INTRODUCTION

                                                          CHAPTER ONE

                                              INTRODUCTION

One of the cardinal Biblical rules is that no two people can walk together without an agreement (Amos 3:3). The science of sin is so complicated and for God to fix it, He requires that we behave in a certain code of conduct which requires a working agreement and relationship between Him-self and ourselves-the sinful humanity. The definition and specifications of this code of conduct has been the centre of controversy ever since the fall of man and has single handedly inspired and informed the proliferation of various Churches and even religions with each claiming to subscribe to the correct fashion of the code.

This book provides a clearly defined Biblical perspective and interpretation of God’s agreement or contract with sinful humanity which is otherwise called The Everlasting Covenant.  For the problem of sin to be forever fixed, God and lost humanity must walk in a certain manner which is clearly defined by His Everlasting Covenant with man.  Any agreement between two parties must naturally and ordinarily contain the following three major items;

(1)   The terms of the agreement,

(2)   Signatures of all the parties committing themselves to abide by all the terms of the agreement and

(3)   The maturity or consummation date or dates of the agreement. 

We must therefore be able to clearly understand the above three items in our agreement with God. The Everlasting Covenant MUST contain all the above listed items for it to be a binding Covenant. This means that any Christian should be judged only on the basis of their performance in as far as abiding by the terms of the Covenant is concerned. The Covenant serves as the yardstick to measure our accountability and obligations before God as we travel this blood-stained path of salvation with Jesus at the head. God’s looks and judges us only from the perspective of The Everlasting Covenant. Do we abide by all the terms? Do we seriously understand them? Are we sure?

Any spiritual revival and reformation must always be on the basis of the terms of The Everlasting Covenant. The purpose of this book is to urge all the inhabitants of the world to listen to the voice of God and revive The Everlasting Covenant which has been trodden down upon for thousands of years. Since the fall of man, God’s main pre-occupation has been to ensure that man abides 100% with all the terms of The Everlasting Covenant.

Jesus main purpose and agenda during Israel’s 70^th week was to confirm the same Everlasting Covenant. During the time of the end, God promised to send us an urgent end-time message in the spirit and power of Elijah. This message which will close and conclude the work of salvation is a Covenant-based message according to Malachi 3 & 4.

Today the world desperately needs to understand and keep the terms of The Everlasting Covenant to the letter. That is the crying need of the Church today.

THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

                                                                 CHAPTER TWO

              THE EVERLASTING COVENANT IDENTIFIED

Now the biggest challenge that we face is in the area of identifying The Everlasting Covenant. We have already clearly established the crucial role that it plays and the central role that it occupies in the Grand Plan of Salvation. Let the Bible speak to us about this matter.

Exodus 19:5 is very clear that The Ten Commandments plus all the other laws that God gave at Mt Sinai Constitutes the terms and conditions of The Everlasting Covenant (Exodus 20 to 23). This is very strange because most people understand the Ten Commandments to be a mere set of laws which cannot qualify to be referred to as terms and conditions of such a covenant. It is however important for all of us to appreciate that the Ten Commandments are general summaries defining the complex and indescribable will of God.  

It is important to point out at this point in time that although the specifications or the terms of the Everlasting Covenant were well defined at Mt Sinai, the terms have been applicable since the fall of man in Eden as is evident from 1Chronicles 16:15-20 which says it is the same Covenant which God also gave to Abraham and Jacob and the entire Church throughout history. The terms of the Covenant will always apply as long as the Plan of Salvation is not consummated by the second coming.

The Ten Commandments also define the glorious character of God in a parabolic manner. In His wisdom, God designed the Ten Commandments to sound like rules and regulations in order to ‘appeal’ to sinful humanity. We put our signatures on the terms of the Covenant when the Church of Israel took an oath binding themselves and all future saints to the terms of the Covenant (Exodus: 24:5-8).

STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS

Exodus 24:3-4 is very clear that all the words that God spoke amidst that awful grandeur of Mt Sinai constitutes the terms of The Everlasting Covenant. These words are recorded from the 20^th to the 23th chapter of Exodus. These words constitute the Ten Commandments as well as the 70 or so other laws whose work is to help in the operationalization and implementation of the Ten. Since the Ten are general summaries, God found it wise to provide other statutes and judgments to explain the summarized Ten Commandments.

