So true, but you have to take it in faith, like Jesus virgin birth! Look at his geneology, ever notice the differance between Matthew, and Luke... I did a study on it one time, and found that Matthew covered Joseph's liniage, and Luke covered Mary's.

Matthew 1: 

Mat 1:15  and Eliud fathered Eleazar, and Eleazar fathered Matthan, and Matthan fathered Jacob,
Mat 1:16  and Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband to be of Mary, out of whom Jesus was born, the One called Christ.

Luke 3

Luk 3:23  And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
Luk 3:24  Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,

Mary's is traced back to Nathan, son of David and prophet

while Joseph traces back to Soloman , the son of David and the wife of Urias, that David had killed on the battle field.

golden2100

so it is a tough piece of "meat". Agreed, but it does have merit as he is mentioned in 2 different books. Because it is tough, does not mean not to chew, just have to use more tenderizer.... lol

I was looking out on the web, and WOW, their are some real fruitcakes out there!

true, but are we to decide if we speak the truth or stay quiet? Or are we not commissioned to speak what we are given. whether others accept or not is not our responsibility. We are instructed to sound the alarm, if they fail to hear, then at least their blood is on their own heads.

as to know what kind of ground.... if it is grounded on scripture, we will always know that we are on solid ground, it is when we interject our own thoughts in that the ground starts turning to sand.

Michael.

Thanks for posting, and so true.... WE the church are guilty of watering down the message that Christ left for us to deliver. We the church have often gone the easy way, instead of the right way... because so often the right way brings ridicule, harassment, and persecution. Where-as the easy way gets us friends, prosperity,popularity.

Mike n Laura.

I always look forward to your reply on my posts. Thanks!

As we grow in faith, walking and living a life of hope to see the things un-seen, then we are partakers of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, for by faith are we pleasing to the Father. By faith even the tribe of Levi gave tithes to Melchizedek, while yet in the loins of Abraham. By faith we are no longer under the carnal commandments that came out of Levi, but rather of power and endless live issuing out of Judah.Our priest-hood was made manifest even before the Law, because it was made with an oath from the Father to the Father, for He could swear to nothing higher to Himself., prior even before Levi.

So in a way, Melchizedek does impact our daily life more than we may realize.

Hi Rob, I had been thinking on that too..

here is what I found in the WORD.

Genesis speaks of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

knowledge here is dah'-ath.. meaning knowledge: - cunning, ignorantly, knowledge, unawares (wittingly). observation, care, recognition
 

ih Hebrews the writer says to train in the (diakrisis)discernment {  separate thoroughly, that is, (literally and reflexively) to withdraw from, or (by implication) oppose; figuratively to discriminate (by implication decide), or (reflexively) hesitate: - contend, make (to) differ (-ence), discern, doubt, judge, be partial, stagger, waver.} of good and evil...

so here he is saying to know about what is evil and separate ourselves from it.. do not partake of the evil, but to NOT partake of what is evil, we are given the Law, that tells us it is evil, and the Blood then empowers us to abstain... and then the grace that forgives us when we slip up.

I resist the interpretation that the author of Hebrews is advising that we get intimate with the Law.  Doing that tends to be counter productive (the Law being the power of sin and all (see 1 Cor. 15:56)).

Furthermore, I resist the definition of grace - that it is mere forgiveness:
and then the grace that forgives us when we slip up.

Knowledge of the Law is fine but it's certainly irrelevant in the context of righteousness.  And this is one of his points.  People have always believed that Law and righteousness went together "like peas and carrots" (to quote Forrest Gump).  To this day, it is assumed that to behave a certain way is to be righteous but is that what the gospel teaches?

The gospel reveals a righteousness of God that is from faith to faith (and not faith to works).  Therefore, righteousness is not a behavior but it is a mental attitude. It comes by believing the promises of God (Romans 4 from Genesis 15) and not from external behavior modification.  This theology is as revolutionary today as it was in the first century.  And nobody believes it.

So in verse 13, when he's on the subject of the "word of righteousness", he could be talking about that particular controversy.  We know for certain that the apostles differed on the doctrine of righteousness (cf. Romans 4 and James 2).

