So, it’s not a matter of spiritualizing the OT prophets, since the charge of spiritualizing assumes things that aren’t true—that those who follow the NT pattern aren’t reading Scripture the way it’s intended to be read. This approach is in contrast to, e.g., the classic/modified dispensational approach which (e.g., J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come) says that we cannot and should not try to imitate the apostolic method of interpreting Scripture.

Darrel, writes, “After reading your paper, The Israel of God, it struck me that you did not mention any of the as yet to be fulfilled prophesies concerning the Nation of Israel. Why? Also, it seems that you cast things in a spiritual fashion as it suits your argument and then in a literal fashion to support your teaching. How does Isa. 2:4 and the fact that lion will lay down with the lamb (doesn’t the lion learn to eat straw during the millennium?) fit into your scheme of things. If what you say is so, then how do the Scriptures fit in?”

Darrel,

As I understand the NT way of reading the OT, as Paul says in 2Corinthians 1:20, all the promises are “yes and amen in Christ.” So too, in Luke 24:13–35 and in many other places the OT prophets spoke about future realities using the language of the Mosaic covenant. Consider it this way. When cars were first invented they were called “horseless carriages.” We still speak of “horsepower.” There are no horses in our cars, at least not ordinarily. This is because we used existing categories to describe new things. The OT prophets used existing categories (or their opposite in the case of Jeremiah 31—the new covenant will not be like the covenant I made with your forefathers, when I led them out of Egypt) to describe future realities. So, I read Isaiah 2 the way the NT teaches me to read it. I can’t decide ahead of time that mountain of must refer to a re-establishment of national Israel. There is a clue in 2:2, when the prophet speaks of “the latter days.”  Acts 2:17 says that the days when the Spirit was poured out are the last days. Hebrews 1:2 says “in these last days” God has spoken to us in Christ. 2 Peter 3:3 says these are the last days.
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