Hi Pergamum,
I will give it a try. He says;
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But when God called and separated Paul, He revealed through his preaching and epistles that the Old Covenant had been utterly abolished, its government and rituals rendered nothing and that the Christian church was an entirely new people.
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I believe this is a defective foundation to try to begin to discuss the issue.His whole view of redemptive history is fragmented. The old covenant root lead to new covenant fuit. "has been abolished- should be "has come to fulfillment Hebrews 9:23-24 Hebrews 11:39-40... this is far from being rendered nothing! "the christian church was an entirely new people??
If we as wild branches are grafted into the root promise made to the seed, how are we a "entirely new people"? Ephesians 2 speaks of ONE NEW MAN in Christ.
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The Reformation failed because it was an attempt to reform a religious system that was hopelessly corrupt and apostate, and the reformers themselves were not yet free from Romanism and Old Covenant mentality.
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I do not believe the reformation failed. Roman teaching was an evidently is still an obstacle to some, but the sheep hear the voice of the Shepherd and come out.
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Nor have any of the myriads of Protestant denominations springing up since then been able to fully grasp and implement New Covenant truth, each being obsessed with formulating, prosecuting and propagating various doctrines and creeds aimed at distinguishing themselves from the erroneous herd from which each split.
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Fully grasp/ somewhat subjective statement as we are all improving and maturing in our understanding. Doctrine , creeds , and confessions, are essential to defend and seperate truth from error. He is just not in agreement with the creeds and confessions and in reality is suggesting a New creed.
He than says;
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To do so they are constrained to employ legalistic measures in order to assure their purity. This, of course, from the outset, excludes such a church from the spirit and life of the New Covenant.
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This statement can have an element of truth if a believer error's in attempting to obey Phil.2 12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We work out our salvation as God works in us. We do not work for it with a fleshly legal spirit seeking to put ourselves and those around us in bondage as those Paul wrote to in Galatia.
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So it is little wonder that even in the best of churches today, precious few have more than a vague idea of what Jesus meant when He took the cup after supper saying “This cup is the new covenant in My blood”. We know, of course, that He was saying the cup represents the New Covenant, and that His blood speaks of His death (I Cor. 11:25-26), but what is this New Covenant, and how does it bear on sound Christian doctrine and church life?
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Ignorance of basic covenant truth is regrettable and unfortunatly too common.However I do not think the reason for it is the reason he is suggesting.
Again he says;
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But we must dismiss from our minds the idea that when we speak of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant we are speaking of that literary division of the Bible into two parts. We are speaking of two different arrangements called covenants, one by which God formerly governed ethnic Israel, and the other by which He now governs His elect people, the Christian church.
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He refers to the christian church as the elect people as seperate from ethnic Israel? Deut7:6 and every reference to the elect remnant say otherwise, not to mention Acts 7:38
38This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us. His dispensational roots are overwhelming his thoughts and he cannot clearly see what other's have been granted to see. Because of his foundational error he makes thes type of statements-
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The Bible knows nothing of a so-called Covenant of Works or a Covenant of Grace. These are creedal inventions of Reformed theology, and are useful only to facilitate said creeds.
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These statements and teaching are crucial to understand the theology of ramans 5:12-21, and 2 cor 5:19-21 among many other portions. The cross itself cannot be understood if you are going to evade the issue because you do not like the terms.
I personally do not like the terms visible,or invisible church but must use them to discuss key issues with other brethren if I want to communicate with them.
My response is getting somewhat long , but let me just say this. Most of these new covenant advocates are concerned not to become legalists which is not bad in and of itself. However they almost universally mis-understand the 4th commandment, and if the truth be told with such a wrong foundation I do not think they can have a proper understanding o mthe other commandments, or their bibles at this point.
I will add more later, working through the points he lists if you like:
