13 April 2023
Something was lost in translation. When you see the term "eternal life" or variations of it in the Bible, this does not mean an endless existence on this level. It's not just more of the same. It's not a quantity, but a change of quality and purpose. It means connecting to Eternity while you are here. It refers to however much life you have left borne aloft on the wings of what God intended for us.
Jesus didn't open the door to eternal life; that door has always been open. Folks under the Old Testament could go to Heaven when they died. Heaven is not a reward as we think of it, but a restoration. The crowns we will win are more like modern victory pennants, battle streamers, God's commendation. Those rewards are won here below, to be thrown at His feet when we finally arrive Home. What Jesus did on the Cross opened the door to all the blessings here that manifest Eternity. That was Israel's mission, which they progressively rejected. Jesus had to do it in their place.
We are not mainstream. We identify as neither Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox nor anything else. We seek to return to the religion that predates all of those. Yes, I know every church claims to be the original, but it's too patently obvious that a bunch of Hebrew guys didn't lead the new followers of Christ in those directions. All of that came much later. It was also pointedly not Jewish; Paul clarified that issue in several ways. Still, the New Testament churches were simply Christian synagogues with several significant differences from the Jewish version.
Men no longer covered their heads, but women apparently did. The men and older boys sat down front during worship, and the preachers were seated, too. People stood up to pray. The women and children sat toward the back and were silent except to sing. Everyone sought to dig into the duties and privileges of the Covenant of Christ.
Christ is the Covenant. He told His disciples His Messianic Kingdom's primary law was that they love each other as He did. But there was an awful lot of commentary on what it looked like to love each other. He dismissed the Talmud flatly, and His teaching from Moses often went much farther, making high moral demands. He even dug into the Covenant of Noah, as with the Sermon on the Mount ("you have heard it said..."). In Acts 15, the Apostles made it clear that the churches were obliged to observe that ancient Code of Noah as their law.
Readers who followed me from the previous incarnation of this blog will remember I kept a permanent link to the Code of Noah as my own outline of what a primitive New Testament Christian religion should look like. It's a clear departure from all the variations that blossomed after John, the last of the Twelve, passed from the scene.
And it's not as if my outline is binding on anyone; it's not a catechism. We don't operate like that. It's meant to be informative, not directive. It will help you understand where I'm coming from on a lot of things. You should know that I take exception to any elaboration that is not already in Scripture. Thus, while I do teach divine election, and I do talk about predestination, I reject all the intellectual refinements suggested by Augustine and climaxing in Calvin. And for the most part, every one of the theological controversies in Church History arose from asking the wrong questions and trying to nail down logical and legalistic statements that were not inherent in the Bible itself.
I don't need to explain, nor even understand, how God elects people for His Covenant family. All I need to understand is how to apply that truth in the way I live. I don't need to explain or understand how Jesus could be divine and human; it's enough to know He was, and how it fulfilled the promises. I need to know what it demands of me, and nothing more. I don't need to elaborate on how baptism works; it's just a ritual of repentance. It's one of the few rituals from Moses that we continue to use, and it's meaning hasn't changed. It's how we are welcomed into worship, provided we actually repent.
The power is in your faith, not in any ritual or catechism. The symbols testify of that faith. Want to see miracles? Learn how the Hebrew Covenant provided them, because the same God reigns over the New Covenant. Learn what kind of thinking they had about such things. His power manifests in the Covenant, and on no other basis. Without a covenant community that starts with you and the Lord, an awful lot of our blessings are still tied up in Satan's hands. But the Devil is bound by the Covenant, too. When you start exercising your familial duty in serving Christ, observing the boundaries of the Covenant, Satan can no longer touch those blessings.
This is not for everyone. Indeed, right now there's precious few of us. There are surely more out there we can find, but right now it's very early in the process. We are seeking to reestablish the Covenant and its significance to believers. It's for sure no church that cooperates with secular law is a covenant church. It's not that we defy the laws of the land, but that we don't compromise. That tax-free status guarantees you have compromised and are standing outside the Covenant boundaries.
If it's just you and Jesus, that's not a bad start. Give Him time. He took a while moving you and I into the Covenant, so we need to exercise patience and endurance waiting for others to join us. Internally, the psychology of what we do is love broadly; we incarnate the compassion of Christ. The target isn't important, just be love. That's our duty to Christ.
This brings us back to what I posted yesterday. Yes, we know the majority of those we encounter will not be with us in Eternity. Our lives here are expendable. It's not a waste of time to invest your Savior's compassion into those who are doomed. Whether they know what His love means or have any use for it is not the point. That love is our duty. It's a lot more enjoyable when it's reciprocated by another eternal soul, love is not something we just turn on or off. It becomes who we are.
Love is not rationed. We ration resources based on our discernment of how God wants us to treat them, either as family, allies, or slaves in the Kingdom (enemies are simply slaves of a different type). It's not a question of what they actually are in God's eyes, but how He wants us to engage them. But His love is the power to do anything at all, regardless of how the resources are distributed.
This is how we understand that love can punish, as well. We have been told plenty of times that love is not a feeling, but commitment and power. It is a component of faith. If you stand guarding your home against thieves and murderers, is it not the Father's love to kill the attacker? You would have given that attacker the best you could, by enforcing what is just and right for everyone. What they wanted was not the point. Well, the same is true all up and down the scale between hugging and killing: Divine justice is love, mercy and compassion by definition. God giving Moses the Law on Mount Sinai was a very compassionate gift to the whole human race. It was the revelation of His divine character.
The only reason Moses ended at the Cross was that Christ was a better revelation. Instead of writings and a national heritage (that Israel had abandoned), the world got revelation in the form of a person. And with that vastly improved clarity of revelation, the door was opened to everyone to participate in that revelation. Even those who are not eternal people will still benefit for as long as they live in this life. Our point is that Jesus is the joy of living; we can't possibly understand what comes after this life.
So, the Covenant boundaries are His love manifested to the world. There is nothing better you can possibly offer to anyone. Nailing your fleshly nature to the Cross is a real blessing to everyone. It's the paradox of dying while living.
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