Was The Bible Written To You?
By Allen Brooks
When I ask the question, was the Bible written to you, most folks respond and say that it was written to them.
I would like to address that assumption from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Almost everyone agrees that the 39 books of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi were written only to the Israelites by Israelites. These Israelites were Moses, David, and the Prophets. The 613 laws of the Torah were for Israelites only. The Psalms and the major and minor prophetic books were also written to Israel because they contained the laws and prophecies that belong only to Israel. But, these folk also state that the Old Testament was written for us, especially when it comes to the Ten Commandments.
If the Old Testament was written to us, then we should be obeying its sayings.
Let us list some of its sayings:
We must have a high priest to offer sacrifices for our sins. Leviticus 16.
2. The High Priest will kill a goat of sin offering for the people.
And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. Leviticus 20.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day (Saturday) to keep it holy.
5. You shall not eat the flesh of pigs, it is unclean for you. Leviticus 11.
6. He that smitteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. Exodus 21
7. He that curseth his father or mother shall be surely put to death. Exodus 21
8. If thou lend money to the poor, thou shalt not charge him interest. Exodus 22
9. And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise. Exodus 23.
Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year: feast of unleaven bread, feast of harvest, and feast of firstfruits. Exodus 23.
Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled”.
Now, I have a question, were the above laws written to you or to Israel? Were they written for you? What does “for you” mean verses “to you”? Wouldn’t for you mean that the Old Testament was written to the Jews, but for us today, to know what happened to Israel from their beginning up to the time of Jesus and to the end of Israel’s theocratic nation? Is it fair to say that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed?
What is the Old Testament (Covenant) about?
It is about God creating mankind and everything in it. It is about mankind’s fall (casting out of the presence of God), God’s plan for mankind’s redemption (being put back into God’s presence) through a chosen people and a chosen person (Jesus). It is about this Seed (Jesus) coming through the linage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to redeem mankind.
It is about the virgin birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, return, and kingship of God’s Son Jesus. It is about Jesus’ everlasting kingdom, of which there shall be no end. It is about the first and last days of covenant Israel as God’s chosen people from whom Jesus would be born.
I conclude that the Old Testament was written for us, but to Israel. It is the history of Israel and God’s relationship with them until the SEED would be born who would become the Savior of the world. It contains everything written in the New Testament and was quoted by Jesus and the Apostle’s during their lifetime and ministries. Every scripture these men preached came from the Old Testament!
Now let us move to the New Testament (Covenant) and determine if it was written to us or for us. Let assume first that it was written TO us.
Let us look at some passages:
Matthew 19:21-“Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.”
Matthew 28:19-“Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 10-“And as ye go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses. Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet saves; for the workman is worthy of his meat.” Why is everyone preaching the end of the world instead of the Kingdom of God?
Mark 6- “And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth two by two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse. But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.”
Luke 9- “Then he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils; and to cure diseases and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.”
Mark 16- “And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.”
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
Acts 2:35-“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remissions of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Most folks believe that one repents, receives the Holy Spirit, and then is baptized. So why is this scripture saying something different?
1 Corinthians 14:34-35-“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing; let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”
1 Corinthians 14:39-“Wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.”
Would you not agree that if the New Testament was written TO us, then these scriptures pertain to us and that we should obey them? Sell all that we have and give to the poor, go preach the gospel and take nothing with us, women should keep silent in the church, we should heal the sick, cast out devils, and drink any deadly thing and it will not hurt us.
This would be true if these scriptures were written to us. And if they were, where is the evidence today of any of the activity listed in the above scriptures?
I make the assumption that the New Testament was written for us and not to us.
In the scriptures there are relevant audiences, contexts, and specific time frames for the events. There are beyond a doubt the use of personal pronouns that the texts belong to.
The errors of Bible students today, has caused so much confusion in different denominations and caused folks to be split over their orthodoxy.
When the New Testament scriptures are taken in context and in reference to all the Old Testament scriptures, one can easily see that the New Testament is the fulfillment of ALL promises God made in the Old Testament.
Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled”.
So, are we under the law or are we under GRACE? If we are under GRACE, then ALL of the law (Genesis to Malachi) has passed.
Romans 15: 8, “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision [Jews] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers”. And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy [hesed]; as it is written, “For this cause, I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.’[Psalms 18]
Galations 4-“For when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions of sons.”
Jeremiah 31-33-“Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the days that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write in in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people..I will forgive their iniquity, and I remember their sin no more.” The Bible is the history of God’s fulfillment of His promises to mankind through Israel and Jesus.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Ephiphanies
COMINGS OF GOD
By Allen Brooks
A Theophany is a visible manisfestation of a deity. An epiphany is appearance or manifestation of a divine being or perception of the nature or meaning of something.
Manifestation means easily understood or recognized by the mind.
The question is have there been comings of the Lord in early Biblical history.
Let us take a look.
Read Exodus 19:1-24
Verse 9 “And the Lord said unto Moses, lo I will come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with them.”
Verse11 “And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai”. The word sight here is in Hebrew is ayin (ah’yin) and means literal or figurative to know or presence. Now to quickly compare this word see in Matthew 24 verse 30, “and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds. “ Here in Matthew the word see in the Greek is “eido” which means to manifest, have knowledge, or perceive with the mind according to Strongs
Concordance.
Verse16 “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Verse 17 “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.”
Verse 18 “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly.”
Verse20 “And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai on the top of the mount.”Question time folks:
Did the Lord come down on mount Sinai as the Bible records? Yes or no?
If you believe the Bible the answer is yes.
How did the people know that the Lord came down on Mount Sinai? Now the Bible says that no man has seen God at anytime: John 5:37 says. “And the Father himself which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.” John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time…”
So how did the people know that the Lord came down on the mount. His coming or presence was manifest or made known by the signs of smoke, fire, thunderings, lightnings, and quakes. These were the signs of His coming.
Let look a some more Old Testament language of God’s coming against other nations and peoples. We should take care to note the language being used. It is symbolic language.
When God came against Edom in 713 BC, Isaiah chapter 34, verses 4 and 9 records it like this:
“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all the host shall fall down.” “The streams shall be turned to tar and the dust into fire and the sand shall become..”
Let us look at a coming of the Lord against Assyria by Babylon. Remember Assyria had taken the Northern kingdom captive before this time:
Isaiah 30: 27-30.
Verse 24 “Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far burning with his anger and his tongue as a devouring fire.”
Verse 30 “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall show lightning down of his arm with flames of devouring fire with scattering and tempest and hailstones.” Now in this verse it says “his glorious voice to be heard” is in direct conflict with the verse in John 5:37 where John says: ”you have never heard his voice at any time” How do we reconcile this? Because this is metaphoric or symbolic language meaning a manifestation of God’s voice not an audible voice. This is where we have to let the Bible speak for itself.
Lets look a s Isaiah 37:33 “Therefore this saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria”
Verse 35, “For I (the Lord) will defend this city for my sake and for my servant David’s sake”.
Verse 36-37 (God came and destroyed 185,000 of Sennacherib’s Army.) This was a coming of the Lord.
Let us look at another Old Testament coming of the Lord in Isaiah 13. God’s coming and destroying Babylon.
In Jeremiah 50 verse18 “Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I have punished the king of Assyria.”
Isaiah 13:
Verse 6 “The day of the Lord is at hand” Folks look very close at the day of the Lord.
Verse 9 “the day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fiery anger.”
Verse 10 “The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: and the sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”
Verse 13 “There I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.”
Verse 17 “Behold I will stir up the Medes against them”. This language is describing a coming of the Lord against Babylon. But the Bible is using metaphoric or symbolic language to describe the Lord using Darius the Mede in destroying the powers and princes of Babylon. The Lord did not come physically and shake the earth, turn the sun and moon dark, and make the stars fall from heaven. This is the language used to describe His coming and removing principalities and governmental powers.
Let us look at a personal example of King David offering thanksgiving to God for David’s deliverance form Saul.
In Psalms 18:7-15, “The earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth; coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens and came down with darkness under His feet. And he rode on a cherib and flew. He flew upon the wings of the wind..The most high uttered His voice, hailstones, and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them”
David said God rode out of heaven on the clouds, with fire, and heaven and earth were removed at His presence.
None of this happened literally, David was expressing his deliverance with symbols.
In each of the preceding comings of the Lord, against Israel, Assyria, Edom, and Babylon, God’s coming was describes by the use of clouds, fire, smoke, thunders, trumpets, quakes, the heaven and earth destroyed, the sun and moon darkened, and the stars falling from heaven. Did any of this happen literally? No, it did not! The Bible was describing God’s coming against these kingdoms by using other kings and armies. The Assyrian army captured the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, Babylon captured the Southern Kingdom. Babylon overthrew the Assyrian Empire. The Medes and Persians overthrew the Babylonian Empire. The Greeks overthrew the Persian Empire, and finally the Romans overtook the Grecian Empire. This language is expressing the comings of the Lord, but as we can plainly see, none of these comings was a literal, eyeball seeing of the Lord, but was manifested by the signs. This is important.
All comings of the Lord are described by the use of symbolic language.
All of this language in the New Testament describes how the Lord was going to come against Israel in the Last days and destroy them. He would destroy the Temple, Jerusalem, the Mosaic Covenant, and apostate Israel. Thus my dear friend, the Old Testament plainly tells us in what manner and what time Jesus would return after his ascension into heaven.
I will deal in what manner first, then give a few comments as to what time.
So let’s look at some New Testament scriptures that use symbolic language to describe the coming of the Lord. The day of the Lord is the same as the coming of the Lord. In each of the previous comings that I have presented, they are stated as the “day of the Lord.”
2 Peter 3:10-12
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Verse 12 “The coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat”.
Acts2:19-20
“And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.”
Matthew 24:29, “Immediately, after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken..”
Verse 30 “and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.”
The Greek word ‘See” is eido which means to know or perceive in the mind, the same as ayin (ah’yin) in the Hebrew for sight which means to manifest or to know.
The imagery here is the same as the Old Testament symbols. The sun, moon and stars represent religious powers or peoples of the Mosaic system. The Pharisees, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin were those powers. The heaven and earth is the temple because it represented at that time the Abode of God. The elements were the principles of the law such as washings, sacrifices, and tithing. The abomination of desolation is the Roman Army which would destroy Jerusalem, the temple, and many of the Jews living at that time.
