New Life Restoration Series #5 Renewed Covenant and Hellenism
As we approach the soon coming Rapture in these last days and as a Prophet of God, I have written this series to help us to make sure that we have no roots of Pagan Babylon in our beliefs. Besides my restoration services in the Port St. Lucie area (please see my page on the front of the website entitled “Calendar of Events” for information as to where and when these powerful life changing services are held) the LORD has instructed me to do this restoration series on my website. The lives of so many people are being changed through healing, prophetic impartation and restoration teaching in my services. This series will teach you some of what is happening at these services. We would love to have you attend if you are in our area. Again, please see the “Calendar of Events” page on the first page of my website.
In the fourth century Constantine brought paganism into the church and wiped out anything that was Jewish from Christianity. There was a false Christianity that was developed that most of us came from. It wasn’t that paganism just crept in a little into the church; for the most part the church became assimilated into pagan beliefs. This Restoration series will also help us to get back to the Elohim (YAHweh) that created everything and demands that we put no idols or other gods between us and Him. The same Elohim that spoke from Mount Sinai is the same Elohim that came inside of YAHshua (Jesus). I pray that you study this series with an open mind and know that YAHveh wants us to worship no other gods and make sure that we have no pagan practices that we may be unaware of in our lives. We have to please the ONE and only True God or YAHveh. In this series we will go back to the beginning of Babylon and trace its roots right into the “Christianity” that Constantine of Rome started. We have to go back to our roots in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through the Blood of YAHshua (Jesus). There are many blessings that are just waiting for as we go back and we need to receive our inheritance in YAHshua (Jesus). Because of pagan tradition in many churches, the glory of God is departing from some ministries and they don’t even recognize it (Ezekiel 10:4, 19, 11:23). The spirit of antichrist is going to get much stronger in these last days and some Christians and their churches may not be able to stand against it because their roots are attached to a false Christianity and not back to the YAHveh who started everything. Most of the Ten Commandments were meant to keep His people from worshipping the gods of their pagan neighbors (Exodus 20 verse 1-17).Here is the fifth part of my series titled “The Renewed Covenant” and “Hellenism”:
The New Covenant was not created at the Last Supper as many believe. It had been prophesied centuries earlier and was anticipated by many. Interestingly, the terms of this “New” covenant are found in the “Old” Testament. I believe that it is a serious mistake to divide the Scriptures into “Old” and “New” because it gives the impression that the “Old” is not so relevant while the “New” is the really important stuff. This is what I was taught and I can assure you that this type of thinking wreaks doctrinal havoc.
I prefer to call the “Old” Testament the Tanak. Tanak is an acronym and stands for: Torah (First five books of Moses), Nemiim (Prophets), Kethubim (Writings) T-N-K – Tanak. The use of this acronym describes the contents but does not categorize them as “Old.” Likewise, I generally refer to the “New” Testament manuscripts as the Messianic writings. This properly categorizes them without calling them “New” and I refer to them collectively as “The Scriptures.”
Both the Tanak and the Messianic Writings fit together perfectly and there should be no division. It is the old/new false paradigm which has led to such misleading doctrines as Replacement Theology and Dispensationalism.
No one in their right mind would purchase a book and read it backwards or start in the middle and read a paragraph here and a paragraph there. For some reason, that is what many people do with their Bibles and some of this is due to the fact they do not understand the significance of YAHweh by doing such a thing but sadly, this is how Christianity has handled the Scriptures – particularly in the past decades. Get someone saved and give them a New Testament or a Gospel of John (Yahanan) that has become the recognized Christian formula for handling converts.
Again, this is backwards. It is difficult to fully understand the purpose and need for a Messiah without understanding the Torah, and Prophets and the Writings. Just as the Old/New dichotomy misrepresents the Scriptures, so it also misrepresents the covenants. The Abrahamic covenant, the Sinai covenant and the Renewed Covenant at Moab are often referred to as the Old Covenant while the covenant mediated by the Messiah is often called the New Covenant.
