NT Framework - Covenant Theology Gets This Wrong

Covenant Theology, in name, sounds good and accurate; however they start from a faulty premise that the Covenant of Grace for Salvation is the only covenant. There is nothing else other than salvation; ethnicity and race and purposes for different people groups are of no concern to them. 

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This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Context

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

One Gospel So One Covenant?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

So, really, in their mind, because there's one gospel, there's only one covenant. And it's salvific, see? It's all about the gospel, it's all about salvation, it's all about uh saving men. Okay.

Covenant Of Grace As The Lens

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Now, um there are some implications to the covenant of grace that they've set up, as and we'll walk through this a bit more so you understand. Um, in their way of thinking, every passage in the Bible, okay, the entire Bible, is viewed through the lens of the covenant of grace, which they say is a salvific covenant because um the Bible and its covenants are all about how God saves the elect. That's what they think the Bible is essentially about. It's about how God saves the elect. Um that's what it's all about in their thinking. And you say, well, that it is all it talks about, yes, it does talk about salvation quite a bit. But is it all about salvation? Okay, well. Um, so the biblical covenants in their thinking are just outworkings of the covenant of grace. So you've got all these covenants, and all those covenants like the Abrahamic, the Davidic, the New Covenant, they're all just saying God will save the elect. And these are all fulfilled by Christ on the cross.

Noahic Covenant And The Animal Question

SPEAKER_01 1:22

So think about, let's think about the Noahic covenant. Okay, we've talked about these covenants in the framework series. Noaic covenant. After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah and all flesh, including animals, right? Now, he promised in that covenant he would never flood the entire world again to destroy all flesh that has the breath of life, right? Is that a salvific covenant? I mean, does God have a plan of salvation for animals? Not spiritual salvation. I mean, yes, to keep them around, preserve their species on the earth, yes, but it's it's it's not a salvific covenant. So in covenant theology, those details that I just described are just glossed over.

unknown 2:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Because all these covenants in their mind are basically salvation. They're just saying that salvation, you know, will be provided

Israel Promises Washed Into Salvation

SPEAKER_01 2:17

by God. The Abrahamic covenant. We talk about the Abrahamic covenant. God called out Abraham, he made certain promises. Basically, we lump them into three categories. He would give them a land, a seed would come forth from them who would be the Messiah, and worldwide blessing. Blessing would go to the whole world through Abraham and his seed. Uh, specifically, of course, the Messiah that comes from him. So, again, um, that covenant, which is repeated to Isaac and then Jacob and the 12 tribes, which we call Israel. This covenant we would say was made specifically with Israel, right? And um it's got lots of details. Things like land, you know, that they would have as an internal real estate that would be belong to them. Things like that. And they say, no, this is all just salvation by grace. And so again, all those details get washed out, and it's all just about salvation. Same thing for the Davidic. What's the Davidic? The Davidic covenant basically is made with David's house, right? That God would give them his house an eternal kingdom. Uh, there would be an eternal king that rules that kingdom, and he would sit on an eternal throne. And they say, well, yeah, that's all just about the Messiah and just all about salvation. And same thing with the new covenant. They're gonna do the exact same thing. And they say, well, all these things are just fulfilled in Christ, and so all these covenants can just be placed under the covenant of grace, and this is the one, this this forms the one people of God. Okay, the one people of God that God is gonna say, these are quote unquote the elect. Okay, now this is this is how they view everything in the Bible. Now, if you've never thought of the Bible this way, it's difficult to think of it this way. So, what I ask people to do is try to put yourself in their shoes, try to understand from their point of view, uh, so we can at least understand what they are saying. But all the details from these covenants just get kind of washed out and interpreted as metaphor, metaphors for salvation.

Land Promise Recast As Heaven

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Um, so we'll go through some of these, but like for example, whenever you have some detail in a covenant about the promised land, like uh Genesis 13, 14 through 17, when Abraham divides from Lot, and Lot goes over there, and Abram stays over here, and then God says to Abraham, Look at all the land around you, I will give this to you as your eternal possession. You know, walk throughout the land, see what it's like. This is the land that I will give you, and to your descendants after you. And they say that's just a metaphor for heaven, that they will never get that land, or that they already got it, or something like that sometimes. Uh but they say that's just a metaphor, a salvation metaphor for going to heaven.

Ezekiel’s Temple Treated As Symbol

SPEAKER_01 5:13

If you talk about the temple in Ezekiel 40 to 46, how many of you are familiar with that temple description in Mel? I mean, that's seven chapters of the Bible. Ezekiel 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 4, 45, 46, 47, 40, 7 chapters of the Bible. Talk about a millennial temple that will be rebuilt by the Messiah. It'll have a Zadakian priesthood, and the Levites will be involved as well, and there will be sacrifices and all this stuff, and none of it has ever happened. And so what are these chapters speaking about? Well, we're told there's salvation metaphors for the church, that this is a picture of the church. Because the church in the New Testament is called a temple, right? So, therefore, that was just talking about the church. So, all the details, I mean, it's very detailed. It's up on a mountain, and there's the dimensions of it are given, and there's a river that flows out from underneath the throne, and half of it goes into the Dead Sea and makes it pure water, the other half goes to the Mediterranean. And these are this, it's but it's all just the church. Okay, why? You say, well, why? Why would they interpret that? Well, because it's just a it's under the covenant of grace, and everything's just about salvation. So the details don't matter. Okay, these are just metaphors.

Sacrifices Then And Future Purposes

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Um, when it talks about the sacrifices there, and then make a big to-do about this like, why are the mosaic sacrifices going to come back? Well, they're actually not mosaic, but anyway. Um, mosaic sacrifices never saved anybody anyway, did they? But they say, well, Jesus is the last sacrifice. Well, he's really the only sacrifice for sin. I mean, he's the only one who could provide us salvation through his sacrifice. So, well, well, but why would they come back? Well, there's okay, before you jump to all these conclusions, you might want to keep studying and figuring out if there could be other purposes for sacrifices. Just as in the Old Testament, there were other purposes for sacrifices, none of them saved anybody. So they obviously all had other purposes. So maybe there could be other purposes for them in the future, but they kind of mock at this idea. And they say, well, see, in the New Testament, Paul says in Romans 12, therefore, you know, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice. And so they see this later passage that Paul wrote tells us that the real sacrifices that were being described in Ezekiel 40 to 46, which is all about the church, are that in the church we should offer ourselves as sacrifices. And no, there won't be any future literal sacrifices as described in those passages. It's all just metaphors for the church and living sacrifices.

Where To Find Visuals And How To Help

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.