The wars, earthquake, famines, false prophets, all of these were the signs of Jesus coming, just like the signs of thunder, quakes, smoke, fire, etc, at mount Sinai.
The let me ask you a question, if Jesus is describing the last days of Israel and the Mosaic Covenant in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, the end of the old covenant world, why would Jesus not use the same language as the Old Testament? The Jews were well versed and understood the language of the old scriptures and that is why Jesus used the same symbolic language. Folks, once we understand this, the Bible then makes a lot more sense.
Now, I think one must agree, that the Bible will interpret itself if we let it. We do not have to make up a literal meaning for the symbolic language that God has already described. Isn’t it time to let the Bible interpret the Bible.
Let me address the timing of the “coming” of the Lord against Jerusalem in the New Testament as stated in the Old Testament. I won’t spend a lot of time here, but you can look up the scriptures and decide for yourself.
Write this down, the main scriptures which tell of the judgment coming of the Lord against apostate Israel are as follows:
Daniel 8:26, Daniel was told the time, but was told to seal up the vision for it shall be for many days”
But the question is, when was the time that Daniel was told that the end would be?In Chapter 8 verse 17, “So he came near where I stood, and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face, but he said, unto me, Understand, O son of man; for at the time of the end shall be the vision.” Notice, it says the time of the end, NOT THE END OF TIME. The time of the end, was the end of the Old Covenant of Death, the destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, and Apostate Israel.
Daniel 7:22 “Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Verse 27-28, “And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter.”
A corollary to this is Matthew 24: 14, “and the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come.” Now, Paul, plainly says that the gospel was preached in all the world during his day. Jesus said in Mark 1:14-15, “Now after that John was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe ye the gospel.” Luke 9:27, Jesus said, But, I tell you of a truth there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God”. Luke 11:20, “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, not doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.”
Daniel 9:24-27, tell us that 70 weeks are determined upon thy people(that is Israel) and upon they holy city (that is Jerusalem) to finish the transgression, to make and end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Seven weeks to rebuild the temple after the Babylonian captivity, and after another 62 weeks Messiah would be cut off. Verse 26 says, “and after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people (Israel) of the prince (Jesus) that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end there of shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Now if Messiah was cut off after the 69 week, we know that 70 comes after 69, therefore Jesus was crucified in the 70th week and this was around AD 30. So the 70th week of Daniel was then folks, not two thousand years into the future and in the seventh week, Jerusalem, the temple, and the Mosaic covenant would be destroyed. That puts the latter part of Daniel 9 through Daniel 12 between AD 30 and AD 70. Now, we know by historical records of Josephus, that the Zealots destroyed most of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem long before Titus razed the city in AD70. The end thereof shall be is the end of the Old Covenant world, not the end of the material universe and of time.
Daniel chapter 12, tell us more about when the “end” or coming of the Lord against Israel shall be.
Verse one: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every on that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Here is the prince in the previous chapter. Sometimes Christ was attributed to being the angel Michael. Secondly, this verse is describing the tribulations of Matthew chapter 24. Also, this verse is alluding to the resurrection of the saints in Sheol, but more importantly, it is talking about going from the Old Covenant of Death, to the New Covenant of mercy and grace or Life in Christ. Jesus said, he that liveth and beliveth in me shall never die, but is passed from death to life. Folks, this is resurrection. Verse 4, But thou O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Please notice, Daniel was told to seal the book, until the time of the end. Folks, you have got to read your scripture, it plainly says the time of the end, it does not say THE END OF TIME. There is no such thing in the Bible as the end of time. If you can show me the end of time in the Bible, please do so.
The last verses of Daniel 9 and 12, tells when the daily sacrifice will be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate setup, and Daniel to go thy way until the end be.
We know the daily sacrifice was taken away when the veil in the temple was split in two. We also know that when all the priests of Israel were killed during the Jewish wars that the daily sacrifice stopped because there was no one to perform them. We also know that the abomination of desolation is described in Luke where Jesus plainly says “when you see the Armies surround Jerusalem know the desolation is near”. We have a tie in between Daniel, Matthew 24 and Luke 21. It should be plain to see this.
Now let us move to Zechariah 12,13, and 14 to see if we can determine when the Day of the Lord or coming of the Lord would be.
In Zechariah chapter 12, versed 8-10:
“In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
Let tie chapter 13 together with chapter 12 before we exegete these verses.
Chapter 12 verses 6.8, and 9.
Verse 6, “and one shall say into him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Verse 8, “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.”
Verse 9, “and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” Now we know that two thirds of the Jews were destroyed in the Jewish Wars of AD 67-70. Most of them were killed in Jerusalem either by the Zealots or the Roman armies. As a matter of history, 1,300,000 Jews were destroyed in and around Jerusalem at this time. But we also know that a remnant was saved because they fled to Pella when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Armies. Jesus warned them to flee in His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Romans 9:25-27 says this, “As he saith also in O’see, I will call them my people; which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people; there shall be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” This quotation is in response to the completion of Daniel 9:24-27 as well. God is saying in Zechariah, that those who pierced Jesus and wounded him in the house of His friends would see Jesus.
Now we must look at Zechariah chapter 14 to know exactly when the manisfestation of the coming of the Lord would be.
The first two verses give the time and the later verses tell what is going to take place.
Zechariah 14 verse one:
“Behold the day of the Lord cometh and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.”
The day of the Lord is the coming of the Lord in the destruction of Jerusalem and verse two makes that plain. Verse 2: For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle: and the city shall be taken and the house rifled, and the women ravished; and the half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then (it is important to note then shall the Lord) shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley: and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ..And the Lord shall come, and all the saints with thee. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.”
Jerusalem went from the Natural city to the Heavenly Spiritual Jerusalem coming down in John’s vision. Therefore, New Jerusalem cannot ever be destroyed again, because Paul said it was the Jerusalem from above, the Church, the mother of us all. Makes sense doesn’t it? This is the everlasting Kingdom of whom Jesus rules and reigns forever.
Therefore there was a judgment of Christ against apostate Israel, a resurrection of the dead from sheol, and the establishment of the everlasting Kingdom of God. Jesus said, the kingdom is within you, and it cometh not with observation. Folks, that means it cometh not with the eyeballs.
What one must see is that this coming of the Lord is when Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was burned, and the Mosaic Covenant was fulfilled. This happened with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.
I am going to use just a few more verses to determine the time factors, because my discourse here is really not the timing, but more so on the nature of the comings of the Lord as explained in the Old and New Testament.
Jesus said, in Luke 21 verse 21, “For these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. In verse 32, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say into you, This generation, shall not pass, till all be fulfilled.”
Folks, it is time to let the Bible speak for itself. I have tried my best to show you what it says. I know this is not what you may have been taught, but all that I can say, it let scripture be the authority.
The only epiphany or coming of the Lord in the New Testament is the judgment coming of the Lord against Israel to destroy the old Judaic system, the temple, and the sacrificial system that could not save people from their sins. Jesus came the same way as God came in the past. He came in signs and wonders and the destruction of kingdoms and powers. He came in the glory of His Father. It was never about the physical heaven and material earth. The coming was about Jesus establishing a New Covenant of mercy and grace. It was about restoring mankind in a personal relationship with God that man destroyed in the Garden of Eden. The first Adam brought spiritual death and separation from God. The second Adam, Jesus, brought forgiveness of sins and presence in the Holy of Holies with God. Let us now enter boldly into the throne of grace. This was and is restoration in the presence of God. The veil has been removed that kept us separated from God. We no longer offer animal blood sacrifices for our sins. Jesus offered His own blood once and for all and is our Mediator of a more perfect covenant. Jesus’ righteousness has been imputed to us and is acceptable to God the Father. We are now Sons and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. How can we possibly say, that Jesus has not completed all the work necessary to restore us back to God and that my dear friends includes not only His birth, death, and resurrection, but also Jesus’ judgment coming to completely fulfill all the old law and prophets and institute the New Covenant of grace and mercy. Praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope I have given you something to think about.
By Allen Brooks
A Theophany is a visible manisfestation of a deity. An epiphany is appearance or manifestation of a divine being or perception of the nature or meaning of something.
Manifestation means easily understood or recognized by the mind.
The question is have there been comings of the Lord in early Biblical history.
Let us take a look.
Read Exodus 19:1-24
Verse 9 “And the Lord said unto Moses, lo I will come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with them.”
Verse11 “And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai”. The word sight here is in Hebrew is ayin (ah’yin) and means literal or figurative to know or presence. Now to quickly compare this word see in Matthew 24 verse 30, “and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the Clouds. “ Here in Matthew the word see in the Greek is “eido” which means to manifest, have knowledge, or perceive with the mind according to Strongs
Concordance.
Verse16 “And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
Verse 17 “And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.”
Verse 18 “And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly.”
Verse20 “And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai on the top of the mount.”Question time folks:
Did the Lord come down on mount Sinai as the Bible records? Yes or no?
If you believe the Bible the answer is yes.
How did the people know that the Lord came down on Mount Sinai? Now the Bible says that no man has seen God at anytime: John 5:37 says. “And the Father himself which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.” John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time…”
So how did the people know that the Lord came down on the mount. His coming or presence was manifest or made known by the signs of smoke, fire, thunderings, lightnings, and quakes. These were the signs of His coming.
Let look a some more Old Testament language of God’s coming against other nations and peoples. We should take care to note the language being used. It is symbolic language.
When God came against Edom in 713 BC, Isaiah chapter 34, verses 4 and 9 records it like this:
“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all the host shall fall down.” “The streams shall be turned to tar and the dust into fire and the sand shall become..”
Let us look at a coming of the Lord against Assyria by Babylon. Remember Assyria had taken the Northern kingdom captive before this time:
Isaiah 30: 27-30.
Verse 24 “Behold the name of the Lord cometh from far burning with his anger and his tongue as a devouring fire.”
