Systematic Theology

Dispensational Chart
Twenty-four differences between Israel and the church, as given by Dr. Lewis S. Chafer in his Systematic Theology, Vol. 4

TO WHOM IS THE BOOK OF HEBREWS WRITTEN?
Many commentators think the book of Hebrews is written to believing Jews but I do not think that is true. During the last century there were only about four great respected Greek scholars, including the scholar Kenneth Wuest.

THE ISSUE OF INERRANCY
I have been told that many of my books published by Scofield Ministries are blessing many pastors and missionaries here in the States and even in Europe, especially in Germany. This is very encouraging.

OUR POSITION IN CHRIST
1 Corinthians 1:30 is a profound verse of Scripture. God has placed us into Christ which gives us a new POSITION in Him. The verse reads...

WHO ARE THE KINGS OF THE EAST?
The peoples who live to the East of the Holy Land are not the good folks. They represent the Arabic peoples who later became the Muslims who are now tormenting the Jews. And, I believe the Muslims ...

THE LIFE OF JESUS
Anyone interested in the life of Christ needs to get the book "Jesus & The Forgotten City" by Richard Batey through Amazon. This is an outstanding work on His life and the city of Sepphoris that ...

SALVATION AND THE DEATH OF INFANTS
In a recent Bible study we had a discussion on what happens in the death of a child who dies before the age of accountability. There were two views expressed...

THE RICHES OF BLESSINGS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT : The Short Psalms of David
Sometimes we forget how spiritual the Old Testament is with its many blessings. We think only the New Testament has spiritual truth. But this is not so...

IS SALVATION A GIFT OF GOD?
"For by grace you [all of you] are existing, having been saved, by means of faith, and this is not of yourselves, from God [comes] the gift!" Many translate the passage simply as "By grace you have been saved." This is called a periphrastic construction where the "you are existing" goes silent.

ETERNAL PUNISHMENT AND HELL
Well, here we go again! Some Baptist pastors (and others) are again saying there is no eternal punishment and hell.

GOD'S SPIRIT WILL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE WITH SINFUL MANKIND
After humanity had fallen deep into sin, the gate was open for a torrent of evil to come forth from the human generations. The Lord said "My Spirit shall not always strive with man forever, for he is flesh, therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty years" (Gen. 6:3).

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CREATION - GENESIS 1:2
The Spirit of God is far more active in the OT than we may first realize. He is mentioned many times at work in God's creative world, and in the lives of many people. He is not a force, He is personality, a person, One who carries out the work of God the Father.

A MOST IMPORTANT PASSAGE: Luke 2:34-35
Luke 2:34-35 is a most important passage of Scripture. Simeon is talking with Joseph and Mary, the mother of Christ, and he said to her: "Behold this child (Jesus) is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."

THE NEW TESTAMENT GIFT OF PROPHECY
What was the gift of prophecy first mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10?

HOW TOLERANT ARE WE TO BE IN THE WORLD?
In America, we are to tolerate other people, just as they are to tolerate us. But we do not have to tolerate false ideas ...

GOD DID NOT KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING!
He must have gotten mixed up on biology by making male sex and female sex. He is the Creator of all life and He planned out the entire workings of the sexual pro-creation environment.

THOSE WHO OPPOSE CALVINISM
Many who oppose Calvinism do not know Bible doctrine nor are they educated about church history.

FORGIVING UNILATERALLY
I have heard recently someone say, "Well, I just forgave them (even though they said nothing about repenting or asking for forgiveness!) ...

IS CHRIST TODAY SEATED ON HIS THRONE?
No, He is not, though Covenant theologians try to say that He is. But they do not read carefully.

THE MIRACLE OF THE KATYDID
God's creation is awesome! There is no way that evolution can really work! Take for instance the lowly katydid.

COVENANT THEOLOGY DEFIES THE WORD OF GOD!
Someone has correctly pointed out to me that Covenant theologians have nothing to say about future prophecy. They are basically silent on the subject. All they can do, without evidence, is deny dispensationalism, even though the word "dispensation" is in the Scriptures.

WHO ARE THE DOGS?
The Word of God uses the expression "the dogs" to describe homosexuals, in both the Old and the New Testaments. This may be one of the last times this can be mentioned online because the government is coming against anything we say about Sodomy. The issue of course is the inspiration and authority of the Bible. It is not about us; it is about the Word of God, and, what the Lord says on the subject.

SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE
No one has been able to challenge the statement of the apostle Peter about the marvel of creation. He wrote that it escapes the notice of the world that "by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water" (2 Pet. 3:4-5).

