The Book of Hebrews

[0:00] Well, one good turn deserves another. I think it's quite remarkable to think that our illustrious leader predicted that this topic would be on the first Sunday in Lent.

[0:12] She obviously has a profound grasp of what I'm going to say. According to F.F. Bruce, whose commentary on Hebrews I found most helpful, Hebrews is a book that modern man finds difficult to appreciate.

[0:33] It happens to be my favorite book in the Bible. This confirms what many of you have suspected. I am indeed not a modern man. Members of our Bible study group, which is hosted by Sheila Westberg, sitting close to the front, have all made comments that have enhanced my appreciation of this extraordinary book.

[1:04] And the fact that it is often perceived as difficult is a source of great loss for the contemporary church. Every Sunday at the communion service, we say the prayer of consecration from the Canadian Book of Common Prayer.

[1:23] It goes like this, for those of you who haven't experienced communion recently. blessing and glory and thanksgiving be unto thee, almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son, Jesus Christ, to take our nature upon him and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption, who made there by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and did institute and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memorial of that his precious death until his coming again.

[2:12] Well, most of you know this by heart, I'm sure. But where did those words come from? Well, they came from all over the place. But, most intensely and most forcefully in the Book of Hebrews, I suggest.

[2:29] And I'll try to demonstrate that in a few moments. But before we do that, let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to thee, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

[2:56] Amen. Amen. So, here we have it, the whole of the Book of Hebrews, which I'm going to just look at in three points and a conclusion.

[3:13] First of all, the story of the Book of Hebrews. Secondly, its uniqueness. Thirdly, the way in which it structures itself.

[3:27] I should rather say the way in which the Holy Spirit structures it is as a series of warnings and a series of sections that deal with affirmation of who Jesus is and what his work for us means.

[3:45] And then it ends in chapter 13 with a collect. It's exactly the same structure as the collects that we know in the BCP and the sharing of the grace.

[3:56] So, the structure of the of the book is like that. Five warnings, five affirmations, a collect and sharing of the grace. And finally, a conclusion.

[4:10] So, if you can't read it, I shall repeat these points as we go. I emphasized when it was announced last week that this was going to be about the book of Hebrews, not about the letter or the epistle to the Hebrews.

[4:32] I owe this insight to William Lane who has written a light, accessible commentary on Hebrews who points out that this particular book has no greeting, it has no introductory address to any particular church and that it really is a sermon, a sermon to a church which is in danger of backsliding and going back into its Judaic origins.

[5:12] So, the purpose of the book is to warn this backsliding church what the implications are of their backsliding.

[5:25] It doesn't do as Paul does to the Galatians say, oh, you foolish Galatians, you really are a bunch of foolish people, I won't say anything more.

[5:40] You have seen the wonders of coming into the freedom of the gospel and now you're wanting to go back into ritual and works from which you have escaped.

[5:56] No, the author of the Hebrews, and note I'm not declaring my position on who wrote the book of Hebrews. I believe that it is God breathed, that it is from the Holy Spirit, and that to worry about the authorship is a complete waste of time.

[6:17] Many, many distinguished and spiritual people have discussed this over the years and all have come to different conclusions. Well, not all, but a few have agreed.

[6:28] It's not made explicit and it's not apparent from the evidence. Basically, it's the best example that I know of a passage that is, or a book, that is God breathed.

[6:44] It's God breathed, which we understand the whole of the Bible is, but some passages speak more evidently than others. It seems to me that this is an example for those who are scholars in the area.

[6:59] This is Theoproustos at its best. It is God breathed, and we don't have to worry about who wrote it. The uniqueness, well, let me just say a few more things about the story here, that the interesting strategy that the author uses, alternating warnings with affirmations, is that it really majors on the affirmations.

[7:34] The warnings are contained as a maximum of three or four verses, the affirmations of the wonders of Jesus and of the uniqueness of his work and the uniqueness of the faith into which he has adopted us is by far the major part of the book.

