FINDING TRUTH!

WHO IS JESUS?

WHO IS YESHUA?

WHAT IS DISPENSATIONALISM?

WHAT IS REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY?

WHAT IS A COVENANT?

WHAT IS THE NEW COVENANT?

    Who is Jesus?  And, who is Yeshua?

    Are you aware of the possibility of worshiping and serving “another Jesus”?  (2 Corinthians 11:4)

    It is interesting to note that the name Jesus is actually a transliteration from the Greek name Iesous. Although Yeshua will answer to this name, inasmuch as it has been used since the writing of the King James Version, His correct Hebrew Name is Yeshua, meaning “salvation.”  It might also be noted that in the old English language, the “J” sound did not come into existence until the 1600s.  The “J” was always pronounced as a “Y” sound as in Johansson and Jacob would be Ya’akov.

    Yeshua was, is and will be Jewish upon His return.  He is from the tribe of Judah, from the line of King David.  His apostles and disciples were Jewish.  And, most of the people in the first century who turned to Yeshua for salvation were from the House of Israel or the House of Judah, which included the tribes of Benjamin and Levi.  However, it should be noted that there has always been a “mixed multitude” from other nations.  Also consider that Yeshua was not a “Christian” in any way.

    Yeshua kept all the Commandments (Instructions), which He gave to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  (See John 15:10) He kept all of these commandments, which applied to Him and not just 49.  Since He is the God of Creation (1 John 1 and others), He states that he never changes (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; John 1:1-3, 14); therefore, He is unable to change anything that He has stated in His Word.  He is immutable.

    God is not a killjoy; and, he is not changeable or deranged.  

    For example, all through the book of Deuteronomy, Moses drives home the message: “Keep God’s Torah (five books of Moses).”  When Israel failed to keep the Torah, God sent prophets warning them to repent and turn back to Torah.  When they repented, they were rewarded and blessed.  When they did not, they suffered the maledictions threatened in the Torah.  God “is not mocked.”  God continuously told His people for 1400 years to walk in His commandments, keep His Torah and His covenant.  Does it make sense to imagine that after 1400 years, God suddenly changed his mind?  Would it make sense to suppose that after all the pain and suffering of invasion, exile, re-gathering and so on, God would suddenly change the program and announce to His people, “From now on, don’t keep the commandments of the Torah,” and then punish them when they did? *

 

    * All paragraph ending with an (*) were adapted from First Fruits of Zion, Parashah Ki Tavo eDrash, ffoz.org, September 23, 2008

 

    That could be compared to a father who warned his son not to play ball in the house.  Every time the boy played ball in the house, his father would spank him and send him to his room.  This went on for three years.  Then one day, his father seized him and spanked him.  The boy cried out, “Why are you spanking me?” “Because you weren’t playing ball in the house,” the father explained.  “From now on, you must play ball in the house, and if you do not, I will beat you.”*

 

    We would call a father like that changeable and deranged.  Yet many theologians claim that this is what God has done to Israel.  For 1400 years He punished them when they did not keep the Torah.  Then when Yeshua came, He cancelled the Torah and henceforth punished them for keeping it. *

 

    Obviously God is not a changeable and deranged father.  Rather He is the Unchanging One, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  He has not cancelled the words of His Torah.  Even today, He longs for His people—all of His people—to repent, turn away from sin and come back to the good and beautiful Commandments (Instructions) of His Torah, just as His Holy Son, Yeshua, has shown us.  In Yeshua His people will find forgiveness for sins, and through His spirit, we find the strength and joy to serve God with gladness.  (Psalm 95:7) *

 

    * Adapted from First Fruits of Zion, Parashah Ki Tavo eDrash, ffoz.org, September 23, 2008

 

    Yeshua kept the seventh-day Sabbath.   This was His commandment from the beginning, not Moses’.  It was not just for the Israelites, Hebrews or Jewish people.  It was for all nations.  All of Yeshua’s apostles kept the Sabbath.  Yeshua’s followers, who were predominantly Jewish, kept the Sabbath.  They would not have had to be told to do this as they had been keeping it since the command was given at Mt. Sinai.  The seventh-day Sabbath was a day to honor the Father, His creation, and enjoy peaceful physical rest in Him.  It is the only day that God made holy and blessed.  (Exodus 20:11)

 

 

    The Sabbath Changed?

