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.
