During the summer of 2013 I led a brief introductory series on dispensationalism at our church for the Men's Wednesday Evening Bible Study. As an introductory series, it was beyond the scope of the Wednesday Evening Bible Study to address many of the finer details of dispensationalism and it's counterpart, covenant theology. The purpose of this blog is to provide a forum where those deeper issues may be addressed, explored, and discussed. Your comments and questions are welcome, and in the spirit of Christian dialogue, let's learn from one another as we pursue this important subject together.
I think one of the most interesting subjects I've thought about concerning dispensationalism has to do with the content of the OT saints' faith. When someone is first learning about dispensationalism, I think that the general theory is that OT saints had faith in God (period).
ReplyDeleteI had always kind of felt uncomfortable with that teaching and then heard it taught that they believed in not just God (the Father and Spirit) but also in the coming Messiah. It seems so clear to me from Gen 3:15 on that a future Messiah is a part of God's plan and promise--something the saints would understand. To me, that has to be a part of the content of their faith.
Thoughts?
I understand your question because I've considered it too. Certainly the Gospel is present in Genesis 3:15, but I wonder how extensive their understanding of it was at that point. We look at it so clearly because we have the full revelation of both Old and New Testaments. It's similar to the doctrine of the Trinity. In Genesis 1:26 God uses the plural pronouns "Us" and "Our" to refer to Himself. Does that mean that Adam and Eve knew about the Trinity?
ReplyDeleteIt's possible that the early OT saints believed that God Himself was the promised Messiah (unaware of the triune nature of God) until progressive revelation specified the second Person of the Trinity.
I agree that it is difficult to put ourselves fully in that context because we have the completed revelation; however, I don't think that they would have considered the Messiah to be the Father because Gen 3:15 does specifically say "her seed." Were the confused? Sure. But I think we can give them a little more credit than we usually do.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Gen 1:26 really applies to this because we can't be sure at all if Adam and Eve knew the creation story as we do today since it was written years later by Moses. I doubt they had any real grip on the facts surrounding the Trinity (not that we do completely!), though they surely experienced Him fully.
So, all of that to ask, what is the proper teaching on this? For me, it becomes dangerously close to a salvific dichotomy (don't I sound smart??) to say that OT saints just believed in God.
I know, I know, Romans 4:3 says plainly that "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness"; however, that promise, originally found in Gen 15:6 is a promise about Abraham's future offspring (of which the Messiah would come). I don't know, it may be a stretch.
Though I believe that the purpose of history is doxological and not merely soteriological, I know that the crux of everything is Jesus. No one was ever saved apart from Him and no one ever will be.