Question: What is the New Covenant in the Reformed Baptist view? And how does the Reformed Baptist view compare to the dispensationalist view of the New Covenant?
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Summary
In this discussion from Ask FGBC #22, the speakers—Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick, Pastor Jim Butler, and Wim Kerkhoff—examine the differences between the Reformed Baptist and dispensationalist views on the New Covenant.
- Reformed Baptist Perspective: The New Covenant is seen as the historical expression of the covenant of grace, ratified by Christ’s blood. While Reformed Baptists agree with paedobaptists on salvation through Jesus, they differ on how the covenants work. Only the New Covenant is considered the covenant of grace, with prior covenants (e.g., Abrahamic and Mosaic) pointing to it.
- Dispensationalist Perspective: This view sees God’s interaction with humanity in distinct “dispensations.” Historically, dispensationalists have seen salvation in the Old Testament as tied to law. Key to dispensationalism is the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, with a belief in a future Millennial Kingdom focused on ethnic Israel after the rapture of the church. There are many different versions of dispensationalism, and it often does not embrace the theological language of “covenant of grace” or “covenant of works” due to its literal interpretation of Scripture.
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Transcript
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
covenant, grace, dispensationalism, new covenant, baptist, dispensationalist, reformed baptist, salvation, god, schofield, gentiles, jews, millennial kingdom, offered, christ, outworking, ordained, view, bible, hermeneutic
SPEAKERS
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick, Wim Kerkhoff, Pastor Jim Butler
Wim Kerkhoff 00:00
The next question is related to the last one. What is the New Covenant in the Reformed Baptist view, and how does this Reformed Baptist view compare to the dispensationalist view of the New Covenant? If this could be a long answer. So we should maybe not go too long.
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick 00:24
I can answer to what the what the New Covenant is in Reformed Baptist thought that that we would say that the covenant of grace is the new covenant is the historical expression of the covenant of grace in chapter seven of our confession, paragraph two describes what the covenant of grace is and what is offered to sinners? And it’s salvation by Jesus Christ requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe. And so it is God’s mercy towards his elect, and that he offers salvation unto them, which we would agree with our paedo baptist brothers and sisters, but we disagree on how it’s the outworking of it, how it’s packaged. And so many paedobaptists would say that the Abrahamic covenant is the covenant of grace, and many would say the Mosaic covenant is the covenant of grace, whereas we recognize that only the New Covenant is the covenant of grace. The Abrahamic points ahead. The types and shadows of the Mosaic point ahead to the New Covenant, but the new covenant is the historical expression of the covenant of grace. It’s ratified in the blood of Christ. Christ says, This is my blood of the blood of the new covenant. And so that is where we see that historical outworking, namely by way of the covenant of grace in that new covenant.
Pastor Jim Butler 01:55
And then as far as dispensationalism is concerned, it’s again tough, because there’s been a lot of iterations of dispensationalism. So, it started off in the 1800s under Darby and Schofield. Schofield, yeah, but arguably, it’s been modified, shifted, changed quite a bit such that, you know, you have progressive dispensationalism. You have, you know, old school dispensationalism. So, it’s really sort of difficult to nail it down, but basically, dispensationalism, at least historically, looked at the various dispensations in the Bible as God’s ways of dealing with people. So, you had, you know, basically law for salvation in the old dispensation. So, no Reformed Baptist would ever argue that we believe that you’re always saved by grace through faith in Jesus, Christ, our Lord. Another thing that is very, absolutely crucial for dispensationalism, how this touches on the on the covenant of grace? I’m not sure, but I do think it’s important to understand the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. So, without that, you don’t have dispensationalism. So basically, God deals with the Jews in the Old Testament, basically cuts them off because they rejected Jesus, who offered Himself as a king, and then God turns his attention to the Gentiles. So, it would really be hard to maintain the covenant of grace, sort of approach throughout you know, redemptive history. And then, of course, once the Gentile church phase is over, that church will be raptured into heaven. And then begins the Millennial Kingdom, where God specifically has in mind blessings upon ethnic Israel. So, you know, I don’t know. I haven’t been a dispensationalist. I guess I should talk more to them. But would they affirm the theological covenants, covenant of redemption, covenant of works, covenant of grace? I’d like to think they do, but the RB, or Particular Baptist Second London Confession approach to the covenant of grace is is dissimilar to what you find in dispensationalism. There’s, you know, a lot of differences there.
Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick 04:35
Like you said, I think there’s a lot of differences. I think many would, as I understand, reject some of the more theological terminology, covenant of grace, redemption and works because it’s not found in the Bible. And so they’re certainly their literal, literalistic hermeneutic plays a part in that as well. And so, I think that’s why they would focus in on Jeremiah 31 which we focus in on Jeremiah 31 as well. But Hebrews 8:10 is very clear that it’s and. And the institution of the Lord’s Supper is very clear that that starts with Christ’s death and resurrection.
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