Premillenial dispensationalism

[glen smith]

Eschatology is the theological category. Premillennial Dispensationalism is the doctrine.

The Major Events

Forming of the modern State of Israel

Rapture of the Church

Seven years of the Great Tribulation

Antichrist makes a covenant with Israel for the first three years at which time the Temple has been rebuilt or will be rebuilt.

Antichrist persecutes Israel for the next three years

Return of Christ with the Church

The 1,000 year reign of Christ on planet Earth from King David’s throne in Jerusalem

At the end of the thousand years Satan is released

Satan assembles the nations to war against Israel and Jerusalem

Fire comes down from heaven and destroys the armies gathered by Satan

Satan is thrown into the lake of fire

New heavens and new planet Earth

[glen smith]

Descriptions of the Major Events or Main points of dispensationalism -

1. Jews will return to the holy land to establish the nation of Israel.

2. The Church is raptured at a first appearance of Christ. This is scenario is labeled the pretribulation rapture. There are some dispensationalist who support either a mid tribulation rapture and a post tribulation rapture.

3. There are seven years of the great tribulation.

4. The antichrist arises to make a covenant with Israel during which time there is world peace and the Jerusalem Temple is built. Most dispensationalist, hold to the view about this time as corresponding to the first three and one half years of the great tribulation.

5. During the second three and one half years of the great tribulation the antichrist persecutes the Jews and all those who do not worship him. The seals, trumpets and bowls of The Revelation occur during this period.

6. At the end of the seven years of the great tribulation Christ’s second coming is accompanied by the Church from heaven to defeat the antichrist and establish the thousand year rule of Christ from Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom. Satan is chained in the bottomless pit.

7. After a thousand years Satan is released from the bottomless pit. He gathers the enemies of Christ to siege Jerusalem. Fire comes down from heaven and destroys the armies of Satan. Satan is thrown into the lake of fire.

8. The last judgment and the destruction of death, the last enemy

9. There is a new heaven and new earth.

10. New Jerusalem comes down from heaven.

[glen smith]

Dispensational Beliefs

God has two chosen peoples – The Church and Israel.

Covenants are eternal, unconditional, irrevocable - Dwight Pentecost

The Church is under the New Covenant dispensation.

The Church is not included in the kingdom of God dispensation.

Israel remains under the dispensations of the Abrahamic, Sinaitic, and Davidic Covenants.

Dispensationalists do not make a distinction between an ethnic Israel or the Jew and a political Israel or the modern State of Israel.

The dispensation of the Kingdom of God is only for Israel. Christ’s central teaching was that the Davidic Covenant (the Kingdom of God) would be postponed because the Jews rejected the Messiah. - Dwight Pentecost

There are unfulfilled covenant promises God made to Israel. The promises will be fulfilled in the future. For the promises to be fulfilled all the Jews (or at least the remnant Jews) from of the Diasporas must return to the Promised Land. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is said to be the beginning of this return of Jews to the Promised Land.

John Nelson Darby discovered the lost teachings of the apostles which had not been taught since the death of the last apostle.

Christ offered to be a political ruler (“the kingdom of heaven is at hand”) but was rejected.

The Church is interjected because Israel rejected Christ as ruler. The church was the mystery because it is never mentioned in the Old Testament. - John F. Walvoord

Because King David sat on a throne in the earthly city of Jerusalem Christ will have a political rule from Jerusalem over an earthly Kingdom of God.

The promises God made in the Abrahamic, Sinaitic, and Davidic Covenants to Israel concerning possessing the land is yet to be fulfilled but happens after the rapture of the Church when Israel begins to keep their side of the Sinaitic Covenant. Gentiles will be the servants of Israel during that age. "When the reign of Jehovah-Jesus is established, the distinction of Israel from the Gentiles will again be resumed.” - Dwight Pentecost

Prophecy is to be interpreted literally and only dispensationalists consistently interpret the Bible literally.

There is a distinction between God’s ultimate intentions for Israel and the church, respectively. The church and Israel, dispensationalists insist, must never be confused nor intermingled.

The upshot of this view is that every promise that God ever made to Israel must be fulfilled literally, and not through the church.

The purpose of the millennium (which is conceived as
following the second coming of Christ) is to bring about the fulfillment of all that God has promised to Israel in the Old Testament. As Scofield wrote, “The return of the Lord to the earth is to accomplish the yet unfulfilled prophecies of Israel’s national regathering, conversion, and establishment in peace and power under the Davidic Covenant.”Not: All of Scofied’s writings were before the modern State of Israel.

