Systematic Theology

Writing a Fundamental and Biblical Systematic Theology for the 21st Century REGISTER to comment at www.theology.gsbaptistchurch.com/wp-login.php?action=register

October Systematic Theology Working Paper

October 1, 2016, Pastor Rice, Uncategorized,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It has been some time since I have addressed the Systematic Theology Working Group.  Be assured that this effort must continue and that there is a cause. “A Systematic Theology for the 21st Century” is back in my focus (my dissertation is now in final draft). The systematic theology section on Eschatology is presently little more than a critique of Dr. Chafer’s 1948 shortcoming and it needs revisited.
Good Eschatology springs from a good dispensational understanding. Reformed Theology is corrupt to the core because of their vile Covenant Theology, and its Satanic Replacement Theology. All three theologies, Reformed, Covenant, and Replacement, stem from the evil Rome Catholic Church Doctrines. The following outline needs to find a good home in our Systematic Theology: Part 11 – Eschatology. I appreciate your review and comment on this effort.

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The Facts and Flaws of Covenant Theology

  1. Covenant Theology is the dominant theological system of most mainline Protestant churches.
  2. It is a system of theology that interprets the Bible’s philosophy of history through the lens of two or three covenants.
    1. Covenant of Works (in the Garden of Eden)
    2. Covenant of Redemption and/or Grace (After the Garden of Eden)
  3. It is founded on Replacement Theology, which:
    1. maintains that God has replaced the Jewish people with the church
    2. and maintains that Christians are now God’s chosen people.
  4. John Calvin was a Covenant Theologian, dogmatic that:
    1. Christians are now the elect of God,
    2. Israel is no longer the elect of God,
    3. Individual Christians are chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world.
  5. It is a very dangerous Catholic and Protestant Theology
  6. Calvinism’s Dogma on Covenant Theology shows in the Presbyterian Church