THE ATTACKS OF THE WORLD
There are at least four things that the world hates and attacks. They hate Christ and God the Father.

THE POOR COVENANT GUYS!
Dr. Iain Campbell, writing in TableTalk for November, says that in Revelation 19:11-14, Christ is seen as the Word of God who comes riding out of heaven as a warrior King coming to defeat sin and Satan.

END OF DISCUSSION
Anyone who has thoroughly researched the issue of prophecy knows that the discussion is over, as to what the early church thought about premillennialism. Premillennialism says that Christ will come to establish the Davidic kingdom for one thousand years, as prophesied in Scripture.

IMPORTANCE OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Many people ignore the covenant God made with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). The covenant includes three main points: (1) God would give to him a land (the land of Canaan), (2) He would make from Abraham a great nation, and, (3) Through him He would bring forth a blessing or a curse on those who curse him. "And in you (Abraham) all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (v. 3b).

THE FALL OF SATAN
Christ was there when Satan was cast from the heavens by the Lord, following his rebellion before the throne of God! Christ said "I watched, observed, Satan fall from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18). Translating the verse gives chills up and down the spine. Christ is speaking with strong and forceful words how Lucifer was instantly, at the speed of lightning, tossed from the throne room of the God of the Universe!

WHAT ABOUT INFANTS?
Those who have died as infants and had no opportunity to trust in Christ? We have only two verse that sheds light on this issue. And most evangelicals hold to what I am about to write now.

PURPOSE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH?
What is the purpose or the work of the local church? Generally people come up with all kinds of "works" and ministries that the local assembly should be doing, but unfortunately, this is all wrong.

MARIOLOGY
I'm often asked about Mary, the mother of Jesus. I have about twenty Catholic texts used in Catholic seminaries and referred to in the teaching of priests. The average Catholic would not believe what the Church actually teaches about her! It is downright heresy! Some years ago I wrote a book entitled "The Teaching of the Catholic Church—Taken from Their Own Textbooks." It is an awesome volume that is quite revealing about their Mariology.

A MID-TRIBULATIONAL RAPTURE
There is no such thing! And those who think so are just plain hostile to the biblical Pre-Tribulational rapture as given in Scripture.

THE KINGDOM INSIDE THE PHARISEES?
Many think that the kingdom had begun when Christ was ministering. They use Luke 19:21 which reads in the KJV and other older texts: "For behold, the kingdom of God is in you." But the NAS translates the passage correctly: "For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."

IS REPENTANCE A SEPARATE WORK FOR SALVATION?
One denomination that is heretical believes that there are five steps in order to be saved. (1) Believe in Christ, (2) Confess your sins, (3) Repent of your sins, (4) Be water baptized in their denomination, and, (5) Join their church. Without these independent steps, you are not saved.

Philippians:THE UNIQUENESS OF OUR SAVIOR
The Lord Jesus is both fully man and fully God. Christ is very God and very Man. He is the God/Man. He is human and yet without sin. He is God the Son, deity, who has always existed. He has always had a relation with God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit. He never sinned, never would, never could, and never will! His very person is deity, sinless, perfect, and holy.

FEAST OF TRUMPETS
Please don't be one of those who think the rapture will take place on the Feast of Trumpets. These folks who hold that are sensationalists who believe they've found something the rest of us idiots just don't know about.

WHY DO CHRISTIANS CHANGE?
The Barna Group reports that Christians usually change habits or directions in their life under pressure or when things get bad, not because they want to personally walk closer with the Lord. That is a simplified answer to an issue that presented recently on the web.

THE LORD’S LITERAL PROMISES
This morning I was doing my daily translation work in the Hebrew language in Genesis and ran across something interesting. In Hebrews 6:13 it says "God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself."

BORDERING ON ERROR
There are some today who seem to be teaching a view that borders on scriptural error. They argue that if one does not openly articulate that they have eternal life in Christ when they confess Him as their Savior then they may not be saved. To make the point they say that the Gospel of John is the only evangelistic book in the NT.

FEAST OF TRUMPETS & THE RAPTURE
I have friends who believe the Trumpet of God is the Trumpet for "The Feast of Trumpets," and that is when, at some point in the future, the Rapture will take place. Now where did we get the idea that the blowing of that Trumpet announces the Rapture of the Church?

