The Gospel Herald -- Promoting the fundamentals of the 1888 message.

 

APPENDIX A
The 1888 View of the Two Covenants

IV. IS THERE BIBLE SUPPORT FOR THE 1888 VIEW?

  1. Paul’s discussions of righteousness by faith are centered in the "promises" God made to Abraham. Romans 4:3-25; Galatians 3, 4. In that context of practical day-by-day Christian living, Paul’s attention is largely focused on Abraham’s faith-experience.
  2. Initially, God made a seven-fold promise to Abram (Genesis 12:1-3). No conditions were mentioned other than the command to leave his "country" and "kindred."
  3. The promise was repeated and detailed further in Genesis 13:14-17.
  4. God spoke further emphasis in Genesis 15:4, 5. Then Abram responded.
  5. His response was a heart-felt, fervent "amen" (the Hebrew for the word "believe"), an appreciation for the grace of Christ (vs. 6; John 8:56). Paul’s argument in Romans 4 and Galatians 3, 4 is that such a response of faith is all that God wants from us today. Lest legalist minded Adventists fear lowered standards, it must be remembered that Paul’s definition of faith is a heart-response occasioned by the revelation of God’s agape (Romans 10:10; Galatians 5:6). Thus Paul’s idea of faith is a "faith which works" and produces the obedience that we try so hard to emphasize. The "works" is a verb and not a noun. In this light, Paul’s doctrine of salvation "by grace through faith ... not of works" is not antinomian fanaticism. Included in Abram’s response of "believing" was the humble, contrite reconciliation of an alienated heart to God, which includes His holy law of righteousness. The obedience is built-in! This could have been Abram’s hymn:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

         This is the only appropriate response of any human heart to God’s new covenant.

