There has been a lot of debate and confusion in recent years over what was the Old Covenant. Paul said it was done away. Which laws were specifically done away? Which laws were in the Old Covenant?

Of the 613 laws of the Old Testament how many are still binding on Christians? Is it necessary for salvation to keep the annual festivals? What about the New Moons? They are often listed with the Sabbath and the festivals.

What about tithing? What about sacrifices and offerings that were an integral part with tithing under the Levitical system? What about clean and unclean meats? What about the ritualistic cleansing?

What justification do we have to pick and choose which laws to keep? If we claim we are now under the New Covenant and that the Old Covenant has been done away, why are we observing some of the laws of the Old Testament and not others? If we claim we are only to keep the moral laws but not the ritual laws, then why are we keeping the unclean food laws and the festivals?

The bigger question is the Sabbath because this is the crux issue that has been under attack by New Covenant Theology (NCT) in recent years. Basically NCT is a concerted effort by evangelistic Christianity to fight the Sabbath keeping community by using certain proof texts in the New Testament to say the Law is done away with replaced by the New Covenant law of love and grace. Therefore we no longer need to keep the Sabbath. The WCG collapsed under NCT's onslaught. The COG 7th Day and the SDA churches are currently losing battles to it.

The purpose of this paper is to show a primary reason why NCT has been so successful, and the Sabbath keeping community so ineffective in the theological war. Simply stated, we don't know what the Old Covenant was. We, the Sabbath keeping community, have made two monumental errors: We have allowed NCT to define the Old Covenant as the Law, and we have allowed NCT to define the New Covenant as love and grace. Both of these definitions are very wrong.

Therefore we have put ourselves into a position where we can never win the theological battles. The result is confusion within our ranks and endless debate with NCT without. We may choose to ignore the NCT arguments, but we will never defeat NCT until we understand what the Old Covenant was, and thus what the New Covenant is.

II Corinthians 3

Paul in II Corinthians 3 says the Old Covenant was

done away with and replaced by the New Covenant. NCT says the law Paul referred to was the Ten Commandments. We respond by saying the law Paul was talking about couldn't possibly have been the Ten Commandments. According to our logic if the law Paul was talking about was the Ten Commandments it would mean Paul was saying the Ten Commandments were done away with. Since we believe the Ten Commandments are still in effect we have argued that Paul was referring to some other law. This is a huge error on our part. Not only was Paul referring to the Ten Commandments, he specifically and only was referring to the Ten Commandments. Look at what he says:

"And it is plain that you are a letter from Christ, entrusted to our care, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living Elohim; not on stone tablets but on the tablets of human hearts," verse 3. (New Jerusalem Bible used throughout)

"He (Christ) has given us the competence to be ministers of a new covenant, a covenant that is not of written letters, but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the administering of death, engraved in letters on stone, occurred in such glory that the Israelites could not look Moses steadily in the face, because of its glory, transitory though this glory was, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit occur in glory! For if it is glorious to administer condemnation, to administer saving justice is far richer in glory. Indeed, what was once considered glorious has lost all claim to glory, by contrast with the glory that transcends it. For if what was transitory had any glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts for ever," verses 6-11.

"With a hope like this, we can speak with complete fearlessness; not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites should not watch the end of what was transitory. But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament (the same Greek word for 'covenant' used above): it is not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with. As it is, to this day, whenever Moses is read, their hearts are covered with a veil, and this veil will not be taken away till they turn to the Lord," verses 12-16.

Paul has to be referring to the Ten Commandments. No other law was written in stone, only the Ten Commandments. There was no other law given at the time Moses face shone and he covered his face with a veil, only the Ten Commandments. We will see the Old Testament scriptures that prove this later.

Paul associated only the Ten Commandments with the Old Covenant that Paul says has been replaced by the New Covenant. But does he say the Ten Commandments are done away? No, he says that they are now written on the tablets of our hearts. That hardly means they are done away. That includes the fourth commandment.

How can Paul on one hand associate the Ten Commandments with the Old Covenant that was done away and then say those same Ten Commandments are written in our hearts? Because technically the Ten Commandments were not the Old Covenant. They were only half of the Covenant, the half Israel was to keep. The other half of the Covenant was what Elohim was to do.

