Review of Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology

Griffiths, Phillip D. R. Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology. Eugene, OR: Resource Publishers, 2022, 143, $18.99, paperback.

In sum, Griffiths has produced a concise and non-technical work that readers of all levels can enjoy and benefit from. Students new to the study of covenant theology will find within this work the basic components of the Reformed Baptist view and a glimpse into the unique role systematic and biblical theology play in this conversation.

Phillip Griffiths is a retired teacher living in Bethlehem, Pembrokeshire, with his wife Melody and their two sons, Benjamin and Joseph. Griffiths holds three bachelor’s degrees, a Master of Theology degree in philosophical & systematic theology, and a post-graduate diploma in theological studies from the London School of Theology. In addition to his works on Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology, Griffiths has written on the Enlightenment’s effects on theological thought from Calvin to Barth, answering Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a critical piece on N.T. Wright’s New Perspective on Paul.

Reformed Baptist Covenant Theology is the second book of Griffiths that focuses on Covenant Theology from a Reformed Baptist perspective. However, unlike his first book, this one seeks to be less polemical and offers a positive presentation of the Reformed Baptist heritage and intellectual view of credobaptism. Although “Reformed Baptists stand shoulder to shoulder with their Reformed paedobaptist brethren” on the essentials of the faith, different covenant theologies remain, leading to diverse ecclesiologies and sacramentologies (p. viii). Griffiths is committed to unity, but not at the expense of theological integrity. He challenges Reformed Presbyterians to think deeply about their positions, encourages his Reformed Baptists readers to become saturated in God’s Word, and hopes this work “will go some way in assisting Christians to understand God’s covenants” (pp. 133-134).

I found the style and posture of this book to be of great benefit for understanding and emulation. From its outset in the Reformation, covenant theology has been characterized by disagreements and debates. Joining that conversation, Griffiths gracefully interacts with counter positions while promoting and clarifying a Reformed Baptist position. Throughout these interactions with Presbyterians, readers are presented with a civil and collegial posture that can and should be replicated as brothers in Christ seek to dialogue regarding secondary-level issues.

Griffiths’ teaching background is evident as he progressively works through the biblical covenants. First, he clarifies what a covenant is by presenting the traditional conditional and unconditional covenant models. Although this work intends to be brief, Griffiths should have given more consideration than two pages here for clarity and an honest evaluation of scholarship on what constitutes a covenant, the various proposed forms, and the theological outcomes covenant definitions produce.

Next, the classic Reformed law-gospel distinction is alluded to as Griffiths presents two overarching covenants: the covenant of works with Adam and the “new covenant…the outworking in time, of a covenant made in eternity” (p. 4). Griffiths does well interweaving Scripture and the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith to justify man’s depraved position in the Covenant of Works with Adam as the federal head. Because the doctrine of a works-based covenant with Adam is common in Reformed theology, Griffiths utilizes various sources from multiple camps to demonstrate mankind’s doomed fate and the necessity of a Mediator.

Griffiths then outlines redemption through the second Adam, Christ, as the fulfillment, or inbreaking, of the covenant of redemption into history. Griffiths consistently places salvation in the NC alone and rejects a Presbyterian dual administration of the Covenant of Grace schema. He encourages readers “think of the Covenant of Grace as the new covenant before it was formally ratified or consummated in the shed blood of Christ” (p. 13). Matters are further clarified when Griffiths quotes Bavinck, saying Christ appeared immediately after the fall in the promises.

            Chapter four furthers the understanding of the New Covenant in the Old Testament. He begins by stating, “the 1689 Reformed Baptist position has often been subject to misrepresentation” (p. 21). It is true that most Particular Baptists that composed the 1689 LBCF understood the retroactive application of the NC (COG) during the time of the OT (known today as 1689 Federalism). However, many historical Baptists held to a dual administration of the COG, once in the OC and again, differently in the NC. I agree with the position proposed by Griffiths in this chapter; however, this work would have benefited from him recognizing that some Reformed Baptists (20^th Century Reformed Baptists) today still hold to a dual administration schema. If not only to represent the current discussion accurately. His proposed examples of misrepresentation hold true for all Reformed Baptists. Whether they hold to a dual or retroactive COG administration, all Reformed Baptists believe that the NC blessings were present somehow to the OT saints. Chapters five through ten outline how the NC was retroactively applied through the subsidiary covenants of the OT. The protoevangelium of Gen 3:15 contained the promise that would be ratified in the NC. Abel and Noah operated in faith in the promise of the woman’s serpent-crushing seed resulting in God covenanting with Noah, further establishing and progressively revealing in greater clarity the telos of the NC in Christ. With Abraham’s covenant(s) being the primary points of contention between Presbyterian and Reformed Baptist CT, Griffiths admirably dedicates three chapters to explanation. Along with most Reformed Baptists, including Nehemiah Coxe, whom Griffiths quotes extensively, Griffiths argues that there are two covenants with Abraham: the first, Gen 15, was a covenant promising a covenant (NC). The second, Gen 17, was the covenant of circumcision given as a condition for Abraham’s offspring to enjoy the promise of physical Israel. Griffiths identifies two levels of meaning in Abraham’s covenant of circumcision. The first is the “dispensational level,” referring to Abraham’s physical seed, and the second, the “trans-dispensational” level, refers to “his seed (singular) who is the Christ, and this includes all those who have faith” (p. 58). Reformed Baptists would give a cheerful amen to Griffiths’ recognition of Abraham’s dual capacity; however, words matter, and the terms “dispensational” and “trans-dispensational” carry common theological connotations unfitting and undesirable for CT. For that reason, I highly recommend Griffiths utilize different terminology here.

I found the style and posture of this book to be of great benefit for understanding and emulation. From its outset in the Reformation, covenant theology has been characterized by disagreements and debates. Joining that conversation, Griffiths gracefully interacts with counter positions while promoting and clarifying a Reformed Baptist position. Throughout these interactions with Presbyterians, readers are presented with a civil and collegial posture that can and should be replicated as brothers in Christ seek to dialogue regarding secondary-level issues.

Griffiths represents a 1689 Reformed Baptist view of the Mosaic covenant as a covenant of works continuing and managing the physical promises to Abraham, not the covenant of works made with Adam in Eden possessing the possibility for eternal life. The Law of Sinai was given to Israel to enjoy the land and as a teacher to show them their sin and need for a greater Seed – a Savior. Interestingly enough, with so much talk about the NC’s progressive revelation and application in the subsidiary covenants, Griffiths does not have a chapter on the NC.

Griffiths concludes with a helpful analysis of Presbyterian and Reformed Baptists’ understanding of circumcision and baptism and a final chapter where he claims that what sets those saved in the OC apart from those saved in the NC is that only those during the NC era are baptized by the Holy Spirit. This final chapter needs to be understood as the views of Griffiths and not as the view commonly held by Reformed Baptists.

In sum, Griffiths has produced a concise and non-technical work that readers of all levels can enjoy and benefit from. Students new to the study of covenant theology will find within this work the basic components of the Reformed Baptist view and a glimpse into the unique role systematic and biblical theology play in this conversation. Similarly, pastors may find a helpful guide for their preaching and congregants to understand the one plan of God as revealed in the Scriptures.