BRIDGING THE TESTAMENTS

An ETERNAL CHURCH: things OLD and NEW (Matthew 13:52)

"Every scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdom of heaven
is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth

forth out of his treasure things new and old" - Mt.13:52

Condensed from "Calling All Apostles" | See also: "Apostolic Unity"

Where does the Old Testament end and the New Testament begin?

Is the division between Malachi and Matthew?

When did the Church begin?

Was it on the day of Pentecost?

Is John the Baptist in the Church? How about Moses?

The Church's gates opened on Resurrection Day. He ascended on high and led captivity captive in His train. The Church was empowered for ministry at Pentecost, but the Church was in preparation and building from before the beginning of time!!

This is he [Moses], that was in the Church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us [Ac 7:38]

God's spiritual substance we call "light" is faster than natural light---His speed is infinity. According to Einstein's theory of relativity, God is not constrained by the dimension of time, because when speed reaches infinity, time is no more. There are no segregational dispensations in the economy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, our High Priest, has borne the Old and New Testament saints carved on the gems of the breastplate of His heart since eternity past-- The saints of all time are the Eternal Church!!

Bear with me as we review some basics. There is a purpose in this.

The division between the testaments is Resurrection Day. (John the Baptist is an Old Testament prophet.) The Church has the Holy Spirit dwelling within. The criteria for church membership is that a person--

Has repented of his sins,
Is totally convinced that Jesus is risen from the dead,
Has surrendered to Jesus Christ as the Lord God and Savior.

Jesus, after appearing to the women on Resurrection Day, ascended to Heaven as High Priest, placing His blood (in the spiritual sense) on the mercy seat. (The Mosaic Tabernacle was patterned after the heavenly one.) At this time, having preached to the O.T. saints in the paradise portion of Seoul, he ascended with these O.T. saints, now made suddenly believers in the resurrection. Some of them appeared in Jerusalem in glorified bodies after the resurrection. They were indwelt by the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead!! They are Christians!!

On Resurrection Day, Jesus commanded the disciples to "receive ye the Holy Ghost". The Holy Spirit was available, because Jesus was: #1, glorified, and #2, had ascended to the Father. This is the same offer that He made to those in paradise. He then gave gifts unto men, setting up the structure of the church: apostles, prophets, etc., although it wasn't revealed per se in so many words until Paul informed the church in Ephesians. Yet the offices were being practiced even before the evangelist could spell, "evangelist."

When Jesus was resurrected, the Old Testament saints became Church Members.

I know this is shocking to our dispensational upbringing.

Dispensationalism has caused division in the Church between the Messianic Jew (completed Jewish Christians) and the gentile Christian.
Dispensationalism teaches a separate Church age (33 A.D. onward) which attempts to exclude our forefathers from the Church.
Dispensationalism also excludes the mortal future millennial Christians from the Church.
Dispensationalism fosters a detrimental attitude of an "elite" clique, and sectarian supremacy.
Dispensationalism tries to break up the family of God, removing us from the paternal blessings of Abraham, and likewise separating Abraham from the blessings of his progeny.

The Church is a family (Eph. 3:15) and the household of God (Eph. 2:19)

Abraham is our father in the faith (Gal. ch. 3&4).
We are his children. Whoever is the "seed" of Abraham is the "generation" of Christ. "A seed shall serve Him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation" [Ps 22:30].
The Church is a family; we're in that family; our father Abraham is in the Church.
Caleb and Joshua and Moses were in the "local" church called, "The Church in the Wilderness" [Acts 7:38] "... They drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ" [1 Cor. 10:4].
The Shulamite [Song of Sol.] is certainly in the Church.
The Church will sing the "song of Moses" and the "song of the Lamb" [Rev. 15:3]; Jesus sings in the midst of the brethren, singing His "song of the Lamb". Do you think the dispensationalists will grant Moses permission to sing the "song of Moses" in the midst of his brethren also?
The pattern of worship for us is the Tabernacle of David, which also incorporated gentiles such as Obil the Ishmaelite, David's camel keeper; God is even now restoring the Tabernacle of David which is in disrepair. Will King David not be in that Tabernacle?
If Jesus' mother Mary who lived in two testaments is in the Church, is not her ancestor Ruth also in the Church, who left her heathen gods to follow Naomi and the God of Israel, to whose husband it was said, "The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel ..." [Ruth 4:11] ??
[1 Pet. 3:6] - "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement." Our women are in the family of Abraham and Sarah by virtue of obedience. Sarah and Abraham are in our family, the Church.
The Lord said to David, "I will build thee an house." [2 Sam. 7:27] Is David not a member of his own Household, the family of God? The Church is the Household of God [Eph 2:19].
If the Church is the family of God, who is in that family? [Mk 3:33-35] - "And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother." "Moses was faithful in all His house" [Heb. 3:2] "Abraham ... obeyed " [Heb. 11:8].
The list goes on and on.

Hebrews chapter eleven says the O.T. saints without us should not be made perfect. Could it not be said that we are not complete without them either. Emphatic "YES".

There is one God and Father of all. Moses, and Abraham, and Peter, and Paul, and you and I are adopted sons of the most high God, and He is our Father.

There is no chronological caste system in Heaven. Is Christ divided?

CONCLUSIONS:

The Old Testament prophets are in the present Church. They laid a part of its Foundation along with the work of the New Testament apostles.

Jesus Christ is the Rock, the undivided Truth, the unfractured Foundation; not a bone of Him is broken. The Church stands and is built upon the prophetic promises of the Word as set forth by the inspired authors, the apostles and prophets, Old and New Testament.

Jesus the Alpha and Omega, the Foundation and Capstone is not divided. The apostles must and will bring unity to the Church in all aspects.

There is no room for denominational, hierarchial, doctrinal, religious, or ethnic pride in the Christian walk.

The Lord's army must function as a well-oiled machine, each part in its proper place, with no competitive friction. This will be accomplished by the symbiosis of submission with authority. Unity is predicated on HUMILITY.

Of all sins, God hates pride most ... It was the first sin. Our attitude toward the Hebrew church should be tempered by this admonition:

Rom 11:18,20,21 BOAST NOT against the branches. Well; because of UNBELIEF they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.

Pride = faith in personal works.

Faith = trust in Christ's finished work.

RELIGIOUS pride puts a person in the category of the UNBELIEVER [Rom 11:20].

Pride in even right doctrine can make a man 100% wrong in God's eyes. We didn't write the Bible; we have nothing that we did not receive, be it salvation, revelation, or gifts of the Spirit.

The world-wide Church portrays a bad testimony to the unbelievers, in that, proclaiming a God of oneness [Deu 6:4] we are marked by division. It is the will of our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we be one as He is one with the Father [Jn 17:21-23].

Unlike the cults teach, we should NOT tune into the vibes of some mystical pre-existing natural oneness devoid of repentance, but we must press into oneness by being broken of pride, allowing the Holy Spirit to penetrate the cracks produced by undergoing crushing experiences:

It is through crushing that mineral ores are refined;
It is through pressure that the oil flows forth from the olive;
It is through squeezing that the juicy sweetness of the grape is released;
It is through the jaws of the pruning shears that the tree bears more abundant fruit.

Our disunity cries out for a massive increase in barometric pressure of the Holy Ghost like a vise upon pliable hearts. Unfortunately, we are like drops of mercury scurrying away in a radial burst toward temporary relief whenever downward vertical force is applied on us. Only a sovereign unescapable outpouring of the Holy Spirit can remedy this rift in the body of Christ. One miracle is worth a thousand words, and a man with an experience carries more clout than a man with an argument:

Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see (Jn 9:25).