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Leading dispensationalists teach that the New Covenant is an agreement established only between God and the nation of Israel (ethnic & political Israel) and that the New Covenant has not yet been actualized. For example: J. Dwight Pentecost writes, “…the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 must and can be fulfilled only by the nation of Israel and not by the Church…the covenant stands as yet unfulfilled and awaits a future, literal fulfillment. (emphasis mine)” This position advances that individual Christians (Jewish or Gentile believers in Christ) and the Church as a whole are not members of the New Covenant – does this seem like a problem to you? In this article I will provide quotes from leading dispensationalist scholars on this subject; I will remind everyone that the New Testament does in fact unquestionably teach that Christians are members of the New Covenant; and will conclude with a plea for Christian unity over these issues. 

John Walvoord (long time president of the Dallas Theological Seminary) wrote, “…the new covenant is with Israel and the fulfillment in the millennial kingdom after the second coming of Christ.”⁸ Charles Ryrie (editor of the Ryrie Study Bible) said, “The following provisions for Israel, the people of the new covenant, to be fulfilled in the millennium, the period of the new covenant…the covenant was made with the Jewish people. Its period of fulfillment is yet future beginning when the Deliverer shall come.” Notice Ryrie clearly says here that the “people of the new covenant” is Israel (meaning ethnically Jewish people) and that the “period of the new covenant” is yet future (the Millennial Reign of Christ). J.Dwight Pentecost is in agreement when he says, “…this covenant (the New Covenant) was made with Israel, the physical seed of Abraham according to the flesh, and with them alone.” 

So, their position is clear: The New Covenant is an agreement between God and the ethnic Jewish people alone, and it is yet a future agreement from now. The reason dispensationalists make these restrictions on the New Covenant is because the promise of the New Covenant from Jeremiah states that the recipients are “Israel” and “Judah.” “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). You would think this would be an open-and-shut case, except for one major problem – – – The New Testament. For it is the N.T. that interprets and applies these verses from Jeremiah as having reference to and being fulfilled in the New Testament (or New Covenant) Christian Church. 

Jesus made reference to this New Covenant during the Last Supper: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament (new covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Mat. 26:26-28) Covenants in Scripture are established and ratified with the shedding and sprinkling of blood. The Old Covenant that God made with Israel was established after the Exodus with the giving of the Law, which was also ratified with blood and the sprinkling of all the Tabernacle with the blood of appropriate sacrifices. When Jesus was celebrating the Passover with His disciples, these very events of the Exodus and the establishment of The Old Covenant is what was in process of being remembered (Passover). There, in that very moment, is when Jesus revealed that he was instituting the New Covenant. This New Covenant is not made official by the blood of animals, but with His own blood that he was about to give on the Cross. If the blood of Jesus has been shed and is applied, then the New Covenant is currently in force and has been since the first century. 

Additionally, when the apostle Paul gave instructions to the Corinthian Church about the Lord’s Supper, he repeated these instruction from the Lord, “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament (or New Covenant) in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” This is important because now we are talking about a church made up of primarily gentile believers in a land outside of Israel. The point – The New Covenant was already well underway in the first century, and by Gentile and Jewish believers alike. 

The New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah is also very clearly said to be in force by the writer of the book of Hebrews. “But ye are (not will be) come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” (Hebrews 12:22-24) This passage contrasts the establishment of the Old Covenant with Israel at Sinai with the establishment of the New Covenant with the Church. Anyone with a basic familiarity with the book of Hebrews knows that the whole point is showing that the old covenant was passing away and that the new covenant had come. The old were the pictures, but now the person in the pictures had come, so we put away the pictures and embrace the Person. 

Hebrews 8, 9 & 10 make it abundantly clear that the New Covenant has indeed come, that it is already in force, and that this is the same faith of all of the other apostolic churches in the New Testament. In other words, the covenant is not only with ethnic Jews, but also with gentile believers in Messiah, starting in the first century. 

The only possible way you can attempt to get around these Scriptures is to somehow manufacture at least two different “new covenants,” which would be as difficult biblically as trying to successfully pull out a whole pack of chewed gum out of a girl’s long hair – the best course of action is just to cut it out!  

This distressing difficulty is felt by Renald Showers in his book “There Really is a Difference.” Dr. Showers is unsure about the relationship between the Church and the New Covenant. He ponders, “In spite of the Old Testaments’ silence concerning the relationship of the Church to the new covenant, the New Testament seems to indicate that the Church is related somehow to it.” “God had only promised one new covenant, it seems evident Jesus was referring to the new covenant.” “It seems obvious that Jesus was stating that the communion cup represents the New Covenant which God promised to Israel in the Old Testament. The very fact that the Church partakes of the communion cup which represents the New Covenant promised by God to Israel seems to indicate that the Church partakes of that New Covenant.” I can see Dr. Showers scratching his head saying, “The New Covenant is only with ethnic Jews, period. However, the New Testament clearly shows the New Covenant being established with the Church. Hmm… It seems like it, but it can’t be…” It seems like Dr. Showers is more committed to cleaving to the presuppositions of dispensationalism than letting the Bible plainly speak for itself. 

