The Progressives' KINGDOM
CHURCH
Miles
J. Stanford
The purpose of this Polemic Paper
is to establish the fact the Progressive Dispensationalism,--via its
primary leaders, Dr. Robert L. Saucy, Dr. Darrell L. Bock, and Dr.
Craig A. Blaising--1) places the Church in OT prophecy, 2) eliminates the mystery
and exclusiveness of the Church, and 3) makes Paul's message secondary to OT prophecy.
PAULINE
DISPENSATIONALISM -- Several indispensable teachings of Pauline
Dispensationalism are:
- The Church was neither prophesied nor revealed in OT
Scriptures.
- The Church (born at Pentecost-Acts 2) was a complete mystery until revealed
doctrinally by Paul.
- Paul, in the Church Epistles, was the minister of Church
truth.
CLASSIC
(TRADITIONAL) DISPENSATIONALISM -- From its inception, all the way back to
Darby, Classic Dispensationalism:
- Broke the scriptural barrier separating Israel and the
Church by linking Israel's New Covenant blessings with the Church.
- Made OT prophecy to include the Church, thereby eliminating
the mystery.
- No longer viewed Paul as the initial, and primary, source
of Church truth.
This rending of the scriptural barrier
enabled Covenant Theology to come in, and enabled Progressive Dispensationalism to go
out--right into Covenantism.
PROGRESSIVE
DISPENSATIONALISM -- The Progressives "progressed" beyond the
Classics:
- Included the Church in OT prophecy, mainly via Israel's
New Covenant.
- Eliminated the Pauline mystery.
- Made Paul's ministry secondary to that of Jeremiah and
Ezekiel.
1) THE
CHURCH UNPROPHESIED -- The first truth to establish is that the
Church is neither in the OT, nor its prophecy. John Darby insisted upon that fact in
his Collected Writings, Vol. 11:
The Church is not of the world. It,
as such, sits in heavenly places in Christ where prophecy reaches not. It will never
be established on the earth, as the Jews. That is not its calling (p. 42).
The Church is not the subject of OT
prophecy. As to OT prophecy, the NT declares in the most absolute and positive
manner that it was a mystery hidden in all ages, and now revealed by NT apostles and
prophets by the Spirit. The Church belongs to heaven; prophecy relates to earth (p.
45).
SCRIPTURE RE PROPHECY --
OT prophecy concerns a kingdom, a political, governmental organization (Dan. 2:44;
Matt. 6:10). It predicts a kingdom to be established on earth (Jer. 23:5;
Matt. 6:10). It mainly concerns nations as such (Isa. 60:1-3; Zech. 8:22,23).
It concerns Christ coming to the earth (Isa. 59:20; Zech. 14:4). It
predicts Israel's supremacy over the nations (Isa. 60:10-12; 61:6).
BOCK & BLAISING -- In
their Progressive Dispensationalism, they make the heavenly Church an integral
part of the Kingdom, via Israel's OT New Covenant:
It is undisputable that the NT views
the new covenant predicted by Jeremiah and Ezekiel as established in the death of Jesus
Christ with some of its promised blessings new being granted to Jews and Gentiles who are
believers in Jesus.
These are not blessings which are like
those predicted by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They are the very same blessings
which those prophets predicted. For the new covenant which is presently in effect
through Jesus Christ is not one like that prophesied, but it is the very same
covenant which they prophesied which is in effect today (p. 202).
The inauguration of the new covenant
under the eschatological Messiah has brought realities belonging to that kingdom into
present existence. Here is where the church finds its identity [!]. All
of the language describing the church in the NT is either directly drawn from or is
compatible with the genres of covenant promise and the Messianic Kingdom (emphasis
theirs). The present dispensation is the full and complete revelation of the
eschatological kingdom. It is a progressive stage in the revelation of the kingdom
(p. 260).
John Darby knew Israel's New Covenant for
what it is:
Israel's New Covenant does not go beyond
forgiveness, remembering sins and iniquities no more. And it does not include any
entrance into the presence of the Father in the Sanctuary, which is our position in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you not shocked at the denigration of
the Church by these doctors?
The millennial empire of the Messiah
is the next phase of the eschatological kingdom after that phase which is now present--the
community of the King, the church (p. 281).
The down payment guarantees the future
just as much as it itself is a part of that future reality. Accordingly, the work
which the Holy Spirit does in the church, is a partial revelation in the present of that
kingdom which is coming in the future. Since its reality belongs to the kingdom
[!], and since it exists in the present, consequently the church must be understood as
a present form of the eschatological Kingdom (p. 258).
2) THE
MYSTERY DEMYSTIFIED -- While Bock and Blaising kingdomize the Church
by relating it to Israel's New Covenant, Dr. Saucy continues the debacle by eliminating
the mystery.
Dr. Wm. R. Newell -- Dr.
