Covenants and Dispensations - How God Has Dealt with Man Through the Ages
Rev. Kevin S. Johnson
    

I. Edenic Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations: Genesis 1:28-30 Genesis 2:16-17

B. Dispensation - Innocence - The experiential knowledge of good and evil were unknown to mankind.

C. Conditions: Adam and Eve were to abstain from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The blessing of remaining in the Garden of Eden was conditoned upon obedience to God and trust in Him.



II. Adamic Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations : Genesis 3:14-19

B. Dispensational Name : Conscience

C. Conditions: It was unconditional and pertaining to all of Adam's progeny.



III. Noahic Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations: Genesis 8:22 Genesis 9:1-6 &11-15

B. Dispensational Name: Human Government

This represented a new relationship between mankind and animals, the four seasons, capital punishment for lethal violence, and Earth was never to be destroyed by water again.

C. Conditions: This was an unconditional decree binding on all of Noah's progeny.



IV. Abrahamic Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations: Genesis 12:1-3

B. Dispensational Name: Promise

This promise included that:

1.) A great nation was to proceed out of Abraham;

2.) There would b a personal blessing to Abraham and seed;

3.) All the families of the earth will be blessed through Abraham's seed.

C. Conditions: The condition was met when Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. He showed this by leaving Ur of the Chaldees.



V. Eretz Israel Covenant

(Sometimes referred to by the misnomer of The "Palestinian" Land Covenant)

A. Scriptural Foundations: Genesis 15:8; 17 :7-8; 26:4;28:13; Amos 9:13-15 Joel 3:1-4

B. Dispensational Name: Promise

The land of Canaan is promised to Abraham's Seed through the line of Isaac.

C. Conditions: This was an unconditional covenant.



VI. Mosaic Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations: Exodus: 20 (the moral law); Exodus: 21-24 (the civil law); Exodus: 24-31 (the ceremonial law or ordinances)

B. Dispensational Name: The Law or Torah

C. Conditions: This was most definitely a conditional covenant which predicated blessings upon obedience and is only applicable to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac. It contained stipulations of obedience to the 613 laws of Moses for blessing or cursing in the land and peaceful existence there or removal by force (see Deuteronomy 30:1-10). It does not revoke the previous covenant with Abraham (see Galatians 3:17).



VII. The Davidic Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations: 2 Samuel 7:4-17; Luke 1:30-33; Rev. 19:11-16

B. Dispensational Name: Promise

The Moschiach Nagid or The Messiah, King of Israel, is promised to come from the seed of David Whose throne will be established forever.

C. Conditions: This was an unconditional covenant.



VIII. Messianic or New Covenant

A. Scriptural Foundations: Jeremiah 31:31-37; Matthew 26:26-29; Hebrews 8:7-13.

B. Dispensational Names: Grace and the Millennial Kingdom.

Christ dies and is resurrected for the sins and justification of all who believe in Him. Israel and the Nations will be subjected to Christ during His thousand year reign on Earth. Zechariah 2:7-12

C. Conditions: This covenant is unconditionally offered but applicable only to those who have been given the gift of faith in Jesus or Yeshua by God (see Ephesians 2:8,9).

Even unconditional promises are effectual only when coupled with a believing heart! That Faith can only come as a gift of God through His word the Bible.

(See Ephesians 2:8,9 & Romans 10:17)

One of the greatest problems in any understanding of dispensationalism is the notion that somehow because God has dealt differently in temporal matters with mankind, He has not been consistent in eternal ones. People have not been saved in the past by some means other than faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of God's Messiah as promised to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. This promise was for all their future progeny. Old Testament or Tanach saints were saved looking forward to Him as we moderns are saved by looking back to Him.



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