The Boiling Pot - Moriel Ministries

Feature Article
Jacob Prasch
Painting by: Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (Italian 1483-1520)
Acts of Apostles – Paul spreads Christianity in the Eastern Medterranean 45-58 C.E.
by James Jacob Prasch
I
Introduction
For me, Ezekiel was always the single
most difficult book of the Old Testament
(arguably of all Scripture) to understand,
but in more recent years I believe the Lord
in His grace has been giving more Christians
more insight into the Book of Ezekiel.
Remember, in both Corinthians and
in Hebrews, we have a distinction between
“milk” and “meat.” “Milk” is baby food
and is right for young believers and “meat”
is for older believers, and we are told in Hebrews
if we continue to give people “milk”
there is not going to be calcification of the
bones and baby is not going to grow properly
(Heb.5:12-14). This has happened to
many churches and many movements; they
just continue to teach “milk” and never go
to “meat.” It is dangerous to give babies
meat, but it is also dangerous to give growing
people milk because they are not going
to grow if that is their primary diet.
The New Testament is mainly milk.
There are heavier books in it such as Hebrews,
and there is deeper veiled content
midrashically in the Gospels (particularly
John). There are elements of meat in the
New Testament, but it is primarily milk.
The Old Testament, although there are
drops of milk in it, is primarily meat. Always
remember, “The New is in the Old
concealed, the Old is in the New revealed.”
Of course, the Plymouth Brethren have
been saying that for generations, but not
until a German academic said it in Latin did
it become academically acceptable.
Say there was a medical nurse in the hospital,
she liked nursing, but she became interested
in medical science, so she decided
to quit her job as a nurse and go to medical
school to become a medical doctor. When
she was a nurse, all she had to learn was
how to tourniquet a wound and stop the
bleeding; when she began to study medicine
she had to understand protein synthesis
and how blood clotting works. She
did not have to know this when she was a
nurse; it is more complicated as a physician.
Nurses and paramedics save people’s lives,
but when someone really wants to get into
it, they have to go into biochemistry and
physiology and the deeper things like that.
Or think of a policeman who decides to
quit his job and go to law school. There he
is studying the same subjects, but much
more deeply. He has to learn the rules of
evidence; he has to learn Latin; he has to
learn things he did not need to know as a
cop that he will need to know as a lawyer.
Thank God for the New Testament, but
the fact of the matter is that about 70% of
Scripture is the Old Testament. However,
there is an exception. The big exception is
the Book of Revelation.
The Link Between the Old
Testament & Revelation
From a literary perspective, the Book
of Revelation can be considered to be Old
Testament literature. It is the most Hebraic—most
Jewish of the New Testament
books, even more so than John’s Gospel,
even more than Matthew. It draws on Old
Testament themes and motifs more than any
other book in the New Testament. From a
literary perspective it is like Old Testament
literature. In fact, if we were to read the
Old Testament in the Greek Septuagint, we
would see how incredible are the parallelisms
to the Book of Revelation.
The literary link between the Old Testa-
Moriel Quarterly • June 2012