The Other Sheep and The New Covenant ( New Light )

Blueblades

The Feb.1st.1998 issue of the WT.page 21.If anyone can scan it and show it here,please do.It is an update on "Where is the Great Crowd Serving"?

Thanks Blueblades

Satanus

Here is the text from the cd:

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w98 2/1 pp. 20-23 The Other Sheep and the New Covenant ***

10

"Everyone" who "exercises faith in the Son" will benefit from the ransom sacrifice. (John 3:16, 36) Paul said: "The Christ was offered once for all time to bear the sins of many; and the second time that he appears it will be apart from sin and to those earnestly looking for him for their salvation." (Hebrews 9:28) Today, those earnestly looking for Jesus include surviving anointed Christians of the Israel of God and the millions making up the great crowd, who also have an everlasting inheritance. Both classes thank God for the new covenant and for the life-giving blessings associated with it, including the greater Atonement Day and the ministry of the High Priest, Jesus, in the heavenly Most Holy.

Busy

in Sacred Service

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In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul stressed the superior value of Jesus’ sacrifice in the new covenant arrangement as compared with the sin offerings under the old covenant. (Hebrews 9:13-15) Jesus’ better sacrifice is able to "cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to the living God." For Hebrew Christians, "dead works" included "the transgressions under the former covenant." For Christians today, they include sins committed in the past over which there has been true repentance and which God has forgiven. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) With consciences cleansed, anointed Christians render "sacred service to the living God." And so do the great crowd. Having cleansed their consciences through "the blood of the Lamb," they are in God’s great spiritual temple, "rendering him sacred service day and night."—Revelation 7:14, 15.

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In addition, Paul said: "Let us approach with true hearts in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies bathed with clean water." (Hebrews 10:22) How can we show that we have "the full assurance of faith"? Paul urged Hebrew Christians: "Let us hold fast the public declaration of our [heavenly] hope without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to incite to love and fine works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves together, as some have the custom, but encouraging one another, and all the more so as you behold the day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:23-25) If our faith is alive, we too will not ‘forsake the gathering of ourselves together.’ We will delight to incite our brothers and be incited by them to love and fine works and to be strengthened for the vital work of publicly declaring our hope, whether it is earthly or heavenly.—John 13:35.

The

"Everlasting Covenant"

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What happens when the last of the 144,000 realize their heavenly hope? Will the new covenant cease to apply? At that time, there will be on earth no remaining member of the Israel of God. All participants in the covenant will be with Jesus "in the kingdom of [his] Father." (Matthew 26:29) But we remember Paul’s words in his letter to the Hebrews: "The God of peace . . . brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an everlasting covenant." (Hebrews 13:20; Isaiah 55:3) In what sense is the new covenant everlasting?

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First, unlike the Law covenant, it will never be replaced. Second, the results of its operation are permanent, even as is Jesus’ kingship. (Compare Luke 1:33 with 1 Corinthians 15:27, 28.) The heavenly Kingdom has an eternal place in Jehovah’s purposes. (Revelation 22:5) And third, other sheep will continue to benefit from the new covenant arrangement. During Christ’s Thousand Year Reign, faithful humans will keep on "rendering [Jehovah] sacred service day and night in his temple" just as they do now. Jehovah will not bring up again their past sins that were forgiven on the basis of Jesus’ "blood of the covenant." They will continue to enjoy a righteous standing as Jehovah’s friends, and his law will still be written in their hearts.

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Will Jehovah then be able to say of these human servants: ‘I am their God, and they are my people’? Yes. "He will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them." (Revelation 21:3) They will become "the camp of the holy ones," earthly representatives of "the beloved city," the heavenly bride of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 14:1; 20:9; 21:2) All of this will be possible because of their faith in Jesus’ shed "blood of the covenant" and their subjection to the heavenly kings and priests, who when on earth were the Israel of God.—Revelation 5:10.

