What we have learned from Romans 6 and 7 is that when we trusted in Christ as our Savior and Lord (as our Treasure!), we were united to Christ (Romans 6:5; 7:4). In this union with Christ we died (Romans 6:8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3) and rose again (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12; Ephesians 2:6). Therefore a decisive and irrevocable new creation came into being (2 Corinthians 5:17), and a decisive and irrevocable liberation happened (Romans 6:14, 18). We passed from death to (eternal!) life. Our decisive judgment is behind us - at Golgotha (John 5:24). We have moved from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son (Colossians 1:13).

As we approach the new millennium, things seem to be changing faster and faster. New scientific discoveries, medicines, treatments, technologies appear almost daily. And the moral climate keeps changing too. Our society has passed in thirty years from (1) a belief that abortion was a scandalous crime, not fit for public discussion, to (2) the belief that it should be tolerated in extreme cases, (3) to the belief that it is guaranteed by the US Constitution, (4) to the belief that it is a fundamental human right, (5) to the belief that it should never be restricted even when it is indistinguishable from infanticide.

The subject of "the future" has always interested humans. Indeed, one might say this interest is clearly one, among many, which distinguishes humans from other life forms on our planet. We, unlike any other species, have a profound desire to know about "the end."

The late Bernard Ramm, in his After Fundamentalism: The Future of Evangelical Theology, included an appendix that, in the words of Fred H. Klooster, "represents a rather ludicrous comparison of Lewis Sperry Chafer and Karl Barth." ¹ In terms of educational background and academic qualifications, Barth did indeed tower over Chafer. Ramm seemed to labor under the impression that Chafer still exerts some significant influence in evangelical circles today. He refers to Chafer's Systematic Theology (originally in eight volumes, it has recently been revised by the faculty of Dallas Seminary in two volumes) as

A. A. Hoekema begins his masterful monograph on biblical eschatology with the observation:

Properly to understand biblical eschatology, we must see it as an integral aspect of all of biblical revelation. Eschatology must not be thought of as something which is found only in, say, such Bible books as Daniel and Revelation, but as dominating and permeating the entire message of the Bible. ¹

In the theology of Jonathan Edwards, comprehensive as it is, one doctrine seems in particular to permeate the whole: that of eschatology, the doctrine of the last things. It colors his thinking on unfulfilled prophecy, on missionary interests, on revivals, prayer, the papacy, false religion, history, and the Jews. He contemplated at length the subjects of a latter-day glory, and of heaven and hell. Today, Jonathan Edwards would be known as a postmillennialist. "In his Work of Redemption," says J. Marcellus Kik, "he gives a fine exposition of the post-mil position." ¹ While such labels may be inappropriate to eighteenth-century theology, there is no doubt that Edwards did not expect Christ to return until after a period of peace and prosperity for the church on earth: a millennium to be ushered in by such a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the revivals of the Great Awakening would be seen to be but a foreshadowing by contrast.

It is a simple fact that Christians have a Bible with two parts. That the second part of this unified, whole Bible is a New Testament is not disputed. What is disputed, and has been for centuries, is this: "What is really new about this New Testament?"

For more than twenty years I have been thinking and reflecting upon what I consider to be one of the central themes of biblical theology-the newness of the new covenant. Some years ago I decided to go through the New Testament looking at the various occurrences of the word "new" (kainos, neos, and palaios). What I discovered profoundly affected me. What I was unprepared for was just how few biblical scholars had actually dealt with this very central theme. There can be little doubt that this theme of "newness" needs serious exploration and development by biblical scholars. It also cries out for exploration by the serious Christian reader, whether pastor or layman.