MGN Conference, November 2008
The New Testament proclaims the Gospel, or the Good News. It announces the fulfilment of something that had been longed for and eagerly expected.
But the same good news is also said to be “God’s power, for the Salvation of all who believe.”
The Gospel clearly demands something from those who hear it – it is not self-evident. It does not offer immediate satisfaction, or appeal to us in the most obvious way.
The response the gospel demands from us is faith. Unless we BELIEVE, we cannot receive it.
This is the way that God wanted it. The same Gospel had firstly to announce the Kingdom of God, and then also determine who would receive the Kingdom of God.
THE GOSPEL TO THE JEWS
The Gospel was initially proclaimed to the Jews. The Jews were chosen by God, but chosen for what? They were chosen to receive His Word.
The apostle Paul said of his countrymen,
Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! (Romans 9:4-5)
The Jews had received the Promise of God and lived in expectation of its fulfilment.
The reason why Jewish unbelief is tragic is because the Good News proclaims to this people the FULFILMENT of this Promise. The Promise in which they had their origin, the promise for which they existed and the same promise they were waiting to see fulfilled.
But how does the New Testament claim that the Promise was fulfilled?
The Good News to the Jews, as both Jesus and John the Baptist proclaimed it, related to the Kingdom of God which was said to be “near” or “at hand”. This Kingdom of God refers to His Rule or Rulership.
The prophet Isaiah saw the gospel in the same way, 700 years earlier:
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
(Isaiah 52:7)
With the advent of the Christ, God’s Reign over Israel was imminent. This was the Good News. Under God’s rule Israel would succeed. He would lead the nation into victory so that its prophetic destiny could be fulfilled.
How this would come about, as I suggested earlier, did not meet with popular expectation. Firstly God’s Rule would not be territorial, but moral. God would establish his Rule in the hearts and minds of the faithful, NOT by taking charge of military campaigns and political institutions.
The Kingdom of God, as He desired to establish it, would operate through the Holy Spirit – that mighty but invisible power, by whom God “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will” – the Spirit who was given to the disciples at Pentecost and then subsequently to all who believe.
When John and then Jesus proclaimed: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near” they meant: “the Rule of God is about to be established over you. Renounce your rebellion so that you may come under God’s authority and become an extension of His will on earth!”
It is by the gift of the Holy Spirit that the Kingdom of God is established over us.
Jesus’ teaching on this is well known: “No one can enter into the kingdom of God unless he is born from above.”
“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.'” (John 3:5-7)
The table shows the difference between the Kingdom as Jesus taught it, and the popular expectation among the Jews at his time.
The Kingdom of God comes by …
|
New Testament explanation: |
popular Jewish expectation |
|
not by careful observation (Luke 17:20). |
visibly |
|
not in a specific place (Luke 17:21) |
territorially – centred on the Middle East |
|
within us / among us (Luke 17:21) |
externally (geo-political) |
|
not of this (mortal) world (John 18:36) |
culminates in the mortal world |
|
for the faithful (Mat. 8:11-12, Mat. 21:43) |
for ethnic Jews |
|
invisibly, with small beginnings and spreading gradually |
“with a bang” |
|
individually, by invitation and response |
universally, imposed on everyone |
|
judgment on the rebellious is delayed |
opponents will be destroyed |
Most of Jesus’ teachings on the Kingdom was done by way of parables, with the deliberate intention that “the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven” be revealed to some, while being hidden from others.
Those from whom these teachings were hidden, would thus continue to hold to the wrong expectations of the coming Kingdom, and fail to see the fulfilment of the Promise in the manner in which God had ordained, and thus they would not enter into the Kingdom “and so be saved.”
It should be obvious that the same unenlightened expectations that prevented many from receiving salvation at that time, have found their way into Christianity and are now being offered as God’s Great Plan for the end times. (More on this later.)
I now deal with the Gospel as Paul taught it.
We see from Paul’s presentation of the Good News, that he proclaims the Gospel as the FULFILMENT of God’s promise to Abraham and the Patriarchs. Let’s see this from Acts 13 and Galatians 3.
In Acts 13, we find Paul in the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he proclaims to the Jews at Pisidian Antioch:
“Brothers, children of Abraham … We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus” (Acts 13:26-33).
