PROGRESSIVE REVELATION WITHIN ESCHATOLOGY, DISPENSATION THEOLOGY

Part Two

^

We are to live with the view that Jesus Christ is LORD. We are to grow in our Knowlege of Jesus Christ.

This is not to say God is still making new revelation, He does know the beginning and the end (there will be not end, but eternity). This is not to say that God is revealing new revelation to man today. But I would say, some events are becoming clearer to us today than they were, let us say sixty years ago.

When the term PROGRESSIVE DISPENSATION is used theologically or biblically, they are describing the unfolding of that administration or plan for the world in various stages in history. I have always looked at the Scripture in view of History in stages of time. Adam to Abraham to Moses to David to Christ and then into the Kingdom.

I was really brave in Seminary in teaching an after class Bible study on the seven dispensations.

How a first year student could have done that, is amazing, or stupid. But I had been teaching that as a Youth Pastor in my home church for several years.

From God’s point of view, a dispensation is an economy. From man’s point of view it is a responsibility to the particular revelation given at the time. In other words, Adam was asked to respond to the given revelation he was given at the time. Adam did not have all the revelation that we have today, for example. Really.

God knows exactly what He has planned for all eternity. But even today, we do not know very much about the future. Daniel didn’t know a whole lot about what he was even writing in the book of Daniel.

• The basic truths of Scripture are in their essence present in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, yet progressively in stages they are unfolded, explained, clarified and brought to their fullness in the New Testament. What has been the saying, The Old Testament Veiled and the New Testament Revealed.
  

Thus, the doctrines of Creation, God’s nature and attributes, Man as created and as fallen in sin, God's covenant of redemption, the Savior - his person and work, Faith and repentance and salvation through grace, judgment, are there from the beginning, though the fullness (and along with it, the understanding) of them undergoes a gradual development through Scripture.


Because of this, we must not demand the same understanding of God's truth by an Old Testament individual as we would find in Paul or John. Because God's revelation is both through word and deed, there is an unfolding revelation through the events of Israel’s history- Abraham's covenant and pilgrimage, Israel’s captivity and exodus, of judges, kings, prophets, captivity and restoration. God did not present Moses with a complete systematic theology, but He did in "nutshell" form lay out all the basic truths of the Bible.

• "This perspective of Progressive Revelation is very important to the interpreter. He will expect the full revelation of God in the New Testament. He will not force New Testament meanings into the Old, yet he will be able to more fully expound the Old knowing its counterparts in the New. He will adjust his sights to the times, customs, manners and morals of the people of God at any given state in the Old Testament period of revelation; and he will be aware of the partial and elementary nature of Old Testament Revelation. . . . Progressive Revelation. . . states simply that the fullness of revelation is in the New Testament." But at the same time we cannot think that the people in the Old Testament knew as much as those in the New Testament.
  (Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, pp. 103-104)
  
  

The applicable principles are implied already. We must look for the clearest and most complete understanding in the New Testament, while recognizing that the Old 'Testament is the progressive unfolding of those truths. The book of Hebrews helps us understand the Old Testament ritual and sacrifices, but without the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers - Hebrews would not be as meaningful. We need to see the Old Testament from the New Testament understanding, without imposing that understanding on the Old Testament saint.

Henricksen expresses the important principle of progressive revelation quite simply: "God does progressively reveal himself as history unfolds. But this does not mean that God’s standards become progressively higher or that God changes along the way. Rather it is our understanding of God and His revelation that progresses. God never changes." (Laymen's Guide to Interpreting the Bible, P. 77)

If we apply this principle of progressive dispensational theology its going to lead us to:
Your theology is going to lead you in a certain direction.

Applying progressive dispensational theology leads you to distinguish God’s program for Israel from His program for the church. Therefore, the church of the N.T. is not in the O.T. Israel of the O.T. is not the same as in the N.T. This will guide your interpretation of Scripture different from other systems of interpretation.

If you see Israel and the Church as the same, you are going to view Revelation different from what I would. You are not going to see even an Antichrist with this point of view. You are likely to view Revelation as Historical rather than future. You are not going to see a 1000 year millennial reign of Christ. Most do not even see a "rapture" nor a Tribulation as spoken in Revelation.

