Dispensationalism is atheological framework forinterpreting theBible which maintains that history is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in whichGod interacts with hischosen people in different ways.[1]: 19 It is often distinguished fromcovenant theology.[2][3] These are two competing frameworks ofbiblical theology that attempt to explain overall continuity in the Bible. Coining of the term "dispensationalism" has been attributed toPhilip Mauro, a critic of the system's teachings, in his 1928 bookThe Gospel of the Kingdom.[4][5]
Dispensationalists use aliteral interpretation of the Bible and believe thatdivine revelation unfolds throughout the Bible. They believe that there is a distinction betweenIsrael and theChurch, and that Christians are not bound byMosaic law. They maintain beliefs inpremillennialism,Christian Zionism, and arapture of the Church that will happen before theSecond Coming of Christ, generally seen as happening before a period oftribulation.[6]
Dispensationalism was systematized and promoted byJohn Nelson Darby and thePlymouth Brethren in the mid-19th century.[7]: 67 It began its spread in the United States during the late 19th century through the efforts of evangelists such asJames Inglis,James Hall Brookes andDwight L. Moody, the programs of the Niagara Bible Conference, and the establishment of Bible institutes. With the dawn of the 20th century,Cyrus Scofield introduced theScofield Reference Bible, which crystalized dispensationalism in the United States.
Dispensationalism has become popular within American evangelicalism. It is commonly found innondenominational Bible churches, as well asBaptist,Pentecostal, andCharismatic groups.[8][9]Protestant denominations that embrace covenant theology tend to reject dispensationalism. According to the system's critics, most theologians acknowledge that there is no specific sequence ofend-times events defined in the Bible. The Scofield Bible has been called "the most dangerousheresy currently to be found within Christian circles".[7]: 13
Dispensationalism is a theological framework that views history as divided into distinct periods in which God interacts with mankind in specific ways. Scofield, in hisScofield Reference Bible, defined adispensation as "a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to somespecific revelation of the will of God".[7]: 23 [4][1]: 19
Charles Ryrie took issue with Scofield's definition as too simple, stating that such a definition opened the system to attack from nondispensationalists.[7]: 23 Ryrie separates the termage fromdispensation, stating that the two terms are not synonymous in meaning while defining adispensation as "a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God's purpose".[7]: 28 He further suggests that the defining characteristics of a dispensation are the distinct governing relationship in which God interacts with mankind during that period, and the resulting responsibility placed upon mankind in that period.[7]: 33
Evangelical Christians generally agree that there are distinct periods inGod's plan for humanity.[10] Dispensationalist theologians tend to hold "a particular view of the parallel-but-separate roles and destinies ofIsrael and the [Christian]church", with a "careful separation ... between what is addressed to Israel and what is addressed to the church. What is addressed to Israel is 'earthly' in character and is to be interpreted 'literally'."[3][2]
This view is distinct fromcovenant theology, which holds that rather than having separate plans, "God has one people, one people of God throughout redemptive history, called 'Israel' under the Old Testament, and called 'the church' under the New."[2]
Philip Mauro, a critic of the system's teachings in his 1928 bookThe Gospel of the Kingdom, is considered to be the first to coin the term "dispensationalism" to describe the theological framework that had made inroads intofundamentalism, calling it "a subtle form of modernism".[4][5]
The number of dispensations may vary from three to eight, but the typical seven-dispensation scheme is as follows:[7]: 51–57
| Dispensational schemes | Bible chapters | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis 1–3 | Genesis 3–8 | Genesis 9–11 | Genesis 12 – Exodus 19 | Exodus 20 – Birth of the Church | Church Age – Rapture | Revelation 20:4–6 | Revelation 20–22 | |
| 7 or 8 step | Innocence or Edenic | Conscience or Antediluvian | Civil Government | Patriarchal or Promise | Mosaic or Law | Grace or Church | Millennial Kingdom | Eternal State or Final |
| 4 step | Patriarchal | Mosaic | Ecclesial | Zionic | ||||
| 3 step (minimalist) | Law | Grace | Kingdom | |||||
According toJohn Walvoord, God's purpose in the world is to manifest his glory.[11]: 92 Charles Ryrie writes that dispensationalsoteriology focuses on man's salvation as the means God uses to glorify himself.[7]: 40
