But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
-2 Cor 3:14
I begin by applauding John MacArthur for his boldness in declaring Christ to Ben Shapiro. I also appreciate Ben Shapiro for his commitment to many shared worldview tenets which he holds in common with Christianity. But! There is something amiss in this interview. It’s not required to watch the interview but it may be helpful for context. If you want to listen for the point at which he takes the theological car into the ditch you can begin to listen around 6:15.
Unfortunately MacArthur is driving the car when he takes an abrupt left turn and ends up in the ditch. He’s been known to do this so it’s not a new thing. This ditch is one many Christians drive in routinely; so much so, the ditch appears to most to be in fact the road. It is not though.
MacArthur along with all Dispensational proponents insist on reading some, not all, Old Testament passages with their welding hood (veil)on. For these it is a good thing to read the OT as if Christ is not present there as the full and rightful recipient of the promises – all the promises.
MacArthur describes himself as a “leaky Dispensationalist”; admitting it seems his position has some holes. Holes he’s patched up to a better degree than most. His duck tape coving a major gaping tear in the hull of his boat is pouring water into the craft at an alarming rate.
So now you’re probably confused. I started with a theological car in the ditch and then switched to a boat with a gaping tear. Which is it? You pick. In either case the integrity of the vehicle is a problem. He’s either asking for a blow out or heading for the bottom of the sea, but in either case it is a problem. A problem that has a real simple solution. Get out of the ditch.
I will reiterate how much I appreciate John MacArthur. He speaks boldly when others don’t. He stands strong in the face of backlash for unpopular Christian truths and he runs in circles with other men of God who equally stand strong for the important doctrinal positions. Positions that are attacked mercilessly by wicked men and promoters of all manner of perversion.
To be fair, MacArthur stands alone within the group of other faithful (Reformed) men who also champion with clarity the important Reformed doctrines of our faith. MacArthur is not alone when it comes to the myriad of equally confused proponents of Dispensationalism. In this respect, as a leaky dispensationalist he finds himself drawing heat from both sides – Covenant Theology (CT)and Dispensationalism (Dispys). Seems the worst place to stand where everyone is shooting your direction.
(*** note – I will abbreviate Dispensationalism with Dispy. It isn’t intended to be derogatory and you’ll find the Dispensationalists will also refer to themselves in this way. This 10 dollar word Dispensationalism is to cumbersome to continue to write and they too feel the same)
The Dispys will disagree with him because he is leaky. “John – don’t give so much of the farm away”, they say. The Reformed disagree with him because of his clear stance on reading some passages of the OT in light of Christ but others pertaining to Israel with his welding hood on. “John – take off the veil and read with clarity all the OT in light of Christ.”
This brings us to the main point. This is the deciding round. Shifting analogies once more, this round is where: either your opponent beats your body to the ground in defeat or whether you deliver the final blow and knock them to the ground instead.
It’s in this round we ask… What about Christ? Isn’t He the whole point of history. Isn’t ALL spiritual blessing delivered to the world in Him?
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
Eph 1:3–4
At this point the Dispys along with MacArthur like to distract the audience by labelling any that don’t read their OT with a welding hood (veil) on as antisemitic and as replacing Israel with the Church. This is really an obnoxious and tiresome smoke screen tactic that demonstrates just how close their boat is to sinking. If you prefer the car analogy, their tires are loosing air fast – all of them. They shouldn’t be in the ditch but they are.
This anti semitic tactic amounts to them asking everyone to please be more concerned about those on the smooth road and less concerned about them bouncing around in the ditch. Look away please, there’s nothing to see here. Instead, look at them – those antisemites.
Turns out, if the CT crowd are antisemitic then so is Paul, Peter, James, John, Stephen and all the other Jews who don’t follow the Dispys into their ditch. Maybe even Jesus himself can be accused of being an antisemite. After all he says,
Jesus *said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,
Mt 21:42–45
‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. ”And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.
Really – there are no antisemites involved in promoting the single best Jew to the Jewish people. Jesus is the best Jew if you didn’t know that already. Paul was the 2nd best Jew and his resume is exquisite. It should be noted that Paul considers that exquisite resume of Jewishness as filthy rags. So much for the antisemite nonsense.
Honestly – Dispys, give it a break with the antisemite nonsense already. It makes you appear as desperate as you are. MacArthur – shame on you too. Seems that not promoting the best Jew to His own people might be the antisemitic thing to do. Dispys likes to make much of this 2nd people of God idea. Paul and Jesus know that there is only one people of God and they are in Him – Alone (Eph 2).
