This is Apologetics Live to answer your questions, your host from Striving for Eternity Ministries, Andrew Rapoport.

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People sometimes forget that this is a ministry of Striving for Eternity.

I am your host, Andrew Rapford, here to answer your most challenging questions.

Today's topic that we will get to, we'll also get to your questions as they come in.

But today's topic we're going to deal with is, well, something that a lot of people don't think about.

And it is the question of who is Melchizedek?

Why should that matter?

How should that affect us?

The reason we're doing this is, well, because a really, really, really smart, intelligent woman encouraged me to talk about this.

And that would be my bride.

I was teaching through Psalm 110 and there we deal with Melchizedek, but just briefly.

And my bride thought it would be good if we went into more depth of who Melchizedek was and who he wasn't and why it matters.

So that is going to be the topic tonight.

But we do have someone backstage and so I'm going to bring Melissa in and see what she might have for us tonight.

Melissa, welcome to the show.

Hello.

I just wanted to go backstage because the web page is messed up.

It's not showing there to show tonight.

Oh, did I?

Yeah.

Let me see the webpage.

Let's see.

Let me refresh because I did check the page.

I always check it to make sure it's that people can get in.

Does it say no show on there somewhere?

It just doesn't have anything to click for a new show.

It does say to participate in a Streamyard though.

For whatever reason.

I wonder.

I'm seeing that on mine.

This is tech support.

I see you in the show right now on the page, but I'm using the Brave browser.

I wonder what browser were you using?

Do you know?

I'm using Google Chrome.

Okay, well, Brave would be chromium based, so that should show up.

I wonder why that is.

Yeah, I swear let's see, I just tried it in Safari and that showed up fine.

Maybe it's just that browser.

Yeah, I wonder.

Well, you got me.

Well, that was, I guess, an easy question to ask and I don't know that a very satisfying answer.

Yeah.

Well, thanks.

You have any other questions for us tonight?

No, thank you.

I just wanted to tell you about that.

All right.

Well, I do appreciate it.

I'll remove from the scene.

You can, you can stay backstage if you want.

Come just let me know in the chat if you want to come back in.

But yeah, okay, so let us deal with the topic of Melchizedek.

What I'd like to kind of COVID tonight is, is some questions I put there in the show notes.

And you can always see the show notes beforehand@apologexlive.com that way you always know what we're going to talk.

But I want to try to examine some questions of who Melchizedek was, you know, especially according to, well, the, the three main areas that we're going to see him is Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and then we see him in Hebrews 5 to 7, primarily chapter 7.

I want to answer the question, was his priesthood a type and shadow?

Or, or was this something else?

You know, was his priesthood transferable?

That's going to become very important when we start talking about some of the, the cults and how they view Melchizedek and the Melchizedek priesthood.

So we're going to look at how the Mormons view the Melchizedek priesthood, how the job witnesses, how the Hebrew Israelites.

Trying to take a look at these different views that some have with the Melchizedek priesthood.

But Hebrews makes it really clear that we'll look at is that his, the Melchizedek priesthood is superior to the, you know, Aaronic priesthood.

We'll talk about both of those.

And then I want to also try to cover on why this mount.

This Melchizedek priesthood is very specific to one person being Christ.

And so you may not even be familiar with Melchizedek.

Maybe you're asking yourself who exactly is Melchizedek?

Well, okay, if that is you, well, then tonight's show is just for you.

May I encourage you to open your Bible?

Okay.

If you're driving, keep driving.

Don't unless you pull over to the side of the road.

But if you look in Genesis chapter 14, I want to start here and, and look at what we have here as far as the, the introduction of Melchizedek.

So what we have in Genesis 14 is this is the time, if you're familiar with it, where you have.

All the, the kings joining with Abram to go to war.

They are looking to bring Lot back.

And this is now after all of that, after the, the defeat of the, the kings.

And then it says in Genesis 14, I'm going to start reading in verse 17, I want to read this so you have some context for this because this is something that a lot of people don't think about.

Maybe when they get to Hebrews they, they think about this.

But there is a lot of important discussion to have here because when we look at this priesthood, it is going to be essential to get this accurate and right, especially when you're going to come across some of those who want to, well, deny.

Really some of what the Bible teaches.

Okay, we're going to look at Mormons specifically.

So it says here in Genesis 14:17, I'm going to keep reading down a little bit, but it says then after his return from the defeat of.

Chem Del, I'm going to mispronounce the name, but Cheddar Lamora.

And the king who was with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shiva, that is the king's valley.

And Melchizedek, the King of Solemn.

So now this is.

So there was the king of such, the king of S O D O M. And this is the king of S A L E M. This word is peace.

So he's Melchizedek, the King of Peace.

Now is that a place or is that a description?

Well, maybe we'll get into looking at that.

And, and so as we we see this, it says in verse 18 and Melchizedek, the King of Salam brought out bread and wine.

Now he was a priest of God Most High.

He blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham, the God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and be blessed and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

And he, this is referring to Abraham.

And he gave him a tenth of all.

The king of Sodom said to Abraham, give the people to me and take the goods for yourself.

Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.

I will not take a thread or sandal thong or anything that is yours, for fear you would say, I have made Abraham rich.

I will take nothing except the young men.

What, what the young men have eaten and share the share of men who went with me.

Okay.

And so what you see here in this passage, specifically in verses 18 to 20, is the importance here we, we end up seeing that this Melchizedek is called the King of Peace, King of Salam.

He brings out bread and wine to Abraham.

He's described as the priest of the Most High.

Now I want us to think about something for a moment.

Was there a Levitical or Aaronic priesthood at this point?

Well, if you think about it, the answer is obviously no.

Why?

Because Levi hasn't been born yet.

This is Abraham's time.

Abraham hasn't even at this point had a child, Isaac.

Isaac's not even born.

You need to have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Levi before you can have a Levitical priesthood.

Okay?

And so when we look at the priesthood that we think of in the Old Testament, that is from the line of Aaron, and more specifically, when it comes to those who would take care of the elements, it would be the line not only of Aaron, but what we call the, the Cohens or the Kohen, which, which are a specific tribe of Aaron.

That would be my family's lineage.

And so what you have here is that this Melchizedek is called a priest of the God Most High before there is any other priesthood.

So one thing we see about this Melchizedek priesthood is it predates the Levitical priesthood.

That's going to be important because the argument is going to be made in Hebrews that this is a greater priesthood.

And so as we look at this priesthood, we will see that it is that, that Melchizedek is a priest of the God Most High.

But I want you to notice what happens in verse 19.

He blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham of the God Most High.

So Melchizedek blesses Abraham.

That's important.

The reason that's important is because.

The, what we see is a lot of.

We see a lot of people who will put a lot of focus on the priesthood.

Well, if this priesthood predates Levitical priesthood, and here you have this priest blessing Abraham who blesses, who does the greater blessed the lesser, or does the lesser bless the greater?

Well, the answer is that the greater blesses the lesser.

So the fact that Melchizedek as a priest.

Predating the Levitical priesthood is blessing Abraham says that he is the greater.

Now the fact that Abraham gave a tithe to him, gave a tenth to him, shows that Abraham recognized that Melchizedek is greater than him because he's paying a tithe, a tenth to this priest.

So that becomes something that.

We, we could see.

Is something that we're going to see greater when we get to the, the Book of Hebrews.

But just to start off, we, we recognize that this, this priesthood predates the Levitical priesthood that Melchizedek here.

It's very interesting because what you see here is that he is both the King of Peace, the King of Solom, and he is.

Of the God Most High.

That's interesting because of the fact that what will come later in history is in the Mosaic law we will see that the priestly line and the kingly line are two different lines.

In other words, you can't have someone be a king and priest.

The priestly line is from the line of Levi, as I said, through Aaron, where the kingly line is through Judah.

