dispensationalism.docx

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DISPENSATIONALISM

DARBY'S HERMANEUTIC OF UNBELIEF AND THE THEOLOGY OF DEFEATISM

"O Brethren, give ear to a noble lesson.

We ought always to watch and pray,

For we see the world nigh to a conclusion.

We ought to strive to do good works,

Seeing that the end of this world approacheth.

There are already a thousand and one hundred years fully accomplished,

Since it was written thus, for we are in the last time."

"The Noble Lesson", Medieval Waldensian Poem, circa 1100 A. D.

"But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them,

Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and

hearken to my words:

For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the

day.

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit

upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young

men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my

Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood,and fire, and vapour of smoke:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great

and notable day of the Lord come:
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And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall

be saved."

Acts 2: 14 - 21

"Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that

thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where

thou hast not strawed:

And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that

is thine."

Matthew 25: 24 - 25

INTRODUCTION

here are few things more pitiful in this world than the man immersed in Dispensational

theory. His countenance a mournful mask of lamentation, his one eye feverishly scans the

headlines, while the other peruses his Bible, desperately striving to find the link between

current events and Old Testament Jewish prophecy. His sweaty palms grasp the pages ofthe newspaper in a death grip, while ever and anon, he rolls his eyes heavenward as in

doleful tones he bewails both the unhealthy direction of the Middle East peace talks and the Gaza Strip

on the one hand, and the misguided folly of his poor, benighted, unlearned brethren, who are still

praying for revival and seeking to win souls for the Kingdom on the other. He feels sorry for them,

really. If only they understood Bible prophecy as he does, they would understand that we are living in

the last days, and that we cannot hope for revival or for much fruit from the harvest fields. "Perilous

times shall come," quoth he. "Evil seducers shall wax worse and worse. It's no use praying for revival at

this late hour. It's no use striving to win the lost. Strong delusion already hangs above their heads. Let's

just hold the line and pray that the Rapture comes soon."

Poor man. What in the world is wrong him? Where is his joy? Where is the bold assurance that

resonates from the pen of John the Beloved in I John 5? Where are the triumphant outbursts of lyrical

exaltation that flow from the pen of the Apostle Paul? Has he no Bible? No promises? What is wrong

with him?
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It seems to me that the real problem of this man is the same one that we find in the parable of the

talents. We find in that story a man who, having received one talent, went and hid it in the earth rather

than invest it. The reason for this course of action lay in the man's defeatist attitude. He had already

defeated himself mentally from the very outset. And while the thought process leading up to this

defeatism and the circumstances surrounding it may not be identical, in terms of basic attitude and

outlook, there is little difference between him and the Dispensationalist.

INTELLECTUAL PRIDE

There is one parallel that I find especially remarkable. Notice the first three words to come out of this

man's mouth: "Lord, I knew". He excuses his lack of service with his knowledge. "I knew".

Imagine this man in the immediate timeframe after his master's departure. He looks around at the

other servants. The man with five talents has departed for an appointment with the exchangers. The

man with two talents has already returned from his meeting, paperwork in hand. But this man just

shakes his head, sympathetically. He feels sorry for them. He feels that they really don't know what

they will suffer when their lord returns. But he knows better. He his keener insight than they do. And

based on his knowledge of their master's outlook and ways, he will take a wiser, more prudent course of

action. Which, of course, is no action at all. He will just hold the line and wait for his lord's return.

Now isn't this exactly what we find among Dispensationalists? They are convinced of the hopelessnessof praying for revival or of trying to win souls or of crying out for Holy Spirit power, because we are living

in these perilous times, these last days. And the underlying reason for their defeatism is this superior

knowledge that they think that they possess. They, theyare the ones who really know. Theyhold the

key to Bible prophecy. Theyknow all about Israel and the Church, and theyknow better than to confuse

the two, and theywould never make the same mistakes that the poor, ignorant, unlearned Christians of

bygone generations made. Of course, they admit that those Christians saw great revivals and won many

souls to the Lord and greatly advanced the cause of world missions. What a shame that they didn't

understand how to rightly divide the Word of Truth and interpret Bible prophecy according to

"Dispensational truth"... How sad... Philip Mauro summed up this whole outlook well in his own

testimony of repudiating Dispensationalism's fallacious theories:

"It is mortifying to remember that I not only held and taught these novelties myself, but that I even

enjoyed a complacent sense of superiority because thereof, and regarded with feelings of pity and

contempt those who had not received the 'new light' and were unacquainted with this up-to-date

method of 'rightly dividing the word of truth.' For I fully believed what an advertising circular says in


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presenting 'Twelve Reasons why you should use THE SCOFIELD REFERENCE BIBLE,' namely, that: 'First,

the Scofield Bible outlines the Scriptures from the standpoint of DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH, and there can

be no adequate understanding or rightly dividing of the Word of God except from the standpoint of

dispensational truth.'