DOES THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL LAST FOREVER?
It is sad to see that there are a few evangelicals who hold to the doctrine of annihilation-ism, that is, they believe that the lost spend some time in the pains of hell but then are simply "poofed" and completely disappear. Annihilation-ism is a doctrine sometimes taught by the cults but almost never by biblical evangelicals...

PROGRESSIVE DISPENSATIONAL WAY OFF BASE!
Online there is posted a short article on Progressive Dispensationalism. Who wrote it is not important, and I have no intention of attacking the person. But What he wrote should be answered because it is misleading. Below are quotes from that article. Some of the points I will take the time to respond to and other points I will just let stand, because they are so far off, any thinking person would catch it!

A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM
A friend of mine and I discuss the idea that amillennialists often speak of the church as a spiritual kingdom. There is no doubt that the coming millennial kingdom will be "spiritual" because it is what God will place here on earth with His Son reigning and ruling over the entire world. But to call the Millennium the same, or to call the church the same is not good theology. It is poor observation as to what the Bible teaches.

REDEFINING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
It is very possible that some in the government are planning to redefining religious freedom in America...

2 THESSALONIANS 2:3-4 – CHRISTIAN FREEDOMS ABOUT TO END IN AMERICA?
There is evidence that Christian freedoms are about to end in this country very soon. This would fit perfectly with Paul's warning in the 2 Thessalonians passage (2:3-4). "The Day of the Lord" is the seven year period of the wrath of God upon the earth (v. 2). The church will have been raptured but events will build up before that day comes. In other words, the church will be taken up in order to avoid that awful coming of God's wrath upon the people of the world.

MARY ON THE CROSS
Since the Catholic Church calls Mary the Co-Redemptrex, why not put her on the cross? This is the final step in their heresy. She is omnipresent and she gives her approval for all those who are saved.

WHY PRAY ...
If God is not sovereign? And sovereign means just that, sovereign! While He is not the Author of evil, He can cause it to be and then use it for His purposes.

THE RELIABILITY OF GENESIS
No scholar was more knowledgeable in the latter part of the nineteenth century on the ancient world than Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum. He realized the distinctions between Genesis and the stories of Egypt and Babylon found in the first book of our Bible. He also knew that Genesis had to be inspired because of all it said that was so true in the world of ancient history.

ARE WE IN THE KINGDOM NOW?
Some try to use Revelation 5:10 to say that we are in the millennial kingdom presently but that is not what John the apostle is writing about. His first reference about us and a kingdom is found in Revelation 1:6 ...

WHAT SETS US OFF?
We would all answer SIN! But which sins causes us to react? The sins that we are doing, that we enjoy, and that we are reminded of. In other words, we all would agree that sin is bad...

WILL DAVID BE CO-REIGNING WITH CHRIST IN THE KINGDOM?
This has been an issue that has been debated for generations by many scholars, even dispensational and premillennial teachers. But the answer will be a loud and clear "yes" if we use good interpretative and hermeneutical skills to come up with the answer.

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SPROUL WRITING ABOUT?
In his little weekly publication he writes: "What Ezekiel saw in a vision (Ezek. 40-48) we now see in reality as the kingdom of God spreads across the earth and people from every tribe and tongue are set apart as priests.

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
In Matthew 12:24-33 Christ points out that He can be blasphemed, and those who do such, can in the future be forgiven. "Whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come" (v. 32).

THE SOVEREIGNTY and PROVIDENCE OF GOD
What is the theological difference between these two words? Sometimes people interchange them and use them synonymously. But from a practical standpoint they are somewhat different. Sovereignty is saying that God is absolutely in charge of His universe.

LITTLE CHILDREN ALREADY IN THE CHURCH?
Because King David said his famous words about Bath-sheba's infant who died shortly after birth, "Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me" (2 Sam. 12:23), we know that the Lord takes infants to Himself if they die before the age of accountability.

CLEANING LEPROSY
When the Jewish people entered Canaan God began to work with His people in purifying them from their sins. Leprosy came onto their homes that they possessed and it brought about terrible problems.

DOES GOD BRING NATIONAL JUDGMENT? LOOK AT THE VOODOO OF HAITI!
When the earthquake hit Haiti, every Christian bled for all of the problems that came upon the innocent women and children. Almost the entire nation was destroyed!

A COMPARISON BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH
Below are twenty-four differences between Israel and the church,
as given by Dr. Lewis S. Chafer in his Systematic Theology, Vol. 4:

THE CRITERIA FOR CANONICITY OF SCRIPTURE
Below is a list of stated facts that give to us confirmation that what we have in the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God. The list could be expanded but these are just some preliminary points to consider...

