The Call of Grace: How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation and Evangelism

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT Reformed Covenant Theology
Review: Coming out of a dispensationalist background, and not really knowing what Covenant Theology was about, I obtained this book with the hope of better understanding what has often been described to me as the core of Reformed theology. Instead, this work left me increasingly perplexed, as it seems to pour tension on other reformed doctrines I have long since accepted (the doctrines of grace, justification by faith alone).

The first thing I found baffling is how the book attempts to address evangelism and "view election from the perspective of the covenant." The author does well to point out that the five points are not the exhaustive description of Calvinism, and that the believer has no business in trying to decipher who is elect and who is reprobate. But what is troubling is that though he explicitly denies the Arminian position, his description of election sounds exceedingly corporate and conditional in character. Isn't that exactly what the Arminians affirm and the Calvinists deny?

The second and third points of confusion I found only after re-reading the book (since I didn't understand it the first time around), but trying to digest them, I find them more troubling than the first. The book says, concerning Jesus Christ himself, "His was a living, active, and obedient faith that took him all the way to the cross. This faith was credited to him as righteousness." Okay, I take it back...this isn't confusing, this is a clear statement, but my impression was that this sort of teaching is more at home with modernist innovation than with the historic Reformed faith. Isn't Christ the example to us in all things but faith? Rather, isn't he the object of faith? And isn't his righteousness intrinsic rather than imputed?

Third, and directly related to the second is the impression of how the sinner is justified. "Just as Jesus was faithful..., so his followers must be faithful in order to inherit the blessing." It is good that the author insists that a Christian has commandments to live by. But this, like many other statements in the book, muddies the waters. Regardless of what the author is trying to teach, it sounds very much like works. It is frustrating that no clear attempt is made to explain the obedient Christian life in relation to justification by faith alone.

I have since learned more of Reformed theology, and can conclude that this book is not a good introduction to the historic protestant faith. I am somewhat perplexed by the number of clearly Reformed reviewers giving such high marks for the book. I thought that it would be useful that this review be from my reaction as someone new to the systematic. Though many of the statements made in the book I would not disagree with if taken alone, and many others I would heartily endorse, as a unit, the book left me bewildered. Tensions are created rather than resolved, and poor neophytes (like me) are left more confused as to how the Covenant illuminates anything.

Rating:
Summary: The Covenant Is Pivotal
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone as an introduction to covenant theology. This work is a response in small part to the evangelicals and catholics together document of 1994 and in large part to the age old dilemma of legalism and antinomianism.

The first section on the covenants illumination on salvation succinctly and meaningfully takes the reader through the abrahamic, mosaic and new covenant. The reader is then shown how the great commission, election and regeneration are illumined by the covenant.

To summate the answer to much of the controversy referred to in other posted reviews, God's people are covenanted to Christ by grace through faith alone from the hearing of the gospel. The Christian is saved unto good works. Yes, covenant obligations. That's how the Christian loves Christ and his neighbor; by obeying the commandments.

Christ of the Covenant, by O. Palmer Robertson and Lectures on Calvinism, by Kuyper are two excellent follow-ups to this book in developing a full-orbed covenant worldview.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a book on covenant theology!
Review: If you are a Christian layman in the Reformed tradition, say, a member of a PCA,OPC,ARP congregation or some other evangelical calvinist denomination, then you know that the word "covenant" is kicked around an awful lot, yet all the books aimed at persuading laymen of Reformed distinctives are either about predestination or infant baptism. Only these latter actually bother to mention the covenant and then only as a means to an end.

This is one of the most important books that could be written because Shepherd has given us an easily accessible introduction to the covenant. It is about time! And this is a really good book for those outside the Reformed tradition as well. Anyone interested in the controversy over recent attempts by Evangelicals and Roman Catholics to come to a concensus will want to read this book. Anyone struggling for the first time with questions about God's predestination and human resonsibility will also want this.

Also anyone wanting to get past the way Reformed people typically downplay the importance of the church, the sacraments, and God's offer of mercy to all who hear the gospel (because of an unbiblical obsession with predestination, regeneration, and conversion) will find this book a gem.

Rating:
Summary: Not convincing
Review: In this easy to read work, Shepherd explicates the view of the covenant which all Reformed Christians should hold. Shepherd sets forth a clear explanation on why Christians should look at election in terms of covenant rather than the popular belief that one should understand the covenant in terms of election. This book, written on an introductory level, is a useful springboard for discussion on an essential doctrine of the Christian faith--the covenant.

Rating:
Summary: What are you waiting for? Buy this book!
Review: In this easy to read work, Shepherd explicates the view of the covenant which all Reformed Christians should hold. Shepherd sets forth a clear explanation on why Christians should look at election in terms of covenant rather than the popular belief that one should understand the covenant in terms of election. This book, written on an introductory level, is a useful springboard for discussion on an essential doctrine of the Christian faith--the covenant.

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT Reformed Covenant Theology
Review: Shepherd departs from the Reformed tradition when he insists that covenant keeping, i.e., faithful evangelical obedience, is necessary for justification. He de-emphasizes classical Reformed teaching, such as eternal and unconditional election, justification by faith alone (apart from any of the works of faith), and the centrality cross of Jesus Christ in the life and consciousness of the believer. Read this book if you want to explore an innovative and "Arminianish" theology of salvation, but turn elsewhere if you want to understand the classical Reformation view.

For a solid and orthodox articulation of classical Reformed Covenant Theology, I recommend Louis Berkhof's _Systematic Theology_, and for a more thorough treatment, Herman Witsius' _The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man_.

Rating:
Summary: Read something from the other side
Review: Shepherd was thrown out of Westminster Seminary for his unbiblical view on soteriology in 1981, but not without leaving his mark in the seminary's faculty, which remains a problem to this day.

This book contains some very simple words, combined in a way to form sentenses and paragraphs that make no sense. So it is hard for those who lack the ability to discern the subtleties of theological language -- let alone Shepherd's confused language -- to really understand what he is saying, and to realize how unbiblical his view is.

For a short critique, I suggest that you search the Internet for John Robbins' review on this book, entitled, "False Shepherd". I think he rightly calls Shepherd's view "Neo-legalism".

Rating:
Summary: How to deny the Reformation
Review: Sure this is a great book--if you want to learn how to:

1. Deny the Reformed doctrine of forensic justification (Christ's active and passive obedience which *merits* eternal life and is credited to your account when you believe).

2. Deny God's covenant of works with Adam (found in the Westminster Confession) which is the basis for the second Adam's (Christ) propitiation of our sins because God is Just and must punish sins.

3. Deny the Mediatorship of Christ (also in the Westminster Confession) and learn to think of him as 'the first Christian'.

4. Learn to think that the Gospel is Faith + Works (hereby known as 'covenant-keeping'). Learn that works, which are somehow *not* meritorious, are nevertheless necessary for your justification at the last day. In otherwords, works/personal godliness is *not* merely evidence of a live faith (per James and Paul and the Reformers), but one of the twin grounds of your justification.

5. Learn to say (and believe) that, "the Law is Life!"

6. Learn to deny the Solas of the Reformation.

Or, better yet, actually study what the Reformers taught about the covenant and how we are justified before God...

Rating:
Summary: Biblical covenant
Review: The Call of Grace is like a cold glass of water on a hot day, oh so refreshing. Norman Shepherd takes his reader to God's word and shows how important the Biblical doctrine of God's covenant is to the proper understanding of many other important Christian teachings. If the doctrines of election and predestination in their relationship to evangelism, personal holiness, and other practical Christian doctrines have left you with more questions then answers then you need to read this book. By it God has breathed a breath of fresh air into the Reformed community.