Section 171
The Covenant is a Marriage to Christ
The New Covenant is a figurative marriage of the believers to Christ. As husbands and wives exchange marriage vows, so New Covenant Christians exchange vows or covenants with the Lord Jesus Christ in the House of the Lord, or Temple. The concept of Christian temples is relatively unknown in Christianity despite the fact that the Christian faith is essentially Hebrew in its true origin and practice. The ancient Hebrews were a temple people. Under the preparatory (Old) Covenant the temple was a place where covenants were renewed and sins covered through animal sacrifices. There was only one true temple, in Jerusalem. In the New Covenant dispensation the concept of a temple has been extended to the physical body (1 Cor.6:19), and to the whole Messianic Community (1 Cor.3:16; 2 Cor.6:16); this does not, however, mean that temples made with bricks and mortar have been discontinued, as most Christians seem to think, even though the old animal sacrificial system has been abolished. In traditional Christianity the Hebrew concept of "Synagogue and Temple" has been combined into the modern meeting hall or Church building. But in the New Covenant Church the separation continues, the Hebrew synogogue corresponding to modern meeting halls (like other Christian Churches) and the Temple remaining but with a new rôle. New Covenant Temples are used for the taking of vows and covenants (as in baptism and marriage), instruction, prayer and worship. It is, like the ancient temple, treated as sacred space and is therefore only available to members. There is no similarity between New Covenant Temples and the temples of other religions (Hindu, Sikh, Mormon, Masonic, Rosicrician, mystery religions, etc.) [Oppsal, Oslo, Norway].
1. To what shall I liken the covenant made by those entering My Church?
2. Behold, when a man or woman entereth into My Church, taking upon himself the covenants thereof, he bindeth himself as a husband to his wife, promising to be faithful unto her in sickness and in health, for better or worse, richer or poorer.
3. For the Covenant of the Church of God is a spiritual marriage unto Me, even Christ your Saviour, wherein ye do pledge yourselves as faithful brides.
4. And this ye should not do lightly, even as those who enter into marriage vows should not do so lightly, lest they become the instruments of adultery.
Investigators Must be Taught Properly
5. And for this cause have I commanded you to teach those seeking to enter My Church to be instructed properly in the doctrines of the Kingdom, ensuring that they love Me and will serve Me always.
6. And they who love Me and serve Me will love and serve the bride {the saints} of the Covenant for all are of one Family.
The Temple
7. Behold, it is My will that ye induct into My Temple those entering into this New Covenant, that they may have cogniscence of the solemnity of their covenants, making their vows as the bride before the bridegroom.
8. And if ye will do this, with all deliberation, My Family {Church} will grow stronger and the love between its members become as strong as the pillars in the New Jerusalem.
9. Hasten your prepartions for the Temple that all these things may be done in the proper order, the inner equalling the outer. Even so. Amen.
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This page was first created on 26 May 1998
Last updated on 26 May
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