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 - Dispensationalism in Proper Focus
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Pentecost was a turning point, a very significant turning point in Gods plan for humanity. He temporarily set aside using the Jewish people and turned instead to working through gentile believers, in other words the Church.
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.
Look To Christ For Assurance
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.
SPEAKER_02Now, is this the right focus? Does the Bible continually go on and on about, hey, inspect yourself internally, do this introspection, see if you have the right stuff, then you can know if you're really saved or not. Well, no, it doesn't go into all this. It doesn't say start looking in at yourself. All these New Testament books are not like look inside yourself and see if you have the right works, the right kind of faith. No, they're all saying look out at Christ. He's the object. Look at him.
SPEAKER_00It's not a zero-sum game. In economic terms, a zero-sum economy means that if I gain five dollars, somebody else loses five dollars. But in God's economy concerning people, just because I have a gift or a talent doesn't mean he took it away from somebody else. Just because you have something special, a special and unique role to play in his economy, in his plan right now, does not mean somebody else had to lose that role. And just because he is working through the church right now does not mean he completely eliminated Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from his plan. Two things can be true at the same time. So let's not let our ego get in the way of thinking that, oh, we're so obedient, we're so faithful, we're so special, that we have now replaced Israel. That is false. Let's look to see what the Bible actually says. And wonder in the New Testament, if Israel's really done for, would he ever mention them at all?
Pentecost And Church Frameworks
SPEAKER_02We were talking about Pentecost. And the issue at Pentecost is very important for, let's just say, denominations, various types of churches that exist in our country and the world today. In other words, it's a dividing point. The day of Pentecost is a dividing point, especially over the issue of what we call Israel and the church and whether God still has a future for the nation Israel or not. And so there's division on this point. In my email, if you get my emails, I said, hey, there's basically four types of churches. There are two that are non-systematic. These two types of churches are the liberal church. The liberal church doesn't believe in what we would call fundamental things. Like they don't believe in the virgin birth because they don't believe in the miraculous, the supernatural. They don't believe in things like the Trinity or the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. So all liberal churches don't believe like what we would call just like fundamental things. So they're progressive Christians. And well, if they're Christians at all, but that would be a term, right, to describe it. They would probably also believe there are many paths that lead to God and things like that. So large sections of Christianity, especially in the state of Washington, by, for example, are we have predominantly liberal churches in this in this state. Or we have liturgical churches, second type of church. Liturgical churches don't believe, again, they don't believe there's a system, you know, a way that a plan that basically is in the Bible that we as Christians are supposed to understand and learn. Liturgical churches are more about having experience, feeling spiritual, going through liturgy and things of that nature. Churches that are like, you know, Anglican or Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic are more liturgical churches. I mean, they take stances on some things, of course, but there's not, they don't teach the Bible in a way that there's a systematic harmony where you're trying to figure out God's plan and what he's up to. So those are two types, liberal and liturgical. Then you have what we call covenant theology churches, and fourth, you have dispensational churches. And these are the two that we're more interested in because they're both types of churches that actually believe there's a coherent plan that the Bible spells out. And but the thing is that these plans are quite different. Because, as I mentioned, you know, some of these churches, the uh covenant theology, don't really believe there's a future for the nation Israel. And dispensational churches do believe there's a future for the nation Israel. So I want to take you through some of the fundamental differences because they they closely relate, of course, to the day of Pentecost. And if I can show you some of the differences at points, then you'll see how far apart these types of churches are. So, you know, most people like a covenant theologian churches would typically be something like uh the Presbyterian Church of America, PCA, Reformed churches, uh a lot of Baptist churches, um are covenant theology. And then you have dispensational churches, and these are typically like Bible churches, um sometimes something like uh E free church or something like that, um, independent, you know, churches, and sometimes that way. So, anyway, um, there's a lot of different things, and people don't really understand the menu. Uh, they just go around trying different churches, having no idea, you know, what it actually is that they're trying. So, what I'm trying to do is say, hey, look, there are very big differences, and you know, this is to be expected because if you read the New Testament, what you discover is that Paul said it was bad in the first century and it was going to get worse. And what he meant was there will be doctrinal apostasy. And doctrinal apostasy means that the church, over the course of its history, would depart from the truth and move further and further away from the truth. And so that means there's a thin line. Uh, it gets thinner as you go through church history of people who actually hold to what the Bible teaches. And now we're in a real pickle today because there's so many divisions of Christianity, right? And Satan has caused all this confusion that the world has no idea what Christianity really is. Um, they mightn't think that, well, Christianity is just those people that believe in Jesus, and that's probably all they really uh know. Uh and then they have a lot of caricatures of what it is. So it's unfortunate, but this is this is where we are. So it's very difficult to evangelize people. You know, there are a lot of blocks to all of this because of caricatures of Christianity. So I want to walk you through some basics of like the differences between at least the two schools of thought that believe that there is a coherent plan of God that we need to discover in the scripture and what that plan is.