    On the other hand, Sunday was a day chosen by Sylvester I, pope of Rome (314-335), and Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea (260-340).  They were two of the principal church leaders who worked closely with Constantine and influenced him to enact a law upholding Sunday as the Sabbath vs. God’s appointed Seventh Day.  He did this in order to “save the nation.”  Later, after working closely with Constantine on six laws concerning the Sunday Sabbath, the official church edict on the subject was then issued at the Council of Laodicea in A.D. 336.  It was willingly stated by the Catholic Church that they had the “authority” to change the day to Sunday.  “The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday¼The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is therefore to this day acknowledged offspring of the Catholic church¼without a word of remonstrance from the Protestant world.” The Catholic Mirror, September 23, 1893.

    Sunday actually had nothing to do with the day of Yeshua’s resurrection, since Yeshua resurrected in the late afternoon of Sabbath, the 7^th day.  It is important to note here that Yeshua stated He would be in the tomb for three days and three nights as Jonah was in the belly of the fish the same.  Three days and three nights would not have begun on Friday afternoon and ended on Sunday morning.  That would have been two nights and one day.  Therefore, something is dreadfully wrong.  In going back to the time Yeshua died, was placed in the tomb and arose, it is best to know and understand from a Hebrew viewpoint what actually happened there instead of surmising from Greco-Roman or Babylonian (sun-god) teachings.  This would have to be another entire section of discussion.

    With regard to Colossians 2:16-17 (CJB)  “So don't let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Chodesh [New Moon festival] or Shabbat. These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.”

    First we must understand that this discussion was held by Paul and the Jewish Believers.  He was not speaking with Gentiles, unless they had joined themselves with the Jewish Believers and accepted Torah.  Basically this is the same problem Messianic Believers are having today; they are being taunted, mostly by the Church, for keeping these days, which the Father stated should be obeyed “forever” on numerous occasions.  He was not telling them “not” to do these things, but to do them even if judged or persecuted for doing so.

    Another point of misunderstanding is within the Hebrew idioms, which were used throughout the New Covenant.  Generally, these would be easily understood by a Hebrew or Jewish person.  However, those who learn with a Greco-Roman or Western mind set have a problem with proper interpretation.  For example, the evil eye in Matthew 6:23 is not actually speaking of an eye being evil, but a stingy, greedy person.  Most people, who are not Jewish or Hebrew, or who have been taught this mode of Hebrew thought, have little understanding in this area, and consequently, misinterpret many of the New Testament’s teachings.

    Jesus is teaching the Torah text from a well-informed understanding of the text in light of the whole Torah.  “You have heard it said¼” introduces a commonly held interpretation, but one which Jesus intends to correct by His own understanding of the text, introduced by “but I say to you¼” He intends by His teaching to show that one commonly held view of the text is deficient and needs to be reconsidered in light of a fuller understanding of the Torah.  Thus He uplifts the Torah to its rightful standing as the way of righteousness.” (It Is Often Said, Tim Hegg, Volume 1, ffoz.org)  Therefore, this is not meant to be a negation of the Torah. Yeshua gave the Law.

    In reference to the man who was stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath:  first, it is important to understand that the man was not just picking up sticks to carry them.  It wasn’t just the picking up and carrying of the sticks that got him into trouble.  His rebellious intention was to break the Sabbath.  He had decided to “kindle a fire” on the Sabbath.  He was breaking one of the 10 Sabbath laws.** He was not doing “good” as Yeshua was doing by telling the man to pick up his bed and walk.  There is no law or commandment in the Torah which forbids doing good or carrying one’s bed, especially since their beds weighed very little.  On the contrary, what Yeshua was teaching, doing good deeds on the Sabbath, is a very rewarding thing.

