Still Running Off at the Keyboard

DUAL COVENANT THEOLOGY

or to put it another way, two paths to Heaven, one relying on Christ and the other relying on God the Father. The topic has been tossed around again in the current issue of "Culture Wars" where Dr. Robert A. Sungenis airs his concerns about the ongoing debate.

Since Nostra Aetate is teaching the exact opposite of what Jewish leaders are saying, we are thus led to the conclusion that there is a calculated disinformation campaign in the works and things may be coming to a head very soon. The recent flap over Ann Coulter's remark that Jews are not "perfected" until they become Christians has made the ADL become even more strident in its charges of "anti-Semitism" and its assertion that the Old Covenant is still in force for the Jews.

Their viewpoint may actually be fueled by our bishops:

the USCCB...recently published these provocative words in its United States Catholic Catechism for Adults: "Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them."

The argument claims that the Abrahamic Covenant is still in force. Or perhaps it is the Mosaic Covenant. Or maybe the Davidic Covenant. Even God's Covenant with Noah might be used to back up the dual covenant argument.

One Covenant I never see mentioned is God's Covenant with Adam and Eve: "Be fruitful and multiply." This Covenant, of course, would be a Covenant with all of mankind. It is man who destroys this original Covenant. As we think about it, it has been man who has broken the others as well. We have no evidence that God doesn't keep His half of the bargain.

If the Covenant was made with all of mankind through our first parents, we would have to look at each Scriptural event as part of the plan, and we would have to assume that the original intention was that we would all be one, worshipping God in three Persons. The advent of the Messiah is not just a New Testament phenomenon. He was promised from the beginning. There really is not a time when Christ was not part of our faith history.

As the story unfolded, the other Covenants were added on. All of the other Covenants.

Every Covenant God made can be viewed as the criteria by which man will not attain eternal happiness in Heaven. But there is an opposite view. We can view them as the gate barring the door or as the gentle breeze that will waft us in. All of the arguments rest on the assumption that God intends that some will not get to heaven. But that is a false assumption. God did not make people in grades--Grade A and B worthy of Heaven, Grade C, D, E not admissible. From the time of Cain's sin, there has always been a need for conversion, and there have always been religions that disagreed.

Sungenis calls the Abrahamic Covenant "irrevocable" and says that it is for "both Jew and Gentile." I think all of the covenants could be said to be irrevocable as far as God is concerned, and that in God's plan the Jew/Gentile distinction should never have existed. Therefore, when it comes to a faith story today, there can be no dual covenant that divides us.