Christianity

July 22, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

It is Time to Boycott the Boycotters!

I often write about the danger of the BDS movement. It has officially been going on for 16 years. It was started by Mahmoud Abbas (current leader of the Palestinian Authority), and Omar Barghouti. Abbas and Barghouti didn’t invent the boycott of Jewish people, products or inventions; they simply revived an age-old practice that was used in Europe in the 1930s. In my research and writing about BDS, I usually present a few ideas on how to fight that antisemitic concept. I have told people repeatedly that one of the best ways to fight BDS is to go to their website and buy and support the very products and companies they list as who should be boycotted. They did all the leg work for us, so let’s use their list.

Another way to fight BDS, and a very powerful one at that, is to educate those who are being fooled by its “social justice” agenda. We need to be informed about the real issues plaguing the Middle East and we need to be able to debunk the Palestinian narrative built on a false premise. Israel is not an apartheid state. It is the safest most productive place for Arabs to live in and work from. Israel is not committing ethnic cleansing since there a much more Arabs within the land today than there were prior to 1948 when it was reborn as a modern nation. Israel is not killing Palestinians indiscriminately, but carefully warning Gaza civilians about upcoming attacks on sites that Hamas specifically selected for their civilian population such as schools and hospitals.

Now, allow me to introduce you to one more way to fight BDS. Instead of just buying what BDS proponents say we should boycott–which is definitely a great start to counter BDS–we should seriously consider boycotting the boycotters. The principle is rather simple. Whichever company, organization, or personality supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement against Israel and the Jewish people, should in turn be boycotted by those who support Israel’s right to exist. It is simple in theory but requires three things: Sacrifice, commitment and integrity. Keep in mind that we should always pass everything through the very helpful “3D test” established by Russian refusenik and now in charge of Immigration to Israel, Nathan Sharansky. He posits that antisemitism can be defined by any combination of the three Ds: Demonization, Double-Standard and Delegitimization. He explains, “we must be clear and outspoken in exposing the new anti-Semitism. I believe that we can apply a simple test – I call it the “3D” test – to help us distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from anti-Semitism. The first “D” is the test of demonization. When the Jewish state is being demonized; when Israel’s actions are blown out of all sensible proportion; when comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz – this is anti-Semitism, not legitimate criticism of Israel. The second “D” is the test of double standards. When criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored; when Israel’s Magen David Adom, alone among the world’s ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross – this is anti-Semitism. The third “D” is the test of delegitimization: when Israel’s fundamental right to exist is denied – alone among all peoples in the world – this too is anti-Semitism.”
Now, let’s look at the need for sacrifice, commitment and integrity:

• Sacrifice
We all have a long list of products, companies and personalities that we support and enjoy. Imagine finding out that your favorite actor or musician supports BDS and shows some serious signs of being anti-Semitic. Maybe your favorite product that you have bought for years is making wrong choices about boycotting Israel. Now you have to decide, should you look the other way, or should you stop sending them your money? This is not a trick question, because I constantly ask myself the same question, and unfortunately, more and more recently.
Take for instance the recent decision by Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream to stop selling their ice cream to the Israeli settlements in Judea/Samaria (improperly labelled the West Bank), or all of Israel if they could. It is entirely within their rights to do so, but it is also entirely within ours to stop buying Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Is it possible to say that it is also our duty as bible believing followers of Yeshua and supporters of Israel to “defund Ben & Jerry”, to use a term that everybody can relate to? Now, apply that principle to other areas in your own life where BDS is infringing, and we can start making an impact by using the boycott principle where justified. I personally stopped eating their products last year when that went crazy against the police, and I kept it private, but I feel that now is the time to start spending our money more wisely. I could give you more examples of who to boycott, but I do not wish to unnecessarily be accused of character assassination by those who might miss my point. Instead, I will invite any of you to Google a specific brand, organization or personality with the word “boycott” or “BDS” and see the results. It is not complicated for anyone to find out who is against Israel. When in doubt, contact me privately. All this will require commitment on our part.

