The Culmination of God's New Covenant of Grace

By Ben R. Cleveland

God's New Covenant of Grace was first published in the author's local newspaper in 1986-1987 as a weekly column. There was mixed interest in the column with most of the opposition coming from the professional clergy. Concerned with the negativity of the clergy, h

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Oct 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684862672

Book preview

Title Page

The Culmination of God’s New Covenant of Grace

Copyright © 2022 by Ben R. Cleveland. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

1603 Capitol Ave., Suite 310 Cheyenne, Wyoming USA 82001

1-888-980-6523 | [e-mail]

URLink Print and Media is committed to excellence in the publishing industry.

Book design copyright © 2022 by URLink Print and Media. All rights reserved.

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917908

ISBN 978-1-68486-265-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-266-5 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-267-2 (Digital)

20.09.22

Contents

Chapter 1: The Wheat and the Tares

A Field of Good Wheat

There Are Tares among the Wheat

Cultivation of Wheat Is Most Important

To Every Field, a Harvest

Chapter 2: Sowing in New Fields

The New, Rather Than the Old

Renewing the Fallow Ground

The Intimidation of Unfamiliarity

Fundamental Prerequisites—Faith and Vision

Chapter 3: The Institutional Church

The Institutional Church Defined

The Institutional Church Has its Wheat

Tares in the Institutional Church

The Institutional

The Institutional Church— It’s Time to Sow New Fields

The Institutional

Chapter 4: One God of Christianity

God the Father

God the Son

God the Holy Spirit

A Personal God to Every Christian

Chapter 5: The Old Covenant of Law

A Physical Covenant with Physical People

A Covenant Based on

A Covenant of Types and Shadows

An Imperfect Covenant

A Terminal Covenant

Chapter 6: The New Covenant of Holy Spirit

A Spiritual Covenant with Spiritual People

A Covenant Based on Love, Grace, and Mercy

A Covenant of Fulfillment

A Perfect and Permanent Covenant

Chapter 7: Three-fold Purpose of the Church

Profitable for Doctrine

Profitable for Reproof

Profitable for Correction

Profitable for Instruction in Righteousness

Chapter 8: The Scope and Function of the Church

An Introduction to God’s Church in the Earth

The Church of the Old Covenant Was National in Scope

The Church of the Old Covenant Functionally Was Purely Physical and Material

The Church of the New Covenant Is Individual in Scope

The Church of the New Covenant Functionally is Purely Spiritual

Chapter 9: The Home and the Church, a Parallel

The Home and the Church

The Miracle of Conception

The Miracle of Birth and Infancy

From Infancy to Maturity

The Goal of Maturity

The True Christian Perspective on Spiritual Maturity

More on Maturity

The Relationships of Maturity

God’s preordained plan for the home and the church

Chapter 10: Gift Ministries to the Church

Validation of Gift Ministries

The Ministry of the Apostle

The Ministry of the Prophet

Parental Responsibilities of Gift Ministries

Parental Privileges of Gift Ministries

Chapter 11: Required Qualifications of Every Church Minister

Morality Qualifications of Every Church Minister

Mastery Qualifications of Every Church Minister

Maturity Qualifications of Every Church Minister

Chapter 12: The Two Classifications of All Church Ministers

Institutional Church

Holy Spirit Appointed

The Office of Bishops

The Position of Deacons

Chapter 13: Professionalism in the Institutional Church

Is Christian Professionalism Scripturally Sound?

How About Professional Parents?

Of Shepherds and Hirelings

The Foster Parent

The Patriarchal

God’s Design for Parental Gift Ministry

Peripheral Professionals of the Institutional Church

Chapter 14: The Christian Concept of Giving

Giving Is a Judeo-Christian Concept

What Do We Give?

To Whom Do We Give?

How Much Do We Give?

The Law of the Tithe

The Widow’s Two Mites

As God Hath Prospered

As a Man Purposes in His Heart

As a Man Purposes in His Heart—Continued

Sub Chapter 10: God’s Church—A Giver, not a Consumer

Chapter 15: The Essence of Unity

Unity—A Godly Characteristic

Sameness—A False Concept of Unity

Unity Is in a Spiritual Organism, Not in an Ecclesiastical Organization

Unity—A Harmonious Interaction of Multiple Functions

Chapter 16: Bible Study—Feeding the Spiritual Nature

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Part 1 (2 Timothy 2:15)

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Part 2 (2 Timothy 2:15)

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Part 3 (2 Timothy 2:15)

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Part 4 (2 Timothy 2:15)

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Part 5 (2 Timothy 2: 15)

Introduction

The Culmination of God’s New Covenant of Grace is, first of all, an exposition of the truth that over the past two thousand years, the simple yet spiritually effective New Testament church of Jesus Christ has morphed from a living and powerful organism of the first century into a complex, complicated, in-effective, and essentially powerless organizational and institutional church of the twenty-first century. Stated differently, it is an exposé of several ways the enemy of the kingdom of God has slipped in as we members of the church of the last two millennia have slept, and how he and his demons have sown tares—more and more as the centuries have passed—into the church, the field of good wheat.

