Pauline Dispensationalism

[dramama]

Love Les F.! I'm a double dip, and I think God'sTrombone is right that the Jewish Disciples and Paul were teaching different things and the "church" per say started later than Pentecost (While the disciples going to the Jews had converts, they were not having as much luck as Paul and they were still fighting over the law etc. When Paul went to the Gentiles and preached the mysteries is more what I would consider the church) I know scriptures say Peter would be the foundation of the church, but I think it was more Paul (that's what I get for thinking and we know how much our own thinking is worth!) Anyway, I probably shouldn't have jumped in this thread because I didn't read everything, but I've been a "student" of "Pauline Dispensationalism" for awhile and thought I'd stick my nose in. God'sTrombone....:thumb

[tekton]

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For those of you concerned about the copyright issue, most of Larkin's charts were originally copyrighted between 1914 and 1919. According to the US Copyright Office, before 1978 copyrights initially lasted 28 years and were eligible for renewal for another 28 years totaling 56 years. If the work was still copyrighted during 12/31/76 to 12/31/77, the renewal is automatically extended from 28 years to 67 years totaling 95 years from the year of initial copyright. In Larkin's case, however, his charts initially copyrighted from 1914-1919 passed into the public domain (even if they were renewed) during 1970-1975, before the automatic extention. Any and all works published or copyrighted before 1920 are in the public domain. For more information see the Copyright office's website http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/]

[tekton]

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[BlessedinHim]

Love Les F.! I'm a double dip, and I think God'sTrombone is right that the Jewish Disciples and Paul were teaching different things and the "church" per say started later than Pentecost (While the disciples going to the Jews had converts, they were not having as much luck as Paul and they were still fighting over the law etc. When Paul went to the Gentiles and preached the mysteries is more what I would consider the church) I know scriptures say Peter would be the foundation of the church, but I think it was more Paul (that's what I get for thinking and we know how much our own thinking is worth!) Anyway, I probably shouldn't have jumped in this thread because I didn't read everything, but I've been a "student" of "Pauline Dispensationalism" for awhile and thought I'd stick my nose in. God'sTrombone....:thumb

Peter is not the foundation of the church, what he said was the foundation.

Matthew 16 (King James Version)
15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

20Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.


Peter got the keys to the kingdom, the rock is "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

[CountryBumpkin]

Love Les F.! I'm a double dip, and I think God'sTrombone is right that the Jewish Disciples and Paul were teaching different things and the "church" per say started later than Pentecost (While the disciples going to the Jews had converts, they were not having as much luck as Paul and they were still fighting over the law etc. When Paul went to the Gentiles and preached the mysteries is more what I would consider the church) I know scriptures say Peter would be the foundation of the church, but I think it was more Paul (that's what I get for thinking and we know how much our own thinking is worth!) Anyway, I probably shouldn't have jumped in this thread because I didn't read everything, but I've been a "student" of "Pauline Dispensationalism" for awhile and thought I'd stick my nose in. God'sTrombone....:thumb


:nod:thumb
Thank you God's Trombone for laying it out so clearly. It was through some posters on this board that I came to understand dispensationalism and it changed the way I viewed scripture. Everything was clearer to me - there were no more seemingly contraditions.

[Aliya]

Love Les F.! I'm a double dip, and I think God'sTrombone is right that the Jewish Disciples and Paul were teaching different things and the "church" per say started later than Pentecost (While the disciples going to the Jews had converts, they were not having as much luck as Paul and they were still fighting over the law etc. When Paul went to the Gentiles and preached the mysteries is more what I would consider the church) I know scriptures say Peter would be the foundation of the church, but I think it was more Paul (that's what I get for thinking and we know how much our own thinking is worth!) Anyway, I probably shouldn't have jumped in this thread because I didn't read everything, but I've been a "student" of "Pauline Dispensationalism" for awhile and thought I'd stick my nose in. God'sTrombone....:thumb

Me three to all of it! I'm fairly new into it, but EVERYTHING makes sense now! :yay

[BlessedinHim]

ISRAEL'S NEW COVENANT
Miles J. Stanford


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We must stop here and stanch the flow of Covenant theology that is flooding onto Dispensational ground--beginning with the primary effusion, Israel's New Covenant.



