Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 170:678 (Apr 2013)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Jefferson P. Webster

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BSac 170:678 (April-June 2013) p. 215

Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty and Library Staff of Dallas Theological Seminary

Jefferson P. Webster

Editor

“Is It the Case that Christ Is the Same Object of Faith in the Old Testament? (Genesis 15:1-6),” Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 55 (2012): 291-98.

Kaiser is president emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a respected Old Testament scholar and evangelical leader. In this article Kaiser argues that salvation is always by grace through faith and that “the object of faith in both Testaments [has] the same content: it is faith in Messiah, rather than a general trust or belief in God” (p. 291). According to Kaiser there are only two possible views, his view and the view of inclusivists, that explicit faith in Christ is not necessary for salvation today. He states the contrast clearly: “The only alternative to the demand that faith must rest exclusively in the Seed/Messiah is to adopt a theory of two methods of salvation: one in the OT and the other in the NT” (p. 298).

Having set up this dichotomy, Kaiser uses dispensationalism as his foil. He writes: “Some Christian believers at times boldly announce that the method by which persons were converted in the OT (and therefore the method that is now available to pagans everywhere who are outside of Christ, but who want to believe) has a different object of faith from that which is described in the NT. Perhaps one of the most forthright examples of such a distinction in the doctrine of salvation between the two Testaments comes from the pen of Charles Ryrie” (p. 291). Kaiser implies that Ryrie believes that salvation today can be found outside of Christ. But that is not what Ryrie claimed. This is a misrepresentation of Ryrie’s view and of the dispensational position. Kaiser quotes this famous statement by Ryrie: “The basis of salvation in every age is the death of Christ, the requirement of salvation in every age is faith; the object of faith in every age [however] is God; the content of faith changes in the various dispensations” (ibid., quoted from Dispensationalism Today [Chicago: Moody, 1965], 23). Ryrie says nothing in this quotation about how people are saved today. There is nothing in the context of the quotation that implies what Kaiser assumes. Further, the sentences that immediately follow the words Kaiser quotes address the charge that Kaiser makes in this article. Ryrie continues: “It is this last point, of course, which distinguishes dispensationalism from covenant theology, but it is not a point to which the charge of

BSac 170:678 (April-...

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