Gary, as a Messianic Christian, you probably know TONS of people who believe that righteousness is a behavior.  Heck, you may be one yourself.

The "babes", in this context, are the ones who use the word of God to prove that righteousness is something that we do and not something that God imputes.  I myself can prove, using the bible, that righteousness is by works and not by faith only.  To be sure, one notable apostle in the first century did just that (although his logic and chronology are fatally flawed).

Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews had a thorough knowledge of the Law and the Prophets.  They seemed to be in agreement with (or at least familiar with) Paul's doctrine of righteousness by faith (see Hebrews 10:38 from Hab. 2:4).  In fact, Timothy, a traveling companion of Paul's, is mentioned in the parting comments of Hebrews 13.  This mention of Timothy is one of the evidences people use to attribute authorship to Paul.  I could go either way on it.  Personally, I'd like to think that Hebrews was a community effort.  Since no one claims authorship, and because of the constant reference to "we" in the text, it makes me think that a group of Jewish scholars came up with this beautiful revelation.  But no one knows for sure.  I've also thought that if it were Paul who authored Hebrews then it was probably wise for him not to identify himself as the author seeing that Jerusalem Christians were very much "under Law" (Acts 21:20 - "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law").

The "first principles of the oracles of God" (in my opinion) would be a "How To" on righteousness.  These Christians were so caught up in the Law that they completely missed the first step, which is faith in the promises of God (see Romans 4 from Genesis 15:6).  The same thing can be said of the 21st century church.

Look, the Apostle Paul said it like this:

Paul used the word of God (specifically the book of Genesis) to prove that righteousness comes by believing God's promise.  Nobody else ever saw this before.  Paul was the very first one in all of mankind to recognize this truth.  And from the moment he understood it, he tried to use the word of God (all scripture) to instruct the rest of us in God's righteousness but few of us are ready to see it.  Most of us are stuck on Law for righteousness.

The result of righteousness is the ability to discern good and evil.  We don't need Law to tell us what's right and wrong (necessarily) but we can sense it.  This ties in with the Hebrews discussion of Jeramiah 31.  The days come when God will put His laws in our hearts and write them in our minds and we won't go around teaching Law to each other anymore.  "For all shall know me; from the least to the greatest."

Rob

Hi Rob:

I am not says to get intimate with the Law, but when used properly, as Paul writes, it shows us the errors of our ways, leads us to repentance, for without the Law, we don't know what is displeasing to the Lord. Without the Law, we would not know that to have an affair with our neighbors wife is wrong. Without the Law, we would not know that to bow before idols is wrong, 

When used properly the Law is good, but just as with anything else, when used improperly, people want to totally get rid of it.... a simple example is the guns.     Guns don't kill people, but rather people kill using the gun incorrectly..... so to the Law, when used incorrectly, even for the right reasons, kill! It is not our job to flaunt the Law before our brothers and sisters, that is the job of the Holy Spirit, when He uses it, it brings forth repentance. 

as to what you write about above,  The days come when God will put His laws in our hearts and write them in our minds .... This is the same as am writting about.... when we are mature in Christ, His Laws are in our hearts, He puts the desire in our hearts to please Him, when we crucify our flesh daily, we allow Him to put His desires in place of our own.We don't need the Laws when we become mature in Him, for He has already started the change within us, making us more like Him, leaving us more time to learn the deeper truths, instead of bashing each other over the head, or pouring ash upon our own heads.

Here is an example of the Law that I am speaking of.....

When a teenager is getting ready to start driving, he studys the LAW of driving, goes over and over the rule book, getting ready to take his drivers test, once he passes the test and starts driving, it starts to become natural for him to drive correctly. This is like us, when we first become a Christian, we have no idea what being a Christian is suppossed to do, so we start learning the rules of God,

to have sex with animals is wrong, to have sex outside of marrige is wrong, to kill is wrong, to hate is wrong, to lust is wrong, to steal is wrong, to want something that belongs to someone else is wrong....... when we have those learned, then we start enjoying our drive. 

Rob, my wording was wrong... sorry.. my language skills fail me...

what i was trying to say it like what Pal wrote in Rom 3.

That the law lets us know what is sin....