Bible Question and Answer

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 3 Quarter 2 Lesson 13

This week in Sunday school, we have a special time addressing the following questions:

1. What are the attributes — not the fruit — of true saving faith and repentance?
2. How can the Bible promise Christians both persecution and favor from men?
3. What is the “historical” part of “historical-grammatical exegesis,” and does using history resources outside the Bible to understand the Bible compromise the Bible’s authority?
4. What, briefly, are dispensationalism and covenant theology?

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either during preaching or times the teaching so what I’ve done I’ve taken the questions I received I’ve received four good questions and we’re gonna go through the question and the answer during our time in Sunday school I’ve retired to prepare an answer that is complete and adequate but it’s not exhaustive we couldn’t spend the whole hour of Sunday school talking about any one of these questions am I trying to give a complete answer and while there won’t be immediate opportunity for follow up on the questions if you just hold your questions or comments to the end we can then come back to one of the questions that we have today but if you’re an elder I think Greg is the only elder who might be here you are free to chip in add additional comment or to refine a little bit of some of the way I might answer one of these questions so that we get the best answer possible now if you submitted a question I’m really thankful thank you for doing that I may have changed the wording slightly for our class today just to make things a little bit smoother but otherwise we’re still gonna answer the question that you submitted we have extra time we will talk about some other questions but we’ll see how it goes today well it’s great our god we thank you that your your word gives us answers so that even things that are not directly stated we can reason through and we can come to an understanding your word is a lamp unto our feet so I pray that you would help me to be able to answer it well and you cause those who are listening to understand well so that we can walk more wisely and walk more faithfully before you in Jesus name Amen alright let’s get to question number one like I said four questions and try to get to reach ya about 15 minutes for each line all right number one what are the attributes not the fruit of true saving faith and repentance are the attributes not the fruit of true fading safe saving faith and repentance well the way I want to answer this question I’m answering in multiple parts first we need to ask what is faith Bible does too faith in one instance she may remember Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen that’s the basic definition right you believe in something that you can’t directly see with your eyes but in a in another sense we could define faith along the lines with Genesis 15:6 says Genesis 15:6 that’s where Abraham has just had the promise of God reaffirm to him God says your air is not going to be your servant it’s going to be someone from your own body and your descendants gonna be as many as the stars this Scott Genesis 15:6 says then he abraham believed in yahweh and he reckoned it to him as righteousness what was it that abraham believed he simply believed what God has said now when we think about faith and what is it what is fading saving faith required to believe some of those things weren’t there or weren’t entirely spelled out for Abraham but abraham believed what God has said that’s actually useful definition for thinking about what faith is faith is simply believing what God has said and for us as Christians we would believe a little bit more than what Abraham did at that time Abraham was believing specifically in God’s promise to provide to provide descendants to provide an heir but we believe in the gospel which which we’ll talk about a little bit later on but every aspect of that is important for our salvation where does this faith come from well for one in one sense it comes from God as a gift Ephesians 2:8 9 it’s by grace through faith that you were saved and this is not of yourselves just a gift of God but in another sense and this goes along with the definition that I just offered to you faith comes only by verbal revelation from God unless we actually hear the words of God we can’t believe them and we need to for going to be saved Romans 10:17 so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ you can’t have faith in God unless you actually have his word there’s no one who’s gonna have a saving faith in God by just looking at natural revelation you have to have the Word of God actually given to you either you reading it or you hearing it now what’s the difference between faith and repentance these two terms are sometimes used interchangeably sometimes used together in our in our conversations but also in the Bible you look at mark 1 verses 14 to 15 this is right where Jesus is beginning his ministry and the message that he had to declare was the following he said the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel repent and believe need to be both sometimes you don’t have both represented you only have one or the other in proclamations of salvation for example in acts 2 verse 38 at the conclusion of Peters are near the conclusion of Peters sermon on the day of Pentecost the Jews had just asked him what what must we do to be saved and Peter said to them repent each of you be baptized the name of Jesus Christ and he goes on the same way so no mention about faith or belief there he says four pens similarly in Matthew 4:17 Matthew’s version of what Jesus message was doesn’t say repent and believe it says repent but the kingdom of heaven is at hand Genesis 15:6 like we just saw wait for him believe God there’s no mention about repentance there but it was accounted to him as righteousness John 3:16 famous verse it’s those who believe in him who will not perish and have everlasting life doesn’t say anything about repentance there or Romans 10:9 another famous verse if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord I’m believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved again no mention of repentance there just says believe now why is this we might say our repentance and believes the same thing then and that’s why you can use one or the other well as one of my professors says that has said at at EMS repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin but they’re not the same one will always accompany the other but they’re actually two different things faith is believing that something is true or right believing that the words of God are true whereas repentance is changing from what you previously believed and what you previously acted out in your life as true or right and you can see this even in the words of the Bible for repentance the Old Testament the word for a pendant can also be translated to return it it’s the idea that you’re in one place you’re gonna