Hearing but never understanding

Mat 13:14  With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: 'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
Isa 6:9-10  And he said, "Go and say to this people: 'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.'  (10)  Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed."

Isa 29:10-14  For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep; he has closed your eyes, you prophets, and covered your heads, you seers.  (11)  The vision of all this has become for you like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to those who can read, with the command, "Read this," they say, "We cannot, for it is sealed."  (12)  And if it is given to those who cannot read, saying, "Read this," they say, "We cannot read."  (13)  The Lord said: Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote;  (14)  so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.

Are you familiar with fractals? Fractals are reoccurring patterns that are found in nature. They are produced over and over again; an example would be a snow flake. This is the case with prophetic messages and prophecies as well. They occur over and over again. I mention them because I see the above prophecies repeating today with the doctrine and practice of evangelical Christianity. Jesus was the Lamb that opened the scroll, that is.... opened the understanding of scripture (Luke 24:27; Revelation 5:9.) Yes, Jesus opened the scroll for his followers right after the resurrection.

How did he open the scroll you ask? Well, he told everyone listening to him that the scroll/scripture was all about Him and his mission of redemption. He taught that the Word of God was the gospel of the kingdom and that he the King was the living gospel or in other words, the gospel made flesh that tabernacled amongst humanity. In fact, I have conclusively proven over many posts in this blog that when the first century followers of Jesus who wrote the New Testament used the phrase "word of God" they always meant gospel or Jesus the living gospel and NEVER meant the scripture as a whole. There are many parts of the scripture that are cultural and explain the happenings at a specific point in time or occasion.

I think one of the clearest examples of that is Exodus 21:7-9. In that passage is given a humane way to treat concubines. Certainly, it was not meant that concubines were God ordained. No, it was a message that improved a cultural practice. Prior to this passage, concubines (sex slaves) had no rights to speak of and could be treated any old way. The Exodus passage regulates the practice improving their lot in life. Of course this is not the only passage that is simply cultural. There is a myriad of cultural references throughout the pages of both the Old and New Testaments. Additional examples are the regulation imposed on women in the New Testament. They were not allowed to be teachers or elders and again, this was cultural and not God ordained.

This is why one should not adopt a legal constitutional reading of scripture. It is also why it is erroneous to call the entire scripture the Word of God. The word of God is the gospel pure and simple. It is the redemptive narrative and not a legal constitutional document. Look at what Jeremiah said about the legal constitutional  aspect of the scripture/covenant. Jer 31:31-32  "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,  (32)  not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD." Yes, Israel broke the covenant. A broken covenant does not have to be enforced any longer. The broken covenant of Israel eliminated the legal constitutional aspect of the covenant awaiting the new and better covenant based on new and better promises.

The point of this post is that the above passages can just as well be about the evangelical church today. They hear but do not understand and look but do not perceive. I think that it could be because of the fact that 2 Thess 2:11 was fulfilled in the first century. There is a big difference between the gospel that Paul preached and elaborated on and what the early church fathers of the second century wrote. Furthermore, there was a forty year silence between the destruction of the temple and the first writings of the second century Christian communities.