I've been listening to some dispensational podcasts as of late, and I keep bumping up against a problem. 🚦 According to a lot of dispensationalists, an interpreter holds to dispensationalism or "replacement theology." I'm a covenant theologian but I don't hold to replacement theology. The church doesn't replace Israel. The church is the CONTINUATION of true Israel in Christ. NT believers are joined to OT believers as the covenant community. That's not replacement.

I've been listening to some dispensational podcasts as of late, and I keep bumping up against a problem. 🚦 According to a lot of dispensationalists, an interpreter holds to dispensationalism or "replacement theology." I'm a covenant theologian but I don't hold to replacement theology. The church doesn't replace Israel. The church is the CONTINUATION of true Israel in Christ. NT believers are joined to OT believers as the covenant community. That's not replacement.

Chiliasm (early premillennialism) is ancient; dispensationalism is a distinct 19th-century system. Early belief in an earthly millennium doesn’t establish Darby’s Israel/church distinction. Even Dallas Seminary acknowledges that historical development.

We will never understand the fear of the Lord properly while we continue to think of ourselves as large and God as manageable. Scripture repeatedly brings us down to size by showing us who God actually is. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span?” (Isaiah 40:12). The One who holds creation in His hand is not an enlarged version of us. He is the eternal, self existent, holy God. Much of our spiritual shallowness begins here. We think too casually about God because we think too highly of ourselves. We speak as though our plans are secure, our strength is significant, and our judgment is final. Yet Isaiah says, “All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless” (Isaiah 40:17). That is not written to crush us into despair. It is written to restore reality. David looked at the heavens and asked, “What is man that You take thought of him?” (Psalm 8:4). That question becomes astonishing when we understand the distance between Creator and creature. We are dust that breathes because God wills it. Every heartbeat, every hour, every ability, every opportunity exists because He sustains us. And still, this infinitely great God sets His love upon His people and brings them near through Christ. Job learned this when God finally answered him. After hearing God speak of creation, providence, and His sovereign rule, Job said, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Then he repented “in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). A clearer vision of God changed the way Job saw himself. That pattern runs throughout Scripture. Isaiah experienced the same thing. When he saw the Lord “lofty and exalted,” with the seraphim crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” he did not congratulate himself for having a profound spiritual experience. He cried, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:1–5). God’s holiness exposed him. True awe does that. It humbles pride, silences boasting, deepens repentance, and makes worship weighty again. We need more than religious familiarity with God. We need our minds stretched again by His greatness and our hearts humbled by our smallness. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). When we begin to see God as Scripture reveals Him, worship stops revolving around us. We bow lower, trust more deeply, repent more honestly, and marvel that the God who needs nothing has chosen to redeem sinners and make them His own.