Why Doctrine Splits So Much
SPEAKER_02Um if there is no plan, guess what? If there's no plan for history, that means there is no plan for your life. Because your life is part of the bigger thing called history. And so, and also, if there's no plan for the whole of history, then our God is not a coherent thinker. It's just nonsense. And so this is absolutely critical because I think God wants us to know his mind insofar as it can be understood through what has been revealed. Of course, we can never under God understand God comprehensibly. He's uh incomprehensible, uh, infinite. But in what he has revealed, I think that is what we're supposed to put together and to understand. So we're only going to look at the two groups that actually believe there's a plan and teach this to people.
How To Read The Bible
SPEAKER_02Uh, first of all, covenant theology, but we're gonna look first at the issue of hermeneutics, and then I'll just compare and contrast these two. Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. It's about how you interpret literature. And I would say it's about how you interpret any kind of literature. And the question is, well, how do you do that? Or how do you interpret, in this case, the Bible? Um, but we could say the same question about the Constitution. How do we interpret the Constitution? Does it really matter if we sit down with the Constitution and I say, well, what does it mean to you? And what is this, what does it mean to you, and what does it mean to you, and what does it mean to you? Well, it doesn't really matter, really. It means what does it mean? Like that is the purpose to discover what the original authors who pinned the Constitution actually meant, right? It's the same thing with the Bible. What does it mean? Not what do I think it mean for you or whatever. Um, the interesting thing is not what I think. The interesting thing is what God intended to say, what he meant, through the human author that he inspired by his spirit to write it down. Because ultimately, the only interesting things in the universe are what God has said and what God has done. Everything else is just imagination. It's a distortion of reality, which means it's not real. So we have a lot of false images in our mind. These are what are called idols. We want to cast those out. We want to get rid of that. So hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. Art meaning it's a skill that is developed, and science meaning there are rules. If we play basketball, let's just say, well, let's go play a basketball game. You got the referees, let's hopefully have the referees. The referees are the ones who enforce the rules. If somebody steps out of bounds with the ball, the ball goes to the other team. You know, things like that. If somebody fouls somebody, the ref is supposed to call it. You can't do that. It's against the rules. It's the same thing when you interpret the Bible or any set uh literature. There are rules. And if you violate the rules, well, you're cheating. And it's not right. Now, where do we get these rules from? Well, and there's there's art. There's an art to you, you know, lip playing according to the rules. Now, um, where do we get these rules? From language itself. All languages. Now, who started the language game? Who's the first speaker? God. Right? Genesis 1 3. God said, Let there be light. Okay, so we've got a sentence, we've got a structure there, right? Now, he speaks in what we call an ordinary literal fashion. Let there be light, for example. What does he mean by light? Well, he means physical light, the property of prop with properties of light, right? Like we would think of in terms of physics. But there are places in the Bible that speak of light in an ordinary, I'm sorry, a figurative literal way. For example, it says walk in the light, as he is the light. Now, it's not saying he's physical light, is it? No, it's saying he's pure. And we're supposed to walk in purity. So you can use the word light in an ordinary literal way. You can also use it in a figurative literal way. But the point is that light, in either ordinary or figurative usage, has a literal reference. We know what it means when God says, I am light, and in him there's no darkness, not even at all. You know, we mean that that means that God is pure and right. And we're supposed to live our lives that way. So this is just basically how we learn about words and meaning. And this is given to us in the grammatical structure of languages.
Covenant Theology’s Interpretive Lens
SPEAKER_02Now, so when it comes to covenant theology, how do they interpret the Bible? Well, they interpret a lot of it literally, but they do so through the lens called the covenant of grace. And this, they say, is where God made a covenant with Adam and his elect offspring to save them. Okay? So at the very beginning of time in the book of Genesis, they're going to say God made a covenant with Adam and all of his elect offspring that God would give them eternal life. So it's a soteriological or what we just call a salvation covenant. Now, this is a claim. I didn't say this is what the Bible teaches. I would challenge anybody here to show me where is the covenant of grace. They'll cite some passages or whatever. But I bet you've never actually thought about it as you read Genesis 1, 2, and 3, because the word covenant is never even used there. That doesn't mean it's not there. Trinity's not used in the Bible either. But the question is, is there a covenant where that God made with Adam and all of his elect offspring to save them? Is that actually in the text? Many of them will say no, it's not explicit, it's just implied. But this becomes the lens through which they see. You know, if I put these on, these are my readers, so if I look at you all out there, I can't see but much, and you just get you know fuzzy. That's kind of how they see the Bible, to be frank with you. I mean, they think they see clearly, of course, but when I put these on, you know, I can only see things up close. I can't see anything out there clearly. But they look through a lens called the covenant of grace to interpret everything. So everything in the Bible for them is about salvation. And when you talk about the biblical covenants like Abrahamic, you know, the Land Covenant, you know, the Davidic covenant, the new covenant, all these covenants, they say, are simply outworkings of this original covenant. And that would mean that all the Abrahamic covenant is about is salvation. And the land covenant is all about salvation. They would say, well, land just means going to heaven. It's not a real physical land, it's it's a salvation land, it's uh it's heaven, you know, and stuff like that. So now that's I