Part Twenty Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology 7. By allowing their interpretations of the NT to have veto over the plain sense of the OT this outlook creates massive discontinuities between the wording of the two Testaments. This is all done for the sake of a contrived continuity demanded by the one-people of God concept of the Covenant of Grace. It has been common for both Covenant Theologians and Dispensationalists to categorize the former as a continuity …
Category: Articles
Part Nineteen 6. By assuming, without sufficient warrant, that the New Testament must be used to [re]interpret the Old Testament, CT in practice denies to the OT its own perspicuity, its own integrity as inspired revelation, and creates a “canon within a canon.” To paraphrase George Orwell, in CT “all Scripture is inspired, but some Scripture [the NT] is more inspired than others [the OT]”. The actual covenants of God which are recorded in the Old Testament dictate, or ought to dictate, …
Part Two In his third critique of my series on Deciphering Covenant Theology Josh seeks to redress some issues with my treatment of the covenant of redemption. Of my views on the covenant of redemption Josh has this to say: “That the covenant of redemption depends upon assumptions is a conclusion that does not follow from the available premises throughout the article. He never actually defines what these assumptions are, much less does he show those assumptions to be false …
Part Eighteen Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology (4) 4. CT deals with everything it meets in the pages of Scripture using these false covenants. From my point of view as a non-covenant theologian it is bad enough that the three theological covenants of Covenant Theology share scarcely a scrap of textual warrant between them. What is worse, though, is how much these made-up covenants dictate the rest of what the Bible can and cannot be allowed to …
A review of Joseph C. Harrod, 40 Questions About Prayer. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2022, 292 pages, pbk. Over the many years that I have been a Christian I have read many books about prayer. I have also written about it on several occasions. Prayer is at one and the same time one of the easiest and one of the most difficult subjects in Christian Theology. Most of the books on prayer that I have read are either too simplistic, or …
Part Seventeen Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology (3) 3. CT relies upon covenants found nowhere in Holy Writ. If I were to challenge you to locate the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Phinehas, Moses, and David it would not take you very long. But what if I issued a challenge to find the covenants of redemption, works, or grace? And what if I told you that you could not run to any passage where the covenants to do …
Josh Sommer is a strong advocate of 1689 Baptist covenant theology who has been writing posts replying to my articles on Deciphering Covenant Theology. I am glad that he has decided to challenge my articles, both because it is important to hear what a proponent of CT says to counter a critique of their theology, and because I am sure he will help me to see where my posts might be improved. I cannot address every point Josh raises, just …
Part Sixteen Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology (3) 2. CT starts its reading of the Bible in the wrong place. In Part Two of this series I said that for CT’s having the NT to interpret the OT is like the introduction of color televisions to replace the old black and white screens. Whereas for people like myself it is better compared to a deconstructionist interpretation of a classic novel which all but ignores what the novel …
Part Fifteen Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology (2) I started out in this series by making this point and I believe it has been established. When one reflects on the main assumptions of Covenant Theology it becomes clear that the entire edifice is constructed, not upon what the Bible really says, but upon pious but still autonomous inferences. These inferences are deductive in character, and provide the cast into which the mind of CT approaches the text …
Part Fourteen Looking Deeper into the Problems with Covenant Theology (1) We have arrived now at the point where I can turn my attention to a full-on critique of Covenant Theology. In doing so I want to remind my reader of what I wrote in Part Twelve of this series, where I recorded my very real appreciation for CT even as a dissenter from its tenets. But we are in a position now to record that dissent more plainly and …
