Covenantkeepers - Part 1
by Walter Giddings
April 28, 2024
Scripture of reference: Romans 9:3-5
“…to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and …”
(Romans 11:26-27). The Fellowship of God’s Covenant People is a body of believers who can more readily hear This Lesson. Much of Churchianity has adopted Dispensational Theology that purposes to dispense with The Covenants! To Pastor Don, Pastor James, Pastor Downey, and the elders of this local body of Christ I owe a deep Debt of Gratitude! They have unfailingly preached The Covenants, in some cases, not just years, but decades. The job of The Gospel Herald is to keep the Body of Christ “in remembrance of these things though ye know them” [2 Peter 1:12]. We are in Romans, chapter 11:
p 26 And so all Israel shall be saved:
as it is written, There shall come out
of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob:
c 27 For this is my covenant unto them,
when I shall take away their sins.
Romans chapter eleven.
What happens when some receive not Jesus taking away their Sins?! Some say, “all Israel shall be saved”, period, end of argument, exclamation point! (Romans 9:6). Are they right? Does Scripture interpret Scripture; we are not stuck with man’s interpretation?!
6 Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect. For they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel.
Romans chapter nine.
“They are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” What does that mean? Will Christ say, [Matthew 7:23] “I never [did get to know] you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”? Will Christ save “Jacob’s Heirs” who die as workers of iniquity /lawlessness? (Romans 8:9). If I have not The Holy Spirit indwelling, bestowing The Birth from Above, how can I escape condemnation?!
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his.
Romans chapter eight.
“None of His”! What if I am in the flesh and not in the Spirit? Is our Outright Rescue frustrated if we are not born from above? (Psalms 82:7). Is it Salvation by Race, or Salvation by Grace? Is being “of Israel” only eligibility for Salvation and not Salvation itself? And that only because we are the ones who fell in The Great Transgression?! Are the wages of sin death? [Romans 6:23]
7 But ye shall die like Adam, and
fall like one of the princes.
Psalms chapter eighty-two.
Verse 7: 82nd Psalm: Is Dying the 1st Death the Payoff for Adam’s Great Transgression? Are we at risk for The 2nd Death?! Take a look at verse 6: Does it say “… Ye are gods: and all of you are children of the most High.”? “None of His”!!!
(Back to Romans 11:27). Does Paul quote The God of Israel? In verse 26 Paul says, “It is written.” From where is Paul quoting? (Isaiah 59:20-21).
c 20 And the Redeemer shall come to
Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
p 21 As for me, this is my covenant with
them, saith the LORD: My spirit that is
upon thee, and thy words which I have
put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of
thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy
seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s
seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth
and forever.
Isaiah chapter fifty-nine.
What happens to those who fail to “turn from transgression in Jacob”? “This is my covenant with them, saith the LORD.”
Is The God of Israel the ultimate Covenantkeeper?! Has He ever failed to keep His Covenant with American Israel? Did God fail to keep His Covenant with The Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation, when they turned to Him?
Is the term “covenant” in common usage today? There is a running TV show [2024] on forming (unlawful: go figure) marriages. Its title is “The Marriage Pact.” How many of us know that “pact/compact” are synonyms for covenant? The rank ignorance of our age is so abominable we ourselves suspect we would have difficulty offering a suitable definition! Shall we give it a try anyway? Among ourselves what have we got? Definition for “covenant”?
Shall we compare our feeble efforts to what we find in the 1828 Webster?
COVENANT, n. [Fr. convenant, the partici-
ple of convenir, to agree, L. convenio, con
and venio, to come … Literally a coming together;
a meeting or agreement of minds.]
1. A mutual consent or agreement of two or
more persons, to do or to forbear some act
or thing; a contract; stipulation. A cove-
nant is created by deed in writing, sealed
and executed; or it may be implied in the
contract. Encyc. Blackstone.
First American Dictionary of The English Language. Noah Webster, 1828.
In the book, The American Covenant, The Untold Story, Marshall Foster (with Mary-Elaine Swanson) writes, “A covenant in those days, was a solemn agreement, signed or not, between individuals or between God and an individual, a church or a nation.”
(Deuteronomy 7:9). Did our forefathers who framed The American Republic understand the power of covenants because they were serious disciples of The Scriptures?
