Dispensationalism, a Biblical & Theological Critique (Part 2)
This article is the second in a three-part series on dispensationalism, a popular doctrine among American evangelicals. Dispensationalism presents a unique view of “last things,” including a “secret rapture” where Christ returns privately to take the Church out of the world before a tribulation led by an Antichrist. Central to this system is the belief that God has two covenant peoples, Israel and the Church, which shapes its approach to prophecy. This interpretation makes the future of the modern nation of Israel vital to dispensational views of “Bible prophecy.”
This is the second article of a three-part series on dispensationalism. In the first article, I introduced dispensationalism as a system of doctrine that arose in the past 150 years and which is quite popular amongst evangelicals in America today. As a system, it has a unique view of eschatology (doctrines of last things), such as a “secret rapture.” This belief holds that Jesus Christ will return in secret to take the Church out of the world before a seven-year tribulation, during which time an Antichrist will take over the whole world. These events would then be followed by a “public” Second Coming, when Jesus Christ would return and institute a thousand-year earthly kingdom. Following this, there would be another rebellion led by Satan before a final defeat. Only then would the new heavens and new earth begin.
Unfortunately, dispensationalism has been marketed and sold to American evangelicals as “what Christian faithfulness to the Scriptures looks like.”
A key aspect in the creation of this new eschatological view is the interpretation that within the Scriptures, God has two different covenant peoples: the ethnic people of Israel (who became the Jews), and the Church. This novel view is the foundation of an interpretive framework for reading and understanding the Bible—in particular, how to understand the many prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments. Most biblical prophecies speak of Israel or God’s covenant people; dispensationalists do not believe the Church is connected to any of these prophecies. Therefore, many of them must occur in the future, making a national restoration of Israel vital to “Bible prophecy.” This is why the modern nation of Israel is so important to Christians who hold dispensational views.
It is important to note two facts here: first, that none of these views were held by any Christian group prior to the 19th century, and second, that there are many serious theological problems with these views. Unfortunately, dispensationalism has been marketed and sold to American evangelicals as “what Christian faithfulness to the Scriptures looks like.” Since the fundamentalist/modernist divide in the 1920s, dispensationalists have taught that their views “take the Bible literally;” they are opposed to the liberals who “spiritualize” away any fulfillment of prophecy or who do not hold to the inerrancy of Scripture. This false dichotomy has led to many Christians (who believe the Bible is God’s Word) to adopt, without question, the theological and eschatological views of dispensationalism. This belief comes without the awareness of the historic interpretive framework of covenant theology, or the historic amillennial and postmillennial views of eschatology, yet holds to Biblical inerrancy and Christian faithfulness.
According to [dispensationalists], the Church did not exist in the Old Testament and did not begin until Pentecost. Therefore, all the promises made to the people of Israel, in particular the physical blessings, are only for Israel and not the Church.
This article will examine the theological positions of dispensationalism and will provide a biblical critique.
Are there two different covenant peoples of God?
Dispensationalists believe that God has dealt with the world differently at different times, modeled after the seven days of creation. Charles Ryrie (a prominent dispensationalist) writes:
“In His household-world God is dispensing or administering its affairs according to His own will and in various stages of revelation in the passage of time. These various stages mark off the distinguishably different economies in the outworking of His total purpose, and these different economies constitute the dispensations” (Ryrie Study Bible 1995).
As these dispensations are different ages in which God is doing different things, the dispensationalists believe that God was doing something different during the time of the Mosaic covenant from the New Covenant initiated by Christ. They completely distinguish between Israel and the Church, and believe that they have separate future destinies. According to them, the Church did not exist in the Old Testament and did not begin until Pentecost. Therefore, all the promises made to the people of Israel, in particular the physical blessings, are only for Israel and not the Church. L.S. Chafer wrote:
“The dispensationalist believes that throughout the ages, God is pursuing two distinct purposes: one related to the earth with earthly people and earthly objectives involved, while the other is related to heaven with heavenly people and heavenly objectives involved” (Chafer, Dispensationalism).
Covenant theology, the historic position of the early church through the Reformation, had no concept of multiple plans of redemption. The idea that God had distinct plans for Israel and the Church, or even that Israel and the Church are distinct, is a foreign idea that did not exist in church history for almost 2,000 years. And yet, to argue that point simply from tradition and history would not contend with the dispensationalists’ point that they “literally” interpret the Bible.
