Survey of the Old Testament - Lecture 1 "Canon and Chronology"

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June 5, 2020

This is a series of lectures given at Sovereign Grace Academy Sovereign Grace Academy is a biblical studies ministry provided by Sovereign Grace Family Church. Students of the ministry are provided seminary quality instruction with no financial obligation. For more information visit: SGFCjax.org/Academy

00:00: Well, good evening everyone.
00:04: It's good to have everyone back for our continuation of this study, and because it is a new term, I'm anxious.
00:18: I'm not going to lie.
00:20: I'm anxious for several reasons.
00:23: My first bit of anxiety comes from the fact that this is the first time I've ever taught this particular course in this particular way, and I'm afraid, as is so often my problem in teaching, is that I get caught up in a subject and I spend too much time and I over talk a subject, and so I am going to have to be I'm going to have to be moving along at a brisk pace.
00:54: What did you say, brother? Yeah, exactly.
01:00: The other thing that I'm concerned about, of course, is this is a different setting than what we're used to, and I'm nervous that at some point I'm going to say, where is this? Because I've put everything differently than I normally have it, so I'm going to ask that you be a little bit gracious with me, especially that tonight is our first night, and if at a certain point I say, whoops, just pray for me.
01:29: But I think I've got everything as it should be.
01:33: I've got the recorders recording.
01:35: We have a couple of people who can't be with us, and I promised them that I would record it and that I would share it online.
01:40: This class will be posted to YouTube, but not live-streamed, and as I was telling Daisy, I don't like to live-stream this class for a couple reasons, but not the least of which is I like the opportunity to be able to edit if I make a mistake.
01:55: This is supposed to be seminary-level material, and if I make a mistake and you guys hear it, I can apologize, but the Internet is oh so unyielding when it comes to mistakes.
02:06: There is no grace on the Internet, so I like to have the opportunity to edit these videos before I post them.
02:17: What we're going to do before I even dive into my notes is I want to go ahead and ask that we pass around the the name list.
02:29: Please put your name and mark that you're here.
02:32: This is for our first day, and this will be our sheet all through the term.
02:39: You have to be at 80% or 75% of the classes.
02:44: You can miss two classes and still get the certificate, but if you miss more than that, unless it's for a complete emergency, or you've like one of the students who's having an issue at home had to could not be here doing it by video, unless you've made other plans, you have to be here for six of the eight classes.
03:04: So I'm gonna start over here, brother, if you would.
03:05: Jamie, just start with your name, and please write legibly.
03:09: That would be very helpful.
03:11: I also have copies of the syllabus.
03:18: If you don't have a copy, you don't have to necessarily have one tonight for class, but you probably will want one before you go home because this has your homework in it.
03:28: So if you didn't, if you don't have one on your computer at home, if you don't have one printed and need one, I've got about six copies here.
03:34: I don't want to print a bunch of them because they're three pages stapled and everything, but there's enough for a few of you to take if you need.
03:39: Now everyone needs each of these.
03:43: This is our handout for the first night.
03:45: If I could have two young men, or I don't care if it's men, but two scrapping lads, if you'll please pass those out, make sure everyone gets one of each.
03:59: While they're doing that, I want to make note that we have several certificates that I've already awarded from the last session, but there are a few people who did not get their certificate, and the problem is everybody that's up here is not here tonight, and the one person that did earn a certificate, I don't have one for him, but Johnny O'Neill did earn his certificate, so everybody give him a hand, and he'll get that next week, and I'll give these out to the people when I see them.
04:38: As they're doing that also, I hope that everyone has a copy of the Believer's Bible Commentary.
04:44: This is the required text, and it is a hefty book.
04:48: It's not easy to carry around, so I will tell you, in class, we won't be using it as much, but you definitely have to have it for your at-home reading.
05:01: That's mainly what this is for, so if you're having trouble lugging it back and forth, I don't think you'll be needing it very much in class.
05:09: The other books that I recommended for this course was Zondervan's Old Testament Charts.
05:15: I want to go ahead and tell you this is a good book, but I have found that I'm not using it as much as I thought I would.
05:21: I'm actually making much better use of Rose Charts, which I don't have.
05:28: That's it.
05:28: I told you something was going to happen.
05:30: Is that a copy? Thank you.
05:32: If I could just hold it.
05:34: This is what I'm photocopying out of.
05:39: This is what your notes are coming out of, so if you already have this book, you won't need the handouts that I'm giving you, except for the timeline comes from a different book.
05:49: The timeline that I just gave you is different, but this particular book, I just find it very useful.
05:55: The charts in it, not only is it nice looking and colorful, but it's just good material, and it even has the ability to photocopy.
06:05: So if you are a teacher, you can photocopy from this book, and they give you the right to do that, where a lot of books don't.
06:12: So as long as you're not selling the photocopies, as long as you're just giving them out to classes, you can use that book for that purpose, which is a nice benefit that not a lot of booksellers will give you the opportunity to do.
06:27: The last one, I'm using another book by Rose Publishing, and it's a very small book, and it's where your tonight's timeline came out of, and it's simply called Bible Overview.
06:42: That's the title of it, and it's eight by five and a half, I think.
06:46: It's a very small book, and I found it quite useful.
06:52: Oh, here it is.
06:52: This is it.
06:53: I literally walked right by it.
06:54: This is the Bible Overview book.
06:56: I think it was $10 on Amazon.
07:00: It's got beautiful, colorful charts, and every one of the books of the Bible, it has an introduction, and an overview, and an outline, and it's very well done.
07:10: So Bible Overview by Rose Publishing.
07:12: It's like ten bucks, and it's it's worth the money if you want to add.
07:17: One last thing, since we're talking.
07:21: This is not a book, but a PDF that you can purchase.
07:28: It is from TeachSundaySchool.com, and this is called Bible at a Glance.
07:36: Oh, it came open.
07:37: That's not good.
07:38: It's called Bible at a Glance, and basically what it is, is it's a poster style information sheet for every book of the Bible.
07:51: So like, here's the book of Haggai.
07:53: It just gives you the overview, who wrote it, when it was written, where it falls, and main verses that are in it, and those things.
07:59: So this is a really good tool, especially if you're like me and use computer all the time.
08:04: The only reason really I had this photocopied was, I asked Miss Pat to photocopy and put it in here, so I could show it to you.
08:11: Because ordinarily when I'm using this, I'm using it on my computer.
08:15: I just pull up the PDF, I look for the book I want to study, and I pull it up, and I've got it.
08:20: It's right there.
08:22: TeachSundaySchool.com is the website, and then the title of this particular publication is Bible at a Glance.
08:33: Make sure I'm saying that exactly right.
08:39: Oh, it's at the front.
08:40: Yeah.
08:41: Books of the Bible, Bible at a Glance, and it's every book of the Bible in a poster style PDF.
08:48: So a lot of info.
08:49: I'm giving you tools, right? Remember when we did the How to Study the Bible course, when I taught on hermeneutics, I said, you know, like a carpenter is really reliant on having good tools.
09:00: Well, the same thing is the case for doing a study of the Bible.
09:04: You need to have good tools.
09:07: The commentary that I've given you, I think, is good.
09:09: It's not perfect, and I'm going to make some points about areas that I might disagree with it on.
09:15: Not to be contentious, but there are things.
09:21: There's not a commentary in the world that I'm sure I couldn't find something that I would disagree with, so we're going to talk about that.
09:28: But these are all resources that are fairly solid.
09:32: They should give you good information, and so that's why I've recommended them.
09:38: All right.
09:38: Now, as they say, on with the show.
