Pauline Dispensationalism

Transcript Pauline Dispensationalism

Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology

Dispensationalism is a Protestant evangelical tradition based on a biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants. As a system, dispensationalism is rooted in the writings of John Nelson Darby (1800 –1882) and the Brethren Movement.

The theology of dispensationalism consists of a distinctive eschatological "end times" perspective, as all dispensationalists hold to premillennialism and most hold to a pretribulation rapture. Dispensationalists believe that the nation of Israel is distinct from the Church,[3] :322 and that God has yet to fulfill His promises to national Israel.

These promises include the land promises, which in the future result in a millennial kingdom where Christ, upon His return, will rule the world from Jerusalem for a thousand years. In other areas of theology, dispensationalists hold to a wide range of beliefs within the evangelical and fundamentalist spectrum.

The label "dispensationalism" is derived from the idea that biblical history is best understood through division into a series of chronologically successive dispensations. The number of dispensations held are typically three, four, seven or eight. The three- and four dispensation schemes are often referred to as minimalist, as they recognize the commonly held major breaks within Biblical history. 5

These different dispensations are not separate ways of salvation. During each of them man is reconciled to God in only one way, i.e. by God's grace through the work of Christ that was accomplished on the cross and vindicated in His resurrection.

Before the cross, man was saved on the basis of Christ's atoning sacrifice to come, through believing the revelation thus far given him. Since the cross, man has been saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom revelation and redemption are consummated. 8

Although the divine revelation unfolds progressively, the deposit of truth in earlier time-periods is not discarded, rather it is cumulative. Thus conscience (moral responsibility) is an abiding truth in human life (Ro. 2:15; 9:1; 2 Co. 1:12; 4:2), although it does not continue as a dispensation.

In every past dispensation unregenerate man has failed, and is failing in the present dispensation, and will fail in the future until Eternity arrives. But salvation has been and will continue to be available to him by God's grace through faith. (The New Scofield Study Bible, NIV 1984 Edition , pg. 3-4) 10

The relationship between the ancient nation of Israel

and the church as the people of God is the key discriminator between Dispensationalism and other views.

In the dispensational view, the time in which the church operates, known as the church age or the Christian dispensation, represents a "parenthesis". That is, it is an interruption in God's dealings with the Jewish people as a nation as described in the Old Testament, and it is the time when the Gospel was preached and salvation in the present age is offered to the Gentiles and Jews alike. 12

God’s continued care for the Jewish people as a nation will be revealed after the end of the church age when Israel will be restored to their land and will accept Jesus as their messiah and therefore "all Israel shall be saved." 13

Jesus Christ will then sit on the throne of David and will begin the Theocratic Davidic Kingdom which is promised in numerous places in the Old Testament, in which believers and Christ reign together on the earth from Israel 14

Contrasted with this view are Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Covenant Theology, and New Covenant Theology. In Catholicism and Covenantalism, the church is not a replacement for the nation of Israel but an expansion of it where Gentiles are, in the words of Romans 11, "grafted into" the existing covenant community.

All of these groups expect there will be an influx of Jews to the church before the second coming of Christ. However, dispensationalists do not view the Church as the promised covenanted kingdom in Old Testament prophecy. They believe such a kingdom is still promised to the Jews during the New Testament era, i.e. in Acts 3:19-21 16

Acts 3: 18 – 21

18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.

19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Dispensationalism was first introduced to North America by John Inglis (1813 – 1879), through a monthly magazine called

Waymarks in the Wilderness (published intermittently between 1854 and 1872).

[ In 1866, Inglis organized the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, which introduced dispensationalist ideas to a small but influential circle of American evangelicals.

The energetic efforts of C.I. Scofield and his associates introduced dispensationalism to a wider audience in America and bestowed a measure of respectability through his Scofield Reference Bible. The publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909 by the Oxford University Press was something of an innovative literary coup for the movement, since for the first time, overtly dispensationalist notes were added to the pages of the biblical text.

