"MODIFIED DISPENSATIONALISM" DENIED
A Response to Brian Schwertley
by Greg Loren Durand

Exhibit B:
Brian Schwertley's 2 September 2007 E-Mail to Greg Durand

10:55 PM 9/02/2007
From: Brian Schwertley
To: Crown Rights Book Company
Subject: My response to Greg Durand's comments on my sermon posted on sermonaudio

First, I would like to say that I am not a reconstructionist and have frequently criticized the reconstruction movement in my sermons. Two Sundays ago, I even briefly refuted Bahnsen's contention that "fulfill" means confirm in Mt. 5:17. Furthermore, I believe in following any teachings that are moral throughout the whole Word of God. For example in 1 Cor. 7, Paul adds a completely new rule regulating lawful divorce.

From Durand's book, Judicial Warfare, quotes in blue.
See my bracketed comments in black below:

Pg 21 "...it [the law] either stands as a covenantal whole "in exhaustive detail" or it was abolished as a covenantal whole. One may not arbitrarily interpret the phrase 'the law' to mean one thing (i.e. the moral law) in one passage of Scripture and something completely different in another (i.e. the ceremonial law)."

Pg 26 Durand quotes favorably an author who says: "Neither Christ nor the apostles ever distinguished between the moral, ceremonial and the civil law when they speak of its establishment or abolition." (John Kitto) [In other words the whole law of God revealed to Moses including the Ten Commandments and all moral case laws have been abolished.]

Pg 29 "The Mosaic law [Including the Ten Commandments] has not only been changed, but has been taken away and replaced by the New Covenant."

Pg 30 "Christ...has abrogated the whole Mosaic covenant which agrees with the teaching of Hebrews that the law [Including the Ten Commandments] has not only been changed, but also has been taken away."

Pg 42 "The Gentiles' admiration of the Israelites for their just laws [see Dt. 4:6-8] simply does not equal an obligation to enact those same laws in their own countries." [If the Gentile nations are not obligated to enact "just laws" as Durand admits, then are they allowed to enact unjust laws?]

Durand does a number of things in his book which are nonconfessional and unbiblical:

(1) He does not make any distinction between the law as it relates to earning salvation (justification) and the moral law as it relates to sanctification.

(2) He makes no distinctions between laws that are ceremonial and only applied to Israel and laws that are moral and obviously applied to all nations at all times (see Leviticus 18; Dt. 4:6-8) He does however contradict this when he says moral principles in the law continue. Thus, the Ten Commandments are both abrogated and binding at the same time. (only the principles)

(3) Following dispensational writers he makes no discernable distinction between covenantal form (e.g., the Gentiles are obviously not required to adopt the whole Mosaic covenantal administration of grace as a covenant) and the moral content of the Mosaic code which obviously all nations at all times are obligated to obey.

(4) Apparently, the goal of Durand's book is to get readers to not look to the moral laws in the Older Testament as a guide for laws for civil magistrates, but rather to look to natural law. The problem with this is: a) Paul appeals to natural law or the law written on the heart to show that men are guilty of sin, not as a rule for a detailed system of law (Rom. 2:15). b) The written moral laws in both testaments are perspicuous, while the human conscience has been corrupted by sin and therefore is not completely trustworthy. I would challenge Mr. Durand to note one pagan nation in all of human history who has put in place the requirements of the first table of the law. c) If natural law and the moral law are the same law, then why does Mr. Durand have a problem going to the moral laws in the Older Testament?

(5) Durand's contention that one cannot make distinctions between ceremonial and moral laws when the word law appears in the New Testament renders many N.T. passages on the law incomprehensible:

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:19) Paul says "all the world" is brought under the condemnation of the law (Rom. 3:19).

I had not known sin except through the law (Rom. 7:7).

The law is holy, just and good (Rom. 7:12).

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Rom. 13:8-10).

But we know that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully... (1 Tim. 1:8).

If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law (James 2:8-11).

Sin is the transgression of the law. (1 Jn. 3:4)

For references or allusions to extra-decalogical prohibitions in the N.T. see Mt. 5:44; Mt. 15:4-5; Mt. 18:15; Mt. 22:37-39; Mk. 10:19; Rom. 12:20; 1 Cor. 5:1; 9:9; 1 Tim. 5:18; Ja. 5:4; etc.

Note also the following O.T. passages:

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3).

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jer. 31:31-33).

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God (Ez. 36:27-28).