Law And Order Series

Hebrews 1: 1 – 14

Law And Order

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You” ? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son” ? 6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” 7 And of the angels He says: “Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.” 8 But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.” 10 And: “You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. 11 They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment; 12 Like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not fail.” 13 But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool” ? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?

I was thinking of naming this chapter – ‘Who Are You Talking To And Who Are We Talking About?. But it is too long. I picked the term ‘Law And Order’ because we see how like a great lawyer a truth is wonderfully laid out about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by listing proof statements from Scripture.

So, before we dive into this chapter let me ask you a question, ‘Have you ever heard of the term – ‘Occam's Razor?’

Occam's (or Ockham's) razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. Ockham was the village in the English county of Surrey where he was born.

The principle states that "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily."

Many scientists have adopted or reinvented Occam's Razor, as in Leibniz's "identity of observables" and Isaac Newton stated the rule: "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances."

The most useful statement of the principle for scientists is "when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better."

Occam's razor is often cited in stronger forms than Occam intended, as in the following statements. . .

"If you have two theories that both explain the observed facts, then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along"

"The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations."

"If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest."

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."

In the only form that takes its own advice.- "Keep things simple!"

For me I place the term as – ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’

So, I forsake all the so called experts who go to great lengths to argue their positions. To me it isn’t that important.

There are many experts who argue that the Jews today are not Jews so the letter to the Hebrews is to Christian Believers. The writer of this book is not identified so we cannot say it is Paul who wrote it. Let me say up front as we study this book that the intended recipients are to Jewish people and for all Christian believers. As you know all the Epistles were to be circulated throughout all churches. In addition, I believe it was the apostle Paul who wrote it. As we go through this book I will list my reasons of why I state these two positions.

The actual letter gives no indication of authorship, but we know that this letter was written well before 90 AD because it was cited in Clement of Rome’s letter to the Corinthians (c.96 AD) as the equivalent of Scripture, but never as by Paul, even though he regularly cites Paul and names him. This demonstrates that it was known to have been written by an Apostolic man, someone whose words could be seen as the very words of God, and someone well known to ‘our brother Timothy’ (13.23) who was still alive. The latter reference suggests that, if not Paul himself, he probably moved in Paul’s circle.