So you have a distinction there.

Yet this Melchizedek is both king and priest.

Now there's some who, who say, well, someone can't be king and priest because it's forbidden by the Mosaic law.

Except the Mosaic law hasn't, wouldn't have been written in the time of Abraham.

That's 400 years later.

So this is not something that's saying, well, that's, it's forbidden.

Well, not at this point.

It's not that we know of.

Because there's nothing we see in the scripture at this point that would forbid a king and priest.

Well, that's going to be important as we're going to look at because I'm, I'm going to reveal who I think Melchizedek is.

And I, I, it's important to know he's both a king and priest.

But the one thing that I also want us to recognize, and this has come, come through even greater as we look at Hebrews, is that this king, priest Melchizedek, has a greater spiritual authority than the father of the Jewish faith.

The Israelites would look to Abraham as their forefather, the father of the faith.

He's one of the most revered people in Jewish history, but he is subordinate to Melchizedek.

That's going to be made clearer as we go through this.

But let us turn in your Bibles, turn to Psalm 1:10.

This is the passage that I had preached this past week in church.

And so as I, as I taught through.

And so here we have.

That begins Psalm 110.

I'm going to read the first four verses.

That's going to give us what the emphasis we were looking for here.

It says, now this is David writing this.

And he says.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your Enemies, a footstool for your feet.

Now we stop there.

That may sound familiar.

This is in three of the Gospels where Jesus refers to this.

And this is something where Jesus asks after.

The Pharisees are asking all kinds of questions.

We see us in Matthew, Mark and Luke that Jesus asks the question and says, whose son will the Messiah be?

Who.

Who's going to be the Christ?

And they say, son of David.

So Jesus asked the question, how then did David say, the Lord says to my Lord?

In other words, Yahweh, Jehovah is saying to my Lord.

So Jehovah is speaking to someone that David calls Lord.

Let that sink in, because I already said Abraham the the most revered man of faith in Christianity.

He.

Is subordinate to this Melchizedek.

And here you have David, this one of the second probably most revered in Judaism, in Jewish history.

And he is referring to God speaking to someone that he calls Lord.

So Jesus asked the question, who is this Christ that David calls Lord, who would be born after him?

You see the dilemma they have.

And the reason that's such a dilemma is because how could David, being the forefather, call him Lord?

That is out of his lineage years later, a thousand years later.

And so there's.

We're going to get to why that is.

But basically there's something else to note here.

If Jesus wanted to Refer to Psalm 110, he did not say, Turn to Psalm 1:9, 1:10, as I had the privilege of doing with all of you.

He actually would say the first line of the psalm.

This is something that is very commonly seen if you want to refer to a psalm, you give the first line and it will.

It is a way of notifying everyone to read all that psalm.

In other words, when Jesus was on the cross and he says, my God, my God, why have thou forsaken me?

That is the first line of Psalm 22.

And if you go on to read Psalm 22, you would see that there is a description of the crucifixion, everything that Christ was doing there on the cross.

It is bringing all that to their mind.

So when Jesus is challenging them with this question, it says that after he did this, they stopped asking him questions.

I mean, he just shut them up to for good.

All of their challenges.

They were, they were like, we don't want to have to deal with this anymore, right?

Kind of like the Democrats asking for the Epstein files.

And when they're finally released, you don't hear it anymore, right?

They just shut up because it's like, oh, you weren't really supposed to release that.

It, it implicates us.

That's what happened with the, the democrats of their day, the Pharisees.

They, they asked questions.

And then when Jesus asked them a question, no, we didn't want you to actually ask that.

They just shut up.

And so what we see here is he's referring to their mind in that all of this psalm, but he's asking this question because the question here shows that this Messiah, this Christ in Greek, Messiah in Hebrew, anointed one in English, this one individual, the Lord God or Yahweh, calls David, calls him Lord.

So you have the Lord God, the God the Father is speaking to someone else that David the King calls Lord.

In other words, David sees himself subordinate to this Messiah.

So it describes this Messiah.

He says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

The right hand is a position of, of authority and power.

So you sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Now I'm just going to say that we haven't seen a time in history where all of God's enemies sat as a footstool at his feet.

Now some will say, oh, this is prophetic language and it's spiritual.

And yet though this is being taken literal by Jesus as speaking of a literal individual that the Lord God is speaking to and it's speaking of a Messiah who's going to sit at the Father's right hand.

And so I don't see any reason to not take this literal that there will be a time that the enemies will, will sit at as a footstool at the Messiah's feet.

Now, when we have different end times views, I'm just going to say that this is why one of the many reasons I would be pre millennial looking at a passage like Psalm 110, I have not seen this fulfilled literally in history at any time.

Now.

Jesse is saying that I sound post mill brother.

He says, oh no, this sounds post mill brother.

Well, I don't think it's going to sound post mill there, Jesse, as we continue, because we haven't had a time.

Now I, I see where you'd say, yes, it sounds post mill.

And, and I mentioned this in church.

It sounds like it could be post mill except for one thing as we keep reading because the very next part says the Lord will stretch forth your, the, your strong scepter from Zion, saying rule in the midst of your enemies.

That's not postmill anymore.

You see, the post mill could say, okay, you know Christ is going to come and, and the, and his you know, the enemies of God will be put under his feet.

And see what the next part though says is that he is going to rule.

He's going to be in a position after the enemies are put in his, under his feet.

You're going to have the rule of the King.

And so in verse three, it's going to talk about and your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power and in holy array from the womb at dawn, for your your youth are to you as do.

And now here we get to verse four, and this is the important part.

It says, and the Lord has shown and will not change his mind.

You speaking of the Messiah, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek here where we see this individual again.

And so you see that it says the Lord's not going to change his mind.

That this Messiah is going to be a priest how long?

Well, forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

So here we see this priestly line.

It says that the Messiah will be of this priesthood.

So he's not the Aaronic priesthood.

He's of this priesthood.

And just, just to finish out this psalms and just short.

I'll just.

Let's read the rest.

It says, the Lord is at your right hand.

He will scatter the kings in the day of his wrath.

He will judge them among the nations.

He will fill them up with corpses.

He will scatter the chief of men over the broad country.

He will drink from the brook by the wayside.

Therefore he will lift up his head.

So what you see here is it.

It is this.

The Lord is speaking to the Messiah, saying that he will bring the enemies of Messiah to his foothold.

And in that process.

It will be one where.

After, after which point the Messiah will rule.

In the midst of his enemies.

He will be a priest at that time under the order Melchizedek.

But then you see in verse five, it's talking about the that the, the Lord is going to this mount this Messiah or Christ is going to.

Shatter the kings in his day of his wrath.

He's going to judge the nations.

He's going to, you know, fill them with corpses, scatter.

He will scatter the chief of the men.

So he's going to.

So it's like talking of the warfare.

And then verse seven, it's going to.

He's going to drink by the book.

In other words, he's going to relax.

He's drinking by the brook of the wayside.

Then he's going to lift up his head.

In other words, he's going to have a time of where he's ruling and there's no more war.

And so this is something that I think is very fitting with a pre millennial view.

Okay?

And so that is what we see of the references to Melchizedek in the Old Testament.

Okay, now we go to the New Testament and the New Testament gives us more information.

And, and this is, you'll see verse chapter five of Hebrews, verse.

Chapter five, verse six.

It will see reference to this.

Now what you have in Hebrews is Hebrews is.

Going through showing how Christ is greater than everything basically.

Chapter, you know, chapter one.

He, I mean he's greater than the angels, he's greater than, than the, the men, he's greater than the, the priesthood.

And, and so now you're going to have this comparison between the, the Levitic priesthood and the Melchizedek priesthood in chapter five.

And so Hebrews five, starting in verse five it says so so also Christ did not glorify himself as to become high priest, but he who's said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

That is by the way, Psalm chapter 2, verse 7.

