Covenant with Adam in Covenant Theology

[John Caldwell]

For those familiar with Covenant Theology and the idea that God made a covenant with Adam (expressed in God's command for Adam not to eat of the fruit).

The way it has been explained to me is Scripture tells us that God commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day he eats of the fruit he will surly die. The implication is the inverse - God is also promising Adam life should Adam not eat of the fruit.

The formal fallacy of denying the antecedent (also called fallacy of the inverse, is a formal fallacy inferring the inverse from an original statement.

For example:

Original statement: If you eat of the fruit then you will die.

Erroneous assumption: If you do not eat of the fruit then you will not die.

If P then Q. Not P therefore not Q.



How is the supposed Covenant with Adam not a formal fallacy?

 

[Jay Ross]

Hello John,

If our understanding of Scripture is flawed, then the outcome of our reasoning is also flawed.

Did not Jesus tell us to not fear the "person," i.e. Satan, that can cause us to die a physical death, but rather fear the "Person," i.e. our heavenly Father, Who can dispatch us to die the Second Death.

What is important to understand from the "Fall," in Genesis 3 is that because Adam did not keep one of the Statutes of God, i.e. do not eat from the "Tree of Knowledge," that at the end of the Age of the Ages, he would die the Second Death. But the Ancient Covenant of Salvation, (Matt 13:52), was also presented by God during the "Fall" event by example by God to Adam, and the question that is not answered in Genesis 3, is whether or not Adam and Eve both accepted the terms of the Salvation Covenant on offer in this chapter.

When God confronted Cain for killing Able in the field and burying his brother in that field, God also offered Cain the Salvation Covenant of Grace to Cain that if he accepted the terms of the Salvation Covenant and began to measure up to God's Standards, then he would do well, i.e. not die the Second Death at the end of the Age of the Ages.

Jesus came to provide a refurbished Salvation Covenant to us whereby the process of reconciling our iniquities towards God was changed such that reconciliation with God for our iniquities towards God now only requires our belief and faith that our iniquities have been forgiven.

When Jesus put a paste of muddy clay over the eyes of the blind man, He require the man to have faith in Him so that his sight could be restored. Today many so called "Christians," lack the faith that their sins have been forgiven even though they believe that Christ through His act on the Cross will cause then to be reconciled with God through their belief and faith in the personhood of Christ.

It is our faith that removes us from our "candidacy," through not measuring up in faith, to suffer the second death, at the end of the Age of the Ages, and to receive our inheritance in God's Earth where we as "Christians," are required today to walk its length and breath as a "descendant," either natural or grafted, of Abraham.

We are require to put legs to our faith in God.

Shalom