Wiki will get you started. Here is the Wiki article on
Dispensationalism. Here is a link to
Theopedia's article describing Dispensationalism and providing links for further exploration, and here is a link to a critique of the model from
Monergismdotcom. That site contains others if you use the search feature.
The six concerns I stated are matters typically stated in assertions of or critiques of Dispensational Premillennialism. These are conditions revealed from the consideration of the logically necessary conclusions from DP's common positions and practices. For example, Dispensationalism affirms salvation is through faith in Christ alone but in actuality it requires Jews of the millennial dispensation to 1) be Jews and 2) return to the old laws.
Logically this is a works-based doctrine. It is not a faith-alone doctrine. It is a wokrs-before-faith-in-Christ doctrine! In other words, that view contradicts the claim of faith alone or faith in Christ and Spiritual regeneration begetting obedience. This, in turn, is one example of how DPism compromises core Christian doctrines that have stood as such for nearly two millennia. As the conversation unfolds I can and will show how DPism compromises long held theology about the nature of God, long-held Christology, long-held ecclesiology, and not just long-held soteriology.
Everyone is aware that Dispensational Premillennialists have been predicting the return of Christ over the last fifty years and not a single one of those predictions has ever come true. What many don't know is the history of false predictions, time-frame setting and prognostication that has occurred since Darby first asserted DPism in the erly- to mid-1800s. More recently, given the failed prediction of Chuck Smith, John Walvoord (former president of Dallas Theological Seminary), Hal Lindsey, Harold Camping, Edgar Whisenant, John Hagee and others Dispensational Premillennialists have begun to refrain from setting specific dates but they continue to assert more tenuous time frames claiming the world is going to go to hell any day now and we Christians are going to be raptured away. We hear/read this in the messages from the likes of David Jeremiah, Michael Oxentenko, Jack Hibbs and many others who say they believe Jesus is coming back within their lifetime. David Jeremiah is is 78 years old. If he lives to be 80 or 85 or even 90 then Jesus is coming back soon. In all likelihood Jesus will not be coming back in the next two to seven years and Jeremiah will die without being held accountable for teaching falsely.
Let me note at this point that I do not think most of these men are
lying. A lie necessarily entails willful deceit. A falsehood does not entail deceit; it is simply an incorrect fact or factual error. I don't think John Walvoord or David Jeremiah intend to deceive anyone but they are definitely teaching
falsely.
The consequence of this is that we have a very large section of the body of Christ who genuinely believe what they hear and read but don't actually live in a manner consistent with DP teaching.
If a person genuinely believes the world is coming to hell in a handbasket in the next two, five, ten years then there is no sense in taking out a mortgage on a house or saving for your retirement because you re not going to be here to spend that money! Such actions betray the belief and the teaching. It also conflicts with Biblical principles of stewardship: it's not a good use of resources to invest where it will not be used. The DPist should not be saving up wealth but spending o converting as many as they can before they get raptured off the planet. There have been individuals who have endeavored to live this way.
Robert Fitzpatrick spent his wealth on advertising to persuade others to prepare for the rapture as Camping predicted only to lose it all.
No other eschatological model causes this kind of unscriptural and irrational behavior.
From its outset DPism has asserted a few core positions, two of which are 1) the church is corrupt, and 2) prophesy should rendered literally. The problems with this second position is that they don't actually read prophesy
literally, they read it literalistically, and this can be seen in the response "There will be a literal fulfillment of the prophesy. Well, duh.
All eschatological positions believe scripture's prophesys will be fulfilled. We literally all believe that. But we don't believe a third of the literal stars will literally fall from the sky. DPists claim to read scripture literally but they don't do so consistently; they do so selectively.
No other eschatological model causes this kind of unscriptural and irrational behavior.
Perhaps worst of all is the image of God, Christ, and Christianity this presents the world. Hal Lindsay's books in the early 1980s were very popular. Christian and non-Christian read them but in the end the prediction Jesus was coming back by 1988, a generation after the founding of Israel, proved wrong and hundreds of thousands of people relegated what they thought was Christianity to the looney bin.
Dispensational Premillennialism arose in the early and mid-1800s as one of the restoration movements common during that era in history. Others that arose during that time include the CoC, SDAs, the JWs, and the LDS. One of the fundamental tenets was the church had become corrupt and was in need of
restoration so they either emphasized NT-era conditions or created new revelation. They all emphasized the apocalypse and did so as a means of promoting imminence and urgency. They also emphasized personal experience over creed. This began a generation earlier with John Wesley, an Anglican minister who did not set out to form a new denomination. In the expanding America there wasn't always an institutional authority to provide orthodoxy or accountability for itinerant circuit preachers riding the west of the country. In Europe, where there were institutional accountability structures, there was uniform resistance. Hence the forming of new sects and denoms. John Darby managed to stay within the pale of orthodoxy because many of his views remained consistent with the church's historical doctrines but his view of eschatology (a rarely used term prior to the 1800s) was radically different. He also believed the church should separate itself from the world entirely and not be involved in politics or social policy but should work to purify itself (based on his view of what the NT church looked like). The Roman Catholic Church was the first and most prominent interpretations of Revelations harlot. It doesn't see to have occurred to the the DPists of that era that much of what they practiced came for the the RCC and was not NT-era doctrine or practice. The NT-era ekklesia did not have one single man responsible for the spiritual growth of all others in a congregation. The NT-era ekklesia did not have stages or lecterns or men wearing special designating garments and backwards collars. The NT-era ekkelsia did not have worship services centered on a sermon. The NT era church did not celebrate December 25th or some of the other holy days of the modern church. These are all subsequent additions to the Christian practice yet the DPers ignored all of that in favor of dividing the body of Christ, judging much of it heretical or apostate while holding on to some of the most non-NT practices.
Now everything I have posted about the doctrines and history can be verified with a little bit of Googling. I encourage all of you, including the DPists, to do just that. I've provided some introductory links to begin the process. I'm happy to
discuss any
topical op-relevant content, but I will ignore any personally derisive content. Keep the posts about the posts. Note that I haven't specified anything specific about the eschatology of DPism itself. This isn't about whether or not Jesus is returning next year or ten years from now. This is about the logically necessary consequences of such a belief. This is about the logically necessary consequences of a variety of positions DPism asserts so I won't be debating the specific eschatology with anyone.
Given the position Dispensational premillennialism, look at what has happened!
No other theological position causes these problems and if and where there are problems they are not as frequent or as severe.
my apologies for the length
