What and Where are the Terms of the New Covenant?

Dear Purpledawn;Ok, so know you understand about examining context, but now you are questioning the translation to be used. The wording at Genesis 3:15 is not controversial and nearly all translations have nearly identical rendering. Here check out these translations at Bluebible.com. Bible Search and Study Tools - Blue Letter Bible
Here at Bluebible.com is the Hebrew text of the verse and as you can see there is not any question about the rendering.
Bible Search and Study Tools - Blue Letter Bible Hebrew
I am surprised you were able to find any translations that erred as much as the ones you quoted from. It is of the greatest importance to use a highly reliable Bible translation or you will misunderstand many things and miss many others. It is easy to rate NTs using Colwell's rule of Bible Translations using 64 verses and compare those verses to the best text sources and rank the translations by how they score. Here is a web site with the results, I use the NWT most of the time which is at the top of the chart.
hector3000.future.easyspace.com is no longer availableHere is a site that uses another approach to rate OTs and out of the 21 Translations checked, the NWT also scored the highest.
hector3000.future.easyspace.com is no longer available

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I wasn't debating the validity of messianic prophecies with you.

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Sure fooled me, what about Genesis 3:14 and all the other Messianic prophecies we have been arguing about? So I will ask again, since you have rejected all of the Messianic prophecies I have brought up, which is nearly all of them, so then where are the prophecies that Jesus referred to that he said spoke of him? I get the impression you are dodging this issue.

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you still haven't told me who the Devil's progeny are

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I will repost from my last post [ As to the Devil's seed, Jesus identified some who were part of it. (John 8:13) . . .Hence the Pharisees said to him: "You bear witness about yourself; your witness is not true." Jesus told them why they were rejecting him as Messiah. (John 8:44) "YOU are from YOUR father the Devil," Those who have the Devil as their 'father' are his seed, these are the ones who oppose the out working of God's will.] Do you need a further explanation?

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what did canceling the Mosaic laws accomplish?

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Quite a bit, Paul explained it like this. (Galatians 3:10-25) "For all those who depend upon works of law are under a curse; for it is written: "Cursed is every one that does not continue in all the things written in the scroll of the Law in order to do them." Moreover, that by law no one is declared righteous with God is evident, because "the righteous one will live by reason of faith." Now the Law does not adhere to faith, but "he that does them shall live by means of them." Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us, because it is written: "Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake." The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham might come to be by means of Jesus Christ for the nations, that we might receive the promised spirit through our faith. . . . Why, then, the Law? It was added to make transgressions manifest, until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made; and it was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now there is no mediator where only one person is concerned, but God is only one. Is the Law, therefore, against the promises of God? May that never happen! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, righteousness would actually have been by means of law. But the Scripture delivered up all things together to the custody of sin, that the promise resulting from faith toward Jesus Christ might be given to those exercising faith. However, before the faith arrived, we were being guarded under law, being delivered up together into custody, looking to the faith that was destined to be revealed. Consequently the Law has become our tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith. But now that the faith has arrived, we are no longer under a tutor." Following the law did not make any one righteous any more than obeying traffic laws would. The key purpose was to highlight sin, that no one could keep the law perfectly because we are all imperfect. The law was merely the tutor leading us to Christ, even the blessing promised under the Abrahamic covenant could not be attainted by the law, only through Christ can the blessings be reached. It was also only with the ending of the law that the blessing of the nations could take place.As to the mundane advantages of ending the law code, the Christians are free of most of the requirements of the law such as attending the three annual festivals in Jerusalem each year, the many sacrificial offerings required by the law, the ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness requirements. None of those things are specifically required under the law of love. Right now if you check the tag in your clothes, you are probably violating the law by wearing a garment made of two different fibers, (Leviticus 19:19) "you must not put upon yourself a garment of two sorts of thread, mixed together." and are you wearing your tassels? (Deuteronomy 22:12) "You should make tassels for yourself on the four extremities of your cloth." Did you remember to put on your fringed skirt with the blue string? (Numbers 15:38) "they must make for themselves fringed edges upon the skirts of their garments throughout their generations, and they must put a blue string above the fringed edge of the skirt," The law code was full of many binding little details like this that people tend to forget about, they tend to focus on the bigger things that are basic things summed up by showing love.

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So what is the purpose of canceling the Mosaic law and then placing a generic law in its place? It just means the culture has to start all over in determining the specifics of the generic law. Christianity jumps right back to the Mosaic laws to determine the specifics.

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No that would be defeating the purpose of writing the new covenant on hearts, with the old code it was rule following, with the new you follow your conscience. With the old it was a matter of following a detailed list of rules while with the new you live it in your heart. The difference is like not doing anything your mother told you not to, instead of being the kind of person your mother wanted you to grow up to be. Instead of mindlessly following rules, we have to think of what God would want us to do. Using the old law as a guide, we can learn of how God views many things and this helps us in deciding what we should do. The difference is like rules for children and guidelines for adults.Sincerely Yours; Wm Scott Anderson

WmScott: You then proceeded to bring up scriptures to show how it was progressively revealed.I disagreed that the OT scriptures you showed me said that the Hebrews would lose the covenants if they did not believe in a messiah or Jesus specificly, secretly or otherwise. A contract should not be full of secrets.Do this for me. Make a simple list of the terms of the NC or the Law of Christ or the Law of Love. Put it in your own words and the scripture you pulled it from. Don't just copy down the whole NT.Thanks

