Coming to God and Jesus in Old Testament and New Testament Times

Has coming to God and Jesus changed from Old Testament times to now? Certainly, there were many who lived before Jesus' birth that had a relationship with Jesus. David is spoken of as a man after God's own heart. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses are all people spoken of with special faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Esther, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Obednego all went through great trial and received miraculous deliverance. Surely, these people, along with many others that lived before Christ had a special relationship with God.

Much has been said about how to come to Jesus today. In this article I would like to take a look at how Abraham came to God and compare it with how we come to God and Jesus today.

We come to Jesus by grace through faith made. This is made possible by sacrificial atonement. Jesus is our sacrifice. According to Jewish tradition Abraham's parents were idol worshippers. In fact, his parents may have even been builders of idols. How did Abraham, from such a background come to know God? Did he study the subject of idols vs. God in depth and come to this conclusion? I don't think so.


We read in Genesis 12:1 "The LORD had said to Abraham, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you." We see here that God came to Abraham. It had to be through divine inspiration that Abraham took up his goods and left. The key point here is that God first came to Abraham through divine inspiration and revelation. God did not have to do this. There is no record of exceedingly great accomplishments made by Abraham earlier in his life. And even if there were, it would not be enough to earn salvation.

Now let's jump over to the Brit Chadasha (New Testament). In Ephesians 2:8 we are told by the apostle Paul that "It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith––and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

It is the same today. How do we come to a relationship with Jesus? God comes to us first with grace. We have a choice to make, yes we do. And so did Abraham, but the faith required to make that right choice is the gift of God.

A classic case of a person coming to Jesus after Jesus crucifixion is that of the apostle Paul, as relayed in Acts 9. Paul was a violent persecutor of Christians when Jesus came to him and struck him blind. Paul was not searching for Christ.

One more interesting thought on this subject is from Matthew 16:15-18:

But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Jesus is asking Peter who he thinks Christ is. To which Peter responds that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ responds to Peter by telling him that man has not revealed this to him, by God the Father. And that he is Peter, and upon this rock Christ will build His church.

The phrase "this rock" that Christ will build his church upon has most often been thought of as referring to Peter. This may be true but I would like to also pose an alternative. It seems to me that Jesus may be referring to the fact that "this was not revealed to you by man, but by the Father in heaven" as the rock. The fact is that we do not come to Christ, He comes to us. This solid, hard fact could be what Jesus is referring to by the expression "this rock".

How did we as flesh and blood come to Christ? Through grace, God and Jesus came to us first. We are partners with Christ, we have choices to make, but God initiated the relationship. The right choices that we make through faith are a product of the relationship we have with Him, which was started by faith.

For more information regarding the Hebraic Roots of Christianity check out Thomas Thorne's new book titled "The Wonder and Majesty of God's Festivals and Holy Days: The Master Plan Revealed."  It's a wonderful, eye-opening experience.

Israel, The Land of Purple

There is no doubt, God is fond of the nation Israel. They have remained a unique people for over 3,500 years. God gave the land to Abraham when He said to him "And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God (Gen. 17:8 NLT).

Akkadian was the ancient, eastern Semitic language of Assyria and Babylonia written in cuneiform script. Cuneiform writing was composed of slim, wedge shaped triangular elements. The Semitic language was a sub-family of Afroasiatic languages that included Akkadian, Arabic, Ehiopic, Hebrew and Phonecian. In the Akkadian language, the word Canaan can be translated as "purple."

The land that became Israel may have gotten its name from the dye industry that flourished there at one time. The most precious dye was the purple dye. It is actually a red-purple color, known as "argaman" in Hebrew. In fact, some say it is red. Think of how red and purple mix on the rainbow.

This dye, along with the "royal blue" came from mollusks or whelks found of the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic coasts. The Canaanites fished for the snails that produced this dye along the coasts of northern Israel and Lebanon. The city of Tyre became a major center for the production of this color. So much so that the dye today is known as "Tyrian purple."

The dye industry was a major industry for over 3,000 years and the two colors mentioned above , argaman and royal blue (tekhelet), became associated with royalty. One of the main reasons is that they were so expensive and difficult to produce. According to the Jewish Jewels newletter (August 2010) "One gram of dye was made from the secretion of 10,000 sea snails. The purple color was remarkably stable, resisting alkalis, soap, and most acids."

Argaman was the color used in the Tabernacle along with blues and reds. When Mordecai was rewarded for saving the king's life in the book of Esther) he was publicly adorned in royal clothing of argaman (Est. 8:15). The virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 is known to dress in argaman (Prov. 31:22).

The color purple has often been associated with royalty. Just as the land of Canaan was known as the land of purple. Royalty definitely came from Israel.

For more information on the history of Israel visit the Hebraic Roots of Christianity web page.

Tom Thorne

Parts of the Old Testament

The Hebrew Bible is known as the Old Testament by the majority of Christianity. In this article we will take a look at the Hebrew name for this portion of scripture.

What is known as the Old Testament is called the Tanakh in Hebrew, or the Hebrew Bible. The word Tanakh comes from the three types of writings that are included. In the Hebrew alphabet there are no vowels, so the word Tanakh is actually made up of three letters with sounds, the T, N and K.

• The first letter, "T" stands for Torah (Toe-Rah). The first five books of the Bible, the writings of Moses.

• The second letter, "N" stands for Neviim (Nev-i-eem). This word in Hebrew means "prophets". Examples of the prophets include the major and minor prophets.

• The third letter, "K" stands for Ketuvim (Ket-oo-veem). In Hebrew this word means "writings". Examples of the writings include the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job.

There we have it. The Tanakh (TNK) is the Hebrew name for the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament. It is comprised of three parts; the law, the prophets and the writings.

And, in case you were wondering, the Hebrew name for the New Testament is the "Brit Chadasha" (Breet Had-asha).