Newell describes the scriptural characteristics of biblical mystery:
The mystery, in a general sense,
includes all those peculiar revelations kept in silence from the "aeons" before
Adam and from the "generations" since Adam. Heavenly revelations
they were, given by the glorified Lord to Paul, according to which his entire ministry
proceeds.
The mysteries reveal resurrection
things; they are non-earthly and heavenly in their character, and are connected in no
way with Judaism. "We are the circumcision [that is, those cut off by the
death of the Cross from the old-Adam line and all earthly things (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6)],
who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus [His risen Name, as connected
with the Church] and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3) (Romans and Acts, p.
370).
Dr. Robert Saucy -- If
the Church is to be downgraded to the status of nothing more than a present phase of the
coming Millennial Kingdom, the mystery of its total heavenly uniqueness in Christ must be
eliminated--which Dr. Saucy proceeds to do in Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church,
by Bock and Blaising:
The evidence from the OT prophecies
and in some cases their later Jewish interpretation shows a relationship between what was
promised and what is now revealed [hence no mystery!]. Specifically, the promises
concerning the salvation of the Gentiles along with Israel, a certain solidarity between
the promises, concerning Messiah and his people, and, perhaps most important, the
prediction of the indwelling Spirit of God, make it difficult [not at all] to
deny some connection between this OT hope and the mystery of the union of Gentiles and
Israel in Christ found in the Ephesians 3 mystery.
Despite the unrevealed time of this
age to which the revelation of that mystery of Ephesians obviously refers, it is clear
that the truth of that mystery of the union of Gentiles and Israel in Christ's salvation
does relate to OT prophecy. Consequently, the revelation of this previously hidden
mystery relates primarily to the actualization or realization through Christ of that which
the prophets foretold and longingly anticipated (p. 150).
DOCTRINAL IGNORANCE --
Did you catch this Progressive method of kingdomizing the Church, by these doctors of
evangelical dispensational theology? It doesn't seem that they are attempting to be
devious, or guilty of overt subversion in seeking to establish their kingdom theme.
It is more likely a matter of sheer ignorance concerning the rightly-divided Word of
truth.
Is this not inexcusable biblical
nescience? They take the prophecies of the OT concerning the salvation of the nation
of Israel and the Gentile nations in the Millennial Kingdom--having already made the
Church nothing but a phase of that coming Kingdom--and apply those kingdom prophecies to
the Church!
The Gospel of the grace of God has to do
with individual believing Jews and Gentiles--the Gospel of the Kingdom has to do
with nations. First, the Nation of Israel:
"For I would not, brethren, that ye
should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits: that
blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion
the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My [new] covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Rom. 11:25-27).
Then, the Gentile Nations:
"When the Son of Man shall come in
His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His
glory. And before Him shall be gathered all the [Gentiles] nations.... Then
shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:31,32,34).
This is kingdom salvation, and has nothing
whatsoever to do with the heavenly Church. Salvation in the Body of Christ is an
individual matter, confined to this present dispensation of grace, where individual
believing Jews and Gentiles become members of the Body of Christ, seated in their heavenly
position before the Father, "hidden with Christ in God." No kingdom
nation, including Israel, nor any individual in them, will ever know anything of this!
Tragically, all too few Christians know it! But Progressivism can only see on
the earthly, horizontal kingdom level:
We have seen that the mystery of the
church is vitally related to the OT promise of spiritual salvation in the Messianic era.
It is part and parcel of the one great mystery of Christ--namely, God's
eschatological salvation through His Son (p. 153).
Eschatological salvation of Israel and the
Gentiles was the obvious theme of all OT prophecy--there is no mystery about that!
But the truth of the Church, composed of individual believing Jews and Gentiles
(Christians), was unknown throughout the OT, and the Synoptic Gospels. That
mystery was not in the Scriptures, but was "hidden in God." And it was
not revealed until Paul:
"If ye have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God which is given me toward you, how that by revelation He made known
unto me the mystery, ( ... by which, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is
now revealed unto His holy [NT] apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
"That the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs, and of the same Body [not kingdom], and partakers of his promise in Christ by the
Gospel [the Gospel of Grace, not the Kingdom Gospel], and to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages hath been hidden in God
who created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:2-6,9).
THE PROGRESSIVES'
-"MYSTERY" -- The mystery of the Church is no mystery to the all-seeing
Progressives. To them the mystery is not a matter of the revelation of previously
unknown truth, but rather the making real or actual of something that was already
foretold--right there in OT prophecy, but not yet fullfilled:
Our discussion of the apostle's teaching
concerning the Ephesians 3 mystery leads to several conclusions. First, the unity of
Gentile and Jew in Christ is the fulfillment of the divine salvation promised for
messianic times, when the nations along with Israel would enjoy God's blessing
(emphasis mine) (p. 155).