9 Know therefore that the LORD
thy God, He is God, the faithful God
which keepeth covenant and mercy
with them that love him and keep his
commandments to a thousand genera-
tions.
Deuteronomy chapter seven.
“To a thousand generations.” Could that include us, American Israel, in our time? Selah! When’s the last time you or I counted to a thousand? Think about it.
If The God of Israel is the ultimate covenantkeeper, would God’s Word train us, His Children, to be covenantkeepers like unto Him? In response to the age-old question, “Why me, LORD(?!), some wag reported the answer as, “Why not (?!)”
Would God conduct that training through The Marriage Covenant? “Why not (?!)” How is American Israel doing today with The Marriage Covenant? Are we backed up so far, we almost have the props knocked out from under us? (Malachi 2: 14-16). Does the Endtime Prophet Malachi report that those who are “of Israel” have had an historical problem with The Marriage Covenant?
c 14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because
the LORD hath been witness between
thee and the wife of thy youth, against
whom thou hast dealt treacherously:
yet is she thy companion, and the wife
of thy covenant.
p 15 And did not he make one? Yet had
he the residue of the spirit. And where-
fore one? That he might seek a godly
seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit
and let none deal treacherously against
the wife of his youth.
c 16 For the LORD, the God of Israel, sai-
eth that he hateth putting away: for one
covereth violence with his garment, saith
the LORD of hosts. Therefore take heed
to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherous-
ly.
Malachi chapter two.
How glad are we covenantbreaking is not the Unforgivable Sin?! Did The Pulpits of The Great Awakening throughout American Israel herald Marriage as a Covenant, and the Neighbourhood Schools followed suit? How abominable and abysmal is our ignorance, American Israel?! If we cannot get Marriage right, how great(!) is our covenantbreaking?!! Could we be breaking a covenant we do not even know exists?!!! On the land mass we call The United States of America, in America’s 1st Christian settlements, how well did our Forefathers understand covenants?
When a prominent member of the Queen’s Court, William Davison, fell out of favor, his confidential Secretary William Brewster returned to his small village of Scrooby in East Anglia. Brewster succeeded his ailing father as the Queen’s Postmaster there, and also as the Archbishop of York’s bailiff in charge of his estates. He worked tirelessly to reform the Church of England from within. He recruited Scriptural preachers for local churches and paid them out of his own pocket. But Her Majesty preferred the reading of approved homilies for the churches in place of, or instead of, preaching that revealed Scripture interprets Scripture: we are not stuck with man’s interpretation!
Many local churches were devoid of Scriptural preaching for years without end, as the Church of England demanded rigid conformance to its rituals. The organized church adamantly punished unauthorized preachers, and all them that heard them. At long last Brewster saw that he needed to separate himself from the Church, to covenant with other Christians in his area, and to form a Scriptural church. (Numbers 23).
Are we in remembrance of our 4 Lessons on The Doctrine of Balaam? We learned from The Scriptures that Balaam committed “error” “for reward”! . “Error” is translated from G4106 plane, plan’ay; whose seminal meaning is fraud! Balaam was judged by God for his fraud! The Host of Israel slaughtered him with all the men and the five kings of Midian. But nobody does everything wrong! Balaam faithfully and accurately uttered all the prophecies of God concerning Endtime Israel. William Brewster separated himself from The Church of England under the Queen’s domination and covenanted with other Christians in his area to form a Scriptural church. (Numbers 23:8-10). Is this one of Balaam’s Prophecies from God concerning Israel?
c 8 How shall I curse, whom God hath
not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom
the LORD hath not defied?
p 9 For from the top of the rocks I see
him, and from the hills I behold him:
lo, the people shall dwell alone, and
shall not be reckoned among the nations.
c 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and
the number of the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my last end be like his.
Numbers chapter twenty-three.
(Verse 9). What is “dwell alone”? What does “the people shall dwell alone” mean? Can we as American Israel dwell alone? Or does The War/Emergency Powers Administration strive to make sure that when we congregate, we are always peppered with the representatives from The Nations for whom The God of Israel shall “make an End”?
