After reading the previous article, I received messages from some enquiring “What are we supposed to do? Where are any Services held?” etc. Believe the following will be helpful to all.
What is Stated in Leviticus Chapter 16 is what the High Priest had to do on Yom Kippur. ONLY he could DO those things and NOT even any other Priest, especially going into the “HOLY OF HOLIES”.
That pointed towards The HIGH PRIEST, WHO could “PASS INTO HEAVEN” [Hebrews 4:14], which NO earthly High Priest could do. YAHSHUA Became BOTH The High Priest AND “The Sacrificial Lamb of GOD, WHO Takes Away the sins of the world” [John 1:29 & 36]. What NO human being could do, HE DID.
That is NOT the ‘end of the matter’. THAT is WHY in Leviticus 23:32 GOD Says “You shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month from evening unto evening”.
When The Tabernacle and subsequently the Temples stood and the High Priest performed what he had to do, ALL the people HAD TO DO, what is Recorded in in Leviticus 23:32, individually.
Coming to John 3:16 we see that it does NOT state “For GOD so Loved the world, that HE gave HIS only Begotten Son”, so now the whole world is saved”. But goes onto State that whosoever believeth in HIM should NOT perish, but have everlasting life.
That translation “Believeth in HIM”, does NOT adequately convey the meaning that the original language carries. “Those who APPROPRIATE unto themselves” is a better way of communicating the real meaning.
Appropriate means “Suitable or Fitting”, (Can check in any standard dictionary), which indicates something needs to be done to be ‘qualified’.
Throughout the New Testament Scriptures where the “Message is Preached”, the ‘Key Word’ happens to be “REPENT” – Matthew 3:1 & 4:17; Acts 2:38 and 3:19 etc. Further in 5 of the 7 Epistles Recorded in Chapters 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation, CHRIST HIMSELF Says to those CHURCHES (meaning Believers) “REPENT OR ELSE”.
In the previous article I touched on that word “Repentance”, which really is taking forward that phrase in Leviticus 23:32 “Afflict your souls”. Today the well known phrase would be “Soul Searching”.
Hence, it is NOT merely ‘Attending a Service, singing some hymns or choruses and listening to a Message’ and then going home.
What GOD Requires would be a “Genuine Time of SOUL SEARCHING”, where HOLY SPIRIT Can Show each one “What GOD Would Require us to do, individually”.
Most times it could be “Restoring our relationships with another brother or sister”, for which we might have to apologize. “Correcting some wrong information that we could have communicated regarding a brother or sister or a Believer’s family”. “Returning a book or some article we had borrowed and still happens to be with us” and similar things.
It is ONLY The HOLY SPIRIT that CAN Show us things like that individually.