There is no doubt that Peckham is a gifted writer, and his intentions motivating his work are noble. He seeks to provide an account of the divine attributes that is biblically faithful and theologically coherent in hopes that readers will be drawn to worship and praise for God. Unfortunately, Peckham’s unique formulation of the doctrine of God has far too many deficiencies to overcome. Rather than pointing readers to the God of Scripture, Peckham has breached the Creator/creature distinction and created a God made in the image of man.

Following up on his introductory work, The Doctrine of God: Introducing the Big Questions (2019), Adventist theologian John C. Peckham has published Divine Attributes: Knowing the Covenantal God of Scripture. In this work, Peckham aims to give an account of the divine attributes that are thoroughly biblically grounded over and against models of classical theism which he believes undervalue the plain meaning of Scripture in favor of Greek philosophical presuppositions. As Peckham writes in his introduction, his goal is to “offer a careful theological analysis of divine attributes” that would uphold the “unique normativity of Scripture, in dialogue with core issues in the contemporary discussion of classical theism” (17). Following the introduction, each chapter focuses on a particular attribute in order to show that the covenantal God is one who is dynamic in His relationships and experiences genuine movement and emotions.
Overview
Following the introduction, chapter one surveys various models of theism, including that which Peckham identifies as strict classical theism, process theology, moderate classical theism, and a small section on the God of Greek philosophy. Readers of this review may be most interested to see how he defines and contrasts the strict and moderate conceptions of classical theism. Strict classical theism holds that God must possess the attributes of “divine perfection, necessity, pure aseity, utter self-sufficiency, strict simplicity, timeless eternity, strict immutability, strict impassability, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence” (20-21). Moderate classical theists, however, differ by understanding that God, “engages in genuine relationships with creatures that make a difference to God” (23). According to Peckham’s view, each model surveyed in the first chapter falls short of doing justice to the God of Scripture.
For a model of God to be biblical and true, it must account for the dynamic back-and-forth relationship in which God engages with creatures. Thus, Peckham offers covenantal theism, which “affirms God’s aseity and self-sufficiency, qualified immutability and passibility, everlasting eternity, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and sovereign providence, covenantal action, omnibenevolence, and relational triunity” (37). Chapter one closes with an overview of Peckham’s view of canonical theology, which is tied to the belief that Scripture is a “unified corpus of writings that God has commissioned as the uniquely normative rule of faith and practice and the final form of theological interpretation, to be understood in subjection to guidance by the Holy Spirit” (29).
Chapters two through six address various attributes of God, such as aseity, qualified passibility, and others. Each attribute defined by Peckham is rooted in the belief that Scripture is to be exegeted on its own terms without any external metaphysical presuppositions. In other words, Scripture alone provides the necessary metaphysics to understand and account for the divine attributes.
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God is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He preserves the way of His saints (Prov. 2:7, 8). This is our great hope. Christ has accomplished a sure salvation for His people. We have been, are being, and shall be rescued from sin. Sin will not destroy the church because the church is the special object of God’s preserving providence.

Part 1 can be found here.
This paragraph presents the third salient feature of divine providence: the preservation of the church.
As the providence of God doth in general reach to all creatures, so after a most special manner it taketh care of His church, and disposeth of all things to the good thereof.
This paragraph sets forth the biblical doctrine of the special providence of God. Divine providence extends to all creatures generally. At the same time it extends specially to the people of God. The Scriptures as well as the Confession teach that the special focus of God’s providential care and attention is His people, the church.
Isaiah 43:3-5: “For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west;”
Amos 9:8, 9: “‘Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,’ says the LORD.”
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We consider our past not as our present identity but as a means of celebrating what Christ has done in and for us, a means of understanding ourselves to aid in our sanctification, and a reminder to keep our focus on Christ not ourselves. 

Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. – Psalm 45:10-17, ESV

We have been examining the theme of identity in Christ and how that affects our judgment.  Job’s wife showed us that we should look for patterns of faithfulness rather than fixating on failures.  The woman who anointed Jesusshowed us that the identity of a saint as forgiven by Christ far supersedes even the most checkered past, so we should look for the fruit of genuine faith and repentance: love for Christ and the saints.  But perhaps the strongest statement in Scripture exhorting us to focus on our identity in Christ was said nearly a millennium before Christ came: the bride in Psalm 45. We like her are called to forget the past, submit to the lordship of Christ, and focus on the future to build His Kingdom.
An Ancient Royal Wedding
Psalm 45 was written by the sons of Korah to celebrate a royal wedding: “My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe” (Psalm 45:1).  That king was most likely Solomon.[1]  The psalmist praises the king before addressing the bride: a foreign princess, perhaps Pharoah’s daughter.[2]  He then describes the wedding procession and ends by addressing the king again focusing on future generations.  So while this psalm is poetic, it describes a wedding of real people that actually occurred.[3]
What does this have to do with us?  First, every marriage reflects Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:31-32).  Second, the psalmist alludes to the eternality of the kingdom, thus referencing the Davidic covenant ultimately fulfilled by Christ.  Third and most important, this psalm ultimately refers to Christ because Hebrews says so when quoting it: “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Hebrews 1:8-9 citing Psalm 45:6-7).  So while the bridegroom in the psalm was likely Solomon, he foreshadowed the ultimate Bridegroom: Jesus Christ.  And since Christ has only one Bride, Solomon’s bride foreshadows the Church.[4]
Portrait of the Bridegroom
With this perspective, look at the description of the king: “You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever” (Psalms 45:2).  Jesus was without any majesty or beauty and marred beyond recognition during His suffering (Isaiah 52:14, 53:2), but afterward He was exalted, which is how He is described here.  Next, the psalmist exhorts the king: “Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you” (Psalms 45:3-5).  To many modern Christians this would seem unfitting for Jesus or a wedding, but we see similar statements in other psalms (eg. Psalm 2, 110), and the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is closely connected to Christ’s conquest (Revelation 19).  As we have previously seen, the harmless and effeminate “boyfriend Jesus” worshipped in many churches is a false god with little resemblance to the mighty conquering King seen here. The psalmist then describes the king’s righteous reign, with His scepter of uprightness, love of righteousness, and hatred of wickedness, which can only be perfectly said of Christ.  And just like Psalm 110, the psalmist calls the king God but then speaks of God: “Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Psalm 45:7b).
The focus then shifts to wedding preparation, starting with the king’s robe that is so saturated with expensive perfume that it might as well be made of it.[5]  This fits his extravagant ivory palace filled with music.  The entire atmosphere looks, sounds, and smells beautiful and opulent.  The king’s abundance is also seen in the court: “daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor; at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir” (Psalm 45:9).  In this way he does not foreshadow Christ.  With any exegesis, we must understand the audience.  The psalmist describes this king as gloriously as possible for his ancient near-eastern audience, which included the splendor of his harem (Ecclesiastes 2:8)—despite the fact that God explicitly commanded Israel’s kings to refrain from this (Deuteronomy 17:17).  When discussing the Law, we noted how polygamy was a gross distortion of God’s design that was allowed but regulated until Christ made it obsolete.  Solomon exercised no restraint in sexual self-indulgence, which was ultimately his downfall (1 Kings 11).  Contrary to this, Christ has only one Bride and commands that every leader in His Church to likewise be “husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2,12, Titus 1:6).  So while the psalmist was describing this wedding as gloriously as possible, we have the advantage of looking beyond it to a Bridegroom infinitely better than Solomon.
The Exhortation: Forget, Submit, Focus on the Future
The focus then shifts to the bride.  Here, the psalmist essentially speaks like a father giving one last piece of advice, starting with a threefold preamble: “Hear, O daughter and consider, and incline your ear” (Psalm 45:10a).  This repetition means that what will follow is infinitely important.  He tells her to forget her heritage (Psalm 45:10b) and bow to her husband as lord (Psalm 45:11b).  This complements Genesis 2:24 which calls on the husband to leave his parents to be united to his wife.[6]  Here, the bride is leaving her parents to be united to her husband.  This is the Gospel: Jesus Christ left the Father to earth and win His Bride (the Church).  He then ascended back to heaven to prepare a place for His Bride, whom He calls to leave Her sinful past in order to be united to Him.  Therefore we must heed these instructions and their accompanying blessings just like this bride.
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