Dispensationalism and the Book of Revelation

There is a relatively new eschatological system called Dispensationalism that must also be addressed. It was recently developed by Edward Irving and John Nelson Darby in the 1830’s. This movement “has swept across the modern world, due largely to the wide influence of The Scofield Reference Bible, published in 1909. It has become in our day the majority report among evangelical Christians.”

Classical Dispensationalism, (as distinguished from the Progressive version), differs from Historic Premillennialism in that the Classic advocates 1) have a pre-tribulation rapture at the beginning of chapter 4 of the book of Revelation; 2) they believe the Church is a mystery wholly unknown and unmentioned in the Old Testament Scriptures; 3) they see the millennium as a period in which Israel picks up its favored people status with God after a parenthesis in which the Church age occurred. In addition, 4) they believe that in a future Millennium, there will be a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and a return to the Jewish sacrificial system as memorials to the death of Christ.

It is of great significance to these folks that the Jews be viewed as “God’s chosen people,” as they like to refer to them. Note, it is unsaved Jews who are to them “God’s chosen people,” not Christians! For them, this preeminent status is unchanged through the ages—Old Testament and New Testament periods alike. The Church is simply a side show, wholly unanticipated and unmentioned in the Old Testament. For them, the greatness and expanse of the gospel message of the New Testament is to be ended with a return to the narrowness of the gospel message of racial Judaism. The Jewish Temple is to be rebuilt and animal sacrifices are to again take place! And all this is to occur in spite of the once for all sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. In speaking of the Temple mentioned in Ezekiel 40-46, Gaebelein says, “The true interpretation is the literal one which looks upon these chapters as a prophecy yet unfulfilled and to be fulfilled when Israel has been restored by the Shepherd and when His glory is once more manifested in the midst of His people. The great building seen in his prophetic vision will then come into existence and all will be accomplished.” Animal sacrifices are to be reinstituted says Pentecost, “To perpetuate the Memorial of Sacrifice.”

Rushdoony says that their view is simply an, “…exaltation of racism into a divine principle. Every attempt to bring the Jew back into prophecy as a Jew is to give race and works (for racial descent is a human work) a priority over grace and Christ’s work and is nothing more or less than paganism. It is significant that premillennialism is almost invariably associated with Arminianism, i.e., the introduction of race into prophetic perspectives is accompanied by, and part and parcel of, the introduction of works into the order of salvation.”

It is important to note that in academic circles this theology is in rapid decline as it has been for some thirty years now. It is being quickly replaced with a new, less offensive version of Dispensationalism called Progressive Dispensationalism. For that reason it is important to take note of the differences between these two systems which are so alike at various places and yet so different at what has traditionally been critical points.

Progressive Dispensationalism is clearly not your father’s Dispensationalism (nor your favorite televangelist’s). Radical changes distinguishing it from its antiquated forbears include:

(1) A rejection of simplistic literalism in hermeneutics. The progressive party pretty much adopts a genuine grammatical-historical-theological theory of interpretation — like the rest of the evangelical world.

(2) A revision of the Israel-Church distinction, allowing that Israel and the Church are two phases of the one people of God. They argued for a radical distinction between Israel and the Church that would even continue into eternity; revised Dispensationalism maintained that distinction only in terms of the earthly outworking of redemption.

(3) A breaking down of the walls of separation between the dispensations. Their dispensations are not discrete, unmixed time frames, but rather evolving stages of historical development. Contained within any particular dispensation are the seeds of the next dispensation so that the dispensations gradually progress (hence the name). This allows that Christ is now enthroned as king — in anticipation of his coming earthly-millennial rule.

As one wit noted, Progressive Dispensationalism “is quickly becoming the dominant position of the Dallas Theological Seminary faculty (we’re a few funerals away from the complete dismantling of traditional [Classic] Dispensationalism at that school, which is, of course, the “dispy” capital of the world), even if lay people and fiction authors aren’t aware of it.” However, although the academic world is quickly losing interest in this method of interpreting the Bible, this is not true of the pulpit and pew. Here it still reigns supreme in American evangelicalism. For this reason, it must be covered carefully.

Return To