THE ERRORS OF DISPENSATIONALISM
Some persons may ask "What is Dispensationalism?" Should you say "The Rapture" that begins the "7 Year Great Tribulation Period", then "The Millennium" many will know what you are talking about immediately. New converts to this "interpretation" are many times not told that is what the name of their interpretation of Scripture actually is. Now from the start may it be said that we seek to offend no one, but please consider what is here on this page.
For the definition of what Scofield thought the word "Dispensation" meant we can go to Scofield himself, their chief categorizer:
"...a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God." Dr. Cyrus Ingersoll Scofield.
Remember that Scofield had little or no knowledge of the original languages of Scripture and this should become more and more obvious by his "definitions" of KJV Bible words! As we shall see, neither did his "partner in crime" Darby to any great extent and as a result Darby actually claimed certain Greek words were specifically "time-dated" to agree with his errors! He just "made it up"! But that comes later. Again, according to Scofield, there are altogether seven different and unique "dispensations":
1. Innocence (Adam in the Garden)
2. Conscience
3. Government
4. Promise
5. Law (the "Age of the Jews". The "7 year great Tribulation" is also part of this "Age" yet to come)
6. Grace (the "Church Age": Totally Unknown [they say] to every Old Testament Prophet).
7. The Kingdom (the "Millennium". (Coincidentally, in Judaism it is called "The Messianic Age". Also called "The Golden Age of the Jews") It should be remembered that many in the Church have believed there would be a "millennium". These were known as "Classic Premillenialists" and the Church has traditionally made room for them. They taught that there would be a mass conversion of the Jews to Christianity and that then BOTH Jewish Christians and Christian gentiles would reign together on the earth for 1,000 years.
So how does this differ from Dispensational Premillenialism you ask? Simple. There will be NO Christians ruling on the earth in their "Millennium". Only Jews. This is the main difference. It goes along with their teaching that "the earth belongs to the Jews", again coincidentally agreeing whole-heartedly with rabbinic Judaism and completely denying Galatians 3:16,17 and 29.
The above represents their "quick and easy" view of Scripture! Learn these seven ages they say, and you will understand the whole Bible!
What are called "Mid-Acts Dispensationalists" or sometimes "Bullengerites" add many more "dispensations" to their cultic mix. Even Darby took a look at that and said they were way off-track! But they are both still around today! "Mid-Acts Dispensationalists" borrow heavily from Darby and Scofield (without giving any credit of course, as is the Dispensational tendency) and just add more "ages".
Dr. Charles Ryrie, once a Professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and author of "The Ryrie Study Bible", said that it is "impossible" to understand the Bible unless you had the Dispensational interpretation!
Let's think about that. That means that the American Colonials reading Matthew Henrys' Commentary did not understand the Bible, and neither did the Reformers (Martin Luther included) nor anyone else in the entire history of the Church before John Nelson Darby came along? Sounds crazy doesn't it? But that is exactly what Dispensational teachers expect you to believe!
HOW THEY WORK
Dispensationalism cannot be called a denomination, but they infect inter-denominationally. There are "dispensational churches" (the Plymouth Brethren for example) but they have not yet formed a "denomination" with other churches because of constant divisions within their own ranks. Dispensationalists are "literalists"; in other words, a Spiritual Fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures with regard to prophecy does not suffice for them. They demand a literal, carnal interpretation.
Many have been led to believe Dispensationalism is the only interpretation of Scripture or even "Historic Christianity". The "founders" of this cult were bold enough to claim it was the "rediscovered" interpretation of "real church doctrine" which had been "suppressed" by the whole Church itself down through the centuries! All of these statements are very far from the Truth.[1]
Once persons really take a look at this "interpretation" (which was unknown in its present form before the 1830's)[2] they should see what a mass of confusion it truly is.
Dispensationalism has been compared to a "house of cards". If any point is false, the entire system collapses. There are many errors in the system as we shall soon see.
SCRIPTURE SAYS THERE WILL BE ONE LAST JUDGMENT
He has set A DAY (note singular in these passages) when He will Judge the world with Justice, by the Man He has Appointed. Acts 17:31.
...THE HOUR is coming in which ALL who are in the graves will hear His Voice and come forth - those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. John 5:28,29.
...there shall be A RESURRECTION (singular) of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Acts 24:15.
THEIR "SYSTEM" MUST HAVE MULTIPLE FUTURE RETURNS, RESURRECTIONS AND MULTIPLE JUDGMENTS?
Their interpretation forces a multiplicity of resurrections and judgments, but they have them all at the wrong times:
1. A future resurrection of the New Testament saints before "The Great Tribulation".
2. A future resurrection of the Tribulation-era saints after
"the Great Tribulation".
3. A future resurrection of the wicked after "The Millennium".
4. And a separate uncertain FUTURE one for the Old Testament saints!
For the Dispensationalist (Dispy) system to "work out" they had to create multiple resurrections and multiple judgments at totally different times! But the "times" they are forced to adopt by their "futurist interpretation" are all wrong!
