Getting Israel & the Disciples Wrong

As mentioned previously, I've profited immensely from reading Reformed-Puritan materials and listening to several Reformed Pastors' sermons. As much as I love them, occasionally they'll make statements which give me pause. I'm forewarned and expect to hear the odd conflation of Israel into the church - but whenever it happens my OCD goes into overdrive. Thankfully their focus is on Christology, the Trinity, the Attributes of God, Doxology, and Soteriology etc.

During one particular sermon a favorite pastor confidently asserted that, even after 40 days of private Bible study with the Lord, the disciples still got it wrong regarding the restoration of the kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6-7). The following week he warned that the OT had to be interpreted in light of the NT. Sadly, he's reading from the standard Reformed-Amil notebook. Citing Alec Motyer and the Catechisms etc doesn't automatically make the assertion correct. I responded (admittedly clumsily) HERE.

More recently I came across a further example of this conflation. I've been reading another favorite pastor-theologian: in fact I'll continue to read him because he has been so profitable to my spiritual welfare. He gets it 99% right...but not always.

In a chapter called "Loved with Everlasting Love: The Gospel's Wonder" this pastor recalls listening to a riveting sermon by another pastor. This latter pastor cited Geerhardus Vos: "The reason God will never stop loving you is that he never began." Vos was evoking Jeremiah 31:3: "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

The former pastor writes that. "...the truth Vos drew out from these words all but overwhelmed me." Yet the whole chapter is about God's love for Israel! See the problem?

The same God, who predestines and elects believers, also loves Israel with an everlasting love. One cannot apply these particular verses to the church without changing the identity of the entity they were addressed to. And that's what happens. I suggest this does violence to the original intent of the entire chapter (and others).

Unfortunately, this is a large blind spot within the Reformed Camp. John MacArthur addressed some of these issues in Christ's Prophetic Plans.