Thoughts on this book (from those who have read it)?

(I own it and have read it; I only found it being sold here.)

__________________
Casey Bessette
Westminster OPC • West Suburbs of Chicago • My Blog: Paradise Regained

"It is part of the calling of the ekklesia to learn to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge and also to make known within the world of science 'the manifold wisdom of God' in order that the final end of theology, as of all things, may be that the name of the Lord is glorified. Theology and dogmatics, too, exist for the Lord's sake." — Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 46

It's a great read. Anyone who had doubts as to how central the covenant of works was to Reformed theology should be silenced by that book.

__________________
Patrick
OPC
MDiv, RTS Jackson.

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.

It is an excellent book. Highly recommended.

__________________
Fredrick T. Greco
Senior Pastor, Christ Church PCA (Katy, TX)
Christ Church Blog

"The heart is the main thing in true religion...It is the hinge and turning-point in the condition of man's soul. If the heart is alive to God and quickened by the Spirit, the man is a living Christian. If the heart is dead and has not the Spirit, the man is dead before God." (J.C. Ryle)

Rowland is a personal friend (and my PhD supervisor). He is an excellent thinker, and this is one of the best and most accessible books on covenant theology. The amount of information in the small amount of space is remarkable.

__________________
Marty

From Creation to New Creation via Redemption

Thanks, friends. I also found it a great read for such a little paperback. I thought it was well-written, clear and brief. Anyone else?

Ward's book is a must read for those interested in 17th century federal theology.

__________________
Richard C. Barcellos
M.Div., 1989, The Master's Seminary
Th.M., 2000, Whitefield Theological Seminary
Managing Editor, Reformed Baptist Theological Review (www.rbtr.org)
Part-time Lecturer in New Testament and Administrative Assistant to the Dean, Midwest Center for Theological Studies (www.mctsowensboro.org/), Owensboro, KY

It is a useful book overall, and quite readable; but it may be a question worthy of discussion whether or not the broken covenant of works should be presented as a disruption to God's plan for creation which necessitated the covenant of grace. This is what Dr. Ward teaches: "The covenant of grace is not a separate covenant so much as that development necessitated by the fact that God, confronted by sin, does not abandon his covenanted commitment to his creation but relates to it redemptively" (p. 25). This is in contrast to traditional reformed theology, which taught that the covenant of works was purposefully implemented as a temporary measure. So Samuel Rutherford: "the Lord had in the Law-dispensation a love designe, to set up a Theatre and stage of free grace; And that the way of works should be a time dispensation, like a summer-house to be demolished again: As if the Lord had an aime that works and nature should be a transient, but no standing Court for righteousnesse" (Covenant of Life, p. 3).

It is also questionable whether the covenant of grace can and should be regarded as a development of the covenant of works, seeing as the apostle places them in two antithetical categories from both a metaphysical (1 Cor. 15) and moral (Rom. 5) perspective.

__________________
Yours sincerely,


"Illum oportet crescere me autem minui."