<<Brother Don
I am ****** from YouTube who several weeks ago encouraged you to keep up the good teaching.
As I mentioned I have been searching out the truth on whether dispensationalism is biblical and concluded it to be false.
You mentioned that all dispensationalists believe that the delay of the Jewish national restoration began before Peters Pentacost declaration of Joels’ fulfillment.
However I ran across the below dispensational website accidentally.
It has a different twist to the conventional dispensationalist time lime and thought. One thing they believe is the delay of the restoration of the Kingdom starts after the stoning of Steven. They therefore would say that the the prophesies in Psalms and Joel is not part of the silence in the Old Testament regarding the Church.>>
My Response:
“David,” thanks for watchin the YouTubes!
That is an interesting take, but, it does not help them—not even a little bit!
So, let me grant for argument sake that the postponement took place at Stephen’s stoning.
The indisputable fact is that Paul, who was present at that stoning, and then, converted later, said that he preached nothing but the hope of Israel found in the OT prophets. Take careful note of what he says for instance in Romans 16:25-26—the gospel he preached, the mystery of the gospel, he preached from the prophetic scriptures!
Note that in Romans 10 Paul cites Isaiah 65:1-2 as fulfilled in his Gentile mission and in Israel’s unbelief—no postponement here.
Note that he quotes Deuteronomy 32:19f as the ground for his Gentile ministry—making the Jews jealous by calling the Gentiles. All of this belongs to Israel’s last days, thus, no postponement.
Paul likewise quotes from Joel 2 in Romans 10:13—“Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” – no postponement there.
He also quotes from Isaiah 49 and the prediction of the redemption of the tribes of Israel—and the calling of the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6f) —and says it was being fulfilled—2 Corinthians 6:1-3.
I could go on and on, from Peter and from John. The bottom line is that well after Stephen, the NT writers still affirm that they were anticipating the imminent fulfillment of God’s OT promises to Israel, and, that those prophecies were even in the process of fulfillment when they wrote—see 1 Peter 1:3-12 as a great example.
I hope this helps a bit. Thanks again for watching!
Make your plans to be with us next July 19-21, 2012, for our Preterist Pilgrim Weekend!
Instead of a conference, there will be a formal public debate between Don K. Preston and Joel McDurmon of American Vision (Gary DeMar’s organization) This promises to be a landmark debate, so make your plans to be with us!
Don K. Preston