Charles Spurgeon wrote on the “Israel of God.” Spurgeon was very critical of Darby and the Dispensationalist’s view that there were two peoples of God. C.I. Scofield incorporated Darby’s view into his Biblical concordance, which became the reference Bible for nearly all seminary schools in America in the beginning of the 20th century. Scofield’s theology therefore became one of the most influential in the USA and later through Protestantism in the world as foreign Protestants followed American theology. However, let us read what Spurgeon wrote.
“Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceeding wise men (measured by their own estimate of themselves)[Here he is referring to Darby.], between the people of God who lived before the coming of Christ, and those who lived afterwards. We have even heard it asserted that those who lived before the coming of Christ [the Jewish people] do not belong to the church of God!
“We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed at one time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement. Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing; the Lord has not some children best beloved, some second-rate offspring, and others whom he hardly cares about.
“These who saw Christ’s day before it came, had a great difference as to what they knew, and perhaps in the same measure a difference as to what they enjoyed while on earth meditating upon Christ; but they were all washed in the same blood, all redeemed with the same ransom price, and made members of the same body.
“Israel in the covenant of grace is not natural Israel[not the nation of Israel], but all believers in all ages. Before the first advent, all the types and shadows all pointed one way – they pointed to Christ, and to him all the saints looked with hope. Those who lived before Christ were not saved with a different salvation to that which shall come to us. They exercised faith as we must; that faith struggled as ours struggles, and that faith obtained its reward as ours shall.”[1]
[1] Charles Spurgeon,Devotional Classics of C.H. Spurgeon,p.122
So be careful of the Bible scholars they say that this prophecy is for the Jews and this one is for the Christians. - Dennis Edwards
2 Comments:
Thanks for the information. I wonder where all the Protestant Zionists get they’re information. They claim Spurgeon was looking toward a physical restoration of the Jews in israel.
Spurgeon did believe that there would be a return of the Jewish people to Israel and a Jewish political state and nation. However, he did not agree with the Despensationalist of ?giving the Jewish people some special position millennium prophecy. He believed most of the Old Testament promises for millennium Israel would be fulfilled in the resurrected Church, a body of believers from Jewish and Gentile backgrounds saved by their faith in Christ. He believed the saved believers were the true Israel of God, not the physical state of Israel. Those of Israel who come to Christ would become part of the Church of God or of the Israel of God described by Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 3. Spurgeon believed like the early Church Fathers that the church would go through the tribulation period. The resurrection or rapture (though he didn't use that term) would follow the tribulation and precede the millennium period. He was clearly a pre-millennialist with a post tribulation rapture theology.
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