Once we see that the Old Covenant was a legal agreement between Elohim and Israel with stipulations for both parties rather than just the "Law" it becomes very clear what Paul was talking about. Let's take a look at what the Old Covenant was.

"So now, if you are really prepared to obey me and keep my covenant, you, out of all peoples, shall be my personal possession, for the whole world is mine. For me you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation," Exodus19:5.

This is the proposed covenant. If Israel would obey Elohim, Elohim would make Israel his personal nation. Israel agreed and Elohim said he would come down and speak to them in a dense cloud on Mt. Sinai in three days. He gave the Ten Commandments and only the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20.

Afterwards Moses approached the cloud where Elohim was. Elohim gave additional laws regarding the altar, slaves, homicide, theft, seduction of a virgin, first fruits, and the festivals, Exodus 21-23. Elohim said that if Israel obeyed Him He would drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land so that Israel could occupy it, Exodus 23:23-33. These additional laws were not part of the Covenant. They were just that, additional.

"Moses went and told the people all Yahweh's words and all the laws, and all the people answered with one voice, 'All the words Yahweh has spoken we will carry out!' Moses put all Yahweh's words into writing ... Then taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yahweh has said; we shall obey. Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it over the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you entailing all these stipulations,'" Exodus 24:3,4,7,8.

The term "Book of the Covenant" has erroneously come to mean the additional laws of Exodus 21-23. Note what the footnote of the New Jerusalem Bible says:

"The 'Book of the Covenant', 20:22-23:33, has been so named in modern times on account of 24:7 (although the text in question refers to the Decalogue)." In other words what we refer to as the "Book of the Covenant" mentioned in 24:7 is specifically referring only to the Ten Commandments. Note above that Moses differentiated between Elohim's spoken words (the Ten Commandments) and the additional laws. It was Yahweh's words, the Ten Commandments, what He spoke, that Moses put down in writing in the Book of the Covenant, not the additional laws. Again, note what the New Jerusalem Bible says:

"The 'words', alone mentioned in what follows, refer the Decalogue, see 20:1 seq., called the 'Book of the Covenant' in 24:7. The 'laws' are an addition after the Book of the Covenant had been inserted, see 21:1."

Israel was offered a covenant in Exodus 19. She accepted. Elohim spoke the terms of the covenant in Exodus 20. Israel asked that Moses speak to them. Moses approached Elohim and Elohim gave Moses additional laws. Moses wrote only the Decalogue in the Book of the Covenant and read it to Israel. Again Israel agreed. Moses then went up Mt. Sinai for forty days and came down with the two tablets containing the Decalogue.

"Inside the ark you will put the Testimony that I am about to give you. ...You will put the mercy-seat on the top of the ark, and inside the ark you will put the Testimony that I am about to give you," Exodus 25:16,21.

Note the footnote in the New Jerusalem Bible: "'Testimony': accepted translation of the word 'edut' which, properly speaking, following other Middle Eastern parallels, means the stipulations in a treaty, imposed by an overlord on his vassal. Here, the 'Testimony' is the Decalogue, written on stone tablets sometimes called 'tablets of the Testimony', 31:18; 32:15, 34:29. Consequently, the ark is called the 'ark of the Testimony', 25:22; 26:33; 40:21."

In other words, the term "testimony" is synonymous with covenant, and the ark of the testimony was the same as the ark of the covenant.

"When he had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of Elohim," Exodus 31:18.

The Testimony or Covenant consisted of only what was written on the stone tablets of the Testimony. Only the Ten Commandments were written, nothing else.

"This v. follows on from 24:12-15 and continues the ancient narratives interrupted by the lengthy Priestly interpolation. The tablets were inscribed with the Decalogue, called the Testimony, see 25:16g, which contained the stipulations of the covenant. Ancient Eastern treaties were similarly inscribed on tablets or on steles and preserved in a shrine."

"Moses turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, tablets inscribed on both sides, inscribed on the front and on the back. The tablets were the work of Elohim, and the writing on them was Elohim's writing, engraved on the tablets," Exodus 32:15,16.

Again, the Testimony or Covenant, contained only the Decalogue for Israel's part of the agreement.

Moses found Israel in rebellion. He broke the stone tablets and made Israel drink of the water with the ground up golden calf, a type of an adulterous drinking the bitter waters containing her sin, see Numbers 5:11-31. Moses went back up Mt. Sinai where Elohim renewed the covenant.