The Scofield Reference Bible became the leading Bible used by independent Evangelicals and Fundamentalists in the U.S. for the next sixty years. Evangelist and Bible teacher Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871 –1952), who was strongly influenced by C.I. Scofield, founded Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924, which has become the flagship of Dispensationalism in America.

Dispensationalism has come to dominate the American Evangelical scene, especially among nondenominational Bible churches, many Baptists, and most Pentecostal and Charismatic groups, while mainline Protestants generally continue to reject dispensationalism.

"Ultra" Dispensationalists hold to the belief that the Church wasn't started till after the stoning of Stephen. The first reference to the church the body of Christ is in Romans and unlike most other dispensationalists they believe that the church started after Acts 2. Some begin the church with the salvation of Saul in Acts 9, while others move to Acts 13 with Paul's first missionary journey.

Dispensationalism rejects the notion of supersessionism, sees the Jewish people as the true people of God, and sees the modern State of Israel as identical to the Israel of the Bible. John Nelson Darby taught, and most subsequent dispensationalists have consistently maintained, that God looks upon the Jews as his chosen people even as they remain in rejection of Jesus Christ, and God continues to have a place for them in the dispensational, prophetic scheme of things.

Christian Dispensationalists sometimes embrace what some critics have pejoratively called

Judeophilia —ranging from support of the state of Israel, to observing traditional Jewish holidays and practicing traditionally Jewish religious rituals. Dispensationalists typically support the modern state of Israel, recognize its existence as God revealing His Will for the Last Days, and reject anti-Semitism.

Covenant theology (also known as Covenantalism or Federal theology or Federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall flow of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of covenant as an organizing principle for Christian theology.

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.

Covenant theology is often referred to as "supersessionism," or "replacement theology" by its detractors, due to the perception that it teaches that God has abandoned the promises made to the Jews and has replaced the Jews with Christians as his chosen people in the earth.

Covenant theologians deny that God has abandoned his promises to Israel, but see the fulfillment of the promises to Israel in the person and the work of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, who established the church in organic continuity with Israel, not a separate replacement entity.

Covenant of Redemption The covenant of redemption is the eternal agreement within the Godhead in which the Father appointed the Son Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to redeem his elect people from the guilt and power of sin.

Covenant of Works The covenant of works was made in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam who represented all mankind as a federal head. (Romans 5:12-21) It promised life for obedience and death for disobedience. Adam, and all mankind in Adam, broke the covenant, thus standing condemned.

Covenant of Grace The covenant of grace promises eternal life for all people who receive forgiveness of sin through Christ. He is the substitutionary covenantal representative fulfilling the covenant of works on their behalf, in both the positive requirements of righteousness and its negative penal consequences

It is the historical expression of the eternal covenant of redemption. Genesis 3:15, with the promise of a "seed" of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, is usually identified as the historical inauguration for the covenant of grace.

Adamic covenant Noahic covenant Abrahamic covenant Mosaic covenant Davidic covenant New Covenant

The following are quotations from: Dispensationalism – A Reformed Evaluation

J. Ligon Duncan, PCA

Classic dispensationalism, in addition to being

premillenial, is also pretribulational.

On the other hand, most Covenant Theologians have been either post- or amillenial.

You can only have two views at the time of the millenium. Christ is either coming before or after the millenium. Those are the only two possible views. So, amillenialism is a subcategory of postmillenialism. All believers are either premillenialists or postmillenialists.

Amillenialists tend to stress the heavenly character of [the] millennium. They will, for instance, stress that the millenial reign is going on now, in heaven. It is a spiritual millenium. Whereas postmillenialists tend to stress a more earthly character to that millennium, and often times project it as a golden age which is yet to be experienced, but which will occur before the time of Christ.