• Commitment
So, now that you have decided to boycott a product or a personality, you have to remain committed to that boycott, at least until they show that they have revised their position. We cannot boycott a TV channel on Monday through Friday, but look the other way on weekends because our favorite show is running at that time. We cannot boycott an actor or actress on some movies, but not others because they are part of our favorite movie list. We cannot boycott Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream except for one flavor because we cannot live without it. I get it, it would be a lot easier to boycott a brand of water and switch to another than to sacrifice and stop eating our favorite ice cream. We either boycott or we don’t, but there isn’t such a thing as a partial boycott. Once we commit, we commit. I have boycotted every single movie of one of my all-time favorite directors since 1988 when he directed a very blasphemous and offensive movie graphically portraying Yeshua in terrible sexual relationships. He has since come up with many movies that I would have loved to watch, but I am committed. Think before you commit or don’t commit because you will need to proceed with integrity.

• Integrity
A good definition of integrity from the Merriam-Webster dictionary is, “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values” or “an unimpaired condition” or “the quality or state of being complete or undivided.”
Integrity has to do with being consistent according to a set of set values. Taking it to an extreme, we could argue that Hitler had integrity because he was very consistent in following his code of ethics or values which happened to be the destruction of all Jews. To be fair, this is not the way we think of integrity today. It is more related to morality and character. The point of integrity is that once we make a decision based on what we think is the best course of action, we have to be consistent. When I look at those who support and promote BDS, I see a lot of hypocrisy. They are willing to sacrifice for what doesn’t really hurt them, but they absolutely will not boycott what they cannot live without. Let us not be too quick to judge, because we might be partially guilty of the same at times. The idea is that if you accuse Israel of being an occupier, colonizer and apartheid state, and that you call for its complete boycott, then it should be a complete boycott. It’s easy for anyone to stop buying Jaffa oranges or Sabra® hummus, but it is a different story to refrain from using technology that was invented or co-invented by Israelis like cell-phone technology, thumb drives or even the Intel® chip for computers.

Looking at sacrifice, commitment and integrity, we all come to the realization that boycotting is easier said than done. Let the BDS promoters be inconsistent, hypocritical and without integrity, but for those of us who claim to love Israel and the Jewish people, the time has come to sacrifice and boycott the boycotters. If you decide to do so, why don’t you let your Jewish community leaders and synagogues know that you are boycotting the boycotters? That is, of course, after you have taken a minute to email the organization or product that you are boycotting to let them know that they are losing customers and why.

Time to speak up, time to act and time to stop eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream!

June 12, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Survivalists, Escapists and the Rapture in the Prophetic Future!

There are not that many topics in the Bible that cause so much controversy as the Rapture does. Some people believe in it, some don’t. From those who believe that the Rapture is a real event that will be fulfilled literally–and I belong to that group–many positions exist. The Rapture might happen before the Tribulation, during or after. I personally believe that the Rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation, leaving behind all those who have not placed their trust in the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah for their sins. So, on the spectrum of end-times events, we find many markers representing doctrinal positions. At each end of that spectrum, we find groups that I will identify as the survivalists and the escapists.

The survivalists, that we can also call preppers, are a group of people convinced that mankind will go through the Great Tribulation and suffer greatly. They are right that the Tribulation will be a horrible, bloody carnage. They believe that it will include unbelievers and believers together for seven years of unprecedented turmoil and persecution resulting in the greatest death toll of all human history. Preppers prepare. They buy food, supplies, weapons, ammo and some even build remote bunkers hoping to put all the odds in their favor for surviving the Tribulation. Preppers also have a tendency to succumb to the latest conspiracy theory. On the mind of most preppers is the inevitable end of the world that must be avoided at all costs

Am I saying that believers should trust the Lord in all things and not prepare for difficult times? Absolutely not! In fact, the Bible advises us to prepare and be ready in many ways:

• Be ready for Messiah – Matthew 24:44
• Be watchful and strong – 1 Corinthians 16:13
• Prepare supplies of food – Proverbs 28:19-20, 20:4
• Prepare with faith – Hebrews 11:7

Now, what I am saying is that our preparedness should not consume us to the point that we are ignoring other aspects of life. Preparing is good and necessary. We need to prepare for the future and, to an extent, we also need to prepare for the unknown and the unexpected, but I find many preppers being so obsessed with stocking up supplies in anticipation of doomsday, that they completely miss their many opportunities to be witnesses of the love and compassion of Messiah to the lost. God provides and protects His children. He does it directly through circumstances and indirectly through people. So, we need to be wise about preparing for the future, using common sense mixed with wisdom and discernment. We must not succumb to the temptation of overstocking and over-preparing. Satan loves to keep people busy with whatever people deem necessary, and in the meantime, nobody is sharing the Good News. Some even think that they are smack in the center of God’s will by over-prepping for the end. A balance must be achieved.