A key element of dispensationalism is its use of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic to obtain a consistent, literal interpretation of the text.[12] In this method, scripture is to be interpreted according to the normal rules ofhuman language in its entirety.[7]: 80 This leads dispensationalists to take eschatological passages in the Bible literally. Charles Ryrie suggests that a non-literal hermeneutic is the reasonamillennialists apply Old Testament promises made to Israel "spiritually" to the church, and covenant premillennialists see some prophecies as fulfilled and others as not.[7]: 90
Progressive revelation is the doctrine that each successive book of theBible provides furtherrevelation of God and his program. TheologianCharles Hodge wrote that the progressive character of divine revelation is gradually unfolded until the fullness of truth is revealed.[13] Charles Ryrie wrote that the Bible is not viewed as a textbook on theology, but rather as a continually unfolding revelation of God through successive ages where there are distinguishable stages in which God introduces mankind to new responsibilities.[7]: 33
Covenant theology and dispensationalist theology disagree regarding the meaning of revelation. Covenant theology views theNew Testament as the key to interpreting theOld Testament.[7]: 32 For dispensationalists, the Old Testament is interpreted on its own and the New Testament contains new information which can build on the Old Testament but cannot change its meaning.[14] Each stands alone, rather than the Old Testament being reread through the lens of the New Testament.[12]
Dispensationalists see a historic and demographic distinction between Israel and theChristian Church. For them, Israel is an ethnic nation consisting ofHebrews (Israelites), beginning withAbraham.[7]: 127 The Church, on the other hand, consists of allsaved individuals from the "birth of the Church" in the book ofActs until the time of therapture.[15] Classic dispensationalists refer to this period as a "parenthesis", a temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history when God has paused his dealing with Israel and is dealing with his Church.[16][7]: 134,177 [17]: 410
There are differing views within dispensationalism as to when the church age began. Classic dispensationalism considersPentecost inActs 2 to be the beginning of the Church as distinct from Israel.[18]Charles Finney wrote in 1839 that Pentecost was "the commencement of a new dispensation", emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit as a distinction.[19]: 87 Cyrus Scofield did not make Pentecost itself the turning point, but did emphasize its role in dividing the dispensations of "Law" and "Grace".[19]: 88 In contrast,hyperdispensationalists suggest that the church started later in Acts ("Mid-Acts") with the ministry of Paul, identifying the start of the church as occurring between the salvation of Saul inActs 9 and the Holy Spirit's commissioning of Paul inActs 13.[20][21]E. W. Bullinger and the ultradispensationalists taught that the church began inActs 28.[21] According toprogressive dispensationalism, the distinction between Israel and the Church is not mutually exclusive, as there is a recognized overlap between the two.[22]: 295 The overlap includesJewish Christians likeJames, brother of Jesus, who integrated Jesus's teachings into the Jewish faith, and Christians of Jewish ethnicity who held varying opinions on compliance with Mosaic law, likeSaint Peter andPaul the Apostle. Progressive dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church without replacing the promises to its original audience, Israel.[23]
Dispensationalists believe that Christ abolished the Mosaic law, and thus it does not apply to the Christian. Instead, the Christian is under theLaw of Christ, which embodies moral principles from God that are in both codes.[24][25]: 71 In this view, although many commandments of the Old Testament are re-established in the New Testament, only the commandments explicitly affirmed there are to be kept; this excludes the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic law.[25]: 71
Dispensationalism teaches aneschatology that is explicitlypremillennial, in that it affirms thereturn of Christ prior to a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.[7]: 147–148 Thismillennial kingdom will betheocratic in nature, and not mainly soteriological in the wayGeorge Eldon Ladd and others with a non-dispensational form of premillennialism have viewed it.[6] It will be distinctly Jewish, with the throne ofDavid restored.[1]: 31
The majority of dispensationalists profess apretribulation rapture.Midtribulation andposttribulation rapture are minority views.[26][27] Pretribulational rapture doctrine is what separates dispensationalism from other forms of premillennialism and other millennial views.[17]: 409
Dispensational eschatology was popularized inHal Lindsey's book,The Late Great Planet Earth (1970). In Lindsey's version, the unfolding of events includes the establishment of modernIsrael in 1948, Jews regaining control of Jerusalem's sacred sites in the1967 Arab-Israeli War, a rebuilding of the Temple which has yet to occur, an Antichrist who will come to power, Christians to be removed from the earth in a rapture of the Church, and seven years of tribulation (Daniel's seventieth week) culminating in a great battle ofArmageddon in which Christ will triumph over evil and establish a literal 1,000 year reign of his kingdom on earth.[28] Israel and the Church being distinct in this view, the rapture must remove the Church before remnant Israel can be gathered.[1]: 42
