Bibleburner said:
Hebrews 10 is Doctrinally pointed at Jews living in the time of Jacob's trouble. Read Hebrews 10 in context. And you should see that this is very clear.
It's not "clear" at all. What a silly thing to say.
The Word of God said:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10:19-22)
"Brothers"? Are unbelieving Jews in the future the brethren of the Christian author of this book? Do unbelieving Jews have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus? Is he their great priest? Can they, in their unbelief, have full assurance of faith? Is their heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience?
By no means!
The infallible Scripture said:
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
N.B.: "our" hope. Christians and unbelievers do not share the same hope, the promise of resurrection and eternal life. Christ made no such promise to unbelievers, Jewish or otherwise.
The letter to the Hebrews was not written to futuristic Jews. They have no hope in Christ. It was written to Hebrews who had placed their faith in the work of Christ their Messiah, who were undergoing persecution in the here and now, and needed the encouragement of this letter to stay strong in the faith.
Now we can answer
this question:
Bible-Destroying Nazi Catholic Boy Wannabe said:
Scott, where does the Lord Jesus Christ ever command His disciples to "join with a church assembly?"
It comes in the immediate next verse:
The Holy Bible said:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
The Hebrew Christians of the first century could be confident of their ability to enter the holy places, since he had made a way for them through the shedding of his blood, since they had a superior high priest who interceded for them before their heavenly Father, since they had been washed clean of their sins, since they could hold to their confession of the faith. Therefore, the author instructs them to do two further things:
First, to encourage one another to meet together. He also instructs them not to follow the habit of those who had given up assembling with their fellow Christians. In light of the present persecution they were experiencing,
and in light of the pending Day of the Lord, it was all the more important for them to gather, to pray for one another, and to encourage one another to stay strong. In fact this is a pattern we see frequently in the book of Acts: in the earliest days of the church, when they felt the persecution of the Jewish leaders, the Hebrew Christians gathered together and prayed, even as the apostles were being led of to jail or even death.
Second, he tells them to encourage one another to love and good works. Paul speaks more at length about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, where he teaches that they are to be exercised in the body, that is, the visible church. An amputated limb cannot function without the body, and a schismatic "Christian" cannot serve God effectively without the church.
Bibleburner, you can try to tell us that this is not a teaching of Jesus, but by doing so all you prove is your own unbelief, by denigrating the integrity of Scripture. The book of Hebrews, if not written by Paul himself, was written by one of his close associates; the theology is unmistakeably Pauline. Paul was one of Jesus' hand-picked messengers to spread the gospel after his ascension. Those who write the Scripture, therefore, have the Christ-given authority to instruct the church as well as to interpret Jesus' own teachings. Moreover, all Scripture is God-breathed and its authors pen the very words of God as given to them by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). Therefore, to say that Jesus' teaching is authoritative, but the author of Hebrews' is not, is to pit Christ against his own Holy Spirit. Again, this is a denigration of the unity of the Godhead, and a symptom of rank unbelief.