Paul claims that the resurrection of Christ has fulfilled the promise.
Later, Paul writes to the Galatians:
‘The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith’ (Gal 3:8-9).
For Jew and Gentile alike, the Gospel is presented as the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham.
The only difference between the proclamation of Paul and that of John the Baptist and Jesus, is that Paul is preaching AFTER the Resurrection, and AFTER Pentecost.
By the time of Paul, the Kingdom of God from heaven HAD BEEN established on earth. Jesus had been enthroned at the right hand of the Father in heavenly glory, and had sent the Holy Spirit. He had begun his millennial Messianic rule on earth (from heaven, but on earth). Jesus, had become the firstfruits from the dead, the firstborn of many brothers and was leading many sons to Glory.
Paul clearly saw the establishment of the Kingdom (the Rule of God through the Holy Spirit) as the FULFILMENT of God’s promised blessing to Abraham.
Let us consider a very profound verse of scripture:
‘He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit’ (Gal 3:14).
We have established that the Kingdom of God = the Rulership of God = the gift of the Holy Spirit to rule in our hearts.
In Paul’s understanding then: the Blessing Promised to Abraham = the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel according to Paul is thus the same Gospel proclaimed by Jesus, but after the promised Kingdom had already come!
Again, the fulfilment did not take place in the most obvious way. Once again the fulfilment can only be seen by faith (without which, it is impossible to please God).The unbelieving Jews at Pisidian Antioch could have raised many objections to Paul’s claim:
• the Land promised to Abraham is still under Roman authority, we have no autonomy or security!
• most of the people to whom the Land was promised are still in the diaspora, they have not received it!
• we are having the same socio-economic problems as before!
• everything continues the same as it always has!
• where then is the fulfilment of the Promise – we don’t see it!
So, we must satisfy ourselves as to HOW the Gospel claims to fulfil the promise to Abraham.
The promise is repeated several times from Genesis 12 onwards. Reading then from Genesis 12 and 13:
‘The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”‘ (Genesis 12:1-3)
And then from Genesis 13:
” … the land that you see I will give to you and your seed forever.” (Genesis 13:15)
This promise has various components, and I want to examine its fulfilment under three headings:
(1) the Blessing to Abraham
(2) the Blessing through Abraham
(3) the giving of the Land as an eternal possession.
The first component – the blessedness of Abraham
There are many carnal and unspiritual ideas of what it means to be great and what it means to be blessed. But we need to accept, from God’s perspective, that Abraham’s greatness lies in the fact that he became the Father of the redeemed of all nations, and the progenitor through faith, of the Son of Promise, the Redeemer of Mankind.
The promised blessing, as we have already understood, was that God would establish Abraham and his descendants under His Rule.
David writes in Psalm 33: ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD’ (verse 12).
Adam had departed from God’s Rule when he chose his own will instead of God’s, and God was announcing through Abraham His plan for restoration.
But the blessing of restoration presupposes the forgiveness of the Sin, which is a further component of the blessing promised to Abraham. David speaks of this in the preceding Psalm: ‘Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered’ (verse 1).
Forgiveness of sin and restoration into the Rule of God. This was the blessedness of Abraham and his descendants.
The Kingdom of God had a typical fulfilment in the Law:
‘See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?’ (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
From Moses to Samuel, God reigned over Israel as their King. Israel then deposed God because it wanted an earthly king like all the other nations (just as Jews and many misguided Christians do now).
The Law was not defective, but the people were: being weakened by their sinful nature. Israel’s problem was not that its enemies kept on attacking, but that it couldn’t achieve the obedience that was necessary for it to obtain God’s protection!
The time would thus come when God would deal with the disposition of sin, and replace it with the disposition of righteousness. His Kingdom would thus be established in its ultimate form by the Rule of the Spirit in terms of the New Covenant:
‘The time is coming declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah … I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people … For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:31-33)
The ultimate fulfilment of the blessing promised to Abraham would come in Messiah, who would atone for sin and usher in the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit. That Abraham himself understood and anticipated this is clear from John 8:56, where Jesus says:
‘Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’
As we have seen, the New Testament claims the fulfilment of Abraham’s blessing, as the establishment of the Kingdom of God through the gift of the Holy Spirit. I.e. restoration into the Rule of God!
