Christ

The person and work of the Son, and the throne the whole story moves toward.

16 questions answered. About this doctrine · All topics

• Whosoever WillDoes Psalm 22:16 really say "pierced," or "like a lion"?The medieval Hebrew (the Masoretic Text) reads "like a lion," and critics call "pierced" a Christian edit. But "pierced" is the older reading, and it is not Christian: the Greek Septuagint translated it "they dug/pierced" two centuries before Jesus, and a Dead Sea Scrolls Psalms fragment reads ka'aru, "they have dug/pierced," a verb, not a lion. "They pierced my hands and my feet" (Psa 22:16) is the ancient reading, and the one the whole passage points to.
• Whosoever WillDoes tetelestai ("It is finished") mean "paid in full"?Whosoever Will, The Word That Needs No Receipt: It is not settled. It is overturned, and we know that because a New Testament scholar went and looked. Gary Manning Jr., who teaches Greek at Talbot and has been writing a commentary on John, pulled the actual papyri the claim was built on: roughly three hundred fifteen tariff receipts from Arsinoites in Egypt, all of them available now as high-resolution photographs with transcriptions. Almost every one carries only an abbreviation, tetel. On seventeen of them the tax collector forgot to abbreviate and wrote the whole word, and every single time the word he wrote was tetelōnētai, “paid as taxes,” from telōneō, the verb for collecting a toll. A different word from a different root. That makes sense of the documents, because all three hundred fifteen were tax receipts collected by telōnai, tax men, on cargo moving through the gates and ports. This is why, beginning in 1934, the publishers of papyri concluded that tetel stood for tetelōnētai, and why the official databases have recorded it that way ever since. Scripture, King James Version: John 19:30, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.".
• Whosoever WillIs Jesus God? Did Jesus claim to be God?Yes. "In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God" (John 1:1), and Jesus said "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). In Him "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col 2:9).
• Whosoever WillIs Joseph a type of Christ?Whosoever Will, The Pit, the Prison, and the Palace: Thread 3 (the story moves toward a King) runs through Joseph as a type. The favored son, rejected by his brothers, thrown into a pit, raised to a throne, before whom every knee bows. Paul will read this pattern in Philippians 2. The one who descended into the lowest place is the one whom God highly exalted. The pattern was in Joseph before it was in Christ, because Joseph's story is one of the longest and most detailed types of the incarnation, death, and exaltation in the canon. Dantès is elevated too. He arrives in Paris as a wealthy count with a mysterious past, and society bows before his money and his manner. But his elevation is his own construction. The fortune of Monte Cristo was a prisoner's bequest dug out of an island; the identity of the Count was his own invention. Nothing about the elevation was bestowed from above. He raised himself, which is precisely why the elevation does not produce the same outcome. A man who raises himself can use the height for whatever he chooses. A man who is raised by God is positioned for a purpose he did not originate.
• Whosoever WillIs the crimson worm (tola'ath) life cycle story biologically accurate?Whosoever Will, The Crimson Worm: Some of the devotional descriptions of the life cycle, particularly the body turning exactly white like snow and falling from the tree, are more contested in modern entomology, which has not documented the lifecycle in the precise sequence that the popular devotional account describes. Henry Morris presented the illustration as a devotional parallel, not as a biological claim requiring peer review. He was drawing a typological connection: the kind of connection that Scripture itself invites when it embeds the same Hebrew word in Psalm 22 and the Tabernacle instructions simultaneously. The typological point stands regardless of which biological details can be precisely verified. David chose tola'ath and not rimmah. That was deliberate. The same word colors the curtains through which Israel approaches God. That was deliberate. Isaiah uses tola'ath as the image of sin that becomes white as snow. That was deliberate. The Author of creation embedded this creature in the created order and then embedded its name in the most precise Messianic psalm in the canon. The integrated design is real whether every detail of the popular devotional account is biologically precise or not. Scripture, King James Version: Psalms 22:6, "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people."; Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.".
• With Chuck SmithWas Jesus just a good teacher?Chuck Smith, Son of God or Son of Man, chapter 1: You know, there are a lot of people that try to say of Jesus that He was a great man, He was a great teacher, He was a marvelous philosopher, not so! If He was not the Son of God then He was the biggest phony that ever walked on the face of the earth. He is the greatest liar and the biggest hoax who as ever lived. You can’t just say He is a good man He has taught us a lot of good things because if He was not the Son of God then what He had to say is worthless. And rather than quoting His phrases we should be speaking of Him with hisses and derision. You can’t just put Jesus on a nice pedestal and say what a great guy. From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• With Chuck SmithWhat are the odds of Jesus fulfilling the messianic prophecies by chance?Chuck Smith, Answers for Today, chapter 23: Examining the records of these holy men of God, we find over 300 stipulations concerning the Messiah and what He would accomplish in His birth, life, death, and resurrection. It is fair to ask about the possibility of one person