15: Christ and the
Covenants
This study makes two main points:
A.
The Abrahamic covenant shows that God’s
covenant with human beings is a relationship of grace in
which we depend on God by faith in his promises, not a plan
for us to prove ourselves deserving of life in God’s
kingdom.
B.
The new covenant promised in the Bible is
the relationship with God that Christians have had through
Jesus Christ for nearly two thousand years, not the
religious system of the LDS Church that began in the
nineteenth century.
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Part A:
The Abrahamic Covenant
1.
Abraham was called by grace (Genesis 11-12).
2.
Abraham was accounted righteous by faith (Genesis 15).
3.
God’s promises to Abraham were unilateral—a one-way
commitment of God to Abraham (Genesis 15, 17).
4.
Although Abraham’s faith was genuine, his works often fell
short, particularly in his marriage (Genesis 13, 16, 20).
4a.
The deception about Sarah being Abraham’s sister was not
God’s idea, as the Book of Abraham claims.
4b.
The idea of Abraham taking Hagar as a second wife was not
God’s idea, as Joseph Smith claimed to try to justify his
own polygamy.
5.
Abraham’s maturing faith showed itself by his works (Genesis
22).
Part B:
The New Covenant
1. The
LDS Church requires Christians who become LDS to be
rebaptized because its religious system is the “new
covenant.”
2. The
“new covenant” of the Bible is not Joseph Smith’s
Restoration but was established by Jesus himself almost 2000
years ago (Hebrews 7-8).
3. The
LDS Church claims to administer a new
“dispensation”—implying that it is a different religion than
Christianity.
4.
Biblically, the “dispensation of the fullness of the times”
is God’s plan of salvation that Christ put in place in the
first century (Ephesians 1:3-14).
Questions for Reflection