Verse 30 “And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard and shall show lightning down of his arm with flames of devouring fire with scattering and tempest and hailstones.” Now in this verse it says “his glorious voice to be heard” is in direct conflict with the verse in John 5:37 where John says: ”you have never heard his voice at any time” How do we reconcile this? Because this is metaphoric or symbolic language meaning a manifestation of God’s voice not an audible voice. This is where we have to let the Bible speak for itself.
Lets look a s Isaiah 37:33 “Therefore this saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria”
Verse 35, “For I (the Lord) will defend this city for my sake and for my servant David’s sake”.
Verse 36-37 (God came and destroyed 185,000 of Sennacherib’s Army.) This was a coming of the Lord.
Let us look at another Old Testament coming of the Lord in Isaiah 13. God’s coming and destroying Babylon.
In Jeremiah 50 verse18 “Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I have punished the king of Assyria.”
Isaiah 13:
Verse 6 “The day of the Lord is at hand” Folks look very close at the day of the Lord.
Verse 9 “the day of the Lord cometh cruel both with wrath and fiery anger.”
Verse 10 “The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: and the sun shall be darkened in his going forth and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”
Verse 13 “There I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.”
Verse 17 “Behold I will stir up the Medes against them”. This language is describing a coming of the Lord against Babylon. But the Bible is using metaphoric or symbolic language to describe the Lord using Darius the Mede in destroying the powers and princes of Babylon. The Lord did not come physically and shake the earth, turn the sun and moon dark, and make the stars fall from heaven. This is the language used to describe His coming and removing principalities and governmental powers.
Let us look at a personal example of King David offering thanksgiving to God for David’s deliverance form Saul.
In Psalms 18:7-15, “The earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth; coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens and came down with darkness under His feet. And he rode on a cherib and flew. He flew upon the wings of the wind..The most high uttered His voice, hailstones, and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them”
David said God rode out of heaven on the clouds, with fire, and heaven and earth were removed at His presence.
None of this happened literally, David was expressing his deliverance with symbols.
In each of the preceding comings of the Lord, against Israel, Assyria, Edom, and Babylon, God’s coming was describes by the use of clouds, fire, smoke, thunders, trumpets, quakes, the heaven and earth destroyed, the sun and moon darkened, and the stars falling from heaven. Did any of this happen literally? No, it did not! The Bible was describing God’s coming against these kingdoms by using other kings and armies. The Assyrian army captured the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, Babylon captured the Southern Kingdom. Babylon overthrew the Assyrian Empire. The Medes and Persians overthrew the Babylonian Empire. The Greeks overthrew the Persian Empire, and finally the Romans overtook the Grecian Empire. This language is expressing the comings of the Lord, but as we can plainly see, none of these comings was a literal, eyeball seeing of the Lord, but was manifested by the signs. This is important.
All comings of the Lord are described by the use of symbolic language.
All of this language in the New Testament describes how the Lord was going to come against Israel in the Last days and destroy them. He would destroy the Temple, Jerusalem, the Mosaic Covenant, and apostate Israel. Thus my dear friend, the Old Testament plainly tells us in what manner and what time Jesus would return after his ascension into heaven.
I will deal in what manner first, then give a few comments as to what time.
So let’s look at some New Testament scriptures that use symbolic language to describe the coming of the Lord. The day of the Lord is the same as the coming of the Lord. In each of the previous comings that I have presented, they are stated as the “day of the Lord.”
2 Peter 3:10-12
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Verse 12 “The coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat”.
Acts2:19-20
“And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.”
Matthew 24:29, “Immediately, after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken..”
Verse 30 “and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven.”
The Greek word ‘See” is eido which means to know or perceive in the mind, the same as ayin (ah’yin) in the Hebrew for sight which means to manifest or to know.
The imagery here is the same as the Old Testament symbols. The sun, moon and stars represent religious powers or peoples of the Mosaic system. The Pharisees, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin were those powers. The heaven and earth is the temple because it represented at that time the Abode of God. The elements were the principles of the law such as washings, sacrifices, and tithing. The abomination of desolation is the Roman Army which would destroy Jerusalem, the temple, and many of the Jews living at that time.
The wars, earthquake, famines, false prophets, all of these were the signs of Jesus coming, just like the signs of thunder, quakes, smoke, fire, etc, at mount Sinai.
The let me ask you a question, if Jesus is describing the last days of Israel and the Mosaic Covenant in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, the end of the old covenant world, why would Jesus not use the same language as the Old Testament? The Jews were well versed and understood the language of the old scriptures and that is why Jesus used the same symbolic language. Folks, once we understand this, the Bible then makes a lot more sense.
Now, I think one must agree, that the Bible will interpret itself if we let it. We do not have to make up a literal meaning for the symbolic language that God has already described. Isn’t it time to let the Bible interpret the Bible.
Let me address the timing of the “coming” of the Lord against Jerusalem in the New Testament as stated in the Old Testament. I won’t spend a lot of time here, but you can look up the scriptures and decide for yourself.
Write this down, the main scriptures which tell of the judgment coming of the Lord against apostate Israel are as follows:
Daniel 8:26, Daniel was told the time, but was told to seal up the vision for it shall be for many days”
But the question is, when was the time that Daniel was told that the end would be?In Chapter 8 verse 17, “So he came near where I stood, and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face, but he said, unto me, Understand, O son of man; for at the time of the end shall be the vision.” Notice, it says the time of the end, NOT THE END OF TIME. The time of the end, was the end of the Old Covenant of Death, the destruction of the temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, and Apostate Israel.
Daniel 7:22 “Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Verse 27-28, “And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Hitherto is the end of the matter.”
A corollary to this is Matthew 24: 14, “and the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, then shall the end come.” Now, Paul, plainly says that the gospel was preached in all the world during his day. Jesus said in Mark 1:14-15, “Now after that John was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe ye the gospel.” Luke 9:27, Jesus said, But, I tell you of a truth there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of God”. Luke 11:20, “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, not doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.”
Daniel 9:24-27, tell us that 70 weeks are determined upon thy people(that is Israel) and upon they holy city (that is Jerusalem) to finish the transgression, to make and end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Seven weeks to rebuild the temple after the Babylonian captivity, and after another 62 weeks Messiah would be cut off. Verse 26 says, “and after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people (Israel) of the prince (Jesus) that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end there of shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Now if Messiah was cut off after the 69 week, we know that 70 comes after 69, therefore Jesus was crucified in the 70th week and this was around AD 30. So the 70th week of Daniel was then folks, not two thousand years into the future and in the seventh week, Jerusalem, the temple, and the Mosaic covenant would be destroyed. That puts the latter part of Daniel 9 through Daniel 12 between AD 30 and AD 70. Now, we know by historical records of Josephus, that the Zealots destroyed most of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem long before Titus razed the city in AD70. The end thereof shall be is the end of the Old Covenant world, not the end of the material universe and of time.
Daniel chapter 12, tell us more about when the “end” or coming of the Lord against Israel shall be.
Verse one: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every on that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Here is the prince in the previous chapter. Sometimes Christ was attributed to being the angel Michael. Secondly, this verse is describing the tribulations of Matthew chapter 24. Also, this verse is alluding to the resurrection of the saints in Sheol, but more importantly, it is talking about going from the Old Covenant of Death, to the New Covenant of mercy and grace or Life in Christ. Jesus said, he that liveth and beliveth in me shall never die, but is passed from death to life. Folks, this is resurrection. Verse 4, But thou O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Please notice, Daniel was told to seal the book, until the time of the end. Folks, you have got to read your scripture, it plainly says the time of the end, it does not say THE END OF TIME. There is no such thing in the Bible as the end of time. If you can show me the end of time in the Bible, please do so.
The last verses of Daniel 9 and 12, tells when the daily sacrifice will be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate setup, and Daniel to go thy way until the end be.
We know the daily sacrifice was taken away when the veil in the temple was split in two. We also know that when all the priests of Israel were killed during the Jewish wars that the daily sacrifice stopped because there was no one to perform them. We also know that the abomination of desolation is described in Luke where Jesus plainly says “when you see the Armies surround Jerusalem know the desolation is near”. We have a tie in between Daniel, Matthew 24 and Luke 21. It should be plain to see this.
Now let us move to Zechariah 12,13, and 14 to see if we can determine when the Day of the Lord or coming of the Lord would be.
In Zechariah chapter 12, versed 8-10:
“In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
Let tie chapter 13 together with chapter 12 before we exegete these verses.
Chapter 12 verses 6.8, and 9.
Verse 6, “and one shall say into him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Verse 8, “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.”
Verse 9, “and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” Now we know that two thirds of the Jews were destroyed in the Jewish Wars of AD 67-70. Most of them were killed in Jerusalem either by the Zealots or the Roman armies. As a matter of history, 1,300,000 Jews were destroyed in and around Jerusalem at this time. But we also know that a remnant was saved because they fled to Pella when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Armies. Jesus warned them to flee in His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Romans 9:25-27 says this, “As he saith also in O’see, I will call them my people; which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people; there shall be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” This quotation is in response to the completion of Daniel 9:24-27 as well. God is saying in Zechariah, that those who pierced Jesus and wounded him in the house of His friends would see Jesus.
Now we must look at Zechariah chapter 14 to know exactly when the manisfestation of the coming of the Lord would be.
The first two verses give the time and the later verses tell what is going to take place.
Zechariah 14 verse one:
“Behold the day of the Lord cometh and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.”
The day of the Lord is the coming of the Lord in the destruction of Jerusalem and verse two makes that plain. Verse 2: For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle: and the city shall be taken and the house rifled, and the women ravished; and the half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then (it is important to note then shall the Lord) shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley: and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ..And the Lord shall come, and all the saints with thee. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.”
Jerusalem went from the Natural city to the Heavenly Spiritual Jerusalem coming down in John’s vision. Therefore, New Jerusalem cannot ever be destroyed again, because Paul said it was the Jerusalem from above, the Church, the mother of us all. Makes sense doesn’t it? This is the everlasting Kingdom of whom Jesus rules and reigns forever.
Therefore there was a judgment of Christ against apostate Israel, a resurrection of the dead from sheol, and the establishment of the everlasting Kingdom of God. Jesus said, the kingdom is within you, and it cometh not with observation. Folks, that means it cometh not with the eyeballs.
