LESSON 5 Part 3 Nature of the Covenants
LESSON 5 Part 3
Nature of the Covenants
Dwight Pentecost
“Gods eschatological program is determined and prescribed by these covenants. And one’s eschatological system is determined and limited by the interpretation of them. How you see Israel’s future is dependent on how you see the covenants.”
God’s promises to the Jewish people in the OT
There are about FIVE major covenants in the OT. Four are unconditional and One is conditional. (They vary in number depending on your source)
They are…
The Abrahamic Covenant
The “Palestinian” (Land) Covenant
The Mosaic Covenant (Conditional)
The Davidic Covenant
The New Covenant
Let’s look at the NATURE of these covenants…
1. Are they Unconditional or Conditional in Character
2. Are they Literal or Spiritual Covenants
3. Are They Eternal Covenants.
4. Are They Made with a covenanted people
1. Are they -
Unconditional or Conditional …
The Unconditional Covenants have a DIVINE FORMULA:
“I WILL”
A sovereign establishment of an agreement that is unconditionally predicated with the Divine “I will” where God brings to pass Himself ALONE the blessings for the covenanted ones.
The Conditional Covenants have a CONTINGENT FORMULA:
“IF YOU WILL, THEN…I WILL”
A proposal of God in which he promises blessings in a conditional agreement “If you will, then I will”.
Unconditional or Conditional …
ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Gen 12.1-3; 15.17-19
DIVINE FORMULA:
“I will” 7 times unilateral – He will fulfill the conditions of the covenant.
Not predicated upon Abraham’s response (except he had to leave UR and “go”).
There was “seed, land, blessing”.
More about the Abrahamic Covenant:
God “Cuts a Covenant” with Abraham in a formal ceremony. (15.9-11)
To cut a covenant, an animal would be cut down the backbone and the halves placed side by side to form a wall of blood, with a river of blood between the two pieces. The red carpet is symbolic of the river of blood. The witnesses of each partner stood on opposite sides. At least two witnesses, one for each party, were required.
Bloody path. The partners would join hands and walk twice through and around the halves of the dead animal in a figure 8 (infinity symbol).
The cutting symbolized by the slaughter of animals (Exodus 24:5,8), indicated that each person in the covenant promised to give his own life to keep its terms. To break a covenant was to invite one’s own death as a penalty.
There are no more serious relationships than those that are a commitment of life itself.
In the Abrahamic Covenant, the smoking furnace (God’s justice) and the blazing torch (God’s mercy) joined hands and walked together through the pieces. God alone walks through the path of blood!
Abraham himself was on the side in a deep sleep. The fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant depends totally on God, who does not lie (Titus 1:2). And see Hebrews 6.13-19.
God alone walked through the bloody path while Abraham watched in a vision from the side.
God alone made the Covenant with Himself! Abraham had nothing to do with keeping the Covenant.
It was all in God’s doing and keeping!
It showed that God wanted to bond eternally with a people who persistently rejected Him. It shows that God was willing to prove His devotion to the relationship by offering His own life.
Note the “thick and dreadful darkness” that came over Abram earlier that night (verse 12). If so, the image of this passage is God’s willingness to pay the price for His own breaking of the covenant (which could not happen to a perfect God). The story also shows God’s willingness to pay the price for Abram’s (and his descendants’) failure to keep the covenant.
Finally, and probably most stunning of all, it shows that God not only was willing to offer His own life to keep the covenant, but He also was willing to pay the price for any covenant failure on the part of man with whom He was in relationship.
This promise certainly exceeded the limits of human covenant-making practices.
The Abrahamic Covenant was:
Unconditional
*Eternal
*Literal
*With a specific people
I t will never be revoked! God’s character is at stake if He ever breaks this covenant!
IN FACT,
There is no God
if this covenant fails!
From previous lessons, the Replacement Theologians and Supersessionists would say that it didn’t fail, rather, the covenants were Fulfilled in Christ and through the church.
PALESTINIAN OR LAND COVENANT
Deut 30.1-10
(Extension of only the land promise in the Abrahamic Covenant: “the land which I will show you”) to “the Land from Euphrates River to the Nile River”.