would say that's not the normal use of language. Like when you have to interpret land as heaven, um would you uh no land is earthy, you know, it has to do with you know topography, it has to do with boundaries or borders, it has to do with you know elevations and visions and all these types of things. No, no, no, that's just heaven, see, we're told. But that's the reason they see it that way is because why? Because they put the lens of the covenant of grace on, and then when they see passages about land, they say, oh, that's about heaven, because we've got this covenant of grace that's controlling everything, it's controlling how you interpret. So that's one view. Now that's gonna change everything because, again, I mean, is Israel gonna have their promised land? Oh, that's just heaven. So does God. What is happening in the Middle East today, since 1948? What's going on? Uh, is this God's move in history to bring Israel back to the land to establish them and fulfill his covenant promises to them? No, they'll say. Israel is just a nation like any other nation. And if they believe, great. But if they don't, too bad. But what's going on over there? Nothing. Okay, nothing of biblical significance is going on over there. Why? Well, because everything is being viewed through the covenant of grace, and that's the idea that the whole story of the Bible is basically about God has an elect group of people that he's going to save and take to heaven. That's basically the whole story of
Dispensational Theology And God’s Glory
SPEAKER_02the Bible. Now, dispensational theology says, no, no, no, no, no. We don't look through the lens of a covenant of grace. We're just going to interpret the Bible literally, as I described before. You've got ordinary literal, you've got figurative literal. But all that this means is that however the terms are to be understood in a context, it has a literal reference. And uh, so we follow that all the way through the Bible consistently. That's our goal. And so the story is much more complicated, um, as we'll see in dispensational theology, and what we think God's plan is. Uh, what's the unifying principle of the Bible? Meaning the one principle that unifies the Bible. Well, covenant theology set out to discover this at the time of the, during basically the time of the Reformation. And they claim that, again, the unifying principle of the Bible is just salvation of men. This is what the Bible is basically all about: salvation of men. So it's very uh man-centered, what we call anthropocentric, right? And of course, this is just part of the covenant of grace, because that's what the covenant of grace is. God's going to save Adam and all his elect offspring. So who did Jesus come and die for? Adam and all elect offspring. Did Jesus come to die for every person? No, he only came to die for the elect. So you have to figure out how they're deriving their doctrines. And it's all coming from the covenant of grace. And if you don't understand that, you don't understand what's going on and why they're saying what they're saying. You'd think they're saying it because of certain verses. No, they're not saying it because of certain verses. They're saying it because of the covenant of grace, and they're reinterpreting all these verses. Okay. So that is what controls everything for them. It's basically all about salvation. Now, dispensational theology, like I said, is much more complex. Unifying principle of the Bible that we have derived from literally interpreting the Bible is the glory of God. That the ultimate purpose of history, the ultimate purpose of everything, is not man's salvation, but it's God's glory. Now, salvation's a part of that. In other words, it's one means by which God receives glory, but there's a lot of other things going on in the Bible. For example, the real biblical covenants, God uses those to bring glory to himself. What about the story of dispensations or stewardships? The idea that God gives responsibility to people groups like Israel and the church, and we are responsible agents to fulfill those stewardships toward him, and we will be evaluated for how we did with our stewardship. But through that, see, God gets glory. So I like to go to Romans 11 to show this that you can see that you know the ultimate thing that's going on is is the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01Romans 11, the last four verses.
SPEAKER_02After Paul's just finished his wonderful discourse on Israel and Gentiles and their covenants, and how how uh through Israel's covenants now Gentiles are partaking of spiritual blessings from these covenants and so forth, he says in verse 33, Oh the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. I mean, who could trace it all out, right? For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor? You know, who who instructs him, right? And says, Hey, this is the way you should do things. For from him and through him and to him are all the same things.
SPEAKER_01To him there can be the glory forever. Amen. See, this glory has a purpose that everything is ultimately for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02And so a lot of things can be part of that salvation, dispensations, the story of angels, the covenants, the seed, the messiah himself. But the Bible is not fundamentally about our salvation. The Bible is not fundamentally about angels, the Bible is not fundamentally about dispensations, the Bible is not fundamentally about covenants. The Bible is fundamentally about who and what God is. That is the biggest idea in the entire Bible. And that's what we mean by the unifying principle. How did we derive that? From studying the Bible literally. That's how we derived that.
Israel And Church In God’s Plan
SPEAKER_02Now, 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. 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? Now in dispensational theology, they'd 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. 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 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.
SPEAKER_01She did not have the same spiritual privileges. She had less.
SPEAKER_02But 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? 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 have one body. He says, I will call those who were not my people my people, and those who were 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 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 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'd 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.
SPEAKER_01And in the New Testament, the church is Israel.
SPEAKER_02It'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. That's the goal.