The second component of the Promise – through Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed
The SAME blessing that was promised to Abraham would also come to all nations through Abraham, namely through his seed, namely through Jesus Messiah.
I stress that Jews and Gentiles, according to New Testament teaching, are heirs together of THE SAME promise and THE SAME blessing and that THE SAME INHERITANCE would result for both.
This came as a surprise, even to the Jewish church, when the same Holy Spirit by which God’s Rule was established over them, was also poured out upon the Gentiles:
‘While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.’ (Acts 10:44-45)
We have this confirmed in that well-known writing to the Ephesians:
‘His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to His eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord… ‘
‘ … that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise – in Christ Jesus … ‘ (Eph 3:10-11, 3:6)
And again, as final confirmation from Galatians 3:
‘He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit’ (Gal 3:14).
Like Abraham, and through Abraham, the nations would be restored into the Rule of God.
The third component – the promise of the Land
What about the promise of the Land? Surely this part of the promise has not yet been fulfilled. Or has it?
How does the New Testament Gospel claim to fulfil the promise to give Abraham and his seed the Land as an eternal possession?
Firstly, if we look at the promise in the Hebrew text, we see that God promised the Land to Abraham himself (lecha in Hebrew is ‘you’ singular). Then Stephen at his execution testifies concerning Abraham that “God gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of land.” In Hebrews 11, verses 13 and 39, we see that none of the Patriarchs had received what was promised. “God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
So the promise of the Land had not been fulfilled, in its ultimate sense, not even to Abraham the original heir!
God promised the Land to Abraham as an “eternal possession”. And Paul explained to the Corinthian church that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor can the perishable inherit the imperishable”.
The promise of the Land is for the Resurrection. Not for the mortal realm in which thieves break in and steal, and moths and rust corrode and destroy.
Peter writes to the children of Abraham and tells them:
‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Pet. 1:3-5).
By destroying sin and death, God has fulfilled the promise to Abraham! Not by securing the Land, but by securing the Resurrection that must precede the giving of the Land!
Now that Jesus has reversed the consequences of Adam’s sin, and restored the Rule of God, Abraham can be raised on the last day and together with us, he will receive – himself, according to the promise – the Land ‘as an eternal possession!’
This understanding is shared by Talmudic Judaism. The citation is from the Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin, 98b):
“MISHNA. All Israel have a portion in the world to come … But the following have no portion therein: He who maintains that the Resurrection is not intimated in the Torah …
… It has been taught: Rabbi Simai said, “Whence do we learn resurrection from the Torah? From the verse, ‘And I also have established my covenant with them [the Patriarchs] to give them the land of Canaan: ‘you’ [collectively] is not said, but to give them [personally]; thus resurrection is proved from the Torah.”
A footnote in the Soncino edition then adds:
“The promise [to give the Land to the original heirs] could be literally fulfilled only by the Patriarchs’ resurrection.”
Now we can better understand Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch:
‘Brothers, children of Abraham … We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus ….’ (Acts 13:26-33)
By revealing the resurrection, the promise has been fulfilled.
Halelujah! Glory be to God!
This is the Gospel of the New Testament.
This is the Good News!
We have concluded the first part of the presentation, and resume immediately with the second part:
The Good News according to Dispensationalism – is it ‘another gospel?’
PART 2 – THE GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO DISPENSATIONALISM
We are dealing with the important topic of “The Gospel to Israel and the Nations.”
The reason the topic is important is because: ‘The Gospel is the power of God unto the Salvation of all who believe! First for the Jew, then also for the Gentile!’ It follows that any other gospel is weak and powerless and cannot bring anyone to salvation – and is, in fact, no gospel at all!
In the first session we saw how the New Testament Gospel proclaims the FULFILMENT of God’s Promise to Israel, and simultaneously the inclusion of the Gentiles into that SAME Promise.
We now look at a very influential teaching, which claims that the Promise HAS NOT YET been fulfilled TO ISRAEL, and proclaims the “Good News” that its fulfilment is only now “at hand”.