And then Hebrews 5, 6 says just as he also said in another passage, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

So here now we have a reference to Psalm 110 that we just looked at.

So what we see is that Christ.

Is going to be not just the Son begotten in a, in if you read psalm chapter Psalm 2, you see it, that is a prophetic Psalm of Messiah.

And then we have Psalm 110, another one we call Messianic Psalms.

And so here is another reference to Melchizedek.

But saying that Jesus is this Messiah referred to in Psalm 110 and he is a priest forever in the, in accordance with the order of Melchizedek.

Now in the Greek where we have, in the word forever we have, that is a definitive article.

It's kind of like saying the forever.

And so that is something that we end up seeing in the Greek that is not so in the Hebrew.

Okay?

And so what we see here is he's saying that.

He'S making some emphasis here on Melchizedek.

Okay?

So Melchizedek is the, the.

This priesthood is passed on to Christ.

And where we're going to see the greatest emphasis then.

If we look at this is we get some description in psalm in Hebrews 5, 7 to 10 so let me read that.

And, but the emphasis we're going to spend the rest of the time will be in Hebrews 7.

So what we, what we see it's saying here is in, this is Hebrews 5:7 to 11 or 7 to 10.

It says, in the day, in the days of his flesh, he offered both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his piety, although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.

And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him, the source of eternal life, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Now, why is this important?

Well, this would be important because as we saw in Hebrews 5:5 that Jesus did not glorify himself to be the, to be a high priest.

In other words, the reference there would be the, the high priest that we think of in the Levitical priesthood, that he was over that priesthood.

No, what he is is, he is a priest for every forever in the order of Melchizedek.

And so he is a high priest according to that order.

And that's a different order.

So what you see here is the, the references here is that this order of Melchizedek is greater than the Levitical priesthood.

So as we've seen here, this Melchizedek individual is of a priesthood.

He is greater than Abraham, he is greater than David.

We see that his, the Messiah will be of his priesthood and Christ, Jesus Christ is of that priesthood.

So as we've gone through all this, the question is, so who is he?

I'm glad you asked because Hebrews 7 is going to provide us some greater detail.

So we have, if you turn to Psalm, I keep saying Psalm Hebrews 7, verses 1 to 10 is going to give us more detail here.

It says for this Melchizedek.

So this is now the author of Hebrews.

I'm going to argue that's Paul.

I, I believe that it was that Hebrews was written by maybe Barnabas, but it was a, a sermon that Paul preached.

That is what I believe.

You could say I'm wrong, but I could be right.

When we get to heaven, we can ask Paul.

So what you have here though is that the author of Hebrews says for this Melchizedek, referring back to Genesis 14, he says of this Melchizedek, he is the king of solemn, the king of peace.

A priest of the most high God.

Now, those two qualifications we have seen In Genesis that he was called the King of Peace, the King of Solemn, and that he is the priest of.

Of the Most High of the God.

God Most Higher.

Most High God.

So we've, we have seen both of those already.

And what we then see is it says who met Abraham when he was returning from the slaughter of the k. And blessed him.

So this is as we talked about right after the blessing, after the returning of the kings, Melchizedek blessed Abraham.

So what the writer of Hebrews is saying here is what I've already said, that Melchizedek is greater than our father Abraham.

How do we know?

Well, verse two, it says to whom Abraham apportioned a tenth of all the spoils.

So we know this because Abraham, as I said earlier, gave a tithe, gave a tenth to Melchizedek.

And it says.

Who.

Who was first of all by translation of his name, King of righteousness.

In other words, Melchizedek means King of righteousness.

So it says who.

Who was first of all by translation of his name, King of righteousness, and also King of Solemn, which is King of peace.

So you have the writer of Hebrews that is bringing his audience back to Genesis 14.

Referring to Melchizedek and, and reciting what we know from Hebrews.

But now he is ex.

Expounding upon that, exegeting Hebrews and saying that Melchizedek is his name, means King of righteousness.

And he's said to be the King of peace.

So that is a description of who he is.

Now, names mean things.

You know, they would have names that would have.

People would give a name that means something.

My children have Chinese names that we gave them for the folks who don't know.

My wife is from Hong Kong, so we gave them names in Cantonese, which is what she would speak.

And so my, my son's name translated would be to rely on Christ.

Because my wife had a rough.

Rough time with that.

That pregnancy, and she had to rely upon Christ.

So we called our son to rely on Christ.

My daughter, my son had some, some different medical issues and, and made it where we were relying on.

We were relying on Christ as much as.

As he was gonna have to in his life.

And, and so we relied on Christ through.

Through trials that we had with him.

So when my daughter was born, we named her Additional Grace.

You see, those had names that meant something.

Well, the writer of Hebrews is saying here is.

Melchizedek has a meaning.

It means he's the King of righteousness, but he's called the King of Peace.

So so far we know there's, there's two issues that we come up with here.

Who is Melchizedek?

There are two different views.

Well, there's a couple, more than two.

But there's the view that Melchizedek was a, a human being that lived and he was a priest before there there was Aaronic priesthood, he served God and that he would have this special priesthood that eventually Messiah would, would have and he was a type of Christ.

Now when I say type of Christ, what does that mean when we look at types and shadows?

And this is going to be something you're going to see more for folks who are covenant theologians and if you don't know that term, well, just go to apologizelive.com join go scroll down to the duck icon.

Join us.

Ask me what that is.

I'll go into more detail.

If not, we have plenty of resources at striving fraternity that would describe this.

But in Covenant theology you have more of a view of types and shadows.

You have a lot more of seeing things and saying, well, this is a type of Christ, this foreshadowed Christ.

And so some people will say that Melchizedek was a, a priest at the time of Abraham, that that was a foreshadowing of who Christ would be.

There's others that we're going to get to, some of the cults that would say that Melchizedek was a, an angel.

They're going to say he was an angel, that was a priest.

And they're going to do that.

Well, some Jehovah Witnesses specifically, because they're going to deny the deity of Christ.

We'll get to looking at that in the second hour.

But there's one other view and it's the one that I hold to and I therefore I think it is the biblical view and we see it based in verse three.

Now I told this story at my church.

I was a church that I attended when I lived in New Jersey before I moved to Pennsylvania.

My pastor and I were co teaching through Hebrews and we got to Hebrews chapter 7 and my pastor knew my view and his view and he said, I'm going to ask Andrew to teach Hebrews 7 again next week because I am going to teach you that Melchizedek is a type of Christ.

And next week Andrew is going to teach that Melchizedek is the pre incarnate Christ.

And let me define what that is.

In case you don't know.

Pre incarnate Christ means it is what we call Christophany.

It is an appearance of Jesus Christ before he came into humanity.

So he was incarnated.

That was when he became a man.

Well, pre incarnate means a time before he was born as a human being, before he became a man.

And so my position is that Melchizedek was a christophany.

Now we have, we sometimes you may hear terms theophany and christophany.

A theophany, theo is God.

So ofteny would be an appearance of.

So it is an appearance of God where he comes in human form.

He's not actually human, but when he comes to Abraham and meets with Abraham, he's in human form, a christophany.

Christ appearance is when Christ in the Old Testament you see Christ pre incarnate.

I would argue that when you look at the angel of the Lord, he is the pre incarnate Christian.

So what you have there is.

You have Christ appearing as the angel of the Lord.

I say that I don't have time to get into this, but you can get my book, what do we believe?

I get into that there in the chapter on God and the Trinity.

But I do show those references where the angel of the Lord is referred to as God.

And in the New Testament we see things that God, the angel of Lord did, Christ did.

So we would see that the angel of Lord was the pre incarnate Christ.

I will say that the Melchizedek is the pre incarnate Christ.

