Questions for dispensationalists

[easternstar]

Do you believe Israel is the focal point of history, and not the church?
Do you believe the church is a 'parenthesis' in history, to be removed and then God can deal with his primary concern, Israel?
Do you believe it is God's will that Israel rebuild the temple and reinstitute animal sacrifices? Do you believe a red heifer is being readied or looked for, for that purpose?

 

[Ben1445]

Do you believe Israel is the focal point of history, and not the church?

God is the focal point.

Do you believe the church is a 'parenthesis' in history, to be removed and then God can deal with his primary concern, Israel?

Use the word parenthesis if you want. There are lots of people who add parentheses in their writing excessively. (I do it myself sometimes) that doesn’t change the reality of the church. Do you ignore that God is provoking Israel to jealousy? What is the purpose of provoking to jealousy if there is no other purpose for Israel?

Do you believe it is God's will that Israel rebuild the temple and reinstitute animal sacrifices?

If God told Israel to sacrifice animals before Christ knowing that it did not wash away sin, what is the difference between the same teaching tool looking backward?

Israel still looking for a Messiah and never recognizing that the perfect sacrifice has been made already, it should not be a surprise to anyone that rebuilding the temple is a priority.

Do you believe a red heifer is being readied or looked for, for that purpose?

Do I believe it is? Google it. They are paying attention to those details and they are quite prepared to build the temple again.
So do I believe they are doing it? Why would I not believe them.

 

[easternstar]

Dispensationalists who answer my questions in the affirmative trample Jesus's work.

 

[Alan Dale Gross]

Dispensationalists who answer my questions in the affirmative trample Jesus's work.

Fine shot.

Imperative priority.

Jesus has the Preeminence

"Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." I Corinthians 8:1.

Dispensationalists assert that the verb form of the word 'dispense', which shares its first seven letters, of eight, with their proper noun namesake, 'Dispensation' does not expresses a meaning that has any relationship or association to their definition of 'Dispensation', as the first example where their false "knowledge puffeth" them "up", whereas your thread postings serves to "edify", in "charity."

Thank you for your defense of The Lord and His Gospel
and Praise our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

[Ben1445]

Dispensationalists who answer my questions in the affirmative trample Jesus's work.

I repent in sackcloth and ashes.

Or you could explain with Scripture why God giving responsibility to men it different ways at different times takes the glory away from Christ and tramples His work.
Dispensations are not means of salvation.
How can they trample the work of Christ.

 

[Ben1445]

I repent in sackcloth and ashes.

Or you could explain with Scripture why God giving responsibility to men it different ways at different times takes the glory away from Christ and tramples His work.
Dispensations are not means of salvation.
How can they trample the work of Christ.

That should have ended with a question mark.

 

[Van]

Do you believe Israel is the focal point of history, and not the church?
Do you believe the church is a 'parenthesis' in history, to be removed and then God can deal with his primary concern, Israel?
Do you believe it is God's will that Israel rebuild the temple and reinstitute animal sacrifices? Do you believe a red heifer is being readied or looked for, for that purpose?

1) No, the body of Christ, the called out, the born anew believers will enter eternal life. Human temporal history will end.
2) No, I am a Progressive Dispensationalist, not a Traditional Dispensationalist.
3) No, the New Covenant in the blood of the Lamb ended the Old Covenant.

 

[Alan Dale Gross]

That should have ended with a question mark.

Not if you really didn't mean them to be questions, but statements.

 

[Ben1445]

Not if you really didn't mean them to be questions, but statements.

It was a question.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Dispensationalists who answer my questions in the affirmative trample Jesus's work.

Is the primary concern to restore Israel???

Wasn’t, isn’t The Christ the ultimate sacrifice for all of humanity?

Please explain this red heifer reference! Is it found in scripture???

 

[JD731]

Do you believe Israel is the focal point of history, and not the church?
Do you believe the church is a 'parenthesis' in history, to be removed and then God can deal with his primary concern, Israel?
Do you believe it is God's will that Israel rebuild the temple and reinstitute animal sacrifices? Do you believe a red heifer is being readied or looked for, for that purpose?

What does the Bible say? You are going to the wrong sources for your answers? Red Heifers and Parenthesis are are subjects for the detractors, not the dispensationalists.

