Old vs New Covenant
One of the Key teachings of Yeshua that has continually remained a difficult concept for the greater number of believers to comprehend is his statement pertaining to the coming of the Kingdom: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21 KJV).
The Pharisees asked this question because they were expecting the coming Messiah to be a warrior who was imbued with the Power of God to conquer the enemies of the Jews, inaugurate the Kingdom upon the earth, and rule the world. The problem is that Yeshua's answer deeply troubled them because he said that the Kingdom of God will never come upon the earth in the manner that you predict, because it is within you!
When the Apostle Paul spoke of the New Covenant, in his words we can see an affirmation of this same statement which had been previously spoken by Yeshua: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them" (Heb 8:10-11 NKJ). Not only do we see the important teaching that the Kingdom is within us, but that man possesses the innate ability to enter the Kingdom and learn directly from the Logos (aka Son of God and True Prophet). And the whole of the Gospel teachings is the mindset and lifestyle necessary to enter the Kingdom, and learn from what the original followers of Yeshua portrayed as The True Prophet -- who Yeshua commanded to be the One Teacher that all his followers much seek out (see True Prophet).
When James (Jacob), the brother of Yeshua and first leader of the Jerusalem Congregation spoke of receiving the Word of God, he did not speak of it as something which was written in the scriptures or preached by men: "Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you" (James 1:21 NIV). What is James saying to us? That the Word of God is planted in us, and if we rid ourselves of all "...moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent" among the masses of people, this indwelling Word "...can save you"!
In the previous article on the Sower and the Seed (see Sower) we saw Yeshua's teaching on who would be the acceptable people of God. Once again we see this same important message in his words: "The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts" (Mark 4:14-15 NKJ). Thus, what we are presented with is the teaching that the Word of God has been planted within us, and the genuine disciples of Yeshua are those who live in such a manner that they become the "good ground" which permits the Word to multiply a hundredfold from what was received. More importantly, though, is the constant assertion that the Word of God exists in our hearts, and it is the manner in which we live the permits the Word to manifest in our life.
Throughout the scriptures there is a constant assertion that we must enter through a door -- but what is the meaning? "Then one said to Him, Lord, are there few who are saved? And He said to them, Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,' then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.' But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity'" (Luke 13:23-27 NKJ). What both the majority of Jews and Christians fail to realize is that the door is within us, and is shut when we physically die. Thus, the door which Yeshua speaks of must be opened and entered while we are still alive in the physical body.
One only has to open the pages of the Bible to see that the whole of the New
Testament teachings is concerned with ethics, morality, and the manner in which
each of us treats our brothers and sisters.
The 
requirement
is that we must not judge -- we must turn the other cheek -- we must forgive our
enemies -- we must never return evil for evil, but do good to those who
persecute us. In the timeframe of when the New Testament was written, the
Pharisees were the Jewish sect who attempted to live the Word of God continually
throughout every aspect of their lives. Yet, the followers of Yeshua are
told that they must be more righteous than the Pharisees (Mt 6:20) -- and Yeshua
teaches that those who desire to be his disciples must be perfect, as our
Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48).
This state of perfection is referred to as the fulfillment of the Royal
Law of God, and is measured not only in our desire to dwell in the Truth and the
Light, but also in our forgiveness, acceptance and love of our fellow man
regardless of how our brothers and sisters treat us.
From a New Covenant perspective, whatever is divisive, and not in accord with
the Royal Law, is of this world, and is an obstacle to our birth into the
Kingdom.
It is from this perspective that the requirement in the Book of the
Revelation is set before us in the words:
“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or
deceitful”
(Rev 21:27 NIV). This same
truth was expressed by Isaiah where it is written:
“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean
will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools
will not go about on it” (Isa 35:8 NIV).
And this same truth is expressed in the words of Yeshua when he warned:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate
and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But
small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find
it” (Matt 7:13-14 NIV).
The
problem is that the people who are sense-bound and controlled by the elemental
things of this world, do not even comprehend that there is a door within us
through which we must pass in order to escape this world which is referred to by
Jesus as the "outer darkness" of mind and
being (see Outer Darkness).
This great truth is especially seen in the parable of the wedding feast where a
man was found without a wedding garment: "So he said
to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was
speechless. Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take
him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt 22:12-14
NKJ).
The wedding garment indicates a manner of living and thinking that permits the Holy Spirit to enter and sanctify. The feast is on the other side of the inner door within us. This world is the "outer darkness" that is ruled over by the god of this realm. Understanding that it is our lower beastly nature that inhibits our entrance into the Kingdom, the Apostle Paul commanded the followers of Yeshua to “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature” (Col 3:5 NIV).
