One of the areas which traditional dispensationalists debate the most is the relationship of the Church to the New Covenant predicted in Jeremiah 31:31-34.\u00a0 As a result, we recently convened the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics at Baptist Bible Seminary in order to discuss the interpretation of the New Covenant among traditional dispensationalists.\u00a0 Over 120 guests attended for the presentation of several papers with much discussion after each presentation.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No paper represented the two New Covenants view.\u00a0 To my knowledge no one in the audience defended this view at any time.\u00a0 However, as I listened to the discussions, I could see why someone would opt for that view to try to resolve some of the issues.\u00a0 Among the positions discussed, I would say that there were three major views:<\/p>\n
I myself have tended to lean toward # 2 in my own understanding.\u00a0 As I listened to the presentations and discussions, another thought that did occur to me was this \u2013 the views may be closer together than one might think.\u00a0 Some of those who held to # 1 also supported the idea that the Church enjoys blessings now that are analogous to the New Covenant blessings that Israel will one day receive in the coming kingdom.\u00a0 Practically speaking, this view ends up at the same place as the others in terms of the Church\u2019s experience.\u00a0 I could say the same thing about the relationship of views # 2 and # 3.\u00a0 In the end, the views are not arguing about the nature of the Church\u2019s present experiences.\u00a0 They are debating the best way to label the Church\u2019s current experiences and how such experiences are related to Israel\u2019s New Covenant.\u00a0 All traditional dispensationalists want to be precise in their understanding of the Bible\u2019s teaching.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the single most intriguing issue that came up for me was during Roy Beacham\u2019s presentation entitled \u201cThe New Covenant of Scripture in ANE Covenant Context: \u00a0A Preliminary Presentation.\u201d\u00a0 The issue was how to take passages like Ezekiel 20:34-44.\u00a0 In verse 37, the text says \u201cAnd I shall make you pass under the rod, and I shall bring you in the bond of the covenant.\u201d\u00a0 On the basis of ANE studies, this is language for the cutting or ratifying of a covenant. \u00a0\u00a0This is not the hard part.\u00a0 The hard part is the context which seems to be set at the time of the tribulation and then entering into the kingdom.\u00a0 In short, it is possible to see this passage (there are others later in Ezekiel) as indicating the making of the covenant in our future \u2013 i.e., it is yet to come.\u00a0 If this is the New Covenant as Beacham argues contextually within Ezekiel (recall Eze. 36), then how can the Church have a relationship to something that is not in existence yet.\u00a0 It has been predicted; that is all.\u00a0 In this view, it has not been cut, ratified, or even inaugurated.\u00a0 This was an interesting presentation which was contrary to my own position.\u00a0 I have never seriously incorporated the earlier Ezekiel passages into my theological assessment on this issue.\u00a0 Thus, I am indebted to Beacham for making me think and be more comprehensive relative to the passages in question.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll come to agree with him on this issue, but I think I am better for having listened to his ideas.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Some might think that the disagreements among traditional dispensationalists on this issue demonstrate a weakness to their overall viewpoint.\u00a0 However, I would hazard an educated guess that even among nondispensationalists, there is quite an array of viewpoints in how the details are put together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the areas which traditional dispensationalists debate the most is the relationship of the Church to the New Covenant predicted in Jeremiah 31:31-34.\u00a0 As a result, we recently convened the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics at Baptist Bible Seminary in order to discuss the interpretation of the New Covenant among traditional dispensationalists.\u00a0 Over 120 guests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}