Darby believed that the kingdom promises were not fulfilled in Christ’s first advent (Incarnation/Death/Ressurection), and that they require the political restoration of Israel and the coronation of the Messiah on the physical throne of David in Jerusalem. Such a messianic kingdom failed to materialize at Christ’s first advent, they say, due to the Jews’ rejection of their King. The messianic (Davidic) kingdom is thus said to have been postponed, not to be established until the second coming of Christ and His millennial reign.

Chafer wrote, “The new purpose of God in this age is seen to be the out - calling of a heavenly people [the Church]. They...are in no way related to the Messianic earthly kingdom of Israel.”5 According to Ryrie, “The church is not a part of this kingdom at all.”

Chafer, “The gospel of the Kingdom...consisted of a legitimate offer to Israel of the promised earthly Davidic kingdom, designed particularly for Israel. However, the Jewish nation rejected their King and with him the Kingdom.”

Due to the postponement of the kingdom, a new dispensation, the Church Age, has intervened, introducing another gospel — “the gospel of grace” — which was first preached by Paul. According to Ryrie, “The apostle Paul was principally, though not exclusively, the agent of the revelation of the grace of God for this dispensation.” It is Paul’s gospel that we are to be preaching today. Only after the rapture of the church (the close of the present dispensation) will the gospel of the kingdom again be relevant.

The dispensationalists postulate two distinct “gospels” for two different dispensations. Jesus, they say, preached the “gospel of the kingdom” to Israel (Mark 1:14), while Paul preached the “gospel of grace” to the Gentiles. One serious defect in this suggestion is that the term “gospel of grace” is found in only one passage of Scripture — Acts 20:24 – 25 — in which Paul equates this gospel with his preaching of “the kingdom of God.” The two gospels are one and the same. Paul was particularly intolerant of the idea of more than one “gospel” (e.g., Gal. 1:8 – 9; 2 Cor. 11:3 – 4).

Resources:

1. Dwight Pentecost was one of only two Distinguished Professor of Bible Exposition, Emeritus, at Dallas Theological Seminary

2. John F. Walvoord (May 1, 1910 – December 20, 2002) was a Christian theologian, pastor, and president of Dallas Theological Seminary from 1952 to 1986. See the Appendix for more information on John F. Walvoord. - Traditioal (Horizontal ) Dispensationalism

4. John Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983), 63.

5. Charles Ryrie (March 2, 1925 – February 16, 2016) - Dallas Theological Seminary professor of systematic theology and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and was president and professor at what is now Cairn University. Published the Ryrie Study Bible KJV, NASB, NIV 1978 & 1994 Study Bible. - Traditional (Horizontal) Dispensationalism

6. Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today(Chicago: Moody, 1965), 86–87.

7. Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Victor, 1986), 398–99.

8. 8 Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody, 1995), 56.

9. Harry A. Ironsides (1876–1951) produced a commentary on The Revelation which contends Israel and the Jews are in future prophecy.

10. John S. Feinberg, “Systems of Discontinuity,” Continuity and Discontinuity: Perspectives on the Relationship between the Old and New Testaments, ed. John S. Feinberg (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1988), 83.

11. C. I. Scofield, Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1917), 1148 (note on Acts 1:11).

12. L. S. Chafer, The Kingdom in History and Prophecy (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times, 1919), 71.

13. Quoted from G. E. Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids`: Eerdmans, 1952), 50.

14. Miles J. Stanford, The Complete Green Letters (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983).

15. Larry Crutchfield, The Origins of Dispensationalism: The Darby Factor (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1992), 23–42.

16. Curtis I. Crenshaw and Grover E. Gunn, Dispensationalism Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow
(Memphis: Footstool Publications, 1987), 38.

[glen smith]

The Third Temple

Background:
Premillennialism Dispensationalism
There are two ideas in the term Premillennialism Dispensationalism.