09:43: Without fear of embarrassment, I would like to ask you all some questions, and I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand because I would certainly not want to cause anyone any embarrassment, but in your mind and in your heart, you can raise your hand.
10:06: Question number one, how many of you could honestly provide a synopsis for every book in the Old Testament from memory? Okay.
10:24: Question number two, how many of you for certain could give a list of the books of the Old Testament without having to look? You know for certain that you know all 39 books.
10:38: That's a little easier, but still, you'll be surprised.
10:42: I go out to the fair.
10:44: I ask people Bible questions all the time.
10:47: How many books are there in the Bible? I don't know.
10:48: How many Testaments? I don't know.
10:50: Six? I don't know.
10:50: I literally, they say answer.
10:51: People don't know.
10:53: So to say that people wouldn't know how many books there are or what the names of the books, it's not uncommon.
11:02: In fact, that would be the next question.
11:04: Are you certain that you know how many books are in the Old Testament? Did we miss somebody? In fact, just set it on the back when you're done.
11:12: You can just have them set it back there.
11:15: I want to tell you a story, and this story is to my shame.
11:22: So it's a story about myself.
11:25: It's a little embarrassing, but I'm telling it to you to follow up the last three questions.
11:30: When I was in seminary, I went in with no prior theological training.
11:38: I had only been in church my whole life, but I didn't have any theological training.
11:46: I had went to Sunday school, and I had heard the stories of David and Goliath, and Adam and Eve, and Abraham, and I'd heard the stories, but even then, I couldn't put anything into categories, and I certainly couldn't put anything into any type of really sensible timeline, and I remember one class.
12:08: Now remember, I'm in seminary at this point.
12:13: Dr.
12:13: Vernon Johns was teaching a class.
12:17: I believe the class was on the Book of Revelation, but I can't remember for certain, but I know that he was teaching.
12:22: He was the president of the seminary and also a professor, and Dr.
12:26: Johns came to my desk, and he said, Brother Foskey, would you please turn to the book of, and I don't remember what book it was, but he named a book, and I reached down in my Bible, and I started going the wrong way, because I didn't know where it was, and the look of disapproval that was upon his face, I will never forget.
13:01: So if you can't answer those first three questions that I asked you with a yes, just know that that's okay.
13:08: That's why you're here.
13:10: First of all, to ask the question, can you give a one sentence or a short synopsis of every book of the Bible? I don't know very many people that can do that from memory.
13:21: To ask people to name the books of the Bible, usually if they've been to Juana's or something like that, they can do that.
13:30: Maybe they know how many books of the Bible there are, but at the end of this course, my goal is honestly, honestly, my goal is that every one of you will be able to give a short synopsis of all 39 books of the Old Testament, that you'll know who wrote it, that you'll know when it was written, and why it was written, and to whom it was written.
13:53: That in and of itself is enough information to get you started in a study.
14:00: So you can see where my focus is.
14:02: My focus in this class is not to dig into the theological minutiae of the Old Testament.
14:08: We don't have time for that, but my goal is to ensure that when this class is over, you feel confident to turn to any book in the Old Testament, know where you are and why you're there.
14:20: That's the goal of this class.
14:22: Everybody understand? That's what a survey does, and this is a survey of the Old Testament.
14:30: Prior to tonight, you should have read Introduction to the Old Testament, which is page 17 to page 24 in the Believer's Bible Commentary.
14:43: Now, if you have not read that assignment, hopefully you have, but again, I'm not going to ask you to raise hands because it's the first night of a new term.
14:53: I know there are some of you who are coming in and say, oh, there was a reading assignment I didn't notice.
14:56: Okay, if you came in tonight and didn't know there was a reading assignment, add it to next week.
15:03: The reading assignments for this class are not long.
15:07: In fact, the longest one you're going to have is when you get to the Minor Prophets, because you have to read the Introduction to all the Minor Prophets.
15:12: That's twelve introductions.
15:13: They're all fairly short, but that's the longest reading that you're going to have.
15:19: So if you didn't read the Introduction to the Old Testament before you came tonight, make that part of next week's homework.
15:25: Another good thing about this course is you're not going to have writing things to do.
15:29: Some of the courses you've done in the past, there have been written requirements.
15:32: You had to write something like when we did the Al Mohler's briefing, you had to write a synopsis of that or something.
15:38: You don't have to do that this time.
15:39: Your reading is your, that's your homework.
15:42: So as long as you're in class, and you're listening, and you're taking notes, and you're doing the reading, and you, at the end of the course, if you decide you want the certificate you turn in the paper, then you're golden.
15:53: Okay, I didn't want to add in a bunch of additional duties.
16:00: Alright, keep in mind, as I just said, this course covers 39 books and 1,500 years of history.
16:15: So to say that we're only going to scratch the surface is an understatement to say the least.
16:24: The goal of this class is not exegesis.
16:28: The goal of this class is framework.
16:30: There is a difference.
16:33: If you have a framework, you have better exegesis.
16:36: You have to have a foundation, you have to build your framework, you have to have an understanding of who and what and where, and then you can begin to particularize the individual passages and the stories.
16:48: Very quickly, I'd like for you to, if you do have your syllabus with you, to take it out.
16:55: If you don't have a copy with you tonight, you don't have to have it, but I just, very quickly, I want to give you how this class is going to break down.
17:07: If you look at the first page, yep, there's a couple right there.
17:14: That's fine.
17:15: Anybody else want one while they're up here? James, you can grab one.
17:23: So the course overview.
17:26: This course will survey the key figures, themes, and theology of the Old Testament.
17:30: Students will be introduced to pattern, progression, and unity of the Old Testament text, and see how they find their ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
17:40: We're going to learn the categories and chronology of the Old Testament canon.
17:43: We're going to summarize the purpose and theology of individual Old Testament books.
17:47: We're going to recognize the historical contribution of key Old Testament figures, and we're going to examine typological and prophetic passages regarding Jesus Christ.
17:57: The things that you need are a Bible and the commentary, but as I said, we're not going to be using the commentary much in class, so if you don't have the capacity to lug it back and forth, that's okay.
18:09: Recommended text, we've already talked about that.
18:11: We know what the course requirements are.
18:13: We've discussed these in previous terms.
18:15: Attendance is important.
18:16: Reading assignments are important.
18:18: Your notebook is your notes.
18:19: What you take notes in class, that's your notebook.
18:22: At a certain point in the class, I may say, hey, notebook check, I want to see what you've done.
18:26: You just open it up, and I come around and look.
18:28: I think I did that once or twice in the last term.
18:31: Academic character, don't cheat, of course, and if you're, if there's something in your paper that looks, if it's plagiarized, but it's not your whole paper, then it would, it can count against 10% of your grade, but if your whole paper is plagiarized, the whole thing's going in the trash, so just understand that 10% is for minor mistakes, not you went to termpaper.com and downloaded a paper.
18:51: That's, that whole thing's going in the trash, and there are ways to find that out, by the way.
18:58: And the last thing is your research project.
19:00: The research project will be assigned during the final class.
19:05: Each student will be assigned one book from the Old Testament.
19:08: The student will write a synopsis of the book, including authorship, purpose and theme, theological insights, and Christological significance.
19:14: That means how Christ is in the book.
19:17: This analysis will be submitted in the following format, a title page, which will include the course title, number, along with the student name and professor name.
19:26: The body of the project should be well organized and be no less than three pages and no more than five pages, and a properly cited bibliography page.
19:35: If you need help with that, see me and I will help you make sure that that is correct.
19:40: Last is the course schedule.
19:42: If you have the old syllabus, you have the old dates, but if you got one from tonight, I did take the time to go change the dates, so tonight we're going to be looking at an introduction to the Old Testament canon.
