Final Testament

The **Final Testament** (Latin: **Testamentum Finale**) is the third division of the Faith's biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and history of Ismachiah Joash, who is seen as the messiah by the Bovido people. The background to the Final Testament is contained within altered versions of the Old and New Testaments, which chronical the history of God, Jesus and the early Christian faith. The Final Testament itself is an account of revelations supposedly granted to Joash in order to allow him to liberate the Bovido people, and serves as the basis for the Faith, as well as being one of the core pillars of Bovido nationalism.

The Final Testament is comprised of 7 books written by leading theocratic churches and leaders of the Faith; these can be split into two distinct chapters, the Books of Joash and the Apocalypse of Man. The Books of Joash consist of the first 4 books of the testament, and were written between 1809 and 1817 based on the teachings of Ismachiah Joash during his lifetime - the further 3 books, the Apocalypse of Man, have been accumulated since 1903 by Bovido leaders, specifically Nicholas Ujung, Michael Ezra and Anton Ujung, who introduced their personal religious teachings into the canon of the testament.

The Final Testament is not considered canon by the majority of Christians, but within Bovido Has, Saint Joseph's Devotees and the Bovido Imperium the text formed the basis of state religion, and in many regions formerly occupied by Bovido Has there remains a large Christian population devoted to the Faith and the Final Testament.

## History

   Formed by missionary colonists in England in 1657, the Confides of St. John was initially created as a humanitarian group who would travel the world and teach local populations of the virtues of Christianity. Sent ahead of a British invasion of the newly formed Japanese Empire, the Confides began their work but were exiled to the island of Belitung after they were linked to the failed invasion in 1672. Following the exile of the early Confides of St. John to the island of Belitung in the 17th century, the religious group began to form increasingly radical ideas revolving around the arrival of a second coming of Christ in the form of a "holy warrior destined to lead his devotees to paradise on Earth". This new sect of Christianity began to devote itself to achieving pureness of faith, undergoing a substantial revolution of culture and language in the mid 18th century as the teachings of the religious sect began to be compiled into what became known as the Final Testament upon the orders of a new organisation known as the Templars, only further spurring on the dogmatic fanaticism which had radicalised the island's religious population. Around the turn of the 19th century, the mysterious theologist Ismachiah Joash had become a leading figure within the Templar clergy, encouraging a drive towards violent militancy to overthrow the Japanese guards who governed the island; in 1809, Joash led the people of Belitung to revolution and established the state of Bovido Has, meaning *Holy Lands* in the regional dialect of a resurgent Latin language. Under this new regime, a theocratic government was slowly established with Joash at it's head, espousing teachings and decrees to steer the nation in his chosen direction; most notable of these decrees was the Decree on the Bovido Has, which stated that the people of the Templars had a holy duty to spread the faith of the Final Testament to the world, a decree which would later form the basis of Bovido Hassian expansion for two centuries.

## See Also

* Bovido nationalism
* Bovido Imperium
* Bovido Has
* Faith