In this series on the CORNERSTONE, I want to take you on a journey to show you how, step by step, I began to understand threshold covenants and their relationship to the concept of the cornerstone. By the end of the journey, I hope to have challenged your thinking about Scripture and how it only takes a mistaken view of one or two words to warp our theology in such a way that we ultimately and unthinkingly embrace heresy.
Now it really would be easier to start at the end and just present my findings but the purpose of the journey is to demonstrate how losing sight of threshold covenant over the last century has affected Christian believers to such an extent that many of us have chosen a false cornerstone over the genuine, precious, sure-foundation one laid in Zion. The loss of knowledge made it simple for this satanic strategy to be implemented: after all, if we don’t know what the genuine article looks like, then how can we recognise the falsity of the counterfeit?
So let’s begin with getting firm in our minds a picture of what the cornerstone of ancient times is as well as what it isn’t.
- A cornerstone was the very first construction block of a house, temple, city or even the universe.
- It oriented the building by being positioned at the entrance under the doorway or gateway.
- Since the door in ancient dwellings was usually in the corner, it was called the cornerstone or the head of the corner.
- It was an altar. Designed with a shallow basin to catch blood that dripped down from the lintels and doorposts, it was a place of sacrificial offering.
- It often had an inscription on it and a sacrifice buried beneath it.
- It was the place where threshold covenant was ratified before a guest was welcomed into the house. A guest accepted covenant by passing over the stone or rejected it by striking the stone.
- A cornerstone was watched over by angelic guardians.
The significance of a cornerstone in modern thinking is that it’s some sort of foundation stone with a dedication on it, often unveiled in a ceremony of celebration once the building is finished. Some people conceive of there being four cornerstones, often of a decorative nature, for the four corners of a rectangular or square structure. But in ancient times, there was only one and it was laid at the start, not the end—it was a beginning that was attended by a sacrifice of propitiation.
In the days when men were priests in their own household—before they lost that privilege as a result of the sin of the golden calf—this was the home altar. It was here that the rites of the Passover were enacted, not as is so often suggested to ward off the Angel of Death with the blood of sacrifice, but rather to put out a sign of welcome to God to accept the invitation to enter the house and become the covenant protector of those within. The ancient ritual of hospitality used blood as a signifier of both welcome and covenantal agreement.
Now, when the Levites of the line of Aaron become the designated priests for the nation, the cornerstone at the entrance to a home no longer held the same status as before. It was still used for threshold covenant between host and guest and also for the domestic Passover—the one day of the year when men were still allowed to exercise the office of priest—but, apart from that, it was downgraded to an ordinary stone people were expected to step over.
To replace these altars where God was reconciled with humanity through covenant, the cornerstone became a covering and was transformed into the mercy-seat overshadowed by the cherubim on top of the Ark of the Covenant.
Note that made it still a place:
- watched over by angels
- where blood was sprinkled
- to come into covenantal oneness
Furthermore in Temple times, the Ark was concealed in the Holy of Holies in the presence of the eben-ha-shetiyah, meaning the stone from which the world was woven, a symbol of the cornerstone of the entire universe.
When we speak of Jesus as the Chief Cornerstone we are speaking of Him as both the place of reconciliation with God and the Reconciler who mediates covenantal oneness with God. We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit and Jesus is the mercy-seat dwelling within us, His blood constantly pleading on our behalf.
Now, as I mentioned in the last session, I came across a book published in the late nineteenth century about threshold covenants that explains how we’ve got the idea of the Passover back-to-front in not realising it is an invitation to God to covenant. When I got to the end of the book, I had one thought: This explains the benefits of threshold covenant, but all covenants involve both blessing and cursing. What are the curses for covenant breach?
That took me back to Scripture where I was amazed to find story after story, none specifying a moral but all of which were clearly designed to say: here’s someone who violated threshold covenant and look what happened to them. Just don’t do it.
Let’s look at some of those stories in the next session.
Grace and peace and covenantal blessing to you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.
That nineteenth century book is out of copyright, so it’s available on this website for download here.
The first step in dealing with ungodly cornerstone covenants is always removing false refuges. More information on that is found in Hidden in the Cleft, available as a hardcover, softcover or an ebook. It’s the fourth in the threshold series but I’m repeatedly told that it’s the one to start with.
Please get in touch through the contact form at Armour Books if you are in the US, UK or Australia/NZ and there are availability/price issues at the retailer for any of these volumes. Amazon’s prices in Australia tend to be twice the recommended retail price. In New Zealand, the book is available through Jubilee Resources International and in Australia through Generation-e ministries.