Two Covenants Part 2 *** – Page 2 – Religion Detox Network …

COVENANT BASICS
Because of the many Biblical references to laws and covenants, it is absolutely necessary to understanding which law and which covenant a particular scripture refers. And, it is absolutely necessary to understand that from God’s perspective there are basically two kinds of laws:

While these distinctions seem simple enough, discerning them in the Bible is not easy. The only reliable way to discern when the Bible is referring to God’s laws written on the heart or man’s laws (specifically man’s religious law practiced as tradition), is to understand that there are only two covenants:

Old/First Covenant
New Covenant

The basic difference between these two covenant is that man controls one while God controls the other. God’s laws refer to the New Covenant and man’s laws refer to the Old/First Covenant. Keeping these distinctions clear is essential to understanding the Bible. They are especially necessary to understanding Jesus and the law because, when we consider that Jesus was killed because he broke the laws that were controlled by Pharisees, we find a serious caution about what happens to New Covenant disciples (i.e. people who follow Jesus).

Before studying Jesus and the law, it is instructive to do a brief review of two basic kinds of covenants.

God, of course, is primarily concerned with his covenant with man. He is also concerned, however, with man’s religious covenants with religious people in religious organizations. The principle here is that friendship with the world of religion (through a covenant in which someone subscribes to the beliefs, doctrines and traditions of the religious organization) is equal to having a master other than God, which makes him/her an enemy of God.

We see this principle in God’s commands to Israel that it should make no covenant with the religious nations that occupied the promised land. For us in these modern times, we should interpret this as a command to not join religious organizations of any kind because they are snares that cause us to sin. Needless to say, if they cause us to sin they are God’s enemies and our enemies.

God punctuates his cautions about the risks of entering into such covenants with several specific warnings:

When religious people voluntarily join themselves to a religious organization they do not generally think that they have made a legal agreement with that organization. God, however sees it differently. It is true that there may be no written contract, but what matters to God is what is in the heart. Here are a few ways in which we make covenants with religion and serve other gods:

Formal membership in a church or synagogue is written evidence of intent to subscribe to the beliefs and practices of a religious organization..
Heartfelt participation in worship services and other religious activities demonstrates that we subscribe to the beliefs and practices of a religious organization.
By making financial donations to religious organizations or ministries (e.g. missionaries, evangelists, etc.) we show that we have made a contract in our heart that obliges us to give money to that organization.
By saying “I am a Jew” or “I am a Christian”, or I am a “fill in the blank with a denomination, or church, or some kind of name that identifies your religious affiliation” you testify that we have joined yourself to a religion and subscribe to the beliefs and practices associated with that religion.
By buying and using music, books, pictures and other man-made artifacts that have religious or spiritual themes and significance, we affirm our belief that these products have spiritual value and back that belief up with money paid to the religious organization.
By attending religious conferences for the purpose of receiving teachings from religious leaders and worshiping with other religious people, we confirm that we have an association with the sponsoring religious organization.
By securing counseling, healing, ministry or other kinds of so-called “spiritual” services (whether free or for a cost) from people who have reputations for their ability to hear from God on behalf of others, we confirm that we subscribe to the doctrines and practices associated with the sponsoring religious organization.

Religious organizations invite people to enter into covenant agreements with them in several ways:

They advertise their religious services.
They publish their religious successes in a variety of media.
They engage in evangelism that endears people to become members of their organization.
They employ charismatic teachers and staff.
They welcome visitors.
They invite people to become members of their religious organization.
They solicit financial support which, when given, shows that an affiliation for the organization exists in the heart.
They hold fellowship events with food and entertainment.
They sing songs and conduct rituals that make people feel good.
They provide a variety of religious services (e.g. worship, teaching, weddings, funerals, baptism, confirmation, etc.) that people think they need to have in order to be in good standing with God.
They sponsor public events and do good public works to create an attractive public identity that engenders pride in association with the organization.
They build attractive buildings and use modern technology to communicate wealth and status that engenders pride in association with the organization.
They create a secure social and religious environment by being faithful to their religious doctrines and practices.

What religious outreach effectively does is to create an attractive environment for selling religious services and products.

The world is full of people who believe that religion of one brand or another is necessary for their spiritual health and eternal welfare. And the world is full of people who believe that they have some spiritual gift that they can sell to those who think they need religious services and products. The buyers shop around for religions that offer the services they need and make covenants (formal and informal) to support those religions so that the services they need will be always be available to them. The result is a covenant between men. Men, and women, provide the services and men and women pay for the services they receive. God is in the background, somewhere in the doctrines, and often quoted in the services, but he is not a part of the covenant.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is Commerce for more about the selling and buying of religious services and products.

No one enters into any of these relationships without embracing deep, heart-felt hope that they will receive both short-term and long-term benefits from the relationship. The short-term benefits are those that come from being a member in good standing of a religious community. The long-term benefits are a belief that earthly beliefs and practices will earn them favor with God who will reward them with eternal life.

When the heart is engaged in these ways, it has turned away from God toward other gods who effectively functions as idols that people serve and worship with money, time, honor, praise and respect. In willfully drinking the religious cool-aid, they have voluntarily separated themselves from the Kingdom of God and joined ourselves to the Kingdom of a False Prophet.

In Biblical terms, religious people have yoked themselves to masters who effectively enslave them to follow that religion’s rules and customs. Because they do this voluntarily, they have made a covenant with death. That would be bad news except for the fact that they can also willfully terminate their association with religion.

It is not easy to disengage from religion. Doing so requires a kind of death to relationships and habits that have provided comfort and security, but it can be done for those who cry out to God for deliverance from slavery to religion. God restores those who do cry out for new life after they are resurrected from the dead and gives them new life.

Study Tip: See Death, Resurrection and New Life for more about resurrection from the dead.

The main point to understand about laws and covenants in general is that they are essentially legal agreements. Thus, if God agreed to do something in a covenant, that agreement was like a law that could not be broken because God does not change his mind.

People, on the other hand, can and do change their minds about covenants to which they agree. If they attach themselves to a religious system of any kind, they effectively agree to obey the laws of that system. It has become a god to them and they are idolaters. Thus they break their covenant with God when they make a covenant with a religion.

STUDY TIP: See this link for scriptures in which God warns his people not to make covenants with religions (i.e. nations).

In God’s view, religious people are parties to an Old/First Covenant based on laws and traditions that have been created by, supervised by and administered by men. It is a perfect example of the two masters principle.

When we put all this together, we see that God’s concept of covenant is a matter of who we listen to. Here are the two choices:

If we hear and obey only God’s voice, we are New Covenant disciples. We choose to learn about God from God directly — not from others. This is the essence of the New Covenant.
If we join ourselves to religion of any kind and hear and obey the religious laws that religious leaders teach, we are Old/First Covenant religionists. When we allow others to teach us about God instead of listening to his voice directly, we sin by eating the fruit of Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In effect, those who teach are substitutes for God. Those who teach, therefore, effectively become idols in the hearts of those who listen to them and adopt their beliefs and practices.

This truth will be hard for religious people to accept. But those who separate themselves from religion and learn to listen to only God’s voice while studying the Bible will eventually hear him explain its mysteries to them. This will be an exciting time.

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