[8:00] And that is what makes it so attractive, not only to me, but presumably also to the Hebrews, the Christian Hebrews who heard it.

[8:15] So the whole emphasis is not on telling people off for backsliding, as it tends to be in Galatians, but the emphasis is on considering Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

[8:41] And the detailed discussion of what this means is contained in chapters long sections by contrast with the warnings. I don't mean to say that the warnings are unimportant, don't misunderstand me.

[8:55] The purpose of the book itself is to get these people to sit up and shake themselves and and realize where they're going wrong. But the strategy is to point to Jesus.

[9:08] In every respect, in every one of the chapters, contains this focus. And I just am thrilled by this book, because I don't find any other book, including the Gospels, in which Jesus is so interpreted and so central to the whole message.

[9:30] Now I'm not wanting to tell you that you have to have this book as your favorite book of the Bible. We all know that people have come unstuck in making that sort of recommendation.

[9:44] I'm sorry that Jim Packer isn't here today, but I well remember his statement that Ecclesiastes is his favorite book in the Bible. Well, that's Jim Packer's perspective.

[9:57] He's honored in so many other ways. but really Hebrews, I think, is a better candidate. So the story is simply this.

[10:16] Here is a sermon. Here's the most gracious sermon and the most focused sermon on the beauty and the effectiveness of the work of Christ that you'll find anywhere.

[10:31] So our Bible study group was just thrilled by this, and we had a wonderful time. And as I've said before, I regard you as the board of directors here.

[10:42] We, as a Bible study group, have to report back to the board of directors what we've been doing. And if you feel that what you've concluded is wrong, then of course we have to take note.

[10:53] But this is a kind of obligation I think we have as Bible study groups to share these observations, these insights, which we believe to be, at least in part, the work of the Holy Spirit with the community at large.

[11:10] And you, sisters and brothers, are those who should affirm or critique this finding. So the story is one of extolling the virtues of Jesus Christ.

[11:32] There are seven ways in which he is extolled in the very first four verses of the book. And we'll come to that in a moment.

[11:48] So our conclusion is that this is indeed a sermon and not a letter and not a lot hangs on that, but basically the sermon is something that we should take seriously.

[12:01] Not to suggest that we are all backsliding, but the tendency for us all to backslide is surely with us from time to time, and fortunately not all the time, that we have to think seriously about that and the issue then is what we do, which is to focus our eyes upon Jesus.

[12:29] Hebrews is unique in at least two respects. One is, as mentioned, that is focused centrally, comprehensively, and exclusively on the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

[12:50] A second unique aspect of the book is that it has a bridging function. Now, we remember that the Gospel of Matthew has a very clear bridging function.

[13:02] The Gospel of John, through its prologue, has a very strong bridging function between Old and New Testament. But the bridging function in Hebrews is kind of woven through every chapter so that you are at every point referred to the Old Testament precedent for what Jesus did and was and is.

[13:33] The author of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as creator, upholder of the universe, redeemer, savior, mediator, intercessor, high priest, king, founder and perfecter of our faith, sinless man for a little while made lower than the angels, shepherd, yes, shepherd is in Hebrews 2, son of God, the second person of the Trinity.

[14:14] Every one of these titles expresses an affirmation of who Jesus is. This uniqueness, or these two uniquenesses, focus on Jesus and the bridging function, seem to me to be the most important contextual comment that we can make about the book.

[14:40] And it makes this idea that this is not for modern man quite ridiculous. Modern man and even modern woman needs this.

[14:56] Glad to see people smiling. it's really an aspect of our laziness in not wishing to come to grips with the context of the Old Testament and how it relates to the New Testament, which causes people to have difficulty with it.

[15:20] Now, the reason that you have Bibles in front of you, is to make sure that I am correctly quoting from the Bible.

[15:40] And as you know, one of the corners of the quadrilateral for learners exchange is Bible study. And this one comes closest to being such an example.

[15:51] Thank you. What I'd like to do, and this may be a little onerous, but I'd like to go section by section and point first of all to the warnings and then major on the affirmations.

