The
People, The Land, and the Future of Israel Edited by
Darrell Bock and Mitch Glaser
This book, edited by Bock and Glaser, includes
17 chapters divided into 4 sections relating the Hebrew Scriptures, New
Testament, Hermeneutics, and Practical Theology all centered around the future
of Israel. The authors take various
aspects of the future of Israel into account as they ride over the terrain of
exegesis, theology, and practical application.
You won’t find a lot of new material here, but there are some good
chapters.
In particular, Robert Chisholm Jr.’s chapter on
Israel According to the Prophets was very good.
In the chapter, Chisholm upholds a view of prophecy of Israel’s future
that focuses on fulfillment and contingency.
He writes, “When a prophecy is fulfilled essentially, the main point of
the prophecy (its primary intention) is realized with a degree of literality,
but some of the accompanying details may not materialize (59).” Chisholm mentions that 1-2 Kings are books in
which prophecies are given in which some of the details do not materialize. This kind of interpretive grid allows for
certain prophecies to be fully realized at a later time. God allows human freedom to work out some of
the contingencies related to the matter of prophecies (60). Therefore, not all prophetic utterances are
fulfilled essentially or fully without reference to the future. I believe this grid for interpreting prophecy
is very helpful and could be a helpful tool if used with an eye toward the
historical context of each passage.
Dr. Craig Blaising also has a quite
illuminating chapter on Israel and Hermeneutics. In countering the view that the Bible goes
from speaking about a particular people to a universal one from Old to New
Testaments, Craig writes, “From the beginning of God’s promise to Abraham, both
the particular and the universal are present (Genesis 12.2-3)…God’s plan for
Israel and the nations are not mutually exclusive or successive programs but
complementary throughout the entire canonical narrative (162).” The questions that Craig brings forth to
supersessionists are related to the coherence, comprehensiveness, congruence,
and consistency of their interpretive grid.
While I’m still not convinced that a progressive dispensational view is
the most biblical or theologically accurate view, Craig certainly points out
some failures in the supersessionist grid to account for all the details.
You will find some excellent arguments here in
this book. Some chapters are not as good
as others, the materialon the biblical flow of history are evident in other books,
but some of the hermeneutics chapters are worth the price of admission.
Thanks to Kregel Academic and Kregel
Publications for the copy of this in exchange for an honest review.
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