Hidden Beast

Rating:
Summary: Skolfield Too Much Like Scofield
Review: While Skolfield criticizes dispensationalism, he ironically accepts its foundational belief: that Israel is still God's chosen people. This belief, along with the entire system of dispensationalism, was invented in the nineteenth century by J. N. Darby and popularized by C. I. Scofield. Skolfield's assumption that Israel is still God's chosen race leads to his assumption that the historical enmity between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac (i.e., between Islam and Israel) has eschatological significance. God says his covenant with Israel is "everlasting," and Skolfield understands this to mean "unconditionally everlasting to national Israel."

Nevertheless, the New Testament redefines who Israel is and is not: "For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel" (Romans 9:6). True Israelites are believers, not necessarily national Israelites: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). In fact, Paul explicitly says that the church is the new "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). And Jesus says that if national Israel continues to rebel, God will take the kingdom away from her: "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing its fruits" (Matthew 21:43). The Jews rejected, so God gave his blessing to another nation (Matthew 21:33-46), a new "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). Moreover, in the New Covenant, Paul says there is neither Jew nor Gentile, for we are all ONE in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). Further, Jesus says that ethnic Israelites are insignificant, for they can easily be raised up out of stones (Luke 3:8). And lastly, Paul writes that true descendants of Abraham are not necessarily bloodline descendants, but rather those of faith (Galatians 3:7).

But it is not enough to say that the everlasting promises to Israel have merely been "spiritualized" in the church. Skolfield is right when he says that "forever means forever." It is important to recognize that all the eternal promises to national Israel have literally and physically been fulfilled in the ultimate Israelite, Jesus Christ, who is a physical son of Abraham (Matthew 1). This is why genealogies of the chosen nation ceased when Jesus came. Before Christ, Israel was God's chosen son (Hosea 11:1), but now Christ is God's chosen son (Matthew 2:15; 3:17). Not only the Promised Land, but also "heaven and earth" have been given to Christ (Matthew 28:18). As for the "everlasting" promises, Paul teaches that "all the promises of God are 'yes' and 'amen' in Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:20)--even everlasting promises. And if we are in Christ, then we too are sons of God (Romans 8:17, 22-23; Col. 1:15-20), and thus we too share in all the everlasting promises to Israel, which were ultimately intended for Christ and his church. Jesus Christ, who is in heaven, is a Jew. He is a bloodline descendant of Abraham. He fulfills all aspects of the Abrahamic covenant, for all nations are blessed through him and all the land has been given to him (see the Great Commission). The whole purpose of God's having a chosen race was to produce a Messiah who would fulfill everything about the law, including "all" the promises (2 Corinthians 1:20)--even the everlasting promises. And the church, the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16), shares in this fulfillment by being united to The Israelite.

Skolfield also reads Jesus' words in Matthew 24 out of context. In Matthew 24:34, Jesus qualifies his prophecy with these words, "Assuredly, I say to you, THIS generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place." There is no exegetical reason to believe Jesus was referring to a generation in his distant future. He said "this generation," not "some future generation." In every other occurrence of "this generation" in Matthew, Jesus is referring to his actual audience. For example, in Matthew 23:36, Jesus tells the unbelieving Jews, "Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon THIS generation." No one questions whether or not Jesus was referring to his first-century audience in this prophecy. But for some reason, a chapter later, when Jesus utters a very similar prophetic phrase, Skolfield assumes that Jesus was referring to OUR generation instead of the generation that Jesus was actually addressing at the time.

Likewise, in Revelation, Jesus tells John at the very beginning of the book that the prophecies in Revelation "must shortly take place" (Revelation 1:1). "The time is near," Jesus tells John a few verses later (Revelation 1:3). Jesus repeatedly tells John that his coming is "soon," that the time of Revelation's fulfillment is "near" (Revelation 3:11; 11:14; 12:12; 22:6, 7, 10, 12, 20). But in spite of Jesus' repeated warnings to John that the fulfillment of Revelation is imminent, Skolfield still believes the Battle of Armageddon will be fulfilled in our generation. But two thousand years later is not imminent.

Skolfield directs our attention to Daniel 12:4, in which the Lord tells Daniel to "shut up" the words of his prophecy, to "seal the book until the time of the end." Skolfield correctly proves that events in Daniel's prophecy were not imminent to Daniel. But he overlooks Revelation 22:10, in which the Lord tells John, "Do NOT seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because THE TIME IS NEAR." This language echoes Daniel's language, except it is inverted; while Daniel's prophecy was to be "shut up," John's prophecy was "near." Thus, we need to look for a fulfillment of Revelation (including the Battle of Armageddon) that is "near" to John's lifetime, not ours.

Skolfield stretches the 70th week of Daniel thousands of years, which is a dispensationalist invention. But the 70th week naturally ends with Christ's ministry, where Revelation picks up. And, of course, the events of Revelation are fulfilled "shortly" thereafter. Thus, the events of Daniel, Matthew 24, and Revelation were fulfilled during the generation (i.e., 40 years) after Christ, climaxing in the Roman-Jewish War of AD 66-70.