Hebrews Lesson
99
September 6,
2007
NKJ Philippians 4:6 Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
We
are in Hebrews and we’re not going to spend much time in Hebrews, but just to
remind you (if I can get there) where we are. Hebrews 7:12 is talking
about the change in the priesthood. The argument that we find in Hebrews 7 is
that there is a superior priesthood to the Levitical priesthood, to the Aaronic
high priesthood and Jesus Christ as the Messiah fits into that as the
fulfillment of the type of the royal priest, the Melchizedekean high
priest. This is indicated by David’s prophecy as it were in Psalm 110 that
He will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek forever: so the priesthood
changes.
In
verse 12 we read this sentence.
NKJ Hebrews 7:12 For
the priesthood being changed,
Methatithemi indicating a
change of place or condition.
of necessity there is also a change of the law.
The
word therefore – we have another word for change metathesis which is a cognate of the
verb.
That
is, out of the compelling force or logical fact that the priesthood is
changing; there is also a change of the law. Now that is a really great
verse that has an embedded doctrine in it that is extremely important and
probably overlooked a lot just because you tend to read passed it very quickly.
That is that there is a change of law and a change of priesthood. The
priesthood relates to the administration of the spiritual life among the Jews
in Israel under the Mosaic Law. So it indicates that something drastic
changes between the Old Testament period and New Testament period.
Now
last time I introduced the doctrine which is related to dispensationalism
trying to answer the question in a somewhat abbreviated sense. (I have a longer
series out there on dispensations and covenants. I think it is called
God’s Plan for the Ages.) But here I am just trying to give us a little
bird’s eye view of what is involved in dispensations so you will know what we
are talking about.
A
lot of people don’t really know the technical terminology here even though some
people have heard dispensational teaching in relationship to perhaps the
rapture or they are pro-Israel. They believe that God still has a future
plan for Israel - something along that line. I remember talking to a friend a
few years ago and this individual was very involved in a denominational church
and thought they knew a tremendous amount about the Bible. So something came up
and I started rattling off on dispensations like they knew what I was talking
about. Even though this was an individual whose siblings had gone to
seminary and had gone on the mission field and had this family environment with
all of this advanced study in it, this individual who was in their 50’s at the
time, never heard the words dispensation or dispensationalism. That is a
real tragedy today. It is the dumbing down of the church. If you dumb down
your vocabulary, you dumb down your ability to think and your ability to
perceive what is going on in the Scripture. That is one problem because
this individual had been taught a sort of popular view on dispensational truth
down through the years.
On
the other hand you also have a lot of groups, a lot of denominations attack
against dispensationalism. Part of that is funnelled by
ignorance. Several years ago there was a critique written of
dispensationalism written by a reformed theologian who had a lot of respect by the
name of John Gershner. He basically set up a series of straw men arguments
and then knocked them down. (A straw man argument is when you misrepresent
the opponents view and then it is real easy to discredit it) Here is this
world-class scholar, a recognized world class theologian who could have his
honest disagreements with dispensational theology, but he distorted and
misrepresented it. Unfortunately a lot of people have that view of what
dispensationalism is. So I thought was important to take a little time to
go through and explain exactly what dispensationalism is.
Dr.
Louis Sperry Chafer was the founder and professor of theology at Dallas
Theological Seminary for many years. He used to comment that if you were
not going to Israel to sacrifice a lamb on Passover or to sacrifice a burnt
offering whenever you needed to, then you’re a dispensationalist because you
recognize that certain things have ended and certain things have
changed. One of the kind of interesting or subtle points that you run into
in this debate is that there are people (and everybody but dispensationalists
are this way as I pointed out last time) that believe that if something is
stated in the Old Testament that it automatically continues throughout all of
the rest of the history of salvation and on into the Church Age; whereas we
would say that unless something was repeated or restated in the New Testament,
then it had only a temporary life in the Old Testament. That is something
we are going to get into more and more at the end of chapter 7 and into chapter
8.
So
this is a good place to stop and do this brief overview of dispensationalism
because dispensationalism isn’t saying that God changes everything.
We believe that there are certain things that continue the same.
Salvation is always by faith alone in Christ alone. However in the Old
Testament the understanding of just exactly who Christ is, is not as clear as
it is today. For example from Adam to Abraham, the Messiah would have
been thought of in terms of the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15 that the seed
of the woman would bruise the serpent on the head.); but the serpent would
bruise Him on the heel.
