Biblical Covenantalism in Five Sentences: the following five points come from Paul Henebury’s book, The Words of the Covenant: A Biblical Theology, Volume 2. See pages 31, 32.
I find the term “dispensationalism” unhelpful because it focuses on the dispensations rather than the biblical covenants. This is important once we begin to understand what Biblical Covenantalism is, its focus and how it differs to Covenant Theology. Biblical covenants are explicit and cannot be as readily dismissed as dispensations often are when dialoging with Covenant Theologians.
What is Biblical Covenantalism?
1) Covenants must be understood primarily by the oaths which bind those who make them.
2) The Covenants of God bind Him to His oaths, which means that if they are unilaterally sworn, they must come to pass precisely in accordance with the words that were used.
3) Since God only made covenants about major aspects of His Creation Project, nothing else in the Scriptures can circumscribe, resignify, or contradict the fixed oaths He made.
4) Covenants are primarily hermeneutical in nature, which means a close study of them will yield a better understanding of the whole Story of the Bible and of the future.
5) The Noahic, Abrahamic, Priestly, and Davidic covenants are unconditional as to their promises, and they are to be implemented on the basis of Jesus Christ’s mission as the New covenant “Lamb of God” who acts as “a covenant to the people” to ensure the full realization of God’s purposes.
Dr. Henebury goes on to stress that there’s much more to this [thus his two volume work] but that these five points ought to be the start of any dialogue relating to Biblical Covenantalism.
In Appendix A, there is also a helpful eight point comparison between his approach and Traditional Dispensational Theology. In Appendix B there is a must read: Forty Reasons for Not Reinterpreting the Old Testament with the New Testament.
While this isn’t a review of the book, I obviously highly recommend it.
P.S. Paul Henebury blogs as Dr. Reluctant HERE. He is the director of Telos Ministries.
See also Biblical Covenantalism and Dispensationalism
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The Words of the Covenant: A Biblical Theology, Volume 2: New Testament Continuation
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