For Further Reading: Kuhn

While often a divisive force within the es­tablished churches, Neo-Pentecostalism has contributed positively by necessitating a reexam­ination of the scriptural teachings regarding the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, by bringing a renewed sense of emotion into many relatively "dead" religious groups, and by encouraging a more widespread involvement of the laity within the work and worship of the churches.

Most Wesleyans rejoice in whatever authentic renewal has occurred in Neo-Pentecostalism. They do, however, disavow the hermeneutical underpinnings of the movement, believing that the excessive emphasis on tongues speaking has insufficient biblical support.

See pentecost, pentecostalism, baptism with the holy spirit, gifts of the spirit, tongues (gift of).

The Neoplatonists influenced Christian theology

Restricted by this conceptuality with emphasis upon the humanity of Christ, it was natural therefore that Nestorius should object to the term theotokos, "mother of God," attributed to the Virgin Mary. It was this objection which brought Nestorius to a head-on clash with Cyril, patri­arch of Alexandria (412-44), and Nestorian Christology was declared unorthodox in 431 at the Council at Ephesus. Nestorius was banished

The spiritual renewal that takes place in a be­liever is described in John 3:5-8; 10:28; 1 John 5:11-12; and 2 Pet. 1:4 as the communication of divine life to the soul. In 2 Cor. 5:17 and Eph. 2:10; 4:24 it is shown to be the impartation of a new nature.

Jesus, Peter, James, and John refer to spiritual regeneration as a birth (John 3:5, 7; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; 2:2; Jas. 1:18; 1 John 3:9). Paul uses the term "adoption" to describe it (cf. Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:4-5). New birth underlines the reception of the nature of God (the Father) by the believer; "adoption" stresses the believer's change of fam­ily. Once he was a child of the devil (John 8:44; 1 John 3:10), but now he belongs to the family of God ( Ephesians 1—2; 5:1).

Because regeneration sometimes is referred to in Scripture as a birth, some Calvinists hold that the new birth, like physical birth, is an experi­ence in which the individual does not participate. That is, repentance and faith are said to come after regeneration, which is completely a sov­ereign act of God (cf., e.g., Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 465). But the Scriptures indicate that repentance and faith precede and are conditions for regeneration (Isa. 55:7; Luke 13:3, 5; John 3:16, 18; Acts 2:37-38; 3:19; 16:31; etc.). No scripture passage suggests that repentance and faith have their origin subsequent to regen­eration. Some Calvinists press the analogy of birth farther than Jesus and the apostles in­tended.

Birth and adoption are among a number of an­alogies used in the NT, none of which excludes the others. Christ is called the Good Shepherd, and believers are called sheep. Christ is the Vine; believers are the branches. Christ is the King (Lord); believers are subjects (servants). Christ is the Master (Teacher); believers are called disci­ples. Christ is the Chief Cornerstone; believers are building stones. Christ is the Bridegroom, and believers are the Bride. Each analogy ex­presses an important truth; but none of them can safely be pressed beyond the point of scriptural support. To do so is to fall into error.

See regeneration, first work of grace, justifi­cation, adoption.

The command may be new in the degree of love it enjoins. The evangelist has already de­scribed the extent of Jesus' love for the disciples (13:1). Later in the discourses, Jesus himself will speak of demonstrating love by laying down one's life for one's friends (15:13). The newness of the command may be in terms of the motive for loving one another. Jesus does not ask them to do any more than He himself has done (cf. vv. 10-12). The disciples are to love to the degree which Jesus commands, because He has loved them to that same degree. There is the new mo­tive. But the commandment may be understood as new because it is at the center of the new cov­enant. In John's Gospel, Jesus' words of com­mand have the place that is filled in the Synoptics by His words instituting the Lord's Supper (cf. Luke 22:20). This new covenant of mutual love is the earthly counterpart of the rela­tionship between the Father and the Son (cf. John 14:23; 17:23, 26).

See agape, new covenant, great command­ments.

For Further Reading: Brown, The Gospel According to fohn XIII-XXI, 612-14; Ladd, A Theology of the New Tes­tament, 278-80; Lindars, The Gospel of John, 463-64; Morris, The Gospel According to John, 632-33.

Hal A. Cauthron

NEW COVENANT. "Covenant," biblically and theologically speaking, is an agreement between God and man which becomes the basis of divine blessing and eternal salvation. Such an agree­ment or contract is initiated by God, and its terms specified by God. Man becomes a partner to the agreement voluntarily. In the covenant God un­dertakes certain obligations and promises certain divine blessings on clearly defined moral condi­tions. God will not violate His promises, though they may be annulled and hence forfeited by man's violation of the terms.