Is it politically incorrect for The Caucasian Race to assemble unchaperoned? Must we have other races present for “legal” assembly? During several of Pastor Wickey’s Sermons concerning epithets levelled against remnant Christians who separate from churches of an organized hierarchy, he spoke of The Lollards, meaning lolly gaggers, who do no meaningful work for The State. The Lollards heeded The Word [Galatians 5:1] “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free ... ” Free from what? Who can tell me? May I read you the rest of the verse? This is our clue: “and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” What is the worst “bondage” in which we can be entangled again?
Is the practice of sin the worst bondage into which we can become entangled, or the very worst, “entangled again”?! What is the best bondage into which we can come? Is the best bondage slavery unto our Perfect Master Jesus Christ the Righteous in complete or perfect Obedience unto Him “with whom we have to do”?! Are some of the best words we can ever hear, “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity …?” [Psalms 32:2].
Pastor Jerry of Christian Reform Fellowship said on several occasions there is an epithet he would gladly receive: Christian separatist. Has American Israel lost its Will to “dwell alone”? What will our God do with that? Will He weary us so badly with the Nations for whom He will “make an End”? Is “dwell alone” part of our Covenant with our God? How well is American Israel doing with Dwelling Alone?
In “Of Plimoth Plantation” William Bradford, governor of their “civil body politick” wrote:
“I must begine at ye very roote & rise of ye same. “... they shook of this yoake of antichristian bondage, and as ye Lords free people, joyned themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, in ye felowship of ye Gospell, to walke in all his wayes, made known or to be made known unto them, the Lord assisting them.”
Quoted in: The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America. Christian self-government. A compilation by Verna M. Hall. Foundation for American Christian Education. Page 185.
[Hereinafter CHOC with the page number(s).]
“…joyned themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate.” In order to return to what? To what did they seek to return?
Pop Survey to get your thoughts: Should William Brewster have stayed with The Anglican Church to work reform from within? Was leaving the organized Church an act of rebellion against Authority? Especially when that line of authority, the Monarchy, was staffed by direct lineal descendants of King David! Or does failure to heed the witness of conscience leave us in disobedience to “our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”?
William Brewster was not the only churchman to agonize over these questions! One of his countrymen Robert Browne was cast repeatedly into prison for preaching Separation from the national church. He taught individual “reformation without tarrying for any.” To prevent his very living from being murdered, he fled to Holland. But his words had a great effect. His preaching left his hearers to answer 2 questions that posed a Great Choice: should we stay in the church of England and work to reform it (?); or, is the whole national church concept, short of The Second Coming, unscriptural (?)!
For those obeying the Scriptural command to “Be fruitful and multiply” this agony became acute. The families taught the children to refer the questions of stran- gers about attendance in assemblies of the national church, to their father. And the older children kept the younger children in obedience to their parents’ caution.
Another churchman struggling with the Great Choice was John Robinson. The national church dismissed him from his first pastoral assignment. In agony he prayed long over whether to remain with the national church, or to leave. He tried to avoid choosing by seeking a position as preacher in a hospital at Norwich. He saw an opportunity there to conduct services where pure Christianity could be preached. But his application was denied. At wit’s end he, his wife and family returned to Scrooby to stay with relatives. He pondered long on the men he thought to be miles ahead of him in gifts and experience who remained with the national church. His fine education at Cambridge University, he was not using. His career as pastor in the national church appeared to be at a premature end. He knew not he was about to exchange a career for his lifetime calling as pastor to The Pilgrims.
Pastor John Robinson’s words of his bondage come down to us in our day:
“ … had not the truth been in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, Jer. XX. 9, I had never broken those bonds .. wherein I was so straitly tied, but had suffered the light of God to have been put out in mine own unthankful heart by other men’s darkness.”
John Brown. The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and Their Puritan Successors. Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1970. page 93.