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Advocates of dispensationalism have sought to find similar views of dispensations inChurch history, referencing theologians or groups such asFrancisco Ribera, theTaborites,Joachim of Fiore,Denis the Carthusian and others.[29][30] Joachim's theory of three stages of human history has been argued to have anticipated the later dispensationalist view of organizing history into different dispensations.[7]: 65 Joachim's stages were divided into the "Age of the Father" which was under the Law, the "Age of the Son" which was a period of tribulation, and the "Age of the Spirit" which was a period of bliss on earth.[31]: 155
Fra Dolcino (c. 1250 – 1307) taught Fiore's theory of the stages of history, and dispensationalists Mark Hitchcock and Thomas Ice have suggested that Dolcino's teaching was of a pretribulational rapture.[31]: 157 The relevant teaching was that when Antichrist appears, Dolcino and his followers would be taken away and preserved from Antichrist, and that following the death of Antichrist, Dolcino and his followers would return to Earth to convert those then living to the true faith.[31] However, the source is an anonymous 1316 Latin text titledThe History of Brother Dolcino, so it is uncertain whether Dolcino actually taught it.[31]: 158-159
William C. Watson has argued that multiple 17th century Puritan theologians anticipated dispensational views. In his bookDispensationalism Before Darby (2015), he argues that Ephraim Huit (1595–1644) and John Birchensa (in his bookThe History of Scripture published in 1660) taught that God has differing plans for Jews and Gentiles. Watson also argues thatNathaniel Holmes (1599–1678) taught a pretribulational rapture.[29]
Christian mystic and philosopherPierre Poiret (1646–1719) is said by some to have been the first theologian to develop a dispensationalist system, writing a book titledThe Divine Economy. Poiret taught that history should be organized into multiple dispensations in which God works with humans in different ways, including the millennium as a future dispensation.[32] Poiret's eschatology includes a belief in two resurrections, the rise of the Antichrist, and the nation of Israel being regathered, restored and converted.[6][29] Poiret divided history into seven dispensations: early childhood (ended in the Flood), childhood (ended in Moses's ministry), boyhood (ended in Malachi), youth (ended in Christ), manhood (most of the Church era), old age ("human decay", meaning the last hour of the Church), and the restoration of all things (the Millennium, including a literal earthly reign of Christ with Israel restored).[7]: 65
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) presented a dispensational view inThe Harmony of All the Religions Which God Ever Prescribed, Containing A Brief Survey of the Several Publick Dispensations of God Toward Man.[33] Charles Ryrie states that Scofield's outline of dispensationalism, with the exception of the millennium, is exactly that of Watts, and not Darby.[7]: 67
Edward Irving (1792–1834) in some ways anticipated dispensationalism. He used a literal approach to prophetic interpretation, he believed in a restoration of Israel as a nation, and he believed there would be a great apostasy and Christ would return to establish a literal earthly kingdom.[6] But he also preached that Christ had a fallen nature, which led to him beingdefrocked by the Scots Presbyterians.[6][34]
Dispensationalism developed as a system from the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), considered by many to be the father of dispensationalism.[22]: 10, 293 Darby strongly influenced thePlymouth Brethren of the 1830s in Ireland and England. The original concept came when Darby considered the implications ofIsaiah 32 for Israel. He concluded thatprophecy required a future fulfillment and realization of Israel's kingdom. He saw the New Testament church as a separate program not related to that kingdom. Thus arose a prophetic earthly kingdom program for Israel and a separate "mystery" heavenly program for the church. In order to not conflate the two programs, the prophetic program had to be put on hold to allow for the church to come into existence. Then the church would need to be raptured away before prophecy could resume its earthly program for Israel.[35]
In Darby's conception, dispensations relate exclusively to the divine government of the earth. The Mosaic dispensation continues as a divine administration over Earth up until the return of Christ, and the church, being a heavenly designated assembly, is not associated with any dispensations.[36]
Darby's Brethrenecclesiology failed to catch on in America, but hiseschatological doctrine became widely popular, especially amongBaptists andOld School Presbyterians.[37]: 317