They deny or seem to ignore totally the past Resurrection of the Old Testament Saints which fulfilled Old Testament passages here:
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Matthew 27:52,53
The reason they had to create an uncertain resurrection for the Old Testament saints, for instance, is that the Dispys do not believe they (the Old Testament saints) are part of "The Church" at all! Also, that all Resurrection is still "future" while the New Testament says it was fulfilled by Matthew 27 (see above).
In addition, they get all fouled-up here and SEPARATE OUT almost all of the Book of Matthew as not being in their "Church Age"! They say Matthews' Gospel is mostly in "The Age of the Law" and doesn't have to be obeyed! The Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes are not for the Church either, but for their "Millennium" which they say Yeshua was offering the Jews. Many times, they just don't tell new converts to Dispyism this! Dispyism is a "quick and easy" superficial interpretation. It is a "time template" that is placed over all Scripture which demands forced futuristic interpretations to make it "work out". Because of this and their rejection of all Church teaching that has gone before on this, it encourages a lack of real objective scholarship and study.
Go HERE for what Scripture says about The Church.
They teach that the Old Testament Prophets knew nothing of the Church at all, and none of the O.T. Prophecies apply to the Church whatsoever, but basically only to Israel "in the land in the millennium".[3]
They also insist there are Two Gospels in the New Testament!
There are so many "interpretations" of Dispyism within Dispyism at this point in time, it gets even more confusing. Dispyism could change and often does change from group to group! One is "pre-trib", another "post-trib" and yet another is a "mid-trib" Rapturite for instance. "It doesn't matter" they say, "just as long as you DO believe in some form of the Darby Rapture along with the 7 year Trib with a one man antichrist, and the Millennium."?
The idea of a "one man Anti Christ" is, of course, Gnostic in origin, but was revived by Rome to counter the Reformers who said the papacy was Anti Christ. If there was only one (in the future) then obviously it could not be tied to the papacy.
One little-known area of disagreenement between the two greatest early teachers of this doctrine (Darby and Scofield) revolves around Daniels' 70th week. Darby taught that the first part of the week (3 1/2 years) has already come and gone, but Scofield later taught that the last 7 years are all wholly future! Today, they have rejected Darby and accepted Scofield. So there has been division in Dispyism from its very inception. It is a joke.
Go HERE for related questions.
Questions about the 144,000 of Revelation Chapter 7
MORE FOLLOWING SOON!
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FOOTNOTES
[1]For instance, the Presbyterian and Reformed interpretation has been the main Eschatological (End-times) interpretation of the Protestant Assemblies, based on the accepted beliefs of the early Church. The early Dispys all railed against the Westminister Confession of Faith and openly opposed all Creeds and Councils of the Church that had gone before which disagreed with their interpretations.
It should also be known that the Presbyterian Church ruled that Dispensationalism was "not a Christian doctrine" in 1945.
Today, former staunch and avid defenders of the teaching at Dispensationalist Seminaries such as Talbot and Grace Seminaries in California have now dropped their former mandatory Dispensationalist views. Dallas Theological Seminary is now working on still another "new and improved" version after Chuck Swindoll retired as president.
[2]Dispensationalisms' "Darby Rapture theory" has been traced back to the "prophecies" of a certain
"15-year old prophetess" named Margaret MacDonald to whom no "Dispy" has ever given "credit". Click HERE for more information.
[3]Here is a blatant example for those with "ears to hear and eyes to see" that is used to "confirm carnal blessings in the Millennium". They cite Isaiah Chapter 11 where it says:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. Isaiah 11:6-8
All this they say shall be the blessing "for fleshly Israel" (rabbinic Judaism) in "the Millennium" and "what Jesus was offering the Jews at His First Advent". All of this will be accompanied (they say) with "memorial sacrificial blood offerings" in a rebuilt 4th Temple (the 3rd supposedly is destroyed in their "Great Tribulation").
But look what it says in the very next verse?
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:9
"none shall hurt nor destroy in all My Holy Mountain". The word hurt means "sin" and "destroy" means to kill. That means there will be no sin and no death! So how can there be "ritual blood sacrifices" in their "Millennium" (with sinners present)? There simply cannot for this passage is referring to the "new heavens and a new earth" where sin, suffering and death are wholly removed, not of any carnal earth "given to rabbinical Judaism".
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? II Peter 3:12
Now some have said "Sounds like a hydrogen bomb explosion to me!" But when was the last time "the heavens" were totally "on fire and dissolved" by any measly hydrogen bomb? Or could be? Man can't do this, G-d does it!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allis, Dr. Oswald T. Prophecy and the Church. Wayne, Pennsylvania. 1945.
Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity. Peabody Massachusetts. Prince Press. 1999.