The following brief introduction is to show the value of understanding biblical typology and Bible covenants.
I was moved to create this blog in 2018 because I had some very important things to say against the Baha’i Faith. I had been a Baha’i for about 5 years in the late 1970’s and still knew several Baha’is. I feared for their souls and prayed to God for a way to help them see that their religion was false.
I studied many of the religions in the chart below, but ultimately, after reading through the Bible (at which time I was born again), I knew that their souls were in grave danger.
It became clear to me that I could convey these things to Baha’is if I showed them that the most basic tenet of their faith was false, that tenet is known as ‘progressive revelation.’
Progressive revelation holds that God sent ‘manifestations of Himself’ approximately every thousand years to provide new spiritual guidance to humankind. These ‘manifestations’ imparted spiritual knowledge such that humankind might continue to spiritually evolve.
That is, progressive revelation states that Abraham, Moses and Christ are each ‘manifestations’ of separate world religions; that they were each sent by God with new spiritual revelations. That theses three were among other religious founders such as illustrated in the image below:
By using Bible scripture, my document showed that Abraham, Moses and Christ are intimately connected by Bible covenants. That God’s covenant with Abraham was fulfilled in the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. The biblical covenants that necessarily connect Abraham, Moses and Christ create huge holes in the Baha’i theory of progressive revelation, rendering it erroneous.
Simultaneously, my document showed that these three men all belong to one religion; the one being revealed by the God of the Bible.
Therefore, since the most foundational tenet of the Baha’i Faith is erroneous, all claims resting upon that foundation are erroneous.
The above information was stated merely to show the reader that Bible covenants intimately connect the Old and New Testaments.
More than that, by studying the covenants God made with Abraham, Moses and Christ, one begins to see that God’s plan of redemption is revealed in a progressive manner: God began with revealing Himself to one man, Abraham.
Genesis 12:1 The LORD said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
Abram had questions for God because he had no children and was already advanced in years.
Genesis 15:2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 Now the word of the LORD came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6 Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
God built up a nation through Abram: his son Isaac; Isaac’s son Jacob; Jacob’s (whose name was changed to Israel) 12 sons, who became the 12 tribes of Israel.
Genesis 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
God, through Moses, gave the law via covenant, to guide Israel until the coming of Christ. The apostle Paul made these things clear in the initial 5 chapters of Romans and in Galatians.
Then at Pentecost, after the New Covenant was ratified in the blood of Christ and He ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, the one people of God that He had began by calling Abram in Genesis 12.
At that point, what God began with the calling of Abram to Himself (out of the Pagan land of Ur); had progressed to the calling out of His people from all nations.
That is, God’s plan of redemption had progressed from the calling of an individual, Abram; to the nation of Israel; and finally, to the whole world, Jew and Gentile.
All of the above occurred by way of covenants that God established via Abraham, Moses and Christ.
All of those covenants were based on the grace of God; not on works. God’s covenant with Adam, in the Garden of Eden was the only covenant that was based on works.
After the fall, mankind was incapable of earning righteousness for salvation. We can only merit salvation via the righteousness of Christ being imputed to us when we trust in Him. As He is the only one who ever kept the Law of God; His merit, His righteousness is imputed to those who trust wholly upon Him for salvation.
In other words, beginning at the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, God promised to redeem mankind. God’s plan of redemption progressively unfolded from that time, particularly via the above covenants. There are still elements of God’s plan to be revealed to mankind, both testaments speak of them….
The initial 11 chapters of Genesis contain the beginnings of all things; they contain the foundation stones that uphold all Bible doctrine….
For example: the doctrines about who God is, who man is; what God expects…. To become more familiar with this portion of Genesis, see Answers in Genesis with Ken Ham. He spends much time and energy stressing doctrines originating therein, and how men, by perverting doctrines found in Gen 1-11, have created the social ills we are currently experiencing. (See one linked post from this blog on that topic.)
Now, to the topic of this post: knowing typology can enable one to more easily see the connections between the Old and New Testaments:
Luke 24:27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. [Jesus’ words on the road to Emmaus.]
The following article came from Got Questions Ministries, https://www.gotquestions.org/typology-Biblical.html
QUESTION
What is biblical typology?
ANSWER
Typology is a special kind of symbolism. (A symbol is something that represents something else.) We can define a type as a “prophetic symbol” because all types are representations of something yet future. More specifically, a type in Scripture is a person or thing in the Old Testament that foreshadows a person or thing in the New Testament. For example, the flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6—7) is used as a type of baptism in 1 Peter 3:20–21. The word for “type” that Peter uses is figure.
When we say that someone is a type of Christ, we are saying that a person in the Old Testament behaves in a way that corresponds to Jesus’ character or actions in the New Testament. When we say that something is “typical” of Christ, we are saying that an object or event in the Old Testament can be viewed as representative of some quality of Jesus.
Scripture itself identifies several Old Testament events as types of Christ’s redemption, including the tabernacle, the sacrificial system, and the Passover. The Old Testament tabernacle is identified as a type in Hebrews 9:8-9: “The first tabernacle . . . which was a figure for the time then present.” The high priest’s entrance into the holiest place once a year prefigured the mediation of Christ, our High Priest. Later, the veil of the tabernacle is said to be a type of Christ (Hebrews 10:19-20) in that His flesh was torn, (as the veil was when He was crucified) in order to provide entrance into God’s presence for those who are covered by His sacrifice.
The whole sacrificial system is seen as a type in Hebrews 9:19-26. The articles of the “first testament” were dedicated with the blood of sacrifice; these articles are called “the patterns of things in the heavens” and “figures of the true” (verses 23-24). This passage teaches that the Old Testament sacrifices typify Christ’s final sacrifice for the sins of the world. The Passover is also a type of Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” Discovering exactly what the events of the Passover teach us about Christ is a rich and rewarding study.
We should point out the difference between an illustration and a type. A type is always identified as such in the New Testament. A Bible student finding correlations between an Old Testament story and the life of Christ is simply finding illustrations, not types. In other words, typology is determined by Scripture. The Holy Spirit inspired the use of types; illustrations and analogies are the result of man’s study. For example, many people see parallels between Joseph (Genesis 37-45) and Jesus. The humiliation and subsequent glorification of Joseph seem to correspond to the death and resurrection of Christ. However, the New Testament never uses Joseph as a model of Christ; therefore, Joseph’s story is properly called an illustration, but not a type, of Christ.
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The document I wrote to show members of the Baha’i Faith that Abraham, Moses and Christ are all of Christianity is linked below. It is a one-hour read that prepares students of the Bible to get much more in their next read by providing an overview of Bible covenants and some other basic things.
BAHA’I DOCUMENT THAT EXPLAINS THAT ABRAHAM, MOSES AND CHRIST ALL BELONG TO CHRISTIANITY: Covenant with Bible refs.pdf 4.2.20
LINK TO POST ON GENESIS 1-11 VIA KEN HAM:
https://sheeplywolves.com/christian-and-secular-worldviews-defined-ken-ham/
Image of Baha’i theory of progressive revelation is from Bible.ca