    **The Orthodox rabbis have now added approximately 1500 laws just for the Sabbath. There are only 10 which are listed in the booklet “The Covenant of Moshe” that are actually taken from the Scriptures.  These are easy to follow.

    Yeshua and His apostles kept all of the commanded Holy Days and Feasts, which included the three “pilgrimage” Days to Jerusalem.  These days were significant to God’s people as they pointed the way to His first coming (Spring Holy Days) and His second coming or return (Fall Holy Days).  In knowing these down through the ages, the Hebrew/Jewish people rehearsed over and over again what their Messiah would be, who He would be, and how He would arrive.  They had all the prophesies at their finger tips in the TeNak (Old Covenant or Hebrew Scriptures) and were without excuse.

    These Holy Days and Feasts, along with the Commandments and Covenants, were said by God to be continued “forever.”  The word forever literally means without end.  Therefore, we who have joined ourselves to Yeshua are to keep these as they were spoken from the first at Mt. Sinai. 

    Deuteronomy 11:13-21 "So if you listen carefully to my mitzvot [commandments] which I am giving you today, to love ADONAI your God and serve Him with all your heart and all your being; then I will give your land its rain at the right seasons, including the early fall rains and the late spring rains; so that you can gather in your wheat, new wine and olive oil; and I will give your fields grass for your livestock; with the result that you will eat and be satisfied.  But be careful not to let yourselves be seduced, so that you turn aside, serving other gods and worshiping them.  If you do, the anger of ADONAI will blaze up against you. He will shut up the sky, so that there will be no rain. The ground will not yield its produce, and you will quickly pass away from the good land ADONAI is giving you.  Therefore, you are to store up these words of mine in your heart and in all your being; tie them on your hand as a sign; put them at the front of a headband around your forehead; teach them carefully to your children, talking about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up;  and write them on the door frames of your house and on your gates, so that you and your children will live long on the land ADONAI swore to your ancestors that He would give them for as long as there is sky above the earth.

    Yeshua also followed the commandments for kosher eating of clean foods.  He ate biblically kosher, not rabbinically kosher foods (Leviticus 11 & Deuteronomy 14).  All of His apostles and followers did the same.  However, you will note a section in the book of Acts where the Gentiles had to be corrected with four special rules in order to enter the Temple.  Their unclean behavior and eating habits kept them from Temple worship. They were told they would be able to hear the words or teachings of Moses (Torah) in the synagogues every Sabbath in order to learn the commandments. (Acts 15:20-21).  These Gentiles would become Torah observant by attending synagogue—on Sabbath!

    Yeshua came to correct the teachers (rabbis) of His day who had placed his people in bondage by putting up a “fence” of security around them.  The rabbis actually created hundreds of extra laws to “insure that God’s people would not sin.”  In doing so, however, a burden was created on the people who kept them from keeping the Commandments correctly.  That is why Yeshua stated “You have heard it said, but I say...”  What He was stating is exactly what the heart of the Torah was saying, not what man had “added to it.”  Basically this is what many pastors, teachers and rabbis are doing today, adding and taking away from the Word spoken by Yeshua from the beginning.

    Yeshua did not come to do away with the Torah, but to fulfill it or fill it full, confirm, establish.  He actually stated these words.  His fulfilling did not remove “one jot or tittle,” but actually showed us that His burden is Light, His yoke is easy.  But remember, it is still a yoke.  We can fight against it or pull with Him.  (Matthew 5:17-19)  The “commandments of Christ” are the same as the commandments of Moses.  They were given by Yeshua to Moses and clarified by Him in the New Covenant.

