Posted on 10/15/2011 9:30:31 AM PDT by marbren
Luke 15:11-32
(KJV)
11And he said, A certain man had two sons:
12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Christianity is the New Covenant.
The new covenant is the covenant with Abraham, come to full fruition.
The old covenant is Sinai. Law. Do this and live. "All this we will do" for the next 5 minutes.
This is absurd...No one comes into the Body of Christ to get saved...Read what God says about it for a change...
AFTER one gets saved, he/she is automatically a member of the Body of Christ...And it ain't your religion...
The bible refers to us as the church...Your religion stole the name and modified it to (C)hurch trying to and obviously succeeding in duping you people...Buy a bible and read it...
Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as were being saved.
umm, that’s Acts 2:47
we are saved by being “in Christ”, outside of Christ there is no salvation.
tell me, in your reading of the Scriptures, who will be saved outside of Christ?
Interesting thoughts but I don’t think the analogy works very well. If it did, Israel would never have quit performing the daily sacrifices and the Church would have left the Gospel. The analogy works better the other way around, but then the birth order is skewed. It’s good to question assumptions, but this was a dead end It appears.
who are the heirs to the promises made to Abraham, physical Jews or believers in Jesus Christ??
The answer I'd give would be simple.
The answer a dispensationalist would give, convoluted. And, for them there are many more possibilities. What happens to a physical descendant of Jacob, who converts to Christ? Raptured out in the nick of Tribulation, and still has a claim on the land? How cool is that? What about a Christian who decides to convert to Judaism, as a matter of devotion? This is not an idle question. What Would Paul Say?
Occam's Razor.
Any specifics?
How, exactly?
Does he now?
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying Lord, wilt thou AT THIS TIME restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the TIMES (plural) or the SEASONS (plural), which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts 1:6-7.
Read Eph. Chapter 2. There is a "Time Past", a "But Now" and an "Ages(PLURAL) to Come". That is at LEAST three times and seasons.
The word "dispensation" is used 4 times in the NT; (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 1:10;, 3:2; Col.1:25). The word "dispensation" means an administration, a stewardship, dispensation, or guardianship. But of course you know this. I find it amusing that a religious organization that DEMANDS the word "dispensation" be stated PLAINLY when it is meant, at the same time teaches and believes that the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the bodily assumption of Mary, the Eucharist, apostolic succession, Peter being the first pope, etc. are somehow biblical, even though they are NEVER MENTIONED in God's Word. But I digress...
When did "Time Past" end so that "But Now" could begin? And when will "But Now" end so that the next "Age" could begin? Remember the "Ages to Come" that Paul spoke of is plural, meaning more than one.
When Christ spoke of "this present time", when did that begin, and when did it end for the "age to come" that He was referring to?
Let's get this far, and then I will show you where Christ ACTUALLY knew of dispensations and times and seasons, and rightly divided the Scriptures to prove it.
Then those of us who take the Bible as God wrote it instead of our own allegorized version of the Bible can have a civilized, edifying discussion about the Bible.
Feel free to post Dispensational topics under the "Dispensational Caucus" designation. I'll send you the ping list if you want.
I think it is about the forgiveness and redemption that Christ offers and died for.
AMEN. Although I would miss the opportunity of showing some that Jesus Christ did INDEED know times and seasons and dispensations and rightly dividing God’s truth. Not that it will do any good, but..
Without salvation, it is not possible to know or accept Scripture. This explains the war the non-Christians who hijack these thread have declared on God and His word.
Even with the last-days prophecies that God gave us concerning His chosen people and the nation He established for them coming to pass right in front of our faces, the non-Christian will deny what God has said about His people, His plans for them, and the fact that He is in the process of carrying out those promises and plans until the day they die.
There is nothing we can do about their eternal condition, but the owner of this site has kindly given us the ability to be able to discuss Biblical truth without the hijackers, deniers, and Jew-haters surfacing on the thread to try anything to get the discussion off of Biblical truth and onto their false doctrines.
They have been given the free will by God to choose to deny Him and reject His Scripture, but they don't have any right to be heard and shouldn't be provided with a platform to spew their hatred to those who are sickened by it.
I know you are right. But there is always the hope that one person is still searching for the truth, and will be saved. Although I do know that if it’s the same people crashing through with the same deceit, they are probably NOT that “one person”. {{sigh}}..
I agree, Yesterday I had a new thought while I was reading it. Wow, the prodigal sounds like all born again Jewish or Gentile Christians in this present age of grace we are in. We all seem to go into the world of reckless living until we become broken in spirit and turn to Our Father in Heaven in repentance who loves us even before we can confess our sin in godly, not worldly sorrow. The older brother might be Israel who follows the rules and stays with the Father. Is there any dispensational sense to the story?
Some internet sources say the prodigal is Israel and the Church is the older brother.
And the people who have been given the truth repeatedly and have repeatedly rejected it are not looking for truth and will not accept the truth as given by God, but are trying to deceive others as they have been deceived. And for that reason, I guess responses to the lies and false doctrines are necessary.
In the DC threads, those who are genuinely trying to learn the truth are welcome to come on and ask questions, but the tired, worn-out one-note-samba crowd that only wants to deny Scripture and turn as many people away from Christ as possible are not welcome and are booted from the thread.
The DC designation is there as an option for the times when we just want to have a discussion without having to deal with the nonsense and garbage.
I love the DC threads. For this question I wanted many viewpoints. For instance I learned that Methodists might say Israel is the older brother which was new information for me.
In the sense that the story is symbolic of something literal, and not just a meaningless fairy tale, yes, it can be seen as dispensational in that we are currently in the Age of Grace, when Jesus Christ makes Himself available for salvation, redemption, and forgiveness. This parable, I believe, refers to that truth - that no matter how far away from Christ we have strayed, He will accept us where we are and will forgive us and will bring us back to Himself.
So in that sense, the parable reflects the truth of the current opportunity for salvation, and the fact that even if we walk away from Jesus for a time, He will forgive us, and, while not necessarily removing the consequences of our choice to place ourselves outside of His will for our lives, He is, like Scripture tells us, always faithful and just to forgive us of our sin.
OK. I just wanted you to know that the DC is available if you want to use it.
Amazing article!
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