Bible Study Here's your blessing---- except, what is it?

[tim-from-pa]

I heard another message on the radio during lunch today from a prominent ministry about Jacob and Esau, and how Jacob stole the blessing from Esau. I heard nowhere what the blessing actually contained, and indeed, skipped over the definition of the birthright. This is what I call anemic Christianity when we are told about God's blessing, and compare it to our lives by submission as Jacob learned to do while wrestling with the angel. But then it ends there.

Such teaching is like teaching a person what the chess pieces are, and how they move, and then asking them to play the game without understanding that the object is to catch the opponent's king.

Or again, it is like reading only the funny parts in a story just for laughs and to make us feel better without understanding the plot and purpose.

Ask the average Christian what the birthright and blessing was that Jacob so desperately wanted, and most cannot answer---- it's some ethereal benefit from God to them. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the core foundation of the bible, the object of the chess game, or the plot and purpose of the story so-to-speak. Included in the promises are the promises of Messiah, and when part of the birthright is rejected or misunderstood, the Messianic promises go out the window by default. And the Messianic promises and fulfillments is one of the core teachings of Christianity.

What a shame.

 

[BFSmith764]

I heard another message on the radio during lunch today from a prominent ministry about Jacob and Esau, and how Jacob stole the blessing from Esau. I heard nowhere what the blessing actually contained, and indeed, skipped over the definition of the birthright. This is what I call anemic Christianity when we are told about God's blessing, and compare it to our lives by submission as Jacob learned to do while wrestling with the angel. But then it ends there.

Such teaching is like teaching a person what the chess pieces are, and how they move, and then asking them to play the game without understanding that the object is to catch the opponent's king.

Or again, it is like reading only the funny parts in a story just for laughs and to make us feel better without understanding the plot and purpose.

Ask the average Christian what the birthright and blessing was that Jacob so desperately wanted, and most cannot answer---- it's some ethereal benefit from God to them. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the core foundation of the bible, the object of the chess game, or the plot and purpose of the story so-to-speak. Included in the promises are the promises of Messiah, and when part of the birthright is rejected or misunderstood, the Messianic promises go out the window by default. And the Messianic promises and fulfillments is one of the core teachings of Christianity.

What a shame.

It's very important for Christians to study the Bible on there own. I have learnt a lot from my own personal Bible study that I still today would not know if I left it up to others. Only a babe in Christ should be spoon fed, the rest of us should be mature enough to study God's word on our own and let God, via the Holy Spirit guide us.

 

[one_lost_coin]

What a shame.

Only a babe in Christ should be spoon fed, the rest of us should be mature enough to study God's word on our own and let God, via the Holy Spirit guide us.

Wow, that's incredibly wrong and is nowhere supported or said in the bible. As a matter of fact it is nothing more than your personal erroneous opinion.

 

[BFSmith764]

[quote="tim_from_pa":b6a57]What a shame.

Only a babe in Christ should be spoon fed, the rest of us should be mature enough to study God's word on our own and let God, via the Holy Spirit guide us.

Wow, that's incredibly wrong and is nowhere supported or said in the bible. As a matter of fact it is nothing more than your personal erroneous opinion.[/quote:b6a57]

Ok, so what does this scripture mean to you?

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 

[tim-from-pa]

I hope both you you square away your bible study differences. After all it is important to study as evidenced by the fact that the nature of the birthright and blessing was not mentioned here, and I assume you are looking for those answers. I wish you the best.

 

[one_lost_coin]

I hope both you you square away your bible study differences. After all it is important to study as evidenced by the fact that the nature of the birthright and blessing was not mentioned here, and I assume you are looking for those answers. I wish you the best.

I wouldn't expect that to happen as bfsmith is a jehovahs witness and does not want people to listen to the Apostolic church which is the pillar and bullwark of the truth, the body of our Lord and in which we have communion with each other through our Lord and God Jesus Christ. He has a very different agenda. To tear that body down.

 

[stovebolts]

Wow, that's incredibly wrong and is nowhere supported or said in the bible. As a matter of fact it is nothing more than your personal erroneous opinion.

We cant,
you see bfsmith is a jehovahs witness and does not want people to listen to the teachings of the Apostolic church which is the pillar and bullwark of the truth, the body of our Lord and in which we have communion with each other through our Lord and God Jesus Christ. He has a very different agenda. To tear that body down.

one_lost_coin,

5 - Respect each other's opinions. Address issues, not persons or personalities.

6 - No Bashing of other members. Give other members the respect you would want them to give yourself.

 

[one_lost_coin]

here are part of someone elses thoughts on blessings and birthrights you may be interested in. It is along the lines of what you wrote above.

