[imardmd1]

Apparerntly, your assessment of the issue comes short of recognizing that the message is to the Hebrews, some of whom who had been engaged in misleading the saved Gentiles by wrongly applying OT Covenant practices to the Gentile converts by treating them as they would have dealt with proselytes to Judaism. Other Hebrews, though Christianized, had not abandoned their cultural traditions. They still did not fully appreciate the mysteries of the OT Scriptures as revealed in their meaning to the New Testament.

Your reply still does not displace who the audience of the book was when it was written. I have no idea why you continue to fight the facts. The writer of the epistle explains to Jews the significance of their OT training to understand NT doctrines. Most Gentiles at that time had no sense of what the Jewish religion was about, and doubtlessly little interest in exploring the details of a now-dead religion.

I fail to see how the last paragraph of your note has any bearing on this little debate. In my estimate at the time of the Rapture, all the visible earthly churches will remain on earth, have plenty of members remaining in them, and be functioning. In actuality, the only two places in Hebrews where the term "church" is used have no place in this irrelevant distracting citation. The first mention in Chapter 2 is a quotation from Psalm 22 and refers to Jewry, while the one in Chapter 12 is about His Church already established in Heaven, not a ship going to that destination. Hebrews is not about the Church or churches on earth. It is about the Jews and about how and why God chose them to prepare for their Messiah, the Great Shepherd, to fulfill the Law and to present Him to the world as Savior.

In the formation of early Christianity, the Gentiles educated in Greek philosophy were more interested in Platonizing the interpretation of the Bible than in explaining the meaning of the New Covenant to individuals raised in Jewish traditions.So the letter to the Hebrews written then is still of great value in reaching out to Jews today, not in dealing with local Gentile church problems.

But if you want to dig into it to understand the Jewish culture and religion before the time of Christ, well, sure, why not? Essentially though, your interests was not its primary purpose, eh?

For your information, I memorized the whole book, word for word, over a nine-year period, so I've got a pretty good idea of what its purpose was and what it was about.

[Mr Rogers]

“So the letter to the Hebrews written then is still of great value in reaching out to Jews today, not in dealing with local Gentile church problems.”

Local Gentile church problems? Problems like believing faith without works is dead? After all, that was James who said that...but then, he agreed with Paul’s same belief that claiming faith while living immorally is worthless.

The idea that someone who had once believed in Christ but then publicly rejects Him is in ‘heep big trouble’ is hardly a Jewish/Gentile issue, nor is it something that only concerns Jewish believers. God’s teaching is consistent, in both the Old and New Testament. There is one God. Not a Jewish God and a Christian God. Not a Jewish way of salvation and a Christian one.

One way.

Pity you choose to toss out Hebrews as uncomfortable. I suggest learning from it instead, since it is consistent with the rest of the New Testament - and Old.