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43 results for “New covenant”
Clear searchConditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
Has God Abandoned Israel? What Do the Covenants Say? Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ Israel broke God's law, rejected the prophets, and nationally refused its Messiah. Jerusalem was judged, th…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
Does the New Testament Reaffirm Israel's Promises? Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy The Old Testament repeatedly promises Israel preservation, regatherin…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…s Promises Transfer to the Church? What "yea and Amen" in Christ means for Israel and the covenants Paul makes one of the most comprehensive statements about the promises of God: "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." —2 Corint…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…e both affirmative and qualified. Israel is not married to the land in precisely the same covenantal sense in which she is married to the LORD. Throughout Scripture, the LORD is Israel’s covenant husband. The land, by contrast, is Israel’s covenant inheritance. Nevertheless, Isai…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…er responds differently when people repent. Scripture contains conditional announcements, covenant blessings, covenant curses, intercession, and mercy. Faithfulness means that God acts consistently with His character and with the terms He has actually spoken. The question is ther…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
The New Testament Is a Very Jewish Story Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world To many Jewish people, Christianity appears thoroughly foreign. Its historic centres be…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…rael and the Church Really the Same? Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose The New Testament teaches a unity so profound that it would have startled the ancient world. In Christ, Jewish and Gentile believers are reconciled to God in one body. Both possess the same Spir…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
Isaac, Not Ishmael The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ Did God choose Isaac or Ishmael? This is not a tribal debate. It is a covenant question. The answer does not require hostility towards Ar…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
No Holy Land? Covenant Discipline, Gentile Blessing, and Israel's Future A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God Michael Horton's essay, “No Holy Land: Does Israel…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
Why Did Jesus Choose Twelve Apostles? A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance Jesus did not choose twelve apostles because twelve happened to be a convenient number. He could have appointed seven, seventy, or any other number. Instead…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…believers are one in Christ while national Israel still has an appointed future under the covenants. This is not a contest over which group matters more. Jewish people have no separate path of salvation, and Gentile believers are not second-class members of God's household. Every…
Read article →The wicked husbandmen, the fruit-bearing nation, and what Jesus said afterwards
…f the kingdom is removed? Who is the fruit-bearing nation? Does the sentence revoke God's covenants with Israel, or does it pronounce judgement upon the unfaithful rulers and generation then entrusted with the vineyard? The immediate context identifies Jesus' targets. The parable…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
Daniel's Seventieth Week and the New Testament Tribulation Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem The seven-year Tribulation is sometimes dismissed as an interval invented to make a…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…he Restoration of the Nation of Israel Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come Israel's history contains both judgement and preservation. The Jewish people were conquered, exiled, dispersed across continents, denied sovereignty, and repeatedly perse…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…es the letter by pronouncing peace and mercy upon those who walk according to the rule of new creation "and upon the Israel of God" (Galatians 6:15-16). Is that expression Paul's name for the whole Church? These are substantial questions because Galatians gives Gentile believers…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…present body, believing Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God and to one another in one new man (Ephesians 2:11–18). They possess equal standing in Christ. That unity does not require every covenantal promise to change its named recipient. Acts 15 gives a helpful order. God is…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…aithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises This series has examined covenants, prophecies, apostles, thrones, tribes, branches, seeds, kingdoms, and the difficult words upon which the debate turns. We have tried to hear the strongest opposing arguments, conc…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…would leave much of its language unexplained. The chapters speak of righteous kingship, renewed moral perception, the Spirit poured out from above, fruitful land, secure Zion, forgiven inhabitants, judgment upon the nations and the return of the redeemed. Their cumulative movemen…
Read article →Defining the position before testing it
…nise. Supersessionism is the view that the Church has permanently succeeded Israel as the covenant people of God, so that national Israel no longer possesses a distinct future in the fulfilment of the biblical covenants. The promises reach their final meaning in Christ and the Ch…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…n either separation or replacement. Gentiles really do enter blessings rooted in Israel's covenant history. They do so by grace and faith, alongside the believing remnant of Israel. Yet Paul continues to distinguish wild branches from natural branches and describes Israel's event…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…e missing Islamic Injeel, the Qur’an’s miracle claim, alleged prophecies of Muhammad, the covenant line through Isaac, Daniel’s cut-off Messiah and the Qur’an’s relationship to the religious stories of late antiquity. The individual questions matter. But now we must ask what they…