“ ...it is perhaps the fundamental point of Dispensationalism that Israel and the Church are distinct, and the Law-Gospel distinction must be preserved at all costs. That is the very heart and core of classic dispensationalism. You should never, ever mix up Law and Gospel, and you should never ever mix up Israel and the Church.” 38

Dispensationalists do not believe that the Church is prophesied about in the Old Testament. Covenant Theology on the other hand, sees the Church as the fulfillment of Israel in New Covenant prophecy. Covenant Theology is happy to acknowledge the uniqueness of the Church, especially in its post Pentecost phase. But Covenant Theology sees all believers in essential continuity. There are not two peoples of God. There is one people of God. Dispensationalism, however, contends

Some modern dispensationalists generally argue that the saving faith of the Old Testament was substantially and materially different from the saving faith of the New Testament. They tend to argue that sinners in the Old Testament were not justified by faith in the Gospel of the Messiah as sin-bearer (Christ crucified), but rather their faith was in promises that were peculiar to their individual era in redemptive history.

Now, this isn’t just out of accord with Covenant Theology, but this is the area where dispensationalism has been most out of accord with Protestant theology.

Hebrews 4: 1 – 2 1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

Dispensationalists speak in terms of a literal interpretation of the Bible. This is a major rhetorical thing that you hear in discussion with Dispensationalist friends.

“We interpret the Bible literally.” Of course, the implication being that you don’t. We interpret the Bible literally, you don’t. You do something else to it.

Covenant Theologians would argue, ‘We interpret the Bible literally, but, we believe that the New Testament interprets the Old Testament.” We believe that the New Testament is the hermeneutical manual for the Old Testament. And Dispensationalists are suspicious of that.

For the Covenant Theologian, the New Covenant always has the final word as to the meaning of the Old Covenant passage.

It doesn’t mean that you don’t start with the original context, and that you don’t bother yourself about original intent, it just means that you recognize from a biblical theological standpoint that later revelation, by definition, controls the final Systematic Theological understanding of earlier revelation.

Acts 2 (NKJV) 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the

day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

Joel 2 (NKJV) 28 “ And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

For the Dispensational side, the Church is a parenthesis in God’s program for the ages. It is a temporary thing in the flow of history. You have heard the phrase

The Great Parenthesis

, which is used to describe the time when Messiah came and the Jews shockingly rejected Him.

This actually thwarted God’s plan, because the original plan was for Messiah to come and set up a kingdom in Israel, but oops, the Jews rejected Him.......

At that point the prophetic clock stopped and we entered into the period of the Gentiles, the Great Parenthesis. That is a period about which there was no prophecy in the Old Testament. At the end of the period of the Great Parenthesis, the end of the time of the Gentiles, as the Dispensationalists interpret that section in Romans chapter 11, the Church is removed. That is the rapture. Then the prophetic clock starts ticking again, and God’s dealings with Israel resume.

[This] gives you a clue as to why a pre-tribulation rapture is so important for consistent classical Dispensationalism, because you have to get rid of Gentile believers in the program of God, before you can get on with the work that God is doing with literal physical earthly Israel.

Pauline Dispensationalism

Lehman Strauss wrote: 

“the departure from the traditional dispensational position is leading younger students of God’s Word into the Covenant Theology camp”



“For years I have been reading and studying the Apostle Paul and his Church Epistles. They are completely adequate for the life and labors of every member of the Body of Christ.”

Paul R. Van Gorder wrote: 

“Utter confusion reigns among evangelicals because of the failure to rightly divide the Word, especially the clear distinction between Israel and the Church”



“I am distressed with the teaching which confuses Israel and the Church, Law and Grace, Salvation and Discipleship”



“Sad, sad that many of God’s dear children seem to know nothing more than Jesus of Nazareth in His humiliation—while the risen, ascended, glorified Man is ignored, or unknown”

“neo-dispensationalism” 

This movement, recently emerging from Dallas Theological Seminary and elsewhere, is “contemporary,” and “progressive,” having left Dallas’ founder, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, and his Pauline Dispensationalism far, far behind.



The aim of Neo-Dispensationalism is to equate Israel and the Church as much as possible, while at the same time keeping them separate.

Pauline Dispensationalism is heavenly. •

The Christian whom Paul presents is heavenly;

•

The Church that Paul presents is heavenly — her Source is in heaven, although her birth took place on earth on the Day of Pentecost. She will return to her Source in heaven on the Day of the Rapture

Neo-Dispensationalism is “progressing” on the horizontal, kingdom level, and is already halfway to Covenant Theology, which has

always

been on that earthly plane.