This gives the distinct impression that the New has replaced, or done away with, the Old or that the New makes the Old irrelevant. The proper Hebrew terminology for the “New” Covenant is Brit Hadashah. The word Hadashah means: “renewed” or “refreshed.” Covenant – just as the covenant was broken and renewed at Sinai and then renewed again with the next generation at Moab.
This is the pattern of renewal which we were given through the Scriptures. Again, using the word “new” gives the impression that it is something “brand new” which replaces the old. If this was the message intended then the Greek texts would have likely used the word neo (veo) for “new.” Instead, they use the word kainos (kaneevoo) which means: “renewed” or “refreshed.” Therefore, the term Renewed covenant provides that the former covenant is being refreshed, not replaced.
We were given a vivid example at Sinai how the covenant would be renewed. When Mosheh went up the mountain the first time, YAHweh carved out tablets of stone and wrote His covenant on those tablets. When Mosheh brought the tablets down from the mountain, he observed Israel committing idolatry by worshipping foreign gods.
They had broken the covenant and thus Moses broke the tablets. After His anger subsided, YAHweh agreed to renew the covenant with Israel – only this time Moses had to carve out the stone tablets himself and carry them up the mountain where man, through Moses the mediator, presented the tablets to YAHweh, who then wrote His covenant upon tablets presented by man.
It was the same covenant that was written on the first tablets only it was written on different tablets brought by man. The covenant was renewed – the same terms, the same Torah – just renewed on different tablets after the first ones were broken. The same pattern applies to the Renewed Covenant only now we see the Messiah acting as the Mediator of the Renewed Covenant.
The promise of how this renewal would come about found in Jeremiah 31:31:-33:” “Behold, the days are coming said YAHweh, when I will make a renewed covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Yahudah (Judah)– not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says YAHweh, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YAHweh: I will put My Word Torah) in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.”
Notice that the renewed covenant is made with the House of Israel and the House of Yahudah (Judah), not some new religion called Christianity or some new entity called “The Church.” One of the main reasons that YAHshua came is to restore the lost sheep of Israel. He wants to bring the 12 Tribes back together into “one stick.”(Ezekiel 37:19) Because of YAHshua we are grafted into the House of Israel. Also, recognize that the Word (Torah) is at the heart of this renewal covenant.
The covenants are the same – the purpose of the Renewed Covenant was to circumcise our hearts – not just our flesh. Through this process, by His Spirit, He would write the Torah on ours hearts and in our minds so that we can keep His commandments and do the instructions and walk with Him.
Here is the promise when we obey: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” Deut. 19:5-6.
Notice the promise to Israel – they will be a special treasure, a kingdom of priests and a holy Nation. This sounds like something we read about in the Messianic Scriptures. In fact, we read in 1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are not the people of Elohim, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
Again, remember that we are grafted into the House of Israel and YAHshua is the mediator of the “Renewed Covenant” not the "New Covenant."
Hellenism
Before we can fully understand the ministry and teaching of the Messiah and His disciples, it is important to understand the world in which He walked and taught. The land of Israel had been conquered and repeatedly found itself under the rule of various empires which was a direct result of Israel’s failure to obey the Torah. Hellenization involved a blending of Grecian culture with other civilizations in the region of the world referred to as the middle and near east. A large part of the Grecian culture which was spread involved their pagan worship system. The gods that pervaded the Greco-Roman era formed a divine society which revolved around Zeus (Jupiter). Zeus was considered to be the father of gods and men and was the sky and weather god (Acts 14:8-18). Many Israelites had been lead astray by their pagan occupiers while others held on to their faith longing for the promised restoration of the Kingdom. This was the complex and highly charged environment into which the Messiah came to fulfill the promise provided in the Scriptures. In the next message we will talk about our Messiah-YAHshua.