The Messiah is the Way, Truth & Life

Andalus wrote: Jeremiah 33:16-18, Zachariah 14:20-21, Ezekiel 43-44 They all speak of "literal" things.

Jeremiah 33:16-18

16 'In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.'

17 "For thus says the LORD, 'David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually.'"

I answer this with the Christian Doctrine of the Priesthood of Believers, the bullwark of which is 1 Peter 2:9:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

And regarding "continual sacrifices", I would offer Hebrews 13:15:

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

Thus, two of the Messiah's head followers, Simon Kephas, "the Rock", and Saul Paulus, "the little", both seem to be indeed interpreting Jeremiah 33:16-18 spiritually.

I suspect you are right about Hebrews 10:5 being garbled.  With that in mind, however, I think the main thrust of Hebrews 10 is still quite clear.  In the following, please recall that Leviticus 17:11 only says that "the blood ... maketh atonement for the soul", but does state the blood actually washes away the sin.  It is as if you were to get a stain on your garment, and so Almighty God begins to turn away from your dirty appearance, but then you offer Him a sacrifice, and He then deigns to forgive and tolerate your uncleanliness.  Such is what Leviticus 17:11, God-breathed or otherwise, does claim.

Hebrews 10

1 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?

3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.

4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,
         "SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED,
         BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; 
6       IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. 
7       "THEN I SAID, 'BEHOLD, I HAVE COME
         (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME)
         TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'"

8 After saying above, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

9 then He said, "BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL." He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

I have argued elsewhere that the Messiah's ministry was a direct rebuttle to the Temple and its sacrifice cult.  The Messiah cleansed the temple (Matthew 21:12-17) and then foretold its doom when the unrueful Priesthood still denied the Calling of John the Dunker, or 'Baptist', and then damned themselves with their own words (Matthew 21:18 - f.f.).  And, indeed, Titus and the Roman Legions fulfilled the Messiah's fore-telling (Matthew 24:1-2) in 70 CE when they sacked Jerusalem and tore the Temple down.

Furthermore, the Messiah presented himself as the "Sacrifice to End All Sacrifices" and the "Intercessor to End All Intercessors", thereby utterly obviating the Temple of any further relevancy.  Clearly, the coming in of the Messiah was the going out of the Temple, which has remained rubble since that time, throughout all the years of the Christian faith.  The one is anathema to the other, and they cannot co-exist.  Those who would rebuild the Temple must first destroy Christianity, etc.

And here in Hebrews 10:1-9 we see yet more proof of our deductions.  In the vein of Hosea 6:6, "For kindness I desired, and not sacrifice, and a knowledge of God above burnt-offerings", Saul Paulus here argues plainly that the Messiah has "taken away" Temple sacrifices, and replaced them with "doing God's Will".

And this is the heart of Islam -- as I understand it.

That is, the Messiah came to Israel to obliterate the Temple cult and Right Israel back onto the path of Islam -- doing God's Will.  Such is what I hear, at least.

So, at the end of the day, I am arguing that the Messiah came explicilty to obliterate the ritualistic and legalistic Temple cult, with its concern for numerical minutae, and re-introduce pure uncorrupted Islam -- doing God's Will.  The Messiah came to "take away" the ossified literalisms the Temple priesthood clung to, and (re-?)establish pure Islam.

You argue for a literal interpretation of Jeremiah 33:16-18. But upon the strength of 1 Peter 2:9, Hebrews 13:15, and Hebrews 10:1-9, I counter that the Messiah's head followers clearly favored a spiritual interpretation utterly at odds to the Temple cult.  For consider, also, Hebrews 9:8:

The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

So, in short, I see in the conflict between literalism and spiritualism the very conflict between between the Old Covenant, the Covenant of Works (continual blood sacrifices), and the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace (continual prayer and belief).  Note, lastly, that 1 Peter 2:9, mentioned above, references Exodus 19:6:

and ye -- ye are to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation: these [are] the words which thou dost speak unto the sons of Israel.'

Now, please put this in the context of the words of John the Dunker in Luke 3:8:

"Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

This is what Saul Paulus refers to repeatedly in his letters when he talks of (spiritual) "Adoption" to "sonship" with Almighty God.  Why?  Because a literal interpretation of Exodus 19:6 would be that the Hebrews were a "chosen kin-folk" by blood... whereas what John the Dunker is warning his listeners against is this very "laurel-resting" complacency of thinking that one is automatically a "made man" merely by virtue of calling Abraham his forefather.  Almighty God judges by the heart (Luke 16:15; 1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 21:2; Acts 1:24; Romans 8:27).

Therefore, I link literalism to the argument John the Dunker is lamenting, namely saying "I am a son of Abraham, and I sacrifice regularly in the Temple, meeting the letter of the Law, so I am set". 

Romans 2

26 So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

27 And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?

28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

and Romans 7:6:

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

So again, as with the "Gospel of Barnabas", we have a conflict between reading the Law "as to the sense, rather than to the letter".  The letter says, "burnt offerings [on an altar of this and that dimensions]"... The sense says, "offer up to Almighty God the 'sacrifices' of prayer, praise, and a broken spirit [Psalm 51:17]".

The very "Good News" of the Messiah, as I see it, was freedom from the heavy and oppressive overburden of the Law's legalistic ritualism, itself based upon strict literalism.  As with Hebrews 10:1-9, the New Covenant cast out the million and one rules of the old... and ushered in a New Covenant founded on merely one precept: do God's Will.

WHERE's THE ALTAR?

As for the importance of the altar, I wonder if Pilate's washing of his hands in Matthew 27:24 is a reference to Psalm 26:6,

I wash in innocency my hands, And I compass Thine altar, O Jehovah

This would make the Messiah, who is called the "cornerstone" or "capstone" of the new Spiritual Temple of the Body of Believers, equal to the "altar" of the Spiritual Temple.  I do not believe that such a statement would be inimicable to Christians, but I will ask.

1 Thessalonians 5

14 and we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the infirm, be patient unto all;

15 see no one evil for evil may render to any one, but always that which is good pursue ye, both to one another and to all;

16 always rejoice ye;

17 continually pray ye;

18 in every thing give thanks, for this [is] the will of God in Christ Jesus in regard to you.