Dispensationalism





 

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone. -John 6:15

People misuse the law of Moses because they do not understand grace.

Dispensationalism is a new form of elemental religion. Where Covenant Theology was the old form of elemental practice and doctrine, dispensationalism is the new kid in town. However, this does not make Dispensationalism any less evil. Dispensationalism is no less a false gospel than is Covenant Theology. Dispensationalism posits that Jesus intent was to offer an earthly kingdom to  the Hebrews. By ignoring John 6:15, they infer that this kingdom is yet to be offered because of the death of Christ, and that there are two purposes of Christ in history, one for the church and the other for the Hebrews. This doctrine of course is a faithless and elemental lie.  

 Of course, the obvious error in this literalist interpretation of prophesy is that it does not honor the interpretations of the apostles of the Lord. The second obvious error is that it reintroduces elemental religion and an earthly kingdom for Israel. Paul said that if we build again what has been destroyed we are transgressors. (Gal 2:18)

The modern sovereign but non- sacral nation of Israel is a sign that God is not persecuting the Jews but it is not a sign that Dispensationalsim is correct! Dispensationalists want to reestablish a separate historical promise for a nation that no longer exists as a holy nation. This makes dispensationalists transgressors of Christ!

 Here I have two email answers to a man who insists that there are multiple purposes in history, rather than the ultimate purpose of promise of salvation by faith to all the heirs of Abraham. My first response was as follows:

"Keith, I am half Jewish and half Gentile. I am called by the gospel and in His church. There is one salvation, by the gospel. I am telling you Jewish blood is saved by the gospel. Paul was Jewish and was in the church, so was Peter, so was James. All were Jewish. There is one new man in Christ and dispensationalism is a destroyer of that unity. If God creates a new man in Christ, dispensationalism is presumptuous to think it can divide what God has put as one! Again, the Abrahamic covenant is of faith, and that covenant includes all believers, both of the law and apart from the law. The law was introduced as a tutor and schoolmaster for the elect in physical Old Covenant Israel and was introduced after Abraham was given faith.
 
When Paul said for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain who do you think he was talking about?  This resurrection of Christ is the hope of physical Israel but only in the context of a New Israel, a New Covenant Church. When he said that the Romans were part of the true Israel, the Israel founded upon a circumcision not made with hands, ie a cutting of the spiritual flesh with the sword of the spirit, who do you think he was talking about Keith? If you are not prepared to answer the church, you are undermining a crucial and necessary understanding of the doctrine of Christ. Let me know your position on that. Gary"
 
My second response was as follows:
 
"Paul said that the elect of God, both Jew and Gentile, are set free from elemental handwriting of ordinances. It is crucial in the doctrine of dispensationalism that this elemental religion be reestablished later. I know you say that the Davidic throne is not central to dispensationalism. However, it is, and so is a restablishment of the levitical priesthood. Indeed Keith, if the levitical priesthood has to be reestablished we are all dead in our sins. Dispensationalism is elemental just like Covenant Theology. It is worldly false religion. A true Christian discerns the body. The dispensationalist cannot do that any more successfully than can the Covenant Theologians! 
 
The Dispensationalists, who want to make Christ's mission one to establish a physical kingdom, even though He refused when they tried to make him king, are just of the same spirit as the scribes and pharisees. And you know their end Keith. Remember my words Keith. I hope you hear my words now! Gary"
It is clear to me that just like Covenent Theology falsely uses law preaching as its foundation, and builds a system that is a false religion, so to does Dispensationalism teach that there are many gospels: the gospel of works (OT), the gospel of Peter, the gospel of Paul, the gospel of James,etc. From there Dispensationalism establishes another upside down system that is yet another false religion. There is one gospel and always has been just one gospel. This truth is the necessary foundation of the true Christian Way or Doctrine. Few will hear and believe and defend this gospel!
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The following is a covenant theologian writing to a covenant theology conferance, so I cannot accept his theology in general of course, but the ideas following give an insight into Dispensationalist thought. This article was written by Stephen Sizer:
 

"Dispensationalism is based on a hermeneutic in which all Scripture, and especially the prophetic, must always be interpreted literally. Scofield, who popularised and synthesised Darby's theology, taught,

Not one instance exists of a 'spiritual' or figurative fulfilment of prophecy... Jerusalem is always Jerusalem, Israel is always Israel, Zion is always Zion...Prophecies may never be spiritualised, but are always literal.

