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The Place of Offering.
The Old Testament Hebrew word for altar literally means 'a
place of slaughter', with reference to the killing of the
animals for sacrifice. The equivalent New Testament Greek
word similarly means 'a place of sacrifice'. God instructed
Israel to make altars for offerings to Him from unhewn stone
or earth. The altars in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple
were of brass (copper or bronze?) for the burnt offerings,
and gold for the altar of incense, and were to be made to
a special design ordered by God.
"Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your
burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats
and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I
will come to you and bless you. If you make an altar of stones
for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will
defile it if you use a tool on it." (Exodus 20:24-25).
In the New Testament the writer to the Hebrews explains that
altars, together with all the Mosaic institutions, although
of practical use in the worship of Israel, also pointed forward
to the way of salvation in Christ, which was then yet to come.
"We have an altar from which those who minister at the
tabernacle have no right to eat…. Through Jesus, therefore,
let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the
fruit of lips that confess his name." (Hebrews 13:10,15).
Christ is now the only way of approach to God for all men
and women. He said: "I am the way and the truth and the
life." (John 14:6). So Christ, in type, is both our sacrifice
for sins, and also the altar on which we make the offering.
Our prayers rise to God through Christ, as the incense offered
on the altar. In this age, material offerings and altars are
not required.
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Abraham
Acts of the Apostles
Adam
Adoption
Affliction
Age, Aion
Almighty God
Altar
Amen
Angel
1. Human angels
2. "The angels who sinned"
3. Immortal angels
4. "Fallen angels"
5. "Evil angels"
Anger
Anointing
Antichrist
Apocrypha
Apostasy
Apostle
Archangel
Ark
1. Ark constructed by Noah
2. Ark of the Covenant
Armageddon
Ascension
Assyria
Astrology
Atonement
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