In December 1996 the Church hooked up to the Internet and an exploration of different Christian groups -- most of whom are represented there to greater or lesser extents -- began. For myself it was a wonderful adventure of exploration, seeking what other Christians had discovered and learned and where the general body of Christendom seemed to be headed. Every day I "surfed the net" and every day I discovered something new. After a month I had collected one billion bytes of information mostly in the form of articles.

My aim was to find light and truth that the New Covenant Church had not found and discover whether others had been told the same things as us with a view to sharing and cooperating in some way. Along the way I found myself involved quite accidentally ministering to people with marriage problems and sharing this ministry with other from other evangelical Christian backgrounds. I zoomed in on the Messianic Christian Movement to see what they were doing and also independent evangelical groups. But despite the rhetoric and chameleon-like exoteric forms what I basically found was that they all shared basically the same kind of vision. There was little there that was new. There were the usual "Bible thumpers", "cult bashers", and "we're saved and know it all" groups.

There are an amazing number of "independents" out there who, upon closer examination, despite claiming to be "anti-denominational", are a denomination in deed if not in word. I found alot of word-fencing, alot of dodging around sensitive issues. The only innovative materials I was able to find came from a few individuals walking a lonely path and shunned (and usually attacked) by the mainstream denominations. Which few exceptions most of these groups hailed from the USA and reflected the cultural biases of that nation.

In the space of one month, though, I read some very interesting materials that caused me to deeply and seriously reflect on my own beliefs. At least one major belief of mine changed regarding the infallibility of the Bible (see our pamphlet, The Mysterious Hewbrew Codes) -- there is no doubt in my mind now that that Book (and only that Book, as far as anyone presently knows) is not only word for word inspired but letter for letter insired too.

N.B. Further studies need to be undertaken to establish is the Greek code of the NT is equivalent to that of the OT. We must not, therefore, be too dogmatic, and swing too much in the opposite direction towards some sort of "super inerrancy" position. Only the Pentateuch (first five books of Moses -- Genesis to Deuteronomy) so far has demonstrated its verbal inerrancy. The case for "conceptual inspiration" is by no means discredited in other parts of the Bible neither does verbal inerrancy exclude it for the Pentateuch.

The result of this discovery for me was that the gap between our own revelations and the Bible suddenly widened -- not that our own revelations suddenly diminished in inspiration, but that the Bible leaped several rungs up the ladder of inspiration. The result is a clear dividing line between the two, making for a true Primary and Secondary canons. At the same time, though, it also confirmed a long-standing New Covenant Christian position that certain books of the Bible like Genesis, the Song of Solomon, the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation has special esoteric qualities, only now we are obliged to include Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy as well. Who knows, that list may expand to include many others, if not all of them.

After a month of considerable struggling with the challenges of all the new materials on the WWW I arrived, on 15 January 1997, at a certain conclusion: what we have in the New Covenant Church of God is something unique and precious. There are things "out there" which we know we have to learn, and there are people "out there" who have discovered many of the things that we have. But nowhere have I been able to find the integrated wholeness which makes the New Covenant Church of God so special. In short, I have not been able to find the peace in any other group or individual that has come to me through this work.

For those of you who have wondered why the Olive Branch is not already in print (1996), this personal search has been one of the reasons. As one having the chief responsibility for bringing this book to the world I had to be absolutely sure that what we were about to publish was not, in its total purpose and spirit, something that would add confusion to Christendom instead of bringing integration and wholeness.

We do not know when the Olive Branch will finally be published -- possibly this spring (1997 - in fact, it was published in the late summer) as a great deal of work still needs to be done. We have also been delayed economically by the pressing needs in India and Moldova which on our own we are not presently able to meet.

We have made many new friends on the WWW and have entered into (at the time of writing) two new co-operative ministries in line with the aims of B'rit Chadashah Evangelical Association (BCEA). Our mark is already being felt strongly in one of them.

Because the Church has been comparitively isolated over the last 10 years there was the feeling that it would be swamped and simply "disappear" once it became involved in the wider Body of Christ. But one thing is abolutely clear now -- we are here to stay, not because we are stubbornly refusing to be a full and integral part of the mainstream but because we are established in the spirit. Our existence is not artificial or organisational -- it is real, and there is a need for what has been given to us by the grace of God. We provide a ministry which is not, I believe, possible to find anywhere else. As individuals we must all continue a life of repentance and change, but as a doctrine and a practice we have been endowed with God's presence.

Therefore my sincere prayer and conviction is: "God bless the New Covenant Church of God!"

This page was created on 10 April 1998 Last updated on 10 April 1998

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