Info from Friends of Israel, foi.org article by James Showers accessed 9/9/2016

  1. Calvinism’s Dogma on Covenant Theology shows in his Presbyterian Church
    1. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) began a “phased, selective divestment” from American corporations operating in Israel beginning in 2004. Charges of antisemitism caused the General Assembly to drop it in 2006.
    2. In June 2014 The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) considered banning the word “Israel” from its prayers. Amid charges of antisemitism it was ultimately rejected by the 221st General Assembly
    3. In June 2016 Presbyterian Church USA’s General Assembly Assails Israel and Abandons Christians in Middle East. Shows an obsession with Israel, and a disregard for Muslim slaughter of Christians
    4. The Church sponsored Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) has a long history of broadcasting anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda. The leader states that Israeli soldiers “are not human beings.”
    5. PCUSA passed several resolutions aimed to pressure Israel to leave territories it has occupied since its 1967 war with neighboring states.
    6. Presbyterian Church USA delegates angered mainstream Jewish groups, the measures unfairly “demonize” Israel, give a pass to Palestinian violence and question the Jewish state’s right to exist.
  1. The Flaws of Covenant Theology
    1. It only explains God’s supposed purpose for elect man and does not touch other programs God is carrying out in history.
      1. What about the Covenant with Abraham? With Israel? Of Law?
      2. What about the New Covenant in Christ’s blood?
      3. What about his Second Coming and Millennial Reign? And his promised Restoration of Israel?
      4. the unifying principle of Covenant Theology is too narrow. It deals solely with man’s redemption; it does not include God’s plan for the redemption of all creation. Nor does it provide enough answers for what God is doing here on Earth.
    2. It ultimately focuses on man, not on God. A hermeneutic that spiritualizes the words of Scripture, reinterpreting the literal into something figurative, it is a platform for humanism. Liberal, modernist movements flourish in mainline Protestant, Covenant churches.
    3. Another of Covenant Theology’s serious flaws is that it denies the distinction between Israel and the church.
  1. Covenant Theology denies the distinction between Israel and the church.
    1. The church, they suppose, begins with Abraham (Gen. 12), rather than in Acts 2;
      1. Old Testament Israel no longer refers to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
      2. Old Testament Israel is redefined as the covenant people, the people of faith in the Old Testament.
      3. No longer is it physical descent that makes one an Israelite; it is faith in God.
    2. Covenant Theology uses two methods to interpret Scripture:
      1. 1) the historical-grammatical-literal method when it suits them, and
      2. 2) an allegorical-spiritual one that enables them to redefine Israel and make it the church, rather than the Jewish people.
    3. They change the Millennial Kingdom from a literal, future 1,000-year period into the current Church Age via Amillennialism or Postmillennialism
    4. They deny the Rapture of the Church
  1. Covenant Theology is built on Replacement Theology.
    1. to remove Replacement Theology from Covenant Theology would collapse the entire system.
    2. Covenant theologians deny that God has two distinct programs, one for Israel and one for the church.
    3. Covenant theologians refuse to define the church as beginning in Acts 2, with Israel being a separate entity.
    4. Further, they deny a literal, future Tribulation and the Millennium.
    5. To accept these truths would turn them into dispensationalists.
    6. It is important to be a Biblical Dispensationalist, and know the seven dispensations of God found in the Holy Bible.
      1. Innocency Gen 1:28
      2. Conscience Gen 3:23
      3. Human Government Gen 8:20
      4. Promise Gen 12:1
      5. Law Exod 19:8
      6. Grace John 1:17. Eph 3:1-6
      7. Kingdom Eph 1:10, Rev 20
    7. Also EIGHT Distinct Covenants
      1. Edenic Gen 1-3
      2. Adamic Gen 3:15
      3. Noahic Gen 9:1
      4. Abrahamic Gen 15:18
      5. Mosaic Exod 19:25
      6. Palestinian Deut 30:3 (Return to Promised Land)
      7. Davidic 2Sam 7:16
      8. New Heb 8:8
    8. Why Should We Know This?
      1. When was this text written?
      2. To whom was it written?
      3. In what dispensation?
      4. For what purpose?
      5. Law of Context.
      6. Distinction of Truths.
      7. Observance of Great Transitional Divided.
  1. What God’s Word Actually Says
    1. Jesus Christ said, “I will build [future tense] My church” (Mt. 16:18). Christ was looking to a future day when the church would begin.
    2. God’s Word distinguishes between Israel and the church.
    3. Scripture calls Israel the wife of God (Isa. 54:5–6) but calls the church the Bride of Christ (Rev. 21:9; 22:17).
    4. God’s Word says there will be seven years of tribulation following the Rapture of the church. Covenant Theology claims
      1. there is no need for the Tribulation and
      2. no need to restore the nation of Israel and bring it to repentance
      3. because God is finished with Israel.
      4. there also is no reason for God to judge the Gentile nations for their treatment of the Jewish people.
    5. God’s Word promises Christ will rule from His throne for a literal 1,000 years.
      1. vs Amillennialism Augustine developed it about 400 BC as the Roman church began. “A” – “no” i.e. No Millennial Reign of Christ.
      2. vs Postmillennialism. The church will continue until the entire world becomes Christian, and opens the door for Christ to return to take all believers to the new heavens and new earth.
      3. Roman and Protestant theologians are FALSE TEACHERS!
  1. What Replacement Theology Maintains
    1. Replacement Theology maintains that, because the Jewish people rejected Jesus Christ, God has replaced or superseded ethnic Israel with the church* and punished them by rescinding all of the covenant promises He gave them. It also claims:
      1. (1) the church began with Abraham in Genesis 12,
      2. (2) the church is merely a continuation of Old Testament Israel,
      3. (3) the church is true or “spiritual Israel,” and
