Session 5 Continuities and discontinuities between the OT covenants and the New Covenant

In the two main streams of modern theology, Covenant Theology stresses the continuity of God’s purposes shown through the covenants He makes with mankind, while Dispensational Theology recognises the discontinuities between the ages and the covenants that define them (both aspects are described in Eph. 3:1-12). This fundamental difference is not a new theological development of the last 2 centuries though, but goes back to the earliest times after the Apostles and underlies the major divisions in the Church to this day, and especially the way the Church relates to Israel.

This session should help us to understand the roots and fruits of man’s theology, and should help us to see where other Christians are coming from, so that we are not ‘blown about be every wind of doctrine’ but that we might ‘know the certainty of those things’ that we have studied.

We need to be like the Bereans – “searching the Scriptures to see whether these things be so” so that, like Paul, we can understand “the whole counsel of God”. Unfortunately, however clear-minded we think we are when approaching Scripture, or evaluating teachings that we come across, our views are conditioned by our theological mindset which will be based on principles that we have absorbed from one or other (or both) of the ‘theologies’ we will be considering today. Let’s come with open hearts and hear what the Lord might be saying to each one of us about any unconscious biases that we have!

Read Eph. 3:1-12

This passage speaks of continuity with the Old Testament covenants, but something has changed, and it changed with the coming of Messiah as revealed to Paul (v.3):

v. 5 not known in other ages, but now revealed (and not just to Paul!) – discontinuity

v.6 continuity – old truth – inheritance/body/promises – but now Gentiles to be co-heirs with Israel, partakers with Israel in their inheritance and promises

v.9 this was a mystery in the Old Testament, but God had a plan, an eternal purpose (v.11)

v.10 this mystery is now revealed through the Church to spiritual powers

We explored this in sessions 2 and 3 and saw the discontinuities caused by the crises that developed in mankind’s relationship with his Creator, and the continuity of God’s plan as revealed in the succession of Covenants God made with mankind, that we’ve been studying since October.

But is that all that there is to be said about this? Obviously not, as theologians have been arguing about what all this means for almost the entire history of the Church!

Questions!

In the Old Testament, there are lots of prophecies of a future kingdom ruled over by an anointed one (Messiah) with Israel as the head of the nations, with its rule extended over the whole world. How does this fit with the message preached by John the Baptist and Jesus: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”?

The Kingdom the OT prophesied obviously didn’t come in the way expected, and the longed-for Messiah was rejected, crucified and buried, and not seen again by the unbelieving people of Israel. So are we to understand the Kingdom as now being fulfilled in a spiritual sense only? If Jesus is to be given the throne of His father David, is that in heaven where Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God?

Then there is the whole question of Israel and who are the people of God? Where does the Church, the Body of Christ, fit into the picture? Does it replace Israel or extend Israel?

In Christ, the old has gone and new has come (2 Cor. 5:17), and Heb. 8:13 describes the covenant of Law as being obsolete and soon to disappear. What is obsolete and what replaces it?

Attempts by theologians to reconcile and explain

These questions, and many more, were addressed by the early church, preserved in the writings of the post-Apostolic Church Fathers that have come down to us. Quite early on they fell into two groups, identified by the church centres of learning where the principal proponents were based – Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria.

The two major attempts by theologians to explain the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, and the relationship between the Covenants we have been examining, go back to these two schools of thought. The Church Fathers influenced by Greek philosophical thinking tended towards the idea the Church has replaced Israel as the people of God for the fulfilment of God’s purposes on earth.

From Brittanica

School of Alexandria, the first Christian institution of higher learning, founded in the mid-2nd century AD in Alexandria, Egypt. Under its earliest known leaders (Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen), it became a leading centre of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, espoused a rapprochement between Greek culture and Christian faith [syncretism!], and attempted to assert orthodox Christian teachings against heterodox views in an era of doctrinal flux. Opposing the School of Alexandria was the School of Antioch, which emphasized the literal interpretation of the Bible.

School of Antioch, Christian theological institution in Syria, traditionally founded in about AD 200, that stressed the literal interpretation of the Bible and the completeness of Christ’s humanity, in opposition to the School of Alexandria, which emphasized the allegorical interpretation of the Bible and stressed Christ’s divinity.

As we’ll see, this is not just an ‘interesting’ historical issue, but has ramifications which have impacted the history of the last 2000 years and which are still with us today.

We can trace the idea that the Church has replaced Israel right back to Justin Martyr in the middle of the first century, where he states that the Church is the “New Israel” in his ‘Dialogue with Trypho’ (a Jew he was trying to convince of the superiority of Christianity). He was trained in the School of Plato which regarded anything to do with this world as evil, and the world of ideas (the spiritual world) as being good and to be desired. The objective is to escape this life into the world of ideas where everything will be perfect. This meant that the idea of an earthly kingdom based in the land of Israel must be evil and therefore can’t be what the Bible means when it describes such a kingdom. This is the root of A-Millennialism – the 1000 year reign of Christ and the saints over the earth becomes the triumph of Christianity in this age, starting with the binding of satan at the Cross.

