13. How The NT Books Fit Together + PDF chart + New Covenant Theology

This lesson has two parts:

1. What is the logic behind how the books of the New Testament are arranged?

Acts contains the history of the early church. When were the various epistles written relative to the history contained in Acts?

2. In The Early Church, Henry Chadwick wrote, "The central questions of the apostolic age turned on the continuity or discontinuity of the church with Israel."

The Issue: Is it, The church and Israel — or — The church is Israel?

Three Protestant attempts to answer it are:
a) Covenant Theology (CT) ~ Westminster Confession of 1646; Presbyterian Church.
b) Dispensational Theology (DT) ~ John Nelson Darby, Plymouth Brethren, Scofield Reference Bible, Ryrie Study Bible, Dallas Theological Seminary.
c) New Covenant Theology (NCT) ~ 1st London Baptist Confession of 1644.

Whereas DT cannot get Israel and the church together in any sense whatsoever, Covenant Theology cannot get them apart. In between CT & DT, taking elements from both, is New Covenant Theology.

Summary:
CT: OT Israel was the church and the church is now the true Israel. God only has one people: the church.
DT: OT Israel was not the church and the church is not Israel. God has now two separate peoples: the church and Israel.
NCT: OT Israel was not the church, but the church is now true Israel. God only has one people: The church