KenH
Well-Known Member
Excerpts from "Moses or Christ? Paul's Reply to Dispensational Error", by Charles D. Alexander:
"He who would understand the prophets had better begin with Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, where he will find that the Church is one in Old Testament and New, and the New Testament Church is the fulfillment of all prophecy, the very last phase of God’s redemptive work on earth. He will discover in Galatians who the true Israel is, to whom the promises are made and that there is no other Israel and no further fulfillment of prophecy [for natural Israel]. …
The third and fourth chapters of Galatians are crucial to the interpretation of prophecy. Three things are shown therein: (1) The Church is one continuing body in Old Testament and New Testament. (2) The New Testament Church is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel. (3) Therefore prophecy concerning the promised Kingdom is to be understood in spiritual, not in natural terms. …
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul proves his competence to speak with authority showing that the Gospel which he preached and from which the Galatians were in danger of being subverted, was received by him as a direct and specific revelation from God, by-passing all human means, so that his apostleship was not derived from the Jerusalem apostolate with which he had only the flimsiest contact. …
In chapter 2 he records his visit to the great council of the Church at Jerusalem called to deal with Judaistic dispute — a dispute satisfactorily settled in favor of Gentile liberty under the Gospel; a liberty unhindered by those Jewish observances which continued amongst the early Jewish believers during the appointed 40 years of Jewish probation terminating with the abolition of the temple, the Mosaic code, the priesthood and sacrifices and the synagogue connection, in the Roman war of A.D. 70. …
There follows the Pauline analysis of the nature and history of the true Church, as contained in chapters 3 and 4. The first great conclusion Paul presents to the Galatians is that the only true children of Abraham, the heirs to the Abrahamic covenant, blessing and promise, are true believers, whether Jew or Gentile: “Know ye therefore that they which be of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7). …
Paul goes further and shows by the nature and history of the true Church that no break has occurred between the Old Testament and New Testament Church. The Church of the New Testament is the legitimate successor of the Church of the Old Testament. …
The conclusion of this chapter (verses 26-29) is the charter of the New Testament Church and the ground of her invincible claim to be the lawful successor of Abraham, the true Israel, the true circumcision (not in the flesh but in the spirit), the inheritor of the promises and privileges and hope of Old Testament Israel. Hence: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” (verse 29). This glorious sentence winds up the Old Covenant, abolishes the law and temple and circumcision, terminates the mission of the Jewish nation, ends their exclusive rights and privileges, and provides the key to the understanding of the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets of the O.T. This one sentence is the death-knell of that dispensational heresy which has filled the Church with the rubbish of a dismantled legalism and aims to re-impose in an age yet to come, all those temporalities and restrictions which Christ died once and for all to abolish. …
Chapter four contains Paul’s final argument, proving these two things: (1) That the work of “adoption” performed in the hearts of all true believers demonstrates that they are the legitimate successors of the Israelitish Church of the O.T. (2) He reinforces this by an allegory built upon Abraham’s history, showing that the natural Jew is not Israel at all but Ishmael: and that the Church of Jew and Gentile believers is the true and only and exclusive Israel of God. This being so, the promises to Israel in the O.T. prophecies are to be spiritually understood even when they speak apparently of literal and material restoration of “Israel and Judah.” …
Of that glorious event when the Church obtained her release and passed from under the law to the full liberty of Gospel faith, Paul now speaks — “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (verses 4-5). “The fullness of times” means the times of prophetical fulfillment of all the promises and purposes of God in redemption. That Paul should call the Gospel times “the fullness of time” means that the Gospel age is the age of fulfillment of all things which God spake by His holy prophets since the world began (Luke 1:70). …
The covenant made with Abraham is the promise of the Gospel and from that promise every Jew alive or who ever will be alive, is excluded except insofar as he comes by the same road of regeneration, repentance and faith and which the Gentile believer treads. …
“Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman with her son (i. e., the Old Covenant and the earthly Israel): for the son of the bondwoman (Israel) shall not be heir with the children of the free woman (that is, the New Testament Church)” (verse 30). The dreadful judgment of these words is unmistakable: Israel is cast off and cast off forever as a nation. Paul gives no hint of any “restoration,” though here would be the place to state it, if restoration there is to be. Jewish privilege is ended for all time. The covenant has passed to the N.T. Church in which Israel has no part except as individual believers. This “casting off” is not anywhere modified by Paul. …
What the dispensational theory is saying is that Christ offered to the Jews the very kingdom which they expected but they rejected Him and it! At the last, says this extraordinary theory, Christ will relent and will in fact give the Jews the very kingdom which they crucified Him for not establishing at His first coming. The dispensational theory therefore vindicates the Jews for 2,000 years of unbelief and at the same time contradicts itself by alleging that the kingdom which the Jews rejected was the very kingdom which they crucified Him for NOT offering but which will be gratuitously conferred upon them in the near future as the fulfillment of what God promised to Abraham. If our friends cannot see the hopeless dilemma in which their theory involves them, we can only marvel at the success of that error of dispensationalism by which evil powers have succeeded in well nigh destroying Scriptural exposition and understanding. The truth is that there is not a breath of suggestion that Christ ever “offered” to the Jews any other “kingdom” but the Gospel …
They actually tell the Jews that their present occupation of Palestine, in a state of bitter hostility to Christ and the Christian gospel, is the fulfillment of prophecy and that their ungodly zeal against Christ and truth will be rewarded shortly by God with an instant faith and that this extraordinary act of God will be a fulfilling of the promises made to Abraham. But Paul in Galatians has already told us who Abraham’s seed are, to whom these promises are made, and he mentions not a word about restoration to Palestine, but builds it all on the nature of the Church…we would point out to readers that so far from converting Israel and establishing them in the land, the Second Coming of Christ will overtake them (and all the world) “as a thief in the night,” in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3:10). Peter knows of no other “second coming” save that which abolishes the heavens and the earth in one stupendous conflagration."
- rest of article at https://cloud.sermonaudio.com/media/pdf/high/3211119311.pdf
"He who would understand the prophets had better begin with Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, where he will find that the Church is one in Old Testament and New, and the New Testament Church is the fulfillment of all prophecy, the very last phase of God’s redemptive work on earth. He will discover in Galatians who the true Israel is, to whom the promises are made and that there is no other Israel and no further fulfillment of prophecy [for natural Israel]. …
The third and fourth chapters of Galatians are crucial to the interpretation of prophecy. Three things are shown therein: (1) The Church is one continuing body in Old Testament and New Testament. (2) The New Testament Church is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel. (3) Therefore prophecy concerning the promised Kingdom is to be understood in spiritual, not in natural terms. …
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul proves his competence to speak with authority showing that the Gospel which he preached and from which the Galatians were in danger of being subverted, was received by him as a direct and specific revelation from God, by-passing all human means, so that his apostleship was not derived from the Jerusalem apostolate with which he had only the flimsiest contact. …
In chapter 2 he records his visit to the great council of the Church at Jerusalem called to deal with Judaistic dispute — a dispute satisfactorily settled in favor of Gentile liberty under the Gospel; a liberty unhindered by those Jewish observances which continued amongst the early Jewish believers during the appointed 40 years of Jewish probation terminating with the abolition of the temple, the Mosaic code, the priesthood and sacrifices and the synagogue connection, in the Roman war of A.D. 70. …
There follows the Pauline analysis of the nature and history of the true Church, as contained in chapters 3 and 4. The first great conclusion Paul presents to the Galatians is that the only true children of Abraham, the heirs to the Abrahamic covenant, blessing and promise, are true believers, whether Jew or Gentile: “Know ye therefore that they which be of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7). …
Paul goes further and shows by the nature and history of the true Church that no break has occurred between the Old Testament and New Testament Church. The Church of the New Testament is the legitimate successor of the Church of the Old Testament. …
