ISRAEL in the New Testament Epistles pt. 1

By the time we have completed the gospel accounts of Christ's ministry, we find therein the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies such as Isaiah 53 where we read, “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (v. 3). More than this, we see where Messiah was to be rejected by his own people: “4 Thus saith the Lord my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter; 5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not. 6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbours hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.” (Zechariah 11:4-6)

"9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." (Isaiah 6:9-10a)

"And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." (Isaiah 8:14)

We observed this prophetic rejection time and again in the gospels and further confirmed within the Acts of the Apostles. By the time we arrive at the first epistle, Paul's letter to the Romans, we learn that these prophecies are being fully realized and there is some distress and even confusion among the saints. The nature of the church, God's elect and Israel's participation in God's plan has come into question.

Invariably, there is confusion many about the differences between “God's chosen people,” the church, the saints and the elect, if any. We begin in the Old Testament and see God raising a people from the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then we see the promised Messiah, Jesus arrive and we see his people reject him. There are saints, disciples of Christ and the church grows and becomes populated with gentiles, also known as the nations. In this chapter we will attempt to clear some of these muddy water to understand the differences and similarities.

While God is God and He does not change, we need to understand that at different times He has dealt with mankind in different ways. This has become what is for many an intimidating term we know simply as Dispensationalism. All this two dollar word means is as described above. God has ordered and administered His creation throughout history in different ways, in stages. How finely one chooses to break it down is mostly what is hotly debated, as well as the various ramifications applied to this system of segments.

This is foundational. How one understands Bible Interpretation, how one understands the early history of what has gone on before, in the Old Testament, will determine whether or not one has sufficient foundation for interpreting the entire New Testament, let alone prophecy, for how one understands Israelology (the study of Israel) and ecclesiology (the study of the church) will impact one's eschatology (the study of end times).

We trust we can lay out a somewhat brief summary of understanding that is helpful to that end.

Dispensation = Management Without writing a several hundred page treatise on Dispensationalism and what that means, let's look at what Charles C. Ryrie, a dispensationalist himself, has said:

"The proofs of the distinctiveness of the church to this age are three.

1. There is the proof from the mystery character of the church. This is the natural corollary of what has been discussed in the preceding section. If the distinctive character of the church as a living organism indwelt by Christ in which Jews and Gentiles are on an equal basis is described as a mystery unknown in Old Testament times, then the church must not have been constituted in those Old Testament days. Indeed, Paul says very clearly that this entity is a "new man" (Eph. 2:15) made possible only after the death of Christ.

2. The church is distinctive to this age because of what Paul has to say about the beginning and completion of the church. Concerning its beginning, Paul is emphatic in placing stress on the necessary relation of the church to the resurrection and ascension of Christ. It is built upon His resurrection, for the Lord was made Head of the church after God "raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:20; cf. w 22-23). Furthermore, the proper functioning and operation of the church is dependent on the giving of gifts to the body, and the giving of gifts is, in turn, dependent on the ascension of Christ (4:7-12). If by some stretch of the imagination the Body of Christ could be said to have been in existence before the ascension of Christ, then it would have to be concluded that it was a non-functioning body. In Paul's thought the church is built on the Resurrection and Ascension, and that means it is distinctive to this age. Concerning the completion of the church, when saints will be translated and resurrected, Paul uses the phrase "dead in Christ" (1 Thess. 4:16). This clearly distinguishes those who have died "in Christ" in this age from believers who died before Christ's first advent, thus marking the church off as distinct to this age and a mystery hidden and unrevealed in Old Testament times.

3. The baptizing work of the Holy Spirit proves that the church did not begin until Pentecost. The Lord had spoken of this work of the Spirit just before His ascension (Acts 1:5) as being yet future and unlike anything they had previously experienced. Although it is not expressly recorded in Acts 2 that the baptism of the Spirit occurred on the Day of Pentecost, it is said in 11:15-16 that it did happen on that day in fulfillment of the promise of the Lord as recorded in 1:5. Paul later explained the doctrinal significance of the baptism as placing people into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). In other words, on the Day of Pentecost men were first placed into the Body of Christ. Since the church is the Body of Christ (Col. 1:18), the church could not have begun until Pentecost, and it did begin on that day.

The distinctiveness of the church to this age as emphasized in dispensationalism does not mean (1) that dispensationalists believe that no people were rightly related to God in Old Testament times or (2) that Christ is not the Founder of the church. All that was said in chapter 6 concerning salvation in the Old Testament shows clearly the dispensational position concerning Old Testament saints. Nevertheless, dispensationalism insists that the people of God who have been baptized into the Body of Christ and who thus form the church are distinct from saints of other days or even of a future time. Dispensationalists fully recognize that the church is Christ's church (Matt. 16:18). He chose and trained its first leaders during His earthly ministry. Some of His teaching was in anticipation of the formation of the church. His death, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation were the necessary foundation on which the church was to be built. But, although the Lord is the Founder of the church and the one who laid the groundwork during His earthly life, the church did not come into functional and operational existence until the Day of Pentecost. It is distinctive to this time." (Dispensationalism. Charles C. Ryrie. Feb 1, 2007. Moody Publishers.)

The Greek word 'oikonomia' = a stewardship, the management or disposition of affairs entrusted to one. Oikonomia is translated in bold:

that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (Ephesians 1:10)

if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel... (Ephesians 3:2-6)

of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:25-27)

So in these passages we can see that this is a term with its origins in the Bible and in these instances we see that from different generations and ages, God revealed and acted upon things differently. Some of these plans the Lord laid were mysteries during earlier ages. One of them is named the Dispensation of Grace.

Therefore, there really can be no sound dispute that dispensations, different ages of administering things, exist. The details of these are primarily in dispute. Some will split things right down the center and say the Old Testament is the age (or dispensation) of Law (the Old Covenant) while the New Testament is the dispensation of Grace. In very broad terms, this is true. But this is perhaps an over-simplification.

Next time, Pt. 2