New Covenant Revolution: Finally Burying Old Covenant Christianity

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

I love the Bible. I love learning the history and culture behind the words of the Bible, and I love the incredible way the sixty-six books of the Bible go together. The Bible is a beautiful gift from God to us, yet so many Christians feel like they do not understand it. Sunday after Sunday, people go to church, listen to messages from the Bible, and then go home feeling like they still don’t really understand the Book, even after decades of listening!

Because of this, some people decide to go to Bible college or seminary to learn the Bible. However, most of their class time is devoted to learning Greek and Hebrew and a variety of theological perspectives. As a result, they never actually grow in their understanding of the Bible itself. To know the Bible is to know its purpose, its flow, its intention, and the heart of its Author. To misunderstand the Bible is to lose its purpose. When that happens, it becomes a dead book that is awful to read. When we misunderstand the Bible, we lose its flow and intention. Worst of all, when we misunderstand the Bible, we misunderstand the heart of its Author.

What we need is the truth. As Jesus said, it is the truth that sets us free (see John 8:32). When it comes to understanding the Bible, many believers are searching for a more truthful approach. They want to understand the story the Bible holds and the truth it tells us about God. That is why I have written this book—to bring the truth to light and illuminate the Book that tells us how to be free.

To that end, I believe we need to understand the Bible not as a rule book, but as the written record of God’s covenant journey with humanity. This, I believe, is the central topic of the Bible, and seeing the Bible in this light is the central point of this book.

This is a significant shift from what many of us have always believed. In hopes of preparing your heart for this shift, I will share with you three key truths that are the foundation of the covenant message in this book:

1. The Old Testament is not the old covenant.

2. The New Testament is not the new covenant.

3. The end of the age is not the end of the world.

You might not understand them yet, but by the end of this book, the implications of these three statements will change your life—if you let them. They will bring you closer to God, make sense of the Bible, and cause you to discard some of what you thought you knew.

I believe the revelation of the truth in this book will help you more truly understand the heart of God and the Book He wrote. Are you ready?

CHAPTER 1

IN SEARCH OF ANOTHER WAY

Better Covenant Theology and the Path of the Covenants

What is the most important page in the Bible? the preacher asked his audience. After several moments of uncomfortable silence, he announced, The most important page in the Bible is the blank page between the Old and New Testaments. Through this clever statement, he revealed the theological perspective that shaped his understanding of the Bible.

Many of us have not considered this deeply, but what we believe about the Old and New Testaments and their relationship with each other is very important. It determines how we understand the message the two Testaments contain. It is safe to say that the lens through which we see the Bible determines what we think it says. In theological circles, there are two main systems for reading and understanding the Bible.

The first system is called dispensationalism, which is what the preacher mentioned above was subtly alluding to. The idea is that God has interacted with humanity in different ways in different time periods, known as dispensations. The practical outworking of this is the belief that God acted differently in Old Testament times than in New Testament times.¹

The second system used in reading the Bible is called covenant theology. Covenant theology says God is a covenantal God and has had a purpose throughout all of human history. The covenant approach to the Bible does not draw a hard line between the Old and New Testaments. In fact, a covenant theologian would shudder at the above quote from the dispensational preacher. Because dispensationalism does draw a hard line between the two Testaments, covenant theologians argue that dispensational teachers devalue the Old Testament. Covenant theologians are more likely to be quoted as saying, The whole Bible is God’s Word, and all of it is applicable to all people at all times.²

Although these two systems have been at war for decades—if not centuries—I will not be choosing either side. Instead, I have arrived at another understanding—one that I believe is much more Hebraic and consistent in its view of the Bible. Because the Bible is a compilation of sixty-six books written over the course of fifteen hundred years by over forty different authors, I don’t believe we can accurately divide it into two compartments (Old Testament and New Testament) as the dispensationalists do. Neither do I believe the whole Bible is applicable to all people at all times. This logic breaks down quickly when we ask simple questions like: How many Canaanites am I supposed to kill?

