The New Covenant Part 1

I have been re-reading the book by O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1980). In it he discusses two topics I wish to address: the role of teachers in the new covenant; and, did the OT saints have regenerating faith.

First, Isaiah 54:13 states, “and all your children shall be disciples of the LORD, And great shall be the happiness of your children;” (TNK). One could read here, “taught of the LORD.” Jesus quotes this passage in John 6:45. It is a time when the Prophet was looking at the new covenant age. It follows on the heels of Jeremaiah 31:34: “No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, “Heed the LORD”; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me — declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities, And remember their sins no more” (TNK). We, at this point, need not consider the ramifcations of the term “all”. It is the same “all” that is given to Jesus (John6:37) and the “all” that shall be raised at the last day of history. “Who has wrought and achieved this? He who announced the generations from the start — I, the LORD, who was first And will be with the last as well” (Isaiah 41:4, TNK).

However, Jeremiah 31, in envisioning the new covenant (which brings us into the “latter times” – Jer. 30:24) in which “all” know the LORD as fully as they can know him. This is what Paul states in prayer: “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:17-21). Paul is looking at the ultimate realization of the new covenant work of the Spirit. Again, in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” When we understand the New Covenant backdrop against these and like statements, we understand that Paul was envisioning a progressive unfolding of the knowledge of God. Second, this dispensing of the knowledge of God by the Spirit does not take place just among the individual members of the People of the God, but also corporately. The “you” in Paul’s prayer is plural. Knowledge comes through the members of the community as the community is being fitted and joined together, so more does the knowledge become fuller until the community reaches perfection. This progressive understanding of the role of teaching and teachers would appear to contradict Jeremiah 31:34, but it does not when the whole picture is seen.

The importance of Robertson’s little book is that he sees the issue that one might get from having “no teachers” in terms of the New Covenant. I mean, that’s what Jeremiah says! However, in the NT we see that Jesus, having already inaugurated the new covenant in his blood, also gives gifts to the People of God, and one of them is “teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). How can, then, on one hand the Prophet proclaim that we will have “no need” for “anyone” to “teach” us concerning “knowing (knowledge)” of the LORD, and yet, on the other hand, Jesus, who inaugurates the new covenant, gives us teachers who are “to speak as if the oracles of God”? What gives?

First off, Robertson understands the role of teacher in the OT as mediatorial. God spoke, the teachers (Moses, the Levites, or the Prophets) expounded what God said, sometimes even teaching the very word of God Himself (“thus saith the LORD”). “But under the new covenant,” he writes, “no mediator would be necessary for communication of the will of God to his people. From the smallest to the greatest, all would know the Lord, im-mediately” (293).

However, “the presence of teachers today in the context of the new covenant does not deny the principle propounded by Jeremiah and underscored by Paul. Every believer today is his own priest and interpreter of Scripture. Teachers function in this interim period only to assist every believer in realizing the direct oneness they now experience with god through the provisions of the new covenant.” Further, “In the present stage of the fulfillment of the new covenant, teachers function within the covenant community. In a limited sense they serve as mediators of the new covenant” (Italics mine, 296).

For Paul, then, the new covenant has arrived, yet it arrives through the agency of the Holy Spirit poured out “in our heart” (Romans5:5). The eschatological Spirit has two tasks: drawing all those who are “taught of the LORD” (this is the expansion of the knowledge of the LORD in all the nations, taking place over the span of “all the generations” from beginning to end); and 2, bringing this community into the complete knowledge of the Son. In turn, this has two aspects by which the Spirit works: 1. Direct reception to the believer that, “Jesus is Lord, and God has raised him up on the third day” (the confession of the People in unity); and 2, by the sub-agency of “teachers” and other “offices”. Teachers are mediatorial in this limited sense that Robertson stated in that they cannot do the im-mediate work the Spirit does (regeneration, faith, conviction in the Scriptures), yet they do the mediatorial work as agents of the very message upon which the Spirit convicts and regenerates. It is in this second sense that Paul has in mind in Ephesians 4, “until we all come to the unity of the Faith.” The “all” here are all the People of God who are “taught of the LORD”.