Covenant theology looks at all of Scripture as unified truth, with one plan for salvation through the promise of redemption in Christ for those who have faith. Instead, dispensationalism wrongly divides the word of truth and distorts God’s plan for salvation.
The Bible actually teaches a continuity from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and that there is one people of God, the Church being the true Israel and heir to all of the Old Testament promises.
In Acts 13, as Paul and Barnabas are preaching to the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul makes an argument that what God began when he brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, he has continued in the Church—both to the Jews and the Gentiles. He says in verse 32-34:
“And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,
‘You are my Son,
Today I have begotten you.’
And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,
‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’
The lynch-pin of the dispensationalist theory is to assert that the prophetic promises made to Israel will occur in the future, during the earthly millennium after the Church is raptured. This theory is crushed in this passage as Paul, in verse 32, rightly states that the promises to Israel were accomplished in the Resurrection of Christ. The promises were not for some far distant future, but were already fulfilled when Paul spoke those words—which is why Paul calls the Jews to repent and believe the Gospel, for their promised Messiah had already come!
In Romans 10:12-13, Paul expands on this argument:
“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
In contrast to the dispensationalist view that the Church is separate from Israel, Paul makes it crystal clear that “everyone” who repents and believes the Gospel belongs to the same covenant that God made with his people. This whole section of Romans 9-11 uses the analogy of one tree that the Gentiles are grafted into with the Jews. Against the dispensationalist idea that Israel has “earthly” promises from God, and the Church “heavenly” ones, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11:13-16 speaks of the “heavenly country” that was promised to Israel.
Covenant theology looks at all of Scripture as unified truth, with one plan for salvation through the promise of redemption in Christ for those who have faith. Instead, dispensationalism wrongly divides the word of truth and distorts God’s plan for salvation. In fact, it believes in more than one plan of salvation. It teaches that God will save Israel through the works of the Mosaic covenant. B.L. Gillespie, writing against dispensationalism, argues: “This scheme of dispensationalism presents salvation as coming about in a progression…it teaches that God is working to get it right or find something that works while humanity keeps defeating His attempts” (Gillespie, Problems with Dispensationalism). The dispensationalists misunderstand what is happening in the Gospels and teach that the Jews at that time rejected Christ’s “earthly” kingdom, completely ignoring Jesus’ refusal to let the Jews make him king in John 6, and Jesus’ statement in John 18 that his kingdom was not of this world. They believe that the earthly Davidic kingdom of the Messiah, being rejected at that time, is instead postponed for national Israel at the end of history during their understanding of the Millennium…which is why they have unique (and often weird) views of the end times.
What About The Rapture?
After the young Margaret MacDonald had her vision about a secret rapture in the 1830s (as described in my previous article), John Nelson Darby and later dispensationalist theologians looked to 1 Thessalonians 4-5 and 2 Peter 3 eisegetically (reading their own ideas into the text) to build their idea that Christ would return “like a thief in the night,” and Christians all over the world would just disappear, leaving piles of clothes where they stood, causing mayhem in the process. Examining these very texts exegetically (drawing the meaning out of the text) completely unravels the dispensational doctrine of a secret rapture.
The phrase the Apostle Peter uses in 1 Peter 3:10 of Christ coming “like a thief in the night” and Paul’s use of the phrase in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 does not refer to our Lord coming as a thief, but instead to the “day” coming as a thief. The apostles’ teaching was that Christians should be ready for that day to come suddenly…but nothing of that event would be hidden. 1 Thessalonians 4-5 teaches that Christ will return with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. In Acts 1, two angels speak to the disciples, saying that Christ would return from the heavens just as they had seen him ascend.
Dispensationalists will often point to Matthew 24:37-42 and say that when Jesus comes, some people will be snatched away and others left behind, and state that the ones being snatched away are the Christians in the rapture. It is important to read the text and see what it actually says:
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
When Jesus comes (like the days of Noah) some people will be saved (left) and others will be destroyed (taken). And as 2 Thessalonians 2:8 states, this will be by the brightness of Christ’s coming.