The conclusion of this chapter (verses 26-29) is the charter of the New Testament Church and the ground of her invincible claim to be the lawful successor of Abraham, the true Israel, the true circumcision (not in the flesh but in the spirit), the inheritor of the promises and privileges and hope of Old Testament Israel. Hence: “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” (verse 29). This glorious sentence winds up the Old Covenant, abolishes the law and temple and circumcision, terminates the mission of the Jewish nation, ends their exclusive rights and privileges, and provides the key to the understanding of the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets of the O.T. This one sentence is the death-knell of that dispensational heresy which has filled the Church with the rubbish of a dismantled legalism and aims to re-impose in an age yet to come, all those temporalities and restrictions which Christ died once and for all to abolish. …
Chapter four contains Paul’s final argument, proving these two things: (1) That the work of “adoption” performed in the hearts of all true believers demonstrates that they are the legitimate successors of the Israelitish Church of the O.T. (2) He reinforces this by an allegory built upon Abraham’s history, showing that the natural Jew is not Israel at all but Ishmael: and that the Church of Jew and Gentile believers is the true and only and exclusive Israel of God. This being so, the promises to Israel in the O.T. prophecies are to be spiritually understood even when they speak apparently of literal and material restoration of “Israel and Judah.” …
Of that glorious event when the Church obtained her release and passed from under the law to the full liberty of Gospel faith, Paul now speaks — “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (verses 4-5). “The fullness of times” means the times of prophetical fulfillment of all the promises and purposes of God in redemption. That Paul should call the Gospel times “the fullness of time” means that the Gospel age is the age of fulfillment of all things which God spake by His holy prophets since the world began (Luke 1:70). …
The covenant made with Abraham is the promise of the Gospel and from that promise every Jew alive or who ever will be alive, is excluded except insofar as he comes by the same road of regeneration, repentance and faith and which the Gentile believer treads. …
“Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman with her son (i. e., the Old Covenant and the earthly Israel): for the son of the bondwoman (Israel) shall not be heir with the children of the free woman (that is, the New Testament Church)” (verse 30). The dreadful judgment of these words is unmistakable: Israel is cast off and cast off forever as a nation. Paul gives no hint of any “restoration,” though here would be the place to state it, if restoration there is to be. Jewish privilege is ended for all time. The covenant has passed to the N.T. Church in which Israel has no part except as individual believers. This “casting off” is not anywhere modified by Paul. …
What the dispensational theory is saying is that Christ offered to the Jews the very kingdom which they expected but they rejected Him and it! At the last, says this extraordinary theory, Christ will relent and will in fact give the Jews the very kingdom which they crucified Him for not establishing at His first coming. The dispensational theory therefore vindicates the Jews for 2,000 years of unbelief and at the same time contradicts itself by alleging that the kingdom which the Jews rejected was the very kingdom which they crucified Him for NOT offering but which will be gratuitously conferred upon them in the near future as the fulfillment of what God promised to Abraham. If our friends cannot see the hopeless dilemma in which their theory involves them, we can only marvel at the success of that error of dispensationalism by which evil powers have succeeded in well nigh destroying Scriptural exposition and understanding. The truth is that there is not a breath of suggestion that Christ ever “offered” to the Jews any other “kingdom” but the Gospel …
They actually tell the Jews that their present occupation of Palestine, in a state of bitter hostility to Christ and the Christian gospel, is the fulfillment of prophecy and that their ungodly zeal against Christ and truth will be rewarded shortly by God with an instant faith and that this extraordinary act of God will be a fulfilling of the promises made to Abraham. But Paul in Galatians has already told us who Abraham’s seed are, to whom these promises are made, and he mentions not a word about restoration to Palestine, but builds it all on the nature of the Church…we would point out to readers that so far from converting Israel and establishing them in the land, the Second Coming of Christ will overtake them (and all the world) “as a thief in the night,” in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3:10). Peter knows of no other “second coming” save that which abolishes the heavens and the earth in one stupendous conflagration."
- rest of article at https://cloud.sermonaudio.com/media/pdf/high/3211119311.pdf
