Michael Vlach has written an excellent outline of the continuity of the Old Testament in the New Testament within Dispensational theology. It is worth the read.
There is nothing here that I would disagree with him on in this particular article. I would add, however, that Vlach comes from a modified classical view of dispensationalism, presumably the same position of John MacArthur. This means that he does not believe that during the Church age God works with Israel and the Church at the same time. This is a major presupposition that influences his pretribulationism—and most other pretribulationists, requiring them to place the rapture before the seven-year period.
As mostly a progressive dispensationalist, I would disagree with this classical dispensational notion that God does not work with Israel and the Church at the same time during the Church age. I believe that the Scriptures teach that God has worked with both Israel and the Church at the same time during the Church age in the past (e.g. God judged Israel in AD 70 which was during the Church age), at the present (Paul says that he is making Israel jealous by saving Gentiles), and will continue to work with both groups right up to the return of Jesus during Daniel’s 70th week (Revelation 7 is a beautiful picture of this portraying both groups being delivered just before the day of the Lord’s wrath).
So this latter point is a blind spot for classical dispensationalism reaching back to Darby’s writings. Nevertheless, Vlach’s article sums up great points that I agree with concerning continuity of Dispensational theology, points that are typically ignored or undervalued by critics of Dispensationalism.
Vlach concludes his article with saying:
These are just some areas of continuity. Contrary to what some critics claim, Dispensationalism does not start with the concept of “discontinuity” and impose it on the Bible to find what it wants to find.
Because I see much continuity in Dispensationalism I would not identify this system as solely a discontinuity system. I would say Dispensationalism is a healthy and biblical balance of both continuity and discontinuity. I will comment more on the discontinuity elements in a future blog entry.