DIVINE FORMULA:
“I will” 12 times
(Land Covenant)
This unconditional covenant noted God's promise to scatter Israel if they disobeyed God, then to restore them at a later time to their land.
This covenant has been fulfilled twice, with the Babylonian Captivity and subsequent rebuilding of Jerusalem under Cyrus the Great; and with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, followed by the reinstatement of the nation of Israel in 1948.
DAVIDIC COVENANT 2 Sam 7.10-16
(1 Chronicles 17.11-14)
DIVINE FORMULA:
“I will” 7 times
The Davidic Covenant centers on several key promises that are made to David.
First, God reaffirms the promise of the land that He made in the first two covenants with Israel (the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants) v10.
Second, God then promises that David’s son will succeed him as king of Israel and that this son (Solomon) would build the temple. v12-13
But then the promise continues and expands:
Third, “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (v13), and “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (v16).
What began as a promise that David’s son Solomon would be blessed and build the temple turns into something different—the promise of an everlasting kingdom.
Another Son of David would rule forever and build a lasting House. This is a reference to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, called the Son of David (Matt 21.9).
The promise that David’s “house,” “kingdom,” and “throne” will be established forever is significant because it shows that the Messiah will come from the lineage of David and that He will establish a kingdom from which He will reign. The covenant is summarized by the words “house,” promising a dynasty in the lineage of David; “kingdom,” referring to a people who are governed by a king; “throne,” emphasizing the authority of the king’s rule; and “forever,” emphasizing the eternal and unconditional nature of this promise to David and Israel.
THE NEW COVENANT Jer 31.31-40; Ezek 36.27; 37.26-28; Zech 12.10
DIVINE FORMULA:
“I will” 7 times
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart, I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Additionally, Lk 22.20; 1 Cor 11.23-26; Heb 8.8, 13; 9.15; 12.24
The New Covenant? Why?
It replaces “the” Old Covenant…but which one of the Five?
Which one has to do with the sacrificial system, the shedding of blood for sins and 613 laws?
Matt 26.26-28
While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
Mark 14.24
“This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many….”
Luke 22.20
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.
1 Cor 11.25
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
2 Cor 3.12-18
This text states that the Old Covenant was with Moses.
Gal 3.15-18
Paul states that the Covenant with Abraham was still in effect because it was based on the promise of God. It was not based in law (Moses). Because Christ fulfilled the law He gave to Moses! That’s why the Covenant with Moses was conditional and limited.
Hebrews 8.13ff
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
Which is the First Covenant?
Hebrews 9 tells us…
Hebrews 9
The author speaks of the sacrificial system, blood of animals, the tabernacle, veils and holy of holies, the mercy seat, priests, and everything about which Moses instituted for Israel.
MOSAIC COVENANT Ex 19, Deut 28.1f
CONTINGENT FORMULA
“If You will, then…this will happen, If you do not then this…”
Verses Deut 28.1f Blessings for obedience
Verses Deut 15f Curses for disobedience
Continuing to look at the NATURE of these covenants…
2. Are they
LITERAL or SPIRITUAL…
“The very nature of a covenant demands that it should be so worded and so plainly expressed that it conveys a precise decisive meaning and not a hidden or mystical one that requires many centuries to unfold and evolve in order to develop.”
It should not take centuries and centuries to understand the meaning of any covenant.
Understand it in its Plain meaning.
Davidic Covenant:
Would David ever anticipate that when God promised a son to sit on a throne that he would somehow understand that God meant that someday a Son would somehow sit on a spiritual throne reigning in the hearts of believers?
In fact, the Bible does not describe Jesus sitting on the Spiritual Throne of David in Heaven, rather, He is described as Sitting at the Right Hand of God in Heaven.
If we’re going to “spiritualize” a covenant, at least do so from clear biblical references and don’t “leap” to conjectural interpretation. There is no NT reference to “The Throne of David”
The Bible says…
Mr 16:19* So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
Ac 2:33* “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
Ac 7:55* But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
Ac 7:56* and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Ro 8:34* who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Col 3:1* If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Heb 8:1* …we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
Heb 10:12* but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,
1Pe 3:22* who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
Is this a big deal? Yes. The amillennium eschatology rests on the position of the Post Resurrected Christ. They say He is reigning. He is on the Throne of David and reigning. He is not. They are spiritualizing the Throne of David.