go to another one and the New Testament word has the idea of changing your mind so in both terms there’s the idea of change and so it is that if you have true faith in God if you believe what you said you must necessarily change what you previously believed because it’s it’s not according to what God has said all of us must do that if we’re going to be saved so if you repent you must necessarily believe what God has said and if you believe what God has said you must necessarily repent that’s why they go together no in terms of what is the what are the attributes or the qualities of true faith or true repentance I think if we’re being as precise as we need to be there’s only one quality there’s only one quality that’s possible in true faith and that is is it real or not is it genuine or not any why to believe God’s words or you do not because every other way that we might try to just describe a kind of faith they’re going to be describing the fruits of faith there are different levels of fruits but ultimately there’s no quality that you can give to the faith itself rather outside of whether it is real whether it is true or not now certainly the content of faith is important to know what are the things that we need to believe about God you can have a saving faith in God without knowing or acknowledging everything in the Bible to be true but you certainly have to get the elements of the gospel the fundamental message of salvation which is we were created by God we owe him worship and obedience and he gave us his good law and commands but we do not keep them and therefore we are under the wrath of God we deserve to be totally destroyed forever in hell because of how we sinned against God but God because of his merciful heart provided a way of salvation and Jesus Christ that if we believe in him and his sacrifice on our behalf and Christ takes away all our sins and gives us his righteousness instead and he makes this acceptable to God so that we will as we believe in Christ and as we follow after him we will dwell with God forever and there’s no way that we can be lost we need to acknowledge those fundamentals we need to believe them not just acknowledge them in our heads but they must be believed in our hearts we must believe what God has said and we will be saved now if you do believe the words of God and if you acknowledge even though it’s fundamental realities it’s gonna result in like I said certain levels of fruits and we can kind of move from the most inward to them to the more outward we’re on the most fundamental level your thinking changes your will changes your affections change your emotions change salvation is not really an intellectual exercise God describes it in his word is gaining a new heart you actually love her your loves and your desires they all they’re all affected they all change how are they changed well I can think of the most fundamental ways is that you fear God if what the word says is true and you recognize that and you cannot help but fear God he has all the authority he is all the power he’s holy he’s totally different from us he hates evil he loves good he is just he judges sin you fear God you also love God because he provides he’s a God he makes promises he’s a God who loves what is good he’s a God who is generous he’s a God who saves he sent His Son Jesus Christ you love God you also trust God God’s going to provide God has made a provision for my sin like giving giving up everything following after Christ by believing in what he’s done on my behalf I will be saved and I’ll be with God forever and you also become averse to sin sin grieves you you see how destructive and how deceptive it is how it hurts you how it hurts others how it makes these promises to you that it cannot fulfill that it offends God that it takes what is good and twist it and you hate sin you become grieved over sin these are all ways that we are fundamentally changed as we recognize so that what God says in his word is true and that leads to other fruits in our inward selves we become characterized by the fruits of the spirit love joy peace gentleness faithfulness kindness self-control etc that all comes from believing what God has said and then that manifests more outwardly we begin to act in certain ways talk in certain ways towards others in conformity with how how God has changed us so if this is true why is it that our faith seems to be lacking at times well it comes back to our relationship to what God has said sometimes we just don’t know what God has said sometimes we misunderstand what God said sometimes we forget what God has said sometimes we only embrace part of what God has said and sometimes we simply choose not to believe what God has said for the sake of a passing pleasure and that’s really the reality of all sin right we choose not to believe God we choose to believe a lie for the sake of obtaining some pleasure that we want it is true I remember in my philosophy class intro to philosophy class in college someone had said that if you know that something is true you cannot not believe it you cannot force yourself not to believe it actually that’s not true if you want something bad enough you can’t suppress something I mean in your heart of hearts you know that it’s true but you can’t suppress the truth and unrighteousness and that’s what all unbelieving people do in the world that’s what all we that’s always what we did before we were saved you after we’re saved we can temporarily suppress the truth for the sake of a deceptive pleasure so it is possible that we can forget or choose not to believe what God has said none of us are ever perfect in this but we are to progress even the Apostles didn’t have perfect faith but as Christians we are marked fundamentally by faith in God and in what he said and we are all making progress and this is why we are committed to the means of grace we’re committed to fellowship together we’re committed to helping one another understand to be reminded of God’s Word we’re committed to understanding the Scriptures through her own personal study and through on the teaching of the church we’re committed to prayer if we believe what God has said then we know that prayer is essential we’re committed to and we’re committed to telling others about the Lord all these things they actually strengthen our faith so a lot of different parts that answer ultimately I do think that the only quality of faith technically is whether it’s true or not but it does manifest itself in different levels and certainly the content of faith of the gospel is important if we’re going to be saved a few of questions about that welcome to the end let’s move on to another question question number two this is corresponds to what we’ve been talking about recently in sunny school if following Jesus brings persecution from the world why is the Bible also indicate that righteousness brings the favor of men did you know that well does persecution the fact that Christians will be persecuted for following Christ is clear we covered this but just to remind you some verses