 

[percho]

dispensationalists:

What is God doing in the world today?
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Acts 2:41
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. V 47
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 1:6
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. Rev 5:10
Acts 15:8,14
So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us,
“Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.

For what are the called out ones, being called ?

Who are these kings and priests going to kings and priests over?

Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?
And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Matt 19:27,28

Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

All Israel shall be saved but will all Israel be kings and priests?

Joel 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Compare
Acts 15:17 that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the nations [Gentiles], upon whom My name hath been called, saith the Lord, who is doing all these things.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: Joel 2:28

When?

 

[John of Japan]

Is the primary concern to restore Israel???

No.

Wasn’t, isn’t The Christ the ultimate sacrifice for all of humanity?

Yes.

Please explain this red heifer reference! Is it found in scripture???

Don't know don't care. It's an extremely peripheral area, not even prophetic IMO (Num. 19:2). I haven't researched it, don't teach it, and am amused that non-dispensationalists think it's important.

 

[Ascetic X]

Numbers 19:2

This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

No.

Yes.

Don't know don't care. It's an extremely peripheral area, not even prophetic IMO (Num. 19:2). I haven't researched it, don't teach it, and am amused that non-dispensationalists think it's important.

The Apostle Paul points out that the blood of bulls and goats, offered over hundreds of years, could never take away sin. In contrast, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from dead works to serve the living God. That’s what I know and believe.

 

[John of Japan]

The Apostle Paul points out that the blood of bulls and goats, offered over hundreds of years, could never take away sin. In contrast, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from dead works to serve the living God. That’s what I know and believe.

I know and believe that too. So I'm wondering what this whole hulabaloo is.

 

[John of Japan]

Numbers 19:2

This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:

Right. And it's not prophetic, but simply how the Jews were commanded to worship. No reason for this whole fuss. It has nothing to do with dispensationalism.

Just looked through some of the best books on dispensationalism, and not a one has Num. 19:2 listed in the verse index: Ryrie (Dispensationalism, my textbook), McClain (the awesome book Greatness of the Kingdom), Paul Lee Tan (The Interpretation of Prophecy), Mike Stallard, ed. (Dispensational Understanding of the New Covenant; a doctoral prof of mine), etc. The red heifer is a complete non-issue in dispensational theology.

 

[Ben1445]

The whole deal with the red heifer is that it was used in the sanctification of the temple before the temple was used.

There is a group of people who are preparing to start the temple again and are at least reporting that they are preparing it to begin worship in the temple again.

If the temple shows up again, it still does not undo what Christ has already done.

The reason people are getting excited about it is because the Antichrist is supposed to stand in the holy place (Mt.24:15). I personally have seen no record of this event happening since Jesus spoke it.

So preterists (often found in covenant theology circles) are bothered by the idea that the temple appears again because it is a potential hole in the armor of preterism. It allows for something to happen in the future that is supposed to have already happened.

I think that whether thought out to that extent or not, that is the reason why it seems to be more important to anti-dispensationalists than it is to even some hyper dispensationalists.

But whether or not it happens has no bearing on the cross.
Temple sacrifices after the cross are not more or less effective for salvation than before the cross.

Hebrews 10:4
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

If sacrifice is indeed to begin again, it can only point backward as it previously pointed forward.

You might as well be concerned that we stop baptizing so that we don’t detract from the work of Christ at the cross. People might start thinking that we are saved by baptism and start dipping everybody regardless of age or belief just to save them.

 

[percho]

And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, “and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Acts 15:7.8,9
“Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. Acts 15:14

Is God doing anything on the earth other than than the above, today?

Is the above a dispensation?

Does anything else happen on the earth after God ends the above?

 

[John of Japan]

And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, “and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Acts 15:7.8,9
“Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. Acts 15:14

Is God doing anything on the earth other than than the above, today?

No.

Is the above a dispensation?

Peter pointed out that God had given the Holy Spirit, and by the definition of "dispensation" as a stewardship, yes, receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a huge "dispensation," or responsibility. That is why dispensationalists put the beginning of the church in the revival at Pentecost, making it the start of the dispensation of the church. Thus, the "dispensation" of giving the Gospel to all the world was given to all believers. However, in dispensational theology as I teach it, in the church age it is incumbent on mankind to receive the Gospel, and that is the dispensation of the church age that ends with mankind evading responsibility and thus being judged by the tribulation.

Does anything else happen on the earth after God ends the above?

Yes, the tribulation period.