"Greek & Hebrew Thought in Scripture." ~ Antiochene Mysteries

 

Greek Thought & Hebrew Thought in Scripture

Here Eric W. King looks at how the Greek and Hebrew thought of the time of Jesus Christ helped shape the Human way of understanding God. He also explains his use in teaching the Scriptures of the phrases Fallen Matrix & Divine Matrix. Even today we see the reality of how both Greek & Jewish cultures still affect us. Please read this and watch our Bible lectures. We have received great responses from many Christians throughout the years regarding our approach to Biblical teaching. Thank you.

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I wish to share with you something I believe to be extremely important. I have learned throughout my years of studying the Bible many things and continue to do so and my excitement leads me to share. This information is surprisingly not realized or known by most Christians. The Bible student can really begin to understand this subject by doing a thorough study of the epistle of Hebrews. 

My pastor and Patriarch, Richard Cripe (of Groveland Christian Fellowship) who in my opinion still teaches what I call original Ancient Antiochene Theology when it comes to true Dispensational Theology and Soteriology recently took all of us through the epistle of Hebrews. Some major points that he brought out in the epistle were as follows: 

1-The finality of true revelation through Jesus Christ (Sola Scriptura).

2-The fact of the superiority of Jesus Christ over the angels and Moses.

3-Jesus Christ brings us into a new and complete priesthood (Solus Christus).

4-Our rest is not in “day keeping” or “rule following” but is complete in Jesus Christ (Sola Fide).

5-Through Jesus Christ we come into the presence of God the Father (Soli Deo Gloria).

6-All “shadows” and “types” are fulfilled in Jesus Christ who takes us into “pure reality”.

7-The necessity of Christian progress and the finality of OT Jewish law through Jesus Christ.

….and much, much more.

In addition to all of these awesome facts I wish to give some historical insight of the epistle of Hebrews that is fascinating too. We have been blessed with a complete Christian Library of information which I refer to as our “Ancient Antiochene Library” (which in my opinion contains much more accurate knowledge than even the Vatican Library, though much, much smaller than the Vatican Library…of course). 

The ancient Alexandrian School of Theology became much influenced by Greek Platonic Thought and that of his student Philo. They had quite a library of ancient parchments there in Alexandria including a lot of pagan wittings and mythos from the Far East. Clement of Alexandria used these writings in producing some of his theological conclusions in the Alexandrian School. He also used a “midrish” (extreme allegorical) approach in his interpretations. 

Many of his successors in Alexandria did the same including the chief allegorist, Origin. This created a lot of problems. For one thing it was plain and simple bad hermeneutics. The ancient Greek philosophers sought a better world of experience. They would say that our material world is a distorted and aberrant reflection of a purer reality which is made of an ethereal or spiritual reality. I have referred to this same idea in stating that the fallen world (our current material reality) is the Fallen Matrix in contrast to the pure reality, the Divine Matrix (or Kingdom of God). This approach speaks more to the deeper intellectual thinker. 

The epistle of Hebrews contains this idea. Some theologians have referred to this theme found in the epistle of Hebrews to be the “two-story” schematic. 

The Two Realities

What we might call the “two story” theme is mostly Greek in its approach. What makes the epistle of Hebrews extremely interesting is the fact that it mixes the Greek approach with the Hebrew (Jewish) approach in a beautiful unfolding of the human condition and our relationship as Christians with Divine Intelligence (God). 

Though predominately the epistle of Hebrews was written as a witness to the Hebrews (Jews) it also contains information which would have strongly affected the Hellenistic Jews.  To the Jews it was always taught that a person could never really come into the presence of God, only the High Priest once year on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest once a year would enter the Holy of Hollies for a short period of time to offer prays and blood sacrifice. 

Moses stated; “No man can see God and live.” (Exodus 33:22) Manoah once stated; “Surely we shall die, for we have seen God.” The Jewish people also understood that they served a covenantial God, a God who spoke through covenants.  They understood that through a priesthood (the Levitical) and animal sacrifice they could stay “right” with God. However, they started to realize that in order for them to continue with God so must the sacrifices which really never satisfied God. So they sought a new priesthood (a better one) and an ultimate sacrifice. This would truly make them right with God. 

The Greeks believed that God would never become a human and that only through special knowledge (gnosis) and initiation could one become right with God. Interestingly the Greeks believed that our planet and the kosmos were fake, or shadowy, transient and imperfect. The Greeks view of our world, in that sense, agreed with the Jewish concept of sin and a fallen world (world completely infected with sin). Right away they had grounds to agree. 

We could say in our “two story” theme that both Greeks & Jews believed that the lower story, all of what we refer to as physical creation, was aberrant, distorted, a Fallen Matrix from which we must escape. By the new knowledge (gnosis) of Jesus Christ and by hearing the “Gospel” and through accepting the higher sacrifice and priesthood of Jesus Christ one could be “saved” and be brought into proper relationship with Divine Intelligence (The Creator). 

Man has this inner knowing that something in our reality is not right. Man has an innate understanding of “good” & “evil”. Man seems to somewhat understand his fallen nature and the reality of a Supreme God. Thus the search to answer these important questions begins and man begins to seek for answers and he or she ultimately finds the answers in the person of Jesus Christ who in fact is God coming to us (incarnate). God Himself must make the way for us; God Himself is the only perfect priest and sacrifice. Finally, God is love and thus He makes the initiative and way for us to be brought into right relationship with Him. Ultimately all of creation will be brought back into its glorious reality. This final restoration begins in the “upper story”, the Divine Matrix. 