Matthew 10:34 jesus told his disciples do not think I came to bring peace on the earth I did not come to bring peace but a sword he’s talking about in your own family it’s gonna cause hatred and division matthew 24:9 Jesus similarly tells his disciples they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you and you will be hated by all nations because of my name all nations that sounds pretty pervasive in 2nd Timothy 3:12 indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted no exceptions there right but the Bible also makes clear that there will be favor from men for righteousness proverbs 16:7 when a man’s ways are pleasing to Yahweh he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him ok that’s from proverbs proverbs have exceptions but nonetheless there’s a principle there you will gain favor God will grant you favor if you follow after him you’ll grant you favor with men and this happened even in the New Testament acts 2:47 the church has just been established in Jerusalem and the day of Pentecost and it says the people were praising God and having favor with all the people that is unbelieving people and the Lord is adding to the number day by day those are being snape the church had the favor of the Jews where first Timothy 3:7 second Timothy Ponce’s there’ll be persecution but first Timothy when given instructions along like the necessary qualities of elders it says one of the things they must have is they must have a good reputation with those outside the church how’s that possible if everybody outside the church just hates them and first Peter 3 13 to 14 I think is even even more significant no pastor I’ll be getting to this eventually I’ll be really interested to hear how he explains this but just remember it’s a tell you those verses and give you a little bit of explanation now first Peter 3 verses 13 of 14 Peter writes who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good I just won’t focus that first for a second that’s a rhetorical question there’s an expected answer that who’s gonna hire me if you’re actually good the idea there’s nobody who would want to do that and then that gives you an understanding of why the contrast appears in the next verse verse 14 but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness so contrast no who would want to harm you it doesn’t make any sense for somebody to want to harm you if you’re good but even if it should happen you are blessed what’s interesting in there something that we don’t the new once that we don’t quite capture in English but the conditional construction that’s you conditional sentences usually have if-then and this in verse 14 where he says if that’s a conditional sentence and there are multiple ways to make those in Greek and they indicate different they often indicate different possibility or different levels of likeliness what’s really interesting is that the conditional that’s used in the beginning of verse 14 indicates that what the person is suggesting is very unlikely even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness and Peter says and that’s not likely Huck maybe when other scriptures say you’re going to suffer you’re going to be persecuted you’re going to be hated by all is this a contradiction in the scriptures we know by now that no that’s not the case actually these things are both true that’s both true that you will be hated and you will be respected you will have the favor of man and you will have the anger of men there’s a tension in these things but they’re both true sometimes hatred dominate respect or favor and sometimes it’s the other way around and sometimes both of these are experienced at the same time and isn’t that what we see in the scriptures even in the New Testament church there they were being respected by the people also while they are being persecuted by the Jews or sometimes one person may both hate and respect somebody at the same time and many of you could probably testify to this in your own experience where people might say bad things about you but they also they respect you from what you believe or some people like you and some people don’t I shared with you during our Sunday School lesson my experience in college but this this one person claimed to be a Christian who was condemning me for what I was doing trying to share the gospel but I remember another instance in college where somebody in a private conversation me he just let me know how respected I was yeah the person who was telling me about this was had a crush on a certain girl and he was telling me that this girl really respected me even though she was Muslim she he said she she realizes that you hold your convictions and that you don’t live like the other people do and so on I saw that even though there’s maybe some resentment maybe some some persecution there was also some respect at the same time and that was also the experience of Christians during the Roman Empire come for some violent persecutions there were some terrible times of hatred and mob violence through the kinds of things against Christians there was also a great deal of respect towards Christians they genuinely loved one another they took care of the sick they cared about the poor and it’s partly for those reasons that persecution ultimate was not successful in the Roman Empire because the regular Roman citizens sympathize with the Christians and they felt like the government persecution was unjustified so these things are both true at the same time they will both exist at the same time we should never seek popularity or public favor in terms of making that our treasure our goal and then compromising our witness but it is true that when we seek to live blamelessly speak blamelessly be faithful to Christ there will be both respect and resentment goodwill and malice from people let’s go to our next question again if you have comments or questions on these things let’s bring them up at the end all right we’re getting a little bit more technical here but this is valuable this is important question number three what is the historical part of historical grammatical exegesis and does using historical knowledge outside the Bible let me say it this way if a store come knowledge outside of the Bible is required to understand certain biblical passages how can we still hold to the perspicuity and sufficiency of Scripture all right we’re talking about historical grammatical exegesis but to answer this question we need to define some terms first what is perspicuity that’s adoption about the Bible simply that the Bible is clear and accessible to man’s understanding doesn’t mean everything in the Bible is super clear it just means that the Bible is ultimately clear and accessible to man’s understanding what’s sufficiency document sufficiency another doctrine about the Bible teaches that the Bible is all we need all the Christians need for life and godliness what’s exegesis that is the process of applying valid principles of interpretation and in covering the meaning of a text of Scripture you know there’s a little bit