Covenant of Grace: Faith to the Promise

By T. L. Means

The Bible speaks about Jesus’s birth, death, resurrection, and ascension as the gospel of salvation, generally occurring between 9 BC to AD 30. As Christians, connecting the dots from Jesus’ death helps us understand the chronological starting point of the dispensation of grace. To know Christ’s life events, we need to follow customs and traditions involving the Jewish culture. In Covenant of Grace, author T. L. Means details the years mentioned, clarifying the final seven years of the Bible, as explained through the Jewish feasts.
He answers many question and make arguments based on factual constructive criticism, such as:
• What do we know about dates in the Bible?
• Are there different calendar systems used to form a chronological order of events?
• Is it God’s will for us to know how the final years will begin and end without the repercussion of being judged by God?
Truth from the word of God allows us to justify its reality of biblical truth from historical events. There is probable cause in every circumstance of life. The root of it is either grounded in facts of truth or it is left in the challenge of probable truth without circumstantial evidence. Covenant of Grace embarks on scholarly research to find sourced evidence about the cause and effect of life’s truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664259867

T. L. Means

T. L. Means has found faith through grace to overcome physical challenges. He is grateful to people placed in his path who offered accommodations to help him see success during his academic studies. The theology and biblical knowledge gained guides him to transition profound thoughts from essentials within unity, nonessentials at liberty, and, in everything said, in love. His life belongs to the Lord as God directs him within the everlasting covenant of grace.

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ISBN: 978-1-6642-5987-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5988-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-5986-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022904155

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/19/2023

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English

Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry

of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982

by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living

Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale

House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1     Covenant Beginnings

Chapter 2     Foundational and Historical Years

Chapter 3     Historical and Instructional Years

Chapter 4     Time of Silence

Chapter 5     Precedents of Scripture

Chapter 6     Synoptic View

Chapter 7     Conflict of the Ages

Chapter 8     Dunamis Connection

Chapter 9     Christianity on the Rise

Chapter 10   Marriage and a Feast

DEDICATION

Foremost, I give thanks to our heavenly Father for the many years of my life in his Son, Jesus Christ. I am honored that the Holy Spirit would use someone like me to bring a compilation together that will edify the body of Christ and bring glory to our triune God. To my family that has encouraged me to see a book in print, it gives me pleasure to bring them closer to their Father in heaven from their father’s writings here on earth.

I am incredibly grateful for my wife, my soulmate and sister in Christ, for her support through my years during undergraduate and master’s studies. Her prayers for me have pulled me through many rough periods from my disabilities. She is the better part of my world, and I could not imagine my life without her. Thank you, my love, from the heavenly Father above.

To my friends that have discussed and debated parts of some of the content, I thank you for your input and encouragement toward a published work. You all are a gift from God and a wonderful blessing from the Lord Elohim!

But the love of the LORD remains forever with

those who fear him. His salvation extends to the

children’s children of those who are faithful to his

covenant, of those who obey his commandments!

—Psalm 103:17–18 (NLT)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Greek style in the Textus Receptus writing of the King James Version (KJV) and New King James Version (NKJV) are formal word-for-word scripture. The English Standard Version (ESV) writing is from the most accurate meaning of Greek known as eclectic style and is also word-for-word Bible. The New Living Translation (NLT) is a functional writing of the word of God and is not word for word. The down-to-earth eclectic translation of NLT mostly used among modern followers of the faith. Throughout the pages within my book, Covenant of Grace, there are changes made to scripture. Grammar is important, and an annotation will be added in the footnote as it pertains to what changed. The footnote change will read "Original entry (to) changed entry" and denotes a modification. The content meaning of the scripture will remain unchanged.

INTRODUCTION

The Word of God is forever alive, and it extends God the Father, speaking through God the Son (the Word made flesh) in the power of God, the Spirit (Comforter and Teacher) of the faithful. God is working through his church to present truth, and it is our God-fearing responsibility to render the clearest meaning of the revelation of Jesus Christ and the end-time events.

The Bible speaks about Jesus’s birth, death, resurrection, and ascension as the gospel of salvation. The question of when any of these events occurred seems to be between 9 BC to AD 30. As Christians, connecting the dots from Jesus’s death can help us understand the chronological starting point of the dispensation of grace. To know Christ’s life events, we need to follow customs and traditions involving the Jewish culture. The pages within my book will detail the years mentioned. The research on the acceptable year of the Lord will bring clarity to the final seven years of the Bible, as explained through the Jewish feasts.

Many questions need answers, such as, what do we know about dates in the Bible? Are there different calendar systems used to form a chronological order of events? Is it God’s will for us to know how the final years will begin and end without the repercussion of being judged by God? These questions have always been on my mind. They are legitimate, and I make the arguments for the case based on factual, constructive criticism. Each argument will be addressed from a probable cause that transpires into a probable truth or absolute truth.

