Jonathan is currently a Master of Divinity student at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary and wants to become an ordained pastor upon graduation. Please do not plagiarize this essay he wrote for his Church History II class, but feel free to quote it using proper attribution (aff link). Please engage in a constructive but fair discussion in the comments below.
The reformed
tradition has outlined three major covenants in covenant theology (redemption,
creation, and grace).[1] The
covenant of redemption is God the Father’s eternal decree to deliver the elect
into Christ’s possession through the work of the Son. The covenant of creation is
one of works, in which man is required to obey God to be in right relationship
with him. In this, Adam became humanity’s representative, or federal head. Because
Adam failed, everyone else stands condemned. The final covenant, the covenant
of grace, is an offer of right relationship with God after humanity broke the
covenant of creation. This covenant is not dependent upon human merit, but on
God’s as fulfilled through Jesus, the new Adam and representative. According to
one of today’s covenant theologians, Michael Horton, “The other covenants in
Scripture (Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic) are all grouped under these
broader arrangements.”[2]
Like most
theologies, covenant theology built on what came before it, so elements of it
are contained within church teachings. Some trace the covenant roots of this
systematic faith to as early as Justin Martyr (110-165), who claimed, “As,
therefore, Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been
quarried out from the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race.”[3] Like
Justin, glimmers of covenant theology are found in Augustine’s (354-430) writings
as he talks about a prelapsarian (pre-fall) covenant made between God and man,
“But the first covenant made with the first man, is certainly this: ‘On the day you eat, you will surely die.’”[4] Yet
these quotes are only a glimmer as neither are fully formed theologies. Ambrosius
Catharinus also proposed this pre-fall covenant with Adam (1487-1553).[5] Although
John Calvin is famous for his role in the reformation, he did not have a “fully
developed federal theology” but “Calvin does assert the main features of the
covenant of creation.”[6]
This focus on a
pre-fall covenant with man came out of the church’s attempt to deal with the
problem of evil (theodicy).[7]
The reformers needed a way to establish God as sovereignly in control, but man
as still responsible. Out of this dilemma sprang federal theology. Covenant theology
is still so closely linked to federal theology that even today the terms are
somewhat interchangeable “because of [their] emphasis on solidarity in a
representative head.”[8] Federal
theology is largely discovered in the Major Catechism of Zacharias Ursinus,
which he wrote in 1561-62. In his 18th Catechism Question he defined
what a covenant is, “A covenant in general is a mutual pact between two
parties, where one obligates the other to certain conditions for doing, giving,
or receiving something, employing signs and external symbols for solemn
testimony, as a confirmation that the promise may be inviolable.” Although
Ursinus proposed in 1562 this “prelapsarian covenant in Eden, which was the
first really clear articulation of the federal theology by a Reformed
theologian,” it lay dormant until 1584.[9]
According to the historian David Weir, “Ursinus taught this idea to a whole
generation of students at the Collegium Sapientia, the University of
Heidelberg, and the Casimirianum at Neustadt an der Hard”[10]
but it was not until his ideas were published that they became widespread. This
theology became so influential that “By 1600 the idea of the prelapsarian
covenant was accepted as basic orthodoxy by a host of Calvinist theologians.”[11] And
by the early to mid 1600s, “The concept of a covenant of creation (works)
reaches confessional status in the Westminster Confession […] and is everywhere
presupposed in the Canons of Dort.”[12] Unfortunately,
Ursinus’s system, though powerful, did not come out of an “exegetical study of
Scripture” but “from systematic, dogmatic thinking.”[13]
From
within federal theology came a more broadly Scriptural covenant theology. Herman
Witsius and Johannes Cocceius are both largely responsible with systematizing
this theology.[14]
Witsius (1636-1708) was a highly educated reformed pastor and theology
professor. Witsius wrote his major work on covenants in 1677, “The Oeconomy of the Covenants between God
and Man, comprehending a Complete Body of Divinity.”[15] In
it he outlined four books focusing each on different covenants, “Book I: The
Covenant of Works. Book II: The Covenant of Redemption, Or the Covenant of
Grace from Eternity Between the Father and the Son. Book III: The Covenant of
Grace in Time. Book IV: Covenant Ordinances Throughout the Scriptures.” He more
clearly defined the difference between the covenants of works and grace, “In
the covenant of works, the responsibility is partly gracious and partly
meritorious, whereas in the covenant of grace, it is wholly gracious in response
to God's election and Christ's fulfillment of all conditions of the covenant.”[16] Although
Ursinus’s theology sprang out of dogmatism, Witsius’s 4th book focuses
on the text and wide-angle lens of Scripture as he expounds a “biblical
theology.”[17]
In it he spends more time focusing on the various covenants found throughout
the Old Testament and how they form covenant theology.