How can we hold fast to the doctrine that believers are saved by faith apart from actions, when they are commanded to "put to death... their earthly natures"? What we fail to realize is the fact that the Apostle was speaking from the vision of man's higher reality -- i.e., the works of the Sadducees and Pharisees could not open the inner door to the Kingdom! This was true. But if one lives a life as that prescribed by Yeshua, and seeks the Word of God within themselves, then it would be their faith in the Son of God that will save them. If, on the other hand, they are unwilling to live in accordance with New Covenant teachings, then they could not rightfully even be called a believer.
This same thought that we must overcome the desires of our earthly natures, is fundamentally the essence of what Paul attempted to express in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians. “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law”, writes Paul, “but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members” (Rom 7:22-23 NIV). What Paul was conveying to us is that those who pick up their own cross and follow Messiah Yeshua into the Kingdom are the recipients of God’s grace, and are able to enter into Life. What this means is that, unless you have followed Yeshua into the Kingdom, then you are still possessed by the works of the flesh that obstruct your walk with the Lord -- and as such, the Apostles states that you are spiritually immature. From the perspective of Paul’s Epistles, life only exists in the Kingdom -- everything outside the Kingdom is death, and belongs to the god of this world.
The Old Covenant,
then,
We can again see this same message in the words of Yeshua when he warned: "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete" (Luke 6:46-49 NIV).
When it is realized that Yeshua consistently taught about the inner Kingdom, we can then begin to get a sense of his words: "I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock." That rock is the inner Kingdom that we must uncover deep within ourselves. Whereas, the person who builds a "...house on the ground without a foundation", is one who attempts to build their house on the doctrines, traditions and carnal thinking of men. Those who put Yeshua's words into practice, and seek to walk in the "narrow path" that leads to the inner door of the Kingdom, do not need either the written word, a church or synagogue of this world, or the preaching of other men which is all indicative of the Old Covenant -- because having gained access to the indwelling Kingdom, they learn directly from the Lord.
What happened, you will rightly ask? In the fourth century the most carnal of believers who called themselves Christian, entered into a covenant with Constantine, the Emperor of Rome. The rest is history -- i.e., in an institutionalized church ruled over by politicians and a quasi-secular group of government appointed priests, the spiritual essence of New Covenant teachings were quickly replaced by a series of creeds and manmade doctrines.
To what degree the church had fallen under the control of blind carnal men can
perhaps best be envisioned in the words of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, when he
wrote: “It is a thing equally deplorable and
dangerous, that there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as many
doctrines as inclinations, and as many sources of blasphemy as there are faults
among us; because we make creeds arbitrarily, and explain them as arbitrarily.
The Homoousion is rejected, and received, and explained away by
successive synods. The partial or total resemblance of the Father and of the Son
is a subject of dispute for these unhappy times.
Every year, nay, every moon, we make new creeds to describe invisible
mysteries. We repent of what we
have done, we defend those who repent, we anathematize those who we defended.
We condemn either the doctrine of others in ourselves, or our own in that
of others; and, reciprocally tearing one another to pieces, we have been the
cause of each other's ruin” (Quoted by E.Gibbon; The Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire).
Led by religious politicians, the Christian
world became immersed in a sea of manmade doctrines -- doctrines that attempted
to explain spiritual concepts that was beyond their ability to comprehend. The result was that for over a thousand years the
prediction of the Apostle Paul came to pass and Satan ruled the church that is
today known as Christian. How can this be, you will ask?
It has been said that the greatest deception of all time is seen in the success
of Satan in his ability to convince man that he does not exist.
If this is so, then Satan's second deception is perhaps even greater than
the first -- in that, he has fooled the very elect -- i.e., the very religious
authorities of the church who have been warned and taught of his existence.
In total disregard of the admonition of the scriptures themselves, the
greater majority of Christians believe that the church is beyond the reach of
Satan -- that God somehow drew a line that Satan cannot cross over -- and
because of this force of Divine protection, Satan has not immersed himself in
every aspect of their lives! Yet,
to their own detriment, the leaders of the modern church ignore the warning of
the Apostle: “let no man beguile you in any wise: for
(it will not be,) except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against
all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple
of God, setting himself forth as God” (2 Thes 2:3-4 ASV).
What the Apostle is herein very clearly predicting is that there would come a
time when the god of the Christian Church will be a false god.
Historically speaking, it has been almost universally recognized that the
period in time that the Apostle was referring to was in the fourth century when
the church made a covenant with the Roman Emperor Constantine.
With regard to this falling away, the Adam Clark Commentary writes of
this passage of Paul's Epistle: “[Except there come a
falling away first] We have the original word apostasia in our word apostasy;
and by this term we understand a dereliction of the essential principles of
religious truth, either a total abandonment of Christianity itself, or such a
corruption of its doctrines as renders the whole system completely inefficient
to salvation. But what this apostasy means is a question which has not yet, and
perhaps never will be, answered to general satisfaction” (from the
Adam Clarke Commentary).
