2 Corinthians 05

SBC Family,

I can't get everything I want to get done for 2 Cor 3:4-18. I've been doing my background study for this section which relates to the new covenant. I'm just not ready yet and I won't be by 7pm.

Our topic will be the church's relationship to the new covenant, which is the most debated topic in dispensationalism today. It's been an issue for well over 100 years. The Council of Dispensational Hermeneutics dedicated the 2009 conference to this topic in hopes of clarification, but dispensationalists still cannot agree on the church's relationship to the new covenant. Essentially the issue is that God said He would make a new covenant with Israel and Judah, not the church, and yet the NT authors quote new covenant passages seemingly in some relationship to the church. As a result there are several views...

Fulfillment. Non-dispensationalists are comfortable saying that Israel is the church and so there is no future for ethnic Israel.
Partial Fulfillment. Progressive dispensationalists hold that the new covenant is partially being fulfilled to the church, but that there is still a distinction between Israel and the church and God has a future for ethnic Israel.
Partakers. Some classic dispensationalists hold that the church is partaking of the spiritual blessings of Israel's new covenant, but that the covenant will only be fulfilled to future ethnic Israel.
Two new covenants. Some classic dispensationalists hold that there is a new covenant for Israel and another new covenant for the church.
Single covenant Israel only. Some classic dispensationalists hold that there is one new covenant for Israel only that has no relationship to the church.

I'm going to try to explain the view I hold and why. I will be using some of these other views as a backdrop, and especially I'll be looking at views 3 and 5. You may wonder why this is important. If so, the following issues are some areas that are impacted.

Has the church replaced Israel?
What is the relationship between the church and Israel?
What was the relationship between Gentiles and God's covenants before the cross?
What was the relationship between Gentiles and God's covenants after the cross?
What are all the purposes of the covenants (are they soteriological, eschatological? Messianic?)
Is Jesus presently functioning as the Melchizedekian High Priest?
How do sins get forgiven in the Christian life? (i.e. restoration of fellowship)
When we take the Lord's Supper is the cup for us?
What is God's plan (seen from His vantage point)? What is He doing?

More...

IF YOU DON'T ASK QUESTIONS it might be boring, so BRING QUESTIONS OR EMAIL ME IN ADVANCE. That will make things more interesting. I have a general outline of things I want to explain, but you may have questions too. No question is dumb. If you have a question many other people have that question. One of the main things we do in bible study under Observation is ask questions. You are like Sherlock Holmes. You are looking under every rock and asking every question you can think of to solve a mystery.

Yours,
Jeremy