This morning I went to church with Alicia, to attend a conference on the book of Genesis. It was very good, I'm glad I went. I love the Hebrew Scriptures. So much of God's character becomes evident in its pages. In fact, without the Old Testament, neither the New Testament nor Jesus make any sense at all. Here are a few things I took away from today's session:
* The Bible contains the story of the "irruption", the in-breaking, of the kingdom of God on earth; this story begins with Genesis
* This in-breaking is essentially a violent irruption of love
* God's kingdom is different than the kingdoms of this world, in that it's ruled by love; this is 1- for God's glory; and 2- for our salvation
* God's kingdom is mediational in nature: Israel mediates God to the world; Jesus Christ mediates God & man; the Church mediates Jesus Christ to an unbeleiving world
* There are 4 components of a nation (ie - Israel): Land, Law, Leader, & People
* People: Israel, but by faith, we are also identified with the faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:26-27)
*Land: Whereas Genesis depicts a physical land of God's kingdom nation, today we are a "spiritual land"; Jesus is our land/space; whereas Israel entered land by faith, we enter Jesus by faith
* Leader: King David was the leader of the OT nation, Jesus is the leader of the NT nation
* Law: OT law was written on rock; NT law written on our hearts; the moral law has not been abolished, but rather, it's administration has, and the Torah has been written in our minds through the Holy Spirit
Finally, I found this helpful: ther's no "utopia" or "perfect society" today, nor is it possible. Adam and Eve lived in it, but they rejected it when they sinned.
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