Another thing to realize here is that Jeremiah refers to the “ultimate situation” (293). That is, from the Prophet’s perspective of the total finished work to be performed on all those who call on the LORD in the new covenant era, there finally will literally be no need for teachers. At the restoration of all things, we will not be having theological debates, arguments and conferences over what this or that text means. We will know what it means, individually, and together as the people of God. From this aspect, the offices of “presbyter” (teaching or ruling), “pastor”, “teacher”, “evangelist”, “apostle” and “prophet” serve “in the world” until the restoration of all things, when God has finally called all generations, from the first of them to the last. Until then, the arguments, debates, misunderstandings and “seeing through a glass darkly” prevail – yet, we know that “all things” are working to the greatest end and good: perfection. Thus, we are able to give an account for why, over the last 2,000 years, the “church” has seemingly been blown to and fro from every wind of doctrine, whereas at the same time, the truth, the “deposit of the faith” has once and for all been delivered – not to any single individual, but to the collective wisdom progressively amassed by the true believers in Yeshua YHWH (“Jesus is LORD”). As we go through the ages we realize that by bearing the fruits of the Spirit with “one another”, we are learning the things of God. This is not only in a person’s “own salvation” that they are working out, but also collectively and corporately in the True People of God, for the individual is but a “member” in the “body of Christ” (as Paul used that phrase metaphorically).

I will pick up the second part to this in answering the question concerning regeneration in the OT.

Samuel Frost

where hyper preterism is heading…..http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/letting-god-escape/why-should-those-late-pickers-get-the-same-pay-as-us-/347505855326161
- http://www.facebook.com/kingneb Jason Louis Bradfield
  
  Who in the world is that nut?
http://www.facebook.com/kengallowaypalmer Ken Palmer

It’s going new age Sam. Soon Buddha will be right up there with Jesus!
http://gregoryleonkiser.blogspot.com QuantumGreg

Many of my former friends (their choice, not mine) in full preterism are turning into what I would call “extreme gracers” (i.e. antinomian) and/or becoming completely relativistic. One of them I know is now unashamedly a Universalist! The FP road really does point in those directions. They are only following the logic to its end.

In this past year alone, since I’ve rejected FP, I’ve seen the fundamental doctrines of the Bible unabashedly attacked, and the authority of the church rejected! Doctrines directly attacked by FP’s logical end are:
1. Jesus’ eternal incarnation.
2. Biblical creationism.
3. Noah’s flood.
4. Doctrines of salvation of grace through faith.
5. Jesus’ resurrection / our resurrection.
6. Jesus’ current office of prophet, priest & king.
7. Sanctification.
8. Hades / Sheol / Hell doctrine.
9. Jesus’ ascension.
10. Church history.
11. Creeds.
etc.

I’m truly shocked at what I’m seeing. I find it hard to believe it is happening right before my eyes. Almost every day I’m going, “What the…?! You believe what now?! You’re kiddin’ me! Is this a joke?!”
http://gravatar.com/preteristpages Sharon N.

“It’s going new age Sam. Soon Buddha will be right up there with Jesus!”

Well, since so many are struggling to understand what it means to live past the “end”, then in a weird way that makes perfect sense.
http://gravatar.com/preteristpages Sharon N.

Q-Greg, It’s wild, right? Once out of the movement and studying up on the basics, its mind boggling just how out of whack the HP view can get.
Eric Heil

The Dispies say that PP is a slippery slope into HP. What say you?
- http://thereignofchrist.com Sam
  