Now when my pastor was teaching through and he was saying that Melchizedek is a type of Christ, a foreshadowing, I asked him when he got to verse three.

Because verse three says, speaking of Melchizedek, that not only is he the, you know, that he all the stuff with Abraham, but his name is translated King of righteousness, he's of the king of peace.

But it says in verse three, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priesthood perpetually.

And so my question to my pastor was, how could this man who is a type of Christ be without father or mother or genealogy, and have no beginning and no end.

And remain a priest perpetually?

To which my pastor turned and said, I think I agree with Andrew.

Now there are those who would say that this Melchizedek is a type of.

Are going to say that this reference of no father, no mother is.

Is just trying to say that they didn't know his genealogy.

That it just.

It was one not known.

Okay, they will reference down to verse six.

We'll get there.

But I'LL read it.

It says, but the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed one.

Blessed the one who had the promises.

So what they will say is that verse six is saying they, it's not that he didn't have a father or a mother, it's just they didn't know who he was because they didn't trace it.

That's, that's the argument that people will make with this.

But let's read verse three in, in the context there first before we get to verse six.

It explicitly says he's without father, without mother, and without a genealogy.

It's, it's not saying we don't know who his father or mother are, or we don't know his genealogy.

It says he doesn't have it.

Furthermore, it says he's having neither beginning of days nor end of life.

That is speaking of being an eternal being.

So the only.

Person that this could fit to, who does not have a genealogy there, why don't they have a genealogy?

Because they have no beginning of days, they have no end of life.

In other words, what this is saying is that this has to be a reference to God.

And I hope you see that.

I understand that for those that may be more covenantal, they like the, the types and shadows.

And therefore it, it's something that people want to have stand out.

And that is something that I, I understand the desire for that, but we have to take a look at what the text.

Interpret it within its context.

So what it says is that he is without father, without mother, without genealogy, and he has no beginning of days, no end of life, and he is this priesthood perpetually.

So I, I think there is only one individual, one person this could refer to, and that is Jesus Christ.

We know this is that Christ is a priest in the order of melchizedek, because Hebrews 5 already told us that.

Okay, now after the writer of Hebrews told us this in chapter five, now he's coming back to revisit the issue of Melchizedek to go into more depth of who he is.

Now some that want to say that Christ is a type are going to make the reference because of the fact that they're going to say, but he was made like the Son of God.

It doesn't say he is the Son of God.

It would be like saying the, the angel of the Lord is like the Son of God versus saying he is the Son of God.

I don't know a passage that says that, but I do know that it's not excluding the.

The ability to say that, that this is the Christ.

Right?

Now, having said that, let's move on.

Keep reading this.

Because he says in verse five, and those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office have commandment in the law to collect a tenth from the people and from the brethren, although they were descended from Abraham.

So again, this is why I say, I think this is Paul preaching.

He's, he's references back to, to, in the minds of the Jewish hearers, back to Genesis 14 with Melchizedek.

And now he's exegeting that passage is what he's doing.

So he's saying here you have the Levitical priesthood.

And now he's bringing into that, okay, the fact that Abraham, who is before Levi, he, he was get, he gave a tenth, right?

So the, the Levites, the people are supposed to give a tenth to the priesthood for the Levitical priests, right?

But Abraham is the one that gave the, the collection to Melchizedek.

All right?

And these were, he's saying here in verse 5 that these brothers who are supposed to give this to the, the, to Levi's children, they were descended from Abraham.

But here in verse six is.

But the one whose genealogy is not traced.

I think the reference to a genealogy not traced is.

He's trying to go back to the fact that this, this one, this Melchizedek is God, the one whose genealogy is not traced from them, he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.

So again, it's, it's showing the superiority of this Melchizedek over Abraham and the Melchizedek priesthood over the Levitical priesthood.

How do we know that?

Well, what I said earlier.

But if, when I said that the, the greater, you know, blesses the lesser, well, that's because that's exactly what verse 7 says.

Here, Hebrews 7.

7 says, but without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.

Remember that question I asked earlier?

Who does the blessing?

Does the greater bless the lesser or does the lesser bless the greater?

Well, Hebrews 7.

7 says that the lesser is blessed by the greater.

So Abraham is the lesser and Melchizedek is the greater.

Verse 8 says, in this, in this case, mortal men receive tithes.

Notice that reference.

In this case, mortal men.

Why might the writer of Hebrews say mortal men men?

And the thing is, is that I, if you see my case that I've been making here, you may already pick up on what I'm going to say, and I'm hoping you do, because it would say that you're tracking with me.

And it is the fact that he's making the reference to mortal men as compared to who?

Melchizedek, the one who has no father, no mother, no genealogy, no beginning of days, no end of days.

In other words, God.

See the comparison between mortal men who receive ties compared to Melchizedek who received ties from Abraham.

Okay, so verse 8.

In this case mortal men receive ties, but in that case one receives them, of whom is witnessed that he lives on.

And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi received tithes, paid.

Received ties, paid ties.

For he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.

In other words, what he's saying is by Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek, Levi, who is still within the loins of, of his father, Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek.

So he's trying to emphasize here is that the superiority of Melchizedek and the Melchizedek priesthood over Abraham over the the priesthood of the Levitical priesthood.

Okay.

And so as we, we look at this.

We can continue on, because I do want to Hebrews 7 really is the expounding of.

Genesis 14.

Okay?

It just, it, it's laid out like a sermon.

So verse 11.

Now, if perfection was through Levitical priesthood, for on that on the basis of the people receive the law, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

So you see how he's making this reference.

There's a difference between the Levitical priesthood.

That is in the order of Aaron and the a priest that would rise according to the order of Melchizedek.

But notice he's saying now if perfection was through the political priesthood, you wouldn't need someone from the Melchizedek priesthood.

Well, what does that say then?

Well, that says that this Melchizedek priesthood is perfect.

So if the Melchizedek priesthood is perfect, that would say, well, we could say that is saying that he is someone who would be, well, divine.

So.

You.

What we see here is that this comparison now between the Levitical priesthood and Melchizedek priesthood is one of perfection.

The Levitical priesthood was not perfect, but the Melchizedek priesthood therefore is perfect because it is the one that came after.

And so.

We end up seeing here again, I think, support for the case of the pre incarnate Christ.

Let's move on to verse 12 and I'm laying this out in depth, because Melchizedek is used by different groups, especially of the Mormons, the church, church, Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, in a way that as I'm laying this out, I hope you're going to see when we get to that why that is such a dangerous thing to that their positions and something you could then lay out if you do.

Witnessing to people of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints.

So Hebrews 7, verse 12, it says, for when the priesthood was changed of necessity, there takes place a change of law also.

Okay, so the priesthood changed.

So the law changed.

In other words, the Levitical priesthood was for the nation of Israel, but now we have Christ, the priest of the Melchizedek order.

And when that priesthood changed, well, the.

The law of Moses is no longer in effect.

The law of Christ is in effect.

Okay, this is why you do not keep kosher anymore.

You get to enjoy bacon and all God's people say Amen.

So this is the thing he's saying is that this priesthood change also changes the law.

Verse 13.

For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe.

From which no one has officiated to the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord has descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.

And it is clear, clearer still if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such, not on the basis of law of physical requirement, but on accordance of power on an indestructible life.

So here he's saying that it's that this is speaking of Christ.

Right?

He's of the tribe of Judah.

So here you have someone who is of Judah, king.

Yet he is a priest, Melchizedek.

Jesus is.

King, priest, prophet, and he is the only one that can hold all three of those roles.

But he doesn't hold it by the order of Levi or Aaron.

He holds it by the order of Melchizedek.

And so the writer of Hebrews says that it is clearer still that this another priest rises in the likeness of Melchizedek.

Not, and it's interesting, not on the basis of the law of physical requirement.

What is the law?