fulfilling all of the requirements by just “being in the right place at the right time.” There is a way to compute the chance factor of this occurring. The scientific “Law of Compound Probabilities” allows us to accurately calculate the chance of any prophesied event taking place. Each stipulation added to the prediction lessens the chance of the event’s occurrence, because the possibility of several details coinciding is more remote than the possibility of one event occurring alone. When 300 details are considered, the chance factor becomes astronomical. The probability figures are Peter Stoner's, from *Science Speaks*. From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWhat did Jesus mean when He said "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58)?Whosoever Will, The Name He Gave a Fugitive: Not “before Abraham was, I was.” That would only claim He is very old. He says “before Abraham was, I am.” The grammar breaks on purpose. He reaches back across fifteen centuries, past Abraham, and picks up the exact name spoken at the burning bush, and He puts it on His own lips in the present tense, because the One who spoke it has no past tense. Divinity is always now. The scholarship has a caveat worth stating: some argue the connection runs through the “I am he” of Isaiah rather than straight back to Exodus 3:14. It changes nothing, because in Isaiah “I am he” is God distinguishing Himself from every idol, another divine self-identification. Every road leads to the same place. And there is one witness whose testimony settles it beyond argument: the people standing there. Because the very next verse says, “Then took they up stones to cast at him.” They knew. Nobody picks up rocks over a grammar lesson. In that culture there was exactly one crime that got you stoned on the spot, and it was blasphemy, a man making himself God. They understood precisely what He had claimed. He had taken the unspeakable name, the name from the bush, the name that split the sea, and He had said it about Himself. They were not confused. They were either going to worship or kill, and they chose the stones. Scripture, King James Version: Exodus 3:14, "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."; John 8:58, "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.".
• Whosoever WillWhat does the stone over the tomb picture?The barrier man set up, and could not move, God rolled aside. The women knew they could not shift it, "for it was very great" (Mark 16:4). It is the gospel in one picture: the stone between us and life, rolled away from the outside, by a hand that was never shut in.
• Whosoever WillWhat is the "worm" in Psalm 22:6?In "I am a worm, and no man" (Psa 22:6), the word is tola'ath, the crimson grub whose crushed body gave the ancient world its scarlet dye. The Messiah of the cross names Himself not the lion of strength but the small creature that is crushed to yield crimson, "he was bruised for our iniquities" (Isa 53:5).
• With Chuck SmithWhat is the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?Chuck Smith, The Claims of Christ, chapter 1: In Acts 1:3 we read that Jesus showed Himself alive after His death by "many infallible proofs." The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is one of the most factually verifiable events in history. It is confirmed by the testimony of many eyewitnesses such as Mary, Peter, the other Apostles and more than five hundred people at one time. If there is any validity to our system of jurisprudence, which establishes fact on the basis of eyewitness testimony, then the resurrection must be accepted as fact. "But," you may argue, "there was no cross examination of the witnesses!" Are you certain of that? Let it be noted that the vast majority of these witnesses were violently killed for their testimony, and none recanted, though doing so could have spared their lives. (For more information see Foxe's Book of Martyrs) So many gave their lives for what they had seen and heard that the Greek word "martus" (which meant one who bore legal testimony) came to mean those who suffered death for the Christian witness. Scripture, King James Version: Acts 1:3, "To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:". From Chuck Smith's books, used by permission of The Word For Today.
• Whosoever WillWhere is Jesus in Psalm 22?Psalm 22 is the psalm of the cross. It describes a crucifixion in detail centuries before Rome made it a punishment: the cry Jesus spoke while dying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psa 22:1; Matt 27:46), pierced hands and feet, and soldiers casting lots for His clothing (Psa 22:16, 18). David never died this way. The King did.
• Whosoever WillWhere is the stone rolled away in the Bible?In all four Gospels. Matthew 28:2 tells how the angel rolled it back; Mark 16:3-4 gives the women's question and the stone already moved; Luke 24:2 and John 20:1 record that they found it gone. "And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great" (Mark 16:4).
• Whosoever WillWhere was Jesus between His death and resurrection? Did Jesus go to hell?His body was in the tomb; His spirit was with the Father. He told the thief, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). He did not suffer in hell to finish the atonement; that was finished on the cross.
• Whosoever WillWho was Melchizedek?Melchizedek was the king of Salem and "priest of the most high God" who blessed Abraham (Gen 14:18-20). Hebrews presents him as a type of Christ, "without father, without mother... made like unto the Son of God" (Heb 7:3), a priest-king whose order Christ fulfills.
• Whosoever WillWhy was the stone rolled away from the tomb?Not to let Jesus out, but to let His witnesses in. He had already risen, and that same evening He stood among His disciples behind shut doors (John 20:19). The stone was moved so the women could look in and see the tomb empty: "Come, see the place where the Lord lay" (Matthew 28:6).