References made to the church of the twenty-first century in this exposition are to many, many of the highly visible churches we find on the street corners of America and the Western world. These references do not implicate the rare churches in America and the Western world and those churches that are even more commonly found among third-world countries that more closely live and function as did the New Testament church, faithfully following the daily leading of the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, The Culmination of God’s New Covenant of Grace presents expositions on several specific and important doctrines within the church of Jesus Christ that have been adversely affected in particular by these tares of doctrinal error, misinterpretations, or misunderstandings that have been sown during the past twenty centuries. These doctrinal deviations are followed by corrections of and resolutions to the adverse effects that the tares sown have had on each doctrinal position.

I am keenly aware that there are detractors to some or all the doctrinal deviation exposés and to the solutions and resolutions presented, just as the Jewish leaders of Jesus’s day opposed the new principles and precepts of the New Covenant as presented by Jesus and the apostles. Let this be clear! With this statement, no presumption or implication exists that I am comparing myself in any way to Jesus or the apostles. However, there is a correlation in that these expositions, as well as the solutions and resolutions, may appear to be new and unscriptural to many readers. But if we let the Holy Spirit preside and fully reveal his truth, all will be well!

Even though a number of scriptural references have been selected in support of certain doctrinal statements presented, I have chosen to list only a minimal number of supporting scriptures, hoping to encourage the reader to search the scriptures to see if these things be so (Acts 17:11). It is probable that those readers not accepting the statements made will not bother to search; however, if any or all statements made does arouse your interest, it is my assertion that numerous supporting scriptures can be found by such a searching of the scriptures.

Chapter

1

The Wheat and the Tares

A Field of Good Wheat

Every Christian, whether a minister or a layperson, or every Christian organization, whether a denomination, nondenomination, interdenomination, fundamentalists, evangelicals, charismatics, all protestants, and Catholics—you name it—if any individual or organization confesses and claims the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9–10; 1 John 4:2–3), then that person or group is spiritually and symbolically a field of good wheat, but mixed with tares! To be realistic and fair, we must recognize that the great variety of wheat fields growing in the kingdom of God has vastly differing ratios of wheat to tares. Naturally, every person and every organization are certain that their field is 99 and 44/100 percent wheat, with only a negligible number of tares. Actually, however, there is a much larger percentage of tares in all our fields than we allow ourselves to recognize. The tares represent error in all forms: sin(s), traditions of men, forms of godliness without power, etc.—all that is opposed, intentionally or ignorantly, to the principles of God’s eternal kingdom. The wheat, on the other hand, is the truth of God, which bears the good fruit of the kingdom of God.

How do these tares get into the fields of wheat? But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way (Matthew 13:25). All tares are sown by the archenemy of God and the mortal enemy of our souls, and they are sown—uh-oh— while we sleep! Except for Satan, that old devil, there would be no tares to be sown.

With the beginning of each new genuine Christian experience, whether it is a newborn babe in Christ or a newly founded Christian church, a new field comes into being, ready to be plowed, harrowed, and otherwise prepared to receive good seed. Make no mistake about it. God in all three persons looks favorably and lovingly on each new field, seeing the fruitful potential of the wheat to be sown and finally harvested. Any person, Christian or non-Christian, walks dangerously and carelessly when he or she considers critically or with disfavor other fields in the kingdom of God. We are responsible to God for preparing, sowing, and properly cultivating our own fields, not the fields of others. Matthew 7:3 could just as easily be rendered, Why do you look [critically] at the scattered patches of tares in your brother’s wheat field, but do not consider the infestation of tares in your own field?

The wheat fields of other Christians and other church orders do indeed have their share of tares, but so does yours, and so does mine! Let us all together have grateful and thankful hearts that our God loves the wheat in all our fields and waits patiently until the harvest to deal with the tares! And let us all resolve, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to do the same.

There Are Tares among the Wheat

If all the wheat fields of Christianity are indeed infested with tares, why don’t we just simply pull up and destroy the tares? This is a simple enough solution. Isn’t this how we deal with all the unwanteds in our lives?

