November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

as to identify covenant and election.”*
But more troublesome is T.
David Gordon’s insistence that
God has a plurality of covenants—no
fewer than 12 (including
the covenants of redemption,
works, and grace;
and the various covenants of
God with men in the Old Testament).
He argues that the term
“the covenant” (singular) is
rarely used in the Bible, and
when it is, usually the Scriptures
identify the covenant to
which the term refers. This
prompted me quickly to search
the KJV, in which I found 102
instances of “the covenant”
(singular), 51 of “my covenant”
(singular), 18 of “his covenant”
(singular), and only three times
where the word “covenant” is
found in the plural. So I find it
hard to swallow the argument
that Murray’s view that God has
one covenant with His people
has generated the heretical
views of Shepherd, Bahnsen,
and Auburn theology.
White and Beisner’s chapter
is troublesome because it
argues that conditions played a
role in the covenant administrations
of God in the Old Testament.
According to them, Adam
in the state of perfection could
merit eternal life by his obedi-
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ence. The seeds of Noah,
Abraham, and David enjoyed
temporal, earthly blessings (accompanied
by temporal curses)
on the basis of the obedience of
these men. These blessings
were temporal and earthly only,
and not everlasting and spiritual,
because the obedience of
these men was not perfect. The
authors speak of the Mosaic
covenant as “bilateral, conditional”
(p. 160). White and
Beisner are clear that the covenant
of God with His people in
the new dispensation is not conditioned
on any works that we
do, but is founded on the person
and work of Christ. But the
thoughts expressed in the chapter
undermine the idea that
God’s covenant with His people
throughout history is one covenant;
that it was always based
on Christ; that all the blessings
of that covenant were blessings
bestowed by grace, not earned
by works. Scriptures such as
Romans 4:13-16 and others contradict
the ideas set forth in this
* David J. Engelsma, The Covenant
of God and the Children of
Believers: Sovereign Grace in the
Covenant (Jenison, MI: Reformed
Free Publishing Association,
2005), p. 176.
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