My Growing Problem With Covenant Theology, Part 1

      Over the course of my fifty years of Christian life and experience I have noticed two main approaches to eschatology, the Covenant Theology position and the Dispensational position. I recognize those two positions are generally held views, but in the main they circumscribe most eschatologies.

     Setting aside the fact that no manmade system can completely or precisely circumscribe a sophisticated Bible doctrine, let me for now focus my attention on one aspect of Covenant Theology that speaks to the very nature of God as true, as immutable, and as reliable.

     My friend, W. R. Downing, has recently written a wonderful work pastors would do well to recommend to their Church members, Introduction to Theology, published through FirstLove Publications (www.firstloveministries.org). On page 96 he writes, "A Theology with its corresponding Hermeneutic that structures the Scriptures from a covenantal perspective rather than Dispensational. It presupposes that God has always dealt with man in a covenant relationship through representation and imputation in either Adam or Christ."

     Am I to understand that Covenant Theology embraces the notion that the Abrahamic Covenant has been abrogated because of the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Jewish people, and that a replacement has occurred whereby the Church is now the recipient of the promises God made to Abraham? Am I correct in understanding this to be the essence of so-called Replacement Theology?

     Feedback and recommended reading advice is solicited.

     

Apocalyptica Americana

 Recently received from a friend.

Apocalyptica Americana

As I write this, our country has degraded into something I no longer recognize.

A Cabal of Oligarchs controls our country at every level. Media, academia, industry, Jaw enforcement1 foundations, non-profits, unions, entertainment, pharma/medical, military, organized religion, judiciary, and local, state, and federal governments are thoroughly infiltrated by a self-destructive cancer of 'woke' and 'anti'.*

* Anti-family, anti-law-and-order, anti-liberty, anti-Christian, anti-Jew, anti-child, anti­woman, anti-man, anti-white, anti-police, anti-self-defense, anti-moral, anti-English, anti-life, anti-energy, anti-private-property, anti-truth, anti-individual-rights, anti­business, anti-normal, and, most of all, anti-America.

This Cabal uses censorship and Lawfare against all opponents with coordinated,

Blitzkrieg-like attacks. We are on the precipice of our own Orwellian "1984"

The United States is ostensibly led by a senile and doddering octogenarian, paired with a feckless, slept-her-way-to-the-top 'celebutante. The president's puppet masters keep him well-fed and well-drugged while isolating him a la Woodrow Wilson. The vice president gleefully awaits bad news, like the Grim Reaper hoping to harvest her boss's soul. There is no government program they won't embrace, no graft they won't greedily seize, and no law they won't corrupt and turn against their opponents.

The wicked and deviant philosophy of transgenderism has permeated every segment of our country. What was, only a few years ago, considered the height of perversion and debauchery is now promoted everywhere, from elementary schools to the White House. These deviants are grooming our nation's children at a pace that Nazi Germany would envy.

Abortion has become the Left's Holy Grail. They have deified the execution of millions of viable babies. The abortion business has become a $multi-$billion-$dollar business, heavily subsidized by the tax dollars of those who abhor it. Abortion, rather than abstinence, has become the birth control of choice. Our current Vice President has codified it into our country's thinking by being the first President or VP to openly visit an abortion clinic (with, of course, the press in tow).

These same forces have elevated race hatred to a level that hasn't existed since the 1960's. In 2009, we inaugurated our nation's - and the Western World's - first black president, assuring us that our country was truly 'post-racial’ only to have that ideal crumble into dust in 2020, fueled by venomous racial animus. The lies of blacks being targeted by police while ignoring the scourge of black-on-black violence. The scams of Black Lives Matter and Black Reparations (incl. in California, a state that NEVER had any slaves!) are embezzling $Billions$, and further dividing once-congenial Americans.

Meanwhile, by plane, car, boat, and on foot - and through every border, North, South, East, and West - our country is experiencing a full-blown invasion. Millions of expats from countries that detest America have entered our country and instantly become entrenched and untouchable. The same is true for over a million military-age men, many affiliated with gangs and lawlessness in their own countries. Their crimes within the US are immeasurable. With all this comes a tsunami of human trafficking and China-pushed fentanyl.

Add to that the ever-increasing scourge of homelessness, swamping our social services and emergency rooms and turning our parks, streets, and sidewalks into feces­ smeared and refuse-laden imitations of a Jackson Pollock painting.

Law Enforcement has collapsed, and crime is beyond epidemic. There are roving gangs of thieves that go from car to car and house to house, breaking and stealing with impunity, safe in the knowledge that they will not be punished for their crimes. Amateur and organized retail theft is a daily occurrence. Vulnerable seniors are preyed upon as human punching bags by a 'certain type’ of passer-by (especially true for Asian seniors). Drug traffickers push their evil chemicals with unabashed glee while users ingest their daily high in plain view of law enforcement and the public.

