The Covenant Way

docs.google.com/document/d/1Yp… Daniel’s 70th Week - A Basic Understanding, 7 pages. A Brief Understanding of the End of this Age, 15 pages. A Holistic Understanding of the End of this Age, 62 pages. The Seven Seals of Revelation and the Judgments of God. Who are the 144,000, 9 pages. At Last, the King, 6 pages. Standing in the Gap at the End of this Age, 8 pages. Preparing for the End of this Age, 6 pages.

After a thousand years, mortal humanity will have full knowledge of good and evil, will have lived under perfect righteous governance, and will daily see and experience the difference between immortal resurrected life and mortal life. The asymmetry would likely be viscerally felt by those of later mortal generations. The serpent’s original lie worked precisely because he offered something that mankind felt was unjustly withheld, the knowledge that would make humans “like God” (Genesis 3:5, the Hebrew is “like gods” or “like divine beings”). The same architecture could function again: the Tree of Life is accessible, its fruit is pleasant, why shouldn’t eternal life belong to everyone?

I have a speculation that the final rebellion against God will mirror the first rebellion in Eden. In the Garden, there were two trees: the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. The serpent first led Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, gaining awareness of good and evil through disobedience. After that, God barred access to the Tree of Life so that fallen humanity would not live forever in corruption. During the Messianic reign, Scripture says that the knowledge of God will cover the earth. Humanity will fully know the difference between good and evil, not through rebellion, but through the reign of Messiah and the teaching of Torah. At the same time, mortal humans will live alongside those who have been transformed into immortal life. My speculation is that the final deception of Satan may echo Eden: he may convince the nations that they too can seize eternal life for themselves by eating from the Tree of Life apart from God’s appointed way. The first deception was, “You can be like God if you eat from the tree.” The final deception may again be, “You can be like God if you eat from the tree.” The end mirrors the beginning.

Zechariah 8:19 explicitly promises that the fast of the fourth month (17 Tammuz is in the fourth month) “will become joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah.” Zechariah doesn’t say the date will be forgotten or replaced. He says the very day of mourning will be transformed. Restoration on that specific date would be the fulfillment of Zechariah’s language.

On Shavuot at Sinai, as described in the book of Exodus, a covenant with God was mediated by Moses. This established Israel as a nation and enabled sacrifices, yet within 40 days this led to illegitimate sacrifices. In a future scenario, a political covenant with men, as described in the book of Daniel, may define Israel's standing among the nations, creating the conditions for legitimate Levitical sacrifices to resume. If this future covenant were to be confirmed at or around Shavuot, and daily sacrifices resumed around 40 days later, this could put the date of resumption at 17 Tammuz—the very date the first Temple sacrifices ceased. Traditionally, 17 Tammuz is not just “a date a lot of bad things happened”. It’s a fixed archetype of covenantal and ritual breakdown. Flipping this date to a day of restoration would truly “turn mourning into joy”. Whether such timing will occur remains unknown, but the pattern highlights how covenantal identity and sacrificial worship are deeply intertwined in both past and potential future events. #Covenant #Israel

I’m pretty confident that Zechariah applies to the third Temple as well as the second. Concerning the building of the Temple: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of “It’s beautiful, it’s beautiful!” ’ We might not understand how it’s going to happen, but it will be built.

"There's no reason why the miracle of reestablishing the Third Temple isn't possible - and sooner than you think" Do you agree with @PeteHegseth ?

Ordination as a pastor by an existing “church” organization is not the Biblical example. If a believer were to go into a region that didn’t have a church, preach the gospel, and establish a community of believers- then this is a legitimate ecclesia (gathering, church). If I start a home church with like-minded believers, we form a legitimate ecclesia (gathering, church). “The ecclesia that meets in John’s home”

@B_A_Purtle @TheCovenantWay Some questions I’ve had: Can a bunch of Christian get together and start their own church? Can a man who hasn’t been ordained as a pastor by an existing church decide to start a new church and be the pastor? What are your thoughts?