Both
covenant theology and dispensationalism are systems by which adherents to
Scripture view the history of God’s redemptive plan.[18]
Dispensationalism as a system is characterized by many varying viewpoints, but
most of these perspectives include dividing all of history into three, seven,
or more eras (dispensations). According to Richard Belcher, “Within each
dispensation there is a unique deposit or distinctive idea of divine
revelation; a specific test of obedience in relation to that divine revelation;
followed by man’s failure under that specific economy or dispensation; followed
by God’s judgment and the beginning of a new dispensation.”[19] Dispensationalism
employs a literal hermeneutic that leads to a system characterized by the belief
in a pretribulation rapture, the millennial reign of Christ on earth
(premillennialism), and the distinctive natures of Israel and the Church.
Dispensationalists
also try and trace their system to the early church fathers. They do this by
highlighting their eschatological perspectives, “There is unanimous agreement
that the apostles and early Church Fathers readily believed and reclaimed the
return of the Lord to the earth and His future personal reign on the earth.”[20]
Unfortunately for dispensationalists, “No dispensational writer has even been
able to offer, however, a single point of continuity between what it today
known as dispensationalism and the historical premillennial view.”[21] The
true origins of dispensationalism are not found within the reformation or in
earlier church history, but come out of one man’s thinking within the group of
believers known as the Plymouth Brethren.
John
Nelson Darby (1800-1882) attended Ireland’s Westminster and “In 1825 he was
ordained a deacon in the Church of England by Archbishop Magee of Dublin.”[22]
He soon grew disenchanted with the church establishment, noting their
corruption and political greed. Darby joined a meeting of other disenfranchised
believers in 1827-1828. The Plymouth Brethren were born. They began with
several simple values, “The two guiding principles of the movement were to be
the breaking of bread every Lord's Day, and ministry based upon the call of
Christ rather than the ordination of man.”[23] Even
though Darby did not found this group, he would influence their theology the
most.
Darby
was a brilliant thinker who knew, “Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and German.”[24]
Darby loved Christ so much he gave up the idea of marriage and children so he
could spend time using his powerful theological mind to serve the Lord.[25]
Although, he was not a man without flaws, “All who knew him in the early years
of his ministry portray him as filled with saintly virtue, while unprejudiced
testimony about his later years reveals a nature warped, caustic, and even at
times vicious.”[26]
This transformation from saint to antagonist, however, did not take place over
night.
Darby
was a messy writer who wrote in unending trains of thought, but he was also a potent
theologian, said to have more power than the Pope during his lifetime.[27] He
clung ruthlessly to the text of the Bible, interpreting the whole Bible through
a literal lens that ignored the allegorical or historical nature of the text. This
hermeneutic came out of a reaction against rationalism, and actually, “The
growth of dispensationalism paralleled the rise of rationalistic attack upon
the authority of the Bible.” [28]
The idea of
dispensations originated in the mind of Darby. He held to several important
tenants. He believed that the church should be separate from anything in and of
the world. It should be a holy body of believers set aside for God. According
to Crutchfield, “One of the most important underlying principles in Darby’s
understanding of prophecy is his hermeneutical principle of literal
interpretation.”[29]
Although prophecy had been interpreted mostly allegorically to that point,
Darby began to take it at face value. Because of this hermeneutic, Darby
divides Israel and the church into separate dispensations with separate
God-ordained plans. Darby invented the idea of the rapture because God had to
remove the spiritual church before he could continue to deal with his earthly
promises made to Israel.[30] As
late as the 1960s, Bass writes that dispensationalists held to Darby’s view, “The
church is an interruption of God's plan with Israel necessitated by the
rejection of the kingdom by the Jews when it was offered to them by Jesus.”[31]
Unfortunately, as this theologian also points out, “An emphasis upon the
national restoration of Israel is, at the same time, a de-emphasis upon the
triumph of the cross, by which believers are made members of the body of
Christ, the church.”[32]
As Darby promoted
his theology within the Plymouth Brethren the movement began to grow in leaps
and bounds. They called themselves the “Brethren” because of their movement’s
principles based on mutual love and unity.[33] However,
strong-willed Darby soon clashed with one of the other senior men, B.W. Newton.