James Inglis (1813–1872) introduced dispensationalism to North America through the monthly magazineWaymarks in the Wilderness, published intermittently between 1854 and 1872.[38]: 100–102 In 1866, Inglis organized the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, which introduced dispensationalist ideas to a small but influential circle of Americanevangelicals.[38]: 132–133 They were disturbed by the growth ofreligious liberalism and saw premillennialism as an answer. Dispensationalism was introduced as a premillennial position, and it took over the evangelical movement in the course of several decades. The American church denominations rejected Darby'secclesiology but accepted his eschatology.[38]: 101 Many of these churches were Baptist and Old School Presbyterian; they retained Darby'sCalvinisticsoteriology.[37]: 317
After Inglis's death,James H. Brookes (1830–1898), pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri, organized theNiagara Bible Conference (1876–1897) to continue dissemination of dispensationalist ideas. Brookes was well known withinmillenarian circles, both as a prominent speaker at the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study conferences and for having written articles published in Inglis'sWaymarks in the Wilderness.[38]: 134
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Brethren theologianC. H. Mackintosh (1820–1896) had a profound influence on American evangelistDwight L. Moody (1837–1899),[39][40]: 49 who reached very large audiences with his powerful preaching in the latter half of the 19th century.[41] Moody worked with Brookes and other dispensationalists, and encouraged the spread of dispensationalism.[40]: 46–47 It was during this time that dispensational doctrine became widely accepted among American evangelicals.[42]: vi It also marked a shift in dispensational theology under evangelists like Moody, from Darby's Calvinism and doctrinal rigor to a non-Calvinist view of human freedom in personal salvation.[19]: 46
Other prominent dispensationalists in this period includeReuben Archer Torrey (1856–1928),James M. Gray (1851–1925),William J. Erdman (1833–1923),A. C. Dixon (1854–1925),A. J. Gordon (1836–1895), andWilliam Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935). These men were active evangelists who promoted a host of Bible conferences and other missionary and evangelistic efforts. They also gave the dispensationalist philosophy institutional permanence by assuming leadership of new independent Bible institutes, such as theMoody Bible Institute in 1886, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (nowBiola University) in 1908, and Philadelphia College of Bible (nowCairn University, formerlyPhiladelphia Biblical University) in 1913. The network of related institutes that soon developed became the nucleus for the spread of American dispensationalism. When the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute) formally opened in 1889, Torrey served as its first superintendent.[43]
Revivalist evangelicals such as Moody and Torrey did not believe thegift of tongues continued past theApostolic age, but their emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit merged well withholiness ideas. This encouraged the spread of dispensationalism within thePentecostal movement.[19]: 94
During this time,Anglican clergymanE. W. Bullinger (1837–1913) began teaching what became known as "ultradispensationalism" or "Bullingerism". Bullinger taught that the Church did not begin until Acts 28, thatthe Lord's Supper andwater baptism were for Jewish believers, and thatPaul's epistles were written to the Jews.[21]
A disciple of James Brookes,Cyrus Scofield (1843–1921), began attending the Niagara conferences and became an advocate of premillennialism, specifically pre-tribulationism.[38]: 223 After several years of work, Scofield introduced dispensationalism to a wider audience in America through hisScofield Reference Bible. Published in 1909 by theOxford University Press, theScofield Reference Bible was the first Bible to display overtly dispensationalist notes on the same pages as the biblical text. Use of the Scofield Bible became popular among independent Evangelicals in the United States.[38]: 222–224 Its premillennialism led to a pessimistic social view within evangelicalism, to "not polish the brass rails on the sinking social ship", so that evangelism came to be focused on saving the lost rather than expanding Christendom.[42]: 5
TheScofield Reference Bible came out at the peak of Bullinger's influence. Scofield's Bible confronted some of the ultradispensationalists' (Bullingerites') positions, including their divisions of dispensational time. As the Scofield Bible became popular among dispensationalists, it marginalized the hyperdispensationalist position in the United States.[5]
Influenced by Scofield, evangelist and Bible teacherLewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952) and his brother Rollin Chafer founded Evangelical Theological College in 1924. The school would eventually becomeDallas Theological Seminary, the main dispensationalist institution in America.[44]
TheBaptist Bible Seminary now located inClarks Summit, Pennsylvania, became another dispensationalist school.
