The Fatal Flaw in "Christ's Prophetic Plans"

Okay, so I just finished my read/skim of Christ’s Prophetic Plans (CPP). This is not a full review but just a few thoughts on one aspect of the book.

CPP is a good primer on John MacArthur-styled Dispensationalism. MacArthur has carved out his own niche in Dispensationalism somewhere between Revised (Ryrie, Walvoord, Pentecost) and Progressive (Blaising, Bock, Saucy) Dispensationalism.

I mostly skimmed the chapters on eschatology because I quickly grow weary with detailed explorations of the pre-trib rapture, gaps in Daniel 9, a Jewish Millennium, etc. I did read the chapters on ecclesiology a little more closely.

When I was leaving Dispensationalism, it was ecclesiology, not eschatology, that kept me up at night. Distinguishing between Israel and the church had been drilled into me, and it took a lot of study to untangle the flaws in this presupposition.

CPP consistently appeals to the promises that God made to Israel. God made promises to Israel, and these promises must be fulfilled for Israel. Otherwise, God is a liar.

But, who is Israel? How do we define Israel? CPP gives little, if any, thoughtful reflection to this crucial question. Instead, CPP operates under the presupposition that Israel is defined strictly on the basis of ethnicity; God must fulfill his unconditional promises to ethnic Israel (p. 170).

However, this is the fatal flaw in Dispensationalism. God never made unconditional promises to ethnic Israel. Ever. Most of Dispensationalism is built upon this fatal flaw.

This fatal flaw causes Dispensationalists to suppress Biblical evidence, as I recently noted here, where I pointed out that in Acts 7:38, Stephen calls Israel the church (Check the Greek or the KJV or the ASV).

For this reason, most accusations of "Replacement Theology" and "Supersessionism" miss the mark. Instead, they simply reveal that the accuser is a Dispensationalist, or at least one who presupposes a fatally-flawed ecclesiology.

I have some more thoughts on this topic that I hope to unleash soon.