Dispensational Proof 3
3. New Testament Dispensational Interpretation
New Testament dispensational interpretation is a hermeneutic which builds, adds, and illuminates the Old Testament revelation. It does not change, correct, or reinterpret the Old Testament. The words that covenant theology uses in their New Testament hermeneutic such as modifying, reimagining, recapitulating, replacing, restructuring are used to replace literal Old Testament promises with a spiritualized theology. Just about every word that begins with “re” is what covenant theologians use to explain what they are doing with the Old Testament text. They use poor interpretation from the New Testament as an eraser on the texts that promise Israel their land and blessings in the future kingdom of their Messiah. When New Testament interpretation is done properly with a literal, grammatical, historical approach, Old Testament prophecies regarding the literal kingdom of Christ and Israel’s part in it will still be literal. Four key passages in the New Testament for the dispensationalist to carefully exegete are Matthew 24, Ephesians 2-3, Galatians and Revelation 20. These four segments of the New Testament are interpreted very differently among covenant and dispensational teachers. The covenant theologian begins the interpretation of these with a preconceived view of the Church that is not consistent with a proper interpretation of these 4 texts.
Covenant theology has a long history of ignoring God’s promises to Israel but will apply them to the Church. The context and purpose of God revealed regarding national Israel is clear in the Old Testament. The covenant theology hermeneutic is vastly insufficient in interpreting the Old Testament and Israel’s place in God’s eternal plan. They view God’s plan as simply redemptive with the purpose of glorifying Himself. True that this is part of God’s plan for the ages, but it is not complete. Dispensational theology best answers the questions about Israel’s place in God’s eternal plan. While covenant theologians force their contrived covenants such as the covenant of works, covenant of redemption and a covenant of grace upon the Scripture, the dispensational hermeneutic allows their theology to be more consistently drawn out from the Scripture.
The dispensationalist will see God carrying out a vast number of plans for the ages. He has plans for Israel, angels, redemption, creation, earth, nature, evil beings, and the Church. Certainly these are all made possible by the work of Jesus Christ. Christ is the one that makes the fulfillment of all God’s plans possible. He is not finished yet. There is much more to fulfill in time and space. God’s timing is clearly described in such phrases as the “times of the Gentiles”. The amount of events and timing descriptions are often ignored by the covenant theologian in preference to an allegorical interpretation which ignores time descriptors. Soon God will directly deal with Israel again. He is dealing with Israel even today and his eternal promises will be accomplish to national Israel. Some specific passages will be dealt with in future articles.
