# 3 Forms of Unity and Covenant Theology?



## jwright82 (Jan 26, 2012)

Is there anywhere in the 3 Forms of Unity that explicitly teach Covenant Theology like the WCF does? If not does it implicitly teach it?


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## rbcbob (Jan 26, 2012)

If I am not mistaken the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession only make mention of the Covenant of Grace in connection with infants. The Canons of Dort explicitly mention the Covenant of Grace relative to the redemptive work of Christ in article 8.



> Article 8: The Saving Effectiveness of Christ's Death
> 
> For it was the entirely free plan and very gracious will and intention of God the Father that the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his Son's costly death should work itself out in all his chosen ones, in order that he might grant justifying faith to them only and thereby lead them without fail to salvation. In other words, it was God's will that Christ through the blood of the cross (by which he confirmed the new covenant) should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language all those and only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation and given to him by the Father; that he should grant them faith (which, like the Holy Spirit's other saving gifts, he acquired for them by his death); that he should cleanse them by his blood from all their sins, both original and actual, whether committed before or after their coming to faith; that he should faithfully preserve them to the very end; and that he should finally present them to himself, a glorious people, without spot or wrinkle.

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## jwright82 (Jan 26, 2012)

So in a denomination that subscribes to the 3 Forms of Unity do they require ministerial candadents to hold to covenant theology in its historic form? If so on what grounds, if there is no confessional one?


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## Poimen (Jan 26, 2012)

The 3 Forms of Unity presuppose much of the formal structure of covenant theology as presented in the Westminster Standards but do not present it in one, convenient section. Arguably the clearest portion that deals with covenant theology is Q&A 74 which as Bob pointed out addresses it from the perspective of infant baptism. 

In the case of a candidate who does not hold to Reformed, covenant theology, he would be excluded from the ministry on the basis of having rejected the clear statements in the confessions regarding the covenant that God has made with His people. This is can be demonstrated by the following statements lifted from the "Report of the Synodical Study Committee on the Federal Vision and Justification".



> 2. The election of God is of one kind only, and is to everlasting life, and not to a
> mutable relationship dependent on the good work of man, which can be forfeited
> (Canons of Dort, 1.8). Those who finally fall away have not forfeited their
> election, but demonstrate they never were elect, though members of the covenant
> ...

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## jwright82 (Jan 27, 2012)

Poimen said:


> The 3 Forms of Unity presuppose much of the formal structure of covenant theology as presented in the Westminster Standards but do not present it in one, convenient section. Arguably the clearest portion that deals with covenant theology is Q&A 74 which as Bob pointed out addresses it from the perspective of infant baptism.
> 
> In the case of a candidate who does not hold to Reformed, covenant theology, he would be excluded from the ministry on the basis of having rejected the clear statements in the confessions regarding the covenant that God has made with His people. This is can be demonstrated by the following statements lifted from the "Report of the Synodical Study Committee on the Federal Vision and Justification".
> 
> ...



That makes sense, thank you.


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