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Doctrine

The New Covenant

By October 23, 2009June 20th, 2014One Comment

An understanding of how the new covenant (Jer. 31:31ff.) integrates into dispensational theology is a much discussed point of theology. Questions like, “How does the new covenant relate to the church?” and “How does the law relate to the Christian?” are related to this discussion. Recently a council of dispensational scholars met to discuss the issue. Rodney Decker, a professor at BBS, presented a paper on the new covenant and Hebrew 7—10. You can find it here. It’s worth the read. Here’s his conclusion:

Heb 7—10 presents a unified argument which discusses the new covenant throughout. There is no distinction of multiple new covenants here. The author of Hebrews discusses this new covenant strictly in relation to the church. He says nothing about a future covenant for Israel (though he certainly does not deny that). It is this new covenant that is the basis on which Christians draw near to God. . . . It is not, in my opinion, possible to postulate two new covenants without doing violence to the unified, four-chapter argument of Heb 7—10. Nor is it possible to divorce Christians from some relationship to the new covenant so described. Perhaps there is more than one way to explain this relationship, but related we must be if the evidence of Hebrews 7—10 is given due weight. We are not only related to Jesus as our high priest, but the text seems to demand that we are directly related to the new covenant itself for it is on this basis that we draw near to God.

A quick note: It also looks like Dr. Stallard has a new commentary out on 1 and 2 Thessalonians here.

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