What one must see is that this coming of the Lord is when Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was burned, and the Mosaic Covenant was fulfilled. This happened with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 as Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.
I am going to use just a few more verses to determine the time factors, because my discourse here is really not the timing, but more so on the nature of the comings of the Lord as explained in the Old and New Testament.
Jesus said, in Luke 21 verse 21, “For these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. In verse 32, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say into you, This generation, shall not pass, till all be fulfilled.”
Folks, it is time to let the Bible speak for itself. I have tried my best to show you what it says. I know this is not what you may have been taught, but all that I can say, it let scripture be the authority.
The only epiphany or coming of the Lord in the New Testament is the judgment coming of the Lord against Israel to destroy the old Judaic system, the temple, and the sacrificial system that could not save people from their sins. Jesus came the same way as God came in the past. He came in signs and wonders and the destruction of kingdoms and powers. He came in the glory of His Father. It was never about the physical heaven and material earth. The coming was about Jesus establishing a New Covenant of mercy and grace. It was about restoring mankind in a personal relationship with God that man destroyed in the Garden of Eden. The first Adam brought spiritual death and separation from God. The second Adam, Jesus, brought forgiveness of sins and presence in the Holy of Holies with God. Let us now enter boldly into the throne of grace. This was and is restoration in the presence of God. The veil has been removed that kept us separated from God. We no longer offer animal blood sacrifices for our sins. Jesus offered His own blood once and for all and is our Mediator of a more perfect covenant. Jesus’ righteousness has been imputed to us and is acceptable to God the Father. We are now Sons and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. How can we possibly say, that Jesus has not completed all the work necessary to restore us back to God and that my dear friends includes not only His birth, death, and resurrection, but also Jesus’ judgment coming to completely fulfill all the old law and prophets and institute the New Covenant of grace and mercy. Praise to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope I have given you something to think about.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
ETERNAL LIFE
COVENANTAL SALVATION
Part TWO
By Allen Brooks
Statement: The term “Eternal Life” used by Jesus in the New Testament is a relational term. It is not a term used to describe one’s afterlife in heaven or hell.
What is Eternal life according to Jesus in the New Testament? Let us look at John 17:3, “and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent”. These are the direct words of Jesus Christ! Eternal life is to know God and Jesus. To know means be in an interactive relationship with someone. To know means intimacy. The term eternal life, abundant life, and everlasting life [when used together] should be characterized as “an abiding fellowship with Jesus or God”. (See Webster’s Dictionary)
These are relational to God and fellowship with God terms for our immediate, biological lives on planet earth. These are present tense terms and not future terms about our afterlife.
Due to a change of covenant, a person can now have a personal relationship, or fellowship, or eternal life (abiding fellowship) with God because ALL of the OLD COVENANT (TESTAMENT) has been fulfilled. One can now know God personally.
Another way to state this is that a person cannot have a personal relationship or eternal life (abiding fellowship) with GOD unless ALL of the OLD TESTAMENT (COVENANT) is fulfilled. This includes all of the minor and major prophetic books as well.
Let me use the Old Testament book of Leviticus to explain the atonement process in the Torah which was the shadow of good things (ie: the atonement made by Christ)
to come.
I will paraphrase the process and then correlate it to the New Testament fulfillment.
Once each year the High Priest would perform the rite of atonement. This earthly ritual forgave ALL Israel’s sins for one year. Remember the Law was given only to Israel and not to Gentiles. Israelites were biologically born into that covenant (See part one).
The rite of atonement was the shadow on earth of the atonement that Christ would perform once and for all.
Let us look at the process.
The High Priest would purify himself.
The High Priest would kill a lamb or goat without blemish and put the blood in a bowl.
The High Priest would enter the Holy Of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant stood.
The High Priest would apply the blood of the lamb with a hyssop branch on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
God would come (presence or coming) in the form of smoke and accept the sacrifice of blood.
The High Priest would return to the waiting congregation to show them that the sacrifice was accepted by God.
The whole of Israel would throw a huge party in celebration of sins forgiven and of God being presence (coming (parousia,gk) in the New Testament gk) in their midst.
We must stop and ask a few questions about the process before we proceed.
Did the High Priest act on behalf of ALL the people of Israel? Yes.
Was the slaying of the unblemished lamb the complete atonement? No.
Was the High Priest entering into the Holy of Holies the complete atonement? No.
Was the giving of the lamb’s blood on the mercy seat of the ark the complete atonement? No.
Was accepting of the blood of the lamb by God the complete atonement? No.
Was the return [coming] of the High Priest to the waiting congregation the sign of the completed atonement? YES!
Was the atonement (forgiveness of sins, restoration, reconciliation, resurrection, fellowship) universal for all Israel for that one year? Yes.
This was the process in the Old Testament. Please read Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus in your Bible. ALL steps of the rite had to be performed in order for atonement to take place. We should remember that this is about a change of covenant.
The book of Hebrews explains this same process that Jesus would complete acting as High Priest for All humanity. But we must analyze the steps in the New Testament.
ALL elements of the rite of atonement had to be completed in order for salvation [atonement] to be fully delivered to the children of Israel! We should also note that the book of Hebrews plainly states that the earthly rituals were the patterns of things in the heavens! The earthly atonement ritual showed exactly what was going to happen in the heavenly atonement ritual.
Let us ask the same questions about the atonement provide by Jesus.
Was Jesus our High Priest? Yes. (Hebrews 8) Jesus became our High Priest after there was a change of law. Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah and the Law stated that the High Priest had to be from the tribe of Levi. For a testament (covenant) is of force after men are dead. For where a testament (covenant) is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.”
Was Jesus the unblemished Lamb of God? Yes. John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Was Jesus giving of His own blood on the cross (crucifixion) the completed atonement? No! His blood was not yet sprinkled on the mercy seat yet. Hebrews 9:8, “The Holy Spirit this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle [earthly temple] was yet standing.” It was destroyed in AD70 by the zealots, Titus, and the Roman armies.
Did Jesus have to sprinkle His own blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in heavenly places? Yes. But the way into the Holy of Holies was not yet made available.
Did God accept Jesus’ blood as forgiveness of sins? Yes. How do we know? We know by the return of the High Priest to the waiting congregation.
Did Jesus as the High Priest have to return from the Holy Of Holies to the waiting congregation in order to let the people know that God had accept His sacrifice? Yes. Hebrews 9:26-28, “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world(age, aion in gk) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” If our High Priest has not appeared from the Holy of Holies without sin, we are still in our sins! He appears at the end of the world. The correct greek word for world is aion which means age. He appeared at the end of the OLD Covenant age as evidenced by the destruction of the temple, the end of the Mosaic Covenant, and the destruction of earthly Jerusalem.
The manner and timing of Christ’s coming (gk, parousia or presence) is the confusion of today’s church. (See my comments on the comings of God in the Old Testament and how they relate to and explain Jesus’ coming in the New Testament.) If so when did this happen? Luke 21:22,32, ‘ For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written (Old Testament) may be fulfilled.” Verse 32,“Verily I say unto you (the disciples), This generation (genea in greek for Jesus’ generation) shall not pass away, till all [everything in the prophets and the Psalms] be fulfilled.” If not, then atonement (forgiveness of sins) has not happened.
The Apostle Paul in AD 60 stated in Romans 13:11, that “his salvation was nearer now than when he first believed”. This was after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Paul knew that salvation (deliverance from the law and sin death) could not be fully delivered until all of the OLD TESTAMENT (covenant) was fulfilled! In AD 60 Peter wrote, 1st Peter 15, ‘Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” 1st Peter 1:13, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. The end is the end the Mosaic system or the OLD COVENANT! It was the end of that world (age) system of salvation for the Jews and the Gentiles.
Paul and Peter knew that at the end of the OLD Covenant, salvation would be delivered because then the New Covenant would be fully in place. This was the transition time.
Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24, Mark13, and Luke 21 that the destruction of the temple, the end of the Law (old covenant), and the destruction of Jerusalem would be the sign of his coming (means presence in greek), the end of the Mosaic age (world, age, aion in greek), and the full inauguration of the New Covenant.
Did Jesus atonement restore humankind back into God’s presence so that they could have eternal life (abiding fellowship [or resurrection from sin –death] with God)? Yes.
In John 17:3 Jesus states that life eternal is to know the one true God and Jesus Christ!
One cannot know God or Jesus unless they are here on planet earth and present.
My point in sharing all of the above with you is to explain to you that eternal life or abiding fellowship with God is not possible unless all of the Old Testament (covenant) is fulfilled and secondly to show that eternal life is relational to God is this life.
Now, the question becomes, what does that mean to us today and do all folks today have abiding fellowship (eternal life) with Jesus or God?
When God through the work of Jesus created a New Covenant which forgave sin and iniquity, this New Covenant tore down the veil or wall of separation between God and Mankind. This covenant delivered salvation. Salvation is freedom from the strength of sin (the law) and the effects of sin (death or separation from God).
Now because the Old Covenant has been abolished and a New Covenant established by the work of Jesus, mankind is back in God’s presence. God now dwells among men. (Jeremiah 31:33, “ I will dwell with my people. I shall be their God and they shall be my people.”) Some folks say that God cannot dwell among men on earth. If this is true I would question why they think the Holy Spirit dwells among men on the earth. Is not the Holy Spirit God? Jesus said where two or three are gathered that He would be in their midst. Is Jesus not God? The work of the Spirit and the work of Jesus is finished. Now God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is all in all. God dwells among us. Wonderful! Hallelujah!
Since God dwells among us, we can now have abiding fellowship with God if we choose.
This eternal life is a relationship with God. We can now love God, know God, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Love is the fulfilling of the law and love works no ill toward his neighbor.
We can walk with God, talk with God, ask God questions, be led by God, and be embraced by God. We can be transformed by God on a minute by minute basis. We are always in God’s presence. We don’t have to go to a church building or to a mountain to find God and fellowship with Him. God is everywhere and always present with each individual. The separation has ended and God is here. God bids us to fellowship and have a relationship with Him. This is the eternal life, the abundant life, the everlasting life Jesus spoke about. God loves us unconditionally and accepts us just like we are. But there is more.