Subscribe to Olivier’s YouTube Channel for more teaching videos

Now, on the other side of the same spectrum, we find the escapists. Who are these people? Escapists are people who believe in a pre-tribulational Rapture as I do, but they are fixated on their imminent departure more than anything else. They believe that the Rapture will occur prior to the Great Tribulation and that they hold their ticket and reservation for the ultimate ride upward. Escapists look forward to the Rapture and are often heard pleading for Yeshua to come now and snatch away the believers immediately. Escapists are not only “Rapture-ready”, but they also are “Rapture anxious”. They are chomping at the bit for the Rapture to take place.

This reminds me of a pet peeve of mine. It really rubs me the wrong way when I hear people use the word Maranatha all the time. I have nothing against this beautiful Aramaic word meaning “The Lord is coming” or “Come, O Lord”! We shouldn’t dismiss or ignore the beautiful hope that we have in Yeshua and His return. He will return as the Lion of Judah to rule the world from Jerusalem. What a glorious day this will be! What troubles me, is the many believers who constantly say Maranatha as they express their strong desire for Yeshua to return NOW! The question that usually comes to my mind is: “Are all the people you care about saved for you to be so anxious about Yeshua’s return?” When could such a question be answered in the affirmative without any doubt by anyone? Never!

I find the escapist approach to be selfish. It is as if people are thinking, “I’m saved, I’m in and who cares about others”? Again, and as always, I do not wish to paint with broad strokes, but I am greatly concerned with the escapist mentality found across the Body of Messiah. So where is the healthy balance between the escapists and the survivalists? I believe it is found in the person who trusts the Lord day-by-day, moment-by-moment, as they also prepare with common sense for possible financial, physical, political and spiritual difficulties. Planning is necessary, prepping is over-reacting. Trusting the Lord is critical to our spiritual health and growth, but blindly trusting God for all things without any planning is irresponsible.

We need to expect His return at any moment because it can happen at any moment, but we also need to wisely prepare as if He will not return and/or rapture us immediately. Nowhere in the Bible does it mention that believers will not suffer prior to the Rapture. So, prepare, trust, obey and anticipate His return. If we combine all that wisely, we will find plenty of time and opportunities to witness the good news to those who have no hope, so that when He indeed calls the believers to be raptured, more people will join in this glorious departure. Until then, let us all gather in the center of that spectrum and get busy sharing with the lost.

May 29, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Time For Faith In Action: I Am Not A Bystander!

Only eighty years ago, the world was taken by surprise by the evil agenda of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. The intensity and frequency of the horrors inflicted upon European Jews was a shock to many and it was even hard to believe that such a country as Germany could descend so low in committing evil against fellow humans. The players in WWII can be identified as the perpetrators/collaborators (Nazis, French Vichy government, Fascist Italy), the victims (many minorities, handicapped, religious sects and of course, the Jews), the rescuers (many of whom became “Righteous Among the Nations”) and the bystanders (the many who looked the other way, and did NOTHING).

With resilience and by the grace of God, the Jewish people regrouped and grew again out of the ashes of Auschwitz, crying out to the world “NEVER AGAIN” as a testimony to the innocent victims and a commitment to never let it happen again. For a brief period of respite, the world believed that it would never happen again, but unfortunately, the global events of the last few decades have proven us wrong. Not only have we been proven wrong, but the morphing of racial antisemitism into anti-Zionism turned out to be the biggest lie that people are willing to buy. By renaming themselves anti-Israel or anti-Zionist, they believe that they are switching from anti-Semitism to social justice warriors or human rights advocates; thus, eliminating any sense of guilt they may have had in the past. The new narrative has grown very deep roots in the Western culture from the seed planted by Yasir Arafat and the PLO and watered by all the foes of Israel – including some within the evangelical world. The weed keeps growing as it continues being watered and even fertilized by the many. The victims are still the Jewish people and the perpetrators are all those who hate them in thoughts, words, or deeds.

