The New Covenant Promise of Jeremiah 31– Fulfilled or Future
The New Covenant Promise of Jeremiah 31: Every Man Shall Know His Neighbor
Jeremiah 31 foretold that in the last days a New Covenant would be established with both houses of Israel.
I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (Jeremiah 31:33-34).
In sharp contrast with Torah, under the New Covenant sin would not be remembered any more by the Lord! That, again, is in sharp contrast with life under Torah because every year, on the Day of Atonement, sin was remembered:
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year (Hebrews 10:1-3).
The great promise then stood in stark and wonderful contrast to the Old Covenant, There was no objective forgiveness under Torah because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:1-4). There was a yearly remembrance of sin, whereas, under the New Covenant sin would be forgiven and never remembered!
It may come as a surprise to some readers that it is not uncommon at all for modern commentators to deny that the promised Jeremiad New Covenant has been established. Most believers today would affirm that the Gospel of Christ is that promised New Covenant. However, that is not always the case.
In 2012 I had a formal public debate with Joel McDurmon, who at the time was president of American Vision in Powder Springs, Ga.. during that debate he said that the reason he knows that the New Covenant has not been established is because people still have to be taught the Gospel, while the promise was that “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”
McDurmon argued that since people have to still be taught to know the Lord, i.e. evangelism, that this is proof that the New Covenant has not been established. McDurmon can be classified as a Postmillennialist. My debate with McDurmon is available in book form from this website
In addition, in private correspondence with Thomas Ice, with whom I had four debates, I asked him if the Jeremiad Covenant has been established. Part of my correspondence, with his answers to my questions, is given here.
1. Do you believe that the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31/Ezekiel 37 has been established, in any sense at all?
Thomas Ice’s answer: “I believe that the New Covenant is applied to the church today because of the clear statements of Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25, and 2 Corinthians 3:6. The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31 will be made with ‘the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.’ Thus, it is not being fulfilled today, but will be in the millennium for Israel. Ezekiel 37:22 refers to the ‘house of Israel.’ I believe there are many other references that anticipate Israel’s New Covenant found throughout the Old Testament (Deut. 29:4; 30:6; Isa. 59:20–21; 61:8–9; Jer. 32:37–40; 50:4–5; Ezek. 16:60–63; 34:25–26; 36:22–32; 37:21–28; Zech. 12:10).” (My emphasis, DKP. As noted above, exactly how it is that the church can have the blessings of a non existent covenant applied to it, is not explained by Ice or any other Dispensationalist. It is simply asserted. This is disingenuous at best).
2. If the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31/Ezekiel 37 has been established, is the church, the body of Christ, now living under that Covenant, subject to its mandates, and recipients of its blessings?
Thomas Ice’s answer: “I do not believe that the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 37 has been established yet.”
3. In the proposed millennium, will there be only one covenant in effect, for all men?
Thomas Ice’s answer: “I am only aware of a single covenant for the millennium.”
4. Will there be two covenants in effect, applicable to different groups of people?
Thomas Ice’s answer: “I do not think so since I only find the New Covenant being referenced in Scripture.”
5. More specifically, in the proposed millennium, will the church be living under and subject to the gospel, while the Jews live under and are subject to the New Covenant of Jeremiah/Ezekiel?
Thomas Ice’s answer: “Since the church began on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and ends at the rapture, all members of the church (Jew and Gentiles) will be resurrected and reigning at the right hand of Christ as His Bride during the millennium. Since I am not sure of the implications of your statement ‘living under and subject to the gospel,’ I cannot answer that. As I am sure you know, saved Jews and Gentiles who survived the tribulation will enter the millennium in their mortal bodies, having become believers after the rapture. Thus, the millennial rule of Christ will involve Jews and Gentiles under the rule of Christ with His Bride (the Church) reigning and ruling at His right hand (Rev. 3:21).” (Email exchange 3-7-05).
As you can see from the above, commentators tell us that the promise of the New Covenant found in Jeremiah has never been fulfilled. Notice just one of the severe implications and consequences of Ice’s claims:
The promised Jeremiah Covenant has not been established.
That covenant will not be established until after the Second Coming and in the Millennium.
In the Millennium, there will be only one covenant, that one promised in Jeremiah 31.
We ask, therefore, what happens to the Gospel in the Millennium if / since the only covenant in the Millennium will be the Jeremiad Covenant?
According to Jesus, his word, the Gospel, will never pass away! That alone fully negates that idea that it will one day give way to the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31.
One of the reasons for denying the Gospel fulfillment of Jeremiah 31, as noted above, is because the promise was “they will not teach anyone to know the Lord”- to paraphrase.
But was the promise of Jeremiah that when the New Covenant was given teaching would no longer be done, but that everyone would know the Truth directly from the Lord? This fails to understand the contrast between the two covenant worlds of the Old and the New.
Under the Old Covenant a child was born into the Covenant community. They did not know who t hey were. They did know about their covenantal ancestors. They knew nothing about Abraham, Isaac, and all of their forefathers whom the Lord had chosen to bring salvation to the world. So, they had to be taught to “know the Lord.” Their birth into the family of God was through the natural conjugal relations of their parents. They were born of the flesh into the family of the flesh.
In stark contrast, under the New Covenant of Christ, the Gospel is preached to people inviting them to be “born again” not of the flesh, not of the will of man, (John 1:10f). They are invited to become children of God by faith– not by flesh– by being baptized “into Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27) where, again in stark contrast to the Old Covenant world where there were ethnic and other distinctions “There is neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, bond or free.”
This concept was stunning to the ancient Jewish mind! It meant that a person was born into the family of God through their own obedience to invitation of the Gospel, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:15-16). To put this succinctly, under the Gospel of Christ, a person is taught to “know the Lord” and when they are taught and when they obey, they are born into the New Covenant family of the church of the living God! So,
Under the Old Covenant, a person was born, then taught.
Under the New Covenant, a person is taught, then born.
Notice another aspect of the promised New Covenant. The Lord said “their sins and their iniquities shall I remember no more.” As noted at the beginning, under the Old Covenant, every year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, “there was a remembrance made every year” of their sins. That was because the blood of bulls and goat can never take away sin. (Stunningly, we are told that in the proposed Dispensational world, under that promised New Covenant, animal sacrifices will be once again re-instituted! But WHY? The very idea of restoring animal sacrifices, “for atonement no less” under a covenant that is ostensibly for the forgiveness of sin, literally makes no sense!) Consider this.
No Christian denies that through Christ’s sacrifice our sins are forgiven. To be forgiven means that our sins are taken away. They are washed, cleansed away. Never remembered against us again! The question therefore becomes, if, under the Gospel of Christ, we have what the promise of the New Covenant was to give, why is there any further need of another, different New Covenant to take away our sin?
Is the Gospel salvation not sufficient?
And to repeat, since the Gospel will never pass away, never cease to function, then the idea of a yet future additional New Covenant cannot be true. The Gospel IS the New Covenant.
Be sure to get a copy of my book, The New Covenant, Fulfilled or Future? for more on this important issue.
The New Covenant Promise of Jeremiah 31– Fulfilled or Future