Pastor Kevin DeYoung: "The man who attempts Christianity without the church shoots himself in the foot, shoots his children in the leg, and shoots his grandchildren in the heart."

@RobotSynergy @EmmausWire My understanding is that: * The king of the north begins an attack on the king of the south * Ships of Kittum intervene to stop the attack. * The king of the north returns home in humiliation * A devious plan in made to defile the temple in Jerusalem

@EmmausWire Very interesting. In Daniel 11:29-30 is “he” Daniel is speaking of the Antichrist? As we see the abomination of desolation in the next verse. So are the European/American and Western ships opposing the man of sin?

The ships of Kittim are in position, the clock is ticking..

@FNguywthebeard @JoelWBerry Yes, Josephus wrote that he had seen the pillar of salt himself. Later writers Irenaeus and Clement of Rome also refer to the pillar as something that still stood at their time.

@TheCovenantWay @JoelWBerry ...wasn't Lot's wife around as well?...

I never understood the search for the ark. Noah and his family would’ve almost certainly dismantled it and used the lumber to build their first settlements. Anything left would’ve rotted away. We don’t need this stuff, folks. “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”

@rabbriansamuel x.com/thecovenantway…

Zechariah 14 speaks of all nations celebrating Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, or else they get punished. This will be fulfilled, as it is written. No need to spiritualize every Scripture as if belief in Christ supersedes them. Better get used to those Jewish holidays, because they will be celebrated in the Kingdom.

@servantofyh x.com/thecovenantway…

Jesus also said to sell your cloak and buy a sword lol You're arguing like a chat gpt bot. Messiah will return and he will tread the winepress. If you're uncomfortable with that, get your theology right. I want justice to be done, because revenge belongs to Adonai.

The book of Job, among its many lessons, offers a warning that should unsettle anyone quick to condemn others in the name of God. This book can easily serve as an allegory for Jewish-Christian relations. From the beginning, the focus of the book is God’s servant Job. That focus never shifts. The entire drama unfolds around him. His friends insert themselves into his story and immediately step into accusation and condemnation, assuming they understand what God is doing. In the end, God says plainly: “You have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” (Job 42:7) The friends are certain in their theology and ethical dogmas. They see suffering and conclude guilt. They speak with confidence and authority. Job, the central figure of the story, suffers because of heavenly courtroom decrees that far surpass human understanding. They cannot be fully explained, expounded, assumed, or reasoned away. The only whisper the reader hears of that courtroom is in the few glimpses the text provides. Yet in their ignorance and limited knowledge, Job’s friends presume to pronounce judgment on their friend, listing his supposed failings and insisting that the reasons for his suffering lie in his own fault. That pattern is stark and readily apparent within the Christian world. Like Job’s friends, disciples of Jesus - ranging from misguided zeal to outright hatred - have often sought to sit on a judgment throne that does not belong to them and declare the Jewish people hellbound. In the smallness of Christian knowledge, stripped of Jewish context, culture, and covenantal understanding, many read the words of Jesus from two thousand years removed and assume absolute and eternal Jewish guilt and damnation. Sometimes that judgment is extended even toward Jews who believe in Yeshua, accept Him as Messiah, and yet remain faithful to the covenantal practices of their people as observant Jews. The story of Job pushes back hard against that instinct to condemn everyone who does not align perfectly with your belief system and understanding. God never hands Job over to his friends, and He never gives them authority to define Job’s standing. It is Job - wounded, misunderstood, and falsely accused - who God ultimately vindicates. In the same way, the God of Israel tells us that vindication and exoneration remain in the future for the Jewish people: “Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication” (Joel 2:23) Job’s friends accuse him, and he calls them out: “How long will you torment my soul and crush me with words? Ten times now you have reproached me; you attack me shamelessly…” (Job 19:2–6) In the same way that Job’s friends exalted themselves over him and accused him of every evil deed, the apostles saw that the nations would do the same against the Jewish people. Paul specifically warns: “Do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” (Romans 11:18) And again, the prophets speak: “Never again will My people be shamed. You will know that I am within Israel.” (Joel 2:26–27) In our folly, we trumpet eternal damnation, seating ourselves on the judgment seat and pretending we can decree—out of our shallow understanding of an ancient covenantal faith—who will be forever cut off, all while ignoring the hundreds of promises God made to His people. Jesus warned, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:2) According to that framework, Job’s friends were not just wrong, they were in danger. Their own judgment was hanging over their heads. It was through Job that they were spared: “I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly” (Job 42:8). The ones who rushed to judgment must now rely on the very person they condemned. It is only through the prayers of Job that the three friends survive the encounter. In the same way, Christians have, for centuries, declared through replacement theology and persecution that the Jewish people are destined for hell. Too often, they demand a conviction and sentence rather than seeking to build up. Instead, Paul says: “If their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15) Do not miss that reversal. We do not stand above others as judges of their place before the God of Israel. We do not see the full story, and we have not been entrusted with final verdicts. Pronouncing someone damned is not a mark of righteousness; it risks exposing your own standing according to the words of Jesus. Some readers will inevitably cast themselves as the righteous Elihu rather than the three friends of folly. Here again, they are mistaken if they imagine themselves into Elihu’s role while condemning the Jewish people. The Jewish people have covenant obligations to their God. Elihu in this story is better paralleled by Elijah, the one said to return before the coming of the Messiah, to set things in order so that the Messiah does not come with a curse (Malachi 3:23–24). When God steps into the story, Elihu has done his part, and Job receives correction, not damnation. If it is by our love that disciples are known, then less consigning people to hell would serve us well, and far more of the baseless love that reflects our Master. Job teaches humility to everyone involved. God’s purposes are larger than our dogmas and malformed theologies. His relationship with a people or a person is not ours to define or redefine on His behalf. Those we are most tempted to judge may stand closer to Him than we realize through the fog of our own self-assurance.