THE DISCIPLES WILL SIT ON 12 THRONES!
Now for all good amills this must have to do somehow with the church, right? Wrong! But the amills have no other choice because they want to get rid of the Jews.

GENTILES TO BE SAVED
Throughout the OT there are examples of Gentiles coming to God, and, there are a few passages that tell us that they will also come to the Lord in the kingdom period. Psalm 69 has several messianic verses, such as verses 9 and 35-36.

A GREAT VERSE (Colossians 2:8)!
This is a great verse for today that every believer needs to soak on. From the Greek text it reads:

THE PROMISE OF LIFE AFTER DEATH
There is a wonderful passage in Scripture that gives comfort about the afterlife that every believer needs to study! It is Isaiah 57:1-2, which reads...

CHRIST'S THREEFOLD OFFICE
The Word of God is very clear about the two-fold offices of Christ: Prophet and Priest. Jesus as a Prophet spoke the Word of God, but He was also the sacrificial Lamb of God, who as a Priest, gave His own body as a substitutional offering for sinful humanity.

VERSES THAT DESTROY AMILLENNIALISM
Hundreds of verses of Scripture do just that, but there are three passages that are determinative on the issue. They are Luke 22:28-30; Acts 1:10-11; Hebrews 9:28.

CULTS AND WATER BAPTISM
It is almost cultish to try to argue that water baptism is necessary for salvation. But those who are the weakest in the faith, and who do not know exactly what the Bible is teaching about salvation, always use water baptism to finish in their thinking the work of redemption....

THE GOSPEL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT!
What is the "gospel" as mentioned by Paul in Romans 1:1? The word gospel in Greek is euagelion and it literally means "good news, message."...

Is The Church Presently In A Spiritual Kingdom?
A misinterpretation of the Colossians 1:13 passage has raised its ugly head again! There are those who want to argue that the kingdom here in this verse is somehow a "spiritualized" kingdom or is actually the messianic kingdom that the church has been joined to. The passage reads from the Greek text:

Christ IS the New Covenant
There are a lot of great truths in the OT about the Lord Jesus that are missed in our Bible study. For example, the great Messianic chapter, Isaiah 42 tells, us that Christ will be both a covenant for the nation of Israel, and a light to the nations (v. 6).

Justification by Faith
I've recently been asked, is justification equal to becoming saved? The answer is yes, though many other things also take place when one is saved. To be made just or righteous, is first mentioned in the OT though there are a lot of details that are not explained. In other words, the OT saints were declared justified.

The Doctrine of Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 causes a lot of problems for those who hold to certain doctrinal preconceptions. To understand the passage takes meaningful study. Good Bible study requires solid OBSERVATION skills. Let the Bible speak and it will make itself clear and understandable! Calvinists and many others fight over the passage because of faulty preconceptions. The passage is not saying, as some Calvinists charge, that God has already "saved" the entire world.

Almost Heresy
When it comes to the issue of the literal millennial reign of Christ as King in Israel, the Covenant and amillennial guys are almost heretical. They deny the Lord's coming literal reign on earth for a thousand years in Jerusalem. This is contradictory to what all the prophets teach and what is indicated in the Gospels and the book of Revelation. So, are those who "spiritualize" the Second Coming heretics?

The Resurrections of Scripture
I have had more than one question from web viewers about the various resurrections of the Bible. Many are curious or confused about the when and the who concerning this subject. Below is an examination of the various resurrections mentioned in Scripture. Also, there are a series of questions to answer sent in by our readers.

Are Tongues for Today?
This is easy to answer. First, the Greek word glossa was a clearly understood idiom for describing a spoken and known language. Thus when the doctrine of linguistics first appeared in Acts 2 we find it describing spoken languages and identifiable dialects. It was defined as a miracle gift also: "... because they were each one hearing them (the disciples) speak in his own language. And they were amazed and marveled, saying, 'Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?'" (vv. 6-7). And the people hearing the miracle added: "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?" (v. 8).

The Impeccability of Christ
A few years back the film industry came out with a lot of productions showing the "humanness" of Christ, ignoring any pretense or hint to the fact of His deity as the Son of God. This would be expected of the lost world, but such tripe has a continuing negative effect on the natural man. Of course Satan loves it! He loves to picture Jesus as simply a "natural" man rather than "very God"!

