The Future - Introduction to Dispensationalism

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Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School. Remember me? Yes. Okay, that's too bad that you remember me.

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That could. So, let's go to the

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Lord in prayer. Father, as we take up this next subject before we get back into the book of Daniel, sometimes labels and descriptions put us off, but the most important thing we want to remember this morning is that everything we try, everything we want to do is to elevate you to give glory to God, to lift up the scriptures as even above your name, which is you have said, and we want you,

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Lord, to be vindicated, glorified, and honored in all that we do. So this morning, as we study more of your word, we look to you for illumination, and Lord, your word is exciting, it's relevant, it's unbelievable, and we are so grateful that you gave it to us, for we have the very picture of the

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Lord Jesus Christ in this word, and because of that, we want to serve you more. Might that be what is in our hearts and our minds this morning as we look into your word, in Jesus' name, amen.

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So how many of you have studied a lot of biblical prophecy? A few hands, yeah.

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Are you, so that means that some of you are like I used to be. You're not amillennial, you're not postmillennial, you're not premillennial, you're panmillennial, because you know, you've heard it, you know it's gonna pan out in the end.

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So, actually, the study of biblical prophecy is not optional, much to my surprise when

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I discovered this a few years back. Eschatology does not save, but it is necessary.

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Where is he going with this? Why isn't he reading from Daniel? I'll get to that. We're counseled to properly interpret the

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Bible. That includes eschatology, and I'm gonna give you some definitions, today's gonna be of definitions and labels, and I don't want you to be put off by that, because everything we do at Kootenai is to glorify

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God, is to lift him up and to honor him, and so we're, there's a reason for what the decision to look into eschatology and prophecy for a short little bit here before we get back into the book of Daniel, and I'll give that to you.

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I'm just gonna pique your interest, and I'll give it to you in a while. Eschatology, a branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind, a belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind specifically, any of various Christian doctrines concerning the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, or the last judgment.

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That's eschatology. Blessings attend those who properly understand prophecy.

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Revelation 1 .3 says this, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near.

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Do you believe the time is near? Now, I know it's been near for 2 ,000 years, but there's a sense of today that it's really near, and it could be.

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I'm not gonna set a date, by the way, so you can all rest assured of that. Revelation 22 .7,

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behold, and behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the word of the prophecy of this book.

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Blessed is he who heeds the word. Now, we're not gonna be getting into Revelation today, but because we're gonna get back to Daniel soon.

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So, did you know there's 62 books of the Bible that contain prophetic information of the 66?

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The only four that do not are Ruth, Song of Solomon, Philemon, and 3 John. All, almost nearly every book in the

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Bible contains prophetic information. I want you to not get caught up in labels this morning, if you can do that for me.

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Often, labels are one group's method of understanding another. Thus, we label things. If I can remember right now, if I've got this right,

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I was gonna look this up and verify it, but the Ogallala Sioux and the Dakota Sioux named each other, and they got their names from the other tribe.

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One of them meant stranger, I think it's Dakota, but at any rate, so that means when you go to North Dakota, you're going to North Stranger, and when you go to South Dakota, you're going to South Stranger.

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But at any rate, we tend to label things. That's just our nature. You've heard some of the labels,

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Calvinist, Arminian, Trinitarian, Republican, Democrat, but I digress.

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Many times, labels are used to communicate simple information about the purpose of certain things or institutions.

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So for example, we understand the difference between a quarterback and a tight end. Sometimes, I think the teams don't, but.

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The two labels, when properly understood within the context of the sport they are played in, give a clear distinction in the purposes of those two positions.

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What does the quarterback do? He throws the ball, right? And what does the tight end do?

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He drops the, I mean, he catches the ball, right? And so those labels are useful to us.

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Those with a history or interest in the sport I'm talking about will have quite a bit of information about each of those labels.

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You'll have your own favorite quarterbacks and your own favorite tight ends as opposed to wide receivers, as opposed to et cetera.

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And so there's all those labels that we use. But they are useful in their own way, are they not? Actually, if you wanna get paid and you're one of those guys, they're very useful.

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So it is with the labels of things we give to theology in Christianity. This is so we can understand, or at least in our own mind, arrange a systematic understanding of a particular group, a methodology, a theology.

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Remember that most labels only deal with a small part of the group, methodology or theology, to which they are attached.

