The way of the tabernacle paints a picture of the path to salvation, which is to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Priests would enter through the gate, present the sacrifice on the brazen altar, and then purify themselves at the laver (baptism of John).

This is where the "church" typically stops in its teaching of salvation; but, like the Samaritans in Acts 8 had done before Peter and John came to them, the churchian model stops short of the most important aspect of this progression, which is entering the Holy of Holies.

The lighted menorah, altar of incense, and the bread of the presence in the Holy Place represent guidance and nourishment from the Holy Spirit as He leads the believer into the Holy of Holies, which is to receive the covenant of marriage as Messiah Yahoshua's bride.

YOU MIGHT BE A CHURCHIAN IF . . .

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The thief on the cross manifestly understood the path to salvation better than the highly educated pharisees. He provided the example of what is necessary to be born again, and he received his confirmation of that salvation directly from the Messiah Himself.

WHAT ARE THE OLD AND NEW COVENANTS?

Because christianity divided the scriptures into two sections—Old Testament and New Testament—most christians wrongly point to the Old Testament as the old covenant, and denounce, quite vigorously, universal spiritual truths found in the Old Testament (truths that christianity corruptly abolished when it was invented), because most christians simply have no clue what the old covenant was, what the new covenant is, or how they are correlated.

First of all, scripture is scripture. The arbitrary decision to divide it into two sections leads many to conclude, erroneously, that several eternal doctrines either changed at some point, or were done away with completely.

I often see christians make absurd assertions about nobody actually being saved before Messiah's crucifixion and resurrection. I even remember being taught in “church” when I was growing up that, when scripture referred to a person as “righteous” in the Old Testament, it meant “relative to those around him,” as if it took living a certain way (works) for one to be called “righteous.” There are none righteous in and of themselves.

If someone is called “righteous” in scripture (OT or NT) it means he has the Holy Spirit, for righteousness does not, and cannot, come from man. Righteousness comes ONLY from the Father.

Scripture is comprised of ONE VOLUME, not two. It was the “church” who divided it, and one of the reasons is that the Jews were the protectorate of the Hebrew scriptures. But, since the physical Jews largely rejected Yahoshua as Messiah, they had no use for any of the New Testament scriptures. So, the early christians took those manuscripts and altered them to strip away as much of the Jeweyness as they could.

Thus, many look at the OT and NT like they represent two different Gods, and when spiritual truths that were given first to the physical Jews, and then later to the spiritual Jews (the real substance of the word “Jew”) are encountered, many christians immediately retreat into their religious safe spaces, and declare, “that's OLD Testament, and we're NEW Testament.” And, that is probably one of the most ridiculous statements one could make, when scripture is actually understood.

What is presented in the Hebrew scriptures we call the Old Testament are physical foreshadows (pictures, object lessons, symbols) that are later revealed as their spiritual real substances in what we call the New Testament. So, it is all one volume, and often, there is more actual detail provided in the physical foreshadow than in the spiritual real substance, so the physical provides instruction about the spiritual.

Many christians correctly state that “we are not under the law,” but then conflate everything taught in the Old Testament as “the law.” No, the law must be contextually understood to grasp what any scripture about “the law” teaches. Just because something occurred during the time when the OT was written does not make it “the law.”

The Sabbaths were established before, and apart from, the law of Moses.

Just as the ordinances in the law of Moses mandated HOW the physical Jews were to eat, drink, dress, have sex, and observe the Sabbaths (among many other things), when those ordinances were nailed to the tree, that didn't abolish eating, drinking, dressing, or having sex; neither did it abolish the Sabbaths. It merely ended the rituals surrounding HOW those things had to be done.

This notion that everything in the OT is “the law,” and thus everything in the OT was nailed to the tree, is a huge reason so many christians are spiritually illiterate. And, just like the Hebrew Roots cult, they lack the ability to see what is physical foreshadow, what is spiritual real substance, and how the two are correlated, which is why scripture is one volume, and not two.

But, what is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant? It's not the Old Testament and the New Testament. And, contrary to the false teaching of the Hebrew Roots cult that there is no new covenant, but rather a “renewed covenant” (again, because the teachers in the cult are deceivers), the old and new covenants are a physical foreshadow and a later-revealed spiritual real substance.

The “renewed covenant” nonsense of the Hebrew Roots cult is just part of their carnal attempts to place people under the law of Moses, picking and choosing which of the ordinances they think are to be followed, while ignoring the rest (which is called “hypocrisy”). Such teachings are nothing more than spiritual dung.

