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True, there is a vast difference between the Old and the New---and
part of just what constituted that difference is one of the
important things we want to investigate. We want ALL the facts on
the subject.
The CHURCH WAS MARRIED TO
THE LORD!
At Mt. Sinai, God set up AN ORGANIZATION. Make no mistake
about that!
In our quest to learn WHETHER God's people should join
themselves together in an ORGANIZATION, having CHURCH GOVERNMENT,
let us begin by recognizing that in the beginning, at Sinai, God
Himself formed His people into an ORGANIZATION, having
GOVERNMENT.
At that time God's people---the ONLY people on earth who were
the people of God---were formed into a NATION. As such, they had
LAWS, and GOVERNMENT. They were a KINGDOM. First of all, they
formed a civil government. But in this government, God also
placed certain church governments, giving them the rituals,
ceremonies, and sacrifices of the law of Moses. Church and state
were inseparable.
In any government, men are placed in AUTHORITY, with power to
GOVERN and to RULE. There never was a government without MEN in
authority, ruling over others. And perhaps without exception,
there always is, and always was, some ONE MAN who was in actual
fact, tho not always in name or title, the real head, or ruler.
As God first organized His people, HE was their HEAD---their
King. But soon the Israelites wanted a MAN to be their king,
like the Gentile nations around them. It is IMPOSSIBLE to have
ORGANIZATION, or GOVERNMENT, without having a MAN as the actual
and real head, even tho we SAY Christ in heaven is the Head, and
continue to try to believe it that way.
A fact that many of us have never noticed is that THE OLD
COVENANT WAS A MARRIAGE COMPACT!
When God first set up AN ORGANIZATION on earth, the people who
formed this organization were MARRIED to the Lord. It was this
MARRIAGE that bound Him and His people together.
In Jeremiah 3:14, the Lord says: "Turn O backsliding
children, saith the Lord; for I AM MARRIED UNTO YOU."
THE LORD DIVORCED HIS WIFE!
The making of the Old Covenant, as recorded in the 24th
chapter of Exodus, was the MARRIAGE CEREMONY. If anyone may
doubt this, let us merely ask, WHEN, if not here, did the Lord
ever enter into a marriage ceremony, joining Himself and His
people together as husband and wife? Where else, in all the
Bible, can you find any account of a marriage ceremony?
The MARRIAGE ceremony was the OLD COVENANT CEREMONY! They are
one and the same. It was this marriage, then, that established
ORGANIZATION and GOVERNMENT among God's people.
We want to repeat that. We want you to understand it---for it
is of great importance---it is the KEY FACT upon which the real
truth, so long hidden, really hinges. IT WAS THE MARRIAGE THAT
FORMED GOD'S PEOPLE INTO AN ORGANIZATION HAVING CHURCH
GOVERNMENT!
That being so---and it IS so, and none can deny it---then it