Copyright©1998
The Covenant of Works and the Second Adam
by
David Clark Brand
Copyright©1998
David Clark Brand
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior, written permission of the author, except for brief excerpts for reviews in magazines or newspapers.
Published by
DCB Communications
P. O. Box 1388
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050
34 pages
Price: $4.00 plus postage and handling
Sales
tax applicable for Ohio
residents
Reviews & Endorsements
"God is using David Brand to re-introduce the vital doctrine of the covenant of works. The church has struggled to survive on a half gospel for too long. It is the cross that atones for our sin, but it is the active, meritorious obedience of Christ that grants us righteousness. The obedient life of Jesus is as much a part of our salvation as his atoning death. David Brand's The Covenant of Works and the Second Adam will show you why J.Gresham Machen wrote just before he died, 'So thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it.' Thanks David for helping us build our hope on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness!"
-John FanellaPastor, Calvary Church, Charlotte, NCAuthor, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Made Easier to Read
Excerpt
from
ChapterOne
The Savoy Declaration of 1658, like its Westminster and London Baptist confessional cousins, unequivocally affirms that God established with Adam a covenant of works "wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience" (VII, II). This concept of a pre-Fall Adamic covenant of works has been assailed by many well-known scholars and theologians of the latter half of the twentieth century, as though it were too mechanical or otherwise unworthy of the God of grace. Among its present day detractors are some proponents of the so-called "New Covenant Theology," a movement that has received intellectual impetus from the faculty of Trinity Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois.
Modern opposition to the Adamic covenant of works has come from other
quarters as well.
Holmes Rolston, III, in his book John Calvin versus the
Westminster Confession, pitted the
Geneva Reformer over against the English Puritans on the issue. Dutch
Reformed scholar and
writer, Herman Hoeksema, and Reformed charismatic J. Rodman Williams in
his Renewal
Theology have expressed their opposition to the concept.
Pastor
and popular Edwardsean
author, John Piper, devoted a chapter in A Godward Life
to
the question: "Did God Command
a Man to Earn His Life?" New Covenant Theology writer, John Reisinger,
cites evidence from
John Murray, that the eminent Westminster Seminary theologian himself
had misgivings about
the concept, at least as commonly taught by covenant theologians. In
fact, some of the "New
Covenant" theologians, Reisinger among them, have gone a step further
denying the existence
of any covenant (call it probationary, or what
you will)
between God and Adam prior to the
Fall.
Table
of Contents
Chapter 1 Logic and the Mainstream 1
Chapter 2 Exegeting Genesis 1-3 5
Chapter 3 A Probationary Covenant 9
Chapter 4 A Covenant of Works 13
Chapter 5 Eden, Sinai, and Holy Matrimony 19
Chapter 6 The Second Adam and the Divine Intent 23
Reference
List 33
Add Ohio sales tax where applicable. Pay by check only.
Please send order to:
DCB Communications
P. O. Box 1387
Mt. Vernon, OH 43050