Tradition and religion have continually put God's people in bondage. I will never understand why men have spent most of their waking hours trying to find ways to destroy the faith of Christians instead of building it up.

The error mentioned above has been used many times to keep God's people from the best that He has made available for us. Whenever one finds a promise of health, long life, or any of the other wonderful benefits mentioned in the Old Testament, we are told that applied only to the Jews and is not for us today. The source of this error is primarily advocated by some who teach an extreme form of dispensationalism.Dispensationalism is a prominent teaching in most circles in the church.

Although this doctrine does well in explaining how God has governed man in different periods of the Bible, it is dangerous when taken to the extreme that some do when they deny the promises of the Old Testament in the life of the New Testament believer. The late Baptist minister, Arthur W. Pink, had some strong words to say against those who teach against the authority of the Old Testament:
 
 

These mutilators of the Word tell us that all of the Old Testament from Genesis 12 onwards belongs entirely to Israel after the flesh, and that none of its precepts (as such) are binding upon those who are members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, nor may any of the promises found therein be legitimately appropriated by them. And this, be it duly noted, without a single word to that effect by either the Lord or any of His Apostles, and despite the use which the Holy Spirit makes of the earliest Scriptures in every part of the New Testament.[1]
 
 

The late Arthur W. Pink was a Calvinist.[2] I am not. Pink often taught and wrote things concerning the sovereignty of God that I take time to refute in this book. Pink and I have strong disagreements in many areas of doctrine. As a matter of fact, I cannot totally agree with Pink's assessment of all dispensationalists. Many dispensationalists do not go to the extreme of denying the relevance of Old Testament promises in the life of the New Testament believer. Nevertheless, Pink and I are in total agreement concerning the place of the Old Testament in the life of today's Christian and we both disagree with those who would deny it's authority and blessing in our lives. Pink goes on to say:
 
 

What is true of the Old Testament precepts (generally speaking, for there are, of course, exceptions to every rule) holds equally good to the Old Testament promises—believers today are fully warranted in mixing faith therewith and expecting to receive the substance of them. First, because those promises were made to saints as such, and what God gives to one He gives to all (2 Pet. 1:4)—Christ purchased the self-same blessings for every one of His redeemed. Second, because most of the Old Testament promises were typical in their nature: earthly blessings adumbrated heavenly ones. That is no arbitrary assertion of ours, for anyone who has been taught of God knows that almost everything during the old economies had a figurative meaning, shadowing forth the better things to come. Many proofs of this will be given by us a little later. Third, a literal fulfillment to us of those promises must not be excluded, for since we be still on earth and in the body our temporal needs are the same as theirs, and if we meet the conditions attached to those promises (either expressed or implied), then we may count upon the fulfillment of them: according unto our faith and obedience so will it be unto us.[3]
 
 

Those who take dispensationalism to the extreme that Pink and I disagree with would be better described as Marcionans. Not all dispensationalists subscribe to the error of this heretic. This was a man in the second century of the church who denied the place of the Old Testament in our lives. He was fiercely opposed by the church fathers. We will discuss him further in the next chapter.

Recently I read a book in which the author’s emphasis was teaching how the Bible can be applied. There was a chapter in the book on how to apply promises. In this book he stated that many Old Testament promises could not be applied because they were only for Israel. Then he went on to use Malach 3:10 as an example of a promise that was meant only for Israel. Malachi 3:10 is the Scripture most commonly used to teach the blessings that derive as a result of tithes and offerings.

In 1985 I was in the Air Force assigned to Edwards AFB in California when I received notice of reassignment to Korea. I sent my wife and 10 month old daughter to her home in Okinawa, Japan since I was could not bring my family. This left me with the sole responsibilty of checking out of base quarters.

Before one checks out of base quarters they must go through an inspection by the base housing office. An inspector came to the house and noticed a burn hole on top of the porcelain countertop. My wife had taken a burning pot from the stove and place it there by accident. The inspector rightly felt that it was my responsibilty to pay for it. After checking, he decided that the whole countertop would have to be replaced and it would cost me about two hundred dollars.

I did not have two hundred dollars to just give away. I had already paid from my own pocket the flight and expenses to get my wife and daughter back to Japan. The only thing I could do was turn to the Lord.

I reminded the Lord that I had faithfully paid my tithes and gave offerings. I reminded Him of what He said that He would do as a result of my giving. One of the Scriptures I brought to God was Mal. 3:8-12. The next day, the inspector came over and asked, “How do you want to pay for this? Do you want us to deduct it from your paycheck or would you like to pay cash?” I told him that I would pay cash. I did not know where I would get the money from but I believed the promise in Malachi.