Pauline Dispensationalism Coming onto Paul’s heavenly ground results in a full escape from all earthly, horizontal, New Covenant, Synoptic, Sermon on the Mount, and Millennial Kingdom influences.

The Church is to be kept separate from all else, including Israel and her Law, via clear-cut

Pauline Dispensationalism

Ephesians 5:25-27 . . . . Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

Two Gospels

The earthly (Kingdom) gospel The heavenly (Grace) gospel

By Faith

The earthly gospel

ministered by Christ on earth, during His pre-Cross humiliation exclusively addressed to Israel regarding her Millennial Kingdom

The Heavenly Gospel

ministered to Paul by the glorified Lord Jesus Christ; after Calvary, from heaven exclusively to and for His chosen heavenly Body

Heaven-based Church

Why should a heavenly citizen, “blessed with

all

The Rapture spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”, stoop to purloin some “spiritual” blessing from comparatively poor Israel? Here we are, in the year 2004.

Church Age Human history

Infinitely Above

The Lord Jesus’ heavenly Gospel in content and position is infinitely above the Kingdom Gospel that He shared with earthly Israel — which they rejected.

Those who do not center in the truths which the ascended Lord communicated directly to Paul

• will not know

WHO

they are in Christ • will not know

WHERE

they are in Christ • will not know

WHAT

their portion is in the purpose of the Father • will not know their

PRIVILEGES RESPONSIBILITIES

and

They will constantly go astray in their interpretation of the Gospel and the all-important Church truth

Dr. L.S. Chafer wrote:

"The laws of the Kingdom are not required to be combined with the teachings of Grace, since every item within those laws which could have any present application, is exactly and amply stated in the Pauline teachings of Grace." 64

“You can evaluate a man’s ministrY bY this rule--is he Pauline?

Does his doctrine start and finish according to those statements of Church truth proclaimed by the apostle paul?” 65

Would they substitute the synoptic “Gospel of the Kingdom” for Paul’s exclusive “glorious heavenly Gospel”? Would they subject members of the heavenly Body of the glorified Lord to Israel’s earthly New Covenant, her legal Sermon on the Mount, and her Mosaic and Kingdom law systems - that to which the Christian has died?

Israel’s New Covenant

• Those who pander to Israel’s New Covenant, and seek to participate in its “spiritual” blessings, are simply playing into the hands of – Amillennial Covenant Theology, – its stepchild, Theonomy, – as well as Judaistic Messianic Christianity.

• There is neither word nor inference in Israel’s New Covenant concerning the Church 67

John Darby wrote: “Covenant theology at the utmost, is forgiveness of sins and divine favor enjoyed; and all that concerns their new position in the Lord Jesus Christ is ignored, or alas! guarded against as dangerous.

“Men are placed under Israel’s New Covenant which does not go beyond remission of sins and the law written on the heart. But being new creations in Christ Jesus, and knowing it by the Holy Spirit, and what that involves now—that is not a part of their creed.”

“We are come ‘to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant’ (Heb. 12:24). We are not come to the New Covenant, but to Jesus the Mediator of it. We are associated with Him who is the Mediator; that is a far higher thing than if merely come to the Covenant. He will make this New Covenant with Israel on earth.” —H.H. Snell

The Blood  The heavenly Bride requires nothing earthly Israel and her coming kingdom. from

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19)

 Israel, in all her coming earthly glory, will never be the recipient of anything like that!

The Holy Spirit



Israel’s indwelling will be for the purpose of writing the theocratic law upon their hearts and enabling them to walk in His kingdom ordinances. “After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” (Jer. 31:33) “And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them” (Ezek. 36:27).

The Sermon

• • Christ’s Sermon on the Mount,

addressed to Israel

, is the next great leak in the Dispensational wall.

There is nothing in the Sermon on the Mount that is not superseded by Paul’s Church Epistles.

Nothing!

