18. Contrary to the dispensationalists’ structuring of law and grace as “antithetical concepts” (Charles Ryrie) with the result that “the doctrines of grace are to be sought in the Epistles, not in the Gospels” (Scofield Reference Bible – SRB, p. 989), the Gospels do declare the doctrines of grace, as we read in John 1:17, “For the law was given by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” and in the Bible’s most famous verse: “For God so …
Category: Dispensationalism
11. Contrary to the dispensationalists’ structuring of redemptive history into several dispensations, the Bible establishes the basic divisions of redemptive history into the old covenant, and the new covenant (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 8:8; 9:15), even declaring that the “new covenant … has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete is ready to disappear” (Heb 8:13). Response: No dispensationalist denies the division of the Bible into OT and NT. Neither does he deny …
10. Contrary to the dispensationalists’ commitment to compartmentalizing each of the self-contained, distinct dispensations, the Bible presents an organic unfolding of history as the Bible traces out the flow of redemptive history, so that the New Testament speaks of “the covenants [plural] of the [singular] promise” (Eph 2:12) and uses metaphors that require the unity of redemptive history; accordingly, the New Testament people of God are one olive tree rooted in the Old Testament (Rom 11:17-24). Response: Dispensationalists see the …
7. Despite the dispensationalists’ general orthodoxy, the historic ecumenical creeds of the Christian Church affirm eschatological events that are contrary to fundamental tenets of premillennialism, such as: (1) only one return of Christ, rather than dispensationalism’s two returns, separating the “rapture” and “second coming” by seven years; (2) a single, general resurrection of all the dead, both saved and lost; and (3) a general judgment of all men rather than two distinct judgments separated by one thousand years. Response: We …
95 THESES AGAINST DISPENSATIONALISM 1. Contrary to the dispensationalists’ claim that their system is the result of a “plain interpretation” (Charles Ryrie) of Scripture, it is a relatively new innovation in Church history, having emerged only around 1830, and was wholly unknown to Christian scholars for the first eighteen hundred years of the Christian era. Response: By “plain interpretation” Ryrie simply meant grammatico-historical hermeneutics (G-H) (see his book Dispensationalism, 79-88). There is nothing novel about this. G-H was employed by …
Introduction to this Series Monergism.com, that excellent source for all things Reformed and Covenantal, has recently posted some more rebuttals of Dispensational Theology on its website. Included is a set of 16 lectures by James Grier and a series of “95 Theses Against Dispensationalism” brought together by a group of believers (mostly if not all of them Partial Preterists) calling themselves by the collective nom-de-plume, ‘The Nicene Council.’ There is also a DVD out criticizing this pernicious doctrine to which …
I have now returned to the Texas heat from a nice time in San Jose, doing a Veritas Conference for my friend Will Dudding. We covered a lot of ground. I spoke on “Bible Interpretation for the Rest of Us,” “The Temple,” “Islam,” “Views of the Rapture,” and “Covenant Theology v. Dispensational Theology.” Of course I was biased for pretribulational dispensationalism, but I think I steered a fairly non-radical course. What was interesting is that there were some post-mils. and …
In previous assorted posts I have now and then called attention to the fact that as “plain-sense” readers of Scripture, we are concerned more with the covenants in the Bible than with the dispensations. Hence I coined the term “Biblical Covenantalist” in preference to “dispensationalist” to describe myself. But it is a fact that Christians do not always have the same thing in view when speaking about the covenants of Scripture. For one thing, those calling themselves “Covenant Theologians” (CT’s) …
Some Resurgence of Biblical Theology among Evangelicals Back in the evangelical world there have been some encouraging signs of late that biblical theology is seeing a bit of a resurgence. This is headlined by the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology,[1] which seems to have triggered projects such as the work of a team of scholars at Ouachita Baptist University called, The Story of Israel.[2] This book tracks “Israel” through both Testaments, although in Paul and the Apocalypse the distinction between …
For dispensational theology to get underway properly there needs to be a methodology which comports with the progress of revelation as recorded in the outworking of the covenants of God in history. This introduces “Biblical Theology”; a tried and true definition of which, as well as an agreed upon methodology, has been elusive,[1] so we must familiarize ourselves with the debate. The Contribution of Biblical Theology Taking the usual starting point as J. H. Gabler’s inaugural address at the University …