Platonic thought also introduced the idea of sacred vs. secular, which eventually produced a ruling priestly class engaged in sacred work, and ordinary people who engaged in secular work, and were ruled over by the priestly class.

This is further developed by Augustine as we shall see in a moment. He was trained in Aristotelian logic. Aristotle was a pupil of Plato, but rejected his ‘world of ideas’. For Aristotle, the mind was master and only things that man’s mind could comprehend could exist (highly simplified!). He rejected any idea of revealed truth, the only truth was what philosophers could reason out. But when this thinking came into the church, it resulted in the mind being elevated over Scripture.

This eventually led to a situation where the priestly class, who were often the only people who had been educated and could read, were trained in logic, and the only ones who could understand the Bible. This led to the Dark Ages, lasting from the Fall of Rome to the Enlightenment.

However, Greek philosophy is the foundation of The Enlightenment, and it was seen as delivering the Church from its bondage to religion and ritual – a bondage which was the result of Greek Philosophy infiltrating the Church in the first place!

However, there have always been believers who maintained a literal approach to Scripture and a pure gospel. They have generally been persecuted by the established church, starting with the Council of Nicea, to which Antiochian Bishops were not invited! (see “The Pilgrim Church by E.H. Broadbent re the church on the margins).

We can contrast the effect of the two school’s approach to the Scripture along the following lines:

Doctrine	Antioch	Alexandria
Christology	Emphasised the two distinct natures of Christ (Col. 2:9)	Emphasised the union of the two natures (John 1:14)
Interpretation of Scripture	Literal understanding, but recognising genre, metaphor and typology	Allegorical interpretation, with three levels – plain reading (for the flesh), spiritual re-interpretation (for the soul) and hidden meanings (for the spirit – often arbitrarily imposed of Scripture)
The Second Coming	Occurs before the Millennium	The church age is a spiritual Millennium and the Second Coming occurs at the end of time
The Church	Separate to Israel, not replacing it	Replacing Israel (as an ethic group) as the people of God, with the Church comprising of ‘true Israelites’ in the OT plus ‘New Israelites’ in the NT (i.e. Christians)
Israel	Blinded partially and temporarily. To rule the nations in the Millennium	Permanently rejected by God. Only those saved into the Church continue to be the people of God.

Reformed Theology

The Reformation theologians largely adopted Augustinian thinking and theology (with its A-Millennialism and supercessionism), and developed it further. Calvin would be recognised as the leading figure in this, developing ideas which would become known as Calvinist (although he might not agree with some of the doctrines which have been made to bear his name!) as a system of Reformed theology, subsequently  formed into a number of ‘Confessions’ – the Belgic, Helvetic, Heidelburg and Westminster being the most famous, plus the C of E’s 39 Articles.

Books on Systematic Reformed Theology often start with a discussion of God’s Decrees as the whole system is based on that idea, which goes on to posit that there are just three Covenants in Scripture –none of which are actually found in Scripture(!) but provide a framework for seeing the continuity of God’s plan of salvation (the Bible’s Big Story being all about our salvation):

1. The Covenant of Redemption – made between the Father and the Son in eternity past, whereby the Son will give His life so that the Father can save the elect of all ages (and only the elect)
2. The Covenant of Works – usually just seen as the Edenic Covenant, but sometimes includes the Mosaic covenant. This proves that mankind cannot live in a way which pleases God that would result in Eternal life.
3. The Covenant of Grace, which includes all the other Covenants as different stages, during which the elect are saved

Dispensational Theology

The early Church Fathers identified four as being the most significant – Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and New Covenants. Most today recognise the eight we have studied – Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Land, Davidic, New

Leading to the identification of ‘dispensations’ – times when God dealt with people according to ‘house rules’ which changed over time, hence emphasising the discontinuity.

Implications

The Alexandrian/Antiochian divide continues to this day. In essence, the Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed denominations (Lutheran, Anglican, Methodists, Presbyterian, URC – anyone who baptises infants) tend to follow the allegorical method of interpretation of Scripture and sees the Church as a continuation of Israel as the people of God throughout the ages, so tends towards A-Millennialism and Supercessionism. Christening is said to parallel circumcision as the NT ‘rite of entry’ into the People of God so the child becomes a member of the Kingdom of God and an inheritor of eternal life – based, they say, on the faith of the parents (or the god-parents, or even of the whole church).