He broke those bonds and joined the Separatist Congregation at Scrooby Manor. For twenty years he made them hear The Word of God, touched their hearts with “the ministry of reconciliation” [2 Corinthians 5:18], clearly revealing the choice to be made, trusting the Convicting Power of The Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. He taught them to trust God’s Thoughts to discern Good from Evil rather than their own thoughts. This was known to our forefathers who framed The Republic as “Christian self-government”. In an age of religious intolerance and absolute monarchy, where civil government trespassed upon church government, he elucidated from The Scriptures the domains of Godly Government. They are Christian self-government, Christian family government, Christian church government, and Christian civil government, the word Christian meaning that in all things we follow Christ who, while wearing the flesh of Abraham as a burden, never sinned! And, to anyone disparaging the word Christian, the Classic Question is interposed: To which one of the Ten Commandments do you object? To anyone of the historians who choose to ignore Pastor Robinson the clear answer to their ignorance is the fruit of his ministry: he prepared a people to take Christian Dominion over a wilderness to the Glory of God! In his pastoral compassion he exampled to them The Unity of the Brethren. They held each other accountable to Christ’s commandments, not suffering sin upon one another in meekness.
[Leviticus 19:17]
“His love was great towards them, and his care was
all ways bente for their best good, both for soul and
body : for besids his singular abilities in devine things (wherein he excelled), he was also very able to give directions in civill affaires, and to foresee dangers & inconveniences; by which means he was very helpful to their outward estats, and so was every way as a commone father unto them ...”
Christian History Of the Constitution of the United States of America. Compiled by Verna M. Hall. Foundation for American Christian Education. FACE. page 190.
In Of Plimoth Plantation William Bradford wrote: “... they … joyned themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate.” In order to return to what?
When William Bradford fell into a long childhood illness, he began to read the Bible seriously. As a teenager he went with another boy to the church at Babworth to hear the Rev. Richard Clyfton preach. When Clyfton withdrew to become pastor for the small Separatist congregation at Scrooby Manor, Bradford followed. Bradford endured extreme pressure to return to the Church of England from his family, friends, and neighbours in his home town of Austerfield. Instead, Bradford withdrew from “the communion of the parish-assemblies,” to;
“engage with some society of the faithful that
should keep close unto the written word of God, as
the rule of their worship ... although the provoked
rage of his friends tried all the ways imaginable to
reclaim him from it, … unto all … his answer was …
‘Nevertheless, to keep a good conscience, and walk
in such a way as God has prescribed in his word, is
a thing which I must prefer before you all, and
above life itself.’”
Cotton Mather. The Life of William Bradford in The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers. London: Ward and Downey,1897; Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1897; New York: Klaus Reprint Co., 1969, page 40.
According to Cotton Mather, did all three men, Elder William Brewster, a village postmaster, Pastor John Robinson, an obscure clergyman, and William Bradford, a young farmer lad, join a Separatist congregation to “keep close unto the written word of God, as the rule of their worship”?
“These three individuals --- a village postmaster, an obscure clergyman, and a young farmer lad --- little dreamed of the marvelous ways in which God would use them in the succeeding years. But they had heeded Paul’s admonition: ‘Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.’” [Romans 12:2].
Marshall Foster and Mary-Elaine Swanson. The American Covenant. The Untold Story. The Foundation for Christian Self-Government: 1981, page 72. The Mayflower Institute: 1983.
To what did the Pilgrim separatists “(by a covenant of the Lord)” seek to return?
Did our Forefathers see themselves in Covenant relationship with The Covenant God of Israel? Did our Forefathers see themselves in Covenant relationship with one another? Did our Forefathers see their Posterity being in Covenant relationship with The Covenant God of Israel, the future of the 1st Planting in the Northern parts of Virginia, the future of their fathers who did “covenant & combine” themselves “together into a civill body politic”?
What did our Forefathers mean by Christian self-government? (1 Timothy 3:5). What was the Scriptural basis; what Scriptures did they study as the basis of The Doctrine of Christian self-government?
5 For if a man know not how to rule
his own house, how shall he take care
of the church of God.
First Timothy chapter three.
In Verse 5 do we see The Doctrine of Christian Church Government? Do we also see Christian Family Government? Can Christian Church Government exist apart from Christian Family Government? Is The Church, the local Body of Christ, a Family of families? Is that why The Tempter attacks the Family, especially Marriages? Have we seen that Marriage is a Covenant Relationship with God and with each other for the benefit of Posterity? For the benefit of our Children. Are our Children the beneficiaries of our Trust? Is The Marriage Covenant our instruction in The Covenants of our Covenant God? Do our Marriages provide Instruction in The Covenants of our Covenant God?
