Agreeing Gladly, Differing Honestly
This series has spent seven studies on covenant theology: what it is, where it came from, its three theological covenants, and what it teaches about baptism and Israel. It closes by standing back to ask two plain questions. Where do we agree with covenant theologians? And where, and why, do we differ?
Covenant theology and dispensationalism are both frameworks: ways of fitting the whole Bible together. They rest on the same foundation, the authority of Scripture. A framework is more specific than its foundation. Like guardrails on a mountain road, it sets boundaries that keep a reader from interpretations the rest of Scripture rules out, and it helps him set hard passages in their larger setting so that their purpose makes better sense. A good framework is a servant. It is never the master.
Could you describe covenant theology so well that a Presbyterian friend would say, “Yes, that is what I believe,” and then show him from Scripture why you read the Bible differently?
That is what fairness asks of us: to agree gladly where Scripture lets us, to differ honestly where it requires us, and to do both as brothers. Covenant theology is held by many faithful Presbyterian and Reformed believers, and by Reformed Baptists, who hold a Baptist covenant theology and baptize believers only. Many of them are careful expositors of God's Word, and we have learned much from them.
Between classic covenant theology and classic dispensationalism stand several middle positions: the 1689 federalism of Reformed Baptists, New Covenant Theology, progressive covenantalism (Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant, 2012), and progressive dispensationalism. This study compares the two classic frameworks, but the same questions apply to every position. See What Is Covenant Theology?.
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For Deeper Study
- There Really Is a Difference! A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational TheologyAmazon Renald E. ShowersA plain, side-by-side comparison of the two frameworks (1990) from a dispensational teacher.
- Continuity and Discontinuity: Perspectives on the Relationship Between the Old and New TestamentsAmazon John S. Feinberg, editorCovenant and dispensational scholars write side by side on the same questions (1988): a model of disagreeing carefully.
- The Christ of the CovenantsAmazon O. Palmer RobertsonA respected presentation of covenant theology (1980) by a Presbyterian scholar. Reformed and not dispensational; read it to hear the view in its own words.
- Introducing Covenant TheologyAmazon Michael HortonA clear, accessible introduction from a Reformed theologian, first published as God of Promise (2006). Not dispensational.
- Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the CovenantsAmazon Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. WellumThe leading statement of progressive covenantalism (2012), written by Baptists who stand between the two classic frameworks. Not dispensational.
- 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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