pointing fingers at people instead of identifying yourself.
05:21Now, Jeremiah 31 clearly tells us that God would implement a new covenant, not like the old
05:25covenant, all caps, which he made with their fathers at Mount Sinai.
05:30This would be something completely different, which would be built upon better promises.
05:34Now, to be honest, I agree with everything in this part so far, and this is really just
05:38the first couple of sentences.
05:41This belief of a renewed covenant is actually really common, especially in the Torah keeping
05:47community.
05:48And I agree that it's really not a careful reading of scripture, because it's pretty
05:53clear that the new covenant is a new covenant, not a renewed one.
05:57And let me show you.
05:58They're referencing Jeremiah 31.
06:04So, I'm just going to read Jeremiah 31, verses 31 and 32.
06:07You're probably familiar.
06:10Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house
06:14of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with
06:17their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
06:21Egypt.
06:22My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
06:26It says, not like the covenant that I made with them.
06:30I mean, how can it be a renewed covenant if it's not like the covenant that came before?
06:35So, I mean, it's pretty clear that Jeremiah, that God is telling us through Jeremiah that
06:41this is a new covenant, not the same covenant.
06:45Hebrew 8, 6 quotes this passage.
06:49But now he, that's Yeshua, has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is
06:53also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
06:58So, their statement about the better covenant and better promises, that's soundly biblical.
07:02It's, the promises that came with the new covenant, even as it's spelled out in Jeremiah,
07:08are pretty clearly better than those of the old covenant, the Sinai covenant.
07:12The promises that God gave with the Sinai covenant were land and peace in the land.
07:17The promises that come with the new covenant, it's the law written in your heart.
07:23Lasting peace, not just temporary peace and prosperity, but lasting peace.
07:28The implications of eternal life, resurrection, all of these things are brought by the new covenant.
07:34Well, one thing I want to point out here is that it's very much like renewing marriage vows.
07:41And people will say that they're doing a marriage renewal ceremony or a vow renewal or something like that.
07:48But, they will say vows all over again.
07:52And, they are renewing or reiterating what they said before, and sometimes they'll change a few things.
07:58But, really, what they're renewing is not the covenant that they already made.
08:02You already made those vows and you can't change them.
08:05What you're doing is making new vows that contain much of the same material.
08:09Sometimes exactly the same, sometimes different.
08:11The thing that you're actually renewing is the relationship itself.
08:16And, a covenant isn't so much the relationship as it is the formal defining of the relationship, the formal agreement
08:25of relationship.
08:27So, in a covenant, one person says to the other person,
08:30I am going to be this to you and you're going to be this to me.
08:34You're defining the relationship.
08:36And, then you have the relationship.
08:38And, then, if you renew your vows in your marriage, you make the same vows all over again.
08:44You're not going back in time and renewing what you said then.
08:47You are saying the same thing again and maybe adding a little bit here and there.
08:51So, you're making new vows with much the same content, but you're really renewing the marriage itself.
08:58And, the marriage is not the covenant.
08:59The covenant is what defines the marriage.
09:02I hope that makes sense.
09:03If not, go to jaycarper.com slash covenants.
09:07I've got an old video series there that talks about the covenants of Israel.
09:12And, my understanding of covenants has continued to mature since then.
09:17But, I think that video series really covers this topic well.
09:20So, go check that out after you've watched this one.
09:24Alright, so the next part of this negative statement of faith.
09:29God instituted a new priesthood, a new mediator, a new sacrificial system, and a new location for the law of
09:35God, the Holy Spirit inscribing God's law upon our hearts.
09:40Now, this sounds good.
09:41On first read, I thought, yeah, okay, I agree with that too.
09:45However, when I looked at the passages that really support this, I want you to notice something.
09:50First, let's go to Hebrews 2.17.
09:59Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful
10:04high priest in things pertaining to God, to make a propitiation for the sins of the people.
10:10So, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.
10:14If someone is a high priest, and then they do something or they go through something, so that they will
10:22be a merciful and faithful high priest, does that mean they've become a new high priest?
10:28Or does it mean that they are enhancing their current priesthood?
10:33So, you know, that's kind of a maybe from that one.
10:35Let's go to Exodus 25.9.
10:38So, according to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all
10:43its furnishings, just so you shall make it.
10:45And then I think again in verse 40, see to it that you make them according to the pattern which
10:51was shown you on the mountain.
