Category: Theory

House Leprosy

house leprosy

In Leviticus 14:33-57, we learn of house leprosy. This condition called leprosy is not to be thought of as what we would call leprosy today. In the bible the condition, when applied to people, meant that a white spot had appeared on the skin, and in regards to a house, reddish and greenish spots had appeared on the walls.

The instructions for what the priest had to do were these:

1) Remove everything from the house and quarantine the house for seven days. Then, on the seventh day the priest would come back to inspect the house.

2) If the leprosy was still there and had spread, the priest would order all the infected stones to be removed and all the plaster to be scraped off the walls, and all of that to be taken outside of the city. Then new stones would be put in place of the old and the whole house re-plastered.

3) If the infection returned, the priest would order for the house to be torn down completely and taken out of the city to an unclean place.

This is exactly what Jesus did with the temple.

1) In John 2:13-25 Jesus visited the temple in His early ministry. He turned over the tables and said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” He inspected the house and found leprosy.

2) Near the end of Jesus’s ministry He came back for a second inspection. Again, Jesus drove out those who were selling and cleansed the temple. He said, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.”

3) In AD 70 Jesus came back again, found the infection still remained, and destroyed the temple.

Today the Church is the temple of God, and Jesus is continuously separating the sheep from the goats, continuously inspecting His Church, blessing the faithful and purging the wicked.

The Three Stages to Doing Something

1-2-3
1) The Romantic Stage

Here is where we first get an idea and dream about it. And of course our dream is big and awesome. Also, our dream has “me” at the center, even when our goal is to help others. That is okay because if we wait until our motives are unselfish, we’ll never do anything. But, at some point we have to get past the Romantic Stage and into reality.

2) The Reality Stage

After we’ve begun to pursue our dream, we soon discover that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine; it’s hard work! Not everything goes as planned. In this stage we actually learn how to do what we’ve dreamt about. Lots of trial and error.

3) The Quality Stage

In this stage we have finally accomplished something of our goal where we can step back and see that the dream has become manifest. It might not be perfect, but what we set out to do is indeed being done.

Whatever happens, the trick is to not get stuck in any of the three stages. We must always be building up, going through all three stages over and over again as we grow and learn.

The Four Stages Prophetic Fulfillment

Biblical prophecy ps

When we read the bible and find prophesy we want to know when the prophecy will be fulfilled. Has it been fulfilled already? Still to come? Or, will there be a double fulfillment? I have even heard the term “the law of double fulfillment”, stated as though every prophecy must be fulfilled at least twice.

While listening to lecture by James B. Jordan I learned a different way to look at the fulfillment of prophecy.

Often there is a fourfold fulfillment:

1) Anticipatory

The prophecy is given and there is a near fulfillment of it. The purpose of this stage is to confirm the word of the prophet. It’s way of saying, “This prophecy hasn’t been definitively fulfilled yet, but here’s a small fulfillment to prove that the prophetic word is true.”

2) Definitive

This is the actual definitive fulfillment of the prophecy. All biblical prophesy is definitively fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

3) Progressive

This is the full effect of the prophecy coming to pass through the Church. The Church is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Church, therefore whatever is fulfilled in Christ will also happen in the Church.

4) Cumulative

This is the full effect of the prophecy coming to final fruition on the Last Day.

One example we can look at is the Temple:

In 2 Samuel 7:1-16 we read of how David decided he wanted to build a temple for God.* When David told the prophet Nathan of his idea, Nathan told him to go ahead and do it. But then God said, “You’re going to build a house for me David? No, I will build a house for you. Your descendent will build a house for me.” If you read the text, it is clear that God is talking about Jesus. God gives the prophesy here of Christ’s kingdom and the true temple of God which Jesus will build.

In 1 Chronicles 22:7-11 the exchange between God and David about the temple is elaborated a bit more. David told Solomon that he wanted to build the temple but his hands were too bloody. He also said that God would give him a son, a man of rest, and that son would build the temple. God also said the son’s name would be Solomon, which means peaceful. Then in verse 11 and following, David tells Solomon to go ahead and build the temple and that he had provided resources and plans for it. Again, read the text and you will see that the words God spoke were referring to Jesus.

In 2 Samuel 12:24-25 it is interesting to see that David named his son Solomon, but God named him Jedidiah.

So, God gave a prophecy that He would provide a king of peace, whose kingdom will last forever, and that this king would build a temple for God.

1) The prophecy was fulfilled in an anticipatory way with king Solomon building the first temple.

2) The prophecy was fulfilled definitively when Jesus built the true temple: the Church.**

3) The prophecy is being fulfilled progressively as time goes on and more and more people are brought into the kingdom.

4) The prophecy will will reach its final complete state on the Last Day when the bride (the Church) is married to her Groom (Jesus). From that point on, the temple will grow more and more glorious for all eternity.

There are several examples of prophecy being fulfilled in this fourfold manner in the bible. It doesn’t have to be this way every time, but when it is done this way we need to take notice of it.

*Notice from the text how it was David’s idea to build the temple, not God’s. God was happy with the continued use of the tabernacle — which was a temporary structure. David wanted to make the temporary structure more permanent. God wasn’t interested in that because He had a whole new structure in mind for the temple: the Holy Spirit filled Church. But, God allowed the temple to be built, He wasn’t against it. God can knock down a stone building just as quickly as a tent.

**Old Testament Israel was always the Church. I don’t believe Jesus created something new called the Church. But, because of His work on the cross, the law was fulfilled and God was no longer confined to the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. The curtain was torn. Also, with the barrier of the law out of the way, the Gentiles were able to enter.