Thanks young MB for this

I agree. “All of God does all that God does,” and we see that in Jesus’ ministry.
But Jesus said the OT predicted Him, not the Father or the Spirit. It was Jesus who sent the Spirit. He draws men to the Father. He is the One we are to lift up. He was the Ark of the Covenant walking around like an open scroll bringing blessings and curses. The mystery of God was finally opened. The key to the OT is the New. All must now be read with the ministry of Christ in view.

I agree with this but would add that the Bible is also about the action of the3 Father througth the Son and the Spirit. it is about His grace and, well, Jesus’ necessity isn’t there unless the Father is a part of this story.
And
the grace, power, action and gift of the Spirit is constant in the Bible either by implication or by explicit statement.

I agree that overtly the Bible is about God’s relationship with mankind, and that this begins with the redemption, but it continues and is preceded by the Spirit. And since we are reconciled to the Father through the Son then it is also all about the Father.

That is, the OT may well have predicted Jesus, but prediction is only one of the forms of communication in the Bible isn’t it?

False prophets from within the church were trying to corrupt Christianity with mandatory circumcision etc. False prophets from without enticed believing Jews back to Judaism. Revelation uses the images of the adultery with the Moabite women and the idolatry at the golden calf to illustrate this (Herod’s temple was the graven image of the beast). The Jews who stayed faithful to the word of Christ were the ones who inherited the kingdom, and the rest were disinherited, thrown into outer darkness. The Old Priesthood was finally wiped out in AD70 when all the genealogical records were destroyed. With this event, the words of Christ that hung over Judah for 40 years were finally vindicated. He was not a false prophet.

“Phinehas” inherited the priesthood, but the UNfaithful “sons of Aaron” were disinherited for unbelief. Phinehas was already IN the line of priests, but his family became the line that would continue it. We see this also with the destruction of Achan. The Messianic line came through Perez and Zerah. With Achan it was cut off in Zerah, but continued through Perez, the line that Rahab married into. The covenant made with Phinehas is simply part of the greater covenant, like the Davidic covenant.

Because of his obedience, Phinehas became the future. Because of the obedience of the apostles and the Jews who believed, they, along with believing Gentiles, became the future.

I’m not sure I’ve grasped everything you are saying Michael. Correct me if I am wrong.

It would seem to me that in order for this to be true:

Michael Bull - 01 July 2008 03:33 PM

The covenant made with Phinehas is simply part of the greater covenant, like the Davidic covenant.

then Jesus would have to be ‘a priest in the order of Phinehas’. If that was the case, then it is a little bit odd that Jesus is declared a priest in the order of Melchizedek and Phinehas goes comepletely unmentioned.

I’m still not sure I’m understanding what you are trying to do with Phinehas? Are you saying that he is the physical ansestor of the jews that remain faithful into the Christian era? Why would this be ‘the priesthood’? I would have thought either we have one priest (Heb 5/7), or everyone is one (1 Pet 2:9). Phinehas has nothing to do with either.

I mean that God’s agreement with Phinehas was within the greater Agreement. It’s purpose was to continue the greater Covenant despite the unfaithfulness of Israel. Same as the prophets parted the Jordan to make an interim covenant because of the unfaithfulness of the northern kings.

In relation to the New Testament, it is totally typological. Those things happened in the OT so we could understand what happened spiritually in the NT. When Jesus calls someone in the church a Balaamite, we know what He means. When He calls someone Jezebel, we know idolatry has been imported into the church and she is murdering and land-grabbing again. When Jesus says the only sign He will give is the sign of Jonah, we understand He was entombed and would then preach to the Gentiles - “and they will listen.”

To return to the topic, the Bible is all about God, revealing himself to us in Jesus.

Tom Schreiner calls his Pauline theology Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ and his New Testament Theology is subtitled Magnifying God in Christ.

Sounds right to me.

It is amazing that Jehovah’s Witnesses can read the New Testament and not see that it is all about Jesus. Most of the 26 books [sic] explicitly state this.

[I take Luke-Acts to be one book in 2 volumes]

NT theology is God-focused, Christ-centered, and Spirit-saturated, but the work of the Father, Son, and Spirit must be understood along a salvation-historical timeline; that is, God’s promises are already fulfilled but not yet consummated in Christ Jesus

from Thomas Schreiner’s New Testament Theology