Sutton, Ray. That You May Prosper (1987)
The Bible is structured in terms of the idea of the covenant. A covenant is a legal contract taken before God. It invokes God's sanctions: positive for obedience, negative for disobedience.
There are five covenants in the Bible:
1. The dominion covenant, which defines man: to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:26-28)
2. The personal covenant of salvation (Christ) or damnation (Adam)
3. Family
4. Church
5. State
Christians classify these five covenants under two headings: Old Covenant and New Covenant.
Every biblical covenant has five sections or points:
1. Transcendence/presence of God
2. Hierarchy/representation/authority
3. Ethics/law/dominion
4. Oath/sanctions
5. Succession/inheritance
The acronym is THEOS: the Greek word for God.
In That You May Prosper, Ray Sutton extended this model to the New Covenant, which was first revealed by George Mendenhall in an article in the mid-1950s that studied treaties of the ancient Near East. A follow-up was published by Meredith Kline: Treaty of the Great King (1963), a study of Deuteronomy. Sutton extended Kline's to the structure of all covenants in the Bible. He extended it into the New Covenant, which Kline refused to do.
His book was first published in 1987 by the Institute for Christian Economics.
All of society's foundational institutions are structured in terms of this five-point model. This model is the key to understanding what makes a particular society the kind of society it is.
In my Publisher's Preface, I offered five questions to help you remember this model and apply it to every institution:
1. Who's in charge here?
2. To whom do I report?
3. What are the rules?
4. What do I get if I obey (disobey)?
5. Does this outfit have a future?
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