This document will serve as a critique of Covenant Theology as espoused by Reformed Theologians.
Covenant Theology is a robust system that has centuries of development and a robust history, so I won’t be able to speak to everything in the amount of detail that I would want to, but it is my hope to bring forward some of the issues that I have seen in debates with Covenant Theologians and in reading their source material.
We will begin with a brief introduction of Covenant Theology and then immediately enter into addressing issues that I have with Covenant Theology. I have attempted below to argue against an accurate depiction of Covenant Theology, not a strawman, and have relied heavily on Covenant Theologian sources to show how they themselves hold these positions, rather than simply citing a plethora of Dispensationalists that already agree that Covenant Theology is in error. It is far more helpful, and I believe more powerful to see Covenant Theologians internally critique their own position.
The issues that I address below are:
- An Overemphasis on Redemptive Historical Categories
- An Overemphasis on Deduction and not Induction
- New Testament Priority Presupposition
- Christocentric Hermeneutic
a. Excursus 1: What About Luke 24? - The Theological Covenant of Works, Grace, and Redemption
a. Excursus 2: What About Federal Headship?
b. Excursus 3: What About Hosea 6:6-7? - Supersessionism
- The Failure to Distinguish Between Israel and the Church
- Bound To Traditions – Has Covenant Theology Been Left-Behind?
