Three Views of Rapture

Three views on the time of rapture:

pre tribulational view. That is the belief that Christians are raptured, or taken out of the world prior to the Great Tribulation.

mid tribulational view. Believers are raptured out of the world in the midst of the Great Tribulation.

post tribulational view. Which says that believers are raptured out of the world, or Christians are raptured out of the world, after the Great Tribulation

Two views at the time of the millenium:

Christ is coming before the millenium - Premillenialism

2. Christ is coming after the millenium - Postmillenialism (with Amillenialism as sub category)

historischer Prämillenialismus (auch unter BT vertreten):

Nicht prätribulationalistisch

Dispensationalismus:

Anybody who has read dispensational interpretations of the book of Revelation will see that it is very clear that dispensationalists also have a very symbolic approach to the meaning of Scripture, but what they mean , whereas you think that these prophesies about Israel and Judah in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the church and in the coming in of the Gentiles into the church, we dispensationalists do not believe that the Church is prophesied about in the Old Testament. And we believe that the prophesies about Israel and Judah in the Old Testament are to be literally fulfilled in Israel in Judah in the New Covenant.

Now what they really mean by that is they take the term Israel, literally.

Now, Covenant Theology on the other hand, sees the Church as the fulfillment of Israel in New Covenant prophecy. Covenant Theology is happy to acknowledge the uniqueness of the Church, especially in its post Pentecost phase. But Covenant Theology sees all believers in essential continuity. There are not two peoples of God. There is one people of God.

Rom 2,28-29

Now, you are beginning to see why I read Paul’s words in Romans 2:28- 29, because Paul obviously had a great concern to address precisely these kinds of issues. And in that passage, Paul makes it clear that not all Israel is Israel. Okay. So he makes it clear that Israel was from the very beginning a spiritual entity, even though there was an external aspect to Israel; that circumcision was not simply a matter of an outward form and sign, but that there was an inward spiritual reality which was necessary for fellowship with God.

CT:

The Covenant Theologian wants us to understand that Israel from the very beginning, had within her bounds, both the elect and the reprobate. And that God’s promises were not made, as it were, as a shell simply to the external Israel, but to those who had indeed embraced and appropriated the promises of the Covenant with Abraham. God’s plan is the same in the New Covenant as it was in the Old.

God’s plan of salvation:

Older Dispensationalists: salvation was by works in the Old Testament and by faith in the New Testament (this was a very common point of view in some of the older Dispensational writings).

Covenant Theologians: Salvation is not only now, by grace alone, the Reformers argued, it has always been by grace alone since the Fall.

Mainstream dispensationalism: Old Testament believers were not saved by works, but by faith, but they differ from Covenant Theologians in their description of the nature of that faith. Saving faith of the Old Testament was substantially and materially different from the saving faith of the New Testament. Sinners in the Old Testament were not justified by faith in the Gospel of the Messiah as sin-bearer (Christ crucified), but rather their faith was in promises that were peculiar to their individual era in redemptive history. So they may have received occasional messianic prophecy, but that was not essential to their saving faith, per se (=an sich).

this is the area where dispensationalism has been most out of accord with Protestant theology. This is out of accord with all Calvinism, all Lutheranism, and even mainstream Anabaptist thought at the Reformation, who all taught that Old Testament believers were justified by faith in the coming Messiah as sin-bearer. These Old Testament believers all heard the Gospel, the Reformers argued. How? Through the prophecies and types. Therefore, the essential content of their faith was materially the same in all ages, including the NT.

Fundamentally Protestant point of view about saving faith in the Old Testament: the New Covenant believer may have a firmer grasp on the Gospel, because the events of the Gospel are now retrospective for the New Covenant, yet the Gospel was set forth in shadows and in types to the Old Covenant believer. So that justifying faith in the Old Testament was in Messiah, was in Christ as sin bearer, and they were expecting His coming, whereas the New Covenant, looks back upon the finished work of Christ, the Messiah

classic forms of Dispensationalism disagree with that point, they are not just disagreeing with Covenant Theology, they are also disagreeing with Protestantism as a whole.

Calvinism has always held that the saints in both Old and in New Testament are all in Christ. They are part of the body of Christ, part of the bride of Christ, because of God’s election

Arminianism or Calv.

Disp: either Arminian or four-point Calvinists (limited atonement is excluded). almost never five-point calvinists. (ChatGPT: e.g. Rom 11 mass salvation of Israel

CT: by definition five point calvinists. if it enforces anything, it enforces the Calvinistic doctrine of Limited Atonement

Disp: OT is interpreted literally. interpret the Old Testament and then go to the New Testament and attempt to harmonize the particular teaching of the New Testament with their previous interpretation of that Old Testament passage, rather than allowing the New Testament fundamental hermaneutical control

CT: New Testament interprets the Old Testament. the New Testament has the final word as the meaning of that passage

Scoffield: most important passage in the Bible, from a Dispensational perspective is Amos 9

CT: “James tells you what Amos 9 means in Apg 15, and therefore, James’ interpretation must exercise all hermenutical control even when you are doing your own original exegesis of Amos 9.” Because if James says that is what Amos 9 means, and James is speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit recorded in Acts chapter 15, then that is what Amos 9 means.

Thirdly, Dispensationalists do not accept the Protestant idea of the analogy of faith., that “Scripture interprets Scripture.”

DS: We interpret the Bible literally

CT: We interpret the Bible literally, but, we believe that the New Testament interprets the Old Testament

We find it in The Westminster Confession, you will find it in all of the Protestant confessions, and again, it gets back to that previous point that I was making.

CT: the New Covenant always has the final word as to the meaning of the Old Covenant passage

CT: And though there is a sense in, however, views the church as a post Pentecost phenomenon, understands there is also a sense in which the Church is simply the people of God in all ages.

CT: For Covenant Theologians, there are many Old Testament prophecies that speak of the Church

CT: some Old Testament prophecies pertain to literal Israel, and some pertain to a spiritual Israel.

For the Dispensational side, the Church is a parenthesis in God’s program for the ages. It is a temporary thing in the flow of history. You have heard the phrase The Great Parenthesis, which is used to the time when Messiah came and the Jews shockingly rejected Him. This actually thwarted God’s plan, because the original plan was for Messiah to come and set up a kingdom in Israel, but oops, the Jews rejected Him. At that point the prophetic clock stopped and we entered into the period of the Gentiles, the Great Parenthesis.

That is a period about which there was no prophecy in the Old Testament.

At the end of the period of the Great Parenthesis, the end of the time of the Gentiles, as the Dispensationalists interpret that section in Romans chapter 11, the Church is removed. That is the rapture. Then the prophetic clock starts ticking again, and God’s dealings with Israel resume.

Why need of pretribulational rapture: because you have to get rid of Gentile believers in the program of God, before you can get on with the work that God is doing with literal physical earthly Israel. So, pre tribulational rapturist functions in Dispensationalist eschatology to remove the Church so that God’s program for Israel can resume. And that is why mid-trib and post-trib Dispensationalism does not work; because you are mixing up God’s dealings with the church and through earthly Israel.

Kingdom of God: For the Dipsensationalists, the millennium is the kingdom of God. For Covenant Theologians, the kingdom of God is much broader than merely the millennium. The church is its institutional form, and Covenant Theologians are usually amillennial or post millennial

CT: Christ fulfilled the Covenant to Abraham. Some Covenanters believe in a future for literal Israel, most don't.