19:56: Next week we're going to study the Pentateuch, which is the writings of Moses, the first five books of the Bible.
20:01: Then we're going to study the history books, which is Joshua through Esther.
20:05: Week four, we will study the poetic literature, which is Job through the Song of Solomon.
20:10: Week five, we're going to study the major prophets, which is Isaiah to Daniel.
20:13: Week six, we're going to survey the minor prophets, which is Hosea to Malachi.
20:20: Week seven, we are going to devote an entire class to looking at Christ in the Old Testament, and I think that that is not only important, but it will help you tie the whole Old Testament together, if you can see Christ and where he is most clearly typified, and so week seven you do not want to miss.
20:42: And week eight is a survey of the Intertestamental Period.
20:46: That is the period between Malachi and Matthew.
20:51: We are going to have one week looking at the history, because I want to always mention when I tell people I'm going to teach on the Intertestamental Period, I say, don't you find it interesting that nowhere in the Old Testament do you see the word Pharisee? Don't you find it interesting that nowhere in the Old Testament do you see the word Sadducee? Yeah.
21:16: Why? Because these are developments that happened in the 400 year period between Malachi and Matthew, and therefore, as a student of New Testament theology, we should understand the history between the Testaments.
21:32: So that's what we're going to do in week eight.
21:35: Alright, well tonight's lesson is going to be broken down into three parts.
21:40: This is now moving to the lesson, if you want to switch to your notebook in case you want to take some notes.
21:47: Tonight's lesson is entitled Intro or Introduction to the Old Testament Canon.
21:55: Now, very quickly, and I'm sure many of you know this, but just in case you don't, because if I say canon, I don't want there to be any confusion, what does the word canon mean? The word canon is speaking about the actual books that are in the Old Testament.
22:18: The word canon comes from the word which means a standard or a rule or a measuring rod, something against which you would measure something.
22:30: So we say, what is the canon? Well, we're talking about the books that are in the Old Testament, the list.
22:36: When you open up your Bible and you begin at Genesis 1.1, it says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
22:43: It doesn't come with a table of contents.
22:48: Now you say, wait a minute, my Bible has a table of content, but the Bible as it was written didn't have that.
22:55: That was added much later.
22:57: So you say, well how do we know what books are supposed to be in there and what books aren't and what about the disagreements? And that's sort of what we're going to discuss tonight, because we're going to discuss three things about the Old Testament canon tonight.
23:09: First, we're going to talk about the chronology and the dating of the canon.
23:14: When were the books written and in what order were they written? Number two, we're going to talk about the books that we do not believe belong, also known as the apocryphal writings.
23:26: And number three, we're going to talk about different ways that people interpret the Old Testament and what method we are going to employ, because there are a lot of different ways that people try.
23:38: In fact, right now I'm reading a book.
23:40: It is called Dark Agenda by David Horowitz.
23:43: It is about the leftward trajectory in American politics that has happened over the last half century.
23:52: It's a very interesting book, but one of the things that I have noted from Mr.
23:56: Horowitz as I have been reading this book is that from the very beginning of the book he states unequivocally that the early passages of the Bible are mythological.
24:09: He calls himself a Christian and I'm not going to necessarily question his fidelity to Christ, but I will say this.
24:16: I have a hard time when I begin to talk to someone about the Bible and they automatically write off the first several chapters of the Bible as purely mythological.
24:27: And so, how should we interpret the Bible? That's one of the questions we're going to answer tonight.
24:33: And we're going to do this as we always have.
24:35: It's an hour and a half class.
24:36: We'll take a ten minute break at a certain point, but we're going to try to stick to our timeline.
24:42: Before we get into the chronology and dating, I do want to ask one question.
24:50: Why study the Old Testament? Why should we study the Old Testament? Well, we are New Testament believers, and therefore, why do we need the Old Testament? Some people don't really consider it valuable or necessary to study the Old Testament outside of maybe some of the stories.
25:11: And often they get the stories so mixed up because they don't seek to study anything more than the stories.
25:17: And then David and Goliath becomes, you know, all about how you can have courage in the face of adversity.
25:23: And Adam and Eve becomes all about how we shouldn't run around naked.
25:26: I don't know.
25:27: It's all kinds of silly stuff.
25:29: We don't get any real theology out of it because we don't study it.
25:32: And I will say this.
25:33: If you do not understand the Old Testament, then much of the New Testament will remain a mystery to you.
25:41: Because so much of the New Testament is steeped.
25:44: I would say the whole New Testament is steeped in the theology of the Old Testament.
25:49: Recently, I watched a debate on the subject of Penal Substitutionary Atonement.
25:54: Now, I don't want to get into that subject because that would take me on a whole other direction.
25:58: But here is one of the things that I was so happy with.
26:01: The guy who was defending Penal Substitutionary Atonement was doing so from the Old Testament.
26:07: And the guy who was opposing Penal Substitutionary Atonement was saying, Oh, God would never require sacrifice to satisfy His wrath.
26:17: And the other guy is like, Have you read the Old Testament? I mean, it was literally, that was the end of the debate.
26:25: The guy was like, you're talking about Yahweh, right? You're talking about the guy who literally, the guy, the God who literally created the sacrificial system.
26:37: That God.
26:41: So why study the Old Testament? The New Testament depends on it.
26:47: Understanding who Christ is.
26:48: Understanding what Atonement is.
26:50: Understanding, in fact, the word Atonement doesn't even come up in the New Testament.
26:55: Like, it's only in there like twice and it depends on how you even interpret it.
27:01: The whole concept of Atonement is found in the Old Testament.
27:06: And it's fulfilled in Christ.
27:08: But the foundation of our entire system of salvation is found in the Old Covenant text.
27:16: It is the word of God as much as the New Testament is.
27:20: In fact, I want to point this out.
27:23: You've probably all at some point either quoted or heard someone else quote 2 Timothy 3.16 which says what? All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching and reproof and correction and training and righteousness so that the man of God be equipped for every good work.
27:44: You realize when Paul wrote that there wasn't a New Testament yet.
27:48: Paul was in the middle of writing a portion of the New Testament that had not yet been brought together as one whole unit and put together.
27:57: And so when Paul's writing that he says all Scripture is profitable and sufficient so that the man of God is able to do all that he needs to do.
28:11: And he's talking about the Old Testament.
28:16: So, let us never doubt why we should study the Old Testament.
28:23: Alright, moving on to chronology and dating.
28:26: In our English Bible, the Old Testament is not set up chronologically.
28:36: In our English Bible, the Old Testament is set up categorically.
28:49: The Old Testament is set up categorically.
28:52: So, in the Old Testament we have a category of 1 which is the Pentateuch.
29:04: The Pentateuch is Genesis through Deuteronomy.
29:08: The second is history books.
29:11: The third is poetic literature.
29:18: The fourth is major prophets.
29:25: And the fifth is minor prophets.
29:30: Now, when we get to the major and the minor prophets in this study, you'll learn that major and minor does not mean levels of importance but rather the girth of the writing or the breadth of how much they wrote.
29:44: So, just keep that in mind.
29:48: Looking at this, however, it's important to realize when we talk about this, we are talking about the way that we categorize our Old Testament and how many books are in our Old Testament.
30:01: 39.
30:03: There are 39 books that make up 5 categories in our Old Testament.
30:10: By the way, something I did learn in Sunday School many, many years ago, which I always thought was helpful and maybe it will help you.
30:17: If you remember 3 x 9 equals 27.
30:21: So, 39 books in the Old Testament, 3 x 9, there are 27 books in the New Testament.
30:27: That's just a nice little memory thing.
30:30: There's nothing about numerology in it.