“The Sermon on the Mount is characterized--among other things — by the absence of those elements which are distinctly Christian, i.e., redemption by the Blood of Christ, faith, regeneration, deliverance from judgment, the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. The absence of these vital elements cannot but arrest the attention of those who are awake to, and jealous for, the faith once delivered to the saints.

” – Dr. L. S. Chafer 72

“KinGdom” – the

catchword

from seminary  The Church is a

phase

of Israel’s future millennial kingdom;  There is a recognition of a

present form

of the theocratic kingdom: “now/not yet.” 73

kingdomization of the Church Failure to distinguish between the “kingdom of God,” and the ”kingdom of heaven.” 74

Millennial Saint

 The Christian is now joined to Christ and is one spirit with Him.

“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2)

 The future earthly kingdom saint will live here on earth  he will not be united to the Lord Jesus  He will not be dead to the flesh and the world 75

Millennial Saint

 The great difference —  the heavenly saint has a standing of complete deliverance from the man in the flesh;  while the millennial saint will be through grace empowered by the Spirit to do what God requires from man in the flesh.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts” (Heb. 8:10)

Millennial Saint

 We — the heavenly believers -- have

“boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus... through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” (Heb. 10:19, 20).

 The earthly millennial saint, though cleansed of his sins by the Blood, cannot speak of being inside the veil, because his dispensation is connected with this earth. 77

Messianic Judaism

Hebrew Christianity

by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum •

"What then is a Hebrew Christian? He is a Jew who believes that Jesus Christ is his Messiah. He must acknowledge that he is both a Jew and a Christian" (p. 12).

“There is neither Jew nor Greek… for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28)

•

“If a Jew accepts baptism solely to lose his identity as a Jew, he is by no means to be considered a Hebrew Christian; he is a renegade, a traitor, and an apostate. A Hebrew Christian is proud of his Jewishness” (p. 13).

“Judaism

is not

the bud that blossomed into Christianity.  ground of relation-ship  Jew by physical birth  Christian by spiritual birth  instruction on the life 

Law

for Israel 

Grace

for the Church  sphere of existence  Israel on the earth  Church in heaven 79

Distinctive Gospels

 The Church, the Body of Christ, into which, in the Father's wondrous grace, we have been called, is heavenly .

 The Church has nothing to do with earth, except to witness in the name of the Lord, and then pass on into glory, into heaven , her eternal Home. 80

Distinctive Gospels



Israel, the chosen

earthly

nation,



The Church,

the heavenly Body of Christ 81

Stephen Juncture

“the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the age began.” (Acts 3:19-21) “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11)

Stephen Juncture He would come again to receive them unto Himself, that where He was they should be also the leaders of Israel began to reject the Gospel and persecute the apostles they not only rejected but stoned to death the witness of the Holy Spirit now by the stoning of Stephen they openly unmask and expose the hatred and rebellion of their hearts to a glorified Christ 83

Disciples - To Stephen - To Paul

The disciple’s Gospel was salvation expecting Christ’s earthly return to establish His Kingdom.

Stephen was witness to Christ’s “earthly” presence and to His post-ascension glorification.

Saul sees Him and is commissioned to be a minister and a witness of the things that he sees 84

Church Gospel

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages hath been hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:8, 9)

Church Gospel

“He preached Christ… that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20) “the Gospel of God (Rom. 1:1) “ the Gospel of His Son ” (v. 9) “ my Gospel ” (Rom. 16:25)

Established in the Cross of Christ

bearing in Himself the judgment on man He was made to be sin for us, that we should be made the righteousness of God in Him the old man was crucified with Christ the end of man in the flesh 87

Grace Reigns

“through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21) “ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit” (8:9). “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” which has “made me free from the law of sin and death” (8:2) “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (8:9)

Paul’s Gospel

righteousness—the righteousness of God established by Christ; the judicial ending of the old man; the gift of eternal life; the Spirit of Christ; so that Christ in me is the summing up, as well as the fullness, of blessing. 89

Dr. Chafer Vs. Covenant Theology  he faithfully sought to alert the Church as to its doctrinal dangers  too many dispensational leaders are seeking dialogue and fellowship with Covenant theologians  the errors of Covenant Theology 90

