When Covenants Apply II Rev. 7 :3 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
The covenants we have been studying were all established in the Old Testament but they were not fulfilled in the Old Testament. God covenanted with Abraham to give him and his seed the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. They didn’t get it in the Old Testament and they still don’t have it. No one kept the covenant that God made with Moses until Jesus fulfilled the law in his earthly ministry. David’s throne sits unoccupied by its rightful king and will continue to be unoccupied by its rightful king until Jesus returns. The New Covenant has been only partially fulfilled because Israel is still not saved.
As we saw in the last lesson, the biggest challenge for Bible students is to recognize that the Old Testament prophecies are dispensational. Thus, we must rightly divide those prophecies into the times when they were or will be fulfilled. They are all fulfilled in one of these times: the first coming of Jesus, the Tribulation, the Second Coming of Jesus, or the millennial reign of Jesus. None of the prophecies have anything to do with the Church age. If you understand this, you won’t get messed up with doctrinally applying Old Testament scriptures to New Testament doctrine.
In the last lesson, we studied about which covenants apply during the first coming of Jesus and which covenants apply in the church age. Today, we will study which covenants apply during the Tribulation, the Second Coming of Jesus and his millennial reign.
Tribulation – Abraham – the Lord marks 12,000 Jewish male virgins from each of the tribes for a total of 144,000 men [Rev 7:3-9]. The devil attempts to destroy Israel [Rev 12] and the nations of the world gather against Jerusalem [Zech 14:2]. Jews confessing Jesus Christ are martyred [Rev 12:11, 17]. A remnant of Israel is protected from the antichrist and fed by God in the wilderness [Rev 12:6, 14]. Moses – tribulation saints must keep the commandments of God in addition to the faith of Jesus [Rev 14:12]. Jews are worshipping at the temple again [Rev 11:1]. Moses is one of the two witnesses of Rev 11 [Mal 4:4-6]. Tribulation saints sing the song of Moses [Rev 15:3]. David – the antichrist usurps the throne in the temple professing that he is God [2 Thes 2:3-4]. New – it is possible that Tribulation saints are born again [1 Jn 3:4-10]. But if they are, they aren’t baptized into the body of Christ, because the body will have already been raptured. Thus, they can lose their salvation [Rev 3:5; Heb 4:4-6].
You can see from these covenants why Jehovah’s witnesses are so fouled up in their doctrine. They get much of their doctrine for salvation from the Tribulation. The 144,000 are all Jews. Furthermore, Charismatics are all fouled up because they apply verses from the Tribulation to prove you can lose your salvation. You can see the problem.
Second Coming – Abraham – the Lord returns to fulfill the promises to Abraham that his seed will inherit the land. He has to save them from annihilation by the nations of the world [Ps 83]. Moses – Jesus returns to save Israel [Lev 26:44-45] and to execute vengeance on Israel’s enemies [Jer 25:15-33]. David – Jesus returns to take the throne of David; the throne of his glory [Matt 19:28]. New – Jesus returns to raise Israel from the dead and completely fulfill the new covenant [Ezek 37:1-14; Heb 8:8-13; Rom 11:25-27].
Therefore, men who preach that they can bring in the kingdom through their wars and by propagating their religions are wrong. The only one who can establish his kingdom and bring lasting “peace” is Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace [Is 9:6-7].
Millennial reign of Jesus – Abraham – Israel becomes the ruling nation of the world and occupies the land granted to Abraham [Is 14:1-3; Ezek 47-48]. Moses – the laws given to Moses and enhanced by Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount become the laws of the world. All people must keep them [Rev 22:14]. The priests will be sacrificing again and worship is at the temple [Ezek 40-48]. Gentiles must follow Jews to Jerusalem to meet the Lord [Zech 8:20-23]. David – Jesus rules in Jerusalem sitting on the throne of David [Lk 1:31-33] in fulfillment of the covenant made with David [2 Sam 7:12-17]. New – Church age saints have glorified bodies and children born to Jews will all be saved [Phil 3:21; Heb 8:11]. This period is followed by the white throne judgment [Rev 20:11-15] after which the eternal covenant begins and we go out into eternity in the new heavens and new earth [Rev 21].
Conclusion: You can see where religious people get messed up. They think that they can keep laws now and wind up in the “kingdom” hereafter. They take verses under one covenant in one dispensation and place them in another dispensation where they don’t belong. Catholics have done this by bringing the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament into the Church age, by taking verses given to Israel in Matthew, at Christ’s first coming, and applying them to the Church and by taking verses for the millennial reign of Jesus and applying them to their church. This is a boo-boo with damnable consequences. That’s why we must be so careful to do what Paul said in 2 Tim 2:15.