Saved Without A Pastor??

[Tithesmeister]

Originally Posted by Apostolic1ness

Great post. I am now on a cell phone so I'll keep it simple.

I agree with all that you said, however there is still a few questions in my mind.

1. What "faith" is to followed according to HEB 3:7? I believe the answer to who "rules" is in the answer to who's faith.

2. Do you believe the rest of the new testament scriptures compliments and supports the idea that it would be Ok for an Elder or Apostle to admonish Jewish/Hebrew believers to follow the faith of the rulers if they were maintaining the ordinances of the law?

I’m not sure I understand exactly what you are asking in question one so I’m going to try to answer but it may not be what you are looking for. I believe the author (I would say Paul, but I’m not sure Paul wrote Hebrews) is not saying follow their faith, but possibly saying model your faith after theirs. In other words, have faith like they had faith. I don’t believe this is referring to following the law, or following their doctrine, because that would conflict with the message of Hebrews otherwise.

I think the faith that we follow mentioned in verse seven, may be connected to the faith discussion that took place in chapter eleven, which produced the “great cloud of witnesses” in chapter twelve.

I’m not sure this answers your question, then again I don’t claim to have all the answers anyway. There is another question that would really help in understanding all of this if it could be answered decisively.

Are these that rule over the Hebrews living or are they dead (patriarchs) or are they both current and former rulers? Some of the language seems to indicate that they have already passed on. I think that it could be both.

On question two: My short answer is no. I don’t believe the balance of the NT doctrine supports that the elders should encourage the believers to follow the law. Notwithstanding, they (the Jewish/Christians) WERE following the law, regardless if we think it’s okay or not. The church of Jerusalem followed the law zealously for many years, I believe until the destruction of the temple in 70AD. I think the temple possibly had to be destroyed and not only to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus, but also to finally wean Christian Jews from following the law. It is difficult (really impossible) to follow Jewish law without the temple that is central to so much of the tradition.