WORDS MEAN THINGS…
“MAY, SHOULD, SHALL”
“YES, NO”
“UP, DOWN”
“ON, OFF”
“HEAVEN, HELL”
Further, to be more accurate, the Bible references the HOLY SPIRIT as dwelling/reigning in the Hearts of believers, not Jesus, predominately.
Is there no distinction between the Persons of the Godhead anymore?
(See notes)
HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CHRISTIAN
THE COVENANT (The Promise of the Holy Spirit to Dwell in Christians)
Ezek. 36:27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"
John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
THE COMMAND (Christians Commanded to be Filled with the Spirit)
Eph. 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit
Gal. 5:16 ¶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Gal. 5:25 ¶ If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
1 Thess. 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;
Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
THE CHARACTERISTIC (The Distinction Between a Christian and Non- Christian is that the Christian has the Holy Spirit Residing in Him - FACT)
Rom. 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
John 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.
John 14:20 "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.
Rom. 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
Gal. 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
1 John 3:24 And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
1 John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Rom. 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
1 Cor. 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,
2 Cor. 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Rom. 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
1 Cor. 3:16 ¶ Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
2 Tim. 1:14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to {you.}
1 Thess. 1:5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
James 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?
THE CONFIRMATION (Proof that the Christian is Permitting/Yielding to the Holy Spirit Who resides in Him)
Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Rom. 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Acts 5:32 "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."
1 Pet. 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.
Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (Assurance)
Abrahamic Covenant:
Would Abraham ever anticipate the promise of seed, land and blessing to not be a literal promise but would somehow be fulfilled spiritually by “the church” …
How is this “spiritual”?
Gen 12.1-3 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (The Messiah)
How is this “spiritual”?
Gen 13.14-17 The LORD said to Abram, … “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered. Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.”
How is this “spiritual”?
Gen 15.18-21 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
“To your descendants I have given this land,
From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
God’s promises to the Jewish people in the OT
Abrahamic Covenant, cont.:
NOTE: I believe we can agree that there are aspects of the promise for seed and blessings that can be “Spiritual” fulfillments in the gentile world through the church, but LAND cannot be fulfilled Spiritually.
Blessings to all peoples…He was the father of faith - believed God and thus God imputed righteousness to him and now we become sharers of imputed righteousness through faith in the Messiah, the seed of Abraham.
Also, I am aware of Heb 11.10, 16 –
10. for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
16. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
There is not the slightest evidence that Abraham would have supposed there would be a magnificent and glorious capital where the Messiah would personally reign, and where the righteous dead, raised from their graves, would dwell in the second advent of the Redeemer.
All that the passage fairly implies is, that while Abraham expected the possession of the promised land for his posterity, yet his faith looked beyond this for a permanent home in a future world.
The New Covenant:
When God gave the declaration to Jeremiah in chapter 31 and 33.14-18 about the New Covenant did He really mean to the House of Israel and the House of Judah (v14) or to the new people of God, the spiritual Israel – the church?
They would expect that the covenant would be fulfilled in the nature that it was made…literally
not “spiritually” – whatever that means.
EXAMPLES OF “SPIRITUAL” PROMISES
1. The promise of salvation and forgiveness for sins (Jer 31:34; 33:8; Ez 36:24-33; 37:23; Zech 13:1-2,9; Isa 43:25; 53:11-12).
2. The promise of the Holy Spirit (Isa 44:3; Ez 36:27; Joel 2:28-29; Zech 12:10).
3. The promise of new hearts that want to do right and want to love God (Jer 31:33; 32:39-40; Ez 11:19-20; 36:24-29).
These now apply to believing Jews and Gentiles
Don’t mistake LITERAL and SPIRITUAL with REAL or UNREAL.
These SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS ARE REAL!!!!
ANYWAY…which is more real? The spiritual or physical? Are we not taught that God is Spirit? Are we not taught that God the Spirit created the heavens and the earth (the physical)? The spiritual then is more real than the physical.