30:32: There's nothing special about it.
30:34: It just so happened to be that 3 x 9 equals 27.
30:38: 39 in the Old is 27 in the New.
30:43: Which adds up to 66 books in the Bible.
30:50: Now, in the Hebrew Bible, we have a different organization of books.
31:00: In the Hebrew Bible, we have something called the Tanakh.
31:04: The Tanakh is an acronym.
31:08: I'll write it down.
31:13: It is K-H, Tanakh.
31:21: And the Tanakh is the Torah, which is what? The word Torah means law.
31:29: The next is known as the Nevi'im.
31:39: And the Nevi'im is the prophets.
31:47: And we have the Ketuvim, which means the writings.
31:59: So, Tanakh.
32:03: The Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim.
32:08: This is how the Hebrew books would be identified.
32:12: It would not be identified as the Pentateuch, and the history books, and the poetry books, and the major prophets, and the minor prophets.
32:21: It would be known...
32:22: In fact, when you read the New Testament, how is the Old Testament often described? The law and the prophets.
32:27: Or the law and the prophets and the writings.
32:30: Because this is the way that the Jewish people would identify their Bible.
32:34: They would identify it as the Tanakh.
32:36: The Torah, or the law.
32:38: The Nevi'im, which is the prophets.
32:40: And the Ketuvim, which is the writings.
32:45: Which basically would be the history books.
32:47: And the poetic books.
32:50: Now, here's the really weird part.
32:53: How many books do you have in your English Bible? 39.
32:58: How many books do you have in the Jewish Bible? You would hope to have 39.
33:04: But you don't.
33:06: There are 24 books in the Jewish Bible.
33:11: And that causes a lot of people a great amount of consternation.
33:16: Because they say, oh no.
33:17: That means we have...
33:20: I'm really bad at math.
33:21: It means 15 more books.
33:23: Thank you.
33:25: It means we have a whole other library of books that should not be there.
33:30: But that is not the case.
33:33: The reason why the Tanakh has 24 books is because the books are numbered differently.
33:42: For instance, all 12 minor prophets make up one book.
33:46: Well, there you have a major dropping off of the amount of books that you're going to number.
33:52: 1st and 2nd Kings is not 1st and 2nd Kings.
33:54: It's just Kings.
33:56: 1st and 2nd Chronicles is not that.
33:58: It's just Chronicles.
33:59: So, you have to understand that when we talk about 39 and 24, the key thing to remember is that the books that make up the Protestant canon are the same books that make up the Hebrew canon.
34:17: That is essential to understand.
34:20: Because even though the numbering system is different and the order is different, it is not a different library.
34:28: It's just a differently ordered library.
34:32: However, when you consider the Roman Catholic canon, they do have a different list than the Hebrew or the Protestant canon.
34:50: If you look at your handout, you will see this is...
34:56: If you have the Rose book, I believe this is page 25, but you notice the Hebrew and the Protestant Bibles both take up the same amount of space.
35:07: You see that on the left and the right? The Hebrew Bible on the left, the Protestant Bible on the right.
35:12: But notice this in the Hebrew Bible.
35:14: Notice the order that it ends with 2nd Chronicles, rather than ending with Malachi.
35:21: Notice that the prophets are mingled in differently in different locations.
35:27: Because it's ordered...
35:30: This is ordered categorically, but the Hebrew Bible is ordered chronologically.
35:39: You see the difference? See, the English Bible takes it by category, but the Hebrew Bible takes it by chronology, which it ends with where you think it would end.
35:49: The end of the Chronicles, the history books.
35:52: It ends at that ending point.
35:56: But notice the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Bibles.
36:05: They go on to include several books.
36:09: Greek Orthodox even more so than the Roman Catholics.
36:13: Understand this about that.
36:18: The Roman Catholic Church is including history books that would fall into the intertestamental period, meaning the time between Malachi and Matthew, which were never accepted as part of the Jewish canon.
36:37: They were never accepted as part of the Hebrew Bible.
36:41: And that is why the Protestants have mainly and generally and by and large, not completely because you almost can't do anything universal when you talk about Protestants because there is such a diversity.
36:53: But in general, the Protestants have all said, we do not accept those books because they were not accepted by the Hebrews in the Hebrew canon.
37:04: And where are we getting our main source of foundational information about the Old Testament? From the Hebrew people.
37:12: These books that we have, these 39 books, 24 if you count them as the Jews do, is the same books Jesus had.
37:24: You say, well why did the Roman Catholic Church choose to include these? They are historical and in that sense they are valuable.
37:33: But even the Roman Catholic Church identifies those books as what is known as Deutero-canonical.
37:42: Deutero-canonical means secondary canon.
37:48: Deutero, just like the word Deuteronomy, means second.
37:52: And canon, of course, this.
37:53: They say it's a secondary canon.
37:55: It's not part of the primary.
37:56: Yes, sir.
37:58: Deutero-canonical? Oh, I believe that's it.
38:14: It's spelled like Deuteronomy and then add canonical on it.
38:19: I don't know if you all can see that over there.
38:20: It's one kind of difficult.
38:22: Yeah, so the Roman Catholic Church would identify those books as Deutero-canonical.
38:29: We would not accept them.
38:29: And one of the interesting historical notes on that is Jerome.
38:34: You familiar with Jerome? Jerome was the one who was responsible for translating the Bible into Latin.
38:42: And the Latin Bible became the Bible of the Christian Church for over a thousand years.
38:49: When Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, he read Greek and Hebrew.
38:56: He was a scholar.
38:57: And he had studied in Jerusalem.
39:01: And he knew that the Jewish people did not accept the Deutero-canonical books, or whatever you want to call them, the apocryphal books.
39:08: He knew they did not accept them as God's inspired word.
39:12: As the written word of God.
39:14: And so he did not want to include them.
39:18: However, at that time period in the church, and we're looking at about the 5th century at that point, there was acceptance within the church and therefore there was pressure to include them.
39:29: One of the issues that was brought up during the Reformation and why Protestants have generally rejected them was because they were not accepted in the Hebrew community.
39:41: So, when somebody says, why don't you accept the Apocrypha? I say, because I don't think Jesus accepted the Apocrypha.
39:48: I mean, I don't.
39:50: Because Jesus would have been a Palestinian Jew.
39:52: He would have been living in Israel.
39:55: And he would have understood what books were and what books weren't part of the canon.
40:01: I don't think Jesus accepted them as part of the canon.
40:05: So...
40:05: And there are some things that are in there that seem to go in opposition to what we know is accepted truth.
40:13: And that's a whole other...
40:15: Because you have the issue of what we call external evidence and internal evidence.
40:18: And the internal evidence also would lend towards their rejection.
40:23: Some of what they say.
40:26: Now, I want to take a step back because I've gone a little ahead of myself.
40:29: I want to take a step back and talk about this difference between the English way of ordering the books and the Jewish way of ordering the books.
40:38: Because Jewish readers today have argued that the way that they order their books is better than the way we do.
40:53: Not just because it's chronological and therefore more easy to know where people are falling into the story.
40:58: And I think that that would help to know, you know, the fact that you get the minor prophets way at the end when the action has happened way up in the history.
41:05: I can understand that argument.
41:07: They say, but no, it's better because of this.
41:10: Remember, a modern Jew would not accept Jesus as the Messiah.
41:14: And so what they say is if you take it and you order it our way, you'll see the whole story wraps up at the end.
41:21: And we don't end looking forward to something.
41:25: Because to the Jewish person, the Bible of the Old Testament ends with the coming back to Jerusalem after the exile.
41:33: And the restoration of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple.
41:36: And they say that's what the hope of the prophets was.
