Dr. Couch, I am one of those "Covenant guys" who paid little attention
to Israel and Bible prophecy. I was asleep in my Covenant arrogance and
denial, but you have convinced me to see the Bible in its entire
framework. Thank you. Why do others not see it?
I believe you answered your own question. There
is a certain sophistication set forth by the Covenant theologians—but
not all of them, of course. We cannot read the OT without seeing God’s
plans with the Jews and the fact of future restoration. The Jews are
central to the Scriptures. Also, if our Bible is 40% - 50% prophecy (or
more), this is what we should emphasize in our teachings. Or to put it
in another way, we should teach in proportion what God has revealed in
His Bible. Doing this gives believers a divine timeline from the past,
into our day, and on into the future.
By stonewalling the issue of the Jews, and never
dealing with Bible prophecy, proves that one is an anti-Semite by his
silence. Bible prophecy should certainly not be the only thing we teach.
I personally range all over the Bible, exegeting various epistles and
prophecy books from the NT on into the OT. But C. I. Scofield said it
perfectly: "When we near the events described in prophecy, we will
better understand those events and their significance." Scofield did not
hobbyhorse prophecy but he clearly saw what was coming in our day and
how it lined up with the prophetic Word.
By the way, I have only known in my lifetime a few
who jumped ship from dispensational to covenant. The flow is
overwhelmingly the other way—from covenant to dispensational. And those
who became Covenant enjoy the mystique, the traditions, the elitism of
being "Reformed/Covenant." They often feel intellectually superior and
sit around reading philosophical theology books that mean very little in
the larger scheme of things. They can not argue biblically but only
philosophically.
By the way, speaking of Israel and Bible prophecy,
my eyes just now fell on Lamentations 4:15. It reminds me of what is
happening today in so much anti-Semitic thinking in our world. Jeremiah
says that the people of the world say, the Jews "shall not continue to
dwell with us." The cry of the Jews is found in 5:21-22: "Restore us to
You, O Lord, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old. Unless
You have utterly rejected us, and are exceedingly angry with us." The
restoration of the Jews will bring them to faith in Christ and bring
them back to their Land of Promise!
I will continue teaching the great prophecies of
Scripture. And I will let the Covenant leaning guys go on in their false
sophistication and denial of the entire Bible, even of all that God
says.
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
