Christianity Explained InformationFind
Christian Unity in Biblical Explanations of the Doctrines That
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You're Invited |
You have a choice to make: You can either believe the opinions of theologians, atheists, or agnostics, or you can determine for yourself what the Bible says by studying it. If you
do nothing else, be sure to read thIs
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What difference does it make? |
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Topics What Is Christianity Explained Information?What Is Religion and Where Did It Originate? What Is the Bible, and How Relative Is It to My Life? What Are Messianic Prophecies? Who Was Jesus of Nazareth, Really? Why Are There So Many World Religions? Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations? What Is the Law and How Does It Apply to Me? What's All This About the End of the World and End-time Prophecies? Isn't the Book of Daniel a Closed Book? Revelation: How can anyone understand all that symbolism? Who or What Was Jesus' Mother, Mary? Didn't Darwin Disprove Creation? What's the Truth About Faith and Works? Christian E-mails: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Complete Directory of Articles/Studies
Title Abbreviations for Books of the Bible Genesis
- Ge |
Covenants: What Are They, Who Made Them, and How Do They Relate to Me?cov·e·nant (kuvÆÃ nÃnt), n. 1. an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified. 2. Law. an incidental clause in such an agreement. 3. Eccles. a solemn agreement between the members of a church to act together in harmony with the precepts of the gospel. 4. (cap.) Hist. a. See National Covenant. b. See Solemn League and Covenant. 5. Bible. a. the conditional promises made to humanity by God, as revealed in Scripture. b. the agreement between God and the ancient Israelites, in which God promised to protect them if they kept His law and were faithful to Him. 6. Law. a. a formal agreement of legal validity, esp. one under seal. b. an early English form of action in suits involving sealed contracts. 7. See Covenant of the League of Nations. –v.i. 8. to enter into a covenant. –v.t. 9. to promise by covenant; pledge. 10. to stipulate. [1250–1300; ME < AF, OF, n. use of prp. of covenir < L conven#re to come together, agree; see -ANT] —cov·e·nan·tal (kuvÅÃ nanÆtl), adj. —Syn. 1. treaty, pact, convention. Of course, we're dealing with God, so we need to know a couple of things about him. For one thing, God does not change.
In definition #5, God is said to have made conditional promises to humanity, and specifically he promised to protect the Israelites if they kept his law and were faithful to him. Now many prople differ in opinion about the conditional or unconditional nature of God's covenants, so I'll be exploring covenants in general and what are known as The Old Covenant and The New Covenant here. I will be providing a lot of scripture here because some people don't take the time to look up scripture passages to confirm that what they are reading is really scripture and not just someone else's interpretation of scripture. I wish to have present here a record of what the Bible actually says. The Covenants between God and his people began in the Garden of Eden.
Though God did not use the word "covenant", He set Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the stipulation that they would have access to the tree of life and therefore live forever as long as they didn't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was in the middle of the Garden. They ate from the tree, they were evicted from the Garden and their access to the Tree of Life terminated, and they began to die. During this event, God cursed the serpent for allowing itself to be used by Satan to cause mankind to fall, and he cursed the ground so that it would no longer freely give forth food for mankind, and he "cursed" the woman with painful childbirth and multiplied sorrows and conceptions. Because she showed such poor judgment in attempting to make herself equal with God, he made her who had been created equal to her husband now subservient to her husband. (More on this in Christian Relationships.) But the good news is that God also made another Covenant with his people.
This time, the covenant was unconditional on God's part. He knew when he made man with the freedom of choice that man could fall, and he had already made a plan to save humanity from itself. He would send a hero to save the day. In verse 15, God ceased speaking to the serpent and began speaking to Satan, the evil spirit that had taken over the serpent. This hero, the Messiah or Annointed One, would come from woman (seed), and although this savior would be wounded (bruise his heel) by Satan, Satan would be destroyed (bruise your head) by the one to come. The use of heel and head brings into focus the crushing of the serpent's head under the heel of the Messiah. The serpent may strike at that heel and wound it, but it would still crush him. Satan did everything he could to kill Jesus, and at the crucifixion, he appeared to have succeeded; however, at Christ's resurrection and ascencion, Satan was finally defeated. All that remains is for Christ to return as he promised for those who ernestly desire to follow God's ways. Once everyone is satisfied that God's ways are better than Satan's ways, Satan and all who prefer his ways will be finally destroyed. The scenes of judgment in Scripture will come to pass, not so that God can judge his people--he already knows who is good and who is evil--but so that the saved can review (judge) the righteousness of God in excluding those he then must destroy. The Old CovenantThe Abrahamic Covenant is considered to be the start of "The Old Covenant".
This would be a conditional covenant in that Abram had the choice to follow God's request or not. Once he moved on God's command, he completed his part of the covenant. But that wasn't the end of God's covenanting with Abram. When Abram arrived at his destination God had more news for him.
After a drought forced Abram to visit Egypt for a while, he returned and Lot returned with even more than they had when they left and, since their herdsmen fought and argued over where to graze, Abram and Lot decided to go their separate ways. Abram gave Lot his choice of places and then the Lord reaffirmed his Covenant.
