Making a Covenant With the Inhabitants of the Land
I was just reading some of the recent comments under the Fountarian Covenant and decided to search out the subject a little more. I found strong evidence for God's people to covenant to worship the true God. It also struck me that God had told the Israelites a number of times not to make a covenant with the "inhabitants of the land" for that would lead God's people to worship the gods of the Canaanites.
Exodus 34:12: Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
Exodus 34:15: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
Joshua made a mistake and made an agreement with the Gibeonites, who lied about who they were.
Joshua 9:15: And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
King Solomon and Ahab married wives from other nations (making a league with them), and only trouble and idolatry came from these unions.
When our church made an agreement stating belief in the Trinity "In common with Conservative Christians and the Historic Protestant Creeds" in 1957 (Questions on Doctrine, p.21, 22) - wasn't that like making a covenant with the "inhabitants of the land"?
There were a number of occasions that God's people were making a reform back to the worship of the true God, and so made a new covenant to worship only the true God and keep the covenant given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and through Moses.
Joshua 24:25: So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king's son.
And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people; between the king also and the people.
II Chronicles 34:31: And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
Nehemiah 9:38: And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
So it is that we want to pledge to follow the true God, and not the gods of the "inhabitants of the land" - hence the Fountarian Covenant is in line with what other reformers of God's church have done in the past history.
