PMW 2024-011 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

In my opening installment of this four-part series on Israel, I highlighted the wildly popular dispensational view of Israel, which has a Judeo-centric eschatology. My reader should consult my preceding article in order to understand what I am arguing.

Continuing the idea of the previous article, I would note that though “replacement theology” is a popular charge against non-dispensational, evangelical theology, a better term would be: “fulfillment theology.” Let me demonstrate the biblical warrant for this “fulfillment theology” view.

1. The OT anticipates the expansion of God’s people

The Old Testament writers foresee a time in which God will expand his people by bringing blessings on the Gentiles and including them within Israel. This hope is established early in Israel’s formative history when God establishes his covenant with Abraham: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, / And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17:4).

Perhaps the clearest and more remarkable expression of this appears in Isaiah 19:23–25. There we read that God will include Israel’s greatest enemies in his covenant:

“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.’”

“Jesus, Matthew, and the Rejection of Israel” (downloadable mp3)
by Ken Gentry
Surveys the Gospel of Matthew and highlights the numerous references — direct and indirect — that suggest that Matthew’s Gospel was written (at least in part) to demonstrate that God was rejecting Israel. A great many passages in Matthew are surveyed and briefly elaborated upon.
See more study materials at: http://www.KennethGentry.com

Zechariah expresses this hope by referring to Israel’s earliest enemy within the Promised Land:

“And a mongrel race will dwell in Ashdod, / And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. / And I will remove their blood from their mouth, / And their detestable things from between their teeth. / Then they also will be a remnant for our God, / And be like a clan in Judah, / And Ekron like a Jebusite.” (Zech 9:6–7)

The conversion of the Gentiles in the new covenant is simply the fulfillment of these prophecies which adopt Israel’s enemies into her family.

2. The NT applies OT prophecies to the church

In Jeremiah 31:31 we read of God’s prophecy of the new covenant with Israel: “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Christ inaugurates this “new covenant” toward the end of his ministry as he establishes the New Testament phase of his church. During his Last Supper he states: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20).

Dispensationalist J. Dwight Pentecost is quite correct when he writes of Christ’s establishing the Lord’s Supper: “In its historical setting, the disciples who heard the Lord refer to the new covenant . . . would certainly have understood Him to be referring to the new covenant of Jeremiah 31.” [1] What could be more obvious? The prophecy of God’s new covenant with Israel applies to the New Testament church.

In fact, the sudden appearance of the “new covenant” in the New Testament record without qualification or explanation, demands that it refer to Jeremiah’s well-known new covenant (see: Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25). Paul even promotes the new covenant as an important aspect of his ministry: God “also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant” (2 Cor 3:6). Thus, he is a minister of the new covenant even though he is the “apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13; cp. Acts 9:15; 22:21; 26:17; Rom 1:5; 15:16; Gal 1:16; 2:7; Eph 3:1, 8; 1 Tim 2:7; 2 Tim 4:7).

In Acts 15 James speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles as a fulfillment of a distinctively Jewish-sounding prophecy in Amos 9:11–12. James sees in the conversion of the Gentiles a rebuilding of “the tabernacle of David”:

“Simeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. ‘And with this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, “After these things I will return, / And I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen, / And I will rebuild its ruins, / And I will restore it, / In order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, / And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,” / Says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’” (Acts 15: 14–18)
Thus, he sees the converted Gentiles as entering the prophetic “tabernacle of David,” thereby sharing in this Jewish promise.

He Shall Have Dominion
(paperback by Kenneth Gentry)

A classic, thorough explanation and defense of postmillennialism (600+ pages). Complete with several chapters answering specific objections.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

During her rebellion in the Old Testament, God promises “the sons of Israel” that “in the place / Where it is said to them, / ‘You are not My people,’ / It will be said to them, / ‘You are the sons of the living God’” (Hos 2:10b). Paul cites this glorious prophecy of inclusion in God’s family and directly applies it to the church:

“even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, ‘I will call those who were not My people, “My people,” / And her who was not beloved, “beloved.”’ / And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, “you are not My people,” / There they shall be called sons of the living God.’” (Rom. 9:25–27)

3. The new covenant church receives OT promises

Not only do we learn that Old Testament prophecies regarding Israel are fulfilled in the church, but we even see that old covenant promises for Israel apply to the church. The new covenant church is the recipient of old covenant Israel’s blessings.

For instance, when Paul speaks to the Gentiles in Ephesians, he reminds them that “formerly” they were “at that time” in the past “strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph 2:12). That is, in their past they were devoid of God’s “promise.” But this no longer is true!

Paul adds: “but now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly were far off have been brought near” (Eph 2:13). Interestingly, Paul is citing Isaiah 57:19, which was a promise of future blessing to Israel given though she was currently in sin. In Isaiah 56:1 through 66:24 Isaiah is focusing on the shame and glory of Zion, that is to be followed by her glory. Yet Paul applies a promise from Zion in Isaiah 57:19 to the Gentiles in Ephesus.

The Climax of the Book of Revelation (Rev 19-22)

Six lectures on six DVDs that introduce Revelation as a whole, then focuses on its glorious conclusion. Provides an important, lengthy Introduction to Revelation also.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

In Galatians 3:29 he refers to the foundational promise to Israel contained in the Abrahamic Covenant. He applies that promise to the Gentiles: “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Dispensationalists teach that the new covenant church is an aside, an intercalation in God’s major plan, a parenthesis in the outworking of redemptive history. The New Testament, however, deems her the direct recipient of God’s full blessings.

To be continued.

NOTES

1. J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 126.

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