In reply to:
[color:"blue"]In the dispensation of the Kingdom, [color:red]all will be believers. After children are born they will still be believers, (how could they not be, since Christ will be right there?), but some will be rebellious and eventually fight on the side of Satan. This is not as far-fetched as it sounds. After all, the Demons believe, Satan believes.

Now, how does one, who is a Christian, lose his salvation in the Mil dispensation, as compared not being able to lose it in this present dispensation? How are people born Christians? Does the Mil dispensation do away with faith if one can be born a Christian? How did Adam and Eve sin, God was right there?

And what is it that the demons believe? The text says they believe [color:blue]that there is one God and not that they believe in the redemptive work of Christ. James here is comparing true faith and pretense faith. James point is that no fallen angel can claim salvation by merely reciting certain facts of the true faith—the fact here being [color:blue]that there is one God. God is not some cosmic-genie who when rubbed by the mere reciting of Scriptural facts is induced to do anything, including making one a Christian. This reminds me of the Faith movement: Name it, Claim it, Satanize it! [img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/puke.gif" alt="puke" title="puke[/img]

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[color:"blue"]The partition has been removed. We Christins are spiritual decendents of Abraham. God made promises to the Jews. The Jews were unfaithful, God was not. Just because the Jews didn't fulfill their part of the "bargain" doesn't mean God won't. When God makes a promise, He always keeps it, no matter what. He promised them a King, and He will deliver. As far as what will happen in the future, we must not try to paint God in a corner, and say You must always do things this way. I don't know what kinds of partitions will be in Heaven, and neither do you.

The point was that there are no partitions, the Church is Israel, but in the DPM you must reconstruct this “partition” for as you yourself just said, [color:blue]the partition has been removed. A huge fallacy for DPM.

In reply to:
[color:"blue"] Covenant theologians hold that there are various dispensations (and even use the word!) within the outworking of the covenant of grace. Hodge, for instance, believed that there are four dispensations after the Fall - Adam to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to Christ, and Christ to the end. Louis Berkhof writes of only two basic dispensations - the Old and the New, but within the Old he sees four periods and all of these are revelation of the covenant of grace. In other words, a man can believe in dispensations, and even see them in relation to progressive relation, without being a dispensationalist. Most of the criticisms you have made in other posts about "Dispy" are answered by Ryrie in this book.

I am sorry but I fail to see your point. Of course, we see dispensations—the historical text and its natural divisions. Different men have held to a different number of dispensations, BUT they held them for “different” reasons than the Dispies attempt to quote them, thus making an error of equivocation. How the dispensations are interpreted is what we are discussing! Within the covenant of grace, I could divide Scripture into several historical segments, each revealing the glory of God and the continual Church of God. But, there is still only ONE covenant here, though divided into several historical segments.

Ryie in quoting Berkhof does great dis-service to his cause. If his cause is to preach truth then why does he make it appear as if Berkhof supports the DPM system? This is poor scholarship and poor discipleship. Anyone picking up Berkhof’s systematic can read this wording about DPM:

[color:blue]The theory is based on a literal interpretation of the prophetic delineations of the future of Israel and the Kingdom of God, which is entirely untenable…. The so-called postponement theory, which is a necessary link in the premillennial scheme, is devoid of all Scriptural basis ….There is no positive Scriptural foundation whatsoever for the Premillennial view of a double, or even a three- or fourfold resurrection, as their theory requires, nor for spreading the last judgment over a period of thousand years by dividing it into three judgments….
Berkhof has multiple pages against the DPM theory.

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[color:"blue"]Joe, I do understand that after what the Jews did to Christ that everything changed for them, and it changed for the worse, unless they became Christians, and most didn't. They did lose their special place - in some way. I'm not missing that.

This is the major problem—the separation of Israel and the Church. Until you see the unity of the Scripture here, as presented in my other post, the error will remain. The church and Israel as ONE is a major hang-up and not only when speaking about eschatology!


Reformed and Always Reforming,