There are still two groups left: the rescuers and the bystanders. As to the rescuers, I strongly believe that they will be what I call the “New Righteous Among the Nations”. Additionally, I believe that they should look at the prophecy of the goats and the sheep in Matthew 25:31-46 when Yeshua explains that during the Tribulation, those who will become believers will turn out to be rescuers of persecuted Jews. I do believe, however, that at the time of the Rapture, all believers will be taken prior to the Great Tribulation (also known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble), there will be those who turn to Yeshua during the tribulation. Out of these believers, hearts will turn toward the Jewish people and they will aid in their rescue and protection. This is a very powerful model of love and service that we should ALL pay attention to today – Yesterday, for that matter!

You have always had those who turn in the innocent for their own benefit or what they are convinced is for their own good – all for selfish reasons. However, the bystanders scare me the most. Eighty years ago, Europe was plagued by Nazi antisemitism and collaborators like the French Vichy government. Those were the perpetrators that were transparent about their agenda; they were after the Jews at any cost. What about those who stayed in their apartments and peeked behind the blinders when the Gestapo came to take my grandfather away from his wife and daughter (my mother)? Were they scared? Did they feel powerless? Did they feel unconcerned because they were not Jewish – or they simply could not have cared less? Maybe it was a combination of some of these reasons or even all of them. However, the end result was a very large group of colleagues, neighbors and even friends who could have helped the Jewish people. Instead, they chose to look the other way and became co-perpetrators. I have said this for a long time: a bystander who does nothing only facilitates the crime of a perpetrator. In other words, doing nothing is still doing something.

FIND MORE VIDEOS AND INTERVIEWS ON OLIVIER’S YouTube CHANNEL!

Fast forward to 2021, Israel was at war with Hamas for 11 days and much of the world watched in horror how the IDF was going after “innocent” Palestinians. The Palestinian narrative (read: propaganda) has been pushed through the media and various government agencies around the world with the advent of Arafat, it is now believed as truth. No fact-checking necessary. Those in media and government want Israel to feel alone and isolated. However, the Jewish people have the undeniable right to exist and to do it in their own ancestral, Biblical land that predates the Palestinian narrative by several millennia.

Evangelical Christians have had a history of support for Israel. After all, if you read your Bible correctly using a grammatical/historical method and paying attention to the context, it becomes extremely hard to deny the fact that God has a very special plan for Israel and the Jewish people whom He calls the “Apple of my eye” in Zechariah 2:8. Promises and covenants were made between God and Israel, and all of them but one, the Mosaic Covenant, were unconditional and eternal. This means that they are still in effect today and that God unconditionally promised certain things to the Jewish people. They are based on God’s character and not on Israel or the Jewish people’s performance. That history of support and love for Israel, which once was known as “Christian Zionism”, is eroding, especially with the newer generation of young evangelicals, as it drastically declined from 75% to 33% in just three years.

This still leaves us with a large group of Christians who genuinely love Israel and the Jewish people but allow me to be blunt: loving Israel doesn’t mean a trip to the Holy land, eating hummus and falafel and praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6.) Don’t quote me wrong, prayer ought to be at the foundation of all we do as modern-day followers of Yeshua, but it cannot stop there, especially today. Israel and Hamas are now experiencing a ceasefire, and I truly do not know how long it will hold. I would say at least until some tunnels in Gaza are rebuilt and the Hamas arsenal is somewhat replenished with rockets and missiles ready to be launched again on Israeli civilians. The ceasefire is in place in Israel, but there hasn’t been a complete ceasefire between Jews and their foes for the last 2000 years. Anti-Semitism is the conflict of all conflicts against the Jews. It is the longest and deadliest pandemic of all mankind, and right now it is picking up momentum like we’ve not seen or experienced since the Holocaust. It is global, it is vicious and it shows no signs of stopping.

