# Supra and Federalism



## Matthew1344 (Aug 20, 2016)

Does federalism rule out supralapsarianism? 



> This " Federal Theology " was developed and introduced in all its fulness of detail and bearings by Coccejus (1602-1669), Prof,atFraneckerandLeyden. Itwasregardedaseminently a Scriptural system, supplanting the prevailing scholasticism, and destroying forever the influence of supralapsarian specula- tions, and it gradually found acceptance, under appropriate mod- ifications, with Lutherans and Arminians as well as Calvinists. - A.A. Hodge pg 362



Not sure how?

I was thinking...
How can someone be in Christ, Christ as their head, if not first be under the headship of Adam. So maybe they would have to be sinful first. Maybe the means of the fall came before the means of election. 

But then i though...
Shouldn't God have put the elect under the eternal headship of Christ and under a temporal headship of adam before meaning the fall?

Or am i speaking nonsense?


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## Matthew1344 (Aug 22, 2016)

nonsensical?


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## py3ak (Aug 22, 2016)

I think the answer is that Cocceian federalism might well be anti-supralapsarian. But that doesn't mean that no supralapsarians have a strong doctrine of the covenant. Cocceius was an important figure, but his version of covenant theology is not the only one out there.


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## MW (Aug 22, 2016)

Samuel Rutherford and Thomas Goodwin would be two examples of covenantal supralapsarians. They taught that Christ is the heir of all creation, and the natural order was preliminary to the spiritual order. They took the statement literally, that Adam was a figure of Christ to come. So far as the order of the decrees is concerned this means that redemption by Christ was first as the Antitype, and the fall in Adam as a true type was a means to that end.

As I see it, many who would call themselves infralapsarians so far as the order of the decrees are concerned, would speak as a supralapsarian when it comes to federal theology. They do not see the covenant of redemption as plan B, but they see the covenant of works as subservient to the covenant of redemption, and the covenant of redemption teaches God's ultimate purpose is to glorify His Son as heir over all things.


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