Now, we can co-create a new world where God is working with us to make this a better world. We can end world hunger, we can end wars, we can end homelessness, we can end earthly pollution and global warming. We can end discrimination and hatred. We can end murder, rape, stealing, cheating, lying, and all the evil that befalls mankind. We can do this by loving our neighbors as ourselves and as God has loved us!
We can wake up each day with hope fulfilled and know that God is not going to destroy planet earth. (For a Biblical understanding, see my commentary on ‘The world will last forever!)
God’s presence with us can transform each of us into being the kind of people that God wants. His will can be done on earth as it is in heaven because His kingdom has come.
To live our lives in relationship with God and to be transformed by His presence and love is to have eternal life (abiding fellowship with God). It is not about living forever in heaven or hell. The afterlife was never the issue with God, but our relationship with Him was the issue. This is why Jesus came to do the will of the Father and put mankind back into God’s presence. Jesus completed that work by changing the covenant.
Does that mean that everyone has eternal life? No, because even though a New Covenant was created and God is now present, everyone does not have a relationship (eternal life) with God.
They either don’t know that they have been saved (delivered from the strength of sin (the law) and from the effects of sin (separation from God) or they don’t want to have a relationship with God.
Most if not all evil in this world is caused by mankind, not God! Where does this evil or sin come from? It comes from the devil right? NO, not according to the Bible!
James 1:13-14, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man; But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death.”
James 4:1-2, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not” ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
Most evil in this world comes from mankind’s greed (lusts) and mankind’s greed causes us to kill, fight, steal, rape, murder, cheat, lie, hate, commit adultery, you name it. Our most recent economic troubles have been caused by mankind’s greed. Wouldn’t you agree? One’s lusts or greed is the result of one’s selfishness and one NOT LOVING THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF!
Only when one understands his New Covenant standing and that one can have eternal life (abiding fellowship) with God, can one be transformed and love thy neighbor as thyself.
Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you: Love God and love thy neighbor”. This is the essence of abiding fellowship with God.
There are many folks who are not “Christians” who have an abiding fellowship with God and their lives of loving thy neighbor validate that. On the other hand, there are many “Christians” who do not have eternal life (abiding fellowship with God) and the way they live their lives and treat their neighbors validate that as well. Jesus said very plainly in the scriptures, “if you love not those whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?”
I have presented a different perspective of salvation and eternal life than most people know or understand. I think our understanding of scriptures in this light became something else due to the westernization and neo-plutonian influence during the rise of Christianity after AD 70. Man’s attempt to control people with fear of hell, restricting the reading of the Bible, and propagating the institutionalization of the church were the leading factors in placing the emphasis on the afterlife rather than this life. Jesus came to give abundant life, eternal life in the here and now. He did or He didn’t, that seems to be our choice.
Part TWO
By Allen Brooks
Statement: The term “Eternal Life” used by Jesus in the New Testament is a relational term. It is not a term used to describe one’s afterlife in heaven or hell.
What is Eternal life according to Jesus in the New Testament? Let us look at John 17:3, “and this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent”. These are the direct words of Jesus Christ! Eternal life is to know God and Jesus. To know means be in an interactive relationship with someone. To know means intimacy. The term eternal life, abundant life, and everlasting life [when used together] should be characterized as “an abiding fellowship with Jesus or God”. (See Webster’s Dictionary)
These are relational to God and fellowship with God terms for our immediate, biological lives on planet earth. These are present tense terms and not future terms about our afterlife.
Due to a change of covenant, a person can now have a personal relationship, or fellowship, or eternal life (abiding fellowship) with God because ALL of the OLD COVENANT (TESTAMENT) has been fulfilled. One can now know God personally.
Another way to state this is that a person cannot have a personal relationship or eternal life (abiding fellowship) with GOD unless ALL of the OLD TESTAMENT (COVENANT) is fulfilled. This includes all of the minor and major prophetic books as well.
Let me use the Old Testament book of Leviticus to explain the atonement process in the Torah which was the shadow of good things (ie: the atonement made by Christ)
to come.
I will paraphrase the process and then correlate it to the New Testament fulfillment.
Once each year the High Priest would perform the rite of atonement. This earthly ritual forgave ALL Israel’s sins for one year. Remember the Law was given only to Israel and not to Gentiles. Israelites were biologically born into that covenant (See part one).
The rite of atonement was the shadow on earth of the atonement that Christ would perform once and for all.
Let us look at the process.
The High Priest would purify himself.
The High Priest would kill a lamb or goat without blemish and put the blood in a bowl.
The High Priest would enter the Holy Of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant stood.
The High Priest would apply the blood of the lamb with a hyssop branch on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
God would come (presence or coming) in the form of smoke and accept the sacrifice of blood.
The High Priest would return to the waiting congregation to show them that the sacrifice was accepted by God.
The whole of Israel would throw a huge party in celebration of sins forgiven and of God being presence (coming (parousia,gk) in the New Testament gk) in their midst.
We must stop and ask a few questions about the process before we proceed.
Did the High Priest act on behalf of ALL the people of Israel? Yes.
Was the slaying of the unblemished lamb the complete atonement? No.
Was the High Priest entering into the Holy of Holies the complete atonement? No.
Was the giving of the lamb’s blood on the mercy seat of the ark the complete atonement? No.
Was accepting of the blood of the lamb by God the complete atonement? No.
Was the return [coming] of the High Priest to the waiting congregation the sign of the completed atonement? YES!
Was the atonement (forgiveness of sins, restoration, reconciliation, resurrection, fellowship) universal for all Israel for that one year? Yes.
This was the process in the Old Testament. Please read Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus in your Bible. ALL steps of the rite had to be performed in order for atonement to take place. We should remember that this is about a change of covenant.
The book of Hebrews explains this same process that Jesus would complete acting as High Priest for All humanity. But we must analyze the steps in the New Testament.
ALL elements of the rite of atonement had to be completed in order for salvation [atonement] to be fully delivered to the children of Israel! We should also note that the book of Hebrews plainly states that the earthly rituals were the patterns of things in the heavens! The earthly atonement ritual showed exactly what was going to happen in the heavenly atonement ritual.
Let us ask the same questions about the atonement provide by Jesus.
Was Jesus our High Priest? Yes. (Hebrews 8) Jesus became our High Priest after there was a change of law. Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah and the Law stated that the High Priest had to be from the tribe of Levi. For a testament (covenant) is of force after men are dead. For where a testament (covenant) is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.”
Was Jesus the unblemished Lamb of God? Yes. John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Was Jesus giving of His own blood on the cross (crucifixion) the completed atonement? No! His blood was not yet sprinkled on the mercy seat yet. Hebrews 9:8, “The Holy Spirit this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle [earthly temple] was yet standing.” It was destroyed in AD70 by the zealots, Titus, and the Roman armies.
Did Jesus have to sprinkle His own blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in heavenly places? Yes. But the way into the Holy of Holies was not yet made available.
Did God accept Jesus’ blood as forgiveness of sins? Yes. How do we know? We know by the return of the High Priest to the waiting congregation.
Did Jesus as the High Priest have to return from the Holy Of Holies to the waiting congregation in order to let the people know that God had accept His sacrifice? Yes. Hebrews 9:26-28, “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once in the end of the world(age, aion in gk) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” If our High Priest has not appeared from the Holy of Holies without sin, we are still in our sins! He appears at the end of the world. The correct greek word for world is aion which means age. He appeared at the end of the OLD Covenant age as evidenced by the destruction of the temple, the end of the Mosaic Covenant, and the destruction of earthly Jerusalem.
The manner and timing of Christ’s coming (gk, parousia or presence) is the confusion of today’s church. (See my comments on the comings of God in the Old Testament and how they relate to and explain Jesus’ coming in the New Testament.) If so when did this happen? Luke 21:22,32, ‘ For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written (Old Testament) may be fulfilled.” Verse 32,“Verily I say unto you (the disciples), This generation (genea in greek for Jesus’ generation) shall not pass away, till all [everything in the prophets and the Psalms] be fulfilled.” If not, then atonement (forgiveness of sins) has not happened.
The Apostle Paul in AD 60 stated in Romans 13:11, that “his salvation was nearer now than when he first believed”. This was after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Paul knew that salvation (deliverance from the law and sin death) could not be fully delivered until all of the OLD TESTAMENT (covenant) was fulfilled! In AD 60 Peter wrote, 1st Peter 15, ‘Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” 1st Peter 1:13, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. The end is the end the Mosaic system or the OLD COVENANT! It was the end of that world (age) system of salvation for the Jews and the Gentiles.
Paul and Peter knew that at the end of the OLD Covenant, salvation would be delivered because then the New Covenant would be fully in place. This was the transition time.
Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 24, Mark13, and Luke 21 that the destruction of the temple, the end of the Law (old covenant), and the destruction of Jerusalem would be the sign of his coming (means presence in greek), the end of the Mosaic age (world, age, aion in greek), and the full inauguration of the New Covenant.
Did Jesus atonement restore humankind back into God’s presence so that they could have eternal life (abiding fellowship [or resurrection from sin –death] with God)? Yes.
In John 17:3 Jesus states that life eternal is to know the one true God and Jesus Christ!
One cannot know God or Jesus unless they are here on planet earth and present.
My point in sharing all of the above with you is to explain to you that eternal life or abiding fellowship with God is not possible unless all of the Old Testament (covenant) is fulfilled and secondly to show that eternal life is relational to God is this life.
Now, the question becomes, what does that mean to us today and do all folks today have abiding fellowship (eternal life) with Jesus or God?
When God through the work of Jesus created a New Covenant which forgave sin and iniquity, this New Covenant tore down the veil or wall of separation between God and Mankind. This covenant delivered salvation. Salvation is freedom from the strength of sin (the law) and the effects of sin (death or separation from God).
Now because the Old Covenant has been abolished and a New Covenant established by the work of Jesus, mankind is back in God’s presence. God now dwells among men. (Jeremiah 31:33, “ I will dwell with my people. I shall be their God and they shall be my people.”) Some folks say that God cannot dwell among men on earth. If this is true I would question why they think the Holy Spirit dwells among men on the earth. Is not the Holy Spirit God? Jesus said where two or three are gathered that He would be in their midst. Is Jesus not God? The work of the Spirit and the work of Jesus is finished. Now God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is all in all. God dwells among us. Wonderful! Hallelujah!
