Back to Home
Page... Back to
Defenders..... Eye Candy for Bible Thumping
Christians!
"The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and
the Old Testament is revealed in the New."
Saint Augustine, (354-430
A.D.)
Joshua 22:10-19
(10) "And when they were come to banks of the Jordan,
in the land of Chanaan, they built an altar immensely
great near the Jordan.
(11) And when the children of Israel had heard of
it, and certain messengers brought them an account that the children of
Ruben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses had built an altar in the land of Chanaan, upon the banks of the Jordan,
over against the children of Israel:
(12) They all assembled in Silo, to
go up and fight against them.
(13) And in the mean time they sent to them
into the land of Galaad, Phinees the son of Eleazar the priest,
(14)
And ten princes with him, one of every tribe.
(15) Who came to the
children of Ruben, and of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses, into the land of
Galaad, and said to them:
(16) Thus saith all the people of the Lord:
What meaneth this transgression? Why have you forsaken the Lord the God of
Israel, building a sacriligious altar, and
revolting from the worship of him?
(17) Is it a small thing to you that
you sinned with Beelphegor, and the stain of that crime remaineth in us to this
day, and many of the people perished.
(18) And you have forsaken the
Lord to day, and to morrow his wrath will rage against all Israel.
(19)
But if you think the land of your possession to be unclean, pass over to the
land wherein is the tabernacle of the Lord, and dwell among us: only depart not
from the Lord, and from our society, by building an altar beside the altar of the Lord our
God."
Did anyone see the connection between this happening in the
time of Joshua and what we have today?
Where are altars found today? They are
found in churches, right?
All throughout the Old Testament there are many
examples of the "Father Figure" leader of
the Hebrews - Israelites,
building an altar to the Lord:
There is Noah:
Genesis 8:20,
"And Noah built an
altar unto the Lord: and
taking of all cattle and fowls that were clean, offered holocausts upon the
altar."
There is Abraham:
Genesis 22:8-9,
"And Abraham said: God
will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on
together. And they came to the place which God had shewn him, where he built
an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it; and
when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood."
There is
Isaac:
Genesis 26:25,
"So he built an altar
there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there.
And there Isaac's servants dug a well."
There is Jacob:
Genesis
35:6-7,
" And Jacob came to Luza, which is in the land of Chanaan, surnamed
Bethel: he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an
altar, and called the name of that place, The
house of God: for there God appeared to him when he fled from his brother.
There is Moses:
Exodus 17:15,
"And Moses built an altar; and called the name thereof, The Lord, my
exaltation, saying:"
Exodus 24:4,
"And Moses wrote all the words of the
Lord: and rising in the morning, he built an altar at the foot of the mount, and twelve titles
according to the twelve tribes of Israel."
There is Aaron:
Exodus
32:5,
"And when
Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it,
and made proclamation by a crier's voice, saying Tomorrow is the solemnity of
the Lord."
There is Joshua:
Joshua 8:30,
"Then Joshua built an
altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount
Hebal,"
There is Gideon:
Judges 6:24,
"Then Gideon built an
altar there to the LORD..."
There is
Samuel:
1Samuel 7:17,
"And he built there an altar to the Lord."
There is Saul:
1Samuel
14:35,
"And Saul built an altar to the
Lord: it was the first altar that he built
to the Lord."
There is David:
2Samuel 24:18-19,
"And Gad came
to David that day, and said: Go up, and build an altar to the Lord in the thrashing floor of Areuna the
Jebusite.
And David went up according to the word of Gad which the
Lord had commanded him."
So what is the point? The point is that only
the "Father
Figures" had the authority to build an altar to the Lord since they were the leaders of GOD's
chosen people, the Hebrews - Israelites. In all of the examples listed above,
there was an altar built to the Lord and by a
"Father
Figure", and not additional unauthorized altars built by others, as detailed in Joshua 22:10-11
and 16 above.
As mentioned earlier, again where are altars found? 'Authorized altars' are found in
'authorized churches' today, or in assembly places as in the days of
Joshua.
'Authorized'?
The rebellion of Core (Korah): Again, so what is the point?
Numbers 16:1-50,
(1) "And
behold Core the son of Isaar, the son of Caath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and
Abiron the sons of Eliab, and Hon the son of Pheleth of the children of Ruben,
(2) rose up against Moses, and with them two hundred and fifty others of the
children of Israel, leading men of the synagogue, and who in the time of
assembly were called by name.
(3) And when they had stood up against
Moses and Aaron, they said: Let it be enough for you, that all the multitude
consisteth of holy ones, and the Lord is among them: Why lift you up yourselves
above the people of the Lord?
(4) When Moses heard this, he fell flat
on his face:
(5) And speaking to Core and all the multitude, he said:
In the morning the Lord will make known who belong to him, and the holy he will
join to himself: and whom he shall choose, they shall approach to him.
(6) Do
this therefore: Take every man of you your censers, thou Core, and all thy
company.
(7) And putting fire in them to morrow, put incense upon it
before the Lord: and whomsoever he shall choose, the same shall be holy: you
take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.
(8) And he said again to Core: Hear
ye sons of Levi.