"Yahweh said to Moses, 'Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke," Exodus 34:1,2.

"He then said, 'Look, I am now making a covenant: I shall work such wonders at the head of your whole people as have never been worked in any other country or nation, and all the people round you will see what Yahweh can do, for what I shall do through you will be awe-inspiring. Mark, then, what I command you today, I am going to drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites before you," Exodus 34:10-12.

Here we have Elohim's part in the Covenant. It is the physical promised land of Palestine, the same land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

"Yahweh then said to Moses, 'Put these words in writing, for they are the terms of the covenant that I have made with you and with Israel.' He stayed there with Yahweh for forty days and forty nights, eating and drinking nothing, and on the tablets he wrote the words of the covenant the Ten Words," Exodus 34:27,28.

This scripture is just after Elohim had instructed Moses to give Israel several other laws. Yet none of those laws were part of the Covenant as the above scripture says. There were additional administrative laws for Israel. The Covenant contained the Ten Commandments, and only the Ten Commandments. This was true when the ark of the covenant was later brought into the temple Solomon built. (However, there is some debate whether the ark also contained the jar of manna and Aaron's staff.)

"There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh made with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt," I Kings 8:9.

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, as he was coming down the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was radiant because he had been talking to him. And when Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin on his face was so radiant that they were afraid to go near him. ...Once Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face," Exodus 34:29,30,33.

This is what Paul was referring to in II Corinthians 3. This is the only time Moses' face shone. Thus the law Paul is referring to has to be the Ten Commandments. But, it was the Covenant, not the Ten Commandments that  Paul said was done away. Now let's focus on the other half of the Covenant and we will see how and why the Old Covenant has been done away with.

"Look, that is the country I have given you; go and take possession of the country that Yahweh promised on oath to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants after them," Deuteronomy 1:8.

"Look, Yahweh your Elohim has given you this country. March in, take possession of it as Yahweh, the Elohim of your ancestors, has said," Deuteronomy 1:21.

"Yahweh your Elohim has given you this country to be yours," Deuteronomy 3:18.

"And now, Israel, listen to the laws and customs that I am teaching you today, so that, by observing them, you may survive to enter and take possession of the country that Yahweh, Elohim of your ancestors, is giving you," Deuteronomy 4:1,2.

Again and again we see that Elohim's part of the agreement, the Covenant, was to give Israel the land He promised to the Fathers.

"He revealed his covenant to you and commanded you to observe it, the Ten Words that he inscribed on two tablets of stone. Yahweh then ordered me to teach you the laws and customs that you were to observe in the country into which you are about to cross, to take possession of it," Deuteronomy 4:13,14.

Here we see the relationship of the laws and customs that followed the Covenant. The additional laws and customs were commandments for Israel to keep when they entered the Promised land, but they were not part of the Covenant. Only the Decalogue was part of the Covenant.

Notice what Elohim says is the penalty for Israel's breaking the Covenant, the Ten Commandments: "Be careful not to forget the covenant that Yahweh your Elohim has made with you, by sculpting an image or making a statue of anything, since Yahweh your Elohim has forbidden this; for Yahweh your Elohim is a consuming fire, a jealous Elohim. ...Today I call heaven and earth to witness against you - you will quickly vanish from the country that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Your days will not be prolonged there, for you will be utterly destroyed. Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and only a small number of you will remain among the nations where Yahweh will have driven you," Deuteronomy 4:23,24,26,27.

If Israel kept her part of the Covenant Elohim would keep His part and give Israel the Promised Land. If Israel broke the Covenant Elohim would drive Israel from the Promised Land.

"Yahweh our Elohim made a covenant with us at Horeb. Yahweh made this covenant not with our ancestors, but with us, with all of us alive here today. On the mountain, from the heart of the fire, Yahweh spoke to you face to face," Deuteronomy 5:2,3.

The Ten Commandments are then given in Deuteronomy 5. The ancestors Moses refers to above are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not the previous generation as the context shows. In other words, the Covenant at Horeb was a new covenant given to Israel and not to the Fathers. This understanding helps us better understand what Paul later says about the Law in relation to the promises made to Abraham.