Since God dwells among us, we can now have abiding fellowship with God if we choose.
This eternal life is a relationship with God. We can now love God, know God, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Love is the fulfilling of the law and love works no ill toward his neighbor.
We can walk with God, talk with God, ask God questions, be led by God, and be embraced by God. We can be transformed by God on a minute by minute basis. We are always in God’s presence. We don’t have to go to a church building or to a mountain to find God and fellowship with Him. God is everywhere and always present with each individual. The separation has ended and God is here. God bids us to fellowship and have a relationship with Him. This is the eternal life, the abundant life, the everlasting life Jesus spoke about. God loves us unconditionally and accepts us just like we are. But there is more.
Now, we can co-create a new world where God is working with us to make this a better world. We can end world hunger, we can end wars, we can end homelessness, we can end earthly pollution and global warming. We can end discrimination and hatred. We can end murder, rape, stealing, cheating, lying, and all the evil that befalls mankind. We can do this by loving our neighbors as ourselves and as God has loved us!
We can wake up each day with hope fulfilled and know that God is not going to destroy planet earth. (For a Biblical understanding, see my commentary on ‘The world will last forever!)
God’s presence with us can transform each of us into being the kind of people that God wants. His will can be done on earth as it is in heaven because His kingdom has come.
To live our lives in relationship with God and to be transformed by His presence and love is to have eternal life (abiding fellowship with God). It is not about living forever in heaven or hell. The afterlife was never the issue with God, but our relationship with Him was the issue. This is why Jesus came to do the will of the Father and put mankind back into God’s presence. Jesus completed that work by changing the covenant.
Does that mean that everyone has eternal life? No, because even though a New Covenant was created and God is now present, everyone does not have a relationship (eternal life) with God.
They either don’t know that they have been saved (delivered from the strength of sin (the law) and from the effects of sin (separation from God) or they don’t want to have a relationship with God.
Most if not all evil in this world is caused by mankind, not God! Where does this evil or sin come from? It comes from the devil right? NO, not according to the Bible!
James 1:13-14, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man; But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death.”
James 4:1-2, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not” ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
Most evil in this world comes from mankind’s greed (lusts) and mankind’s greed causes us to kill, fight, steal, rape, murder, cheat, lie, hate, commit adultery, you name it. Our most recent economic troubles have been caused by mankind’s greed. Wouldn’t you agree? One’s lusts or greed is the result of one’s selfishness and one NOT LOVING THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF!
Only when one understands his New Covenant standing and that one can have eternal life (abiding fellowship) with God, can one be transformed and love thy neighbor as thyself.
Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you: Love God and love thy neighbor”. This is the essence of abiding fellowship with God.
There are many folks who are not “Christians” who have an abiding fellowship with God and their lives of loving thy neighbor validate that. On the other hand, there are many “Christians” who do not have eternal life (abiding fellowship with God) and the way they live their lives and treat their neighbors validate that as well. Jesus said very plainly in the scriptures, “if you love not those whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?”
I have presented a different perspective of salvation and eternal life than most people know or understand. I think our understanding of scriptures in this light became something else due to the westernization and neo-plutonian influence during the rise of Christianity after AD 70. Man’s attempt to control people with fear of hell, restricting the reading of the Bible, and propagating the institutionalization of the church were the leading factors in placing the emphasis on the afterlife rather than this life. Jesus came to give abundant life, eternal life in the here and now. He did or He didn’t, that seems to be our choice.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Covenantal Salvation
COVENANTAL SALVATION
Part One
By Allen Brooks
Several years ago, I began a furious pursuit of trying to understand the Bible from its historical and covenantal (testament) perspective. I spent thousands of hours studying the Bible, studying older theologians, and analyzing several hundred commentaries. I also began to study many of the words in the Bible in their original Hebrew or Greek language.
What is salvation? Today Christians and Pastors may say that salvation is being saved from hell to go to heaven. They also may say that salvation means believing in Jesus as one’s personal Savior in order to receive eternal (everlasting) life. These definitions come from the westernization or the neo-plutonian reading of the scriptures rather than a Hebraic first century church biblical rendering. But is that really how the Bible defines salvation? In Webster’s Dictionary salvation is defined as “deliverance from the power and effects of sin”.
In the New Testament, the word salvation in the Greek language is soteria or soterion which is translated: rescue, deliver, or save. [Strong’s Concordance #4991 and #4992]. Therefore, the word deliverance in Webster’s Dictionary is correct. The question then becomes “delivered or saved from what?” Salvation is deliverance from the power and effects of sin.
The scriptures states in 1 Corinthians 15:56; “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” Secondly, the Bible states in Romans 6:23; “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
To restate these passages, the power (strength) of sin is the law and the effect (wages) of sin is death.
We must try and determine from scriptures what this “death” is and what is the law?
I think that most Christians think this death is biological death and that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they produced physical death. This is incorrect.
Adam and Eve’s act of obtaining the knowledge of good and evil brought forth ‘sin death” or separation from God. This separation was the whole issue, not biological death.
Let us take a look at the story in Genesis.
I will paraphrase except where it is necessary to quote the scriptures. God created the world and created Adam and Eve. He placed them in the Garden of Eden and gave them one commandment. Genesis 2:16-17; “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of this garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.
Genesis 3:1-7,22 “Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods [like God, see verse 22,ab], knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Genesis 3:22-24 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”
We must pose a few questions at this point.
Did Adam and Eve eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Yes, they did!
When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, did they die?
Why did God remove them from the garden before they could eat of the tree of life and live forever?
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good?
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Evil?
What are the implications of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
Facts: the day Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge they died. God said, “the day ye eat of the tree of knowledge, ye shall die.” Therefore they died that day. Fact, they did not die biologically because they lived several hundred years after that. They died spiritually. They were kicked out of the presence of God. This is the death. They died “sin death”.
They would have died physically any ways because of two reasons:
First, Genesis 3:22-24 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” God prevented eternal biological life.
Second, Genesis 3:19, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” God never gave nor promised eternal biological life. Never! He promised biological death.
To answer the third and fourth questions, we must look at the scriptures again.
First, the day Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge they would die spiritually or become separated from God.
Second, the day Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge they would become as GOD!
Genesis 3:22-24 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: ..”
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods [like God, see verse 22,ab], knowing good and evil.
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to become as God and know good and evil?
My own opinion is that the day mankind knew good and evil, that knowledge separated mankind from God because mankind begin to judge God, themselves, and all humankind based on (their) knowledge of good and evil. Mankind became gods and humankind’s accuser, jury, and judge. The creation became their own God. This separated mankind from the one true God.
What are the universal implications of Adam and Eve breaking the one commandment that God gave them?
All mankind was born spiritually dead or separated (this is sin death) from God.
Romans 3:23, “For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.”
Romans 5:18, “Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation….” What is the condemnation? Separation!
1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam, ALL DIE….”
To give further clarity to the idea of death being spiritual and not biological, let us move to some New Testament scriptures to define death.
Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
John 11:26, “He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. This is not biological death.
John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say into you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (not biological death, but spiritual death. ie, separation from God)
John 8:51. “Verily, verily, I say into you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death”. Jesus is not talking about biological death, but spiritual death.
Romans 8:6, “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Is he talking about biological death? NO!
The story of the Prodigal Son is the epitome of the symbolism of spiritual death.
Luke 15:24 states; ”For this my son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost, and is found”.
The son was NOT dead biologically, he was separated from his father which the Father equates with death.
Folks, please do research in your Bibles. God always equates death with separation from Him. Especially, look at Israel. Secondly, if Jesus is not equating death to biological death, but spiritual death, then we must look at spiritual life and also resurrection as spiritual and not biological. That is a later discussion.
We must note that this death was universal to all mankind. One should also note that what Adam and Eve did affected all mankind even though one today did not have any thing to do with them putting mankind into spiritual death. This is important. Did you personally have anything to do with Adam and Eve breaking the one commandment? NO! Did it affect you? YES!
What is the law? There are two laws we must analyze. The first law was given only to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and had universal implications. We have reviewed the first universal law. The second written law (Old Testament) was given to Israel at Mount Sinai and pertained only to Israel, but had universal implication.
Let us review this LAW given to Israel.
Let me make a few statements about the Old Testament, especially the Torah and the prophets (the law). First, the 613 laws or commandments of the Old Testament were given only to Israel and never given to a Gentile. The commandments of the Old Testament did not and do not pertain to any Gentile. I will use the very words of Jesus in the New Testament to validate my claim. Today, anyone claiming that the Old Testament was given to any gentile then or now is making presuppositions not supported by scripture.
The law was given only to the Israelites. The law also includes the prophets.
Exodus 19:3, “And Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying. Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel..”.
Exodus 31:1, “And the Lord spake unto Moses.”
Deuteronomy 31:24-26, “And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee”.
Isaiah 1:1, “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz,which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”.
Jeremiah 1:1, “The words of Jeremiah..to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah…”.
Daniel 10:14, “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall THY PEOPLE [Israel] in the latter days…”.
John 1:17, “For the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”
Romans 9:4, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises”.
Hebrews 1:1. states, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) by the prophets..”. All the prophets were Israelites.
The Gentiles were not given the law. The following scriptures validate that fact.
Jesus spake through Paul in Romans 2:14, “For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves.”
Ephesians 2:11-15, ‘Wherefore remember, that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no..”.
It is very clear and easy to establish that the law (All of the Old Testament was written by and to Israel only and not Gentiles). All I am trying to establish is that the Old Testament, (Law, Psalms, and Prophets) were given only to Israel. I think this is clear.
Now we must find out why the law was given since it was the power [strength] of sin unto death. The Gentiles did not have a covenant with God from Mount Sinai.
God made his covenant with the house of Israel and gave them the law for them to live by until the seed [Jesus] would be born. The Old Testament (covenant) is that agreement to Israel. We must understand that Jews or Israelites were born into this covenant by physical, fleshly birth. Jesus came to establish a new covenant (testament) that included Israelites and Gentiles. Romans 10:4; “For Christ is the END of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth..”.