[16:11] Warning number one is found in chapter two, verses one to four, and it's a warning against neglecting salvation. Therefore, we must pay the closest attention to what we have heard.

[16:31] This is chapter two, verses one to four. The second warning is a warning against failure to enter into God's rest, which is chapter four, verse seven.

[16:44] And today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. The third warning is found in chapters five and six, a warning against apostasy.

[17:01] You have become sluggish in your hearing. Well, he didn't say foolish Galatians, but he did say become sluggish in your hearing to the Hebrews.

[17:11] You have come to require milk instead of solid food. It is impossible to renew again to repentance those who have once been enlightened. so that's actually a chapter five verse eleven and six verse four together as that third warning.

[17:30] The fourth one we will find possibly is a warning against deliberately carrying on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

[17:45] It's in chapter ten verse thirty one. one. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And finally, warning number five is against regarding lightly the discipline of the Lord and the danger of a root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble, which is in chapter twelve and verse fifteen.

[18:12] so what I'm suggesting is that the book hangs on these five warnings and that the elaboration that goes before each of these warnings essentially is an affirmation of who Jesus is.

[18:30] So if you are you well I'll just mention each of them again. Warning one number one against neglecting salvation, chapter two. Warning against failure to enter into God's rest, chapter four verse seven.

[18:47] Warning against apostasy, chapters five and six. A warning against deliberately carrying on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth in chapter ten.

[19:03] And the warning against regarding likely the discipline of the Lord and the danger of a root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble. That is the diagnosis of the problem that the church that this sermon was addressed to.

[19:32] They're in danger of slipping into a whole series of problems. And the answer is found in the five sections that are affirmations.

[19:45] The very first one, chapter one verses one to four, is perhaps the most famous introduction. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

[20:13] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

[20:44] F.F. Bruce writes, and not necessarily the members of our Bible study group, but F.F. Bruce writes, God has spoken. This initial affirmation is basic to Christian faith.

[20:56] Had God remained silent, the plight of mankind would have been desperate indeed. what God essentially is, is made manifest in Christ.

[21:07] To see Christ is to see what the Father is like. The greatness of the Son of God receives a sevenfold affirmation in these first four verses of the book.

[21:23] Any of you who've tried your hand at writing a book would surely wish that you could write an introductory paragraph like this. Everyone struggles with the introductory paragraphs of a book.

[21:39] And here is the most extraordinary statement of the whole of the book in the sense that it is emphasizing the finality of the revelation of Christ.

[21:53] Jesus is our focus. There's more to that, of course, as we go. In chapter two, and specifically quoting here verse nine, and now preparatory to the warning against failure to enter into God's rest, we see him, chapter two, verse nine, we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

[22:43] Don Calvin comments on this verse by saying, for everyone, he means not only that Christ might be an example to others, he means rather that Christ died for us, and by taking on himself what was due to us, he redeemed us from the curse of death.

[23:10] Next, chapter four, verses fourteen to sixteen, this is a warning against apostasy, preliminary affirmation being, since then we have a high priest, a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

[23:49] let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace in time of need. This is extraordinary and wonderful affirmation of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

[24:16] There is in the book of Hebrews a strong emphasis on the example of the high priest in the old covenant.

[24:27] There is of course this very curious illustration of the example of Melchizedek, to whom Abraham paid respect, Melchizedek being interpreted as being both priest and king.

[24:47] And Jesus is seen to be the perfection of that model, of that analogy, in the perfection of his high priesthood.

[25:02] Amen. Then, prior to the fourth warning, chapter 9, verses 12 and 14, Christ entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

[25:28] How much more will the blood of Christ, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, of it himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

[25:47] Those of you who have memorized the Anglican articles will recognize article 31, which speaks of the one oblation of Christ finished on the cross.

[26:01] So these sources in the BCP and in our Anglican tradition are in many cases word for word taken out of the book of Hebrews.