I am somewhat encouraged by the various organizations getting involved to expose the lies, teach the truth and voice their outrage. They help educate people and hopefully call them to action. A call to action is exactly what I am praying I can do. I want to reach as many Christians as possible and challenge them to put their faith into action. Let’s see Genesis 12:3 come to life, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

I have designed a logo available on my Facebook page that reads: “I AM NOT A BYSTANDER, Genesis 12:3.” My hope is that people get ahold of it and post it everywhere on the net. Some people have already approached me to make signs, T-Shirts and hats…That’s great! What I really want you all to do beyond flooding the net with this image of support, is to call your Jewish Community Center, Synagogue or any other Jewish organization and tell them RIGHT NOW, when they need it the most: “Hello, my name is ________________ and I am not a bystander.” Let the Jewish community know that you are a Bible-believing Christian and that you have their back. Make yourselves available to help if Jewish property is defaced or destroyed. It is always the right time for prayer, but we all need to kick it up a notch because it is time for our faith to be in action. Some people even believe that the war against antisemitism has been lost. If it is true, and I certainly hope it is not, we have even more reasons to get involved in the lives of our Jewish friends and become the New Righteous Among the Nations. #iamnotabystander

May 21, 2021 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

Is the stage being set for the prophecy of Zechariah 12:3 ?

Having been a follower of Yeshua for 37 years, I have often heard or even said that we are in the last days. To be sure, even 1st-century believers thought they were in the last days, and each day that passes puts us closer to the end of God’s program for mankind on this side of eternity. So, when people hear that we are in the last days, many of them, suffering from some sort of eschatological fatigue, roll their eyes and move on. Are those of us claiming that it is 11:59 at the eleventh hour just sensationalists? Are we overreacting and redirecting our focus on the less important at the expense of what matters in life? Frankly, it all depends on what our focus is being redirected to.

I have always been a very literal, context-driven student of God’s Word. If God left us the Bible as His message to us on how to live and what to look forward to, we can look at it from different cultural vantage points, but we must agree that it contains the same truth for all mankind. We might not like some of the statements that the Bible makes, but that doesn’t give us the authority to declare that they are not the truth. When we survey God’s counsel, we are bound to find many prophecies fulfilled and more yet to be fulfilled. We must resist “newspaper exegesis”, but we need to honestly look at the news through a Biblical lens if we want to know where we are on God’s timeline of human history.

Much of that timeline revolves around Israel as God has promised to never forsake Israel or allow for its destruction (Jeremiah 31:35-37). At a time when rockets are raining down on Israel by the hundreds, from a human perspective, the situation looks very bleak. While casualties are inevitable on both sides, God isn’t caught by surprise by the present conflict, and neither should those of us who take His word seriously. Satan’s demise clock is ticking quickly, and he is desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures and Satan finds, in most of the world, a plethora of willing executioners for his antisemitic agenda. Truth has long ceased to matter. Fact-checks are politically or socially motivated.

If someone believes that they are contributing to social justice, multiculturalism and tolerance, they immediately feel like they are making a difference to improve the world we live in; even if it is at the expense of someone else, and in this case, as is too often the case, at the expense of Israel and the Jewish people.

Not long after the tragedy of the Hyper Cacher Supermarket on the east side of Paris in 2015, Jeffrey Goldberg wrote a piece in The Atlantic that still resonates in my head. In it, he made a sobering statement that I was really hoping was inaccurate, but as it turns out, he might have been spot on. He wrote, ” The Shoah served for a while as a sort of inoculation against the return of overt Jew-hatred—but the effects of the inoculation, it is becoming clear, are wearing off. What was once impermissible is again imaginable. Memories of 6 million Jewish dead fade, and guilt becomes burdensome….Israel is coming to be understood not as a small country in a difficult spot whose leaders, especially lately, have been making shortsighted and potentially disastrous decisions, but as a source of cosmological evil—the Jew of nations.”

FIND MORE VIDEOS AND INTERVIEWS ON OLIVIER’S YouTube CHANNEL!

What Goldberg saw six years ago, was the erosion of Europe’s compassion towards the Jewish people. I have long been a believer that what happens in Europe, and even particularly in France, is a good indication of what is coming to America. The barometer of the new antisemitism in Europe sets the temperature for what is coming to America. Since 1948–when Israel was reborn as a modern nation–antisemitism, which was localized mostly to Greater Europe, became a global virus. The tiny Jewish state gave anti-Semites a justification for a Jew-hatred that has now spread over the four corners of the world. The irrational conclusion has been that if Israel is guilty, by proxy, all Jews are as well. This could lead to the whole world hating the Jews…but wait, isn’t there a prophecy in the Bible about that?