• If you apply progressive dispensational thinking you are going to see that Israel is to have a future program with God. There is going to be the "rapture" of the true believer; there is going to be a seven-year Tribulation.
• 
  
• There is going to be a man of sin who will reign and then be defeated, and the world as we know it will be destroyed. Then God will take back the earth from Satan and give it to Christ to reign for a thousand years.

BARACK OBAMA THE ANTI-CHRIST ! !
^
If I get one more e-mail or hear another one that says Obama is the Anti-Christ, I am going to write a blog.

.

Oh please! How little we know about the Scriptures. All the following information is creepy to say the least, but Obama is a Democrat, not the Anti-Christ. Obama may be from Hawaii, but not the Anti-Christ. Obama may be a Muslim, but not the Anti-Christ. Obama may have attended a Catholic school, but he is not the Anti-Christ. Obama may not want to wear the USA pin. That’s okay. I don’t wear a lapel pin either, but he is not the Anti-Christ. He may be black, but he is not the Anti-Christ. His dad may be from Kenya and his mother from Wichita, Kansas, but he is not the Anti-Christ. Obama may be Muslim, but he is not the Anti-Christ. Obama’s middle name may be Hussein, but he is not the Anti-Christ. Obama may say he is a Christian and reads the Koran, but he is NOT the Anti-Christ. Obama may have enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta, but that doesn’t make him the Anti-Christ. Where do people get this idea he is or could be the Anti-Christ?

.

Of course, I would be glad IF HE WERE the Anti-Christ. That would mean that the return of Christ is just around the corner!

.

The wife of a Baptist preacher can say he is, but really she knows little about the Bible.

.

All the above ideas about Obama don’t make him a good candidate for the Anti-Christ (and perhaps not a good candidate for President of the United States either). Sorry, but that is not the description of the Anti-Christ.

.

I do believe that God is sovereign over all the actions of this nation. I don’t think God is a
Democratic candidates or Republican. I think God is going for Ralph Nader.

.

TEN REASONS I THINK THERE IS NO ANTI CHRIST LIVING TODAY

TEN REASONS WHY BARACK OBAMA IS NOT THE ANTI-CHRIST

.
1 Those in the Reformed Camp do not believe there will be an Anti-Christ, so therefore Obama couldn’t be the Anti Christ.

.
2 In saying you thank Obama could be the Anti-Christ you are saying that there is going to be a Anti-Christ and there is going to be a Tribulation.
.
3 An intellectual genius
Daniel 7:8 describes him as having "eyes like the eyes of a man" (cf., v. 20). The eye is often a symbol of intelligence.
.

4 . An outstanding orator
Daniel 7:8 says the Antichrist will have "a mouth speaking great things" (cf., v. 20). Effective leadership is predicated on the ability to communicate.
.

5 . A master politician
Revelation 6:2 says he will conquer the world having a bow without any arrows. That means he'll conquer peacefully through politics. The world will be looking for someone to bring peace and economic stability. Daniel 11:21 says, "In his estate shall stand up a vile person [the Antichrist], to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom; but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries."
.

6 . A commercial wizard
Daniel 8:25 says, "Through his policy ... he shall cause deceit to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many; he shall stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand." He will be a wizard at building a world system of economics that feeds his own pocket (cf., Rev. 18).
.

7 . A military genius
According to Daniel 7:23 he "shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces." He will be a military leader without equal. He's going to be everything that Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, the Caesars, and Napoleon Bonaparte were in terms of military ability combined in one individual. Revelation 13:4, 7 says, "They worshiped the beast [the Antichrist], saying, Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?... It was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." The Antichrist will conquer the world.
.

8 . A religious leader
Second Thessalonians 2:3-4 identifies him as the "man of sin ... the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." He will command the whole world to worship him.
.

9 I believe the Antichrist will come out of a revived Roman empire because
Daniel 9:26 says, "The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." The people who destroyed Jerusalem were the Romans in A.D. 70 That implies the Antichrist will be a Gentile from Europe
.

10 The Antichrist will offer himself as the protector of Israel. He’s not labeled the Antichrist, he’Os a man of peace, a leader, a great world leader of peace. They’re very possibly out of the Roman Catholic system. He comes in, sets up some kind of pact with them, becomes their protector.

^

Oh he is not Henry Kissenger :-)