technically state again exegesis is a process of applying valid principles of hermeneutics or interpretation in uncovering the meaning of a text of scripture so the process of uncovering that meaning using ballot principles hermeneutics that’s just another word for principles of interpretation that you use in exegesis don’t get that confused with hermeneutic singular which is a method of interpretation in exegesis so what we’re talking about historical grammatical exegesis it is a hermeneutic it is a method of exegesis a method of uncovering the meaning of scriptures no this is actually what we practice at Calvary and we admire many preachers who practice what we call the historical grammatical method of exegesis or the historical chromatically harmony sometimes the exact term for this varies sometimes it’s historical or matakohe instead of coal or grammatical historical or even sometimes called a literal hermeneutic what is what is this hermeneutic let me give you the definition from my Parmenides quest Seminary this particular mathematic pieces is the standing of inspired scripture to discover under the guidance of the Holy Spirit the meaning of the text dictated by the principles of grammar and by the facts of history so historical grammatical ACTA Jesus uses the principles of grammar and the facts of history to uncover the original meaning of the author now we want to know the real meaning right because that’s God’s inspired Word what are the principles of great work what’s the grammatical part of this method well we simply are trying to seek what the authors originally intended meaning was based on the words and syntax that he used we consider literary context what comes before and after something in a passage where what else is mentioned in the book what else is mentioned in the Bible bring all those to bear in the passage so that we can understand the man’s words in context we also consider genre is the fact that this is narrative or that this is prophecy that this is poetry help me to understand how the author originally meant these words we consider the meanings of the words themselves what is the lexical range words can mean different things what are the possibilities for the meaning of this word and then we consider this syntax that is the relationship of words in a sentence is this a direct object is this a subject does this form a genitive prepositional phrase or something like that we consider the grammar because it is the words and syntax through which an author communicates his meaning but we also consider the facts of history what do we mean by facts of history what we’re just trying to recapture the historical background of the words given in the text so we want to ask the questions like who the author when was written where was it written whom was it me why was it written when we have the historic background that allows that inform the words as they appear in their grammar in a passage now did we find the majority of answers to questions regarding the facts of history you’re gonna answer this question yes in the back exactly yeah the majority of the answers to these kind of questions they come straight from scriptures yeah you can just look at a passage look at a book or consider description as a whole and you’ll find answers these questions but in being a good interpreter a careful exegete you also want to consult the best resources on the historical background of the passage things regarding the language the culture the geography or the history related to the passage which means you will go outside the Bible now do these outside helps about history culture etc do they ever Trump what the Bible itself gives regarding that passages meaning or historical background well in one level we need outside resources to even get to the bottom none of us were born knowing Greek or Hebrew that required people historians archaeologists linguists that required them doing the research that we could recover the grammar of the Bible the words and syntax without that we couldn’t even approach the Bible but once we have that and we do have that by God’s grace as part of his preserving his word once we actually have the words of the scriptures those always have priority over anything that might come outside the Bible what the Bible itself gives in terms of its meaning and historical background always dominates whatever we might see from outside the scriptures one of my professors when he was asked the question along these lines as how do we use history to understand the Bible or do we need history to understand the Bible that is history outside the Bible professor made this claim that there is no outside information that is actually needed to understand the meaning of Scripture if you didn’t have any other resources aside from what the scripture itself gives you you could understand the Bible now it doesn’t mean you’ll get all the nuances of every passage and it doesn’t mean that there are there won’t be some parts that don’t make as much sense as they would have but you can still get the main meaning of each passage this is this is a great comfort and that goes back to this efficiency in the perspicuity of Scripture this isn’t to say that we can’t use outside resources they really do help us they give us a better understanding to help us appreciate you wants us and certain things that go on in the scriptures for example you might remember this from one of our Sunday School classes well-considered Sarah giving Hagar to Abraham as they wife they say whoa Sarah where did you get that strange idea that you’re just gonna give another woman that Hagar I mean to Abraham and you’re gonna have children through her it seems weird but actually when we look at some historical information outside the Bible we see that this was common practice in ancient days in fact there were marriage contracts back in the time back in the BC era where right when someone was getting married the wife was would be contracted to provide children and if not able to provide children she would provide another wife for her husband that’s kind of strange to us today but it was common back then because it was very important to obtain an heir it’s very important to have children and so what Sarah was doing was somewhat common a common practice in the day or certainly was not rare so we understand why she did what she did now if you didn’t know that outside historical information you could still understand that Sarah was not trusting in God’s promise and that this was this was not part of God’s design going back to when he first designed marriage but having an extra information helps us understand a little bit better or consider Revelation chapter 3 where we hear Jesus called the Churchill a to see it lukewarm and you Mary you may recall the way I explained that passage we often think when Jesus says you’re neither cold nor hot I wish you were cold or hot but because you’re lukewarm I’m going to spit you out of my mouth we say well what what hot indicates is that that they would be zealous for God and cold indicates that