Moreover, the old covenant was not the law of commandments contained in ordinances (Ephesians 2:15), which were the many physical laws that were given to those WHO POSSESSED THE PHYSICAL COVENANT. The precepts of the Torah were not the covenant. They were laws given to those who had the covenant. The entire construct was a physical foreshadow of a future-revealed spiritual real substance.

So, let's look at how the two covenants were given, and how the new is actually the fulfillment of the old. One was physical, the other is spiritual. The spiritual is the real substance, and the spiritual is not a renewal of the physical. The physical was only a picture, or representation, of the spiritual, not the actual real substance.

The Path to Receiving the Covenant

The Israelites were told to sacrifice lambs and spread the blood on their doorposts on the 14th day of Abib (which was later called “Nisan” after the Babylonian captivity). They were to do that after sundown (the Jewish days began and ended at sundown), and that would cause the angel of death to PASS OVER their homes, while the firstborns of everyone else in Egypt were killed.

This was “the preparation” for being led out of Egypt (the world). They were to make loaves of unleavened bread quickly for their journey out of Egypt. The Israelites were led by the Holy Spirit through the Red Sea (baptismal cleansing), and then they journeyed through the wilderness on their way to the mountain. While in the wilderness, the Holy Spirit not only guided them (pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night), but He also provided sustenance for them (manna).

Once they arrived at the mountain, they still had to wait to receive the covenant that would be given by the Holy Spirit (Ten Commandments). Some chose to act outside of the instructions they had received, and to worship Yah according to their own thoughts and desires, so they crafted a golden calf, saying that they would use it in a feast to Yah (Exodus 32:5).

Their false worship ANGERED Yah, and He told Moses that He wanted just to wipe them all out. But, because of Moses' pleading on their behalf, Yah allowed Moses to offer them a chance to repent of their unbelief in Him, and those who repented received the covenant. Those who did not repent were killed for their unbelief.

That very journey is what we are shown in the way of the tabernacle—the priestly progression from the Outer Courtyard where the brazen altar (Passover) and laver (Red Sea—baptismal cleansing) were, through the Holy Place (the wilderness), which contained the altar of incense (pillar of cloud), menorah (pillar of fire), and the showbread, or “bread of the presence” (manna).

Then, ultimately, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies (Mt. Sinai), which is where the physical covenant (Ten Commandments) was housed.

Again, the physical Jews possessed the physical covenant, and those who possessed the covenant were under the governance of the written law of Moses, which were commandments contained in ordinances. That law applied to nobody else but those who had the covenant. Those commandments contained in ordinances were PHYSICAL, just as the covenant was. It was ALL a foreshadow.

When Messiah Yahoshua was here, He set the stage for the revealing of the spiritual real substance—the giving of the seal of the Holy Spirit, which had been prophesied long before His earthly ministry (Jeremiah 31:33, Joel 2:28-29, etc.).

That was His point in His Sermon on the Mount where He explained that the Jews had been commanded not to murder (physical), but that one who hates his brother is guilty of murder (spiritual), and that they were not to commit adultery (physical), but that the man who lusts in his heart after a woman is guilty of adultery (spiritual).

The physical covenant and the physical law governed only the physical man. However, salvation is not of the physical, but of the spirit. The physical covenant and law were foreshadows of what would be revealed to the world after Messiah paid the redemption price for His bride. The spiritual covenant would be given, which is the real substance of what the physical covenant foreshadowed.

Messiah Yahoshua was crucified on Passover as the redemption price for His bride, and to provide the blood of sacrifice required to seal the covenant of marriage given to her. The first day of the week following the weekly Sabbath after Passover is the Feast of Firstfruits, and He rose again as the Firstfruits of the resurrection (during the night, as the days began at sundown).

Seven Sabbaths plus one day from the Feast of Firstfruits is the Feast of Weeks—the day commemorating the giving of the physical covenant at Mt. Sinai. And, on that same day after Messiah's Passover sacrifice, the spiritual covenant was given—the spiritual real substance of what the physical covenant foreshadowed.

Now, since the spiritual real substance of the covenant had been revealed, those who had been under the ordinances of the written law of Moses were no longer under it, for it, too, was only a physical foreshadow.