EXAMPLES OF “PHYSICAL” PROMISES
4. The promise to re-gather the Jewish people into the land of Israel (Ez 36:24-29; 37:21-28; 39:25-29).
5. The promise to give the land of Israel to the Jewish people forever (Gen 17:8; Ps 105:8-11; 1 Chron 16:15-18; Ez 37:25-28; Rom 11:29).
6. The promise to bless the nation of Israel above all the other nations of the earth (Isa 49:22-23; 60:3-22; Jer 33:9).
7. The promise to fight for the Jews against all their Gentile enemies on the Day of the Lord (Ez 38:17 – 39:22; Zech 14:3, 12).
8. The promise that every Jew who is still alive when Jesus returns will be saved (Zech 12:10- 13:2,9; Rom 11:26; Jer 31:33-34).
Still applies ONLY to the Jewish People
It is important to note that all these promises were originally made only to the Jews.
Through Christ’s death and resurrection, however, Gentile believers came to be included in the spiritualpromises pertaining to salvation, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the Holy Spirit.
The spiritual and physical promises were made to Israel.
The spiritual promises were shared with the gentiles (grafted on).
But the physical promises belong only to Israel.
Where I think Replacement theology goes wrong is in ignoring the fact that this still leaves a number of the specifically physical promises that can only be applied to the Jewish people.
Simply by saying that these specific, physical promises to Israel are fulfilled in the church and dwelling in and possessing the land is the same as “Dwelling In Christ” … just doesn’t fit!
Let’s continue to look at the NATURE of these covenants…
3. Are they
ETERNAL…
All covenants that God made to Israel are called eternal except the Mosaic which is declared temporal (Gal 3.19-24) added until the promised seed.
If they are Eternal and Unconditional, then they are unbreakable.
Abrahamic Covenant:
Gen 17.7,13,19;
1 Chron 16.16-18;
Ps 105.10
Unconditional and Eternal in God’s eye
Palestinian/Land Covenant:
Ezek 16.60-63
Palestinian/Land Unconditional and Eternal in God’s eye
Davidic Covenant:
2 Sam 23.5;
Isa 55.3;
Ezek 37.25
Unconditional and Eternal in God’s eye
The New Covenant:
Isa 24.5; 61.8;
Jer 32.40; 50.5;
Heb 13.20
Unconditional and Eternal in God’s eye
Continuing to look at the NATURE of these covenants…
4. Are they Made with a Covenanted People?
Rom 9.4-5
Rom 11.25f
Israel has the covenants, promises, and adoption
If God could break His covenant with the Jews, then we cannot trust Him to keep His promises to the Church!
Jeremiah 31:35-37
35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name:
36 “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Thus says the LORD: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD”.
Have you seen the sun today, or the moon or stars last night?
If so, you can know that the nation Israel still has a place in God’s plan because so long as the sun keeps coming up God will never reject the Jewish people (‘offspring of Israel’) – no matter what they do (v. 37b). (This is directly opposed to RT)
This fact is confirmed in the New Testament where Paul says,
Rom 11.1-2
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people [the Jews]? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has NOT rejected his people whom he foreknew”
Having read these verses, a Replacement Theologian would then tell you,
“I can assure you that these verses do not mean what they say.”
To sum up…
How can we view Ethnic Israel and the Church together in these Last Days?
What is the Relationship of the church with Israel?
Many Replacement Theologians believe that the promises were made for the “People of God” – that’s all believers. The Church was in mystery form in the OT and the church is the new Israel and the one people of God today– we are not two people.
RT’s say that there has always been ONE people of God.
In the OT it was Israel, the church in mystery form/germ form, and now there is ONE people of God, the Church.
It has just changed its expression. The one people of God has always been the church, and some go so far as to say, “Eve was the first member of the church.”
There are two main camps for RT’s:
1. Ethnic Israel rejected their Messiah and now everything promised to Israel is fulfilled spiritually in the church. (CT)
2. The New Covenant is better and the Old Covenant is no longer relevant. The better replaces the lesser. (NCT-Supersessionists – the church supersedes Israel)
Classical Dispensationalism…
There is a distinction between Israel and the church.
Two people of God with two purposes.
There are some revisions since then.
The church is the body of believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit which began in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost and Ethnic Israel still has a future in the program of God due to the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenant that are Eternal and Unconditional.
