Covenant Essays. T. Hoogsteen

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Covenant Essays - T. Hoogsteen


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everywhere, the global Church, 1 Cor 11:22, 12:28; Eph 4:11–16; etc.

      Most comprehensively ekklesia gathers the whole body of the faithful both in heaven and on earth, all in the past, present, and future whom the LORD calls to be the Church. Eph 1:22, “. . . and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the ekklesia . . . .” Eph 3:10, 5:22–33, 5:27, 32; Col 1:18, 24; etc.

      All this means that the New Testament Church is essentially one with the Old Church, the people of the covenant whom Christ gathers to the exclusion of all others. She is the new Israel, Phil 3:3.

      As the international character of the New Church appeared her sense of nationhood changed. The Church, however, remains a nation, i.e., a kingdom, a commonwealth, Eph 2:19; Phil 3:20. A nation equals a kingdom, although the extent of a king’s authority may reach beyond the borders of a nation. Under David and Solomon, Israel was a nation and a kingdom. Now more scattered than in the Old Testament, the Church is indeed global, nevertheless with a nation-character, a peculiar people, meant for reformation, whose King rules with a kingship not of this world, John 18:36. At the heart of Christ’s Kingdom throbs the Church.

      With the coming of Christ and his completed work of salvation, and also on account of Israel’s stubbornness with respect to the Gospel, he pushed the missionary character of the New Church more definitively. Matt 28:19–20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, . . ..” This expands upon the Old Testament mandate, as in Ps 9:11, “Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!” The appointment of Paul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles speaks of this missionary character as much as anything in the New Testament, as well as the fact that Christians walking the roads of the Roman Empire established ekklesiae wherever they settled. Thus the primary missionaries, the members of the New Church, brought the Gospel to all nations, gathering her from all languages and races.

      It is noteworthy in this regard that worship patterns, liturgy, also changed; instead of numerous rules and regulations for sacrifices and Tabernacle/Temple care, the fulfilled promises and obligations of the LORD simplified and intensified liturgy, concentrating completely on his accomplished work of salvation, in which the glory of the Father dominates.

      The unity of the Old and New Church appears also in various names:

      The New Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit and of God the Father, 1 Cor 3:16–17; Eph 2:21–22; 1 Pet 2:5; etc. Whereas the Temple Solomon constructed was made of stone and precious metals, the New Testament Temple, the Church, consists of all whom Christ Jesus calls into membership. Thus the Church is holy and inviolable, the New Temple, as solid as the flesh and blood of her members.

      The current Church is also the New Jerusalem, the city of the great King, now no more a locality in the Middle East, where the LORD promised to dwell with his people of the first dispensation, but spread globally, wherever ekklesiae exist, Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2, 9, 10.

      The New Church is also the Bride of Christ, Isa 62:4–5; Jer 3:14; Hos 2:19, “And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.” In ways past comprehension this comes to expression in and for the New Church. Eph 5:32; Rev 19:7, 21:2, 9; etc.

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      The Church remains the community that Christ faithful to the covenant promises gathers; she existed from the beginning of the first dispensation, will exist at the conclusion of the second dispensation, to be taken, raptured into heaven at the conclusion of the Tribulation, which ends Christ’s one thousand-year reign.

      2000/2015

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

      Campbell, D.K., and J.F. Townsend. A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus. Chicago: Moody, 1992.

      Jeffrey, G.R. Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny. New York: Bantam, 1988.

      Kee, Howard Clark. Jesus in History: An Approach to the Study of the Gospels. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970.

      Lindsey, H. There’s A New World Coming: A Prophetic Odyssey. Santa Ana, California: Vision House, 1973.

      Saucy, R.L. The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism: The Interface between Dispensational and Non-dispensational Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.

      Stam, C.R. Things That Differ: the Fundamentals of Dispensationalism. Germantown, Wisconsin : Berean Bible Society, 1951/82.

      Walwoord, John F. Armageddon: Oil and the Middle East Crisis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974.

      An explanatory word: LORD = Yahweh, a primary Old Testament covenant name of Jesus Christ.

      It goes without saying slavery in the covenant community is an issue separate from the matter at hand, the one Church.


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