[26:17] So if you have problems with this, you'll have problems with the BCP, but you may have problems with the BCP for other reasons. but basically there's a consistency here in terms of the liturgy and the belief system which we have inherited as between the book of Hebrews and the book of common prayer.

[26:41] Now prior to the warning number four against deliberately carrying on sinning, Christ has appeared chapter nine verse twenty-six and twenty-eight Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

[27:11] So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

[27:28] The language here as F.F. Bruce comments is a plain echo of the suffering servant song in Isaiah 53 where he bore the sin of many.

[27:46] Then in chapter 10 verses 19 to 25 Therefore brothers and sisters sisters and brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful another wonderful affirmation then coming up to warning number five chapter twelve verses one to four since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us this of course following chapter eleven which is the record of the the faith of the

[28:58] Old Testament patriarchs since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God now you can see how intense and persistent these affirmations are and it's one of the things I suppose that makes it heavy going when you read the book from verse one to the end because there are so many of these profound statements but it seems to me that picking them out as essential affirmations reminds us of the theme of how to attract people to faith it is to look to

[30:15] Jesus now there is at the end of the book in chapter 13 a collect if you thought a collect was only talked about in Anglican worship the structure of a collect which we've been reminded of by Bruce Heinemarsh on I think maybe two occasions but I can recall one occasion particularly where he talked about the structure of collect they're characterized first of all by an invocation then an adjectival clause laying out the grounds on which the petition is based and then the main petition and then a subsidiary petition and then a pleading of the mediatorial merit of Christ and then a doxology but if you look in your

[31:20] BCP at the structure of collect they all contain some of those elements some contain all of those elements so what am I talking about well it's chapter 13 verses 20 to 21 now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen the structure is totally what Bruce reminded us about a few months back why this collect at the end of all this warnings and magnificent affirmations why the collect any thoughts to me this is a new insight all the evidence in the world and all the affirmations that we may make are worth nothing if not coupled with a prayer so we we've been warned and we see the extraordinary intensity of the affirmation of our

[33:06] Lord's work on our behalf and the only thing the speaker of the sermon can think of is a prayer in order to accomplish something of these affirmations and to enter into the affirmations so I'll just read it again because it is so profoundly important it seems to me now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us interestingly the preacher identifies with his congregation here the prayer is for doing God's will but it's working in us that's to say the preacher and the congregation that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus

[34:13] Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen and then finally this very simple little verse which you could really miss if you didn't read carefully verse 25 grace be with all of you I mean again this whole declaration of the profound significance of who we worship why we worship and what this all means in the long run is impossible without the grace of God upon us so we may do all kinds of interesting theological calculations and all kinds of intellectually rigorous analyses and read lots of books grace be with you all is the final statement so this seems to me to be the essence of the structure of the book identify the five warnings and then look at the affirmations that lead to those warnings and then recognize that those ten conditions cannot be met without a prayer and without the grace of God being with us it seems to me to be a profound and absolutely wonderful sermon

[35:56] I would like to have been there to hear who this person was to hear what inspired him or her in this particular book if they had women priests at the time I don't know but it's a possibility so my conclusion to all this is to quote from John Newton's hymn how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear it soothes his sorrows heals his wounds and drives away his fear Jesus my shepherd husband friend my prophet priest and king my lord my life my way my end accept the praise

[37:04] I bring that's in a nutshell but of course there are many other things to be found in the book of Hebrews but in the time available it seems to me that is enough to give us a structure for our discussion and I'd be interested to hear if there are others who have found similar help in Hebrews or there are those who feel that it is a very hard book to read it's hard only in so far as we are detached from the Old Testament and unwilling to make the effort to look more carefully at it but I'd like to stop there and ask for comments questions thoughts and whether in fact our Bible study group has got the right end of the stick there thank you

