{"id":4488,"date":"2016-10-09T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4488"},"modified":"2016-09-30T14:38:41","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T18:38:41","slug":"gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-the-new-testament-20161009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4488","title":{"rendered":"Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament — 20161009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jesusbridegroom\"<\/a>In the last issue of the article, I introduced the Eastern Church\u2019s idea of Theoria <\/em>with regard to the Bible. It basically states that the New Testament Scriptures are meant to draw us into a personal relationship with God through the Person of Jesus, the Christ. And although theoria <\/em>demands that Scripture\u2019s literal and historical meanings be respected, its foremost aim is to disclose the Bible\u2019s spiritual meaning. For example, it would see Christ and His kingdom as the central message of both the Old and New Testaments. And if Christ the Messiah is indeed that revelation promised in the Old Testament, theoria <\/em>maintains that the Old Testament could only be properly interpreted by those who have received <\/em>this revelation (i.e., the Christian Church). Thus, according to the Eastern Christian, \u201cthe Old Testament no longer belonged to the Jews\u2026 [nor could anyone] any longer claim Moses and the prophets, if he was not with Jesus the Christ.<\/p>\n

The literal meaning of Scripture alone can never achieve this spiritual end. If the Bible\u2019s meaning were limited to what the Old Testament authors understood by their writings, many today would miss the Messianic significance of the Old Testament prophecies. Jesus, however, did not come primarily to \u201cexplain\u201d the Old Testament to us but to fulfill <\/em>it. And His fulfillment gives us an interpretative vision of the Old Covenant, teaching us not just the Bible\u2019s \u201cword for word\u201d meaning, but the true spiritual <\/em>meaning of the Word of God.<\/p>\n

When for instance, we, in the Church, identify the Suffering Servant (in the book of Isaiah) as Christ the crucified, we do not simply \u201capply\u201d an Old Testatment vision to a New Testament event: we detect the meaning of the vision itself, although this meaning surely couldn\u2019t have been clearly identified in the time preceding Christ. Only the Church could unambiguously discern in the \u201ctype\u201d of the \u201csuffering servant\u201d Christ, the Redeemer of men. In the Old Testament we had a \u201cshadow\u201d or image now, in the New Testament, we have the very fact and fulfillment.<\/p>\n

These Old Testament types <\/em>(the historic events, places, objects or people which point to Christ\u2019s coming) were discerned by the Church as a \u201cforetaste\u201d of the New Covenant promise. The Body of Christ alone can interpret these types because, in Christ, <\/em>she alone has literally experienced <\/em>their fulfillment. Only those in Christ <\/em>can understand the significance of these passages. Why? Because they relate to Christ <\/em>– and to them as <\/em>members of His body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last issue of the article, I introduced the Eastern Church\u2019s idea of Theoria with regard to the Bible. It basically states that the New Testament Scriptures are meant to draw us into a personal relationship with God through … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-look-at-the-new-testament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4489,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4488\/revisions\/4489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}