I. Premillennialism is a futurist view of eschatology.
The pre refers to the rapture of the Church occurring before the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

There are variations on the Premillennialism view depending on when the rapture of the Church occurs:
(!) The 1,000 year reign of Christ begins at the rapture of the Church. The tribulation refers to the years from the Pentecost to the Second Coming.
(2) Post tribulation rapture - The rapture of the Church is at the end of a seven year tribulation ending at the start of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.
(3) Pre tribulation rapture - The rapture of the Church begins a 7 year tribulation period ending at the start of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.
(4) Pre tribulation rapture - The rapture of the Church begins a 7 year period where the first three and one half years there is peace followed by a three and one half years of a tribulation period ending at the start of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.
(5) Mid tribulation rapture – There is a final 7 year period where the first three and one half years there is peace followed by a three and one half years of a tribulation period ending at the start of the 1,000 year reign of Christ. The rapture of the Church occurs at the end of the first three and one half years.

II. Dispensationalism is about how God saves people.
Dispensationalism grew in popularity along with the promotion of Zionism. The unique distinction of dispensationalism is the salvation of all Jews after the rapture of the Church.
(1) This idea was originally based upon Old Testament promises made to Israel while the dispensationalist ignored that these promises were conditional upon Israel’s faithfulness.
(2) After loosing all the arguments to clear biblical passages about convent conditions the dispensationalist begin to restrict their argument to the unconditional convent with Abraham. However, to make this point the 17 hundred years of the traditional interpretation of Romans 9-12 to equate the Church with Spiritual Israel was changed to mean the Church is never Israel or spiritual Israel, and Israel always means the Jews.

Dispensationalist hold to as few as 2 dispensations to as many as seven or more dispensations but all dispensationalist believes that all Jews will be saved after the rapture of the Church and will occupy all the land of the Abrahamic covenant.

Accordingly, how many dispensations one can identify in the Bible is not important. That is because dispensational theology has but one essential belief. That is the belief that the Jews are the “Israel” spoken of in the Prophets.

According to dispensational theology the Church is not mentioned even once in the Old Testament. Only Israel is. Israel is always the Jews. That’s how the dispensationalists got the distinction they make between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God. They believe the Church came into existence as sort of an afterthought after the Jews rejected Jesus Christ’s offer to establish the earthly kingdom of God among them as the Prophets had promised. When the Jews rejected His offer, Jesus Christ established the kingdom of heaven with the Gentiles instead of the kingdom of God with the Jews.

According to dispensational theology at His Second Coming, when the Jews accept Him as their Messiah, Jesus Christ will finally establish the earthly kingdom of God with Israel—the Jews—just as the Prophets promised. Some say Christ will then build a temple in Jerusalem, reinstitute the temple sacrifices, and reign as king over the Jews. Others say it is the throne of King David which Christ will build. All the nations of the earth will submit to him.

[glen smith]

Dispensations

Premillennial Dispensationalism contends that the Bible cannot be properly understood apart from recognizing distinct periods or eras or dispensations in which the unfolding purpose of God and his relationship with mankind are revealed. All dispensationalists recognize at least three dispensations:

(1) the period before Pentecost (the age of the Mosaic Covenant);

(2) the period between Pentecost and the return of Christ (the Church age); and

(3) the period between the return of Christ and the eternal state (the Millennium).

Classical dispensationalists, following the lead of dispensationalism's founding father, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), point to four additional periods. Thus:

(1) from creation to the fall (the dispensation of innocence)

(2) from the fall to Noah (the dispensation of conscience)

(3) from Noah to Babel (the dispensation of human government)

(4) from Abraham to Moses (the dispensation of promise)

(5) from Moses to Jesus (the dispensation of law)

(6) from Pentecost to the rapture (the dispensation of grace)

(7) the Millennium (the dispensation of the kingdom)

It must be noted, however, that the recognition of distinct epochs or periods in biblical history is not the primary characteristic of dispensationalism. All Christians recognize the presence in Scripture of developments within God's redemptive purpose. What is unique about Premillennial Dispensationalism is the way these distinct periods in biblical history are used to justify or undergird a separation between Israel and the Church.

Dispensationalism's principal feature is what might be called redemptive dualism, i.e., the insistence that God has two distinct peoples, with distinct purposes for each. Variations within Premillennial Dispensationalism usually revolve around the question of whether and to what degree Israel and the Church share in the blessings and promises of God.

Therefore, it is the distinction between Israel and the Church and the purposes God has for each that sets dispensationalism apart from other eschatological systems.

Why does Premillennial Dispensationalism draw this distinction between two peoples (Jew and Gentile) and the purposes of God and how this affects their understanding of the Kingdom.

This article is edited from SamStorms.com / Enjoying God