They had so much contention and strife that Darby excommunicated Newton and his
followers.[34]
Their debate was over non-essential tenants of the faith. Darby believed in the
rapture but Newton believed the Old Testament saints were a part of the church
and that the believers would not escape the tribulation. According to Bass,
“The pretribulation rapture, compartmentalizing of Scripture, Jewish nature of
the kingdom, all of which have become integral parts of the dispensational
system, are clearly present in this conflict.” A spirit of contention reigned
during the life of Darby, but his power soon began to wane, ironically because
he had excommunicated many of his adherents or they had died. It is important
to note that “While contemporary dispensationalists would not agree with Darby
in many of his details, they do indeed agree that all of Scripture must be
taken in its plain, normal, literal, sense, and that this results in the need
for maintaining a distinction between the church and Israel.” Unfortunately,
this spirit of separation from the world and contention continued to reign in dispensationalism.[35]
Out of Darby and
other dispensational theology of the 19th century rose a system of
thought “which influenced many prominent Christians in the United States,
including D. L. Moody, James H. Brooks, and C. I. Scofield.”[36] Dispensationalism
gained its wide spread of followers when “The Brethren influence in the United
States produced the Bible Conference Movement, starting with the Niagara Bible
Conferences in the 1870s.”[37]
Dispensationalism was taken into the hearts and minds of the common church
congregant when “In 1909 C. I. Scofield published his now famous Scofield Reference Bible, which placed
the teachings of the conferences and the Brethren into the hands of the general
public.”[38]
By the mid twentieth century dispensationalism
and covenant theology were both popular enough to begin to confront each
other’s differences.
Scofield
influenced the theologian Lewis Sperry Chafer, who is responsible for founding
the “Evangelical Theological College,” which is today known as “Dallas
Theological Seminary.”[39]
In the mid 1940s, Chafer would run into some trouble with covenant theologians.
Although its difficult to imagine today, covenant and dispensational theology
were not at odds against each other through the end of the 1930s.[40]
In fact, “dispensationalists” did not like that title, and only accepted it
because of covenant theologians giving them this label.[41] At
this time the covenant theologians and Presbyterian leaders Allis and Murray wrote
against the dispensational theologian Lewis Sperry Chafer’s “two-ways of
salvation, one in the Old Testament, another in the New Testament” theology.[42]
They believed dispensationalism stood in opposition with the Westminster
Confession of faith.[43] This
was a rather large accusation since reformed churches throughout America held
to it closely. A decisive hardening of dispensationalism against covenant
theology was about to occur between 1941-1944 as an “investigation of
dispensationalism by the Ad Interm Committee (AIC) on Changes in the Confession
of Faith and Catechism of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.” took place.[44] This
was essentially the Presbyterian Church’s general assembly (GA) trial of the dispensational
system. Chafer did not take well to this critique and “By 1943 […] his tone
toward covenant theology had become considerably more antagonistic.”[45] Although
he wanted to appear before this committee, Chafer was never allowed to do so to
defend his position.[46]
This would have been helpful because Chafer thought the committee was concerned
with his eschatological position while in reality they were more concerned
about the “two ways of salvation” issue.[47]
In 1943, the AIC concluded
that dispensationalism was not in agreement with the Westminster confession.
