For all dispensationalists, like covenant theologians, the Abrahamic covenant is foundational as a covenant and within their system of theology.
84According to
dispensationalists, the Abrahamic covenant is a unilateral or unconditional covenant, and some will also describe it as a royal grant covenant having affinities with ANE parallels.
85The promissory or unconditional nature of the covenant, highlighted by God unilaterally cutting the covenant as Abram slept (Gen 15:1-21), is not negated by the fact that Abraham was obligated to serve and obey God—his obedience occasioned the blessings but the
83See William W. Combs, “Paul, the Law, and Dispensationalism,” DBSJ 18 (2013): 19-39;
Robert P. Lightner, “A Dispensational Response to Theonomy,” BibSac 143 (1986): 228-45; Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 194-99; Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, 85-94; Stanley D. Toussaint,
“God’s Plan for History: From the Ascension to the Second Coming of Christ,” in Dispensationalism and the History of Redemption, 176-77; William D. Barrick, “The Mosaic Covenant,” MSJ 10 (1999): 213-32.
84For treatment of the Abrahamic covenant by progressive dispensationalists, see Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 53, 130-40, 187-93; Saucy, The Case for Progressive
Dispensationalism, 39-58; Darrell L. Bock, “Covenants in Progressive Dispensationalism,” in Three Central Issues, 172-77. For revised dispensational discussions, see Pentecost, Things to Come, 65-94; Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, 51-81; Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom, 139-93; Elliott E. Johnson, “Covenants in Traditional Dispensationalism,” in Three Central Issues, 125-27, 136-39; Gary Gromacki, “The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant,” JMT 18 (2014): 77-119; Ron J. Bigalke, Jr., “The Abrahamic Covenant,” in Progressive Dispensationalism: An Analysis of the Movement, 39-84; Fruchtenbaum, Israelology, 334-44, 572-81; Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy, 35-54. Note also Harless, How Firm a Foundation, 105-29; Keith H. Essex, “The Abrahamic Covenant,” MSJ 10 (1999): 191-212; and Eugene H. Merrill,
“The Covenant with Abraham: The Keystone of Biblical Architecture,” Journal of Dispensational Theology 12 (2008): 5-17.
85Some dispensationalists appeal to the study of Moshe Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203. Whether royal grants were of a fixed form and unconditional is a matter of debate. See Gordon H. Johnston, “A Critical Evaluation of Moshe Weinfeld’s Approach to the Davidic Covenant in the Light of Ancient Near Eastern Royal Grants:
What Did He Get Right and What did He Get Wrong?” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the national Evangelical Theological Society, San Francisco, November 18, 2011); and Gary N. Knoppers, “Ancient Near Eastern Royal Grants and the Davidic Covenant: A Parallel?” JAOS 116 (1996): 670-97.
promises instituted by God are subject to his divine commitment.
86This unconditional nature of the covenant is important for dispensationalists because the Abrahamic covenant is everlasting (Gen 13:15; 17:7, 13, 19; 1 Chr 16:16-17; Ps 105:9-10) and features physical and spiritual promises that establish the enduring or irrevocable role of the nation of Israel and her perpetual title to the promised land in God’s plan.
More specifically, the promises to Abraham envelop three crucial elements: the seed, the land, and the universal blessing to all nations.
87Most dispensationalists agree that the Abrahamic covenant is partially fulfilled through the church (or at the very least the church participates in the Abrahamic promises) as Christ is the singular seed who brings universal blessings to peoples and believers in and through Christ become Abraham’s spiritual seed.
88Further, all dispensationalists concur that the promise to Abraham of being made into a great nation and the promised land for the physical (and faithful) offspring of Abraham—the ethnic nation of Israel—await fulfillment in the future, namely the millennium.
8986Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 132-34; Johnson, “Covenants in Traditional Dispensationalism,” 125; Essex, “The Abrahamic Covenant,” 209-10; Walvoord, The
Millennial Kingdom, 149-58; Pentecost, Things to Come, 74-82. Cf. Feinberg, “Systems of Discontinuity,”
79-80; DeWitt, Dispensational Theology in America, 312-14.
