The Canon of the New Testament

A well-known teacher of the Restoration of the Law wrote that when the Kingdom comes, we'll know how to punish all those face-slappers who bother us now, and we won't have to keep turning the other cheek.

What he meant by this was that the New Testament ethic is temporary -- that there will come a time in the progress of the Kingdom when the personal ethic taught by Jesus in the New Testament will be superseded by one that is more "just."

This can't be right.

First, the courage that it takes to teach this way is boldly disrespectful to the authority of Christ.

Secondly, the doctrine of the canon of Scripture is reversed.  He intends the Mosaic case law to take precedence over the teaching of the New Testament.  Redemptive history runs backward.  The Old Creation is being restored, rather than the New Creation inaugurated.

This is all wrong because he has rejected the New Testament as the canonical guide for the interpretation of all Scripture.

The whole "look and feel" of the Christian religion is at stake here: our daily experience (often tribulation, and not glory), our future expectation (the return of the Lord), our ethic (forgiveness, servanthood), our preaching (the gospel), our life (mutual love, distinct from the world).

How vital a difference this makes to the whole spirit of Christianity !