The Errors of Dispensationalism [Scriptum #4.3]

A discussion of Dispensational theology, which serves as the hermeneutic for much of the Evangelical world.

There are so many citations here, I'm just going to drop my whole script. Forgive me because I deviate from it a little, but all the citations should be there regardless:

Books and papers referenced:

[ScholasticLutherans]

Support us on Patreon or Subscribestar!

[AustinGonder]

Reformed baptist here. I used to be a dispy premil, but recently came out of it and now am an amillennialist.

[chriscardona]

This was one of the most comprehensive and exhaustive videos on this subject I’ve seen thank you!

[monoergon]

Philip Mauro's Gospel of the Kingdom is a great refutation of the 7 dispensations and other Scofield study bible notes. He was an ex-dispensationalist who joined the Episcopal church. Also, Edward J. Young's The Prophecy of Daniel: A Commentary is also helpful.

[evansustar]

This is a fantastic video. Incredibly thorough. Thank you for this!

[dougbell]

A novel dispensationalism has replaced Christ with a re-emerged national Israel as the sacred centrepiece of redemptive history and biblical prophecy. ✔️

[coreysmith]

The United States should end military aid to Israel..

1. Israel can pay for its own military. Israel has a strong economy, an excellent international credit rating, and runs frequent budget surplus. Israel ran an annual surplus of more than a billion dollars six out of the last ten years.
2. Military aid to Israel is a security risk. Israel is a major supplier of military technology to China. These sales have been instrumental in the modernization of the Chinese military. Israel developed the Lavi fighter from American technology with 1.5 billion in American subsidies. Israel sold the Lavi fighter to China. It is now called the J-10 and is the mainstay of the Chinese Air Force. Israel has also sold China missile guidance systems, , advanced radar systems and targeting systems.
3. Israel is a diplomatic liability.
4. Military aid to Israel is illegal under the Leahy Law because of Israel's human rights violations. Any aid to Israel is illegal under the Symington amendment which prohibits aid to nations with nuclear weapons that have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and do not permit inspections of their nuclear sites

[AgeDeo]

I come from a Dispensationalist upbringing. But as I did my own study, I've come to understand my Bible differently (Gal. 3: 24-29, Eph. 2: 14-16). It seems many have allowed Dispensationalism to shape how they read and interpret Scripture rather than allowing Scripture to speak for itself and shape their belief system. Scripture's focus is God's True Israel, Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, ethnic Israel seems to have become the center of Dispensationalism. This has made the Christian church easily manipulated by the world and the enemy of our souls, since many hold to this system of belief.😢
May we take a step back and objectively but prayerfully evaluate where Dispensationalism has brought the world (especially Western civilization) today. Thank you.🙏😇

[Haliwax]

Thank you for pointing out the selective literalism of the dispensationalists. Many people take it for granted that dispensationalism is supposedly "literal" but that is a fallacy and a source of great deception which pre-supposes that we who do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture as not taking the Bible literally or even worse, seriously.

[bazzy]

I was shocked to find that dispensationalism was still a thing. I thought it died with Jack Chick Fundamentalism

[BrendaAl-Rifai]

Prophecy of Daniel was fulfilled. Rapture belief is in error.

[yecksd]

thank u much. this vid gave me everything i needed to be sure of amillenialism

[willpower]

⁠
Post Trib rapture is based on scripture. PreTrib rapture is based on conjecture, speculation and misinterpretation of Scripture.
Rapture is posttrib and It’s not really debatable. Here are some irrefutable truths.

1. The rapture is AFTER the resurrection.
1 Thessalonians 4. Dead in Christ shall rise first.

2. Jesus said the resurrection is on ‘THE LAST DAY’ over and over and over in John 6. That is the last day of the age of grace. The last day of life without Christ. The last day of the church age. The last day of the New Covenant. The next day starts the millennial kingdom. If the resurrection is ON THE LAST DAY obviously then this means that the rapture is on the last day since the RAPTURE IS AFTER THE RESURRECTION.
The rapture is on the last day.

3. The resurrection / rapture is in Rev 20:4. Here we find ‘the last day’. John says he saw the dead come to life. This is the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the rapture is right after it. The rapture is post trib. It is AFTER Rev 5-19. The church goes THROUGH the tribulation. We will not experience Gods wrath just like Israel did not experience Gods wrath when God punished Egypt. And Noah didn’t experience Gods wrath when He flooded the whole earth, but Noah was preserved THROUGH the flood. Not raptured out of it. Israel was not raptured out of Egypt. God will test the church. He will have a pure spotless bride for His Son.

