Dispensationalism

1. Dispensationalism

2. Pre-Tribulation Rapture • The foundation of the pre-tribulation rapture is dispensationalism and imminence. I plan on dealing with all three, but for starters I shall address dispensationalism.

3. Defining Dispensationalism • This falls under the category of ecclesiology (doctrine of the Church), even though it is most often taught in regard to the end times. • Unlike replacement theology, it claims that the Church has not replaced Israel, and is therefore fundamentally distinct from Israel. • What we call “church” matters, because if it is misunderstood in any manner, then we lose entirely the basis for understanding almost every other system within theology.

4. Defining Dispensationalism • Dispensationalism teaches that there are different eras (called dispensations) throughout history, each one beginning with a covenant, and each one having a characteristically different way in which God relates to mankind.

5. Defining Dispensationalism • Emphasizes a fundamental distinction between God’s plan and purpose for national Israel, and for the New Testament Church, thus maintaining a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church, and the fulfillment of Israel’s purpose and destiny during (and after) the Tribulation. • Many, if not most, trace the root of this teaching back to the Plymouth Brethren movement and John Darby, but you can find a similar mindset and system of interpreting the Bible before these men.

6. The Dispensations • The dispensation of innocence (or freedom) – Gen 2:8-17, 25 • The dispensation of conscience – Gen 3-5, Rom 2:11-15 (Adam to Noah) • The dispensation of government – Gen 6-11, Rom 13:1 (Noah to Abram) • The dispensation of patriarch (or promise) – Gen 12-51, Gal 3:15-19 (Abraham to Moses) • The dispensation of the Mosaic Law – Exodus through Malachi, Gal 3:19 (Moses to Christ) • The dispensation of grace – Rom 5:20-21, Eph 3:1-9 (current church age) • The dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom – Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-9, Rev 20:1-6

7. Different Dealings with Humanity • C.I. Scofield has said: “These periods are marked off in Scripture by some change in God’s method of dealing with mankind, in respect to two questions: of sin, and of man’s responsibility. Each of the dispensations may be regarded as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment – marking his utter failure in every dispensation.” • Adam/Eden was made perfect, but then sin enters, and God makes a covenant with humanity (Gen 3:15).

8. Different Dealings with Humanity • Cain slew Abel, and by the time you get to Noah, God is grieving because He made mankind. • We see the pattern of “covenant”, sin, and judgment, then covenant, sin, and judgment throughout the Old Testament.

9. Four Basic Tenets • A fundamental distinction between Israel and the Church – i.e. there are two peoples of God with two different destinies/purposes, earthly Israel and the spiritual Church • A fundamental distinction between the Law and Grace – i.e. they are mutually exclusive ideas • The view that the New Testament Church is a parenthesis in God’s plan, which was not foreseen by the Old Testament • A distinction between the rapture and the second coming of Christ – i.e. the rapture of the Church at Christ’s coming “in the air” (1 Thess 4:17) precedes the “official” second coming to the earth by seven years of tribulation.

10. Quotes • Clarence Larkin says: “The ‘church’ and the ‘kingdom’ are not identical. They are never confounded in the Scriptures… Christ is the ‘Head’ of the Church, but He is never spoken of as its ‘king’… The church is here, the kingdom is to come… the church s an invisible and heavenly spiritual organism, entered by the ‘new birth’, and to be ‘caught out’ while the kingdom is an outward, visible, and earthly ‘political organization’ that is to be ‘set up’ on EARTH, of which the Jewish Nation will be the ‘head’ (Deut 28:11-13), and will have a King, a Throne, and a capital city – Jerusalem.”

11. Quotes • John Darby has said (John Darby, Lectures on the Second Advent, p. 13): “Supposing for a moment the Christ had not been rejected, the kingdom would have been set up on earth. It could not be so, no doubt, but it shows the difference between the kingdom and the church.”

12. Quotes • C.I. Scofield says in his reference Bible: “The kingdom was promised to the Jews. Gentiles could be blessed only through Christ crucified and risen.” • M.R. DeHann says (in his book The Second Coming of Jesus, p. 98): “…the kingdom of heaven is the reign of heaven’s king on earth. This Jesus offered to the nation of Israel when he came the first time, but they rejected it and he went to the cross.”

13. Consistent Literalism • Behind these tenets is a presupposition of “consistent literalism” in hermeneutic, especially in the literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecies regarding Israel. • I would interject that it seems that the idea of different dispensations, which asserts that the people are bound to the covenants made with them forever, will effect the way that you view the prophetic texts regarding certain peoples. For example, when we read of the New Covenant texts in Jeremiah 31:31-37, or Ezekiel 36:26, we don’t associate them with national Israel except at the millennium. However, these same texts are then applied to the church at large a total of two millennia before the establishment of Christ’s 1000 year reign.

14. Defining Israel and Church • By Israel, what is meant is the ethnic nation consisting of Hebrews (Israelites) beginning with Abraham and continuing in existence to the present. • By Church, what is meant is all saved individuals they who believe in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior) – both Jew and Gentile – at the present dispensation (from Acts 2 until the rapture). • In Daniel 9:26-27, there is a “parenthesis” – a hidden age – where an entity called “the Church” is introduced.

15. The Tribulation • The Tribulation, according to dispensationalism, is specifically a “Jewish” tribulation. • Jeremiah 30:7 – “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” • Because the Church is neither Jewish nor Gentile, but all are one in Christ, the Tribulation must be a Jewish phenomenon • Some have even gone so far as saying, “Jacob’s Trouble, Jacob’s problem!”

16. The Tribulation • In the Old Testament, the Church is virtually unmentioned, and same is true in the Gospels • Then, from Acts through Jude, Israel is virtually not mentioned. • Then, from Revelation 6-18 (the supposed time of Tribulation), the church is not mentioned. • This last point is debatable, because outside of the ambiguous 144,000, Israel is not mentioned directly in Revelation 6-18 either

17. A Quick Word • It is asserted that the prophets did not know the Messiah would come twice. • It is asserted that the church-age was not understood before the book of Acts. • The distinction between Israel and the Church is debated among the dispensationalists, but cannot be sidestepped. • God has prophesied in times past of a millennial splendor where Jesus would rule over Israel, and through Israel would rule over the nations.

18. A Quick Word • Dispensationalists are pre-millennial in thinking, which means they believe Jesus will return before the millennium. • While this point in particular is to applaud in comparison to the amillinnialist, post-millennialist, or the preterist, being partly correct is no better than being entirely wrong.

19. A Quick Word • The Achilles heel of dispensationalism comes in their assertions that the Old Testament does not see a phenomenon called “the church”. • There are some Calvinist dispensationalists, such as John MacArthur, where they would not assert that God did not foresee the church, nor that Jesus fully expected that the Jews would embrace Him as Messiah, but because they crucified Him they are now put aside temporarily, as a “plan B” of sorts. I do believe that John MacArthur would scoff at such a thought, that God was somehow thwarted by the unbelief of the Jews, and therefore came up with a “plan B” of sorts.

20. A Quick Word • Even so, if you take away the assertion that the Old Testament does not foresee an entity called “the church”, then you no longer have a distinction between Israel and the Church. (I shall explain this argument more fully when dealing with this tenet.)

21. Progressive Revelation • It is true that the revelation in the Bible progresses, but in what manner does it progress? • There is a massive difference between God progressively revealing His purposes and God not foreseeing those end time events.

22. Progressive Revelation • Does it truly follow that simply because God doesn’t mention the Levitical sacrifices to Adam, Noah, or Abraham that God relates differently with them than with Israel at Sinai? • The various ways in which God interacts with humanity progresses, but what is the reason for that? Is it legitimate to say that God changes the way that He interacts simply because we have entered into a new age? Instead, I think that God is trying to build through history patterns and foreshadowing. The Levitical Law reflects the work of Christ on the cross, just like the circumcision of the flesh reflects the heavenly reality known as heart circumcision (which Moses first spoke of).

23. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • God made a pact with the man and woman that there would be a man born out of Eve to crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15) • Eve then blesses God for the birth of Cain. Why? Maybe this could be the deliverer to crush the head of the serpent. Instead, Cain kills Abel, and thus ruins any hope of messianic expectancy. • This is why Seth is so important

24. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • From Seth comes Noah, who is the only man (and his family) to survive the flood. • From Genesis 9:16 we find the establishment of “an everlasting/eternal covenant” • From Noah’s blessing his two sons (Ham/Canaan is cursed), we find that Japheth and Ham shall enter into Shem’s tent.

25. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • From Shem comes Abram, fulfilling Noah’s prophecy in Genesis 12:2-3 • God calls Abram out of all nations to establish him as God’s nation • It shall be through His seed that all the families of the earth will be blessed.

26. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • Through election, God chose Isaac over Ishmael, and Jacob over Esau. • We even find out of Jacob’s blessing his sons that prophetic utterance is given: “The scepter shall not depart out of Judah” (Gen 49:10), and Ephraim was to be “a fullness of Gentiles” (Gen 48:19)

27. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • We can then trace the promise of this messianic fugure unto King David: • “You shall have someone on the throne forever, and he shall be my son” (paraphrase summary of 2 Samuel 7:12-15)

28. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • Why didn’t God tell Adam and Eve about this Davidic King who would rule over the nations from Jerusalem? • Could it be that David and Jerusalem didn’t exist yet? • Yes, it is true that God’s ‘covenant’ with Adam and Eve didn’t require circumcision. • Yes it is true that God’s covenant with Abraham didn’t require the Levitical Law • Yes it is true that the Mosaic Law doesn’t span the breadth of the New Covenant • The question to ask is: Why?

29. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • The truth is that they do speak of the same kind of dealings with God. • It is through the New Covenant looking back that we recognize God’s intention from even the beginning. • The reason that God deals differently with different people is not because God has changed, nor because these are different dispensations, but because history and time itself is the mechanism that God uses to prepare a people, and eventually the whole world, for the inception of the Messiah and the restoration of all things.

30. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • It is, and has always been, that righteousness comes by faith, and not by works. Grace is not a new thing; even Noah was delivered because he found grace in the Lord’s eyes. • What was hidden in times past was not “Law versus Grace”, but that faith and works go hand-in-hand. • Was it before or after the covenant that God called Abraham righteous? It was not after, but before! Grace is given on account of faith, and also on account of faith are we accredited as righteous. This is Salvation 101.

31. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • We cannot say that God has changed through these dispensations the way that He deals with humanity. • What about Hebrews 13:8? • This is why there has always been a righteous remnant, and not the full House of Israel, to receive the grace of God. • But God’s covenant was not made solely with the remnant.

32. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • In the progressive revelation, we find that God has intended from the beginning to redeem all of humanity. How that takes place will then fall into the categories of election, covenant, salvation, and eschatology. But let us not cast aside the first question in order to jump to the other questions. These secondary questions are to be understood in the context of the first: How has God purposed that He would redeem all of humanity? How has God purposed that He would bring about deliverance from Satan’s oppression without destroying the world, save a remnant (as He did with the flood)?

33. Progressive Revelatiion and the Eternal Covenant • The answer to that is that God has chosen a remnant, and that through that remnant He will user in this eternal blessedness. The question of dispensationalism and covenant theology (the dreaded opponent) is whether it is through Israel or the Church, but the third option is to say through both.

34. What is Israel? • This deals with that first tenet: A fundamental distinction between Israel and the Church • If it be that God shall redeem all of humanity through the elect, then we need to define election. • The covenant theologian will call the Church the elect, citing Romans 9:6 • The dispensationalist will call it Israel, citing Genesis 12:2-3

35. What is Israel? • Ironically, both the covenant theologian and the dispensationalist will claim that Israel is currently in disobedience, and rightly so, but will then claim because of that disobedience that Israel must come to the Church in order to find salvation through Jesus Christ. • Some dispensationalists might mock this and say they are eternally two distinct peoples, and therefore Israel comes to their Messiah through a different means than entering the Church, but the problem with this is that it neglects to explain the issue of election. Through whom shall all of humanity be redeemed? Through the Church? Through Israel? Through Christ? • If through Christ, then how do you interpret Rom 16:20?

36. What is Israel? • In claiming that the Church is the elect of God, we find dominionism, “Kingdom Now”, and preterism that claims through our evangelistic efforts, glory and the Kingdom of God come to the earth. • Granted this is a crude wording, especially in regard to preterism

37. What is Israel? • In claiming that Jesus is the elect, that through Him all nations come to God, then we claim that the Church nor Israel are elect. Either Jesus is the only one who fits the bill of the “seed of Abraham” – as some say in regard to Gal 3:16 – or we must confess that there is something deeper going on in that passage. If Jesus is the only “seed” of Abraham, then you and I are not his seed, even through faith.

38. What is Israel? • The Mystery of the Church • It is not because the church was hidden in the time of the Old Testament that this is a “mystery”, but because it is two things at once. • Out of every generation, God chooses a remnant. From Adam’s sons, Seth is chosen. But that doesn’t make Seth any less of being Adam’s son. Out of Noah, Shem is chosen. But that doesn’t make Shem any less of being Noah’s son. Out of Shem, Abraham is chosen, but that doesn’t mean the other nations are not also the offspring of “elect” Shem. Out of Abraham, God chooses Isaac, from Isaac, Jacob.

39. What is Israel? • Election is defined upon remnant – the two are the same. • From here we find all twelve sons of Jacob as elect (Deut 5:3) • From Exodus, all the tribes are called “Israelites”. Here the remnant has become the whole of Jacob’s descendants. • While it is true of both Abraham and Isaac that God chose a remnant of the children, it is not true that God chose a remnant of Jacob’s children. • And yet, there is a remnant in Jacob (Rom 9:6)

40. What is Israel? • Somehow there is national election upon Israel, and yet there is a remnant upon which God calls “Israel”. How do we distinguish the two? • John 1:47 – Nathanel a true Israelite in whom there is no guile • Rom 2:28-29 – inward Jew and inward circumcision • John 8:39 – Abraham’s children act like Abraham

41. What is Israel? • Lamentations 2:1 • The “beauty of Israel” has been “cast down”, or “hurled down from heaven to earth”. • Israel is not in heaven, is it? • Ephesians 2:6, but Israel in heaven? • Gen 32:28

42. What is Israel? • Within ethnic Israel is the spiritual Israel that reflects what Jacob was told “Israel” signifies. • Unto that we have come, which means the church is not a new phenomenon.

43. What is Israel? • The Old Testament was translated into Greek before the time of Jesus, and when it was translated from Hebrew to Greek, the top scholars of the day translated the Torah. From the Torah, there is debate whether the top scholars or others translated from Joshua through Malachi (Chronicles being the last book of the Hebrew Bible). • Ecclesia (Greek) comes from kahal (Hebrew). • Kahal is the Hebrew word used to address the assembly, usually the entirety of Israel. • Another word is used for kahal in Septuagint: synagogue. Synagogue is consistently used to describe the place that the people gather (Mat 2:4 is an example not relating at all to a religious place). Ecclesia is consistently used to describe the assembly (Acts 19:32 is an example not relating to “the church” at all). Even Acts 7:38 speaks of the church – the ecclesia – in the wilderness at Sinai with Moses.

44. What is Israel? • From the Greek words themselves, and from the concept of Israel itself, there is no difference between “Israel” and “Church”. Israel is the remnant nation to the nations, and within Israel (at this time) is a remnant of believers – in the Old Testament they who lived by faith, and in the New Testament they who have faith in Christ Jesus. You cannot separate the remnant of the people from the remnant people. • It isn’t that their destinies are intertwined; they are the same. The remnant of Israel has ever and always been the object that God would use to call back the nations unto repentance. It has always been the remnant within Israel to exercise a certain position of spiritual leadership, whether listened to or not, by the rest of Israel.

45. What is Israel? • Romans 9-11 • Romans 9:4, “Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.” It is within this context that we read verse 6, “It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all the descendants of Israel are Israel.” • Paul is making mention back to this spiritual Israel that has ever and always existed – the Lam 2:1 people.

46. What is Israel? • Romans 9:11-12, “God’s purpose in election might stand: not by works, but by whim who calls.” • Why didn’t God cast away Israel at the time of their disobedience, and then just continue the lineage of the remnant? “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.”

47. What is Israel? • It is because of God’s hardening of the hearts of Israel that salvation has even come unto the Gentiles (9:17, 11:11)! It is this that Paul is expressing when quoting from Hosea in verses 25-26. • Read the context of Hosea 2. Hosea 2, which Paul knew full well, asserts that the people who are not God’s people are the whole House of Israel! Paul is making the assertion that the ones who are not the sons and adopted are the physical branches in disobedience – even that they have never been a part of that adoption.

48. What is Israel? • Romans 11 • Did God reject His people? By no means! Paul actually makes the argument that because there has always been a remnant in Israel, we shouldn’t expect that this remnant having Gentiles is now a rejection of the House of Israel (verses 2-5). • In verse 7 we read, “What then? What Israel has sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened…” • Who are the elect?

49. What is Israel? • Where in the Old Testament there was the whole House of Israel with a remnant, now we find that God has “broken off” some of the branches – those who have sought so earnestly to obtain, but did not obtain. In their place, the Gentiles have been grafted in (verses 11-21). • No longer is it that within Israel is the spiritual Israel. It is at this time that the spiritual Israel is the election. • But don’t think this is replacement theology. We come unto Romans 11:25-26, where we read that, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved…” • Remember Gen 48:19

50. What is Israel? • We read in verse 28 that “as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs.” • How is it that Paul would use the word “election” to mean the remnant in verse 7, and yet here election seems to mean the whole of the House of Israel? The answer is found in verse 26. It is at this time, when all Israel is saved, that the remnant is all of Israel. “For God’s gifts and callings are irrevocable”.