IN MEMORY OF ME
Bread and wine are body and soul; they are the necessities and pleasures of life; they are the physical and mental aspects of life. Wine and oil are a soothing and healing ointment. David says (Psa. 104:15) that God gives-
"Wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart."
The gladdening gospel wine, the enlightening spirit oil and the strengthening bread of life.
And behind the wine is the multitudinous imagery that surrounds the vine and its branches.
"I am the true vine and ye are the branches . . . without me ye can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5).
Without him, what are we? What incentive would there be to carry on day after day in meaningless plodding toward oblivion? One long struggle, with its inevitable bitter twilight and final extinction. But the bread and the wine are here before us. Here is a point of contact with the eternal. The bread and the wine, each with the wide meaning and association which it has acquired through the long period of the Spirit's teaching and revelation.
There is a strange sense of familiarity when the mysterious figure of Melchizedek brings forth bread and wine in the presence of Abraham. In this gift of long ago by the King of Righteousness to the Father of the Faithful, all the history of God's loving purpose is condensed. The Jew today, as his fathers have done for ages, still brings forth his bread and wine at the solemn passover feast. But the veil is still over their face.
Bro Growcott - BYT 3.24
16 For where a [covenant] is, [the death of the covenant-victim to come in is necessary] KJV/YLT
17 For a [covenant] is of force after men are dead [over dead victims is stedfast]: otherwise it is of no strength at all [since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim] liveth. KJV/YLT
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
Hence the Brit HaRishonah was not cut without DAHM - OJB. [Ex 24:8]
The Confirmation of the Abrahamic Covenant
—You mistake the tendency of brother Andrew's paper on the Abrahamic Covenant if you suppose it displaces a single principle contended for by Dr. Thomas.
It is a mere question as to the meaning of a particular passage, which as it stands, in the common version, appears to employ the figure of a will in connection with the efficacy of the death of Christ.
Is it a will, in the English sense, or a covenant that Paul speaks of? Taking the translation as it stands, which the Dr. appears to have done, it is the former undoubtedly; but the translation, as it stands, cannot be maintained, as will be manifest to anyone having any knowledge of Greek, on trying to translate the verse without reference to the common version.
The context and many considerations concerning the death of Christ, exclude the idea of a will, and point distinctly to a convenant, as brother Andrew has shown. The fact does not introduce a single new principle or displace an old one, except in so far as the figure of a will was understood to be sanctioned by Heb. 9:17.
The way still remains open for the scriptural explanation (which Dr. Thomas has pointed out) how it came to pass in the appointment of God (on which, in a perverted form, all Pagan usage was originally founded) a covenant could not be ratified without the shedding of blood.
The Christadelphian, Jan 1875
For a [covenant] is of force after men are dead [over dead victims is stedfast]: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth [since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim liveth]
Hence the Brit HaRishonah was not cut without DAHM. [Ex 24:8]
- A brother,
whose walk and conversation are scriptural, is not to be denied the fellowship of his brethen because he may happen to have a wife who refuses to live with him. To deal thus with him would be to punish him for the fault of his wife, and add injury to misfortune.The separation may have been unscripturally effected; but if the brother in question acknowledge the wrong and offer reparation and reconciliation to his wife, he does all that can be demanded of him, and ought to be forgiven and received, notwithstanding his wife's contumacy [stubborn rebelliousness].
Paul expressly recognises the possibility of such a case in 1 Cor. 7: 15. True, Paul speaks of an unbelieving wife, while your question apparently relates to a professing sister, but there is little practical difference between an unbeliever and a disobedient professor. In reference to both, the rule holds good, that
"God hath called us to peace."
The Christadelphian, Aug 1874
2 For I will gather all nations <eth-k̆ol-haggoyim - certain particular nations> against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity [be deported - Joel 3: 6], and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Zech 14: 2 Half the city will go into exile. The other half will remain in the city, the houses being plundered [OJB] and the women raped. (The verse does not imply that half of the inhabitants die). "the residue" [the remainder - those who have survived Gog's invasion] of the people shall not be cut off from the city" [but remain there under occupation until delivered out of affliction by Messiah]
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith Yahweh two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein - Zech 13: 8
The survivors in Jerusalem following if following the pattern of destruction in the land as a whole will be reduced to 1/3 of its original inhabitants. Of this one third half will go into exile and half remain to be saved by the King of Glory.
Approx 600 000 Jews in Jerusalem in 2024 reduced to 1/3 by Gog (following the pattern of the land as a whole - though areas of greater wickedness ie Tel Aviv might suffer greater losses) = 200 000 half of which go into exile leaving 100 000 to fulfill Zech 12: 10
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
The face of the spoiler
"Politicians speculate as though money were omnipotent; and we hear 'financial reformers' predicting the inactivity of Russia and Austria for want of funds! Where did the barbarians procure funds for the overthrow of the western empire in the fifth and sixth centuries? Did they not support themselves by the spoil?
Let the Russian treasury be as empty as it is said to be, and its expenditure exceed its revenue by double the alleged deficit, it will only operate as a pressure from within, causing her Autocrat to 'enter into the countries and to overflow and pass over,' and to enrich himself with the spoil of those he is destined to subdue" (Elpis Israel, p. 367/379).