The book of Daniel for centuries has been under fire by the liberal critics and even often by conservative scholars.
Daniel, along with Genesis and Deuteronomy, are regularly attacked for various reasons. But specifically, Daniel is attacked because of the incredible and accurate 70 Weeks of Daniel prophecy in chapter 9, and the detailed predictions of chapter 11 that were prophesied to come upon Israel in the period between the Old and the New Testaments.

The order of Regeneration and faith, and the issue of Faith as a Gift of God! A second look!
For some reason it won’t go away—the issues dealing with the order of faith and regeneration and faith as a gift of God. If one believes that the saved are "chosen before the foundation of the world," these issues seem to be settled by the scriptural evidence. But the arguments persist. Bible scholars are split on the issues but those who hold to the absolute sovereignty and working providence of God in His world, all seem to come down on that side that God initiates the regeneration and the faith processes!

What Brings God Glory?
All Glory Belongs to God. The first mention of God's glory is found in Exodus 16:7. Moses said to the grumbling Israelites, "in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord." Psalm 148 is the praise psalm that gives Him honor in all He has made. The psalmist writes, let all give Him honor, "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven" (v. 13).

The Restrainer
The question so often asked is, who is the restrainer of 2 Thessalonians 2:6-9? Various views have been offered with a wide range of possibilities that add intrigue to the subject of Bible prophecy. Because the suggestions have been so broad throughout the long history of the church, the answer has often eluded all those who tried to interpret the prophetic Scriptures.

The Beliefs That Deny God
The theism that we have by divine revelation gives the knowledge of an eternal, all-wise God, who exists in three Persons, and, who loves mankind so much that He created a gracious plan for eternal salvation. The triune God is revealed in limited form in the Old Testament, and more completely by progressive revelation in the New Testament.

The Lord's Supper
Examining the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, or any other teaching of the church, the student of Scripture must be careful to avoid buying without reservation what the early church taught. As with the church today, the bishops and elders were products of their own time and could easily slip into views that were not biblical, as they did with the extreme views of Gnosticism or mysticism.

The Abrahamic Covenant Fulfilled In The Kingdom Reign Of Messiah
All of the promises made to Abraham are brought to completion in the 1000 kingdom reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Covenant with its three-fold division here brings to a close the flow of world history. All that God had promised in the Abrahamic covenant will be finished.

The Natural Proofs of God's Existance By His Written Revelation
We have already referred to the fact that the Word of God is the first source of knowing what the Lord God is all about. This biblical knowledge reveals that God is Person; He is not simply a mindless force or power! From the Scriptures we learn of His character, attributes, personality, love, and a thousand other truths that we should know about the One who created us!

The Natural Proofs of God's Existence Philosophy of Religion
For generations rational philosophers have attempted to give certain natural arguments for the existence of God. This was a humanistic effort to arm-wrestle objectors into accepting a kind of logical proof of the truth about God's being. But the heart and mind of the lost is so tenacious that such arguments fall on deaf ears.

How Do We Know About God?
We have already referred to the fact that the Word of God is the first source of knowing what the Lord God is all about. This biblical knowledge reveals that God is Person; He is not simply a mindless force or power! From the Scriptures we learn of His character, attributes, personality, love, and a thousand other truths that we should know about the One who created us!

The Demise of Systematic Theology
Evangelicals are in trouble! The beginning of the twenty-first century saw the Evangelical church move rapidly toward what is called the postmodern era. Postmodernism is an attitude that has been spawned by the intellectual elite who believes absolutes, especially in the moral and spiritual realm, cannot be known with certainty. The study of biblical doctrine then is no longer important or necessary.

The Reformation, The Jews, and the Hebrew Language
Evangelicals are quickly losing their edge on understanding the Word of God. There is the departure of the "learning" of Hebrew and Greek by those who say they want to teach God’s Word. Pastors particularly no longer have an interest in New Testament Greek in order to exegete the Scriptures from the pulpit. If this is so, how much more acute is the loss of interest in knowing the Hebrew language of the Old Testament?

Will God Restore The Kingdom To Israel?
One of the greatest misunderstandings in theology is the belief that the church today is the replacement for the prophesied Old Testament Davidic kingdom that is to be set up in Jerusalem by the Messiah.

Dead in Trespasses and Sins: Ephesians 2:1, 5
As Evangelicals move further away from the solid study of the Word of God, there will come about an accelerated slippage away from the crucial doctrines of Christianity.

The Divinity of Christ
With an objective study of Scripture on the subject of the nature of God, one cannot help but arrive at the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Death of the Doctrine of Sin
All of the collective evil in the universe is described by the biblical noun sin (hamartia). From this word we come to the study of sin, hamartiology.