    “Since we now know this issue results from a misunderstanding of the world “fulfill” is it possible that Jesus was teaching people that the Torah had, to one extent or another, been misunderstood in His Day?  If so, then it stands to reason that the same might be true in our times.  If He was further telling them that the Torah, rightly understood, would provide a light to their path as they purposed to walk with God, then His words speak the same message to us today.  The challenge that lies before us is this: Can we read the Torah without placing upon the text the prejudice of nearly 2,000 years?  Can we come to the Scriptures seeking to find in them the rich rewards of life God intended for His children?”  (It Is Often Said, Tim Hegg, Volume 1, ffoz.org )

    Yeshua would not have gone against His own Word.  For example: Deuteronomy 13:1 forward speaks of a person who says they are a prophet but turns the people away from God and His commandments and toward other gods.  This person and possibly even his family were to be stoned to death.  If this is true, then the Jesus in the church is not the Jesus of the Bible.  He is “another Jesus.” He is the one we were warned about in 2 Corinthians 13:4.  Since our God cannot change, then His commandments stand with Him “forever.”

    In Hebrew, there is an understanding about the two greatest commandments.  The first five commandments of the 10 fall under the heading of the “greatest commandment” and the last five commandments under the heading of the “second greatest commandment.”  This is a common understanding in Hebrew.  It is not new or something Jesus made up as an idea for the next era.  God’s 613 commandments are basically instructions, which are very helpful to today’s Believers.  Many are not currently operational as there is no Temple in use, but the balance of them is viable.  These “instructions” were also not to be used as a form of salvation as salvation is only by grace through faith and not by works.  (Ephesians 2:8, 9)

    The manifestation of salvation and the receiving of God’s grace bring with it the desire to do good works, since we have been promised that He will write the Torah on our hearts.  “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:20)  What Biblical works does this speak of?  The good works of Torah—the only good works!

    In the book of Acts 17:11-13--“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.  Therefore many of them believed; also of honorable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.”

    It is interesting to note here that these Bereans went to the Word of God to see if what they were being taught was in fact truth.  They did not go to the New Covenant.  There wasn’t one!  They went to the Tenak (Old Testament) and the Torah.  When the Jewish leaders of Thessalonica heard that Paul was preaching “the Way” in Berea, they became angry and stirred up the people.  This was nothing new to Paul or Yeshua.  Many of the Pharisees, leaders, rabbis, priests, and the Sadducees were distraught with Yeshua’s teaching of the truth, since He was correcting what they had incorrectly been teaching.  Why were they angry?  They were angry because Yeshua was turning the people back to the Truth, the Torah.  This was taking the people away from the teachings of the rabbis.  They were losing control of the people, their teaching, their power, their prestige and their positions.  This is why many people, especially leaders today, will not come to the Truth.  They will have to give up something.  Also, it is important to note that these leaders were beholden to the Romans.  Yeshua was not.  (Also see Do You Have an Aversion To Change - #7, a, b, and c)

    Yeshua is God in the flesh  

    He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Alef and the Tav. 
If Yeshua did what was commanded, should we do less?

    We have found that the following two forms of teaching are what is causing much of the confusion in the understanding of the complete Word by the Lord’s people.  They often realize that there is much cloudiness and uncertainty in what they are being taught.  However, because the information is coming from a “learned man” they are frequently reluctant to argue the point and usually accept what has been taught to them.  We recently had a gentleman tell us he was informed that he must study from the “amputated” Scriptures, the New Testament, versus the entire Bible.                                  

   Dispensationalism (A Definition)

    Dispensationalism is a Christian theological scheme developed by theologian John Nelson Darby that outlines specific historic epochs or dispensations that are “pre-ordained by God in which God deals with man in a distinctive way and, in some cases, in which God’s ethical standards change.” 

