statement of fact that introduces a contrary, sets aside columns of similarities in the

matter of identity. The editor of The Berean Expositor would have had not the

slightest qualm in going up for examination, for he was in possession of one essential fact

which disproved his identity with the criminal concerned: the wanted man was born in

New York, whereas the editor was born in London. We cannot conceive that any official

would interpose and say, "We are not concerned with where this man was born, we are

more concerned with the many items of similarity. He must be the man."

Alas, the children of this generation are often wiser than the children of light, and

would at once admit that one established contrary destroys assumed identity based on

many similarities. "Similar" is not the "same".

In Ephesians we discover a revelation never before made known; a choice from

"before the foundation of the world"; a calling "far above all"; a unique position,

"seated together in heavenly places". Any one of these is a "contrary" to the revelation,

the choice, the calling, or the position revealed in Hebrews.

One item alone in Hebrews is enough to destroy any attempt to make the callings of

the two epistles identical. Embedded in the heart of Hebrews is "The New Covenant",

and this one fact is so foreign to the whole teaching of Ephesians as to cancel any number

of similarities, if they are used with the object of establishing identity.

We will not occupy valuable space with further illustrations of this principle, for we

believe it is obvious. The reader can work out other illustrations by, for example, noting

that the "ransom" occurs in Matthew and in I Timothy, and disprove the conclusion that

the callings of Matthew and I Timothy must therefore be identical. In this case the

emphasis on the Gentile in the epistle, and the emphasis of Israel in the gospel provide

the "contraries".

Parallel passages abound in Scripture, but, instead of impinging on the domain of

other callings, they, like those of Euclidean geometry, never meet. Let us "try the things

that differ"; let us "rightly divide the word of truth". We shall then approve the things

that are more excellent, and be workmen who need not be ashamed.