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They only deal with a small part often. So essentially, and here comes some labels, most reformed biblical

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Christians, look at those labels, simply seek to have a uniform, consistent understanding of scripture so that we can apply it to our lives.

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Would you not agree with that? We wanna understand what God is saying, as clearly as possible, so that we know how to live that out and glorify him and bring him glory and honor to the

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Savior and delight God. It actually delights God when we have a uniform, a proper understanding of scripture and we obey it.

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So we recognize that most labels describe only a portion of the person or idea so labeled. So we here at Kootenai simply believe the

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Bible. And as we study it, we seek to understand it through an historical, literal, grammatical approach.

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Now there's a description of a hermeneutic, the historical, literal, grammatical hermeneutic.

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And that is the lens through which we study scripture here. And you probably all knew that, or you didn't know it, or you're like me and you've been doing that all your

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Christian life and found out that you were one of them types. Oh, well, that's fine. And I mean, I didn't even know

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I was reformed till I came here. And I mean, I used to have different kinds of discussions in the two other churches

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I belonged to. Who were, they didn't know it at the time because they believed the doctrines of scripture.

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We have labels for these things and I don't want us to be put off by the labels. So this particular hermeneutic gives the correct sense of scripture and thus communicates to the readers the truth about God, about history, about faith, and about the application of that to the lives, to all of our lives, to all the disciplines and subjects in our lives.

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So one of the things I thought, as Jim and I were talking, we were talking about the trajectory that Daniel is gonna take us on in chapter seven, where we're gonna be studying a lot of prophetic utterances, a lot of prophetic doctrines.

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And we thought it best that if, as I've been studying this, and I have not given eschatology the study and the attention it should have had in the 40 years of my journey in the

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Bible. I mean, I've studied it because in that many years, you just bump into it whether you like it or not.

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And so I've studied it, but I haven't systematically studied it, which is what I'm doing now. And man, the

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Bible's got a lot of stuff to say that I didn't know. It is so deep. It's not two inches thick.

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It's two million miles thick. And we're expected to get through that two million miles.

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Well, we're not expected to, but it's a hope, isn't it, for you? That you'll get through it, you'll understand, you'll read

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Proverbs 21 the next time, and you'll get new, I guarantee you, you will get new information and new teaching and new theology, well, not theology necessarily, but new application when you study it for the 24th time.

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Because God created a mine for us to mine all of our lives. So I'm gonna give you a term now.

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How many of you know what the term dispensationalism means? Okay, a few hands.

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That's part of the reason I wanted to take us through this study on the future, how we hang our understanding of scripture on a particular theological framework that will give us the most correct understanding of prophecy.

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And it's unfortunate that we have all these titles and we are put off by them.

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And then what ends up happening is we have misunderstandings about the titles and understandings about the titles.

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What I hope to do in the next few weeks is give us an understanding of the framework from which we will be operating here as we teach through Daniel, and how that framework is designed and where it came from and what it means and what it doesn't mean.

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Because there's a lot of myths and a lot of misunderstandings about this concept. And I'm sure some of you have bumped into some of them.

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And when we hear someone is a Calvinist, what does that mean?

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Because every picture I've ever seen of Calvin, he's got a four mile beard and he looks unhappy. He looks like someone stole his dinner.

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And I don't think they did. I think that's just the way they... Have you ever been in a Western picture where you get in a Western picture and they tell you not to smile because they didn't smile back then?

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And I'm thinking, you know, I was the Western rebel. Yeah, at any rate.

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So we're gonna be looking at how we understand the future. And it's gonna be an interactive commentary and interactive study.

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So I'm gonna ask a lot of questions and we're gonna get through this together. Dispensationalism is...

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Why couldn't they have named it something else so they didn't have 43 syllables? Dispensationalism is a method of interpreting history that divides

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God's work and purposes towards mankind into different periods of time. Usually there are seven dispensations identified, although some theologians believe there are nine.

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Others count as few as three and the overachievers count as many as 37.

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In this bit of time, we will limit ourselves to the seven basic dispensations that seem to be found clearly in scripture.

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And again, this is just a label to hang on, to hang some of the historic periods we see in scripture and what they might mean and how they interact with each other.

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The first dispensation is called the dispensation of innocence. Genesis chapter one, and I'm gonna give you scripture that you can look into.

