Dispensational Truth - In Time & Eternity

[Alan Dale Gross]

The point is, God does things on a time frame schedule. When he makes significant changes within a dispensation, like in Gal. 4:4 it is not a change of dispensations where he changes his operative principle of divine dealing to something entirely different but a transition within a dispensation usually to draw the purpose of that dispensation to fulfillment.

WHAT THE N.T. TEACHES AS TO FUTURE MERCY FOR THE JEWS

"Before turning to the New Testament for the purpose of considering certain passages that throw light upon the subject, we would remind the reader of the need of giving particular attention to what is written on that subject as we look in detail in the New Testament Scriptures.

"Chief among the reasons for this need is the fact that the Prophecies of the Old Testament are occupied principally with the coming of the Messiah, the Promised and long expected Son of David, for the Redemption of His people,

"as He Spake by the mouth of His Holy Prophets, which have been since the World began" (Luke 1:70).

"Those Prophecies did not, except in a few instances, look beyond the events of this Present Era of the Holy Spirit. In accordance with what had been predicted by the Prophets of Israel, "when the fullness of the time was come" - because the Fulfillment of their Prophecies -

"God Sent Forth His Son ... to Redeem them that were under the Law" (Galatians 4:4,5).

"But they had been taught by their "blind leaders" to look for a physical and political redemption, instead of a Spiritual Redemption from the Dominion of sin and death, which was what their prophets had foretold. Consequently when the Divine Redeemer "Came to His Own" [Creation/World] "His Own" [people the Nation of Israel ] "received Him not" (John 1:11); but rejected Him, betrayed Him, and compassed His death.

"Needless to say, this unparalleled crime brought about an entirely different situation from that which had previously existed respecting the relationship between God and the Jewish people of the Nation of Israel. Not that God was taken by surprise, and therefore constrained to re-shape His Plans; because all had been Foreseen; and all that happened was in strict accordance with the Determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God, and for the furtherance of the Eternal Purpose, which He had Purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, before the World began, i.e., from Eternity Past.

:As to this there is no disagreement amongst those who hold the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith; and I think it is also generally agreed that, with the First Coming of Christ, and with His death, resurrection and Ascension, the Era began which had been Foretold by the Prophets, the Era when God would have another "people"; when He would Say to them which were not His people, "Thou art My people"; and they should say, "Thou art my God" (Hosea. 2:23).

"Indeed, the Apostle Paul cites this very Prophecy of Hosea and expounds it as referring to the people God is now calling to Himself out of all Nations through the Gospel; not from out "of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles" (Romans 9:24-26). And this quotation is from the passage in which Paul explains who the True "Israel" is, to whom the Promises were Made; and in which, after stating, in the plainest of words that "They are not all Israel which are of Israel" (v. 9), he shows that, in fact, but a few - "a remnant" (v. 27) of the naturally born Israelites, were embraced in the true "Israel," and that the full number of the people of God was to be made up of the saved from among the Gentiles. This is what Hosea and other prophets had foretold, though God Purposely enveloped the meaning of their Prophecies and His Full Purposes for the Gentiles, in "mystery," which mystery is now fully explained (Ephesians 3:1-6).

1; "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

2; "If ye have heard of the dispensation of the Grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

3; "How that by Revelation He Made Known unto me the Mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

4; "Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the Mystery of Christ)

5; "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now Revealed unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit;

6; "That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body,
and Partakers of His Promise in Christ by the Gospel:"

"Evidently then, as regards the Purposes of God concerning the Jewish people after their rejection of that One through whom their Promised Redemption was to Come, we must look to what is Revealed in the New Testament; because there is where the Spirit of God has Revealed

"the fellowship of the Mystery" (Ephesians. 3:9),
that is, the Union of Jews and Gentiles to form the True Israel.

 

[Alan Dale Gross]

First the Jews heard the gospel, then the Samaritans, then the gentiles and the whole world as a mission field. The gospel was the same for all people everywhere.

2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

"Let us recall, moreover, that the Covenant relations between God and "Israel after the flesh" were ended, even as had been foretold by their own Prophets, beginning with Moses and Joshua (Deuteronomy 4:26; 6:14, 15; 8:20; Joshua. 23:15,16); the Old Covenant was dissolved and "ready to vanish away"; every vestige of it was shortly to be obliterated; and therefore, of necessity, all Promises based upon that Covenant, had there been any as yet Unfulfilled, fell to the ground.

"But beside all that, God has now Brought Clearly to Light, as we have seen, what He had but dimly Revealed in Times Past, that the name ISRAEL belongs properly to His New-Covenant people. Therefore, it is not enough, for the settling of the question of God's Future Purposes for the Jews, that Prophecies concerning Israel be found which apparently have not yet been Fulfilled; because we must conclude, as to all such Prophecies - unless the contrary plainly appears - that they pertain to the True "Israel of God," and that their Fulfillment is in the Realm of things Spiritual and unseen.

