OLD THINGS AND NEW

In Matthew 13:52 we find a rather enigmatic saying of Jesus - "Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder who brings out of his treasure old things and new." What does this mean? It comes at the very end of a chapter devoted to "Parables of the Kingdom" - The Sower and the Seed, The Wheat and the Tares, The Mustard Seed, The Pearl of Great Price, and The Dragnet.

Jesus did not abolish the Old Testament Law or the teaching of the Prophets; rather, He fulfilled them (Matthew 5:17). The Apostle Paul was well-versed in the Torah, he was "a Pharisee of the Pharisees." He was able to apply many of the stories and teachings of the Old Testament to the new era of the Gospel of Christ. Thank the Lord that we also have many great Church Fathers who can show us how to correctly apply the Old Testament teachings to the Christian era:

Origen wrote that such a scribe "has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven, in every word of the Old Testament and in all knowledge concerning the new teaching of Christ Jesus. He has these riches laid up in his own treasure house — in heaven, in which he stores his treasure as one who has been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven. There neither moth consumes nor thieves break through and steal."

Cyril of Alexandria also explained this verse in a similar way: "A scribe is one who, through continual reading of the Old and New Testaments, has laid up for himself a storehouse of knowledge. Thus Christ blesses those who have gathered in themselves the education both of the law and of the gospel, so as to 'bring forth from their treasure things both new and old.'”

Gregory the Great, however, understood it as the summary of all these Kingdom Parables: "It was the old fate of the human race to descend into the gates of hell to suffer eternal punishment for its sins. But something was changed by the coming of the Mediator. If a person really desired to live uprightly here, one could attain to the kingdom of heaven and, even though earth-born, can depart from this perishable life and be given a place in heaven. The old fate was such that by way of punishment humankind could perish in eternal punishment. The new fate was such that, having been converted, humankind could live in the kingdom.

"And so we see that the Lord concluded his discourse as he began it. First he likened the treasure discovered in a field and the pearl of great value to the kingdom. Then he spoke of the punishments of the lower world and the burning of the wicked. Then he added in conclusion: 'So then, every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings forth from his storeroom things new and old.' It was as though he had said, 'That person is a learned preacher in the holy church who knows both how to bring forth new things about the delights of the kingdom and to speak old things about the terror of chastisement, so that punishments may fill with dread those not induced by rewards.'” (Forty Gospel Homilies)

It is certainly true that a "scribe who is a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven," a follower of Christ who studies and teaches the Holy Scriptures, must delve into the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. The Old Testament tells how the Lord God prepared a special people and a special revelation, the Law of Moses, to make the way ready for the coming Messiah. Although much of Old Testament teaching has been modified by the New Testament, the Old contains many, many sound principles for organization of society that we still practice today, and some we've discarded that we need to restore.

The Apostle Paul compared the Old Testament to the veil that the Israelites asked Moses to put on when he came down from receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai - "to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor. 3:15-16). Thus we see he understood much of the Old Testament allegorically. As St. Paul wrote - "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). We have here a clean break between the Old and the New Testaments.

We have new life in Christ: this is the Pearl of Great Price. But at the same time we have great treasures of "both old things and new," both things in the Old Testament that need to be rightly understood in the light of the Gospel, as well as entirely new things revealed in the New Testament: God as our loving heavenly Father, Jesus the Messiah as the Son of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds from God the Father. These were only vaguely hinted at in the Old Testament, but clearly made manifest in the New. We need to become "scribes of the Kingdom" by studying the rich treasures of the Church Fathers, discovering "both old things and new."

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 23 Jan. 2016.)

DOES GOD GIVE US A SECOND CHANCE?

The famous author C. S. Lewis once wrote - "At the final Judgment there will be just two kinds of people: those who said to God, 'Your will be done'; and those to whom God says, 'May your will be done.'" How many, many people there are who have heard the Gospel but think they can outsmart God, they can do whatever their stubborn, self-indulgent will decides, and then at the point in life when they no longer are driven by the passions of lust, gluttony, laziness, hate, etc., they can repent "at a more convenient time" and just barely squeak into heaven.

Does God give a "Second Chance" to such people? What about those who have never heard the Gospel? Is there a "Second Chance" for them after they die? Or is life just one big lottery, with just a few destined to win big, and the rest destined to lose the little they've wagered, even though they had hoped and believed they would win the bet? Tens of millions of people buy PowerBall tickets, firmly believing they will be the big winner. Fate or Freedom? The age-old question of predestination versus free will, with all its twists and turns, comes into play here.

Many people believe in predestination, especially if they believe they're among the "winners" who have "made a decision for Christ" and thus have eternal security - guaranteed eternal life that can never be taken away from them, all without ever paying for a ticket. It's sort of like winning the Publisher's Clearing House "Forever" Prize of $10,000 a week for as long as you live (which is not quite forever!). You have a greater chance of being hit by a meteor than of winning the sweepstakes. Of course, you'd never believe that you'll be struck by a meteor, so why believe that you'll win such a cosmic lottery?