they would be totally opposed to God and they were in the middle then God would rather that they would be totally against him rather than pretend to be for him and not really torture to not be that excited about him now that’s it’s kind of a modern way of thinking about the idea of cold and hot and if we actually just look at the details of the passage that doesn’t really fit Jesus says I wish that you were cold or hot and he’s he’s talking about them as like they were a drink and we can think of hot or cold drinks as being both good for us we like hot drinks for their soothing nature but like cold drinks because they’re refreshing Jesus says you’re neither of those things so as I’ve argued to you before cold and high don’t have the idea of totally against God or totally forgot it’s just that you’re useless you’re disgusting you don’t have anything useful to give to me anything that refreshes me or Sue’s me Jesus saying that church has serious problems ultimately because it was because of their unbelief if we have some historical background now there was kind of descriptions from Jesus against later to see it in Revelation they make a lot more sense because lay to see it happened to be a city that was known for its lukewarm water many people we’re disgusted whenever they drank it there were some nearby cities that did have hot water or cold water and people loved the water from those cities but they didn’t like the water from later to see it so Jesus was making a comparison says you’re just like your water nobody likes it I don’t like it because it’s not good for anything and some of the other descriptions in that passage where he says you say that you’re rich but you don’t realize that you’re actually poor then again corresponds with historical reality they were a very rich City when an earthquake came through the city they were able to rebuild it without any government help because of the people the city were that rich now if you didn’t have that extra historical information could you still understand the passage yes because the details are all there but having that extra historical information helps you get more the vividness helps you understand a little bit better now let’s contrast this where where we have to reject outside information whenever a historical cultural archaeological whatever whatever assertions from those areas or even speculations from those areas contradict Skip Scripture we have to reject them whenever outside information outside assertion speculations from history or somewhere else when they contradict what scripture itself says or presents then we reject the outside information for example it’s common among historians secular historians to reject the exodus as ever having taken place they say you look at history there’s no place for the exodus it couldn’t have taken place it’s made up in the bottle where some who say maybe it did take place but it had to take place around 1200 BC that doesn’t fit with what the Bible actually says you’d have to change what scripture says to make this outside information thick therefore we have to reject those assertions or when we consider the account of creation there are plenty of people today who would say well you know the Israelites would have understood Genesis 1 to be symbolic it was just all a big poetic allegory and it’s not meant to be taken literally that’s why creation didn’t happen in six days it happened over millions of years is that what you get from the texts no that contradicts what the text actually presents not just there in Genesis but also in other parts of Scripture so this speculation oh this is the way the Israelites would have understood it we have to ultimately reject it it’s not based off of what the scripture actually or it it contradicts what the scripture itself actually presents or someone who might say Nebuchadnezzar oh this thing about Daniel saying that Nebuchadnezzar went insane for a number of years and then he regained his sanity well that that didn’t really happen that actually was a different King a different Babylonian king and Daniel to subscribe it’s Nebuchadnezzar again we have to reject that speculation that assertion because that contradicts what the Bible actually says always the Bible’s historical information must trump anything we might receive outside of the scriptures this also applies to what some will say about Paul’s words regarding the roles of women in the church and family Paul says I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man some people say out of speculation oh he was just saying that because in that local church that was a problem but that’s doesn’t apply to all the churches do you get that from the Scriptures itself that’s not the way the scriptures presents it and therefore we have to reject that speculation that is an assertion that merely comes from our own modern culture towards towards the roles of men and women in the church hang on to that question or comment we’ll come we’ll come back to it and when we come at the end of class but you’re seeing the idea here it’s always the scriptures who had that that is our basis our foundation for dealing with history bottom line we do use history resources to help understand the Bible that is part of the establishing the facts of history in the grammatical historical method of exegesis but if there’s ever a conflict with what the Bible clearly says and assertions made outside the Bible we stick with the Bible now I should note that there is a problem it’s always problematic when somebody says it’s something in the scriptures was merely temporal or cultural or local oh you know that doesn’t apply anymore that was never normative for the church that was just a cultural thing why is that problematic because essentially once you make that argument you can make the Bible say whatever you want you can reject what you want you can modify what you want it is an invitation eisegesis now are there things like this in the Bible things that are only cultural or non normative yes in fact we would consider a lot of the Old Testament law to be that way the New Testament actually tells us those things don’t apply let no one judge you when it comes to the Sabbath or when it comes to eating things that was special for a group of people at that time but unless the Bible itself makes clear that something is not normative and we must take it as normative we can’t use the standard of modern ideas or just our own speculation is to establish what was cultural what was only for certain people and what was for for all of God’s people for all time if we don’t let the Bible itself tell us what is normal what is normative then we’re just gonna ICG we’re gonna make we’re gonna have to make our own arbitrary distinctions as to what applies on doesn’t and there are people who try to do that but you you quickly find yourself in murky water this again goes back to you there’s those doctrines we mentioned sufficiency of Scripture perspicuity of Scripture this is why we hold to their historical grammatical method of exegesis that