    A leading distinctive of dispensationalism is the sharp division between ethnic Israel and the church of Jesus Christ.  Orthodox Christianity has traditionally held that the Church of Jesus Christ is the new Israel; dispensationalists hold that ethnic Israel and the Church of Jesus Christ are two separate distinct entities in God’s program.  (Also see Do You Have an Aversion To Change - #7, a, b, and c)

    Replacement Theology (A Definition)

    The early Christian theologians saw Christianity as a replacement of Israel.  It was introduced to the church shortly after Gentile leadership took over from Jewish leadership.  This was accomplished by force.  Its premises are:

    1.      Israel (the Jewish people and the Land) has been replaced by the Christian church in the purposes of God, or, more precisely, the Church is the historic continuation of Israel to the exclusion of the former.

    2.      The Jewish people are now no longer a “chosen people.”  In fact, they are no different from any other group, such as the English, Spanish or Africans.

    3.      Apart from repentance, the new birth, and incorporation into the Church, the Jewish people have no future, no hope, and no calling in the plan of God.  The same is true for every other nation and group. 

    4.      Since Pentecost of Acts 2, the term “Israel,” as found in the Bible, now refers to the Church.

    5.      The promises, covenants and blessings ascribed to Israel in the Bible have been taken away from the Jews and given to the Church, which has superseded them.  However, the Jews are subject to the curses found in the Bible, as a result of their rejection of Christ.

(Also see Do You Have an Aversion to Change - #7, a, b, and c)

 
Heir to the vineyard:

    Jesus’ parable of the vineyard is most often explained as an illustration of how Christianity replaces Judaism.  The vineyard is understood to be the kingdom of heaven.  The wicked tenants are the Jews.  Thus, the Jews are thrown out of the kingdom, and their place as God’s elect is given to others—namely Christians.  Chapter twelve demonstrates how this reading of the parable is heavily colored by the assumptions of replacement theology.  But comparing the parable with other similar rabbinic parables, we discover that it is not the Jewish people who are being replaced in the story; it is the corrupt religious and political authorities of first-century Jerusalem .  The vineyard in which they have been employed is Israel.   (King of the Jews—Resurrection of the Jewish Jesus, D. Thomas Lancaster, ffoz.org )

What is a Covenant? 

    What is the New Covenant?

Ephesians 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 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:

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14 For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us¼

  Psalms 11:3 “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Our foundation: ¼the roots of our faith in Messiah¼are found in the Land, the People, and the Scriptures of Israel.  These concepts form a significant part of the foundation upon which everything else is built. ¼the foundations are grounded in the Torah.  ¼the whole subject of the Torah has been an area of misinformation and confusion for many believers.  (Boaz Michael, HaYesod (the Foundation), ffoz.org )

A generation after the passing of Sha’ul [Paul] of Tarsus there lived a highly influential church leader named Marcion (ca. 130 CE).  “On the one hand, early church leaders condemned Marcion as a heretic (144 CE), but on the other, they were influenced by his theological reflections.  Even today Marcion-like ideas continue to circulate, exerting influence in Christian teachings” [Paul, the Jewish Theologian, Brad Young, pp. 33-34].  One of Marcion’s impressionable ideas was that he stressed calling the Hebrew Scriptures, The Old Testament,” indicating that the contents of the book no longer have application for a believer in Yeshua.  In addition, Marcion also taught that grace was first revealed in the Brit Hadasha [New Testament] to counteract the legalism taught in the Tanakh [Old Testament].

In Marvin R. Wilson’s Our Father Abraham, he states “There is a common belief in today’s Church that Judaism–whether in Paul’s day or our own–teaches salvation by works of the Law, whereas Christianity is religion of grace.  Such an understanding of Judaism is in reality far more a caricature or misrepresentation than the truth.  Indeed, as one Christian scholar explains, ‘to the extent that we propagate this view in our preaching and our teaching, we are guilty of bearing false witness.’” (Carl D. Evans, “The Church’s False Witness Against Jews”)

Another Scripture, which has become a stumbling block to many Gentile students of the Word, is John 1:17. In the King James Version, the word but has been added.  This was not in the original text. Therefore, “but” should not be read in the context of the verse.  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:17)  The Interlinear Bible states:  And out of the fullness of Him we all received, and grace on top of grace, because the through Moses was given, grace and truth through Jesus Christ came into being.  Yeshua had given this same “grace” from the beginning, as previously discussed.

