NOSAS intro., sections 50-51, post #18

(continuing)   #18, NOSAS intro., sections 50-51

50-   How is ‘New’ Testament Christianity different from ‘Old’ Testament Law?  Conformity to ‘Old’ Testament Law [Ten Commandments, religious excellence, etc.] is what most Christians, through ignorance, are still trying to fulfill through the same methods of carnal willpower that was dominant during the age when the ‘Old’ Testament was the most current phase of God’s master Covenant [like when our children are too young to understand the greater principles of life, they try to gain our approval by ‘legalistically’ following our instructions (instead of understanding our heart and seriously accepting their higher moral responsibilities in life, as we pray they will when older)].  ‘Old’ Covenant style belief and behavior [believing, thinking, and acting like children] during ‘New’ Covenant times [when God expects us to believe, think, and behave as responsible adults], in essence, regresses what God designed to be the peace, power, and spiritual advancement and freedom of ‘New’ Testament Christianity, into something that actually manifests in our life as bondage in the form of ”Old Testament style ‘Christianity’”.

During the days of the supremacy of the ‘Old’ Testament over God’s people, in order to earn their Salvation, the people of the nation of Israel had to obey ‘Old’ Testament Law to perfection through mentally controlling their own outward physical behavior based on the Written [ink on paper] Word of God.  They privately knew that no one, even Moses [Num.20:2-12; Deut.34:1-5], could possibly fulfill to perfection all the stipulations of the Law [which was necessary to gain Salvation], yet that was their only hope, so they kept trying.  Moreover, the ‘religious’ gurus [Pharisees] and dictators of the time kept adding more and more regulations for them to follow, much like the ‘religious’ and political “elites” of our contemporary times.  Could anything be more depressing?  Is it any wonder why so many Israelis chose to not even try?  Is it any wonder that, with an “Old Testament style Christianity” mindset being so dominant in the church, so many people give up on, or not even begin, trusting Christianity to be the solution to their heart’s cry for life to have substantial meaning and be the route to freedom from their hurts and bondages?

Under the ‘Old’ Covenant, they could have their sins covered for a time through their temple [religious] sacrifices.  Most Christians are still operating under that same mindset, only now the ‘sacrifices’ take the form of going to religious services, tithing, performing charitable deeds, and living a religious lifestyle, in order to gain favor with God.  This is the same religious sacrificial system, just simply with a different ‘face’ and rhetoric put on it.

New Testament Christianity includes God’s expectation of our conformity to ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Testament righteous behavior [Mt.5:17-20; 1^stCor.3:12-19].  However, instead of that behavior being achieved through our carnal-dominant conscious willpower and sacrifice alone, New Testament conformity to the instruction of God is based on, and achieved through, the character transformation [spiritual maturity] brought about through the spiritual and mental transformation of our relationship/fellowship with the Holy Spirit: the Living and ever-present Word [Wisdom, Knowledge, and Power] of God.

Instead of God having multiple and different Covenants with Humanity, there is only one continuous Covenant that is revealed and implemented in advancing phases [People named them “Old” and “New” in order to distinguish the latest two aspects – of The Covenant.].  The phase of the Covenant we now call ‘Old’, was the ‘New’ of its day, which superseded the Abrahamic Covenant, and so on into the distant past, with each ‘New’ phase being an advancement of the previous ‘New’ phase, which then became the ‘Old’.  The older phases develop through the implementation of more advanced elements that initiate, and eventually fulfill, the new ‘New’.  When the next dispensation of God’s plan begins [the part partially revealed in the last parts of the book of Revelation, and other places in the “New Testament”], the phase we now call ‘New’ will become the latest ‘Old’, and the new ‘New’ will begin.

Our step-by-step spiritual/mental transformation prepares us to receive the newly revealed and more easily received Covenant blessings of God.  Gradual, constantly improving relationship/fellowship with the Holy Spirit empowers the manifestation of gradual and consistent inward and outward personal transformation of life unto the manifestation of God’s dispensational goal for us: developing, possessing, and utilizing true Righteousness and Holiness in our life.  Achieving each new goal initiates our next dispensation in Life, which is our next step [like walking] toward the completion of God’s original purpose for creating Humanity in the first place: the development of his greater-than-mere-human finished MAN [“a new name written” (Rev.2:17, 3:12-13)].  Isa.62:2-3, “²And the Gentiles [unregenerate] shall see your righteousness, and all [Earthly] kings [shall be envious of] your glory: and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name [“Man”, or whatever new name He chooses].  ³You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand [an extension of the reigning attributes] of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand [an adorning headdress – a vital part of the open-handed reign] of your God.”

The manifestation of completed ‘Mankind’ is what God has been working toward since before his first thought of creating even the first elemental force of the physical realm, and therefore, before he ‘planted’ the ‘seed’ of MAN when He ‘planted’ Adam (man) on the Earth [“Before the foundation of the world”].  [Jn.17:24; Eph.1:3-4; Phil.3:7-11, 4:4-9, 19; 1^stPeter 1:19-21]

51- The emphasis of this essay is “It requires the inward [spiritual and mental] transformation of a person in order to produce the authentic outward transformation God requires of us [not simply a situational, consciously contrived behavioral change].  God insists upon this character transformation because he knows it is the foundation that empowers our life to manifest the full blessings He desires for us [and we, as true Christians, desire].”  This inward transformation is essential, because authentic outward transformation is impossible without it.  Our [and the church’s] true outward life [not the wannabe image we often portray] is the shadow-image of our inward life.  If a shadow is going to change in any way, either the light that empowers it, or the object it is the shadow of, must change.  Since the power that ultimately enlightens and empowers our life [God (Mal.3:6, Isa.45:7; Mt.13:35, 25:34): His spiritual laws that govern Life and Blessing] does not change, then the ‘object’ our outward life is the shadow of {the combined contents of our spirit and mind [our personal (and the church’s) soul]} is the thing that must change.  Will we nourish and empower righteous transformation in our life by cooperating with the Holy Spirit, or will we continue to embrace complacency and stagnation, and miss the present and eternal blessings available to us?  The choice is ours to make, not God’s.  [Rom.12:1-2; 2^ndCor.3:18; and the Parable of the ‘Soils’ (Mt.13; Mk.4; Lk.8)]

(to be continued)