Reformation Restraint



the Church is,



the Body of Christ,



the Bride of the Lamb

 the

Reformation

did not recover this truth as formerly it was held by the early Church;  that attitude of the theologians, being bound and confined within the limitations of

Reformation

truth, has been one of avoidance of what to them seems new. 91

J. N. Darby & Company

The Plymouth Brethren movement produced an expository literature covering the entire Sacred Text which  is orthodox  free from misconceptions  interprets faithfully the entire field of Biblical doctrine 92

J. N. Darby & Company

 division in the ranks of orthodox men  there are those who are restricted in their doctrinal viewpoint and who look upon added truth as a departure from standard ideas and therefore dangerous.  there are those who are constructing an unabridged system of theology, and finding the way into full-orbed harmony of truth and into limitless fields of Biblical doctrine 93

Apocryphal Covenants  The theological terms, – Covenant of Works – Covenant of Grace , and do not occur in Scripture 

Covenant Theology

builds its structure on these two covenants 

Covenant Theology

has Cocceius (1603 – 1669) as its chief exponent. 94

Undiscernment



Reformed Theology

has largely been constructed on these two covenants.

 It sees the empirical truth that God can forgive sinners only by that freedom which is secured by the sacrifice of His Son,  However, that theology utterly fails to discern God’s purposes for the ages. 95

Undiscernment



Reformed Theology

 penetrates no further into Scripture than to discover that in all ages God is immutable in His grace toward penitent sinners  constructs the idea of a universal Church (continuing through the ages)  disregards vast spheres of revelation  reaps the unavoidable confusion and misdirection which part-truth engenders 96

One-track Limitation    Judaism has its field of theology with its soteriology and its eschatology

Covenant Theology

that there is but one soteriology and one eschatology engenders the notion Scripture is harmonized and its message clarified when two divinely appointed systems — Judaism and Christianity — are recognized, and their complete and distinctive characters are observed 97

Roman Residuary

 Many theologians consider

millennialism

to be a “modern theory.” 

justification by faith

and

millennialism

were taught in the NT and were therefore the belief of the early Church 98

Roman Residuary

 along with justification by faith the

Reformers

retained the Romish notion that the Church is the Kingdom, fulfilling the Davidic covenant, and appointed to conquer the world by bringing it under the authority of the Church.

Covenant Amalgamation  Israel has never been the Church, is not the Church, nor will it ever be the Church.



Covenant Theology

Church asserts its inventions respecting an OT Church, which, it is claimed, is an integral part of the NT 100

Rescinded Resurrection     as viewed by Covenant theologians, there is practically no doctrinal significance of Christ's resurrection Christ as the federal Head of a wholly new order [creation] of beings cannot be incorporated into a system of which the cherished and distinctive feature is one unchangeable divine purpose from Adam to the end of time. According to Covenant Theology the Church is not a new creation with its headship in the ascended Christ, but has existed under a supposed uniform covenant from the beginning of human history the great reality of a heavenly purpose peculiar to this dispensation is ruled out completely 101

Slighted Spirit

 Covenant Theology neglects most of the vital truths respecting the present age characterizing ministries of the Holy Spirit  The disannulling of all Jewish purposes and distinctive features for a dispensation renders a continuous covenant conception objectionable 102

This Present Dispensation

Romans 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; (NAS) Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same {Lord} is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; (NAS)

103

Incalculable Loss

 the resurrection of Christ is,  the very ground of all the purposes of this dispensation  the basis upon which the new positions and possessions of those in Christ are made to rest.

