Christ in the Old Testament Essay

The gray-headed Testament was like a world where morality would unexpectedly pop to tenders and interact with His creations. The main reasons for this position action was to inform that person of what He was about to do. beau ideal would also engagement his manners as a way to to confirm and encourage his people. In this world, where idol sneaks calibrate to conform into the physical form of a human, was for the purpose so that His creations would be more easily able to relate to Him and meet His message more adequately. These appearances atomic number 18 cognize as the Nazargonneophanies, and are shown throughout the senior Testament.James Borland writes a defend named rescuer in the sr. Testament. Borland paints a expand picture of what this world of delivererophanies consisted of during that duration. Appearances of God discover all the way back to the azoic chapters of Genesis. Even though God appeared some(prenominal) times in throughout the book, not a ll those appearances are considered theophanies. It is difficult to regulate a comprehensive definition of what theoph some(prenominal) is. For an ex full, Gods brief appearances to Abraham, Joshua, and Gideon are contrastive than the appearances made in Shekinah, or as Jesus the Messiah.Borland quotes The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, which states the caprice of theophany is something temporary and not permanent (15). in that attentiveness are Several contrastive connotations of the landmark theophany, that will help better rise the term Christophany. The different connotations can be distinguished in dreams, visions, shekinah glory, incarnation of Christ, aft(prenominal) his resurrection, his second coming. They all differ from Christophany. Borland presents the topic of Christophany as concrete reality of the time before God began to reveal an ample amount of the Scriptures.The book is divided into different chapters that are in logical order. In the beginn ing of the book Borland first defines a Christophany, distinguishing and fashioning it clear from other types of Gods manifestation. The primary difference amongst the Old Testament Christophany and the incarnation of Christ according to Borland,Is not only in the transitory nature of the one and the permanence of the other. More importantly the incarnation of Christ involved a permanent legal jointure between God and complete munificence(20).Christophany and incarnation are two different ideas. Christophanies were actual occurrences. They were not imaginary, or a hallucinatory experience. Borland said that a Christophanies moldiness stand or fall with the accurate word of God and cannot be degage out as later additions to decriminalize certain holy places (21). These were very extra events. Some Characteristics of a Christophany that were included in the book Christophanies could only be initiated by God, and He revealed Himself as He willed. Christophanies were revelatory or revealing.Each had an immediate purpose, such as the assurance of promises, warnings, or instruction. Christophanies were for individuals quite an for multitudes, That is why the incarnation of Christ would not be considered a theophany. Christophanies were intermittent occurrences. in that respect was no predictability as to when a Christophany top executive occur. They were random. Christophanies only lasted some(prenominal) minutes and they were eer audible and panoptic. The recipient were not auditory sense things as the world instantly might say if a Christophany were to happen.Because of the incarnation of Christ, Christophanies are no longer necessary today (33-34). In the other chapters Borland offers several trial impression that the Old Testament Christophanies were actually appearances of God, such(prenominal) as Scriptural, and theological. the person that appeared in the Old Testament was all deity and was be to be the Father Son and the sanctum sanctorum spirit. The author often addresses the objections of various dissent theologians, and various Scriptures that seem to preclude Christophanies.In the case such as in the book of Joshua where the text explains that Joshua saw a man, Borland is convinced that this is still an appearance of God, or Jehovah. In the last some chapters Borland explains the form of Christophanies. He explains that they are visible and were not through a vision. They were audible, and tout ensemble put in a human form in every and any recognizable way. Borland examines in depth several individual passages in where God appears or speaks.Borland also focused on the theology of the Christophany in the last few chapters, relating these appearances to 4 major forms of theology bibliology, theology proper, Christology, and scriptural theology. The main point that is made is that God had a purpose for revealing Himself in each Christophany. The world that existed during the time of the Old Testament is evident that it is not the equal world that exists in the New Testament. end-to-end the years since the Old Testament, God has appeared to humanity in different ways.Ways that are not considered Christophanies. It is amazing how God is unstrained to timber out his throne and step down to communicate to a extraordinary(p) person. The whole idea of God making an effort to communicate with his creation Whether it was in the old testament or in modern times, demonstrates his humility and love. As Christians we should respect and honor him for that. In writing this book James Borland did a wonderful subscriber line writing this book. It was very informational, and this book should be passed down for generations to come.