Listen closely to this short clip (5 minutes) of a debate (Catholic Mass, 1999) between James White (a sound Calvinist and Amillenarian) and a man named Sungenis. There is a discussion of God’s faithfulness to His promises to Israel. The apologist believes that God’s promises were to physical Israel — and notice how this supports the man’s view of man’s ability to lose one’s salvation.
Dr. MacArthur said at SC2007, “The irony is that those who most celebrate the sovereign grace of election regarding the church, and its inviolable place in God’s purpose from predestination to glorification, and those who most aggressively and militantly defend the truth of promise and fulfillment, those who are the advocates of election being divine, unilateral, unconditional, and the revocable by nature for the church, unashamedly deny the same for elect Israel. That is a strange division. As it does, the perpetuity of the elect church to salvation glory, so the Scripture in similar language and by promises from the same God, affirms the perpetuity of ethnic Israel to a future salvation of a generation of Jews that will fulfill all divine promises given to them by God. In both cases this is the work of, and the result of, divine sovereign election.”
But if Dr. MacArthur would not misrepresent Amillennialism and replace his phrase “deny the same for elect Israel” with “deny the same for elect Israel which is Israel of the heart, not Israel of the flesh”, then you can see how quickly Dr. MacArthur’s whole theory would collapse.
But Dr. MacArthur does not believe that “elect Israel” is the Israel of the heart. Even though Paul writes extensively about this in the New Testament saying with all clarity that the promises to Abraham’s offspring were promises to all (Jew and Gentile) who have faith in Christ, Dr. MacArthur said in his speech, “Israel [is the] eschatological group of ethnic Israelites…”
The problems with this proposition are numerous. I hope all my Dispy friends take this occasion to think about it.
This is not against Dr. MacArthur personally. He is still a giant among preachers and loved by us all. But his dispensationalism is based on a faulty assumption that he reads into the OT which in turn causes him to have a faulty ecclessiology and eschatology.
Back to the video: If you believe that God’s salvific promises were to ethnic Israel but many ethnic Jews are in Hell, then your soteriology denies the sovereignty of God.
Dr. MacArthur said in his speech, “If you get Israel right you will get eschatology right.” Well, I agree… but you hermeneutic must start earlier that getting Israel right. You need to get the Garden right. You need to get the Protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15 right. And if you happen to miss it, don’t make two mistakes by then ignoring the exegesis of the covenants by the Apostles!
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
Jason,
Would you explain the following statement a little bit more?
“If you believe that God’s salvific promises were to ethnic Israel but many ethnic Jews are in Hell, then your soteriology denies the sovereignty of God.”
Somehow I’m missing the connection between “all Israel will be saved” and the above statement. I’ve always believed that the phase “all Israel will be saved” refered to those Israelites who were alive when Jesus returns.
Thanks.
Hampton,
First of all tell me where it says “all Israel will be saved… when Jesus returns.”
If I am not mistaken you have quoted half a verse (Romans 11:26) and then added your presupposition into the text.
Romans 11:26 begins by saying “In this way…” You need to answer the question, “In what way will all Israel be saved?”
And then ask “When?” And you find the answer to that question in verse 31 with a little three letter word – “now”.
Now concerning my statement: Do you believe that God promised salvation to all of Abraham’s offspring?
If you say yes and have in mind ethnic Jews then you have a problem because not all ethnic Jews were saved. That makes God a liar.
If you say yes and have in mind Galatians 3 that God’s promise to Abraham was to save all Gentiles and Jews who possessed faith in Christ, then God has kept His promise because all people of faith have been saved.
Thus one’s soteriology is being tested as one defines God’ Israel. Either one soteriology defines a sovereign God who elects people to come to faith and be saved. Or your soteriology defines a God who elects people but cannot guarantee that He will be faithful to that election.
I, as a Calvinist, believe that God has a chosen people that are defined in several ways in the Bible. One way that is pertinent to our conversation is God’s elect in Scripture is defined as Israel. The nation of Israel was real but also typological in the theological sense. As a type, Israel represented that in the world there are believers and non-believers. Israel also taught the world that God curses and judges sin. Israel also taught the world that God is sovereign. And through Israel God also gave the world the prophets, the Scriptures, and the Messiah.
But when the Messiah came the typological aspect of Israel was no longer needed. Christ fulfilled all the types and shadows of the Old Covenant. And due to their rejection of the Messiah [their last spiritual lesson for the world was that the world hates God] God judged Israel in 70 AD, destroyed her temple, and the kingdom of God spread around the world.
Know this, that all true Israelites, those who were circumcised of the heart (faith in Christ), have been and are being saved even NOW — along with all elect Gentiles. Together they are united by the baptism of the Spirit to operate as the Body of Christ (see Hebrews 11:39-40).
Jason,
I think that the answer to how all Israel will be saved (as referenced in Romans 11:26) is that they will all believe that Jesus is the Messiah or to quote Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” I don’t think Paul is referring to any other type of salvation in this passage.
Paul’s reference to “all Israel will be saved” clearly refers to the fact that there has been a partial hardening of Israel (verse 25) until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Verse 30 says that the only reason that we have been shown mercy is because of [ethic] Israel’s disobedience. Ironically that statement follows, “for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” At this point, being a Gentile by birth, I would have to agree with Paul when he states, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”
At this point, it seems that part of Israel (really true Israel) is composed of Gentiles, the majority of which have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree in the last 2,000 years. If we look at verses 23 and 24 where Paul talks about God being able to graft the natural branches back in and how easily they will be grafted back in (compared to the unnatural grafting of the Gentiles), and then look at verse 31 in which Paul says that they, the enemies of the gospel (verse 28; also a reference to hardened Israel) will be shown mercy because of the mercy shown to us Gentiles.
Taking all of this information together, it seems a reasonable inference that when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in that God will return to ethnic Israel and once again show mercy to them as He as shown mercy to us (Gentiles). Of course, as to when and how this occurs, people can argue all day.