It is not possible to obey any of the Ten Commandments without getting directions and guidance from the added statutes and judgments which are recorded from the 21^st to the 23^rd chapter of Exodus. For instance, the sixth Commandment simply says “Thou shall not kill” but it does not give details as to what should be done to anyone who breaks that law. It is the work of the added statutes and judgments in Exodus 21 to 23 to provide such missing details and information. Every one of the Ten Commandments has added details in the statutes and judgments. The Ten are not complete without the added statutes and judgments. The Ten cannot work without the added statutes and judgments. The Ten and the added statutes are like Siamese twins sharing the same heart.

One of the greatest teachers of the Bible had this to say about the added statutes and Judgments.”That all obligations of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments) might be more fully understood and enforced, additional precepts were given illustrating and applying the principles of the Ten Commandments. These laws are called judgments (P &P pg 310)”. Most of us christens do not see the connection between the Ten and the statutes. We see them as two different sets of laws. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Some have even erroneously baptized them as ‘ceremonial laws’.  The Bible is very clear that all the words that God uttered at Mt Sinai are part and parcel of the Everlasting Moral law or the Decalogue. What we should baptize ‘ceremonial laws” are the laws which were given one year after the awful grandeur of Mt Sinai. Those laws talked about offerings and sacrifices. We call them the Levitical laws.

The entire Covenant is designed in such a manner as to be sufficient in meeting all the spiritual and social needs of the Church at any given time. God’s expects that His people should use these set of laws as their constitution wherever they may live. God expects that His people will be guided by the principles established by the terms of the Covenant to establish themselves safely wherever they settled.

You will realize that so important was the Covenant that Moses was instructed to write all the terms of the Covenant in a book which was called the Book of The Covenant. This book contained all the Ten Commandments plus the 70 or so added statutes and judgments. This means the Covenant Book contained all the laws recorded from the 20^th to the 23th Chapter of Exodus. In other words, the Book of The Covenant contained all the words that God uttered at Mt Sinai.

The book of the Covenant was supposed to be read in the seventh year during the Feast of The Tabernacles of that 7^th or Sabbatical year. This is the only time that everyone, women and children included were required to gather in the temple and listen to the public reading of the Book of The Covenant (Deuteronomy 31:10). This means every seven years God took time to remind the entire Nation of Israel concerning their lofty expectations and obligations under the terms and conditions of The Everlasting Covenant. This was a law as serious as the one on the seventh day Sabbath. There is no other book in the entire Bible that God instructed should be read regularly as a law apart from the Covenant book.

TABLETS OF STONE

There was also the two tablets of stone on which were written all the words that God uttered at Mt Sinai. This included the Ten plus the added 70 or so other statutes and judgments which explain the details of the Ten. I believe the first four laws were written in front of the 1^st stone while the other six were written in front of the second stone. Then the 70 or so statutes were written on the back of those stones (Exodus 32:15).

You must be well aware of the fact that most people (maybe including yourself) believe that it is only the Ten Commandments which were written on the stone tablets with four on one tablet and six on the other but many do not believe there were others written at the back but the Bible is very clear that all the words that God uttered in Mt Sinai on that day were written on the two stone tablets in front and at the back and put inside the Ark to show how everlasting they are (Exodus 32:15-16).

THE LIST OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

                                                                CHAPTER THREE

                  THE LIST OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS   

Since our God is a God of order, the list of the Ten Commandments as well as the statutes and judgments was well designed by God who took sufficient time in the mountain writing the list down in a systematic and organized manner.

God did not want the list to be interfered with and that is why he promised serious curses to anyone who would add or subtract even a ‘comma’ (Revelation 22:19). The following is the correct list of the Ten Commandments.

You will realize that there are many lists subscribed to by different people but we are hereby discussing the original biblical list as given to Moses. Kindly take your time and compare the list of your Church with this Biblical one. You will find that they are not the same. I am yet to come across any congregation which subscribes to the biblical fashion of the list of the Ten Commandments. The devil has succeeded in mutilating the lists just to mess up God’s wonderful plan for lost humanity.

God gave the list a certain architectural design which should be left intact since it serves a certain purpose. The devil knows this and has gone out to mess up with the list.  Let’s now do the comparison.

(1)   (Exodus 20:2)-“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery”.

(2)   (Exodus 20:3-6)-“You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my Commandments”.

(3)   (Exodus 20:7)-“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guilt-less who misuses his name”.

(4)   (Exodus 20:8-11)-“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son nor daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy”.

(5)   (Exodus 20:12)- “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the lord your God is giving you”.

(6)   (Exodus 20:13)-“You shall not kill”.