The entire Bible is a history of covenants en­tered into by God with man, first with Adam, then Noah, Abraham, and then with the children

The exposition of the new covenant is the very backbone of Paul's writings, even though the word "covenant" is not often used. His interest focuses on "two covenants" (Gal. 4:24), the Mo­saic and the Christian, one providing justifi­cation by law, the other justification by faith. Paul's exposition of these two major contrasting systems are primarily in Romans and Galatians, though fundamental motifs of his covenant teaching run throughout his Epistles.

The Epistle most systematically devoted to an elucidation of the new covenant is Hebrews. In this Epistle the writer argues that the new cov­enant is better, because initiated by One greater than Moses, because based on better promises (content, not reliability), and ratified by better blood. The epitome of the new covenant is given twice, in 8:6-12 and 10:15-18. This epitome is a quotation from Jer. 31:31-34, the clearest OT promise of a new covenant.

The new covenant provides for three privi­leges distinctly superior to any previous cov­enant. (1) Reconciliation with God will not depend on repeated sacrifices, but will be com­plete forgiveness based on a once-for-all sacrifice of Christ's own blood (Heb. 10:1-18). (2) Knowl­edge of the Lord will not be secondhand but per­sonal, individual, and experiential (8:11). One could be under the Mosaic covenant, even hon­estly endeavoring to observe it, without person­ally knowing the Lord. But under the new covenant, knowing the Lord belongs to its very essence. (3) Righteous behavior will not be achieved by law and its sanctions, by elaborate systems of ceremony and restraint, but by an in­ner transformation so profound that the nature is conformed to the demands of righteousness.

From being written on tablets of stone, the new covenant provides for the writing of God's moral law on the heart (8:10). The lack of such inward conformity was the one cause for the fail­ure of all previous covenants. Yet this could not become experientially available until Christ and Pentecost had come (though individuals did at times leap ahead of their dispensation, e.g., Isa­iah). Paul before his conversion exemplified that kind and measure of righteousness which was normative under the Mosaic system, but he testi­fies to its inadequacy and the great superiority of that righteousness made available in Christ (Phil. 3:4-9).

The old covenant was corporate first, then in­dividual as a reflex of its corporate inclusiveness. That is to say, an Israelite was born into the cov­enant and received subvolitionally its mark, cir­cumcision. He had no choice in being in the covenant, though he could be "cut off" from Is­rael by deliberate affront to the community. Physically or racially no one is born into the new covenant. Access is by the new birth and is per­sonal and voluntary first, corporate only second, as the reflex of the personal.

An emphatic insistence in Hebrews is the radi­cal obsolescence of the old covenant (8:13, nasb). With it goes the validity of any religion which depends on forms and ceremonies. Even the sacraments must not be allowed to become the absolutes that circumcision was.

See covenant theology bible: the two testa­ments, law and grace, holiness, holy commu­nion.

For Further Reading: Wesley, Works, 5:63-76;
10:238-42; BBC 10:91-129; Taylor, A Right Conception of
Sin, 91-101; Hughes, A New Heaven and a New Earth,
115-27. Richard S. Taylor

NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH. This is a phrase used several times in the Bible to describe the ultimate destiny of the redeemed. The popu­lar Christian idea of final salvation is that we die and go to heaven. This contains a truth, for in­deed to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). However, this refers to the intermediate state, not to final salvation. Re­demption includes the redemption of the body in the resurrection, and it includes also the redemp­tion of the earth. "Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glori­ous liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21, rsv). In creation the earth was created to be man's dwelling place, and at the end the earth will be redeemed and transformed to be the dwelling place of the resurrected saints.

The new redeemed earth stands in both con­tinuity and discontinuity with the present order. Sometimes in the OT the new order is pictured in very "this worldly" terms, as though the re­deemed earth is nothing but this earth delivered from its bondage to decay and death. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ... The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp ... They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the

The element of discontinuity is most strongly emphasized in 2 Pet. 3:12 f. In the day of God "the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (rsv).

This is the picture given us in the Book of Rev­elation, but with considerable detail. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more" (21:1, rsv). The center of the new earth was the new Jerusalem, the holy city, which John saw coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her bri­degroom (v. 2). The city is pictured in highly symbolic terms. It seems to be the shape of a cube 1,500 miles high, 1,500 miles long, and 1,500 miles wide. Such a city is nearly impos­sible to visualize in this-worldly terms; it relates to the vastness and the perfect symmetry of the city. It is surrounded by a wall 225 feet high— obviously out of proportion to the dimensions of the city. But why does the heavenly city need a wall? Only the redeemed have access to the city. The answer again is simple: ancient cities had walls, and John is trying to describe the in­effable by the familiar. Through the middle of the street of the city flowed the river of life. On either side of the river was the tree of life, whose leaves were for the healing of the nations. Taken as stark prose, this presents an impossible pic­ture, for we must then ask, In which street was the river? Obviously, this is the wrong question.

The great reality of the new earth and the heavenly city is that "there shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him: they shall see his face" (22:3-4, rsv, italics added). In these words the whole of re­demption is embodied.

See heaven, resurrection of the body, escha­tology.