Dear Ian and Jack,
After reading the following article regarding the Mosaic covenant, Ezekiels
temple and the New covenant I would like to bring up a couple of ideas;
since we know that Ezekiel's temple has not been built "yet" and that
Hebrews without question does away with the Aaronic priesthood. Agreed?
1. Is the system that God revealed to Ezekiel an exact copy of the Aaronic
system?
2. If the answer to the above is no and most agree that to change God's
Word is a serious offense, why wouldn't it be logically impossible for us to
imagine that Ezekiel thought he was re-establishing Mosaic worship?
3. Since Ezekiel's predictions about a future system of worship is "never"
mentioned in the NT abrogation of the Mosaic Covenant, why must his
predictions be allergorized away by some arbitrary hermeneutical means of
anti-premills?
4. If the physical ceremonies of the Mosaic system do not effect the
atonement and cleansing that they so clearly symbolize, but got their
validity as divinely appointed teaching aids, then why can't Ezekiels system
of worship perform for the Millennial Kingdom of the world what the Mosaic
system performed for the nation of Israel before 30 A.D.?
5. Will not "The Teacher-Jesus Christ" be there to interpret them?
Doug.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Major" <ian.major@...>
To: <soundofgrace@...>
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: [soundofgrace] Re: Premillennial Abraham
> Jack
>
> Thanks for that thoughtful piece. It's refreshing to hear how 'the other
> side' has its difficulties in consistently applying hermeneutic
> principles.
>
> I have been checking on B.W.Newton and what little I found is confusing,
> putting him in the Dispensational camp and the Historic one. So back to
> the drawing board.
>
> I found this Dispensational piece by a respected brother - it embraces
> both the Mosaic system and the New Covenant!
> http://www.whitcombministries.org/Biblical_Articles/Animal_Sacrifices_In_Israel_Past_And_Future.php
>
> Here's a snip:
> 'Though the Kingdom Age will begin with only regenerated citizens (cf.
> Matt. 25:34), the vast majority of people born during the Kingdom Age will
> remain unbelievers (Rev. 20:7-9). Thus, millennial nations will
> increasingly need the protection from the immediate wrath of a holy God
> that animal sacrifices will provide in accordance with their divine design
> and function in the Mosaic Law. Ezekiel foresaw, by the Spirit of God,
> that there will be "the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt
> offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of
> Israel" (45:17). And Jeremiah foresaw that "the Levitical priests shall
> never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain
> offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually" (33:18).'......'Before
> the heavens and the earth flee away from him who sits upon the Great White
> Throne (Rev. 20:11), God will provide a final demonstration of the
> validity of animal sacrifices as an instructional and disciplinary
> instrument for Israel. The entire world will see the true purpose of this
> system. Of course, the system never has and never will function on the
> level of Calvary's Cross, where infinite and eternal guilt was dealt with
> once and for all. But the system did accomplish, under God, some very
> important pedagogical and disciplinary purposes for Israel under the Old
> Covenant (Gal. 4:1-7). There is good reason to believe that it will yet
> again, and far more successfully from a pedagogical standpoint, function
> on the level of purely temporal cleansing and forgiveness (cf. Heb. 9:13)
> within the strict limits of the national theocracy of Israel during the
> one thousand years of Christ's reign upon the earth in accordance with the
> terms of the New Covenant.'
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John T. Jeffery" <john.thomas.jeffery@...>
> To: <soundofgrace@...>
> Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 8:11 PM
> Subject: [soundofgrace] Re: Premillennial Abraham
>
>
> Ian:
>
> << You said:
> 'This is a view found amongst dispensational premillennarians, but not
> even all of them hold to that position.
> Many premillennarians are not dispensational at all, and would reject this
> view.'
>
> I'm not up to date on the latest Premillenial thinking, but I understood
> even Historic Premillenialists like B.W.Newton held to literal animal
> sacrifices, literal Levitical priesthood, etc. Am I wrong? >>
>
> You may have to refresh my thinking on Newton. If I am not mistaken
> Benjamin Wills
> Newton was an early Plymouth Brethren, and a contemporary of John Nelson
> Darby.
