Rosangela, excellent quote. Thanx for sharing it. Our response to God and the covenant that applies to us today (the new covenant) should be the same as was Israel's response - "All that the Lord hath said we will do, and be obedient."

AG 142
The covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense.... This covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel.... {AG 142.2}

This is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfillment of the terms of their agreement with Him. God includes in His covenant all who will obey Him. {AG 142.3}

Of course, certain criteria and conditions are different nowadays, that is, we are no longer required to kill animals for the forgiveness of our sins, but many, if not most, of the OT laws are still obligatory (either in principle or in particular). And the promises, the rewards, are very nearly identical - A Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey, where sin and sickness and death are no more.

"It should be remembered that the promises and threatenings of God are alike conditional."

The condition is faith.

"There is not a point that needs to be dwelt upon more earnestly, repeated more frequently, or established more firmly in the minds of all than the impossibility of fallen man meriting anything by his own best good works. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone." (FW 19)

Tom, you are way off the mark here, brother. Please reconsider what Sister White said:

AG 142
The covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense.... This covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel.... {AG 142.2}

This is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfillment of the terms of their agreement with Him. God includes in His covenant all who will obey Him. {AG 142.3}

Mike, I don't think I'm off the mark. I think when EGW said that Waggoner's teachings on the covenants were "truth" and "clear and convincing" that she was right! They are "truth" and "clear and convincing."

When she wrote that those of her time were wasting their "investigative powers" in trying to come up with a theory different than his, she was right again! They were! And so are we if we follow in their footsteps.

What I presented was what Waggoner presented, which you can verify by reading the links I presented. I believe that it is "truth," just as Sister White says.

Tom,
If you say that the COI misinterpreted the old covenant, I will readily agree with you. But how can you say that the old covenant was not instituted by God? First, it was ratified with blood. Second, it was God who established its whole system. “Then verily, the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary” (Heb. 9:1). It is clear that the old covenant was to be a transitory covenant – just a teaching tool; its whole system was transitory, and nothing that was to be abolished could be part of the everlasting covenant. You can see that the circumcision was a distinct covenant, made with Abraham more than 20 years after the institution of the abrahamic covenant (Gen. 15; Gen. 17).

Mike,
I see two distinct covenants at Sinai: that of Ex. 19:1-8 and that of Ex. 24:1-11. When the COI accepted the first covenant, to be God’s peculiar people, then He made with them a second covenant, with specific statutes (please read Jer. 7:22, 23; 11:1-5). That first covenant, which involved obeying God and being His peculiar people, would indeed be the abrahamic covenant, as Tom points out (see Jer. 31:31-33, “and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”).

Ellen White says the following about the covenant of Ex. 19 (in a text you have already quoted in part): “The covenant that God made with his people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense. The Lord said to Moses:-- ‘Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. This covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel” (SW, March 1, 1904). (Notice that she seems to approve of their answer in Ex. 19:8.)

But she says in PP 371-2: “God brought them to Sinai; he manifested his glory; he gave them his law, with the promise of great blessings on condition of obedience: ‘If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then . . . ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.’ Ex. 19:5, 6. The people did not realize the sinfulness of their own hearts, and that without Christ it was impossible for them to keep God's law; and they readily entered into covenant with God. Feeling that they were able to establish their own righteousness, they declared, ‘All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.’ Ex. 24:7.” (Notice that she disapproves of their answer in Ex. 24:7.)

While the covenant of Ex. 19 included the oral proclamation of the law, the covenant of Ex. 24 included the statutes (Ex. 24:3ff) and the tablets of stone (Ex. 24:12ff) which Moses received after he went up on the mount.

You're asking very good questions Rosangela. I hope you had a chance to read what Waggoner wrote, as it would be a shame for us not to take advantage of light God has given to us for the very purpose of understanding the Covenants.

My understanding is that God originally presented His Covenant, that is, the one He made with Abraham, to the people. The people misunderstood what God was doing, and rashly took it upon themselves to try to establish their own righteousness rather than accept by faith the righteousness of Christ, which is what God's purpose was.

When this happened, God decided to meet them where they were, in order that they might come to the point where they would accept the "New Covenant," which is God's perfect Covenant and His plan for them all along. So God took that which the people had initiated and worked with it. That's where the statutes and sanctuary services and so forth came in. And of course, everything God did related to the Old Covenant was perfect. However, the Old Covenant would never have come about had the people accepted the Covenant God presented to them, which was the Covenant God made to Abraham.

"And if the descendants of Abraham had kept the covenant, of which circumcision was a sign, they would never have been seduced into idolatry, nor would it have been necessary for them to suffer a life of bondage in Egypt; they would have kept God's law in mind, and there would have been no necessity for it to be proclaimed from Sinai or engraved upon the tables of stone." PP 364.

Now how do we know that God did not initiate the Old Covenant?
1. He had no need to, because His Covenant was perfect.
2. The Old Covenant leads to bondage. Gal. 4:24. God cannot do anything that leads to bondage. That's contrary to His character.
3. Jeremiah's response ("Amen") to the same words God said to the COI indicates that it was the response of the people that was faulty.

I should comment a bit more on the last point. The words that they said, "All that the Lord has said, we will do" were good words. There's nothing wrong with the words themselves. The problem is with what they were thinking when they said what they said. If they had been thinking that God was making promises to them and by faith in His promises they could acocmplish all that God had promised, that would have been fine. Instead, they sought to establish their own righteousness. "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" (Deut 5:29)

I hope this helps, and look forward to any futher questions you may have.

Yes, White and Waggoner agree. They both agree that the covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense, that this covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel, that this is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfillment of the terms of their agreement with Him.

AG 142
The covenant that God made with His people at Sinai is to be our refuge and defense.... This covenant is of just as much force today as it was when the Lord made it with ancient Israel.... {AG 142.2}

This is the pledge that God's people are to make in these last days. Their acceptance with God depends on a faithful fulfillment of the terms of their agreement with Him. God includes in His covenant all who will obey Him. {AG 142.3}