Hebrews 8:1-3

Posted by Randy Peterman on 11/16/2006

Hebrews 8:1-3

1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

This passage was part of the material that was covered in tonight’s Bible study that is taught by Elder Mike Doyle. This passage is in the greater context of Jesus’ Christ being qualified to be a priest due to His purity and perfection. That’s what the ’such a high priest’ is in reference to. However, the passage is building on the platform of Christ’s high priesthood and emphasizing Christ’s current position on the seat next the God the Father’s throne. What is Christ doing on that throne? He’s ministering to us. Ephesians 1:3 says that we’re given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places with Christ. Christ’s blessing ministry is ongoing in the life of believers due to the once and for all work on the Cross.

While there is a huge amount that can be gleaned from this passage the point that got me thinking was that Christ is offering to each and every believer every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. We often focus on earthly wealth or earthly knowledge or earthly blessing. Do you walk in belief of your heavenly blessings right now? Christ is ministring them freely and abundantly. Have I been walking as though I have every spiritual blessing in my walk? No, the answer is that I haven’t been. However, I am now. I’m resting in the fact that I have been given those with my position in Christ.

Theological Reductionism

Posted by Randy Peterman on 11/8/2006

Reductionism is the concept of taking a biblical doctrine and reducing, summarizing or ‘boiling the doctrine down’ to one finite statement that could very well be an oversimplification.  Worse than that reductionism may be ignoring the entire counsel of the Word of God in favor of one passage.  One premium example of this would be the polarized views of Calvinism or Armenianism.  Both of these views (when taken to their logical extreme) can be examples of reductionism.  The scriptures put a great amount of tension on the subject of God’s undeniable sovereignty and man’s undeniable responsibility for sin and other actions.  Are these two different ideas mutually exclusive?  No.  The scriptures present a paradox wherein God is sovereign and man is resonsible for his actions.  This isn’t inconsistency, its the complication of mankind being created in God’s image and therefore having a will and God’s being God and not having any of His power lessened by man’s ability to desire and will various things.

Reductionism is what fans the flames of fanaticism or doctrinal narrowness in areas where the scripture presents a message that is more broad.  Baptism’s relationship to salvation is a good example of people reducing all theology down to a few passages even though other passages in no way require water baptism.  Or furthermore the idea that tongues is a heavenly prayer language… their is only one text that could be gone to for proof text and that is not what the context of that passage in I Corinthians 13 is even referring to.  Reductionism is what allows bad theology to stay bad and what keeps believers blind.

When you study a doctrine make sure that you review what the whole word of God says about that doctrine and in the correct context.