The Church And Israel -- By: Stanley D. Toussaint

Journal: Conservative Theological Journal
Volume: CTJ 02:7 (Dec 1998)
Article: The Church And Israel
Author: Stanley D. Toussaint


The Church And Israel1

Stanley Toussaint

Senior Professor Emeritus in Bible Exposition
Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, TX

Importance of the Subject

In his classic work, Dispensationalism Today, Ryrie sets forth a threefold sine qua non of dispensationalism—a distinction between Israel and the Church, a literal hermeneutic, and the glory of God as His purpose on earth.2 Of these three, undoubtedly the most important is the distinction between Israel and the Church. Ryrie calls this “the most basic theological test of whether or not a man is a dispensationalist.”3

He calls it the “essence of dispensationalism.”4 He goes so far as to say, “The nature of the church is a crucial point of difference between dispensationalism and other doctrinal viewpoints. Indeed, ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the Church, is the touchstone of dispensationalism.”5

All dispensationalists would agree that these statements are true. However, the degree of the difference has been and still is a matter of debate. If the Church and Israel become so blurred in dispensationalism that there is no separation between them, dispensationalism will become as extinct as the pitied dodo bird.

Changes in Viewpoint

In the original form of Darby’s dispensationalism, the line drawn between Israel and the Church was heavy, dark, and broad. According to Darby the promises to the Church are spiritual and heavenly whereas those to Israel and the nations are earthly. The tribulation and the millennium do not concern the Church for those prophecies are earthly. This distinction in Darby’s theology has been summarized succinctly and accurately by

Blaising.6 In a word in classical dispensationalism the Jews are God’s earthly people and the Church is made up of God’s heavenly people. This dualism was maintained by dispensationalists for more than a hundred years by men like Gaebelein, Larkin, Scofield and Chafer.

Gaebelein, whose commentary on Matthew was published in 1910, wrote that the promises to Israel are “all earthly” and then asserted, “The church, however, is something entirely different. The hope of the church, the place of the church, the calling of the church, the destiny of the church, the reigning and the ruling of the church is not earthly, but it i...

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