In the 1910s, another publication took hold within American evangelicalism. Known asThe Fundamentals, its twelve volumes were published in quarterly installments between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company. Funded byUnion Oil co-founderLyman Stewart (1840–1923)[45] and managed by an executive committee of dispensationalists that included Clarence Dixon and Reuben Torrey,The Fundamentals helped solidify dispensationalist views within American Christian fundamentalism and the evangelical movement.[5]
TheScopes trial in 1925 served to unify fundamentalists, but the movement began to decline soon after the trial. Scopes trial prosecutor and public face of the fundamentalist movementWilliam Jennings Bryan died a week after the verdict, and journalistH. L. Mencken portrayed supporters of that anti-evolution verdict as uneducated and ignorant. The fundamentalist movement began to decentralize after it lost Bryan. Dispensationalism's fate was tied to that breakdown.[5]
In 1928,Philip Mauro, seeking to re-invigorate the fundamentalist movement, pointed a finger at dispensationalism and in the process coined the term. Singling it out as the source of division within the larger fundamentalist movement, he wrote that the dispensationalist view was more recent thanDarwinism and it eroded fundamental truths of scripture.[5]
In 1934, Evangelical Theological College acquired the venerable theological journalBibliotheca Sacra (first published in 1844). Lewis Chafer's first public declaration that he was a dispensationalist appeared in that journal's pages. In 1936, he published a 60-page response to criticism from Mauro and other fundamentalists, entitled "Dispensationalism". That same year, Chafer renamed his school Dallas Theological Seminary.[5]
The conflict between dispensationalists and covenantalists continued through the 1930s and 1940s, leading to permanent divisions that shaped the fundamentalist movement.[5]
By the mid 20th century, evangelicals such asCharles Feinberg,J. Dwight Pentecost,Herman Hoyt,Charles Ryrie, andJohn Walvoord were promoting dispensationalism.[5][46]: 269 All five of these men either studied or taught at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS).[5] Pentecost taught there for more than 60 years, and published an influential work on dispensational eschatology,Things to Come (1956). A decade later, Ryrie publishedDispensationalism Today (1965), which has become the primary introduction to dispensational theology.[5]
Furthering the rift with covenant theology, Ryrie wrote inBibliotheca Sacra in 1957 that dispensationalism is "the only valid system of Biblical interpretation". In 1959, Walvoord stated that no non-dispensationalists (including Catholics and mainline Protestants) offered any defense againstmodernism, and that they were all under the influence of hermeneutical and theological errors.[5]
Dallas Theological Seminary's influence grew as other schools and seminaries hired its graduates as faculty. In 1970, DTS graduateHal Lindsey publishedThe Late Great Planet Earth, which launched dispensationalist eschatology into pop culture. His book sold 10 million copies and made "rapture" and "the tribulation" household words.[5]
The commercial success ofThe Late Great Planet Earth triggered a flood of books that featured dispensationalism's rapture theology. Lindsey publishedSatan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (1972),There's a New World Coming (1973), andThe Liberation of Planet Earth (1974). Other books includedThe Beginning of the End (1972) by Tim LaHaye, and DTS graduate Thomas McCall'sSatan in the Sanctuary (1973) andRaptured (1975).[5] In 1972, Iowa filmmakersRussell Doughten andDonald W. Thompson releasedA Thief in the Night, a fictional film about the aftermath of the rapture that has been seen by an estimated 300 million people.[47] TelevangelistJack Van Impe covered current events in light of Bible prophecy with a dispensational premillennialist spin.[48]
The late 20th century marked a shift from theseparatism practiced earlier in the century to more political engagement. This era saw emergence of theChristian Right, rooted in the dispensational theology that places Israel at the center of God's purpose in the world.[46]: 270
In 1978, dispensationalist television evangelistJerry Falwell began making trips to Israel that were sponsored by the Israeli government. He became the first major American political figure to insist that the U.S. must support Israel for the fate of the nation.[49] Falwell listed Feinberg, Pentecost, Hoyt, and Walvoord as his most important influences.[46]: 269 Jerry Falwell andTim LaHaye founded theMoral Majority in 1979, with its objective to get people saved, baptized, and registered to vote.[50]: 354 The Moral Majority also provided a platform for political activism.
