Jul
14
Different Dispensations? Yes and No
July 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Pretribbers are dispensationalist. Dispensationalists believe that the church age will end when the Tribulation Period begins because God is going back to the Old Covenant to deal with Israel under the seventieth week of Daniel. Just like water and oil don’t mix, they believe that the Old and New covenants don’t mix. Therefore the purpose of the secret Rapture is to save the church age saints from the Tribulation Period. They believe that’s how God is going make the change from one dispensation to another–through a dramatic invisible coming of the Lord where the saints leave their clothes behind and head for heaven for seven years. However, we have a problem.In the same way the secret Rapture doctrine is false, the pretribbers’ dispensation doctrine is also false. The only purpose there is a dispensation doctrine is to add evidence to the very desirous secret Rapture doctrine. However, both doctrines are completely false. Here’s why! The church age is the New Covenant age. The New Covenant is eternal. It will never end. It continues through the church age, through the Tribulation Period, into the millennium, and right into eternity like we discussed before.
The seventieth week and the church age will coexist. We do not have to be gone in order for God to deal with Israel. They are a very small group of people in a very small country and God is very big. He can deal with Israel and the church at the same time. The only reason there is a secret Rapture doctrine is because Christians desire it. Someone taught them this doctrine and they said, “I like that teaching!” Paul warned us in advance that someone would teach our desires and tell us what we want to hear. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4; NIV). We now have a great number of teachers (worldwide) teaching the secret Rapture doctrine because it promises escape from the Tribulation Period. However, the secret Rapture doctrine is a myth. It’s a false Christian fairytale.
Dispensationlists have created another myth called: dispensationalism, which resurrects an Old Covenant that has been done away with for 2000 years. The Old Covenant is gone, dead, and buried. Actually the Old Covenant saints came under the New Covenant before the Day of Pentecost. Here is the practical evidence of this truth. The Old Testament saints were promised a Messiah in the Scriptures. Jesus came as their Messiah. These saints were kept in Hades until Jesus came as a sacrificial Lamb to take their (and the world’s) sin away. There were two holding tanks in Hades. One tank (area) holds the unbelieving people who are doomed to the Lake of Fire. The other holding tank held the people of faith like Abraham and all the great Old Testament men and women of faith until Jesus took them to heaven. Now the pretribbers agree with this teaching. Hal Lindsey, a pretribber, writes,
When Jesus rose from the grave he took to heaven with Him the souls of all those who were in Paradise. This seems to be what the Apostle Paul meant by Jesus “leading the captives captive” when He was resurrected, the captives referring to those waiting for God’s promised redemption to be completed (Ephesians 4:8-10). (Hal Lindsey, There’s A New World Coming, page 266.)
This is true. Once the sin of the world was laid upon Jesus and He died, He was taken into Hades. For three days He was kept in Hades until God raised Jesus up “…through the blood of the eternal covenant…” (Heb. 13:20; NASB). God took Jesus’ own blood and raised Him from the dead so He became “…the first-born from the dead…” (Col. 1:18; NASB). When this happened Jesus conquered those who had conquered us, such as sin, the devil, and death. The devil had the keys of death and Hades stripped out of his hands by Jesus. Jesus said in Rev. 1:18, “…I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades” (NASB).
“When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them…” (Colossians 2:15; NASB) by taking the keys of death and Hades from Satan and leading the Old Testament saint from their holding tank called “Paradise” into heaven to be with the Father. Satan had no power to stop Jesus.
These righteous Old Testament saints who were there by faith were reborn with the Holy Spirit and taken to heaven with Jesus. Why? Because their spirits were born dead. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3, “… unless one is born again, he cannot see [or enter (v. 5)] the kingdom of God” (NASB). These Old Testament saints had to have their spirits born again just like us, or they could not see or enter the kingdom of God. No exceptions.
Before the day of Pentecost with its outpouring of the Holy Spirit, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the millions of Old Testament saints making them the first members of the body of Christ so they could be brought to the Father in heaven. Jesus preached the gospel to those who were dead so they might live in the spirit. “For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:6; NASB).