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Genesis chapter one verses 28 through 30 and two verses 15 to 17. It covered the period of time with Adam and Eve in the garden.

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It is in this dispensation, God's commands were number one, remember what they were, what were they supposed to do?

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They were to replenish the earth with children. They were to subdue the earth, have dominion over the animals, care for the garden, abstain from eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

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God warned of the punishment of physical and spiritual death for disobedience. This dispensation was short -lived and was brought to an end by Adam and Eve's disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit and their expulsion from the garden.

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First dispensation, period of innocence. The second is called the dispensation of conscience and it lasted about 1 ,656 years.

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But who's setting time limits? From the time of Adam and Eve's eviction from the garden until the flood. Genesis chapter three verses 18, excuse me, verse eight through eight, 22.

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Genesis 3 .8 through 8 .22. This dispensation demonstrates what mankind will do if left to his own will and conscience which have been tainted by the inheritance of the sin nature.

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The five major aspects of this dispensation are number one, the curse on the serpent, a change in womanhood and childbearing, a curse on nature, the imposing of difficult work on mankind to produce food, and the promise of Christ as the seed who will bruise the serpent's head.

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That's the dispensation of conscience. The third dispensation is that of human government which began in, what a mistake.

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I didn't say that. Which began in Genesis eight, God destroyed life on the earth with a flood.

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Oh, by the way, we teach the literal interpretation of the Bible. There really was a flood and it really did destroy all life on earth.

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Just like that. And all of the geologic columns and formations and information that we see is directly related for us to that flood and to before if it was stuff that was deeper.

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So the third is of human government which began in Genesis eight. God had destroyed the life on the earth with a flood saving just one family.

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To restart the human race, God made the following promises and commands to Noah and his family.

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Number one, I will not curse the earth again. And how does he show that promise? With a rainbow, which has been hijacked by the way.

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Noah and the family are to replenish the earth with people. Is that something people are aware of and are doing today intentionally?

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Not with 63 million babies killed in this country since 1973. Number three,

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I should quit commenting because you won't get all the information. God will not curse the earth again. Noah and his family are to replenish the earth with people.

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They shall have dominion over the animal creation. They are allowed to eat meat. The law of capital punishment is established.

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There will never be another worldwide flood. The sign of God's promise will be the rainbow.

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Noah's descendants did not scatter and fill the earth as God had commanded. Thus failing in their responsibility in this dispensation.

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About 325 years after the flood, the earth's inhabitants began building a tower, a great monument to their solidarity and pride.

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Genesis chapter 11, verses seven through nine. God brought the construction to a halt. He slapped a cease and desist order on that temple and he created different languages and enforced his command to fill the earth.

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The result was the rise of different nations and cultures. From that point on, human governments have been a reality. The fourth dispensation called the dispensation of promise started with the call of Abraham, continued through the lives of the patriarchs and ended with the exodus of the

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Jewish people from Egypt. A period of about 430 years. During this dispensation, God developed a great nation that he had chosen as his people.

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Genesis 12, one through exodus in 1925. The basic promise during the dispensation of promise was the

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Abrahamic covenant. Here are some of them. Jim's talked about this in Hebrews. He's referenced the covenants.

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Here are some of the key points of that unconditional covenant. Key word here, unconditional.

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What does that mean? What does unconditional mean? Pardon me?

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No conditions. That's what un means. No conditions.

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It will be fulfilled. Number one, from Abraham would come a great nation that God would bless with natural and spiritual prosperity.

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Number two, God would make Abraham's name great. Number three, God would bless those that blessed

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Abraham's descendants and curse those that cursed them. Number four, in Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

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I know this is basic stuff to most of you, but Peter said it was okay to go over the basics.

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Actually, he encouraged it in his epistle. So I'm gonna go with Peter.

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In Abraham, all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and his work in salvation.

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The sign of the covenant is circumcision. This covenant, which was repeated to Isaac and Jacob, is confined to the

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Hebrew people and the 12 tribes of Israel. The fifth dispensation is called the dispensation of law.

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It lasted almost 1 ,500 years, from the Exodus until it was suspended, and we'll talk more about that, until after Jesus Christ's death.