[38:10] Sheila well my recollection of the Bible study group was that we spent a good half of the first discussion on it is it a letter or is it not because it reads as if it could be either and I guess my comment about that is clearly whatever he said in the sermon was in circulation at the time that scripture was put together in other words there were other churches that had this available to them which is a miracle in itself somebody thought this was worth writing down and thank goodness for that the other thing which I found baffling but wonderful in a way is that the early church struggled and some people still do with the whole doctrine of the trinity you know it's difficult to explain especially if you're dealing with a Jew or a Muslim who think they are the only people that believe in one God and that their major problem is that we believe in three well we don't believe in three but that is such a hard point to get across to them but the writer of

[39:21] Hebrews had it right in the first sentence and the fact that he had that kind of insight when the only other thing I can think of from the New Testament but this is not conclusive is Jesus saying he who has seen me has seen the father and here is the writer of Hebrews saying he's the exact imprint you know that would be such an easy thing for people to understand in a way but he articulates it and nobody else does that I can think of am I wrong about that I think you're right I think it's very that first couple of verses is just remarkable those seven aspects of Jesus are so lumped in one in one short section you don't see all those attributes put together in one in such a concentrated way elsewhere except in theology textbooks when did we get the doctrine of the

[40:29] Trinity? It was about the third century? You know Sheila is absolutely incorrigible she said to me before this talk she said I suppose we are going to get a geography of the book of Hebrews and I said no it's not a book of geography but of course in her case she has to have the history she's consistent and I'm grateful for this conversation yes so there's a word about apostasy and how when people leave the faith apparently there's no hope for them or something like that I'm sorry this is a very rough interpretation of what's written here but what's the best way to use that section because you know you would never want to apply that to someone else or some group like so it's it's a concern but how do you actually use that?

[41:26] yeah that's a very good question and of course I've skipped over the hard points but there is as you know elsewhere warning about speaking against the work of the Holy Spirit and about the so called unforgivable sin the best interpretation seems to me to be that there are a number of serious offenses which we can get caught up in and these are more serious than than others and they have to do with in a sense blasphemy and the particular strength of the warning in Hebrews is that they are they're affirmed in the fact that they have received the Holy Spirit that they are drifting away which is in a sense a denial of what they first what they first proclaimed so that's that's my woolly response to your question but it's a seriously tricky issue in the strength of the statement about an unforgivable sin yeah yeah it's interesting because it's juxtaposed to so much about repentance and you know the whole history of the Old

[42:52] Testament where God is calling back the people of Israel you know so it's very hard to say how how do those how are those two parallel where you know so much of the story is about repentance and forgiveness how where is the line where the impossible line I believe I believe that is consistent with this interpretation of the structure of the book because the emphasis on who Jesus is and what he has done is so clear and because the warnings are so direct that there is a sense in which there is no way that one can deny this evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit can I have a second thought years ago there was when I was going to the louder church kind of hostile my analogy one of the things that really struck me was it's not it's unforgivable in that you have rejected right so so if you harden your heart and if you close your heart and if you break that that love it's almost like you it's not that you're not forgivable and it's not that you can't repent

[44:15] I think at some point maybe you cross a line where you have turned away so you can't get back I think that's a very constructive way of looking I think that's hard issue isn't it thank you for being hesitant because the confident answers are I think he's saying unbelief is not innocent it will lead you to hate goodness itself you will come to the day when you can say I hate the resurrected I don't want this to be God I want some other God that's where it can lead so it's not it's not some noetic little problem with unbelief or doubt the spirit can become a hater of goodness I think is he telling this in the benediction that he has seen the resurrected life I suspect that the Messiah has come and has been raised from the dead he knows this and without that knowledge you can't make all the defamation he knows that goodness just a comment on this discussion and my own question

