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New Covenant Theology: Questions Answered
How does the Bible fit together? Christians have wrestled with this question for centuries. The two most prominent systems of theology, Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism, each have their own set of answers to this question. In recent years New Covenant Theology has become a refuge for a growing number of Christians who find themselves looking for different answers. New Covenant Theology: Questions Answered gives a clear and comprehensive definition of New Covenant Theology from the pages of Scripture. Steve Lehrer explains New Covenant Theology in simple terms and shows how this system of theology gives clear biblical answers to the most difficult questions. In an easy-to-read question and answer format, this book explains the distinctives of New Covenant Theology as it relates to covenants, Israel, law, the Sabbath, and more: How do the Abrahamic, Old, and New Covenants fit together? What is God s plan for the nation of Israel? Do Christians show their love for God by obeying the Ten Commandments? Should believers keep the Sabbath? How were believers saved in Old Testament times? New Covenant Theology: Questions Answered not only serves as a guide to understanding the framework of Scripture, but it also serves as a help for believers to grow in their understanding of the Bible so that they might grow in their love for God.
253 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2006
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May 27, 2014
New Covenant Theology is a hermeneutic for interpreting the Old Testament in light of the New that attempts to draw the best of Covenant theology and dispensationalism without falling prey to the errors of either system. Lehrer has written a largely good book in answering questions raised by the hermeneutic. While there is much good in the book, the early part of the book is really quite frustrating and nearly made me put it down in exasperation. Lehrer has a very dispensational view of the Mosaic Law, which I believe is not only biblically indefensible but quite alarming.
To start, Lehrer tries to summarize his view by saying, “NCT is simply a view of how the Bible fits together wherein the person and work of Jesus Christ is the hub of the wheel around which everything else turns.” (p. 18) What this means is that he embraces the dispensational critique of the distinction between ethnic Israel and the NT church. While I think he’s on the right track here, he fails to see the gracious nature of the Old Covenant and instead views it as a “works covenant.” He contrasts this with the “gracious” new covenant.
Lehrer does helpfully view Israel as a “temporary, unbelieving picture of the true people of God, the church.” This is in distinction from covenant theologians who view continuity between Israel and the church, not discontinuity. But there is a lot of confusion here, again, as he sees the Old Covenant as a works covenant—comparing it to Roman Catholicism. This is really bad, and I struggled to keep going at this point, only continuing with the hope that there would be something good after this section. And for the most part, the book does really get better after he writes on the law.
Lehrer writes over and over in the book that “…Israel never was a believing people as a whole. Israel always had a tiny remnant of true believers in her midst. Israel was not the church in the Old Testament, but they did function as a type or picture of the church—the true people of God.” I think he’s right on here, and this does largely redeem the book.
He has an interesting argument to make about the future redemption of Israel—rejecting the notion that ethnic Israel will be redeemed in the future. He writes:
“…it is better to interpret verse [Romans 11] 26 within the framework of Paul’s argument: that God has not forsaken the Jews entirely, but even from within this rebellious people God has his elect. This was shocking news to the Gentiles. They had seen and heard about Jesus’ and Paul’s rejection of the Jews, who were still unbelieving and were persecuting the church. As we saw, Paul adds more to his argument than just those bare facts. He gives us a glimpse at the all-wise plan of God! God not only used the fall of Israel to bring salvation to the Gentiles, but He is using the salvation of the Gentiles to stir up jealousy and bring elect Israelites to salvation. This will continue all the way up until the full number of the Gentiles come to faith.”
I’m not sure I’m convinced, but I’ve really only been exposed to the idea that there is a future redemption for all Jews in the future, so it is helpful to be exposed to another view to chasten my own.
It was helpful to see Lehrer’s views on the law in the New Covenant, and despite getting this really wrong in the Old Testament, he does have a helpful view regarding law in the New Testament. He writes:
“Law expresses God’s moral will or the way in which God wants man to live. Behind the expression of God’s will stands God’s authority. When men do not live as God wishes, God inflicts the necessary punishment for breaking His law and shirking His authority. The law of God is a concept that always remains the same, but the content of the law in Scripture does change. This is a simple fact about which Scripture is unambiguous. Scripture says in crystal clear terms that God’s law changes: “If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law” (Hebrews 7:11-12). Although the extent of that change may be in question, the fact that the content of God’s law does change to some degree is not a matter of debate.” (p. 122)
He adds, “Law functions the same way in every era. It condemns unbelievers and it functions as a guide for believers in how to show their love for God. Each era emphasizes a different function of law. The Old Covenant era emphasized the condemning effects of law on the unbeliever, while the New Covenant era emphasizes the guiding function of law for believers. That is why it might seem as if the Mosaic Law only kills and condemns when we read what the New Covenant Scriptures say about the Mosaic Law. But, even though certain functions of law are highlighted in each era, the basic functions of law do not change.”