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This dispensation will continue during the millennium and with some modifications. During the dispensation of law,

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God dealt specifically with the Jewish nation through the Mosaic covenant or the law found in Exodus chapters 19 through 23,

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Exodus 19 through 23. This dispensation involved temple worship directed by priests with further direction spoken through God's mouthpieces, the prophets.

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Eventually, due to the people's disobedience to the covenant, the tribes of Israel lost the promised land and were subjected to bondage.

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The sixth dispensation, the one in which we now live, is the dispensation of grace. It began with the new covenant in Christ, and that's not to say that there wasn't grace in the

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Old Testament. We'll be dispelling some of those myths when we get to them. So one of the things that happens, and I'll get back to this, when you're teaching something and you don't, you reference something that is in lesson seven and you're in lesson five, and people go from that, away from that, they go, he doesn't believe in God.

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Yeah, I do. Or, he doesn't believe, yes, just remember that, and if it doesn't come, you are welcome to ask the question.

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If the teaching that you think doesn't address what sounds like a misstatement, or may even be a misstatement, doesn't come, you're welcome to ask the question.

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We're not afraid of questions here. And if I can't answer them, then we'll be afraid of them.

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Okay, so the sixth dispensation in which we now live is the dispensation of grace. It began with the new covenant in Christ's blood,

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Luke chapter 22, verse 20. This age of grace, or church age, occurs between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel chapter nine, verse 24.

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So you see one of the reasons why we're doing this, because when we get to Daniel chapter nine, we're gonna be talking specifically about him predicting a new time.

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And Daniel did predict it. It starts with the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and ends with the rapture of the church, 1

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Thessalonians four. This dispensation is worldwide, and includes both Jews and Gentiles.

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Man's responsibility during this dispensation of grace is to believe in Jesus, the Son of God, John 3, 18.

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In this dispensation, the Holy Spirit indwells believers as the comforter, John 14, 16 through 26.

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And it has lasted for almost 2 ,000 years, and no one knows when it will end. And so if someone sets a date to the end of the dispensation of grace, run from them, because they're wrong.

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And if they end up being right, it was an accident. And it will end with the rapture of all born -again believers from earth who will go to heaven with Christ.

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Following the rapture will be the judgments of God lasting for seven years. The seventh dispensation is called the

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Millennial Kingdom of Christ, and it will last for 1 ,000 years as Christ himself rules the earth.

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This kingdom will fulfill the prophecy to the Jewish nation that Christ will return and be their king.

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The only people allowed to enter the kingdom are the born -again believers from the age of grace, righteous survivors of the seven years of tribulation, and the resurrected

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Old Testament saints. Satan is, excuse me, no unsaved person is allowed access to this kingdom.

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There is only one way for access to this kingdom, and it is through Jesus Christ. He said that, and he is righteous and right every time.

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Satan is bound during the 1 ,000 years. This period ends with the final judgment, Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 14.

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The old world is destroyed by fire, and the new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21 and 22 begin.

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So that's just a basic primer, and I got that out of, just so you can look it up,

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I pulled that wholesale. There's a website that's pretty good most of the time. It's called gotquestions .org.

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Okay, seven dispensations. So I felt it unnecessary for me to print this all out and do a

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PowerPoint when I could direct you to that if you wanna re -look at it. It's a very good, concise definition of what most premillennial dispensationalists believe.

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There's another, why all these numerous syllable words? We might just call it a PM, premillennial.

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So there are a number of things that started. The age of teaching this particular theology upon which we hang the future of dispensationalism started in the 1840s, started about 1840, somewhere in there.

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And one of the people who distilled it very well and wrote several books on it was a fellow named Charles Ryrie. How many of you have heard of him?

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Okay, yeah, he wrote a study Bible, and he was a teacher, a theologian, who came from Dallas Theological Seminary.

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His sign qua non, which that's a Latin, do you know what that means? I had to look it up just to make sure

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I understood it because my last Latin class was almost 50 years ago. It means absolutely indispensable or essential.

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The essential is, number one, a clear distinction between Israel and the church. The church is not

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Israel. Israel is not the church. Number two, the consistent.

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What does that word mean? Man, are you consistently faithful to your wives? You better be.

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I get such a kick out of these American conservative union ratings for consistency to the

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Constitution. You know, this guy was 78 % faithful. If I went home to my wife tonight, you know where I'm going with this, and said, love,

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I was 78 % faithful to you. She knows how to use guns. I wouldn't do that.

