I return once again to Malachi’s famous prophecy in Mal. 4:5. Having established its significance and meaning, I would now like to respond to dispensationalism’s objection to the proper interpretation. Dispensational objections sometimes approach desperation. Some commentators even forsake their literalism and allow that John does fulfill the passage. Pentecost writes: “The prophecy is interpreted by [...]
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In Malachi 4:5 we have the last word God speaks to Israel before Christ’s incarnation. Malachi presents an eschatologically significant matter that dispensationalists and other evangelicals have debated for years. That brief reference reads: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mal [...]
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Psalm 110:1 “is quoted in the New Testament more than any other Old Testament text.”1 It exercises a great bearing on New Testament theology. Psalm 110:1–2 reads: The LORD says to my Lord: / “Sit at My right hand, / Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” / The LORD shall send the rod of [...]
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In Psalm 72 the Lord ties Messianic victory to pre-consummational history, i.e., before he establishes the eternal new heavens and earth. This is exactly what postmillennialism expects. Note what he says: Let them fear Thee while the sun endures, / And as long as the moon, throughout all generations. / May he come down like [...]
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Psalm 22 prophesies that “all the ends of the earth will remember [1] and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before Thee” (v 27).[2] Interestingly, like Psalm 2 this psalm refers to Christ’s suffering. In fact, evangelicals universally recognize Psalm 22:1–21 is prophesying the crucifixion. Verse 1 is [...]
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Psalm 2 provides us with a glorious vision of God’s interpretation of the flow of human history. It relates the cosmic turmoil among the nations to the prophetic assurance of its glorious outcome. Thus, it follows the pattern of the protoevangelium (Ge 3:15), showing temporal struggle followed by historical victory. The psalm opens with the nations [...]
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The covenantal foundation of eschatological hope encourages our anticipating God’s historical blessings in time and on earth. The biblical worldview concerns itself with the material world, the here and now. We see Christianity’s interest in the material here and now in God’s creating the earth and man’s body as material entities, and all “very good” [...]
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Due to Scripture’s covenantal emphasis, man’s obligations are not fundamentally individualistic, but rather corporate. As we shall see in later chapters, this fits well with a postmillennial eschatology and its strong view of social responsibility. Here I will briefly outline the case for covenantalism’s societal obligations. God purposefully creates man as an organic, unified race. [...]
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We may trace Scripture’s unity through the unity of the covenants, which set forth the overarching Covenant of Grace. The heart of God’s “covenants of the promise” (diathekon tes epaggelias, Eph 2:12) is: “I will be your God and you will be My people.” This idea occurs many times in Scripture. God establishes his redemptive [...]
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The Bible is very much a covenant document, as even a cursory reading demonstrates. The biblical words for “covenant” appear often in Scripture. The Hebrew berith occurs 285 times in the Old Testament, while the Greek word diatheke appears thirty times in the New Test-ament. Thus, we might well state that “the Biblical category which [...]
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KINGDOM LEAVENThe Parable of the Leaven reads: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid i...
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