Evangelicals (Baptist, Free Church, Brethren, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Independents, with their roots in the Anabaptists and Moravians– anyone who baptises believers) tend to follow the literal method of interpretation of Scripture and see the Church as separate from Israel in God’s purposes, so tending towards the idea that the Second Coming of Christ results in His 1000 year reign. Baptism is recognised as following conversion, a public declaration of the person’s own faith and a step in discipleship.

There are of course people across the denominations who hold different views to their roots, and maybe many who aren’t even aware of the roots of the theology of their denomination.

I’ve picked baptism/christening as the key indicator, as the development of christening as the means of salvation comes from the allegorical school and is the key divide between the two types of churches/denominations.

The late R C Sproul (influential Reformed theologian) was once talking to a Baptist Pastor about how he knew that someone he baptised was a Christian. The Baptist pastor replied that it was based on a person’s testimony and life demonstrating that they were a Christian. He agreed that you couldn’t be 100% certain that the person was a Christian. To which Sproul replied, that he could be 100% certain as the act of baptism made the person a Christian.

So this affects how you see the Gospel, how you see the Church, how you disciple people, who are ‘the elect’ and how you see Israel and its relationship with the New Covenant people of God.

The roots of Covenant Theology in the Alexandrian School with its A-Millennialism and dismissal of the nation of Israel, reflecting, it is said, God’s rejection of Israel’s because of their rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah, laid the foundations for oppression of the Jews and violent anti-Semitism conducted by Christendom over the centuries. We might recall the Crusades wantonly murdering Jews wherever they found them; the Inquisition which was set up to root out Jews who had ‘converted’ to Catholicism but still practiced Torah observance; the blood libels and pogroms of more recent times.

Looking back at the founders of the Reformation, we see that they were infected with this ‘virus’ and their writings inspired Hitler and ultimately resulted in the Holocaust.

Martin Luther had this to say towards the end of his life:

“The Jews deserve the most severe penalties. Their synagogues should be levelled, their homes destroyed. They should be exiled into tents like gypsies. Their religious writings should be taken from them. The rabbis should be forbidden to continue teaching the law. All professions should be closed to them. Only the hardest, coarsest work should be permitted to them. Rich Jews should have their fortunes confiscated and the money used to support the Jews who are willing to be converted.”

Calvin said: “Their rotten and unbending stiffneckedness deserves that they be oppressed unendingly and without measure or end and that they die in their misery without the pity of anyone.”

If we apply James’ rule for determining the source of wisdom (James 3:14-18) by the fruits it produces, Covenant Theology doesn’t come out very well! Of course, not everyone in a tradition necessarily holds to all the ideas of that tradition – many reformed people support Israel and one of the most outspoken anti-Semites, John Chrysostom, came from the Antiochian school! We are talking about theological systems here, not individual people today.

How Covenant theologians see the Church

In Covenant Theology, Israel and the New Testament church are one and the same thing, one people of God spanning the ages. Like Israel in the OT, the Church is a mixed multitude of true believers and those who profess to belong. For Israel, entry into the Covenant People was by birth and circumcision. Entry now is by birth and baptism, which is the equivalent of circumcision (Col. 2:11-12). This is paedo-baptism, the baptism of infants (as opposed to credo-baptism, which is the baptism of those who believe Acts 2:38; 10:48).

Not everyone who is baptised will continue, just as with Israel – For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. (Rom. 9:6) – there is a remnant chosen by grace … What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened (Rom. 11:5, 7). So proof of being born again is perseverance (the P of TULIP). Those who are truly saved will persevere.

So when they use the word ‘Christian’, it doesn’t mean the same as when Evangelicals use the word. Let’s look at some differences (Share screen):

	Reformed/Covenant (paedo-baptist)	Evangelical/Dispensational (credo-baptist)
Christian	Someone who was baptised into the church, usually as an infant	Someone who has expressed personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Baptism	Usually sprinkling with holy water	Usually full immersion
On whose faith?	The parents, god-parents or the local church	The individual who is being baptised
Purpose of baptism	Essential – as that is what makes you a Christian	Expected, as it is an expression of faith in Christ
Church	All the people of God from Abel to the end of time	All believers from Pentecost to the Second Coming
Celebrating Communion	Essential to keep you in a state of salvation	A remembrance of Christ’s death to be observed by believers
The elements of Communion	The actual body and blood of Christ, or His Presence in the elements	Symbolic only

This affects the teaching of the Church. In Catholic/Anglican churches, there’s no need to preach the Gospel as everybody there is a ‘Christian’ if they have been christened/baptised (the christening vows made by your parents or god-parents are often ‘confirmed’ when you reach an age of responsibility). Reformed churches do have a strong Gospel element as they recognise that there will be people in the Church who have faith, but do not have saving faith. In my experience in the Anglican church (and confirmed by speaking to other Anglicans over the years), Discipleship tends to focus on observing the sacraments and doing one’s best to live as a Christian. Reformed churches tend to emphasise Bible exposition above everything else.