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First of all, it'd be a lie. Because I've been 100 % consistent to her by God's grace.

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And that's what we attempt to do is we attempt to be consistent in our use of literal interpretation.

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Now, that doesn't mean that rocks clap their hands, okay? We know in our application of consistent literal interpretation that there are times when symbology is used.

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We are just careful about not making things that aren't symbols into symbols.

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If the New Testament says it's a symbol, then I'm gonna call it a symbol. But we've got to have some clear direction that it is a symbol.

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Number three, a concerted emphasis on the glory of God. On the glory of God.

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Which, by the way, equals the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's another label that you, did you know that,

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I know you did, but I'm gonna pretend that you didn't. So you can all shake your heads. Did you know that the word Trinity isn't in the

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Bible? But you know what the word Trinity means, and it's a glorious truth that we understand and revere.

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So, the Trinity gets the glory. God gets the glory. Which is the underlying, a concerted emphasis on the glory of God as the underlying purpose for his actions.

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When he acts, it is for his glory. And we should celebrate that. We do celebrate that.

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That's in dispensationalism today. The basic definition of dispensationalism includes six ideas.

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Now I'm gonna be going through these ideas, and I can provide a study guide if you want. And if there's enough interest in that,

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I'll do it. I'll distill this down. It's just that I wanted to make sure I had some information for you today, and doing the study, typing it up, and then also providing a study guide required more time than I had at this point.

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And that's me whining, okay? But I will get it done if you want it. So the basic definition of dispensationalism includes six ideas.

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Number one, the Bible refers to multiple senses of terms like Jew and seed of Abraham. And we will look at those.

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Number two, an approach to hermeneutics, this is very important, that emphasizes that the

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Old Testament must be taken on its own terms and not reinterpreted in the light of the

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New Testament. David gave a great quote, and I'm gonna try and get your quote accurate the other day.

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He said, if you read the Bible from left to right, you will probably become a premillennialist.

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But if you read it from the right to the left, what was it? All bets are off, or? I wanna get it right.

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Yeah, you'll end up amillennial or postmillennial. Now, are those heretical positions? No, they're not.

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I think that they're uninformed, but they're not heretical. We've got to separate that. We're not gonna be talking about doctrines that if you believe differently, you will not go to heaven.

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That's not what we're talking about. If you believe differently about some of these things, then we need to sharpen iron one another.

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And you're not gonna be looked down on. You're not gonna be shamed. You're not gonna be avoided. You're gonna be, in this place, can you imagine people avoiding you?

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You might get 17 less hugs in 300 years, but that's about it, and you won't notice.

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So feel free, understand that this is not about heresy. This is about a different method of hanging the future on a theology that seems to make the most sense so we can give the most glory to God.

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So we have two ideas. The Bible refers to multiple senses of Jew and seed of Abraham, and it is a hermeneutic that emphasizes that the

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Old Testament be taken on its own terms and not reinterpreted in the light of the New Testament. So the meaning of Old Testament passages lies in those passages, and that the

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New Testament harmonizes with them and builds upon them. There is no need for one passage to have priority over others, since all

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Scripture is inspired by God and makes its own contribution. There is, you have your favorite verses, and that's fine, but just remember that your favorite verses aren't necessarily the best.

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My favorite verses are. No, I didn't say that. All the verses are

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God's favorite, all of them. All Bible passages complement and harmonize with each other, but no passage overrides the meaning of another passage.

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It doesn't override it. It may add to it. It may complement it, but it will not override it. It will not change it.

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It will not make it, if it was unconditional, it will not change it to a conditional promise now.

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If God made the promise and he said that it was by his name, then it's just as true then,

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I mean, just as true today as it was then. It's not made conditional. So those two, number one,

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Bible refers to multiple senses of Jew and Abraham, seed of Abraham, and an approach to hermeneutics that emphasizes the

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Old Testament be taken on its own terms. Number three, a belief that the Old Testament promises will be fulfilled with national

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Israel. If they were made to national Israel, God is not, God is not, oh,

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I know this is not proper in the current culture, but when we were kids, we would say, God is not an

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Indian giver. I don't mean anything unkind, but that's just a colloquialism that means he doesn't go back on his word. He doesn't go back on his word, does he?