Influenced by dispensational premillennialism, the Moral Majority lobbied for pro-IsraelU.S. foreign policy positions, including protection of theJewish people in Israel and continuingU.S. aid to the state of Israel.[51][52] Opposed toJimmy Carter's affirmation of aPalestinian homeland, the Moral Majority endorsedRonald Reagan for President in 1980.[53] In Reagan, they found a candidate who shared theirapocalypticism. Reagan had read Hal Lindsey'sThe Late Great Planet Earth, and it has been suggested that this eschatological view drove hisMiddle East policies.[49]: 43 [54]: 177 In an interview with televangelistJim Bakker, Reagan said "[w]e may be the generation that seesArmageddon."[55]: 355 Dispensational theology affected more than the Reagan administration's Middle Eastforeign policy.James G. Watt, a member of the Assemblies of God and Reagan's firstSecretary of the Interior, told Congress that preservation of theenvironment was made irrelevant by the imminent return of Christ.[56]: 148
In 1980, Hal Lindsey wrote a follow-up to his bookThe Late Great Planet Earth. Lindsey had not previously drawn a connection from a Christian's personal obligations to a responsibility for social change, but this changed with his new book,The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon. He began encouraging his readers to elect moral leaders who would reflect that morality within government, an agenda closely aligned with Ronald Reagan's administration.[5]
Lifelong fundamentalist and dispensationalist Tim LaHaye also became a prominent figure in the Christian Right.[5] He served as head of the Moral Majority for a time, and in the mid-eighties he created theAmerican Coalition for Traditional Values. In 1987, he served as co-chairman of Republican Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, until it was reported that he had called Catholicism "a false religion".[57]
The growth of suburbs through the 1960s led to the megachurch movement that began in the 1970s. DTS-trained pastors pioneered the movement, includingChuck Swindoll,Erwin Lutzer,David Jeremiah,Robert Jeffress,Tony Evans, andAndy Stanley.[5] Other megachurches, such asJohn Hagee's Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, blended teachings of dispensationalism with theprosperity gospel andNew Christian Right activism. Hagee'sChristians United for Israel included six Pentecostal megachurch pastors and an executive from the Christian Broadcasting Network, including Jerry Falwell. This group became an example of how megachurch dispensationalism was able to find national influence in US politics and diplomacy.[5]
Despite success through growing megachurches, the movement revealed limits when leaders of two of the United States' largest megachurches,Bill Hybels andRick Warren, disassociated from the theology of dispensationalism. The revival of reformed theology in the emergence of New Calvinism began in the 1980s. Led by pastors such asJohn Piper,Tim Keller,Mark Driscoll,Matt Chandler, andAlbert Mohler, this spawned a megachurch movement of its own, whose leaders became outspoken critics of dispensationalism.[5]
By the 1990s, a younger generation of academics emerged as "progressive dispensationalists", opening a rift within the united front Ryrie had pushed for inDispensationalism Today (1965). Leaders in this school of thought wereCraig A. Blaising,Darrell Bock, Kenneth Barker, andRobert L. Saucy.[5]
Dispensationalism's influence within theNew Christian Right grew stronger in the 1990s. Building on the success of Hal Lindsey'sThe Late Great Planet Earth, the 1995 novelLeft Behind pushed pop prophecy to further commercial success.[5][58]: 3 Conceived by Tim LaHaye and written byJerry B. Jenkins, the book spawned amultimedia franchise of 16 books, plus multiple movies, video games, and other spinoff works. The series brought dispensational premillennialism and its "rapture culture" into plain view.[58]: 3
As with Reagan in the 1980s, the New Christian Right helped elect another 'born again' president,George W. Bush. Like Reagan, Bush spoke in terms of prophecies being fulfilled in a way that had meaning to dispensationalists.[5] He referred toGog and Magog in theWar on Terror, and said the confrontation was "willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase His people's enemies".[59]
Dispensational ideas were experiencing political and commercial success, but Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye, who had become the public standard-bearers of dispensationalism, were different from their academic predecessors John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, and Charles Ryrie.[5] By the 2010s, support for dispensational theology had peaked in academia and was largely in decline within academic settings.[5] A 2009 survey ofSouthern Baptist seminaries showed that the majority view wascovenantal, and flagshipSouthern Baptist Theological Seminary had no dispensationalists on its faculty.[5][60]
Although dispensationalism had collapsed in academic areas, its cultural influence remained. Dispensationalist ideas have persisted in popular culture. A 2004 Newsweek poll indicated that 55 percent of Americans believe Christians will be taken up in the Rapture.[61] By the turn of the 21st century, the term "dispensationalism" had become synonymous with "sectarian fundamentalism", and had come to be more of apolitical identity than a theologicaldoctrine.[5]
Dispensationalism however remains strong within theological circles which espouseFree Grace theology.[62] The majority of those associated with the Free Grace Alliance support dispensationalism[63] and it is taught by theGrace Evangelical Society.[64]
The term "dispensationalism" originated with Philip Mauro. His critique of the system is found in his 1928 bookThe Gospel of the Kingdom, in which he wrote that "evangelical Christianity must purge itself of this leaven of dispensationalism". He used the term to group the new premillennialism, the idea of dispensational time, and the Israel–Church distinction into a single bundled idea.[5]
Protestant denominations and movements that embracecovenant theology tend to reject dispensationalism. For example, Presbyterian minister John Wick Bowman has called the Scofield Bible "the most dangerousheresy currently to be found within Christian circles".[7]: 13 Dispensational theology ultimately led the Presbyterian Church of America (later theOrthodox Presbyterian Church) to split from Bible Presbyterian Synod, which taught dispensationalism.[65] TheChurches of Christ became divided in the 1930s asRobert Henry Boll (who taught a variant of dispensationalism) andFoy E. Wallace (representing theamillennial position) disputed severely over eschatology.