[45:30] I wonder if it kind of not fully resolved itself but it's spoken to in part by the whole tension of Pharaoh if you think about Pharaoh right at points God hardens his heart at other points he's hardened his own heart but it's actually a both and he's hardened his heart God has hardened his heart repentance I think is a gift from God isn't it right we can't repent unless God opens our eyes to see and there does come a point I agree where you've gone so far down the path God gives you over and he's no longer granting the grace of repentance to you because Christ himself is grace and if you've rejected him and gone so far down that path by removing that then suddenly you're so far away you can't even see the truth and there's no new sacrifice coming down the road to bring you to repentance that's kind of how I think it it sort of doesn't resolve itself because it's difficult how does Pharaoh harden his heart and God well it's a both end is what I'm saying my own question just another maybe hard passage and as we're thinking about the 500th anniversary of the reformation you look at chapter 13 obey your leaders this would have been a much used and abused passage right there we're watching over your souls at what point do we say you know you leaders are actually fleecing the sheep not leading them and you know this passage no longer applies can you comment on that at all or another sermon all together

[46:58] I think I mean it's another interesting point it's saying obey your leaders as long as they are consistent with what you have learned I mean we're told to obey and to respect the institution of leadership but we all know that leadership curdles and that little bits of power corrupts in plenty of little ways so that the actual leaders are corruptible and in that sense we don't obey our leaders under those circumstances yeah I remember there was I was discussing this with a Roman Catholic once and they were saying you know follow the bishop as Ignatius said and I said well the problem with that is during the Arian controversy most of the bishops were Arians at one point so would you follow that bishop what if you were some you know Christian in Ephesus at the time and you're a bishop I'm not speaking with historical knowledge here just throwing it out was one of those

[47:59] Arian bishops do you say well that's what the bishop says or do you say you know what that's not what I think actually we've been taught no I mean I think it's a very good point but the integrity of the book of Hebrews is is consistent and it's it's setting forth the importance of the way in which Jesus lived and died and rose again that's and one would obey leadership which magnified Christ it seems to me that's the sort of the key point if I could just come back to this earlier point that maybe there's a secular insight that's become available to us recently brain science is one of the big things in the world world and one of the extraordinary things of course is the way in which the brain changes over time and it seems to me that that that's to say the morphology of the brain and the and the electrical signals that are passed through the brain vary over time so that it seems to me that there's a sense in which the getting into bad habit can make things difficult not impossible in God's provision and God's grace anything is possible but it can be more difficult than we imagine because our whole way of thinking and the structure of our brain has changed over time so that relates of course to the question of persistence in sinning and the question of persisting in apostasy yes please it seems like one antidote to harming our brains and hearts in a long way is in chapter 4 verse 14 where it says let us hold fast to our confession and then later 16 let us stand with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need so this can be substituted and focused on rather than having to worry about what is apostasy but worry about you know focus on holding past to our confession and approaching the same grace will lead us in the right direction so it seems in the chapter 4 it's sort of given us well the antidote the way I think about it that's a very helpful insight seems to me that that's focusing on the positive message something we actually do and pay attention to and also we can lead other people to do without having to know how far they are into thinking the wrong way we have something positive to turn them to and say let's go back to our confession and renew that thank you very much for that yes and in a way that's what we've been saying isn't it that all the affirmations come before the warnings so that you can filter the warnings as it were with the affirmations and and I've always found the book of

[51:26] Hebrews so exciting because it goes right back to the old testament and shows how Jesus wasn't somebody that came out of the blue as it were fulfilled everything that was fulfilled even the old laws exactly exactly yeah that's a very important point I think just also reinforcing that just a sheer number of verses that are focused on the positive in the book there are these serious warnings we have to be alerted and we have to wake up so the whole emphasis of waking up I think is clearly a critical thing here but 85% of the book 90% of the book is atomish so that yes please one question it says the reason that they cannot be brought back to repentance is because to their laws they are crucifying the son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace what does that mean by crucifying Christ all over again well I think that's the reason for not unable to repent

[52:50] Daniel where were you reading verse verse 6 chapter 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 We are in a sense crucifying Christ again by the way in which we use the word casually in the same sense and a more direct sense the question of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is crucifying Christ again not literally of course but spiritually so I think that's a pretty important point just following on what you said