Law enforcement - at least for these crimes- has failed, not by noble battle in T.R.’s ''arena” but by an inverse Thompsonism of ''not showing up.'

In an irony of Shakespearian proportions, this very same Law Enforcement, arm­ in-arm with their Federal Alphabet# Counterparts, have turned their unchecked power on the masses of law-abiding citizens who are/were their natural allies. Christian Pastors and Pro-Life Protestors, Home-Schooling Moms and Pro-family Speakers, Small Business Owners and Independent Contractors, No-Maskers and Vaccine Resistors, Conservatives, Pro-2A and White People, No-Woke-No-DEI-No­ CRT-ln-My-School/Kids/Family/Backyard/Town People ... are being targeted, harassed, persecuted, prosecuted, erased, and destroyed!

#FBIAFTCIANSASWATDOJPISDEAUSMCIDUSSSDHSETCETCADINFINITUM

The evilest examples of this litany of harm against Americans are undoubtedly those perpetrated against Christians and Jews. The believers who find hope, fellowship, and Truth in their Churches and Synagogues find themselves under full-throated attack from every group and institution funded and dominated by the earlier-mentioned Oligarchs. Add to that the open hatred and attacks from Islam, the so-called ''religion of peace'; and the encirclement is nearly complete.

One correction to this most evil descriptor. Indeed, those crimes committed against innocent children by pedophiles, transgenderists, traffickers, and, often, their own relatives and the very governments that exist to protect them must rank as the evilest of all.

Our mass manipulators managed to engineer a new strain of flu into a worldwide pandemic, with incumbent lockdowns, shut-ins, business closures, job losses, trillions blown away, mask mandates, millions of dead, and toxic 'non-vaccine' inoculations.

These medical, media, and governmental philosopher-kings are salivating for the next disease (perhaps ''disease X") that will afford them even more tyrannical control.

Since they will ''never let a serious crisis go to waste'; it seems likely that their next power grab will surround their quasi-religion of 'green' environmentalism. Much of the government, industry, and media are already (and willingly) enslaved to this 'green cult'. Regardless of the obvious harm to our country and countrymen, they are jumping headlong off the cliff of 'green.'

Debt has become a quasi-god, with our federal government indebted over $34 Trillion and our populous indebted over $17 Trillion. Due to rampant inflation, stories abound about people having to sink deeper in debt to survive month to month. Corporations are pushing usurious debt onto their customers to buy their usuriously priced products, many of which are, at best, superfluous and, at worse, addictive and harmful to them and their families.

Wars are raging across the world, including Israel/Gaza/West Bank/Lebanon, Ukraine/Russia, and now, civil war in Haiti. There are threats of war in Taiwan/China, Russia/Europe, India/China, N. Korea/S. Korea, all of which are or will involve the U.S., with little or no support from our nation's allies. The Oligarchs desire war, perhaps the last Great War of our Great Experiment

As any reasonable observer would conclude, all of this is purposeful, done with the purpose of an assassin. The slaughter of the publicus by the Oligarchs; the ultimate Manifest Destiny.


Now, in the twilight of my life, I feel profound remorse that I am increasingly­ incapable of helping with any of these solemn issues. I could not even defend myself- let alone others- if they were set upon by anyone wishing to do them harm; an abrogation of a sacred vow, made when I was young, and they were fresh and innocent.

Isolated, spent, disheartened, and powerless, my options dwindle by the day.


March 17, 2024

"The Body Of Christ: Metaphor not Myth"

     I would like to announce a new publication now available at ClassicalBaptist.Press titled "The Body Of Christ: Metaphor not Myth." Written by Pastor Charles L. Hunt, I have obtained permission from the author to make it available to you without charge.

     Written in 2006, Pastor Hunt's perceptive treatment of the New Testament phrase used by the Apostle Paul deals with the most common error of Protestantism with respect to the doctrine of the Church, the body of Christ metaphor. It is now available in PDF and can be downloaded and printed for distribution to your congregation.

     I am in whole-hearted agreement with Pastor Hunt's assessment that, setting aside ecclesiastical compromise and an unwillingness to stand apart from Protestantism, the most likely error leading to a misunderstanding of the nature of the New Testament Church is a failure to grasp the body metaphor used by the Apostle Paul.

     Many pastors seem unwilling to wrestle with this issue, perhaps failing to recognize the central role a proper ecclesiology plays in New Testament interpretation. Some will be encouraged by this work. Others will be dismayed to discover misdirection in their understanding of this topic. Not to worry. Illumination is never complete this side of eternity and God blesses the right approach to His Word. Be of good cheer!

     Here is the link you will need to download the file: https://www.classicalbaptist.press/_files/ugd/946b8f_5391670b30b049209127ab3b32a81b9a.pdf