  Eric, almost missed your comment. Good question! We hosted the debate between Don Preston and Thomas Ice (and Mark Hitchcock – both Dispies), and I had to take Ice and Hitchcock out to lunch (they chose Olive Garden). I asked Mr. Ice, “Do you think Full Preterists are more consistent than the DeMar types?” Ice was quick and straightforward: “Yes!” At the time, I was quite pleased with the answer, being a Hyper Pret. However, now that I look back on it, I am not surprised at Ice’s answer, and I’ll tell you why.
  Jerry Johnson gave a lecture on Dispensationalism at the American Vision conference (2011), and while he was speaking, I noted the similarities between FP and Dispen. Jerry and I talked about it, and he agreed. Dispensationalism lead me into Hyper Preterism, and I’ll tell you why.
  I was raised Dispensational (Foursquare Gospel Church). It was hammered in me as a kid (Seventh Day Adventism, which my Step-Father, may he rest in peace, believed is also Dispensationalistic, so are Pentecostals, Assemblies and, in many quarters, Charismatics). Our debates were mid, pre, or post rapture and who the beast was, etc. The bottom line approach of Dispensationalism is a “all at once, one and done, wholly future” fulfillment. ALL eschatology is future, including “last days” (narrowly defined as a short period of time). FP operated under this same assumption: all or nothing, and it is wholly past, one and done, all at once (70 A.D.). That’s point number one.
  Two, neither have room in prophecy concerning TODAY’s function of the Church. For Dispies, it’s a “mystery period”. For FP’s, it’s an unspecified, post AD 70 “effect” having no prophetic groundwork as to its mission (purpose). Dispies have us raptured off the earth, FP’s have us continuing on earth for infinity – neither one has a purpose other than packing souls for heaven.
  Three, ALL prophecy is taken in one-and-done, all at once. Thus, if you believe ANY portion of Matthew 24 is fulfilled, then you MUST believe that ALL of revelation is fulfilled, and 1 Thess, and 1 Cor 15, etc. ALL of these prophecies are inseparably related and all speak of the same one and done event.
  On that score, if a person comes out of a Dispensationalist background, and starts to see Preterism (what FP’s would call “partial” Preterism), then it is very easy to say, “hey, wait a minute. If Matthew 24 is fulfilled, then 1 Cor 15 and 1 Thess 4 MUST also be fulfilled.” This idea is a carry over from Dispensationalistic assumptions based on the all or nothing approach. It is the same argument Ice used against DeMar, and the same argument used against DeMar by the Hypers. Coincidence? I think not. They both share the same “all or nothing” assumption.
  However, what we find in Church history on these matters is a split between three categories: What has been fulfilled? What is being fulfilled? What is to be fulfilled? Hence, we can find, early on, many “fathers” pulling out SOME aspects of Jesus’ eschatological discourses to A.D. 70, and, yet, Paul in 1 Thess or 1 Cor 15 is “not yet”. This boggles the Dispies AND the Hypers.
  Fact is, most scholars are under the threefold categorization of biblical prophecy listed above, with some putting more in one slot than the other, yet each slot contains attempted answers to the three questions.
  I mentioned “last days”. Many scholars understand “last days” as referring to the “latter times” with no specification on time. The “latter times” refers to the New Covenant times, as opposed to the “former times” from Adam to Christ. quite plausible. Both Dispies and Hypers define the term as a short period of time. The Hypers start the “last days” with the outpouring of the Spirit (and so do Preterists in general, as well as numerous conservative scholars), however, they END the last days in A.D. 70 (that’s about 30 some years from Pentecost to Holocaust). The Dispie defines it even more narrow, as the last three or seven years of world history. The Preterist on the other hand STARTS the “latter times” at Jesus’ minstry/and or at Pentecost and carries it through the span of the ages to the “last day” of world history as we know it. I prefer this definition (I argue for this in my newest book, soon to come out from American Vision, Why I Left Full Preterism).
  Now, I understand that many orthodox preterists (few) define “last days” as refering to the time of AD 70. I disagree with them. But, that’s no biggie for me. Let me list the fourth reason: Israel-centric exegesis. Hypers read “Israel” into everything almost (ethnic, old covenant Israel). Well, so do the Dispies. They have it in the future (1948, etc), and the Hypers have it in the past. All the promises are related to Israel, and since Israel according to the flesh is no more, then all of the promises MUST have been fulfilled, right? Wrong. They forget the Prophets: God was to make the Nations “his people” as well, the New Covenant People of God, who are given the task to bring about that which old covenant Israel did not: restoration of all things on earth, under the earth and in the heavens with all our enemies under our feet, restoring eternal life on the land (which Adam forfeited). Israel was to usher in glorification and resurrection from the dead.
  God, by saving a “remnant” in Paul’s day (the “seed” from which would sprout a peoples more numerous than the stars of the heavens), “enlarged” the nation, and “moved” the tent pegs (Isaiah 54:1-ff) to spread out over all the earth, as far as the eye could see, wherever God’s people placed their foot. From Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the UTTERMOST parts of the earth (which we are still doing, living the book of Acts). Hypers have all of this limited and “fulfilled” in AD 70. Did they make it to France (Gaul)? Spain? Britan? China? the Orient? South Africa? The American continents? Was Paul even aware of the massive scale God had in mind (since God knew of all these distant places)? Did Paul envision that it would take “generations” in “ages to come” to bring about the fullness of what had been purposed in Christ? I think so.
  Any exegesis that does not take into consideration the last 2000 years is bound to be wrong. Like the liberal critics, Hypers want to make the Bible into a kind of “history book”, limited to that time and place, not able to go beyond the scope of AD 70. The Bible is meant to be interpreted within the community that it was born. The Spirit speaks the Word (Primary source) IN the Church (second source). The two cannot be divorced.
  Anyhoo…long answer to a good question. In short: Dispensationalism lead me to Hyper Preterism. Partial Preterism lead me out.

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