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After devoting considerable time and space to the discussion of Jeremiah's "New/Re-Newed" Covenant it is time once again to continue with our study into the Seven Covenants of YHWH in hopes of determining which Covenant the Christian finds his standing. The purpose of this study is not only to ascertain the above to help the non-Jewish Christian Believer better understand how he is to relate to the God of the Universe and take upon himself such Covenant stipulations in order to be more pleasing to Him. Now let us turn to the last Covenant given in the Bible.
The Davidic Covenant was the seventh covenant of the Jewish scriptures and the final covenant made with ancient Israel. Messianic expectation in the Abrahamic the Mosaic and the Moabic covenants was vaguely suggested but was not a dominant issue. The Davidic Covenant, however, is the stimulus of the Messianic hope of Israel.
Israel had no king from the Jewish year 2488, the year of their entrance into Eretz Israel, until the anointing of Saul, three hundred twenty-six years later. Saul reigned forty years. David reigned at Hebron for seven years before his kingdom was fully established in the Jewish year 2854. This was about nine hundred years before the Common Era. David, too, reigned for forty years. Only after his kingdom was established and the Davidic Covenant was ratified did Messianic speculation become a prominent theme in Israel's eschatological expectation.
Nathan, the prophet, in II Samuel 7:4-17, spoke the words of the Davidic Covenant. Developing their messages from that covenant, many of the prophets spoke in detail of the kingdom of the Messiah, the days of the Messiah and the Messianic Age.
According to the Messianic expectation of Israel, the Messiah will come from the line of David's descendants. The tribe of Judah had been designated as the regal tribe by the patriarch Jacob in the prophetic blessings of his sons in Genesis 49:8-12: Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be on the neck of shine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?
The scepter [regal staff] shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh [the peace giver] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the [Gentile] people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
This prophecy by Jacob that Judah would be the regal house of Israel was made in the Jewish year 2255. It lay dormant without any particular fulfillment until Nathan expressed the Davidic Covenant at the beginning of the reign of David six hundred years later. Thereafter, Messianic speculation and expectation grew rapidly. The division of Israel into two kingdoms, the moral decadence of those kingdoms, the Babylonian captivity, and the struggle in the reestablishment of Judah made the hope of the Promised One of David even more urgent. The coming of the Romans and the oppression of the Edomite dynasty of the Herods sharpened the Messianic consciousness to a keen edge.
Answer for yourself: What did the Jews of Yeshua’s day expect the Messiah, the regal son of David, to be and to do?
Answer for yourself: How, if at all, did their Messianic expectation differ from the traditional view of Judaism today concerning the person and work of the Messiah?
First, the Messiah would be human. He would be a descendant of David, and he would be from the City of David, Bethlehem of Judaea. He would make his appearance in a regal form. He would be a triumphant king! He would arise as did David out of the ranks of the common people. The Messiah would appear at a particular time and in a particular situation. His appearance would come at a time of great distress and trouble. He would reveal himself at a dark time when the nation of Israel would be on the brink of destruction. The Messiah, the Son of David, would appear and redeem the nation from gross oppression forced upon them by alien powers. He would destroy all those oppressors. He would purge the land of Israel from apostate rule and religious hypocrisy. He would bring again the Shekinah Glory to the Temple. The law of Torah would once more rule the land. He would avenge the people of Israel and destroy the Gentile nations which had sought the destruction of the people and nation of Israel. He would establish an unprecedented era of peace on earth. The nations would learn war no more. Peace and justice and righteousness would reign upon the earth. In the days of the Messiah, the dead would be raised. Israel would receive its full inheritance from the Nile River in Egypt in the south to the Euphrates River in the north. The earth would be filled with the knowledge of the Eternal One as the waters cover the seas. The Messiah would restore the whole earth and all mankind to its perfect state under the Edenic Covenant. That Messiah would never die, but he would live forever and ever, ages without end. Of his kingdom, there would be no end. He would reign forever and ever.
These are the expectations of the Davidic Covenant with all its developments through the prophets. This is what the Jews of Yeshua’s time expected the Messiah to do and to be. This is what traditional Judaism today expects in the person and work of the Messiah. The Jews have never, they can never, they will never accept anyone as Messiah who does not meet these expectations and performances.
These seven covenants are the covenants of the Jewish scripture. They express the promises of God to Israel and the expectations Israel has of his God. The Edenic, the Adamic and the Noahic covenants are universal and are to the Gentiles. Outside of Conversion to Judaism, the Christian has to find his "identity" with God in these and only these covenants. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that the Edenic and Adamic Covenants today were specific and not applicable to the non-Jewish believer. This means that the non-Jewish believer today, the Christian and the Muslim for example and all other non-Jews find their relationship and standing with God ONLY through the Covenant of Noah. For the Christian to maintain that he has a relationship with God apart from the Covenant of Noah along with its 66 laws and commandments is ludicrous if not downright dangerous. To do so means you stand outside the Covenants of God! It means you reject the only Covenant you have and find your standing before God based on man-made theology which contradicts the Jewish Scriptures! This is the legacy of anti-Semitic Rome who recorded such ideas within the New Testament which is a document they "finalized" and altered almost beyond recognition. Israel is involved in these covenants only in a restricted sense. The Abrahamic, the Sinatic, the Moabic, and the Davidic are primarily to the separate people of Israel. The Gentile nations or individuals are involved only in a restricted measure to these covenants of Israel.