The basis of law of physical requirement that the priest must be an offspring of Aaron.

Remember that when we get to talk about Mormonism, that's going to be an interesting and important thing to note.

So what you have here is the fact that Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek, not from genealogy.

Now do you see why the race reference to Melchizedek not having a father, not having a mother, not having a genealogy, because that order of Melchizedek is perfect.

And it's not part of this law that this legal requirement that it has to be of a specific genealogical line.

And that is how a king that comes from Judah can be a prophet.

Because this Melchizedek order is perfect priesthood, and it's one that is forever.

We're going to see that again in a moment.

We'll pick up in verse 16 now, where it says that it's not just from that it's not just a genealogical order, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

So this order of Melchizedek is one that is of a indestructible life.

Verse 17.

This will sound familiar because this is a reference back to Psalm 110.

For it is attested of him you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

Same thing that we saw in Hebrews chapter 5.

And that references back to Psalm 110.

So this Jesus is a priest forever.

In the order of Melchizedek.

So you have someone that.

This priesthood is forever, it's perpetual.

That's the way it's described in Hebrews 7, both those terms.

And its priest has no beginning, no end, no father, no mother, no genealogy.

This is Christ.

Verse 18.

For on 1 hand there was a setting aside of the former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness for the law.

The law made nothing perfect.

And on the other hand, there is the bringing of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

So the sea, the writer, the author of Hebrews, the comparison between the Levitical priesthood that the Jewish people hold up so tightly and so, so revered they would have with the priesthood.

And, and the author of Hebrews is saying, that's the lesser thing.

That's a weakness.

The law couldn't make it perfect.

So therefore, in contrast, then, the Melchizedek priesthood is one of strength.

That's why it's forever and it's perfect.

That's why it's perpetual.

Verse 20.

In so much as it was not without an oath, for they indeed became priests without an oath.

But he with an oath, through the one who said to him.

The Lord has shown.

And will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever.

Sorry, has sworn.

The Lord has sworn and has not changed his mind.

You are a priest forever.

This is Psalm 110.

4.

So he's referring.

He's repeating it again.

Okay, now he gave us in, in verse 17.

Psalm 110, verse 4.

But that's the second part of it.

Right?

And here he has Psalm 110 again, right where he's sworn.

If we go back to Psalm 110, it says, and the Lord has sworn, I will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

So you see how that.

What he does is he gives the first part last.

The way he's describing it in Hebrews, because what he says in verse 21 is the first part of that.

Okay.

Or really it's the, it's, it's, it's, it's.

What you'd have first is the Lord has sworn and you will.

And he will not change his mind.

You are in order of the priest after of Melchizedek, or sorry, a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

So he's, he's kind of switched them, the writer of Hebrews, which is fine, but he's repeating both.

The contrast here now being in the fact that the.

There was an oath given for this Messiah being of this priesthood.

And we have that oath in Psalm 110.

Okay.

Just to finish up this chapter, we see in verse 22 so much more.

Also, Jesus became the guarantee of a better covenant.

The former priests, on one hand, existed in greater number because they were prevented by death from continuing.

But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds the priesthood permanently.

So you see what he's saying here.

He's now saying Jesus was the guarantee of a better covenant.

Why?

Because even though there were far more Levitical priests, they died.

And in their death.

That death prevented them from continuing that priesthood.

But Jesus never dies in the sense that he's eternal.

Exactly what we saw earlier in this chapter of Hebrews.

He had no beginning or end.

He continues forever.

He holds the priesthood permanently.

To say you are of the order of Melchizedek is to say you are the Messiah Christ.

You are the one who has no beginning, no end, no genealogy.

That.

Because the whole argument is the, the comparison of the many to the one Jesus.

Right?

But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever.

See, it's his nature that makes the difference.

The fact that he continues forever, that's why this priesthood continues forever.

Do you see how that's laid out?

That's why he holds that priesthood permanently foreign.

Let's look at verse 25.

Therefore, he is able to also save forever those who draw near to God through him once, since he always lives to make intercessions for them.

For it was not fitting for us to have such a high priest, Holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

Who does not need Dale, who does not need daily, like those priests, like those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because he did it once for all, offered up for himself.

For the law appointed men as high priests who are weak.

But the word of the oath, which came after the law appoints a son made perfect forever.

You see the comparison that he's laying out here?

Again, it's this idea that the priesthood, Levitical priesthood, was temporary.

It wasn't perfect because the men died.

Now what he's doing here in, in verses 26, 27 is referring to the high priest, the highest of.

There'd be one high priest.

And what he would do once a year on the day of atonement is he'd first have to bless him.

He first have to offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he could provide a sacrifice for the sins of all the people.

However, on contrast, the Messiah, Christ has no need for that because he offered himself as the sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice, and because his nature is that, as we, we saw earlier, that his nature continues forever.

In other words, eternal.

That his sacrifice was all that was needed.

His sacrifice then was eternal and forever, and his priesthood is forever.

I, I hope that you have seen that.

So, so I make the case.

I hope very strongly that Melchizedek is Jesus Christ pre incarnate.

Now, there was a question that Andrew asked, so let me get to that.

Andrew asked, is it safe to say that Melchizedek never died?

As, as I saw in a YouTube clip recently.

Okay, so this gets to the question that I'm, I'm really raising.

I would say that this.

And that's why I didn't answer your question, Andrew, until we got to the end of Hebrews 7, because I think it makes it clear.

That the answer to that question is no.

Melchizedek wouldn't have died because he's eternal.

He wouldn't have died in the same way that Jesus didn't die or did die, right?

So Jesus being God.

He, he.

He being both fully God, fully man, he died.

You can't separate his natures.

So in one sense we could say, yes, God died.

In another sense, well, we can't say that because he's eternal.

So now the question is, what does death mean?

So physical death is the separation.

Death really is a separation.

So physical death is the separation of our body from our spirit and spiritual death is our a, a, a break in our relationship with Jesus Christ, with God.

Okay, so it's the separation of a relationship with God that is what we end up seeing.

So when we look at this, I, I, it's, it's a thing where can you say that God died on the cross?

A lot of people will say that it's heresy to say yes to that.

And yet it's true.

It must be, be true, because if it's not true, then we're dead in our sins.

Why do I say that?

I say that because what, what saves us.

And this is the, the case, I, I'll argue that the writer of Hebrews is making is that the, the fact that Jesus is eternal, that when he offered himself as a sacrifice that was a payment for all eternity because Jesus was, was eternal.

It's about his nature.

His nature being an eternal being is what makes his sacrifice of his death on the cross count for all time, for all people.

Right?

If, if I lived a perfect life and I sacrificed myself to pay for you, it would take me all of eternity to pay it because I'm a temporal being.

Jesus being God, being an eternal being, not a temporal being.

That is why his death counts for all of time.

And that's why his sacrifice is the one sacrifice that is perfect.

So I hope, Andrew, that answers the question.

Let me, let me just take.

A sip of tea from my let's Church mug, which would give me a great time to mention let's Church.

If you're not familiar with let's Church.

If you go to strivingforternity.org you will, you will see where we have.

Well, with our podcasts, you'll see where you can search our podcast.

This is from a let's Church he allows for.

He wrote code to basically go through.

He did this because he heard James White once reference I that he wished that there was a program that could go through all of his, all of his debates and all of his dividing lines and be able to find things.

Well, a friend of mine, Mr.

Powers, because just like the last name, it is his last name.

But he, he wrote some AI and he got a domain called let's Church and he decided not to do it just for James White, but for those of us at Striving Fraternity and many, many others.

And so now there's many things so you could go to let's Church and it becomes a great place to just say if you wanted to search for Melchizedek, you could Type that in and not just get this episode, but you'd get everything where I have ever spoken about Melchizedek, whether it be on Apologetics, Live, on the Rap Report, the Rap Report Daily, any of the videos that we've put out in our striving Fraternity academy, all of that you'll be able to find and many other ministries and you can even choose which channels you want to get it from.

