Read This as a Companion to This Post and Then Also This One
Recent discussions, arguments, or fights within the MAGA movement proceed from many who skew the world in an unbiblical way. It might not make sense to you that Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, and their supporters could miss this. At one time, a much greater percentage of people in the United States viewed the world through a biblical prism or prisms and would easily discern this error. This isn’t happening so much any more, so I want to review the important bases for a correct view of the world, which are three crucial scriptural prisms, not necessarily in the following order in the Bible.
As a whole, these prisms are one prism, which is a theocentric view of the world. People can use the Bible and “see” what it says, what it actually doesn’t say, through an anthropocentric (man-centered) prism. When someone uses God’s Word, but sees it through something other than what God says there, he then misses the correct view. It becomes a kind of Satanic view. Satan likes to use the Bible to make his points, as seen in Genesis 3 and Matthew 4 among other places.
People Offramp from Scripture
It should surprise no one that people offramp from scripture. That’s the history of the world itself. They do what they want to do in rebellion against God. Tucker Carlson talks like he’s a representative of historical belief and practice, at the same time disavowing because he doesn’t really know. He speaks with extreme dogmatism, “This is a Christian heresy,” explaining why he dislikes these Christian Zionists more than anyone.
I’m hoping that writing this will serve as a necessary corrective for some, who are understanding this wrongfully. People then can get back to an actual biblical worldview. This list will not necessarily come in a scriptural order, but all three are from the Bible.
1. GOD’S UNILATERAL COVENANTS
An important grid through which to see individual passages of scripture and the Bible as a whole are the unilateral covenants of God. You never hear this come out of Tucker Carlson or Candace Owens mouths. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Their way of thinking is not how anyone should think, essentially making up things as they go and then confirming them with the testimony of others who get them wrong.
In biblical theology, a covenant (Hebrew: berith) is a binding agreement or relationship initiated by God. Unilateral covenants are those where God makes unconditional promises, obligating Himself alone to fulfill them, without requiring reciprocal action from humanity (though obedience often follows as a response). These contrast with bilateral covenants (e.g., the Mosaic/Sinai Covenant), which involve mutual obligations.
The primary unilateral covenants are the Noahic (Genesis 6:18; 9:8–17), Abrahamic (Genesis 12:1–3; 15:1–21; 17:1–14; confirmed in 22:15–18), and Davidic Covenants (2 Samuel 7:8–16; Psalm 89:3–4, 28–37; confirmed in 2 Samuel 23:5). You should also include in the New Covenant, but with some caveats offered below. These covenants depend solely on God’s faithfulness (hesed, lovingkindness).
Abrahamic Covenant
In the Abrahamic ritual (Genesis 15), only God (as a smoking oven and torch) passes between the divided animals, symbolizing He alone bears the curse if broken. The Noahic Covenant applies to all creation, no human action required. Even in the Davidic, God promises endurance “forever” despite human failure (e.g., Psalm 89 laments breaches but affirms permanence).
Later covenants build on earlier ones. The Abrahamic promises land, seed, and blessing; the Davidic specifies the royal seed; the New fulfills spiritual blessing and heart-change for all nations. Another covenant, which in contrast is bilateral, is the Mosaic or Sinaitic Covenant (Exodus 19-24). It is conditional, as “if you obey, then I will bless.” Having broken it repeatedly, this lead to exile. I like to say that the New Covenant (the New Testament) is a corollary, however, to this covenant, which means the blessing can come through Christ’s obedience imputed through justification by faith.
New Covenant
Is the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 36:24–28; fulfilled in Hebrews 8–10; Luke 22:20) bilateral or unilateral? Like the other unilateral covenants, it is promised and enacted solely by God without requiring human negotiation or mutual agreement at its foundation. Jeremiah 31:31-34 use “I will” seven times, emphasizing God’s sovereign action, just like the other unilateral covenants. Ezekiel 36:26-27 reinforce this with “I will give you a new heart,” “I will put a new spirit within you,” “I will take away the stony heart,” “I will give you an heart of flesh,” and “I will put my spirit within you.” These are five “I wills” from God.
The initiation of the New Covenant (“I will” statements), the ratification of it through the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:15, Luke 22:20), and the sustaining power, Spirit enabled obedience (Ezekiel 36:27), come unilaterally. What about participation in the New Covenant? The national election of Israel, mostly in view in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, is also unilateral. God shall save Israel.
Aside from Election
For the sake of not missing this grid of divine unilateral covenants, I won’t discuss individual election in this post. That would open a can of worms I don’t want to open. Only one position can be true on this, but everyone should agree at least on the unilateral nature of these covenants. In the Noahic covenant, everyone receives the blessing of that covenant. This is the nature of that covenant. No one earns it and everyone gets because of the foundation of God’s faithfulness to His promise.
