Priesthood Systems

1. Priesthoods are established by God. No one can impose one on God.
2. A priesthood is the basis of one’s relationship with God. Relationship with God is based on temples and priesthoods. (One way or another one can only relate with God through a temple—creation itself is a temple)
3. A priesthood requires and is partly and very significantly defined by its temple—priests serve in temples and every priesthood requires its own temple and owns it [Heb 8:2,5; 7:13; 13:10; ].
4. Every priesthood is based on a covenant, i.e., a concrete, irrevocable basis of relationship to God.
   1. The covenant of the priesthood of Eden was rooted in creation and in the soil of Eden.
   2. The covenant of the priesthood of the Law was established at Mount Sinai and is firmly rooted in another covenant, God’s covenant with Abraham, the father of Israel, and the division of nations.
   3. The covenant of the priesthood of the New Covenant is the is rooted in the Lord Jesus’ relationship to God and to the world and to Israel.
5. These covenants are laws or are the bases of the laws governing the covenants.
6. Since one’s relationship with God is based on these covenants, they are systems of government, spiritual systems of government.
7. Priesthoods and their covenant only have power over those under them.
   1. The subjects of a covenant are determined by the ones with whom the covenant was made.
   2. Except the covenant expressly excludes them, the children of the subjects of a covenant are subjects of the covenant.
   3. The priesthood is lord over all the subjects of the covenant.

Priesthood Is Like Marriage

Priesthoods are like wives of the king or a man.

1. For a woman to be wife to the king, she must be legally married to him. A woman can’t just claim to be the king’s wife and expect to be given the privileges and rights as such by the king.
2. Though married to the same king, the wives cann’t just enter each other’s tents or palaces and do as they please. Each has her own tent and peculiar relationship with the king/man.
3. And the honor and privileges of each child depends not simply on who is father is but on which of his wives his mother is.

Priesthood Is Like Lineages

Priesthoods are like lines of descent from the same king or man.

1. A man must be legally descended from the king to claim descent from the King.
2. Though all the lines are from the same man, they do not have equal rights or privileges or statuses.
3. Simply descending from the King/man is not all that determines one’s right and privileges, rather one’s line of descent from the King/man has a major import.
4. There are things that are shared accross the lineages but there are things that are peculiar to each one. No two lineages will have all things in common.

The Offer of Eternal Life Through Time

Eternal life has been offered to man three times since the beginning,

1. First, eternal life was offered in Eden.
2. Second, eternal life was offered under the Law of Moses.
3. And third, eternal life is offered under the New Covenant.

There has never been another offer of eternal life from God in the Scriptures apart from these three.

Now, as can be observed, all three are temples and priesthood systems. Therefore, God’s offer of life to man has been through temples and priesthoods. There is apparently no hope of eternal life apart from them.

Life and other blessings were offered under all three systems on the condition of obedience to God, obedience to the laws of the covenant/priesthood.

Though their eras may overlap, all three are in effect different regimes of God. The New Covenant is the third and last which will not be replaced.

First, Second and Third

But why three different covenants?

Heb 8:7-8

Basically, because the first two failed to bring man to the eternal life and the perfect image of God which was God’s stated goal in creating man [Gen 1:26].

The way the covenants were designed, breaking them was permanent—they could never be fixed after they had been broken. Thus the breaking of one covenant makes it impossible to attain life under that covenant and so God institutes another covenant.

1. Man failed under the covenant of Eden to attain eternal life and so God instituted the law. Once man broke God’s command in Eden, there was no possibility again for him to attain life through Eden. Though some privileges remained, gaining life and attaining perfection was no longer possible.
2. Men also failed under the covenant of the Law to attain eternal life and so the New Covenant in Christ has been installed. Even though God provided sacrifices for sin under the Old Covenant, they were ineffective to deliver men from the ultimate consequence of their sins.

It was impossible for man to attain eternal life under the preceding two covenants and so the New Covenant has be instituted.

But Why Does God Want Us To Have Eternal Life?

Since God is the One who, all on His own initiative, after the failure of one system brings in an alternative, it is quite apparent that God wants us to have eternal life.

But why does God want us to have eternal life?

What is His purpose and how does our having eternal life serve it?

1. He Loves us. This is surely a reason why—God loves us. Whatever be the purpose or practical reasons that make it necesary for us to have life, since God is God, he could have found a way around it without giving us life. So, clearly, he loves us. Even though we can figure this out ourselves from the facts available to us, it is also quite plainly stated in scriptures that the reason is because God loves us [Joh 3:16; Psa 138:8].
2. For the purpose of dominion. We were created to rule the creation [Gen 1:26,28; Psa 8:4-8; Heb 2:5-8] and for this, we need to have eternal life.
   1. We cannot rule effectively if we are subject to corruption and death. Obviously, if we and creation are subject to these, then we cannot really be said to have dominion.
      But do we have to have dominion over death to have fulfilled God’s mandate to us to have dominion
      Darkness and chaos were the original order before creation [Gen 1:2]. Therefore, God creating us to have dominion over the creation means creating us to have power over death and corruption—it means that God doesn’t want corruption and death, darkness and chaos to rule the system but we. Therefore, we must have life to fulfill God’s purpose for our creation—darkness, corruption and death must be under our feet [Gen 4:7; Rom 16:20].
   2. We cannot rule effectively if regimes are always changing. Being subject to death means that there will always be changing regimes, generations will keep coming and going and there really won’t be consistency. Although as humans we have grown used to this as the order and have never known the better, it is not a good system [Heb 7:23-25; Ecc 2:19]. This will make our ruling the creation inefficient.
      In truth, our rule is greatly limited by death.
      Creation is not going away, therefore, our plans cannot be limited to the few years we have in our adult lives (even if they are 200 years, they are still few compared to the continuing age of the creation)—the perishable should not be ruling the eternal [Ecc 3:14; 1Cor 15:50]. We must be able to make plans that span hundreds and thousands of years. This is how heaven rules [Isa 46:10], and it is possible because there is never really a change of regime. This is how we ought to rule. Therefore, we have to be given eternal life to function effectively as a government over God’s creation [Psa 90:17] just as God rules in whose image we were created.