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You can say yes or no. Belief in a distinctive future for ethnic

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Israel. Belief that the church is a distinctive organism. A philosophy of history that emphasizes not just the teleology and spiritual issues, but social, economic, and political issues as well.

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Teleology, by the way, I looked up these terms and I wanted to get current definitions so that we would, when

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I use 14 -syllable words, we all have an understanding. It means the philosophical interpretation of natural phenomena as exhibiting purpose or design.

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Natural phenomena exhibit purpose or design. They didn't evolve. Nothing evolved.

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I think you could probably say that there is, within each organism, the ability to micro -evolve to survive a harsher climate, but it will still be the same kind that it was.

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That's an example. And so everything exhibits a natural order.

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Exhibits a purpose, excuse me. Everything God created, everything, even the mosquito has a purpose. Everything.

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Did that upset you? Well, that's my job. It's a belief in or a perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in history.

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So everything God did in the Old Testament and everything he has done in the New Testament and everything he's doing today is an orderly progression towards his sovereign decision as to how history will culminate.

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Everything. Nothing escapes his view. There are people who, in the Christian church, who believe that God didn't expect that.

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No, he didn't expect that. He planned it. He planned it. So he did expect it, in a sense.

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A belief in the perception. Okay, I already said that. So eight common, so those are the six.

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And then there are eight common features of dispensationalism that occur throughout the modern iterations of dispensationalism, of which there are quite a few, as you might guess, that whenever something interesting and appropriate comes up, we can find ways to change it.

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So that's why there's 23 different ways. There's probably only one way to bake a good set of brownies, but I'll bet you there are 23 different recipes in here.

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And they all work, don't they? Or some of them work better than others. Let's face that. Sometimes it's who's doing the baking.

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I'm glad God did the baking here. Eight common terms, eight common features. Number one, and again, we're gonna be going through, this is gonna be book -like.

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I apologize for that, and I don't apologize for it. I think it's information that we're gonna need. Number one, the authority of Scripture.

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Scripture first, Scripture second, Scripture always. Number two, dispensations.

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Number three, the uniqueness of the church. Number four, the practical significance of the universal church.

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God didn't create the church just because he needed filler for this book. Number five, the significance of biblical prophecy.

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Number six, futurist premillennialism. Futurist premillennialism.

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Number seven, the imminent return of Christ. Are you living like he could come today? Plan like he's gonna be 100 years, but live like he's coming today.

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That's the idea. Number seven, or excuse me, number eight, a national future for Israel. Those are eight distinctives.

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Now I'm gonna distill these for you and give, and flesh them out. I think we have time today to get through some of them.

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And then, do you want me to provide some sort of a syllabus that would be? Okay, I'll figure out a way to do that.

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I'll get her done. I'm not really good at that. I might enlist some help from a guy. I won't give you his name, but his initials are

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Jim. Yeah, and he's only too busy. Six distilled essential beliefs of dispensational.

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And what I mean by distilled is we've just looked at the basic overview from Got Questions. We looked at all of the different possibilities that exist within that that are lined out in six or seven different positions.

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Now we're gonna distill them so that they make sense for what we're about to dive into in Daniel.

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So here's some of the distinctives that are distilled. Progressive revelation from the New Testament does not interpret the

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Old Testament passages in a way that cancels the original authorial intent of the

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Old Testament writers as determined by historical grammatical hermeneutics. When you read the

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New Testament and it comments or illuminates an Old Testament passage, it does not cancel the original intent of that author, whether it was

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Moses or Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Zephaniah or any of the prophets or any of the

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Psalms or any of the, there are other places where prophetic writings are. The New Testament may examine and elucidate and illuminate and add to that, but it does not cancel the original intent.

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Because of it, well, I'm gonna steal my own thunder. It just doesn't. Trust me on that.

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Number one, it's foundational. The Old Testament is foundational. Number two, the

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Old Testament understanding starts with the Old Testament. So, and all of us have done this.

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I've done it myself. I've read a New Testament verse and I went, there's something in Hosea that talks about that.

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So then I turned back to Hosea and now I've got a new, hopefully a new added understanding to Hosea, but it didn't change

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Hosea 11 .1 or whatever you were looking at. It added to it, it illuminated it, it made it even more dear to me, but it didn't change the original

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Hosea's intent. Old Testament, progressive revelation, excuse me,

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New Testament, progressive revelation. That word progressive has a bad taste in our mouths, doesn't it? But it's a good thing.