The prophet Zechariah wrote, “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.” (Zechariah 12:2-3). Mind you, this is a reference to the Campaign of Armageddon, and we are not there since this will be taking place during the final stretch of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 16:16, 19:19). Yet, we cannot afford to put our heads in the sand and ignore the signs of the times. None of this final chapter of mankind, hinging around Israel is going to happen in a vacuum, but rather, it will be progressive AND exponential. I believe that we are well on the way to that final Biblical curtain call, as the pressure is mounting against Jews worldwide. In the last week:

In a recent conversation with the Pope, Turkish president Erdogan declared, “All of humanity should be united against Israel.” I wonder if he had any idea of how Biblical he was when he made that outrageous statement?
Pro-Palestinian crowds gathered in Los Angeles and attacked Jewish diners as a result of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Pro-Palestinian crowds rallied in Westwood, CA demanding that Israel stop the airstrikes over the Gaza Strip. They didn’t ask for a ceasefire or for an end to the conflict, but just for Israel to stop defending itself.
In New York, Jewish people were attacked by pro-Palestinian passing cars who threw fireworks at them, screaming “F…ing Zionists”. One Jewish person was burned.
In Germany, people marched on the streets shouting “free Palestine for the Jordan to the sea” which is a euphemism for getting rid of all the Jews.
In London, a group of cars drove through a Jewish neighborhood screaming, “F… the Jews, rape their daughters.“
In Washington D.C., protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy and shouted “Free, Free Palestine” and declared that Israel had no right to exist.

As of this writing, Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. It is uncertain if that ceasefire will hold, but what is sure is that the hatred for Israel and the Jewish people seems to continue to grow on a global scale, preparing the way for an all-out war against the Jews. The Bible is clear, at some point, all the nations of the world will gather against Jerusalem, but that doesn’t mean that all people will follow suit. It is time for all Christians and people of goodwill to unite in rebellion against the real oppressor. For the last several decades, under the leadership of the new antisemitism, the Jews became the perpetrators, something that they never have been. Now is the time to reset our moral GPS because nobody in his right mind will find any moral equivalence between a country that uses weapons to defend its civilians and a group of people who uses civilians to hide their weapons.

Maybe the days of Zechariah 12:3 are closer than we think?

May 8, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

What are the Covenants, and are they really important to us?

When you build a house, you would never think of placing it on any kind of ground without a foundation. Obviously, any edifice that has stood the test of time has been built on a solid and steady foundation. Why should it be any different with the Word of God? If the Bible is true, and it is, it is dangerous to study it without a proper foundation. We can easily let our fingers wander on the pages of God’s counsel, not knowing where to rest or on what to safely stand. The result can be a shaky faith, a wrong faith, or no faith at all. So, how do we establish the firm foundation needed to support the building of our faith that will lead to our serving God and growing closer to Him? The answer starts with a proper understanding of the covenants of God.

A covenant is an agreement between several parties (usually two). It is a contract that obligates the parties signing it to adhere to its various stipulations. In a way, it creates boundaries and specific rules. If one of the parties breaks the covenant, the other party is no longer bound by it. Biblical covenants exist to do just that, they establish a specific relationship between God and those He chooses to ratify the covenants with. They also contain promises usually based on the adherence to the covenant, but not always by all parties. A proper understanding of the Covenants of God will help alleviate false theological positions such as Replacement Theology, Dual Covenant Theology, and Christian Palestinianism. The understanding of the covenants will also help us fight antisemitism.

There are eight covenants in the Bible: The Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Land, Davidic and New covenants. Some are there as a contract between God and mankind in general and others are there as a contract between God and Israel and the Jewish People in particular. The distinction is important to note. Some of the covenants are also connected to one another throughout mankind’s history.