John MacArthur, a well-know proponent of this teaching, puts it as follows:
“One of the most wonderful things we can tell Jewish people is that there’s a great future ahead for Israel – God is going / to redeem the nation.” (John MacArthur, The return and reign of Jesus Christ).
This is clearly GOOD NEWS “to Israel”. A future redemption! But the question we are concerned with is this: is it THE SAME good news as the New Testament?
Let us start by showing again how John MacArthur and other Dispensational teachers differ from the Bible in their understanding of Israel.
The Bible teaches that the Jews have their origin in God’s promise to Abraham. (Without God’s promise there would be no such thing as a Jew!) It follows that the principal criterion by which a Jew and Israel are distinguished from the rest of humanity is faithfulness to the promise. Those to whom the promise was made could be cut off from Israel if they became unfaithful, while others to whom the promise had not been made could be grafted in if they believed.
The criterion of faithfulness lies at the heart of New Testament teaching. This is the Baptist’s warning to the Pharisees:
“And do not think you can say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Mark 3:9-10)
(In other words: You have your origin in a promise of God, if you do not remain faithful, you will be cut off, and stones can be raised up to take your place.)
According to the Dispensational view, the Jews have their origin in Abraham, not in the promise to Abraham. They define Israel by race and physical descent. By this definition, it follows that those who rejected God’s revelation in Christ, continue, in spite of their unfaithfulness, to be part of Israel and continue to be the rightful heirs to the Promise.
Some dispensationalists even teach that those faithful Jews who believed in Jesus and entered the Church ceased, in this way, to be part of Israel. In essence then, the Dispensational teaching is that the unfaithful portion, those who were cut off from the Olive Tree, that it is they who are Israel and heirs to the Promise.
This brings us to a further critical error of Dispensationalism which, contrary to New Testament, teaches that the Promise to Abraham has NOT YET been fulfilled. And since it has NOT YET been fulfilled, God remains obligated to fulfil it in the future. Most would in fact say that God has now begun to fulfil the Promise, since the modern State of Israel was established in 1948.
This further quotation illustrates this. Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum is an American Dispensational teacher:
“The Old Testament promises a national salvation of Israel, it promises a natural restoration when the Jews will live in peace in the whole Promised Land, and nothing in the New Testament can cancel those divine unconditional promises, and if it does so it becomes a fraudulent document.” (Fruchtenbaum)
It is precisely because the New Testament and Dispensationalism offer ALTERNATIVE fulfilments of THE SAME PROMISE, that Dispensational teaching amounts to ANOTHER GOSPEL.
The Good News of the New Testament is that the Kingdom of God has been established. What God has promised our fathers … HE HAS FULFILLED for us their children. (Everything looks back to Jesus, the completed work on the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our hope is in the resurrection, the new heaven and the new earth of which Jesus is the first-fruits.)
The ALTERNATIVE Gospel presented by Dr Fruchtenbaum, which many Christians are proclaiming to the Jews today is this: “God has not yet done what He has promised you.” In fact, we are quite apologetic about this and even justify Jewish unbelief in this way. This is our sentiment: “we understand how God’s failure to fulfil the promise is keeping you from believing in Jesus! How could you be expected to believe when God has not yet done what he promised you? But, can’t you see? God is starting to do it right now – to fulfil His promises to you – and He will do it exactly the way that you have always expected.”
In this way, Dispensationalism also subverts the New Testament teaching that Jews and Gentiles are “heirs together … of the same promise” and “sharers together in the same inheritance”.
‘ … through the Gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise – in Christ Jesus’
The contrast with the Dispensational view is clearly seen from their popular writings.
This is from John Hagee’s influential book Jerusalem Countdown:
‘Israel has been given an earthly Kingdom with an earthly Jerusalem now located in Israel. The Church has been given a New Jerusalem located in heaven.’
Hebrews 11:16 says that “they [the Jewish Patriarchs] were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” It also says “only together with us, will they receive what was promised.” [i.e. in the resurrection]
The reason the dangers of Dispensationalism are not obvious to many is because Dispensationalism has never expressly denied the Gospel of the New Testament. Many Dispensational teachers will even emphasise that “there is no salvation, except through faith in Jesus.”
