There is no equality between Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology

This post by a dispensationalist comes across as written in almost a 'stuck in a bubble' state. It's uncomfortable reading these dispensationalist Calvinist guys because really to disabuse them of their stance you have to convince them of their denseness on the subject at hand.

It's more than that, though. You have to witness them being in a state where they clearly don't know history, and if they do they can't discern the difference between a Brakel, or Witsius, or Geerhardus Vos (to bring it up to the 20th century) and their motley crew of 19th and 20th century guys. It's like listening to a kid who is yet to be able to discern the difference between a Harry Potter book and Dostoevsky. I.e. you both sense the innocence and earnestness you are dealing with, and don't want to harm (or shock too much) that innocence and earnestness, yet you also don't want the child to remain in such a state.

When you become a regenerated believer and you come to the point of wanting to understand biblical doctrine in a serious way you are in a state of tension (as in seeking on-the-mark teaching, yet not having it yet). The Spirit is in you, discernment from the Spirit guides you, but you have to come upon teachings that will relieve the tension you feel. You're looking for on-the-mark/off-the-mark; and you are looking for teaching that sees the parts in relation to the whole, which is true understanding.

Usually, in this era we live in, the first teachings you come across are dispensational. (That actually may not be the case now with the explosion of Puritan and Calvinist and Reformed literature and interest in it.) So you study the dispensationalist sources. You aren't negative towards them, in fact in your state of just having begun your search you are sort of quietly (if naively) impressed with their widespread acceptance and seeming legitimacy. Yet those dispensationalist teachings don't relieve the tension within you. They fail even further the further you investigate their teachings and schools. With the Spirit of discernment you just sense they aren't right. Something's missing there. Something is off.

But as a regenerate Christian you are by your new nature gravitating towards the truth, and if you are truly seeking you will find it. You begin to come into contact with other schools of thought. Other theologians. The five solas enter your vocabulary. The doctrines of grace. Then as you search for the 'whole' that those things reside in you begin to discover covenant theology. But it doesn't end there. You then discover Federal Theology. You discover the unity of the Bible, the spine of the two Adams, the covenants of Redemption, Works, and Grace, and the tension is relieved because you know you have come to the truth of what the Bible teaches. (I would add you usually naturally accept the amillennial position because of its gracefulness and simplicity and lack of shallow - or fearful - skepticism towards some of the mystery in the time elements of prophecy.)

It's not easy. We know Reformed theologians don't make understanding covenant theology very easy. There is petulance among them in demanding to use different terminology, for instance. Also to deny this or that main ingredient. There is also much lack of real understanding of both biblical theology (as a discipline) which covenant theology resides in and Federal Theology itself (which is covenant theology systematized) among people who write about those two subjects. Not to mention all the false teachers who target classical Covenant - Federal - Theology because that is where the truth resides; and who sow confusion into it in seemingly six hundred and sixty-six different ways - but you find your way. The tension you have needs to be relieved, and it won't be relieved by anything but the truth. Along the way you find you are in the midst of a great, mighty river of influence whose headwaters are the Reformation (the high altitude of Switzerland in God's providence) and whose ultimate oceanic source is the word of God itself and apostolic biblical doctrine.