______________________

Covenant - a covenant is a legally-binding agreement between two or more consenting parties.

Blood sacrifices were a common way of sealing Ancient Near Eastern covenants.  One of the most common ways of conducting the sacrificial ritual was for the agreeing parties to slaughter an animal, divide its parts, and arrange them in parallel columns facing each other on the ground.  Then after the parts were arranged, both contracting parties walked through the middle of the parts, signifying that the same fate awaited them if they proved to be unfaithful to their covenant.  In other words, a covenant was not to be broken at any cost.

List of Covenants made in Scripture:

The Covenant in Eden–this affected all mankind – Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-17

Fill the earth with descendants

Man to have dominion over animals

Man to maintain the garden

Man had to abstain from eating the fruit of the tree of good and evil.

The penalty for eating of this fruit was death.

The Covenant with Adam—has affected all people--Genesis 3:14-19

A curse was placed on the serpent  

A form of punishment was placed on man and the woman as a reminder

There was a promise of a Redeemer

There was a promise of defeat of the serpent

There was a promise of Seed of the woman

The Covenant with Noah—this was the last of the universal covenants—Genesis 8:21-9:17, 24-27

God would never destroy the earth by flood

God instituted government to help man and set rules

The covenant sign was the rainbow

The Covenant with Abraham—first covenant with the Hebrew people (not Jewish)—Genesis 12:1-3ff; 15; 17

                             Abraham was promised the Land, people, and great blessings

God will make of Abraham a great nation

God will make Abraham’s name great

God will make Abraham a blessing to others

God will bless the ones who will bless Abraham and curse those who curse him

God will cause all families of the earth to be blessed through Abraham

The Messiah would come through Abraham

The covenant sign is circumcision

The covenant of promise is still being revealed

It is important to note that these promises were gifts of grace from God to Abraham.  God chose him out of grace and bestowed these promises on him out of grace.  Both the choice and the gifts were based not on Abraham’s merit, nor on any foreseen faith.  Abraham did not earn or deserve these promises; rather, they were strictly gifts of grace.  Therefore, grace was not something that came with the New Covenant.  It has been from the beginning.

        The Covenant with Moshe (Moses)—Exodus 19-24; 31

                            This covenant makes the assumption that the previous covenant is still in force

                            This covenant is multifaceted to enable His people to know the blessings

                            The covenant sign is the Sabbath (7^th day), given at creation

        The Covenant with King David—2 Samuel 7:12-16

                                  This is the third major covenant.  It must have the previous covenant to be in effect.

                         David is to have a continuous throne.

                         The covenant sign was the building of the Temple—the actual Temple and the one we are.

        The New “Renewed” Covenant—Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13

                            All other covenants must still be in place.

                            It is a renewal of those covenants.

                            The promises are not new but a renewal.

                            It is a blood covenant—the blood of Messiah

                            We are awaiting fulfillment of the covenant:

                  The Lord will be our God

                  The Lord will write the Torah on our hearts

                            The tribes of Israel and Judah (tribes of Judah, Benjamin & Levi) will be God’s people.

                            All will know the Lord

                            God will forgive their sins.

                            God will re-gather His people to the Land.

                  God will cleanse the people.

                  God will give them a new heart.

                  God will put His Spirit in them.

                  The people will be faithful to His Torah.

                  There will be a mighty work of regeneration, intimacy and re-gathering.

        God relates to His people through the Covenant relationship

        God never made a covenant with the Gentile people, but only the House of Israel.

            Yeshua came first to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

            Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

       Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

            Romans 11 states that He grafted in nations brought in to the Covenants.

            The Gentiles become Believers and are grafted in, no longer being Gentiles (heathen or pagans).

        One covenant does not nullify another.  They all build upon each other.

