In this post I want to record what I see as some of the major problems of Covenant Theology (CT). I know many very fine and godly people hold and have held to this position. Therefore, any particular conflict I may have with the theology should certainly not be viewed as a lack of sincere respect and even admiration of many CT’s. Let me also say that I don’t believe I am overly concerned to defend Dispensational Theology (DT). I …
Category: Hermeneutics
I want to discuss twelve guidelines for Bible interpretation which I have formulated and used. These guidelines help me a lot in Bible Study. They are not meant as replacements for hermeneutics manuals of course, but I think they do a lot of legwork. In my opinion Rule 4 is the most important one. These “Parameters of Meaning” as I call them, help establish the boundaries of valid interpretation and ferret out views not supported from the text of Scripture. …
In this final article in this series on the importance of the Biblical Covenants I want to outline what I believe are the important issues which ought to affect anyone who believes that the Bible should be interpreted in the same “naive” way we read personal letters, sermons, novels and other books. We must always keep in mind that the Bible is written to the “common man” not the specialist scholar. 1. Although there are recognizable dispensations within the Bible …
Introduction In this installment of our series on what I have called “Biblical Covenantalism” I want to concentrate on the matter of interpretation as it relates to the Covenants of Scripture. I have alluded to this in an earlier article, but I want to say more because I believe this matter to be so vital for a proper understanding of the Bible. As is recognized by most Dispensationalists, many of those brethren who denigrate Dispensational theology for its “literalistic” …
46. Contrary to dispensationalism’s claim that “the Church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament” (J. D. Pentecost), the New Testament writers look to the Old Testament for its divine purpose and role in the history of redemption and declare only that the mystery was not known “to the sons of men” at large, and was not known to the same degree “as” it is now revealed to all men in the New Testament (Eph 3:4-6), even noting that …
So far in our present studies in “Biblical Covenantalism” we have seen that what is known as Dispensationalism is not very well named. Not that dispensations are foreign to Scripture, but the name does not describe the distinctive approach to the Bible and Theology that is quintessential to the system. On the contrary, it brings to prominence things which are of far less importance than the matters we have been discussing with regard to the Covenants of Scripture. It is …
Apologies for not posting for the a while. Among other things I was doing a conference in MI. Anyway, here are some more responses to the Nicene Council. I again wish to stress that we ought to be able to discuss our disagreements without branding each other as heretics or any such pejorative term. I certainly don’t have all the answers! Albeit, I think I have something to say in answer to these “Theses.” We are on Thesis 37: …
31. Despite the dispensationalists’ strong commitment to the “plain interpretation” of Scripture (Charles Ryrie) and its dependence on Daniel’s Seventy Weeks as “of major importance to premillennialism” (John Walvoord), they have to insert into the otherwise chronological progress of the singular period of “Seventy Weeks” (Dan 9:24) a gap in order to make their system work; and that gap is already four times longer than the whole Seventy Weeks (490 year) period. Response: The 70 Weeks prophecy is not at …
A Biblical Covenant is a thing of tremendous importance for the student of Scripture. For one thing, these covenants (made e.g., with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, David) were made by God Almighty Himself. When God deigns to make a covenant with men one can be sure that He has some great strategic purpose in mind. In which case it is crucial to pay close attention to what is stated, otherwise the intention of God forecasted in the covenant …
26. Despite the dispensationalists’ interpretive methodology arguing that we must interpret the Old Testament on its own merit without reference to the New Testament, so that we must “interpret ‘the New Testament in the light of the Old’” (Alan Johnson), the unified, organic nature of Scripture and its typological, unfolding character require that we consult the New Testament as the divinely-ordained interpreter of the Old Testament, noting that all the prophecies are “yea and amen in Christ” (2 Cor 1:20); …
