January 17, 2016 · Rolla, MO ·
Dispensationalism and Its Focus Upon the Multitude Rather Than On the Remnant
The ekklesia as the multitude in prophecy goes into false doctrines, but the remnant is a small group who remain faithful to the doctrines taught by God as Jesus Christ and through his prophets. Dispensationalism tends to exalt the multitude and does not recognize the remnant.
The dispensationalist church does not acknowledge the existence of a remnant. If they did it would be, for them, the remnant of the church. There is no remnant of the church in scripture, only the remnant of Israel. Under the New Covenant the remnant of Israel is the remnant of Israel reborn in Jesus Christ, who have his testimony (Revelation 12: 17). Dispensationalists deal with the big group, the entire church, the broad way of Matthew 7: 13-14, "Enter ye at the straight gate,: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Not having a knowledge of the remnant in New Testament times is correlated with the failure of dispensationalism to see that the prophecies in the Old Testament saying that God was to transform Old Covenant Israel were fulfilled in the remnant who accepted Christ. This remnant of Old Covenant Israel who accepted Christ is seen in Romans 11: 1-5.
"From the time of Christ’s rejection by Israel until the time when God deals specifically with Israel again in the seventieth week it is not possible to refer to a remnant of the nation Israel." Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, 1965, by J. Dwight Pentecost
Saying there is no remnant of Israel in the Christian era would imply also that there is no falling away from sound doctrine in II Thessalonians 2: 3-4.
There are several scriptures that predict that there is to be a falling away from sound doctrine. Luke 13: 20-21 identifies what is to be leavened, that which goes into false doctrines, as the Kingdom of God.
II Thessalonians 2: 3 says "Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
I Timothy 4: 1-2 says "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2.Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a
hot iron;"
II Timothy 4: 3-4 says "For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4.And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables."
II Timothy 3: 1-2, 5, 7-8 says "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy..........,Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.........Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Luke 13: 20-21 says "And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Luke 13: 20-21
The word till indicates that the leavening of the Kingdom of God goes on for a period of time until the whole is leavened.
Matthew 13: 27-30 says ""So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28. He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29. But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
Then, II Peter 2: 1-3 says "But there were false prophets also among
the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the
way of truth shall be evil spoken of."
3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not,
and their damnation slumbereth not."
Except for Luke 13: 20-21, which says the Kingdom of God is to be leavened, none of these scriptures identifies what is to fall away or go into false doctrines.
If we identify the Kingdom of God in Luke 13: 20-21 as the ekklesia, the little c church, the congregations, then we see that scripture predicts a time, or times, when the congregations fall away from sound doctrine and go into apostasy. In II Thessalonians 2: 3 the Greek word translated as falling away is αποστασια, apostasia.
The scriptures above prophesy a time when the multitude will be in apostasia, when the fullness of the apostasy has arrived. "And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." Daniel 8: 23
"Transgressors" in Daniel 8: 23 are not just sinners, those who lie, murder etc. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says, number 6586, pasha, means "to break away from just authority, trespass, apostatize, quarrel, offend, rebel, revolt, transgress."
The transgressors in Daniel 8: 23, who are said to come to their fullness, are the False Prophets who break away from the authority of God and his Word, apostatize and quarrel against the Word.
In II Peter 2: 1-3 it is the False Prophets who bring in damnable heresies and in Matthew 24: 11 "...many False Prophets shall arise and shall deceive many." Deceive is used four times in Matthew 24 to describe the work of the False Prophets, the ones who bring in the falling away from sound doctrines. Revelation 13: 11-12: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
The second beast of Revelation 13 appears like a lamb, but he speaks as a dragon. How does a dragon speak? He speaks deception, as the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 44 are said to be deceptive. As part of the Dragon Speak Deception, Dean Gotcher has taught that the procedure of argument that the Dragon-Serpent used on Eve in Genesis 3: 1-6 to fix her obedience to God is the dialectic within dialogue. I am not sure when Gotcher found the Greek word αντιθεσεις in I Timothy 6: 20 and recognized it as part of the pre-Christ interest in the dialectic way of argument within early Greek philosophy. But in a brief and subtle way Paul warns against the use of the dialectic there. There are other Greek words that mean opposition, but Paul in I Timothy 6: 20 Paul used αντιθεσεις, antitheseis, or in English anti-thesis, which is part of the early Greek philosophy on the διαλεκτική, or in English the dialectic.
In the early Greek theory of dialectic argument, there is the thesis and the anti-thesis which are said to clash and result in a synthesis. It is the anti-thesis, or the opposition to the thesis, that Paul brings up in I Timothy 6: 20. The German philosopher Hegel brought the early Greek theory of dialectic argument into modern philosophy, and it came to be known as the Hegelian dialectic, which was taken over by Marxists and later in the 20th century was made into a procedure for attitude and belief change within the social psychology area of research called Group Dynamics, led by Kurt Lewin, Leon Festinger, and Kurt W. Back,
and in the Encounter Group movement under Carl R. Rogers, William Coulson and others. Rogers and Coulson were among the early facilitators in the Encounter Group movement of the sixties in California.