Then
with Abraham there is a little more clarification that the seed is going to
come and the one who will bring worldwide blessing will come through the line
of Abraham, Isaac and then Jacob. Then you come to the Davidic Covenant in
II Samuel 7 and you get clarification that the Messiah is going to come through
the line of David. So as the centuries went by people in the Old Testament
people got a clearer and clearer understanding of things about the Messiah
until finally come to passages like Isaiah 7:14 that:
NKJ Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin
Behold
“the” virgin (it says in the Hebrew), not “a” virgin as most English
translations have it. The definite article there indicates that it is talking
about an understood virgin, going back to the seed of the woman.
shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Immanuel,
God with us.
You
have a real tight understanding that this is going to be the incarnate God just
because His name indicates that. So there is a tighter and tighter
understanding in this progress of revelation. So that is very important in
dispensationalism.
Last
time I pointed out by way of review a couple of things. Dispensations deal
with time and ages. We talked about some of the key words that you find in
the Bible such as “seasons” based on the Greek word kairos which indicates a broad expanse
of time as opposed to a narrower expanse of time. I think that you have
ages which are broad and dispensations which are narrow. That’ll be clear
by the time we finish this evening. We also have the term aion for
age. And you have an Age of Gentiles between Adam and Abraham, no
Jews.
It
is all- but you have 3 dispensations because there are modifications of the
original Creation Covenant first in Genesis 3 then again with the Noahic
Covenant. Then there is a major shift that takes place with the call of
Abraham in Genesis 12. So you have ages and you have dispensations.
The
concept of dispensation comes from the noun oikonomos which is where we get our word
economy. You can hear how they sound very similar and it emphasizes the
idea of stewardship or administration and the idea that God administers His
plan differently in different ages. There are certain things that stay the
same, but there are other things that are different. It is important to
indicate that. That’s part of dispensations.
So
we define dispensations as:
A distinct and identifiable (that means
that each dispensation has specific characteristics. We will get into that
later on; this is just upfront.) administration in the development of God’s
plan and purpose for human history.
There
is progress. Everything is not the same.
As
part of this we recognize three key elements as I pointed out last time.
That’s
really important to understand that distinction between Israel and the church
because otherwise you end up when you read Scripture and interpret it (read it
for yourself and try to figure out what it means for you). If you don’t
understand the distinction between Israel and the church, it is like reading
your neighbor’s bills – reading your neighbor’s mail, thinking his
mortgage is your mortgage. You are not understanding to whom a passage is
addressed or written or of whom a requirement is expected. So that’s what
happens.
People
come along and they think, “Well, the Ten Commandments are still for today.”
No,
you are reading somebody else’s mail. That’s a contract with somebody
else, not a contract with the church - not a covenant with the church is the
biblical terminology. So it is important to understand those distinctions
when interpreting Scripture.
So
from there I pointed out that in the English the word “dispensation” means to
weigh out or dispense. Once again it is part of the idea of
administration.
It
is the act of administering or ordering something, dealing out or distributing
something or the act of dispensing with some requirement. So at the core
of a semantic meaning (that is technical language for basically what this word
means) is that there is a requirement. It includes within its meaning some
sort of obligation, responsibility or expectation from someone. It’s
management, but there is responsibility and accountability in relationship to
something. So that is all bound up in the idea of a dispensation.
We
see in Scripture that there are certain passages that make reference to these
things. For example, Ephesians 1:10 talks about the fact that with a view
to an administration suitable to the fullness of times.
NKJ Ephesians 1:10 that
in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth -- in
Him.
That’s
not now. It’s not in the past; it’s in the future. So that indicates
one division of human history. Then in Ephesians 3:8-9 Paul talks about
his responsibility, that he was given the grace to preach to the Gentiles the
unfathomable riches of Christ. That shows a difference because in the Old
Testament their focus wasn’t to go out to the Gentiles, but to be a light or a
beacon that the Gentiles would come to. So there is a definite shift or
distinction. Paul goes on to say:
NAS Ephesians 3:9
and to bring to light what is the administration
Oikonomia – that’s
our word for dispensation. In fact the Old King James translated it
dispensation.
of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who
created all things;
So
that’s a reference to the present Church Age. It has been a mystery in the Old
Testament. But now it is being brought to light.