Truth from the word of God allows for us to justify its reality of biblical truth from historical events. The reality is unlike science that proves something false before it can become a truth. In a world of lost sinners, an act of faith is needed for the truth of God’s love to reveal the absolute truth. There is probable cause in every circumstance of life. The root of it is either grounded in facts of truth or it is left in the challenge of probable truth without circumstantial evidence. The mention of God was an abstract view, until Jesus came into our world and made God concrete in every aspect of who God is, as I am. My book embarks on scholarly research to find sourced evidence about the cause and effect of life’s truth.

I will present doctrinal topics that should concern every believer of faith. Jesus gave direction to his people by saying, Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.¹ My studies involved in preparing this book followed strict adherence to the word of God, by not adding to or taking from the prophecy of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This book aims to reveal each content considering customs and traditions found in Jewish culture and their opposing forces. Ultimately, traditions and cultures waded through a wide river on a principled bridge to reach the other side where an understanding of the biblical context transcended in the here and now of our time. This book’s background critiques the text involved based on precedents in foundational (directional), historical, and instructional biblical accounts. The many years engaged in the manuscript compilation were well worth the outcome of the knowledge from each prayer to understand the wisdom derived from the Word of God.

1

COVENANT BEGINNINGS

TESTAMENTS OF GRACE

An artist without canvas has no way to paint a picture, and the same applies when a person brings a compilation of characters into an organized format to create a published work. The word of God is our foundation when establishing a precedent of understanding about what the Lord is conveying. The material must make sense! God’s word took on the form of flesh, and Jesus, as our Prophet, teaches us how to hear and understand what God is trying to say about his covenant of grace.

There are writing methods that must apply, or the manuscript will not be comprehensible. Setting a standard allows for the anthology to flow with greater understanding. The public domain quote from the early years of AD 1600 came from Rupertus Meldenius and Marcus Antonio de Dominis, and it says in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas and means in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity. The Bible is the inspired word of God, and the different topics within it may offer unity in some parts, but in other aspects, we find liberty of interpretation. Hopefully, people will apply charity when they either agree or disagree with written material content, especially concerning biblical matters.

The essential doctrines from the Bible include the position on Jesus’s birth, water baptism, death, resurrection, empowerment, and ascension. Topics such as the Creation and the eschatology of Jesus Christ are nonessential. The reason is that studying the Bible finds a six-thousand-year gap from the beginning of time to now, and the future is yet to come. That said, we must lean on charity to find common ground to find an understanding of scripture. For this reason, there are commentaries with an extractive view from interpretations that involve people with or without academic degrees. Having extensive education does not mean that a schooled person knows God’s word compared to a person without formal education. Comments made by a person about scripture do not mean it is the correct meaning.

A few scholars are wise because they fear the Lord, and their commentaries offer true believers a deeper understanding of the revelation of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, I believe that it is a person’s responsibility to seek the scriptures’ correct meaning. On the other, I believe in defining scripture in the real spiritual sense, which is illuminated by the Holy Spirit alone. The religious people confronted Jesus about his knowledge, and he responded that his understanding came from heaven above. I sometimes wonder why interpreting scripture stumps educated people. All it takes to receive the depths of God’s understanding is to allow the Holy Spirit to give the enlightenment.

The basic concept of understanding and interpreting the flow of the Bible works through the various correlations between the Old and New Testaments. After all, the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed as the New Testament revealed Old Testament. The first five books of the Old Testament are the foundational flow of thoughts. The same applies to the first four books of the New Testament, which are also foundational. The books of Joshua through Solomon’s writings are historical. The same holds for the narrative of Acts that accounts for past events in the New Testament. The Old Testament’s remaining books as the major and minor prophetic writings are instructional. The same applies to some of the New Testament that is an instructional section that comprises Romans through Revelation.

The Old Testament historical accounts and the reinforcement of them apply to instruct God’s people to remember where the intent of the foundational thought began. The New Testament scripture context of a passage is vital to its interpretation of what God says to a person. The Old Testament accounts are relative to the revelation of Jesus Christ. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are higher than our ways. The meaning of scripture is not complete until the topic matter determines the context to which the text applies. The pretext is a text without context that most often becomes an extracted view rather than clarity of the passage. Knowledge leads to understanding that gives us skills to become wise as we put into practice what we came to know and understand about the Lord. God’s grace needs the whole meaning that renders our lives to understand all he has promised through faith.

The grace of God existed before, during, and after the intertestamental years, and God’s grace in his eternal way helps to measure the thoughts and intents of a person’s heart. The kingdom of God in our hearts impresses the Lord’s image in us, and we express his likeness as we live in the covenant through progressive revelation.

God’s grace was always in the beginning as he worked through his chosen people to evangelize his