How the Old and New Testaments relate to one another is one of the central issues in biblical hermeneutics. Closely related to this topic is the relationship between the nation of Israel and the universal church. How one wades through these issues of continuity and/or discontinuity is normally the point of departure between the various camps of Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism. While these issues may reflect the point of departure, the root of the distinction goes back to the underlying presuppositions and beliefs about hermeneutics...

In my years as a professor of systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary I saw the gradual introduction of progressive dispensationalism into the seminary, and into the evangelical community at large. Though I did not agree with this change in the theology of the seminary while there, in fact, this was a position I held before the term "progressive dispensationalism" was coined...

At the entrances of many Gothic cathedrals throughout Europe one may observe female statutes which are personifications of Ecclesia (the Church) and Synagoga (the Synagogue). One notices that Ecclesia wears a crown, looking straight ahead, holding her head in a triumphant pose. On the other hand, Synagoga, her head bowed, having lost her crown and holding a broken staff and wearing a blindfold, stands defeated and rejected.[1] These personifications symbolize the consensus perspective of the church from the middle of the second century A.D. until the present day, with few exceptions...