Any other position other than a posttrib rapture twists and distorts Gods Word.
And then there’s Jesus’ message in
Matthew 24:29-31
“But immediately AFTER THE TRIBULATION of those days……..And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, ………….And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
—————-
Jesus Himself says that He is coming back for His church and will gather it immediately AFTER the tribulation.

How can it get ANY CLEARER????

Stop with this false doctrine of a PreTrib rapture. The doctrine of escapism has to be exposed and refuted by the word of God. Too many people planning their escape instead of filling their lamp with oil.
Having said this, in Rev 3:10 God promises to keep those who have proven their faithfulness from the hour of testing. Knowing that be so faithful that God keeps you from the tribulation. Remember this promise of Christ is to only ONE of the seven churches in Revelation. One. There are letters to SIX other churches.
And remember this verse.

Revelation 13:7
It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.
——
God will give Antichrist power to persecute and kill His saints. Sounds crazy but that’s His plan. Don’t let people tickle your ears with anything that’s not the truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

Read your Bible. Test your teachers. Reject false teachers. Endure to the end and you will be saved. That’s a promise from God.

[garrettheyns]

It’s a good thing that none of this has anything to do with salvation.

[AmillennialMillenial]

Rejecting dispensationalism was also my gateway to eventually landing in the LCMS.

What I find most perplexing about dispensationalism is that most of them today would reject some of Darby/Scofield’s more outlandish takes, such as separate salvation plans for Jews and Gentiles, that Jesus and Paul preached two different gospels, etc., yet these are central to Darby’s system. I don’t understand the impulse to reinvent the theology that has such glaring issues.

This piecemeal way of doing theology is also a problem with Evangelicalism. It mixes and matches random parts of various other theological systems without any systematic case whatsoever.

[NNaadah]

You make a lot of good points in this! Particularly in relation to the role the crucifixion plays in the redemption plan. The "happy accident"; "plan B". LOL Problem is Revelation says Jesus was the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world". Thus there's no way redemption could have been predicated upon anyone rejecting Christ. (Thus the segue into the doctrine of election.) And this is why I would say the culmination of history from God's intended purpose is the resurrection and 2nd would be the incarnation.

Good job though; informative and entertaining too!

[SpotterVideo]

New Covenant Whole Gospel: How many modern Christians cannot honestly answer the questions below?

Who is the King of Israel in John 1:49? Is the King of Israel now the Head of the Church, and are we His Body? Who is the “son” that is the “heir” to the land in Matthew 21:37-43? Why did God allow the Romans to destroy the Old Covenant temple and the Old Covenant city, about 40 years after His Son fulfilled the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 in blood at Calvary?

What the modern Church needs is a New Covenant Revival (Heb. 9:10) in which members of various denominations are willing to re-examine everything they believe and see if it agrees with the Bible, instead of the traditions of men. We need to be like the Bereans. It will be a battle between our flesh and the Holy Spirit. It will not be easy. If you get mad and upset when someone challenges your man-made Bible doctrines, that is your flesh resisting the truth found in God's Word. Nobody can completely understand the Bible unless they understand the relationship between the Old Covenant given to Moses at Mount Sinai and the New Covenant fulfilled in blood at Calvary.

God is not now a “racist”. He has extended His love to all races of people through the New Covenant fulfilled by His Son’s blood at Calvary. The Apostle Paul warned against using “genealogies” in our faith in 1 Tim. 1:4, and Titus 3:9.

====

Who is really teaching “Replacement Theology” ?

(Did God fulfill His promises to the Jewish people at Calvary? Matthew 26:28, John 19:30)

The advocates of modern Dispensational Theology often accuse others of promoting “Replacement Theology”, or some may even say “Antisemitism”. What does the Bible say about their accusations?

1. Who is replacing Christ as the seed of Abraham through which all the families of the Earth would be blessed in Genesis 12:3, with Abraham’s modern descendants? (See Paul’s interpretation in Galatians 3:8, 3:16.)

2. Who is replacing the one people of God in John 10:16, with two peoples of God ?

3. Who is replacing the one seed (Christ) in Galatians 3:16, with the many seeds?

4. Who is replacing the children of the promise in Romans 9:8, with the children of the flesh?

5. Who is replacing the word “remnant” in Romans 9:27, with the word “nation”?

6. Who is replacing the faithful “remnant” of Israelites in Romans 11:1-5, with the Baal worshipers?

7. Who is replacing the word "so" in Romans 11:26, with the word "then"?

8. Who is attempting to replace the Church made up of all races of people, with one made up only of Gentiles? Why did Peter address the crowd as “all the house of Israel” in Acts 2:36, when about 3, 000 Israelites accepted Christ on the Day of Pentecost?