Excellent post. A lot of people don’t understand that by saying God has rejected the Jewish people, or that God is done with the Jews, they are doing two things: 1. They profane God’s name among the nations by saying God was unable or unwilling to keep His promises. 2. They bring false witness against God Himself.

@Joel7Richardson Not only waits for, but groans for. With a longing expectation.

The hope of the world is not more people becoming Christians and obeying Jesus. That would greatly improve things. But it would not fix everything. The only true and ultimate hope for this world is the actual return of Jesus and the establishment of His kingdom from Jerusalem to the ends of the Earth. That is what all of creation continues to wait for.

@SHolmes66305 This is amazing. I’ve never heard anything like this before, but it makes perfect sense. I also love the comparison that man tried to build a tower going up into heaven—God will give us a city coming down from heaven.

What is the “New Jerusalem?” Often, and even in my last post, people point to the New Jerusalem in Revelation 20 as if it’s an entirely new city—some kind of floating entity or detached “heavenly realm” descending from above. “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” — Revelation 21:2 (NASB) I believed that for a long time myself. But the problem is, that idea isn’t rooted in how a first-century Jew understood “heaven.” Jews in the first century viewed heaven through a Hebrew lens as defined from the Torah and Prophets. The word shamayim (שָׁמַיִם) does not describe a distant, abstract realm. It refers to the space above the earth, what stretches upward from the earth to where God is enthroned. “The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven.” — Psalm 11:4 (NASB) It was never meant to be a different place, but a traversable space between us and God. That’s how Jacob saw it: He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it… — Genesis 28:12–13 That matters, because it shapes how they would have understood what John was describing. Jerusalem has always been a mountain. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion… the city of the great King.” — Psalm 48:1–2 (NASB) The prophets say that in the future, after the Great King Messiah comes, the mountain of Jerusalem is “elevated.” “All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site… and there will be no longer a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.” — Zechariah 14:10–11 (NASB) The picture is not a new place, but a restored and glorified one. Not floating, or ethereal—but new because the curse is gone, and because it stands in total security and peace, like a bride adorned for her King in righteousness. So when John describes the New Jerusalem as “coming down out of heaven,” he is not introducing a new category. He is speaking in continuity with the prophets. From his vantage point on the earth, he sees Jerusalem RESTORED—a mountain-city whose foundation is on the earth, yet whose elevation reaches into the heavens. And Revelation itself gives a measurement that forces you to reckon with that scale: “The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width… and its length and width and height are equal, twelve thousand stadia.” — Revelation 21:16 (NASB) This is not small, symbolic language. This is a 1500 mile high mountain-city extending vertically into “heaven and he describes it the only way that makes sense from his vantage point—top down. To him it is “coming down out of heaven.” John isn’t describing a different spiritual or ethereal future city, he’s describing the hope for Jerusalem as stated from the Torah forward. “You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. “The LORD shall reign forever and ever.” — Exodus 15:17–18 (NASB) If you keep the Torah and the Prophets as literal, future promises, the language of the New Testament remains consistent. But if you abandon that foundation, then the New Jerusalem has to be reimagined into something the Scriptures never describe—a detached, abstract, almost gnostic and platonic realm that is “new” for all the wrong non-covenantal, non-physical reasons. Unplug from ethereal hopeless future and let’s regain the hope of the Law and Prophets the apostles believed in!

