Part Six When Christ Delivers Up the Kingdom to the Father There is a strategic passage in 1 Corinthians which bears upon both the eschatology and teleology of the Bible. That text is found in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 and requires a little time to think through, although I will confess at the outset that the passage may act as an exemplar of the influence of theological predispositions in hermeneutics.[1] Because the thought is condensed it is easy to …
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Part Eleven The Genius of Covenant Theology Now that I have given sufficient coverage of the main tenets of Covenant Theology and have inserted some critiques, I want to pause to appreciate the comprehensiveness of this approach. This comprehensiveness adds substantially to its appeal. Here then are my thoughts on what makes Covenant Theology so formidable and attractive. I divide my observations into four braid categories which consider its coherence, its teleology, its Christ-centeredness, and finally, its ability to address …
Part Ten The Scholars Versus the Theological Covenants So far I have tried to set out what Covenant Theology teaches in regards to its three major theological covenants. I have shown that variance exists, and have demonstrated how the covenant of grace is the grand operative in the system. We also saw that there are of necessity paedo-baptist and credo-baptist opinions about who is in the covenant of grace and about “Federalism” as well as about whether it is a …
Review of Herbert W. Bateman & William C. Varner, James: An Exegetical Guide for Preaching and Teaching, Big Greek Idea Series, Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2022, hdbk, 320 pages. I received this book only recently. It got lost in the post. Because I am required to write the review now I am unable to give a full review. This attractive book, with its large pages and many tables and charts, is perhaps above the level of the average pastor who has …
Over the approximately thirty-five years I have been a Christian I have amassed a personal library of around four thousand volumes, most of which have been carefully selected works on particular topics. I have several older books from the early 19th Century such as an 1838 edition of Thomas Boston’s Human Nature in It’s Fourfold State, and a volume called The Beauties’ of Ebenezer Erskine from the same year. I have one or two noteworthy volumes like the the copy …
Part Nine Credo-baptism and the Covenant of Grace I have taken a quick look at the way paedo-baptist covenant theologians understand baptism as a sign of the New covenant aspect of the covenant of grace, but of course many Baptists are Reformed yet they reject the baptism of infants as unbiblical. Baptists see the covenant of grace as incorporating the regenerate only, not the so-called “historical elect” – those who have been sprinkled as babies but have yet to express …
Part Five Paul Before the Areopagus I want to shift gears a bit and take a look at the “twins” which comprise the Creation Project and that drive it through the instrumentality of the covenants. Those twins being Eschatology and Teleology which I spoke about in the first volume. A good place to start is Paul’s defense at Mars Hill in Acts 17. He is addressing pagan Greeks who have no familiarity with the Scriptures. There would have been fruitless …
Part Eight Federal Theology and the Baptism of Infants “[W{hen Reformed people speak of “the covenant,” we are speaking of the one covenant of grace that runs from its seed-promise in Genesis 3:15, was expanded in detail to Abraham in Genesis 15, fulfilled in Christ, and continues throughout time until the consummation. Anyone who has or will ever be saved – in any period of human history – is a member of the covenant of grace.” – Michael G. Brown …
I am not a covenant theologian. However, I am very familiar with it in both its pedo- and credo-baptist forms. While my ongoing series critiquing CT shows that I am in disagreement with many of its major hermeneutical tenets, I want my readers to know that I have a long-standing admiration for CT for its comprehensiveness and its ability to address many areas of Theology and Apologetics. Later in the series I am writing (of which this is an interlude), …
Part Seven I ended the last post talking about how CT reduces the nation of Israel down to Jesus Christ and then interprets the Church in Him to be the “True Israel.” There is more to say about that, but first I think a little more orientation is required. I want to begin this installment with a definition of Covenant Theology from one of its major contemporary practitioners, Ligon Duncan: “Covenant theology is an approach to biblical interpretation that appreciates …