Another critical aspect of these covenants is the fact that they can be conditional or unconditional. A conditional covenant is when God says to the other party, “if you will, then I will”. There is an expectation from God on the other party. God’s fulfilling His part–whatever it might be–depends on the other party fulfilling their part, which usually had something to do with obedience. An unconditional covenant is one where God simply says, “I will”. The contract exists between God and the other party, but its fulfillment depends only on God doing His part. In other words, an unconditional covenant is tightly connected to God’s character. Let’s review them one at a time. They are the necessary building blocks upon which we build our understanding and proper application of God’s Word in our lives. As we understand them, we will discover that they also are a guarantee from God to Israel and the whole world.

The Edenic Covenant: Between God and Adam (Representative of mankind) – Conditional and Temporary
The Edenic Covenant was ratified between God and Adam as a representative of mankind (Genesis 1:28-31). It was conditional, depending upon Adam and Eve’s obedience regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17): “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” As the story tells us in Genesis 3:1-8, Adam and Eve disobeyed as they followed the serpent’s temptation, and the first sin of mankind was committed. The rest is history, or should I say HIS story? Hosea 6:7 tells us, “But like Adam, they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.” The Edenic Covenant was short-lived and replaced by the Adamic Covenant.
The Adamic Covenant: Between God and Adam (Representative of mankind) – Unconditional and Eternal
The Adamic Covenant was made necessary as a result of the breaking of the Edenic Covenant. It shows how God dealt with the three guilty parties in the Edenic Covenant (Genesis 3:14-19). To the serpent (Satan), “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, and dust you will eat All the days of your life.” It is also in this passage that we read the very first messianic prophecy (Genesis 3:15) telling us of the animosity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Messiah).
God also punished the woman, “To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” and the man as well: Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. The Adamic Covenant is still very much in effect today.
The Noahic Covenant: Between God and Noah (Representative of mankind) – Unconditional and Eternal
The Noahic Covenant was ratified between God and Noah/Mankind (Genesis 9:1-17), “As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. I establish My covenant with you, and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” From Noah forward, meat consumption (without blood) is introduced. The sign of that covenant with mankind is the rainbow. As a result of the flood (which was never to occur again per God’s word to Noah), all humanity descended from Adam through Noah and his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. Capital punishment is also introduced at this time in history. The Noahic Covenant is also very much in effect today.

The next five covenants are all between God and the Jewish people and are all unconditional and eternal except for the Mosaic Covenant, which was conditional and temporary.