Nowhere does the Bible support the idea of a “secret rapture” for Christians to leave the world before a Tribulation.
What About The Tribulation?
Due to dispensationalists’ ideas about a separate destiny for Israel, they understand all of the prophecies concerning final judgment on Jerusalem and Israel (primarily from the books of Daniel and Revelation, along with Matthew 24) to require a future fulfillment. These prophecies describe a seven-year judgment on Israel that would result in the destruction of the Temple and the end of the sacrificial system. As dispensationalists believe these events are future, they believe that the modern nation of Israel will at some point build a new Temple, and reinstitute the sacrificial system. Some prominent dispensationalists such as John Hagee have called for Christians to give funds to the Jews to help them raise funds to build the Temple, and for Christian farmers to provide the red heifers to Israel, which they believe are necessary for the Jews to purify the temple instruments to re-start the sacrificial system in a rebuilt temple. These dispensational Christians believe they are doing their part to “help” fulfill prophecy, trying to usher in the rapture and the Tribulation, unwittingly blaspheming the Word of God, which declares that Jesus is our High Priest who once and for all atoned for the sins of the world. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, speaking of the Church, says: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” A rebuilt temple and restarted sacrifices would be a complete denial of what Jesus Christ accomplished for God’s people, and blasphemy to God.
The dispensationalist obsession with a future tribulation, in its arrogance of believing that “we are living in the end times,” misses the most important thing Jesus says about the Tribulation in Matthew 24, and the Apostle John says in Revelation concerning the Tribulation: that the generation that heard those words would live to see it.
In Matthew 24 Jesus describes the coming destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, and in verse 34 he states: “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” And 40 years after Jesus spoke those words, the Roman army under the future emperor Vespasian and his son Titus (another future emperor) fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Abomination of Desolation, forever destroying the temple in Jerusalem, razing the city to the ground, just as Jesus described.
From AD 64-70 the age of the Old Covenant ended, and judgment on the unfaithful in Israel swiftly came in a fierce Tribulation prophesied by Daniel and the Apostle John in Revelation (who said in Revelation 1:1 that these events would soon come to pass). It is frightening how accurate the prophecies were in describing these events which came to pass.
Dispensationalists argue that many of the prophecies describing the judgment of God in the Tribulation couldn’t have been fulfilled as they sound like they will affect the whole world, instead of a local judgment on Israel. They come to this position arguing for a wooden literalism in interpreting the prophecies, a reading that fails to understand the poetry and symbolism in prophetic literature in the Bible. Additionally, dispensationalists are entirely inconsistent in their “literal” interpretation, famously equating the Mark of the Beast of Revelation 13 to be a tattoo of a barcode or an RFID chip, and the locusts of Revelation 9 to be attack helicopters.
Dispensationalists ignore any possibility of the prophecies of the Tribulation referring to the first century destruction of Jerusalem, and instead say that we today are the generation that will see these things come to pass—and they have said this for almost 200 years now, leading to much shame for the Church. Their denial of Jesus’ own words concerning the Tribulation has led to renowned atheist intellectuals such as Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens to openly call Jesus a false prophet for his “failed predictions.”
The False Premise of Dispensationalism
As demonstrated again and again, dispensationalists approach the Bible with preconceived ideas, and read them into the Holy Scriptures instead of doing the work to understand what the original authors intended to communicate to their intended audience: the first-century church. Dispensationalism arrogantly makes the readers of Scripture today the focus of biblical interpretation. They render judgment that much of the New Testament has nothing to do with the first-century Christians who would have read these words (which speak of soon fulfillments) and instead believe that the Apostles are writing to the Christians of today.
This is foolishness. The errors of dispensationalism in Evangelicalism have led to a host of cultural problems for Christians today. Our next article in this series will explore some of the major cultural issues that dispensationalism has caused for the church.
End Notes:
Chafer, Lewis Sperry. 1951. Dispensationalism. Rev. ed. Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press.
Gillespie B L 2001. Problems with Dispensationalism. http://www.inchristalone.org/ WhatDispensation.htm, 2005-07-09.
Ryrie, Charles Caldwell. 1994. Ryrie Study Bible : New International Version. Expanded ed. Chicago: Moody Press.
