WHAT IN THE WORLD IS SPROUL WRITING ABOUT?

In his little weekly publication he writes: "What Ezekiel saw in a vision (Ezek. 40-48) we now see in reality as the kingdom of God spreads across the earth and people from every tribe and tongue are set apart as priests. The turning of the nations to Yahweh, the only God, is clear evidence that the Bible is true."     What planet does he live on? That is not what is happening in our world. But he has to say that to defend his amillennialism and argue that they church is the successful kingdom of God. Otherwise, he will fall into the correct dispensational trap that shows us biblically that there will be an apostasy at the end of the church era.    Boy, did Ezekiel waste a lot of paper when he spent nine chapters at the end of his book arguing for the restoration of a millennial temple in the 1000 year kingdom reign of the Messiah. Ezekiel goes into great details to explain the architecture of the kingdom temple. Then Sproul and others come along and say all of that detail is simply some kind of spiritual description that is to be taken allegorically and not actually! Sproul pulls the wool over our eyes when he speaks about "the people of God" in these chapters. You think he's talking about the Jews to whom these chapters are addressed. Fooled you! Sproul is talking about the church, seeing this "literal" temple description applied in some strange way to our present generation. Wow!    Taking the measurements of the temple in the passage, Sproul says the temple is too big to fit on the temple mount in Jerusalem. How one can outguess God and argue for something that he has not evidence for? God is the one building the millennial Jerusalem. He will know how to make that temple work. The great Dr. Feinberg, the awesome Jewish-Christian scholar (who was one of my professors) has an outstanding commentary on Ezekiel. He makes the book make sense in all of its literalness as he expounds all that the prophet prophesied for Israel! (Feinberg was planning to be a Rabbi until God got hold of him!)    How sad for such men as Sproul to denigrate the plain teaching of God's Word by trying to outguess all the Lord is telling us about what is coming. How could Sproul allegorize such verses? "And the glory of the Lord came into the house (the prophesied temple) by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house" (43:4-5). How can one allegorize and spiritualize such plain language in Ezekiel's book? The "house" and "gate" and "facing the east" all means just what it says. But such folks as Sproul become the judge and juror on what the Spirit said through the prophet. Mercy!    The Divine Presence (the Divine Chariot-The Markavah) is mentioned throughout Ezekiel. Because Israel could not depend on America supplying arms for their military, they developed their own battle tank and named it "The Markavah." It is one of the most effective tanks used in the Middle East. America's curse became Israel's blessing!    The Jewish commentators explain how in the Messianic age the spirit of prophecy will be restored to Israel, under the influence of God's Spirit. The Rabbis note: "God takes Ezekiel up to a high mountain and lets him see the rebuilding of the (literal and actual) temple."    Ezekiel 40-48 has nothing to do with allegory or with the church. It is all about future Israel. The Rabbis further say: "The manifestation of God's omnipotence ... and His intervention on behalf of His people will prove to the nations that Israel's suffering in exile was not due to His inability to save Israel but it had to do with Israel's sin." How Sproul misleads! – Dr. Mal Couch (May., 10 )