"These were the words Yahweh spoke to you when you were all assembled on the mountain. Thunderously, he spoke to you from the heart of the fire, in cloud and thick darkness. He added nothing, but wrote them on two tablets of stone that he gave to me," Deuteronomy 5:22.

Again, there was nothing added to the Covenant in addition to the Decalogue. The additional laws were for Israel's benefit and prosperity in the land Elohim was giving her. To break these additional laws would bring Israel misery, but she would still possess the Promised Land: "I shall tell you all the commandments, the laws and the customs that you are to teach them and that they are to observe in the country that I am giving them as their possession. Keep them and put them into practice: such is Yahweh's command to you. Stray neither to right nor to left. Follow the whole way that Yahweh has marked for you, and you will survive to prosper and live long in the country that you are going to possess. Such, then, are the commandments, the laws and the customs that Yahweh your Elohim has instructed me to teach you, for you to observe in the country that you are on your way to possess," Deuteronomy 5:31-6:1.

The following scriptures from Deut. show that the covenant Elohim made with Israel on Horeb contained only the Ten Commandments: "At Horeb, you provoked Yahweh, and Yahweh was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that Yahweh was making with you. I stayed forty days and forty nights on the mountain, and nothing to eat or drink. Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of Elohim, exactly corresponding to what Yahweh had said to you on the mountain, from the heart of fire, on the day of the Assembly. After forty days and forty nights, having given me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant," Deuteronomy 9:9-11.

"I went back down the mountain, that was blazing with fire, and in my hands were the two tablets of the covenant," Deuteronomy 9:15.

"And he inscribed the tablets, as he had inscribed them before, with the Ten Words that Yahweh had said to you on the mountain, from the heart of the fire, on the day of the Assembly. Yahweh then gave them to me. I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, and there they stayed, as Yahweh had commanded me," Deuteronomy 10:4,5.

The ark held the covenant. It is called the ark of the covenant. It held only the Decalogue, Israel's half of the covenant agreement. In II Corinthians 3 Paul was referring to the covenant given at Mt. Sinai whereby if Israel kept the Ten Commandments, Elohim would give them the Promised Land. Israel broke that covenant and eventually Elohim drove Israel into exile. The final end of the Old Covenant occurred in 70 C.E. when the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people dispersed.

However there was another covenant made between Elohim and Israel on the plains of Moab just before entering the Promised Land. The knowledge of this covenant may help us understand some of Paul's other comments on the "law". Note the following verses: "Yahweh your Elohim commands you today to observe these laws and customs," Deuteronomy 26:16.

Moses has just concluded several chapters dealing with sacrificial regulations, tithes, idolatry, clean and unclean foods, the sabbatical year, slaves, firstborn, the yearly festivals, cities of refuge, warfare, marriage and sexual matters, vows, first fruits, and various other rulings. These laws were apparently written on pillars coated with lime. They constituted a covenant separate from the one at Horeb. They were given just prior to Israel's entering the Promised Land.

"Keep all the commandments that I am laying down for you today. After you have crossed the Jordan into the country that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you, you must set up tall stones, coat them with lime and on them write all the words of this Law, when you have crossed and entered the country that Yahweh your Elohim is giving you, a country flowing with mild and honey," Deuteronomy 27:1-3.

Then follow the blessing and cursings of Deuteronomy 27 and 28. The ultimate curse is exile from the Promised Land.

"You will be torn from the country that you are about to enter and make your own. Yahweh will scatter you throughout every people, from one end of the earth to the other; there you will serve other elohim made of wood and stone, ...Yahweh will send you back to Egypt, ...And there you will want to offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as serving men and women, but no one will buy you," Deuteronomy 28:63,64,68.

"These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. ...Keep the words of this covenant, put them into practice, and you will thrive in everything you do," Deut.28:69; 29:8.

Now I would like to briefly discuss the New Covenant and why Paul said what he did in II Corinthians 3. Eternal life is conspicuously absent from the Old Covenant. The only promise was the land and prosperity and long life in it. There are only hints of something beyond. It is only later at the time of the prophets that eternal life is discussed and only then under the concept of a New Covenant. In these prophecies the Law, the Ten Commandments is firmly written, only this time in the hearts of men. Elohim had lamented that Israel did not have the heart to keep his Law, the Decalogue. If Elohim then gives man the heart to keep the Ten Commandments, and writes those commandments in his heart, does it make any sense that man would not keep them, i.e. not keep the Sabbath? Not hardly.

