Runaway Bride

The New blood Covenant: Christ's Church 

Runaway Bride

Excerpts from my theses:   

by Donna Braman, Minister of Education

CHRISTIAN REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY


     From the beginning of the early church with the apostles, right up into the 1960’s in America the church of Jesus Christ has been a powerful force that has influenced social change, government structures as well as restoring family values, and converting lost souls. The church builds community, state and nation with morals based on the word of God.  We will see in this study that a nation which removes God and biblical principles loses its character.  The only way to rebuild a nation is to come back into covenant with God and that takes a Spiritual Awakening and a restorationism and reform in the church.  


     We are going to look at the history of the church and how in certain periods when the church became legalistic and institutionalized societies went down hill.  Those have been the times that Christians rose up and rejected the schisms or cracks that affected the church, and reformation of the church took place returning to the early church doctrine. These were powerful movements by the Holy Spirit that occurred in different time periods that give a clear historical view of the legalistic church and shows the true church of Christ.


The Church of the Apostolic Age And The Division By Emperer Constantine


     Lets take a look at the make-up of the church in the 1st century, from 33 AD to 70 AD.
It is credited to the Apostle Paul and Peter that salvation was given to the Gentiles.  There were disagreements about circumcism, the Jewish covenant God had created with Abraham, and animal sacrifice in the Mosaic covenant.  Paul made it plain that the new blood covenant made moot prior blood covenants.


     The dispute resulted in the convening of the Council of Jerusalem which was headed by Peter.  In that council it was determined and agreed upon that the non-Jews would not have to be converted to certain portions of the Mosiac Law which also included circumcision.  Paul wanted to make sure that Salvation was not given with the intention of works but that it is by Grace that we become righteous, and good works is a by-product of  righteousness, not the other way around.  So basically the council decided that the Gentiles would follow the 7 Noahide Laws.  Circumcision, animal sacrifice, dietary laws and cleansing laws were omitted in their freedom in the Christian faith.


     The church makeup was Messianic Jews, Gentiles and Greeks.  All of the church leaders and apostles were born Jews.  Cornelius was the first Gentile apostle.  The Gentiles did not become leaders of the church until 70 more apostles had been added after Paul began building the church in Jerusalem and carrying the gospel to other regions.  The scripture which was taught and used for the early church was the Torah and the books of the prophets. The new testament was not produced until around 95 AD.


     The Sabbath and the Holy Feasts were observed by the early church.  Prayer shawls were worn during prayer by the non-Jews as well.  It is very clear that the Christian faith has strong roots to the Jewish way of life.  It was called the Judeo-Christian Church.  There was, for the most part, harmony in the leadership of the Apostolic church with the combination of the Messianic Jews and the Gentiles.  They had a common goal, preaching the gospel, in spite of the persecution by Nero, the Roman  Emperor. 


     In 70 AD Nero banished the  Messianic Jews and Christians from Jerusalem and they went into hiding for a time. In spite of the death of Stephen, James, Peter and Paul the church survived.  There is actually a remnant that descended from these Judeo-Christians in Jerusalem today. They make up1% of Jerusalem’s population today. That number is increasing again with the 12 lost tribes being returned to Israel and being indoctrinated with the Messianic-Christian faith.


     The church was officially established on the Day of Pentecost, Acts 2:5-11.  Present that day were devout men from every nation under the heavens…Parthians, Medes, Elamites, regions from parts of Iran, Mesopatomia, Judea, Cappodocia, Pontus, Greece and Turkey as well as Arabians.  The church spread initially in the East, ultimately becoming the state religion of Armenia between 301 AD  and 314 AD, in Ethiopia in 305 AD, of Georgia in 317AD, and then the state religion of the Roman Empire in 325 AD.


     By the 15th to 17th centuries Christianity had expanded throughout the world becoming the world’s largest religion.  It had survived two schisms, theological disputes and resulted in many Christian denominations sprouting up with the largest branch being the Roman Catholic and later Protestant Churches.


     In spite of doctrinal differences and worship styles, all Christian Churches believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, that he began his ministry at age 30, that he was a healer, miracle worker and the son of God.  All believe he was executed by the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate and that after his crucifixion he was buried and in 3 days was resurrected and appeared to many people and descended into heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father.


    The resurrection is the basis and historical evidence of the Christian faith.  All Christian faiths believe he will return for his church, the body of Christ, as he promised. That he will raise the dead, sit in the Great White Throne Judgment seat, and will establish his Kingdom on earth.  All Christian faiths believe in the Trinity with the exception of the Johovah Witnesses, Unitarians, and the 7th Day Adventist.