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What of the dead who are resurrected on earth? (John 5:28, 29) They too will be invited to "bless themselves" by means of Jesus, the Seed of Abraham. (Genesis 22:18) They also will have to love the name of Jehovah, ministering to him, offering acceptable sacrifices, and rendering sacred service in his house of prayer. Those who do so will enter into God’s rest. (Isaiah 56:6, 7) By the end of the thousand years, all faithful ones will have been brought to human perfection through the ministration of Jesus Christ and his 144,000 fellow priests. They will be righteous, not merely be declared righteous as friends of God. They will "come to life," being completely free of sin and death inherited from Adam. (Revelation 20:5; 22:2) What a blessing that will be! From our perspective today, it seems that the priestly work of Jesus and the 144,000 will then have been accomplished. The blessings of the greater Atonement Day will have been applied in full. Further, Jesus will ‘hand over the kingdom to his God and Father.’ (1 Corinthians 15:24) There will be a final test for mankind, and then Satan and his demons will be destroyed forever.—Revelation 20:7, 10.

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What role, if any, will the "everlasting covenant" play in the exciting era that will then begin? That is not for us to say. What Jehovah has so far revealed is enough for now. It leaves us awestruck. Just think—everlasting life as part of "new heavens and a new earth"! (2 Peter 3:13) May nothing weaken our desire to inherit that promise. Standing firm may not be easy. Paul said: "You have need of endurance, in order that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the fulfillment of the promise." (Hebrews 10:36) Remember, though, that any problem to be overcome, any opposition to be surmounted, pales into insignificance beside the joy that awaits us. (2 Corinthians 4:17) Hence, may none of us be "the sort that shrink back to destruction." Rather, may we prove ourselves to be "the sort that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul." (Hebrews 10:39) May we all have full trust in Jehovah, the God of covenants, to the eternal blessing of each and every one of us.

[Footnote]

See Survival Into a New Earth, chapter 13, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

Blueblades

Check out the shaded book on page 21"Sacred Service in the Temple" "There is no reason to conclude that they are in a separate Court of The Gentiles." Thanks Saint Satan.

Blueblades

gumby

Check out the shaded book

Do you mean the "shady"one? Is it black and start with the word HOLY on it?

Gumby

Blueblades

No Gumby. the shaded box on page 21,feb.1,1998 wt. the title is "Sacred Service in The Temple.It says,"There is no reason to conclude that they are in a separate Court of The Gentiles"

Also,I can't find the recent issue ,Question from Readers,Where is the Great Crowd Serving God.It identifies the Great Crowd as serving in the Divine Habitation! If you can find it please post it.

Thanks Blueblades

Gadget

[Box on page 21]

Sacred

Service In The Temple

The great crowd worships with anointed Christians in the earthly courtyard of Jehovah’s great spiritual temple. (Revelation 7:14, 15; 11:2) There is no reason to conclude that they are in a separate Court of the Gentiles. When Jesus was on earth, there was a Court of the Gentiles in the temple. However, in the divinely inspired plans of Solomon’s and Ezekiel’s temples, there was no provision for a Court of the Gentiles. In Solomon’s temple, there was an outer courtyard where Israelites and proselytes, men and women, worshiped together. This is the prophetic pattern of the earthly courtyard of the spiritual temple, where John saw the great crowd rendering sacred service.

However, only priests and Levites could enter the inner courtyard, where the great altar was situated; only priests could enter the Holy; and only the high priest could enter the Most Holy. The inner courtyard and the Holy are understood to foreshadow the unique spiritual condition of anointed Christians on earth. And the Most Holy pictures heaven itself, where anointed Christians receive immortal life along with their heavenly High Priest.—Hebrews 10:19, 20.

Ravyn

Blueblades

RavynI wish I could of been there for you. Tearsand Smiles.Tears for the past.Smiles for now and the future.I am all choked up for now after reading your very painful life.

Blueblades

The Other Sheep and The New Covenant ( New Light )

Blueblades

Satanus

Blueblades

gumby

Blueblades

Gadget

garybuss

Blueblades

Ravyn

Blueblades

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