Preamble – TBD – notions that are particularly propagated through collective prayer but also through hymnology and from the pulpit. Ideas that become almost institutionalised.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.
And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Matthew 27:54

It is puzzling that most commentaries rush to spiritualise this event depriving themselves of understanding the more basic significance of the rent vail. The other peculiar thing is that we link this event with the truth of the “new and living way” of Hebrews 10:20, when in fact the verse goes on to say that there is still a veil in place. There is no rent veil in Hebrews 10:20. Despite this, the notion that Matthew 27:54 is somehow linked with Hebrews 10:20 is widely recited in collective worship.

To unhinge ourselves from this notion, here are some thoughts which spring from a simple reading of the passages in their context.

First of all Matthew attaches no significance to the event. Sometimes a writer will call out the specific significance under inspiration from The Holy Spirit (cf. John 12:33, 19:24, 21:19), but not here in our passage. If we wish to explore the significance therefore, we must tread carefully. Our inclination can be to spiritualise details like this and whilst this is sometimes appropriate (with typology for instance), edifying even, this type of reading will have to hang together well with support from scripture elsewhere. So what is the significance then of this mention to Matthews’ readers?

We do well to remember that Mathews readers were Jewish. There is a significance connected with the rent veil that would have been appreciated by the Jews long before it dawned upon the early church that there was a new way into God’s presence. Instead of looking at this event from our perspective, put yourself in the place of a priest serving in the temple. Realise what it meant to him. The veil in his mind was what protected him from the awesome presence of God Himself. With the veil now rent, he might well have fled the holy place. But there would always be that chilling question in his mind, ‘where was God?’, because He wasn’t there in the Holy of Holies. Luke says that the veil was rent in the middle so any priests that were either there at that moment in time or subsequently entering the sanctuary would have been able to see right into the Holy of Holies. Now whether they looked or not it would have been very apparent that the inner shrine was empty, cold, void of the presence of God. What could be clearer evidence of that fact that all was not well with Judaism. It was dead, bereft of life. This would have been most unsettling for a devout Jewish priest.

Ezekiel tells us very clearly that the manifest presence of God had left the temple. But this miraculous event confirmed it in a way unthinkable and unimaginable. Now because we are not Jews perhaps this significance is lost on us. But it is no surprise to me that when you come into the book of Acts, many of the priests were (as it says in 6:7), “obedient to the faith”. These were men who were Jewish through and through, the most unlikely of converts. But the rent vail was too much of a testimony against Judaism to be ignored because it showed them that Judaism was dead. Christ was not a more preferable alternative, He was the only way to God because Judaism was no more.
We have come to see the rent veil as some sort of symbol of God opening up the way into his presence. Did the priest also think that the ‘way into God’s presence had opened up’? Did Matthews readers attach this significance to the event? I do not think so. It was unthinkable to a priest that the way into God’s presence should be opened up without a particular means of approach. At that particular point in time, the only thought on his mind was that Judaism was in great crisis and his priestly duties a charade.

There are other possible ways of looking at the rent vail. It was miraculous along with the earthquake and opened tombs. These events, as did the earthquake, led people to realise that the man on the centre cross was indeed, The Son of God. Jews needed signs to convince them and here were three signs that compelled them to contemplate the truth that the man on the centre cross was who he claimed to be. In fact, if Matthew does place a signifiance on these events, it is just this (Matthew 27:51-54).

These conclusions may be less satisfying than finding a spiritual significance, they are somewhat plain and pragmatic. Be that as it may.