@Destined2B_King @mdwilson07 Yes. The 144,000 are much more likely to be warriors that evangelists. I’ve never understood why people think they are evangelists to the Jewish people.

@mdwilson07 The 144,000 are going to be much more than witnesses. They will help bring about order back to the chaos. They will be warriors on a mission. They will be responsible for eliminating much of the evil preparing for the millennial reign!!

Revelation 7 reveals salvation during the Tribulation. The 144,000 are sealed for service, the Two Witnesses testify, the Gospel Angel proclaims the eternal gospel. A vast multitude believes. “I will keep you from the hour of trial…” (Rev 3:10)

I wrote this a few months ago: Exodus 29:4 tells us that Moses had to personally wash Aaron and his sons in order to consecrate them as the first priests. Ordinarily, washing another person was something that was only done only by a servant. But Moses humbled himself and, as mediator of the covenant, washed his brother and nephews in order to cleanse them for the priesthood. In John 13, Yeshua, as mediator of a new covenant, washed the feet of His disciples as a physical sign that that He was cleansing them. When Peter objected, Yeshua said, “What I do, you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”

And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. Leviticus 8:6 The priests underwent a group mikvah (a partial baptism) in part symbolizing their transition from ordinary Israelite to priest, dying to one life and being reborn to another. The High Priest's holiness allowed God to live among Israel, just as Yeshua's sinlessness allows Him to live in us. An unsanctified, unwashed priest is unfit to serve as priest.

It’s because Israel has not fully returned to God that he has not yet fully returned them to their land from exile. And because he has not yet returned them, you believe that he has not begun and that never will. So you participate in the word of God that says because of Israel (not following God’s commandments and being restored), God’s name and reputation is profaned among the nations. Yes, they were exiled out again by the Romans. But that does not negate God‘s covenant to bring them back to their land.

@TheCovenantWay @JoelCRosenberg You should probably just get it over with and convert to Talmudism. You are clearly biblically illiterate and reject the New Covenant in His blood.

You are in a dangerous place, @HDMcCoy21. In the Bible, God calls Himself “the God of Israel.” And He warns the world not to curse the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. “I will bless those who bless you but those who curse you I will curse.” (Genesis 12:3)

God has promised the Israel will never stop being a nation before him, even in dispersion. From Moses and onward, God has always promised to return Israel to their land. Even without foreign support, God would have established Israel back in their land. If Israel were not returned to their own land and continues to remain a nation before God, and the very reputation of God is defiled by inability to keep His promises.

@TheCovenantWay @JoelCRosenberg No. I’m saying Israel wouldn’t exist without American tax money. That’s why it’s not a real country.