Looking forward to the cross?

I pulled this off of another website. I had it linked but it is from one of those sites where they have all those pop-up ads, so I decided to copy and paste it onto my site to keep the ads from coming up. It's a great little study and I think the author's name is Paul Defina. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Looking forward to the Cross???

I was VERY surprised to learn that the whole "looking forward to the cross" doctrine is based on Gen 3:15 and 22:8. TWO VERSES? The question is, did Abraham even know that Gen 3:15 was going to be written? Didn't Moses write this after Abraham died? Also. Was Abraham speaking of Jesus when he said "God will provide Himself a lamb?" That's easy for us to say because WE HAVE ALL OF THE DETAILS NOW (Hind sight is 20/20). But why did Abraham really say this? Abraham was just answering his sons question without saying "YOUR THE LAMB TO BE SLAIN, SON"!!! If Abraham was expecting "another lamb" at that time, then why did he RAISE THE KNIFE to slay his son? We are NOT to fill in the blanks in order to make it fit in with what we were taught or what we believe. We need to take scripture at face value.

Imagine what the rest of the journey to the place of sacrifice would have been like for Isaac if Abraham told him what he intended to do? God knew about the coming lamb at that point and led Abraham to say this for our benefit! Abraham, on the other hand, intended to sacrifice his son like God told him to.

At this point (22:8) God "accessed" the future Blood atonement of Jesus Christ and justified Abraham for his "act of faith". Now that Jesus came and made the atonement on the cross we have "access" to it through faith in Jesus Christ (ROM 5:2). Before Jesus died however, people accessed the Blood through the existing covenant (Gods revealed plan) at the time. If access to the Blood atonement was always the same as it is now then God setup many useless and deceiving covenants with people! Besides, Paul says "according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ". In Abraham's time, Paul's Gospel didn't exist and nobody was preaching Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, NOTHING WAS WRITTEN down at that time.

Think about it. If Genesis 3:15 wasn't written at the time of Abraham, how can that be used as proof that Abraham knew about the cross when he said "God will provide Himself a lamb?" Even if Gen 3:15 was written it's an incredible STRETCH to define a whole doctrine, which took many NT books to define, from ONE obscure verse. Gen 3:15 barely makes sense now, never mind in Abraham's time.

Moses wrote Gen 3:15 AFTER Abraham DIED, so Abraham couldn't have read it. Also. Why didn't Jesus, Paul or James ever mention this? They all refer to Abraham and never mention this "mystery" doctrine. Paul would've said "Wasn't Abraham justified by looking forward to the cross"? But he didn't...

Abraham was Justified, as GODS WORD SAYS in James 2:21 , when he offered Isaac on the alter. Abraham was righteous when he believed God and he was Justified when he offered up Isaac.

Think about this. After Abraham was declared righteous by believing God, GOD STILL TESTED HIM. So He wasn't yet justified. If he was then God wouldn't have needed to test him again. Once Abraham offered up his son, however, GOD NEVER TESTED HIM AGAIN!!! He was finally justified (Declared forever righteous).

Being justified is a FINAL judgment. It declares a man righteous once and for all. We should appreciate the "FREE GIFT" that we have been given in this age of grace!!! The GIFT we have today wasn't revealed until Paul was caught up into heaven. Just read the scripture and believe what it says:

See that??? "The faith" wasn't revealed until it was revealed to Paul by revelation. Paul ISN'T saying that these people hadn't yet accepted the faith but that it WASN'T REVEALED UNTIL NOW. How can someone practice something that's NOT YET REVEALED???

Ro 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began

Need MORE PROOF? Peter had NO CLUE as to what Jesus needed to do on the cross. The other apostles didn't even know who he was! At this point peter knows that Jesus is the son of God (only because the Father revealed it to him at that time!) but he doesn't know that Jesus is the lamb. But wait. I thought Peter and everyone else were "looking forward" to this event for their salvation???

Mt 16:21 ¶ From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

We can't just FORCE the current "dispensation of grace" into EVERY DISPENSATION. The whole purpose of "rightly dividing" is to apply the many different covenants in there proper dispensations. If, in every covenant, salvation was the same, WHAT ARE YOU "RIGHTLY DIVIDING"? Your NOT dividing at all. Your simply "picking" the most appealing dispensation, applying it all dispensations, and ignoring verses like:

1Jo 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Cause the person to get saved in this dispensation but preach the wrong gospel for future dispensations. Therefore adding confusion to God's future plans and causing some people to stumble and loose their salvation in the future.

Cause the person to get saved in this dispensation but not know they are saved and therefore don't have "Peace with God" until they die. This also causes people to take this peace away from others around them.

I will admit that this issue doesn't SEEM to be all that important when compared to the MANY other false doctrines that cause people to stumble today and lose salvation. But! If your wrong about this, then your wrong about salvation in the tribulation period also. Your doctrine could cause someone to stumble in the FUTURE.