They resolutely condemned Chafer’s theology and many of the footnotes found in
the Scofield Reference Bible because
they promoted dual religions and plans of salvation for the Jews and the
Gentiles.[48]
However, this report was not adopted because members of the council who held
premillennialist views were rightly concerned that it would condemn their
eschatology. One of these premillennialist was a man by the name of L. Nelson
Bell, who was the future father in law of the famous Billy Graham.[49] According
to Mangum, Bell was a powerful enough presence in this debate to request for
clarification and acceptance of premillennialism outside of dispensationalism,
“Bell influenced the committee so that it modified its report.”[50] It
is interesting to note that even though Graham worked so long and hard to unify
the evangelicals his father in law was at least partially responsible for one
of the major contentions of strife still felt to this day. Finally, “In 1944,
the AIC submitted its findings to the GA as to ‘whether the type of Bible
interpretation known as Dispensationalism is in harmony with our Confession of
Faith.’ Their answer was unanimous: ‘It is not.’”[51]
It is rather
startling how two systems of theology can go from a semi-polite accommodation
of each other in the 1930s to being directly opposed to each other in the span
of less than ten years. Unfortunately, “Not only did the 1944 AIC report
represent back then the culmination of hostilities that had been building for
decades, it remains to this day as close to an official denunciation of
dispensationalism by a Reformed-Covenantalist body as has ever been produced.”[52] Furthermore,
the 1936-1944 controversies are largely responsible for breaking one more
holistic body, who had been fighting modernism together, into two camps of
evangelicals, the dispensationalists and Covenantalist.[53] As
a result of this report, Dallas Theological Seminary largely separated from the
reformed tradition, began to recruit less Presbyterians and more Baptists, and
many dispensationalists became anti-reformed.[54] What
actually saved Dallas Theological Seminary as a school was the end of WWII and
the large influx of new recruits with looser denominational affiliations.[55]
Covenant theologians
have cherished and developed the theology of Ursinus and Witsius. On the other
end, today’s dispensationalist theologians would largely disagree with much of
Darby’s, Scofield’s, and Lewis Sperry Chafer’s theologies.[56] In
1967 dispensational theologians actually re-wrote many of Scofield’s
controversial footnotes, clarifying the one-plan of salvation, “Prior to the
cross man’s salvation was through faith, being grounded on Christ’s atoning
sacrifice, viewed anticipatively by God; now it is clearly revealed that
salvation and righteousness are received by faith in the crucified and
resurrected Savior.”[57]
During the 1960s dispensationalists stopped believing in two-covenants, which
provided for greater healing and unification between the two camps of theology.[58] It
is disheartening to note that if each camp of theology had just shown the other
camp more grace, and had worked to refine each other’s theology instead of
flinging accusations, this wide rift between the systems might have been avoided.
This leads Mangum to ask, “What advances in evangelicalism might have been
achieved if only these misunderstandings had been clarified earlier?”
Unfortunately, hostilities remain despite today’s more closely-linked
theologies.[59]
Much
of the differences, thought not as eschatological based, stem from each
system’s view of the Church and Israel. Although there is such a thing as
replacement theology, today’s covenant theology is more nuanced than this
because it views the church as having always been the people of God, even in
the Old Testament.[60] Many
others covenant adherents would say the church is a fulfillment of God’s
promises to Israel as God always intended them to be. However, today’s dispensationalists
continue to hold to their distinctions, “While Gentiles as the people of God
share many benefits with the Jews through the covenant, the Jews have a
distinct place within God's program and receive a different fulfillment of the
promises (national, political).”[61]
Covenant theologians could do a better job of bridging the gap between dispensationalists
if they might recognize the church did not exist before the cross and that
perhaps God still has some special ideas in store for the Jews, or at least the
remnant within the geo-political nation of Israel. As Poythress writes, “It is
legitimate to distinguish Jew and Gentiles as peoples with two separate
origins. But their destiny (if they come to trust in God's promises) is the
same: they share in the inheritance of the New Jerusalem coming down from
heaven.”[62]
Walter Kaiser has proposed what he calls “promise theology,” which could help
bridge this gap:
[Promise
theology] agrees with the distinction between Israel and the church. But
instead of continuing to say, as classical dispensationalism did, that there
are two separate peoples (Israel and the church) with two separate programs (the
earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom of our Lord), this view stresses that
there is one people (“the people of God”) with a number of discernable aspects
within that one people (such as Israel and the church), and there is only one
program of God (the “kingdom of God”) with numerous aspects under that single
program.[63]
On the
other side of the aisle, dispensationalists need to revisit their hermeneutic to
better include what the original authors intended in the text, including
reading prophecy less literally, the reality of which is seen in the best
selling Left Behind series. They have
made headway in this area with places like Dallas Theological Seminary teaching the "historical theological interpretation of Scriptures"(dts.edu). But for many other dispensationalists still today, Poythress writes, “If dispensationalists are
dead serious about advocating grammatical-historical interpretation, in
distinction from first-thought interpretation, flat interpretation, and plain
interpretation, [they could show] their commitment by dropping the phrase
‘literal interpretation.’ It will be difficult "because ‘literal’ has
become a watchword or banner.”
