Part Two
Bibliology: 14 THE COVENANTS OF SCRIPTURE
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker
Bibliology: 14 THE COVENANTS OF SCRIPTURE
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker
Covenant
Theology by its spiritualizing of the Old Testament promises, denies that there
will ever be a literal fulfillment of the covenants, and therefore denies that
Christ will ever establish a universal kingdom of peace and righteousness upon
the earth at His second coming. It claims that the present dispensation is the
final one and that all of the covenants are being fulfilled now in a spiritual sense.
Theologians of this school can hardly deny that Paul teaches a future conversion
of Israel: “and so all Israel shall be saved” (Romans11:26); but how is this to be accomplished? By making this the
final dispensation, they are forced to place this conversion of Israel into the
present and here they run into insuperable difficulties. Therefore Hodge gives
six extended arguments to try to prove that the land of Canaan promised to
Abraham will never be restored to Israel and that the salvation of all Israel
probably means no more than a revival among the Jews.8 But the Scripture teaches the
conversion of Israel after this resent dispensation following the Second
Coming of Christ. As James states it, it is: “after this I will return, and
will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down” (Acts 15:16), and as Paul has it in Romans 11:26, ungodliness will be turned away from
Jacob and all Israel will be saved by the coming of the Deliverer, not before
His coming. And Paul is careful to add: “For this is my covenant unto them,
when I shall take away their sins.”
8 Charles
Hodge, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1940), II, pp. 808-811.
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