Lehrer’s struggles to interpret “faith” in Galatians 3:22-25. Rather than view this faith as being specifically “faith in Jesus Christ” he isolates it as “faith.” (p. 208) This is confusing, of course, because he must later write that Abraham was “given the gift of faith.” He writes of “faith” in Galatians 3:22-5, “Faith did not come during the period of law. Faith came and was “revealed” after the period of the law and we know that this is referring to the time of Christ and His work on the cross.” But this isn’t just “faith” that Paul is writing of, but “the promise by faith in Jesus Christ.” Those are very different things and he doesn’t acknowledge that at all in his reading of the passage. The passage is not concerned with “faith” but with “the promise.”
He separates “faith” from the context of the passage that shows that the faith here is “that faith” is “faith in Jesus Christ.” Of course that faith wasn’t revealed in the OT! But Lehrer doesn’t see this and thus gets his interpretation off and muddled. This leads him to make the careless statement that “Faith came and was “revealed” after the period of the law…”
All in all, the book is a bit uneven. It is the second book I’ve read on New Covenant Theology, the first one being the book by Wells and Zaspel. That work dealt primarily with the law and was really helpful there. This work is more broad and in that regard very helpful. But it is also really bad in some places, simply muddled in others, and also quite good in most places. So read it with a very discerning eye, but it can be a very edifying read.
To start, Lehrer tries to summarize his view by saying, “NCT is simply a view of how the Bible fits together wherein the person and work of Jesus Christ is the hub of the wheel around which everything else turns.” (p. 18) What this means is that he embraces the dispensational critique of the distinction between ethnic Israel and the NT church. While I think he’s on the right track here, he fails to see the gracious nature of the Old Covenant and instead views it as a “works covenant.” He contrasts this with the “gracious” new covenant.
Lehrer does helpfully view Israel as a “temporary, unbelieving picture of the true people of God, the church.” This is in distinction from covenant theologians who view continuity between Israel and the church, not discontinuity. But there is a lot of confusion here, again, as he sees the Old Covenant as a works covenant—comparing it to Roman Catholicism. This is really bad, and I struggled to keep going at this point, only continuing with the hope that there would be something good after this section. And for the most part, the book does really get better after he writes on the law.
Lehrer writes over and over in the book that “…Israel never was a believing people as a whole. Israel always had a tiny remnant of true believers in her midst. Israel was not the church in the Old Testament, but they did function as a type or picture of the church—the true people of God.” I think he’s right on here, and this does largely redeem the book.
He has an interesting argument to make about the future redemption of Israel—rejecting the notion that ethnic Israel will be redeemed in the future. He writes:
“…it is better to interpret verse [Romans 11] 26 within the framework of Paul’s argument: that God has not forsaken the Jews entirely, but even from within this rebellious people God has his elect. This was shocking news to the Gentiles. They had seen and heard about Jesus’ and Paul’s rejection of the Jews, who were still unbelieving and were persecuting the church. As we saw, Paul adds more to his argument than just those bare facts. He gives us a glimpse at the all-wise plan of God! God not only used the fall of Israel to bring salvation to the Gentiles, but He is using the salvation of the Gentiles to stir up jealousy and bring elect Israelites to salvation. This will continue all the way up until the full number of the Gentiles come to faith.”
I’m not sure I’m convinced, but I’ve really only been exposed to the idea that there is a future redemption for all Jews in the future, so it is helpful to be exposed to another view to chasten my own.
It was helpful to see Lehrer’s views on the law in the New Covenant, and despite getting this really wrong in the Old Testament, he does have a helpful view regarding law in the New Testament. He writes:
“Law expresses God’s moral will or the way in which God wants man to live. Behind the expression of God’s will stands God’s authority. When men do not live as God wishes, God inflicts the necessary punishment for breaking His law and shirking His authority. The law of God is a concept that always remains the same, but the content of the law in Scripture does change. This is a simple fact about which Scripture is unambiguous. Scripture says in crystal clear terms that God’s law changes: “If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law” (Hebrews 7:11-12). Although the extent of that change may be in question, the fact that the content of God’s law does change to some degree is not a matter of debate.” (p. 122)
He adds, “Law functions the same way in every era. It condemns unbelievers and it functions as a guide for believers in how to show their love for God. Each era emphasizes a different function of law. The Old Covenant era emphasized the condemning effects of law on the unbeliever, while the New Covenant era emphasizes the guiding function of law for believers. That is why it might seem as if the Mosaic Law only kills and condemns when we read what the New Covenant Scriptures say about the Mosaic Law. But, even though certain functions of law are highlighted in each era, the basic functions of law do not change.”