Evangelical/Dispensational churches tend to preach the Gospel as they recognise that, unless one has made a profession of faith in Christ, they are not saved regardless of their church status. They also stress discipleship as the expected outcome of that profession of faith, starting with baptism by immersion.

Other views

There have been recent developments on both sides of the discussion, trying to find common ground between them, particularly Progressive Covenantalism which tries to eliminate the endemic Platonism of Covenant Theology, and Progressive Dispensationalism, which tries to eliminate the discontinuity emphasis in Dispensationalism.

There are also other views as illustrated on this slide which I got from a review of the book “Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies: Four Views on the Continuity of Scripture”. The book describes the four main positions (in bold), and their strengths and weaknesses:

We haven’t looked at:

• Two Covenant Theology or Dual-covenant theology (holds that the Mosaic covenant remains valid for Jews while the New Covenant only applies to non-Jews)
• Fulfillment Theology: “According to this teaching God chose the Jewish people after the fall of Adam in order to prepare the world for the coming of Jesus Christ, the Saviour. After Christ came, however, the special role of the Jewish people came to an end and its place was taken by the church, called the New Israel.”
• Enlargement Theology, which Alex Jacob (a United Reformed minister and director of CMJ) proposes consists of three different yet mutually inter-connected communities – ethnic Jews, Messianic Jews and Gentile believers
• Realised Eschatology of J A T Robinson and C H Dodd (eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future, but instead refer to the ministry of Jesus and his lasting legacy)
• Inaugurated Eschatology of George Eldon Ladd (already but not yet) and its children, Kingdom Theology or Dominion Theology

The truth probably lies somewhere between them all! None of us has all the truth (otherwise we’d get proud!) but we need to recognise that all of us has got some truth (to keep us charitable). As we said at the beginning, we need to search the Scriptures, which is what we have been doing in this series.

Summary

The reviewer of the above book said:

“Adopting the strengths from the various systems would result in a system that affirms that the New Testament should be used to understand and interpret the Old Testament but that Old Testament texts should not be reinterpreted to mean something other than what their authors originally intended.

“This system would affirm a unified covenant plan of law and promise covenants that form the backbone of the Bible’s storyline. This storyline would include not only the creation, fall, and restoration of individuals but also the creation, fall, and restoration of other things God instituted in creation, such as nations. Within the creation order God has ordained numerous institutions, including the church, each of which has a distinct, God-ordained mission.”

I would add Israel to the list of institutions with a ‘distinct, God-ordained mission’ as an essential component and I believe that we have outlined in this series a ‘system’ (prefer ‘method of interpreting’) which satisfies those requirements, but I wouldn’t want to give it a name or place it on this diagram!

But I would argue that we have done justice to the literal way of understanding the Bible, while understanding that many things in the OT are typological of things to come, but also that we have understood the continuing story that the Bible tells of God’s dealings with His creation and the ultimate fulfilment of His purposes and plans.

May we be able to ‘comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height’ of the plan of the mystery ‘which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God’ but has now been revealed, and also ‘know the love of Christ which surpasses understanding’ that we might be ‘filled with all the fullness of God’! (Eph. 3:9-10, 18-19)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Appendix Major turning points in Church History

The theological debates discussed earlier led to a number of revolutions in church history:

• Christological debates and countering heresies largely pre-Augustine
• Triumph of Augustinian theology and the Fall of the Roman Empire (leading to Papal ascendancy)
• The Great Schism
• The Reformation around the time of The Enlightenment
• The rise of Evangelicalism arising from the Puritan movement

This is widely recognised, but what doesn’t seem to be so widely recognised is the way that The Truth got buried in all this. Many seem to think that these streams are all a good thing rather than belying the myth of “We are not divided, all one body we” and the terrible witness it is to the world. The major influence of Greek philosophical thinking led to a lot of these – again widely recognised but not seen as a problem. Steve Maltz covers this in his books How the Church lost The Way and How the Church lost The Truth, as he follows in the thought steps of David Pawson and others who want to de-Greece the Church.

Greek thought and understanding of the Bible, introduced by Justin Martyr in the second century, was developed further in Clement, Origen and Irenaeus and came to full flower in Augustine. Augustine started out with pre-Millennial views of the Antiochian school, but developed the Alexandrian thinking to the nth degree in his book ‘The City of God’ following the fall of the Roman Empire, in which he posits that there has only ever been one people of God (‘the elect’, who inhabit the City of God – all others are in the City of Man, and are ‘the damned’) and that the Millennium is not a literal 1000 years at some future point in history, but represents the City of God triumphing over the City of Man, culminating in the return of Christ.