"ENLARGING OUR HEARTS"

 ENLARGING OUR HEARTS: A Discussion for Highland Christians about Palestine and Israel (and my written comments on some of the issues raised in the video).

                                            DEPRESSING DISPENSATIONALISM

After watching the Enlarging our hearts: a podcast discussion amongst Highland Christians about Israel & Palestine video I was inspired to write the following:

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For what it’s worth, Rudi Schwartz and I address some of the issues discussed in the video mostly in our The Kingdom: Every Square Inch book and also in The Unfaithful Bride & The Faithful Groom book.

Bottom line is that Dispensationalism, with its erroneous views of modern Israel (post 1948) and therefore also the Lord’s Church, has caused untold damage to Christianity and Christian politics (USA in particular) regarding the Middle East in general and (contemporary) Israel in particular. The popularity of the late John MacArthur (who has planted churches even in Brisbane!) was the main purveyor of this damaging doctrine in our own day. John MacArthur, on account of his Calvinistic views on certain things, was the crossover point from Dispensationalism into Reformed Christianity. The late and well-respected RC Sproul lent MacArthur credibility in Reformed circles by giving him a platform.

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Premillennial Dispensationalism has a great deal to do with the Ben Shapiro/Tucker Carlson dispute. Ben Shapiro has been annoying me for a couple of years now, as has Mark Levin. I like Mark Levin when it comes to help in understanding the intent of the American Constitution but have been left wondering why he and Shapiro don’t just pull up stakes and leave the USA and move to Israel which, by their weird fixation, they prove beyond any shadow of doubt, they obviously love more than America! Why? Well, it’s the same way why some Christians love Israel more than they love Christ's Church on earth! Error! Yes, Zionism for the first (i.e., the Jews) and Dispensationalism for the second (i.e., misguided Christians). Both are the same thing when it comes to politics. Both are bad theology. Of course, as soon as you say anything like this you are likened to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. That’s the bit I don't understand. I care for the present nation of Israel as I care for any Western democratic people. I worry about Israel being surrounded by Islamic nations that hate them. However, I don’t view present-day Israel as the land of God’s chosen people (or the present-day land as the chosen land).

Ye olde Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” applies, of course, to Abraham and ultimately to Christ, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20), and, importantly, those who are the true sons of Abraham, i.e., those who are in Christ, Christians. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29) and “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:9). Therefore, if the present-day faithless Israel is indeed a Jewish State, and if Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin are practicing Jews, then they are Christless. They are outside of Christ. Therefore, they do not bless Abraham. They certainly do not bless Abraham’s promised Son, Christ the Messiah. And they do not bless those who are in Christ. Thus, Dispensationalism stunts the advancement of the Gospel by its worship of Israel instead of Israel’s Son, Jesus Christ. Its Rapture Theology hands this world over to Satan, instead of winning it for Christ.

Instead of Christ and His New Testament Church on earth being seen as the continuation of His Old Testament faithful people, through Gentiles, i.e., nations other than Old Testament Israel, being grafted into the same olive tree, Dispensationalism accuses Reformed Theology of being Replacement Theology, as in the Church replacing Israel. “And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in” (Rom. 11:17-19). One olive tree, not Israel and the Church. The middle wall of partition has been removed. “At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Eph. 2:12-16).

How long is a piece of string? If Old Testament Israel is a long piece of string, Dispensationalism removes a chunk out of the middle and reattaches the string with present day Israel in the Middle East. The bit that Dispensationalism removes it calls the Church. The dissection it calls The Rapture. Instead of keeping its eyes on the Lord, Dispensationalism is fixated on present-day Israel. That is where it looks for signs for its supposed immanent return of the Lord. The Church is then removed from earth and the string gets rejoined so that the Lord can get on with more important things!

Dispensationalism was popularized in the early 1800s by John Nelson Darby and was even more popularized in the early 1900s by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield in his (in)famous Scofield Reference Bible. John MacArthur (1939-2025) furthered its debilitating influence on the Lord’s Church in our own age. Instead of Christians rolling up their sleeves and getting on with the work of Christ’s Kingdom, we are now hoping that Christ will return to save us from this evil generation! News about present-day Israel helps us determine when we will be “Saigoned”, (see, Americans at the end of Vietnam War). This, of course, impacts our understanding of the Great Commission, which in the Dispensational system, is doomed to depressing failure and not to success. Thus Satan, not Christ, wins the world!

The following is from The Westminster Directory for Publick (sic) Worship (Of Public Prayer before the Sermon). Note that we are to pray for “the conversion of the Jews" and deliverance from the cruel Turk (i.e., Islam), yes, and we are even to pray for Australia!, and for the removal of heresy, (such as Dispensationalism):

“To pray for the propagation of the gospel and kingdom of Christ to all nations; for the conversion of the Jews, the fulness of the Gentiles, the fall of Antichrist, and the hastening of the second coming of our Lord; for the deliverance of the distressed churches abroad from the tyranny of the antichristian faction, and from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk; for the blessing of God upon the reformed churches, especially upon the churches and kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland, now more strictly and religiously united in the Solemn National League and Covenant; and for our plantations in the remote parts of the world: more particularly for that church and kingdom whereof we are members, that therein God would establish peace and truth, the purity of all his ordinances, and the power of godliness; prevent and remove heresy, schism, profaneness, superstition, security, and unfruitfulness under the means of grace; heal all our rents and divisions, and preserve us from breach of our Solemn Covenant.”