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A new stream

Kingdoms are established by an agreement between a group of people and a king. Each kingdom has its own basis for its existence. When God establishes a nation, it is done by a covenant, which is an agreement between God and men.

The first such covenant nation was established through the mediation of Moses at Mount Sinai. Under that covenant, the people themselves made an agreement with God to conform to His standard of right and wrong. They vowed to do all that God had commanded. Unfortunately, this covenant did not give them the ability to be perfectly obedient, so it was doomed to fail. God gave them many opportunities to fulfill their vow, but to no avail.

In the end, because the people broke their covenant, God too considered it to be broken and was no longer bound to fulfill His own obligations to protect them and prosper them. He then sent them into exile to Assyria, except for the house of Judah which was spared for another century before being exiled to Babylon.

Just before the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Jeremiah promised that God would establish a new nation under a new covenant that was unlike the first one. Jeremiah 31:31-34 says,

³¹ “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke… ³³ But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them…”

This “new covenant” is unlike the original one under Moses because it is based upon God’s promise to men, rather than upon men’s promise to God. Here God obligates Himself to “put My law within them,” so that “they will all know Me.” In the first covenant, the people obligated themselves to obey His law; here, however, God obligates Himself to change their hearts so that they will actually obey His law by nature, rather than by compulsion.

Further, if God should fail to change their heart, He would be held accountable. It is based not on the will of man but upon God’s will alone. This remarkable covenant, once understood, was very good news to those who despair of ever conforming to the image of God and achieving His standard of righteousness by their own efforts. This is, in fact, the “gospel,” i.e., good news.

Moses himself had prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15,

¹⁵ The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.

In the New Testament, Peter applied this to Jesus Christ in Acts 3:22, telling us further that He had come to bless everyone with the blessing of Abraham. Acts 3:25, 26 says,

²⁵ It is to you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” ²⁶ For you first, God raised up His Servant [Jesus] and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

The earth is blessed by the provision of the New Covenant, which writes God’s laws upon our hearts so that we conform to His will because it is in our nature to do so. So the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 2:5,

⁵ For there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

His role as a mediator is how He was like Moses. While Moses mediated the first covenant, we read in Hebrews 9:15, “He is the Mediator of a new covenant.” Moses brought Israel out of bondage under Egypt through the Passover lamb, but Jesus brought us out of a greater bondage to sin itself by presenting Himself as the Passover lamb through His death at the time of the feast of Passover.

The Believers

Those who believe that Jesus Christ did indeed pay the penalty for the world’s sin in order to bless all families of the earth have become citizens of a new Kingdom. This Kingdom was formed by the New Covenant, which Jesus mediated. No longer were His disciples mere citizens of Judea or any other nation established by men’s agreements. By faith these believers became part of a new Kingdom ruled by His Majesty, King Jesus.

This was not clearly understood at the time. For a few decades, the Christians in Jerusalem continued to worship at the old temple and continued to depend on its animal sacrifices. The Apostle Paul understood that things were now different, but many disagreed with him. Only when the Romans destroyed the city and its temple did it become clear that Paul was right.

This also marked the time when the Christians became fully separated from the Jews, each being citizens of a different covenant nation. The question thus arose as to which group had the lawful right to be called Judah, the point Paul raised in Romans 2:28, 29. He argued that because Judah means “praise,” only those who truly praise God are Judahites in the sight of God. To praise God, he said, one must have the sign of the New Covenant, which is circumcision of the heart.

Paul was referring to the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 30:6,

⁵ Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

The evidence of heart circumcision is “to love the Lord your God with all your heart.” This is consistent with the terms of the New Covenant, because only God can circumcise one’s heart. Fleshly circumcision marks those who desire to obey God, but it cannot change the heart. Hence, it is a sign of one’s Old Covenant vow of obedience, which, in itself, is admirable, but such people find that they must fight constantly against the carnal desires of their uncircumcised heart.

Christians Cast Out of Judaism

The separation between Jews and Christians was not immediate, although the temple priests had rejected Jesus as the Christ/Messiah. They thought that His crucifixion would bring about the collapse of this new “heresy,” just as had happened in previous messianic movements. However, His resurrection on the third day breathed new life into His followers. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that He appeared to about 500 brethren after His resurrection, many of whom were still alive at the time of Paul’s writing.

It was this resurrection that prevented Christianity from falling apart. His ascension to heaven was witnessed by a smaller group. The power of God then came down upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost seven weeks after His resurrection. This power gave evidence of Christ’s resurrection and ascension, ensuring that Christianity would not simply die out from a lack of energy.

The temple priests thus found themselves in a dilemma. There were so many people—and priests—who believed in Jesus that they became alarmed and soon embarked on a campaign of persecution to stamp it out before it could spread. This persecution served to scatter the Jewish Christians throughout Judea and Samaria and ultimately throughout the Roman Empire, each believer becoming a seed that would sprout and grow.

This scattering began with the martyrdom of Stephen, recorded in Acts 7. We then read in Acts 8:1-4,

¹ Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles… ³ But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. ⁴ Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.

Saul led the persecution until Jesus met him in a vision as he was traveling to Damascus to arrest more Christians. Saul’s conversion was a historic moment, first because it put a pause in the persecution, and secondly, after he changed his name to Paul, he became one of the foremost apostles of Jesus Christ.

The New Covenant Inheritance

This diaspora of Christians sowed the seed of the word throughout the empire. On a deeper level, it also suggested that under the New Covenant, these believers had a better inheritance. This is made clear in Hebrews 11, where it is argued that Abraham himself had caught the same New Covenant vision of a better country. Hebrews 11:8-10 says,

⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; ¹⁰ for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Canaan was called “the land of promise,” and yet Abraham “lived as an alien” there. We read that he sought another city being built by God. The author comments further in Hebrews 11:13-18,

¹³ All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. ¹⁴ For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

In other words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob confessed that they were not really at home in the land of Canaan. Canaan was for other people, so they sought “a country of their own.” In the end, we know that the house of Israel was exiled to Assyria and never returned, because the Old Covenant had been broken. They would receive a new “country” through the New Covenant.

¹⁵ And indeed if they had been thinking of that country [Canaan] from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

Here we see how the author transitions from Abraham to the exiles of Israel. If the lost tribes of Israel had remembered the land of Canaan, “they would have had opportunity to return.” But as it is, the Israelites were given “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” through the provision of the New Covenant. The “city” is the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2), also called the “heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22).

Modern Zionism is an attempt to return to the Old Covenant inheritance. But this is not the country that Abraham sought. To return to the earthly Jerusalem is to return to Mount Sinai (Galatians 4:25). Christians return to a new mountain city called Sion (not Zion). Hebrews 12:22 KJV tells Christian believers,

²² But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem… ²⁴ and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.

Jesus was transfigured on the mountain just north of Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13). It was known as Mount Sion and also as Mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 4:48). It is not to be confused with Mount Zion, which was in Jerusalem. So the author of Hebrews was telling believers to gather around Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, the place where Jesus was proclaimed as “My beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5).

Mount Hermon represents the New Covenant country and city that Abraham sought. We are, therefore, Sionists, not Zionists. We remain under the jurisdiction of Mount Sion, regardless of where we may live. Sion is a heavenly city, the true capital of the Kingdom of God.