This book is the printed form of a Doctoral Dissertation, the focus of the Paper is the application of Ancient Near East covenant principles to exegesis of New Testament Scriptures. This is an important work, for such application demonstrates many fallacies within currently held to Reformed Theology. Application of covenant principles to interpretation of New Testament Scripture is a more complete hermeneutic than what the Reformers had, and must be incorporated into the modern codified set of Biblical Hermeneutics. Because the New Testament is not a testament but a covenant modeled after ANE covenants, understanding what a covenant is and how a covenant operates is paramount to a more complete and accurate set of interpretative rules for comprehending ancient documents. This work is no less important to preachers, teachers, scholars and theologians than is Mendenhall and Trumbull's seminal work on covenants, Kline's work on covenant law, or Sander's work on the law.

Most Christians in the Church today in the West do not know about Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) covenants, nor do they understand that the covenants God has made with mankind are based in form on ANE covenants and their governing principles. In fact, the Old and New Covenants are ANE covenants. Scholars and theologians know that the greater understanding we have of the historical and cultural roots of Christianity, we can come to a more accurate interpretation of the New Testament Scriptures. This is particularly true since Biblical archaeology has unearthed information regarding ANE covenants which the Fathers of the Reformation did not have access to when formulating their doctrinal beliefs and creeds. Because the New Testament is an ANE covenant, the governing principles of ANE covenants affects how we must interpret the Scriptures emanating from that covenant. The information brought forth in this volume demands dissemination throughout the grassroots levels of the Church and Christian academia.

Covenant: A Vital Element of Reformed Theology provides a multi-disciplinary reflection on the theme of the covenant, from historical, biblical-theological and systematic-theological perspectives. The interaction between exegesis and dogmatics in the volume reveals the potential and relevance of this biblical motif. It proves to be vital in building bridges between God’s revelation in the past and the actual question of how to live with him today.

In the days after the beginning, when great beasts roamed the face of the earth...humans, elves, giants, and even dragons lived and dwelled upon the now lost continent of Mu, called also in the tongues of men, as Lemuria. Those were the days of the Sretsam, warrior-kings; and the days of the Akrissians, Evlin warriors of the Puridin race who hired themselves out as Protectors. Those were the days of walled villages, when every day was a fight just to survive to see the next sunrise. Those were the days when certain malignant powers sought to conquer and enslave all others...

Christianity is declining in the West. Churches in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe are closing their doors at an accelerating rate. How will the church respond? In this short but sweeping manifesto, New York Times bestselling author and pastor Timothy Keller argues that this decline should prompt us to rethink evangelism from the ground up. Using the early church as our guide, churches and individual Christians must examine ourselves, our culture, and Scripture to work toward a new missionary encounter with Western culture that will make the gospel both attractive and credible to a new generation.

Unwinds the intricacies of covenant theology, making the complex surprisingly simple and accessible to every reader.

A fresh look at the earliest Christian movement reveals what made the new faith so compelling...and what we need to change today to make it so again. Once upon a time there was a version of the Christian faith that was practically irresistible. After all, what could be more so than the gospel that Jesus ushered in? Why, then, isn't it the same with Christianity today? Author and pastor Andy Stanley is deeply concerned with the present-day church and its future. He believes that many of the solutions to our issues can be found by investigating our roots. In Irresistible, Andy chronicles what made the early Jesus Movement so compelling, resilient, and irresistible by answering these questions: What did first-century Christians know that we don't—about God's Word, about their lives, about love? What did they do that we're not doing? What makes Christianity so resistible in today's culture? What needs to change in order to repeat the growth our faith had at its beginning? Many people who leave or disparage the faith cite reasons that have less to do with Jesus than with the conduct of his followers. It's time to hit pause and consider the faith modeled by our first-century brothers and sisters who had no official Bible, no status, and little chance of survival. It's time to embrace the version of faith that initiated—against all human odds—a chain of events resulting in the most significant and extensive cultural transformation the world has ever seen. This is a version of Christianity we must remember and re-embrace if we want to be salt and light in an increasingly savorless and dark world.