10:53This is God talking to Moses, saying, I have shown you a pattern of the tabernacle, and you're going to
11:00make it exactly like this.
11:01And not just the tabernacle, but all the stuff that goes in it.
11:04Now, technically, the altar didn't go in the tabernacle that's outside.
11:09But, going back to Hebrews, there's a lot of Bible verses here.
11:14Write them down if you have to.
11:16I encourage you to look all these up on your own and make sure that you understand them.
11:20Hebrews 8, verses 4 and 5.
11:39So, the writer of Hebrews is quoting this passage in Exodus, saying that the things that Moses constructed are copies
11:48of heavenly things that existed even then.
11:52Before Moses built the tabernacle, before he built the altar, there was a tabernacle and an altar and a menorah
11:59and an Ark of the Covenant and a showbread table.
12:02All of these things in heaven already.
12:04Now, they probably weren't necessarily made of gold and goat hair and all the materials that the earthly tabernacle was
12:12made of.
12:13They're spiritual things that they still existed.
12:16And if there's a tabernacle and an altar, that requires the existence of a priesthood.
12:23So, if Yeshua is our high priest in heaven, at this tabernacle, at this altar,
12:30if he was made that, if he became a new high priest, who was the high priest before?
12:35Was that God the Father?
12:37But if God the Father was a high priest before, it's not really a new priesthood.
12:41It's just a new high priest.
12:42So, I think that, at most, we can't really say that Yeshua is a new priesthood.
12:51He is a new high priest, maybe.
12:54He is made a high priest, but is that at the time of creation, or is that after his death
12:59and resurrection?
13:00I'm not really sure about a lot of that stuff, but it seems pretty clear that if there was a
13:04tabernacle and altar in heaven,
13:06there must have been a priest, which logically would be Yeshua.
13:10Who else would it be?
13:13So, God instituted a new priesthood, a new mediator, a new sacrificial system, a new location for the law of
13:18God.
13:19I don't really have a problem with that, necessarily, but it's not exactly accurate, either.
13:26It's soundbite theology.
13:28It sounds good, but, you know, if you read Scripture carefully,
13:33God tried to write his law on the hearts of his people in Exodus 19, and they couldn't take it.
13:39So, he had to back off and put it on stone.
13:41The new covenant is putting it on hearts.
13:43So, is it a new place for the law, or is it an old place made real?
13:50Eh, that's six of one, half a dozen of the other, maybe.
13:53I don't know.
13:55A little bit fuzzy.
13:56But I think taking a hard-line stance, saying, we don't believe this,
14:00isn't really appropriate on something where, you know, maybe it could be this, maybe it could be that.
14:05Scripture isn't crystal clear.
14:09Okay.
14:10The next sentence in this negative statement of faith.
14:14It is important to note that those who subscribe to a renewed covenant theology typically believe that the Aaronic Priesthood
14:23is still in effect,
14:24and that the sin sacrifices will be required yet again, both of which are not, all capital letters, true.
14:31All right, now here, we have gone completely off the rails.
14:34This is entirely, completely unbiblical.
14:38Over and over and over again, God promised that the Aaronic Priesthood will last at least as long as heaven
14:43and earth.
14:46God's promises are certain.
14:47Scripture says that over and over.
14:49Romans says that God's promises are irrevocable.
14:54God made a promise to Aaron.
14:56He made a promise to Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, or Phinehas.
14:59He made a promise to Phinehas' descendant, Zadok, that they would always serve as priests.
15:07Them and their descendants would always serve as priests of Yahweh.
15:11So saying that the Aaronic Priesthood is no longer in effect, that's like, I mean, that really is calling God
15:18a liar because he said that wouldn't happen.
15:20And I'm going to prove it to you.
15:23Exodus 29, verses 8 and 9.
15:30Then you shall bring Aaron's sons and put tunics on them, and you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and
15:36his sons, and put the hats on them.
15:38The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute, and you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
15:44A perpetual statute.
15:46Other translations make this forever.
15:48An eternal statute.
15:50All right, another one.
15:51Exodus 40.
15:55This is verses 14 and 15.
16:00And you shall bring his sons and clothe them with tunics.
16:02You shall anoint them as you anoint their father, that they may minister to me as priests.
16:06For their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
16:10So that's twice.
16:11God has promised that the descendants of Aaron would always be priests.
