Author: Lisa Spencer

When You Say the Church Replaces Israel…

Lisa Spencer6 Comments

painting broad strokesAnyone who knows me, knows that I care that doctrinal positions be articulated fairly even if you don’t hold to that position. When we don’t agree with a position, it’s easy for us to make sloppy and sweeping statements or otherwise eliminate distinctions that should be there for a thoughtful discussion. We can tend to paint with broad strokes.

This happens a lot with charges against Dispensationalism, but I won’t go there. No matter whether or how much I move away from Dispensationalism, I will always care that it be treated fairly and will defend correct articulations especially given the modifications that have occurred over time.

So it pains me to raise this charge. One broad stroke, lack-of-distinction statement that I hear made, mainly from Dispensationalists who won’t take the time to understand the church/Israel relationship from a Covenant Theology perspective (there are many thoughtful dispies who do), is that Covenant theology teaches that the church replaces Israel. However, it is certainly not confined to Dispensationalists. In fact, what prompted this post was this article here.   I also find that when concepts filter down to a popular level broad strokes and mis-definitions can occur. Even when I more aligned with Dispensationalism, this particular mis-statement made me scream because it does not accurately reflect the difference in positions between replacement and continuity.

Replacement theology advocates for just as it says, that the church replaces Israel because the Jews rejected Christ, they are judged by God. Israel no longer exists. All promises are now transferred over to the church and do not benefit them. It is a minority view and rightly brings up concerns of anti-Semitism.

Covenant theology advocates for continuity between Israel and the church. The church did not replace Israel but is one of the same organism, beginning with Abraham. Under the new covenant it has expanded to include believing Gentiles.  According to CT advocates, it is the new Israel. Continue reading →

Why Do They Stay?: Slavery to Doctrinal Abuse

Lisa Spencer2 Comments

convicts, work gangs, hard labor, punishment, prison, serving timeI drafted this post shortly after the brouhaha over shai linne’s Fal$e Teacher$ had come out a processed in a number of posts, including mine. But then, I never got around to posting it. Though the dust over his song has settled, I was reminded yesterday that the teaching he was addressing has not. I’m thankful that the song generated a resurgence of talk about teachers that promote these philosophies. I myself have written a number of articles on related to the perverse nature of this teaching. As a former endorser of such teaching, I would hope that if I can just articulate why this teaching puts a corrupt twist on scripture then people will wise up.

I’m especially concerned because of the enslaving nature of such teaching. One of my FB friends had this to say about the burdening nature;

Prosperity Gospel teachers bind up sheep as slaves imprisoned to fear, guilt, disappointment and disillusionment when God does not respond as the teachers promise he will.  The TRUTH is supposed to set people FREE–NOT imprison them in guilt, shame, fear, etc…

You can argue it’s God all you want, but this runs so contradictory to the freedom that Christ came to provide. His truth is based on grace that we undeservedly obtain because of the Father’s love that he lavished on us through the Son. Anyone reading Ephesians 1 and with no agenda, can see that we do not have to earn favor through faith or giving. Favor comes through Christ. Anyone willing to humbly invest in the study of scripture that seeks to understand the whole message of 66 books will come to the conclusion that the reaping, sowing, word proclamation so rampant in these circles is NOT the focus of scripture. Christ is the focus as I wrote about here. Continue reading →

Does the Bible Clearly Say…?

Lisa Spencer5 Comments

Ask Christians about end times – how will God wrap up this earthly program – and you will get a variety of answers. One answer that I think needs examining is when any response is prefaced with “the Bible clearly says”. I’m going to suggest that such a response ignores the complexities involved in covenant fulfillment, how Old Testament prophecies are related to Christ, Israel and the church, whether Israel and the church are distinct entities, whether there is a literal millennium, how we understand use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, how apocalyptic language is interpreted in relation to covenant fulfillment (however THAT gets interpreted).

We also don’t want to isolate passages and make stringent conclusions without examining how it fits in with the overall fulfillment program. Scott over at Prodigal Thought wrote this piece on the rapture and why he does not believe 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:7 and Matt. 24 speak to a pre-tribulational event. He makes some valid points. But, this passage may get interpreted as a pre-trib rapture depending on how Revelation is interpreted in relation to Old Testament prophecies, depending on how hermeneutics are employed in reading the OT in the NT, depending on how this relates to covenant fulfillment. Craig Blaising has written much on this topic from his progressive dispensationalist perspective and makes good points as well.

I recently took an Old Testament elective, A Theology of Biblical Covenants. Aside from meeting elective requirements for my degree, I was motivated to take the class to assist with the wrestling I’ve been doing related to covenant fulfillment and how Old Testament promises related to Christ and his body. By the time we got to the new covenant this is what the board looked like.