 There is a wide doctrinal difference between those who see no special consequence in Christ’s resurrection and those who see its momentous significance 104

Incalculable Loss

 the greatest transition the world has ever experienced.

  from Judaism to Christianity This stupendous change is not clarified or even approached by

Covenant theology

105

Pseudo —Sabbath

 Such blindness respecting the discriminating teaching of the Bible can be accounted for only on the ground that a man-made scheme of supposed continuity is embraced and followed without an unprejudiced examination of the Scriptures 106

School Of Paranoia

 Two schools have developed among orthodox men:  one which restricts all doctrine to the findings of men from the very early days of

Protestantism

(Covenant Theology)  one which recognizes that much added light has fallen upon the Word of God in later days and that this is as worthy of consideration as the findings of men of former times (Dispensational Theology) 107

Eschatalogical Error

A phenomenon exists, namely, that men who are conscientious and meticulous to observe the exact teaching of Scripture — the ruin of the race through Adam’s sin, the Deity and Saviourhood of Christ — are found introducing methods of spiritualizing and vamping the clear declarations of the Bible in the one field of Eschatology.

108

Eschatalogical Error

 In the

Covenant

theory Israel and the Church are one.

 Disregarding Biblical testimony they believe that a hypothetical

Grace covenant

will produce a transformed social order;

not by a returning Messiah, but by the preaching of the Gospel.

109

Eschatalogical Error

 They assert that Christ cannot return until the missionary enterprise has reached to all the inhabited earth  They fail to realize that passage is a Tribulation passage, not a passage for this dispensation, the Church Age.

110

Kingdom Misconstrued

Misunderstanding of the Millennial Kingdom is directly due to the failure to recognize the dispensational aspect of divine revelation

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

111

Kingdom Misconstrued

The Old Testament Kingdom

IS NOT

the Church The New Testament Church

IS NOT

the Kingdom 112

Deadly Rule Of Life



Covenantism

 recognizes no distinctions as to ages  therefore it can allow for no distinctions between Law and Grace  utter neglect of life-truth in all their works of theology 113

Kingdom Gospel vs. Grace Gospel

 Strong objection is offered by

Covenant theologians

to a distinction between the Gospel of the Kingdom as preached by John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Disciples, and the Pauline Gospel of the Grace of God 114

Israel And The Church Contrasted Extent Of Biblical Revelation

Israel – 80% Church – 20%

The Divine Purpose

Israel – Earthly Church – Heavenly Israel – Physical

Birth

Church – Spiritual

Nationality

Israel – World system Church – Aliens

Ministry

Israel – None, yet

Israel And The Church Contrasted The Death of Christ

Israel Guilty of His Death

The Father

Church Saved by His Sacrifice Israel God, not Father Church “Abba” Father Israel

Christ

Messiah, Immanuel, King Church Savior, Lord, Bridegroom, Head, Life

The Holy Spirit

Israel Temporary Induement Church Permanent Indwelling 116

Israel And The Church Contrasted

Israel - Law

Governing Principle

Church – Grace

Divine Enablement

Israel – none “flesh” Church – Holy Spirit Israel Gather Israel into her land

Christ’s Return

Church Take His Bride to Heaven 117

Israel And The Church Contrasted

Israel Servants of Jehovah

Position

Church The Body of Christ Israel

Christ’s Earthly Reign

Church Subjects of the King Reign with the King Israel

has

a priesthood

Priesthood

Church

a priesthood 118

“Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church” 

Neo-Evangelicalism

Liberalism. is a compromise toward • spawned in Fuller Seminary 

Neo-Dispensationalism

is a compromise toward Covenantism. • spawned in Dallas Theological Seminary 119

“Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church”  You, a totally new creation in the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.  You, one spirit with Him who is your very Christian life.  You, having died to the law and to the world, and already blessed with

all

spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, co-heir with Him.  You, raised and seated in Christ, at the Father’s right hand.

120

“Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church”

“If (since) you, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ (and you) sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:1–4).

121

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. Stanley N. Gundry

, ex-dispensationalist, Vice President of Academic Books, Zondervan Publishing House.