(7)   (Exodus 20:14)- “You shall not commit adultery”.

(8)   (Exodus 20:15)-“You shall not steal”.

(9)   (Exodus 20:16)-“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” and

(10)                       (Exodus 20:17)-“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor”.

You will realize that most of the churches do not recognize the most important Commandment which describes Jesus as the savior and this is the very first one. Commandment Number 1 has been totally annihilated and described as being just peripherical.

In order to make up for the number ten, most of us have subdivided other laws to fill the gap. That is the devil for you. Some Churches like the Catholics have mutilated the list further inn trying to accommodate their own selfish interests in the list.

THE 4th COMMANDMENT

                                                      CHAPTER FOUR

                                    THE 4^th COMMANDMENT

It is important for us to address our selves to the implications of the 4^th Commandment. This Commandment is the heart of The Everlasting Covenant. As is the case with all the other nine Commandments, the 4^th Commandment has to be obeyed from the perspective of and under the guidance of the added sabbatical statutes and judgments. We find that God provided Sabbatical statutes and judgments which are recorded in Exodus 23:10-17.

These statutes demand that in our keeping of the 4^th Commandment, we must observe the three annual festivals of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. The three have a total of seven feasts under them. The devil has twisted the scriptures in his campaign against The Everlasting Covenant to portray the picture that the festivals are no longer valid and that they were abolished on the cross by Jesus. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

It is in the 4^th Commandment that we find the gospel which is symbolized by the three annual festivals. For instance, it is during the Passover festival that we commemorate and remind ourselves of the selfless sacrifice of Christ as our ultimate Passover sacrifice. This is the time we consider Him as our substitute, model and righteousness. It is wrong to look at the feast celebrations as legalistic in any way considering that we are always called upon to meet and remind ourselves of the merits of Jesus as our Passover lamb.

 The celebrations should carry themes and messages of Christ Our Righteousness. Every feast is a revelation of at least one phase of Jesus’ work to save us. It is during the Passover that we learn of the process of justification as an integral part in the work of salvation. It is during the feast of unleavened bread that we learn of the work of sanctification that Jesus carries in our lives as our sinless bread of life from heaven. The same case applies to all the other feasts where we see the work of final glorification symbolized by the feast of Pentecost.

While the feasts appear to be legalistic from their outside appearance, they carry themes of salvation and the gospel which we cannot get in any other way. We therefore see that the 4^th Commandment is very wide and comprehensive. The entire gospel finds its roots in the 4^th Commandment. The entire Sanctuary system is also entrenched in the 4^th Commandment.

One of the most inspired writers of the gospel has this to say concerning the 4^th Commandment in P&P pg 678, “In the time of the end every divine institution is to be ‘restored’. The breach made in the law at the time the Sabbath was changed by man is to be repaired”. When theses words were spoken, they were directed at saints who were already passionate Sabbath keepers and therefore the issue could not have been on observing Saturday Sabbaths but had to do with some other dimension to do with the 4^th Commandment.

The quoted words imply that when the devil changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, he also did another damage to the same la but which was yet to be discovered by the time these words were being written.

As we have already indicated, the three annual festivals are part and parcel of the 4^th Commandment. Leviticus 23 and Exodus 23 actually refer to the seventh-day Sabbath as much of a feast just like any other. Saturday Sabbaths are supposed to be viewed as feast days. However, Satan ensured that we do not celebrate the appointed times according to the Bible thereby doing a lot of damage to The Everlasting Covenant in general.  (James 2:10)

THE APPOINTED TIMES OF THE LORD

                                                                CHAPTER FIVE

                   THE APPOINTED TIMES OF THE LORD     

The Everlasting Covenant requires that we observe and celebrate certain special, appointed, decreed and anointed holy moments, days and/or seasons.  The following are The Appointed Times of the Lord which we must celebrate at their appointed times without failure:

(1)   During the Levitical times, the priest would offer the morning and evening sacrifices around 9am and 3pm every day. It did not matter how special the day was whether it was a Sabbath or a feast day but everything had to wait and give way for these sacrifices to be offered. When Jesus abolished sacrifices and offerings, those times were converted into official prayer times by God in heaven.

We need to revive and reform to accommodate observance and acknowledgment of those holy moments of prayer. One does not need to attend some Church service somewhere but can even whisper a prayer in the course of their work or wherever they may be. Those are the moments when God and Jesus literary meet in heaven to audit and plan for the day’s work.