                Galatians 3:17  And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot     disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. (KJV)

                Galatians 3:17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. (NAS)

E      Each covenant included all the people: God-fearers, aliens, strangers, including Egyptians (the mixed multitude spoken of in Exodus 12:38) were included in each covenant.

        Gentile Believers do not replace Israel

        The Gentile’s purpose: To provoke the Jewish people to jealousy by their love for and obedience to Adonai (the Lord).  Romans 11:11, 25 (Gentile is used here to distinguish between Jewish Believers.)

        Circumcision:  Sometimes people misunderstand what they read in Genesis 17:14.  Here it says that anyone who does not covenantally circumcise their sons will be cut of from his people.  Some people interpret this to mean that circumcision therefore, is a condition for receiving the promises connected with the covenant of Abraham.  Our understanding is that there is no such condition.  The promises remain a grace gift.  The condition for receiving them continues to be faith.  The performance of circumcision enables the participants to realize the full blessings of the covenants.  Failure to circumcise hinders the participants in the covenant from experiencing the full blessing and fruitfulness that God intended from the promises He gives.  This apparent condition in verse 14 does not change the fact that the Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional covenant.  Rather, it was the way God prepared His people to understand and participate in the revelation of His next covenant, the Covenant of Torah—a truly conditional covenant.

        The Pattern for God’s Relationships

        The Abrahamic Covenant establishes the paradigm for all of God’s relationship with people. God is the One who makes promises to undeserving sinners.  The covenantal blessings can only be secured by faith in the God who makes those promises.  For example, God uses the covenant with Abraham as a pattern to explain the design of the covenant of salvation made with all who believe.

        Abraham believed God.  Biblical faith always results in the believer “doing” the Word of God.  Biblical faith is the act of taking God at His Word.  Look once more at these words, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says” (James 1:22) Doing the Word of God and actively living it, are sure signs that a person has saving faith.  We can know this for sure by what Ya’akov (James) goes on to say about Abraham and faith in James 2:14-26. The passage goes on to say that a faith that has no accompanying action is not biblical faith.  Biblical faith is faith in action.  God establishes this principle of “faith in action” as the foundational pattern for the covenantal response to His promises.  This understanding provides the necessary transition to preparing the readers of the Scriptures for studying the Covenant of Moshe (Moses).

        Sha’ul [Paul] uses a comparison between the Torah and the Abrahamic Covenant in Galatians 3:10-23.  In verse 11 he says, “Clearly no one is justified before God by the Torah.”  The text goes on to tell us why: “because, ‘the righteous will live by faith.’”   In other words, the righteous will come into life by faith (the Abrahamic Covenant) and, having done so, will live out that faith through obedience (See James 2:18) to the Word of God—the Mosaic Covenant.

I       In the midst of this passage in Galatians, we find in verse 12 the rather enigmatic statement that, translated literally from the Greek says, “The law is not of faith.”  Often misunderstood, this phrase is critical to understanding the relationship between the two covenants.  If we translate the Greek word nomos as “Torah” instead of “law”, we realize that Sha’ul is simply comparing the two covenants—just as we have done—to make the point that the Torah could never impart life to sinful man.  The Torah, rather, is life for those already alive in God.  One can only become alive in God through faith; we may conclude, therefore, that obedience would be the expected response in the covenant with Moses.

        The last part of verse 12 also needs some clarification: “The Torah is not of faith.  On the contrary, the man who does these things will live by them.”  By stating this, Sha’ul was saying that the way to live out the life which has been imported to us through faith is to follow the Torah.  Shaul was not saying that faith is not involved when people embrace the Torah in order to live by it.

        Sha’ul concluded in verse 21: “Is the Torah, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!”  Here the rabbi places the final touches on his masterful argument by restating one of his main points:  both covenants are entirely complementary, and the covenant of faith must always precede the covenant of the Torah.  In other words, we must always trust in God for our righteousness, and then allow that imparted righteousness to live itself out as we follow God’s Word.