•

contemporary

dispensationalist thinking 

Dr. Craig A. Braising

, progressive dispensationalist •

reexamine biblically the distinction between Israel and the church

• abandon the

transcendental distinction

of heavenly versus earthly peoples in favor of a

historical distinction

in the progressive revelation of the divine purpose. 122

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. Darrell L. Bock

, progressive dispensationalist • “The descriptions

invisible

and

visible

do not characterize the kingdom as ineffective or secret now, versus powerful later. Rather, the terms are intended Christologically to describe the nature of Jesus’ rule. • “

Being seated on David’s throne is linked to being seated at God’s right hand

123

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition

 Neo-Dispensationalism is kingdom-oriented, and would fasten “The Kingdom” upon everything and everyone  Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer  “David was not promised a heavenly spiritual throne, and the one who contends that David’s throne is now a heavenly rule is by so much obligated to name the time and circumstances when and where so great a change has been introduced” (

Systematic Theology

IV: 324) 124

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. Bruce A. Ware

, progressive dispensationalist. Dr. Ware is Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School  “Between the two extremes of a strict distinction between Israel and the church (two new covenants and hence two distinct peoples of God) there is a middle position that would suggest that Israel and the church share theologically rich and important elements of commonality while at the same time maintaining distinct identities. 125

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition

 When Israel’s New Covenant is usurped, all becomes of the earth, earthy. Neo Dispensationalism would bring the Bridegroom’s unique-in-the-universe-Bride down to the commonality of the earthly kingdom 126

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. Carl B. Hock, Jr.

, progressive dispensationalist. Dr. Hock is Professor of NT, at Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary 

Here is the very heart of Neo-Dispensational error

Wrongly-divided Word!

127

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition

 Not knowing

who

they are in Christ, and

where

they are in Christ, and what they

have

in Christ, they would seek to make something of Israel, and have us come down to it as the source of blessing  The Israelite in Christ, as well as the Gentile in Christ, is a totally new heavenly creation, and needs nothing from the nation Israel—whether it be now, in her Millennial Kingdom, or in eternity 128

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. Robert L. Saucy

. Dr. Saucy, progressive dispensationalist, is professor of Systematic Theology, at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University • “The revelation of the equal participation of Israel and the Gentiles in God’s salvation through union with Christ is a realization of OT prophecy” • “Our examination of the mystery in Ephesians 3 leads us to a mediating position between traditional dispensational and non-dispensational views.“ 129

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. W. Edward Glenny

. Dr. Glenny, progressive dispensationalist, is Professor of NT, at Central Baptist Seminary • “Old Testament Israel was a pattern of the church’s relationship with God as his chosen people.” • “In his use of the three

people of God

citations in 1 Peter 2:9, 10, the apostle is teaching that there are aspects of the nation of Israel’s experience as the people of God that are also true of the NT church.” 130

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. J. Lanier Burns

. Dr. Burns, progressive dispensationalist, is Professor of Systematic Theology, at Dallas Theological Seminary • “The end of this survey shows that dispensational theologians have constantly distinguished Israel and the church, while dispensationalism has undergone remarkable developments over time in terms of a

common destiny

[emphasis mine] in the city of God, a shared new covenant, and, most recently, a recognition by many scholars of a present form of messianic kingdom that removes the parenthetical idea.” 131

Dispensationalism, Israel And The Church - The Search For Definition



Dr. Kenneth L. Barker

. Dr. Barker, progressive dispensationalist, is Executive Director, NIV Foundation Center, International Bible Society • One of the legitimate continuities, then, between the Old and New Testaments is God’s moral law expressed

throughout

Scripture. It is more in keeping with the totality of biblical teaching to insist that the ethical and spiritual commands of the OT, the numerous imperatives of the NT, and Christ (or the law of Christ, or the royal law of love) are

all

the believer’s rule of life” part of 132

Theologians Respond 

Dr. William A. VanGemeren.

Dr. VanGemeren, ex dispensationalist, now Covenant theologian, is Professor of OT at Reformed Theological Seminary 

Dr. Bruce K. Waltke

. Dr. Waltke, ex dispensationalist, now covenant theologian, is Professor of OT, at Regent University (Canada) 

Dr. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr

. Dr. Kaiser, non dispensational, pro-Covenant, is Academic Dean at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 133

The “similar lines” that Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology are locked onto are horizontal – Israel’s New Covenant, Synoptics, Sermon, and Kingdom —all Law-oriented.

But

Grace and Truth

came by Jesus Christ —

from heaven

, to Paul, for the Church.

134

“If [since] you, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1–3).

135