Part One
INTRODUCTION: 2 RELATION OF DISPENSATIONALISM TO THEOLOGY
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker
INTRODUCTION: 2 RELATION OF DISPENSATIONALISM TO THEOLOGY
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker
The
answer to these and similar questions is difficult and involved, and that for
several reasons. When one reads of salvation and of being saved in the Old Testament
and even in the Gospels, he discovers that the salvation is usually from
physical enemies, disease, or death. When Peter cried, “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30), he was not thinking about salvation
from sin: he was sinking in the water and asked to be saved from drowning. When
the father of John the Baptist prophesied, the emphasis was upon the physical
side of salvation. He declared that God “hath raised up an horn of salvation
for us in the house of his servant David: as he spake by the mouth of his holy
prophets, which have been since the world began; that we should be saved from
our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us .... “ (Luke 1:69-71). When Jonathan spoke of “the great salvation”
which the Lord had wrought for all Israel (1Samuel 19:5), he was referring to David’s slaying
of Goliath. Also, the Old Testament does not ask the question: “What must I do
to be saved?” And it does not answer it clearly either. A third thing that
complicates the problem is the fact that in the Old Testament God was dealing
both with the nation of Israel and with individuals within that nation. Part of
the ritual was a collective work for the whole nation, such as the great
covenant sacrifice of Exodus 24:1-8 and the sacrifices of the annual day of atonement of Leviticus 16:5-22; other sacrifices were offered by
individuals. What effect did the national sacrifices have upon the individual’s
salvation, if any, and was there any advantage of being a circumcised Israelite
rather than an uncircumcised Gentile?
PREVIOUS
NEXT
No comments:
Post a Comment