Both of these views fall far short of showing us how to interpret the Bible and apply to our lives. It does not suffice to simply wave our hands and say, Oh, that’s Old Testament, so it doesn’t apply to me. Neither can we try to consistently apply all the laws of Deuteronomy and Leviticus to our lives. Because of this, many have tried to blend these two systems and create a balance in which they pick and choose their way through the laws and apply certain ones, while writing off others. This arbitrary and inconsistent approach to understanding the Bible will get us nowhere.

THE PATH OF THE COVENANTS

Instead, I believe we need to start with the big picture of the Bible, which can be summarized by the five major covenants between God and people:

1. The Noahic covenant

2. The Abrahamic covenant

3. The Mosaic covenant

4. The Davidic covenant

5. The new covenant

Many teachers have carelessly claimed that the Old Testament is the old covenant and the New Testament is the new covenant. This idea lumps all four of the covenants contained in the Old Testament into one category. To see why this is so wrong, we must understand what the Bible means when it refers to the old covenant. Several key passages in the New Testament—Second Corinthians 3–4, Galatians 3–4, and Hebrews 8–10—contrast the old and new covenants. However, never in these passages is the term old covenant used in reference to the Old Testament. Instead, the covenant between God and Moses (and the nation of Israel) is the only covenant that is ever called old. The covenants God made with Noah and Abraham are actually older than His covenant with Moses, but they are never referred to as the old covenant (2 Cor. 3; Gal. 4, Heb. 8).

In other words, old covenant refers exclusively to the covenant between God and Moses. This means that Genesis 1–Exodus 20, which records a period of history spanning 2,847 years, contains no old covenant! By contrast, Israel lived under the old covenant for only 1,300 years. The old covenant is contained within the Old Testament, but not all of the Old Testament is the old covenant. This has massive implications for how we understand the Bible. For example, when we read Paul’s admonition to throw out the slave woman and her son (Gal. 4:30), we will recognize it as a command to throw out the old Mosaic covenant, not the entire Old Testament. Knowing the difference between the old covenant and the Old Testament is critical to a balanced view of the Bible.

Similarly, if one believes the Old Testament is the old covenant, it follows that the New Testament is the new covenant, but this belief is even more obviously flawed. Clearly, Matthew 1:1 is not the beginning of the new covenant. In fact, the new covenant is not even mentioned until Matthew 26:28, on the night before Jesus’ death! Instead, Jesus’ three and a half years of ministry happened during and under the old covenant (see Gal. 4:4–5), because the new covenant was not established until Christ’s blood was shed at the cross. Therefore, not all of the New Testament is the new covenant. Clearly, these two terms are not synonymous, and our understanding of Scripture is immediately muddied if we do not distinguish between them.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

To some, finding a third way may seem unimportant and unnecessary, but the truth is, it is essential. Our understanding of Scripture affects how we live. Many earnest students of the Word have asked questions that are not adequately answered by dispensational or covenant systems. For example, Why did God do things in the Old Testament that seem cruel or reactionary to the modern reader? We cannot simply gloss over these questions. And like many, I cannot accept the answers offered by these two theological systems.

The dispensational answer to this question basically says, That was the dispensation of law, and life was very harsh under that system. But thankfully, we now live in the dispensation of grace, and everything is different. However, this system doesn’t know what to do with the New Testament stories of Ananias and Sapphira being struck dead and King Herod being eaten by worms (see Acts 5:1–11; 12:19–23) or the judgments of the Book of Revelation. How do these events fit within the dispensation of grace?

The covenant theologian, in an attempt to be more consistent, will say the Old and New Testaments are seamless, and that’s why God acts as a judge in both. Yet that does not actually explain the heart behind God’s actions—which is what those who ask this question are seeking to understand.

When these questions go unanswered, many leave the church, and some even become militantly anti-church. For example, the famous atheist Richard Dawkins has written:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.³

That is quite a list of accusations! Sadly, the church has not been able to mount anything more than a feeble response, because many Christians get the same impression from the Scriptures. We declare that God is love and that God the Father and God the Son are one and the same. But how do we synthesize this with the violence often attributed to God in the Bible? How do we actually understand the actions and heart of God in the Old Testament or even in the New Testament Book of Revelation?