People might not have as much trouble with the Noahic covenant, because it applies to everyone. They might not over the Abrahamic covenant, because it applies only to one people, a separate people, the physical, ethnic descendants of Abraham. As I’ve written before, Israel is Israel in the Bible. The Apostle Paul Himself never made any exceptions to that. God’s unilateral promises apply to physical, ethnic actual descendants, just like the Noahic Covenant does.
The Abrahamic Covenant: Core Promises
The core promises of God to Abraham in that Covenant contain three main elements:
- Land (a specific territory for his descendants)
- Seed/Nation (numerous descendants forming a great nation)
- Blessing (blessing to Abraham, his descendants, and all nations through them)
The land promise is detailed in Genesis 15:18–21:
18 In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: 19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, 20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, 21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
This describes a vast territory: from the “river of Egypt” (Wadi el-Arish or the Nile) to the Euphrates River, encompassing Canaan and beyond. The land is inseparable from the covenant: It’s the physical space where Abraham’s descendants (Israel) will become a nation and mediate blessing to the world. Since the covenant is unconditional in its core, God guarantees it. It’s reiterated to Isaac (Genesis 26:3–4) and Jacob (Genesis 28:13–15; 35:12), confirming inheritance through the actual, physical, ethnic line leading to Israel.
What About the Fulfillment of the Land Promises?
According to the most generous understanding of all the pertaining passages on Israel’s land possession, historical Israel at its largest (under David/Solomon) reached around 30,000 square miles, far short of the about 300,000 square miles from Nile to Euphrates. Ezekiel 47:13–20 and other prophetic texts reiterate similar expanded borders for a future time. For even greater understanding, one can cross-reference Ezekiel 47:13-20 with Ezekiel 48’s tribal allotments to more greatly affirm this physical promise of God.
Other passages serve as prophetic restatements or further witness of the yet unfulfilled land promise, also based on the permanent basis of it. Amos 9:14-15 say:
14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.
Paul also reaffirms the land implications in Romans 11:25-29 by saying the covenant gifts, including the all the land promised, are irrevocable. Luke 1:68-73 references the Abrahamic promises in Zechariah’s prophesies. Jesus and the Apostles had treated the covenant as ongoing. The land is tied to ultimate kingdom restoration. Acts 1:6-7 say:
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
A Cohesive Prophetic Thread
The biblical texts form a cohesive prophetic thread for the unilateral fulfillment of God’s covenant. The land promise begins with Abraham in Genesis, is elaborated in Torah (Exodus-Deuteronomy-Numbers), and then echoed in the Writings and Prophets as a future reality. The Bible envisions a divinely enlarged Israel for the end times. In addition, no historical era of Israel matches the full scope, as confirmed by biblical historians, even in their temporary reach. The promise is unilateral and is not temporary. Israel couldn’t lose it because of something they did or didn’t do.
An irony to what I’m exposing is the contradiction on the doctrine of election for many postmillennialists. They see election as unilateral. This is their belief in the sovereignty of God. However, in practice or application, they reject the unilateral election of Israel as a nation, betraying their own closely embraced doctrine of election.
In the Noahic Covenant of Genesis 9, God gives three speeches to Noah (9:8, “And God spake,” 9:12, “And God said,” 9:17, “And God said.”). The last of these in verse 17 is a summary of the whole section of Genesis 9:12-17. God “established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.” This is an underrated covenant. Sovereign God destroyed everyone but eight people with water. He guaranteed to everyone He would never do that again, so God promises this to a group, nothing related to merit.
Freedom Proceeding from God and For Him
Whatever choices we make before Almighty God, God gives a freedom to operate without the threat of another universal flood that will kill us. We can make our decisions without the coercion of what the antediluvian civilization faced from Him. He made a similar covenant, identical in its unilateral nature, with another group. He elevated a group, not based on their merit, but on the superiority of His nature and words. This is that theocentric view that I mentioned earlier. God wants us to look at Israel like He looks at it. It’s about Him, not Israel.f
Nothing in the Abrahamic Covenant speaks of the superiority of Israel. The Apostle Paul reinforces this by speaking of oneness in the church as not Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female. God’s promises bring everyone to an equal standing in grace. The Abrahamic Covenant asserts the superiority of the God of Israel, one whom Abraham faithfully followed. God made Israel.
The Noahic covenant is also about God, not the people of the world. We’re not living and breathing, and not drowning, because of anything we’ve done, but because of God. This speaks of His graciousness. Life changed under the flood from 950 or so lifespans to 70 to 100 year ones, no matter how hard man tries. Life is too short to ignore God’s guarantees and this prism through which He wants mankind to view the world.
More to Come