Author: Shugart, Gerald B.
Genre: Theology - Dispensationalism
Tags: Dispensationalism
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
Gerald Shugart has written books on Sir Robert Anderson, and is obviously a close following of the great British writer. This 2018 book was self-published, easy to read (139 pages), and is written from a very traditional dispensational point of view. Shugart criticizes complementary hermeneutics, already-not yet views on the kingdom, and points out that Dallas Seminary’s doctrinal statement is contrary to progressive dispensationalism. The major thrust of Shugart’s argument is that no part of the New Covenant is for the church or is applied to the church. He interprets all NT uses of the word diatheke as “testament,” not as “covenant” (as in Heb. 9:15-17) and that as such, it serves as a “last will and testament” of Christ to the church which became in effect by the “death of the testator” or Christ Himself. He writes, “The New Diatheke which has an application to those in the Body is not the New Covenant promised to Israel but instead it is the Last Will and Testament of Christ, the gospel of Christ” (p. 59). At times Shugart sounds as though he holds to the old Dallas view of two new covenants, but he never says that in so many words.