“Everlasting Doesn’t Always Mean ‘Never-ending’!”

Reformed theology, in the defense of infant baptism, holds that there is only one covenant of grace taught throughout Scripture, as opposed to the Baptist/Dispensationalist position which holds that there are two or more covenants. (For a brief overview defending this particular point, click here). That there is only one covenant, is proven, apart from other considerations, by the simple fact that God’s covenant is described (in many places) as “everlasting” (i.e. forever/never-ending). By definition, there can only be one everlasting covenant.

However, Baptists and Dispensationalists (as well as proponents of “New Covenant Theology”) respond to this position by claiming that the word rendered “everlasting” in the Authorized Version (KJV), doesn’t always mean “never-ending” or “forever” but can rather mean merely “a long period of time” (i.e. something that can come to an end; something that can be temporary).

In response to this, Prof. Herman Hanko, of the Protestant Reformed Churches in America, comments:

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[Source: Herman Hanko, We and Our Children: The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism (RFPA, 2004), chapter 6, p. 79]

Scripture places great emphasis on the fact that the covenant lines followed from father to son within the whole of Old Testament times. This was not only true of the nation of Israel, but was also true before God formed Israel as a nation. The covenant line can be traced from Adam to Seth, to Enoch, to Methuselah, to Lamech, and to Noah (Gen. 5). After the flood, that line continued from Shem to Arphaxad, to Salah, to Eber, to Peleg, to Reu, to Serug, to Nahor, to Terah, and to Abraham (Gen. 10, 11). After Abraham, the line continued through Isaac and Jacob, and from the sons of Jacob to the twelve tribes, and the royal line continued through the kings of Judah to Christ. Always that covenant was in the line of generations.

This emphasis on generations appears repeatedly in Abraham’s life. It appears in its basic form in God’s promise to Abraham: “And I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Gen. 17:7).

It is worth our notice that God speaks here of an “everlasting” covenant. Baptists object that the word “everlasting” in the Old Testament does not always mean “everlasting,” but often means simply “a long time.”

God established his covenant with Abraham and his seed as an “everlasting” covenant. The nature of the covenant is everlasting. If the nature of the covenant established with Abraham and his seed is everlasting, then the principle that that covenant continues in the line of generations is a principle which belongs to the very essence of the covenant. If the covenant in the old and new dispensations is essentially one covenant, the principle of the covenant in the line of generations is also a principle which continues throughout all time.

[Note: While various Hebrew words are translated as “forever, ever, everlasting,” and the like, the word that is used most often as a reference to God as everlasting is also the word that is repeatedly used to describe God’s covenant. It is not an exaggeration to say that whenever the term “everlasting” is applied to the covenant, it indicates that the covenant is forever.]

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[Source: Herman Hanko, We and Our Children: The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism (RFPA, 2004), chapter 8, pp. 138-140]

Much has been made of the fact that although the word “everlasting” is used in the Scriptures to describe the nature of the covenant, nevertheless this word does not always mean everlasting, but sometimes has the connotation of a long period of time. Baptists argue that when God told Abraham he would establish an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his seed (Gen. 17:7), this means only that God would establish a covenant which would last for a long period of time.

I have briefly faced this question in chapter 6, I will make only a few additional remarks.

It is true that the Hebrew word does not always mean “forever” or “everlasting” in the Old Testament, but this does not indicate that it *never* has this meaning. The basic meaning “for a long time” can mean, and often does mean, “for a long time extending from before history and into the future beyond history a future without end.” This is the meaning of Psalm 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

The many times that the word “everlasting” appears in Scripture with the word “covenant” surely proves beyond doubt that everlasting in the sense of unending time is meant. According to Young’s concordance, the Hebrew word is rendered as “everlasting” at least fifty-nine times in the Authorized Version, and of these, fourteen uses are applied to God’s covenant. Consider the following passages: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3). Isaiah spoke this passage from the prophetic perspective of the captivity of the children of Judah. The nature of the “everlasting covenant” is “the sure mercies of David,” a clear reference to Psalm 89. That this covenant of which Isaiah spoke never referred to the nation of Judah is evident from the fact that Judah, even after the return from captivity, never restored the throne of David of which Israel spoke and sang in Psalm 89. The clear reference is to the covenant established and fulfilled with and in Christ.

The same is true of Isaiah 61:8, 9: “For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.” Here, very clearly, God speaks of an everlasting covenant which has, as its characteristic, that “their seed shall be known among the Gentiles.” It is impossible to make this refer to national Israel and to speak of a covenant established for a long time in the old dispensation only.

Another interesting passage is Ezekiel 37:26, 27: “Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Clearly this refers to the full realization of God’s covenant spoken of in Revelation 21:3: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

It cannot possibly be denied that reference is made in Ezekiel to the very same covenant of which Revelation 21 speaks as being fulfilled at the coming of our Lord when all things shall be made new. But then also, the covenant spoken of is indeed an “everlasting covenant.” It requires considerable exegetical nerve, therefore, to insist that the “everlasting covenant” spoken of in Genesis 17:7 is a covenant which shall only endure “for a long time,” that is, for the period of the old dispensation. This is indeed impossible when we consider the fact that Paul makes specific reference to this very passage in Galatians 3:16, where the text states that the covenant is established with Christ, for Christ is the seed of Abraham. If that covenant is established with Christ, then surely it is an everlasting covenant, and not a covenant which endures only for the period of the old dispensation.

One more passage will surely establish that the word “everlasting,” as a description of God’s covenant, refers to the new dispensation as well as the old, and to everlasting life in heaven. “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever” (Isa. 59:21). This passage must be understood in the light of the preceding verse, which speaks of the coming of the Messiah: “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.” This text speaks of the time when Israel’s Redeemer will come and will give the Spirit to all the people of God at Pentecost. But that same Spirit would be in the mouth of those who are the true Israel of God, their seed, and their seed’s seed, forever. That outpouring of the Spirit is God’s covenant with his people.

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QUESTION BOX:

Q. 1. “Does not the Scriptures speak of an ‘everlasting’ Levitical priesthood? (Num. 25:11-13) The Levitical priesthood only lasted for a brief amount of time. Surely this proves that the word ‘everlasting’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘unending’ or ‘forever’?”

Here is a page specifically dealing with Numbers 25:13:

https://ecclesiologydeliberations.blogspot.com/2019/04/numbers-2513-covenant-of-everlasting.html

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Q. 2. “Isaiah 24:5 speaks of individuals who have ‘broken the everlasting covenant.’ Other passages speak along similar lines. How can something that is said to be ‘forever/unending’ be ‘broken’? Surely this proves that the word ‘everlasting’ does not mean the covenant is ‘forever/unending’?”

(A response will be provided to this fine question, shortly, DV)