hermeneutic because it is so you can be most most faithful to the scriptures and it prevents people reading in meaning into the text via eisegesis so if you have more questions or comments about that again we’ll come back then in just a second one more question and you really got to keep your thinking caps on for this one but this is I think also going to be really helpful question number four can you briefly describe covenant ilysm and dispensationalism what are sometimes called covenant theology and dispensational theology okay well these topics are not ones that I’ve yet covered in seminary and in my course of study I’ve been focusing a lot on the languages right now haven’t taken my theology classes yet but I’ve done some research on these things and I think I could present to you in brief what these things are all about what are these two terms these are both systems of thought for understanding God’s dealing with man over time as revealed in the Bible and how has God dealt with man covenant theology and dispensational theology both seek to answer that question sometimes people call these hermeneutics think there’s a dispensational hermeneutic and there’s a covenant hermeneutic that’s not quite accurate these are systems of thought that some people do use in a way that affects their interpretation but they’re not actually hermeneutics themselves they both utilize a certain method of exegesis but then they themselves they’re not hermeneutics they’re systems of thinking I don’t know if you can call them systems of theology systematic of theology but they are systems of thinking this has become a made dividing point among conservative evangelicals it’s a group that we would consider ourselves to be part of though I’m gonna try and describe both of these systems there’s a lot of variation so someone who’s common interest might have a different idea of what that means versus someone else who’s also covenants list I’m gonna try and give you just the main idea just know that there’s a lot of variation my intent is to give you what is the core idea behind each of these systems what is the classical system that is dumb that was first a spouse and from which many of the other ideas of the system come about and then what are the typical distinctives of each of these systems holding to start with dispensationalism alright dispensationalism score idea the system of thinking understanding how God deals with man or has dealt with man is that God deals with men differently at different periods of time God deals differently with different people at different periods of time pretty fundamental concept and it’s actually a pretty ancient idea we hear people in the early church talking about this but the classical classic version of dispensationalism as we know was articulated by a man named John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren in the 1800s so this would be in Ireland but it’s spread from there I was popularized in America for a number through a number of theologians particularly cyber Scofield and his reference Bible the majority of American evangelicals would fall in the dispensational camp and this yeah so the majority of American evangelicals will fall in this camp now in the classic version of dispensationalism humanity’s history is divided into seven periods of time having to do with the government of God in the dispensational sort of thinking God’s ultimate intent is to establish his righteous and glorious rule over all of creation and he’s worked throughout time via seven dispensations to establish that rule now what’s a dispensation that’s kind of a word we don’t use that don’t use too much dispensation in this system is meant as a system of order or government for a particular time so a particular way of governing for a particular time that’s what a dispensation is and Darby and others they articulated seven dispensations to describe what God has done the first dispensation of God’s government to which man was responsible to respond was innocence that was the state before Adams fall but after Adam sinned the next dispensation was conscience God will do conscience and that went from Adam to Noah after the flood God’s dispensation was government human government and that lasted from Noah to Abraham and then the next dispensation was promised and that went through the age of the patriarchs from Abraham to Moses then the dispensation was the Mosaic law which operated from Moses to the time of Christ with Christ came the dispensation of grace God rules through grace that’s the current church age and then at the end of the church age will come the Millennial Kingdom where a literal 1000 year kingdom will be established by God on the earth it’s the idea of the seven dispensations now as I said in this way of thinking man is accountable to God for each method of God’s rule some do respond appropriately to God in each era the ultimately man fails to respond appropriately to each one of these dispensations so in the final dispensation the culmination of God’s plan all rebels are destroyed God’s rule is fully established on the earth and God’s glory is displayed and vindicated what are some key aspects well actually let me say this plenty of dispensationalists would not hold to these seven dispensations or at least plenty of people who were called dispensationalists but this was the way it was classically arranged according to Darby and others what are some key distinctives what are some typical distinctives of those who are identified as dispensationalist today I’ve listed a number of them for you one is emphasis on their historical grammatical hermeneutic that’s what we just described we want it understand the word based on how people would have understand it would have understood it based on the grammar and historical background of each passage there is a this is the main thing there is a distinction between Israel and the church they have different identities and they have different destinies because God works different ways of different people at different times the church is seen as a secret that was not revealed in the Old Testament or at least not revealed fully there is no continuation the Old Testament law for the church it was totally fulfilled by Christ it has it’s not important for believers now dispensationalists hold to a pre-millennial view of Christ’s coming Christ will come and then the a thousand-year kingdom will be established Christ comes at the end of the tribulation there’s also a pre-tribulational rapture so that is the rapture of the church occurs before the seven years of judgment before the end of the for the end of the world so premillennial pre-tribulation –all there is a literal physical on the earth kingdom of Christ that lasts for a thousand years and some dispensationalists would even say that the method of salvation has changed over time now just how much they mean that changed kind of depends but if you look at Abraham could he have had the same experience or content of faith as a believer today would well he didn’t know about Jesus Christ he didn’t know all the specifics of that but he had to respond to the revelation that was given to him at that time that was important for his salvation Christmas Ageless many dispensationalists would argue that the Holy Spirit did not end well believers in the Old Testament that is something unique that happens to New Testament believers so did the Holy Spirit have a role well many dispensation also say yes but it didn’t they didn’t the Holy Spirit did not end well believers when they were state there was a difference in how salvation happened for a time some people don’t go so far as to say it was totally different people in the Old Testament saved in a different way than people in the New Testament are now like I said there are plenty of those who would be labeled or who would call himself dispensationalists who don’t pull to the seven dispensations or the classic espousal i was given by darby in fact dismiss a shoeless has come to basically become synonymous with the premillennial eschatology I was just listening to somebody the other day who said oh yeah we’re premillennial we’re dispensationalist like he just used those two terms interchangeably technically there is a difference you can be premillennial without being dispensationalists but if you are dispensationalists you’re gonna be premillennial that’s usually how it goes John MacArthur has often been labeled as a dispensationalist people the Masters seminary mess and savor the Masters seminary is considered a dispensational seminary I don’t think they would necessarily clean that for themselves maybe some of them would but MacArthur and master seminary they don’t hold to the classic view of dispensationalism but they would hold to many of the distinctives and even at the church you’re gonna notice that at Calvary you’re gonna notice many of these things how does this contrasts with covenant ilysm or covenant theology well whereas dispensationalism emphasizes differences over time covenant ilysm emphasizes continuity we’re seeing this over time the core idea of coming up theology is that God deals with man in a consistent way throughout history again this is an ancient idea goes back to the early church the classic systemization of covenant theology comes from two Dutch theologians in the 1600s home invidious and Johannes Caxias this has become the mode of thinking that is intimately connected in the reformed tradition so Presbyterian reformed a background even Reformed Baptist you’re going to see more of this covenant list idea this covenant theology coming into list again I’m just describing generally there’s a lot of variance here they see biblical history as the visible between covenants you can describe biblical history in terms of covenants ultimate theological covenants and then the covenants that are presented in Scripture all this has to do with God’s purpose of obtaining a people for himself but with the emphasis in distance a tional dispensationalism is God establishing his rule in covenant ilysm it’s more about God obtaining a people the overarching covenant seen by covenant list from for describing all the scripture is a covenant of redemption that is made between the members of the Godhead before time began Father Son and Holy Spirit they all agree to redeem mankind they all have their different roles they all agree that they’re going to do that to obtain it people forgot this everything that happens in the Bible everything that happens in history is under this agreement this covenant of redemption no this covenant mentioned in Scripture not specifically but based on what’s given in Scripture covenant theologians would say there is this agreement in the godhead then under this main covenant there are two other fundamental covenants the Covenant of works that covering the grace covenant of works was given by God to Adam and to man before they fell the idea is you will you will be you’ll be mine it’ll be my people if you obey you’ll have a life for obedience death for disobedience but Adam broke this covenant covenant of works fails man is going to have to die unless another covenant is put in place this is the covenant of grace also made between God and man and it is basically the gospel there will be eternal blessing for all those who believe in Christ and obey his word that’s the covenant of grace it becomes the basis for the other biblical covenants so biblical covenants that’s the ones that are explicitly mentioned in Scripture the noway covenant the Abrahamic covenant Mosaic Covenant Davidic covenant the new covenant these are all out workings of the covenant of grace which brings people to God through the gospel now some common interests would dispute whether the Mosaic Covenant is truly a covenant of grace or it’s a another outworking of the covenant of works but all these covenants they ultimately went to Jesus Jesus is the promised seed of the Abrahamic covenant he is the one who brings about the New Covenant she is the most he is the the seed of David that comes through the Davidic covenant they’re all pointing to and the one who saves their covenant of grace so you see how everything is connected in the Covenant list system it’s lots of continuity so what does that mean in terms of typical distinctives for covenant theology well one is a slight difference in hermeneutics and the Covenant thinking the Covenant way of thinking the New Testament dominates or the New Testament must be used to understand the Old Testament you you are paying attention to the historical background of the Old Testament but the New Testament sometimes shows you meaning that you wouldn’t have understood and without the New Testament showed you shows you the full meaning of the Old Testament you need the New Testament to interpret the old which means there’s going to be more typology in covenant theology you’re gonna see more types in the Old Testament because the New Testament is informing your understanding things that point to Jesus things that typify things that picture Jesus from the Old Testament which means you get more allegorical interpretation of certain passages of the Old Testament not just about Jesus but particularly when it comes to the destiny of Israel this is because when considering the New Testament covenant theologians see the church and Israel has the same they are not distinct they’re just two ways of describing God’s people but they’re ultimately the same there’s no real division it’s not that the church replaces Israel it’s that Israel and the church become one Israel becomes part of the church and the church becomes part of Israel that’s that’s the thinking now along these lines they would say the church was we’re told it was able to be seen in the Old Testament the Mosaic law if it does continue in a certain way for the church you can break down the Mosaic law into three parts the symbolism oniel and the moral whatever was not explicitly fulfilled by Christ it continues for the church it’s there’s continuity even between the Old Testament when it comes to the sacraments the Passover meal has become the Lord’s Supper and circumcision has become baptism which is why many cover lensless would hold to infant baptism because it’s just continuity from the Old Testament it is the sign of the Covenant it is the sign of your coming into the covenant of grace some Baptists who work of an endless would disagree covenants lists are typically amillennial they believe that the kingdom that Jesus Springs and the kingdom that God was giving to Israel is a spiritual Kingdom and it has been inaugurated since Christ’s coming and the church is part of kingdom the church an is your own now part of that kingdom and Covenants was stressed that the salvation process has been the same since the beginning of history everyone has been saved by faith through Jesus Christ they didn’t know Jesus Christ specifically they were looking towards something that is Jesus they were looking towards the cross while people after the New Testament are looking back to the cross now again many variants of this and people who are labeled as cover Mentalist they don’t necessarily hold to these three covenants or all the things that are articulated in the classic model like dispensationalism covenant ilysm ultimately has become synonymous with eschatology what do you think about Israel what do you think is going to happen in the future and that’s technically not true but that’s the way that most that’s myth the way that many people will think about it so you’ve seen a brief beach brief brief breakdown of these two systems which ones right well that’s not really the right question to ask there are things that are right – both of these things God has done different things with man over different times and God has also acted in a consistent way throughout time there has been it’s not like God had a certain plan and it didn’t work and then he went to another plan and that one didn’t work no he’s been orchestrating everything towards one purpose I do think that dispensationalism has a more solid hermeneutical base with historical dramatical hermeneutic so for that reason hi and I think your elders they are persuaded of things like premillennialism like a pre-trib rapture like the difference in the destinies for Israel and the church but I would not call myself a classical or a classic dispensationalist I’m not even sure if I would use the term dispensationalist explain that more in just a second know that there are also two modifications of these views or at least there are terms for describing the modifications of these views there’s something called new covenant theology which is kind of like a mix between dispensationalism and covenant ilysm it’s more on the covenants list side its covenant ilysm with a little bit of a dispensational flavor there’s also something called progressive dispensationalism which again is a mixture but more on the dispensationalist side but why why do I say I would not necessarily call myself a dispensationalist because I think there’s a danger when it comes to adhering to a theological system they can’t help you organize ideas and maybe indicate in a labeling sort of way what you or someone else believes but what’s the problem with adopting a system of theology what’s the potential problem eisegesis right it becomes something that affects the way you interpret Scripture you read your theology into the scripture rather than getting your theology from Scripture and that’s not a good thing it disturbs me when I’m looking at definitions for dispensationalism covenant theology and they say these are interpretive grids for understanding Scripture that’s not good you know what your preconceived theological understanding to affect how you read the Bible you want you to see ology to come from the Bott so that’s why I don’t want to necessarily call myself a dispensationalist or wholeheartedly adopt either one of these systems as one of my professor says we’re to be biblical Venus not dispensationalists not common insolence we want to make sure that what we believe comes from the Scriptures and certainly if somebody takes one of these things I’m at a sensationalist I’m a covenant list you want to look down on them because of that might disagree you might have some discussion but this is not a Salvation issue we should not cast them out as heretics or not be able to fellowship with them just because they hold to one view or the other or some mixture okay that’s my brief breakdown those are the four questions I think there was a question there was a hand I was raised let me come back any questions or follow-up comments on what we’ve discussed yes yeah yeah yeah that’s true Steve and that’s worth three emphasizing that when we talked about faith the faith that brings about salvation to fate that marks a believer it’s not gonna be a perfect faith but it is gonna be fundamentally there I mean Abraham as you said wasn’t perfect and exercising his faith but he was marked by faith that’s why he’s called the father of thee and so believers are as well and we’re all going to grow in faith we are going to fail at times to trust God believe his word to properly apply his word but it shouldn’t Marcus as disciples of Jesus and we should all be growing in it but we do thank the Lord that just as you were saying Steve where our faith fails it’s ultimately it’s only ultimately Jesus who brings us through it carries us he covers us he has given us salvation once and for all it’s not our adherence – it’s not our adherence to the commands that ultimately is the basis of our salvation it’s Jesus it’s Jesus perfect that here interests the commands we are going to be affected by that such a way that it produces faith and obedience but ultimately it’s Jesus who is the basis of our salvation well we’re out of time if we didn’t get to your if you had a question that you didn’t get to ask and please email me or if you had a comment or a question about what I assured with you today you can please email me next week we move to a quarter three of our third year the curriculum we’re moving towards Jesus passion what happened afterwards also just a heads up two weeks Lord willing I will be in New Jersey I’ll be home for break for a little bit so it’ll be good to see you all I pray as we close all right thank you for your word thank you thank you for the truth god I pray that people would be edified as they think through some of the things they heard today and kind of preacher bless the rest of service at Calvary that you would make yourself so great that people would hide themselves in you God it is not our performance that makes the state what it is your performance it is your perfect righteousness you totally satisfied the father with your life and you clothed us in your righteousness and you paid for all our Saloon that is our bedrock that is our wonderful joy to believe God we know it’s true we know that you’ve done that and god we’ve come to believe that you’ve applied that work to us so we’re so grateful but bless the people and grow them grow me grow grow us all in faith in Jesus name Amen I think you all see you soon