What original understandings of covenants are missing from the World's Christianity?
God has made many recorded covenants with persons and nations starting with Adam. Here we list several of them with a brief description. See a more extensive exposition here.
- In the Garden of Eden God gave Adam the promise of abundant life of bounty, dominance over all life on Earth, in return for following the rule to not eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil.
- After the sin of Adam and Eve, God promised a redeemer, and meanwhile mankind is required to suffer the consequences of sin for the time being: no more paradise, painful childbirth, hard work, short life ending with death.
- A covenant was made with Noah after the flood: 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, ... neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.' '...never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.' '...Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.'
- The Abrahamic Covenant: Understanding of this covenant is key to our comprehension of prophecy. Because of His faith in God's word, Abraham was chosen to be the father of many nations, and even the Church of God (a holy nation) is named after him.
- The Mosaic Covenant required the tribes of Israel to keep the Law given and codified at Mt Sinai. In exchange they were to be His 'own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Those tribes failed to keep their part of the agreement. They were therefor cast away for the present. Restoration of Israel is yet future.
- A Davidic Covenant promises a temple of God, David's kingdom unending, saying 'I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth' 'And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.'
- And a New Covenant which includes final forgiveness and removal of sins for those repentant and accepting of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The New Covenant is to be made with the House of Israel: "The time is coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt [i.e., the covenant of the Law, the Ten Commandments], because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." {Jeremiah 31:31-34 NIV}
We cover aspects of these covenants with individual articles.