And how can there be Christian Family Government without Christian Self Government?
Has Christian Self Government come under attack in our day? Have we heard accusations that Christian Self Government Breeds Anarchy? Can we “Trust” fallen man to govern himself? What is Anarchy? It is a compound word consisting of 2 parts: the Greek word arche, meaning rule or rulership, and An, a prefix indicating the absence or lack of rule. (Would Anarchy mean we have gone from the Rule of Law to the Rule of men?) Does The Bible pose a formidable question: Who will rule? God or man?!! Do we Get Anarchy, if Fallen Man rules?!!
But does the Term Christian mean “Christ Follower”? How is it possible to follow Christ, our Exalted Head, our God, and create Anarchy?!! Would that be the classic oxymoron? Is that tantamount to supplying oxygen to morons in The Hockey Game of Life? How many times have we seen Christian brothers who agree on so many fundamentals get into a spirited discussion, only to find out they are both using the same word, but with different definitions. Would a Berean Christian receive “the word with all readiness of mind and” search “the Scriptures daily whether those things” are “so”? [Acts 17:11]. Are The Ten Commandments God’s Thoughts on what constitutes Good or Evil? What is most important?! God’s Thoughts or our own thoughts? Did the Woman, alone in the Garden with The Serpent, develop her own thoughts about what constitutes Good or Evil, and switch Trees? Are the only ones threatened by The Ten Commandments evildoers?!! Whom should we trust concerning what constitutes Good or Evil: God or man? (John 15:5). Is it true that Adam in The Fall has lost his way and cannot discern between Good and Evil unless he trusts His Heavenly Father?
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches:
He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for without me ye can do nothing.
John chapter fifteen.
(Romans 9:3-5). Why were the Pilgrims so ready to covenant with God, covenant with one another, and covenant for the benefit of their posterity?
[stand]
p 3 For I could wish that myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh:
c 4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertain-
eth the adoption, and the glory, and the
covenants, and the giving of the law,
and the service of God, and the promises;
p 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as
concerning the flesh Christ came, who is
over all, God blessed forever, Amen.
“According to the flesh”! “Concerning the flesh”! Does the Fallen Flesh of Adam have to do with Salvation by Race or Salvation by Grace? After the 1st Blood Sacrifice, where Adam and Eve exchanged fig leaves for animal skins, did Adam name his woman Eve, meaning the mother of all living, or the mother of all those eligible again to live eternally?! (Look back at Verse 2).
2 That I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart.
Romans chapter nine.
If it is Salvation by Race, then why (!) does Paul have continual sorrow in his heart?
Bibliography
Romans 9:3-5
Romans 11:26-27. “All Israel shall be saved”
Romans 9:6. “They are not all Israel”
Romans 8:9. “None of his”
Psalms 82:7. “But ye shall die like Adam”
[Back to Romans 11:27] “It is written”
Isaiah 59:20-21. “this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD”
1828 Webster : COVENANT n.
The American Covenant, The Untold Story. Rev. Marshall Foster (with Mary- Elaine Swanson) “A covenant in those days”
Deuteronomy 7:9. “to a thousand generations”
Malachi 2:14-16. “let none deal treacherously”
Numbers 23:8-10. “the people shall dwell alone”
Of Plimoth Plantation. William Bradford. “(by a covenant of the Lord)”
The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and Their Puritan Successors. John Brown.
John Robinson’s words: “had not the truth been in my heart”
Christian History of the Constitution of the United States. CHOC. compiled by Verna M. Hall. Foundation for American Christian Education FACE page 190. Pastor John Robinson “was every way as a commone father unto them.”
Cotton Mather. The Story of the Pilgrims. London & New York: 1897. Klaus Reprint Co. N.Y.: 1969. William Bradford: “keep close unto the written word of God, as the rule of their worship”
Marshall Foster & Mary-Elaine Swanson. The American Covenant. The Untold Story. 1983. “These three individuals”
1 Timothy 3:5. “… if a man know not how to rule his own house”
John 15:5. “without me ye can do nothing”
Romans 9:3-5. “Israelites, to whom pertaineth … the covenants”
Romans 9:2. “continual sorrow in my heart”
