Israel My Glory - September/October, 2011

Isaac, and Jacob. Old Testament Israel is redefined as the covenant people, the people of faith in the Old Testament. No longer is it physical descent that makes one an Israelite; it is faith in God.

To accomplish its goals, Covenant Theology uses two methods, rather than one, to interpret Scripture— another serious flaw. Bible-believing Covenant theologians use the histori-cal-grammatical-literal method of interpretation for most of Scripture, including all prophecy that has already been fulfilled. However, when it comes to unfulfilled prophecy, they turn to a different method: an allegorical-spiritual one that enables them to redefine Israel and make it the church, rather than the Jewish people. They also change the Millennial Kingdom from a literal, future 1,000-year period into the current Church Age. This belief is referred to as Amillennialism or Postmillennialism. 4

Because it is built on Replacement Theology, to remove Replacement Theology from Covenant Theology would collapse the entire system. It would force Covenant theologians to accept that God has two distinct programs, one for Israel and one for the church. Covenant theologians would have to define the church as beginning in Acts 2, with Israel being a separate entity. Further, they would have to accept a literal, future Tribulation and the Millennium. To accept this would turn them into dispensationalists.

continued next issue

Israel May Have Oil!

Zion Oil & Gas at work on Israel’s onshore rig (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images).

ENDNOTES

1 Renald E. Showers, There Really Is a Difference (Bellmawr, NJ: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 1990), 10.

2 Ibid., 9–10.

3 Ibid., 10–13.

4 Ibid., 19–24, 127, 136–137.

For years, many believed the mission of Texas-based Zion Oil & Gas to be nothing more than a pipe dream, the false hope of ideological Christian Zionists. But Zion Oil & Gas’s Matt Dickerson has told Israel Today that one of the company’s drilling sites in Israel is monitoring a significant release of hydrocarbons, an organic compound that most commonly occurs in crude oil.

Israel has already succeeded in finding enormous natural gas fields, but it is now believed that deep below the gas there is oil. It is that deep strata that Zion Oil & Gas and a few other companies are targeting.

Being able to extract and export oil, in addition to natural gas, in a commercially viable way would transform Israel almost overnight. No longer would the Jewish state have to rely on energy sources from hostile or self-serving providers.

For its long dedication to helping Israel achieve this goal, Zion Oil & Gas, a wholly Christian-owned and operated company, has secured the trust and backing of the Israeli government. Zion Oil & Gas recently won approval to do exploratory drilling in the northern parts of the Jordan Valley, an area covering nearly 56,000 acres. Together with its Joseph License and its Asher-Menashe License, the company’s new Jordan Valley License now gives Zion Oil & Gas drilling rights over 218,000 acres of northern Israel.