[Vision2020] New Covenant vs Old Covenant

[Art Deco]

Doug Jones writes:

"2. God's creative works reflect His character much as an artist's creations reveal the artist."

Yeah right, just like the Rorschach Test ink blots reveals Rorschach's personality.  Except, since everyone has a different interpretation of the ink blots, it really reveals aspects of the viewer's personality, sometimes significant ones, instead of anything about reality outside the viewer's worldview and pathology.

The same is true of interpretations works of art, poetry, music, etc, particularly modern ones.


While Jones's interpretation of some alleged God's canvas reveals very little about reality, it does reveal the following about himself, the Cultmaster who controls his life, and many of the Cultmaster's ovine flock:  

Extreme intolerance, extreme need to punish those that do not agree, extreme need to control others and to bring them to heel according to the cult's (Wilson's) worldview, extreme need for fantasy in order to deal with the exigencies of life in a contingent/not understood universe, and especially, in Freud's term, classic cases of extreme anal retentiveness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_retentive).


Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com


 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taro Tanaka" <taro_tanaka at hotmail.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2006 3:03 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] New Covenant vs Old Covenant


> Paul Rumelhart godshatter at yahoo.com asks:
> 
> [[ Could you or someone else explain to me about the new vs the old
> covenants in the bible?  I thought I understood that the old covenant,
> which includes the proscriptions against homosexuality as well as the
> dietary laws and such, was replaced by the new covenant.  Is it still a
> sin to wear a shirt made from two or more fibers, or not to rotate your
> crops?  Does the new covenant say anything about homosexuality?  I've
> never really understood this.  I've noticed from other debates here and
> elsewhere that the homosexual parts of the old covenant seem to be used
> commonly, but the other parts aren't.
> 
> I thought the idea was that the laws of the Old Testament were specific
> to the peoples of that time, and that Jesus' sacrifice brought into play
> a new covenant that replaces the old one.
> 
> I'm not a biblical expert, and not a christian.  I'm not bashing here,
> just trying to understand it. ]]
> 
> Paul, that is a very good question. The key points to keep in mind with 
> regard to the covenants are:
> 
> 1. The three Persons of the Trinity are in an eternal covenantal 
> relationship.
> 2. God's creative works reflect His character much as an artist's creations 
> reveal the artist.
> 3. The covenantal God relates to his creation covenantally -- When we look 
> at the original creation, He commands it into existence and it obediently 
> responds by coming into existence just as commanded. He judges it to be good 
> and blesses it. He upholds and prospes it over time.
> 4. All of the creation reveals God, but man is especially created in God's 
> image. Thus the covenant is especially important to the life of man. Man as 
> the image of God is inescapably a covenantal creature. Human beings were 
> created to relate to one another in a manner that reflects the way the 
> persons of the Trinity relate to one another.
> 5. Man was created into a covenantal relationship with God. God blessed us 
> from the very beginning. We did not have to pass some kind of special test 
> in order to merit life and love from God; rather, we were given these things 
> from the start.
> 6. The first covenantal head of mankind, Adam, fell into sin, and we all 
> with him, when Adam listened to the lies of Satan and submitted to Satan in 
> rebelling against God. Our first covenantal head rebelled against the 
> covenant of life and instead entered into a covenant with death. Through 
> Adam's rebellion, man was effectively cut off from God.
> 7. God was not content to allow the entire human race to perish in this way, 
> so he promised a Messiah who would fulfill the requirements of God's 
> justice, paying the penalty of death so that it would no longer rule over 
> us.
> 8. The entire Jewish sacrificial system that we see in the Bible is a 
> temporary holding action, so to speak, looking forward to the ultimate 
> fulfillment of everything in the promised Messiah. God dwells in the 
> Tabernacle and later in the Temple, but access to Him is extremely limited 
> -- only the high priest can enter the holy of holies, and that only once per 
> year, and he has a rope tied around his ankle so that he can be pulled out 
> in the event that God strikes him dead while he is inside. God's dwelling in 
> the midst of Israel is a blessing, but the relationship is not exactly what 
> one woudl call free and uninhibited. The constant sacrificing of animals is 
> necessary serves to remind the people that the fulfillment of the promise of 
> salvation in the Messiah is still future.
> 9. In the fullness of time, the second Person of the Trinity is incarnated 
> to finally succeed where Adam failed and furthermore to fulfill the 
> requirements of God's justice by making full restitution with His own 
> infinitely precious life. After laying down His own life, He picked it up 
> again, being resurrected on the third day, after having proclaimed the 
> gospel and His victory in Sheol. From that point forward, Sheol has been 
> emptied of the saints, who are in Heaven reunited with God.
> 10. The term "old covenant" refers to the failed covenant in Adam; failed 
> but not without a promise of salvation. Thus after the fall the entire "old 
> covenant" period is looking forward in anticipation of the coming of the 
> Messiah.
> 11. The term "new covenant" refers to the new covenant which has Jesus as 
> its covenantal head, in which all the promises of salvation are finally 
> fulfilled.
> 12. Since the sacrifices were all fulfilled in Jesus' cross, the Jewish 
> temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, having become unnecessary.
> 13. God's standards of right and wrong are unchanging under both the old 
> covenant and the new. God's standards of right and wrong are a reflection of 
> His etenerally perfect character. Thus proscriptions against sexual sin 
> remain consistent under both covenants. Dietary laws, laws relating to 
> dress, etc., were designed to preserve the distinctiveness of the nation of 
> Israel -- separated as holy unto the Lord. The priniciple of being separated 
> as holy unto the Lord still applies, but since the entire world has been 
> cleansed by the blood of the Messiah, it is no longer necessary or 
> appropriate to distinguish between one food and another, or one type of 
> fabric and another, or one ethnos and another, etc. It does remain 
> appropriate and necessary to distinguish between right and wrong.
> 
> I hope this helps!
> 
> -- Princess Sushitushi
> 
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