Basic HTML Version
-7-
Gentiles are like brances of a wild olive tree, broken off and grafted
into the natural Olive tree of Israel. But it shows how the natural
branches, broken off because of sin, may also be grafted back into
the Israel tree.
Then WHAT ARE WE UNDER TODAY?
The Old Covenant is ENDED. The Apostle Paul said "God 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"
(II Cor • 3: 6) •
Yet the New Covenat HAS NOT YET BEEN MADE! Its terms and condi
tions have been revealed to us through Christ. We ministers preach
it. And even though as a final MARRIAGE COVENANT it has not been
made --that is, in contract language, "signed, sealed and delivered."
We who God has called are privileged to have God's Law written in
our hearts, to have the life-begetting, sin-overcoming Holy Spirit
to open our minds to spiritual UNDERSTANDING, to guide us in God's
ways, and, within us, to EMPOWER us to overcome Satan, and DO THE
WORK OF GOD!
But some have seriously MISUNDERSTOOD--hopefully not any" of our
ministers. Seeing that the Old Covenant has ended, and supposing
the Old Covenant and the Old Testament are one and the same thing,
they reject, for example, Malachi 3:8-12, which makes failure to PAY
the tithe each OWES to God the SIN of STEALING--and the HEINOUS SIN
of stealing from GOD at that!
In the days of Jesus' ministry, the writings we now call "the
Old Testament," were not called that. In fact the Old Covenant was
NOT A TESTAMENT AT ALr;r- Those writings then were called "The Law,
the Prophets, and the writings," or the "Psalms."
When Jesus said, "Think not that I have come to destroy the law
or the prophets," He was saying that He did not come to end the "Old
Testament" (as we now call them) Scriptures. God's CHURCH is built
on the very FOUDATION of the Apostles AND THE PROPHETS, Jesus Christ
being the chief cornerstone!
Much of the Church's doctrine and teaching comes from the Prophets,
as their writings are recorded in what today we call Old Testament
Scriptures.
The Old Testament Scriptures record for us, today, all the history
of ancient Israel, the Old Covenant, and God's dealings under that
Covenant.
The Worldwide Church of God is based on THE WHOLE BIBLE.
Those CALLED of God are privileged to live according to the con
ditions of the NEW Covenant, though the actual covenant has not been,
as we might say today, yet "signed, sealed and delivered." Those
NOT called specially by God are, as were all outside Israel in Old
Testament times, cut off from God--not being now judged--neither lost
nor saved. Their time is yet to come!