All traditional Dispensationalists believe and teach that Israel alone will be under the New Covenant of Jeremiah and Ezekiel in the future Messianic Kingdom. Yet they all, almost without exception, forsake this exclusiveness of the rightly-divided Word by maintaining that the Church shares in the "spiritual" blessings of Israel's New Covenant! Down goes the scriptural separation between Israel and its Law, and the Church and her Grace.



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. They are evidently in need of Israel's New Covenant to help them legalize their legality.



Mr. F. W. Grant long ago warned against such a teaching: "To take from Israel what is hers is only to diminish her and not enrich ourselves; nay, what has been called in this way the spiritualizing of the promises has led most surely and emphatically to the carnalizing, and the legalizing, of the Church."



There is neither word nor inference in the Covenant concerning the Church, nor is it to be established during the Church's dispensation. Paul, in his time, stated that Israel's New Covenant was yet future: "And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Rom. 11:26,27).



THE ETERNAL COVENANT -- The Church, on the contrary, presently has the benefits of the Eternal Covenant of Hebrews 13:20,21:

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the Blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through - Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

NT NEW COVENANT -- There are a number of NT references which have to do with Israel's New Covenant, and others which have to do with the Church--some of which we will briefly touch upon.

"For this is My blood of the new testament (covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins." "And He said unto them, This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many." "Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you" (Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Lu. 22:20).

In these Synoptic references the Lord Jesus is introducing the New Covenant of His coming Church. He is not explaining it, but is instituting it eschatalogically, on the basis of the soon-coming Cross.



He introduced the subject of the Church in Matthew 16:18: "I will build My Church," but He did not explain it. That He would do through Paul to the members of His Body. The explanation of the Church's Eternal Covenant is the responsibility of Paul, the primary source of Church truth.

"For I received of the [ascended] Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed.. . took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come" (1 Cor. 11:23,25,26).

Here Paul establishes the Church's New Covenant, identical to that previously introduced in the Synoptics by the Lord Jesus.

"Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit" (2 Cor. 3:6).

Paul's ministry to the heavenly Church is not made up of, nor does it contain, aspects of Israel's New Covenant. The Church's New Covenant consists of the life of the Son, not the law of the Kingdom.

"And for this cause He is the Mediator of the new testament [Greek: recent in its beginning as well as new in quality], that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." "And to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and the Blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Heb. 9:15; 12:24).

His Blood having been poured out in fulfillment of the eternal pact between the God of peace and Himself, the Lord Jesus thereby becomes the Mediator of the New Covenant for His Body, the Church--of which the Lord's Supper is the blessed reminder.



The blood of Abel spoke of judgment--"The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground. And now art thou [Cain] cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand" (Gen. 4:10,11). But the Blood of sprinkling--the application by faith in the shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ--testified of the judgment of the Cross, and of everlasting peace with the God of peace Himself!

"And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Rom. 11:26,27).

Paul here is speaking of some of the gracious I wills of Israel's New Covenant. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more." "I will also; save you from all your uncleannesses...in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities" (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 36:29,33).



The primary purpose of the Book of Hebrews was to keep the Jews, both saved and unsaved, from turning back to Judaism and the law, the old decaying Mosaic Covenant. They were exhorted to focus, not on the Covenant, but the Mediator of a better covenant.



Those Jews who were saved had come to Jesus, the Mediator of Israel's New Covenant, not to the Covenant itself, which was yet future. They were in living union with Him who is the Mediator of the Church's New Covenant, and that is a higher thing than if merely come to Israel's earthly kingdom Covenant. The Mediator will actualize this New Covenant with Israel on earth in the Millennial Kingdom.

"But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises ['I will'].



"For if that first covenant, had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come [Millennial], saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Heb. 8:6-8).

In these verses (Hebrews 8:10-13) the writer gives more details concerning Israel's New Covenant, and then in verse 13 he states: "In that He saith, a new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and groweth old is ready to vanish away."



They were not to turn back to Moses, but to the greater than Moses, greater than all: "that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant" (Heb. 13:20).

