The entire system known as Judaism, along with all its component parts, is, in the purpose of God, in total abeyance (suspension) throughout this present dispensation, but with definite assurance that the whole Jewish system thus interrupted will be completed by extension into the millennial kingdom, the new earth, and on into eternity to come.
As the Jew has been removed from the place of special privilege which was his in the past dispensation and leveled to the same standing as the Gentile—under sin—so Judaism is to be restored and is to complete its appointed and promised course (Israel’s New Covenant will still be law, statutes and judgments - Jer 31:33; Eze 36:27—NC).
Judaism has its field of theology with its soteriology and its eschatology. That these factors of a system which occupies three-fourths of the Sacred Text are unrecognized and ignored by theologians does not demonstrate their nonexistence, nor does it prove their unimportance. Covenant Theology (those who believe Christians are in a Covenant with God, which is not true, we are recipients of the ‘Covenant of Redemption’, which Covenant is between the Father and the Son—NC) engenders the notion that there is but one soteriology and one eschatology, and that ecclesiology, such as it is conceived to be, extends from the Garden of Eden to the great white throne (many misguided believers try to link the OT saints with the NT saints—NC).
On the other hand, Scripture is harmonized and its message clarified when two divinely appointed systems—Judaism and Christianity—are recognized, and their complete and distinctive characters are observed. No matter how orthodox they may be in matters of inspiration, the Deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and the efficacy of His death, Covenant theologians have not been forward in Bible exposition.
Judaism is not the bud which has blossomed into Christianity. These systems do have features which are common to both—God, holiness, Satan, man, sin, redemption, human responsibility and the issues of eternity—yet they introduce differences so vast that they cannot possibly coalesce.
Each sets up its ground of relationship between God and man—the Jews by physical birth, the Christian by spiritual birth; each provides its instructions on the life of its adherents—the law for Israel, the teachings of grace (Gospel—NC) for the Church; each has its sphere of existence—Israel in the earth for all ages to come, the Church in heaven (Israel for the New Earth, Christians for the New Heaven—NC).
To the end that the Church might be called out from both Jews and Gentiles, a peculiar, unrelated dispensation has been thrust into the one consistent ongoing of the divine program for the earth. It is in this sense that Judaism, which is the abiding portion of the nation Israel, has ceased (Gal 3:24, 25; Heb 7:19; 8:6, 7; 10:9—NC). With the completion and departure of the Church from the earth, Judaism will be again the embodiment of all the divine purpose in the world.
The Reformation regained the truth of the first Pauline revelation, namely, justification by faith alone. But it did not go on to restore the truth contained in the second revelation, namely, that of the Church growth (being saved is only part of God’s desire, the other part is spiritual growth in Christ - Eph 4:15). It is altogether possible that the problems attending the restoration of the first revelation, being so far-reaching and revolutionary as a reaction from the Romish (Roman Catholic doctrine—NC) perversions of truth were all that could be undertaken at one time or by one generation.
Latter studies of the NT developed (mainly through J N Darby) the almost limitless theme of the second revelation (esp. the spiritual growth via the truths in the Pauline Epistles—NC). Unfortunately, however, theologians were unprepared to receive any added truth beyond that gained in the Reformation, and Protestant theology has, by a misguided loyalty to orthodoxy, never received the truth contained in the second revelation (which answers to many immature believers—NC). It has been assumed that this added, more advanced truth is dangerous if it was not included in the Reformation attainments and that it must be in conflict with those attainments.
Early in the history of Protestantism there were individual theologians who caught the first glimpse of truth contained in the second revelation, and an ever increasing light has fallen on this body of truth until today there is a great company of students of doctrine who hold and teach, along with the first revelation, the clear divine unfolding respecting the Church which is the Body of Christ.
Nevertheless, orthodox Reformed theology persists in its original, isolated and exclusive recognition of the first revelation, and continues to reject and condemn as intrusive and disruptive the great certified findings of those theologians who have given their years of study to the second revelation. This second revelation respecting the Church leads with inexorable logic to definite dispensational and general distinctions.
