From birth, I grew up in the Christian religion and knew nothing about the Bible or God.  I thought the Bible was a book we read to know how to live the Christian life while here on earth and to merit God’s favor when we died.

      My knowledge of God and the Bible was limited to the meaning of the material taught in Sunday school and Church.  Basically it was about lifestyle and religion.   

        In my first year of college I made an important discovery.  The Bible is about God.  Not man!  And, the Bible was not one book but two!  These discoveries opened up the Bible in a new and different way.  It enabled me to see new, exciting things about God and history.  

       For fifty years I have been engaged in Bible study and there is no end to what can be learned about God and His creation.  To this day, the more I study the more I discover how much I learned previously was in error.

      The Bible consists of two covenants.  One expressed in the Hebrew manuscripts of Judaism -- the other in the Greek texts of Christianity.

      The Hebrew text tells of a coming Messiah, which Jesus claimed to be.  The Greek text tells about Jesus and His Kingdom, the Church.  Scanning the Bible as if it is a lifestyle manual doesn’t work.  That is because the Bible consists of two different covenants with different people in history.  In fact, our historical calendar is centered between the two covenants.

      Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love God.  But I didn’t know God. And if you don’t know and respect someone, you cannot love them.  Since much of what I learned earlier about God was wrong, it did not stimulate me to love Him.

      The Bible is a record and testimony of God - Himself - who if we really knew we could not help but love.  I learned how to study the Bible and to understand it. This made it so interesting that it became the passion of my life.

      When studying any manuscript it is important to know who is talking, what they are talking about, and whom they are talking to.  That’s called rightly dividing the Bible.  It opened my eyes and my heart.  God is a Spirit.  It is important to remember that He is speaking of spiritual things and not earthly things of the present world.

      The 39 Old Testaments manuscripts present the history of the first Adam.  It is about the covenant made with the nation Israel.  The 27 New Testaments manuscripts give us the history of the Second Adam (Jesus) and the covenant made with Jesus and the Church.  Both Testaments are blood covenants but one is cut by Moses using animal blood, while the other is cut by Jesus using his own blood.  The first is to the nation of Israel with physical benefits in the land provided by the old covenant, while the Second is to the dead with spiritual benefits in the life provided by the new covenant. 

      The Christian church in the fourth century bound these two covenants together into one book.  We must continue to separate the covenants with the Resurrection of Jesus.  Otherwise Israel and The Church become one along with all of the covenant benefits.  Jesus warned about mixing the old and new into one when He spoke of new wine in old containers.

      These notes are the result of many years of research based upon these methods of contextual interpretation and the differences in the covenants.  As these studies continue, I am convinced that the Bible is, indeed, the Word of God.

      The Bible consists of two Testaments which come together in Jesus who is the last Prophet of the Old Testament and the first King of the New Testament.  And, as a prophet to Israel in a fallen earthly kingdom now in resurrection, He is King reigning over a new Spiritual Kingdom.  When Jesus was a Prophet He lived in a flesh and blood body, which He had from His birth in Bethlehem.  Now, as a King, He has a spiritual Body from His Regeneration in His Resurrection.

      The blood that He shed for Redemption in a Passover sacrifice is now used by Him as a Priest to mediate a new and better covenant.  Jesus also used His blood to sprinkle an atoning sacrifice for the cleansing of everyone within his Kingdom (Church).

      Jesus bridges the two testaments with His death, burial and resurrection.  To understand the Bible we must understand Jesus as the Christ of the Jewish people as well as the Second Adam of the Christian people.

      I understand The Bible to teach that Jesus abolished the death mankind receives at birth in the flesh and provides the Life that mankind receives at birth in the Spirit.

      Jesus is the subject of both the Old and the New Testament.  He stands between them as mediator.  Therefore, He is the source of all Bible controversy and misunderstanding as well as the key that enables us to know...and to love...God.

      Hopefully these notes will help in understanding how the two Testaments relate to one man in one book - the Bible, where we find one story of Good News for mankind (every nation).

      When we see what God had to do to save the world from the fall (death) in Adam, then and only then, can we see the love of God manifested to the world at Calvary - and the cost of The Blood of Redemption, which saved the world from death and the grave.

      This is the story of Christianity using the whole Bible, but it is preceded by the story of Judaism using only the Hebrew manuscripts to tell the story of the national covenant.

      Christians have the Gospel Story, the greatest story ever told to mankind.  But do they understand it?  Do they even know what it is?

      I hope these notes help you in Bible study.  That you may know the love of God.  Not only as revealed in Jesus for you, but revealed to you by His Spirit in your heart.

                                                                                                Joyner Weems