Dear JimSDA;
the 2 cherubim were placed "on" the AofC -- the Bible clearly says that they were put "on the ends" -- so they were attached to sides. If they had been put actually "on" the mercy seat lid they would be in the way of the blood being sprinkled onto the mercy seat by the High Priest. . . . when Moses wrote Exodus "writing" was a new form of communication, and it can be difficult to clearly understand some of the things that are written, which includes the phrasing/translation of putting the cherubim "on the sides" of the AofC! . . . As I show on my website, others have also put the cherubim standing upright on the sides of the AofC, so Ron was not the only person to have this interpretation.
The scripture I cited was a description of the cover of the Ark, the Cherubs were on the ends of the cover. Reread for yourself.
(Exodus 25:17-21) "And you must
make a cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you must make two cherubs of gold. Of hammered work you are to make them on both ends of the cover. And
make one cherub on this end and one cherub on that end. On the cover YOU are to make the cherubs at its two ends. And the cherubs must be spreading out their two wings upward, screening over the cover with their wings, with their faces one toward the other. Toward the cover the faces of the cherubs should be."
Now you have also claimed that writing was new so Moses is hard to understand, so you blame the contradiction on Moses being a poor writer? I gather from this that you can see that what Moses wrote contradicts what Ron claims to have seen. Moses got it right, the description of the Ark's cover in Exodus chapter 25 matches the description given in Chapter 37, in both descriptions the cherubs are on the ends of the cover and are not on the ends of the Ark itself as Ron claims to have seen them.
(Exodus 37:1-9) "Bezalel now made the Ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height. Then he overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside and made a border of gold round about for it. After that he cast four rings of gold for it, for above its four feet, with two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. He next made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. Then he put the poles through the rings on the sides of the Ark for carrying the Ark. And he went on to make the cover of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its width. He further made two cherubs of gold. Of hammered work he made them on both ends of the cover. One cherub was on the end over there, and the other cherub on the end over here. He made the cherubs on the cover on both of its ends. And they came to be cherubs spreading out two wings upward, screening over the cover with their wings, and their faces were one to the other. The faces of the cherubs proved to be toward the cover."
"He made the cherubs on the cover on both of its ends." This is pretty plain, and is a repetition of the earlier description which also put the cherubs on the cover, there is no way they were on the ends of the Ark. In the Book of Hebrews Paul also states that the cherubs were above the ark or on the cover. The biblical evidence is clear, the Cherubs were on the cover, the reason Ron said they were on the ends is simple, he went by an old picture what showed the cherubs on the ends of the Ark. Ron merely repeated an old error, which shows that he never actually saw the Ark or he would have gotten the description right.
As for lid mounted cherubs being in the way of sprinkling blood, the blood wasn't sprinkled on the Ark, it was sprinkled on the ground in front of the Ark, which was towards the east.
(Leviticus 16:14) . . ."And he must take some of the bull's blood and spatter it with his finger in front of the cover on the east side, and he will spatter some of the blood with his finger seven times before the cover."
The weight of the gold would have been problamatic if the lid and the cherubim were actually "solid" gold -- so somehow the cherubim had to be hollow, and the lid perhaps made of wood and the lid and the cherubim were covered with "solid" gold?
The Ark was light, it was after all designed to be carried, my point was that Ron described seeing a very heavy 500 lb type cover which the real Ark clearly didn't have.
Regarding the blood of Christ going onto the AofC, yes, this is "new" information -- "new light" -- but it makes perfect sense. Yes, if Jesus had ONLY pled His blood in heaven it would have been sufficient. But I see no problem with Him having done both! And, by the way, there IS a Bible verse that seems to indicate that it was necessary:
The extremely important 70 Week Prophecy of Daniel 9:24 includes the phrase "and to anoint the most Holy" -- most have assumed that this meant that the Jews had a time limit on accepting and annointing their Messiah, Jesus -- but it can also be interpreted to mean that at the end of His life on earth the Messiah was to annoint the "most Holy" object on the planet (the AofC) that had been placed in the "Most Holy" apartment of the Sanctuary!
So Ron believes that the AofC was annointed with Christ's blood which sealed the New Covenant.
Moses used blood and water to seal the Old Covenant, and sprinkled it on the AofC -- so to seal the New Covenant, Christ annointed/sprinkled His blood on the AofC.
Also, you say that the New Covenant wasn't in place until Pentecost -- but in Matthew 27:52-53 it says that many of the saints arose when Jesus died on the cross! To us that means that the New Covenant was in place as soon as His blood annointed the AofC -- if the New Covenant wasn't in place until 40 days later, then those saints would have had to wait until then!
First read the verses carefully (Matthew 27:51-52) "And, look! the curtain of the sanctuary was rent in two, from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rock-masses were split. And the memorial tombs were opened and many bodies of the holy ones that had fallen asleep were raised up," Notice that Matthew didn't say that the dead persons were resurrected, brought back to life or raise up, he said that their "bodies" were raised up. What happened here is simple, there was an earth quake which broke open many of the tombs and the dead bodies were tossed up and exposed to passerby's who went into the city and told people what they had seen. A literal resurrection of the dead is not referred to here, no other verse in the NT refers to this event which if it had been a massive resurrection of the dead, it would have many NT references. But even allowing for the possibility that a massive resurrection is referred to in the verse, such an event would not require the New Covenant as having already been inaugurated, since Christ raised many people before he died. Also, if the New Covenant went into effect when Jesus died, that would contradict what Paul taught in Hebrews, that Jesus redeemed us by offering his blood before Jehovah God in heaven. So there is no way that the New Covenant went into effect before Jesus acted as high priest in Heaven.
(Hebrews 9:24) "For Christ entered, not into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy of the reality, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us."
Christ entered heaven and appeared before Jehovah with the value of his shed blood and acted as high priest and redeemed mankind. A literal pouring of blood before the literal Ark when Jesus died would contradict the whole foundation of what happened.
The whole purpose of the Ark and the temple is that they served as an illustration of what Jesus would do in our behalf, they were not the real thing.
(Hebrews 10:1) "For since the Law has a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very substance of the things,"
(Colossians 2:17) "for those things are a shadow of the things to come, "
(Hebrews 9:24-26) "For Christ entered, not into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy of the reality, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us. Neither is it in order that he should offer himself often, as indeed the high priest enters into the holy place from year to year with blood not his own. Otherwise, he would have to suffer often from the founding of the world. But now he has manifested himself once for all time at the conclusion of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself".
The whole point of the Temple and the Ark, was that they pictured Jesus going to heaven with the value of his shed blood and entering the real most holy; heaven, and going before the Ark; Jehovah's presence, and offered the blood of his sacrifice; the value of his sinless human life. Paul in the above verse is clear on the point that Jesus did not enter into the Temple's Most Holy nor did he offer his blood before the Ark which is merely a shadow or copy of the reality made by human hands. Jesus offered his life's value not before the Ark but before the very person of God for us. That is when he offered it, there is no allowance for an earlier literal pouring of his blood before the Ark when he died, that would be in conflict with the whole biblical teaching of Jesus' salvation of mankind.
On the 70 Week Prophecy of Daniel 9:24 and the phrase "and to anoint the most Holy" refers to Jesus offering the value of his shed blood before God in heaven. The Most Holy, the room in the temple that contained the Ark, pictured heaven and the Ark pictured Jehovah God's presence. As Paul stated in above verse, the "holy place" or Most Holy, pictured "heaven" and that is where Jesus offered the value of his blood, that act "anointed" heaven not the Ark.
Sincerely Yours; Wm Scott Anderson
™ Version 4.2
