PMW 2024-012 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.
I have offered two articles on Israel in my two previous installments of this study. I am currently rebutting the dispensational view of Scripture and theology, which presents a Judeo-centric focus. I will continue with my critique.
4. The new covenant church is not a mystery wholly unrevealed
Based on Ephesians 3, dispensationalist argue that the new covenant era, international church was a mystery that is “completely unrevealed in the Old Testament.” Certainly the clarity of the revelation of God’s expanding people increases in the New Testament. But that revelation was, in fact, given in the Old Testament.
Let’s look at dispensationalism’s key passage for this concept. Ephesians 3:5–6 reads: “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” We have already seen that the Old Testament anticipated this. Now we must note that Ryrie and the dispensationalists misread Paul’s statement. Consider the following.
To begin with, we must discern for whom the revelation was a mystery. Ephesians 3:3–6 reads: “By revelation he made known unto me the mystery . . . which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men.” Thus, the “mystery” now revealed was not previously made known to the “sons of men,” that is, the Gentiles. It was made known to the “sons of Israel” through their prophets. The phrase “sons of Israel” appears often in the Old Testament (e.g., Exo 3:3, 14–15; 4:31; 5:14–15; 6:5; etc.), setting them over against the rest of the world, the Gentiles, the “sons of men.” When God speaks to Ananias he distinguishes between “the Gentiles” and “the sons of Israel” (Acts 9:15; cp. Luke 2:32; Acts 4:27).
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