Now, on Hebrews 10:20. Despite Judaism being dead, there is still a holy place in 10:19, despite Judaism being dead, there is still a veil in 10:20, despite Judaism being dead, there is still a high priest in 10:21 and despite Judaism being dead, our hearts still must be sprinkled or made clean (10:22). The Lords death is being compared in harmony with not by contrast to the types of the Old Testament. Writing to those who knew all too well the importance of these things in the earthly tabernacle (recall that it is the earthly tabernacle which is being compared in Hebrews – for it was the tabernacle in particular that was a pattern of things in the heavens cf. Heb 8:5 not so much the temples which stray from the pattern of the tabernacle), the writer is not saying that the way into God’s presence is open carte blanche. Nor is he saying that it is open because of the rent veil. And yet by linking the rent vail from Matthew 27:51 with the new and living way in Hebrews 10:20 we inadvertently suggest that it is. It is not. We still come to God on the grounds of shed blood, through the veil, which is his flesh. And of course we all believe that, it’s just that we tend to rush into to spiritualising the rent veil when it is what was behind the rent veil (or what wasn’t), that is significant. Hebrews 10:20 explicitly says that we enter ‘through’. Not ‘over’, over the torn remnants of the rent curtain. Some translations render egkainizo as ‘opened’ which reinforces the correspondence between the open Holy of Holies in Matthew 27 and our verse here in Hebrews 10. But the idea really is similar to when we open or dedicate a building and there is a cutting of the ribbon. The new and living way has been initiated. But the way itself into that building has a particular means of approach. The way into God’s presence still has a particular means of approach, by means of Christ.

So if we see a connection between these two matters it is not that the ‘rent veil’ allows us access into the presence of God. It is that access to God is no longer through the law which is ‘dead’ but through Christ who is alive.

These comments hopefully offer a healthy challenge to the widely held significance placed on the rent veil. The loss of such a notion in our collective worship will be worthwhile if it means we are being more honest in our reading of Scripture. In addition, we can be relieved of some connected ideas such as the Lord’s flesh being rent – which some say is being suggested in Heb 10:20. That view naturally flows from making the connection between the two passages described here (Matthew 27 and Heb 10) but with the connection void, we should dispense with this also.

The digital age has spawned an amazing spread of knowledge* and the younger generations in particular are drinking it up. Lots of people have written about this from a secular perspective and will continue to do so. But a question which seems largely unexplored is “What impact is this having on the local Church.” As we might expect, there are both opportunities and threats and this post takes a stab at some of these issues, particularly as it pertains to the younger generations.

The New Landscape

Firstly we have to be clear on the lay of the land that we are dealing with here. Older generations are not slow to concede that they are generally out of touch with the digital age whilst the younger generations lack the necessary perspective to even know that anything is going on around them. For sure, something is going on and if you grew up in the ’80s, you have a pretty good vantage point. You have seen the rise of the digital age and can therefore provide some context on its transformative affect. There is nothing short of a deluge of information that is now accessible to each one of us. The term for this is the ‘democratisation of knowledge.’ What was locked up in the minds of experts is now freely available to the average man of the street. You can spin this as something empowering or dangerous. For instance in this new world, if you feel ill, in many cases your first thought will be to try and self-diagnose and this offers you the chance of remedy within the convenience of your own home provided you assess and apply the information correctly. This would have been far less likely a scenario just 30 years ago, unless you were an expert in that field. To an ever lesser extent we only consult a doctor now for a ‘second’ opinion. This will seem outrageously overstated to many but it is definitely the developing trend. The problem is, assess and apply the information incorrectly and you may be far worse off. What’s more, the underlying dynamics here hint at a simultaneous demise of the authority figure and a rise of self-importance, particularly of the up and coming generation – young people have always been smug but this is a totally new smugness.

So we are starting to see an emerging picture of what this new world looks like.

Something for everyone, from anyone, any which way

One facet of the increased access to knowledge has to do with the range of different mediums open to us. The Internet is a key driver here of course, facilitating new mediums but also accelerating even the proliferation of physical media such as books which have been around for ever but now have come into a whole new world of their own. The internet is awash with digital content in the form of websites, audio and video and other multimedia all of which can be authored by anyone, anywhere. The knowledge economy is now truly global.

Yet another facet is the ease of which one can share knowledge. Everyone is encouraged to share everything even if it is not appropriate or the means of sharing is not an ideal means. All the normal care taken to share knowledge is discarded in the more laid-back, free and spur-of-the-moment world we live in.

Which brings us (for our purposes here anyway), to a further and final but pivotal aspect of this discussion, that of policing or control.
The internet is not policed which has deep implications for the knowledge sharing process, but that is unlikely to change so we have to unpick this subject in light of that.

