by Brian Shilhavy, Health Impact News:
I have previously reported that the New Testament portion of the Bible did not start a new religion called “Christianity.” See:
I have also recently written on the Biblical term “the Faith” to show that the Bible also does not endorse a specific religion. See:
In another article I recently published, I explained how there are differences between the Old Covenant (“Old Testament”) and the New Covenant (“New Testament”).
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What I want to report in this article, is that there is one thing that did not change between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that is the fact that salvation by God has always been by faith, and not through a “chosen people” or a “religion”, and that this has always been true.
It was true before the Old Covenant (the Law given to Moses), during the Old Covenant, and it is true today during the New Covenant period of time.
During the New Testament time period as recorded in the New Testament portion of the Bible, all of the original believers in Jesus Christ were ethnic Jews, and they never referred to themselves as “Christians”, but as followers of The Way.
Jesus Christ even confirmed this by his own teaching, where he explained that The Way was the road less traveled, but that it was the only way to salvation. All other “ways” lead to death.
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
This “Way” that leads to life, was also the same “Way” that believers in Old Testament times, when Jesus was still just a promise for the future Messiah, had to follow to find salvation, because there is only One Way, and it has nothing to do with ethnicity or religious affiliation.
Moses is actually the one who taught this in the Old Testament time period. He proclaimed this to the Israelites when they were still in the desert and about to enter the “Promised Land.”
He made it very clear that God was not giving them the land because they were a righteous people, because they were not.
Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’
Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you.
Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.
Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. (Deuteronomy 9:1-7)
This message from Moses was given to Israel 40 years after they were delivered from the Egyptians. Only 2 families from the original Hebrews who came out of Egypt, which numbered in the millions, ever got to see the Promised Land.
They died in the desert in their unbelief, because they just simply could not believe that God would go before them and destroy the nations that were already living there, whose time of judgment had come due.
Their ethnicity as Jews did not save them.
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