Israel was chosen and given the law until Jesus would be born.
Galations 3:19, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, til the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded ALL under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe”.
Romans 7:12, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good”.
1st John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law ; for sin is the transgression of the law”.
Romans 5:13, “For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law”.
Romans 7:12, “Was then that which is good made death unto me”? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by commandment might become exceeding sinful”. The law was given to make sin more sinful..even exceeding sinful states Paul. Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Does flesh mean the human body? NO! The reference here is to the LAW [flesh].
Hebrews 7:19, “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh unto God”.
Hebrews 9, “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary…which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats, drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the times of reformation”.
Hebrew10, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect”.
The first covenant (the law) was given to make sin more sinful, the law was a shadow of things to come, the law prepared the way for Christ to be born, and the law condemned all men for all have sinned. Man could not fulfill the requirements of the law due to the weakness of his flesh.
Galatians 3:14, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”.
Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them [Israel] that were under the law, that we (Israel) might receive the adoption of sons”.
Luke 1:67-75, “To perform the mercy (grace) promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant; the oath he sware to our father Abraham..(that all families of the earth would be blessed)”.
His holy covenant is Hebrews 8:10-13, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God , and they shall be to me a people. They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”. In that he saith, A NEW COVENANT he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away”. Also, see Jeremiah 31:35. This is the same scripture Jesus is quoting.
I want to elude just one moment to the two covenants that the Apostle Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:21-30, “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants: the one from mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, which is A’gar. For this A’gar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”. Vs28-3, “Now we [Paul and the first century church] brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is NOW”. [Paul’s time] Nevertheless what saith the scripture: Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free”. (1) Paul is plainly stating that the OLD Covenant was still in existence at the time of his writing around AD 58 after the cross and resurrection of Christ. The cross was the definitive atoning work, but it was only part of the full atonement. Full salvation could not be accomplished until there was a change of covenant. I am putting this in so one can understand that the OLD Covenant and NEW Covenant stood side by side until the destruction of the temple, the end of the Mosaic Law, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Also, until all of the OLD TESTAMENT (OLD COVENANT) was fulfilled, salvation was not delivered. Matthew 5:18 states,” For verily I say unto you, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled”. One covenant was waxing old and decaying, while the other was being brought into being by Jesus and the first church body during a forty year period from AD30 to AD70. Just as the time from the release of Israel from Egypt until Israel entered the promised lasted was forty years, so was the transition from the Cross to the fulfillment of every jot and tittle of the Old Covenant (heaven and earth is an old testament euphemism for the covenant made with Israel).
Jesus came to create a new covenant with the Jews and graft the Gentiles into that covenant. Read Romans chapter 11.
Romans 11:17-18, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thous bearest not the root, but the root thee”.
Romans 15:8-9, “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision [Israel] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers”.
Matthew 15:24, “But He [Jesus] answered and said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of Israel”.
Romans 11:17-18, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them partaketh of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou beareth not the root, but the root thee.” Jesus was not sent to the Gentiles. I am restating this to show that the Gentiles were grafted into the new covenant.
Jesus would create a New Covenant by fulfilling the law.
Matthew 5:17, “Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Jesus came to fulfill ALL of the Old Testament and that includes ALL of the Old Testament books. Secondly, Jesus came to abolish the 613 laws of Torah or the Old Testament that was the strength of sin and kept mankind separated from God.
Ephesians 2:11-15, ‘Wherefore remember, that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”
The law of commandments contained in the ordinance are the 613 commandments (not just 10 commandments) in the Torah or Old Testament. These were the strength of sin.
Romans 5:13, “For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed (charged) when there no law”.
1st John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law”.
Here is the bottom line. Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Testament(the law), abolishing the law by putting away sin in His flesh, creating a New Covenant of forgiving the sins and iniquities of Israel, grafting the Gentiles into that New Covenant, and fulfilling his oath to father Abraham that ALL families of the earth would be blessed. This is the complete story of the Bible.
Salvation is covenantal, not individualistic. The first Adam brought universal separation, the second Adam, brought comprehensive reconciliation. It is what God has done through the work of His Son Jesus. God alone did the work on mankind’s behalf. God alone has provided salvation: deliverance from the power and effects of sin. The power of sin was the law and the effects of sin were separation (sin death) from God. Jesus had both abolished the strength (the law) of sin and defeated death, the separation of mankind from God.
Praise and honor to our Lord Jesus, who came to do the will of the Father. The will of the Father was to reconcile mankind back into HIS PRESENCE that God may be ALL in ALL. The death (separation from God) that Adam caused in the garden was defeated by Jesus. Jesus, the second Adam, reconciled (restored) mankind back to GOD.
1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for ALL, which is the testimony given at the proper time”.
1 Timothy 4:10: “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of ALL people, especially those who believe”.
John 12:32: “and I [Jesus,] when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw ALL people to myself.”
Romans 14:11: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
3:3- For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.
3:20 - Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
3:21-But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
5:8-But God commendeth (proved) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
5:10-For if, when we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
5:15-But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
5:18-Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
5:19-For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
8:32-He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us ALL, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
11:27-For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sin.
11:29-For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
11:30-For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their (Israel) unbelief.
11:31-Even so have these (Israel) now not believed, that through your (Gentiles) they (Israel) also may obtain mercy.
11:32-“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”
14:11-For it is written, as I live saith the Lord, “Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God”.
1 Corinthians 15:22- For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for ALL, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”
1 Timothy 4:10: “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of ALL people, especially those who believe.”
2nd Corinthians 5:19, “To wit that God was in Christ; reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Now if salvation is covenantal and means being delivered from the fall of Adam and delivered from the power(the law) and effects of sin(spiritual death or separation from God), does that mean everyone is going to heaven? Not necessarily. Does it mean that no one is going to a place called hell? These are really the wrong questions. See my research on hell to understand Jesus’ meaning of hell.
But if salvation is deliverance from the strength of sin (the law) and the effects of sin (separation from God), then salvation is comprehensive and universal!
Salvation is universal through the second Adam, Christ.
Salvation was never about one’s afterlife in heaven or hell! Jesus did not come to get one to heaven or save one from hell. He came to give abundant, eternal life in this world and to bring to the earth the kingdom of God (the New Covenant).
In Part two we will elaborate further what it means for humanity to be in the new covenant world or what it means for ALL humanity to be reconciled back to God by a change of covenant.
What does eternal life mean according to Jesus?
Does this change of covenant do away with individual sin, evil, and its effects on humanity?
What has the New Covenant to do with morality?
What does the New Covenant mean for humanity and the earth today?
Why do ALL Christians still sin (verb) today?
Why is the world still in such a mess today if God changed the covenant?
Were Jesus’ words in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 about the destruction of our material and physical world or the Old Covenant world’s destruction?
Part One
By Allen Brooks
Several years ago, I began a furious pursuit of trying to understand the Bible from its historical and covenantal (testament) perspective. I spent thousands of hours studying the Bible, studying older theologians, and analyzing several hundred commentaries. I also began to study many of the words in the Bible in their original Hebrew or Greek language.
What is salvation? Today Christians and Pastors may say that salvation is being saved from hell to go to heaven. They also may say that salvation means believing in Jesus as one’s personal Savior in order to receive eternal (everlasting) life. These definitions come from the westernization or the neo-plutonian reading of the scriptures rather than a Hebraic first century church biblical rendering. But is that really how the Bible defines salvation? In Webster’s Dictionary salvation is defined as “deliverance from the power and effects of sin”.
In the New Testament, the word salvation in the Greek language is soteria or soterion which is translated: rescue, deliver, or save. [Strong’s Concordance #4991 and #4992]. Therefore, the word deliverance in Webster’s Dictionary is correct. The question then becomes “delivered or saved from what?” Salvation is deliverance from the power and effects of sin.
The scriptures states in 1 Corinthians 15:56; “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” Secondly, the Bible states in Romans 6:23; “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
To restate these passages, the power (strength) of sin is the law and the effect (wages) of sin is death.
We must try and determine from scriptures what this “death” is and what is the law?
I think that most Christians think this death is biological death and that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they produced physical death. This is incorrect.
Adam and Eve’s act of obtaining the knowledge of good and evil brought forth ‘sin death” or separation from God. This separation was the whole issue, not biological death.
Let us take a look at the story in Genesis.
I will paraphrase except where it is necessary to quote the scriptures. God created the world and created Adam and Eve. He placed them in the Garden of Eden and gave them one commandment. Genesis 2:16-17; “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of this garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.
Genesis 3:1-7,22 “Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods [like God, see verse 22,ab], knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Genesis 3:22-24 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”
We must pose a few questions at this point.
Did Adam and Eve eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Yes, they did!
When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, did they die?
Why did God remove them from the garden before they could eat of the tree of life and live forever?
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good?
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Evil?
What are the implications of Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?
Facts: the day Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge they died. God said, “the day ye eat of the tree of knowledge, ye shall die.” Therefore they died that day. Fact, they did not die biologically because they lived several hundred years after that. They died spiritually. They were kicked out of the presence of God. This is the death. They died “sin death”.
They would have died physically any ways because of two reasons:
First, Genesis 3:22-24 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” God prevented eternal biological life.
Second, Genesis 3:19, ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” God never gave nor promised eternal biological life. Never! He promised biological death.
To answer the third and fourth questions, we must look at the scriptures again.
First, the day Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge they would die spiritually or become separated from God.
Second, the day Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge they would become as GOD!
Genesis 3:22-24 “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: ..”
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods [like God, see verse 22,ab], knowing good and evil.
Why did God not want Adam and Eve to become as God and know good and evil?
My own opinion is that the day mankind knew good and evil, that knowledge separated mankind from God because mankind begin to judge God, themselves, and all humankind based on (their) knowledge of good and evil. Mankind became gods and humankind’s accuser, jury, and judge. The creation became their own God. This separated mankind from the one true God.
What are the universal implications of Adam and Eve breaking the one commandment that God gave them?
All mankind was born spiritually dead or separated (this is sin death) from God.
Romans 3:23, “For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.
Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned.”
Romans 5:18, “Therefore as by the offence of one [Adam] judgment came upon ALL MEN to condemnation….” What is the condemnation? Separation!