What is the gospel? It’s the New Covenant. The gospel is the good news that Jesus’ Blood washed away their sins and that His Spirit rebirths their spirit so they can live and enter into the kingdom of God in this earth and in heaven. This eternal gospel which has been preached for the last two thousand years will be preached in the Tribulation Period (Rev.14:6). “Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth–to every nation, tribe, language and people” (NIV). The New Covenant is not going to stop for the Tribulation Period. It’s eternal.
Here are some quick reasons why the Old Testament saints are in the New Covenant right now.
(1) The New Covenant was promised by God to all Jews in the Old Covenant through Jeremiah (31:31). Jesus came to fulfill this promise and He filled them with His Holy Spirit and took them to heaven.
(2) Because of Adam’s sin, we are all born into this world with our spirits dead. The Old Covenant could not save any one. Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 3:7 that the Law (the Old Covenant) was “…the ministry of death…” (NASB). The Old Covenant could not give eternal life, but could only minister death. Therefore, Jesus had to come with the New Covenant of life to give life to their dead spirits. That’s why Jesus preached the gospel of the New Covenant to the Old Testament saints so “…they may live in the spirit according to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:6; NASB).
(3) Those Old Testament saints had to be redeemed. Hebrews 9:15 says, “And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant [the Old Covenant], those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance“ (NASB). Part of the eternal inheritance is the Holy Spirit.
Paul said in Eph. 1:13-14, “…having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (NASB).
Paul, speaking about the kingdom of God in Rom. 14:17, restates this fact, “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (NASB). Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit are the standards for those who are in the kingdom of God here on the earth and in heaven. In Hebrews 12:22-24, we can see that the Old Testament saints in the heavenly city now because “…the spirits of righteous men [were] made perfect…” (NASB). They were made perfect by the rebirthing of the Holy Spirit. The Lord wants to live in every saint. That’s why He came to die for them.
(4) The Old Covenant has been done away with. The writer of Hebrews, speaking about Jesus, writes, “then He said, `BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO THY WILL.’ He takes away the first [Old Covenant] in order to establish the second [New Covenant]. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all” (Heb. 10:9-10; NASB). Jesus has established the New Covenant. He has sanctified saints of both covenants–once for all (v. 10). God cannot go back to the Old Covenant when the seventieth week of Daniel begins because it is a covenant of death and it has been done a way with. The New Covenant is eternal.
(5) Jesus told the Pharisees, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it” (Matt. 21:43; NASB). The Pharisees must have been shocked because they represented the leadership of Israel. God promised Israel would rule for eternity. Who might this nation be who will receive the kingdom of God? The only people on earth who produce fruit are the saints of God from spiritual Israel and the spiritual church. Together, we both become one holy nation. Peter understood this. He quotes scripture from Exodus 19:6, to us Christians in the church: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,…” (1 Peter 2:9; NASB). The holy nation is the church, the called out ones from every dispensation.
Whether you want to be or not, you have been grafted into the body of spiritual Israel. You are not separate. We are Abraham’s offspring, heirs to the promises through Jesus our Lord God Almighty. Isaiah writes, “…Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons” (Isaiah 66:8; NASB). Most Christians interpret this passage as Israel becoming a nation again in one day back in 1948, and this is true. However, there is a spiritual interpretation also. The nation Jesus referred to in Matt. 21:43 was born in one day also.
The nation of Blood bought Jews and Gentiles, a people for God’s own possession, was bought and paid for in one day. The day that Jesus died for our sins on the cross He brought forth many sons. The first sons were the Old Testament saint. They were the first members into the body of Christ because they came under the New Covenant that was promised to them. Then the people we call the church were grafted into true Israel. The sons of Israel are the sons of Jesus who make up a Holy Nation which is the body of Christ! This Holy Nation will rule the world once Jesus comes back.
We can call God’s dealings with men at different times throughout history: dispensations. And that is alright. But when we try to justify a desirous secret Rapture doctrine by declaring the Old Testament saints are not under the New Covenant, that’s when the pretribbers fail. No one will ever be secretly Raptured because the New Covenant is eternal. If you want more information or proof on why the secret Rapture doctrine is false, my book Jacob’s Trouble discusses both sides in length and gives a lot more proof. Call 1-866-909-2665 and order the book today.
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