41:39: That was the promise.
41:40: That was what we had to look forward to.
41:43: And that's where their book ends.
41:47: But you see, if you read the Old Testament in the categorical way that we would, the English-speaking world, it ends with expectation, doesn't it? Because you have the prophets at the end looking for something else.
42:02: And what do we say that is? It's Jesus.
42:09: I'll read you this paragraph.
42:11: Jewish readers today have argued that their ordering allows the book to stand on its own, having prophecy and fulfillment in the nation of Israel being put into exile and then returning and being delivered from bondage.
42:22: They say the Christian ordering places the prophets later seeming to indicate something future to come and the book being incomplete.
42:33: And I would just say, Amen.
42:35: I do think the book is incomplete.
42:38: But you see how they would make that argument.
42:40: Well, if you read it our way, the story's done.
42:45: But I don't want to read it their way.
42:46: I want to read it God's way.
42:48: And I do believe God's story did not end at the end of 2 Chronicles.
42:54: The prophets all spoke of something greater to come and it was not the restoration of a temple that wouldn't last long.
43:01: You understand the temple that was established after the coming back, after the exile, it didn't last.
43:07: That wasn't the temple that Jesus went into.
43:10: Zerubbabel's temple, the second temple, was destroyed during the battle of the Maccabees.
43:15: It became a war fort.
43:18: It was used for battle.
43:21: It wasn't until Herod came and established the temple that Jesus would actually go into and cleanse.
43:29: That's why it's called Herod's temple.
43:33: So it's actually the third temple, not the second.
43:37: So the restoration that we find at the end of the Old Testament narrative is not the true restoration.
43:45: And the temple of Herod is not the true restoration.
43:48: What's the true restoration of Israel? The person of Jesus Christ, the true seed of Abraham who comes.
43:55: He is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament pictures and promises.
44:01: So yes, if you read it our way, you're going to be looking with expectation, but I think we should.
44:07: But it is true that if you are interested in a chronological reading of the Old Testament, get yourself a Hebrew Bible.
44:14: Preferably one that's translated into English.
44:17: But you can get a Hebrew Bible.
44:19: They are available in English.
44:21: And if you want to read the Bible chronologically, that's...
44:24: It's more, it's still not perfectly chronological, but it's going to be more in line with the ordering of the books.
44:33: Alright, so.
44:36: More important than how we order the books, whether you order it this way or whether you order it that way, more important than how we order the books, is where, or excuse me, is how they fit into the timeline of events.
44:55: So if you have your handout that I gave you, I'd like to go over that for just a few moments.
45:13: Alright.
45:18: Now I realize, if you're like me and your eyes are starting to get bad, only a few years ago my eyes have started to go out.
45:25: And I do need glasses and I don't wear them because of my pure vanity.
45:31: No, I just don't have a good pair.
45:35: But I have a bad right eye.
45:38: You know how I learned that? Competition shooting.
45:42: I close my left eye and everything goes blurry.
45:44: Literally, I cannot see your faces.
45:46: Everybody looks like a blob.
45:48: Now I see you fine.
45:50: But anyway, if your eyes are getting bad or already bad like mine, this is going to be hard to look at.
45:56: But I do want you to please try and give it as much attention as you can, even though the text is small.
46:02: And if you want to, and maybe this would be a good project if somebody wants to do it for class, go get you a big poster board and write everything out.
46:11: Because understanding this timeline, I think is just necessary to understanding the Old Testament.
46:18: Because it tells you where the books fall.
46:22: So, let's begin.
46:24: Basically, what we begin with, the top left, is what I would call primitive history.
46:30: And that is the time up until the time of Abraham.
46:35: The time from Adam and Eve to the time of Abraham.
46:37: How much time was between Adam and Abraham? We don't know for certain.
46:46: Here's why we don't know for certain.
46:49: There are genealogies.
46:51: And very clear genealogies that are in Genesis that tell us how old people were, how old they were when they died, and when the next person was born and when they died.
47:01: And you can create a timeline based upon that.
47:05: And if you use that to create a timeline, what you will find is the Earth, if you trace the Earth back using just the genealogies of Scripture, you will get to somewhere around 6,000 years.
47:20: That is a relatively short, even for people who are young Earth Christians, young Earth believers, and if you don't know what that is, that means you don't accept the naturalistic timeline of millions and billions of years, but you believe the Earth is younger than that.
47:37: But even among young Earth believers, the idea the Earth is only 6,000 years tends to be in the minority.
47:44: Most say it's maybe 10,000, 20,000, 6,000 seems to be really short.
47:50: And you say, well, how do you get that in there? And the way that you get that in there is certain genealogies, and we know this, and we can prove this from other places in the Bible, certain genealogies will skip generations, and they'll say this person was the father of this person, but it was actually the grandfather or the great-grandfather of this person.
48:08: And so there could be an entire generation or two in the middle of a time that's not there.
48:15: Therefore, we don't know for certain.
48:19: There was one guy a few years ago, I don't remember his name or anything, but he said, I figured it out, and the world was created on March 4th, 6,002, and he numbered it out like perfect.
48:33: And I just, I don't even want to pretend to give that any time of day.
48:39: I don't think we can do that, I don't think we should.
48:42: But, no matter how long it was, we can look to the timing of the coming of Abraham, and we can look at that with some pretty fair specificity.
48:54: And you'll notice in your timeline, Abraham comes in around 2166 B.C.
49:02: Right around 2100 years before Jesus Christ.
49:07: And he lived for, well, he lived in that timeline.
49:13: I can't remember the amount of years.
49:15: How long did Abraham live? A long time.
49:19: I can't think of it right off.
49:22: Yeah, and like I said, you do the math, but what happens after Abraham? Well, actually we have primitive history, which leads up to Abraham, and then we have the patriarchal history.
49:35: The patriarchal history is the time between Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the way down to the people of Israel going into Egypt.
49:43: All of that happens in the book of Genesis, by the way.
49:47: Primitive history and patriarchal history, which we're going to look at next week in a little more detail.
49:52: We're going to look at the first 11 chapters of Genesis is primitive history, and the rest of Genesis is patriarchal history, taking us to the people of Israel going to Egypt, where they were made slaves.
50:05: Then we have, after that, the time period of Moses, and we see Moses come in.
50:11: You see where he is on the timeline? Look to the top right, and you see the book of Exodus.
50:20: If you look at the top where it says Genesis, and then over here it says Exodus, that's the history of what's happening at that point in time.
50:30: And then you go from the time of Moses, which is the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings, to the time known as the time of the conquest.
50:38: This was the time under Joshua where the people of Israel took back the land.
50:45: Then you have the era of the judges.
50:48: The era of the judges would encompass not only the book of Judges, but would also encompass the book of Ruth and the book of 1 Samuel.
50:58: At least a portion of the book of 1 Samuel would still be the era of the judges.
51:05: After the era of the judges, you have what's known as the United Kingdom.
51:10: Now why is it called the United Kingdom? Because it was a kingdom united under a single kingship.
51:17: And the first king was who? Saul.
51:20: And the story of Saul comes to us in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.
51:25: And who is the next king? David.
51:30: We see David in 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.
51:37: And then we have the divided kingdom.
51:42: And the divided kingdom came under which king? Well, it was after the death of Solomon, who was the son of David.
51:53: And so it was Jeroboam and Rehoboam.
51:55: And that was the two kings that divided the nation of Israel.
51:58: One to the north.
52:00: And the northern kingdom became known as the people of Israel.
52:05: The southern kingdom became known as the people of Judah.
52:08: And it was Judah and Benjamin in the south and the other ten tribes in the north.
52:12: And so that is the divided kingdom era.