16:18Now, always must mean at least all of heaven and earth, because Yeshua said it in Matthew 5,
16:24that not one jot or tittle will pass from the law, which includes this, until heaven and earth pass away,
16:30and all is fulfilled.
16:31Not just one sacrifice on the cross.
16:34Until all is fulfilled.
16:36Everything in Torah.
16:37Everything in the prophets.
16:39These promises still stand.
16:42And if that wasn't enough, let's go to Numbers 25.
16:4511 to 13.
16:4810 to 13.
16:49Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
17:15Yeshua is not a male descendant of Phinehas.
17:19He is not a Levite.
17:20He is not a son of Aaron.
17:21And Hebrews, which we just read, plainly says that he would not qualify to be a priest on earth.
17:27If Yeshua were on earth now, he could not be a priest.
17:30Because that role, priests at the tabernacle, was promised to the sons of Aaron, not to the sons of Judah.
17:38One more verse.
17:40Back to Jeremiah 33.
17:41Just past the passage that defines the new covenant.
17:46Jeremiah 33, verses 17 and 18.
17:50For thus says the Lord, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of
17:55Israel.
17:56Yeshua is a son of David.
17:57Does he sit on the throne of Israel forever?
18:00Absolutely.
18:01Forever.
18:01Not just as long as this heaven and earth lasts.
18:04Forever.
18:05For all eternity.
18:06The next verse says,
18:07Nor shall the priests, the Levites, not sons of Judah, not sons of David.
18:13The Levites lack a man to offer burnt offerings before me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.
18:20If the first part means that Yeshua will reign forever, the second part must also mean that the Levites will
18:27be priests offering sacrifices forever.
18:31However, I don't see how you can get around this.
18:33I don't see how you can make this negative statement of faith that the Aaronic priesthood is not in effect.
18:42And get that from the Bible.
18:44But what about sacrifices?
18:46Maybe they're right about that.
18:47Sin sacrifices have been done away with.
18:50No longer required.
18:52Well, we don't have a temple right now, so we don't have an altar.
18:54We don't even have a consecrated priesthood.
18:56The priesthood still exists.
18:58They are still out there waiting for God to call them back to the altar and the tabernacle or the
19:02temple to start their job again.
19:06They still exist.
19:07They have not been all killed.
19:09They've not been done away with.
19:10But there's no altar, so there are no sin sacrifices.
19:13So what do we do with that?
19:15Well, let's go to Ezekiel.
19:18Now, I've got to warn you that Ezekiel is a pretty wild book.
19:23It's apocalyptic literature like Revelation, and so it's difficult to kind of make heads or tails out of things.
19:29Is this meant to be literal?
19:31Is this metaphor?
19:32It's hard to tell sometimes.
19:34So Ezekiel 43, verses 13 to 27.
19:37I'm not going to read the whole part, but I'm just going to read a couple of bits here.
19:43So the angel has taken Ezekiel, and in this vision, he's shown him a temple and commanded him to measure
19:50out the temple.
19:51So this is the law of the temple.
19:52The whole area surrounding the mountaintop is most holy.
19:55Behold, this is the law of the temple.
19:58And then he starts talking about these measurements.
20:01And these are the ordinances for the altar on the day when it is made for sacrificing burnt offerings on
20:06it and for sprinkling blood on it.
20:10Most people believe that this passage is talking about the millennial era, when Yeshua has returned and he is reigning
20:16personally from Jerusalem.
20:18And it sounds like there are sacrifices going on here.
20:20And I want to read a little bit further down.
20:24On the second day, you shall offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering, and they
20:28shall cleanse the altar, and they cleansed it with the bull.
20:31When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish and a ram from the flock
20:36without blemish.
20:39Every day for seven days, you shall prepare a goat for a sin offering.
20:43They shall also prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish.
20:48And when these days are over, it shall be on the eighth day and thereafter.
20:51Thereafter, that the priest shall offer your burnt offerings and your peace offerings on the altar, and I will accept
20:56you, says the Lord God.
21:01Now, this seems, I mean, if this is really about the millennial kingdom, with Yeshua here on earth reigning personally,
21:08then clearly there are sin sacrifices going on at the temple.
21:11Blood sacrifices, burnt offerings.
21:14But, you know, like I said, Ezekiel is a pretty wild book, and maybe it's metaphor.
21:21But I'm going to read a couple other passages, and that's going to get kind of difficult to maintain.
21:26So, Zechariah 14, verses 16 to 21.