Then
in Ephesians 3:2 talks about the fact that:
NKJ Ephesians 3:2 if
indeed you have heard of the dispensation
There
is our word again, okonomia.
of the grace of God which was given to me for you,
That
is a reference to the present Church Age.
NKJ Colossians 1:25 of
which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given
to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,
NKJ Colossians 1:26 the
mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been
revealed to His saints.
All
of this indicates that within the Scripture itself there is a recognition of
these different administrations that God administers history with a little bit
different obligations, responsibilities at different times.
Then
we began to look at definitions. I think we stopped about right here if I
am not mistaken.
C.
I. Scofield who edited the Scofield Reference Bible was one of the great Bible teachers that
came out of the late 19th century. He was a decorated
Confederate war hero. After the war he decided the find the solutions to
life in a bottle rather than somewhere else. He was a drunk for a number of
years and then he was a lawyer as well – not that those two go
together. I am not making - no lawyer jokes here. He was a
lawyer.
It
is interesting how many theologians were lawyers. Darby who was the first
to organize and categorize Scripture began as a lawyer. Others began as
lawyers. Calvin was a lawyer. Many theologians down through history
have come out of the legal profession. It is that same kind of analysis
that appeals to them.
But
Scofield was part of that whole Bible teaching milieu – the prophecy
Bible conferences, Niagara Bible Conferences, the North Hampton Bible
Conference that Dwight Moody had up in Massachusetts. He was very
instrumental and edited and produced the Scofield Reference Bible which came out in the
early 20th century and has influenced hundreds of thousands,
millions of people to understand dispensationalism.
His
protégé was a young musical evangelist by the name of Louis Sperry
Chafer.
One
day he told Chafer (he said), “Louis you might make a pastoral teacher someday
if you just had something to say.”
So
from that point on Chafer began to study at his mentor’s knee. Eventually
Scofield became pastor of a congregational church Dallas, Texas that is now
known as Scofield Memorial Church.
Another
dispensationalist from the early 20th century…I didn’t read the
quote did I?
Scofield
said:
A dispensation is a period of time
during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation
of the will of God.
That
is a good tight definition. It indicates that there is a period of time,
although as I pointed out last time a dispensation indicates the
administration, in other words a timeframe. It is a period of time during
which man is tested. That is accountability for something. That
something is given by way of a specific revelation. So there is specific
change of information that takes place. That’s very important. A
dispensation isn’t based on other factors of history or theology. There is
revelation from God that God is going to function a little differently toward
people and require them to do things a little differently. So you look for
those times when God is revealing something new in how He is going to work with
the human race.
Graham
Scroggie defined dispensation this way. He said:
The word okonomia bears one significance and
means an administration whether the house or a property of the state or of a
nation or as in the present study the administration of the human race or any
part of it at any given time just as a parent would govern his house solely in
different ways.
Now
the reason he uses that illustration is because the word okonomia comes from two Greek words, oikos meaning
house and nomos
meaning law. So house law. When you were three years old your parents
had different rules for running the house and how you would obey them than when
you were 13 and when you were 18. So the fact that a household - and some
of those rules stay the same. The fact that a household changes the way
that it administers those in the household doesn’t imply inconsistency or that
you are saying God changes or any other silly notions that people accuse
dispensationalists of. He goes on to say:
Just as a parent would govern his
household in different ways according to varying necessity yet ever for one
good end so God has at different times dealt with men in different ways
according to the necessity of the case but throughout the one grand end.
I
pointed out last time that the overall purpose of God within dispensational
theology is the glory of God.
Dispensationalism
is usually juxtaposed to what is called today replacement theology. By
replacement they mean that Israel is replaced by the church in God’s plan so
that the promises and covenants that were originally given by God to the Jews
in the Old Testament are now given to the church and the church becomes the
heir of the promises to Israel and national ethnic Israel is no longer relevant
- no longer significant for the plan of God. While that doesn’t necessitate
saying that they are anti-Semitic, it does provide the soil within which
anti-Semitism has often sprung, especially during the Middle Ages when
a-millennialism dominated the church. The Jews were no longer important.