52:16: And you'll notice that takes us all the way over to about 600 BC.
52:24: And right then you see the introduction of the exile.
52:27: You see the little portion there that says exile? Are you guys following me on this? Because you see the line.
52:32: I know there's like four or five lines.
52:33: Just make sure we're all on the same place.
52:35: So we go, era of the judges, united kingdom, divided kingdom, the exile, and then the restoration of Jerusalem.
52:43: Now notice around the exile to the left and to the right.
52:46: And I'm sorry because of the way the photocopier did this.
52:49: It really ruined some of the names and it's almost impossible to read.
52:53: But because some of them, they were highlighted and it just didn't photocopy well.
52:56: All of those names that are around there are either kings or prophets from that time period.
53:09: And you'll notice going back, there's not a lot of prophets back during the time of the judges, but you start seeing the prophets come in during the time of the kingdom.
53:25: You see it with the prophets Elijah, you see Elisha, and you know of course there's some that aren't mentioned here.
53:33: I don't see Nathan on here, but of course Nathan was a prophet who spoke to David when he sinned.
53:38: So there are prophets here, but you notice the vast expansion of prophets that come in at the end of the divided kingdom and into the exile.
53:47: Why do you think that is? Because this is the time that God's people are about to experience a massive shift in power and authority.
53:59: They're about to go into the exile of a foreign nation and God is sending them warnings.
54:05: He's sending them prophets.
54:07: He's sending them in to speak His word.
54:10: And so there's this expansion of prophets.
54:12: And underneath the prophets, we need to understand there's three types of prophets.
54:15: I know we said major and minor, but it's really not major and minor.
54:19: It's what we call pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic.
54:23: What that is, is those who prophesied before the exile.
54:28: And that's most of them.
54:29: Most of them prophesied, look out, troubles are brewing.
54:34: I mean that's not exactly what they prophesied, but that's basically, they were telling them they were a problem, you're doing wrong, and you need to repent, and you need to change.
54:43: And when we get to the major and minor prophets, we're going to see what their prophecies were.
54:47: They were calling for repentance.
54:50: And then during the exile, they were giving hope.
54:57: God has not abandoned His people.
55:01: God has not stopped loving you.
55:04: He has a remnant that He's going to save.
55:07: Think of at least one prophet who prophesied during the exile.
55:11: Everybody should know this one.
55:13: Daniel.
55:16: His whole book is about his experience being taken into exile.
55:21: And then we have the post-exilic, or the ones who prophesied after, about the reconstruction of Israel.
55:29: The reconstruction of Jerusalem, rather.
55:31: So, that helps you put the prophets into perspective, but again, looking at this list, the thing I like to point out is, right here, you see this giant cluster of prophetic activity.
55:41: Why? Because this is a major event in Jewish history, is that being exiled to Babylon, and then being freed, and being brought back to their place.
55:54: But within a lot of this, within a ton of this, is the promise of the coming of Messiah.
56:02: Why do you think that when Jesus came on the scene, there was so much expectation in Israel? There was so much expectation, that on the day that we call Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into town on the back of a donkey, people literally shouted, Hosanna! Blessed is the one that comes in the name of the Lord.
56:28: Blessed is the son of David.
56:32: Because they were looking for that.
56:33: That's why I don't take that, what I said earlier about the Jewish canon, I don't take that with a lot of...
56:40: I don't think they thought the story was over.
56:42: I think they had an expectation.
56:45: We see that in the New Testament.
56:48: 400 years of waiting.
56:50: 400 years without a prophetic voice.
56:53: And then, one crying in the wilderness.
56:57: Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
56:59: So that's the overview.
57:02: And again, we're going to go back.
57:04: Each week we're going to look at the different books and where they fit into this.
57:06: But I want to encourage you, hold on to this sheet.
57:09: This is good stuff.
57:10: And if you want to find you a photocopier that will blow it up, or get you a poster board and write it out, this is good stuff.
57:18: So keep that for yourselves.
57:21: Alright, we're going to take a...
57:22: Let's make it a seven minute break.
57:25: Go get some water.
57:27: I'm sorry we don't have coffee tonight.
57:29: We're still...
57:29: We're not opening up the kitchen yet.
57:31: But go get you some water.
57:33: Use the restroom.
57:34: Spend about seven minutes.
57:35: And then we're going to come back and we're going to talk about understanding interpretive methods.
57:42: We are back.
57:43: And for the last 20 so minutes of class, we're going to talk about interpretive methods.
57:48: We have looked at chronology of the Old Testament.
57:51: We talked about the apocryphal writings.
57:53: One thing I do want to say about the apocrypha though, because I didn't mention it when I mentioned it earlier.
57:58: If you ever have someone who wants to argue with you about King James only-ism, remind them that the King James, when it was first translated, had the apocrypha in it.
58:10: The 1611 King James Bible includes the apocrypha.
58:15: So if somebody wants to say, well the King James is the inspired word of God, say, does that mean you accept the additional books of the Old Testament canon, the deuterocanonical books? They'll always say no.
58:27: But they don't have a reason.
58:29: Other than the fact that the reasons I gave you, but if you follow those reasons out, then you would have to agree that the King James is not an inspired text.
58:38: It is a translation of an inspired text.
58:41: And there's a difference.
58:42: But that's another conversation for another time.
58:44: Let's go now to interpretive methodology.
58:47: As I just upset half the internet, whoever watches this, half the people send me letters about that.
58:55: How should we interpret the Old Testament scriptures? Well, when we talk about interpreting the Old Testament, the question will always come up of whether or not we should interpret it literally or figuratively.
59:14: And my answer to that question, when someone says, do you interpret the Bible literally? I always am hesitant to say, yes, I interpret the Bible literally, because I choose to say that I interpret the Bible literarily.
59:35: And the phrase literarily means that you interpret the book that you are reading according to the rules of grammar that go along with that form of literature.
59:46: Therefore, I do not interpret the Psalms in the same way that I would interpret the narrative of 1 Samuel.
59:57: But here's where we begin to have somewhat of an issue, because there are certain books that include both poetry and narrative.
01:00:06: And therefore, you have to be able to distinguish, even in the midst of your reading, whether what you're reading is intended to be understood as narrative, or whether it is intended to be understood, if somebody wants to use the term figuratively, or poetically.
01:00:23: For instance, there is the book of Jonah.
01:00:26: Jonah is one of my favorite Old Testament books.
01:00:29: And when we get to the Minor Prophets, I look forward to telling you about how much I love the book of Jonah.
01:00:34: But one of the things about Jonah that I find most interesting is that there's an entire portion that's poetic right in the middle.
01:00:41: And it's the point where he's inside the fish.
01:00:45: And there's a long, poetic set of stanzas.
01:00:50: And so there has to be some opportunity to interpret that poetically, while at the same time not denying the historicity of the first submariner.
01:01:05: The first man to ever take a submarine ride.
01:01:08: You know, we can still see the narrative and read the poetry and understand how they work together.
01:01:16: Where it becomes double difficult, though, is in the early chapters of Genesis, because there are those portions that talk about a serpent that speaks, and a man and a woman who were created from the dust of the ground and from a rib, and they ran around naked and frolicked in the garden that God had created for them.
01:01:33: And people say, well, this sounds like poetry.
01:01:36: And then we get to the New Testament, and we find that those people are necessary historical figures in redemptive history.
01:01:43: And we say, they can't be poetry if they're part of the timeline.
01:01:47: You read Luke chapter 4, or chapter 3, rather, and you find out that Adam's in Jesus' genealogy.
01:01:55: And therefore, was a historic human being.
