Mount Zion

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 15: Assembly of the Firstborn: Hebrews 12:23.

Mount Zion

The writer of Hebrews contrasts Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. God descends in a thick cloud on Mount Sinai and delivers the Law to the Israelites (Exod. 19ff). In many respects, it’s a terrifying time:

For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them, for they could not bear what was commanded: If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. (Heb. 12:18-21; cf. Exod. 19:12; Deut. 9:19). 

Mount Zion, however, stands in stark contrast to Mount Sinai. It beckons the believer and promises great blessings. While Sinai is restricted to Moses and a few others, Zion is the scene of angelic and human worshipers, basking in the glory of the triune God. While death threatens those who touch Sinai, eternal life adorns the inhabitants of Zion. And while even God’s chosen leader – Moses, who is a type of Christ – is terrified as he approaches Sinai, followers of Jesus are reminded that we should not be afraid (e.g., Matt. 10:26-31; Mark 5:36; Luke 5:10; 12:32; John 6:20; 14:27). 

Continue reading →

Parable of the Wedding Banquet

This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon. 

In the previous post, we looked at how an ancient Jewish wedding foreshadows the return of Christ for his bride. But not everyone enjoys the marriage supper of the Lamb, as Jesus illustrates in the parable of the wedding banquet:

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.

“Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:1-14).

Continue reading →

Jesus as the Firstborn

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 15: Assembly of the Firstborn: Hebrews 12:23.

The writer of Hebrews points his readers to “the assembly of the firstborn” (12:23). The word “firstborn” (Greek: prototokos) is used in a variety of ways in Scripture. Usually, “firstborn” means the first male child born into a family, but the word can be used in other ways. It may denote rank, position, or prominence. King David, for example, who is the last in his family’s birth order, is called “firstborn, greatest of the kings of the earth” (Ps. 89:27).

The same is true for the nation of Israel. The Israelites are not the first people group to populate a region of the earth. Even so, the Lord commands Moses to tell Pharaoh that “Israel is my firstborn son” (Exod. 4:22). That is, God established the Israelites as a special people for whom the Promised Land is prepared.

When it comes to Jesus, the Greek word prototokos never is used to describe his origin, as if he’s a created being; after all, he’s the uncreated creator of all (John 1:1-3). Nor is “firstborn” used to depict Jesus in purely human terms, for he has no earthly father. In every case, the New Testament writers depict Jesus as first in rank, position, or prominence. We see this every time in Scripture he’s declared to be the firstborn. 

Continue reading →

Our Marriage to Christ

This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon. 

Heaven is not our final home; it’s the intermediate state between physical death and future glorification, which is pictured in the third and final act of ancient Jewish wedding ceremonies.

Nissuin

We’ve examined the shiddukhin, or marriage contract, and the erusin, or engagement. Now, we come to the nissuin, or marriage. This Hebrew word is derived from naso, which means to lift up. At this time, there’s great fanfare as the groom fetches his bride and escorts her to his father’s house. The couple again enters the huppah, recites a blessing over a cup of wine – a symbol of joy – and finalizes their vows. 

At last, after a year of separation, the husband and wife enter the bridal chamber and consummate their marriage. A friend of the groom waits outside until he’s informed that the new couple has engaged in marital relations for the first time. The friend announces this to the guests and, with resounding joy, the marriage feast begins. Often, the celebration lasts for days, as we see in the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performs his first miracle (John 2:1-11).

Continue reading →

Assembly of the Firstborn: Hebrews 12:23

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 15: Assembly of the Firstborn: Hebrews 12:23.

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:22-24).

On February 16, 1832, Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, claimed the Lord gave him a series of visions revealing that the “many mansions” to which Jesus refers in John 14:2 – “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (KJV) – are divided into three general categories: the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms.

More than a decade later, Smith revealed additional detail: “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees.” In other words, in the celestial, or highest, kingdom, faithful Mormons may aspire to one of three levels of glory. 

From these visions, the LDS Church draws its doctrine of the “Church of the Firstborn.” The highest level of the celestial kingdom is reserved for those who “gain exaltation,” or godhood, by keeping all the commandments of the Lord. As Joseph Fielding Smith, sixth president of the church and nephew of its founder, wrote, “There will be many who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who shall never become members of the Church of the Firstborn.”

Continue reading →