New Covenant Theology
Well, so much for my two weeks off. By the grace of God I am ahead of where I need to be in my 2 -week study plan. A few months ago, I posted on Progressive Dispensationalism. What I'd like to know now is if there is reader out there who holds to New Covenant Theology?
posted by Charlie Wallace at
11:24 PM
11 Comments:
Good to see you back again so soon.
Thanks Matthew.
I'll check those links out, Louise. Yes, SEBTS is great.
Who cares? Not me! :-)
I assume when you ask if there is a reader that holds to New Covenant Theology you are asking if there are any readers that are retarted. Well I think the previous posts will answer with a resounding... YES!!!
I like the new look.
I can't speak for anyone else but I think it is ironic that Mr. M misspelled "retarded." Welcome back, neighbor.
Charlie,
My only question would be, what do we do with statements by Jesus that He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it?
Other than that, I agree with pretty much everything else.
Michael,
I understand your point. This is what theopedia says about your question:
"The biggest difference between classical Covenant Theology and New Covenant Theology is how they view the Mosaic Law. Covenant Theology sees the Mosaic Law as divided into civil, ceremonial, and moral, with only the moral law remaining in effect. New Covenant Theology sees the New Testament writers as referring to the Mosaic Law in its totality (in other words all 613 laws, not all but the Ten Commandments). Therefore, when Paul says that "we are no longer under a tutor" (Gal 3:25) he is saying that the Mosaic Law en toto has passed away."
It seems to me that this teaching is odd. After all the 613 laws were not God-given...some were man-made to protect the Ten Commandments.
Unfortunately, this kind of confusion erupts when no explicit teaching is done in theology class at SEBTS on how the OT and the NT fit together. If your professor is a dispensationalist, you might get a whiff of that, if he's a New Covenant guy, perhaps a taste, but all in all this is an area that Baptists (sorry guys, don't mean to be harsh) need to sort out more thoroughly. Disagreement within the faculty doesn't mean that this issue shouldn't be fleshed out formally in seminary. After all, people in the pews do ask these things, right?
I think that the primary impetus behind creating New Covenant theology instead of embracing classical Covenant Theology is paedobaptism. When following a covenantal understanding of Scripture, paedobaptism is a natural and obvious conclusion.
I hold to the perpetuity of the moral law personally, and so I must reject the conclusions of New Cov. Theology.
In defense of the faculty at SEBTS, I know that they are not supposed to reveal their theological views in class...some do carefully, others just represent the different views and do not reveal their own personal conviction.
I do think it would be helpful if in theology class the professor would lay out the different systems of theology, however there are many professors who would warn against completely systematizing one's theology.
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