[53:56] I think you know we even have candy these days it's called OMG I mean how bad can it get but I think the outcome of the kind of use of God's the words God or Jesus is to trivialize it and there is nothing trivial about the sacrifice of the cross and I think over time it has that result for us that everybody is beginning to talk about God in a very loose way it has nothing really to do with our faith trash the whole crucifixion I was in a discussion group recently out on campus and the statement was made that nobody of course believes in the existence of a soul any longer and I put my hand up and said what's the evidence that you bring for this statement there was no answer it was simply an assumption and it was quite interesting to follow up some of the comments because it opened up the discussion as you can imagine

[55:12] I've heard it said that Hebrews is the Leviticus of the New Testament what are your thoughts on that? well thank God it's not and I use the word God there respectfully and clearly no I mean of course a lot of its a lot of its references are to Leviticus and the whole model of the old covenant is clearly brought to bear but we know that there is a new covenant and the new covenant is really a covenant of freedom and I think that to call it the Leviticus of the New Testament would be potentially misleading except it points us to the original references like putting new wine in old wineskins on the other hand chapter 7 verse 24 it says

[56:23] Jesus holds his priesthood permanently and consequently he's able to save to the outburst those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for him for them that's such a beautiful verse in a way and in my background in some ways they say that that sounds a bit catholic to be interceding to asking the Lord because he's already finished it the work is done it's completed but really when you read this verse he's always living to make intercession for us it's an amazing thing really and that we can still pray pray to the Lord to intercede for us because I mean he's already doing it it's when we think we can have our priests do it again they'll get into trouble that Jesus is this is a continuous present activity of Jesus the intercession for us so that the work is done but the intercession continues yes man on the existence of the soul there's a

[57:40] Biola University philosopher evangelical Christian J.P. Moreland who you can get him on YouTube and he you know things will pop up the existence of the soul evidence for his soul so very good teacher very clear you know he'll talk about the functions of the soul the nature of the soul you know really helpful stuff and I would just add to that the World Health Organization mandates that people in hospitals have to be cared holistically which includes spiritual accreditation Canada when they go into hospitals and three or four or five examiners will go to a hospital and examine the care offered in hospitals spiritual care is part of the the the tenants like you know there might be 200 health points in which health care professionals have to give evidence that they're caring for people across 200 items and spiritual care is one of those so interestingly enough anybody arguing there's no soul all you have to do is just say wait a second there's broad organizations like World Health

[58:48] Organization accreditation Canada that will argue that people have a spiritual nature and that that spiritual nature and I would say spiritual and soul are almost synonymous have to be looked after so thank you thank you moreland m-o-r-l-a-n-d moreland yeah really good teacher m-o-r-d-l-a-n-d that I'd like to build a little bit on that the the brain science center at UBC was set up recently as you may know and it was filled with secular scientists with no attention paid to the need for spiritual counsel one such person has now been appointed actually from a Buddhist tradition so they've jumped in where others did not but it's an indication of the maturity of the director who started off feeling in his case as a lapsed

[59:58] Jew that such a person would not fit in to his center but he's recognizing more and more that there are needs beyond that of the electric circuitry of the brain and so there is an opportunity there building on what you just told us I think it's consistent with how modern science fails to accommodate the spiritual needs of society I think one of the mistakes is modern science is often material science that's really what it is so if you call it material science then you don't confuse science and issues like the soul and God because I remember back when I was trying to show there was no soul by putting very delicate weights and seeing if a person died if they got light but you know one moves from this profound book of

[61:06] Hebrews to trivia like that I mean it just indicates the limitations of material science well if I try to understand computers by understanding how I don't know biology works or something else like that I'm not going to get anywhere either you know right if you're in the wrong field studying something you're not going to get anywhere right so I think it does you know it's important to recognize that first of all Sam I just can't help giving you this quote I first encountered it by C.S.

[61:42] Lewis when I looked online this doubt about whether it's his or maybe George MacDonald's but he C.S. Lewis says we don't have a soul we are a soul we have a body good good that sounds like a good final comment thank you all for your attention thank you thank you thank you you oui