      4. (4) true Israel in the Old Testament was comprised of Abraham’s spiritual, not physical, descendants.
    2. Replacement theologians also claim we must first understand the New Testament before we can understand the Old. This method enables them to redefine Israel to mean Abraham’s spiritual descendants only.
    3. Replacement Theology also conveniently manages to uncouple God’s covenant promises from His covenant curses.
      1. The church inherits all of the promises to Israel,
      2. but the Jewish people (ethnic Israel) keep all of the covenant curses.
      3. This uncoupling is quite a feat.
    4. Since the Replacement church sees itself as a continuation of Old Testament Israel, it applies portions of Old Testament Law to itself while ignoring important New Testament teachings.
    5. Finally, Replacement Theology teaches there is no future for national Israel:
      1. God has thoroughly rejected Israel and no longer has a place for it in His plan for eternity apart from the salvation of individual Jewish people.
      2. Israel are no longer His Chosen People;
      3. There is no future 70th week of Daniel (see Daniel 9:24–27) or a future, literal, Millennial Kingdom of God on Earth.
    6. Replacement Theology is the historical position of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches and the common position of the Reformed and Covenant churches.
      1. It has fueled anti-Semitism for 1,800 years.
      2. More anti-Semitic acts have been committed in the name of the church than by all other groups combined.
  1. Replacement Theology Twists Christ’s Words
    1. Using a literal-historical-grammatical method of interpretation, we would expect to find:
      1. Clear, concise statements that God has rejected Israel.
      2. Definitive passages that teach that the church has replaced Israel.
      3. God’s declaration that He has excluded Israel from the Old Testament covenants.
      4. A total lack of New Testament verses that speak of Israel’s future in God’s plan.
    2. Speaking to a Jewish audience, Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it” (Mt. 21:43). Thus, Replacement theologians say:
      1. (1) God has permanently rejected national Israel, and
      2. (2) the “nation” to whom the Kingdom of God will be given is the church.
    3. Although this passage teaches that Israel will be judged, it concludes by promising a future day when a new generation of national Israel will repent and accept Him as Messiah.
    4. Furthermore, nowhere does Scripture define the church as a “nation.”
    5. Because the Jewish generation alive during His First Coming refused His offer of the restored Kingdom, God would take the Kingdom from them and give it to a future Jewish nation that will accept Him.
  1. Replacement Theology Twists Paul’s Words
    1. The most mis-quoted passage in defense of Replacement Theology is Galatians 6:16: “ And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” Replacement theologians say “Israel of God” refers to the catholic church.
    2. In the Holy Bible the word Israel refers to national or ethnic Israel, not the body of all believers.
    3. The Jewish believers were kept distinct from the Judaizers.
    4. It does not say the church has replaced Israel, it says that Gentiles are included with Israel.
    5. Replacement theologians also use Galatians 3:7 and 29 to bolster their position: “ Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” (v. 7). “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (v. 29).
    6. They maintain the words sons of Abraham and Abraham’s seed imply the church has become true Israel,
    7. They concluding that all believers are spiritual Jews.
    8. They tell us Abraham’s seed means believers are related to Christ, whom they say is the true seed of Abraham; Thus the church is true Israel, … they say.
    9. Galatians 3:7 and 29 do not say Israel has been replaced; they merely teach that people (Jewish or Gentile) who put their faith in Christ become partakers of the spiritual promises God made to Abraham. … “There is neither Jew nor Greek… for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
  1. What does God say about Israel’s future? If the New Testament teaches ethnic Israel has a future, then Replacement Theology is untrue.
    1. According to the New Testament, the nation of Israel and the Promised Land are vital to God establishing His restored Kingdom on Earth.
    2. The Bible teaches that Jesus fulfills the Davidic Covenant that guarantees a descendant of David will sit on David’s throne in Israel forever.
    3. The Hebrew Scriptures teach the Messiah will rule over Israel and the Gentile nations from His throne in Jerusalem (Isa. 9:6– 7; 11:1–12; Jer. 23:5–8; 33:14–16).
    4. The Old Testament prophets taught the Messiah will restore God’s Kingdom to Earth
    5. God will transform Earth to its pre-fall condition. No more disasters, disease, sickness, deformities, hard labor, thorns and thistles, pollution, wild nature in animals, injustice, or war.
    6. Thus Jesus said He will sit on His throne when Earth is restored to its condition as in the beginning—the restored Kingdom of God on Earth.
    7. Peter laid out an eschatological order for Israel. The nation’s repentance will lead God to blot out its sins; Christ will return, and then the times of refreshing will come from God when He restores the Kingdom.
    8. Peter didn’t teach Replacement Theology. Rather, he taught that God has a unique program for Israel that is key to God restoring His Kingdom on Earth.
    9. Paul also taught this truth: “ I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. ” (Rom. 11:1-2).
    10. Israel’s coming national reconciliation, Christ’s return, and the restoration of God’s Kingdom on Earth do not depend on anything the Jewish people have or have not done. They depend solely on God’s faithfulness to keep His irrevocable promises.
    11. According to Ezekiel 36, God will keep His promises for His name’s sake so that His name will be exalted above every name on Earth, under the earth, and in the heavens.
  2. Nowhere does the Bible teach God has rejected Israel or replaced it with the church.
  3. Nowhere does the Bible teach God has only two Covenants: Works and Grace.

Info from Friends of Israel, foi.org article by James Showers accessed 9/9/2016

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