Some Christians, not knowing how else to answer these questions, have turned to unorthodox explanations. Some follow in the footsteps of the early church leader and denounced heretic, Marcion, who taught that the God of the Old Testament is not the Father of Jesus. He argued that because Jesus, the reflection of God the Father, is not like the God of the Old Testament (as reflected in the laws of the Old Testament), then that God must be different from Jesus’ Father. Thus, there must be two different gods recorded in the Scripture. Others suggest that Satan was not mentioned much in the Old Testament because people back then attributed everything to God, both good and evil. So, when the Israelites were killed in plagues or other judgments, they attributed it to God, but it was actually Satan’s work. This requires one to read with a filter that disregards what the text actually says.⁴

What we can learn from all of this is that if we do not have a clear system for how to understand the Bible and the heart of God, we will inevitably misrepresent Him. It is the goal of every lover of God to represent Him properly; therefore, we must understand the Bible. Because our current systems of theology are inadequate, we must search for something better.

BETTER COVENANT THEOLOGY

To that end, in this book I offer the blueprint for a system I have named Better Covenant Theology, based on Hebrews 8:6: But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. This system is not a new system per se.⁵ It is the path of the covenants, which was progressively recorded in the Bible over the course of fifteen hundred years. In other words, by observing the built-in structure of the Bible, we will allow the Bible to explain itself to us. The conclusions of this system may seem revolutionary in our modern day, but I believe this is how the first-century Christians understood what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

Better Covenant Theology can be summarized by these ten pillars or essential points. The reasoning behind these will be explained in the remaining chapters of this book. But, for the purpose of defining this theological system, here, in a comprehensive list, are the underpinnings of Better Covenant Theology:

1. Jesus’ birth fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant.

2. Jesus’ death created the new covenant.

3. The new covenant is between the Father and the Son.

4. Jesus’ ascension and enthronement in heaven fulfilled the Davidic kingdom promises.

5. The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 removed the old covenant permanently and fulfilled Hebrews 8:13.

6. Between the cross and AD 70 existed a forty-year covenant transition for the church.

7. During the transition period, the old covenant and the new covenant co-existed.

8. The end of the age and the last days were first century references to the last days of the old covenant and the end of the old covenant age.

9. No application of the Mosaic old covenant remains; the feasts, Sabbaths, civil laws, ceremonial laws, and moral laws are done away with.

10. The law of the new covenant is: Love one another as I have loved you.

This is the big picture that Better Covenant Theology presents. If we understand it, I believe the whole Bible will begin to make sense. If, as I have suggested, the Bible is the written record of God’s covenant journey with humanity, then to understand the Bible we need first to understand the biblical covenants.

THREE TYPES OF COVENANT

Before we can understand the story of the five biblical covenants, we must understand what type of covenant each was and the implications it carried. In the Ancient Near East (ANE), three types of covenants were commonly created between two parties—grant covenants, kinship covenants, and vassal covenants.⁶

1. Grant Covenant—When a king decided to honor and bless a faithful servant or a lesser king, he would establish a grant covenant. A grant covenant was the best type of covenant, because it came with no strings attached. It was unconditional and didn’t require obedience on the part of the receiver. It was the generous overflow of love and grace, poured out of a ruler’s heart upon the one receiving the grant covenant.

2. Kinship Covenant—When two equal parties decided to enter into covenant together, such as in a military alliance or even in a marriage, this was known as a kinship covenant. This covenant came with certain obligations, which both parties would uphold, not unlike the exchanging of vows in a marriage ceremony.

3. Vassal Covenant—During times of war, a king may have decided to spare an enemy nation’s women, children, and elderly so that he could continue to exact labor and tax money from them for years to come. To keep them alive, the king would establish a vassal covenant, which was the heaviest covenant to bear. The conditions for a vassal covenant were seemingly endless, with the stipulation that if the lesser party did not uphold their end of the deal, the king would kill the rest of them.

In the Bible, we find all three of these types of covenants. The biblical text surrounding these covenants is the record of these covenants; it provides the context and culture needed to explain and make sense of the covenant.

THE COVENANT RECORD

In the ANE, when two parties came together to make a covenant, they also initiated the process of keeping track of how each was doing at upholding their end of the deal. This historical record, which accompanied the covenant, would include history, as well as literature, music, poetry, and other culturally significant writings to help explain the circumstances surrounding the covenant itself.⁷

The New Testament gives us