The very next morning I was outside cleaning the front yard for final inspection when the inspector drove by. He stopped his car and said, “Sgt Edwards, just forget about the payment.” I asked him, “Are you saying I don’t owe anything?” He told me, “Don’t worry about it. It’s taken care of” and drove off. I never paid one dime for that countertop.

I was expecting God to send someone by with two hundred dollars and say, “the Lord told me to give this to you.” Yet, He did it in an unexpected way. Nevertheless, I claimed an Old Testament promise and it was fulfilled in my life. Some have theological concepts for Scriptures and others experience the Scriptures. Do you want the former or the latter?

If we study the Bible instead of listening to what man say then we will find something totally different:
 
 

"ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is PROFITABLE for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2 Tim. 3:16)
 
 

I like the way the Contemporary English Version translates this verse: "Everything in the Scriptures is God's Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live." So we see that everything in the Scriptures is God's Word and can be used for every area of our lives. The Old and New Testament can be applied as long as the Old Testament is translated in the light of the New.

The KJV says that the scripture is PROFITABLE. I like that word better. God's Word is given to us so that we can PROFIT from it. Profitable means "to your advantage" or "for your gain." Therefore you have God’s word to give you an advantage over the devil. It is he who does not want you to appropriate the blessings of God.

Every promise that God has made available to you is meant to counterattack some area that the devil is trying to gain a foothold in your life. Yet when you know ALL of the promises you will have an advantage over him. Many of these promises are found in the Old Testament. That is why Satan has tried to discourage God’s people from claiming those Old Testament promises.

The Scriptures are for your gain. God has made many things available to us in both Testaments and He is not the God of loss but of gain.God has given us His Word for our sakes because He loves us. Yet many have twisted the word and have used it to bring bondage instead of profit to God's people. People have suffered loss instead of enjoying gain because of wrong theology.

Romans 4 teach us that what was written to Abraham was not written just for him. It was for our sakes also:
 
 

"Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it [righteousness] was imputed to him; But FOR US ALSO, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." (Rom. 4:23-24)
 
 

God did not have Abraham’s experiences recorded for historical purposes only. The experience of Abraham and others who lived during Old Testament times was written for you and I. Notice that Paul wrote this book to the Christians in Rome, not the Jews in Israel. Therefore God is using Paul to tell us that the father of the Jewish race, Abraham, had experiences that we Gentiles were supposed to learn from.

Paul is telling us here that an OLD TESTAMENT Scripture was actually written for our sakes. This proves that when Paul tells Timothy that ALL Scripture is profitable then he is referring to the Old Testament as well as the New.

Since all Scripture is for our profit and is written for our sakes then we can claim promises from the Old Testament as well as the New. The Bible itself shows that everything that God promised the Jews also belongs to the Church in this dispensation.

Romans 4 is teaching us how Abraham applied faith to receive the promises that God gave him. We are exhorted to apply the same faith in receiving what he received. When God called Abraham, who is the father of Israel, He made some wonderful promises to him:
 
 

"Now the Lord said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED." (Gen. 12:1-3)
 
 

Notice that God wanted to bless Abraham in order that he would be a blessing. God does not give His blessings for us to hoard them up for ourselves. He blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. One cannot bless others until they have first been blessed. God encourages us to help the poor, but this would be difficult if we are poor ourselves. That’s the reason for financial prosperity, to help the poor and needy.

God did not plan for only the nation of Israel to receive the blessings of Abraham. Israel would be the CHANNEL by which the blessings of Abraham would be conferred to the rest of the world. God's original intent in using Abraham was so that in him ALL the families of the earth could receive a blessing.

Some people believe that in the Old Testament God was only concerned about the nation of Israel and then in the New Testament when this nation rejected the Messiah, only then did He decide to include the Gentiles. It has always been God’s plan to bring salvation to the world. He chose Israel to be His channel.

He wanted a nation who knew Him and through whom He could display His power, mercy and love. When the surrounding nations would see how God was blessing Israel, then they would turn from their idols and turn to the God of the Jews.

As Abraham began to further obey God, God gave him more insight into the promise that He made
 
 

"And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee AND THY SEED after thee in their generations for an EVERLASTING COVENANT, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." (Gen. 17:6-7)
 
 

When we obey God in the things He tells us then we will also receive further revelation in the things of God.

Notice the the word "nations." This word has an “s” at the end and therefore that makes it plural, which means more than one. Israel was only ONE nation so this promise could not apply to them only. This promise had a wider application.