21:31And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem
21:36shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast
21:40of Tabernacles.
21:41This is the exact same feast that was being described in that passage in Ezekiel.
21:45It's eight days long, seven days for the Feast of Tabernacles, and then the eighth day is called the Eighth
21:52Day Assembly, the Shemini al-Saret.
21:55And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship
21:59the King, the Lord of hosts,
22:00on them there will be no rain.
22:03I'm going to verse 21.
22:05If the family of Egypt shall not come up and enter it, they shall have no rain.
22:09They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the
22:14Feast of Tabernacles.
22:17Skipping down to...
22:22The pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
22:26Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts.
22:31Everyone who sacrifices shall come, shall take them, and cook in them.
22:35And that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
22:39And this word for sacrifice here is literally slaughter, the Hebrew word.
22:44It's saying, during this Feast of Sukkot, this eight-day celebration where we are commanded to rejoice before God,
22:53there will be sin sacrifices, there will be blood sacrifices.
22:58This one seems a lot more explicit.
23:00You know, talking about these specific nations.
23:03Zechariah is still kind of apocalyptic, so maybe this is a metaphor.
23:09So let's go to another one.
23:11Let's go back to Jeremiah 33.
23:12We just read this one.
23:1633, 17, and 18.
23:22Nor shall the priest, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before me,
23:26to kindle grain offerings and to sacrifice continually.
23:29This is also talking about after the great and terrible day of the Lord.
23:33God has come.
23:34He has judged the nations of the earth and established peace.
23:37He has set up his kingdom in Jerusalem.
23:40And now he says, David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.
23:44And the Levites shall never lack a priest to serve at the temple, to offer burnt offerings, to sacrifice continually.
23:57Ezekiel, you could dismiss as metaphor.
23:59Zechariah, a little harder, but still, maybe you could dismiss that as metaphor.
24:03This one, you can't dismiss this as metaphor without also dismissing Yeshua himself as metaphor.
24:10He is the son of David that will rule forever.
24:14There's not going to be a second Messiah who is the son of Levi.
24:18So the only priests, Levites, they have to be a son of Levi.
24:22They have to be a descendant of Aaron.
24:25These men will serve God forever.
24:27And when he has established peace on earth for his thousand year reign,
24:32they will be offering sacrifices at the temple.
24:36All right, let's move on to the next part of this negative statement.
24:39As you can see, it is really long.
24:41It just goes on and on.
24:42I try to keep my statement of faith very short.
24:46The Bible makes it clear.
24:47The priesthood has been changed.
24:49Jesus is our high priest forever.
24:51And the sacrificial system has been changed.
24:54Jesus being the one sacrifice for sins forever.
24:57Never again will we need to offer sacrifices for sins.
25:01Well, I've already showed you how this thing about sacrifices for sins,
25:04that's wrong.
25:05The Bible says there will be sin sacrifices in the millennial kingdom
25:09when Yeshua is reigning personally here on earth.
25:15The Bible makes it clear.
25:16The priesthood has been changed.
25:18They're referring to the book of Hebrews here.
25:20And I got to tell you, anytime somebody says Hebrews is clear,
25:24Hebrews is simple, whatever else they're about to say is probably wrong.
25:29And I know I've made statements kind of like that.
25:31Hebrews is plain.
25:32And I probably shouldn't do that because Hebrews is one of the most difficult books
25:38in the Bible to understand.
25:39Next to the apocalyptic literature, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Revelation, and Daniel,
25:46Hebrews is the most difficult book in the Bible to understand.
25:49Its language is complex.
25:51Its arguments are complex.
25:53The translators insert words that muddle the meaning of the text.
25:57They translate a word in one verse.
26:00They'll translate it as last will in one place and covenant in another place.
26:07This just confuses the whole book.
26:09It makes it very difficult to understand.
26:13Hebrews is about a change in which priesthood is being discussed, not about a change within the priesthood itself.
26:26And this is the priesthood being changed.
26:30We must also talk about the law being changed.
26:34It's not talking about a change within the priesthood or a change within the law itself.
26:39Because as Hebrews also says, if Yeshua were on earth, he could not serve as a priest because that's reserved
26:46for the Levites to serve as a priest in the tabernacle or the temple, depending on which is there at
26:51the time.
26:52And Yeshua serves as a priest in heaven and only in heaven, not on earth.
26:58So there was not a change within the Levitical priesthood.
