Introduction to Covenant Theology

[Scott Bushey]

Through Yahoo's RTDISC group.

 

[BrianBowman]

Originally posted by James McGrail
My introduction to covenant theology was through a radio preacher named Malcolm Smith. I was a flaming fundamentalist in those days and he was a charismatic. Yet he did show me a way of looking at scripture that was brand new to me. Unlike other charismatic teachers, he was not into the nonsense of Ken Copeland and others.
After that it opened up a whole new world of Bible study I didn't have as a dispensationalist.
Curious as to how others here were first introduced to covenant theology.

Is Malcolm Smith truly a Covenant guy in the Reformed tradition? I heard him 10 years or so a go and he seemed to have Charismatic leanings.

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

I was introduced to Clarence Larkin while I was in the Navy. It didn't last long. When I read that he didn't believe the Church existed until the New Testament, I trashed that theology. I really wasn't introduced to Covenant Theology. It was aquired by osmosis from the scripture. It really wasn't something I studied indepth. I just accepted it as truth because it was spelled out in scripture as Calvinism was to me.

 

[C. Matthew McMahon]

John Owen - the Death of Death in the Death of Christ - Covenant of Redemption. That's all she wrote. I could say "the bible" but that would be a cheat. I didn't understand the concepts until they were meticulously laid out.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

It wasn't until I moved to CA in 1999 and started attending an OPC Church that I started to understand Covenant Theology. Prior to that, for a few years, I was primarily fascinated with the 5 points of Calvinism and especially seemed to see everything from an election/reprobation standpoint.

I remember knowing the WSC, WLC, and WCF pretty well and then talking to my pastor one night about the baptism of infants. It was something I was willing to accept denominationally but didn't have a really good handle on why Presbyterians did it because I was caught in this "who is elected and who is reprobate" loop that I see among some in the forums (especially in the Covenant forums).

My pastor in CA recently moved to Ohio to pastor a new congregation. In my farewell address to him, which I had to do electronically as I was in Okinawa, I remarked that he opened my eyes to the beauty of God's Covenant and that I would never forget that he did that for me. My former theology, while systematically sound in the major areas, lacked the warmth of Covenant. That's the best way I can describe it.

 

[SmokingFlax]

Even though at the present time I'm still not so confident that I understand Covenant theology as I would like to, my path out of the confused and grotesque combination of Dispensationalism, Arminianism, Fundamentalism, and Pentecostalism began on September 11th, 2001.

Initially I intended to find out out what was up with Islam but I started stumbling across a number of reformed and/or historicist type sites when I finally realized that I didn't really know so much about my own faith (historically speaking) much less Islam.

Reg Barrow's Still Waters Revival Books site floored me with all of the old scholarship that I had no clue of previously -so I eventually ordered all of their cds after ordering a number of books and tracts.

One of those books was Cornelius Van Til's The Defense of the Faith (which I ought to read again) ...I think it was the first Reformed book I ever read (not counting Foxe's Book of Martyrs way back in the early 90's). It can seriously change a life.

Rousas Rushdoony's Chalcedon site probably had the most to do with me re-thinking my then suppositions after printing out and reading many of the articles available on their site. I eventually ordered and read his Institutes of Biblical Law which completely squashed any antinomian charismatic tendencies I may have had.

Matthew McMahon's A Puritan's Mind site also satisfied my quest for more understanding with many of his helpful articles, etc. When I get the money and time I plan on ordering some of his books as well -I never seem to feel like I know enough.

 

[biblelighthouse]

I was introduced to Covenant Theology, and I now believe in Covenant Theology, because of this guy:

----------------------------

----------------------------

Thank you, Matt!!




[Edited on 11-22-2005 by biblelighthouse]

 

[Arch2k]

I think it was through R.C. Sproul.

 

[youthevang]

It was through an Old Testament professor from a seminary I was enrolled at for a time.

 

[yeutter]

John Gerstner spoke at an InterVarcity seminar in the early 1970s at Michigan State University. He told some that questioned him from a dispensationalist perspective to read, John Owen, Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Something by Jonathan Edwards. I have forgotten what it was because it was not that helpful at the time. And made several recommendations of works by Meredith Kline. I read Owen and Kiline and wondered how I ever had any other conception of God's purpose.

 

[JohnV]

From my Dad and Mom. From my church, i.e, the preaching. From my elders and catechism teachers. From experience. From having to deal with the unchangeable doctrines in the midst of equivocations and liberalizations. From friends on the Puritan Board. In that order.

 

[Swampguy]

I made the mistake of reading the Bible from the beginning to the end when first saved. I never could quite believe the disp. point of view. Then I attended Jimmy Swaggart Bible college and had some very awesome teachers who introduced me to reformed theology. I learned that even in the mist of darkness there is light.

 

[C. Matthew McMahon]

Originally posted by biblelighthouse
I was introduced to Covenant Theology, and I now believe in Covenant Theology, because of this guy:

----------------------------

----------------------------

Thank you, Matt!!

[Edited on 11-22-2005 by biblelighthouse]

That's humbling! I'm glad to be used of God! (and amazed).
Pray that God would be pleased to use an insignificant worm like me despite me failing Him constantly.

 

[Saiph]

These few verses did it for me:

2Sa 23:3-5
The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. For does not my house stand so with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?

Psa 105:7-10
He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant . . .

Jer 32:37-40
Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

There were never two different ways of salvation. THe gentiles were grafted in to the only way, which has always been faith in Christ.

Heb 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

[BrianBowman]

Originally posted by James McGrail

Is Malcolm Smith truly a Covenant guy in the Reformed tradition? I heard him 10 years or so a go and he seemed to have Charismatic leanings.

He is definately charismatic. How far into Reformed theology he goes I do not know. It was a springboard however for me to read other things that were not dispensational.

... so good James. My "exit" from Dispensationalism came while studying for ordination in the "Dispensational Sect" Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO - see www.carlstevens.org for more on this bunch). Although GGWO's founder Carl H. Stevens claims to embrace "elements" from both Covenantal & Dispensational Theology, GGWO is at root Dispensational in the Scofield/Chafer/Miles Stanford tradition. Malcolm Smith spoke at GGWO conventions once or twice and I've heard him on tape a few times. From what I recollect of these messages, I would say that like many charismatics, Malcolm "draws from" Covenantal concepts but is not really "Reformed" in his thinking.

For the past 17 months we have been attending (and are now members of) a PCA Church. This, the Puritan Board, my own study of Matt's books/apuritansmind.com and the "classics" like "Death of Death ...", "Bondage of the Will", Calvin's Institutes, Witsius' "Economy of the Covenants ...", O. Palmer Robertson's "Christ of the Covenants", etc. are the foundation for my understanding of Covenant Theology.

[Edited on 11-23-2005 by BrianBowman]

 

[Puritan Sailor]

The Marrow of Modern Divinity sealed the deal for me