Rather than an outright denial of the New Testament Gospel, Dispensationalism undermines its principal claims and then ring-fences them within a defined era, or dispensation, which it refers to as the Church Age or the Time of the Gentiles.
So, we have a misconstrued New Testament gospel which belongs to the Church Age. And we then have the end-time salvation Plan gospel for the modern Jew, for the new dispensation.
The New Testament era is disparagingly called a ‘parenthesis’ – in other words, a side show! The time that has elapsed between the coming of Jesus and the present day, is considered an incidental phase to God’s Divine Plan, which lasts only until God will get back to His main line of business, which concerns itself with a racially defined Israel.
We see this principal stated in the writings of English Dispensational teacher, John Wilkinson (“Israel My Glory”, p.134):
” … the Jewish nation as such is shunted to a siding until the times of the Gentiles run out, to allow the express train to pass, stopping here and there to pick up the Church, and then the Jewish nation will take her place on the main line of the Divine Plan, stop at all stations and take on the world.”
In other words what Jesus failed to do by pouring out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, ethnic Jews will succeed in doing much better once the church is taken out of the way!
As the Golden Age of Israel kicks in through the apparent fulfilment of prophecy and particularly in view of the post 1948 existence of a Jewish State, the Church Age fades into insignificance, along with its Gospel. As this shift takes place, the New Testament Gospel is eclipsed by the “good news” that God is resuming his plan for the Jews, and fulfilling the Promise, in establishing the Kingdom for Israel according to the very same misguided and unspiritual expectations for which Christ has always been rejected – and for which the generation at the time of Jesus’ first advent came under God’s severe judgment.
“The Kingdom of Israel is at hand.” This is what many Christians are presenting to Jews as the good news! And it is not the same good news as the New Testament! It is a different – and in fact, for them – a more important gospel, which, if the New Testament cannot accommodate, then it (the New Testament) must be a fraudulent document! In the view of Dr Fruchtenbaum, the Good News of the New Testament can be thrown out altogether if it does not accommodate a national, geo-political, dispensational end-time salvation plan for the Jews.
It is this great Plan which was supposedly put on hold for 2000 years, after God was “compelled by Jewish unbelief” to turn his favour to the Gentiles.
I am quoting the “Hebrew root” teacher, Jacob Prasch:
‘Jacob came for a bride from his own people. He desired Rachel, but he did not get Rachel at first, but Leah … Jesus came for Israel. He wanted to marry Israel, but He did not get Israel. He ends up with the bride He did not desire at first, the Gentile church.’ (Jacob Prasch, teaching on Ruth, MORIEL website).
I.e. Because God failed to get the Bride he always wanted, He extended His favour to the Gentiles.
Apart from the fact that the church was at first exclusively and then later, predominantly, Jewish, the salvation of Gentiles is nowhere presented as an unforeseen eventuality, somewhat of a disappointment and a second prize. Jesus taught that flesh gives birth to flesh and counts for nothing. The New Testament states clearly concerning the unbelieving Jews: “They stumble because they disobey the message – which is also what they were destined for” (1 Peter 2:8).
Does God’s plan depend on Man, or does Man depend on God’s Plan?
The God-centred view is that God’s purposes prevail and unfaithful individuals disqualify themselves from participation. The humanistic, Judeo-centric view which Prasch advocates is that God’s purpose was unfortunately frustrated by the non-participation of ethnic Jews.
The New Testament states further that salvation was always part of the Plan contained in the Abrahamic promise, and presents the Church as the fulfilment of God’s “eternal purpose”. (Eph 3:10-11)
The true worshipper, and the type that God desires, is the one who worships Him ‘in spirit and in truth’.
A NEW COMMISSION?
As the Church Age supposedly draws to a close and the great END-TIME SALVATION PLAN for ethnic Jews begins dramatically to unfold, THE GREAT COMMISSION which Jesus entrusted to his disciples – to proclaim his gospel to all nations is also superseded by an alternative Great Commission – the Great Commission of Dispensationalism.
