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The church and Israel in Hebrews

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As the name suggests, the Letter to the Hebrews is addressed to Jewish Christian believers.  Their continuity with historical Israel is apparent from their description as

  • ‘The people (of God)’ (Heb 2:17; 4:9; 8:10; 10:30; 11:25; 13:12),
  • ‘Children (of God)’ (Heb 2:10; 12:5–7),
  • ‘The saints’ (Heb 6:10; 13:24),
  • ‘God’s household’ (Heb 3:6).

But, at the same time, discontinuity is suggested when the Christian gospel is described as bringing with it ‘better hope’ (Heb 7:19), ‘better covenant’ (Heb 7:22; 8:6), ‘better promises’ (Heb 8:6), ‘better sacrifices’ and ‘the greater and more perfect tabernacle’ (Heb 9:11 margin).…

Heb 8:13 – The first covenant ‘obsolete’?

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8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. 8:8 But showing its fault, God says to them,
“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
8:9 “It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.…

The church and Israel

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What is the relationship between the church and Israel?

Summarising Wayne Grudem on this:

Dispensational teaching is represented by Lewis Sperry Chafer: God has two distinct plans for Israel and the church:

‘God’s purposes and promises for Israel are for earthly blessings, and they will yet be fulfilled on this earth at some time in the future. On the other hand, God’s purposes and promises for the church are for heavenly blessings, and those promises will be fulfilled in heaven.

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Mt 21:43 – “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit”

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21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
21:43 For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 21:44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be crushed.”…

What is ‘replacement theology’ (‘supercessionism’)?

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The term ‘replacement theology’ (or ‘supercessionism’) has often been thrown around as a ‘boo’ term without careful  thought being given to its meaning or to the identity of its proponents.

I was interested, then, to read an article by Michael J. Vlach which gives some attention to both definition and examples.  Vlach draws on the thoughts of friends as well as of critics of ‘supercessionism’.

‘Several theologians have offered definitions of “supersessionism” or “replacement theology.” According to Walter C.

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Seven propaganda devices

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In 1937 Clyde Miller and others founded the Institude for Propaganda Analysis.  In an article ‘How to Detect Propaganda’, seven devices were described.

I describe these seven devices below, largely following the summary found here.  I have attempted to provide some examples of my own (in italic) that might be relevant to the modern-day preacher.

1. Name calling – The propagandist conjures hate or fear by attaching unattractive labels “to those individuals, groups, nations, races, policies, practices, beliefs, and ideals which he would have us condemn and reject.”…

When anti-anti-Semitism becomes toxic

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Dagobert Runes, ‘The War Against The Jew’.

This dictionary-style volume is a collection of entries – including many quotations – illustrating expressions of anti-Semitism over the centuries.

While not for a moment denying the many lamentable instances of anti-Semitism perpetrated by Christian church, I find that this book fails to make a positive contribution to the discussion.  There are several serious flaws.

First, it is a rant.  This is particularly so in the preface, which begins as follows:

‘There are many chronicles of war; of war lasting four days and of war lasting thirty years, even one hundred years, but then the war was over and peace followed.

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Puritans on the Jews

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From A Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations, by I.D.E. Thomas

Will they return home?

The Jews shall be gathered from all parts of the earth where they now are scattered, and brought home into their homeland.  (John Owen)

Will they turn to Christ?

The Jews are not yet come in under Christ’s banner; but God, that hath persuaded Japheth to come into the tents of Shem, will persuade Shem to come into the tents of Japheth.…

Conditionalism: do the unsaved go to the grave and then cease to exist?

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In recent decades, annihilationalism (the doctrine that the finally impenitent cease to exist, rather than that they suffer eternal conscious torment) has continued to gain ground in evangelical circles.

Over the past century, those committed to (or, at least, sympathetic towards) this doctrine include: Harold E. Guillebaud, Basil Atkinson, J. Stafford Wright, Norman Anderson, John Stott, John Wenham, Philip Edgecumbe Hughes, E. Earle Ellis, John Stott, F.F. Bruce, Michael Green, I. Howard Marshall, Stephen Travis, Edward Fudge, R.…

Basil Atkinson on conditional immortality

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The redoubtable Cambridge scholar Basil Atkinson (1895-1971) may be said to have kick-started the revival of interest in annihilationalism/conditional immortality here in the UK.

John Wenham (in his autobiographical ‘Facing Hell’, p69) recalls an informal talk given by Atkinson in the mid-1930s.  The main ideas included the following:

1. The Bible nowhere teaches that man is immortal. This is a Greek idea.
2. God alone has immortality.
3. Immortality has been brought to light by the gospel.
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