by Walter Kaiser

The Scofield Reference Bible stated that “dispensationally, this [text of Acts 15:13-18 which quotes Amos 9:11-12] is the most important passage in the NT.” It went on in that same context to argue:

The verses that follow in Amos describe the final ingathering of Israel, which the other prophets invariably connect with the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.

On the other hand, O. T. Allis, the late titular Dean of Evangelical Old Testament professors, if I might make such a new appointment and title, in that same earlier twentieth century generation when the above statement was being made, announced a somewhat different conclusion about this passage. Allis taught:

That James declares expressly that Peter’s experience at Caesarea, which he speaks of as God’s visiting ‘the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name’ was in accord with the burden of prophecy as a whole and quotes freely from Amos in proof of it.

So which analysis is correct? ...

Series:Articles