By way of a quick review, here's how the story has gone so far:

God created the world out of nothing and created man and woman "in His image and likeness," as His children, to be rulers over His divine kingdom on earth. God made a covenant with them, promising to bestow His blessings upon them, and through them, upon the whole world.

But Adam and Eve broke that covenant, rejected their royal birthright as the first-born children of God. Growing up in exile from the original garden sanctuary, their offspring fill the world with blood and all kinds of wickedness.

So God created the world again, in effect, destroying the wicked and saving the just in a great flood. He started His human family again with the family of Noah. But Noah falls, too, and trouble again fills the earth, symbolized by the effort of all the nations of the world to build a tower to the heavens and glorify their name, not the name of God.

At Babel, God scatters the nations to the four corners of the earth, dividing the single human family into a multitude of languages and cultures, confusing their speech and making it impossible for them to understand and work together.

God again raises up a righteous man, through whom He hopes to establish the family of God He intended in the beginning. He makes a covenant with Abraham and promises to Abraham a line of descendants that would last forever, a line through whom God would bestow blessings on all the families and nations of the world.

At the end of Genesis, Abraham's family tree is a large one, consisting of twelve tribes, each headed by a son of Jacob, who was the son of Abraham's beloved son Isaac. Through many twists and turns, the chosen people of the God, the children of Abraham, now identified as the children of Israel (the new name God gave to Jacob), find themselves in Egypt.


full article can be read here. http://www.salvationhistory.com/online/ ... son4_1.cfm

 

[one_lost_coin]

Wow, that's incredibly wrong and is nowhere supported or said in the bible. As a matter of fact it is nothing more than your personal erroneous opinion.

[quote="one_lost_coin ":202d6]We cant,
you see bfsmith is a jehovahs witness and does not want people to listen to the teachings of the Apostolic church which is the pillar and bullwark of the truth, the body of our Lord and in which we have communion with each other through our Lord and God Jesus Christ. He has a very different agenda. To tear that body down.

one_lost_coin,

5 - Respect each other's opinions. Address issues, not persons or personalities.

6 - No Bashing of other members. Give other members the respect you would want them to give yourself.[/quote:202d6]

You are correct and I ask the forgiveness of the people on this website and bfsmith himself.

but know that it is not personal, after reading his responses to a different post It became obvious he was using the the watchtower publication (which i have in my possession and know even what page he is working from).

jw's are not allowed to listen to anything anyone says contrary to the watchtower. consequently there is no dialog and I decided to make that knowledge available to others.

I was wrong and what I did was wrong. Again I am sorry. forgive me bfsmith

 

[tim-from-pa]

God again raises up a righteous man, through whom He hopes to establish the family of God He intended in the beginning. He makes a covenant with Abraham and promises to Abraham a line of descendants that would last forever, a line through whom God would bestow blessings on all the families and nations of the world.

That's a start, as these are the promises in Genesis 12. Continue onward to find out more. There's much more.

As for the link, it seems to talk about the Old Covenant of the Law vs the New. The birthright promises antedate the giving of the Law and are still in effect today. The Old Testament Law covenant is not the same as the Abrahamic Covenant which became the birthright. Question: what did the Abrahamic covenant all include?

There are different covenants in the Bible: Adamic (can be broken into two), Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic (Old), "Palestinian", Davidic and New.

 

[BFSmith764]

[quote="one_lost_coin ":b8393]Wow, that's incredibly wrong and is nowhere supported or said in the bible. As a matter of fact it is nothing more than your personal erroneous opinion.

[quote="one_lost_coin ":b8393]We cant,
you see bfsmith is a jehovahs witness and does not want people to listen to the teachings of the Apostolic church which is the pillar and bullwark of the truth, the body of our Lord and in which we have communion with each other through our Lord and God Jesus Christ. He has a very different agenda. To tear that body down.

one_lost_coin,

5 - Respect each other's opinions. Address issues, not persons or personalities.

6 - No Bashing of other members. Give other members the respect you would want them to give yourself.[/quote:b8393]

You are correct and I ask the forgiveness of the people on this website and bfsmith himself.

but know that it is not personal, after reading his responses to a different post It became obvious he was using the the watchtower publication (which i have in my possession and know even what page he is working from).

jw's are not allowed to listen to anything anyone says contrary to the watchtower. consequently there is no dialog and I decided to make that knowledge available to others.

I was wrong and what I did was wrong. Again I am sorry. forgive me bfsmith[/quote:b8393]


All is forgiven, and I can assure you I am not a JW nor do I share everything that they believe; though there are some truths in some of what they teach. I have come to understand from the Bible that I am a free individual and I am under no obligation by any man /denomination(other then Jesus) to believe everything that it teaches; as the scripture says, "work out your own salvation in fear and trembling." My loyalty is to Jesus, God who came in the flesh, lived, died and is alive is whom I seek to obey.