NT Framework - One or Two Peoples of God?

Who has it right, Covenant Theologians or Dispensationalists? In other words, are Israel and the Church two distinct groups or just different names for the same group? How you come at this question will drive your current politics, and quite possibly give rise to antisemitism within you. 

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. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Context

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Welcome 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

Covenant Theology’s One People

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it.

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Now, the people of God, here's some differences between the two groups. So covenant theology says there's only one people of God, the elect. Now that should be a natural understanding. If you start with the covenant of grace, which is a covenant that God supposedly made with Adam and all his elect offspring to give them eternal life, then how many people of God are there? One, the elect. And this is the whole story of the Bible. So what does that mean? That means that Israel in the Old Testament is the church. And the church in the New Testament is Israel. See? There's no difference. The church equals Israel, Israel equals the church. And sometimes this is called replacement theology or supersessionism, because the idea that the church has superseded Israel and God's purposes or something like that. So they have some variations. But the bottom line is that there's only one people of God. Whenever you read that term, you are reading covenant theology. It is a technical term, one people of God, that will always indicate you are talking about people who believe in the covenant of grace and they're looking at everything through that lens.

Israel’s Promises Reframed As Church

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So what about promises made to Israel, like that they will be given their land and so forth and so on? Well, that's just the church. It's just talking about something like heaven. Don't worry about all the details. It's really about salvation. Okay?

Dispensational Two Peoples Explained

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Now in dispensational theology, they say, no, no, no, no, no. There's not just one people of God, there's two peoples of God. In the Old Testament, Israel. Uh 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves. You've heard this, right? This is like America uses this verse, right? That people is Israel. That people is not America in 2 Chronicles 7.14. It's the covenant people of God that God made this promise to. So look at Romans 9, 24 to 26, where Paul I'll show you. He's clearly talking about Gentiles, and Gentiles are what I call one wing

Gentiles In The Old Testament

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of the church. You've got Jews and Gentiles who believe since the day of Pentecost, and they make up the church, the body of Christ. It wasn't this way before, okay? It wasn't this way in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, is everything was centered around the nation Israel, right? Now, if you were a Gentile and you believed in the Old Testament, somebody like Rahab or Jethro or maybe the Phoenician sailors in the story of Jonah or something like that, obviously you're justified by faith as a Gentile, just like a Jew, like Abraham. Everybody's justified by faith exactly the same way. That never changes. But if you say you were Ruth and you decided that you were going to become a part of Israel, he says, you know, your people, my people, your God, my God, right? And she clings to Naomi and she goes back with her to the land of Israel, and she's a Moabite. And you read the whole story, and every time it says Ruth the Moabites, Ruth the Moabites, Ruth the Moabites. It never became Ruth the Israelite. Because you can't become an Israelite unless you're a descendant of Jacob. I mean, you have to be ethnically born one. There's no, you just be having faith doesn't make you a Jew or something like that. She's Ruth the Moabite just all the way through, although she was a justified Gentile. But here's the deal: she did not have the same spiritual privileges as Jews. She did not have the same spiritual privileges. She had less. But see, in the church, things are different. As I'll show you. Now, whether you're Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, we all have exactly the same spiritual privileges. There's no distinctions. But in the Old Testament, there certainly was. Okay.

Romans 9 And Hosea On My People

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So in uh Hosea, well, Romans 9, 24, 25, where he quotes Hosea. Notice he's talking about Jews, and then he says, also from among Gentiles, verse 24. Even us whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. So he's talking here about the church. And he says, as he also says in Hosea, I will call those who were not my people my people. So in the Old Testament, were Jews and Gentiles as the body of Christ, were they the people of God? No. There was no such thing as a church. Israel was the people of God, it was a covenant nation. They were the people of God. But now, Jew and Gentile one body, he says, I will call those who were not my people my people, and those who are not beloved, beloved. It shall be that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God. So now Gentiles can be part of the people of God. But the point is then, of course, that you've got two peoples of God going on. In the Old Testament, Israel. In the New Testament, now we have the church. And since God has this people called Israel, he

Why God’s Covenants Must Stand

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has a purpose for the nation Israel. And guess what? All these purposes will be fulfilled to Israel. If they're not fulfilled to Israel, then God is no longer God. I mean, that is the bottom line. That is the bottom line. If God does not keep his covenant promises to Israel, God is not God. Now he also has this people called the church, and he has purposes for his church. Is he going to keep his purposes for us, the church? If he doesn't, he's not God. In fact, Romans 9 through 11 is all about this question. What about Israel? Is God going to keep his covenant promises to Israel or not? And of course, the end of the story of Romans 9 through 11 is, well, absolutely, he's going to do that. So, two peoples of God and covenant theology

When The Church Begins Debate

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just says one. So when you come to the day of Pentecost and you're in a covenant theology church, what are they going to say? We say, well, this is where the church began, right? No! The church has already been there according to covenant theology, either from, in their minds, if you read their stuff, Adam or Abraham, depending on which theologian you're reading. And you say, it's probably here, you say, What? What do you mean? Abraham. The church started with Abraham or Adam. Hey, I'm not telling you, I'm not defending it. I'm saying go read it for yourself, and you'll see this is exactly what they say. Because there's only one people of God. Okay, so in the Old Testament, Israel is just the church. And in the New Testament, the church is Israel. It's all the same thing. There's only one people of God. Does this have dramatic consequences for where history's going? Well, yeah. Now, do you want to think God's way or do you want to think the wrong way? Now, hopefully, we're going to use our hermeneutic. We're going to literally interpret the Bible, and that is going to tell us what God's mind is on these points.

Where To Find Visuals And Rate

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Thank 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.