An attack against these distinctions cannot be sustained by recourse to the beliefs of the Reformers; for such is an assumption that there is no progress to be made in the knowledge of truth, that the very light which fell on the Reformers by which they emerged from Romish darkness could not fall upon any others in subsequent years to lead them into wider and deeper fields of understanding of God’s inexhaustible revelation.
There is an inherent weakness disclosed in this attitude. It tends to shirk all responsibility in the direction of advancement of the truth and to deify the writings of the Reformers, apparently forgetting for the moment that these worthy scholars made no claim to inspiration (writing of Scripture—NC) nor did they intend to set up a barrier past which no further investigation in the truth should advance. It is no disrespect to the Reformers or church fathers (true Christians—NC) to maintain an attitude of open-mindedness in the direction of new understanding (deeper truths—NC) of the truth which was not accorded to men of earlier generations (there are leaders that have more growth information that nobody had prior to them—NC).
It yet remains true that in the eternal purpose of God and made possible by the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and by the advent of the Spirit, a heavenly people are being called out for a specific heavenly glory. This divine purpose is in no sense the realization of the promises and covenants made unto Israel, yet every promise to that nation will yet be fulfilled (Jer 31:31-33; Eze 36:24-27—NC), and apart from these distinctions and anticipations there can be no harmonizing of the divine revelation.
The fact that the Church is a mystery—with regard to the dispensation of her out-calling, the truth that she is the Body of Christ (Col 1:18), the truth that she will be the Bride of Christ (Rev 22:17), and the manner of her departure from this world indicates her distinctive character as separate from all that has gone before or that will follow. The Apostle Paul writes: “Now to Him (God) that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel . . . which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom 16:25-27).
—Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871 – 1952)
MJS daily devotional for October 18
“It is well to be done with ourselves and to be taken up with the Lord Jesus. We are entitled to forget ourselves—we are entitled to confess and forget our sins—we are entitled to forget all but the Lord Jesus. It is by looking unto Him that we can give up anything, and can walk as obedient children.” - John Nelson Darby (progenitor of dispensationalism 1800-1882)
“Many think that talking badly of ourselves is the ideal of humility; whereas the simplest and more real humility is to feel unaffectedly that we are too bad to be worth talking about. Only One is worthy of all our thoughts and words and ways, even the Lord Jesus Christ.” - William Kelly (1821-1906)
As the Jew has been removed from the place of special privilege which was his in the past dispensation and leveled to the same standing as the Gentile—under sin—so Judaism is to be restored and is to complete its appointed and promised course (Israel’s New Covenant will still be law, statutes and judgments - Jer 31:33; Eze 36:27—NC).
Judaism has its field of theology with its soteriology and its eschatology. That these factors of a system which occupies three-fourths of the Sacred Text are unrecognized and ignored by theologians does not demonstrate their nonexistence, nor does it prove their unimportance. Covenant Theology (those who believe Christians are in a Covenant with God, which is not true, we are recipients of the ‘Covenant of Redemption’, which Covenant is between the Father and the Son—NC) engenders the notion that there is but one soteriology and one eschatology, and that ecclesiology, such as it is conceived to be, extends from the Garden of Eden to the great white throne (many misguided believers try to link the OT saints with the NT saints—NC).
On the other hand, Scripture is harmonized and its message clarified when two divinely appointed systems—Judaism and Christianity—are recognized, and their complete and distinctive characters are observed. No matter how orthodox they may be in matters of inspiration, the Deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and the efficacy of His death, Covenant theologians have not been forward in Bible exposition.
Judaism is not the bud which has blossomed into Christianity. These systems do have features which are common to both—God, holiness, Satan, man, sin, redemption, human responsibility and the issues of eternity—yet they introduce differences so vast that they cannot possibly coalesce.
Each sets up its ground of relationship between God and man—the Jews by physical birth, the Christian by spiritual birth; each provides its instructions on the life of its adherents—the law for Israel, the teachings of grace (Gospel—NC) for the Church; each has its sphere of existence—Israel in the earth for all ages to come, the Church in heaven (Israel for the New Earth, Christians for the New Heaven—NC).