Answer for yourself: At this point, a vital question arises demanding an answer: What did Yeshua mean when he said, "This cup is the New Testament [or New Covenant] in my blood shed for the sins of many"?
Answer for yourself: To which of the seven covenants was he making reference? Or, was he making reference to any of the former covenants?
Answer for yourself: Was the New Testament spoken of by Yeshua an entirely separate economy from any of the former?
Answer for yourself: If it was a separate economy from the seven covenants of Israel's scripture, what is its relationship to them?
Answer for yourself: Or did Yeshua even say "new" although the Bibles you buy today has such a wording?
Answer for yourself: Can it be shown from archeology and examination of the Greek New Testament manuscripts that "new" was added to these passages by the Monks as they continually created new "theologies" not taught in the Jewish Scriptures nor accepted by the Jerusalem Church? It sure can!
Answer for yourself: Have you ever looked in a good study Bible to the footnotes that tell you that the word "new" is not in the best and oldest manuscripts?
The above example of adding "new" to the corners and margins of existing Greek manuscripts whereby later it was included in the "text" as if God breathed is just another in a long series of examples of Gentile theologians creating a "replacement religion" which was given to unsuspecting Gentiles who knew no better having not been equipped with the knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures. In other words we follow in Christianity today a false religion that is diametrically opposed to the faith and religion of Yeshua.
Replacement theologians paint one big sign on the Jewish Bible and call it the "Old Testament." This implies, naturally, that it is antiquated, abrogated, obsolete, done away with, and destroyed. For all practical purposes for the Christian non-Jewish believer the "Old Testament" is replaced by the "New Testament." The Gentile theologians have treated the "Old Testament" with great disrespect like a piece of old clothing fit for throwing away. These Gentile theologians use the Jewish scripture only to rip off a part here and there, modify it to their own designs, and use it to make functional their theology of the "New Testament" which can be shown easily to be diametrically opposed to what Yeshua both believed and practiced as a Jew. In other words lies are mixed in with truths in the New Testament and without training and education on your part you most likely cannot tell the difference when reading it. Thus you come away from the New Testament with a mixture of truth and lies which leads you to incorrect beliefs which influence your actions. The bottom line is that this becomes sin in many cases because such conduct violates the commandments of God which are the founding blocks of your Covenant and which assure your right-standing before God.
In ripping off or stealing parts from the Jewish canon, these Gentile Christian Replacement Theologians took the words "Israel" and "Jews," reinterpreted them with new spiritual interpretations, and attempted to pass them off as "True Israel" and "True Jews" as designations of the Church and the Christians.
The theologians took pleasure in calling the ancient people of Jacob "old," "fleshly," "earthly," or "natural Israel." They considered the Jews of the Old Testament heritage as no more purposeful than other discarded clothes lining the street outside a goodwill container.
Replacement theologians not only discarded the people of the covenants of Israel, they also reduced the holy, immutable, eternal covenants of oath to mere vows which could be revoked by official Church dogmas and "bulls". Any benefits found in those covenants were ripped off and applied to the Church. Christianity and Christian theology became he new vehicle of divine revelation, a vehicle made from selected parts from the Jewish Old Testament.
The tools used in making this modification were the terms of Greek logic and mythology as well as the content of Greek philosophy. Pagan words and pagan definitions totally alien to Jewish thoughts were substituted for rabbinic concepts. Foreign terms such as incarnation, theophany and trinity were introduced into the new system. These pagan mythological clichés became the dogmatic expression and credo of the new religion.
Every field of systematic theology was affected by this replacement concept. The concept of the Jewish God of the Old Testament was treated as a legalistic God of wrath and judgment. He was contrasted to the new God of the Christian New Testament, who is a God of love in Yeshua. The Law of Torah became a bitter, vulgar and obsolete thing, while the sweet Christian love could create holy wars, crusades, the Inquisition, and pogroms. That sort of "Christian love" is ludicrous and sickens the minds of men not filled with hatred for the Jewish people.
The anthropology of replacement theology wiped out all suggestion of the Jews as a chosen or separate people. In this new order, Yeshua did away with Israel as separate from the Gentile nations. The Jews became not only like all other peoples, they were relegated to a subhuman class. Much of the Gentile Church's propaganda against the Jews consisted of direct quotes from Christian literature and liturgy. The Chosen People are the Christians, not the Jews.