Mangum
also affirms this, “Simply parroting the older dispensationalist canard that
the dispensationalist-covenant theology debate is between those who take the
Bible ‘literally’ and those who ‘allegorize’ or ‘spiritualize’ Scripture should
come to an abrupt halt.” Today’s dispensationalists also need to continue to
work out what it means to be one body in Christ and as a result of that what
promises the church partakes in through their union with Christ, who is the
true seed of Abraham.[64]
Looking back over these theologians, adherents can see
the good and bad each system has resulted in. They have each given their
followers a deeper framework from which to study Scripture and to share the
good news of God’s redemptive plan. Covenant theology has occasionally fallen
short with its low regard for Israel. This attitude actually comes from the
church historian Eusebius (263-339) who contrary to all theologians of his time
“did not believe there was a distinct future for the Jews; rather, the church
was God’s new Israel.” His view was stamped as truth by the Emperor Constantine
and is still held to by “an astonishing number of contemporary theologians.”[65] Dispensationalism’s
separatist attitude and “spiritual” view of the church has lead to its failure
to engage in many important socio-political issues.[66] The
Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling on Roe vs. Wade actually caused evangelicals to think
that perhaps the ruling was correct because “the New Testament did not comment
on the issue.”[67]
Dispensationalism has also caused its followers to withdraw from society,
founding Christian colleges and universities so as to separate from the world’s
influence. Although these institutions have largely changed, promoting the
furtherance of the gospel in all areas of life, a generation’s neglect of secular
universities is still being felt today. These theologies, like all worldviews, have
had very real consequences on modern life.
In
conclusion, this brief study of dispensationalism and covenant theology has
help shed light on their unique histories, their unfortunate conflict, and how
these two systems can better learn from each other today. Although Evangelicals
have experienced a great deal of discord over these positions, there is hope that
as their theologians continue to refine their systems, they can learn from each
other in a spirit of grace. Despite these theological issues sneaking up on the
church, they did not sneak up on God. He ordained that these conflicts would
come to pass, and as such, will use them to refine and care for his body the
one people of God.
Bibliography
Bass, Clarence
B. Backgrounds to Dispensationalism - Its Historical Genesis and Ecclesiastical Imp. Grand Rapids, MI.:
Eerdman's, 1960.
Belcher, Richard
P. A Comparison of Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology. Columbia, SC.:
Richbarry Press, 1986.
Bock, Darrell L.,
Craig A. Blaising, and W. Edward Glenny. Dispensationalism, Israel and
the Church: the Search For Definition. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan,
1992.
Crutchfield,
Larry V. The Origins of Dispensationalism: the Darby Factor.
Lanham: University Press Of America, 1992.
Horton,
Michael. God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology. Grand
Rapids, MI.: Baker Books, 2006.
Mangum, R.
Todd. The Dispensational-Covenantal Rift (Studies in Evangelical
History and Thought). Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster, 2007.
Mathison, Keith
A. Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God? Phillipsburg,
N.J.: P & R Publishing, 1995.
