Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Covenant Theology Incorrectly Corrects OT Doctrine
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We know that some people like to read the end of the novel first to see if it worth reading. And while this may be okay with fiction, to read the New Testament without knowing the Old Testament and then 'correcting' the OT and it's traditional doctrinal interpretation is wildly incorrect.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome And Series Context
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Claim That The New Testament Corrects
SPEAKER_01Third implication: the New Testament is read back into the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02Now, this is interesting and also somewhat frightening.
SPEAKER_01The New Testament, in their perspective, the New Testament sets aside and corrects the literal interpretation of the Old Testament. Notice this is not going to be my words, okay? The words correct are words that they state in their own journal articles. So they're saying the Jews were wrong and to read the Bible, the Old Testament, literally. Okay? Here's from the Westminster Theological Seminary Journal. The Reformed exegete approaches the Old Testament prophets from the perspective of the unity of the covenant. Remember? I mean, how many times? I'm not, I did not make this up, okay? This is not Jeremy Thomas. Okay, this is their stuff. That unity of the covenant is the covenant of grace. That's what they're talking about. The New Testament sets aside and corrects literal interpretation of Old Testament prophets.
SPEAKER_02Now, if that's what's going on, there's a number of things that I'm going to open the Bible here in a minute.
SPEAKER_01We're going to go to some of these passages and see what see what they do with them, okay? But if they're correcting it, then that would mean that their interpretation was wrong in the Old Testament. They weren't supposed to be reading it literally, but this has a number of very big implications for believers that lived back then in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02What were they supposed to do with the Bible if they couldn't understand it? Like, this doesn't even make any sense, right?
SPEAKER_01So the New Testament's read back into
Temple And Land Reframed As Symbols
SPEAKER_01the Old Testament. Again, this the temple, remember, that's it's described as a future rebuilt temple with sacrifices and so forth. And they say, oh, that was just shadows. The reality is Christ, and Paul described the temple as a church. So now the church is the temple, and Ezekiel 40 to 46 has been fulfilled. We shouldn't expect that. Sacrifices in the future temple can't possibly be that. Um, those are interpreted by Paul, you know, as through Christ, and the believer is to sacrifice his body as a living and holy sacrifice. So again, it's all been fulfilled. Land promised to Israel, that can't possibly refer to some real estate in the Middle East with borders. Uh, even though I mean it says all this stuff, but we needed to wait until we got the New Testament to really understand it, is what they're saying. You had to wait till you got the New Testament to understand what these passages really meant. So the land that's just heaven. That's the ultimate destiny of the one people of God, the elect.
Poitras On Different Prophecy Rules
SPEAKER_01Okay, so from their own words, okay, so this is Vern Poitras. He's a covenant theologian. He says, since the existence of Israel itself has symbolic and heavenly overtones from the beginning. And I mean, I just honestly, I read that and I'm like, huh? I mean, it was a guy named Abraham walking around from Ur to the land of Israel through Haran. Okay, we know the story, right? I mean, does that have so many symbolic and heavenly overtones? I mean, like, what are you talking about? Um He says, but since it's that way, the fulfillment of prophecy encompasses these same overtones. The eschatological time, the end time, is the time when the symbolic overtones in the very nature of Israel itself are transformed into reality. And he's talking about in a heavenly reality. It's just like anotherly reality. Not anything like in the land that God promised them that God said, Hey, take a walk around this land, look at it all, see it. Not the land that God took Moses, remember, and stood him in a place and showed him all the land? Not that.
SPEAKER_02Moses was supposed to know that that's about heaven. Here's another one by Vernon. Pre-eschatological prophetic fulfillments.
SPEAKER_01That just means things that have already been fulfilled in the past. He says they have a hermeneutically different character than do eschatological fulfillment. In other words, here's what he's saying. Put in simple language, because he's writing it sounds complicated. He's saying, okay, we have prophecy that was fulfilled in the past, right? I mean, we know that. A lot of stuff was fulfilled around the first coming of Christ. What he's saying is, when you interpret things that are related to the second coming of Christ, you have to interpret them differently. You can't follow the same method. You interpreted those one way. You can't take that same method and employ it and use it over here to interpret future things, future prophecy. They don't, they're not the same. That's what he's saying. And you say, what? It was all just what they're saying, it's all just shadows in the Old Testament. And now we know the reality in the New Testament, but it could not be known by people during the Old Testament period. So the Jews were wrong about their expectation of an earthly kingdom with Christ ruling on David's throne over the nations. That's what they're saying. This is all wrong. They were all wrong. And of course, they would say anyone who's a dispensationalist is also wrong.
Can The Old Testament Be Understood
SPEAKER_01Fifth part of this aspect of the New Testament being read back into the Old Testament, it simply means that Old Testament passages could not possibly be understood on their own terms. Nobody in the Old Testament knew what it meant. That's what this is saying. Nobody in the Old Testament knew what the Bible meant, what God was promising in the covenants, or any of that. You had to wait until you got the New Testament, then you can read it back into the Old Testament, and now we know what it means.
SPEAKER_02But they didn't. And all their expectations were wrong.
SPEAKER_01In other words, as Poithrus says, one must compare later scripture, meaning New Testament, right, to the earlier scripture, meaning Old Testament, to understand everything. So again, this isn't me. I'm not saying this. He says this. Such comparison, though it should not undermine or contradict grammatical historical interpretation, goes beyond its bounds. So he's saying, hey, there's more than just grammatical historical interpretation. We have to go beyond that.
SPEAKER_02We have to go beyond the grammar and we have to go beyond the context. Okay.
SPEAKER_01It takes account of information not available in the original historical and cultural context. And all he's meaning there is it's taking information that was not available to them. In other words, the New Testament, and we're going to read it back. We're going to read it back. And the New Testament, therefore, explains everything in the Old Testament. Which means you can't understand the Old Testament on its own. You have to have the New Testament.
Where To Find Visuals And Rate
SPEAKER_00Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.