The story of the Gospel is a serious story, its a story that has always caused the murder of so many people, think of how Stephen [ Acts 6,7,8] was killed because of Jesus Christ.
Not only was Stephen murderd, Peter, Thomas, Andrew, Nathanael, Matthew, James, Jude, Simon the Zealot, James the Younger, Phillip, Judas, and many other followers of Jesus Christ died horrible deaths!
In the course of History more people would get murderd. Reformers such as William Tyndale, John Hus where brutally murdered as punishment for promoting Christocentric Christianity as opposed to the falsehoods of the Papacy & Catholiscm.
What is it that they preached that warranted death? Peter, Paul, John the Baptist were not propagating a health and wealth gospel, they where not preaching and teaching people how to make more dime! Think about it for a moment, unbelievers thirst for material things and to them the gospel is foolishness but to us it is the power of God.
Thus the Apostles certainly did not appeal to the materialist instincts of the carnal man, but appealed to the elect by means of the proclamation of the gospel which God makes use of to call those that He has predestined unto ertenal life, In fact Apostle Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 of false teachers who equate financial gain to godliness.
These men [ Apostles]spoke of Christ as Lord and King, Christ who suffered the wrath of God in order to pay for the sins of the elect, They declared the supremacy of God in all things. Thus where unjustly punished by haters of the gospel, who included those obsessed with the Law of Moses.
The Apostles where by the power of the Holy Spirit emboldened to proclaim Christ, thus all they wrote showed us perfectly that all scripture is about Christ! The Bible is not a moral rulebook, Its all about Jesus!
[JOHN 5:38You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me]
[LUKE 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. ]
Thus as we study every verse and chapter let us understand that they is always a deeper meaning, This deeper meaning is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ
For example Melchiezedek is a shadow of Christ, note how just like Christ who is without beginning or end, Melchiezedek also did not have either mother or father. We also find the story of Christ in Isaac, Isaac is a shadow of Christ as a sacrifice, Remember how God instructed Abraham was instructed to sacrifice Isaac, Just as God the Father would have His own Son Jesus Crucified to atone for the sins of the elect. David is a shadow of Christ as a King and reedemer, God promises David would rule forever and this was in reference to Jesus Christ. Boaz and Ruth are shadows of Christ and Church! Watch carefully how Boaz reedems Ruth just like Christ hass reedemed the church.
Thus we are not the ones who give a meaning to scripture, but all scripture inteprets itself in light of CHRIST!
Tendai Mbofana 