"If only their heart were always so, set on fearing me and on keeping my commandments," Deuteronomy 5:29.(written just after the Ten Commandments were given).

"Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer," Deuteronomy 10:16.

"Circumcise yourselves for Yahweh, and apply circumcision to your hearts," Jeremiah 4:4.

"Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall make a new covenant with the House of Israel (and the House of Judah), but not like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant that they broke, even though I was their Master, Yahweh declares. No, this is the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel when those days have come, Yahweh declares. Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their Elohim and they will be my people. There will be no further need for everyone to teach neighbor or brother, saying, 'Learn to know Yahweh!' No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, Yahweh declares, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind," Jeremiah 31:31-34.

"I shall give them a single heart and I shall put a new spirit in them; I shall remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so that they can keep my laws and respect my judgments and put them into practice. Then they will be my people and I shall be their Elohim," Ezekiel 11:19-21.

"I shall ...gather you back from all the countries, and bring you home to your own country. ...I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws, and respect and practice my judgments," Ezekiel 36:24-28.

In II Corinthians 3 Paul plainly infers that the Ten Commandments are now written with Elohim's Spirit on the tablets of the hearts of men. Peter describes Christians as living stones with Jesus being the chief cornerstone, I Peter 3:4,5. Thus we are living tablets upon which Elohim's Spirit writes the same Law that Elohim's finger wrote on stone tablets. Jesus was the living Word of Elohim. He kept every word of Elohim, especially the Ten Commandments. We see that under the New Covenant, the stipulation for us to keep the Ten Commandments remains the same. It is even magnified. Yes, we are to have faith as well, but so was Israel to have faith.

Under the New Covenant Elohim promises us two things: forgiveness and eternal life. That is why Paul said, in II Corinthians 3, that the New Covenant was so much more

glorious than the Old.

"Indeed, what was once considered glorious has lost all claim to glory, by contrast with the glory that transcends it. For if what was transitory had any glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts for ever. ...Since what we aim for is not visible but invisible. Visible things are transitory, but invisible things eternal," II Corinthians 3:10,11; 4:18.

"It is he who has rescued us from the ruling force of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him we enjoy our freedom the forgiveness of sin," Colossians 1:13,14.

NCT is an insidious assault against the Law of Elohim. It wrongly defines the Old Covenant to only mean the Law and not the agreement for the physical land of Palestine. It wrongly defines the New Covenant to only mean Elohim's gift of forgiveness and grace without our living by Elohim's Law. NCT leaves out Elohim's part of the Old Covenant and man's part of the New Covenant. The arguments of NCT can be defeated, but only if we correctly define the Old and New Covenants. We are under the New Covenant and that is precisely why we are to keep the Ten Commandments, all ten because under the New Covenant Elohim writes His Law, the Ten Commandments in our hearts.

This paper does not purport to have all the answers. The prophecies of the Old Testament seem to show the New Covenant to be a time of utopia. We hardly have that now. Will many if not all of the additional laws Elohim commanded Israel to observe in the Promised Land be kept at this future time? If so then what about now? In a sense, we are in the wilderness on our way to the Promised Land. Are we required to keep these additional laws now or will they be kept later? Israel was to begin observing them when they entered the Promised Land. Yet they kept many, such as the festivals, while en route to the Promised Land. In the prophecies of the New Covenant Elohim says he will bring many back from their exile and put within them a heart of flesh. Could this not also include those who don't currently keep the Sabbath, yet have a humble repentant attitude? There is much to learn.

What about the various other matters of the law tithing, first fruits, festivals, new moons, dating of the festivals, and various "Jewish" practices? Even though they are not part of the New Covenant, yet they are still laws and commandments Elohim gave to Israel for her benefit. We are to live by every word of Elohim. Surely, with Elohim's Spirit we can discern which laws from the Old Testament are still valid and good for us. Paul and the early Church kept the festivals as well as the dietary laws. No doubt they kept many other laws that we might today consider too "Jewish". Paul advised Jews to remain as Jews and Gentiles to observe only those recommendations of the Jerusalem council. Surely we can agree to disagree on these other additional laws separate from the Ten Commandments. But we can be in complete unanimity on the need to keep the Ten Commandments under the New Covenant. That includes the Sabbath.