How many of you have heard that God has promised the Jewish people a Land, the Land of Israel, in perpetuity? We talked about this last time but a brief review might be helpful. It’s in the Bible, in a covenant that God made with Abraham when he was still Abram:

Genesis 15:18 –21 NIV

18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”

Folks, this Land is not just a piece of real estate. It is part and parcel of a series of promises that God made to the Jewish people thousands of years ago. The fulfillment of these promises has not been completed yet. The final completion is yet future. But how is it that through a theological sleight of hand some Christians have tried to subvert or nullify these promises? It has happened through something called Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology is not Biblical. That does not mean that every Covenant Theologian who has ever lived was or is an antisemite; far from it. But Covenant Theology, because it is not Biblical, lays the groundwork for false teachings about the Jewish people and consequently for antisemitism and replacement theology and we are seeing this use of Covenant Theology more and more.

What is Covenant Theology? It began after the Reformation, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is a teaching that says that the entire Bible, from right after The Fall of Man, comes under one Covenant, the Covenant of Grace. This Covenant of Grace, which is nowhere explicitly mentioned or taught in the Bible, subsumes or overarches all other Biblical Covenants that follow the Fall of Man. These are clearly mentioned in the Bible and include four unconditional covenants (the Abrahamic Covenant, the Promised Land Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant) and one conditional covenant (the Mosaic Covenant). If you try to find a clear and easy to understand definition of the Covenant of Grace in the writings of Covenant Theologians I believe you will have great difficulty in doing so. That is because there is no Covenant of Grace in the Bible. The grace of God is in the Bible in abundance in both the Old and New Testaments but there is no Covenant of Grace. But because Covenant Theology is not Biblical, certain false doctrines based on Covenant Theology have come into being over the centuries. Let me give you one major example today. We’ll start by looking at some New Testament Scriptures that talk about Abraham.

Romans 4:11 –12 NIV

11 And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

And:

Galatians 3:7 NIV

7 Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.

These New Testament verses are telling us that Abraham is the father of all who believe in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus) whether they are circumcised or uncircumcised (in other words all those who are born again, whether Jew or Gentile). The Gentile believers are obviously spiritual and not physical children of Abraham.

Because Covenant Theology teaches that there is one Covenant of Grace that runs from Genesis 3:15 to the end of Revelation 22, that allows Covenant Theologians to use Romans 4:11-12 to over-ride Genesis 15:18 and to make it read like this:

Genesis 15:18 “18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants the Church I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—”

That is what I would call theological slight of hand and I don’t think the motivation for that is good. I believe that it comes straight from the Father of Lies, the Devil.

Remember folks, the Bible does not contradict itself. If God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham, He is not going to nullify that later. In fact, listen to what the Apostle Paul says:

Galatians 3:17 NIV

17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

In other words the Mosaic Covenant does not make void the Abrahamic Covenant, nor does the Covenant of Grace because the Covenant of Grace does not exist. And Covenant Theology is bogus.

Next time we’ll talk about other distortions of the Scriptures that some Covenant Theologians attempt to create in an attempt to nullify God’s promises to Israel.

Thanks for listening folks.

This is Art Wolinsky.

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