Covenants class_board

Simple, right? Class discussion and reading, professor’s statements regarding humility in learning and my own wrestling with the text, reinforced the reality that the Bible does not clearly say how all this works together though we can come to some reasonable convictions. I am grateful for good and godly people who have spent years in study and production of literature to help understand this better both from a dispensational and covenantal perspective. They help bring understanding to these complex issues and will spit us out somewhere in either the dispensational or covenant camp.

Although as one stuck in the middle I am warm to progressive covenantalism as an alternate option. I’ve moved towards a more Christo-centric fulfillment in the present and seeing no distinction between Israel and the church in agreement with the Covenant folks but disagree with them related to new covenant continuity and eschatalogical fulfillment (i.e. amillennialsim). That puts me somewhere in historic pre-mill camp but away from dispensationalism.

So I continue to investigate and wrestle. I’m taking the stand expressed by one of my classmates who’s kind of in the same wrestling boat – “I’m a free agent”. I like that because it frees me from being forced to identify with a particular system. I’ve discovered that the more I study and investigate the more complex these relationships are. The one thing we shouldn’t do is to consider these matters superficially or align with camps simply because of identification. That is when we might err in making the statement “the Bible clearly says”. I have found too that hard lines are drawn too hard and too fast, typically because of alignment with one camp or the other and lack of consideration for alternate perspectives. Reading broadly helps.

Re Christian Unity: Are You an Exhorter, an Educator or an Exhaler?

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I’ve been trying to process a number of both compatible and competing thoughts around how Christians handle differences in doctrine and expression of Christianity.  More importantly, I’ve been thinking about how can the body unite around essential truths. Admittedly, it is somewhat fueled by acceptance of a position in a non-profit ministry that evolved out of the United Methodist Church. While I knew there would be doctrinal differences, I also was sold on the program and thought it to be a remarkable expression of Christ’s love in action.

Knowing that this organization upheld Wesleyan values, I had to ask my Calvinist, conservative self if I could handle the doctrinal rub. The one thing I kept coming back to was the commitment to building up children and the young adults who served them

I’ve also become somewhat weary of excessive complaints of others and how this or that person is not uphold truth. There is naturally a tension between articulating Christianity that is faithful to the historic and biblical witness and demonstrating the love of Christ in action. Truth and love are inseparable companions, yet at times it seems that turns into either a loosy-goosy Christianity or overly critical complaints.

man pointing to skyThe goal of our Christianity is to proclaim Christ, represent him well through growth in the body. But not everybody is on the same page. We have centuries of doctrinal splintering and exacerbation through increased media channels.  How to increase unity in the body? I observe that our denominational and/or tribal allegiances can thwart the unity that is and should be possible.

So I was pondering today how can this happen? We don’t want to lose truth but we don’t want to lose love either. We should take serious that belief in Christ means being tied to his body in spite of differences. What emerged out of my swarming thoughts were these three categories that can have an impact on unity: Continue reading →

Creating a Worship Experience or Affection for Christ?

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I came across this quote from one of my older Parchment and Pen posts. The quote was from Jared Moore, SBC Voices, where he wrote on corporate worship experiences. I thought it was worth reproducing here.

You do not want to create worship services that make Christians want to return to your worship services again; instead you want to create worship services that make Christians long to be with Christ.  If your hearers, regardless the age, are not responding to the gospel, but are rather responding to the atmosphere you are creating; then you are making it twice as hard for them to come to Christ.  I beg you, stop trying to create an emotional attachment to an experience invented by crafted services that are meant to induce emotion.  What you are doing is creating a feeling, a “high” in the individual which he or she will try to duplicate throughout the rest of his or her days unless he or she is corrected by the Scriptures.  Thus, you make it twice as hard for them to respond to the gospel for the rest of their lives, because they think that in order to respond to the gospel, they must “feel” a certain way.  They also equate the value of all worship services based on how they feel instead of on whether or not Christ is exalted.  Thus, if there is anything negative in their lives, or any negativity taking place in the church, then they will not be able to create the original feeling that they felt in the past regardless if God is pleased with His worship service or not.  You may be growing crowds, but nostalgia cannot and does not last.  You are dooming all of these individuals for failure eventually.  Bad things eventually happen… and appropriated theology, not feelings, will sustain them through these terrible times.  You are not growing disciples, because services that are designed to induce feelings communicate that the gospel alone has no power to induce such feelings toward God.

Here is a test to see if you are creating nostalgia or gospel-centered saints.  When people respond, ask them why.  Ask them why they responded.  If they point to their feelings instead of to repentance, you need to thoroughly examine them to see if they are responding to the gospel or to the atmosphere.  If they respond because they “felt the need to,” you must question them, making sure they are responding to the gospel.  The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ reconciling sinners to His Father via faith alone, not some arbitrary feeling or emotion.  An atmosphere response is not a gospel-response! What and Who they respond to are essential!  If you are really concerned with God’s glory and the salvation of sinners, then do not try to manipulate! Continue reading →