So I use that all the time when people ask me about things on this show.

I go to let's Church and I search the.

I put in the channels I want to search for and I.

And I will search for a topic.

Okay.

That's how I use let's Church.

Now I'm mentioning it because they, they are having a.

Trying to raise some funds because they got some really cool improvements coming and they're looking to raise some funds to get new servers to power this because, well, AI takes a lot of.

Of energy, a lot of servers, and.

And this has all been up till now funded by one person.

Okay.

And so.

It'S something that I really want to encourage you to consider going to let's Church.

And I'm going there now just to see if it is up on the.

The home page.

Let me.

Let me just share.

Where do I share?

Here we go.

Let's share.

Let's Church.

So here we go.

So here's let's Church.

So you could see different.

Here's just scrolling up top some different places you can go.

But here's.

Here's a bunch that you can see of different channels that they have.

You can go to browse content.

And, and see a bunch.

I'm following.

Well, I'm following Andrew Rapport's rap report and apologize live.

But we have.

There's more there that.

I don't have any saved content.

So.

But you can browse channels.

And, and see all of the different channels.

Here's my friend Keith Foskey, that's his.

His church.

And so you could go through and find a bunch of that.

But if you go, I think it'd probably be under about let's do Church.

Here we go.

Yep, here's where you could donate.

So here is.

They are 501C3.

So you could donate right there on the.

Where it talks about their.

Their mission.

And so that is something you could do.

Want to encourage you guys to do that.

They are.

They have not charged us anything for.

For doing.

They store all our stuff and they, they're a great help.

So also let you guys know it'd be a good time for me to mention because I know Melissa's watching and she'll get upset with me if I don't mention my pillow.

One of our sponsors here at Apologetics Live.

I love their products.

It's not that I have their products because they're sponsor.

I've asked them to sponsor us because I love their products.

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So let us get back to Melchizedek.

So.

Put this comment up.

Georgia Coloss.

I'm not pronouncing the name right.

Georgia Calavas.

I think I got maybe that time he says yes, this is very good.

I see it.

So I, I'm hoping he, what he's referring to is he sees that Jesus Christ is.

Or that Mount Kizak is the pre incarnate Christ, that he is Christ, that Christ is forever.

Melchizedek is forever.

The priesthood is Forever.

So, so so far we've examined who Melchizedek is.

We looked at Genesis 14, Psalm 110, Hebrews 5 to 7.

We answered the question, so who is he?

He's the pre incarnate Christ.

Was his priesthood a type or a foreshadow?

I say no.

Now is his priesthood transferable?

Well, if you've been tracking with me, you realize the answer to that is no, it's not transferable.

Because as we, the author of Hebrews is making the point.

There is one person that has the order of is a priest in the Order of Mount.

Because that compared to the many priests that were of the Order of Aaron.

Okay, so it's not transferable.

That's going to be really important.

Why?

Because I want to talk about how the Mormons falsify the Order of Melchizedek.

If you ever talk to you get someone maybe knocking on your door.

They got their white shirts and they got a black tie and they have a little badge that says Elder so and so.

And they're 18 years old.

I know I'm at that age where I, I kind of laugh.

It's like, you're not an elder.

I'm sorry.

Get some years under your belt, son.

But they will say that they're either of the order of the Aaronic Priesthood or that they are priests in the order of the Melchizedek priesthood.

Now, I hope at this point that every one of you are able to now answer the problems with both of those claims.

Because when they claim that they are a priest in the order of Aaron, the Aaronic priesthood or Levitical priesthood, they have to be the offspring of, of Aaron.

My family line is not just Levitical, but ironic, more specifically Korhein.

So I would be of the line of people that would be priests in the tabernacle or in the temple.

We would, we.

I would be of the Aaronic Priesthood.

Now, I love when I get to talking with Mormons because they have no clue about that.

And yet I can sit there and say, now there may be some Mormons that are of the line of Aaron.

That may be, but the majority of them who claim that are not.

And so that means that they could not possibly be of the Aaronic priesthood or Levitical priesthood because they're not physical descendants, which is required in the Mosaic Law that they be physical descendants of Abraham.

Right?

That's the requirement.

They can't fulfill that.

So they're not able to be of the priesthood of Levi.

However, what I think even worse is that they claim to be of the priesthood of Melchizedek, which if you're tracking with me, then you know that, that therefore is saying that they believe they're God, they're the Messiah, if they're going to claim it.

Right?

Because the point that the author Hebrews made is it's not about the, the many Levitical priests.

It's about the one Jesus saying that there's only one that's in the Melchizedek priesthood and it's Christ.

So right there I see a, a real dilemma with the, the.

The, the Mormons saying that.

Now, I don't know why George is saying you.

Yeah, scary.

I don't know if he saying that I'm scary or he's saying it's scary what their claim is with the Melchizedek and Aaron priesthood, but I would, I would think it's probably the latter.

And it is scary because I had a guy that I went to college with who became Mormon.

I used to evangelize to him and he would just ridicule Christianity, mock it.

He didn't want to believe it.

He loved his drinking.

Unfortunately, he had a roommate who as.

As what?

He had said that he was a Christian on Sunday and a demon the rest of the week because he, this guy would get drunk all week long but then go to church and claim to be a Christian.

And that ruined the testimony that I had with my friend Jim because he, he put me in the same category as his roommate.

And I would just say, well, your roommate's really not a Christian.

He was just raised in a Christian home.

But that guy now claims to be of the Aaronic priesthood.

And I said to him, that's blasphemy.

I went through Hebrews 7 with him and he just didn't want to see it because he wants to claim he's got this special priesthood.

And so what they do is they, the Mormons will say they have two priesthoods, the Aaronic and the Melchizedek.

And with that, they're going to say that they can have the, or the.

In the order Melchizedek, they can have the authority of that priesthood today on Earth.

Because one of the questions I asked is, can this be transferred?

And as we saw, this can't be transferred.

This is for one person.

He made it perfect forever.

He holds it permanently.

That's what it says in verse, Hebrews 7:24.

So when they say that this could be passed on, that violates scripture.

Now granted, people that are for the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Saints don't know The Bible.

They say, they read it.

They say it's, you know, from God, but they read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Gray Price.

They don't read the Bible and therefore they don't know the Bible and they don't understand what this is actually saying.

So this is an unbiblical position that they hold because the priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood is, has to be from the offspring of, of Aaron.

The Melchizedek priesthood is only for Jesus Christ, only for Messiah.

It's not transfer.

It is, it is.

It's not transferable.

It is not exchangeable.

There can be no successors.

It is only for Christ.

Now I said we talk about Jehovah Witnesses, so let's deal with that one quickly.

The Jehovah Witnesses, as I said, they, they believe, when they, they look at the Creator, they believe that God created Michael the Archangel.

Michael the Archangel then created all of the universe.

Then Michael the Archangel came into humanity as a man known as Jesus Christ.

Then after his resurrection, he returned as Michael the Archangel.

And so they would argue that Melchizedek is Michael.

Now when we look at Melchizedek, what did we see?

No.

No father, no mother.

Well, angels don't have fathers and mothers, so that, that fits.

But it also said in Hebrews chapter seven, there is in verse three, neither having beginning of days nor end of life.

Well, angels had a beginning of days, so this can't possibly be speaking of Michael the Archangel.

It can only be referring to God.

But because they deny the deity of Christ, they have the dilemma that they are, are now in error of.

Because they, they now want to try to say that, that this Melchizedek is Michael the Archangel.

Okay, that's a problem we, we see throughout Scripture.

I not gonna, you know, I think many of you listening know this, but Jesus scripture clearly shows that Jesus is God.