To the end that the Church might be called out from both Jews and Gentiles, a peculiar, unrelated dispensation has been thrust into the one consistent ongoing of the divine program for the earth. It is in this sense that Judaism, which is the abiding portion of the nation Israel, has ceased (Gal 3:24, 25; Heb 7:19; 8:6, 7; 10:9—NC). With the completion and departure of the Church from the earth, Judaism will be again the embodiment of all the divine purpose in the world.
The Reformation regained the truth of the first Pauline revelation, namely, justification by faith alone. But it did not go on to restore the truth contained in the second revelation, namely, that of the Church growth (being saved is only part of God’s desire, the other part is spiritual growth in Christ - Eph 4:15). It is altogether possible that the problems attending the restoration of the first revelation, being so far-reaching and revolutionary as a reaction from the Romish (Roman Catholic doctrine—NC) perversions of truth were all that could be undertaken at one time or by one generation.
Latter studies of the NT developed (mainly through J N Darby) the almost limitless theme of the second revelation (esp. the spiritual growth via the truths in the Pauline Epistles—NC). Unfortunately, however, theologians were unprepared to receive any added truth beyond that gained in the Reformation, and Protestant theology has, by a misguided loyalty to orthodoxy, never received the truth contained in the second revelation (which answers to many immature believers—NC). It has been assumed that this added, more advanced truth is dangerous if it was not included in the Reformation attainments and that it must be in conflict with those attainments.
Early in the history of Protestantism there were individual theologians who caught the first glimpse of truth contained in the second revelation, and an ever increasing light has fallen on this body of truth until today there is a great company of students of doctrine who hold and teach, along with the first revelation, the clear divine unfolding respecting the Church which is the Body of Christ.
Nevertheless, orthodox Reformed theology persists in its original, isolated and exclusive recognition of the first revelation, and continues to reject and condemn as intrusive and disruptive the great certified findings of those theologians who have given their years of study to the second revelation. This second revelation respecting the Church leads with inexorable logic to definite dispensational and general distinctions.
An attack against these distinctions cannot be sustained by recourse to the beliefs of the Reformers; for such is an assumption that there is no progress to be made in the knowledge of truth, that the very light which fell on the Reformers by which they emerged from Romish darkness could not fall upon any others in subsequent years to lead them into wider and deeper fields of understanding of God’s inexhaustible revelation.
There is an inherent weakness disclosed in this attitude. It tends to shirk all responsibility in the direction of advancement of the truth and to deify the writings of the Reformers, apparently forgetting for the moment that these worthy scholars made no claim to inspiration (writing of Scripture—NC) nor did they intend to set up a barrier past which no further investigation in the truth should advance. It is no disrespect to the Reformers or church fathers (true Christians—NC) to maintain an attitude of open-mindedness in the direction of new understanding (deeper truths—NC) of the truth which was not accorded to men of earlier generations (there are leaders that have more growth information that nobody had prior to them—NC).
It yet remains true that in the eternal purpose of God and made possible by the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and by the advent of the Spirit, a heavenly people are being called out for a specific heavenly glory. This divine purpose is in no sense the realization of the promises and covenants made unto Israel, yet every promise to that nation will yet be fulfilled (Jer 31:31-33; Eze 36:24-27—NC), and apart from these distinctions and anticipations there can be no harmonizing of the divine revelation.
The fact that the Church is a mystery—with regard to the dispensation of her out-calling, the truth that she is the Body of Christ (Col 1:18), the truth that she will be the Bride of Christ (Rev 22:17), and the manner of her departure from this world indicates her distinctive character as separate from all that has gone before or that will follow. The Apostle Paul writes: “Now to Him (God) that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel . . . which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom 16:25-27).
—Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871 – 1952)
MJS daily devotional for October 18
“It is well to be done with ourselves and to be taken up with the Lord Jesus. We are entitled to forget ourselves—we are entitled to confess and forget our sins—we are entitled to forget all but the Lord Jesus. It is by looking unto Him that we can give up anything, and can walk as obedient children.” - John Nelson Darby (progenitor of dispensationalism 1800-1882)
“Many think that talking badly of ourselves is the ideal of humility; whereas the simplest and more real humility is to feel unaffectedly that we are too bad to be worth talking about. Only One is worthy of all our thoughts and words and ways, even the Lord Jesus Christ.” - William Kelly (1821-1906)