The Bible makes clear that this isn’t God’s way of reckoning with tares. In Jesus’s parable, the question, Do you want us to go and gather them up? was answered, No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. In Moses and Israel’s exodus from Egypt, there were many tares among the wheat—a mixed multitude (Exodus 12:38). Moses was not instructed to pull them out. When Jesus came, the wheat of God’s truth had been virtually strangled by the tares of Judaist traditions. Jesus began to sow anew the good seed of truth, and the Jewish patriarchs cried, Blasphemy! Even so, Jesus’s message did not become one of destruction of the tares. He quietly continued to sow a totally new field with good seed—the gospel of God’s kingdom in the New Covenant.

What is the reason for the leave them [the tares] alone approach? First, tares are never easily distinguishable from the wheat! There have erupted from time to time witch hunts and holy inquisitions, when servants have zealously pulled the tares from amidst the wheat; and there was always, in these holocausts, immeasurable destruction of wheat along with the tares. What if Moses had appointed inquisitors to eliminate the tares from among Israel? They would have, in their zeal for God, destroyed some wheat also. Human-appointed judges usually are not qualified to exemplify and express either the righteousness of God or his mercy! Suppose Jesus had issued this command concerning the Jewish doctrinal traditions, errors, and irregularities, Gather the tares and burn them!? Much wheat would most certainly have been destroyed also! Jesus’s message to the people would have been seriously impaired, and many disciples, offended by his critical and condemning approach, would never have committed themselves to him. He did not come to condemn (John 3:17).

Secondly, tares, early in their growth, become entangled with the wheat; and it is then almost impossible to pull them up and leave the wheat intact to grow. Root systems as well as the foliage become inseparably bonded, and whatever affects the tares affects the wheat. God knew, and Moses knew of the offense to many Israelites that would have resulted from such a forced separation or destruction. And Jesus also knew! Pulling out the tares of Judaist traditions, rules, and customs would have surely uprooted much wheat! And the wheat would have either been destroyed with the tares or left lying in the field to rot!

Let’s not crusade for extraction and destruction of tares the enemy has already sown in various systems (fields) of human experience. We will inevitably do more harm than good! God waits for the harvest, so must we. Rather, let’s prepare and sow new fields with good seed and, under the presidency of the Holy Spirit, develop a watchfulness and keenness of spiritual insight that will enable us to detect and prevent the sowing of tares by the enemy in these new fields. This is God’s way, and it must become our way, before the church will prosper and come to maturity.

Cultivation of Wheat Is Most Important

The tares, indeed, are plentiful, infesting in varying measures all our lives, individually and corporately as differing church orders. But God’s program concerning tares, for the duration of the church age, is to leave them alone—to let them grow until harvest alongside the wheat. This doesn’t set well with our crusading nature, however. We want to do something about the tares for the glory of God! And if we do not guard ourselves carefully, we will make our way into the fields to gather them up in spite of Jesus’s instruction not to do so.

If we are not to gather the tares, then what can we do that is constructive? If we are to leave the tares alone, upon what do we focus our attention? The answer is clear: our energies, spiritual and physical, are to be directed toward the wheat. It is our prime responsibility and is always the will of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit to assist the wheat, those Christians whose energies are depleted, whose spirits are wounded by the mortal day-to-day struggle to not be totally overcome by the tares at hand. But it must be clearly recognized that infestation by tares does not always manifest itself in depleted, wounded, discouraged Christians. In fact, herein lies a supreme test of brotherly love and Christian kindness. As stated in an earlier writing, most of us like to believe that we are virtually free from tares and that our doctrine is most perfectly in line with the eternal truth of God. The competition generated by this common opinion can be fierce and always is disruptive, if left unchecked. It is not, to say the least, conducive to praying for the wheat and leaving the tares alone.

We must settle once and for all in our spirits and in our minds and in our hearts the very important fact that everyone and every church that loves and claims Jesus Christ as Savior, and whose endeavor is to promote the gospel of grace, is a field of wheat with tares; and God expects us to pray for and support the wheat and to keep our critical hands, our backbiting teeth, and our gossipy tongues away from the tares, totally and completely. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). The prosperity of growing wheat, in every phase of its life, must be one of at least three supreme desires of our hearts. Beloved I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2). The sowing of new fields of wheat with the good seed of truth must be another of these three supreme desires, and diligent wakefulness and watchfulness, under the presidency of the Holy Spirit, must be the other. It is only as we assume this attitude and this position in the Holy Spirit that we can hope to detect and prevent the sowing of tares in these new