I'm Pentecostal.
But what would you think about this:
The thought occurred to me today that many Pentecostals (and other Dispensationalists) mightn't really know what the Bible is all about. Well, they do and they don't.
They know enough in the Bible to save their souls, which is awesome - but they just don't realise that that might be what the whole Bible is really all about! So in a sense they might unknowingly be downplaying the significance of the gospel in the overall scheme of the Bible.
They're confused by many of the promises and visions in the Old Testament - and about prophecies in the New Testament too - thinking the future is going to be about a temple in Jerusalem and even about offering animal sacrifices.
So they don't quite know how to link their salvation to the Old Testament. Or, as a matter of doctrine, they may deliberately detach the 'gospel' from what they think the Bible-story overall is about.
They think this thing we call the 'gospel' (and the 'Church' and all that) was pretty-much unforeseen in the Old Testament; all the while having a thought in the back of their minds that once the Bible-story resumes, the whole world will end-up having to make make pilgrimages to Jerualem for an ancient Jewish annual festival to offer animal sacririces in a temple in future or be cursed.
Meanwhile though, they're enjoying their salvation, going on mission, powerfully helping others see the light and experience salvation - like they instinctively 'know' that's the crux of it - like they 'know' more than they know.
So, since they're really doing the crux of it, maybe it doesn't matter too much anyway. (Unless they start thinking they should try to start keeping as much of Moses' ancient customs as they can now, instead of waiting 'til the future - like some Pentecostal and other folk have already started saying; and as a result of that some are even rethinking the gospel itself, and even rethinking Christ's Divinity. So it can be a slippery slope.)
But for most who do still manage to keep the gospel their focus, do you think our grasp of the Bible-story overall might matter more than we think?
What if the 'gospel of your salvation' isn't something unforeseen just plonked down in-between what the Bible is about?
What if instead, our salvation - Jesus - the gospel - the Church - is what the whole Bible was really always going to be all about?
What if the story the New Testament is telling us is that the 'gospel' itself is the precise inauguration of the fulfilment of Old Testament promises, covenants, types, shadows, figures and prophecies, in a single storyline.
The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ isn't just something 'else' we're doing while waiting for the real Bible-story to resume in future.
This gospel of the kingdom of God is precisely where the whole Bible was going.
Jesus hasn't just come to take the title 'Christ' (Messiah) - He has accomplished precisely what Messiah was meant to do!
The Old Testament pointed-to and therefore now authenticates Jesus as Messiah, and authenticates the gospel.
So animal sacrifices in a temple won't be necessary in future - the future will now and forever be Christ-centred and gospel-shaped.
And New Testament prophecy is therefore to be understood as fitting within that framework.
God had a plan to restore mankind, and creation, back to paradise and back to Himself. He begun revealing that plan to the patriarchs. The law foreshadowed it. The prophets foresaw it. It was all about JESUS. He has inaugurated it, by His ministry in Israel, and by His cross and resurrection, for all mankind. The gospel proclaims it. We experience it now by the Spirit. And it's full-rollout will occur at His Second Appearing, when death shall be abolished; there'll be a new earth, where God will be tabernacled with His people forever.
The greatest story ever told!
But only the born-again shall see it.
If that is the story the whole Bible is really telling us overall (including Bible Prophecy), would it help to know that? - even if we're already getting the guts of it (the salvation of our souls part).
I'm still working my eschatology out.
In the meantime I can still call myself Pentecostal, I hope.
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