If you doubt that, well go to let's church search all the, many, many, many times that I've done full programs on that subject, done debates on that subject here on Apologetics live, and you can go through that.

So they, they have the problem that if my, if the, if Michael the Archangel is Melchizedek, then that priesthood is, is then temporal and not eternal, not perpetual, not forever, and therefore is not one that can save.

And so now you have the issue that they have a savior that can't save.

That becomes a problem.

Okay.

You know, Hebrew roots is another one where, where it's interesting, they will teach and this one's kind of unique within the Hebrew roots.

Is they argue that Melchizedek, we talked about the types and shadows and so many people will say that Melchizedek is a type of Christ.

Well, they see a type in shadow, but they would say that Melchizedek was a representation to a return to Torah observant observance.

So it's not a return to Christ.

It's not turning to.

So they see Melchizedek as a reference to obeying the law, which is really strange because what you then have is.

So you have Christians that realize to, to not observe the Torah and then they see it, the Torah observance returning.

And that's what Melchizedek represents.

They claim that this, this priesthood is, is a better one because after Christ we would, we'd have the return of Torah observance in, in Christ and that, that the Aaronic priesthood, Levitical priesthood was done away with.

And then afterwards as we return to the law, we, we now have this new priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood.

The, the problem with this is that.

It, it says in, in Hebrews 7:18.

That it says that the law that they want to return to is weakness.

Verse 19.

It's not perfect.

All right?

The, the law, as we read through ver.

Chapter seven of Hebrews is really clear that the law is temporary, it's weak, it's imperfect compared to Melchizedek.

And the priesthood that is perfect is perpetual and is.

Everlasting and eternal, you see.

So it just doesn't quite fit.

Okay.

And so I, I'm, I hope that, I mean, and there's other groups, there's Gnostic groups that you can end up seeing.

They, they, you know, they try to argue.

Some of the Gnostic groups that argued that Melchizedek was an angelic being, okay, Much like Jehovah Witnesses.

And so you could see some more things like that.

So.

To, to wrap it up with the questions that we had, why does Melchizedek actually prove to be the final and superior superiority of Christ's priesthood?

Well, because as I said, it's, it's a forever, it's perpetual, it's perfect the way it's described.

It's eternal.

That's why.

And it's, it's because it's of the nature of God.

So the last question that we wanted to answer is why is there only one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ alone?

We see this in Timothy, in the, that Paul writes to Timothy that there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus with the reason There is only one mediator, sorry Roman Catholics, Mary is not your mediator.

You don't go to Mary or the church or the saints to get to Christ or to God.

There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, because that man is a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

So I hope that was helpful.

I just thought I, I didn't have as much time at church to get into as much detail as I would have liked as I was able to tonight here to get into discussing Melchizedek.

So we do have only one question.

You, those in the chat were very quiet tonight.

I do want to encourage you guys to share this when we go share this on your social media when we do go live so others can join the chat.

It makes it a lot more fun and we get a lot more questions that way because I do like to answer questions.

So.

And they could be unrelated to Melchizedek, as Melissa's is, she says now was the bread and wine done like the Passover and communion?

Now, as it, as it is leavened bread.

So Melissa, I'm not 100 sure I understand the question.

I think you're asking should we have leavened or unleavened bread in the communion is if that's, if that's the question.

I would, I argue this.

The, the bread that we, they had in the first communion, that was a Passover.

So it would have been unleavened bread.

And yes, the wine they had would have been had some level of alcohol to, to kill the dysentery.

I could tell you that having had dysentery.

It wasn't fun.

You don't want to have it.

And so.

She, Melissa is saying, I said I was malka, malkinized leavened bread.

I don't know what malkinized leavened bread is.

So I don't know how to answer that one.

That would be an.

I don't know.

But I would say that there's, there are some, there's been big discussion nowadays on whether to serve alcohol for communion and they make a big deal over the alcohol.

Now, one thing I will say, if you're going to serve alcohol.

Wine with alcohol in it, because that's what they did in the first century.

And then you serve leavened bread.

You've just blown up your argument.

I'm just saying now I don't think it's the same the reverse because I think you can serve unleavened bread, which is what they would have had, which I usually would do is unleavened bread.

But I would put grape juice.

Why?

Because that is still the juice of the grape.

The issue of wine is not whether it's whether it's alcohol or not.

It's whether it's grape or not.

They added the alcohol.

So you.

You didn't get dysentery.

So.

So that would be my view with leavened bread and, and wine and communion.

Now Melissa's trying to clarify.

Maybe Melissa, if I don't get it this time, you're just gonna have to come in and ask.

She said, now, was he eating unleavened bread, the Melchizedek.

Ah, I understand.

So you're.

I think you're referring back to Genesis and where he serves.

It says in Genesis 14:18.

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem brought out bread and wine.

Now, he was a priest of the God most high.

I don't think that would have been unleavened bread at that time.

And my, my rationale for that, Melissa, would be this.

The first time we see really unleavened bread is at the Passover, when Egypt.

When Israel had to leave Egypt in a rush, and they don't have time for the bread to rise, so they take the unleavened bread.

And the reason that at Passover we would have unleavened bread is a remembrance or memorial.

Memorial to what happened in the Passover.

So we eat the unleavened bread for a week because they had to rush out and did not have time for the bread to rise.

And so Jewish people would do that.

Eat the un.

Have a.

It's actually you have the.

The festival of Passover is one night, and then you have a week, which is the festival of unleavened bread.

So it's actually.

People often say Passover as a week long.

Passover technically is one night.

And.

And the week of.

Of unleavened bread is the week.

So.

But that is where you'd first see the unleavened bread.

So I would find it highly unlikely that anywhere else, like in Abraham's time that you'd have unleavened bread.

I think it would have been bread that was leavened.

So.

And she says, thanks.

Got it now.

So I'm glad I answered your question.

All right, so with that.

Just to let you know, I.

We will.

We'll have a show next week, which is December 11th.

There will be no show on December 18th.

And the reason for that is.

Or at least I. I doubt very highly if, if there is a show, it'll be a surprise for you.

You just tuned in to apologize to live.com but if there is a show it it would be it'll be a one where I'm doing it with a friend Matt Slick because I will be out with Matt.

I haven't said this before but Matt's wife if you know Matt Slick he and I started this show together when we first started it.

Matt's wife passed away.

And therefore you know many of us could not.

You want to be there with him celebrate life of his wife and and just to be there with him.

So we will so I I doubt that I'll have a Show on the 18th for that reason we will not have a show on Christmas Day.

I know it breaks your heart but no show on Christmas Day and and therefore we'll also not have a show on January 1st because it is the new year.

Many people are going to be busy including myself.

So we're gonna have three weeks of no shows.

Now I may if I have time which I doubt very highly I may try to put up some old shows pre recorded and put those up.

We'll see.

But I did want to mention I got I woke up this morning to something on X if you want to follow me on X The the actual actual my my X account is andrew_sfe if you want to follow me on X but I woke up to a really nice post this morning.

The the Office of Calvinist posted and said this had had a picture of that he had I I'm not sure where it was.

I guess it's from Spotify.

And it he.

It was Andrew Rapport's rap report and it said it was your top podcast.

So this is the office of Calvinist.

His top podcast was Andrew Rapworth's Rap Report.

It said that he streamed 5407 minutes and he is the top 001% fan and so it said to share share your story.

So he did and he said I binged every episode of Andrew Rapport's Rap Report this year and have the the the top three and he and here are the top three things I was convicted to do and this is where I really was encouraged.

So number one he says I was convicted to share the gospel.

More from all the stories that Andrew has shared whether it's from open air preaching or inviting co workers to go out for lunch, I've been spurred on to spread the gospel.

Number two, I have been convinced to not misrepresent people's positions.

