The Context of the New Testament

Gary continues his interview with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation and application.

I would like to know why it’s “boasting against the branches” (Rom. 11:18), as my letter-writing critic maintained, to question the basic assumptions of dispensationalism. Such a specious argument is typical of some dispensationalists who find it difficult to represent non-dispensational views accurately and have trouble offering a coherent biblical defense of their own dispensational paradigm without numerous interpretive caveats (e.g., gaps between stated years, dismissing time indicators, adding and removing words to a verse, etc.) when challenged on basic claims (e.g., that dispensationalists are the only ones who interpret the Bible in a consistently “literal” way). Dispensationalists fail to note what else Paul writes just a few verses later in Romans 11: “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again” (v. 23). Israelites will be grafted in when (and everyone else) give up their unbelief. I don’t know anyone who believes Jews are excluded from the gospel now that non-Jews are included. That would be “boasting against the branches.”

Paul is not dealing with a Church-Israel distinction in Romans 11. There is nothing in the entire book that indicates that there is a Church-Israel distinction. The word “church” doesn’t appear until chapter 16 where it refers in two places to local assemblies of believers (16:1, 5). Nothing is said about a “rapture” of the Church, Israel becoming a nation again, the need for a rebuilt temple, or the return of any Jews to their land as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. There is a single olive tree, and believing Jews and Gentiles become a part of the same tree in the same way: belief in Jesus as the Christ. “For there is no partiality with God…. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:11, 28-29).

In Galatians we read something similar: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:28-29). It’s not flesh and blood Israelites who are the heirs of the promises first made to Abraham. If a person belongs to Christ, then he or she is an heir of Abraham. The Bible couldn’t be any clearer on this point.

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Gary continues his interview with Pastor Greg Chacon about biblical interpretation and application. The Bible must be read in the context of what was happening historically at the time of the writings. This isn’t to say that the Bible isn’t about current events, because it is. The Bible is for every generation because it is God’s eternal truth, but it is not giving us “secret knowledge” about prophecy.

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