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God's Covenant With the Jews Is Everlasting? His Covenant With Israel Is Everlasting
On Christian Chat someone on the recent Two Witnesses thread said "You forget that God’s covenant with the Jews is everlasting. If God allowed all Jews to see the truth of the Gospel the everlasting covenant would not be everlasting would it?"
One key to identifying who the Two Witnesses are is found in Revelation 12: 17, "And the dragon was wroth with he woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Those in the last days
who have the testimony of Christ are the Two Witnesses. They witness to Jesus Christ and to the faith once delivered unto the saints. But
here I want to deal with who is Israel after the Cross and the Day of Pentecost.
Charles C. Ryrie (born 1925) says:
"basic promise of Dispensationalism is two purposes of God expressed
in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction
throughout eternity." Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today,
1966, pp.44-45.
The classical dispensationalists - John Darby, C.I. Scofield, Lewis
S. Chafer and Charles C. Ryrie - insist that "Israel" in the Old
Testament
always means physical Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. With that interpretation of Israel, they then go on to say
that the Christian church is not found in Old Testament prophecy.
In part their view that "Israel" must always refer to Old testament
Israel, comes out of their belief that Scripture should always be
interpreted literally.
In his book, Dispensationalism (1966), Charles Ryrie says "The
essence of Dispensationalism, then, is the distinction between Israel
and the church."(page 3, "Dispensationalism")
"The nature of the church is a crucial point of difference between
classic, or normative, dispensationalism and other doctrinal systems.
Indeed, ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church, is the touchstone
of dispensationalism(and also of pretribulationalism)."
(page 123, Charles Ryrie Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press,
[1966], 1995)
J. Dwight Pentecost is another dispensationalist theologian who in
his book Things To Come ( 1965) says "The church
and Israel are two distinct groups with whom God has a divine plan.
The church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. This mystery
program must be completed before God can resume His program with
Israel and bring it to completion. These considerations all arise from
a literal method of interpretation."
(page 193, J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, Zondervan, 1965).
The term dispensationalism can be misleading for those who do not know the basic
starting position of this theology, that God has two different peoples, not one as John 10: 16
clearly says, and that unsaved physical Israel that as a house rejected Christ remain God's
chosen people. Christian Zionism is a more accurate term for the theology. To some who
do not know this important starting position of the theology, dispensatrionalism merely means
the study of different dispensations in Biblical history.
For Christian Zionists the Catholic or Christian Zionist capital C Church cannot be the Israel of
God of Galatians 6: 16 or the commonwealth of Israel in Ephesians 2: 11-13, where Paul teaches
that before Christ the Gentiles were aliens from Israel, but are brought into Israel by the blood
of Christ (made nigh by the blood of Christ).
Deuteronomy 7: 6 does say that Israel is a chosen people. "For thou
art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth."
But even some Old Testament texts point to God's transformation of Israel from
that which was mired in the physical to a spiritual house (I Peter 2: 5-9) reborn in Jesus Christ (John 3: 1-6). II Kings 21: 13 says that God will wipe Jerusalem clean and turn it upside down. For those who do not follow metaphor, Jerusalem represents Israel. Then Isaiah 29: 16 refers back to God's turning of things upside down which shall be esteemed as the potter's clay, pointing to Jeremiah 18: 1-6. In Jeremiah 18: 1-6 Jeremiah presents a parable of a potter, as God, making one pot on his wheel, which was marred, and he took the same lump of clay and made another pot out of it (Israel) which seemed good to the potter.
Israel remains the holy people of God, but it was changed from the physical to the spiritual, and those in Christ, as I Peter 2: 5-9 says, are a holy priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people.
There are many Old Testament Scriptures which say that Gentiles will
be added to God's people. Isaiah 11: 10 says "And in that day there
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the
people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be
glorious."
Isaiah 42: 6 says "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and
will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a
covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Isaiah 49: 6
repeats this in saying "I will also give thee for a light to the
gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."
Then Isaiah 60: 2-3 says "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising." Isaiah 66: 12 says "For thus saith the
LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory
of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall
be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees."
Isaiah 66: 8 talks about Zion and verse 10 identifies Jerusalem, but
this is spiritual Zion and spiritual Jerusalem to which God will
extend peace to like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a
flowing stream.
The classical Christian Zionists do not make a distinction between
the Children of Israel who were faithful to God, and those who went
off into false doctrines and practices, and into Talmudic Judaism.
It is not Talmudic Judaism which is
expanded by the entry into it by the Gentiles.
It is spiritual Jerusalem (that Jerusalem which is above and is free, Galatians 4: 26) into which the Gentiles are predicted
to enter. Talmudic Judaism is of the spirit of antichrist (I John
4:3). Christ totally rejected Talmudic Judaism, saying to its
leaders of his time, the Pharisees, in John 8: 44 "Ye are of your
father the devil..."
Hosea 2: 23 says "And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will
have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to
them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall
say, Thou art my God." In Zechariah 2: 11 God promises that "And
many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my
people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know
that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee."
Malachi 1: 11 affirms that "For from the rising of the sun even unto
the going down of the same my name shall be great among he
Gentiles...for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the
Lord of hosts."
In Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel there is a great deal of discussion
about the apostasy of physical Israel, and of prophecy about its
judgment by God. Isaiah 50: 1 says "Thus saith the LORD, Where is
the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which
of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your
iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is
your mother put away."