This two story view of reality is central throughout the epistle of Hebrews. This explanation in Hebrews of a far better reality, above all the shadows and types, is not purely Platonic though some of the author’s explanations are set in Platonic idealism. The author of Hebrews is using language that the Hellenistic Jews could properly grasp and understand. The author of Hebrews is also not being overly allegorical or “midrashic” in his approach especially when he begins to speak about the reality of a literal second coming. 

The author of Hebrews simply uses the name Jesus to answer all the questions. Jesus Christ our Lord is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Through Him we have complete atonement, redemption, reconciliation and salvation. Praise God for the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Eric William King (February 14^th 2020)

Eric William King (November 26^th 2019)

Greek influence in Christianity

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"Dinosaurs and the First Earth." ~ Antiochene Mysteries

 

Dinosaurs, Fossils, and the First Earth

By Eric William King

Let us look into this matter of the “First Earth” a little closer. We find in the very second verse of the Bible that the earth “was” (actual Hebrew word here means “became”) “without form and void”. The words for “without form and void” are used elsewhere in the Bible. The Hebrew word “tohu” is actually found 16 more times in Scripture and each time it means “worthless”, “empty”, and “chaotic”. If we use the entire Bible to explain itself it states that God DID NOT originally make this earth “empty”, “chaotic”, or “void” but instead CREATED it to be inhabited. 

“For this is what the Lord says – he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty (Hebrew: “without form and void”), but formed it to be inhabited.” (Isaiah 45:18) 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) 

“In the beginning”, probably millions of years ago. Only God knows when that happened. So when God created “the heavens and the earth” it was instantaneous and perfect. Isaiah the prophet tells us of this; 

So the original “planet Earth” was made complete and inhabitable. The very second verse of the Bible properly reads in the Hebrew; “Now the earth BECAME formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) So the original translation tells us that something happened in-between verses one and two of Genesis….something that brought desolation to planet Earth. 

The Great Rebellion

In Isaiah 14 we read about a powerful angelic being that rebelled. This same rebellion is mentioned in Ezekiel 28 and states that at one time Satan walked in the Garden of Eden BEFORE SIN. Did you get that? He was on a perfect planet earth before sin existed in the Garden of Eden. This was before the destruction of the First Earth. 

It was on this first earth that the dinosaurs lived. There were also “human type” beings living on this first earth that were intelligent enough to live in some form of “houses”. We read about this in Jeremiah 4:23-26. 

“I beheld the earth, and lo, it was WITHOUT FORM AND VOID; and the heavens, and they had NO LIGHT. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, the TREMBLED, and all the hills MOVED LIGHTLY. I beheld, and, lo, there was NO MAN, and all the BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS WERE FLED. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a WILDERNESS, and all the CITIES thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger.” (Jeremiah 4:23-26) 

This sounds like what we would call a “parenthetical prophetic statement”. This simply means that when God spoke through the prophets He sometimes placed statements having to do with past events or even future events (having to do with judgment and or redemption) in between the context which sometimes seems out of place. This is to make His hearers become close and careful listeners.  God wants us to understand the bigger picture of His Word. 

Genesis and the Re-Creation

The so called “creationists” try to explain that all the geological strata (the layers upon layers of earth) were the result of a worldwide flood. Noah’s flood was actually regional and happened only between 4000 and 5000 years ago and does not mention a world filled with numerous dinosaurs. Radiocarbon dating and potassium-argon dating are used and some Bible students will use these methods when they agree with their biasness but reject them when they contradict their dogma. 

Though the Adamic race was created about 6000 plus years ago, many other races were here long before that. The last ice age was probably about 10,000 years ago and it took 4000 years for most of this ice to melt before the reconstruction of our planet’s surface - which is mentioned through the “six day” recreation account. 

These “creation days” were not literal days. We find in the Targum of Onkelos which is the earliest of the Aramaic rendition of Genesis 1:2 that the earth “was laid waste” so they understood that the First Earth had “become” without form and void because of some catastrophic event. What follows in Genesis is the explanation of a “re-creation” of planet earth’s surface. 

We know that the destruction of the First Earth due to spiritual rebellion ended about 65 million years ago. The dinosaurs roamed the first earth during what is called the Triassic and Jurassic period. Some of the water dinosaurs lasted all the way into the times of the Adamic Race. So much life did in fact survive the destruction of the First Earth including micro life, plant life, and some animal life. In fact, we know that God allowed at least three early Human-type life creations to survive the destruction of the First Earth. These are the earliest surviving human-type races. 

The Bible does not teach evolution but CREATION. The early creatures on the First Earth were in fact created by God. There are no pre-fossil records for the great dinosaurs; they have no fossils showing that an animal went from the size of a mosquito to the size of a large dinosaur. The absence of intermediate fossil records disturbs the scientists who choose to reject literal creation. 

So where are the so called “missing links”? There are none. We will let the thoughts of Michael Denton end the thoughts of this article; 

“The overall picture of life on Earth today is so DISCOUNTINOUS, the GAPS between the different types so obvious, that, as Steven Stanley reminds us in his recent book Macroevolution, if our knowledge of biology was restricted to those species presently existing on Earth, “we might wonder whether the doctrine of evolution would qualify as anything more than an outrageous hypothesis.” Without intermediates or transitional forms to bridge the enormous gaps which separate existing species and groups of organisms, the concept of evolution could never be taken seriously as a scientific hypothesis. (pp 157-158) 

Continue with the Biblical facts here at “The Shepherds Way”. 

Eric William King (July 15^th 2020)