The Covenants and the The Kingdoms

[Purgetheevil]

Forgive me if this has been addressed in another thread, I'm new here and couldn't find this specific topic anywhere. Also, any reading suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'm reading two books at the moment, "The Greatness of the Kingdom" by Alva McClain, and "The Bible and the Future" by Anthony Hoekema. These two books, along with my amateur knowledge of the Word have brought up some ideas that I'd love to get some feed back on.

First, is there a source I can go to that deals with the relationships between the covenants and the kingdoms?
The OT covenants seem to have strong connections to what McClain in the book mentioned above calls the first "mediatorial kingdom" of Israel, while the New Covenant seems to have a strong relationship to the millennial kingdom. I'm wondering if the covenant/kingdom relationship is strong enough to make them almost different perspectives of the same reality.

For example, the Mosaic covenant came with, and was active (is there a better word?) in the first kingdom, Israel. As the focus changes from Israel to the Church, the millennial kingdom comes with the new covenant, and both are experienced as inaugurated, but experienced in their final form. The new covenant, being somewhat progressive in the sense that we experience now the promises of a new heart of flesh and the indwelling of the Spirit, but have yet to experience the promise of glorified bodies and other promises of the eternal state.

Definitely rebuke me if I'm way out in left field here, lol, or just not making any sense at all. I find all of this fascinating, and really seek to know more about what it is God's doing in us, and for us.

 

[R. Scott Clark]

My advice, For what it's worth: skip McLain. Read Hoekema carefully. Then read Kim Riddlebarger, A Case for Amillennialism, then read Mike Horton, God of Promise.

Free resources here:

On covenant theology.

On Israel and the Church.

On the church

On Israel and the Covenant of works

 

[Casey]

A standard work on biblical covenants used in Reformed seminaries is: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Christ-Covenants-O-Palmer-Robertson/dp/0875524184/"]The Christ of the Covenants[/ame]

For a shorter treatment on the covenants, check out Chapter 7 of Geerhardus Vos' [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Redemptive-History-Biblical-Interpretation-Geerhardus/dp/087552513X/"]Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation[/ame]

As to your questions, I think what you're getting at is the issue of continuity and discontinuity in the various covenants as demonstrated in the kingdom? Without denying the differences, I think it's important to emphasis the Church's essential union throughout all ages -- in the form of the "church under age" (aka, OT Israel), or the church come of age (aka, the NT Church).

I hope this helps some.

-----Added 1/4/2009 at 07:11:46 EST-----

By the way,

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Read these:

William Ames

John Murray

WCF Ch.7

 

[Purgetheevil]

Thanx for all the references!!

 

[pilgrim2]

Mike Horton's God of Promise book is THE book on Covenant Theology. in my opinion.

 

[Peairtach]

The one Covenant of Grace is revealed progressively in a series of covenants of the promise:-

The Post-Edenic Protevangelium (Genesis 3:15)

The Noahic Covenant

The Abrahamic Covenant

The Mosaic Covenant

The Davidic Covenant

The New Covenant

It was in the covenant made with David in II Samuel 7 that God set out that His rule through the mediatorship of the Messiah would be kingly and that God's people would be subjects of a kingdom, and that God's land,the whole earth in the New Covenant, would be a kingdom.

See O.Palmer Robertson and others.

 

[ww]

Mike Horton's God of Promise book is THE book on Covenant Theology. in my opinion.

What about Kingdom Prologue by Meredith Kline which is foundational for Horton's "God of Promise"?

I borrowed from our Church's Library "Christ and the Covenants" by O. Palmer Robertson and am looking forward to reading it.