Israel

Correcting the Popular Notion that the Church was Born at Pentecost

05/20/2013 by luke.geraty

Scott Lencke has a good post up on why he doesn’t believe we should believe the popular idea that the church was born at Pentecost (Acts 2). Scott lays out some very good reasons why we should see God’s people through the lens of continuity rather than trying to divide Israel and the Church up. You’d do well to check out Scott’s thoughts.

In the charismatic world, I think you find a lot of preaching that tends to force very sharp distinctions between the Old Testament’s Israel and the New Testament’s Church. It’s common to hear things about people in the OT being saved by their works and people in the NT being saved by faith (I’ve blogged before why I totally disagree with that). There’s also a lot of preaching that tends to connects Acts 2 to the birth of God’s people, the Church, while almost completely ignoring God’s previous work in Israel. It’s almost as if some of the preaching I have heard reduces the Holy Spirit as being absent until Acts 2. This makes for some good “Pentecostal” preaching because you can then emphasize that the things that happened in Acts 2 can happen today, so get ready for Spirit baptism (at least that’s how these types of sermons come across).
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Good or Bad?: The Lowest Common Denominator in Theology

08/13/2012 by luke.geraty

This is going to be a little bit longer post than usual. Stick with me and I think it’ll make sense in the end. Well, I certainly hope so.

I’ve been teaching on the subject of eschatology for the past couple of weeks in the church I serve. It’s been really fun because it’s brought up some really good conversations after I’ve finished my teachings. I’ve had questions about the alleged “eschatological” Temple that according to some will be rebuilt before Jesus returns. There’s been questions about different books and teachers. But more than anything, there’s been discussion about the timing of Jesus’ return.

I think this is largely because I’ve been really emphasizing that the “Great Tribulation” was inaugurated when Jerusalem was surrounded and the Temple was destroyed (66-70AD) a number of years after Jesus was crucified. In fact, I’ve been stressing that the church is a “last days” people of God. In other words, we’ve been living in the “end times” since Jesus’ first coming. That’s an important concept when we’re thinking about how the kingdom of God is to be understood and when we realize that we are living in the last days.
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Michael Horton’s Approach to Israel

02/06/2012 by luke.geraty

Concerning the future of Israel, Supercessionism, and a Reformed approach to the issue, Michael Horton writes,

“So while some amillennialists regard all of the saving promises to Israel as fulfilled in the new covenant church without remainder and dispensationalists treat them as fulfilled only in a revived theocracy of Israel in the millennium, Paul’s argument in Romans 9-11 seems more complicated. While Israel is the church and the church is Israel, this spiritual nation will be enlarged in the last days – this time, with a great influx of ethnic Jews. As I have argued, I do not believe that the New Testament teaches that the church is a replacement for Israel but rather that Gentiles have been grafted into the vine of the true Israel, from which the original nucleus of new covenant disciples emerged. Salvation has come to the world through the Jews; Jesus was sent to the Jews; the gospel was first brought to the Jews, and the kingdom grew from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In the end, it will be brought full circle, from the ends of the earth back to Jerusalem again.” (The Christian Faith, 949-50).

As far as I can tell, this seems to be the view of Jonathan Edwards, J. C. Ryle, and, I think Charles Spurgeon. Interesting.

12 Insights on Israel from John Piper (Romans 9:4-5)

07/19/2011 by luke.geraty

Nine Privileges for Israel and Three Implications from the pen of John Piper. They are:

Nine Privileges

They are Israelites
and to them belong the adoption
the glory
the covenants
the giving of the law
the worship
To them belong the patriarchs
and the promises
and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Three Implications

These privileges belong fully and savingly to an elect remnant of Israel now.
These privileges will belong fully and savingly to all ethnic Israel at some future time.
These privileges belong to all Gentiles who trust Christ and are grafted into the true Israel by faith.