Also notice that it was an EVERLASTING covenant that God made. This means that these promises did not cease after a certain time. Theologians like to use dispensational theology to prove that God’s promises in the Old Testament applied only to those of that time. Many of them also use this same theology to prove that the miracles and gifts of the New Testament have ceased. If we listened to them, we may as well close our Bibles and never read them because we can have nothing.

Yet Roman shows us exactly how God’s covenant with Abraham applies to those of us under the New Testament:
 
 

"Therfore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to ALL THE SEED; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; WHO IS THE FATHER OF US ALL. (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,)" (Rom. 4:16-17a)
 
 

Abraham was the channel of blessing to ALL the families of the earth. The covenant of blessing that God established with Abraham was an everlasting one. It was a promise to all of the seed. When the King James Version uses the word "seed," it is referring to "children" in this case.

That seed is us. The promises that God made to Abraham are "sure" to us as his seed. This word sure means "inevitable, guaranteed, bound to happen." The promise of blessing that God made to Abraham is inevitable, guaranteed, and bound to happen in the lives of all of the children of Abraham. The Scripture goes on to say that Abraham is the father of us all.

Paul, when writing this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was referring to Genesis 17, the passage we quoted earlier. In verse 8 of this chapter it talks about the giving of the land of Canaan to the seed. We already know that the physical land of Canaan applies to the Jews only. Yet Paul takes the portion of the promise that applies to us ALL and quotes that part.

The land of Canaan does represent, or is a type of the blessings, rights, and privileges that belong to us as believers. But modern day theologians get so caught up in the physical land that they naturally assume that none of the promises that belong to the Jews apply to us. They will point to such Scriptures and say: "See, it could only be speaking of the Jews because we as Christians are not promised the land of Canaan."

Some men become so "theological" that it causes them to be "unscriptural." The Bible makes it plain and clear that whatever God has promised Abraham as a result of the covenant applies to us also. Romans 4 is not the only one that brings out this fact. Paul expounds upon this theme again in Galatians:
 
 

"For ye are all the children of God by FAITH in Christ Jesus. For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither JEW NOR GREEK, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all ONE in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, THEN ARE YE ABRAHAM'S SEED, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. 3:26-29)
 
 

The Everyday Bible translates Galatians 3:29 this way: "You belong to Christ. So you are Abraham's descendants. You get ALL of God's blessings because of the promise that God made to Abraham."

The Living Bible paraphrases verse 29 well: "And now that we are Christ's we are the true descendants of Abraham, and all of God's promises to him belong to us." Everyone who accepts Christ are Abraham's seed, not just Israel. In verse 28 we see that God does not recognize one particular race of people in Christ. We are all descendants of Abraham and we are all eligible to receive every covenant promise God made to Israel because of him.

So we see from these passages that everything that God ever promised Abraham has been made available to you and I also. When Israel was traveling through the wilderness on their way to the land of Cannan, God made some wonderful promises that could be claimed as a result of obedience.

Hebrews 4 speaks of the promises made to Israel in the wilderness. The Message by Eugene Peterson paraphrases verses 1-3:
 
 

"For as long, then, as that promise of resting in him pulls us on to God's goal for us, we need to be careful that we're not disqualified. We received the same promises as those in the wilderness, but the promises didn't do them a bit of good because they didn't receive the promises with faith."
 
 

So we see from this passage, and I believe that this is a correct paraphrase, that the same promises that Israel received belong to us today also. This is due to the fact that God desired to bless ALL the families of the earth through Israel, not just this one nation alone.

Notice however that the promises did them no good. The reason they stayed in the wilderness is because they believed their circumstances over the promises of God. God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. They sent twelve spies into the land and ten of them gave an evil report. The majority believed the evil report and decided they wanted to make them a new leader and go back to Egyptian bondage (see Number 13-14).

The Old Testament promises have been made available to God’s people today but like Israel, they will not do us a bit of Good unless we receive these promises with faith. That is why Satan is on a campaign to destroy faith in the promises of God and will use every means available to do it.

Jesus purpose for coming to the earth was not to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17-18). The law was fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, every Old Testament promise that comes as a result of keeping the law is ours because Jesus fulfilled the law and we are in Him.

I am a supporter of the nation of Israel. The book of Revelation clearly shows that God is going to restore that nation back to its original purpose. Israel is still the chosen people of God. However, when it comes to the rights and privileges of the covenant, those who have accepted Christ have every right to them because God is dealing with a SPIRITUAL seed as well as a physical one.

In our next chapter, we will see more proof that Old Testament promises still belong to us today by seeing how the writers of the epistles applied Old Testament promises when writing to the churches.
 
 

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