Because this article is very controversial
"Just A Thought"
invites any competent rebuttal for consideration to be published.
"Just A Thought"
invites any competent rebuttal for consideration to be published.
The Church Is Israel
(An Amillennial Perspective)
(An Amillennial Perspective)
The formula "the Church = Israel" is central to amillennialism. Dispensational premillennialists cannot accept this formula, and historical premillennialists must apply many of the end-time prophetic passages to Israel and not to the church (as amillennialists do).
If an early church father believed "the Church = Israel" it would cast serious doubts on whether they were really premillennial in the modern understanding.
Dallas Seminary Dispensationalist Alan Patrick Boyd writes, "The Majority of the writers/writings in this period (70-165 A.D.) completely identify Israel with the church. He specifically cites Papias, I Clement, 2 Clement, Barnabus, Hermas, the Didache, and Justin Martyr."
Boyd notes that in the case of Barnabus, . . . he has totally disassociated Israel from the precepts of the Old Testament. In fact he specifically designates the Church to be the heir of the covenantal promises made to Israel.
Elsewhere he writes that Papias applied much of Old Testament to the Church.
Of Hermas he notes the "employment of the phraseology of late Judaism to make the Church the True Israel."
Of Justin Martyr he claims the Church is the true Israelitic race, thereby blurring the distinction between Israel and the Church:
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew "even so we, who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ are the true Israelitic race."
If an early church father believed "the Church = Israel" it would cast serious doubts on whether they were really premillennial in the modern understanding.
Dallas Seminary Dispensationalist Alan Patrick Boyd writes, "The Majority of the writers/writings in this period (70-165 A.D.) completely identify Israel with the church. He specifically cites Papias, I Clement, 2 Clement, Barnabus, Hermas, the Didache, and Justin Martyr."
Boyd notes that in the case of Barnabus, . . . he has totally disassociated Israel from the precepts of the Old Testament. In fact he specifically designates the Church to be the heir of the covenantal promises made to Israel.
Elsewhere he writes that Papias applied much of Old Testament to the Church.
Of Hermas he notes the "employment of the phraseology of late Judaism to make the Church the True Israel."
Of Justin Martyr he claims the Church is the true Israelitic race, thereby blurring the distinction between Israel and the Church:
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho the Jew "even so we, who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ are the true Israelitic race."