A Father Who Keeps His Promises

What is sin, really?

Sin is our refusal to live according to the perfect love of the Trinity. The essence of sin is our refusal of divine sonship.

Why does God reveal himself and speak to us in Sacred Scripture?

So that we might come to know, love and imitate him as the covenant Father who keeps all his promises.

What is "hesed?"

sometimes translated as "loyalty" or "favor," its essential meaning is that kind of "covenant love" that is shared by family members.

What is a covenant? How is it different from a contract?

"Covenant" comes from the Latin convenire, which means "to come together," or "to agree." A contract is made with a promise, while a covenant is made by swearing an oath. In oath-swearing, a promise is transformed by invoking God's holy name for assistance/blessing. The oath-swearer places himself under divine judgment and a conditional self-curse. The oath is thus a much stronger and more sacred form of commitment.

What's the basic message God wants to convey by a covenant, stated simply?

"I love you. I am commited to you. I swear that I will never forsake you. You are mine and I am yours. I am your father, and you are my family."

What is the Latin word for "oath?"

"Sacramentum"

Distinctive forms of exchange between contracts & covenants.

A contract is the exchange of property in the form of goods and services. A covenant calls for the exchange of persons, creating a sacred bond of interpersonal communion.

Who are the 5 main characters of the "covenant love story" and what do they have in common?

Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. Each of them shared an intimate bond of friendship with God, a relationship initiated by God, and founded on a personal covenant.

What are God's laws and judgements meant to be interpreted as signs of?

As signs of his fatherly love, wisdom, and authority.

What's the promise God made and fulfilled for Adam?

God called Adam to share in his blessed in the covenant of marriage with Eve, and promised to deliver them from sin through the promised "seed" by crushing the head of the serpent.

What's the promise God made and fulfilled for David?

God covenanted with David, under the sign of the evenlasting throne of the Son of David in order to elevate Israel to a kingdom.

What's the promise God made and fulfilled for Noah?

God pledged to keep Noah and his household safe through the flood, then promised to never wipe out the human family that way again.

What's the promise God made and fulfilled for Abraham?

God promised Abraham the Promised Land where his natural descendants might be blessed as a nation, and then a kingdom, until eventually, all the families of the earth would be blessed through him and his seed.

Christ didn't abolish the Old Testament, he ________ and ________ it.

He fulfilled and perfected it.

What point did John Paul II make in "Redemptor Hominis?"

He made the point that at the time of creation God established a covenant with all of humanity. He sees this as the foundational covenant from which all of the others in Scripture spring - culminating in the New Covenant sealed by Jesus, whereby God's original covenant plan is fulfilled and renewed.

In short, "covenant" is ____ God does because "covenant" is _____ God is.

In short, "covenant" is WHAT God does because "covenant" is WHO God is.

What do covenant laws reflect?

They reflect the inner life of the Blessed Trinity.

Why do we have to love like God?

Scripture answers in two parts: 1. The Old Testament shows we were made to live LIKE God by sharing love within the human family during our earthly stay. 2. The New Testament shows that we were remade to live IN God by sharing the love of the Blessed Trinity for eternity in heaven. Both elements are essential for understanding what it means to be truly human.

What is the "Beatific Vision?"

The "Beatific Vision" shows us, via the New Testament, that we were remade to live IN God by sharing the love of the Blessed Trinity for eternity in heaven.

What/who is the eternal and original covenant family?

The Blessed Trinity.

What's the promise God made and fulfilled for Moses?

The Lord made a covenant with Moses at Mount Sinai, signified by the Passover, which transformed the 12 tribes into God's national family, Israel.

What is one of the most significant differences between the Old and New Covenants?

The Old Covenant is administered by God with human mediators who came under oath and then sinned, like Adam and Eve, triggering covenant curses. The New Covenant is established by the God-Man, Jesus, but only after he had fulfilled the terms - and borne the curses - of the Old Covenant. He became the mediator of the New Covenant, which he ratified by oath-swearing.

What concept is a central thread woven throughout Scripture?

The concept of "covenant."

What's the 6th covenant?

The sixth covenant was made by Jesus Christ with the Eucharist serving as a sign of the New Covenant, making God's family truly universal - the Catholic Church.

How are the members of God's universal family united?

They are united in the sacrificial family banquet we call the Eucharist - Christ's flesh and blood.

What's the primary purpose of biblical history from a Hebrew perspective?

To recount humanity's familial history in the light of God's covenant plan for his people.

What is "typology," its purpose and value?

Typology studies how Christ was foreshadowed in the Old Testament (Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Melchizedek, Passover lamb, temple), thereby revealing the profound unity of the Old and New covenants. Typology is able to help us discern "In God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son."