Chafer likewise criticises non-dispensational theology for giving a spiritual interpretation to earthly realities. Ryrie insists that dispensationalism and, in particular, 'this distinction between Israel and the church is born out of a system of hermeneutics that is usually called literal interpretation.' One is left in no doubt that such an interpretation is the only consistent one for evangelicals who claim to hold to a literal as opposed to liberal allegorical hermeneutic. Ryrie asserts,

To be sure, literal/historical/grammatical interpretation is not the sole possession or practice of dispensationalists, but the consistent use of it in all areas of biblical interpretation is.

Based on such an interpretative principle, dispensationalists hold that the promises made to Abraham and Israel must await future fulfilment since they were never completely fulfilled in the past. So, for example, it is an article of normative dispensational belief that all Israel will be literally saved; that the boundaries of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants will be literally instituted; that Jesus Christ will return to a literal and theocratic kingdom centred on Jerusalem in the State of Israel.

For dispensationalists then, the church is relegated to the status of a parenthesis in God's future and literal kingdom rule. This will be centred on Jerusalem during the millennium in which the Temple will be rebuilt and sacrifices restored. Often this kind of dogma, based on forced exegesis, is also asserted by those who are uncomfortable with or disillusioned by Jewish resistance to proselytism and who rest in the belief that 'all Israel will be saved' when or after Christ returns.

4.5 Progressive Dispensationalism

A new generation of younger dispensationalists among the faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary have attempted to redefine their movement as 'progressive dispensationalism'.

They distance themselves from what they regard as the the 'naïveté' of the founder's vision, distinguishing the traditional dispensationalism of Lewis Chafer and Charles Ryrie from 'Scofieldism', as well as from 'the popular 'apocalyptism' of Lindseyism'. They regard themselves as 'less land centred' and less 'future centred'. Ryrie is sceptical, however, unwilling to concede to such revisionism. He prefers to describe the position of theologians such as Blaising and Bock as 'neo-dispensationalist' or 'covenant dispensationalist', for holding for instance to a 'slippery' hermeneutic."

The complete article is viewed at  http://www.christchurch-virginiawater.co.uk/articles/dispen1.html

The prophecy in Daniel 9:24-26 is a very important prophecy. This prophecy was given so that the Jews and the Gentiles would know the Messiah:

Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.'"

The restoriation of Jesursalem is found in Nehemiah. According to the scriptures, the command to rebuild Jerusalem was given in the "month of Nisan and the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes". This king was the King Artaxerxes Longimanus of Persia. The day when he gave the command to rebuild Jerusalem was March 14, 445 B.C.

if you add the days between March 14, 445 B.C. and April 6, 32 A.D. you get 173,880 days. Daniel saidin 9:25: "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times." Since the Babylonian calendar was a 360 day calendar, this figure is an amazing fulfillment of prophesy.

Even the Gregorian calendar gives the same number of days. Using a 365 day calendar a total of 476 years divided by four (a leap year every four years) gives 119 additional days. However, three days must be subtracted from 119 because centennial years are not leap years, though every 400th year is a leap year. So then 173,740 days + 116 days equals 173,880!

Of course the teaching that the extra week, the 70th week is postponed is a dispensationalist teaching that denies the understanding of scripture. It is most likely that Jesus confirmed the covenant, ie preached for 3 and 1/2 years, then the gospel went to the Jews for 3 and 1/2 years, and then went to the Gentiles as well. That was the fulfillment of the 70 weeks of Daniel.

And of course in 70 AD the temple was destroyed fulfilling the prophecy that the prophets and Jesus made regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, the great tribulation, and the fulfillment of all things, except, of course, His Second Coming.