     The Christian faith is based on the 4 gospels and to a lesser extent the Acts of the Apostles and Paul’s epistles, along with other writings of the disciples, and that Jesus became the atonement sacrifice for the redemption of all mankind; that through the shedding of his blood we are reconciled back to the Creator of the Universe.


     After the ascension of Constantine the Great, the Emperor of Rome in 313 AD to the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the Christian Church became the official church of  Rome.  Now we have two distinct phases of the church, the Apostolic period and the post Apostolic period.  The first was organized by the council of Jerusalem by the Apostles, the second became the first Episcopal structure and priests and bishops governed the church.


     After Constantine legalized Christianity as Rome's official religion all Jews were expelled from the church, making Judiasm separate from Christianity.  Constantine retained some Jewish doctrine while rejecting others.  He held the Torah as the sacred scripture, however translations were altered and new decrees made to cause even more division between Jews and Christians.  Constantine also changed God’s calendar (God's order) which made it impossible to determine God’s seasons, feasts and cycles, therefore interrupting unity with Christians in their relationship with the Creator.


    Baptism, liturgical worship, incense, an altar, scripture readings from Synagogue practice, sacred music and an exclusive male priesthood and fasting was maintained during his reign as Emperor.  Times and dates were altered for the Sabbath as well as the three appointed feasts that God commands us to come before him.  These appointed times were rejected at the first council of Nicea.


     High Holy Holidays were excluded and pagan holidays were established like Easter, Christmas, New Years and Pagan idols used to celebrate these new Christian holidays.  Before that,  the Judeo Christians adhered to all Jewish practices, except ritual atonement and circumcision, since in the new blood covenant circumcision was made in the heart and Jesus had become the final blood sacrifice for atonement. He became our new and only High Priest.


     The Messianic period ended with Constantine, never to surfice again until this last generation we are presently in.  We have had a re-emergence of the Judeo Christians (Messianics)  in the last twenty years or so.  This has brought about a Christian/Jewish revival in the world, which was prophesied to happen in the books of Revelation, Daniel and Exekiel.


     The church fell into a schism of false teaching during the Constantine period that has had profound and lasting affects on the Christian church.  The early church had survived only to become a legal institution; the very thing Jesus had rebuked the Pharisees for doing. Constantine was very delusional about who Jesus really was. He didn't care about the gospel, he cared about power and control over the masses that were Christians and having a legalistic control over the people.


     Constantine had a picture of  Jesus painted making him look more Roman than a Hebrew. He did not want to protect the church Jesus had come define.  He had the same motives that the Pharisees had; he wanted to be worshipped and rule over the church.  The very thing that Jesus had come to set us free from had been reinstituted laying a heavy burden and yoke upon the people, stripping us of the freedom from bondage Christ’s scourging and blood had given us.  We were right back at works (the law) instead of mercy and grace.


     There are no documentation of just when Constantine took to the idea of Jesus but he was influenced by his mother Helen who was a converted Christian. It may have occurred over a period of time in his life.  Constantine tells of an event right before going into battle in Milian Bridge that won him victory and the title of Emporor.  He describes that right before the battle he saw a cross silhouetted behind the sun.


     Constantine was a pagan that was indoctrinated with the worship of the Sun Goddess.  He loved archutecture and built Cathedrals in Constantiople, the capital he decreed over Rome, which is today Turkey.  In the tundra of these Cathedral’s were the paintings of the Sun Goddess.  You can see this same idol in some of the oldest Catholic Cathedral’s in Turkey and England.   In the Nicene creed Constantine declares the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. He was just another mere man trying to be bigger than God.  Helenization era had begun.  Idolatry became the norm in Christianity because the worship of idols set up by Constantine and idolizing the Sun Goddess was built into his pagan holidays.




The Structure of the Orthodox Church


     The initial duty of the Bishops in the early Catholic church was to return order to the Christian church.  The Roman Catholic church is rooted in the Constantine doctrine, although they deny that.  Apologist Bishops such as Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr and Polycarp, and the Nicolaitans became the first group of false prophets. Jesus referred to such false teachers that would come in Mark 13:21-23 and Mat. 13:25-30, also in Mat. 13:36-43.  Jesus clearly tells us how distorted they are about his church and we are to reject these heresays and false doctrine.


      Justin Martyr was a most interesting so-called bible scholar of the pagans.  He believed Daniel’s times, and times and a half, meant 150 years.  He believed the angels were god’s, such as those who appeared to Abraham, Moses and Jacob. He had no discernment or foreshadowing of Christ in the old testament as we have today.  He believed Jesus was suborninate to God and a separate divinity; that he was not God come in the flesh.  He had no knowledge of the book of John, Hebrews or Revelation since they did’nt become a part of the cannon until around 140 AD.  So you can see how his knowledge would have been greatly diminished in determining what diety Jesus was or his knowledge of the AntiChrist.