The Renaissance outside the Pulpit

So much for the lay of the land. What impact is all this having on the local Church? God has gifted the local church with teachers who can expound the truth of Scripture and a plurality of elders who’s several and joint responsibilities include oversight of sound doctrine. Outside of corporate gatherings however the believer has access to a range of bible teaching and helps which amount to the same variety and enormity available in the secular world. The explosion of available content is being met by an equally high demand of thirsty believers who in some cases sense a vacuum of bible teaching in their local context. What we are seeing could arguably be termed a ‘renaissance’ because the underlying significance of this explosion of knowledge coupled with a generation hungry for it is really quite huge. On the one hand it is very refreshing and the long-term effects could transform local churches for the better. But if the doctor is only consulted now for a ‘second’ opinion are our local elders and bible teachers regarded with the same level of preference? Are there similar dangers involved if I incorrectly assess and apply the information available to me? Is the autonomy of the local church in demise whilst individual believers, especially young ones become ever more self-directing? These are the provocative questions which we must be prepared to answer in order to ensure that the local church is protected and that any negative implications of the ‘renaissance’ are regulated leaving us only with what is helpful, renewal and even, perhaps in God’s grace, revival.

Trying the Spirits

It is now possible to access bible teaching from bible teachers who have a completely different hermeneutic to the one held by our local church. Remember that this new world is not policed. This offers us with the opportunity to verse ourselves with a endless list of different ideas about biblical history, doctrine and principle which can both empower us to defend our beliefs and/or challenge our understanding. Of course a challenge to our understanding may be a profitable thing if our own hermeneutic is skew in some way, and whose isn’t at some point? This being the case, it is essential for those choosing to tap into bible teachers outside of the local church that they properly assess and apply the teaching and this in turn requires the informed development of a sound hermeneutic. But this is exactly what most younger people do not have. They are the ones with the thirst, they are the ones with the access to this new world, but they are the very ones who do not in general have a developed sense of how to interpret scripture. Some are still child-like in their faith and will readily assimilate anything. How it behoves the local church to meet this thirst as much as possible with sound bible teaching and to raise awareness of how to effectively study God’s Word for oneself.

Hook-line-and-sinker

Even if young people are empowered with an ability to filter false doctrine, there is such a plethora of voices out there, that it is very easy to find one voice that you particularly get along with, his hermeneutic, his style, his gift even, that you may hardly ever consult or listen to anyone else. It is not that this is a new problem, just that it is made more prevalent. Your local church may not suffer from a ‘one man ministry’, made almost inevitable if you have a pastor, but it’s possible that some of the flock are near enough experiencing ‘one mans ministry’ through his commentaries, books, audio ministry, goodness even a daily devotional. This is more of a problem in a local context because other gifted believers are refused the opportunity to use their gift. But as we have already reminded ourselves, one of the hallmarks of the local church, a plurality of elders, is in part a safeguard against false doctrine. Listening and reading to one man ‘hook-line-and-sinker’ is unwise, in this new world just as much as it ever has been.

Re-instating Bible Teaching

Finally, opinion and discussion about biblical truth is going on outside of the local church in every form possible and as with every other facet of this subject, on the surface this should only be a good thing. But Scripture shows that bible teaching is ideally done, even if not corporately at least in a formal context, which allows those that are so gifted and called to be able to expound scripture. What is at stake then here is quite simply the deference given to the gift of bible teaching itself. This is somewhat ironic because the cause of the problem in some cases is the lack of bible teaching and the solution young people have found is to find that teaching elsewhere. But history is littered with examples like this where a solution has a semblance of hope and promise only to be acknowledged later that it just ended up compounding the problem. We must once again, give bible teaching, sound bible teaching its proper place in the local church. Not to fill heads, but to allow the sound exposition of the quick and powerful Word of God to transform believers and revive their communities.

Conclusion

Leaders and shepherds must recognise the growing thirst which is in the heart of their younger members and determine how they will support the sound development of biblical truth. Failure to do so will leave open a vacuum which will be filled with things as described here that will not necessarily meet the needs of individual believers or serve to benefit the local church as a whole in the long term.

But we must also enable believers to understand the importance of and the mechanisms by which bible teaching can be validated. With this in-hand the local church will be well placed to maintain its standing as ‘the pillar and the ground of truth’ amidst what we should pray will be a time of renewal and even, perhaps in God’s grace, revival.

* technically it is ‘information’ which is spreading but the emphasis in this article is on the assimilation of the information which results in knowledge