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

Dear Purpledawn;Messianic hope predates the Mosaic law code and was the reason for the law. The whole purpose of the law was to prepare the way for the coming of the messiah. Starting with the first prophecy given in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15) God's servants have looked forward to the coming of the 'seed' or messiah. From that first prophecy they knew he was coming, he would suffer a 'burse' but later kill the devil. In the promises made to Abraham it was learned that all the nations would be blessed by the 'seed' of Abraham. (Ge 22:15-18) Then in the blessing for Judah they knew that he would be born in the tribe of Judah and was to become king, and they were to obey him. (Ge 49:10) Moses told the Israelites that Jehovah would one day raise up a prophet like him and they were to obey him. (De 18:18, 19) When the law code was given, Israel was told that the covenant was dependant on their obeying the law. (Exodus 19:5) They were also told that they had to obey the angel who was to lead them to the promised land, (Exodus 23:20-23) this angel they had to obey happened to be Jesus. (1 Cor. 10:1-4) The Jews broke the covenant and Jehovah spoke of making a new covenant to replace the old covenant. (Jeremiah 31:31-32) Due to the fact that they had broken the covenant the Jews were to be conquered and most would be killed while a remnant would be taken into exile and a remnant would later return to the land. (Ezekiel 6:8-9)In the OT there are several hundred Messianic prophecies giving details about where he was to born, when he would appear, the family line he would be born in and many details about the things that would happen to him and the things he would do. The Jews were aware of the prophecies and were in expectation of the Messiah's coming, it was center of their existence, their hope. At the time Jesus was about to begin his ministry, the Jews knew it was time for the messiah to appear and were eagerly looking for him. (Luke 3:15) Before Jesus was born, the Jews knew where he would be born because they were aware of Messianic prophecies. (Matthew 2:4-5) and they knew he would be born in the family line of David. (John 7:42) The problem wasn't in the Jews not knowing the messianic prophecies, it was that they wrongly expected them to all be fulfilled at once, they failed to understand that the Messiah would die for their sins and would later come as a conquering King, they were blind to this because they longed for freedom from Rome and expected political deliverance from the messiah. Even Jesus disciples expected this to take place. (Luke 19:11) Jesus' refusal to become an earthly king no doubt was a big part in why many Jews rejected him. (John 6:14-15)Jesus repeated stated that he only spoke what his father told him to speak, and the Jews were required to obey Jehovah under the law code, failure to do so, would break the covenant. Not only did they fail to listen, they tried to kill him on more than one occasion, and when they finally did turn him over to be killed, he was condemned by the Jewish supreme court. The Jews as a nation rejected Jesus with even the crowds crying out for him to be impaled, and this was after Jesus had preached publically for three and half years with his disciples, even sending out groups to preach. What Jesus did was widely know throughout the whole land of the Jews. (Acts 10:37-39) So the Jews rejection was not the actions of a few uninformed people, even those who rejected him did not doubt his ability to do miracles.In response to the Jews rejecting him and knowing what was to come, Jesus stated that Jerusalem's house was abandoned. (Matthew 23:37-38) Jesus' disciples wanted to know what this meant and when these things would take place and when Jesus would come in his Kingly power, Jesus' answer is recorded in Matthew the 24th chapter, in which the ends of two systems of things are described. The first is the end of the Jewish system of things with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the second is the destruction of the world system of things with the destruction of the world governments before the establishment of direct rule by Christ over the earth. The part we are interested in is Jesus' prophesied destruction of Jerusalem, which is different from the earlier prophesied destruction by the Babylonians, in that there is no prophecy of earthly Jerusalem or it's temple being rebuilt. Once again a remnant would be saved, but that remnant would be the disciples of Jesus Christ who would heed this warning and flee Jerusalem when they saw those prophesied things occur. Those who didn't listen to Jesus' warning were pretty much exterminated with very few survivors who were taken away in slavery without any prophecy of release or return. The reason for the lack of such restoration prophecies was that as Jesus stated, because the Jews rejected him as the Messiah, the kingdom or God's favor was taken from the Jews and given to another nation, spiritual Israel or the Christian congregation. (Matthew 21:42-43)Jesus gave the terms of the New Covenant, which were very simple, that his followers were to have love for each other. Love is the law of the Christ. That is mainly what Jesus gave as the terms of the New Covenant. (John 13:34-5) In his sermon on the mound, Jesus lustrated some of the differences between the old covenant and the new. (Matthew 5:1-7:28) A key difference was that under the new, just thinking about doing wrong was wrong. It was no longer just a matter of not doing bad, it was a matter of becoming righteous and changing our selves to become not just better rule followers, but better people. The apostle Paul explained the rule of love in greater detail to the congregations in his letters and In Acts we have the decision that it wasn't necessary to keep the old law code. New elements in the New Covenant included being born again, which was necessary to see the kingdom of God or in other words to go to heaven which was something new since the Jews only had the hope of a future earthly resurrection. (John 3:3-5) Whereas the spirit anointed followers of Christ were "partakers of the heavenly calling". (Hebrews 3:1) They were joint heirs with Jesus and were thus sons of God. (Romans 8:17) As such they were to rule with Christ in heaven over the earthly subjects of that kingdom. (Luke 22:28-30) ( 2 Titus 2:12.) There are many references to those who go to heaven as sons of god and are part of Jesus' kingdom heavenly government and how that government will replace all the governments we have on earth today. But that is too much to write in this post and is the matter for a detailed study of the Bible.Sincerely yours; Wm Scott Anderson

From the answers I've received, Jesus summed up God's new covenant or law of love with two phrases: Looks like all the rest is commentary.I'm going on vacation. Enjoy July!

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A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.