What then does the New Testament say as to the Reconstitution hereafter of the Jewish Nation; as to the re-occupation by that Nation of the land of Canaan; as to its exaltation to the place of World-supremacy and headship over other Nations; as to the rebuilding of the Temple and the reconstitution of bloody sacrifices etc.?

"Not one word.

"This silence is itself sufficient to dispose of the question before us; but there is much more than that to be learned from the New Testament; for there are statements in it which make it utterly impossible that there should be any such Future in store for the Jewish Nation. Some of those New Testament statements have been quoted in the preceding portion of this volume, and other will be cited hereafter.

"Again it is particularly to be observed that, in "the Manifold Wisdom of God," and because of His Foreknowledge of the rejection of the Messiah by His nominal people, He saw fit to Conceal for a Time, in the form of "Mystery" (Ephesians 3:1-12 and "allegory" Galatians 4:22-26), the fact that the things Historical and Prophetic pertaining to "Israel after the flesh" were but the temporal foreshadowings (Hebrews 10:1) of things Eternal and Spiritual; which Mystery therefore

"in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,
as it is now Revealed unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit" (Ephesians 3:5).

"That "Mystery" (which is not a mystery any longer) comprised several elements, whereof the most prominent (and the hardest for the Jewish mind to grasp) was the place which believing Gentiles were to have in "the commonwealth of Israel," and the share that was to be theirs in "the Covenants of Promise" (Eph. 2:12); that Gentiles were in the Eternal Purpose of God, Destined to be "joint-heirs" (with natural Israelites), "and joint-partakers of His Promise in Christ, by means of the Gospel" (literal rendering of Ephesians. 3:6).

"And what is particularly pertinent to our present inquiry is the previously hidden, but now clearly Revealed, fact, that the True "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16), the True "seed of Abraham" who are the Heirs of all the Promises of God (Galatians 3:7, 29; 2 Cor. 1:20) are all those - whether by nature they are Jews or Gentiles - who are "of the Faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all" (Romans 4:16).

"Because of this "Mystery of Christ" (Ephesians 3:4) which Paul was specially Commissioned to explain, it is most needful that we, in attempting the Interpretation of the Old Testament Prophecies concerning Israel, Zion, Jerusalem, etc., should take pains to ascertain whether it was the Earthly and natural people (or locality) the Prophet had in view, or the Heavenly and Spiritual counterpart thereof. Happily it is generally possible, in the light of the explanations given in the New Testament, to do this with some degree of certainty.

"Moreover, it will be found that, when we have set aside first all the Old Testament Prophecies and Promises concerning Israel that have been already Fulfilled,

"second, all that were conditional in character and hence have become null and void for failure by the Jews to perform the conditions on which they were based,

"and third, those that belong to "the Israel of God," there remains for the natural Israel no Promises of Blessing except "the common Salvation" (Jude 3) which is Proclaimed by the Gospel of Christ, and which God Bestows Freely upon all - Jews and Gentiles - who are Given the New Birth and the Blessing of "Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21).

"Further, before taking up the passages of the New Testament that are relevant to our subject, we would recall to the reader's mind what is said in chapter II of this volume regarding what is commonly called the "literal" interpretation of the Prophecies. What we specially wish the reader to understand is that the literal interpretation of a prophecy may require it to be understood in the Spiritual sense. Since, as regards Israel, Zion, Jerusalem, the Land of Promise, etc. the Spiritual and Heavenly thing so designated is the Real Thing and is often (as the N.T. abundantly proves) what was literally intended.

"In Scripture the contrast is not between the literal and the Spiritual, but between the natural and the Spiritual; as it is written: "Howbeit that was not first which is Spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is Spiritual. The first man is of the Earth, Earthly; the Second Man is from the Lord from Heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:46,47). These words reveal the Rule or Principle of God's Order of Procedure in the Working Out of His Great Purpose.

"Accordingly there is first the natural humanity and afterward the Spiritual humanity; first the natural birth and afterward the Spiritual Birth; first the natural or Earthly Israel, Zion, Temple, Priesthood, sacrifices etc., and afterward their Spiritual and Heavenly counterparts. If therefore, there were nothing but this passage to guide us, it would be safe to conclude, in the absence of an express statement of Scripture to the contrary, that there is to be No Reversal of God's Settled Order of Procedure, no going back from the Spiritual to the natural. Hence there can be No Return hereafter to the natural Israel, the Earthly Jerusalem and the Earthly Temple, with its smoking altar, its Aaronic Priesthood and its animal sacrifices."

https://www.preteristcentral.com/pdf/pdf%20books/1922_mauro_hope-israel.pdf