Read article →How the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…the law." —Romans 3:31 This does not mean that believers are placed back under the Mosaic covenant as the means of justification or covenant standing. It means that the gospel confirms the truth to which the Law bears witness. The Law's verdict upon sin is upheld, its demand for…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…o discussed it with his priest, who apparently regarded it as something everyone already knew. The claim itself was far from new to me. I first encountered it around seventeen years ago, when I began engaging in religious forums online. I was debating a humanist who appealed, if…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…’s will and offers Himself once for all. Hebrews is contrasting the sacrifices of the old covenant with Christ’s willing obedience and effective sacrifice. Its emphasis is not that He received a body instead of a human mind or soul. Its emphasis is that He came bodily into our co…
Read article →The crucifixion in history, Scripture and the Qur'an
…identified victim hurried away without recognition. They place Jesus among followers who knew Him, opponents who had sought His death and Roman soldiers carrying out a public execution. The executioners confirmed His death The Gospel writers do not treat Jesus' death as an assump…
Read article →The gathering of the elect, one taken and one left, and Paul's revealed mystery
…the discourse is operating within Israel's prophetic programme rather than explaining the newly formed body of Christ in Pauline terms. Daniel's abomination is especially important. Jesus says that when it appears, "then shall be great tribulation" (Matthew 24:15, 21). Daniel 9 p…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…n Israelite category Paul did not invent inward circumcision to provide the Church with a new ethnic name. Moses had already commanded Israel: "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." —Deuteronomy 10:16 The same book promises a future divine…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…, or distrust of corrupt institutions. If all these things are Gnostic, then parts of the New Testament begin to look suspicious. A label that explains everything explains nothing. The question therefore requires three different investigations. Did modern evangelicalism descend f…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…clusion which the apostles had not required—that national Israel had permanently lost its covenant future. Theological argument also hardened at times into collective accusation and degrading rhetoric against Jewish people. Other evidence complicates the story. Writers who spirit…
Read article →Signs, expectancy, and the event the Church is told to await
…ertain and constantly expected without anyone being authorised to calculate its date. The New Testament repeatedly directs believers towards Christ Himself: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." —Titus 2:13 "For…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…and Gentiles are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. The distinction concerns covenantal identity, historical vocation and prophetic promises—not whether one group is saved by Christ while another reaches God by a separate road. Nor does pretribulationism teach that G…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…on is not a clever means of evading all authority. It is the order established within the New Testament itself. Overseers are commanded to hold fast the faithful word so that they may teach sound doctrine and refute error (Titus 1:9). Elders are to shepherd the flock without beco…
Read article →The Messiah cut off before the Temple fell
…erb translated “cut off” is kārat. It can refer to cutting something physically, making a covenant, or removing and destroying a person. When used of a person under judgement, it frequently carries the force of death or decisive destruction. In Daniel 9:26, the anointed figure do…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…fallen humanity refuses the response creation ought to produce: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Romans 1:21) The descent begins not only with fal…
Read article →The brothers of Jesus, the sons of Mary, and an argument of strong plausibility
…rtraits of the suffering Messiah in the Psalter. Its language repeatedly reappears in the New Testament’s account of Jesus: “They hate me without a cause” is applied to Jesus in John 15:25. “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up” is applied to Jesus in John 2:17. “The reproach…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…identity and outstanding promises to disappear. After following the argument through the covenants, the prophets, the teaching of Jesus, Acts, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and the history of Christian interpretation, the cumulative answer is no. God has judged Israel severely. Th…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…h part should be allowed to retain its natural force. The promise belongs to the coming renewal Jesus places the apostolic thrones "in the regeneration". The word describes renewal or re-creation. Its only other New Testament occurrence refers to the believer's spiritual renewal…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…cross and presented Him as the eternal Word who was already with God in the beginning. I knew those truths could not contradict one another, but I did not yet possess the theological distinction that would later help me considerably: the distinction between eternity and economy.…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…overrule the text's own identification. "From the midst of thee" Moses is addressing the covenant nation of Israel. He does not merely say that the prophet will come from a distantly related people. He says, "from the midst of thee, of thy brethren". The language is clarified on…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…the Israel within Israel, while unbelieving ethnic Israel no longer possesses a distinct covenant identity or future. Paul certainly denies that physical descent guarantees salvation. He distinguishes outward privilege from participation in God's saving purpose and traces that p…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…ans 2. Something holds back the revelation of the final lawless ruler. The Thessalonians knew what Paul meant. We have his letter, but not the earlier conversation to which he refers. There is a serious case for understanding this restraint in relation to governmental authority,…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…whom Christ gathers after the Tribulation? Many readers assume the answer is obvious. The New Testament applies the language of election to Christians, so the elect in Matthew 24 must be the Church. If they are gathered after the Tribulation, the passage appears to place the rapt…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…t off and Jerusalem is later destroyed. The final week therefore remains distinct, with a covenant, a marked midpoint, sacrifice, abomination, and desolation (Daniel 9:26-27). Jesus places Daniel's abomination before unparalleled Great Tribulation and His manifested coming (Matth…
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