Dispensationalism and Its Focus Upon the Multitude Rather Than On the Remnant
The ekklesia as the multitude in prophecy goes into false doctrines, but the remnant is a small group who remain faithful to the doctrines taught by God as Jesus Christ and through his prophets. Dispensationalism tends to exalt the multitude and does not recognize the remnant.
The dispensationalist church does not acknowledge the existence of a remnant. If they did it would be, for them, the remnant of the church. There is no remnant of the church in scripture, only the remnant of Israel. Under the New Covenant the remnant of Israel is the remnant of Israel reborn in Jesus Christ, who have his testimony (Revelation 12: 17). Dispensationalists deal with the big group, the entire church, the broad way of Matthew 7: 13-14, "Enter ye at the straight gate,: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Not having a knowledge of the remnant in New Testament times is correlated with the failure of dispensationalism to see that the prophecies in the Old Testament saying that God was to transform Old Covenant Israel were fulfilled in the remnant who accepted Christ. This remnant of Old Covenant Israel who accepted Christ is seen in Romans 11: 1-5.
"From the time of Christ’s rejection by Israel until the time when God deals specifically with Israel again in the seventieth week it is not possible to refer to a remnant of the nation Israel." Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology, 1965, by J. Dwight Pentecost
Saying there is no remnant of Israel in the Christian era would imply also that there is no falling away from sound doctrine in II Thessalonians 2: 3-4.
There are several scriptures that predict that there is to be a falling away from sound doctrine. Luke 13: 20-21 identifies what is to be leavened, that which goes into false doctrines, as the Kingdom of God.
II Thessalonians 2: 3 says "Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
I Timothy 4: 1-2 says "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2.Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a
hot iron;"
II Timothy 4: 3-4 says "For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4.And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables."
II Timothy 3: 1-2, 5, 7-8 says "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy..........,Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.........Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Luke 13: 20-21 says "And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Luke 13: 20-21
The word till indicates that the leavening of the Kingdom of God goes on for a period of time until the whole is leavened.
Matthew 13: 27-30 says ""So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28. He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29. But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
Then, II Peter 2: 1-3 says "But there were false prophets also among
the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the
way of truth shall be evil spoken of."
3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not,
and their damnation slumbereth not."
Except for Luke 13: 20-21, which says the Kingdom of God is to be leavened, none of these scriptures identifies what is to fall away or go into false doctrines.
If we identify the Kingdom of God in Luke 13: 20-21 as the ekklesia, the little c church, the congregations, then we see that scripture predicts a time, or times, when the congregations fall away from sound doctrine and go into apostasy. In II Thessalonians 2: 3 the Greek word translated as falling away is αποστασια, apostasia.
The scriptures above prophesy a time when the multitude will be in apostasia, when the fullness of the apostasy has arrived. "And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." Daniel 8: 23
"Transgressors" in Daniel 8: 23 are not just sinners, those who lie, murder etc. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says, number 6586, pasha, means "to break away from just authority, trespass, apostatize, quarrel, offend, rebel, revolt, transgress."
The transgressors in Daniel 8: 23, who are said to come to their fullness, are the False Prophets who break away from the authority of God and his Word, apostatize and quarrel against the Word.
In II Peter 2: 1-3 it is the False Prophets who bring in damnable heresies and in Matthew 24: 11 "...many False Prophets shall arise and shall deceive many." Deceive is used four times in Matthew 24 to describe the work of the False Prophets, the ones who bring in the falling away from sound doctrines. Revelation 13: 11-12: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
The second beast of Revelation 13 appears like a lamb, but he speaks as a dragon. How does a dragon speak? He speaks deception, as the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 44 are said to be deceptive. As part of the Dragon Speak Deception, Dean Gotcher has taught that the procedure of argument that the Dragon-Serpent used on Eve in Genesis 3: 1-6 to fix her obedience to God is the dialectic within dialogue. I am not sure when Gotcher found the Greek word αντιθεσεις in I Timothy 6: 20 and recognized it as part of the pre-Christ interest in the dialectic way of argument within early Greek philosophy. But in a brief and subtle way Paul warns against the use of the dialectic there. There are other Greek words that mean opposition, but Paul in I Timothy 6: 20 Paul used αντιθεσεις, antitheseis, or in English anti-thesis, which is part of the early Greek philosophy on the διαλεκτική, or in English the dialectic.
In the early Greek theory of dialectic argument, there is the thesis and the anti-thesis which are said to clash and result in a synthesis. It is the anti-thesis, or the opposition to the thesis, that Paul brings up in I Timothy 6: 20. The German philosopher Hegel brought the early Greek theory of dialectic argument into modern philosophy, and it came to be known as the Hegelian dialectic, which was taken over by Marxists and later in the 20th century was made into a procedure for attitude and belief change within the social psychology area of research called Group Dynamics, led by Kurt Lewin, Leon Festinger, and Kurt W. Back,
and in the Encounter Group movement under Carl R. Rogers, William Coulson and others. Rogers and Coulson were among the early facilitators in the Encounter Group movement of the sixties in California.
