Featured What are some reasons many get trapped by Dispensationalism?

Covenant Boys and Girls, open up your Bibles and make the following corrections:

In the Bible text Matthew 15:24 insert the word "spiritual" before the word Israel.

In your ESV Study Bible do the same in the bold letter study note. After that, in the study note first sentence, swap Jew for Gentile.

Also keep in mind there is a mistake in Romans 1:16, 2:9 and 2:10. In keeping with covenant theology, these passages should read "...for the Greek first and also the Jew..."

 

Then why did God address the snake if God was promising man. There is only one gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
MB

 

MMRRPP! WRONG!

Jesus said, in John 3:16, "WHOEVER believes..."

Joel 2:32 says "WHOEVER calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Jesus said in Matt. 10:32,“Therefore WHOEVER confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven."

He said in John 12:46,"I have come as a light into the world, that WHOEVER believes in Me should not abide in darkness."

Luke wrote in Acts 2:21,"And it shall come to pass That WHOEVER calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’

He also wrote, in Acts 10:43, "
To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, WHOEVER believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

And Paul wrote, in Romans 10:13,"For WHOEVER calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Not one "whoever if already elect" !

Most of calvinism is simply false.

 

Why the sarcasm? It belies your shallow understanding of Christs' words:

24 But he answered and said, I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Mt 15

...reiterated by Paul:

8 For I say that Christ hath been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given unto the fathers, Ro 15

Gill:
"...“I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; as a priest, or as a Saviour and Redeemer, he was sent to make satisfaction and atonement for the sins of all God's elect, and to obtain eternal redemption and salvation for all of them, whether Jews or Gentiles; but as a prophet, in the discharge of his own personal ministry, he was sent by his Father only to the Jews; he was the "minister of the circumcision", Romans 15:8 that is, a minister to the circumcised Jews…..”

You ever thought what the distinction between these two might be?:

7 but contrariwise, when they saw that I had been intrusted with the gospel of the uncircumcision, even as Peter with the gospel of the circumcision Gal 2

 

No, Israel & Judah are not yet united as one nation. We don't know who are the descendants of the other tribes. Most of the Jews are still scattered.

And here's a prophecy, straight from God, which CANNOT be ignored: 2 Samuel 7:10 Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously,
(This prophecy is repeated in 1 Chron. 17:9.)
No, God is not at all finished with Israel, nor has He abandoned them!

 

Most Jews today practice "Judaism", the Old Covenant ways. And they will build a new temple in Jerusalem when the time is right & it won't start WW3. They've already consecrated an altar for it, they have all the non-perishable building materials ready, all the instruments made for use in their services, & are breeding the animals, such as red heifers, for use in those services. They fully intend to re-establish the old pre-Jesus system of animal sacrifices again.

While the world will think of their new temple as a "temple of God", it WON'T be such, in reality, as JESUS won't be worshipped in it.

The dispensation of Judaism ended when Jesus instituted the New Covenant. I believe this is very plain in Scripture and in secular history.

And before the Tabernacle & the "Mosaic law", there was no one place to worship God, nor a set of rules for worshipping Him or for general living. That dispensation was given to Israel alone, & gentiles followed it only if they learned it from Israel.

Yes, there are clear divisions in dispensations before & after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, & from before & after the first coming of Jesus.

 

George Antonios, thanks for your considered reply. We do need to address these prophecies, in their context, considering both the the Grammatical-Historical exegetical method and the Spiritual method, which essentially sees the prophetic Scriptures as relating to Christ, his incarnation, saving work, resurrection and eternal kingdom, in addition to the G-H context for the immediate hearers.

We need to consider the prophecies at the time of Jesus' incarnation in addition to the OT prophecies, remembering he will return in glory for resurrection and judgment, and to establish the NH&NE.

My reply cannot be comprehensive, but will show you the way forward.

There is a common expectation that towards the end of the present "dispensation" (aka the present Gospel age, aka the present millennium) that the Jews will accept their Messiah and begin to receive the Prophetic promises. The implication of that expectation is God has been denying the Gospel to the Jews for 2,000 years, or 50 generations, rather that the 3-4 generation of the commandment. (Deut. 5:9-10) Even then, the Gospel was open to them and they were urged to repent.

A further implication is that when Gabriel prophesied 70 weeks (490 years) (Dan. 9:24)

“Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.​

that Jesus' prayer in John 17 claiming to have finished his work was premature and his great triumphant shout from the cross "FINISHED!" was mistaken.

I presume you are referring to Ezekiel's dry bones prophecy. (Eze. 37) The context is seen in vs 11-14 where we see the exiles lamenting -

11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’​

The exiles would be restored to their land, and rebuild the temple for their Messiah, and God will pour out his Holy Spirit on them, and they will LIVE!

Read Acts 2 - Jesus has ascended to David's throne - remembering that David sat on the "throne of the LORD." (1 Chr. 29:23, 1 Sam. 8:7)

Certainly! It is heavenly! (Heb. 11:16)

Jesus has won the victory; he is presently saving his redeemed people. He will return in glory to establish the New Heaven and New Earth. We, once his enemies, have peace with God by faith in Jesus, and have a Gospel of peace for the nations. (2 Peter 3)

In heavenly glory, now.

That Jew's name is Jesus.

No. It's MUCH bigger - as far is the East is round to the West! When Jesus returns all will realise, just as the rebel Jews "saw" Jesus vindicated in the clouds of judgment in the AD 70 war.

 

Writing to the Church in Thyatira (aka spiritual Israel according to reformed covenant theology), Jesus states (in Rev ch 2) that He gave her time to repent, that He will kill her children with death and that He is the one who searches the minds and hearts.

How does spiritual Israel in the 21st century, a body by it's own admission and for various theological considerations downplays actively looking for the blessed hope (Titus 2:13), how does that same spiritual Israel exempt itself from the same judgments imposed on physical Israel?

The correct answer is it cannot. It cannot claim the covenants for itself without exercising the responsibilities required. Is the Church of the 21st century more faithful in keeping the NT great commission than OT Israel was in keeping the law? The answer is of course it is not. Considering the fact that covenant theology makes much of the grace of God, all the more reason for the God of the actual Biblical covenants to bring down the hammer on what looks very much like an ungrateful body of believers.


But but but...election!

Where in the Bible does one get the notion that they will stand before the Throne of Glory and make the defense that they are entitled to the kingdom because they are elect? Was not Israel elect?

 

The word "whoever" means anyone. In fact it destroys your idea of being especially chosen for Salvation. You claim to know scripture Icon but the truth is you don't.
MB

 

God DID pre-select some, such as Moses, Jeremiah, & Paul, to name a few, but most of us had to make the choice to come to Jesus by faith after hearing and/or reading the Gospel.

Again, not one "whoever if already elect" in the Scriptures I posted. Most of calvinism is false. That false belief has come in THIS dispensation.

 

I normally avoid discussions on election, but I would comment -
"Whoever" means all those who believe and respond to the Gospel. We look for and expect sinners to be converted. Election is not a barrier to be preached to keep out non-elect, it is a reminder that whoever believes is born again of the Holy Spirit, and will be kept by God's power for salvation.

We preach to all, and whoever believes is saved.

 

That's an excellent explanation !

Salvation is open to ALL on earth.

 

Not all Israel though was Israel, as were those who were Jews still lost, and saved spiritual jews!

 

Physical Israelis & physical Jews are still just that, irrespective of their spiritual condition.

 

John's assessment of genuine physical children of Abraham -

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Mat. 3​