The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Hebrews 8 has this covenant arrived?

DansingWall said:
Yikes you guys! Those sayings are still being used today and we are pretty sure the earth is round. I think one of them was used on a weekly sports show 20 years ago or so. From the 4 corners of the globe. You sure do have to read a lot(add to the Word)into those verses to come up with a flat world. But...if thats what ya believe.

Finally, Malone talks a little about the New Covenant and Jeremiah 31. He gives the typical baptistic overview of the law being written on their heart in this New Covenant. Did Abraham have these things? If he did, then the New Covenant is not something New as Baptists would say. The comparison in Jeremiah 31 is not to abolish the Noahic covenant (that would make God a liar) or the Abrahamic covenant (we would not be saved at all if that were the case.) In abolishing the "scaffolding" around the building, the Mosaic laws of ceremony (scaffolding) and ritual (scaffolding) are done away with when the building is built and the capstone is placed upon it. In relation to a building started, it may be deemed as a new work (like with Abraham) but when the capstone is set and the roof is attached and the building is ready for full use it seems like a new place altogether in comparison to simply laying the foundation. This the building analogy Paul uses in the New Testament. The Mosaic economy is no longer needed because Christ fulfills all the promises he made to Abraham. And God today is still upholding the promises he made to Noah (and all flesh) lest we all be destroyed by another flood.

If this is the case, at what point will they "ALL know me" from the least to the greatest? Again, the eschatological nature of Jeremiah's prophecy in context (which many above in this post are trying to get people to see) is something that happens not now, though we have a taste of it, but later in heaven. Only in heaven will we have no physical teachers, and only in heaven will all know God from the least to the greatest. I know of no Baptist church anywhere (no independent body of believers under the headship of Christ) that ever claimed they knew infallibly that all the members of their church were in fact saved. No Baptist church I have ever been a part of for 20 years has ever made that claim, or can do so. They say they baptized based on profession of faith, but they should be baptizing, if they remain consistent in their interpretation of Jeremiah 31, to baptize only the regenerate. But then they get confused and say they don't know if they are regenerate and must take a best guess at it as far as they are able. But that does not fit the theology of Jeremiah 31. All should know him and only regenerate members should be part of the church, not to mention they are taking the Lord's name in vain if they baptize someone who is not regenerate according to their own theology because they say that only believers should be baptized. There are so many theological and practical conundrums in this interpretation of Jeremiah for Baptist theology. Baptists are consciously allowing, because of sin, unbelievers into their membership and part of the body. Malone calls this radical individualism in the New Testament “heightened individualism.”[51] Novel. The renewed covenant made with the house of Israel and Judah is the Abrahamic covenant fulfilled in Christ. It is set in contrast to the ceremonial and judicial laws given at Sinai because the blood of bulls and goats do not really save. Jesus Christ inaugurates the coming of this new kingdom and renewed covenant. In doing so, the New Covenant is “now” for us, since we are saved; but it is also “not yet,” in that in heaven all people will know the Lord form the least to the greatest. There are teachers now in inaugurating the renewed covenant, but there will be no teachers then. There are saved people now, but the “knowing” is complete only in heaven. No church, anywhere, is made up of all regenerate people, and is without teachers or pastors.