Faith, Works, And Progressive Revelation
SPEAKER_02As far as salvation, what do these two groups say about salvation? Well, covenant theology says there's one way of salvation because there's one covenant of grace. This is how they logically reason. Because they think that the covenant of grace is a salvific covenant that God made with Adam and all his elect to give them eternal life. So it's very salvific. So they say, well, there's only one way of salvation. Which that's good. There is only one way of salvation, but they're saying it because there's one covenant of grace. But they say also, and this is also true, the one way of salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. And all God's people said what? Amen. I mean, this is this is great. This is exactly right. The content, you know, what you must believe, the object, who you're putting your faith in, the means, which is faith, and the basis, which is grace, they say always or never change, right? They they never change. But then they would typically, well, they would always say, the faith that saves, however, is never alone. The faith that saves is never alone.
SPEAKER_01It's always accompanied by works. And all of you are kind of going, mmm, is that right?
SPEAKER_02Like there's a part of you that says, yeah, we should do good works, and there's a part of you that's saying that shouldn't be confused with salvation. So what does dispensational theology say? Well, a lot of it's in agreement here. There's one way of salvation, amen. But we don't say because there's one covenant of grace, we don't draw this logical relationship to a covenant that doesn't, in our opinion, exist, but the one way of salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. With that, we'd also say amen. But we would also say this: we'd say the basis is always grace, the means is always faith, and the object is always God. But we would say something a little different on the content. We would say the content changes with progressive revelation. What do I mean by content? I mean what you must believe in order to be saved. So, I mean, we know what we have to believe today, you know, we have to believe in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, is that what Noah believed?
SPEAKER_01Did he believe in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, how could he?
SPEAKER_02Uh he didn't know about the death and the resurrection of Christ. So what we would say is, let's go to Genesis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the period that Noah would have known about, and ask what content was there that needed to be believed. And all we could say was a few things. We could say, hey, God, you know, showed that blood sacrifice had to be involved because he slaughtered the lamb and gave clothes to Adam and Eve. He could know that. We would say that God promised Adam and Eve that he was going to send the seed of the woman who would defeat the seed of the serpent. So this figure, maybe a Messiah-type figure. So a Messiah type figure, sacrifices involved, but we wouldn't believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He couldn't believe in that. There wasn't that specificity. So we say that the specificity is developed progressively through the Old Testament until it becomes clear, really, at the cross. Because if you think about the New Testament, you think about the Gospels, Jesus tells Peter in Matthew 16 that he has to suffer, he has to be crucified, you know, and suffer all these things, and then he would be resurrected the third day. And Peter says, It will never happen. Not on my watch. Remember that in Matthew 16? May it never be. And yet, was he a believer? Yeah, he was a believer. But you say he didn't believe in the death of the Messiah or the resurrection, for that matter. But he was still a believer. And that's that's the point I'm making is that there's a progressive revelation and also progressive understanding of who the Messiah is and what has to happen for salvation, as far as you know, what a person must believe. And so obviously, you know, Peter didn't believe all those things, but he was already saved. And so the content can change progressively over time. But right now, the content, of course, is we believe in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4. Very, very clear what we must believe. So there's some differences there. We also don't add this idea that the faith that saves is never alone. That's what covenant theology says. You see that sentence, the last sentence in the covenant theology section? The faith that saves is never alone. What do they mean that by that? They mean that there are different kinds of faith. See, they say the faith that saves, meaning or implying that there are other kinds of faith that don't save. Now, this is very confusing, even in the English language. Either you believe something or you don't. There's not a certain type of belief you have in something. But they talk about all sorts of different kinds of faith. They'll talk about temporal faith, like you just have it for a little while and then it goes away, so you didn't really believe, they would say. Because you didn't have the right kind of faith.
SPEAKER_01Or they talk about um saving faith.
SPEAKER_02Well, they have different well, they first, of course, they use saving faith versus non-saving faith. Well, what that would non-saving faith be? I mean, what is that? Can anybody put a finger on what non-saving faith is? I mean, faith is in the Bible, the word means confidence or reliable in confidence in some object because it is reliable. Confidence in some object because it is reliable. Confidence in some object because it is reliable. So when you believe the gospel, what were you saying? You were saying, I am confident in the object of Jesus Christ, that he is reliable, that he paid for my sins, and he rose again and lives forevermore. This is what you're saying, right? What would non-saving faith in Jesus be? I mean, I don't even know what this stuff is talking about. It's just complete nonsense. Either you believe something or you don't believe it. I mean, that's just the way it is. And uh, but they create all these other categories of faith. And so what they will say is that if you have the right kind of faith, the faith that saves, then guess what? You will have works. So we can measure whether we had the right kind of faith or not by looking to see if we have the right kind of works or not. The problem becomes how many good works? Because we all still sin. I mean, how many of you have completely stopped sinning? Your every thought is only the purity of God entirely all the time.
SPEAKER_01Well, then how many good works do you need to have?