How it plays out… the NT establishment of the church was a mystery in the OT and is now a parenthetical aspect in the program of God.
Paul argues that it is a mystery and now brings both Jew and Gentile together to form one body (Eph 1.9; 2.11-22; 3.3, 4, 9)
But even in the NT period there is still right now a distinction between the believing Jews, Gentiles, and the Church (believing Gentiles) - Even though one body now, there is still a distinction. Two people groups but one body.
(1 Cor 10.32)
NEXT…. (An event of contention)
A “RAPTURE” OF THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO THE COVENANTS
There will be a Tribulation/ “Jacobs Trouble” (70th Week of Daniel):
Jer 30.7
Alas! That day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it. (This is not 70 A.D. as Preterist may persist)
The Tribulation will be for:
1. The Cleansing and Conversion of Ethnic Israel (The Remnant)
2. And for the punishing of the nations.
In the Millennium, the redeemed ethnic Jews in un-glorified bodies will exist together with the saints in glorified bodies who will rule and reign with Christ.
Classical Dispensationalism retains the distinction between Jews and the Church throughout all eternity.
BUT… the RTs say it is Not clear in Scripture.
What does seem to be clear in Scripture is that all redeemed ethnicities will remain distinct throughout eternity – why can’t Israel?
Rev 7
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, ‘‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’’
There is however a “New” system of Dispensationalism called,
“Progressive Dispensationalism” that blends Classical Dispensationalism with Replacement Theology.
There are two versions that looks something like this…
1. No distinction between the two.
The body of Christ is comprised of believers and indwelt by the HS and Ethnic Israel and the church will be one people of God as we all benefit from the covenants that have been progressively fulfilled and broadened throughout the ages.
The distinction gets fuzzy during the Tribulation but after that they are one people again.
But if the lines of the church and Israel are blurred then there is no need for the Tribulation since we are one people of God.
2. Ethnic Israel in the church age will inherit the promises from the Abrahamic Covenant and so will the church both as one people of God.
God will deal again with Ethnic Israel in the tribulation to turn them back to the Messiah but once they accept Him, they will enter into the kingdom. They will not be the same as the church still in un-resurrected bodies but when the kingdom arrives (millennium) all the people of God, redeemed Ethnic Jews and gentiles, will be ONE people with no distinction between Ethnic Israel and the church in the New Heavens and Earth.
“Replacement Theologians are seamstress’ who with a spiritual thread sew literal verses together to obtain a spiritual fabric.”
Even though God has twice temporarily removed the Jews from the land of Israel as punishment for their sins, He has always and at all times considered the land of Israel to be their rightful inheritance because of His covenant with them.
Genesis 17:8
“And I will give to you [Abraham] and to your offspring after you [the Jews] the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God”
Heb 6.17-18
“…it is impossible for God to lie…”
Unless of Course…God didn’t mean what He said…That is why We spiritualize what HE said so that we can make Him say what we want.
They say He doesn’t really mean this verse…
Ps 105:8-11
“[God] remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to ISRAEL as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance”
And this verse …
1 Chronicles 16:15-18
Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
16 the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac,
17 which he confirmed as a statute to Jacob, as an everlasting covenant TO ISRAEL,
18 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, as your portion for an inheritance”
This truth is confirmed in the New Testament as well:
Romans 11:29
“For the gifts (generally meaning “land”) and the calling of God (generally meaning “salvation”)
are irrevocable”
LAND AND SALVATION ARE IRREVOCABLE FOR ISRAEL.
Some people may try to argue, however, that the word ‘gifts’ does not apply to the land of Israel. Two things must be said in response to that:
1) First of all, the word ‘gifts’ here must apply to all the gifts God gave the Jews – this passage certainly cannot be twisted to say that only some of God’s gifts are irrevocable since Paul states clearly ‘the gifts,’ meaning all of His gifts.
2) If the word ‘gifts’ doesn’t apply to the land of Israel, one would be hard-pressed to figure out to what other gifts Paul could be referring.
What other gifts did God give to the Jews that could be irrevocable? It must be from the above passages that one of the main gifts God gave to the Jews was the land of Israel.
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