by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
In Hebrews 9, the Holy Spirit tells us that the tabernacle and its furnishings were imposed “until the time of reformation<\/em>” (Hebrews 9:10-11). The physical items were teaching aids to illustrate the spiritual realities that would come into play in a new and better system. So, are there prophecies in the Old Testament that predicted this time of reform and change from one system to another? Indeed, there are many, but let us consider just two.<\/p>\n Jeremiah 31:31f and Psalm 110 show us that the Holy Spirit long predicted and planned this greater system, and that it came to fruition in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n The Holy Spirit had said through Jeremiah,<\/p>\n “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, [h]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more<\/em>” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This prophecy, given by the Holy Spirit for hundreds of years before Christ arrived, said that there would be:<\/p>\n After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to God’s right hand, the Holy Spirit revealed that this new covenant and all those prophesied blessings were now offered in Jesus. This revelation and divine commentary on the Jeremiah prophecy is expounded in Hebrews 7-9.<\/p>\n Each of the four items above shows that a time of reformation was coming and has now come. A new covenant is <\/strong>reform, and the fact that it is “not like<\/em>” the covenant they received when God brought them out of Egypt is all the proof needed to know that when the Holy Spirit identified the new covenant as being given by Jesus (Hebrews 9:15-17) and that Jesus was “surety of a better covenant<\/em>“, then it is clear that this is the time of reformation. The Holy Spirit prophesied it in Jeremiah and confirmed it in Hebrews.<\/p>\n In Hebrews 9, the Holy Spirit shows us that the former system was “carnal” or “fleshly” and that the new and better was not like that, but rather “spiritual” or “written in the heart” or spirit. Our tabernacle is spiritual, and all our furnishings are spiritual in nature. That is the “reform”. We have reformed from the carnal to the spiritual, with better things that deliver to the conscience and spirit what the former system could not.<\/p>\n Psalm 110 prophesied a new and better “priesthood”. David said He would put down enemies, be victorious in a way not seen before. That implies a time of reformation where we would have a victorious leader as king and priest in one, and that this would allure people to become “volunteers” in the day of His power. This greater priest would be permanent, a “priest forever”, which is a reform from what Israel had in the Levitical priests.<\/p>\n So, yes, the Holy Spirit told us ahead of time that a time of reformation was coming, and the same Holy Spirit has shown us in the New Testament that that time of reformation had arrived in Jesus. Now we have a greater High Priest, a greater system to address sin and a guilty conscience, and a greater tabernacle with greater furnishings and provisions to bring to our hearts a desire to volunteer ourselves to God in Jesus.<\/p>\n Many more Old Testament passages prophesied this time of reformation, but these two are among the strongest witnesses that the new system in Christ is far greater in many ways than the old system seen in Judaism under that carnal covenant in their flesh.<\/p>\n It addresses the spirit and conscience in a way that the old could not. The old could not do all that was needed; it did not prophesy what the coming Messiah would accomplish. The Holy Spirit wanted us all to graduate from the inferior system to the superior system in Christ.<\/p>\n Have you entered the greater time of reformation in Christ?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton In Hebrews 9, the Holy Spirit tells us that the tabernacle and its furnishings were imposed “until the time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10-11). The physical items were teaching aids to illustrate the spiritual realities that would come into play in a new and better system. So, are there prophecies in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1945,76],"class_list":["post-99070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-reformation","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":86423,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-time-of-reformation-prophesied\/","url_meta":{"origin":99070,"position":0},"title":"The \u201cTime of Reformation\u201d Prophesied","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton In Hebrews 9, the Holy Spirit tells us that the tabernacle and its furnishings were imposed \"until the time of reformation\" (Hebrews 9:10-11). The physical items used were merely teaching items to illustrate the spiritual things that would come into play in a new and better\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67781,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-time-of-reformation\/","url_meta":{"origin":99070,"position":1},"title":"The Time of Reformation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 25, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Book of Hebrews makes the argument that we had, in the past, been using carnal, earthly things in service to God (Hebrews 9:1-11) but would, from the Old Testament perspective, see a \"time of reformation\" (Hebrews 9:10) in which we would put down the carnal,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14927,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-jesuits-develop-preterism-and-futurism\/","url_meta":{"origin":99070,"position":2},"title":"Did the Jesuits develop preterism and futurism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it true that 'preterism' and 'futurism' were Jesuit interpretations of prophecy that were contrived during the counter-reformation? I've read that in a couple of places and wondered what your study has led you to about that. Thank you. Answer: Preterism is the view that the prophecies concerning destruction,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87517,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/but-you-mix-your-fabrics\/","url_meta":{"origin":99070,"position":3},"title":"But You Mix Your Fabrics","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Often, those who want to justify their ignoring the Bible on sexual sins will retort with how silly the Bible is and how inconsistent we are since the same book said not to mix your fabrics or not to eat lobster or pork! So, if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/fabric-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-the-old-testament-diet\/","url_meta":{"origin":99070,"position":4},"title":"Why the Old Testament Diet?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton God \"imposed\" food and drink laws on Israel, not on us (Hebrews 9:10) until the time of reformation. The time of reformation is the New Testament age under Christ. Under Christ, the earthly food laws of the Old Law are not binding (you can go ahead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/food-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9250,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-all-jews-receive-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":99070,"position":5},"title":"Will all Jews receive Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been reading Hebrews and in chapter 8 it seems there is a prophecy about before Christ comes again, \"all\" Jews will know and believe in him and ultimately receive salvation.\u00a0 Am I reading something more than it says into this?\u00a0 This is the first time I've really seen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99073,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99070\/revisions\/99073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n