On Christian Chat someone on the recent Two Witnesses thread said "You forget that God’s covenant with the Jews is everlasting. If God allowed all Jews to see the truth of the Gospel the everlasting covenant would not be everlasting would it?"
One key to identifying who the Two Witnesses are is found in Revelation 12: 17, "And the dragon was wroth with he woman, and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Those in the last days
who have the testimony of Christ are the Two Witnesses. They witness to Jesus Christ and to the faith once delivered unto the saints. But
here I want to deal with who is Israel after the Cross and the Day of Pentecost.
Charles C. Ryrie (born 1925) says:
"basic promise of Dispensationalism is two purposes of God expressed
in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction
throughout eternity." Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today,
1966, pp.44-45.
The classical dispensationalists - John Darby, C.I. Scofield, Lewis
S. Chafer and Charles C. Ryrie - insist that "Israel" in the Old
Testament
always means physical Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. With that interpretation of Israel, they then go on to say
that the Christian church is not found in Old Testament prophecy.
In part their view that "Israel" must always refer to Old testament
Israel, comes out of their belief that Scripture should always be
interpreted literally.
In his book, Dispensationalism (1966), Charles Ryrie says "The
essence of Dispensationalism, then, is the distinction between Israel
and the church."(page 3, "Dispensationalism")
"The nature of the church is a crucial point of difference between
classic, or normative, dispensationalism and other doctrinal systems.
Indeed, ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church, is the touchstone
of dispensationalism(and also of pretribulationalism)."
(page 123, Charles Ryrie Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press,
[1966], 1995)
J. Dwight Pentecost is another dispensationalist theologian who in
his book Things To Come ( 1965) says "The church
and Israel are two distinct groups with whom God has a divine plan.
The church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. This mystery
program must be completed before God can resume His program with
Israel and bring it to completion. These considerations all arise from
a literal method of interpretation."
(page 193, J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, Zondervan, 1965).
The term dispensationalism can be misleading for those who do not know the basic
starting position of this theology, that God has two different peoples, not one as John 10: 16
clearly says, and that unsaved physical Israel that as a house rejected Christ remain God's
chosen people. Christian Zionism is a more accurate term for the theology. To some who
do not know this important starting position of the theology, dispensatrionalism merely means
the study of different dispensations in Biblical history.
For Christian Zionists the Catholic or Christian Zionist capital C Church cannot be the Israel of
God of Galatians 6: 16 or the commonwealth of Israel in Ephesians 2: 11-13, where Paul teaches
that before Christ the Gentiles were aliens from Israel, but are brought into Israel by the blood
of Christ (made nigh by the blood of Christ).
Deuteronomy 7: 6 does say that Israel is a chosen people. "For thou
art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth."
But even some Old Testament texts point to God's transformation of Israel from
that which was mired in the physical to a spiritual house (I Peter 2: 5-9) reborn in Jesus Christ (John 3: 1-6). II Kings 21: 13 says that God will wipe Jerusalem clean and turn it upside down. For those who do not follow metaphor, Jerusalem represents Israel. Then Isaiah 29: 16 refers back to God's turning of things upside down which shall be esteemed as the potter's clay, pointing to Jeremiah 18: 1-6. In Jeremiah 18: 1-6 Jeremiah presents a parable of a potter, as God, making one pot on his wheel, which was marred, and he took the same lump of clay and made another pot out of it (Israel) which seemed good to the potter.
Israel remains the holy people of God, but it was changed from the physical to the spiritual, and those in Christ, as I Peter 2: 5-9 says, are a holy priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people.
There are many Old Testament Scriptures which say that Gentiles will
be added to God's people. Isaiah 11: 10 says "And in that day there
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the
people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be
glorious."
Isaiah 42: 6 says "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and
will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a
covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Isaiah 49: 6
repeats this in saying "I will also give thee for a light to the
gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."
Then Isaiah 60: 2-3 says "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising." Isaiah 66: 12 says "For thus saith the
LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory
of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall
be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees."
Isaiah 66: 8 talks about Zion and verse 10 identifies Jerusalem, but
this is spiritual Zion and spiritual Jerusalem to which God will
extend peace to like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a
flowing stream.
The classical Christian Zionists do not make a distinction between
the Children of Israel who were faithful to God, and those who went
off into false doctrines and practices, and into Talmudic Judaism.
It is not Talmudic Judaism which is
expanded by the entry into it by the Gentiles.
It is spiritual Jerusalem (that Jerusalem which is above and is free, Galatians 4: 26) into which the Gentiles are predicted
to enter. Talmudic Judaism is of the spirit of antichrist (I John
4:3). Christ totally rejected Talmudic Judaism, saying to its
leaders of his time, the Pharisees, in John 8: 44 "Ye are of your
father the devil..."
Hosea 2: 23 says "And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will
have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to
them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall
say, Thou art my God." In Zechariah 2: 11 God promises that "And
many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my
people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know
that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee."
Malachi 1: 11 affirms that "For from the rising of the sun even unto
the going down of the same my name shall be great among he
Gentiles...for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the
Lord of hosts."
In Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel there is a great deal of discussion
about the apostasy of physical Israel, and of prophecy about its
judgment by God. Isaiah 50: 1 says "Thus saith the LORD, Where is
the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which
of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your
iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is
your mother put away."
