Thoughts On the End Times [6]: The Promise to Abraham...and the Church
If the Bible nowhere says that the rapture occurs before the Tribulation (it doesn’t) and if the pretribulation rapture depends on keeping Israel and the Church and their respective programs separate from each other, then any intertwining of the program for Israel and the program for the Church will remove the central reason for the pretribulation rapture.
In Genesis 12, God makes promises to Abram that become the foundation of God’s program for national Israel. God tells Abram he will be made “a great nation…so that you will be a blessing (12.2). And then God elaborates on that blessing:
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12.3)
Paul quotes that underlined clause in Galatians 3.7-8:
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
The promise of Genesis 12.3, Paul says, is the gospel of Jesus Christ involving the salvation of the Gentiles. That is an intertwining of the program for Israel with the program for the Church.
Paul goes even further a few verses later in Galatians 3.14:
“…so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
Dispensational theology says the reception of the Spirit of God was a complete mystery, unknown and unpredicted in the Old Testament. But Paul says God announced it to Abraham in Genesis 12.3. That, too, is an intertwining of the program for Israel and the program for the Church.
But I was taught that the Old Testament said nothing about the program for the Church, that everything about the Church was an unrevealed mystery because of what Paul said in Ephesians 3.4-6:
When you read this, you can perceive my [Paul’s] insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3.4-6)
Paul says the great was mystery “was not made known…as it has now been revealed”. He didn’t mean that it wasn’t revealed at all (as our teachers interpreted it) but rather that the revelations of the Old Testament were less clearly defined. The promises were foggier, more blurred in the Old Testament, but were clearly revealed by the apostles and prophets of the New Testament.
The grand plan of God to bless the world was, from the start, not two plans, but one: the gospel of Christ – justification by grace through faith of Jew and Gentile and the Holy Spirit living in all believers – God dwelling in the midst of His people. The Lord announced that at the outset of the entire program. It is the plan for Israel and the Church.
The two plans are not separate and distinct but intricately intertwined. And if there is any intertwining of Israel’s plan and the plan for the Church, the theological reasons for the pretribulation rapture evaporate.
In Genesis 12, God makes promises to Abram that become the foundation of God’s program for national Israel. God tells Abram he will be made “a great nation…so that you will be a blessing (12.2). And then God elaborates on that blessing:
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (Genesis 12.3)
Paul quotes that underlined clause in Galatians 3.7-8:
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
The promise of Genesis 12.3, Paul says, is the gospel of Jesus Christ involving the salvation of the Gentiles. That is an intertwining of the program for Israel with the program for the Church.
Paul goes even further a few verses later in Galatians 3.14:
“…so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
Dispensational theology says the reception of the Spirit of God was a complete mystery, unknown and unpredicted in the Old Testament. But Paul says God announced it to Abraham in Genesis 12.3. That, too, is an intertwining of the program for Israel and the program for the Church.
But I was taught that the Old Testament said nothing about the program for the Church, that everything about the Church was an unrevealed mystery because of what Paul said in Ephesians 3.4-6:
When you read this, you can perceive my [Paul’s] insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3.4-6)
Paul says the great was mystery “was not made known…as it has now been revealed”. He didn’t mean that it wasn’t revealed at all (as our teachers interpreted it) but rather that the revelations of the Old Testament were less clearly defined. The promises were foggier, more blurred in the Old Testament, but were clearly revealed by the apostles and prophets of the New Testament.
The grand plan of God to bless the world was, from the start, not two plans, but one: the gospel of Christ – justification by grace through faith of Jew and Gentile and the Holy Spirit living in all believers – God dwelling in the midst of His people. The Lord announced that at the outset of the entire program. It is the plan for Israel and the Church.
The two plans are not separate and distinct but intricately intertwined. And if there is any intertwining of Israel’s plan and the plan for the Church, the theological reasons for the pretribulation rapture evaporate.