Some dispensational Christian Zionists, such as John Hagee, reject the need for Christians to pursue the conversion of the Jews.[5] Presupposing a difference between law andgrace leads to the idea that there are multiple forms ofsalvation.[1]: 34–35
In what is known as theLordship salvation controversy, there are criticisms of a lack of understanding what was necessary to be "born again". John MacArthur called the problem "easy-believism", in which the basis of salvation is that one merely needs to claim to follow Jesus. MacArthur identified Dallas Theological Seminary founder Lewis Sperry Chafer as the source of the free grace error. Defense of the dispensational position was led primarily by Charles Ryrie and Zane Hodges.[5]
Thepessimism of premillennial eschatology led dispensationalists to see social reform as wasted effort, so that they focused on converting the lost, with no effort toward the kingdom-buildingsocial reform ofpostmillennialism.[66]: 35–36
InAmerican Theocracy (2006), political commentatorKevin Phillips wrote that dispensationalist and other fundamentalist Christians, together with theoil lobby, provided political support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.[67]: 87 He wrote that most theologians acknowledge there is no specific sequence of end-times events in the Bible, and that such a belief is the result of a century of "amplified Darbyism". He quoted theologian Barbara Rossing that such hyper-literalism is a "dangerous and false view".[67]: 253–254 [68]
Now, the problem is that almost anyone who is an evangelical will recognize that there are distinct periods. For instance, there was a period before the fall of Adam when things were very different because there was no sin and there was no need for redemption, animal sacrifice or any of those things.
The prophetic clock stopped at Calvary; it will not start again until 'the fullness of the Gentiles be come in'.
It is the author's fervent conviction that the failure to understand what is revealed in Scripture concerning the Great Parenthesis between Messiah's rejection, with the consequent setting aside of Israel nationally, and the regathering of God's earthly people and recognition by the Lord in the last days, is the fundamental cause for many conflicting and unscriptural prophetic teachings. Once this parenthetical period is understood and the present work of God during this age is apprehended, the whole prophetic program unfolds with amazing clearness.
The ministry of Christ did not stop with His ascension in the first chapter of the book of Acts. Christians have failed to realize that when Saul is saved in Acts 9, a NEW ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ is begun by God, and this NEW ministry ushers in this present age of grace. Saul's name is changed to Paul, and he is designated as the Apostle of the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). He is given revelations from the risen Christ, and these are the revelations embracing Christianity.
some OT promises can be expanded by the NT. However, this expansion is never viewed as replacing or undoing the implications of that OT promise to its original audience, Israel. For example, the Church's participation in the New Covenant taught in the NT can add the Church to the list of recipients of the New Covenant promises made in the OT. However, such participation does not rule out the future fulfillment of the OT New Covenant promises to Israel at the beginning of the Millennium. Thus, the promise can have a coinciding or overlapping fulfillment through NT expansions of the promise.
The kingdom of Christ, therefore, or the christian dispensation was not properly set up in all its forms, doctrines and duties, till the followingday ofPentecost, and the pouring down of the Spirit upon the Apostles
Bible-believing people turned to Dallas Seminary, the mecca of Dispensationalism, for teaching on God's Word.