There is so much wisdom in keeping silent until you can accurately describe someone else's position as well as they can.

Now, that was where it stopped.

Which is kind of interesting because all of a sudden Troy Skinner, one of our podcasters at the Christian podcast community.

The Faith Debate, he, he said I did the same, both long form and short form episodes.

I am now working on apologetics live episodes.

By the way, your third reason doesn't seem to have been posted.

I only see two.

I was wondering that too.

Troy.

I just didn't say anything I wanted to say where's the third?

To which the official the Office of Calvinist said, oh, you're right.

Thanks for the heads up.

Number three, how easy it is to share the gospel.

It is not necessary to be the greatest theologian or the greatest evangelist to share the gospel with people.

The power of the gospel, the, the power of the gospel is from God, not from men.

That was a hugely encouraging tweet or X whatever they call that to receive.

I love those and I, my, my response to him was that I hope that I was encouraging to him through the episodes as that X comment was to me.

I just was really hoping the third one was going to be to encourage your pastor.

I really did.

That's probably what this year I really focused, I did this whole series on what is a pastor.

And I really want folks to encourage their pastors.

So.

Yeah, let me see if there's any other comments that we have before we sign off.

I, I thank Thomas.

Thomas said, I learned a lot tonight.

Exclamation point.

Well, I am glad for that.

Not many people talk about Melchizedek.

And so, you know, that is something where it's he is an important figure.

It's important to understand who he is to get his priesthood right.

And so I'm glad I had the time to go through and lay this out for all of you.

Let's see.

Georgia says thank you Andrew.

Very good and helpful.

I'm glad to hear this man encourage you guys to share this then I mean if you really found it helpful, it would be great if you share this with others.

Fatima.

Fatima is down in the Philippines so good morning, Fatima.

She said but that was an awesome.

Well okay here she said an awesome comment.

She said awesome voom.

And I didn't know voom was an often, often comment.

She also said shared this on my Facebook.

Great lesson today.

Thank you.

There weren't a lot of folks came in.

I know that my co host Tom was supposed to come in.

He told me he was going to be at the gym and get back early enough to join and yet he's not here.

Now, I do want to say there's a couple things.

One, just some things about debates.

We had.

We did have.

I mentioned the guy, Anthony, who believes in, in progressive Christianity and believes in an affirming Christianity that God's okay with homosexuality.

He said he'd do a debate with me in October.

It's December.

Anthony, I know that you troll the page.

You, you watch.

I'm still waiting.

Stop saying that.

I'm dodging you.

I'm here.

Come, let's debate.

I did the debate with the Catholic guy a couple of episodes ago, a couple weeks ago.

And the thing that, with that was, you know, I, I don't know if I mentioned this, but there was something when, at the end where, and this is this thing when you're talking with someone, you sometimes you go back and relisten.

I re.

Listened to that and there was something I realized I missed.

I think that he was afraid to actually do a formal debate with me just after having the discussion, because his whole book was the canon in the Crossroads, right?

So it's all about the canon.

And he said he doesn't want to do a formal debate with me.

Why?

Because I want to talk about the canon and he wants to talk about the case for Christ, but his book was about the canon.

So I don't know about you guys, but I think the guy who had a sign saying debate me about the Bible doesn't want to debate me about the Bible.

Just saying.

And then there was another one that came up, and this one was kind of fun.

This guy, his, his name is.

Rob B. Kalovsky.

He's on X.

He's man of options.

Was.

And he wanted to challenge me to a debate.

Now I will say that he wanted to challenge me.

And the day that he decided he, we were going to do this debate, I, he, someone had invited him to come on Apologetics Live and do a debate because he said he wants to debate.

He believes that God is okay with polygamy and he thinks that people just have to understand that.

And it's, it's a shame that men are not looking at all the options to have multiple women in their lives.

And so I know nothing about him other than a video he has on his ex.

You know, that he has pinned to the, his X channel page, whatever it is.

And that's all that I know about him.

I don't know his argument, but I was willing to debate him, have him come on.

And we agree.

We, we said that the show he can come on any Thursday.

And so he then came around as we were discussing and said that he can't do any Thursdays because he's got something else which is really weird because he agreed to do a Thursday.

Now he's not following me on X and if you want to send me a chat on X you have to actually follow me to send me a direct message.

And I think there's.

It like even says that when, when you send the direct message.

But he put up a picture where he some I guess challenged me on.

In a direct message on X and he gave me a whopping 10 minutes to decide.

And then he declared that I was running away from him as a chicken and I'm a coward because I wouldn't accept his on demand debate.

He said he wouldn't prep at all.

He knows what his argument is.

I don't know what his argument is.

I'm the one that would need the prep.

But I was willing to do it without prep.

But at that time that he said because he, he then was going to off saying and him and his followers were saying how I was chicken of him, I was scared of him.

I wouldn't debate him.

He I can't handle it.

And I said I'm sorry I was not on x for about 30 to 45 minutes.

And I said the reason was, is because I was counseling with a friend of mine who is in the hospital at his wife's bedside as she was dying.

And I kind of think that's way more important because that was the night that Matt Slick's wife was on the, on the have it incubated.

And they were discussing the fact that they realized she was not going to make it, that her liver was shutting down.

And this guy thinks I'm afraid to debate him because I wouldn't give because he gave me a ten minute window and then he gave me a two minute window.

Well, if anyone wants to go to his page and challenge him to come on here anytime, I'll be happy to discuss whether God is okay with polygamy because he's not.

And giving me the ultimatum and saying that because I don't, I don't bow down to this guy Rob and accept his, his demands that somehow I'm chicken of a debate.

Those who are regulars here, you know that this whole, this program is designed where anyone can come in and ask any question and give any challenge.

You just go to Apologetics live on a Thursday night when we're having a show when it's not A formal debate and you come in and bring up the topic.

I even told the guy we'll give him a full two hours if he'd like.

I've done that before without prep.

So.

Where is he?

Well, he's all full of excuses, you know, and, and one of the, the.

The regular viewers here made the comment to him and said, you know, that he's just trying to sound.

With bravado and sound spiritual while he's the one that is actually doing the running.

He's the actual coward.

So, yeah, I think I was using my time much better being a good friend to my friend Matt Slick as he was at his wife's side in the hospital, realizing she was never going to survive.

I think I spent those 30 minutes far better being with him and, and just trying to comfort him.

So let me see.

Fatima says, share this on my Facebook.

Great lesson today.

Melissa said, I will share too.

Good lesson.

So thank you for those.

Georgia says, yes, I will share it too.

So I appreciate you guys doing that.

Fatima is just get some of the last comments that we see here.

Fatima says, am learning to listen more.

Be slow to speech.

Thank you, Andrew.

I am working on that too.

Fatima, I have struggled with.

With that as well.

So, yeah, pray for me in that as well.

Thomas says, Matt's been a big help to me too.

Yeah, he.

He is.

He's a great guy and I'm, you know, I'm looking forward to just being able to be out there just to be a comfort to him.

So with that, folks, I hope that you learned a lot.

I hope you gained a lot out of the show.

I hope that this was encouraging to you.

Yeah.

Hey, this Joanne, this is one I got.

I can't.

Let's put this up here.

Joanne, who we're very thankful for.

Joanne was keeping many people in up to date with what was going on.

Joanne is saying, praying for our Matt Slick.

So thank you very much.

Least, I believe this is the Joanne that was keeping us.

John, you're gonna have to let me know if I, if I misrepresented you.

I think you're.

You're the Joanne that works with Carm and kept us up to date.

And if not, well, then let me know.

So.

I don't know.

She just said tp, God be the glory.

I'm not sure what TP is standing for, but okay.

Melissa is saying, yes, it's her.

Good.

I thought so, but you know, sometimes I mix things up.

So with that, folks, remember to strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.

And we will see you next time on Apologetics Live.