  1. After his confession of faith, Abram and Sarai stumbled into old covenant unbelief in the Hagar-Ishmael incident (Genesis 16). Paul uses Hagar as a symbol of the old covenant — the ever popular faith-plus-works principle (Galatians 4:24).
  2. Sarah (and Abraham) repented of their old covenant unbelief. Thus by faith she became pregnant in very old age (Hebrews 11:11). Paul cites the triumphant Sarah as a symbol of the new covenant (Galatians 4:23, 24). Again, at no time in these episodes did God ask for any promise from either of them. It was a basic assumption: genuine faith would of itself produce or motivate obedience. This was the idea that fueled the Jones/Waggoner idea of the covenants.
  3. Not cold, blind legalistic obedience motivated by fear, this kind of faith eventually enabled Abraham to offer his son Isaac (Genesis 24).
  4. When Israel came out of Egypt 430 years after his justification by faith experience, God proposed to renew to them His new covenant promises to Abraham (Exodus 19:4-6):
    1. It is not correct to assume that God made these promises to Israel on condition of their obedience (cf. SDA Bible Dictionary, p. 229). Paul says that 430 years later God could not have abrogated or "disannulled" the terms of His promise to Abraham by requiring anything more than his faith, because He had confirmed it to Abraham by a solemn oath pledging His throne and existence (Galatians 3:17,18; Romans 4:13-16; Hebrews 6:13-18). Our Bible Dictionary misses the point, and so do many Adventists today. 7
    2. The Hebrew word in Exodus 19:5 usually understood as "obey" is rendered "hear" some 760 times, and "hearken" 196 times, and only a relatively few times as "obey." The context of the sentence itself requires the meaning of "listen." (God simply wanted their attention and that is the idea in the Hebrew meaning of shamea). 8
    3. The Hebrew for the verb translated "keep My covenant" is used in Genesis 2:15 where God told Adam to "dress and keep" the Garden of Eden. To "obey" the garden is meaningless! The word shamar means primarily to "guard," "give heed" (shimmur, "night watch," root of "Samaria," meaning "guard"). Adam was to "cherish" or "treasure" the Garden of Eden, "prize" it highly. There seems a play on ideas here in Exodus 19:5, as if God said to them, If you will "treasure" My promise to Abraham, I will "treasure" you above all people as "special." 9
    4. Thus the Lord said to Israel, If you will (1) listen, hearken, to My voice, and (2) if you will cherish, prize, appreciate, treasure the covenant I made to Abraham (promise, Romans 4:13), then you will be a special treasure of Mine above all people. This was to be righteousness by faith, not righteousness by works or even partly by works.
    5. God even prefaced His renewal of the new covenant with gospel Good News: "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself ..." (Exodus 19:4). The Lord did not propose making a "contract" or "compact" with Israel based on their promises to obey. Their job was to believe, to appreciate with heart-felt thanks, the glorious salvation He had already accomplished.
    6. Unless we involve God in self-contradiction His statement apparently approving the Israelites’ vain promise, "They have well spoken all that they have spoken" (Deuteronomy 5:28) must be understood as irony. The context would seem to require it: "That was a great speech! I just wish they had a heart ...!" Biblical irony is common (see Section VI).
  5. Instead of appreciating how the Lord "bore them on eagles’ wings," they had already begun before reaching Sinai to murmur and complain (Exodus 15:24; 16:2; 17:3). Thus their hearts were "hardened" (Hebrews 3:8). In this state of unbelief they responded to God’s new covenant promise with a "contract" mentality which was works-oriented, self-righteous "obedience": "All that the Lord has spoken we will do" (Exodus 19:8). This promise of the people was the inception of the old covenant.
  6. God could not brush this aside. Although they had made this contract, He had to live with it and ratify it with animal blood. If they would not keep step with Him, He must humble Himself and keep step with them. Now must begin a long detour of many centuries during which the "old testament" up-and-down history of God’s people must be tragically written. 10 It is only in this sense that Moses later could say that "the Lord made this covenant ... with us." He specifically said "the Lord made not" such a covenant "with our fathers" (Deuteronomy 5:3). Thus Moses recognized in principle what Paul was later to say, "The covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect" (Galatians 3:17). Moses made clear that it was not God’s original intention to "make" the old covenant of works with Israel. He was only forced to recognize it and to lead them on their detour.
  7. The terrifying events of Exodus 19:10-25, the death threat, the trumpet sounding "long ... louder and louder," the thunders, lightnings, thick cloud, the smoke, the earthquake — none of these had been necessary for "our father" Abraham. God did not need to write the Law in stone for him, for He wrote it in his heart. All of this became necessary because of the old covenant the people had instituted. "What purpose then does the law serve?" asks Paul. "It was added because of transgressions" (Galatians 3:19, prostithemi, "place beside," "increase," "increase our faith," Luke 20:11, 12). It could be rendered "underlined," "emphasized," "set in bold type." "The law came in beside" not as an addition to the new covenant, but "that the offence might abound," that the people might see their sin more clearly pinpointed (Romans 5:20; Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 371, 372). "The scripture has confined [concluded, KJV] all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:22).
  8. From then on, the law was to function as our "tutor [schoolmaster, KJV] to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith," back where "our father Abraham" was when he "believed" the new covenant (vs. 24).
  9. Because of this understanding of the new covenant in Galatians 3, Jones and Waggoner saw the law in Galatians as the ten commandments rather than the ceremonial law. Their opposing brethren could not grasp the new covenant idea of salvation by simply believing God’s promise; they were mired in the mentality of Israel at Exodus 19. They saw the old covenant as instituted by God as a dispensational structure, part of His plan of salvation with a divinely appointed "dispensation" ending at the cross (see illustration at end of this appendix) whereas Jones and Waggoner saw the two covenants as matters of heart, not of dispensations. God’s original intention was that the old covenant "dispensation" end before it began! 11
  10. Correctly understood, the new covenant is the message of righteousness by faith, the "everlasting gospel" of Revelation 14:6-12. In this time of the cleansing of the sanctuary, it is "the third angel’s message in verity." God’s promises to Abraham are promises to "all families of the earth," the loud cry message of Revelation 18. This is why Ellen White recognized in the 1888 message of the covenants its "beginning" (RH, Nov. 22, 1892). Everyone is invited to receive His promises on exactly the same terms that Abraham received them, by saying "amen" — faith (Matthew 29:19, 20; Matthew 24:14; Acts 13:32; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-10, etc.). 12

Home  |  Index of Bible Studies  |  Appendix A  |  Continue