Abram went years without having children and began to wonder how God was going to keep His end of the covenant to make of Abram a great nation.
Genesis 15:6 is the key to all Judeo-Christian theology: Abram believed God and God accounted that to Abram as righteousness. Being "good", being "smart", being "right" wasn't what made God love Abram (you couldn't say it was good or smart or right for Abram to pass his wife off as his sister and possibly cause her to commit adultery); it was Abram's faith in God. Abram was saved by faith, not by works. And did you notice that even after "he believed", he still asked for signs? His faith wasn't any greater than ours today. He simply wanted to believe in God and what God would do for him, and asked God to help him believe. So the covenant was sealed with blood. This of course is a whole other study. God accepted the sacrifice as his way of sealing the covenant, after telling Abram that his people would be captives in Egypt for 400 years. I think it was God's way of telling Abram to be patient, that everything takes time but it will come to pass in God's time. When Abram was 99 years old, God again contacted him.
After reiterating his promise to make Abram the father of many nations, God renames him Abraham. This time God also makes the Covenant a personal relationship between himself and Abraham and Abraham's descendants. He would be their God as long as they would be his people. As a sign of this special relationship, God instituted circumcision for all males, which Abraham carried out without delay. This time, however, no doubt because of the incident with Hagar, God included Sarai, renaming her Sarah, as the mother of many nations. The children of Ishmael believe he was the child of promise, but the Bible shows he was a child of Sarah's unbelief in God's ability to perform his word, not a child of God's leading. Nevertheless, God blessed Ishmael, and all the children of Abraham should dwell together as a loving family instead of a feuding family. God even told Abraham when Isaac would be born and named him so there would be no further human error. By the way, Isaac means laughter and Genesis 17:17 is probably the world's first mention of rolling on the floor laughing. But making of Abraham a great nation was conditional.
God expected them to do righteousness (believe in God and do what he told them to do) and justice (be fair with their brethren). Righteousness was defined by Abram's belief in and willingness to follow the Lord. Justice seems to be defined by the "reasoning together" of Abraham and the Lord regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham reveals a compassion for ohers as well as his passion for justice in discussing with the Lord just how many people who believed in and followed him would have to be in the city in order for him to allow it to survive. God's willingness to patiently discuss the necessity for the destruction of sin with his people was also revealed. I have always wondered how many people existed in Sodom that 10 would be the number of "righteous" people required to save it. I have a feeling there is a correlation between the percentage of "righteous" in Sodom and the percentage of "righteous" that will be found when Jesus returns. Judging by the actions and words of humanity today, that percentage is slipping rapidly. Another component of the Abrahamic covenant reiterates the promise in the Garden:
The New CovenantThere's a bit of misunderstanding, especially among new Christians, about what the New Covenant is. They like to think they're being treated differently than the Old Testament believers, when that's just not true. Below is the promise of the New Covenant.
As you can see, there are several components. The first is that the "new covenant" would differ from the "old covenant" in that "after those days" the laws of God would be written in the hearts of mankind and that each individual would learn of God from God. Now some Christians have taken that last phrase and run amok with it. They say, "The word of God came to me" and "God told me" and proceed to spout things that are contrary to the laws or God and the word of God in scripture. They also attempt to "teach to others" what they think God has told them, when the scripture clearly states that men will no longer teach men, but God's laws and instructions will be inside every individual. Christ himself said, in Matthew 23:8-12, "But you, Do not be called Rabbi (teacher); for One is your Teacher, the leader, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your Father, for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called Teacher; for One is your Teacher, the Christ." Ooops! Major mistake for those who hold themselves up as experts on Christianity and Judaism, and even Islam, let alone "new age" movements and cults that call themselves "Christian" but preach a different Gospel than the one delivered by Christ, which was based on Old Testament Scriptures. Of course, when preaching against concepts found in The Scriptures, they also ignore the verses that say that the Lord does not change and is the same today as he was yesterday and will be forever. They think to change times and laws, but how can a person or committee be greater than the God who set up the system? A second component is God's forgiveness of the iniquity of his people. He states that the sun, moon, and stars will pass away and all heaven will be measured before he will give up his people who call him their God. Another, rather obvious, component is that this covenant is made with the children of Israel. I have to do a whole other study on Christians as the adopted (grafted-in) children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) to address this point. One day I'm sure I'll get to this and link it here. The final apparent component is the building of a City that will be Holy to the Lord and will never be destroyed. Now, I don't know if anyone has the measurements represented by the above, but I'd sure like to know if they do. Well, there it is: the major covenants as presented by Scripture. I'll have an indepth study of the word covenant in another article, but these are the ones that apply today to the lives of all who claim to believe in the Almighty Creator God based on the oldest religious record of His interaction with the human race. Everything set down since these records has to agree with them in order to be classified as Truth about God and His real people--not those who proclaim themselves to be His people, but those who act like His people, which are those He proclaims to be His people. Abram believed God enough to act on His commandments, and God accounted his belief as righteousness. How do I know Abram even knew God's Commandments? Through my study of "The Begats", the lists of who was the father of whom. |
Related Links The Truth About Mary Magdalene
Scriptures: Within Text: Genesis 2:15-17 More Study: name chap:verse-s
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