27:02In Hebrews, it's talking about one priesthood.
27:04And then it says in this other one is so much better, so much more important.
27:08And that's totally true.
27:10And it says in talking about a change in the priesthood, we have to talk about a change in the
27:15law.
27:16What it's saying is that if we're going to change which priesthood we're talking about, we have to change which
27:22law we're talking about.
27:23Because this priesthood is governed by this law.
27:26This priesthood is governed by this law.
27:28Because the Levitical priests, they offer animals in grain.
27:32You know, they do the blood sacrifices that temporarily cleanse the flesh, which is also what Hebrews says.
27:38Yeshua does the eternal sacrifice of himself.
27:41And he offers that blood only in heaven because there are no human sacrifices allowed on earth.
27:47He offers his blood on the altar in heaven.
27:50And that is forever.
27:51And it cleanses our conscience, our spirit from sin, not our flesh.
27:56Animal sacrifices cleanse the flesh.
27:58They're done at a stone and bronze altar at the tabernacle.
28:02Yeshua cleanses our spirits, our conscience.
28:05His sacrifice is done at the altar in heaven.
28:08The heavenly one that the earth is only a copy of.
28:12There's a law for this priesthood and a law for this priesthood.
28:15Not a change in the law itself.
28:18The law about the priests in heaven has never changed.
28:20The law about the priests at the tabernacle has never changed.
28:26It's just a change in which priesthood we're talking about.
28:31I think I read this one already.
28:32Hebrews 8, verses 3 and 4.
28:37For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
28:41Therefore, it is necessary that this one also have something to offer.
28:44For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts
28:50according to the law,
28:51who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things as Moses was divinely instructed.
28:58But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which
29:04was established on better promises.
29:07The Levitical priests are priests.
29:10They are serving at the tabernacle.
29:12They are here on earth, serving here.
29:14Yeshua is in heaven, serving at that altar.
29:17When he comes down to earth again, he's still the high priest in heaven, but he won't be serving at
29:21that altar at that time.
29:22He will be here presiding over the Levitical priesthood that serves at the temple.
29:28Yeshua is not qualified to serve at the temple.
29:33I think this is the final statement in their statement of faith.
29:35I didn't mark it as such.
29:36And we do have a new mediator, Jesus the prophet, like unto Moses.
29:40Absolutely true.
29:41But is he a new mediator?
29:44Hebrews 9, verse 15 says,
29:51And for this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant by means of death,
29:55for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant,
29:57that those who are called, they receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
30:03He is made the mediator of a new covenant.
30:06Does that mean he's a new mediator?
30:0912.24, I think, says something very similar.
30:14To Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
30:16and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
30:20The reference to Abel there is when Abel was killed by his brother,
30:25his blood cried out to God.
30:27Yeshua's blood says something totally different to God.
30:30It doesn't cry out for vengeance.
30:32Yeshua's blood cries out for mercy.
30:35Have mercy on these people who have offended me.
30:38Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.
30:40That's how much better Yeshua's blood is than Abel's,
30:42and all the other sacrifices.
30:44He does what they can never do, what they were never intended to do.
30:49But Jesus, back to my point, is the mediator of a new covenant.
30:55Well, Yeshua is the same today, yesterday, and forever.
30:57So wasn't he always a mediator for us before God?
31:01All of God's people before the cross were saved the same way we are,
31:05through repentance and faithfulness to God.
31:07They weren't saved, they weren't granted eternal life through animal sacrifices.
31:11That's ridiculous.
31:12Animal sacrifices cannot cleanse your spirit.
31:16They only cleanse the flesh.
31:18So all of those people who died before Calvary were saved through Yeshua.
31:25He is their mediator, just as he is ours.
31:29Maybe he's their mediator.
31:31He's become their mediator, and their spirits were waiting in the grave,
31:34and now they can go to the Father.
31:36Maybe.
31:38But whether he's a new mediator or not is really kind of a matter of perspective.
31:44You know, consider that this statement of faith says that Yeshua is our only mediator.
31:51Well, wasn't Moses a mediator?
31:53He was a mediator of a covenant.
31:56He wasn't a sacrifice.
31:58He wasn't that kind of mediator.
32:00But he was the one who officiated the ceremony, so to speak.
32:06James and Paul both talk about praying for your fallen brothers
32:12so that they will be redeemed.
32:13Praying for their repentance, their forgiveness.
32:16Now, Yeshua is the one who actually mediates the forgiveness itself.