1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam, ALL DIE….”
To give further clarity to the idea of death being spiritual and not biological, let us move to some New Testament scriptures to define death.
Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
John 11:26, “He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. This is not biological death.
John 5:24, “Verily, verily, I say into you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (not biological death, but spiritual death. ie, separation from God)
John 8:51. “Verily, verily, I say into you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death”. Jesus is not talking about biological death, but spiritual death.
Romans 8:6, “To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Is he talking about biological death? NO!
The story of the Prodigal Son is the epitome of the symbolism of spiritual death.
Luke 15:24 states; ”For this my son was dead, and is alive again, he was lost, and is found”.
The son was NOT dead biologically, he was separated from his father which the Father equates with death.
Folks, please do research in your Bibles. God always equates death with separation from Him. Especially, look at Israel. Secondly, if Jesus is not equating death to biological death, but spiritual death, then we must look at spiritual life and also resurrection as spiritual and not biological. That is a later discussion.
We must note that this death was universal to all mankind. One should also note that what Adam and Eve did affected all mankind even though one today did not have any thing to do with them putting mankind into spiritual death. This is important. Did you personally have anything to do with Adam and Eve breaking the one commandment? NO! Did it affect you? YES!
What is the law? There are two laws we must analyze. The first law was given only to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and had universal implications. We have reviewed the first universal law. The second written law (Old Testament) was given to Israel at Mount Sinai and pertained only to Israel, but had universal implication.
Let us review this LAW given to Israel.
Let me make a few statements about the Old Testament, especially the Torah and the prophets (the law). First, the 613 laws or commandments of the Old Testament were given only to Israel and never given to a Gentile. The commandments of the Old Testament did not and do not pertain to any Gentile. I will use the very words of Jesus in the New Testament to validate my claim. Today, anyone claiming that the Old Testament was given to any gentile then or now is making presuppositions not supported by scripture.
The law was given only to the Israelites. The law also includes the prophets.
Exodus 19:3, “And Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying. Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel..”.
Exodus 31:1, “And the Lord spake unto Moses.”
Deuteronomy 31:24-26, “And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, take this book of the law and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee”.
Isaiah 1:1, “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz,which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”.
Jeremiah 1:1, “The words of Jeremiah..to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah…”.
Daniel 10:14, “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall THY PEOPLE [Israel] in the latter days…”.
John 1:17, “For the Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”
Romans 9:4, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises”.
Hebrews 1:1. states, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) by the prophets..”. All the prophets were Israelites.
The Gentiles were not given the law. The following scriptures validate that fact.
Jesus spake through Paul in Romans 2:14, “For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves.”
Ephesians 2:11-15, ‘Wherefore remember, that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no..”.
It is very clear and easy to establish that the law (All of the Old Testament was written by and to Israel only and not Gentiles). All I am trying to establish is that the Old Testament, (Law, Psalms, and Prophets) were given only to Israel. I think this is clear.
Now we must find out why the law was given since it was the power [strength] of sin unto death. The Gentiles did not have a covenant with God from Mount Sinai.
God made his covenant with the house of Israel and gave them the law for them to live by until the seed [Jesus] would be born. The Old Testament (covenant) is that agreement to Israel. We must understand that Jews or Israelites were born into this covenant by physical, fleshly birth. Jesus came to establish a new covenant (testament) that included Israelites and Gentiles. Romans 10:4; “For Christ is the END of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth..”.
Israel was chosen and given the law until Jesus would be born.
Galations 3:19, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, til the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded ALL under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe”.
Romans 7:12, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good”.
1st John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law ; for sin is the transgression of the law”.
Romans 5:13, “For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law”.
Romans 7:12, “Was then that which is good made death unto me”? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by commandment might become exceeding sinful”. The law was given to make sin more sinful..even exceeding sinful states Paul. Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Does flesh mean the human body? NO! The reference here is to the LAW [flesh].
Hebrews 7:19, “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh unto God”.
Hebrews 9, “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary…which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only in meats, drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the times of reformation”.
Hebrew10, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect”.
The first covenant (the law) was given to make sin more sinful, the law was a shadow of things to come, the law prepared the way for Christ to be born, and the law condemned all men for all have sinned. Man could not fulfill the requirements of the law due to the weakness of his flesh.
Galatians 3:14, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”.
Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them [Israel] that were under the law, that we (Israel) might receive the adoption of sons”.
Luke 1:67-75, “To perform the mercy (grace) promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant; the oath he sware to our father Abraham..(that all families of the earth would be blessed)”.
His holy covenant is Hebrews 8:10-13, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God , and they shall be to me a people. They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”. In that he saith, A NEW COVENANT he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away”. Also, see Jeremiah 31:35. This is the same scripture Jesus is quoting.
I want to elude just one moment to the two covenants that the Apostle Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4:21-30, “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants: the one from mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, which is A’gar. For this A’gar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”. Vs28-3, “Now we [Paul and the first century church] brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is NOW”. [Paul’s time] Nevertheless what saith the scripture: Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free”. (1) Paul is plainly stating that the OLD Covenant was still in existence at the time of his writing around AD 58 after the cross and resurrection of Christ. The cross was the definitive atoning work, but it was only part of the full atonement. Full salvation could not be accomplished until there was a change of covenant. I am putting this in so one can understand that the OLD Covenant and NEW Covenant stood side by side until the destruction of the temple, the end of the Mosaic Law, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Also, until all of the OLD TESTAMENT (OLD COVENANT) was fulfilled, salvation was not delivered. Matthew 5:18 states,” For verily I say unto you, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled”. One covenant was waxing old and decaying, while the other was being brought into being by Jesus and the first church body during a forty year period from AD30 to AD70. Just as the time from the release of Israel from Egypt until Israel entered the promised lasted was forty years, so was the transition from the Cross to the fulfillment of every jot and tittle of the Old Covenant (heaven and earth is an old testament euphemism for the covenant made with Israel).
Jesus came to create a new covenant with the Jews and graft the Gentiles into that covenant. Read Romans chapter 11.
Romans 11:17-18, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thous bearest not the root, but the root thee”.
Romans 15:8-9, “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision [Israel] for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers”.
Matthew 15:24, “But He [Jesus] answered and said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of Israel”.
Romans 11:17-18, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them partaketh of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou beareth not the root, but the root thee.” Jesus was not sent to the Gentiles. I am restating this to show that the Gentiles were grafted into the new covenant.
Jesus would create a New Covenant by fulfilling the law.
Matthew 5:17, “Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Jesus came to fulfill ALL of the Old Testament and that includes ALL of the Old Testament books. Secondly, Jesus came to abolish the 613 laws of Torah or the Old Testament that was the strength of sin and kept mankind separated from God.
Ephesians 2:11-15, ‘Wherefore remember, that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world; But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”
The law of commandments contained in the ordinance are the 613 commandments (not just 10 commandments) in the Torah or Old Testament. These were the strength of sin.
Romans 5:13, “For until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed (charged) when there no law”.
1st John 3:4, “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law”.
Here is the bottom line. Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Testament(the law), abolishing the law by putting away sin in His flesh, creating a New Covenant of forgiving the sins and iniquities of Israel, grafting the Gentiles into that New Covenant, and fulfilling his oath to father Abraham that ALL families of the earth would be blessed. This is the complete story of the Bible.
Salvation is covenantal, not individualistic. The first Adam brought universal separation, the second Adam, brought comprehensive reconciliation. It is what God has done through the work of His Son Jesus. God alone did the work on mankind’s behalf. God alone has provided salvation: deliverance from the power and effects of sin. The power of sin was the law and the effects of sin were separation (sin death) from God. Jesus had both abolished the strength (the law) of sin and defeated death, the separation of mankind from God.
Praise and honor to our Lord Jesus, who came to do the will of the Father. The will of the Father was to reconcile mankind back into HIS PRESENCE that God may be ALL in ALL. The death (separation from God) that Adam caused in the garden was defeated by Jesus. Jesus, the second Adam, reconciled (restored) mankind back to GOD.
1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for ALL, which is the testimony given at the proper time”.
1 Timothy 4:10: “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of ALL people, especially those who believe”.
John 12:32: “and I [Jesus,] when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw ALL people to myself.”
Romans 14:11: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
Philippians 2:9-11: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
3:3- For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.
3:20 - Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
3:21-But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
5:8-But God commendeth (proved) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
5:10-For if, when we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
5:15-But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
5:18-Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
5:19-For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
8:32-He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us ALL, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
11:27-For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sin.
11:29-For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
11:30-For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their (Israel) unbelief.
11:31-Even so have these (Israel) now not believed, that through your (Gentiles) they (Israel) also may obtain mercy.
11:32-“For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”
14:11-For it is written, as I live saith the Lord, “Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God”.
1 Corinthians 15:22- For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Timothy 2:3-6: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for ALL, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”
1 Timothy 4:10: “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of ALL people, especially those who believe.”
2nd Corinthians 5:19, “To wit that God was in Christ; reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Now if salvation is covenantal and means being delivered from the fall of Adam and delivered from the power(the law) and effects of sin(spiritual death or separation from God), does that mean everyone is going to heaven? Not necessarily. Does it mean that no one is going to a place called hell? These are really the wrong questions. See my research on hell to understand Jesus’ meaning of hell.
But if salvation is deliverance from the strength of sin (the law) and the effects of sin (separation from God), then salvation is comprehensive and universal!
Salvation is universal through the second Adam, Christ.
Salvation was never about one’s afterlife in heaven or hell! Jesus did not come to get one to heaven or save one from hell. He came to give abundant, eternal life in this world and to bring to the earth the kingdom of God (the New Covenant).
In Part two we will elaborate further what it means for humanity to be in the new covenant world or what it means for ALL humanity to be reconciled back to God by a change of covenant.
What does eternal life mean according to Jesus?
Does this change of covenant do away with individual sin, evil, and its effects on humanity?
What has the New Covenant to do with morality?
What does the New Covenant mean for humanity and the earth today?
Why do ALL Christians still sin (verb) today?
Why is the world still in such a mess today if God changed the covenant?
Were Jesus’ words in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 about the destruction of our material and physical world or the Old Covenant world’s destruction?
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