87Other promises to Abraham, such as having a great name, how God will bless and curse those who bless or curse Abraham, and many others are also highlighted by dispensationalists. Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 130; Bock, “Covenants,” 174-77; Pentecost, Things to Come, 72; Harless, How Firm a Foundation, 118-21; Gromacki, “The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant,” 79-84;
Bigalke, “The Abrahamic Covenant,” 43. Nevertheless, the seed, the land, and blessings for all peoples take center stage as most dispensationalists recognize. See Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, 42-46; Pentecost, Things to Come, 73.
88Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, 49-50, 57-58; Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 189-93; Bock, “Covenants,” 172; Ryrie, Dispensationalism, 161; Bigalke,
“The Abrahamic Covenant,” 47-52; Gromacki, “The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant,” 114-16.
Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom, 145-46; Pentecost, Things to Come, 87-88; Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come, 79-80; and Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy, 50-52, all fail to identify Christ as the seed of Abraham though they do recognize that Gentiles become Abraham’s spiritual seed through Christ and so are heirs of the promise of Gen 12:3.
89Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, 44-46, 50-57; Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 189, 193-94; Bock, “Covenants,” 172-75; 214-15n9; Walvoord, The
There are, however, differences between progressives and more traditional dispensationalists in terms of how they perceive the Abrahamic covenant developing in the progress of revelation. According to Bigalke, “Traditional dispensationalism interprets the spiritual promises or blessings as extending to the church, but the covenants are not fulfilled in the Church Dispensation.”
90In addition, the three essential aspects of the Abrahamic covenant (the seed promise, land, and universal blessings) form the basis of three sub-covenants of which they also find their fulfillment: the Davidic (national seed theme), the Palestinian or Land covenant (Deut 29-30), and the new covenant (universal blessings).
91Progressives, in contrast, understand the Abrahamic covenant as having a more Christological focus with Jesus inaugurating the fulfillment of this covenant (Gal 3) as he mediates the blessings to Israel and the nations.
92Moreover, progressives reject the notion of a Palestinian covenant as they find no evidence for it, and they understand the
Dispensationalism,”138-39; Gromacki, “The Fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant,” 116-19; Thomas,
“The Traditional Dispensational View,” 88-89. For specific emphasis on the promise of land, see Jeffrey L.
Townsend, “Fulfillment of the Land Promise in the Old Testament,” BibSac 142 (1985): 320-37; Walter C.
Kaiser, Jr., “The Promised Land: A Biblical-Historical View,” BibSac 138 (1981): 302-12; Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., “The Land of Israel and the Future Return (Zechariah 10:6-12),” in Israel, the Land and the People, 209-27; Ronald B. Allen, “The Land of Israel,” in Israel, the Land and the People, 17-33.
90Bigalke, “The Abrahamic Covenant,” 52. Cf. Pentecost, Things to Come, 89-90. Johnson,
“Covenants in Traditional Dispensationalism,” 136-39, does refer to the covenant as partially fulfilled or inaugurated during Israel’s history, but its exhaustive fulfillment is future. Cf. Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom, 192.
91Bigalke, “The Abrahamic Covenant,” 43-45; Pentecost, Things to Come, 71-72 (cf. 95-99 for the Palestinian covenant); and Benware, Understanding End Times Prophecy, 52-54. See Benware’s diagram of the covenants on p. 53 and his discussion of the Abrahamic “sub-covenants” on pp. 55-78. Cf.
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, “The Land Covenant,” in Progressive Dispensationalism: An Analysis of the Movement, 85-98, and the discussion of the land covenant in Harless, How Firm a Foundation, 131-49.
92Blaising and Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism, 189-93; Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, 49, 57. Despite this inaugural fulfillment wrought in Christ, Bock, “Covenants,” 172- 73, still argues that a second feature or track of the Abrahamic covenant is the prominent role for the ethnic nation of Israel, and Saucy, The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism, 57, 58, also finds the
inauguration of the covenant in Christ’s redemptive work, but the “promises concerning the land and the seed that constitute the ‘great nation,’ Israel . . . [belong] primarily to the future” as these “blessings promised to Israel are nowhere reinterpreted as presently belonging to the church.” Cf. Saucy, “The Progressive Dispensational View,” 166-67.