SPEAKER_02See? How many? And so, of course, the Puritans were famous at this. They're coming through this line of covenant theology, they're impacted by that so much that you read the Puritan writings, and most of it is very introspective. They're inspecting themselves to see whether they have the right kind of fruit. Do I have the works? Because if I have the works, that gives me assurance that I really had the right kind of faith. But if I don't have the right kind of works, then I don't have assurance, and I'm worried about whether I'm really saved or not. Now, is this the right focus? Does the Bible continually go on and on about, hey, inspect yourself internally, do this introspection, see if you have the right stuff, then you can know if you're really saved or not. Well, no, it doesn't go into all this. It doesn't say start looking in at yourself. All these New Testament books are not like look inside yourself and see if you have the right works, the right kind of faith. No, they're all saying look out at Christ. He's the object, look at him. And that's where we're supposed to, when we doubt, where are we supposed to look? Inside? I mean, you're just gonna find more doubt. So where do you look? You look outside, you look at Christ, the one who was crucified for our sins, the one who was uh raised, and who sits at the right hand of the Father, right? He is our confidence. And we don't look in ourselves, we're never finding in there. So there is a difference there on the content as well as the means, because they say it's a faith that saves, which has works. By the way, I still don't understand this either. Okay, in Lordship, the this covenant theology, their idea, which is lordship salvation, is this idea that if you had this initial faith that's the right kind, somehow that's going to produce works like 20 years from now. That act of faith 20 years ago will produce works like 20 years later? That doesn't make sense. See, what happens when we believe, we believe the content of the gospel, death and resurrection of Christ. At that point, God gives us eternal life. Now, at that point, we have all these other scriptures that come along after the gospel that teach us to not trust in ourselves, to trust God, you know, cast our anxieties on him because he cares for us. Whenever we trust these promises, whenever we have, in other words, repeating acts of faith, God delivers us in our situation in life. But that does not is not a result of the initial faith we had, say, 20 years ago. That's because you you got convinced of other scriptures that are talking about other ideas that we are to believe inside the Christian life. So obviously, we're justified by faith, but then afterwards, we got to be sanctified by repeated acts of faith. You're not saved later on from some situation in your life now because you had an initial instance of faith. It's not that initial instance of faith that saved you, it's a faith that you exercised that day in some promise of the Word of God. So they try to root it all back in that justifying faith. No, no, no, you can't do that. Like, I mean, like, that's not a literal reading of the Bible.
Kingdom Views And Israel’s Future
SPEAKER_02What about the relationship of Israel to the church? Well, in covenant theology, they have like five different ones. I'm not going to go through all of them. I just ran out of room, so I just stopped on this slide. But a lot of times, covenant theology, of course, says the church has superseded Israel in the plan of God, or the church has replaced Israel in the plan of God. Um by the way, Israel is used 73 times in the New Testament. 73 times. Look it up every time, and it will refer every time to A, the guy named Jacob, who was renamed Israel.
SPEAKER_01B the land called Israel in the Middle East, and C the ethnic descendants of the man named Jacob who was renamed Israel. And not once does it ever refer to the church. Not once. But they're gonna say, well, the church has superseded Israel in the plan of God.
SPEAKER_02In other words, now we're you know, is God's done with Israel and He's going to deal only with the church, in which case God changed the covenant parties, right? I mean, if God made covenants with Israel, and he did, like the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the new covenant, he made these covenants with Israel. Now, if they're gonna be fulfilled to the church, then the covenant parties changed. Can God do that? Can God take make a contract with people and then say, no, you guys failed, so I'm gonna now replace you in the contract with a different group of people. That's not integrity.
SPEAKER_01Um that's a God who is whimsical and arbitrary and capricious. He doesn't have integrity, he's not faithful. But that's not the God of the Bible, is it? So it doesn't seem to me that they worship the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02And there are many gods, although only one true God. If the churches are placed Israel in the plan of God, then of course God has rejected the nation Israel, and he's not going to keep his promises to Israel. And that means there's no future for the nation Israel, right? I mean, and this is what they say. Yeah, no future for the nation Israel.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Is that the God that you worship? Is that the God of the Bible?
SPEAKER_02That's the most important question. In dispensational theology, there's a couple views. One view is the church is completely distinct from Israel. That's view one. The second view, the church is distinct but not divorced from Israel. The second one's my view, but uh let's go through this first one. The church is completely distinct from Israel. That means the church has no relationship to Israel. Question. Does the church have a relationship to Jesus Christ? Yes or no? There's no maybes, no in between. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Is Jesus Christ a Jew? Yes. Do we have a relationship to Israel?