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So we've been building a house and some of you go, yeah, sure you are, you're just standing around.

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We started on it three years ago and I've got the outside done and the concrete poured and I've got my camper moved into it and we're living in a camper and my wife is a sweetheart, letting me make her live in a camper.

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And then we stopped because the world ended and lumber went through the roof. Well, yesterday I bought a load of lumber that two months ago would have cost me $1 ,600 and it was 450 bucks, woo -hoo.

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So when she got home last night, she saw progress. This building is progressive.

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So there's good terms. Progressive has good connotations when it's used properly.

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New Testament, progressive revelation may shine a light on Old Testament passages, offer commentary or add additional applications or reference, but they do not override the original intent of the

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Old Testament writer. I know you guys are with me on this and so some of this is so basic and I'm going to get that verse in Peter so that you can see

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I'm justified in doing this because the New Testament says so. Promises made to Israel are not nullified by the

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New Testament. There can be no question that the prophets meant to communicate the promise of a national return of Israel to its land.

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To the extent that our hermeneutics are regulated by the principle of authorial intent, we are given ample reason to accept this literal rendering of what

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God through the prophets originally promised to the people of Israel. That's Bruce Ware in the New Covenant and the prophecies of God, prophets of God.

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Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. Behold, the days are coming, declares the

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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which

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I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

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My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which

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I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and on their heart.

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I will write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they will not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, know the

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Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin

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I will remember no more. And then in Hebrews chapter eight, verses eight through 18,

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Paul says, or boy, that was a Freudian slip. Whoever wrote Hebrews said, I actually don't think it was

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Paul, for finding fault with them, he says, God found fault with them and he said this. Behold, days are coming, says the

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Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which

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I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them, says the

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Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts and I will be their

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God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach everyone his fellow brother, his fellow citizen and saying, everyone his brother, saying, know the

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Lord, for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

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Who's he talking to? Who's the writer of Hebrews talking to? He's talking to the

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Hebrew congregation, the church. It doesn't nullify what Jeremiah said.

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It may add to it. It may add the church into the blessings, but it doesn't nullify.

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That's what I'm talking about. Here, for example, the new covenant has a both and element, both Israel and the church.

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Well, one commentator said this, the additional inclusion of someone in the promise does not mean the original recipients are thereby excluded.

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The expansion of promise need not mean the cancellation of earlier commitments God has made.

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God made that commitment. The realization of new covenant hope today for Gentiles does not mean that the promise made to Israel in Jeremiah 31 has been jettisoned.

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It does not mean that. Non -dispensationalists believe the promises to Israel are more or less spiritually fulfilled in the church.

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Not all of them, but many of them. See, that's another thing about labels. And I will make that mistake.

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I promise you, I will make that mistake. I will apply wholesale something to a particular label and I will be wrong.

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And you are welcome to raise your hand and say, no, that's not quite right and I won't be offended at all. And even if I am offended, you will be right, so it's okay.

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Did you get all that? My wife says I talk too fast. She just doesn't listen.

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No, I didn't say that. It's been nice knowing me, huh?

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Yeah. Stand back. He got me.

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Okay, I'm back on the wagon now. Non -dispensationalists often believe the promises to Israel are more or less spiritually fulfilled in the church and one should not look for a future inclusion of national

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Israel in the covenant, into the covenant. God's unconditional covenants with Israel are not abrogated by the

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New Testament illumination of Old Testament promises. If an Old Testament prophecy was made unconditionally to Israel, then it will be fulfilled to Israel.

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If the New Testament applies it to the church, then it will also still be fulfilled in Israel, but it will also be applied to the church.

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Covenant theologians often and dispensationalists disagree on the nature of progressive revelation.

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Dispensationalists believe that the Old Testament promises are not canceled by New Testament illumination. If they are, one has to wonder about God's faithfulness to Israel.

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One also has to wonder about the trustworthiness of God's promises. One theologian has likened progressive revelation to a building in progress.

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It is essential, the superstructure does not replace the foundation. It is essential in dispensationalism to maintain the original authorial intent of the

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Old Testament passages. And so that is what we will do when we are studying through the prophetic passages of Daniel.

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Ryrie points this out, he says, the New Testament does not contradict the meaning of Old Testament texts. He asserts new revelation cannot mean contradictory revelation.