To illustrate how perverted the logic of Christian anthropology became, the Jew who converted to Christianity had to deny his Jewishness. At his baptism, he vowed to renounce Judaism and all its "heresies." After his baptism he was told that he was no longer a Jew, but was now a Christian. In many cases he was forced to change his name from a Jewish to a Christian one. He had to give up the observance and sanctification of the Sabbath for the day of the Sun. His Biblical Festivals were replaced with pagan holidays only "re-worked" to which Yeshua's name was attached.
After these renunciations of his Jewishness, these Jewish converts to Christianity began to study the catechism which taught that the pagan Gentiles who become Christians became true spiritual Jews. The logic of Christian anthropology is more a double inversion rather than a simple conversion. The Jew who became a Christian became a Gentile, while the Gentile who became a Christian became a Jew. Such metamorphosis is nowhere to be found in nature (or in the scriptures).
The soteriology of replacement theology deals with replacement doctrines of salvation. In this concept Yeshua came to be the Savior of Israel. Israel, accordingly, rejected the Savior and crucified him. In this crisis, the "God" of Christian love quickly put the pieces of this tragedy into a new plan, producing the crisis theory of the Gospel of salvation made available to everyone.
The church, instead of Israel being a light unto the nations for salvation, soon became the object of this salvation through dogmas, sacraments, or other institutional demands. As time passed, multiple varieties of doctrines developed in the various denominations, many of which conflicted and contradicted the doctrines of others. Unity in the doctrines of Christ was impossible with over 2000 different Christian denominations which have over 2000 different ideas about Yeshua. Most of the Good News propagated by the missionaries today is to convert other Christians to their own denomination's "salvation," while they admittedly declare "millions have never heard the Gospel."
In all the various Christian salvation messages, there are only two classes of people in this world and in the world to come. There are the saved and the lost. The definition of who the "lost" are is determined by to whom you speak. The saved are those who accept a given particular message of a "particular" denomination over that of another. The Catholics have a different salvation message from the Baptists, they both differ from the Church of Christ, etc. Those who do not obey the various particular interpretations of the Gospel are the lost. More than anyone else, the Jew is treated as lost, blind, stubborn and damned. The "God" of Christian love has put all of his eggs in one basket now—the Christian church.
In 1973, over one hundred forty denominations decided to drop all doctrinal differences and join hands in the "Key '73" project. One single objective was in focus. "Let us reach the whole world with the Gospel message in the next decade." The Key '73 program spelled out its own failure. The problem was that the one hundred forty denominations could not agree on what the Gospel really is. If Christianity cannot define and agree on the "Gospel of Yeshua Christ which is the power of God unto salvation," how could they ever agree on anything?
Soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, is the most emphatic and important section of Christian theology. This is especially true in evangelical Christianity. Yet, in this very field, that same Christian theology finds its greatest weakness. If you have not noticed that New Testament if full of two competing and conflicting "Gospel" dealing with inheriting Eternal Life…one as taught by Paul and one as taught by Yeshua and neither agree with each other. One is true and one is false.
Answer for yourself: Have you ever noticed this? If not, e-mail us for the articles and we will show it to you beyond any doubt.
Ecclesiology is the study of community or church. Since salvation is only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to replacement theologians, the only true community of God would be the Church. Denominational plurality finds its strongest expression in ecclesiology. It erased the distinction between soteriology, or salvation, and ecclesiology, or the church. The church and salvation became synonymous. Cyprian, in the fourth century was first to say that "there is no salvation outside the Bishop (the Catholic Church)". His ideas continue today. "Our church is the one and only true religion"; "Our church is the pillar and ground of the truth"; "Our church is the body and bride of Christ; other Christians may be in heaven, but they will only be friends of the bridegroom—we are the true church"; "God raised up our church to call all the true believers out of the apostate churches in our city." These quotations and other statements, such as "the plain truth," "facts you need to know about God's will for your life," "our denominational distinctives," are common to the vast majority of Christian organizations throughout the world.At the same time, they all deny the community of Israel, the Jewish people, the light to the nations given by God. Israel has no place in the economy of God, according to strict replacement theology.
If the Christian believes that the Church is the only true community of God, and that his particular denomination enjoys a special favor in that economy, he finds himself experiencing a great difficulty in recognizing the legitimacy of other Christians being on equal standing without a compromise of his own denominational distinctives. It would be totally foreign for him to accept the idea that Israel had a community relationship with God completely separate and apart from his own.
When, however, the Christian makes the discovery that not only Israel has a place in the economy of God, but his standing before God is dependent on him being grafted into and part of the Israel of God whereby he accepts and attempts to live by his Covenant stipulations, the Covenant of Noah, then it will revolutionize his attitude toward, and his relationship with, Jewish people, with his neighbor Christians, with the study of the Bible, with himself, and with God. Ecclesiology made no allocation for a plural community either in this world or in the world to come. Such a shame. Shalom.