Category: Redemptive Historical

A Future for Israel

~ fundyreformed ~ 9 Comments

I came across an excellent article dealing with the question of whether there’s a future for Israel. Lately I’ve discussed how Christians should understand the land promise. I’ve also stressed that America, and Israel are both pagan nations. But what I stumble along in a wordy way trying to say, Dr. Russell Moore of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary spells out in a succinct and truly superb manner in his blog post: Is There a Future for Israel? (HT: Paleoevangelical.)

He argues that all the promises for Israel are fulfilled in Christ, the true Israel of God. And the church receives these blessings only because she is organically united to Christ by faith. So Jesus possesses the future of Israel; and since we share in His inheritance, we do too. I encourage you to read Moore’s short piece for yourself.

Why Not to Visit Israel

~ fundyreformed ~ 22 Comments

Every decent Christian longs to go to the Holy Land.   They would love an opportunity to see the places where Biblical events happened, touch places Jesus may have touched, see where the Temple stood and where the empty tomb may have been.   Right?   Isn’t that true?

Well, I agree with John Piper.   I don’t really want to go to the Holy Land.   I don’t feel I need to.   This past Sunday, in Pastor Piper’s message, he declared that he’s never been to Israel, and he doesn’t want to go.   He even asked the church not to send him.   His sermon is available here, but Junior transcribed the part about Israel.   I’ll post his transcription here, and then the edited version in the print copy of his sermon.

Jesus is where we meet God. If you want to say, “Where on the planet today is a holy place that I can do a pilgrimage and be in the house of God?” Answer, “Jesus!” You want to go to a holy place on the planet? Stand still and come to Jesus. There aren’t any holy sites in the Christian religion. Zero. I’ve never gone to Israel mainly for that reason. Please, when I’m here 30 years don’t give me a free trip to Israel – fix my car. I got no problem with you going to Israel. I don’t want any emails. There’s just no more Jesus in Israel than there is in your pew right now.   [Actual quote]

Now Jesus is the new Beth-el. He is the place where God is present. Heaven has opened, and Jesus has appeared. And from now on, Jesus will be the place where God appears most clearly among men, and where men find their way into fellowship with God. There are no holy geographic places any more designated by God as his meeting place with man. Jesus is that meeting place.   [Edited revision of this part]

The reason pastor Piper says these things is that the Bible doesn’t teach that Israel is some special holy land that believers should long for.   No Israel–the land–pointed to a greater reality, that of spiritual fellowship with God.   We don’t need to go anywhere to be closer to Jesus, we are members of His Body.   We don’t need to look for a future Temple, we are the reconstituted Temple.

For more on this idea, I’d encourage you to check out my series of posts on Understanding the Land Promise.

“The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” by O. Palmer Robertson

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

Author: O. Palmer Robertson
Format: Softcover
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Presbyterian & Reformed
Publication Date: 2000
ISBN: 0875523989
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Like most any American evangelical, how the Bible views the modern state of Israel is a topic that interests me. I’ve grown in my understanding of this issue, even as I’ve evaluated competing theological systems such as dispensationalism and covenant theology. For me, the Bible is most important, as I don’t feel compelled to be loyal to any particular theological system.

Perhaps that is why O. Palmer Robertson’s writings have been so helpful to me. I greatly appreciated his Biblical treatment of the various covenants of Scripture in The Christ of the Covenants (see my review). In The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Robertson far exceeded my expectations.

Robertson doesn’t have to convince anyone that interpretations concerning the Bible’s view of Israel are varied and extremely influential. In his book, though, he manages to bring the focus to where it should be: on what Scripture actually says concerning the topic.

And this is where he excels. He doesn’t settle for a few proof texts. Rather he carefully traces out a Biblical theology of the land, the people Israel, their worship and lifestyle, and the Kingdom as it relates to Israel. He offers a careful exposition of Galatians 6:16, Hebrews 7, and Romans 11. All the while, he examines Scripture’s entire testimony on these subjects letting all of Scripture weigh in on this issue.

The book shows how the essence of the land promise was spiritual fellowship with God. This is enjoyed by the church today (Matt. 5:5, Rom. 4:13, Eph. 6:3). It argues that the worship and lifestyle of Israel is radically altered with Christ’s provision of a better covenant (Heb. 7). It goes on to examine how Scripture defines the people of Israel, and it details how Gentile believers in the church are Abraham’s children and heirs, true Jews, yes, even the Israel of God (Gal. 3:26-29, 6:16; Rom. 2:28-29, 4:11-12; Eph. 2:14, 19).