With all this background provided, let us return to the opening verse of scripture which is the crux of the matter. Christ removes the veil from the reading of the Old Covenant. It seems the Apostle Paul was no dispensationalist. He, nor all the NT writers suffered in the ditch of dispensational delusion. They saw the need, indeed the requirement to read the OT in light of Christ. They are prolifically devoted to do so and use OT references, one after another, to take promises given to Israel and deliver them lock, stock and barrel to Christ the promised Seed.
No more clearly is this done than in Gal 3:16-18.
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is based on law, it is no longer based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.
Paul is not unclear, in fact he is tediously clear, super clear, grammatically and explicitly clear. How many? One. Not many seeds? No! One seed. You might image as response from Paul, “Are you stupid” if you were to ask once again, One? really, not the many? Paul is VERY clear. We should be also.
The promises to Abraham are to the ONE SEED, Christ.
At this point there are now two clear points which form a solid line of trajectory. As you know from geometry class, two points is all you need to establish a line, but wait, there is more. This line and trajectory from Christ back into the Old Covenant is quite literally covered in points of connection. Paul is completely taken by the degree of correspondence. So is Peter. So is John and Stephen and James. None of these suffer with Dyspys goofiness syndrome. They all seem to see clearly that everything in History was about the One Seed, the Israel of God. The very One promised in the garden after the fall. The Seed of woman. The rightful Heir. The reason Judaism has all the genealogies. So that they would know when He came not that they (Israel) were the point.
So here it is. The question you need ask yourself. Should I deliberately put on my welding hood (veil) and read certain OT passages that pertain to Israel with the obscuring veil over my eyes, or should I follow the lead of Paul, Peter, James, John, Stephen and the entire NT. I recommend taking Paul’s advice. Take the veil off and see Christ in all the promises given to Israel.
God’s not done with Israel yet because God is not done with the world yet. All of God’s elect, Jew and Gentile will be saved (Rom 9-11). Israel has been and is a rebellious, stiff-necked and defiant bunch. So are you and I. Separating Israel off to be their own people is a tragic goofiness that has caught up with Dispensationalism. People by the hundreds and thousands have “left it behind”. There is a group that champions it still but many have recognize they are in the ditch. They have looked over and recognized the smooth road and have started to veer the car back onto the sound and straight road of Christ Alone as the one man (Eph 2:15), the Israel of God.
Progressive Dispys and other varieties of leaky dispensationalism all bear the effects of driving in the ditch. It’s a rough road with hazards galore and you can only take so many barbs in your tires before you think better about resuming the smooth and better road. These have made adjustments to the leaks and have joined the CT group in adhering to better ideas on the topic but many hold out still.
One such accounting of the rough road of dispensationalism, is Daniel Hummel’s book: The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism. Dr. Hummel is a historian and not a theologian. He freely admits he doesn’t have a dog in the fight between Covenantal Theology and Dispensationalism. He does have a keen sense of where Dispensationalism came from and where it is going.
Dispensationalism influence on America has been profound. This is one of the big clues that Dispensationalism is a ditch alongside the good road. If you go outside of the culture of America and ask the church in other parts of the world, they aren’t familiar with the ditch of Dispensationalism. Those that are familiar with it have had it hoisted off onto them from the American culture it is rampant in. It seems other believers in the world don’t fancy the idea of reading the OT with a welding hood (veil) on. Good for them.
Turns out like much of today’s dullness, you won’t get there by yourself; you need to be taught it, ensuring you arrive at the heights of dullness, with the aid of others. The same holds true if you go back in history. The good road didn’t have a dispensational ditch until John Nelson Darby took the car off roading in the mid 1800’s.
America’s consumerism and other evangelical ailments helped aid the spread of this mess all over the place. Despite numerous false claims of Jesus return, the popular Dispy ideas spread like wildfire all over – into every nook and cranny of the church. Like a pestilent black mold, we have it lurking everywhere now. Countless have been made sick to varying degrees from the effects of this noxious toxin. The only antidote is to reject its spores in favor of the Christ who is and has always been the only Hope of the entire world. Even Israel.
That brings us back to the important hermeneutical starting point. Should we read the OT with a pretended ignorance of Christ? As if Israel is somehow the star of the OT show. Or ought we as Paul clearly submits, see Christ removing the veil so that we see clearly. Jesus is the rightful heir of all the promises to Abram. Israel never was the star of the OT cosmic tale; this role was reserved for He who made it all.
2 Cor 3:14 But their {Israel’s} minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
Remove the veil Dispys! See clearly Christ is the Heir, the King, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Israel has hope and promises, but not apart from Christ. In Him we all Hope and apart from Him we are without God in this world. Israel is apart from God if this is true.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit say it’s true.
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