Not to depreciate or make less the significance of any one of the individual
statements presented in the above words, what the modern believer must
recognized is the far-reaching totality of the statement:
“But what this apostasy means is a question
which has not yet, and perhaps never will be, answered to general satisfaction”.
Ultimately, what this means to the modern believer is that each and every
church authority from the fourth-century to the present, as well as every single
preacher of the gospel, speaks from the position of concession -- which
concession is that there is a great void in their knowledge of the truth.
Thus, one of the core presumptions upon which our present-day doctrine of
faith is based, is that these words of the Apostle Paul are not true.
What the average person of faith fails to realize, is that this
presumption which is widely embraced today, is truly dangerous to each and every
Christian’s spiritual well-being!
In our quest to restore the pure Word of the
Gospel, it is important for us to question just what these words of the Apostle
mean to the modern believer?
It means that the church today is doing the best that it possibly can,
under the circumstances that it has been forced to function under.
If both historians and biblical experts are unable to tell us with
certainty to what degree these words of the Apostle effect our perception of the
gospel today, then we cannot be sure of a single thing!
While we have faith that our beliefs are authentic, when it is recognized
that our faith requires us to physically die before we can be sure of the
validity of anything that we presently believe, we may be playing Russian
Roulette with all the cylinders loaded -- and hoping for a misfire.
The question that every believer must ask today is how corrupted and
contaminated has the message of Yeshua become after it had been placed in the
hands of mankind? In a letter to
Pope Leo X on September 6th, 1520, Martin Luther wrote of the Christianity of
his day, that the church, “…once the holiest of all,
has become the most licentious den of thieves, the most shameless of all
brothels, the kingdom of sin, death, and hell. It is so bad that even Antichrist
himself, if he should come, could think of nothing to add to its wickedness”
(Quoted in: The Great Thoughts; compiled by George Seldes).
Many Protestants -- or non-Roman Catholics -- will readily admit that the Church
had become very corrupt during its long residence upon the earth.
One of the problems is that, even though Luther and the reformers knew
this fact, this knowledge alone did not mean they possessed a clear and pure
vision of the essence of the original teachings of Jesus.
In fact, it can easily be demonstrated that they did not, and this was
the true reason why Luther rejected over half the New Testament as being
inferior and even spurious.
When the church eventually emerged from the pit of darkness in the Middle-Ages,
it had been reduced to a mere shadow of the genuine church that was annihilated
by the very Pagan Christians of the fourth century.
The result was that these doctrines that formed the foundation of this
very Pagan church were then adopted by the Middle-Age reformers, and have
continued as foundational doctrines right up into our present time.
While it is true that during the time of the Reformation there was a
break with the mother church that had become seated in Rome, the problem still
existed that because the reformers themselves did not possess the spiritual
foundation of the original Messianic movement of the first century, and they
continued to embrace many of the doctrines that had been infused upon the
teachings of Yeshua by the emperors and religious politicians of the past
thousand years, it was beyond their ability to re-establish what the Apostle
himself warns they were incapable of understanding -- and ultimately beyond even
their comprehension.
Because they lacked the spiritual vision and knowledge of the original
followers of Yeshua, the many churches that emerged from the Reformation
continued to be established upon the very carnal mindset that was instituted by
the Pagan Christians of the fourth century.
No doubt the majority of Christians today will reject the idea that the modern
church has been turned out of The Way.
As an article of faith they will reason that God would not permit such a
thing to happen -- i.e., He would safeguard His Church from being overcome by
Satan. Yet, as demonstrated above,
this article of faith is in conflict with the very words of the Apostle at 2
Thes 2:3-4, wherein the Adam Clarke Commentary explained that what Paul is
predicting is “…a dereliction of the essential
principles of religious truth, either a total abandonment of Christianity
itself, or such a corruption of its doctrines as renders the whole system
completely inefficient to salvation…”. If the Apostle predicts the
“total abandonment of Christianity”, and a further
“corruption of its doctrines as renders the whole system
completely inefficient to salvation”, then our present-day assertion
that God will safeguard the church is in total conflict to the warning of the
Bible itself.
Did God abandon His
flock? The answer is no! Throughout all time those who followed in
the footsteps of Yeshua -- became the seed sown on good ground -- and sought the
Kingdom within themselves, inherited the blessing of the New Covenant and were
able to enter into the Life that was promised by the Lord to all those who put
Yeshua's words into practice, and seek to walk in the "narrow
path" that leads to the inner door of the Kingdom. Some of
these Anointed men and women were called Jews -- others were called Christian --
and still others were not of a church or synagogue of this world, but were
merely faithful to the Word that was sown in their hearts. While they
lived in the world and not of it, those who were of an Old Covenant mindset --
i.e., those who received the Word of God external to themselves and clung to the
doctrines and traditions of men -- continued to be of this world.