Patrick, Ramsey D., and Beeke Joel
R. Analysis Of Herman Witsius's The Economy of The Covenants. Grand
Rapids, MI.: Christian Focus, 2003.
Poythress, Vern
S. Understanding Dispensationalists. 2nd ed. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P
& R Publishing, 1994.
Weir, David
A. The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth-Century Reformation
Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 1990.
Image By: Andres Rueda
[1]
Michael Horton, God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology (Grand
Rapids, MI.: Baker Books, 2006), 78.
[2]
Horton, 78.
[3]
Keith A.
Mathison, Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the People of God? (Phillipsburg,
N.J.: P & R Publishing, 1995), 13.
[4]
David A.
Weir, The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth-Century
Reformation Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA, 1990), 12.
(Quote from Augustine’s Civitas Dei, Book XVI, Chap 27).
[5]
Weir, 12.
[6]
Horton, 88.
[7]
Weir, 22.
[8]
Horton, 78.
[9]
Weir, 155.
[10]
Weir, 109.
[11]
Weir, 22.
[12]
Horton, 84.
[13]
Weir, 158.
[14]
Vern S.
Poythress, Understanding Dispensationalists, 2nd ed. (Phillipsburg,
N.J.: P & R Publishing, 1994), 40.
[15]Ramsey
D. Patrick and Beeke Joel R., Analysis Of Herman Witsius's The Economy
of The Covenants (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Focus, 2003), vi.
“First printed in English in 1736”(Ramsey, vi).
[16]
Ramsey, xii.
[17]
Ramsey, xvi.
[18]
Richard P Belcher, A Comparison of Dispensationalism and Covenant
Theology (Columbia, SC.: Richbarry Press ;, 1986), 8.
[19]
Belcher, 8.
[20]
Clarence B. Bass, Backgrounds to Dispensationalism - Its Historical
Genesis and Ecclesiastical Imp(Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdman's, 1960), 14.
[21]
Bass, 14.
[22]
Bass, 49.
[23]
Larry V.
Crutchfield, The Origins of Dispensationalism: the Darby Factor (Lanham:
University Press Of America, 1992), 5.
[24]
Bass, 60.
[25]
Bass, 52.
[26]
Bass, 62.
[27]
Bass, 54.
[28]
Bass, 21.
[29]
Crutchfield, 148.
[30]
Crutchfield, 188.
[31]
Bass, 27.
[32]
Bass, 32.
[33]
Bass, 72.
[34]
Bass, 83, 89.
[35]
Bass, 127.
[36]
Mathison, 10.
[37]
Mathison,
10.
[38]
Mathison,
10.
[39]
Mathison,
11.
[40]
R. Todd
Mangum, The Dispensational-Covenantal Rift (Studies in Evangelical
History and Thought)(Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster, 2007), 6.
[41]
Mangum, 6.
[42]
Mangum, 11.
[43]
Mangum, 10.
[44]
Mangum, 6.
[45]
Mangum, 11.
[46]
Mangum, 202-03.
[47]
Mangum, 177.
[48]
Mangum, 73.
[49]
Mangum, 146-47, 149.
[50]
Mangum, 151.
[51]
Mangum, 156.
[52]
Mangum, 12-13.
[53]
Mangum, 19-20.
[54]
Mangum, 165-65.
[55]
Mangum, 170.
[56]
Darrell L.
Bock, Craig A. Blaising, and W. Edward Glenny, Dispensationalism,
Israel and the Church: the Search For Definition (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Zondervan, 1992), 350.
[57]
Mangum, 185 (In-text Scripture references removed).
[58]
Bock, 369. (“An Epangelical Response” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.)
[59]
Mangum, 186. 200-01.
[60]
Bock, 360. (“An Epangelical Response” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.)
[61]
Bock, 345. (“A Response” by Willem A. VanGemeren)
[62]
Poythress, 123.
[63]
Bock, 367. (“An Epangelical Response” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.)
[64]
Poythress, 69.
[65]
Bock, 362. (“An Epangelical Response” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.)
[66]
Mangum, 103.
[67]
Bock, 374. (“An Epangelical Response” by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.)
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