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A basic introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians
One of the biggest challenges we as believers in Y’Shua the Messiah have is to get to a good understanding of the concept of the salvation we have through Messiah and the need for us to keep the commandments. Most people are pretty clear about this fact once they have done their initial Torah cycle and have been re-acquainted with the content of the first five books. When we then start studying the books of the apostle Paul again, lots of people have questions about exactly what Paul is saying. Is Paul really saying that we are under a curse if we keep the commandments? If faith in Y’Shua is our salvation, why do we need to keep commandments? You certainly hear your Christian friends asking, “Have you read the book of Galatians?” Do we understand what Paul is trying to say in this letter.
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The Abrahamic Covenant – Covenants – Part 3
In our next installment in the series of the Biblical covenants we look into the covenant made with Abraham. Why was Abarham chosen and what exactly was promised to him? It is also interesting to analyze exactly who receives the benefits of this promise. And last we need to take a look at what this means for us.
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Introduction to covenants – Covenants Part 1
In the Bible we see a clear description of the relationship between YHVH and His people. This relationship has gone through many ups and downs throughout the history of the Bible. The rules for this relationship are defined in the Bible by the means of a covenant between YHVH and His people. Thus it is of the utmost importance for us to understand these covenants if we would like to understand the relationship that YHVH wants with us. Covenants are not something unique to the Bible. On the contrary, we find many examples of extra-biblical documents that describes covenants where we see clear correlation between the form and content of covenants in the Bible and covenants used by other nations. This topic is huge and many volumes have been written about it by many experienced scholars. Thus we will need to break this into smaller parts if we want to be able to comprehend it all. Before we get into the discussions of the different covenants and what they mean it is most important that we get to grips with the basics. This article will focus on some of the basic terms and concepts regarding covenants in the time of the Bible.