What a slur is this upon the spiritual understanding of the ten thousands of men, 'mighty in theScriptures,' whom God gave as teachers to His people during all the Christian centuries before

'dispensational truth' (or dispensational error), was discovered! And what an affront to the thousands of

men of God of our own day, workmen that need not to be ashamed, who have never accepted the newly

invented system! Yet I was among those who eagerly embraced it (upon human authority solely, for

there is none other) and who earnestly pressed it upon my fellow Christians. I am deeply thankful,

however, that the time came (it was just ten years ago) when the inconsistencies and self contradictions

of the system itself, and above all, the impossibility of reconciling its main positions with the plain

statements of the Word of God, became so glaringly evident that I could not do otherwise than renounce

it."

INTERPRETIVE PESSIMISM

But there's more to Dispensationalism than pride. There's unbelief, the root of all other sins.

Dispensationalism is, at its core, a system of unbelief.

In confirmation of that statement, we turn to Paul David Nevin of Dallas Theological Seminary, as quoted

by Charles Ryrie in his book entitled Dispensationalism. Ryrie quotes Nevin's definition of a dispensation

as follows:

"A dispensation is God's distinctive method of governing mankind or a group of men

during a period of human history, marked by a crucial event, test, failure, and judgment."

Look closely at that statement. What is the missing note? What has Nevin left out?


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Of course the answer is victory. Success. Nothing whatsoever is said about victory. Only failure.

According to Dispensationalism, every Dispensation ends in failure.

Now perhaps some Dispensationalist will seek to sidestep this point by asserting that this refers to the

world, and not to the people of God. But this argument really doesn't change anything, because the

failure of the world to accept the Gospel still stands in inextricable relationship to the Church in her

mission of winning souls. By saying that the dispensation ends in failure, the Dispensationalist has

inevitably stated that the church will fail in her work of reaching the lost. The poor, defeated Church of

the last days goes to heaven at the Rapture, shamefaced, bringing no sheaves with her.

But Scofield himself makes it clear that the doctrine of Dispensationalism is simply defeatism, even in

relationship to the Church itself. On page 15 of his pernicious booklet entitled Rightly Dividing the Word

of Truth, we find the following statement:

"The predicted result of this testing of man under grace is judgment upon an unbelieving world and an

apostate Church."

Once again, we see that the glaring absence in Dispensationalism is the note of victory, the triumphant

outlook everywhere found throughout the New Testament as the rightful product of faith in God's

abundant and bountiful promises. In other words, it is an entirely defeatist perspective.

IGNORED PROMISES

Now what is this, but unbelief? What is this but to deny the promises of God? Consider the following

Scriptures which Dispensationalism inevitably denies with its Theology of Failure:

"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again withrejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." (Psalm 126: 6)

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He thatspared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give


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us all things?.... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved

us." (Romans 8: 31, 32, 37)

"Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of

the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." (I Corinthians 15: 57)

"Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifestthe savour of his knowledge by us in every place." (II Corinthians 2: 14)

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcomeththe world, even our faith.

Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (I John

5: 4 - 5)

"And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gatesof hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16: 18)

"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." (Romans 16: 20)

Beloved, this doesn't sound like failure to me. That doesn't sound like the Church going out of this world

with a whimper. When I read my Bible, I find unmistakable promises that God's Church will notbe

defeated.

CONCLUSION

Beloved, the Apostle Peter identified the last days with the day of Pentecost. Almost two thousand

years ago, the Apostle Peter told the multitude at Jerusalem that the coming of the Holy Ghost was the

fulfillment of the prophecy made by Joel about the last days. Peter understood that the world was

already in the last days, even then.

And certainly the Apostle Peter lived in perilous times. So did the Apostle Paul. So did all the saints of

God for three agonizing centuries of unspeakable Roman persecution. So did the Paulicians. So did the

Petrobrusians. So did the Henricians. So did the Albigenses. So did the Waldensians. So did the saints

of the Reformation and the Puritan Era. Yet these believers claimed God's promises of victory, saw

mighty revivals and watched as God's kingdom spread like wildfire across the European continent and

the British Isles, and on across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. They watched empires crumble


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and strongholds collapse. With all their suffering, as excruciating and horrific as it was, there was

nothing pathetic or pitiful about them. The earth trembled with their tread and echoed with their

shout. From the very flames of persecution and martyrdom resounded the same victory cry that has

ever identified the crushing defeat of the powers of darkness as God's servants openly triumphed over

them through the Spirit of Christ. Their faith was the victory that overcame the world. I wish that I

could say the same for the defeatist Dispensationalist churches of today, clutching their newspapers and

hoping that the Rapture will bail them out of a tight spot.

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