Thursday 16 January 2014

What 'Forever' Sometimes Means

Sometimes when the Bible says "forever" it didn't literally mean forever.

For example, the animal sacrifices. They were to happen forever in Jerusalem. They did happen right up until the time the Temple ceased to exist in Jerusalem. But they can't happen anymore, and it was never God's intention for them to keep happening beyond the New Covenant. So forever didn't literally mean forever.

Another example is the feasts. They were to happen forever in Israel. But it's impossible to keep the feasts too, seeing the Temple no longer exists in Jerusalem. It's possible to do something on the same dates of course. But that isn't the feast. Jesus transformed the passover feast into the New Covenant in His blood at the cross. Same with the other feasts. So forever didn't literally mean forever.

Another example is God's promise to settle the Jews in their land forever. The promise was fulfilled when they returned from captivity in Babylon. But the Jews were again removed from their land, beginning around AD70. And even though a State called Israel was formed in 1948, depending on one's end-time view, it may be God's plan for this present earth to pass away and to create new heavens and a new earth - so the modern State of Israel may not literally last forever either.

So 'forever' doesn't always literally mean forever, in the Bible. The only way to know how long 'forever' was intended to be, is to look at the teaching of the rest of the Bible in regard to the topic in question.

'Forever' meant for as long as the covenant and terms which dictated it still stood. 

With regard to practices under the Old Covenant, the teaching of the New Testament is quite clear: we are free from it. We're saved by grace.

That means we don't have to expect that forms of Judaism must again be practised in the modern State of Israel, nor by Christians.

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