A conference on the topic of dispensationalism was held in Sarnia, Ontario, in 2015, with Dan Shutt, David Vallance and Ian Jackson sharing 5 preaching sessions between them.
PART 3 – Ian Jackson makes a solid scriptural case for the need to draw a very clear distinction between Israel and the Church – as to origin, character and destiny. Israel is God’s earthly people; the church is His heavenly people. Israel has been set aside for now – while the kingdom has been postponed – but has a glorious future as a literal nation, in a literal land, in a literal 1,000 year kingdom age. The church, on the other hand, is something completely new. It did not exist in the Old Testament, and is neither an extension of nor a replacement for Israel. The church began at Pentecost (Acts 2) and will be taken to heaven at the rapture, before Daniel’s 70th week – the time of Jacob’s trouble – commences. This truth, a cornerstone of dispensational eschatology, is essential for a proper understanding of Scripture. Indeed, to deny a future for ethnic redeemed Israel is to make God unfaithful to His covenants with that nation and to make false witnesses of the Old Testament prophets.
