by Douglas Goodin
Think of a group of citizens looking at the two major political parties in the U.S. and concluding that both embrace flawed systems. Now imagine this group forming their own party and seeking to do two things: 1) Demonstrate the fundamental flaws of the Democratic and Republican parties, and 2) Win the masses to their own view. That, put very simply, illustrates the burden of New Covenant Theology.
In terms of organized Christian thought, two systems compete for primacy—Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism. Many folks belong to one or the other without even realizing it. Here’s a little guide: If you try to keep the Sabbath on Sunday, and the sight of a baby being baptized brings a welcoming smile to your face, and the terms covenant community, Reformed, Presbyterian, means of grace, covenant of works, and covenant of grace mean anything to you, then you are probably in the Covenant Theology camp. On the other hand, if you are hoping for a pre-tribulational rapture or have ever given a copy of Left Behind as a Christmas gift, you are probably Dispensational.
Now, if you think that babies should not be baptized, and that the Sabbath was only for the Jews, and that geo-political Israel has no further significance in God’s plan, and that the Left Behind series makes for okay fiction, then you just might be an unwitting adherent to New Covenant Theology.
New Covenant Theology (NCT) devotees are persuaded that the other two systems get a lot of things right; but what they get wrong, they get really wrong. The reasons for their errors flow directly from their starting points; consequently, we spend a lot of time exposing the mistakes in their basic presuppositions.
The conviction of NCT is that Jesus Christ—not the covenant of grace, nor the future blessing of Israel—is the story of the Bible, and it is our desire to help the Church Universal come to a clearer and more accurate understanding of this glorious truth.