The Abrahamic Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The Abrahamic Covenant might be the most important Biblical covenant with the New Covenant. Failure to understand the Abrahamic Covenant, its parties and its provisions have led people to adopt faulty views such as Replacement Theology and Dual Covenant Theology. God started with a promise to Abram found in Genesis 12:1-3, “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” This is where the well-known promise of blessings for blessing Israel and the Jewish people and curses for cursing them appears. Additionally, in Genesis 15:17-21, where the actual covenant is ratified, we learn that only the Shechinah Glory of God passed through the split animals. It was only God who needed to ratify the covenant. While Abraham symbolically represents the Jewish People in this covenant, only God needed to walk through to ratify it; thus, making it impossible for Abraham or the Jewish people to break the covenant. This also makes the covenant both unconditional AND eternal. Furthermore, in that passage, God gives us the exact boundaries of Israel, “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring, I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Based on that passage, Biblical Israel should be about twice the size of Texas while it is currently about the size of New Jersey. Never in human history have these exact boundaries been fulfilled, but they will be during the millennial reign of Yeshua on earth from Jerusalem after the seven-year Tribulation. Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us that the land is not for the Jewish people, nowhere does it tell us it is Palestine, and nowhere does it tell us that it has been transferred to another people group. While it would seem this is simply rewriting biblical history, it’s actually rewriting scripture and Israel and the Jewish People’s past, present and future. This kind of “editing” makes God into a liar and covenant breaker. It is nothing short of Biblical history revisionism and it makes God into a liar and a covenant breaker. Notice that it is only the covenant between God and the Jewish people that some want to alter? The other covenants that God has with mankind, in general, are usually not an issue. The Abrahamic Covenant is also the foundation for the development of three other important covenants. The Land (Land), Davidic (Seed) and New (Blessing) Covenants. Additionally, the Abrahamic Covenant is reconfirmed through Isaac in Genesis 26:24, and through Jacob in Genesis 28:13-15; and again, through all of Jacob’s twelve sons in Genesis 49. The Abrahamic Covenant is still in effect today even though some of its provisions will not go into effect until the Millennial Kingdom.
The Mosaic Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Conditional and Temporary
The Mosaic Covenant is the only covenant that God made with the Jewish people that is conditional. Blessings hinge around the keeping of the Mosaic Law given to Moses at Sinai, not the 10 commandments written on tablets of stone, but the 613 mitzvot (commandments) of the Torah given to the children of Israel that span from Exodus 20:1 to Deuteronomy 28:68. A clear understanding of the blessings and curses attached to the Mosaic Covenant can be read in Deuteronomy 28, which is probably one of the clearest passages of the Torah where God tells Israel that He means business. One of the key elements of the Mosaic Law is the blood sacrifice as found in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.” Additionally, dietary restrictions (Biblical kosher laws) were introduced for Jewish people that didn’t exist for all making under the Noahic Covenant. The Sabbath was also formally introduced under this covenant. We must not forget that the Mosaic Law’s purpose was to show Israel that God’s idea of holiness cannot be attained by man, and thus the need for a redeemer to forgive our sins. It came to an end with the death of the Messiah (Romans 10:4; Ephesians 2:11-18).
The Land Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The Land Covenant used to be called the Palestinian Covenant, but since the word “Palestine” has been hijacked for political gain in the Middle East at the expense of Israel, it is better to call it the Land Covenant. We read about it in Deuteronomy 29:1, “These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.” This describes a Covenant different from the Mosaic Covenant. Some of its provisions are listed in Deuteronomy 30:1-10. The Land Covenant is especially important because it reaffirms that the title deed was given by God to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It also confirms that that deed was given to Israel unconditionally and was promised based on God’s character and never on Israel’s performance. In a sense, it further develops the land aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Bible promises a future restoration of Israel and the Jewish people into the Land. Ezekiel spoke of the return of the Jewish people to Israel in the last days and we can certainly say that we are living through that time right now. The Land Covenant is still in effect today.
The Davidic Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The Davidic Covenant is another development from the Abrahamic Covenant as it pertains to the seed aspect. From that perspective, the Davidic king that the Covenant introduces is really a descendant of King David, namely King Messiah Himself, Yeshua of Nazareth. We read about it in I Chronicles 17:10-14, “Moreover, I declare to you that the LORD will build you a house. When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’” The Covenant was made between God and King David who was promised an eternal dynasty (II Samuel 7:11, 16) and his kingdom would be established forever (II Samuel 7:13) and the Messiah would come from the seed of David (I Chronicles 17:11); and that finally, Messiah’s throne, house and kingdom will be established forever (I Chronicles 17:12-15). It is also an unconditional covenant and is still in effect today.
The New Covenant: Between God and the Jewish People – Unconditional and Eternal
The New Covenant is primarily found in Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” It was made between God and both the House of Israel and the House of Judah or all Israel (Jeremiah 31:31). And is clearly distinct from the Mosaic Covenant (Jeremiah 31:32) and it promises that Israel will be regenerated (Jeremiah 31:33) and their sins remembered no more (Jeremiah 31:34). The New Covenant contains the Law of Messiah (Romans 8:2; Galatians 6:2.) with many of the same commandments repeated, some annulled and some amplified by Messiah. The New Covenant develops the blessing aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, particularly as it pertains to salvation. Many have tried to view the New Covenant allegorically and thus transfer it to the Church, but it was never so, if you take God’s Word literally. This would make the Christians the new recipients of the blessings as the new owners, but Scripture goes as far as describing Gentile Christians as partakers of the blessings, but never new owners. It is made clear in Romans 11:17-18, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.” The Church is reaping the spiritual blessings of these covenants while Israel alone gets to benefit from the physical blessings such as the land.

Much more could be said about the eight covenants of the Bible. Their proper study and application will help believers find their place in God’s program for the ages. Just like nobody would dare build a house with no foundation or put the third floor up before the second floor, we ought to understand the place of the covenants in God’s program, the proper recipients of the covenants, if they are eternal or temporary, and if they are conditional or unconditional. Anything less cripples our ability to properly understand God’s counsel. In essence, the eight covenants of the Bible form the blueprints for God’s program for mankind.

Subscribe to our Daily Devotions

Archived Articles

Tags