FOR the record, I pondered this papers title for hours, days really, before committing to write anything. Even afterwards, I sat here until the sun peeked through the eastern corridor of my house. The coffee pot had emptied while the page before me remained blank-faced. Several other titles were toyed with, none nearly as good. Technically, the gospels contained within the New Testament  happened, and I hold to them, but saying it hasn’t happened yet got you through the door, didn’t it? A better phrasing would be the renewed covenant. The renewed covenant is very real and it’s prophesied about in Scripture. We’re simply not living in it, as clearly the requirements are not yet met. Therefore, the title is still accurate.

I can’t speak for next weeks front page column or tomorrow’s headline, but as of this morning, the renewed covenant hasn’t yet come to fruition. Are we expected to believe that Matthew turned in his final draft to the publisher and the phrase THE NEW TESTAMENT had already been given its very own title page? Ridiculous. Yet another Roman council informs our beliefs hundreds of years after the fact. There were no silent years when it came to the writing of Scripture. Matthew slides right up to the Maccabees seamlessly. I invite you to show my error while simultaneously taking a sledgehammer to yet another wildly misconstrued worldview, affecting billions of souls. Despite everything you’ve likely been told, Torah is the narrow path. Anyone who has convinced you otherwise has led you by a leash down the slippery slope, and I hear it smells sulfurous.

The very last book of the Tanakh, final page, reads:

How in the world does a Christian go from reading a prophets plea, Remember the Torah, only to turn the page and proclaim: “Whoopee! Thank Paul for the New Testament! We’re free! We don’t have to remember the Law anymore!” Moshe and the writers of Scripture have just utilized the first 2/3rds of ours Bible trying to instruct us in how to be set-apart for Yahuah, the Most-High Elohim. Even more importantly, not to listen to anyone who says otherwise. And for what, exactly—to redefine holiness? To convince ourselves that obedience isn’t a virtue, but a sin? Again, ridiculous.

You will likely quote from the prophet Hosea as proof that I’m twisting Scripture.

Oh dear. Apparently, I’m expected to receive this phrase as some sort of a “fallen from grace” quip from the Churchianity Book of Insults. I advocate an obedience to the Father, and therefore I’m destroyed for “lack of knowledge.” Oh, I get it. I see what you did there. Very adorable. Wasn’t Hosea Torah observant? He was. You see, that’s the problem nowadays. Everybody loves a good quote. They want nothing more than to wield it as a weapon to their will like a magic wand or something. But very few keep reading to be absolutely certain it won’t turn them into an unclean animal. Continuing.

Sigh. Talk about twisting Scripture.

It doesn’t matter though—you’ll tell me. We’re still in the New Testament, no matter what I have to say on the matter. And besides, you’ve asked your pastor, and your pastor says I’m wrong. If the Bible has taught you anything, it’s that the law is written on your heart, as the New Covenant Bible verse which everybody keeps quoting from promises. Did I get that right? We should probably track it down in our Bible’s then. Wouldn’t want to misquote anything. Found it. It’s in Jeremiah. From here on out, I’ll keep strictly to the words of the prophet, pausing only for comment. Let’s give it the old college try, shall we?

Pause. There it is. The New Testament. It doesn’t say that though. It says Renewed Covenant. The keyword is renewed. Not something else entirely new. Yahuah the Most-High Elohim promises the days are coming when he will personally cut a renewed covenant from the same Law with his people. Beautiful. I can’t wait. Meanwhile, you keep telling me it’s already here and that you’ve been living it for decades. Awesome. Which house are you—Israel or Judah? I’m not seeing goyim anywhere. There’s no third option. House of Israel here. We’re grafted in through Ephraim, but that’s another discussion for another time.

And no, don’t tell me Yahusha cut a deal on the side with the goyim while hung from the cross. There has never been a time in the history of heaven and earth when the goyim were ever offered anything but the option to cross over. Do you see what I did there? That’s what Hebrew means, you know. Crossing over. And another thing, goyim (or rather, gentile) simply means pagan. Abraham started out as a pagan and then became the first Hebrew. Nothing has changed today. Either you’re a child of Abraham and a Hebrew grafted into Israel, having forsaken paganism, or the new covenant does not apply to you. Continuing.

Hopefully you saw it again. Yashar’el. Israel. Yahuah Elohim and Yirmeyahu were seeing if you paid attention the first time. We are being described the features of the renewed covenant, but not before first being reminded that the offer is only extended to those of us who have crossed over to the House of Israel.  

And see, that’s the other thing. Christians keep telling me they don’t need to keep Torah because the Law is written on their hearts. Their hearts tell them what is the right and wrong thing to do, and evidently, Torah obedience is anthropologically wrong. Huh? That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You do realize that Torah and the Law are the same thing—right? Insisting how the Law is written on your heart does not grant permission for moral ambiguity or cultural relativism. You can’t just make crap up, as definitions of sin go. Neither can your church denomination. That’s what Torah is for—to tell us was is lawful and unlawful.

Earlier in his book, the same book, the prophet Yirmeyahu has already told us:

My thoughts exactly. The heart is a L-I-A-R. If Yirmeyahu’s quip about the heart still rings true of humanity, which it does, then the renewed covenant cannot possibly have arrived. You will tell me it does not apply to your heart, as you are so in tune with yourself and God that the “deceitful above all things” banter can only be directed at other goyim. Sure, let’s go with that and keep reading.  

Rather difficult, refraining from highlighting the entire passage. My love for the marker is a struggle which knows no end. It’s all far too important not to though.

Tell me, do you still tell your neighbor, Know Yahuah? If so, then the Renewed Covenant has not been cut. More than likely, members of the church building down the block don’t even know his Name. Or in the very least haven’t referred to it in years. There mere fact that we’re having this conversation right now proves beyond any doubt that we’re still living under the Old Covenant, as no man will be taught anything by any other man under the Renewed. Ah, now we’re finally getting somewhere. That’s what it means when the Torah is written on our hearts, don’t it? It’s describing a people no longer capable of sinning. That should tell us something. Actually, it should tell us everything. Every living soul will know Yahuah, the Most-High Elohim, when the Renewed Covenant arrives. And that can only mean one thing.

The people remaining on the earth when the New Testament becomes a reality are those belonging to the houses of Judah and Israel. Kind of makes you wonder, where did all the goyim go?

Noel