This purpose of Gentile believers, and the Church’s new reason for being, is to “bless” Israel in material ways, to support unbelieving Jews in their nation building endeavours, to fight their wars against Palestinians and belligerent Islamic powers and ultimately to promote and preserve Israel as a nation state – at ALL costs. “AT ALL COSTS” includes the commitment NOT to proclaim the NEW TESTAMENT Gospel. (An undertaking which most Dispensational Christian organisations operating in Israel have already committed to.)
As I have said, the new role of the Gentile Church, its Great end-time commission (according the Dispensational teaching) is to BLESS ethnic Israel.
The following quote is from the “Out of Zion” website.
“The Church is waking up to discover a major key in the Word of God. It is a key that releases the full blessings of the Lord. In Genesis 12:3, the Lord tells Abraham that He will bless those who bless the seed of Abraham.
Here is a radical, literal promise not to be removed by spiritualizing the Word. We must allow God to speak for Himself. When the God of Abraham, declared those words, He was referring to the physical descendants of Abraham through Isaac (Gen 21:12) in Isaac your seed shall be called and Jacob (who became Israel – Gen 32:28), the Jewish people.”
DAVID SILVER
Even in Old Testament times, this was not true. To bless Abraham meant to bless him in his prophetic mission, not in a state of apostasy or in selfish pursuits or in open rebellion.
At the time of Isaiah, when Israel sought the help of Egypt against the Assyrians, God did not promise to bless Egypt for “blessing” Israel.
“For the Egyptians are men and not God;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
he who helps will stumble,
he who is helped will fall;
both will perish together.” (Isaiah 31:3)
To a Christian who thinks he can obtain a blessing by funding Jewish anti-missionary organizations or the rebuilding of an anti-Christ Temple, we must surely ask, as Paul did the Galatians: “Who has bewitched you?” He who “blesses” will stumble and he “who is blessed” will fall – both will perish together.
In its ultimate form, the dispensational gospel even presents an alternative salvation plan for Gentiles. Consider this from the teaching of Derek Prince:
“‘He will separate them from one another … the sheep on His right, and goats on the left’ … To the goats, those who refused to show mercy to the Jews, Christ will say: … ‘Depart from me accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels …'”
Derek Prince, Appointment in Jerusalem
No-one who hates a Jews (or an Arab for that matter) can claim to be a true disciple of Messiah. But many come very close to Prince’s idea that: “Gentiles’ fate is secured by supporting ethnic Jews. That it is on this criterion that Gentiles will be judged, on which their eternal destiny will be decided.”
Again, the Bible begs to differ from Prince and his Dispensational brothers:
‘”To all who received HIM, to those who believed in HIS name, he gave authority to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:11-13)
The fate of Jews and Gentiles alike depend on how they receive HIM! And they must receive in faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen.
Jesus taught we must believe in order to SEE and then ENTER INTO the Kingdom of God. According to the Dispensational version: Jews must first see and receive, THEN they will have faith and believe.
I have stated before that the New Testament and Dispensationalism offer ALTERNATIVE fulfilments of THE SAME PROMISE. This is why Dispensationalism amounts to “another gospel”.
Let us conclude with a schematic overview of the two alternative gospels, in relation to the Promise:
| Promise to Abraham | Fulfilment according to the New Testament | Fulfilment according to Dispensationalism |
| I will bless you | I will restore you into my rulership though the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit | I will bring you to national pre-eminence in the mortal age |
| those who bless you will be blessed | the blessing is for those who align themselves with Christ and the true Israel in the fulfilment of Abraham’s prophetic mission of salvation to the world | Gentile Christians must support ethnic Jews and the secular State of Israel |
| you will be a channel of blessing to all nations | salvation has reached the ends of the earth, so that … every nation, tribe and tongue may come under the Rule of Godand …The nations are co-heirs with Abraham to THE SAME PROMISE | collective contribution of Jews to society (through people such as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Barbara Steisand, suggests David Pawson) God has different blessings / inheritances for Israel & the Church |
| the land as an eternal possession | the faithful of all generations will rise up with Abraham to receive their allotted share (an inheritance that will never perish spoil or fade) |
Jews must return to the land to live there in uninterrupted security in the mortal / temporal realm |
Paul says that those who preach another Gospel will come under a curse. Later he warns:
‘The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.’ (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
Further reading: