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Let me begin by saying that those brothers with whom I disagree, whether they deny outright any involvement of the Church with the New covenant, or whether they believe the Church participates in the New covenant are due a respectful hearing. This is not the most important subject of Christian Theology.
The 18th Annual Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics was hosted by Southern California Seminary on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 17 and 18, on the campus of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif. The theme for this year’s conference was, “Counterpoint: Comparative Views on Key Biblical Passages.”
Mike Stallard, vice president for international ministries with The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, also serves as the executive director of CDH. He explained that CDH is an academic study group, established in 2008, to promote theological discussion among traditional dispensationalist theologians, pastors and students.
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We are now in a position to tackle the main objections to the view that the Church is a full party (with future Israel) in the New covenant. As we will see, for this to be so it must be established that the New covenant is in effect now. I intend to try to prove that by looking again at the salient passages, noting how the “Israel-only” arguments are unsatisfactory. But before I do that I want to highlight the main points I have made in this series:
My Reasons For Including the Church in the New Covenant
Many American Christians have questions about something called “the rapture.” These questions are often tied to a particular flavor of premillennialism called “dispensationalism.” According to this framework, “the rapture” means “the idea that Christ will remove the church from the world prior to the great tribulation.”1 They believe the rapture is before the Great Tribulation, so it is “pre-tribulational.” This teaching relies heavily on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, along with other supporting passages. This article argues this passage does not teach a pre-tribulational rapture.
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Hebrews starts off by elevating Jesus Christ, proving from the OT that He is divine, but that He also “purged our sins” (Heb. 1:3) because He took upon Himself humanity (cf. Heb. 1:6; 2:9, 17). Jesus holds the office of High Priest (Heb. 3:1; 4:14-16). And the question arises, whose High Priest is He?
“Because we’re afraid to be too ‘wacky dispensationalist’ or to buck the latest popular trend (post-trib, post-mill, etc.), we keep it generic—Jesus is coming back.
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Coming now to the Four Gospels, let me begin with Simeon’s statement in Luke 2. Luke tells us that Simeon was,
waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (Lk. 2:25)
As far as Simeon was concerned Jesus was to have a dual salvific role to the Gentiles and also to Israel:
