Dispinsationalism confusion

Sonny · #1 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 10:16 AM

Dispinsationalism (Spelling) what is it? I hear people talk about this, but I have no idea what it is. I have read things online but its way above me. Could someone explain what Dispinsationalism is in non PHD terms.
Thanks.

**DMcFadden** · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 01:18 PM

Dispensationalism is a system of Bible interpretation based on the following premises:

* National Israel and the Church are two separate entities and operate on different "tracks" in the plan of God.
* Biblical prophecy should be interpreted literally (i.e., a prophecy to Israel will be fulfilled by national Israel, not the church).
* The New Testament is read in terms of the Old Testament.

The devil is in the details. What makes dispensationalism, a system that came to prominence in the 1800s, a bitter pill for Reformed Christians to swallow, is that the implications of the above points run 180 degrees opposite of mainstream Reformed Christianity:

* There is one people of God, called "Israel" in the Old Testament and the "Church" in the New Testament.
* The "plain sense" of prophecy is often not the "literal sense" (e.g., the locusts in Revelation are NOT Cobra helicopters). A careful study of OT prophecy and the NT use of "children of Abraham" will show that God's people inherit the promises made in the OT because we ARE the spiritual children of Abraham ("all Israel is not Israel").
* Books such as Revelation are commentaries on the unfinished business of the OT. Daniel is read in terms of the divine revelation of God's fulfillment in terms of Revelation. We ought not read the OT as the key, but the NT as the key to interpretation. The OT looks forward to Christ, the NT fulfills the divine promises made in the OT.

Another way of putting it:
* Dispensationalism sees discontinuity between the testaments; Reformed thought emphasizes the continuities.
* Reformed thought also claims to take the Bible in its "plain sense" but sees the NT as the hermeneutical key, not the OT.

The dispensationalist is looking forward to a restoration of the nation of Israel (often claimed for 1948) as starting the prophetic stopwatch. Becuase they speak of the two tracks in God's plan, dispensationalists eagerly anticipate national Israel receiving a physical and earthly fulfillment of kingdom promises in an actual millennial reign of Christ on earth following the second coming. A necessary part of the system is also a belief in the pre-trib rapture. The Lord will come for a "secret" rapture of the Church before a 7 year tribulation, just prior to the 1,000 year millennium on earth.

Since God's plan for the Church is on a different "track," it will be removed from the earth prior to the tribulation and the millennium. As such, the Church is often spoken of as a "mystery parenthesis" in the plan of God. Israel's rejection of the kingdom in the ministry of Christ precipitated God's "plan B," the Church. When the "times of the Gentiles" are complete, the Lord will secretly rapture the Church, inflict the curses of Revelation upon the world, bring innumerable people to faith through the witness of Jewish witnesses, and come again in glory to initiate his millennial rule.

The "majority report" among Reformed Christians, on the contrary, has been that Jesus will come again to raise the dead, to judge the world, and to make all things new. This present age and the age to come, the traditional biblical way of seeing history, overlap since Christ. Since he is the king who reigns in heaven, some of the blessings of the age to come are ours today (we believers are citizens of the king and of his kingdom now is expressed in part in our work for him). Someday he will return in the clouds in glory. At that time, he will raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. Bottom line: a MUCH simpler chronology . . . and more biblical too (IMO).

Edward · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 04:21 PM

If you've ever been exposed to the "Left Behind" series, that's dispensationalism in its lowest form.

Holding dispensational views should be a bar to ordination in the PCA.

Scott1 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 07:40 PM

Excellent summary by Mr. McFadden.

Most basically, historically it has been a system for interpreting Scripture in light of two key propositions:

1) God accomplished redemption in substantially different ways at different times in history (e.g. "dispensation of government," "dispensation of law," "dispensation of grace," etc.)

2) God has a substantially different plan of redemption for those with some ethnic Israel blood than for everyone else.

In this generation, in the light of biblical challenge, the system has almost abandoned point #1, although the notion of seven "dispensations" where God accomplished redemption differently at different times in man's history is how the system got its name- dispensationalism.

Dispensationalism is tied to modern dispensational premillennialism (as opposed to classical premillennialism or amillennialism or postmillennialism) to allow "an earthly kingdom with earthly promises" for people who have some Jewish ancestry.

An excellent book that explains this and contrasts it with covenant theology (the historic Christian position) is:

A Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddelbarger

(You also might be interested that in seminaries that have taught dispensationalism only in the past generation, it is now officially "cool" to hold covenant theology as the anti-establishment position because it was forbidden before).