But how many, many people have deceived themselves, fully believing they are saved forever just because they said the sinner's prayer, or were baptized, or take communion once or twice a year ...but later on in life they yielded to the passions and denied Christ? Predestinationists would say that such people were never truly saved in the first place. But that "true believer" was certain he was saved ...until he renounced his faith! Only God knows who are predestined to be saved: as for us finite human beings, we must live with our free will to choose to believe in Christ and follow Him for the rest of our lives. We've all heard of or even known first-hand great evangelists, missionaries and pastors who fell into grievous sin and denied their former faith. Will they get a "Second Chance" in eternity?

From the earliest times in Christianity, from the Apostles and their immediate successors the Apostolic Fathers and onward, we have the teaching that immediately after Christ died on the Cross, He descended into Hades and preached to all those in the realm of the dead. St. Peter wrote -

"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you - not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:18-21).

And in 1 Peter 4:6 we read - "For to this end was the Gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit." St. Paul wrote - "Now this, 'He ascended,' what is it but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?" (Eph. 4:9). And again - "Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?" (1 Cor. 15:55), and "'Who will descend into the abyss?' - that is, to bring Christ up from the dead." (Rom. 10:7), "...having stripped the principalities and the powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:15). So there is ample New Testament written teaching, as well as oral teaching passed on by the Apostles to their successors, that Christ triumphed over Hades and Satan by descending into the realm of the dead and breaking asunder the chains and bars on the gates of hell that held them captive.

But in the west St. Augustine and John Calvin were perhaps the strongest proponents of predestination: eternal security for true believers, and eternal damnation for the unfortunate souls who maybe lived good lives but never heard the Gospel, or those innocents who died in infancy without being baptized in the Church. This has given rise to much rejection of Christianity or even outright atheism: "How could a loving God be so cruel as to damn to hell people, even innocent babies and right-living folks, who've never had a chance to hear the Gospel?"

What about those atheists like Stephen Hawking who may be embittered against God and reject Him because of terrible illness or injuries in their own lives? It has also given rise to the notion that because a totally sovereign god, such as Allah the god of Islam, predestines everything, then those who are that god's true believers must necessarily be doing their god's will, and thus everything they do - including mass murder, adultery, thievery and lying - is righteous because it is their god's will: whatever such a believer thinks or does is morally good. The same mentality exists with totalitarian ideologies such as communism and fascism: what the Party dictates is necessarily true and right. No! The ancient Church's doctrine of Christ's descent into Hades is the answer to all these totalitarian ideas and moral dilemmas.

The doctrine that Christ preached the Gospel even to the dead means that every human soul, including those innocent babies, people who never heard the Gospel, and those who were given only a distorted view of the Christian faith by a hate-filled judgmental person or a priest or pastor who turned out to be a sexual predator - all will have an opportunity to hear the pure Gospel preached by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Those souls who repent and gladly receive the truth will be taken to Paradise, including the Old Testament prophets and saints, as well as the righteous Gentiles - all who ever lived or ever will live will be given this opportunity. But those who, while living on earth, deliberately rejected the true Gospel and aligned themselves with Satan will continue to be with Satan for all eternity.

This is not "strong universalism" - the false teaching that all humanity will eventually be saved just because God loves everyone. Yes, it is God's will that "all men be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4), but some will continue to reject Christ due to their completely hardened hearts. There is an unforgivable sin - "whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark 3:29). And in Heb. 6:4-6 we read - "For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance; seeing they crucify the Son of God for themselves again, and put him to open shame." We must never think that we can deny the Lord, dance with the Devil, and not get burned!

So we call Christ's preaching to the souls in Hades a "weak universalism" - the Apostolic teaching that all mankind, the living and the dead, will clearly hear the Gospel of Christ and have an opportunity to repent, believe in Him, and be saved. We must never let this teaching lead to a lack of urgency to evangelize, or to not encourage believers to remain firm in their faith and their growth in the virtues that lead to holiness and theosis - becoming transformed into the likeness of the glorified Christ. Genuine faith is full commitment: "we commend ourselves and one another and all our lives to Christ our God," as we repeat several times in every Divine Liturgy service. "Commend" is another way of saying "commit." The Greek word for "believe" or "have faith" is pisteuo, which includes the idea of committing oneself to Christ, to live according to what we profess to believe. This leaves no room for those who claim to believe but think they can outsmart God and "continue to sin, that grace may abound. God forbid! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?" - wrote the Apostle Paul (Rom. 6:1-2).

Once we have heard the clear preaching of the Gospel, we can never hide behind the excuse - "God's not fair, He can't condemn those who have never heard!" No, that is a moot point for you who have heard the Gospel, as well as for all those dead who had heard or will have heard the Gospel from Christ's own lips. The atheist can no longer use this as an excuse for rejecting the existence of a supposedly "unjust" God. For "whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom. 10:11) - both the living and the dead. Thus there is a very limited "Second Chance"!

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 09 Jan. 2016.)