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The Christian Foundation, Or,
Scientific and Religious Journal
Vol. 1. No 5.
May, 1880.
CONTENTS
The Old Covenant. The Sabbath The Law The Commonwealth Of Israel, And Christ. Infidels Live In Doubting Castle. Infidelity, And The French And American Revolutions In Their Relations To Thomas Paine. Shall We Unchain The Tiger? Or, The Fruits Of Infidelity. The Struggle. The Records Respecting The Death Of Thomas Paine. Three Reasons For Repudiating Infidelity. Col. Ingersoll Is A Philosopher? Life Of Elder E. Goodwin.
THE OLD COVENANT. THE SABBATH THE LAW THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL, AND CHRIST.
The original term, rendered "Testament" and "Covenant," occurs thirty three times in the New Testament. Greenfield defines it thus: "Any disposition, arrangement, institution, or dispensation; hence a testament, will; a covenant, mutual promises on mutual conditions, or promises with conditions annexed." Secondly, "A body of laws and precepts to which certain promises are annexed, promises to which are annexed certain laws; the books in which the divine laws are contained, the Old Testament, and especially the Pentateuch." Upon a careful examination of these definitions it will be seen at once that the term "Testament" is a good translation. This is confirmed, in Paul's letter to the Hebrews, in the inter changeable use of the terms "Will," "Covenant" and "Testament." Our Sabbatarian brethren claim, that the Old Covenant, which was done away, was the verbal agreement of the Children of Israel to keep the law of the decalogue. But this definition is not sufficient. It excludes almost all that was current in its use. It renders it improper to call it a "Testament" or "Will," because fathers make testaments or wills without the consent of their children, and these are called dispositions of estates. Their definition of the term also makes the "Covenant" depend upon the will of man, for covenants, in the sense of agreements, have nothing to do with those who do not enter into them. Neither can men be regarded as transgressing a covenant, in the sense of an agreement, unless they have first placed themselves under its obligations. So, if these men are right in their definition of the Old Covenant, they are wrong in trying to fasten its conditions upon all mankind. Their logic also excludes, from all the promises of the covenant, all those who were incapable of making an agreement. Hence, infants were left to the uncovenanted mercies of God. And as for the wicked, who never agreed to keep those commandments, poor souls! they must be dealt with as violators of a contract to which they never became a party.
These absurdities, which are legitimately drawn from their own premises, drive us to the conclusion that their whole theory, upon the covenant question, is wrong. The apostle Paul says we are the children of a covenant, which he denominates "The free woman." "She is the mother of us all." But, according to Sabbatarian logic, they are the children of two covenants, or women. How is this? One good mother is sufficient. When they tell you that the old covenant, which was done away, was the people's agreement to keep the ten commandments, remember that they, by their own showing, set up the same old covenant by agreeing to keep the ten commandments. So it is done away, and it is not done away. That is, if the people say, "We will keep and do them," it is established, but if they say, "We will not," it is abolished. Again, if it was the people's agreement that was done away, and the ten commandments were the conditions of that agreement, then they also are of no force, for the conditions of an agreement are always void when the contract is nullified. Again, if the Lord had nothing to do in causing the Old Covenant to be done away, how did it pass away by the action of one party to it? And how can men enter into it without the concurring assent of the party of the second part? Accept the Sabbatarian definition of the term covenant, and it legitimately follows that none were ever in that covenant save those who held converse with Jehovah, through Moses, saying, "All these things will we observe and do... Continue reading book >>