One may well disagree with Robertson’s conclusions. But anyone who cares about Scripture will appreciate his emphasis on letting Scripture speak for itself. I would hope those differing with Robertson would at least give his Biblical presentation fair consideration. His exposition of Romans 11 in particular has the potential of changing the mind of many on this subject. Not because it is novel, but because he shows how clearly the chapter as a whole argues for a present-day focus in Paul’s concern.

I won’t explain all of Robertson’s arguments for you. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book yourself. Its a fairly quick read (196 pages), which will definitely keep your interest. I’m sure you’ll be glad you gave this book a hearing.

For more on the covenant theology vs. dispensationalism discussion, see my blog posts related to this issue. You may also be interested in my series entitled “Understanding the Land Promise“.

This book is available for purchase at the following sites: Westminster Bookstore, Amazon.com, or direct from P & R Publishing.

Beginning with Moses

~ fundyreformed ~ 3 Comments

I just added a new blog to my blogroll. Beginning with Moses is an excellent resource for all things Biblical Theology, with an emphasis on redemptive historical hermeneutics. The beginningwithmoses.org website houses lots of articles on various topics, majoring on Biblical Theology, primarily. And the blog provides updates re: new articles on the site, and etc.

One of their recent posts was on Song of Solomon. I haven’t taken the time to read the whole 70 page paper, but the conclusion resonates with me. In a previous post, The Gospel According to Solomon, I argued that the Song should be interpreted in light of Christ and the Church. The post at BeginningwithMoses, agrees.

This may not be currently popular in academia (see Vern Poythress’ comments to the same in this post), but I believe it is the correct emphasis for our interpretation.

Go check out Beginning with Moses, the blog and the site, and it will be worth your time.

Bob's Blog Finds: The Apostolic Hermeneutic

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

In my blog finds I highlight some of the best articles I’ve found online recently. You can see all my blog finds (courtesy of Google Reader) in the sidebar.

It’s been a long while since I posted a Bobspotted Blogroll post. With Google Reader, it’s easier to share my posts one by one. Rather then abandon the blogspot idea altogether, I plan on posting Blog Finds posts where I share articles or links one at a time. This will allow more interaction from you, my readers, and I hope it will serve my blog readers well.

Proponents of Biblical Theology, particularly those who hold to redemptive historical hermeneutics, often speak of the apostolic hermeneutic. We see how the Apostle’s interpreted the OT Bible and draw lessons for how we should interpret it as well.

Now this approach is often misunderstood or even maligned by other Bible scholars, particularly dispensationalists. R. Scott Clark addresses this issue in an excellent post (actually a re-post) at his Heidelblog. I’ll provide some excerpts and encourage you to read the excellent post for yourself. He provides book recommendations for where to pursue this hermeneutical approach further, too.

It’s isn’t that complicated. Pay close attention here:  The Apostolic hermeneutic is to see Christ at the center of all of Scripture. We’re not reading him  into Scripture. We’re refusing to read him out of it. There, I said it. That’s what it is. Perhaps the reason our dispensational friends cannot see it is because they are blinded by their rationalism. They know  a priori what the organizing principle of Scripture  must be and it isn’t God the Son, it’s national Israel….

Yes, Reformed folk (and others) have been reading the bible like this for a very long time. The earliest post-apostolic Christians, in contrast to the Jewish critics of the Christian faith, read the Bible to teach a unity of salvation organized around Jesus Christ. The entire medieval church read the Bible this way as did the Reformation and post-Reformation churches….

What method do we use? It’s grammatical and historical! It reads the Old in the light of the new. It doesn’t set up arbitrary  a priori‘s about what can and can’t be. We don’t begin with an unstated premise, “All reasonable people know p.” We don’t think that any uninspired hermeneutic (system of interpretation) is superior to Paul’s or James’ or Peter’s.

One need not be inspired to read the Bible the way the apostles did. I’m not even sure it’s proper to say that their hermeneutic was inspired. We confess that Scripture is inspired, but was their way of reading Scripture inspired? I doubt it. As John Frame used to ask in class, were the apostolic grocery lists inspired? No. Can we observe  how they read Scripture and imitate it? Yes….

Read the rest of the post for yourself. And let me know what you think of it.