32:21But we can intercede and mediate with God on behalf of other people
32:25for their healing, for their spiritual and physical healing.
32:29So it's not that Yeshua is our only mediator.
32:32He is our unique mediator.
32:34Kind of like he is the only begotten son.
32:38He is the uniquely begotten son.
32:40He is different from all the rest.
32:41He stands alone in the quality of his mediation, of his sacrifice.
32:46This whole last half of the statement of faith,
32:48or this one item in a much longer statement of faith,
32:53betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of covenants.
32:56I talked about that earlier, and I do encourage you to go watch that series if you haven't.
33:00Just go to my American Torah YouTube channel and look for a covenants playlist.
33:04All those videos are in there.
33:09But none of God's covenants can be canceled.
33:12They can't be canceled.
33:13They can't be modified.
33:15Galatians 3.16 says, even with a man-made covenant,
33:18no one annuls it or adds to it once a covenant has been ratified.
33:25And there are so many covenants in Scripture.
33:28There's a covenant with Adam, possibly two, depending on how you read Scripture.
33:32There's a covenant with Noah and all life on earth.
33:36And then there's a covenant with Abraham and all of his descendants.
33:39Well, that didn't nullify the covenant that came before it.
33:43And then there's a covenant with the people of Israel in Mount Sinai.
33:49That didn't nullify the covenant that God made with Abraham,
33:53even though it's the same people.
33:55Then there's a covenant with Aaron, a separate covenant.
33:58Remember that what they call the Old Covenant, the Sinai Covenant, is not the Torah.
34:03The Sinai Covenant is from Exodus 20 to 24.
34:08That's it.
34:09The rest of Torah is not the Sinai Covenant.
34:13It's God's law, which is completely independent of any covenants.
34:17God's law stands on its own.
34:19But then he made covenants with Aaron that he would be a priest
34:23and his sons would be priests forever.
34:25He made a covenant with Phinehas that his sons would be priests forever.
34:29Phinehas was a grandson of Aaron.
34:33That didn't cancel the previous covenant.
34:35It just made a new one.
34:37In, I think it's Deuteronomy 29,
34:40God makes a new covenant with all of Israel.
34:43And it's pretty much the same terms as the Sinai Covenant.
34:46Promises them land in exchange for obedience and faithfulness.
34:50That didn't cancel the Sinai Covenant.
34:53Then God made a covenant with David.
34:56He made a covenant with Josiah.
34:59None of these covenants cancel any of the ones before that.
35:01So why do we think this new covenant that was prophesied in Genesis and in Jeremiah
35:07and then the sacrifice that inaugurated this covenant played out in the Gospels?
35:14Why would we think this covenant cancels all of the previous ones?
35:18When after that sacrifice, after that covenant was started,
35:22Paul writes in Romans that God's promises and covenants to the people of Israel are inviolable.
35:29He cannot change them.
35:30He cannot renege on his promises to them.
35:35Paul goes to the temple long after Yeshua died and rose again.
35:41James tells Paul, go to the temple.
35:44Offer these sacrifices.
35:46People are accusing Paul of teaching the Jews to stop circumcising their children.
35:51To prove them wrong, James tells him,
35:53here are some men who have taken a Nazarite vow.
35:55They have to go to the temple and make sacrifices.
35:58You pay for them and you go resolve your Nazarite vow too.
36:01Well, the Nazarite vow includes sin sacrifices.
36:05The priests at the temple aren't going to let Paul come and just make a grain offering
36:08when the law says, you must do this, you must do this, and this, and this.
36:12Paul paid for these men and himself to go and make blood sacrifices,
36:17including sin sacrifices, at the temple decades after Yeshua rose again
36:23and ascended into heaven.
36:26So if Yeshua, I mean, the new covenant was inaugurated the moment Yeshua died on the cross.
36:33Not a second afterwards, right that moment.
36:35When he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head, that was it.
36:38The new covenant was in full force.
36:39Not a lot of its promises are still to be delivered.
36:43But the covenant itself, the description, the formal description of the relationship
36:47between God and his people was finalized at that moment.
36:51And if that's true, why are the disciples continuing to go to the temple offering sacrifices?
36:57Why many decades later are they still going to the temple and offering sin sacrifices?
37:02Some people will say, what was the destruction of the temple in 70 AD?
37:06Well, show me that in scripture.