God has no plan or future for Israel. Therefore the Jews were maltreated
many times in Europe. They were run out of England for several
centuries. They were expelled from Spain in 1492 and pushed around
different places in Europe throughout much of that time until interestingly
enough they found a place of rest in the United States for the most
part. Even the colonies were very open to Jews coming in and settling in
America. It wasn’t until they established their own nation that they knew
that no matter what happened if another holocaust came they would have a place
of safety where they could flee. That issue of Israel is very, very
important. It is important not because it is a system that says so, it is
important because that is what the Bible says.
Charles
Ryrie, who was the head of the Theology Department at Dallas Seminary when I
was there, has written a classic work, a good work that is basic in some senses
but very good analysis in other senses called Dispensationalism. He defines a
dispensation as:
A distinguishable economy in the
outworking of God’s purposes.
So
he puts less of an emphasis on time which is what the word dispensation really
does emphasize - the administration aspect more than the time aspect. But,
it emphasizes that it is the outworking of God’s purpose. And, it is
distinguishable. That means there are distinguishing marks or
characteristics so you can definitely tell when one begins and the other
ends.
Around
2000 I was asked to write that article for The Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible on
dispensationalism. I tried to pull several different ideas together.
I wrote:
A dispensation
is a distinct and identifiable administration (I picked that up from Dr.
Ryrie) in the development of God’s purposes for human history. A closely
connected but not interchangeable word is age. They are not
identical. They are not synonymous. An age can be broader than a
dispensation which introduces the time element. God manages the entirety
of human history as a household, moving humanity through sequential stages.
That
is a key word sequential. They are related and one builds on the other so
that there is advance in knowledge, there is advance in information, and there
is advance in revelation.
of
His administration, determined by the level of revelation He has provided up to
that time in human history.
It
is very important to understand this idea of progress of
revelation. Failure to do so crops up in the most interesting
places. I go on to say:
Each
administration period is characterized by revelation, specific
responsibilities, a test in relation to those responsibilities, and failure to
pass the test in God’s gracious provisions of a solution when failure occurs.
Five
things - that pretty much goes along with how Dr. Scofield set things
up. For the most part Scofield has a very workable understanding of
dispensations.
So
what are we saying? First of all these distinct elements are from the
viewpoint of God, not from the viewpoint of man. It is Theo-centric not
man-centered, God centered not man-centered. We look at these in terms of
how and what God reveals.
Second,
there is a time when one ends and another begins. There may be a
transition period in there as one is fading out and another is beginning like
you had in the book of Acts. This is a problem the Charismatics
have. They don’t understand the transitional nature in the book of
Acts. At the beginning of the books of Acts when Peter is preaching in
Acts 2 and again in Acts 3, there is still a holdout. Technically up until
70 AD there is still
the possibility that the Jews can repent and accept Jesus as Messiah and the
millennium will come. They are still in the land and the temple is still
there. But, in another sense they have already forfeited that by their
rejection of Jesus as Messiah. God in His grace still holds out that
option.
Peter
says in Acts 3 to turn to Jesus and accept the times of refreshing which is a
term of the kingdom. The times of refreshing will come. So there is a
transition period there. But it is still clear that something is
different.
On
the day of Pentecost in approximately 33, the Holy Spirit
descended. Individuals who were believers in Christ are baptized into the body
of Christ, were filled with the Spirit, indwelt by the Spirit and that never
happened before. It is unique to this age so it is very clear that that’s
the demarcation line. There is some overlap.
I
always have fun thinking, what would you do if you were a Jew and you were an
Old Testament saint and you lived in Rome and you died in 45 AD before the
gospel got to Rome? Are you a member of the church or are you Old
Testament Israel? You are still Old Testament Israel. See there is a
transition nature that took time for the gospel to get around.
A
third point is that this emphasizes the divided administration of history.
History isn’t as Henry Ford said one time, “One damn thing after
another.” It an orderly guided progression of events that is the
outworking of God’s plan. It is not just a bunch of chaos. God is
moving history and He is doing certain things and teaching certain things in
each one of these dispensations because they manifest different characteristics
and qualities. In that period from Adam to Noah, God’s presence is still
in Eden.
Adam
could take his great grandchildren and his great-great-great-great-great
grandchildren down to see the cherubs standing there with the flaming sword
guarding the Garden of Eden and say, “God lives in there.”
