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To: Forest Keeper; MarkBsnr; HarleyD; Dr. Eckleburg; blue-duncan; wmfights
No, God's plan never failed. Everything that happened did so exactly according to design. In Hebrews 8, presumably you are zooming in on this:

Heb 8:7 : For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

Well, yes and no. I am also looking at this with my emphases: 

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. " [Heb 8:6]

Sure doesn't sound like the Old One was perfect! For, if it was perfect,  then nothing could be better.

Your NIV version "attenuates" the statement in verse 7. The word used by the author is amemptos (blameless, faultless, without a defect). 

So, let's recap: verse 6 says the new one is better and verse 7 says it was not faultless.  Either God intentionally placed a fault and doomed it to failure or perhaps the people resisted God's will and failed?!

Well, luckily, the author tells us in verse 9 that this is exactly what happened: "they continued not in my covenant." It doesn't say God wanted them to fail. God puts the blame squarely on the unfaithful Hebrews. If it was according to His will, he would claim credit for it.

Since you have read all of Paul you must know that Paul NEVER presumes to criticize God

You have evidence that Hebrews was written by St. Paul?!?

Paul is noting that the first covenant was insufficient, IOW, it was preparatory

Oh please! It says faultless and the new one is better. In either case it couldn't have been perfect!

Paul lays all this out plainly in Romans. For example:  Rom 5:18-19 ... This is the correct context in which Paul was comparing the covenants. Hebrews 8 says the Old Covenant was imperfect (it wasn't faultless); the unfaithful Jews made it fail. Romans 5:18-19 does not apply because Hebrews 8 makes it clear who was to be included in the New Covenant:

"I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" [v. 8]

The new Covenant was not intended for the Gentiles!  And Romans is all about Gentiles!

The first covenant did not have this part, and that was by design.

The Book of Hebrews does not predict or talk about Christ as the Book of Romans (5:18-19) does. So, why are they being compared? Let's try to find some coherent message without cutting and pasting, and mixing and matching!

 

1,576 posted on 02/07/2008 7:33:03 PM PST by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: kosta50; All

Apologies for multiple posts. Computer glitch.


1,577 posted on 02/07/2008 7:34:38 PM PST by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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