Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Religion, MA: Theology

First Advisor

Kim Papaioannou

Second Advisor

Zoltan Szallos-Farkas

Third Advisor

Laurentiu F. Mot

Abstract

Problem

The old covenant is often understood to be contrary to the new covenant. A distinction is made by such claims as the following: the old covenant represents the Old Testament, and new covenant represents the New Testament. The old covenant was made with only Israelites while the new covenant is made with the Church. The old covenant was based on works, and the new covenant is based on grace and is better than the old.

Purpose

The goal of this study is to present evidence that the new covenant was not established because it was different in the content than the old or the old was faulty. This study will seek to demonstrate that the old and new covenants are actually the same in nature or one in kind and belong to the one everlasting covenant. God has only one covenant and He called it My covenant, also known as the "everlasting covenant."

Method

The old covenant is often understood as a contract or an agreement but this study will focus on the fact that it was a relationship and will establish the covenant formula of everlasting covenant after an analogy with ANE treaties. The next section will apply this covenant formula to the Abrahamic, the old and the new covenants. The last chapter will deal with the differences and allegations against the old covenant.

Conclusions

After careful study, it will be presented that God has only one covenant and it is known as the everlasting covenant. The divine covenants with Abraham and Israel, through Moses, along with the new covenant, can be viewed as successive stages of God’s single covenant of redeeming grace that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The only difference between the old and new covenant is that the things which were shadow: The earthly sanctuary, earthly priest, sacrificial system in the old covenant met their reality in the new covenant. This is not something that stands contrary to the old covenant but serves as a fulfillment of its types and shadows.

Subject Area

Covenant theology, Covenants--Religious aspects

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/theses/91/

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