Jude24
Puritan Board Freshman
To add to the other recent related threads on the board, I'm currently going through a bit of a covenant theology crisis myself and have been reading through the 1689 federalism works. So far, I've read "From Shadow to Substance" by Renihan, "Distinctiveness of Baptist Theology" by Denault, and "The Kingdom of God" by Johnson. I'm currently working on "The Mystery of Christ" by Renihan.
In reading these, I've noticed that there seems to be a lot of overlap between 1689 federalism and Lutheranism. For example, unless I am not understanding, the foundation of 1689 federalism seems to be a strict law/gospel dichotomy. The Abrahamic/Mosaic covenants could not have been the covenant of grace because you cannot mix works and grace. In fact, it seems like Johnson teaches that the Mosaic covenant was a complete republication of the CofW in that it could give eternal life if followed completely (he does grant that this was impossible, but it still completely removes any grace from the Mosaic covenant). It also appears that in a recent work Samuel Renihan teaches the literal descent of Christ into hell after His death, which is another common Lutheran belief.
Am I completely misunderstanding 1689 federalism, or has anybody else found that it seems to be similar to Lutheranism?
In reading these, I've noticed that there seems to be a lot of overlap between 1689 federalism and Lutheranism. For example, unless I am not understanding, the foundation of 1689 federalism seems to be a strict law/gospel dichotomy. The Abrahamic/Mosaic covenants could not have been the covenant of grace because you cannot mix works and grace. In fact, it seems like Johnson teaches that the Mosaic covenant was a complete republication of the CofW in that it could give eternal life if followed completely (he does grant that this was impossible, but it still completely removes any grace from the Mosaic covenant). It also appears that in a recent work Samuel Renihan teaches the literal descent of Christ into hell after His death, which is another common Lutheran belief.
Am I completely misunderstanding 1689 federalism, or has anybody else found that it seems to be similar to Lutheranism?