Why Must the Offer of Life Be Tied To Covenants/Priesthoods?

If God really wants us to have eternal life, why doesn’t he just give us? Why does he have to make it dependent on fulfilling those covenants?

1. To ensure God’s power is not misused: The covenants are absolutely important to ensure that we use the life and power given us according to God our Creator’s intended purpose. There is absolutely no debating the fact that man, as established abundantly through the ages, cannot be simply trusted with power.
2. To ensure order among men: One of the very first things God taught us through the creation as part of His ways and as good is order. The covenants create order among men, this is one of its purposes and it is absolutely important. Although God gave man dominion over his works, there was no order between men. The first order between men was that between man and woman established in Eden. As God later demonstrated with Israel before they had kings, men also need rulers among them [Jdg 21:25]—those who are to rule the world must have rule among themselves. If all men were given power without setting order among them, there would be confusion, great confusion. One may want this and another that and since both have power and equal claim there would be war. And if there is war, rather than bless creation, man would then be a curse on creation.
3. To ensure that those who rule love God [Jam 2:5]. While God loves us and so wants to give us eternal life, He also wants to be sure that we love Him before He gives us eternal life [Exo 20:6]. The covenants bind us to God and so, in truth, require love for God. Anyone who does not love God will not be able to keep the covenant [1Joh 5:3; Dan 9:4]. If people love God, they will align their desires and purposes to His and so there will be harmony between Heaven and the Earth. However, if they don’t, they will contradict God and there will be disorder. Those who love God will obey Him and do his will even when it hurts [Joh 14:15,21; Deut 11:1]. (We observe, for example, that the test of Job was really a test of love, it was a test to see if Job really loved God or not.)

The Neccesity of Life and God’s Design

[Heb 9:14]

What God has done is this,

1. God made man to serve him, to serve him in a purpose that requires him to have life,
2. But if man is given eternal life, what guarantee is there that he would use it for God’s intended purpose? None by itself.
3. So,
   1. God made life a natural need and desire of men—man himself naturally desires to live forever [Ecc 3:11],
   2. And God has so ordained that man can only have eternal life through his covenant which ensures that man must do the will of God with that life. And only those who love God will be able to keep His Covenant.

As we may observe, from the beginning of creation, though God gives his blessings freely, they are given in connection to and on the basis of one’s service and calling under him.

Again, Why Life Must Be By Covenant

1. God is the only one that can give us life [1Ti 6:16; Psa 49:7-9,15; Matt 16:26].
2. Therefore, we must be in good terms with him to have life (we can’t just ask him to give it to us and expect Him to).
3. God has made it abundantly clear that he is not willing to give us life apart from us being in loving covenant with him.

On the one hand, God wants us to fulfill the purpose for which he created us and this purpose requires that we have eternal life. On the other hand, we ourselves want to have eternal life so that we can enjoy our existence but we cannot obtain life apart from God. Thus, our desires seem to be in alignment—he wants to give us life and we want to have it.

Nevertheless, God is not a fool, and won’t make the mistake of giving just anybody eternal life but only those who love him and will obey him. God will only give it to those who will fulfill His intended purpose. Therefore, God designed the covenants as a basis for relationship between us and him.

The Covenants, Blessings and Curses

All three covenants not only offered eternal life but also had curses or punishments for breaking them.

This is the design of the covenants,

1. Anyone under the covenant is automatically entitled to the blessings of the covenant, even without doing anything.
2. Nevertheless, the covenant has requirements which its subjects must fulfill.
3. Failure would mean the withdrawal of the blessing. The blessings of the covenant are withdrawn through the curses of the covenant whcih make it impossible to fully enjoy the blessing of the covenant [Mal 2:2].

Basically, the curses are the means of the withdrawal of the blessing. The blessings are not really withdrawn but the offender is cut off from them through the curses.

Jesus and His Giving Us Eternal Life

1. He has always had the power to give us life.
2. He could not give us eternal life because of
   1. Adam’s transgression and
   2. Because of the Law
3. By the power of God’s word, these two things bar Jesus from exercising his power in the giving of life to us.
   1. He was lord to all men by creation, but Adam’s transgression limited what he could do for us as our creator
   2. He was lord to Israel. But their transgressing of the Law limited his giving them life through the law
4. To give us life Jesus became our Lord by another means

Another covenant had to be established. One under which he could give us life. By becoming Lord of all, we are all automatically under his covenant, whether we realize it or not.

As Lord under this covenant, he is able to judge us all based on that Covenant.