Update on ‘The Words of the Covenant,’ Volume 2

I have been asked by a lot of people when the second part of my Biblical Theology, The Words of the Covenant will be out. Thank you to everyone who has enquired. Here is an update.

The Words of the Covenant: New Testament Continuation is nearing completion, although there is still a lot of writing and editorial work to do. Presently it is 450 pages long, but more must be added to the Introduction and Appendices. Lord willing I will be able to publish it in September or October but we’ll see. I hope to provide a Table of Contents before too long.

A Little Background

I have been writing the book since the first volume was finished in the summer of 2021. Volume 1 took me many years to write, mainly because it was my first book and I had to learn as I went along. The study for that book, and for this one, began in 2007, although at that time I was concerned with answering methodological questions like “Where does the emphasis fall in God’s own testimony of what He is doing?”, “”How does God communicate?”, and “Why does God make covenants?”

After I had considered such questions for some time I began reading everything I could get my hands on concerning covenants. At first I tried to get to the essence of what a covenant was, and I soon discovered that the definitions varied and the function of covenants was always ignored. What exactly were covenants for?

At the same time I began reading through the Bible again (this was about the 70th time), and this time taking care to note the introduction, description, and development of each of God’s covenants. The development and interrelationships of God’s covenants in the Old Testament is what is studied in Volume 1. These covenants produce expectations of what God is going to do, so the first volume is subtitled Old Testament Expectation.

The New Testament Volume

When we come to the New Testament there are several issues to be engaged. The first one is the arrival of Jesus Christ and His preaching. the second is His rejection and death. That Christ’s death was preordained is everywhere understood, but what does that rejection mean in terms of the oaths God made and the expectations they aroused?

The rejection of Christ essentially closed the door on God’s dealing directly with Israel, and the Church came into being – not as a second thought or parenthesis in God program, but as the next phase of the Creation Project. This meant that although the coming of Jesus left massive after-effects which were absorbed by the Church, there were other matters that were held in suspension. This is where great care has to be taken in tracing the impact of the covenants through Christ in the Church, while maintaining the irrevocable promises of those covenants which are held in abeyance until Jesus comes again. And here it becomes very important to distinguish first coming truths from second coming truths. The error of many good interpreters is to confuse second coming covenant fulfillments as first coming fulfillments in the Church through typology and spiritualization. Essentially, we see ourselves at the end of God’s Creation Project instead of in the middle of it. The coming thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ is the next phase in the Creation Project. Only then does it come to its climax when the New Heaven and New Earth are brought into being.

But what of the influence of the covenants upon the Church? This is where things get interesting, and controversial. Although the word “covenant” does not appear too often in the New Testament it is a grave error to overlook and miss the idea of covenant throughout the Gospels and Epistles. More and more scholars are seeing this (though sadly, very few of them are Dispensationalists). The Abrahamic and Davidic covenants are both treated by the inspired authors, especially Matthew, Luke, and Paul. However, because of the unavoidable effect of the cross and resurrection, it is the New covenant in Christ’s blood that is determinative. Paul even refers to his ministry as a New covenant ministry. Then there is the Book of Hebrews and its concentrated treatment of Christ’s New covenant High Priesthood.

What becomes apparent then is that the New Testament is a strongly covenantal document in which the New covenant plays a huge part. For readers of the first volume this should not come as a surprise. If Christ is to be given His rightful place in our Theology we must get the New covenant right. Therefore, a lot of the new book expounds the influence of the New covenant both for the eschatological Kingdom and for the Church. Yes the Church! The evidence is much more plentiful and (I believe) persuasive than many Dispensationalists have thought, but focusing on dispensations and not covenants blurs the vision.

I call my scheme Biblical Covenantalism because I believe someone has to try to make a decisive cognitive break from “dispensations” and think anew from the perspective of the Divine covenants, especially in light of Jesus Christ. Although I am happy to call myself a Dispensational Premillennialist, I am unhappy to call myself a Dispensationalist. Why? Because while Dispensational premillennialism concerns itself with the End Times (Rapture, Tribulation, Second Advent, Kingdom, New Creation), Dispensationalism surveys the Bible Story, and in so doing employs the wrong lens (dispensations) and refuses to give God’s covenants their due (while often claiming that they do).

Please notice the subtitle is not “New Testament Continuity” but New Testament Continuation. I did not want to give the impression that the New Testament fulfills the Old. Many things from the Old Testament are recorded as being fulfilled in the New, but there are very many things which aren’t, and I wanted the title to avert the gaze to the great event of the second coming of Jesus and the Kingdom of God, when the covenants of God will be brought to their literal fulfillment.

I hope you will join with me in prayer as I try hard to get the book completed. I want it to flow well and to edify all who bother to read it.