There should be absolutely no uncertainty about the relationship between the Church and the New Covenant. The irrefutable and obvious fact that the New Covenant is the agreement between God and the New Testament Church is as clear as the water that issues forth from the throne of God. The Foundation of the entire Christian Church is the “New Testament (Covenant)” Scriptures! Are the writings of the Gospel writers and the apostolic epistles only for Jewish people in the future? It sounds silly to even have to point this out. The apostle Paul said that he was “an able minister of the new testament (covenant); not of the letter, but of the spirit…” (2 Corinthians 3:6) Do gentile believers in Jesus have access to Paul? Does the Church have anything to do with the ministry of Paul? Was not Paul the apostle to the gentiles?! Are ethnic Jews included in the New Covenant? Yes, absolutely, but only those Jews who turn in repentance to God and faith in Jesus Christ. 

So let’s state it clearly – The New Covenant is the eternal agreement that God has made with His people who have faith in Jesus the Messiah. His blood was shed on Calvary for all (Jew and Gentile). When we receive Christ we are sprinkled by his blood and are made holy. We are set apart from the world and God becomes our God and we are His people. This is the New Covenant. It is universal for those in Christ and it is a present reality. 

So why do dispensationalists try to avoid this fact? The reason why is because they are committed to using the Old Testament as the ruler for interpreting the New, instead of using the New Testament as the guide for interpreting the Old. If Moses and the Apostles speak on a given topic, we should give preference to the Apostles. This is not to say that there are any contradictions between the two, but rather because the Apostles are looking at the thing with better glasses on. The Old Testament contained mysteries, which the Lord unlocked for His Apostles. One of those mysteries was the true identification of the People of God – that it was not only Jewish and locally Israelitish, but that it was also Gentile and Global, rather God’s People are a spiritual people in Messiah. There is only one True Israel. In the Old Testament it was mainly local and Jewish, but not completely, because we have included in the covenant people like Rahab and Ruth, etc. In the New Testament, Israel (The People of God, the people of the covenant) is comprised of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus, from all around the world. Did God fail in his promises to the Jewish people? Absolutely NOT! Rather, the olive tree was more glorious than they thought, and it included Gentiles as brothers with the wall of separation between us broken down. Hallelujah!    

Calm Down on the Dispensational Dogmatics 

As we conclude, I would like to state that the reason for writing this article is that there are some believers out there who are so strongly dispensational, that they wholesale separate (or even condemn) believers who do not wholeheartedly embrace their doctrine. The main argument is usually along the lines of, “If you are not dispensational then you don’t believe the Bible anymore…” Really? Come on? Dispensationalism teaches that the New Testament Church isn’t part of the New Testament! That is a pretty glaring problem. The Scofield Reference Bible is not inspired. The apostles did not include dispensationalist maps and timelines to their epistles. In simple language – Dispensationalism has problems, there are holes in the system, so it is not wise to be so dogmatic about it. And even if it was completely biblical, not holding to it still does not put someone outside the realms of Christian Orthodoxy. What is waaaay more clear from Scripture is that we should be humble theologians and love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Receive them as Christ received you. Our understanding of Israel and the Church, or the New Covenant and the Church are important – they do make a difference – but they are by no means tenets of orthodoxy. They should in no way separate brethren or churches. A funny thing happened to me – someone decided to separate with me because I questioned dispensationalism, but they didn’t even know what dispensationalism was. That should tell you something. 

I was saved into a strongly dispensational, premillennial church, was mentored closely by the most Jewish loving person I have ever met, and graduated from a Bible college very committed to this position. I love all of those godly people, but from the beginning I always hesitated to wholeheartedly embrace dispensationalism, because of deep personal Bible Study. I am in no way saying that dispensationalists are not intelligent or are not Bible scholars, but rather to say that you can be a committed Bible student and come to a different position, and also that it is possible to come to hold to a system of doctrine with more loyalty than to Scripture alone – especially when your friendships or career are on the line. There are plenty of other faithful pastors and bible scholars who disagree with Dispensational Premillennialism. It is absolutely not THE mark of true orthodoxy. So, don’t be the person who makes other Christians walk the plank because they don’t swear by dispensationalism. And lastly, rejoice in the fact that if you are in Christ you are indeed in the New Covenant and a recipient of every good thing that is in Him. 2 Corinthians 1:20 “For ALL the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”