Ah yes, the lynchpin for the credo-Jer 31!

In regard to when the NC began; JPH says, “At the Cross”. HH says, “The benefits of the New Covenant were mediated to the elect before Christ’s coming, but Jeremiah and the Hebrews author gave qualifying statements that declared that the NC would be fully manifested at a particular time in the realm of time.” Scott says, consummated at the cross when Christ said, ‘it is finished’. The term finish denotes a thing that had begun at a different time-or even outside of time. Lamb slain before the foundation of the world-the *now and not yet* principle.

As far as the Jeremiah passage goes-it is as well a *now and not yet* passage:

HH quotes v31: “Behold the days COME, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant….”
The New Covenant began in Gen 3-when the protoevangelion was given for the first time. Is not the gospel at the root of the NC?

The next thing to be considered is the meaning of the Hebrew word in contrast to the NT word, ‘new’. They are not identical. The Hebrew renders the term: new, revitalized, rejuvenated, refreshed.

The Hebrew passage is referring to the C of W’s, which renders your argument moot as, again, the NC began in Gen 3.

This statement is a bit silly: “No one can say that the NC was made with anyone till Christ’s coming. They can only say that Christ mediated the benefits of his sacrificial death before he came.”

You previously said: “The benefits of the New Covenant were mediated to the elect before Christ’s coming, but Jeremiah and the Hebrews author gave qualifying statements that declared that the NC would be fully manifested at a particular time in the realm of time.”

So, in essence, you are saying that the benefits were there, but the official nature of the said covenant was not established. In what way? The HS? Jer says:

“33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ”

How is it different in that respect? The HS is omnipresent! Regeneration is the same-that never changes! Well, you might say, ‘The HS was not in the believer in that age’. Thats a flawed argument as well as we all are familiar with the passage in Romans that says: “Romans 8:9 “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”

I will quote Dr. Matt McMahon:

“The answer to that is yes and no. For God, no. He never does “new” things. It is not like He had a plan, made a mistake, and decided to do something “new.” But in our eyes, the realities surrounding the fulfillment of anything God does makes it new to us. For instance, if I have an old car, say a 1979 Ford Fairmont, and I buy a new car, that car is a brand new car in relation to the junk car I am giving to the junkyard. But if I take the old Fairmont and “mint it out” then the old car becomes new. It is not really “new” but “renewed.” Yet, when I sit in it, it surely is a new car to me. It puts a smile on my face to drive it.

Think of this: The Lord’s mercies are completely new every morning, but also “renewed” every morning. (Lam. 3:23). Job desired that his glory was “fresh” in him, Job 29:20. This does not mean “new” but renewed. God’s glory cannot be “new,” as in brand new since it always is. A survey of the Old Testament will show that such a “renewing” in Hebrew is considered as new, though its cognate is old, and simply refreshed. It is almost never used of “new, as in “brand new,” even when God says he does “new things” or “new kings” are put on thrones. There is more to the Hebrew mind and language than thinking one dimensionally about words. ”

As well, it is interesting that the credo only quotes the portion of Jer 31 that is relevant to his argument, leaving out this portion of the passage in v36 which shows that Israel had these things-God threatens them to remove them if they are faithless!

36 “If those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the LORD,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”

The passages mentions teachers: “34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD.”

Since when has the office of teacher been done away with? We still need teachers, proving the *now and not yet* principle. The only time the church will not need teachers will be in glory!

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

So, according to Paul, when one is regenerated, disregarding what time frame, they are what? New?

“No man possessed of common sense ever presumed to deprive the Church of God of the benefit of learning.” John Calvin