There will be some sincere Christians who will say that the Scriptures will be searched in vain for any mention that the New Covenant is a "type" of the New Testament. For them I would ask them to consider the words of Charles T. Fritch spoken in a lecture before Dallas Theological Seminary which answers that concern:

"In the light of this divinely ordained, organic principle uniting both Testaments we can now see the fallacy of limiting typology simply to the study of those types which the writers of Scriptures happened to use. This would be seriously limiting a divine process to a mere handful of examples. Rather should the few examples in Scripture be taken as indictative of the general prophetic or teleological character of the Old Testament" (Fritsch, "Principles of Biblical Typology," Bibliotheca Sacra 104 [April-June 1947], p.220).

There will be others who will say that the prophesied events in regard to the nation of Israel's regeneration and forgiveness of sins remain only prophecies and therefore cannot serve as types. In answer I would say that there are numerous examples of things which have not yet occurred and remain only prophesied events which are clearly types. I have already shown that Ada R. Habershon recognized that the "river of water of life" that precedes out of the throne of God and the Lamb at Revelation 22:1 typifes the Holy Spirit. We can also know that the words "living water" in the following verse represent a "type" of the Holy Spirit:

"For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Rev.7:17; NIV).

There can be little doubt as to what the words "living water" typify: " 'Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive" (Jn.7:38-39; NIV).

The chapter which follows also reveal events which are clearly "typical" in character: "Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand" (Rev.8:3-4).

Henry W. Soltau writes that "all worship, prayer, or praise is a priestly service, and appertains alone to those who have been redeemed by Christ. The prayers of such ascend like incense (Psalms cxli. 2), for they are perfumed with the name of Christ; and the fragrance of His intercession renders all sweet and holy before the Lord (Rev. viii. 3.)" (Soltau, The Holy Vessels and Furniture of the Tabernacle [Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications 1971], p.104).

This study has presented many examples which demonstrate that Israel's New Covenant, as well as the blessings that will flow from it, are "types" which picture today's New Testamernt and the blessings which flow from it. Common sense dictates that these numerous resemblances cannot be just a coincidence but instead are God-given.

It has also been demonstrated that today Gentile salvation is not in line with the way Gentiles will be saved when Israel's New Covenant will be in operation. That alone should lead those with an open mind to the conclusion that the source of the blessings which Gentiles are now receiving is not the New Covenant which has been promised to the nation of Israel.

It has also been shown that the New Covenant is promised to the "nation" of Israel. Since the very nature of a nation involves government and territory it is certain that any blessings promised to any nation are "temporal" and "earthly" in nature. That rules out the idea that Israel's New Diatheke is the same diatheke that is decribed as being "eternal" at Hebrews 13:20.

The mistaken belief that the Scriptures speak of only one "New Diatheke" is but one link in a catena of errors promoted by the Progressive Dispensationalists. However, it is the first and most important because that false idea is the very foundation of their false teaching.

Their teaching on this subject betrays a lack of knowledge of typology, proving that the dictum of E.W. Hengstenberg remains intact, that "the elucidation of the doctrine of the types, now entirely neglected, is an important problem for future theologians" (Hengstenberg, Christology [Arnold's Edition], p.765).

Progressive Dispensationalist Kenneth Barker writes that "we must be willing to revise and refine our systematic theology if biblical exegesis and biblical theology indicate that we should do so...in the final analysis, the Scriptures themselves, when interpreted properly through the process of biblical exegesis and when synthesized legitmately through the process of biblical theology, must stand in judgment on all of our humanly devised systems of dogmatich theology" (Radmacher & Preus, "A Response to Historical Grammatical Problems," Hermeneutics, Inerrancy, and the Bible [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984], p.139-140).

The Biblical evidence presented in this study demonstrates beyond a shadow of any doubt that the New Covenant promised to Israel is a "type" and the "antitype" is the New Testament that is in operation at the present time. These facts stand in judgment over the teaching of the Progressive Dispensationalists that those in the Body of Christ partake of the New Covenant promised to Israel.

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