Lehrer’s struggles to interpret “faith” in Galatians 3:22-25. Rather than view this faith as being specifically “faith in Jesus Christ” he isolates it as “faith.” (p. 208) This is confusing, of course, because he must later write that Abraham was “given the gift of faith.” He writes of “faith” in Galatians 3:22-5, “Faith did not come during the period of law. Faith came and was “revealed” after the period of the law and we know that this is referring to the time of Christ and His work on the cross.” But this isn’t just “faith” that Paul is writing of, but “the promise by faith in Jesus Christ.” Those are very different things and he doesn’t acknowledge that at all in his reading of the passage. The passage is not concerned with “faith” but with “the promise.”
He separates “faith” from the context of the passage that shows that the faith here is “that faith” is “faith in Jesus Christ.” Of course that faith wasn’t revealed in the OT! But Lehrer doesn’t see this and thus gets his interpretation off and muddled. This leads him to make the careless statement that “Faith came and was “revealed” after the period of the law…”
All in all, the book is a bit uneven. It is the second book I’ve read on New Covenant Theology, the first one being the book by Wells and Zaspel. That work dealt primarily with the law and was really helpful there. This work is more broad and in that regard very helpful. But it is also really bad in some places, simply muddled in others, and also quite good in most places. So read it with a very discerning eye, but it can be a very edifying read.
October 14, 2017
This is the first book on NCT that I have read in order to understand better what it is about. Steve Lehrer addresses several questions that relate to NCT and provides his answers. Much of what he writes resonates with me, but I am not totally convinced. I will need more time to understand several of the issues of NCT better to form my own opinion on it. A helpful introduction to NCT, but I am wondering whether there may not be a book that gives a better overview of NCT (not in a Q&A format).
July 5, 2013
I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Steve Lehrer, the author of this book, while he taught an evening bible study for six weeks on "the Holy Spirit" at a non-denominational church in Sussex, Wisconsin. He gave me a free copy of his book and I was eager to study it and talk about it with him in detail. But it didn't take long before I realized how incredibly long that conversation would have been if I had talked about all my concerns within the book. Not only was it poorly written and edited, but the theology was just plain awful. In short, the book is a cross between conservative dispensational theology and contemporary American covenant theology. But there are good reasons why the typical covenant theologian does not agree with the dispensationalist, and why most evangelical theologians don't want to settle on the "middle ground" between the two--and one reason is that they don't want to argue absurdly like Steve Lehrer.
To give you a taste of what his hermeneutic leaves open for discussion, in one of the chapters he promotes sexual relations within the family: his example is a blood-brother marrying his blood-sister as long as they're both Christians (!!). This is explicitly deemed as "lawful" and "holy" according to Lehrer's version of "New Covenant Theology," even though God's Law explicitly forbids such sexual relationships (incest). If you don't believe me, download a free PDF copy of the book here (http://ids.org/pdf/nctbook.pdf) and see for yourself (see page 154-155). Lehrer even infers that he would not have a problem with his own church performing the wedding! But that is only one controversial issue which he leaves open for discussion. There are plenty more in the book.
To give you a taste of what his hermeneutic leaves open for discussion, in one of the chapters he promotes sexual relations within the family: his example is a blood-brother marrying his blood-sister as long as they're both Christians (!!). This is explicitly deemed as "lawful" and "holy" according to Lehrer's version of "New Covenant Theology," even though God's Law explicitly forbids such sexual relationships (incest). If you don't believe me, download a free PDF copy of the book here (http://ids.org/pdf/nctbook.pdf) and see for yourself (see page 154-155). Lehrer even infers that he would not have a problem with his own church performing the wedding! But that is only one controversial issue which he leaves open for discussion. There are plenty more in the book.
January 23, 2014
Well... I'm not a huge fan of NCT, so this is a bit of a hard review for me. There was some really good information in here that I thought I could use, but overall I feel like it was missing the mark.
It was well written and studied, though, I guess.
It was well written and studied, though, I guess.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews