Re: List of Millenial Passages Fulfilled - Quoted by disciples
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:26 pm
Thanks for that link, Homer. I had only HEARD of Tim Warner, and that in a negative sense. This is the first I have ever read of his own words. I do agree with much of what he says. But I am not a dispensationalist in any sense. Believing in the future millenial reign of Christ does not require a dispensationalist frame of mind. Although Justin Martyr and Irenæus were millenialists, I am sure they knew nothing of dispensationalism. Also, rather than thinking of "The Church" as existing throughout history beginning with ancient Israel, my thought is similar to that of some preterists in seeing Israel as consisting only of those who were submissive to Yahweh (those who are called "the remnant") and that when Messiah appeared on the scene, the remnant of Israel were His disciples. Thus King Jesus and His subjects, the disciples, comprised the Kingdom of God in the midst of the Pharisees. So, in the figure the apostle Paul uses in Romans, the Olive Tree (Israel) continued. Those not of the remnant were cut off, and gentile disciples of Messiah were grafted in, and in this way "All Israel shall be saved." For though the descendants of Israel be as plenteous as the sand of the sea, only a remnant them shall be saved. Thus "the Israel of God" are those in the ancient days who truly obeyed Yahweh, and those under the New Covenant who are disciples of the Messiah, and this "true Israel" continues as long as mankind exists on this earth. All of God's promises to Israel belong to the "Olive Tree," the Israel of God.