An Old Theme and a Younger System
God's covenants are as old as Genesis. Covenant theology, the system that reads the whole Bible through theological covenants of redemption, works, and grace, is much younger. It took shape after the Reformation, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the Westminster Confession of 1646 gave it its classic statement.
Another name for covenant theology, from the Latin foedus, covenant. It describes Adam and Christ as federal heads, representatives who act for those joined to them, and it reads the history of redemption through the covenants God makes with mankind in them.
The story has two sides. One is the Reformed teachers who built the system, many of them gifted and godly men. The other is the free churches, believers whom their enemies called Anabaptists (rebaptizers) because they baptized only those who confessed faith in Christ. The covenant argument for infant baptism was first developed in debate with them, and they answered it from the New Testament, often at the cost of their lives.
Critics say dispensationalism is too new to be true. Covenant theology has a history too. Does the age of a system, or the setting it grew out of, decide whether it is right?
The Bereans were called noble because they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). History cannot answer that question for us. It can show us how godly men reasoned, where they saw clearly, and where they went wrong.
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For Deeper Study
- Fountainhead of Federalism: Heinrich Bullinger and the Covenantal TraditionAmazon Charles S. McCoy and J. Wayne BakerA study of Bullinger's covenant thought (1991) that includes an English translation of his *De testamento* of 1534. Its claim that Bullinger founded federal theology is debated.
- The Economy of the Covenants Between God and ManAmazon Herman WitsiusReformed. The classic Dutch statement of the covenants of works, redemption, and grace (1677). Read it to hear covenant theology at its warmest.
- The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant TheologyAmazon Pascal DenaultReformed Baptist. A historical comparison of seventeenth-century Particular Baptist and paedobaptist covenant theology, with close attention to Nehemiah Coxe and the 1689 Confession.
- The Reformers and Their StepchildrenAmazon Leonard VerduinA sympathetic history (1964) of the free churches the Reformers called Anabaptists, and of the names their enemies gave them.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is Covenant Theology?
Covenant theology is the Reformed framework that reads the whole Bible as God's work of redeeming one people, organized under three theological covenants it believes Scripture implies: a covenant of redemption, a covenant of works, and a covenant of grace.
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