SPEAKER_02Well, I sure hope so. Because if we don't, we don't have salvation. Because there's salvation in no other name under heaven by which men call, and that is the name of Jesus Christ, the Jew. Jesus was a Jew. So this view is patently false without going into all sorts of other reasons, but they claim that the church is not partaking of spiritual blessings from the new covenant. Now, what did Jesus Christ ratify on the cross? In his blood. The new covenant. When we take communion, first Sunday, we say, it says, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, right? Do this as often as you do it in remembrance of me. So this view says, well, the church is related to the blood of Christ, but not the blood of the new covenant. So they kind of split the blood. And so you've got the blood of Christ, yeah, the church is related to that, but the blood of the new covenant, no, we're not related to that. Why? Because they'll say, well, there's a complete distinction between Israel and the church. And the new covenant was to be made with Israel. And so we can't have any relationship to it at all. They go further then and say in Hebrews 7 through 12 that Christ is not functioning in the Melchizedekian priesthood. So we have no great high priest right now who's functioning on our behalf in the heavenly tabernacle.
SPEAKER_01This is their claim. Read it last week in several papers.
SPEAKER_02So that, but that's a theological premise. That very first sentence, the church is completely distinct from Israel. That's a theological premise. That has to be proven from the text, right? But you shouldn't start with the premise. You should start with the text. And let the text tell you what the position should be. The last view in dispensational theology, which is what I hold, is that the church is distinct from Israel but not divorced. Distinct but not divorced. Here's an example.
SPEAKER_01The church began on what day? Pentecost. Is Pentecost a Gentile feast? Is that a Gentile get together? No, it's super Jewish.
SPEAKER_02The whole day of Pentecost is a Jewish feast day that was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. It was actually the fourth feast that was fulfilled of the spring calendar of Israel's feast. First of all, you had Passover, right? Is Christ our Passover? 1 Corinthians 5? Yes, absolutely. So is that does that pe that's also a very Jewish feast? What grew out of the Passover that we keep once a month? The Lord's table, the Lord's communion, the Lord's Supper, right? In other words, is it totally compl is is the Lord's Supper something totally completely different than and separate from Passover? Or did it grow out of it? See? It grew out of it. So we're distinct, but not divorced. See? Who is gonna sit on twelve thrones in the millennial kingdom and rule over the house of Israel? Who? Matthew 19, 28. The twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones and rule rule over the house of Israel. But wait, don't these twelve apostles become the foundation of the church? Ephesians 2.20?
SPEAKER_01Peter, James, John, you know, these people? And Paul says, hey, the apostles and prophets is the foundation of the church. Christ Jesus is the cornerstone. Right? So wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02They're Jews, and they're gonna reign, they're part of the church, they became part of the church, and they're the foundation of the church, and yet in the future kingdom, they're gonna reign over Israel. So again, distinct, but not divorced, because they're gonna reign over Israel. Um there are a number of these, let's just say, uh, connections that show we're not divorced from Israel, but we are definitely distinct. The church in this case is partaking of spiritual blessings from the new covenant. I mean, every time we take the communion, I mean, we are remembering what Christ did for us on the cross. What that and those blessings are coming from the new covenant. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Um so the church is related to the blood of Christ, but that's the same as the blood of the new covenant. You can't separate it. And Christ now in Hebrews 7 through 12 is functioning in the Melchizedekian priesthood and as a Melchizedekian priestseason ministering the new covenant. It's chiefly related to our sanctification. Like, what is Jesus Christ doing right now in heaven? He's functioning as our priest, our high priest. So when you confess, we have an opportunity, 1 John 1 9, every Sunday, we say confess. Right? What does he do when you confess?
SPEAKER_01What does he do with that sin? He forgives it. That's a function of the priest. And that's what he's doing. Hebrews also says we can draw near to God through our high priest.
SPEAKER_02What were the people in the Old Testament doing when they would come to the tabernacle when they would bring their sacrifice? They were looking for forgiveness and they wanted to draw near to God, whose presence was in the tabernacle, right? What are we doing now under a Melchizedekian priest? We confess, and we are able to draw near to God because our high priest is functioning in that tabernacle right now. So yeah, we're partaking of that. We're enjoying his priesthood under the new covenant. So that's all stuff about our relationship of Israel to the church. So what are we gonna, both of these views would say about Israel? Are they gonna say, well, what is the future for Israel? Well, all of them, no, neither either view here is both gonna say that God has made covenants with Israel and He's gonna keep his word. Why? Because the details matter. And some people think, well, I can't keep up with all the details. Yeah, but guess what? Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01God can. So we just go with his view. We don't say, well, God's done with Israel.
SPEAKER_02Um how about the view of the millennial kingdom already discussing? Well, there are a lot of views in covenant theology. Aw-mill, post-mil, and they have a pre-mill called historic pre-mill. Our millennialism says on the day of Pentecost, the kingdom began. This is it. Okay, they think Pentecost is the beginning of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01And this is all the kingdom there will ever be. Okay?
SPEAKER_02The church is it. Things are going to get worse and worse, they say, and then Christ will come back, the second coming. There will be a general judgment and resurrection of the dead, and then the eternal state will begin. No millennial kingdom on earth. Okay? This is it now. That means that all the Old Testament promises of what the kingdom will be like. Like the hills would drip with wine, and everybody would sit and have peace and security, and there'd be blessing and righteousness and justice in the world. That's not going to happen.