Did
you ever think about that? They could see the angles; and human beings
could see the demons. The sons of God were not invisible when they were
cohabiting with the daughters of men in Genesis 6. Now after the Noahic
flood, you don’t have this. The angels are not visible. They are not
operating on the planet in a visible overt manner like they were before the
flood. Then you have this mass of demon activity at the time of Christ and
then it sort of fades out. A lot of people want to think that it continues
demonic activity of course, but not quite in the same way because the Messiah
is not here. It is really interesting; you have very little reference to
demons in the Old Testament. There is no demon possession, nothing like
that in the Old Testament. All of a sudden it explodes on the scene in the
gospels and then you have a little bit of a hangover when you get into
Acts. Then the epistles don’t even mention it. There isn’t one
mention of demon possession in the epistles. I wonder why that is...
New
revelation designates the shift from one dispensation to another. That is
why I come back to saying that it’s the covenants that indicate the
movement.
God
reveals to man in the Garden of Eden what his role and responsibility
is. He is to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and
the beasts of the field. He is to guard and keep the garden. The
wife is to be a helper to the husband. They are to be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth. They are not to eat of the fruit of the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But, what happens? They disobey
God and all that has to be modified. Then you go through another period of
time. There is another worldwide cataclysm and judgment with the Noahic
flood. God comes back and has to restate each of those principles
again. They are still to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, but
now there is going to be other characteristic differences on the planet.
God gives a new set of stipulations. But, man disobeys. You have the Tower of
Babel.
And
then God decides “Well, heck with the whole human race. So I am only going to
work through one man and his descendents.”
Then
you have the Abrahamic Covenant. So, new revelation comes. So each time
you have new revelation in the form of a legal contract, the dispensation
shifts. When they do, some things remain the same; some things
change. For example you are still saved by faith alone in Christ
alone. God provides a solution. Your understanding of Christ and who
He is changes, is modified, clarifies, gets tighter in focus as you go down
through the ages. If you are not saved by works in the Old Testament, you
are not saved by law. You are not saved by morality. You are not saved by ritual
any more than you are in the New Testament. You are saved by believing the
promise. In the Old Testament you look forward to the fulfillment of the
promise. Now we look back to the fulfillment of the promise. So each
dispensation has its own responsibilities and tests. That’s indicated by
change and expansion of revelation.
Last
but not least, each successive stage moves God’s plan closer to
conclusion.
When
it is all said and done I think God is going to look back and say, “See in each
one of these dispensations we had conditions and circumstances that pretty much
covered every possible condition and circumstance. Man failed in every one
of them when he tried to do it on his own. You can’t come up with another way
of possibly doing it.”
What
God demonstrates through all of history is that there is only one way and
that’s God’s way and you have to be dependent on God. Nothing else
works.
So
how do we know when a new dispensation begins? That’s a key question. That
comes to the idea of a covenant.
Here
is a quote from another very good dispensationalist – not an American
dispensationalist but a German dispensationalist by the name of Erich
Sauer. He wrote several books – The Dawn of Redemption, and The King of
the Earth. This was the first theologian that I was ever aquatinted
with. The pastor of the church where my parents were going when I was
really little recommended these books to my dad to read. He bought the King of the Earth
and read that. I think I read it when I was in junior high –
excellent book. He is a European dispensationalist so he is a little
different from the flow of dispensational thought that occurred in
America. Erich Sauer says:
A new period
always begins only when from the side of God (notice these
guys are all Theo-centric. It isn’t a man-centered theology) a
change is introduced in the compositions of principles valid up to that time;
What
is the one word to describe that when a change is introduced in the composition
in the principles involved up to that time? What is one word you use to
summarize that? Revelation; new revelation.
He
says:
1. There
is a continuation of certain ordinances valid until death; some things continue
the same.
2. There
is an annulment of other regulations that were valid up to that point. Some
things change; some things stay the same.
3. There
is a fresh introduction of new principles not before valid.
That
is why you can say – see you don’t have the indwelling of the Spirit, the
baptism of the Spirit, or the filling of the Spirit in the Old Testament.
When you read about the Holy Spirit interacting with Old Testament saints, do
not make the mistake of reading into that the same behavior he has in the
Church Age because it was different. It was for a different purpose.
