Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
I was born in a village at the granite coast of northern Bohuslän in Sweden. During the late 1930’s, the Third Reich had placed large orders of granite stone to be delivered to Germany to make large monuments as a tribute to the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler after he had won the war and established the thousand year Third Reich. Even 1950 the stones were not delivered, neither was the war won.
And so began the indoctrination into Hitlerjugend.
But Hitler was by no means alone. Many build monuments to themselves while still alive.
And many come from a more humble beginning. This is a picture of Plains, Georgia, the home town of President Jimmy Carter. It used to be called Plain of Dura, but after the railroad was built the name was shorted to Plains.
Back to the Bible. 
And all the people obeyed, except Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
The text of Daniel has been in Hebrew from chapter 1, but now in verse 20 it switches to Aramaic, and it does not switch back to Hebrew until chapter 7. That is why the three Hebrews are called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from now on, but Daniel is still called Daniel.
The Apostle Peter is referred to as the rock “Petros” from the time of his confession. Matt 16:16 and Simon Peter answering said, `Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answering said to him, `Happy art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal [it] to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens. 18 `And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock (Petros), and upon this rock (Petra) I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it; 19 and I will give to thee the keys of the reign of the heavens, and whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens.’
Roman Catholics take this verse to mean that Peter is the head of the church, protestants take this verse to point out that it is the confession and the faithful execution of commands according to the heavenly directions given Christ’s followers.
Peter himself seems to indicate the later in 1 Peter: 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”[d]
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Here is a broken replica of the great image.
The “Einstein test” (maybe not from Einstein himself) simply states that for a prophesy to be proven it has to be written down before the event happened, and that the prophet could in no way himself make the prophesy to be fulfilled.
And now to the book of Daniel.
They submitted to new names, but when it came to food they resisted.
You guessed it. This has led to a new fad: “The Daniel diet” consisting of only vegetables, or vegetables and grain, meatless diets or even vegan diets, but they all miss the point. The four young men decided to obey God and only eat kosher food rather than the pagan delicacies, and not drink wine, but trust God and drink their water. This act of obedience is what God honored.
Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Psalm 118:6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? 7 The Lord taketh my part with them that help me: therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
Conclusion: The holy spirit wrote the letter to the Hebrews through one or more of His servants well versed in the Greek language.
Proverbs 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: 12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. (KJV)
Again, the new covenant is mentioned.
This is the fifth and final warning in Hebrews. Let us review them:
It always helps with a song to wake up to in the morning.
This warning is real and echoes the words of Jesus
It is the confession that is the key to building the church.
In this chapter we got four more “let us” to encourage and admonish us.
This chapter has a special meaning to me since I am an immigrant. Yet I realize I am a pilgrim and heaven is my real home.
We can prove from the laws of physics (the preservation of energy and matter but with a constantly increasing entropy) that we cannot possibly exist apart from creation. Yet creation from God’s command must be accepted by faith.
Abel sacrificed the firstfruit of his flock, which pointed forward to Jesus being the lamb of God, giving his life for us.
In the upper hand corner is a piece of the book of Enoch, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Abraham’s journey was a two step journey. He went to Haran and dwelt there until his father died.
But Abraham also went to Egypt when famine struck the promised land.
This is what it means to be a pilgrim. The Jews had been scattered all over the earth ever since the fall of Israel. They were looking for a homeland to return to.
In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the United Kingdom became the first world power to endorse the establishment in Palestine of a “national home for the Jewish people.” The British government confirmed this commitment by accepting the British Mandate for Palestine in 1922 (along with their colonial control of the Pirate Coast, Southern Coast of Persia, Iraq and from 1922 a separate area called Transjordan, all of the Middle-Eastern territory except the French territory). The European powers mandated the creation of a Jewish homeland at the San Remo conference of 19–26 April 1920. In 1948, the State of Israel was established.
And so began the prophetic clock to tick again for the Jewish People.
She is called Rahab the prostitute. An alternate translation would be Rahab the innkeeper, for she was an independent woman that kept an inn.
Yes, thanks to Jesus death on the cross for our sins, his burial and resurrection we have the privilege to be allowed to enter His rest.
This chapter of the letter to the Hebrews was instrumental in solidifying my faith after salvation. It got a little lengthy, but enjoy!
“a body you prepared for me” is from the Septuagint, “but my ears you have pierced” is from the Hebrew Psalm. When a servant wilfully gave himself away to serve his master, the master pieced his ear to show voluntary bondage.
Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Let us take a look at the theology of covenants, this ties in naturally with this letter.
According to dispensation theology there are ten major covenants in Scripture.
Covenant theology has simplified all the covenants into just three
Dispensation theology emphasizes God manifests himself differently in the different dispensations, and yet He is the same God yesterday, today and forever.
We are now at the dispensation of grace, commonly known as the Church Age.
We go back a few verses in Hebrews 10
Jesus closed the scroll after “to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD“, stopped mid sentence and did not read the end of the verse “and the day of vengeance of our God”
This gap defines the time of grace!
To determine which of these options is the right one, I turned to
To know which of these dates is true it would help to know when Jesus was born.
Enter
Dionysius set the birth of Jesus Christ to Dec 25, 1 BC, and the death at 33 Anno Domine, the only year according to the lunar calendar that made Good Friday occur on a Friday. ( check https://lenbilen.com/2017/04/14/when-was-the-crucifixion-of-jesus/ ) He was only off by a few years. The dates are now set to:
But it is getting even more complicated. Without vowel marks the word for seven can have three meanings dependent on how it is pronounced.
That’s when it hit me.
I had fallen into the same trap as so many before me. We live in the age of grace!
The word for today is “today”.
Now back to where we left off in Hebrews 10.
Bur the book of Hebrews also comes with warnings!
Here I am borrowing from a slide series from somebody else. I can no longer find the source, but thanks, whoever it was.
Knowledge of the truth is not what saves you.
A fortiori simply means that the argument in verse 29 is much stronger than the one in verse 28
And then there is
This then excludes option 1
Between option 2 and 3: God be the judge.
Verse 38 convinced me I had to be baptized in a believers baptism, even though I had been baptized as an infant. It really had nothing to do with salvation, that was settled at the time of belief. It was an act of faith and obedience to remain in close fellowship with God. And my living hope is that God will keep His promise, He will keep me eternally secure even if I lose my mind, which still may happen late in this life, but will be fully restored in the life to come.
Footnote on Joseph’s genealogy: According to Jeremiah 36:30 Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
Although Joseph was of the kingly line and a rightful owner of the throne of David, defunct since the captivity in Babylon, (Israel was never independent after that) this problem was solved. Jesus was adopted.
Abraham did not offer in the tabernacle or in the temple, he offered up his son, Isaac on Mount Moriah, which according to legion is where now the Dome of the Rock stands as a shrine.
There is great controversy on where the temple once stood, but it is probably near the El Kos Fountain, and would partly overlap the El Aksa Mosque.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 