37:08If the new covenant cancels the old one, then it happened at Calvary.
37:11If the destruction of the temple canceled the old covenant, show me that in scripture.
37:16Why didn't the destruction of the first temple cause the old covenant to go away?
37:22I mean, the temple was destroyed in the 6th century BC and then rebuilt 100 years later.
37:30So be consistent here.
37:33The problem here, I mean, I've spent a lot of time picking apart this one paragraph in a statement of
37:39faith
37:39and showing why it's wrong.
37:40But my real point here is that even though a statement of faith can be a good thing, it can
37:45be helpful.
37:46When it becomes your identity, when you identify so strongly with a belief,
37:50and I guarantee you that this belief was taken from, even though this is a Torah observant church,
37:57this belief was taken from the old church that they came from that they never unlearned.
38:02They are still identifying with Babylon that they tried to come out of,
38:06that they say that they already came out of, but they haven't.
38:11When your statement of faith becomes your identity, you can no longer see scripture for what it says.
38:17All you see is your creed.
38:19You see these statements and you say, this is the truth.
38:22And then you go back to the Bible and all you can see is your statement of faith.
38:26You can't see the Bible for what it says anymore.
38:29You're not even interested in what it says because you've already decided what it says before you even open the
38:34book.
38:36Statement of faith can be a great tool to help identify you to the world around you.
38:41But when it becomes a barrier, when it becomes a wall that you put between yourself and other believers in
38:47the body of Christ,
38:49you are getting into really dangerous territory.
38:51Do you want to face Yeshua on that final day and say,
38:56Yeshua, we were so zealous for you.
38:59We kicked out all of your other brothers.
39:01We kicked out all these people who were faithful to you because they believed this one weird little doctrine that
39:06had zero impact on how they lived their lives.
39:10They didn't understand you the way that we did, so we refused to have anything to do with them.
39:15You really want to be that person on judgment day?
39:17Okay, I need you to do a few things.
39:22One, I need you to look at your statement of faith, your creed if you've got one.
39:30Cut out all the fat.
39:31Make it simple.
39:33Make it as bare bones as possible.
39:35Only the things that are essential to separate the world from the body of Christ.
39:40Nothing else.
39:42And then, well, I want you to subscribe to this channel if you haven't yet.
39:46American Torah on either YouTube or Rumble, wherever you're watching this.
39:49Subscribe to this channel or this page or whatever.
39:53And I also want you to go to Abrams318.
39:57Abrams318.org.
39:59That's Abrams318.org.
40:02You can look it up on YouTube.
40:04We've got a channel there.
40:05We're on the whole Bible community app.
40:08Find us there.
40:09Connect with us there.
40:10I mean, we are building a network of home fellowships, not a denomination, not a network of churches.
40:16We are building a mutual support network for home fellowships.
40:20And we don't want to divide with people over non-essential doctrines that don't matter.
40:25I mean, we have to agree on some things.
40:27We have to agree on who Yeshua is, that he is the sacrifice that cleanses our sins and that our
40:34salvation is only through faith in him and faithfulness to him.
40:39Faith without faithfulness is just self-deception.
40:43We have to agree on what scriptures we're reading.
40:46We stick with the bottom line.
40:47I mean, I don't care if you believe that Enoch and Jubilees and all that stuff is scripture.
40:50I mean, I disagree.
40:51But really, as long as you can believe on the 66 books of the commonly accepted Protestant canon, if you've
40:58got extra books you like to read and you think are inspired, okay, I disagree.
41:03But we're not going to divide over that.
41:05We're going to stick to the bottom line, the basics that we can.
41:09So check out Abrams318.
41:11Check out your statement of faith.
41:13Subscribe to this channel.
41:15Add a comment to the video.
41:17Tell me what your questions are.
41:19I want to hear what challenges you're facing along these lines.
41:22And don't attack a specific church.
41:24Don't name names.
41:26Nothing like that.
41:27This is about honoring Yeshua.
41:29Honoring the body of Christ.
41:31So keep all of your comments and questions with that in mind.
41:36Again, this is Jake Harper from American Torah.
41:39Be blessed.
41:43Sorry.
41:44Too much talking.
41:45Drying out.
41:46And just in case you're wondering, I don't actually buy expensive water.
41:50I bought that bottle like three years ago and I just wash it and refill it all the time.
41:54I use a big Berkey like a good Torah keeper.
41:57That's a joke.
41:58They're not paying me.
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