In
the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon men like Gideon, and Jephthah and
Sampson not for the purpose of their spiritual life or spiritual growth but in
order to give them military capability to defeat the enemies of Israel. It
came upon the craftsmen of the tabernacle not to give them spiritual life for
greater fellowship with God, but in order to give them skill in making and
constructing the jewellery and all the woodwork in the tabernacle. The
work of the Holy Spirit was designed to promote the administration of Israel in
the Old Testament. I figured it up one time. There are fewer - you
can’t really say for sure because there are some prophets that we don’t know so
there are only about 20 named people in the Old Testament that are filled with
the Spirit; but I will be generous and say 100. Out of all those centuries you
didn’t have more than 100 people have any kind of relationship with the Holy
Spirit in the Old Testament. That certainly can’t be normative at all
because there were tens of thousands of Old Testament saints.
Now
Arnold Fructenbaum in his book summarizes it this way. His book is called
– what is that tee-shirt that Bruce always wears? Footsteps of the
Messiah. See, you can’t forget it. He’s got 20 tee-shirts that
all say the same thing.
From God’s
viewpoint a dispensation is an administration. From man’s viewpoint a
dispensation is a responsibility. From the viewpoint of progressive
revelation a dispensation is a stage in it.
That
is a stage within the progress of revelation.
From God’s
viewpoint a dispensation is an administration. From man’s view point a
dispensation is a responsibility. From the viewpoint of progressive
revelation a dispensation is a stage in it.
Then
I put this in to give you a little bit of an idea. This comes out of
Ryrie’s book Dispensationalism
and gives you some different breakdowns of dispensations from different
dispensationalists.
Now
one thing I want to point out because some people think, “Ah, a
dispensationalist. You have to have 7 dispensations.”
That’s
a good biblical number of fullness, right? Seven, so you have to have 7
dispensations. Some people have 4 dispensations. Some people have 8
dispensations. The number of dispensations is not relevant to whether or
not you are a dispensationalist. Dallas Seminary only mentions 3
dispensations in their doctrinal statement.
Now
Pierre Poiret was a dispensationalist in the 17th century. He
had 6 dispensations.
Isaac
Watts the hymnist who wrote Joy to the World was a pre-millenialist. He breaks
down. He has an early dispensational type breakdown. He breaks it
down as:
He
doesn’t break the Church Age down or the Millennial Kingdom down too much
although he was pre-millennial.
Now
the first consistent dispensational theologian was an Irishman by the name of
John Nelson Darby. Darby was originally trained as a lawyer. Then he
went into the clergy. He was in the Anglican Church and broke away from
the Anglican Church because he didn’t like their ecclesiology. They were
….in his church for many reasons. For many reasons he was right. He
also came over the United States and taught a lot in the 19th
century. He influenced a vast number of people because of his biblical
teaching. It wasn’t original with him. He just systematized it.
You
will find a lot of people who say, “How can you believe in a pre-trib
rapture? Darby invented that. Nobody believed in that before Darby.”
Well,
there are at least three different evidences that they have discovered in the
last 15 years of people who in church history who held to the disappearance of
the church prior to the tribulation. One goes back to a document called
pseudo-Ephraim. That’s who the writer was called because he took the
pseudonym of Ephraim. We don’t know who the actual author was. He
indicates that the church goes up before the time of God’s wrath.
Then
there is a Baptist (I don’t remember his name.) president of one of the most
liberal universities in the country in Providence, Rhode Island - Brown
University. The president of Brown University was a Baptist in the 1750’s
and he wrote a document that wasn’t published until after he died. He held
to a pre-trib rapture.
Then
there was another evidence that came up on a reversal. There was a
document that was discovered written in the Maryland colony in the late 1700’s
that was refuting a pre-tribulation rapture which means that somebody had to be
teaching it.
Then
I was talking to Tommy Ice the another day and he said they found some other
(he didn’t tell me what it was) but they think they have discovered another
early writing that indicates a pre-trib rapture. So Darby just
systematized this.
James
Hall Brookes was a Presbyterian pastor in St. Louis in the late 19th
century. He wrote quite a bit. He broke it down this way. He
said you have:
James
Hall Brookes had a former drunk Confederate War hero, now Christian show up in
St. Louis who he mentored by the name of Cyrus Scofield, C I Scofield. So
Scofield then broke the dispensations down into what has become classic because
of the influence of the Scofield Reference Bible.