        To some, this may smack of “legalism”—man’s attempts by his own efforts to earn or merit his righteousness.  However, this is far from the case.  Legalism has absolutely no place in a covenantal relationship with God.  Remember that all must enter into such a relationship in the same way that Abraham did—by faith.  He was chosen by the grace of God apart from any merit on his part.  In fact, God did not even choose him because of any foreseen faith that Abraham might exercise in the future; He made a sovereign choice based on His own criteria, not on anything within man.  After God chose Abraham, He enabled him simply to trust or believe in Him.  When Abraham did so, the promises were his.

        When an individual enters the Kingdom of God by faith, he also enters the Abrahamic Covenant.  The Scriptures are clear in their teachings on this truth: this is the only relationship necessary for salvation.  However, in order to live out that salvation (the new life imparted) consistently with the nature of what that life is, the individual lives according to God’s covenant with His Redeemed.  This then is where the Mosaic Covenant comes in.  “Everything that the Lord has said, we will obey” (Exodus 24:7). The covenant with Moses, as we have already stated, was not one in which a person could begin a relationship with God.  Instead, it was a covenant where the believer enjoyed his relationship with God through his obedience.

        The Sin of the People

        Some people think that the reason why God is making a new covenant is because of the imperfection of the older one, the Covenant of Torah.  They base their thinking on a faulty understanding of Jeremiah 31:31-32. 

J        Jeremiah 31:31, 32 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. (NAS)

        Walter C. Kaiser takes issue with this assumption, as we do.  He carefully observes:

      “The truth of the matter was that Jeremiah found no fault with the Sinaitic covenant.  Both Jeremiah and the later writer of Hebrews were emphatic in their assessment of the trouble with the covenant made in Moses’ day.  The problem was with the people, not with the covenant-making God nor with the moral law or promise re-affirmed from the patriarchs and included in the old covenant.  The text of Jeremiah 31:32 explicitly points the finger when it said, ‘Which covenant of Mine they broke.’  So also did Hebrew 8:8-9: ‘He finding fault with them¼because they continued not in [His] covenant.” (italics Kaiser’s) [Old Testament Theology. P. 234]

        We could not agree more with Kaiser’s assessment!  As mentioned above, the people of Israel had reached a point where by virtue of their sin, a renewal of all of the covenants was necessary.  The spiritual realities described in Jeremiah 31:32ff had, in fact, been available through the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants; but, because of their sin, the people did not realize or embrace those truths.  As Hebrews 4:2 says, “For we also have had the Good News preached to us, just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”  In other words, those people whom Jeremiah was rebuking had the correct information, but they lacked trust in God.

        The book of Hebrews says that it was necessary to make some “adjustments” to the new situation in which the believers now found themselves.  We are told that the first covenant (Mosaic) had some problems—not with the covenant, but with the people.  In Hebrews 8:7, we read, “For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.”  The very next verse tells us that the people were the problem, “Finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah’¼” (italics ours, Hebrew 8:8).

        Hebrews 8:31

        To summarize:  In Hebrews 8:13 we read, “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ he has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”  This verse in its context of chapters 8 to10 indicates that the Renewed Covenant only modified those stipulations of the Mosaic Covenant that had to do with the sacrificial system.  Here are three reasons in a nutshell:  1) The context speaks only of the sacrificial system, 2) Other portions of the Brit Hadasha [New Covenant] confirm the continual validity of the Torah, and 3) “Obsolete” means useless or outmoded—a reference to animal blood sacrifices; “growing old¼ready to disappear” refers to the temple, rendered spiritually redundant by Messiah’s death, yet still standing and functioning in Jerusalem and soon to be destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

*        Portions of the above section on the Covenants have been adapted from Ha Yesod, A Discipleship Series on the Foundation of our Faith, First Fruits of Zion, ffoz.org

FINDING TRUTH

        A very close friend of ours, L. Draper, who used to be a pastor in a large Baptist church in Atlanta , sent to us his approach for finding truth regarding the time of Yeshua and the keeping of the Torah. 

        Here are his words: