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This study may be freely posted on other bbs' and distributed to others provided this leader remains with the study text at all times. What is the Old and New Testaments? Much of what professes to be "christianity" calls the last part of the Bible the "new testament" and in so doing, it blinds most people to what the "NEW TESTAMENT" really is. If you read the book of Hebrews and especially the ninth and tenth chapters, Paul the apostle states (as was prophesied by the prophets of ancient Israel and Judah) that the NEW TESTAMENT began with the death of Jesus Christ. Notice especially the words of Hebrews 9:14-24: 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 9:16 For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 9:17 For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. 9:18 Whereupon neither the first [testament] was dedicated without blood. 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 9:20 Saying, This [is] the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 9:21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 9:23 [It was] therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, [which are] the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: When verse 15 says that Jesus is the "mediator of the new testament" IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT JESUS IS THE MEDIATOR OF THE LAST PART OF THE BIBLE. THE BOOKS OF MATTHEW THROUGH REVELATION ARE NOT THE NEW TESTAMENT. IN FACT, THE EVENTS DESCRIBED IN MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE, AND JOHN TOOK PLACE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. Verse 16 and 17 will help us to see what the "TESTAMENTS" are if we look carefully and thoughtfully at what Paul has stated. The word "testament" and the word "covenant" mean basically the same thing. The "new testament" is really a "new covenant" or a new "will" to use today's modern term. I'm sure the reader realizes that it is normal for a "will" to be read and to begin to be brought into effect AFTER the one who made the will has died. This is what Paul is saying in the Hebrew letter (or whomever you believe the author to have been). Verse 16 and 17 tell us that a testament or WILL goes into "force" after the person who is its maker is DEAD. This tells us that the "NEW TESTAMENT" or new "will" of God for his children was able to be put into effect because of the (and at the time of the) TWO-FOLD DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST. There are many FALSE doctrines in professing "christianity" today which result either from people not understanding the covenants and their purpose in the plan of God, or else from their not understanding the TRANSITION PERIOD during which the two covenants OVERLAPPED. There are many proofs that we could offer and will cover in a longer study, but for now I will just mention one thing for your consideration. Paul states in Hebrews 8:13 that the reason for the new covenant is because God had made the first covenant old by the bringing in of a better one. Then comes the "key words"; he says, "Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away". Study the chapters of the context of that statement and it will begin to open up the fact to you that when the book of Hebrews was written, the NEW TESTAMENT was in effect as Jesus' death and resurrection was already past. Yet the OLD TESTAMENT was not yet fully removed from the picture by God. It is not difficult to prove (though lengthy) from the prophecies and from certain events in Paul's writings and in the book of Acts, that because all of the nation of Israel had not yet had opportunity to hear the gospel that Jesus was truly the messiah for which they had waited, GOD GAVE THEM A PERIOD OF ONE GENERATION (mentioned in Matthew 23:36 and Matthew 24:34 by Jesus....was about 40 years in length) TO REPENT. GOD CLOSED THE DOOR TO THEM WHEN IN FULFILLMENT OF WHAT HE HAD DECLARED TO THE PROPHETS, HE SENT THE ROMAN ARMY UNDER TITUS TO BRING TOTAL DESTRUCTION TO THEIR TEMPLE, THEIR HOLY CITY JERUSALEM, AND TO THEIR RELIGIOUS ARTICLES. GOD HAD INSTITUTED A NEW COVENANT WHICH WAS A SPIRITUAL COVENANT, AND HE NO LONGER WAS GOING TO PUT UP WITH EITHER THE OLD COVENANT, OR WITH THOSE WHO TRIED TO PREVENT THE CESSATION OF IT. TODAY THERE ARE MULTITUDES WHO ARE STILL LOOKING AT PALESTINE AS THOUGH IT IS SOMETHING SPECIAL OR THE PEOPLE ARE SOMETHING SPECIAL IN THE EYES OF GOD. YET THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF SCRIPTURES WHICH SHOW THAT THIS IS NOT TRUE. IN ABOUT A.D. 70 OR THEREABOUTS, THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS TOTALLY DONE AWAY WITH BY GOD. I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THE FIRST PART OF THE BIBLE. I AM SAYING THAT GOD CHANGED THE "WILL" AND DID AWAY TOTALLY WITH THE OLD ONE. He proved it by destroying the temple and furnishings that OLD Israel was dependent upon in order to go through their rituals of their religion. The 39 books which we have in our Bible which people commonly call the "Old Testament" are more important for us today than they were for the people who lived in the old covenant period of time. However, today we do not look at them as legal and ceremonial. Old Israel did not even understand them. Look at what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3: 3:6 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. 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written [and] engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which [glory] was to be done away: 3:8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 3:13 And not as Moses, [which] put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which [veil] is done away in Christ. 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Do you see what Paul is saying. The "letter" of the law "killeth". The "letter" of the law means the LITERAL reading of the law. Paul goes on to say that the "spirit" (spiritual meaning) of the law gives life. Old Israel was BLIND to the real SPIRITUAL meaning of the law because they did not turn to Jesus Christ and the new covenant (testament). The NEW COVENANT is TODAY. It is the time when we learn of the many thousands of spiritual principles which are hidden within the TRUE STORIES and HISTORICAL accounts which took place in the OLD TESTAMENT period of time. It is the time when (and especially in these last years of this old world's existence) God is unveiling the fulness of TRUTH concerning Himself, as disguised and hidden as TREASURE (Proverbs 2:4) in the writings of the Old Testament period. I am not talking about the phony "mystical" foolishness that has been promoted by those who have patterned after the old methods of (so-called) "spiritual interpretation" such as was common to ancient philosophers and to Jewish cabbalists. I am not talking about the (so-called) "deep mysteries" of the masonic lodges, Mormonism, Rosicrucianism, Eastern mysticism, Ekankar, the New Age movement, etc. I AM TALKING ABOUT THE REAL AND GENUINE, GOD INSPIRED TRUTH WHICH COMES FROM THE BIBLE BEING ITS OWN SPIRITUAL AND IN- DEPTH INTERPRETER. WE CAN DEFINITELY KNOW WHAT REALLY IS TRUTH AND WHAT IS ERROR SO WE WILL NOT BE DECEIVED. PRAISE GOD THAT HE HAS NOT LEFT US WITHOUT THE MEANS OF BEING CERTAIN OF THAT IN WHICH WE BELIEVE. I have studied just about every religion that calls itself a part of "Christianity" today, and most of them teach doctrine that a 7 year old child could see has "holes" in it if they were given a Bible to read and to compare with what they were being taught. Most people in churches today WANT to be lied to. They WANT to believe the FALSE things that they are being taught. It MUST BE SO or they would not follow so blindly. If you study all of our materials, you will find that we can prove to you from the Bible that every single LAW that God ever gave in the period of the old covenant has a spiritual counterpart for you and I today. While professed "christianity" fights over whether or not all the "law" is done away with or whether parts or all of it is still in effect, they are missing the real teachings of the "LAW". Paul understood this and gives us a good example in 1 Corinthians 9:9-11: 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? 9:10 Or saith he [it] altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, [this] is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. 9:11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, [is it] a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? In the above text, Paul SHOWS us the proper method of interpreting the old covenant letter (literal) of the LAW into its new covenant spirit (spiritual) meaning. He shows us that Deuteronomy 25:4 really never was God's TRUE will in the literal, but was a literal picture or parable to convey a SPIRITUAL manner of doing things in the NEW COVENANT. Now I will use Paul's words to illustrate how we can begin to use such "keys" in order to let the Bible fully interpret itself. We will have to remember the basic Bible principle that God Himself is unchangeable, and therefore anything that truly reveals His SPIRITUAL WILL will always be consistently the same. That means that if God symbolized a minister of the Gospel as an OX (i.e. a beast of burden) in the Bible in any place, it will ALWAYS represent the same no matter WHERE you study in the scriptures. That means that in Deuteronomy 22:10 where the LAW says "Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together", God's real concern WAS NEVER THAT PEOPLE DID NOT DO SUCH A THING LITERALLY. INSTEAD HE WAS CONCERNED THAT TRUE GOD CALLED MINISTERS WOULD NOT BE "UNEQUALLY YOKED WITH AN UNBELIEVER" IN HIS LABORS OF "PLOWING" IN GOD'S FIELD (see Matthew 13:38 for the meaning of the "field"). Where do you suppose that Paul got his inspiration for his words to the church of God at Corinth (2 Corinthians 6:14)??? Is an "ass" a symbol of an "unbeliever"? Notice: (1) Job 11:12 says man is "born like a wild ass's colt". A wild ass's colt is untamed and unridden; wild and stuborn. (2) We know that all men are born in bodies of "sinful flesh". They are untamed, wild, and stubborn. (3) Zechariah 9:9 prophesies that the "king" of Zion would come to his kingdom riding on an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (4) Matthew 21:1-10, Mark 11:2 and John 12:12-16 show us that Jesus sent his disciples to find an ass and her colt upon which a man had never sat. The reason for this was he wanted to symbolize (as he rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as "King") the type of kingdom he was bringing. It was a SPIRITUAL KINGDOM wherein he would be able to "ride" upon men and women's lives (symbolized as wild ass colts) EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD NEVER BEEN TAMED OR RIDEN BEFORE. HE COULD "CLIMB ON" AND MIRACULOUSLY "RIDE" THEM WITHOUT BEING "THROWN OFF". I could give many more examples, but this should at least be enough to get the reader to AT LEAST CONSIDER the type of the "ass". It basically pictures the FLESH, and though TRUE CHRISTIANS still have to allow Jesus to help them to battle their flesh, A LOST PERSON LIVES IN THE FLESH. Therefore, a TRUE OX should not have to "plow" God's field while "yoked" or fastened together with a person who is LOST or FLESHLY. Surely by now the reader can begin to see how that the writings of the "Old Testament" became the means of teaching and inspiration for the writings which God has allowed us to recieve and to use in this New Testament period of time in which we live. There are times for example which confuse many people who study Paul's writings. I do not have time to cover it in this study, but there are a couple of places where Paul had to write and to correct something that he had said in a previous writing. Paul was still learning even as we are today. At other times he would make statements saying that it was him speaking and not the Lord or that he thought that he had the Lord's direction on a particular thing. There were even many times that Paul teaches things and refers to Old Covenant period writings to PROVE what he is saying. That shows a different form of inspiration than that of the writers of the Old Covenant period of time. They spoke with NO scriptural basis, whereas Paul admonishes Timothy as a pastor to STUDY in order that he might be an approved "workman" before God. The writers of the Old Covenant period were inspired without study of previous works, while the writers of the New Covenant period used many references from the previous Old Covenant period to PROVE their points. The one thing that makes this difficult for many to see is the fact that during the translation from Hebrew to English (for the Old Testament period writings) and from Greek to English (for the New Covenant writings) there are many variations of the spelling of names and of the meanings of the words that are used in the texts. Therefore, many times the writers refer to the "scriptures" written in the Old Testament period and do not say "it is written" and therefore very few people study closely enough to notice that the writers ARE referring to QUOTATIONS FROM SCRIPTURES WRITTEN DURING THE OLD TESTAMENT. Contrary to popular opinion, Paul emphasized to the other ministers working under him (such as Timothy) that they must study earnestly and fervently in the scriptures OF THE OLD TESTAMENT period WRITINGS. Those were the only ones that had been written, copied, and made available throughout the region. They had not yet begun to circulate the writings of the apostles at that time, and in fact, some of them had not yet been written. Notice Paul's words in the following scriptures (CAPITOLS ARE ADDED BY ME): 1 Timothy 4:11-16; 4:11 These things command and teach. 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 4:13 Till I come, give attendance TO READING, to exhortation, to doctrine. 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 4:15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the DOCTRINE; continue in them: for in doing this THOU SHALT BOTH SAVE THYSELF, AND THEM THAT HEAR THEE. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 3:15 And that FROM A CHILD THOU HAST KNOWN the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. STUDY AND YOU WILL FIND THAT WHEN TIMOTHY WAS A CHILD, THERE WERE VERY FEW IF ANY OF THE NEW COVENANT WRITINGS EVEN WRITTEN, AND IF ANY WERE AT THAT TIME, THE CHANCE OF TIMOTHY HAVING A COPY WAS NEARLY ZERO. Romans 15:4; 15:4 For whatsoever things were written AFORETIME were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. The message of the NEW COVENANT (or testament) IS the message that God inspired to be written down in the old covenant period of time in a "typical" or symbolic manner. The message for the new covenant then is the SPIRITUAL meanings of the symbols of the old covenant writings. In this sense, Moses, David, the Prophets of Judah and Israel, Job, Solomon, and etc. wrote the scriptures as God DIRECTLY inspired them, and today we have comments by Paul and the other writers based on their understanding of those texts. God declared that the prophets whom He spoke through in the O.T. times would have liked to have fully understood the things of which they spake, but they could not. Only in the NEW COVENANT did God see fit to begin to reveal the true meanings of the texts which had been written. He is STILL doing so today, and TRUE CHRISTIANITY is not brought to pass by following the "blind" systems of religion who profess to follow Christ, but rather is brought to pass by God revealing the hidden symbolic ("mystery") SPIRITUAL wisdom that is portrayed in the THOUSANDS of "TYPES" of the Old Testament period writings (1 Corinthians 2:7-14). The "types" or hidden spiritual pictures contained in the O.T. period writings are so vast and so accurate, that they even give us more scientific info than the world's greatest scientists have found to this day, and they were there declaring those things long before the scientists of the last several hundred years even began to consider them. The understanding of SPIRITUAL THINGS, THINGS OF THIS WORLD, AND EVEN OF THE THE WORLD TO COME ARE CONVEYED IN THE TYPES TO A DEGREE THAT GREATLY SURPASSES ALL FORMS OF RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS. The most WONDERFUL thing about it all is that when a person really gets the whole BASIC picture, THERE IS NO WAY THE ENEMY CAN CAUSE ONE TO DOUBT, AS THERE ARE TOO MANY DEFINITE MEANS OF PROVING OVER AND OVER THE MANNER OF INTERPRETATION AS BEING GOD ORIGINATED, PLANNED, AND SENT FORTH. PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GRACE AND FOR HIS GLORIOUS WORD.