01:01:59: And so all of those things play a part in how we determine whether or not we're reading poetry or we're reading narrative.
01:02:06: And if you took the class that I gave on hermeneutics, then hopefully you'll be at least a step ahead on that subject.
01:02:15: But in general, if the Bible speaks in narrative, I take it as narrative.
01:02:19: I take it as telling a true story.
01:02:22: But that doesn't mean there aren't questions.
01:02:26: Did the witch at Endor truly bring to life the dead Samuel? Was that truly his spirit, or was that apparition? We have to come to that with asking some questions when we get there.
01:02:42: You understand what I'm talking about? You know what story I'm talking about.
01:02:44: Right? There are some difficulties even in the narrative to say, okay, is this something that really happened? Or is this something that they thought happened? How do we understand it? You know what I'm saying? What I'm saying is it's not always cut and dry.
01:03:00: It's not always easy.
01:03:02: But it's not necessarily supposed to be.
01:03:04: We're supposed to be students of the Bible, rightly dividing the word of truth.
01:03:08: And to rightly divide it means you've got to get down and do some digging.
01:03:12: Who are the Nephilim? I am currently preaching through Genesis trying very hard not to get to chapter 6.
01:03:23: So you understand what I mean.
01:03:25: There are passages that are just difficult passages.
01:03:28: And that was a joke, by the way.
01:03:30: I'm not...
01:03:31: Yes, you will.
01:03:32: Everybody will.
01:03:34: I'm going to have a whole group of people that just want to fight at the back door.
01:03:39: Yeah.
01:03:41: That'll be the biggest thing on the history of sermon audio.
01:03:46: Now, I said all that and I wrote on the board three statements.
01:03:51: Well, not three statements.
01:03:53: Three categories.
01:03:54: There are three categories which we would call hermeneutical frameworks that you should be familiar with.
01:04:03: Hermeneutical frameworks are basically systems of theology that are used to try to help interpret the whole Bible as a unit.
01:04:14: The first one is known as dispensationalism.
01:04:19: Dispensationalism says that the Bible can be divided into and depending on who you talk to it might be different but the general consensus is seven dispensations of history.
01:04:31: Meaning seven eras of history where God dispensed His authority in different ways depending on man's condition.
01:04:43: So for instance, the first, I'm not going to write them all down because of time, the first one would be the dispensation of innocence.
01:04:48: Man was in the garden so God could dispense His authority differently because there was no divide because of sin.
01:04:55: But as soon as man had sinned he was now knowledgeable of good and evil and he had done evil, therefore you enter into the dispensation that's known as the dispensation of conscience.
01:05:07: And then after the flood because when man was given a conscience and the opportunity to good or evil he only did evil continuously so after the flood God institutes capital punishment and you have the institution of the dispensation of human government.
01:05:21: Because now if a man kills another man by man should his blood be shed.
01:05:25: And there's capital punishment is introduced and that's the third dispensation.
01:05:29: The fourth dispensation is the dispensation of promise given to Abraham and it begins.
01:05:34: Notice all of these are before Genesis 12.
01:05:38: All of these are in the first few chapters of the Old Testament.
01:05:43: Then you begin with sweeping changes because you go from the dispensation of promise to the dispensation of the law and then you go from the dispensation of the law to the dispensation of grace also known as the age of the church.
01:05:56: And then you look forward to the coming final dispensation which is the dispensation of the kingdom which will be pre-ushered in by a seven year period of tribulation which will be preceded by a pre-tribulation rapture.
01:06:14: Now you've all heard that.
01:06:18: Dispensationalism teaches that's how you should divide.
01:06:22: Remember what we were just talking about Brother Mike.
01:06:24: Rightly dividing the word of truth means that you understand God's seven dispensations of how He has dispensed His authority to man.
01:06:34: Here is the problem that I have with dispensationalism.
01:06:38: And I'll say this knowing that some of my best and most dear friends in the ministry are themselves dispensational.
01:06:46: My biggest problem with dispensationalism is it creates two people of God rather than one.
01:06:57: Dispensationalism makes the Jews and the church separate.
01:07:04: In fact John MacArthur is on record having stated that the church is a parenthesis in the plan of God.
01:07:15: Because he believes that the Jews were the focus Israel was the focus the church is now the focus but it won't be forever because the Jews will be the focus again in the future in the millennium.
01:07:26: And so the church isn't the focus of God's plan but it's a parenthesis in the plan of God and the true focus is Israel.
01:07:36: I do not believe that and I do not believe that it is right to relegate Christ's bride to a parenthesis.
01:07:48: But that is dispensationalism.
01:07:51: Dispensationalism would say there is a very hard divide between the church and Israel.
01:07:57: And if you say that Israel is the church or if you say that the church is Israel then you have committed the most egregious of errors.
01:08:08: The grievous of errors.
01:08:09: So dispensationalism sees a hard distinction between Israel and the church.
01:08:16: So why am I even bringing this up? I'm bringing it up because that would change how you understand the Old Testament, won't it? That distinguishes and here's the thing this textbook that I had you purchase just to tell you that I don't have any ill feelings towards my dispensational brethren.
01:08:35: This book comes from a dispensational perspective.
01:08:40: You say, well why would you get us a book that you don't necessarily agree with? Because I'm not going to find one I agree with completely.
01:08:47: And this book is really good in many places.
01:08:50: But any time you see it begin to talk about a hard distinction between the church and Israel know that that is coming from a theological perspective.
01:09:02: And that theological perspective is dispensationalism.
01:09:04: In fact, I would encourage you when you're reading the introduction especially when we get to the prophets look for those things.
01:09:10: Look for those places where they begin to talk about the millennial kingdom when God's going to restore Israel and the sacrifices are going to start again and all of those things.
01:09:18: You see, that's why dispensationalists must be premillennial because they believe that the Jews must go back to Jerusalem there must be a rebuilding of the temple.
01:09:25: This is why so many dispensationalists are so pro-Israel because they want that other temple to be built because they think that's what's going to usher in the millennial kingdom.
01:09:35: You say, you don't believe that? No, no, no, I don't.
01:09:42: Well, what do you believe? I ain't got time.
01:09:46: We're not...
01:09:46: eschatology will be later.
01:09:49: But, no, I don't believe that.
01:09:55: But just to say my point is I'm fair enough to give you their book.
01:09:59: Take it apart for yourself.
01:10:03: Dispensationalism would say there's a hard distinction between the church and Israel.
01:10:06: We are currently in a parenthesis in God's plan and when God...
01:10:10: when Christ raptures the church in the beginning of the seven year tribulation at the end of that tribulation Christ will come again with His saints and will set up a temple in Jerusalem and there will be for a thousand years a reign of Christ and there will still be sin in the world there will still be unbelievers in the world but Christ will reign and rule from Jerusalem in that time.
01:10:31: There's a lot more I could go into.
01:10:33: But that's dispensationalism.
01:10:34: I don't subscribe to it but it's important to know.
01:10:38: The second one is known as covenant theology.
01:10:42: Covenant theology does not break the history of God's plan into seven dispensations but rather it breaks the history of God's plan into what is known as the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
01:11:04: Now, you could also say there's a third covenant the covenant of redemption but understand this by the way I'm poking holes in all these tonight I want to be fair.
01:11:21: Covenant theology talks about three covenants that the Bible never mentions.
01:11:28: Because the Bible mentions many covenants mentions the Davidic Covenant mentions the Solomonic Covenant mentions the Abrahamic Covenant the Mosaic Covenant.
01:11:36: We have all kinds of covenants.
01:11:39: Covenant theology has nothing to do with any of them.
01:11:41: It talks about three covenants the Bible never mentions.