THE COUNCIL OF NICEA


Further distortions occurred at the council of Nicea.  The council was called to convene by Constantine when he saw different doctrines being taught that contradicted each other.  The main doctrine which was disputed was who Jesus was. A total of 250 pagan Bishops which Constantine had appointed showed up.  All Bishops who did not adopt the thinking of the Niccean Creed were exiled.  Three of them disagreed and were exiled. The Arian group was one of them. So, it's quite clear that this meeting of Nicea was staged and manipulated.


      Some present in the meeting believed Jesus was human and divine, but separate from the Father.  The creed that was finally adopted into law concerning the divineness of Jesus reflected the  Apostles' description of him; that he was human and an eternal deity of the God head. They never mentioned the Holy Spirit in the council of Nicea, but God the father and the son, and the Holy Spirit are eternal and equal with God in deity and divinity that make up the trinity.


     The issue of the Jewish calendar came up concerning the Passover in the council of Nicea. They argued that they no longer wanted to go by the Jewish Lunar Calendar because the Jews had it all wrong.  Furthermore, Constantine stated that he would no longer seek out advise from the Jewish/Christians. That decision forever separated the Jews from Christianity and robbed us of the Jewishness of our Savior.   This was the greatest schism ever done to the Apostolic church because Jesus made it clear the Jew came first and that our salvation comes from the Jews.


     God gave his eternal word, his seasons and cycles, his appointed times, to the Jews.  For instance, a day with God according to Genesis begins at sunset and ends the following sunset.  God operates on the Lunar moon which is the timing, seasons and life cycles Jews operate on.  So to change that and begin operating by the sun was a slap in the face to God and distorted the order of his creation. It took us further away from understanding God and his order.


     After the Nicean Creed, Constantine also rejected all Jewish Holidays and feasts even changing the Sabbath beginning time from Friday at sunset to Sunday at sunrise. The order of prayer service was radically changed. They rejected the prayer shawl (Talit) being worn during prayer and refused to kneel during prayer liturgy. A practice that Jesus faithfully observed and honored.


    During the council of Nicea the cannons of the new testament had been completed but was not referred to throughout the whole session to determine what the bible says about the church and the body of Christ. The new testament was completed by 95AD, however, the books were not compiled into a cannon until 160 AD.  The books of John, 111 John, 11 Peter, James, Hebrews and Revelation were heavily debated and was not made a part of the cannon until 200 AD. They were not widely accepted until the middle of the 2nd century.  A full articulation of the Gospel Cannons were not made for circulation and print until 1546 in the council of Trent. For the Roman Catholic Church in England.


     The diocese was structured at that time to organize boundaries and governmental territories and became the legalized religion of England.  The church was ruled by the Diosese from the Pope in Rome.  The Roman Catholic Church is an institution that we all have to reckon with in order to sort out misguided Christianity and to see again the real roots and truth of our faith and who the real Jewish Jesus was and his disciples.  The Catholic decree asserts that the Catholic church is the only church of Christ passed on to them by the Apostle Peter and that they are the only body of Christ. The Catholic church felt it had a God given right in the universal jurisdiction of the church during this Gregorian reform. The Catholic church so stated this position in the Vatican council of 1870.


     Even more cracks and fractures of the first church occurred in a chain of events through political and theological events after power of the church went back to Rome after Constanople was ditched. It really came down to a fight between the Latins and the Greeks of who would have control of the Church. The Eastern Orthodoxy disagreed with this saying, St. Peter’s church could never be the exclusive right to any one Pope. It eventually gave primacy to the Roman Church but not supremacy.


     The Eastern Oththodox Church refused to accept fully the Nicean creed of the Trinity.  So in short, the balance between the three persons of the Trinity was altered and the three God heads of the Trinity confused.


     The Catholic church had spread to Ireland by St. Patrick, a diocese Bishop and then to the America’s by Columbus.  This begins the Anglo – Saxon period.  They were ruled by Rome, and St Augustine who was a pagan that had converted to Christianity in 1453.


     England had full authority over it diosese with only an honorary respect for the Vatican.  The church had become a part of the Government and enforced by it.  The Catholic church taught that the essence of God could not be known in this life.  So the church had become a bunch of rituals that could’nt save a cat and was nothing but a social and moral dictatorship that not even they could live, and still can't to this present day.


