Wikipedia: "The standard description of covenant theology views the history of God's dealings with mankind in all of history, from Creation to Fall to Redemption to Consummation, under the framework of three overarching theological covenants — the covenants of redemption, of works, and of grace."
Yeah, that about covers it. It also should be noted that this forms the basis and foundation of a couple of theological systems: Calvinism and Dispensationalism.
The idea is that over time God has changed the way he deals with people. No argument there, but the rub comes when you start saying that at different times God saved people differently. That is where I say this is a dangerous theology.
Paul is very clear in Romans and other places that everyone has been saved by one thing - faith. He sites Abraham to prove to a skeptical Jewish population of his day that just like the Gentiles, Abraham was saved by faith. When you start saying as a certain time people were saved by works or grace depending on the time they lived it seems to counter this idea and it does. Paul's whole point is that every man and woman has been saved by the grace of God through faith and that faith leads to action through obedience and love of God. Covenant Theology departs from this and that is why I rejected it long ago and the Calvinism and dispensationalism that goes with it. More on those later.
This theology also has the problem of presupposition. If you are always assuming these three covenant times exist; it will color your interpretation of Scripture. It means your setting yourself up for reading into Scripture what you want to see.
Next: Dialectical Theology
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