"They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children:
But, In Isaac shall the seed be called. Therefore it is not they which are the children of the flesh who are the children of the real Israel: but it is the children of the promise"
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
And this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their heart”
“When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: and show the work of the law written in their hearts”
“Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. For our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
One of Christ’s first tasks when he began his ministry was to explain to the Jews, in his Sermon on the Mount, that God now had a New Covenant for a New Israel; the essence of which was spiritual rather than written in tablets of stone or in ink on papyrus.
Emphasising that the New Covenant in no way nullified the old laws and commandments, Christ detailed how that it would, nevertheless, raise each law and commandment to a new and higher level of Spiritual expectation.
He took six examples of what that would mean, saying of each “you have heard that it was said of old, but I now say unto you…..”
Of those who had been the very strictest of observers of the old laws and commandments Christ said in conclusion “except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall in no way enter the Kingdom of heaven”
The fact that entry to the Kingdom, based on spiritual faith rather than legal observance of laws and commandments, was hard for Jews to understand, was then emphasised by Christ’s meeting with Nicodemus.
Being a ruler of the Jews Nicodemus would have been well versed in the prophesies of God’s new Covenant but Christ nevertheless had to upbraid him by saying “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
This New Covenant of Spirit based guidance came to full fruition at Pentecost when Christ was “finally taken up” fulfilling his promise that “wither I go ye cannot come but I will not leave you comfortless for I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
And that IMHO was the way of the spirit taught by the apostles by word of mouth and by epistle for 60-70 years, and followed by the Church of Christ until 300 odd years later when Constantine first began the state adoption of Christianity and ordered a Council to convene to define its authorised beliefs and on which apostolic writings they should be based.
That church then became the Church of Rome and they and Constantine consolidated the growing reversion of the church back into reliance on written words to the subordination of the Holy Spirit.
But that growing apostasy had been foretold by Christ in his Parable of the Mustard seed and came to full fruition in the Protestant Reformation when the ‘birds of the air’ began building their multi denominational nests in the branches of what, by then, had become a great tree.
I’m going to close with an extract from my blogspot, following which, in view of the denouncements which I’ve already received, I will withdraw if members (including Mr Admin) would kindly let me know if that is the general preference.
FROM MY BLOGSPOT
As you read, please keep to the fore that it is the height of presumptive arrogance for anyone to say to his fellow man "such and such is precisely what God has said and precisely what he has meant"
The mysteries of Heaven's Kingdom cannot be seen by mankind other than through a glass darkly, and I am no exception..
Ours is simply to trust, and not to reason how or why in respect of the more extreme 'mysteries of godliness'.
My objective is not to try to unravel too much theology, but mainly to encourage Christians everywhere to appreciate how it is that Heaven's Kingdom is 'within' in the sense that nothing and no one can embrace it in its entirety.
It is however there, but it is hidden in the field of life, which includes individuals and groups of believers, churches, the bible, and is even within many other written and spoken words...... "Seek and ye shall find"
As was the case with Timothy "I have read the scriptures from my earliest childhood, and I believe that they made me wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus"
But my 'New Covenant emphasis is to believe that to have happened as a result of God's Holy Spirit turning words, written on tablets of stone or in ink on papyrus, into the "Living Word of God, written in the fleshy table of my heart".
Mike.
But, In Isaac shall the seed be called. Therefore it is not they which are the children of the flesh who are the children of the real Israel: but it is the children of the promise"
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
And this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their heart”
“When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: and show the work of the law written in their hearts”
“Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. For our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
One of Christ’s first tasks when he began his ministry was to explain to the Jews, in his Sermon on the Mount, that God now had a New Covenant for a New Israel; the essence of which was spiritual rather than written in tablets of stone or in ink on papyrus.
Emphasising that the New Covenant in no way nullified the old laws and commandments, Christ detailed how that it would, nevertheless, raise each law and commandment to a new and higher level of Spiritual expectation.
He took six examples of what that would mean, saying of each “you have heard that it was said of old, but I now say unto you…..”
Of those who had been the very strictest of observers of the old laws and commandments Christ said in conclusion “except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall in no way enter the Kingdom of heaven”
The fact that entry to the Kingdom, based on spiritual faith rather than legal observance of laws and commandments, was hard for Jews to understand, was then emphasised by Christ’s meeting with Nicodemus.
Being a ruler of the Jews Nicodemus would have been well versed in the prophesies of God’s new Covenant but Christ nevertheless had to upbraid him by saying “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
This New Covenant of Spirit based guidance came to full fruition at Pentecost when Christ was “finally taken up” fulfilling his promise that “wither I go ye cannot come but I will not leave you comfortless for I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.
He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
And that IMHO was the way of the spirit taught by the apostles by word of mouth and by epistle for 60-70 years, and followed by the Church of Christ until 300 odd years later when Constantine first began the state adoption of Christianity and ordered a Council to convene to define its authorised beliefs and on which apostolic writings they should be based.
That church then became the Church of Rome and they and Constantine consolidated the growing reversion of the church back into reliance on written words to the subordination of the Holy Spirit.
But that growing apostasy had been foretold by Christ in his Parable of the Mustard seed and came to full fruition in the Protestant Reformation when the ‘birds of the air’ began building their multi denominational nests in the branches of what, by then, had become a great tree.
I’m going to close with an extract from my blogspot, following which, in view of the denouncements which I’ve already received, I will withdraw if members (including Mr Admin) would kindly let me know if that is the general preference.
FROM MY BLOGSPOT
As you read, please keep to the fore that it is the height of presumptive arrogance for anyone to say to his fellow man "such and such is precisely what God has said and precisely what he has meant"
The mysteries of Heaven's Kingdom cannot be seen by mankind other than through a glass darkly, and I am no exception..
Ours is simply to trust, and not to reason how or why in respect of the more extreme 'mysteries of godliness'.
My objective is not to try to unravel too much theology, but mainly to encourage Christians everywhere to appreciate how it is that Heaven's Kingdom is 'within' in the sense that nothing and no one can embrace it in its entirety.
It is however there, but it is hidden in the field of life, which includes individuals and groups of believers, churches, the bible, and is even within many other written and spoken words...... "Seek and ye shall find"
As was the case with Timothy "I have read the scriptures from my earliest childhood, and I believe that they made me wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus"
But my 'New Covenant emphasis is to believe that to have happened as a result of God's Holy Spirit turning words, written on tablets of stone or in ink on papyrus, into the "Living Word of God, written in the fleshy table of my heart".
Mike.