SPEAKER_01Those are just descriptions of, I guess, now, because this is the kingdom. But that ain't now. Postmillennialism.
SPEAKER_02Again, the church got off to its start and brought the kingdom in over the course of church history. We're building it. And things are going to get better and better in the world as the gospel triumphs. And until all political leaders in the world accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and implement the Mosaic Law. That's basically what they say. Now you look, you can go to a lot of these churches if you want. You can go, you can leave right now. You can go to one. I will not be upset.
SPEAKER_01This is between you and God. But this isn't stuff they believe. Okay.
SPEAKER_02There will be a general judgment and resurrection when we hand the kingdom over to him. So we will have built the kingdom and we will give it to him, rather than him coming and building the kingdom himself. See? Two different things. Does the church build the kingdom? Or does Christ come back and he builds the kingdom? Well, I think the latter. Historic premillennialism. This is not our view, but of course it's closer. Christ will return and then the kingdom of God will come for 1,000 years. The only reason they believe in a thousand years, you can read them all, they'll all say Revelation chapter 20 is the only reason they believe in a thousand-year kingdom. Not all the Old Testament prophecies of a kingdom, which are hundreds. But because of Revelation 20, it says a thousand years, like six times, something like that. Then they say, well, there's got to be a thousand years. But there's no distinction between Israel and the church. Israel and the church are the same people. They make the one up the one people of God in that kingdom. There's not going to be a Jewish flare to the kingdom or anything like that. And there will be no millennial temple and no millennial sacrifices. They spiritualize those those passages. Meaning they don't take it in a literal way. Now that's all covenant theology. You can go again, you can go to one of these churches, whatever. Dispensational theology is premillennial, but in a little different sense than historic premillennial. Again, Christ will return, right? Then the kingdom will come and it will be here for a thousand years, Revelation 21 through 6. But we believe that really about a future kingdom because of all the prophets. Because they kept saying that the kingdom will be restored. And in fact, when Jesus came, what did he offer? Him and John. Repent, for the what is at hand? The kingdom of God is at hand. It's talking about this messianic kingdom, the millennial kingdom. The length of it, yeah, we don't learn how long until Revelation 20. We get that. But the kingdom itself was already prophesied by all the prophets. And it was offered by John and Jesus, and they rejected it. Saved people from Israel will fulfill their covenant destiny in the kingdom, Ezekiel 47 and 48. It talks about them being in their land. There's the borders of the land. We talked about last week with Trump and Kamala and all that globalization versus nationalism. All the borders are the land are sketched in Ezekiel 47, 48. The tribes, the 12 tribes, are given their specific properties. The Levitical priest portion is mapped out. The king's portion is mapped out. It's all mapped out. Now, are we just going to brush over all that? I mean, this is two chapters of the Bible. We're going to say, oh, that's just heaven. Well, that's an easy way to exegete if you say these two chapters just mean one word, heaven. If it meant heaven, why didn't he just write it that way? I think he's God.
SPEAKER_01I think he can say what he means and mean what he says.
SPEAKER_02So save people so Israel will fulfill all their covenant destiny in the kingdom. Save people from the church will fulfill their destiny in the kingdom too. You know, we're going to rule and reign in the kingdom with Christ. We're co-heirs of the kingdom, and we're going to reign with Christ over the nations of the world. And yes, there will be a Jewishness to the kingdom, very Jewish. Jesus is a Jew. Jesus is going to be the king. He's kind of Jewish. There's this thing called a millennial temple. He spends seven chapters in Ezekiel describing it. Chapter Ezekiel 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46. Seven chapters about this temple that he's going to be build. And the covenant that he made with the Aaronic line, the Levitical priesthood will be there. And the Zadakian line, these priests will be there, and they will be functioning in this millennial temple, and there will be sacrifices. And people say, I can't do that! I can't believe that. But I don't understand it. You don't have to understand something entirely to be able to understand it. Or I believe it.
SPEAKER_01You have to understand something only in part. Because how many people in this room believe in God? I do. Do you understand him entirely? No. But you still believe in him. So what he's given you is sufficient. Right?
SPEAKER_02And that's all that needs to be there. Something sufficient. It says there's going to be a millennial temple. It says there's going to be sacrifices. It says the priests of Levi, the priests of Zedoke and Lion are going to offer these sacrifices. You say, Well, I don't understand it. Jesus is the last sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01You can't wipe out part of the Bible by your misunderstanding of another part. People think they understand the final sacrifice of Christ. Do they? Again, is it something you entirely understand?
SPEAKER_02Do you understand the entire outworkings of the cross of Christ? No. But do you believe it? Do you have sufficient understanding of it to believe it? Yes. But there's going to be millennial sacrifices. And it deals with the concept of theocratic harmony when God's presence is on earth. It has to do with theocratic harmony with God and defilements of the flesh. External things. Not the problem of salvation that is an internal sin problem. And it deals with defilements of the flesh that need to be purified so that people can actually go into the presence of God in the millennial temple.
SPEAKER_01Right now, we are the temple. So there's a lot going on. And we'll discuss that too.