What’s
good about Scofield’s scheme is he breaks each one down because of a covenant
shift that takes place. So I think he’s got that nailed down in terms of
innocence up to the time of Adam’s fall. He is innocent not because he is
naïve but because he is judicially not guilty. He is not just not guilty,
he is innocent judicially. That’s a very good concept to hold on
to. He is innocent. He becomes guilty. Because he is legally
guilty he has to become legally justified in order to get saved. So it
ties all that together. It is a very good concept.
The
Age of Conscience is from Adam to Noah. The Age of Human Government is
from Noah to Abraham and then the Age of Promise from Abraham to Moses and then
the Age of the Law, the Age of Grace and the Age of the Kingdom. So that
just shows you some different ways that dispensationalists have broken down the
periodization of dispensations over the years.
So
how does God advance the dispensations? He does it with
covenants. Now this looks like a lot up there, but it really
isn’t. You can summarize it pretty easily. First of all I say it’s a
contract. Always think of that. I think I have drilled that in to you
enough by now that a covenant is a contract.
When
you signed on the dotted line to apply for a credit card, you have signed a
covenant; you have signed a contract. That covenant that you have with
your VISA company is
assigning a particular interest rate and certain responsibilities and also
punishments that are part of that contract. When you bought you house or
you leased an apartment, you have a contract. There are certain
stipulations in that contract as to how long the term of the lease is or how
long the term of the mortgage is or whether it is a fluctuating rate mortgage
or whether it is a fixed rate loan or what the percentage rate is. Let’s
say you went out and you got a 7 ½ % loan several years ago. You come
along and it’s now 2005 or 2006 and mortgage rates have dropped down to 5 ½
%.
You
say, “I don’t think it is fair that I keep paying 7 ½ % on my mortgage for my
mortgage rate. I am going to start paying them 5 ½%.”
Do
you think that will work? No, you can’t change the terms in the covenant
once it is enacted.
You
say, “Well, my next door neighbor got a great deal. He got a VA loan and his
loan is only 4.8%. I think I will start applying that rate to my
mortgage.”
Will
that work? No, you are reading your neighbor’s mail.
See
this is what people do who go to the Mosaic Law and say “I think the Mosaic Law
is and I need to apply that to my life.”
What’s
the problem? The Mosaic Law wasn’t addressed to you. It was addressed
to Israel. It is addressed to your historical next-door neighbor. The
terms of that contract are terms that are specified to be for Israel, not for
you. The same will happened in the tribulation period. What is going
to happen in the tribulation period? This is the last 7 years in Israel’s
history.
What
happens if they come to Ephesians 5:18 and they walk around and say, “Walk
around and be filled with the Spirit”.
What
is going to happen? Well, reading the wrong mail again!
The
Spirit as a restrainer is going to be removed during the tribulation
period. What about baptism of the Holy Spirit? Somebody is going to
get a hold of a Pentecostal tract during the tribulation period and go around
saying that you have to be baptized by the Holy Spirit and speak in
tongues. Oops! You are reading the wrong mail again. See, you
have to be careful with this.
So
a covenant is a contract between God who is the party of the first part who
makes a sovereign disposition obligating Himself in grace to bless man who is
the party of the second part. God is always the initiator. He’s the one
who set’s the parameters and provides the revelation.
Now
there are two covenants between God and Gentiles as a whole. Actually you
could say there are three.
Then
there are five covenants between God and Israel.
It
doesn’t mention the church in Hebrews 8. When Hebrews 8 comes along as we
will see in a few weeks when we get there, it is a direct quote from Jeremiah
31. It begins by saying in Hebrews 8:8:
NKJ Hebrews 8:8 Because
finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the
LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah –
It
didn’t add “with the church.” Covenants don’t change. It’s still the
same New Covenant that you had in Jeremiah 31 through 34. Of these, what
we will see is that the Mosaic Covenant was intended to be temporary and was
designed to end at a particular time. The other covenants are permanent in
nature.
Going
back to the original covenant there was an Edenic responsibility given in
Genesis 1. They were to be fruitful and multiply. But in Genesis 3 in
the revision there is now going to be pain in child birth. The woman is a
helper in Genesis 2. She becomes involved in this authority struggle in
Genesis 3. Man is to subdue the earth in Genesis 1. Now the earth
is cursed and there are thorns in Genesis 3.