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Later revelation on a subject does not make the earlier revelation mean something different. Later revelation on a subject does not make the earlier revelation mean something different.

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If this were so, God would have to be conceived of as deceiving the Old Testament prophets when he revealed to them a nationalistic kingdom.

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Since he would have known all the time that he would completely reverse the concept in later revelation.

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And God, if anything, is not a deceiver. I will speak to some strong points here, and I mean no disrespect to anyone, but these are connotations that come from some of these ideas.

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Number two, and this is all we'll get through today, actually we won't get through all of this, but I'm gonna provide you with a syllabus, so.

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Types exist, and we'll talk about some of them. But national

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Israel is not a type that is superseded by the church. Adam, for example, is a type of Jesus.

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We understand that, and you know why we understand it? Because the Bible calls him that. Romans 5 .14,

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nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come.

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Now the question is, is who was him who was to come? Clearly from the context reading earlier and later, it's

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Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15 .45, so it is also written, so also it is written, the first man,

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Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life -giving spirit. Who was the last

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Adam? Jesus Christ, the last Adam. Adam is a type of Jesus, so types do exist.

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Recently, through Jim's teaching, we learned or were reminded that the Levitical priesthood or of the

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Mosaic covenant was a type of the better priesthood, well, it's not up there anymore. I love the mathematical symbol,

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Jesus is greater. Got the greater, Jesus is greater. The new covenant, the new priesthood that Jesus initiated is greater than the

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Old Testament. So we learned that the Levitical priesthood of the Mosaic covenant was a type of the better priesthood in the new covenant of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Typology is significant in eschatology. Typology is important in future things.

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Let's put it that way. Non -dispensationalists often believe, and I have to put that in. I didn't put it in in my original.

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I'm gonna make that correction because it's disrespectful.

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I don't know what people's hearts. Often believe that national Israel was a type of the

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New Testament church. And once the anti -type, and anti -type means the fulfillment, the fulfillment of the type, the church was revealed.

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Israel's place as the people of God was transcended and superseded by the church. That is what most often non -dispensationalists believe.

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National Israel, however, this is all we'll get through, is not an inferior type that is replaced by the church.

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And this was said, the unconditionality of the promises to Israel guarantees that the New Testament does not even implicitly remove those promises from Israel.

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Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws and institutions are shadows and are explicitly removed in the

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New Testament, but unconditional promises are not shadows, nor are the peoples to whom they are given.

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So we will talk more about types next week. Before I close, Jim, very important.

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Thank you, Jim. I didn't come to scripture. No, we need microphones for the audience.

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Well, okay then. How do you really feel, Jim? I didn't come to scripture with a

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Trinitarian framework. I just discovered that there was somebody in the Old Testament who claimed to be

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God, and there was somebody in the New Testament who made that same claim. And either, as Josh McDowell put it, he was

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God, or he was someone on the order of a guy with a stewed tomato in his tennis shoe, and he was

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God. And there's also a third person who is described as God, and what I ended up with was an understanding that there are three persons who claim to be

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God, and therefore the Trinity is the term that has been used to describe that. And that's what

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Jim was, I think that's basically what Jim was saying there. We don't come to scripture, hopefully we don't come to scripture with things we're gonna prove.

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What do they call that? Confirmation bias. But we discover in scripture, and most often for me,

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I discover in scripture things that change what I thought and make me behave in a different way than I used to because I was not understanding or applying scripture properly.

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That's how scripture will change you. If you come to it with an open mind and heart to God, you don't want your mind so open that your brains fall out when you bend over, but you want it open to the word of God so that he has, and he will, he will regenerate your every thought as you go through life, that is sanctification.

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Any other questions or comments? So hopefully this won't be too dry, and hopefully

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I'll figure out a way to provide a syllabus that isn't also dry, but we'll get that done. Let's pray.

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Lord, it is essentially, ultimately, and most importantly, your word that is true. And you have elevated it above all the universe, above your name, you said.

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It is that important. And so we come to it awestruck, reverent, fearful, and hopeful that you will illuminate us, that you will give us your teaching.

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And that what I say here this morning, or any morning, is filtered through your words so that people feel free to remind me of things as has been done, that people feel free to correct, because no one of us is

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Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the only one with perfect knowledge.