Modern Israel And Closing
SPEAKER_02Some conclusions. You know, if you want to go to a covenant church or a dispensational. Covenant, the entire focus is on salvation, no matter really what you're studying in the Bible. To the extent that one sees everything related to the salvation of men, they are non-dispensational. The details of the Bible get washed out because the covenant of grace is like an interpretive lens and it forces you to gloss over those details. Like land divisions in the millennial kingdom, the messianic, the millennial sacrifices and temple and so forth. All that stuff gets washed out. In fact, here in Acts chapter 2, it's going to get washed out because Peter's going to quote Joel, and they're going to say, oh, it's just talking about salvation. Forget blood, fire, columns of smoke, and other things that Joel talked about, which Peter mentions on the day of Pentecost, none of which happened, by the way. But all those things will happen in a dispensational point of view. Just not now. He's picking up one thing that Joel spoke. A pouring out of the Spirit did happen on the day of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01But covenant theology is, oh, Joel's done. Joel's done. What about the details? Nope. It's all just salvation, see?
SPEAKER_02So for them, spiritual blessings or spiritual issues alone are important. In dispensational theology, what is the focus? The focus is on whatever's in view. I mean, like whatever it's talking about. If it's talking about the Antichrist, it's talking about the Antichrist. If it's talking about the church, it's talking about the church. If it's talking about Israel, it's talking about Israel. If it's talking about a covenant, it's talking about a covenant. It's talking about dispensation, it's talking about dispensation. I mean, like whatever it's talking about, that's what it's talking about. To the extent that one sees multiple a multi-purpose plan that culminates to the glory of God, one is dispensation. So there's a lot of things going on. And we'd say, hey, what's going on in the Middle East right now is ramping up for that. I mean, these people didn't just go back to their land like randomly out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01What was the quote this morning, right? Bill was talking about. Like Pascal and what's the other guy's name? Louis XIV? Talking about do miracles exist? What's the argument for miracles?
SPEAKER_02What's the greatest argument for miracles? John Wolver put it this way. What's the greatest argument for the existence of God?
SPEAKER_01Both hands in the same way. The existence of Israel. Right now, Israel is a super sign.
SPEAKER_02It's like a giant billboard over the entire world. And it's saying that God is about to do something entirely huge. And people are totally blind. But that's what the Bible describes. And you know what? You and I are blind except for the grace of God. You and I are just as blind as everybody else in the world. We can't go patting ourselves on the back saying how lovely are we and how we figured it all out. No, no, except for the grace of God, we're just as blind as them. And that is a super huge billboard saying to the world, God is on the move. Get right with him now, or you will be stuck, 1 Thessalonians 5. And the whole world will say peace and peace and safety, and then sudden destruction will come upon them and they will not escape. All the famines, earthquakes, diseases of the world hold not even a candle to what's coming when that period of destruction comes on the world. We're concerned with all those little details. Because why? Because the literal interpretive principle of the Bible demands that we understand these things. So spiritual is important, yes, but fill physical blessings are also important. Things like the land, the kingdom, the millennium, all that stuff. Okay, next week then we'll just look at twelve distinctions between Israel and the church. But some of these are so easy to see.
SPEAKER_01Let me just point out one real quick. Letter I here. Are we under strict dietary restrictions right now in the church? No. Was Israel under strict dietary restrictions? Yes. Well, is there really not a difference?
SPEAKER_02And why was that? Why did God have strict dietary restrictions for them but not for us? What's going on in the plan of God? That's the question we're supposed to ask, and it's just around food. We can't even sit down and have a meal without really having a discussion about Israel in the church, can we?
SPEAKER_01Not really. Yet everybody sits down every single day and has meals. Why do we wear clothes? Anyone ever wonder that question? Why isn't everybody running around naked?
SPEAKER_02Because a thing called sin. God took a lamb, slaughtered it, and he made the first bit of clothing. And that's the reason everybody in the world wears clothes. That's the reason. God is the first fashion designer.
SPEAKER_01You know, like everybody's living off God's word, but they're not they're not giving obeisance to it.
SPEAKER_02They're not they're not functioning internally, they're not giving him credit. Okay. And again, we'd be just like them except for the grace of God. So these things get important, and I want to show you as we go into Acts how we have a totally distinct uh spiritual life than Old Testament Israel. You know, people are like, we're worried about the Ten Commandments. Quit worrying about the Ten Commandments. Worry about what our spiritual life is described as looking like in the New Testament epistles.
SPEAKER_01Because Paul tried to live under the law. He tried to keep the Ten Commandments in Romans 7. And guess what? He fell flat on his face. He couldn't do it. He says, Who who will deliver me from this body of death?
SPEAKER_02And he says, Thanks be to God. And then he describes life by the Spirit. That's how what we need to learn what that is. What that looks like. We have a unique spiritual life. Very different from Israel and the Old Testament. All right, so next week we'll pick up with some distinctions between Israel and the church and get into Pentecost.
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.