While studying today, I came across a list of Jonathan Edwards’ fascinating answers to objections about who can take the Lord’s Table. Edwards’ is answering this objection: “If sinners ate the OT Passover, why can’t they take the NT Lord’s Table? Why can’t all men and children take the Lord’s Table today the same way all men and children ate the Passover then?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edwards gave a long answer, but this paragraph summarizes it well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Whatever was the case with respect to the qualifications for the sacraments of the\u00a0Old-Testament\u00a0dispensation<\/strong>, I humbly conceive it is nothing to the purpose in the present argument,\u00a0nor needful to determine us with respect to the qualifications for the sacraments of the christian\u00a0dispensation<\/strong>, which is a matter of such\u00a0plain fact in the New<\/strong>\u00a0Testament.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0But yet all allow that the Old-Testament\u00a0dispensation is out of date, with its ordinances; and I think, in a matter pertaining to the constitution\u00a0and order of the New-Testament church\u2014a matter of fact, wherein the\u00a0New Testament itself is\u00a0express, full, and abundan<\/strong>t\u2014to have recourse to the Mosaic\u00a0dispensation<\/strong>\u00a0for rules or precedents\u00a0to determine our judgment, is quite needless, and out of reason. There is perhaps\u00a0no part of divinity\u00a0attended with so much intricacy, and wherein orthodox divines do so much differ, as the stating of\u00a0the precise agreement and difference between the two dispensations<\/strong>\u00a0of Moses and of Christ.\u00a0And probably the reason why God has left it so intricate, is, because our understanding the ancient\u00a0dispensation, and God\u2019s design in it, is not of so great importance,\u00a0nor does it so nearly concern\u00a0us<\/strong>. Since God uses\u00a0great plainness of speech in the New<\/strong>\u00a0Testament, which is as it were\u00a0the charter\u00a0and municipal law of the christian church<\/strong>, what need we run back to the ceremonial and typical\u00a0institutions of an antiquated dispensation, wherein God\u2019s declared design was, to deliver divine\u00a0things in comparative\u00a0obscurity, hid under a veil, and involved in clouds<\/strong>?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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- Edwards uses the word\u00a0\u201cdispensation.\u201d <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Edwards\u2019 speaks of differences between the OT and the NT repeatedly. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Edwards’ says that the NT is clear, full, plain regarding the church; and the OT is obscure, hid, and cloudy regarding the church. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Edwards’ sees the difference and similarity of the OT and the NT as “perhaps” the most difficult in all of Scripture. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
I am not saying Edwards was a dispensationalist. I am saying that when he was confronted with applying the covenant of grace consistently to the Lord\u2019s Table, he\u00a0suddenly begins talking very clearly about the great differences between the OT and the NT. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is all my dispensationalism: A pastor focuses his church, his preaching, and his shepherding on differences between the OT people and the NT people.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While studying today, I came across a list of Jonathan Edwards’ fascinating answers to objections about who can take the Lord’s Table. Edwards’ is answering this objection: “If sinners ate the OT Passover, why can’t they take the NT Lord’s … Continue reading