While the OT picture of salvation for the
Gentiles involves all aspects of life, including international peace, it most certainly
includes the spiritual salvation that is presently enjoyed by believers in Christ.
This salvation, as the NT reveals, is nothing less than the beginning of the fulfillment
of the new covenant promised in the OT.
When we set these prophecies alongside
Paul's teaching about the union of Jew and Gentile in salvation through Christ, it seems
difficult to believe that he intends no reference to those prophecies and that his use of
"mystery" means previously unknown truth absolutely (p. 163).
Absolutely, Robert! The Word
of truth is absolute concerning the mystery of the Church prior to Paul! And an
absolute mystery means the prorogation of Progressivism!
In addition to the fact that the equal
sharing of Jew and Gentile in the present spiritual salvation found in Christ is in accord
with the OT prophecies, this conclusion is supported by the fact that the teaching of the
relationship of Jews and Gentiles in Ephesians 3:6 is in reality part of the broad [not
that broad!] "mystery of Christ" that is clearly related to OT prophecy.
Thus we agree with the
non-dispensationalists [Covenantists] that Paul's teaching concerning the mystery
of the church in the union of Jew and Gentile in Christ is a fulfillment of OT prophecies
(p. 164).
The Progressives relate the unrelatable,
i.e. , individual members of the heavenly Body of Christ, to the nations of the earthly
Messianic Kingdom.
The NT's connecting the truth of the
mystery to the OT concepts of human solidarity, and especially the prophecies of the
inwardness of the divine work in the heart and the indwelling of God himself through the
Spirit in the new covenant, also shows that this mystery is not totally unrelated to
previous prophecy.
As in the case of the mystery of the
one body in Ephesians 3, the nature of the mystery in Colossians 1 has to do with
revelation in the sense of making real or actual something that was previously foretold,
but not yet fulfilled (p. 172).
But God says the mystery was a tale
untold--until Paul. "Even the mystery which hath been hidden from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints. To whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:26,27).
The mysteries are made manifest to the
saints. Nevertheless, it is manifest that to the Progressives they are not manifest:
Our study of the Pauline mysteries
related to the Church leads to a mediating conclusion between traditional
dispensationalism and nondispensationalism. Contrary to the former, the contents of
both mysteries--i. e., the equal participation of Jew and Gentile in the body of Christ
(Eph. 3) and his indwelling in his people (Col. l)--are best understood as fulfillment of
OT prophecies.
Although a greater understanding of
these mysteries is revealed in the NT, their basic substance was already contained in the
OT prophecies. The former hiddenness thus related as much to their not being
realized or actualized in history as to any new disclosure of information. The
particular truth of Ephesians 3--that Jews and Gentiles have equal standing with God--is
only the fulfillment of the promise that Gentiles would one day share God's eschatological
salvation along with Israel (p. 173) .
Slight the Bride, and you have insulted
the Bridegroom. "He is the Head of the Body ... that in all things He might
have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18).
3) PAUL
IN THE CHURCH EPISTLES -- If you minister to the heavenly Body from
her exclusive Church Epistles, you can never--as do the Progressives--make Israel's
Messianic Kingdom predominant, and the Church but a phase of the same. If Church
truth is ministered faithfully to the Church, Progressive Dispensationalism is a dead
issue.
Paul first proclaimed the hidden
mystery: "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the ages unto our glory" (1 Cor. 2:7).
The mystery, as it relates to the
present, is the glorious truth that God has concluded both Jew and Gentile in unbelief
that He might have mercy upon all (Rom. 11:32); and that He might reconcile both unto God
in one body by the Cross (Eph. 2:16).
It is Paul who explains "how
that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery," insisting that "in other
ages [it] was not made known," that it was "unsearchable," i.e., not to be
found in Scripture thus far written, and "from the beginning of the ages... hidden in
God" (Eph. 3:3-9).
"And that He might reconcile both
[Jew and Gentile] unto God in one body by the Cross" (Eph. 2:16). This
"one Body" is not the subject of OT prophecy, but of the mystery first
revealed by Paul, and not until then. Nor is it the fulfillment of any covenant
promise.
Paul's ministry was not based upon
covenant promises or prophecies, but entirely upon the grace of God (Rom. 3:21-28; Eph.
1:7; 2:7). It was a mystery, kept secret until Paul's time (Rom. 16:25; Eph.
3:1-3), and gradually revealed to and through Paul (Acts 26:16;
22:17,18; 2 Cor. 12:1-7).
For both growth and ministry, we must
center in the glorified One who is the Life and Head of the Church. Thus we will not
be drawn down to Israel's earthly Millennial Kingdom. For God "hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6,7).
Abide Above! Why
"progress" to anything less?!
DISPENSATIONALISM, Pauline,
Classic, Traditional, Neo-, Progressive, Post-Acts 2, etc.
Here is a collection of resources for anyone interested in understanding what
dispensationalism is and what it isn't.
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