The Alleged Distinctiveness of the Church
Witmer then moved on to discuss the logical conclusion of his thesis regarding Israel: that the Christian Church is a completely unique entity which was unknown in the Old Testament era. We need not spend as much time on this subject since his claims regarding the distinctiveness of the Church depend upon the veracity of his claims regarding the distinctiveness of Israel, which have already been disproved above. Witmer wrote, "The distinctiveness of the church rests in its identity as 'the body of Christ' (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:12; cf. Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:23-30; Col. 1:18, 24). The formation of the church as Christ’s body is based on the Lord Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven (Eph. 1:20-23; 4:7-16; Col. 1:18). As a result no redeemed person before Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of God in heaven could be a member of that body."(5)
We have already seen from the third chapter of Galatians that New Testament Christians are fellow-partakers of the very same promises that were given to Abraham. According to verse 7, “they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Paul went on in verses 19-25 to teach that the purpose of the Mosaic law, which was “four hundred and thirty years after” (verse 17) the Abrahamic Covenant, was “added because of transgresions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (verse 19). Its purpose was to “conclude all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe” (verse 22) and it was “our [the Jews’] schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified” (verse 24). Clearly then, the ultimate purpose of the Mosaic covenant was not to grant national Israel possession of the land of Palestine, but to cause them to despair of their own righteousness and to place their faith in the coming final sacrifice of the Messiah. In verse 8, Paul wrote, “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Consequently, “ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.... There is neither Jew nor Greek.... 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” (verses 26, 28-29). Paul further expounded on this subject in Romans 11 when he spoke of the Church as an “olive tree” into which Gentiles have been grafted. The root of this olive tree is in Abraham, not in the New Testament; therefore, the believing remnant of Old Testament Israel is of the same body as the believing Jews and Gentiles of the New Testament Church. This was the point of the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 11, especially in verse 40: “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” The Old Testament saints only saw the coming heavenly Kingdom of Christ by faith (verse 16), but that they were saints and belonged to Christ is clear. In fact, in Hebrews 12:1, they are described as “so great a cloud of witnesses” — witnesses to Christ.
Moreover, the sermon preached by Stephen prior to his death is a thorough rebuttal of Witmer’s claim that “no redeemed person” in the Old Testament was a member of the Church: "This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with out fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt" (Acts 7:37-39).
Witmer wrote, “The church... constituting all individuals ‘in Christ,’ where “neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation’ (Gal. 6:15), was never envisioned in the Old Testament....”(6) If all this were true, then Stephen erred in calling the saints of the Old Testament “the church in the wilderness.” Witmer’s statement is also directly rebutted by Galatians 3:8-9: “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”
Again, in Romans 4:11-16, Paul wrote:
And [Abraham] received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, through they be not circumcised; that the righteousness might be imputed unto them also: and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.... Therefore 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.
Witmer quoted Charles Ryrie, “‘This relationship was unknown in Old Testament times....” and then added, "Abram was justified on the basis of his faith in God’s promise of a son, not a conscious, explicit faith in Jesus Christ.’”(7) However, according to Galatians 3:16, the object of the Abrahamic Covenant was Christ Himself. Moreover, Paul began his epistle to the Romans with these words: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures” (Romans 1:1-2). How then can it be said that faith in Christ was “not possible” prior to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and that a relationship with Christ was “unknown in Old Testament times”? It was not seen as clearly as we see it now, but it was seen nevertheless by the believing remnant: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).
Paul also wrote in Romans 10:16-21:
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
Witmer has taken the unbelief of the majority of Old Testament Israel as the proof of his claim that the Gospel was unknown at that time, but Paul’s point is exactly the opposite: they were disobedient because they would not believe the Gospel. The presupposition was that the Gospel was indeed preached to them:
While it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest.... Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying to David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God (Hebrews 3:15-4:1-3, 7-9).
Witmer claimed that “the object of faith in every age is the promise of God; the content of God’s promise changes in various dispensations. This takes into account the distinction between God’s promise to Abram accepted by faith and God’s promise to believers in this age of grace.”(8) To the contrary, the object of faith in every age is none other than Christ Himself and the content of the promise remains precisely the same throughout the various “dispensations”: regeneration, or entrance into the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven by faith:
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with is people. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust (Romans 15:8-12).
Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.... And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:16, 29).
Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it (Hebrews 4:1-2).
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee (Hebrews 6:11-13).
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Endnotes
1. John A. Witmer, "A Review of Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth," Bibliotheca Sacra, 149 (April-June 1992), page 15.
2. Witmer, ibid., page 14.
3. Witmer, ibid.
4. Witmer, ibid., page 15.
5. Witmer, ibid.
6. Witmer, ibid., page 16.
7. Witmer, ibid., pages 16, 23.
8. Witmer, ibid., page 23.
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