As Paul said in Galatians 5:18, those who are led by the Holy Spirit (His seal is the spiritual covenant) are not under the law (the commandments contained in ordinances, which were the precepts in the law of Moses).

To further expound what was nailed to the tree, we see in Colossians 2:14 that Paul states what was “blotted out” was the handwriting of ordinances that were contrary to us (they were the laws that separated the Jews from the Gentiles—making the Gentiles opposed to the Jews, and vice versa).

What was the “handwriting of ordinances”? Well, the covenant had been produced by the Holy Spirit—the commandments carved into stone tablets. The tablets symbolized the future covenant of the Holy Spirit that would be given to Messiah's bride Y'isra-el.

The rest of the laws that were given through Moses were written by the hand of man, not by the Holy Spirit. Those are the laws that were nailed to the tree—the laws that separated the physical Jews and Gentiles—the laws that were in human handwriting.

Those laws were comprised of the animal sacrifice laws and the clean vs. unclean laws. All of them were nailed to the tree—there are no longer any animal sacrifice laws, nor are there clean vs. unclean laws, which kept the physical Jews and Gentiles separate. The clean vs. unclean laws were the “barrier” or “middle wall” separating the physical Jews and Gentiles.

The Hebrew Roots cult is infamous for focusing on the dietary laws (which were certainly part of the clean vs. unclean laws), and preaching that those laws are to be obeyed, while mostly neglecting the rest of the ordinances in the Torah. ALL of the clean vs. unclean laws were nailed to the tree, thus, there is no such thing as unclean food!

So, how is the covenant received? Did the physical Jews just decide they had the covenant? Did they determine, while they were in Egypt, that they had the covenant? No, they were led out of Egypt (belief), through the wilderness (enduring in belief), and to the mountain, where they received the covenant by the will of the Father and in His time alone.

In the tabernacle/temple, did the high priest sprinkle blood from a sacrifice on the Ark of the Covenant (symbol of the bride) in the Outer Courtyard? No, he progressed as instructed by the Father from the Outer Courtyard, through the Holy Place, and into the Holy of Holies.

Did the apostles receive the covenant by their decision? No, they went through the Passover sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb, and seven Sabbaths plus one day after His resurrection on Firstfruits, they received the covenant—not by their decision, but by the will of the Father. And, how did they know they had received the seal of the Holy Spirit? They saw visions of flaming tongues resting upon them.

And then, Peter, recognizing what was happening, quoted the prophet Joel who spoke about the “last days” that began with the giving of the spiritual covenant:

“It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29, Acts 2:17-18

This is the path to salvation shown throughout the scriptures—belief, endurance in belief, receiving salvation. And, in the case of Messiah's bride, salvation is given with the covenant—the eternal seal of the Holy Spirit upon Y'isra-el, Messiah's bride, which makes the bride eternally righteous.

Nobody in scripture is shown being saved by making a decision—ever. That is a false teaching of christianity's counterfeit of salvation. Man chooses to believe, but salvation comes by the Father alone. And, when one has received the covenant after believing in Messiah Yahoshua, and confessing Him before others (enduring in belief), he will be told, directly and personally by the Holy Spirit, that he is a child of Yah, just as all of Yah's children are told (Romans 8:16).

If you think you were saved because you made a decision, or prayed a “sinner's prayer,” you have been deceived by false teachings. If you think you are saved because you have changed your lifestyle, and you try not to commit sins of the flesh, that is not salvation, but human works.

Believe in the sacrifice of the Perfect Passover Lamb, confess Him and His true Gospel to others, and put your faith in the One who said that all who believe (endure in belief—Hebrews 10:39) SHALL BE SAVED (future tense).

As it was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, “But THIS shall be the covenant which I will make with the house of Y'isra-el after those days,” declares Yahweh, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jeremiah 31:33

The Ten Commandments were His law written on tablets of stone as the physical covenant given to physical Y'isra-el. But, as He said, into spiritual Y'isra-el (His Son's bride, who is the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:2), He will place the One who was foreshadowed by the Ten Commandments. He is the Holy Spirit; and, the Father seals Messiah's bride with the Holy Spirit, whose seal is the covenant of marriage.

And, what did the commandments contained in ordinances foreshadow? They were a representation of the work of the Holy Spirit within those who have the covenant. He leads the bride to sacrifice her flesh (Galatians 5:16-26), and to remain separate from the world (2 Corinthians 6:14-18, 1 Peter 2:9).

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