Friday, August 26, 2022

Dispensationalism Is a Continuity System

 by Michael J Vlach

Dispensationalism primarily is a CONTINUITY system since it believes the covenants and promises of the Old Testament will be fulfilled literally through the two comings of Jesus. With Dispensationalism, the New Testament maintains the Old Testament expectations. It does not reinterpret or transcend the Old Testament expectations. What was promised in the OT concerning earth, land, Israel, nations, the animal kingdom, Day of the Lord, an earthly kingdom, etc., will be fulfilled literally in a way continuous with what the inspired OT authors intended.
Yes, Dispensationalism believes in certain discontinuities like the church is not Israel and that Christians are now under the New Covenant, not the Mosaic Covenant. But overall, Dispensationalism is a continuity system, more so than the other evangelical systems which see the NT reinterpreting or transcending OT expectations.

7 comments:

  1. Continuity and Discontinuity, but also Duality. Romans 9:6-8 teaches that there are two Israels. Christians and Jews by Faith in Christ are now Abraham's seed (Gal.3:25-29).

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really enjoyed reading this, Dr. Vlach! I found it very insightful and I have really enjoyed reading your books. What is your email if someone wanted to contact you?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I enjoyed this, Dr. Vlach. I'd like to find out which book of yours contains this teaching, and get a copy. Is it Dispensational Hermeneutics?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dispensationalism is a discontinuity system that posits that the church doesn't fulfill the promises of the OT covenants. Continuity/Discontinuity has to do with whether the church fulfills the promises to Israel. Dispensationalism accepts the presupposition of supersessionism that the primary Israel of the OT was the ethnic group.
    See "Genesis' Theological Definition of Israel and the Presuppositional Error of Supersessionism" (Trinity, 2021):
    https://covenantcaswell.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Genesiss-Definition-of-Israel.pdf

    ReplyDelete