(9) Is it a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel
hath spared you from all the people, and joined you to himself, that you should
serve him in the service of the tabernacle, and should stand before the
congregation of the people, and should minister to him?
(10) Did he
therefore make thee and all thy brethren the sons of Levi to approach unto him,
that you should challenge to yourselves the priesthood also,
(11) And that
all thy company should stand against the Lord? for what is Aaron that you murmur
against him?
(12) Then Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiron the sons of
Eliab. But they answered: We will not come.
(13) Is it a small matter
to thee, that thou hast brought us out of a land that flowed with milk and
honey, to kill us in the desert, except thou rule also like a lord over
us?
(14) Thou hast brought us indeed into a land that floweth with
rivers of milk and honey, and hast given us possessions of fields and vineyards;
wilt thou also pull out our eyes? We will not come.
(15) Moses
therefore being very angry, said to the Lord: Respect not their sacrifices: thou
knowest that I have not taken of them so much as a young ass at any time, nor
have injured any of them.
(16) And he said to Core: Do thou and thy
congregation stand apart before the Lord to morrow, and Aaron
apart.
(17) Take every one of you censers, and put incense upon them,
offering to the Lord two hundred and fifty censers: let Aaron also hold his
censer.
(18) When they had done this, Moses and Aaron
standing,
(19) And had drawn up all the multitude against them to the
door of the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord appeared to them
all.
(20) And the Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron, said:
(21)
Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may presently destroy
them.
(22) They fell flat on their face, and said: O most mighty, the
God of the spirits of all flesh, for one man's sin shall thy wrath rage against
all?
(23) And the Lord said to Moses:
(24) Command the whole
people to separate themselves from the tents of Core and Dathan and
Abiron.
(25) And Moses arose, and went to Dathan and Abiron: and the
ancients of Israel following him,
(26) He said to the multitude: Depart
from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be
involved in their sins.
(27) And when they were departed from their
tents round about, Dathan and Abiron coming out stood in the entry of their
pavilions with their wives and children, and all the people.
(28) And
Moses said: By this you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all things
that you see, and that I have not forged them of my own head:
(29) If
these men die the common death of men, and if they be visited with a plague,
wherewith others also are wont to be visited, the Lord did not send
me.
(30) But if the Lord do a new thing, and the earth opening her
mouth swallow them down, and all things that belong to them, and they go down
alive into hell, you shall know that they have blasphemed the
Lord.
(31) And immediately as he had made an end of speaking, the earth
broke asunder under their feet:
(32) And opening her mouth, devoured
them with their tents and all their substance.
(33) And they went down
alive into hell, the ground closing upon them, and they perished from among the
people.
(34) But all Israel, that was standing round about, fled at the
cry of them that were perishing: saying: Lest perhaps the earth swallow us up
also.
(35) And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two
hundred and fifty men that offered the incense.
(36) And the Lord spoke
to Moses, saying:
(37) Command Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to
take up the censers that lie in the burning, and to scatter the fire of one side
and the other: because they are sanctified
(38) In the deaths of the
sinners: and let him beat them into plates, and fasten them to the altar,
because incense hath been offered in them to the Lord, and they are sanctified,
that the children of Israel may see them for a sign and a
memorial.
(39) Then Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers,
wherein they had offered, whom the burning fire had devoured, and beat them into
plates, fastening them to the altar:
(40) That the children of Israel
might have for the time to come wherewith they should be admonished, that no
stranger or any one that is not of the seed of Aaron should come near to offer
incense to the Lord, lest he should suffer as Core suffered, and all his
congregation, according as the Lord spoke to Moses.
(41) The following
day all the multitude of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and
Aaron, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord.
(42) And when
there arose a sedition, and the tumult increased,
(43) Moses and Aaron
fled to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were gone into it, the
cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.
(44) And the Lord
said to Moses:
(45) Get you out from the midst of this multitude, this
moment will I destroy them. And as they were lying on the ground,
(46)
Moses said to Aaron: Take the censer, and putting fire in it from the altar, put
incense upon it, and go quickly to the people to pray for them: for already
wrath is gone out from the Lord, and the plague rageth.
(47) When Aaron
had done this, and had run to the midst of the multitude which the burning fire
was now destroying, he offered the incense:
(48) And standing between
the dead and the living, he prayed for the people, and the plague
ceased.
(49) And the number of them that were slain was fourteen
thousand and seven hundred men, besides them that had perished in the sedition
of Core.
(50) And Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the tabernacle
of the covenant after the destruction was over.
The point is that GOD accepts those whom He
had
2Corinthians 10:18,
"For it is not the man who commends
himself that is accepted, but the man whom the Lord commends."
Hebrews
5:4,
"Neither does any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called
by God, as Aaron was."
Of all of those altar builders in all of
those tens of thousands of non-Catholic sects, was even one of them called by
GOD to do so?
Or did each take the honor to himself?
©
Written by Bob Stanley, April 11, 2007
Updated August 14,
2008
"Have I then become your enemy, because I told you the
truth?"
Galatians
4:16
Back to Home
Page... Back to
Defenders.....