2 Animal Sacrifices Abolished
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Eternal Life, Creation, and Prophecy
1Greetings, sons and daughters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us in peace. 2I exceedingly rejoice in your blessed and admirable spirit, seeing that you abound in the knowledge of the oracles of God, because you have fully received the spiritual gifts and have been grafted into the olive tree.[a] 3This is why I am overjoyed in the hope of salvation. I longed for, and am now amazed, to truly see the Holy Spirit poured out among you so richly with the Lord’s love. 4I am even more fully convinced of this because, since I spoke of these things to you, I have learned much in the way of righteousness. I also truly love you beyond my own soul, because of your love and great faith in the hope of eternal life. 5For this reason I took the time to write to you some of the things I have learned. It will do me good to minster to you and I was eager to send you this small letter to make your faith and knowledge more perfect.
The Three-Fold Witness
6There are three points of our faith that the Lord has ordained that we have full knowledge of: the hope of eternal life, the world’s true history, and prophecy. 7For the Lord has declared to us by His prophets the things that happened long ago, the prophecies we see being fulfilled in our lifetime, and has also given us the first-fruits of the knowledge of future events. 8So, when we see these prophecies fulfilled, one by one, we should be more reverent when approaching His altar[b]. 9I wish to reveal a few things to you, not as your teacher, but as a fellow Christian. I know you will be very excited about these truths, considering your present circumstances!
Commentary
Barnabas wrote this epistle to his students. They were following all the commands laid down in the New Testament and were experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit; but to be mature in their faith; they were told to spend their time focusing on what Barnabas calls the Three-Fold Witness. In other words, this means that a mature Christian must understand, and be able to explain to others, three main points of the Christian faith.
First, they are to know how to explain everything related to Salvation. This would mean being able to tell others about the Creation and Fall of Man, the sin nature, and the need for salvation; how Jesus, second person of the Trinity, incarnated in human form to live a sinless life and die on the cross to pay for all of our sins, and that the gift of eternal life is free to all those who repent.
Second, the fact of creation is very important. Many of the ancient church fathers taught that in the last days, when the great apostasy would invade the church, the teaching of evolution would replace the teaching of creation.
Third, they were to understand all the prophecies and be able to show others that the events that have happened in their lifetime are fulfillments of ancient prophecies.
To be mature Christians, we should do the same. Each one of us should be able to answer any question regarding sin and salvation, creation, and prophecy. To this end I have created the books Ancient Post-Flood History, and Ancient Prophecies Revealed, giving a detailed look at the secular historical documents that prove Creationism and the Flood, and to show that in modern times over 53 biblical prophecies have been fulfilled between AD 1948 and 2008. See the last three chapters of this book for more details.
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