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. --J.N. Darby



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

[BlessedinHim]

THE BLOOD AND THE SPIRIT

Miles J. Stanford


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There are a number of scriptural reasons why Israel’s New Covenant “blessings” do not apply to the heavenly Body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE BLOOD -- First, it is claimed by nearly all that the Church benefits from the Blood of Israel’s New Covenant in the forgiveness of sins. But it is just the other way around. Israel will benefit in her iniquities forgiven and her sins remembered no more (Jer. 31:34) from “the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant”: (Heb. 13:20)—the Church’s New Covenant.

The heavenly Bride, hidden in the heart of the glorified Bridegroom, requires nothing from earthly Israel and her coming kingdom. The Church’s citizenship and position are heavenly—all the way into the Holiest! “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 Church was chosen in Him (not under the King’s reign) before the foundation of the world in eternity past. “With the precious Blood of Christ… who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Pet. 1:19, 20). “Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9).

Granted that Israel’s sins are to be forgiven by the same Blood that was shed for the Church on the Cross, but that is where any semblance between the two ceases. The Church is already made “nigh” at the right hand of the Father. “But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the Blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13).

“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come [including the millennial kingdom age] He might show [to the angels, redeemed Israel, and the redeemed Gentile nations] the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6, 7).

Israel, standing before the King and His beloved Bride in all the glory of David’s earthly millennial throne, will never attain unto the unique blessing of the Church.

[BlessedinHim]

THE HOLY SPIRIT -- In general, Dispensationalists also claim that Israel’s New Covenant indwelling of the Spirit is a “spiritual” blessing of which the Church partakes. But 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.” “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” (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:27).

The primary ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian is to manifest the life of the Lord Jesus, never the works of the law. The believer has died to the law, and is alive unto God in Christ Jesus. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” “We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

When we, as His Bride, are co-reigning with Him over Israel and her glorious Millennial Kingdom, we will be like Him, including our redeemed and glorified bodies made like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). To look to Israel’s future, earthly, law-governed New Covenant for “blessings” for the Bride who has everything in Him—how could that be?

Dr. Newell knew without question that the Church has no need of any part of Israel’s New Covenant:

“This Eternal Covenant of Hebrews 13:20 was not between creatures, but between ‘the God of peace’ and ‘the Lord Jesus,’ and the condition was obedience unto death of Christ to the Father; its ground, the shed Blood of the Son, and its issue, an ‘eternal covenant.’

“This is the great fundamental transaction between the Father and the Son; no creatures are seen; but oh! believers become—apart from works—blessed beneficiaries! So that God can go on and establish [in the millennial future] the second, or ‘new’ covenant with Israel, who ‘continued not’ in the Mosaic or ‘first,’ now ‘old’ covenant.

“The ‘new covenant’ yet to be made with Israel and Judah at our Lord’s return to earth and that nation, is all of grace—God’s operation instead of their response (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 37:12–14, 21, 23, 25–28). Therefore, the ‘new covenant’ which the Hebrew believers to whom Paul was writing had had explained to them, was not yet in effect, nor will be until Christ’s return to earth. At that time it will apply to ‘the house of Israel and the house of Judah,’ as God says, in the land of Palestine, with the peculiar earthly blessings described in Scripture.

“But there is yet an eternal covenant, detailed in Hebrews 13:20, 21, in which and according to which Paul knows that all Christians may be made ‘perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ’ [not through the law written in the heart, as with future Israel].

“This is the Eternal Covenant of which the Lord Jesus is said to be the Mediator, and which is celebrated in the Lord’s Supper, in view of His death on our behalf, by those benefited forever thereby” (Hebrews, Verse by Verse, pp. 258, 460-463).

[BlessedinHim]

Acts 4:33And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Acts 9:15But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
19And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.

20And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

In chapter 10 Peter is being instructed to talk to gentiles, as well.

Acts 10
1There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,

2A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

13And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

14But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.

15And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

16This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

17Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made enquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate,

18And called, and asked whether Simon, which was surnamed Peter, were lodged there.

19While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.

20Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.

21Then Peter went down to the men which were sent unto him from Cornelius; and said, Behold, I am he whom ye seek: what is the cause wherefore ye are come?

22And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.

28And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

29Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me?


34Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

As these scriptures show, Acts is more of a transition book. Before the cross was to the Jews only, after the cross, to all.

Preaching Christ crucified and risen, is the gospel of grace.