But didn't the same Holy Spirit that inspired the OT also inspire the NT? If so, then wouldn't he have known what was going to happen in the NT?
-Kevin
Ksen - But didn't the same Holy Spirit that inspired the OT also inspire the NT? If so, then wouldn't he have known what was going to happen in the NT?
Certainly, the God-inspired writers of the Old Testament had a sense for what was to come. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Is. 9:6).
But was the writer of Ecclesiastes writing prophecy? Was he writing about what the future would hold? Or was he writing about the state of things when he was writing? I don’t think it’s true or Scripturally sound to say that all OT writers had complete awareness about what the NT was going to be about. The prophets had a clue, but even they weren’t completely aware. Here's the passage that Havoc at least thinks is critical. I don't know if you read it the same way he does. The whole chapter is in my post #3260.
Ecl 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
It seems clearer to me in the context of the whole chapter, but even just in looking at these verses it doesn’t sound like the author is saying that this state of affairs is something commanded by God. The passage clearly says, the dead have no “more a portion FOREVER in ANY THING.” It doesn’t make a distinction between spiritual or physical death, and it certainly doesn’t allow for a person that has died physically to come back to life. It says after death, NO MORE IMPACT ON THIS WORLD. Now, we all agree that Jesus Christ violated this. So did Lazarus – he died, and then after he died he had an impact on this world by being returned to life. So, my point is that this passage in Ecclesiastes is NOT Law, it is not even a description of a state of affairs that God supports. Christ proves this. If it was Law, Christ would not have violated it. Christ is no lawbreaker.
My whole purpose in this line of argument is to show that the OT passages that are being used as “proof” that God has commanded we have nothing to do with the communion of saints that have passed through physical death show no such thing. The OT passages that have been put forward are very specific about forbidding contact with the dead, or in the case of the passage above about saying that the dead have nothing to do with our world. But it seems obvious to me in light of the NT that this entire argument breaks down. The saints that have passed through death are NOT DEAD. So any passages from the OT that deny interaction between the living and the dead DON’T APPLY, because the dead aren't dead.
No one has put forward a specific OT passage that says that “those who are alive in spirit but physically dead have nothing to do with those who are physically alive” or a specific NT passage that says “those who are alive in Christ but have passed through physical death are cut off from the communion of saints who are physically alive.” Without this kind of Scriptural teaching, how can it be claimed that the Orthodox belief that the saints who have passed through physical death are as much a part of the living Body as the believers that are still physically alive is wrong, let alone "a deliberate breaking of God's Law"?
Ro 12:5 - So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
I’m not arguing at the moment that if I’m right you necessarily have to accept prayer to the saints. I’m just trying to get us to agree that there is nothing in Scripture to indicate that those who have EVERLASTING LIFE, but have passed through physical death, are separated from us. We are members “one of another.”