> If I have the right Newton, then he would qualify more as a Dispensational
> rather
> than as a Historical Premillennarian. He and Darby had well-known
> disagreements,
> and eventually there was a split, but not over these issues. Would you
> classify
> John Nelson Darby as a Historic Premillennialist? If not, I do not think
> that
> Newton would either.
>
> Therefore, I do not think he should be cited as an example of a Historical
> Premillennarian
> who holds to the reinstitution of Mosiac ordinances in the millennium, but
> rather as a
> typical early Dispensational Premillennarian who held such views along
> with many of
> his contemporaries.
>
> When I think of Historic Premillennialists I would include J. Barton
> Payne, Alva J.
> McLain, George Eldon Ladd, J. Oliver Buswell, R. Laird Harris, and others.
> I do not
> know of any evidence that these men taught the reinstitution of Mosaic
> ordinances during the
> Millennium. I would be very surprised if any of them did. I would
> suspect that in their
> writings we would find them adamantly opposing such teachings.
>
> << And how do those who don't believe this explain the OT prophecies of
> such
> millenial sacrifices, if not literally? >>
>
> I don't know how they did. Nor do I have their materials at hand to be
> able to
> research the answer to this question. I still think that this teaching is
> peculiar to Classic
> or Traditional Dispensationalism.
>
> I do know that Oswald T. Allis called such teachings "the Achilles heel of
> Dispensationalism",
> referring specifically to the Scofieldian brand of Dispensationalism (see
> his Prophecy and the Church).
> While I disagree with his assessment, his criticism needed to be taken to
> heart, and I believe that it
> has been to a great extent by later generations of Dispensational
> Premillenarians. However, there
> are still works being published during the last decade defending these
> errors by Dispensationalists,
> and I find this perpetuation very disturbing.
>
> I have done extensive research over many years on this issue for two
> reasons:
>
> 1. Out of respect for Dr. Allis, and the realization that his criticisms
> are not to be taken lightly; and
> 2. Because the contemporary critics of Dispensationalism (including my
> beloved brethren at the
> Bunyan Conference!) keep throwing it in my face.
>
> My personal conclusions thus far are as follows:
>
> 1. I believe that Ezekiel 40-48 and its parallels may be some of the most
> problematic and difficult
> prophetic passages to sort through.
> 2. I am leery of anyone who thinks that they have no doubt how these
> passages should be handled,
> or, conversely, not handled.
> 3. I am not convinced that such passages should be made the ultimate
> hermeneutical test cases.
> 4. I do not doubt in the dark what I knew to be true in the light, nor am
> I willing to cast adrift my
> hermeneutic established by clear passages when I encounter difficulties in
> the dark passages.
> 5. I think that Covenantism has been guilty of bringing the Mosaic
> Covenant in the front door,
> while Dispensationalism has been guilty of letting it in the back door.
> However, I also conclude
> that while it is consistent for Covenantism to do so, it is inconsistent
> for Dispensationalism.
> 6. I know that the teachings of the book of Hebrews must, at the end of
> the day, rule out any
> reinstitution of Mosaic ordinances following the institution of the New
> Covenant at the Cross.
> 7. All of that being said, I see the problem, and face it squarely, but
> am not willing to hasten to
> judgment. I am content at this point to say that I have no ultimate
> solution or answer, and to
> leave it at that for the time being. It remains on my long list of
> questions and issues I will bear to
> the Throne for my Bible studies in Glory (also included: what was Christ
> writing on the ground,
> who wrote Hebrews, what did Paul hear in the third heaven, what was the
> "present distress" in
> Corinth, who were the Nicolaitanes, etc., etc.).
>
> Soli Deo Gloria,
>
> John T. Jeffery
> SSG, PAARNG
> BFV Maint Sect SGT
> "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
>
> TF Saber, HHC 1-172nd AR BN
> 2nd BCT, 28th ID
> APO, AE 09362-9997
>
> Ar Ramadi, Iraq
>
> DNVT 318-521-2222 (BMO's Office)
>
> http://ironsoldiers.army.mil/newsletters/index.htm
>
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