01:11:44: The first one is the covenant that was made in the inter-Trinitarian Godhead before eternity or in eternity past when God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit entered into a decision to create a world and save that world and therefore there was a covenant that was made in the Trinity before the world was created.
01:12:03: The Bible never says that but we can imply it because it happened.
01:12:08: That's an inference, right? God had to decide to do something rather than do nothing and God is a Trinity and always has been a Trinity and therefore there has to be an implied agreement within the Trinity that the Father was going to create the world the Son was going to redeem the world and the Spirit was going to empower the world there was this action and economy within the Trinity that was going to happen and so that is known as the implied covenant of redemption and again I'm going super fast I could really I could slow down but time won't allow it.
01:12:40: The second covenant the covenant of works is the idea that when Adam was in the garden he was given the opportunity to earn his salvation by not eating of the fruit of the tree and that was known as the covenant of works and Adam failed the covenant of works and so the covenant of grace begins after the fall now here is where you will find a distinction between Presbyterian covenant theology and Baptist covenant theology because Presbyterian covenant theology says that every covenant after the fall of Adam is a covenant of grace even the law they'll say even the law is a covenant of grace because every action of God's dispensing grace and giving man revelation is an act of grace and therefore it's all part of the same covenant therefore we are in the same covenant that Israel was in and that's why they baptized their babies because they say our family is as much a part of the covenant as Israel's children were part of the covenant and if God allowed Israel's children to receive the sign of circumcision why would we dare take the sign of baptism and not give it to our children you see covenant theology is logical but it's not always biblical the logic of covenant theology is that we have to say everything that since the fall has been grace now Baptist covenant theology is different Baptist covenant theology says there are covenant of works throughout the old covenant and the covenant of grace came with Christ law came through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ so Baptist covenant theology would say that the true covenant of grace comes in the cross 1689 London Baptist Confession that's where one of the distinctions between Baptist covenant theology and Presbyterian covenant theology and that's why Baptists don't go baptizing their babies because they see a distinction in the new covenant and the old covenant have I sent you a whirling in your head yet am I confusing you I don't mean to be because the point is you see the distinction dispensationalist would say Israel is a distinct entity from the church covenant theology would say no the church and Israel are both part of the same covenant of grace you see I'm getting there you out ran me but no no it's ok Johnny but that's the point right that's the argument of covenant theology is that those who have faith in Christ are the sons and daughters of Abraham that's what the Bible says right that's what Paul clearly says in Galatians and Romans that we who believe on Christ have been made part of the family of Abraham so I would be much closer to covenant theology than I would dispensationalism but I think covenant theology has some issues as well the third one is new covenant theology new covenant theology essentially and by the way this is often confusing people say new covenant theology is just a newer version of covenant theology no but it sounds like it would be because it says covenant theology new covenant that's not the same new covenant theology essentially argues that when the new covenant is ratified in Christ that it makes the old covenant obsolete and therefore no longer enforceable so it's not as if the covenant continues in Christ but it is new in Christ therefore the focus on the newness of the new covenant base this primarily on Hebrews which says when a new covenant comes the old one what's the language obsolete and it's made obsolete and that doesn't mean that there aren't things that carry over but the way that I describe it and I think you probably if you've been in my classes in the past the way I've described it is a church with a constitution if a church decides to cancel this constitution and write a new constitution the new constitution may have some of the same language as the old constitution some of it may be written verbatim but the new constitution is the law the old constitution is no longer the law the new constitution is the authority the old constitution has been superseded by the new so the new covenant theology would say the new covenant has superseded the Old Covenant.
01:17:24: Now, you can imagine how people lose their minds about that.
01:17:27: Say, you're telling us the Old Testament has no value.
01:17:30: No, we're not saying that.
01:17:33: Didn't mean to sound weird there.
01:17:35: But you see where the issue comes.
01:17:37: People say, well, if you say that, then you've got all these problems.
01:17:41: You have to do away with the Ten Commandments.
01:17:43: You have to do away with all these things.
01:17:45: No, you don't.
01:17:46: But you have to understand them as they were written and what they were written for.
01:17:48: The point of the matter is this.
01:17:52: When we look at these three views, all three of these are going to affect how we understand the purpose and the role of the Old Testament in the New Testament.
01:18:03: Here's the thing that really bothers me.
01:18:05: And again, I hate to feel like I'm picking on Dispensational.
01:18:08: But I can't help but have to at least point this out.
01:18:12: The problem with Dispensationalism, as I have seen it, and it is rising.
01:18:17: The problem with Dispensationalism is not just that they see the church as a parenthesis, but they see Christ as not necessarily the focus of the Old Testament.
01:18:28: In fact, I have sat and listened to teachers very recently who have said, if you believe Christ is the focus of the Old Testament, you're not getting it right.
01:18:38: And I go to Luke 24, and I read Luke 24, and Jesus said, beginning with Moses and the prophets, Jesus explained how it all pertained to him.
01:18:49: The problem with Dispensationalism is it puts a hyper-focus on the fleshly people of Israel, and it denies the reality of the spiritual Israel of God.
01:19:01: So whether you are Covenant Theology or New Covenant Theology, both of these would recognize Israel as a spiritual people, where Dispensationalism would recognize Israel as a fleshly people, a nation.
01:19:18: And so my distinction is I would fall somewhere between these two.
01:19:22: But I would have a great deal of issue with this one.
01:19:27: One of the things that you might hear through the course of this study, you might be talking to someone, you might even look it up online, someone might one day say, well if you're Covenant Theology or New Covenant Theology, you're Replacement Theology.
01:19:43: The term Replacement Theology is meant to be a negative term, because what they're saying is, you think the church replaced Israel.
01:19:56: And I even had a guy just today, said God left his wife and married another wife.
01:20:06: That was the language he used when he posted.
01:20:09: Now this is a guy I love and I know he was just sort of just teasing me.
01:20:15: But here's my problem, even with that analogy.
01:20:20: The church has not replaced Israel.
01:20:23: If you read Romans 11, it says we have been grafted in.
01:20:30: It's not a replacement, it's an expansion.
01:20:34: Israel, which was once one nation, has now been able, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, to be open to every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
01:20:47: And every person who names the name of the Lord Jesus Christ can be called a son or daughter of Abraham.
01:20:53: So that's why I say I would fall in here, would not fall in here.
01:20:56: That is not to say that dispensationalism can't teach us anything.
01:21:00: Some of the great teachers of the past have fallen into this camp.
01:21:04: John MacArthur is one of them.
01:21:06: But I will say this, I have listened to hundreds of hours of John MacArthur's preaching.
01:21:11: And in almost every sermon, this issue will rear its head.
01:21:15: And there will be something in there that will be about that.
01:21:19: The distinction between Israel and the church is so ingrained in the theology that it's impossible to get past.
01:21:30: So, I told you that for tonight, because all of that's part of how we understand the Old Testament.
01:21:37: I hope that this has been interesting for you.
01:21:39: I hope it's been helpful for you.
01:21:41: And I hope that in the weeks to come, we'll all grow together.
01:21:44: Can we end with a word of prayer? Father in heaven, I thank you for this time to study together.
01:21:50: I pray that this has been fruitful for your people.
01:21:52: I pray that you'll use this time to truly instruct our hearts in the ways of God.
01:21:58: And Lord, where we are in error, help us to be corrected.
01:22:03: Where we have been blinded, help our eyes to see.
01:22:06: And Lord, help us when the end of this eight weeks is finished to look back and feel truly blessed that we have had an opportunity to wade, even if it only be to our ankles, into the great ocean of the Old Testament.
01:22:18: Thank you, Lord, in Christ's name.
01:22:20: Amen.