We are also called upon to hold parallel or simultaneous prayers in recognition of God’s meeting with Jesus every day in heaven at those times. Try Jesus in this and you will not regret it. I have tried Him already and I have seen the benefits. Can you remember when Peter healed the cripple outside the temple? They had gone to the temple at 3pm for the evening prayers (Acts 3:1).

(2)   The next appointed time of the Lord is the 7^th day of the week which always falls on Saturdays. This is the holy Sabbath day. Every seventh day in heaven, God summons a general meeting of all the inhabitants of heaven to audit the work of a whole week of seven days. We are required to hold simultaneous or parallel assemblies here on earth in recognition of God’s heavenly meeting or holy assembly.

(3)   The next special appointed moment is called New-Moon day. This is the first day of the month when God expects us to have special moments of thanksgiving for the gift of a new Month and to celebrate the successes of the previous Month or mourn its failures. This is the day when the moon is totally obscured and there is no crescent visible at all. We say it is the time of the lunar conjunction when the earth, sun and moon are on a near straight line. This is a day that assembling of the saints is required but not to the tune of Sabbath sacredness because it is not an officially designated Sabbath day. This is a day one can choose to fast or dedicate to God in one way or another. This day should not just pass like any other day for the saints.

(4)    The other appointed time of the Lord is the annual time of the 7-day Passover Festival. This Festival plays host to three different feasts within those seven days. The first of those feasts is the Passover Feast after which the Festival is named. This is supposed to be celebrated from the twilight of the 14^th day of the first Month. The same night should be a mandatory Passover night vigil until the morning of the 15th day. Jesus was arrested while observing the Passover night vigil. It is during the night vigil that the saints are supposed to take the Passover as instructed by Jesus during his last Passover here on earth. Remember one has no freedom to change the times appointed for the celebration of any of these feasts.

(5)   The next appointed time of the Lord is the Feast of Unleavened Bread which is a seven day event running from the 15^th to the 21^st day of the first Month. The 15^th and the 21^st days are reckoned as holy Sabbath days with all the sacredness of the seventh day Sabbath whether or not they fall on the Saturday Sabbath days. During the seven days of the feast, the saints are supposed to break bread every evening. Remember the bread should not be taken alongside the cup like is the case on the Passover night in the 14^th day of the same Month. When Jesus resurrected on Sunday, that evening He broke bread at Cleopas place in keeping with the requirements of the Feast of Unleavened bread which had started on the Friday of crucifixion and was extending up to the following Thursday (Luke 24:30).

(6)   The next appointed time of the Lord is the Feast of First-Fruits which is always held on the day after the seventh-day Sabbath which comes immediately after the Passover Feast on the 14^th day of the first Month. This means the Feast of First-Fruits is supposed to be celebrated on Sundays all the time.

(7)   The other appointed time of the Lord is the Pentecost Festival which is observed exactly 50 days from the Sunday of the feast of First-Fruits. This is a one day Festival and plays host to only one feast. This day is reckoned as a holy Sabbath day although it is always on a Sunday. The disciples were celebrating this Festival when Jesus endorsed it by sending the promised Hoy Spirit during the celebrations. In future the Church will be given the latter rain in the course of their Pentecostal Celebrations one Sunday morning.

(8)   The next appointed time of the Lord is the Festival of Tabernacles at the close of the religious calendar in the 7^th month of God’s original calendar. This Festival plays host to three different feasts spread across 21 days of this final 7^th Month. The first feast is the Feast of Trumpets which is always held on the first day of the seventh month.  The whole day is set apart as a Sabbath day whether or not it falls on Saturdays.

(9)   The next appointed time of the Lord is the Feast of The Day of Atonement which is held every tenth day of the seventh month. This day is set apart as a holy Sabbath day. It is a day when fasting is a must since it is the most solemn feast of all the seven.

(10)                        The next appointed time of the Lord is the seven -day feast of Tabernacles which is held from the 15^th to the 21^st days of the seventh Month. The 15^th and the 21^st days are set apart as holy Sabbath days.

(11)                        The next appointed time of the Lord is the seventh or Sabbatical year. The 7^th year is always a Sabbatical for the land.

(12)                        We also have the 50^th year which is set apart for the Jubilee celebrations. It is therefore another appointed time of the Lord which we need to observe as a Church.

     

It is only when we faithfully observe all the appointed times of the Lord that we can be said to be walking together with God as Enoch did. The following facts show how important the appointed times are in our journey to heaven and also explains the important role that those times play in our lives.