THE SEVEN COVENANTS AND THE SEVEN MILLENNIUMS - PART 1 OF 3

This blog post is about the seven covenants and the seven millenniums, together with their respective churches. The churches mentioned here are not the ones everyone knows, but they date back to the Garden of Eden. These are the Churches of Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Solomon, Jesus Christ, the twelve disciples, and Elijah. Every 1,000 years has been significant. The current millennium, the seventh from Adam is even more significant but its significance is yet to be understood. Thus come the year 2,000 AD, there was panic around the world because of two things. First and foremost, many feared the millennium bug – a computer issue. In addition, there are also many speculated that this was the time of the second coming. The waited in expectation and even fear but never saw what they expected.

It is important to stress that the message here is not the work of a creative mind, but were teachings of the messenger father Johane delivered through the Evangelist Phillip Muregerera (late). While the wording may not be identical,the message is intact. There may be some surprise here and there, because some will ask why for example Noah and Moses do not feature in the above list, but are mentioned in some church song. The answer is that this revelation came in the later years of Baba Johane’s journey.

It happened when the redeemer was preaching on the way to Kenya – either in Zambia or Tanzania. In order to make his point, he sent a delegation of elders, among them the Evangelist Philip, to come to Kenya, visit a bookshop, and look for a book on some shelf – which contained an outline of the dispensations. More about the book will be discussed in the last paragraphs. The teachings of the covenants are very essential in understanding the Church and mission of the messenger together with the times that we are living in. When father Johane setup his ministry,   he gathered his followers, and made a covenant with God - the Seventh Covenant. Consequently, the questions that would immediately arise include: What is a covenant? What is the seventh covenant? What other covenants existed in the past and how did they come into being? When did each of them start and end – if they are not running concurrently?

The first Covenant, the Church of Adam

As the explanation goes, the first man to have a relationship with God and establish a covenant (agreement) together with a church was Adam. The story in Genesis is too brief to clarify that Adam had a church – a congregation. In that church like many others there were rules and regulations. Whether they were written or not, they were safeguards against lawlessness. It is quite clear that God spoke to Adam and others in Eden. Their prohibitions included but were not limited to avoiding the forbidden fruit. Since they went contrary to what was commanded, sin entered the Church. When Cain killed Abel, he was found at fault which means there must have been a prohibition about killing. The Garden of Eden story is in some respects symbolic and so summarized that it is difficult to envisage. Some will not understand that this was a Church like any other, and God spoke to men through prophets such as Adam. Although the story is recorded in a couple chapters, we must remember that a lot took place over the 930 years that Adam lived.

Jesus Christ for example tells us that Abel was a prophet (Luke 11:50), but there is not a word in Genesis about what Abel prophesied. This shows once again that the story is extremely summarized. As revealed in the seventh covenant times,the Adamic Covenant would have lasted 1,000 years, but this was reduced to 930 years the age at which Adam died (Genesis 5:5). This reduction was as a result of the sin therein. The 70 years were divided and 30 were given to Jesus Christ and 40 to Elijah. The remnant from the Church of Adam entered the Church of Enoch where another covenant was established.

The Second Covenant, the Church of Enoch

After Adam’s dispensation ended, the believers who survived joined the Church of Enoch. Great wickedness came upon the earth and the sons of God sinned with the daughters of men. They bore giants who wrecked more havoc upon the earth(Genesis 6:4). This action annoyed God so that he decided to cause a flood upon the earth and destroy the evil people in order to restore some sanity on earth.In a vision God made a promise to Enoch that he would destroy the world in the times of Noah (1 Enoch 106:15 -16). Therefore, the person who had this covenant with God was Enoch and not Noah.

The main reason why Noah cannot be counted among the covenants is that he was the person that God used to fulfill what he promised Enoch. Others will point to Genesis 9:12 and say that God was making a covenant with Noah. When this covenant is examined, it turns out to be a promise God made after the flood not  to destroy the world again using water. This promise resulted in the rainbow which remains a sign of this agreement to date. Thus the rainbow covenant that God made with Noah does not define a Church and a system of worship. If we count it among the covenants we will quickly see that since there are rainbows to date,we would still be in that covenant. Thus the promise of God not to destroy the world by water did not result in a dispensational covenant. Adam had about 1,000 years. Enoch all the way to Noah and beyond was another 1,000 years. The next era therefore was the covenant of Abraham.

The third Covenant, the Church of Abraham

Abraham is the man God chose to make the next covenant with. He was asked to make a sacrifice, after which God and Abraham made promises to each other. His descendants would be a chosen nation. Abraham was also told that his descendants would be slaves in another land but God would rescue them from slavery (Genesis 15:13-16).The person who was used to lead this rescue operation was Moses. Consequently,Moses was working within the promise that God made to Abraham and not the other way round. The covenant that was made with Moses in Mount Sinai was therefore a reinforcement of the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 17:7). It was promised that if they obeyed God fully they would be a holy nation. Moses was used by God to fulfill what had been promised to Abraham – the release of Abraham’s descendants from slavery. The covenant of Abraham went on until the time of the kings in Israel for 1,000 years. Time came for another dispensation that was different from all the previous ones in one respect. A temple for the Lord was to be built. This was a task that David was prevented from carrying out because of displeased God by spilling innocent blood.

The fourth covenant, the Church of Solomon

The building of the temple which took place in the next millennium was given to Solomon by his father. He was instructed: “Be confident and determined. Start the work and don't let anything stop you. The Lord God, whom I serve, will be with you” (1 Chronicles 28). The temple was built and the Ark of the Covenant was placed within it. This dispensation had its twists and turns - including two stints in exile to Assyria and to Babylon. The system of worship was adjusted to be in line with the temple. The temple became the central place of worship where priests stayed as they did their duty. For this reason, and for sacrifices, food was taken there (Malachi 3:10). The temple system went on until the time of Jesus Christ – even though it was interfered with during the exiles. When John the Baptist was born, his father Zechariah was one of those who did duty in the temple (Luke 1:5-25).

Having gone through the covenants, by adding them together, one finds that between Adam and the end of Solomon’s covenant when Jesus Christ was born, there were a total of 4,000 years. Each covenant lasted 1,000 years (or about in the case of Adam’s which lasted 930 years). Each dispensation of 1,000 years had to end to pave way for next, and no two ran concurrently. This arrangement is summarized by Clarence Larkin in his book “the greatest book of dispensational truth”. The title needs to be taken in full one is looking for the book because Larkin wrote other books on dispensational theology which bore the title “Dispensational Truth”.

When the messenger and founder of the Seventh Church or Seventh Covenant asked his people to travel to Kenya to purchase the book while he was still stationed outside the country, he had specified page 16. Since this page is available online, it has been attached as the image for this post for the reader’s benefit. The chart contains a summary of the ages.

The book thus became a study aid in the Gospel of God Church during those early days when it could be bought on the shelves although many got it later by placing an order. The book is no longer in print today. However, the earlier generation of elders such as:Evangelist Phillip Muregerera, Pastor Edward Manogara, Prophet Samuel Chinyanga, and Prophet Richard Mpofu; took trouble to have their respective copies. This summary ends the overview of the first four out of seven covenants. There remaining part will be published in part two, with additional notes in part three. Thank you for reading.