I had a conversation with a baptist pastor that went back and forth for months, and the whole while, it seemed more and more spiritually futile, and became clear that he would not believe the truth until his judgment (which is always a tragic thought). The sad fact of the matter is that christianity’s “God” had to have changed at some point in human history, even though He said He never changes (Numbers 23:19, James 1:17).
That’s why so many like the baptist pastor see the Old and New Testaments as two disparate volumes, and relegate what they think are things that applied only to the ancient physical Jews as no longer relevant, or, at least, not as important as their carnal understanding of scripture.
He never could grasp scripture’s true purpose, and he thinks his English bible stands as equal to the original words of the Holy Spirit that were written in Hebrew and Greek, and erroneously contends that his English translation is the “preserved words” of Psalm 12, when the Holy Spirit actually inspired NO scripture in English, and nowhere does it state that those original written words will remain in a book unaltered by man.
He just doesn’t understand scripture’s purpose, or the only way its original meanings can be understood (truths that Abraham and Moses both understood without having a book).
The baptist pastor admitted that he really doesn’t know that much about the feasts (Sabbaths), and that he thinks he would like to learn more about them (at some point). He recognizes there are elements of some sort of “wedding” throughout scripture, but he doesn’t actually know the traditions of the ancient Jewish wedding, which are the only ones that apply. He clearly knows little to nothing about the harvests, and how they are intertwined with the feasts, and he has no idea how the priestly ordinances and practices at the temple portray future-revealed spiritual truths about the bride.
His lack of spiritual understanding is revealed in his inability to see the entirety of scripture as one volume, which presents physical foreshadows and then spiritual real substances, so, even though he likely won’t admit it, the only way his carnal understanding of spiritual things can work is for the Almighty to have changed at some point, and things that were vital to understanding the faith at one time no longer are.
So, in his carnal thinking, he sees no actual correlation between the salvation of Messiah’s bride and the Passover journey, which Yah memorialized in the way of the tabernacle—the progression from the Outer Courtyard to the Holy of Holies, wherein the bride, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, is represented by the Ark containing the Covenant (the “Testimony”).
He sees salvation not as a journey from man’s identification with Messiah Yahoshua (belief), and his enduring in that belief (faith) while being led by the Holy Spirit to the point of receiving the Covenant (being led out of Egypt and then to the mountain), but rather as a decision man makes that immediately directs the Holy Spirit into him (thus, being his own judge who decrees his own adoption by the Father).
And, why does the baptist pastor think that he has been told he is born again, even though he has never actually been told he has been born again (it’s really just something he has read about)? It’s because he must rely on himself (his own understanding) for his eternal security, for without eternal security, eternity can be a horrifying construct.
He must deny that the Word (Hebrew: dabar, Greek: logos) is both the Son and the Holy Spirit, and pretend that He is an English version of man’s ideas about manuscripts of scripture that were long ago altered by christianity.
He must make that work of man equal to the Holy Spirit, and actually, superior to the Holy Spirit, by claiming that the Word is NOT the Holy Spirit, but is his English translation of those altered manuscripts. So, he thinks that his carnal understanding of that English work of men is the source of his salvation.
Why? It’s because he has never actually heard anything directly or personally from the Holy Spirit. Once someone hears from the Holy Spirit, and understands what he is told, he will never again confuse Him with a book.
It’s because he doesn’t grasp that the utterances of Yah (Hebrew: imrah, Greek: rhema) are eternally preserved in the Word (Hebrew: dabar, Greek: logos), who is the Holy Spirit; and, because the Holy Spirit is ELOHIM, He has the authority to SPEAK as ELOHIM. The baptist pastor must conclude that when Messiah Yahoshua said that the Holy Spirit would lead believers into all truth and tell them of the coming things (John 16:13), He lied, because He really meant to say that the KJV would do that.
So, in the end, the baptist pastor sees all of the physical foreshadows that Yah designed, created, and ordained, and gave as physical object lessons for His true children to understand who they are in Him, and how they are made His, as just relics of a different time, and that ELOHIM, at some point, changed.
Because the only historical event that separates the OT and NT is the Passover sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb, and the only difference is on which side of that sacrifice one exists on earth, and that what is in the scriptures before that point are physical shadows of real substances, which are spiritual, and are revealed after that point, the baptist pastor has been deluded into thinking they are two separate volumes, which would require two separate “Gods.”
There is no difference whatsoever between the baptist pastor and those we see in Matthew 7:21-23. They were as certain as he is that they were saved—so much so, that they plead with Messiah to recognize that they were born again. They tell Him about all the christian things they did on earth, as if He doesn’t already know everything they did. But, in the end, He says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
And, in the end, that is exactly what awaits the baptist pastor who is 100% convinced of his salvation, even though it had to come from a “God” who changed, and who foolishly called His traditions His, and deceptively gave them as a family sign to some children, but not to others. A horribly sad day awaits the baptist pastor, unless he repents of his unbelief in the true ELOHIM, and seeks to hear (literally, not rhetorically) from the Holy Spirit, who he currently thinks is his English bible.
For more information: Was the KJV Inspired by the Holy Spirit?