In
Genesis 1 he is to rule over the animals, but the animals are now cursed in
Genesis3. Every plant was given for food in Genesis 2. But in Genesis
3 it is restricted to plants of the field. In Genesis 2 man is to serve
and guard the Garden of Eden. But now he is expelled after the
curse. He is not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil. The result was now there is spiritual death which brings physical
death. This shows the correlation between Genesis 3 and Genesis
1. Man is still to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth which is
what is brought out in the Noahic Covenant. So these three covenants are
really modifications of the same contract. God has to come in and as it
were establish an addendum to the contract because the conditions on man’s part
have changed because of sin.
So
you have two conditional or temporary covenants, the Edenic Covenant and the
Mosaic Covenant. The Edenic Covenant has some conditions on it because as
long as they don’t eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they can
stay in the garden.
The
Mosaic Covenant
Secondly
there are unconditional or permanent covenants. I like that term permanent
more because even within some of these unconditional covenants there are
conditions on their full realization like in the Abrahamic Covenant. Those
are your two basic breakdowns.
So
what do we say about these covenants then? Four things.
Now
earlier dispensationalists thought that well, there is a new covenant with
Israel so because Christ came and what did He say right before He went to the
cross? We are going to say it Sunday morning.
NKJ Mark 14:24
And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed
for many.
Well,
there must be a new covenant for the church. But it doesn’t say that -
anywhere. So, hmmm. What’s the relationship of the church to the New
Covenant? The relationship is this.
Let’s
say that I am entering into this contract with Claude here. I enter into
this contract with Claude and I say that on the basis of this legal contract
that we have, I am going to bless everybody else in this room. But the
legal basis for that blessing of everybody else in the room is the contract
that he and I have. The rest of y’all aren’t contract
partners. That is what God did with Abraham.
In
the Abrahamic Covenant He said, “Through you all people will be blessed.”
The
expansion of that blessing part is the New Covenant where God says, “I am going
to put a new heart in Israel (not the church, but a new heart in Israel) and
all people will come and worship with Israel.”
What
He is doing is the same thing.
He
is saying, “I am going to establish a covenant with Israel on the
cross. And on the basis of that contract with Israel I am going to be able
to bring the church in and bless them in a unique way.”
One
of the ways that’s done is that we are in Christ who is one of the covenant
partners. He is not the party of the second part; He is party of the first
part. So there is no new covenant for the church, just a New Covenant for
Israel. That’s the basis for the future. It’s even though it is
established at the cross, it doesn’t go into effect until the Second Coming.
So
we conclude with Romans 9:4.
NKJ Romans 9:4
who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the
law, the service of
God, and the promises;
Paul
still recognizes the Jews still get a right to the covenants. They are
Israelites, his fellow ethnic relatives. They are Israelites.
It
doesn’t say that they were taken away and given to the church. They are
still to Israel.
So
here they are. You have the Gentile Covenants.
Jewish
covenants:
These
are all unconditional, permanent covenants. There is one conditional or
temporary covenant. That’s the Mosaic Covenant given in Exodus 20 to
Exodus 40.
So
we are almost out of time - two more quick charts. The Age of the Gentiles
is subdivided into three dispensations based on your three different
covenants. Then the Age of Israel covers two eras – the dispensation
of the patriarchs and the dispensation of the law – The Abrahamic
Covenant at the beginning and the Mosaic Covenant comes in at Sinai.
Then
you are going to have another shift when the Messiah appears because Jesus
comes along and now you are no longer believing that God is going to provide a
future Messiah. What do you have to believe? That He is the
Messiah. The requirements shift. The test shifts. They now are
to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, a new message. There is a change
there.
I
am going to skip these verses. We will come back to them later.
After
the cross you have the Church Age that ends with the rapture. You all have
seen it before. It ends with the rapture. Then there is 7 years left
over for the Age of Israel which is the tribulation. That ends with the
Second Coming of Christ when He comes to establish His kingdom. That’s
when the New Covenant goes into effect and you have a literal 1,000 year reign
of Christ at the Millennial Kingdom.
We will come back and wrap it up a little it in summary next time.