     After the discovery of the New World in 1492 a Protestant Reformation occurred in 1515.  It was called the Great Spiritual Reformation.  I can see now why the settlers of the new world felt oppressed because the church had become everything that Christ had come to free us from.




THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 1492-1769


     Martin Luther was the first to reform the church in America.  He considered the root of corruption to be doctrinal rather than moral weakness.  He set out to put Christ’s doctrines back into the church so the people could receive the “true gospel”.  The word Protestant means in Latin, declaration of the gospel.  But to us Christians in America it means good news and freedom through the blood of Christ and not papable to the law or government.  In the early America’s the word Protestant was not used, the term used was evangilical.  In Greek it means emphasizing the “return to the true gospel.”


     Angelican traditions still remained at that time and rejected this reform.  Calvinism rejected the tenants of the council of Jerusalem and who Jesus was. They believed Jesus was human and a single diety separate from God.  Calvinism persisted in the new world and John Calvin’s belief in Predestination.  It was called the doctrine of the “Elect”.  The most important theological position that Calvin took was his formulation of the predestination doctrine.


      Since God knew the future did that mean that salvation was predestined?  That is, do human beings have choice in the matter?  Or did God make the Salvation decision for each of us before the beginning of time?  The Protestant churches reformed by Luther believed that God had not predestined salvation for individuals.  Salvation was in part the product of human choice.  Calvin on the other hand, built his reformed church on the concept that Salvation was not a choice but was predecided by God.  This concept would become the basis of civil society and later political society of Europe. It somewhat trickled into the Americas.


     The first protestant churches in America were the Lutherans, named after Martin Luther and the Presbyterians.  Luther’s belief was that justification came through Christ only and not of good works, rather that good works was a by product of righteousness through the blood of Christ.  He believed that is the only way we are made right with God.  The Catholics believed righteousness came through a progression of faith and good works.  Luther had it right because the Catholics were really saying you could become righteous on your own through sacraments, faith and works.  But Christ says we are made right and justified through his blood and belief in Him.  In other words, Christ gives merit to those who otherwise are without merit.  So that kind of shoots the predestination theory out of the water.


     At the same time Luther was reforming the church the Catholic church of England was reforming and denying any part of the Roman church and thus started the Puritan era in the council of Trent. This was the Catholic sector of Puritans that came to America.  It was during this period in 1545-1563 that the council of Trent began.   The Catholics established the Catechism and rejected the Protestant reformation.  The church began to fight to regain Europe which had significantly turned Prostestant.  They enacted celibacy and the 7 sacraments, the bread and wine sacrament and they sanctified the virgin Mary.  They reinstated the belief that both faith and good works were necessary for salvation.


     The Roman Catholic church established a number of missions in the America’s to spread Christianity to the new world and to convert the indigenous peoples.  The Puritans however did little to evangelize the native peoples and although they came to America to get away from religious suppression they became frustrated that the colony governments would not enforce their religious beliefs.  It was sort like taking the people out of Egypt but were'nt able to take Egypt out of the people.


CHURCH OF ENLIGHTENMENT
THE GREAT AWAKENING
1720 – 1769




     In this period the Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist were developed along with the Lutheran movement. John Wesley and other Spiritualist preachers were popping up in America especially during 1730-1740.  They emphasized Godly living, sin and redemption by Christ. The gospel was being preached again.  Revivals broke out.  It caused a restoration of the church that resembled more of the Apostolic church and it began the holiness movement.  This great awakening traveled through out the world.  Pentecostals became prominent after the 1906 Azusa Street Pentecost which was the second great awakening. The Pentecostal is a branch from the Methodist and Wesleyan church.


     The church of the great awakening reconstructed to align back up with the Book of Acts.  They did not call themselves reformist because they differed from the existing Catholic church and reconstructed the early church from the time of Jesus.  This was the restoration of the church that they believed was lost from the Constantine era. Repentance was preached again and Holy Spirit moved upon the church. If you get a chance read the sermon from John Edwards, An Angry God, do so for it is a chilling sermon and during this sermon the Holy Spirit fell on the place and one woman actually grabbed hold of a pole in the sanctuary because she thought the Holy Spirit was going to bodily lift her.  Edwards made hell real and the Holy Spirit fell upon the church again and people began to swoon and fall when listening to his sermons.  It wouldn't hurt a few of our churches to be reawakened to the Holy Spirit and have a new fear of hell and the second coming of Christ which is at our door. I believe we will see the apostolic church re-emerge and we will see healings and miracles in our midst.


See additional facts on First Great Awakening – Johnathan Edwards and George Whitfield
Second Great Awakening
Third Great Awakening
Fourth Great Awakening