9. Based on Hebrews 12:18-24, the New Covenant cannot be separated from the Messiah’s death. Is the covenant in Daniel 9:27 connected to the Messiah’s death in Daniel 9:26. Is the covenant with the “many” in Daniel 9:27 the same covenant with the “many” in Matthew 26:28? If it is, some have replaced the New Covenant in Daniel 9:27 with a future covenant made by an antichrist not found in Daniel chapter 9. (See the 1599 Geneva Bible used by the Pilgrims.)

10. Those promoting the Two Peoples of God doctrine of Dispensational Theology often accuse others of teaching “Replacement Theology”, but are they the masters of it? Are they promoting a form of Dual Covenant Theology based on race? (See “genealogies” in Titus 3:9) Is the most important genealogy in the Bible found in Matthew 1:1? Is God's Son the ultimate fulfillment of Israel? Why has the modern Church done a pitiful job of sharing the Gospel with modern Orthodox Jews? Why would someone tell them they are God's chosen people and then fail to share the Gospel with them? Who is the seed of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15? Who is the "son" in Psalm 2? Who is the "suffering servant" of Isaiah 53? Who would fulfill the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34? Who would fulfill the timeline of Daniel chapter 9 before the second temple was destroyed? Why have we not heard this simple Old Testament Gospel preached on Christian television in the United States on a regular basis?

11. Watch the YouTube video “Genesis of Dispensational Theology” to see the origin of this man-made doctrine, which is less than 200 years old. It was brought to the United States about the time of the Civil War by John Nelson Darby. The doctrine was later incorporated into the notes of the Scofield Reference Bible, and then spread through much of the modern Church.

Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas Texas was created in part to promote John Darby’s Two Peoples of God doctrine of Dispensational Theology.
Lewis Sperry Chafer, the first president of Dallas Theological, had the following to say about the difference between Israel and the Church:

“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 which is Judaism; while the other is related to heaven with heavenly people and heavenly objectives involved, which is Christianity.”
Lewis Sperry Chafer, Dispensationalism (Dallas, Seminary Press, 1936), p. 107.

Chafer states that, ‘Israel is an eternal nation, heir to an eternal land, with an eternal kingdom, on which David rules from an eternal throne, ’ that is, on earth and distinct from the church who will be in heaven.”
Lewis Sperry Chafer. Systematic Theology. 1975. Vol. IV. pp. 315-323.

John Walvoord, another prominent voice of Dallas Theological stated…

"...it is an article of normative dispensational belief that the boundaries of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants from the Nile to the Euphrates will be literally instituted and that Jesus Christ will return to a literal and theocratic Jewish kingdom centred on a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. In such a scheme the Church on earth is relegated to the status of a parenthesis.”
John F. Walvoord, The Rapture Question.1979, p. 25

Are there two peoples of God in John 10:16? (See also 1 John 2:22-23, 2 John 1:7-11.)

What is the land promise to the Old Testament Saints in Hebrews 11:15-16?
(See what Joshua said about the Old Covenant land promise in Josh. 21:43.)

Based on 2 Peter 3:10-13, is this earth “eternal”? Will it be replaced by a new earth?

Based on Acts 2:36, and Romans 9:6-8, and Romans 11:1-5, and Hebrews 12:22-24, and James 1:1-3, can faithful Israel and the Church be separated into two different groups?

Who is the New Covenant promised to in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and is it fulfilled by the blood of Christ at Calvary in Hebrews 8:6-13, and Hebrews 12:18-24?

Will modern Orthodox Jews ever be saved outside of the New Covenant Church, if the New Covenant is “everlasting” in Hebrews 13:20? (See also 2 Thess. 1:7-10) If the New Covenant has made the Old Covenant “obsolete” in Hebrews 8:6-13, why would God go back to the Old Covenant system during a future time period?

Read the recent book "The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism", by Daniel G. Hummel...

[John.]

Excellent! Thank you. I'm already forgetting bits so I'll be listening to it again.

[CrystallizedVision]

Thanks for the excellent and enlightening points!

[AllOtherNamesUsed]

The issue is that a PRETRIB rapture is not biblical, not that it doesn’t happen.

Mat 24.29-31 is a good overview with details spread out in various books incl Isaiah.

It’s basically Christ mustering His glorious army in the sky to take the land like Joshua (Yeshua/Jesus) in the book of Joshua to set up the kingdom on earth for 1000 years conquering all enemies before the Father comes and a new heaven and earth is made.