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The Ninety-Five Theses Against Dispensationalism
AgainstDispensationalism.com ^ | 2008 | Jerry Johnson

Posted on 11/07/2008 8:07:14 AM PST by topcat54

5. Contrary to many dispensationalists’ assertion that modern-day Jews are faithful to the Old Testament and worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Hagee), the New Testament teaches that there is no such thing as “orthodox Judaism.” Any modern-day Jew who claims to believe the Old Testament and yet rejects Christ Jesus as Lord and God rejects the Old Testament also.

24. Despite the dispensationalists’ partial defense of their so-called literalism in pointing out that “the prevailing method of interpretation among the Jews at the time of Christ was certainly this same method” (J. D. Pentecost), they overlook the problem that this led those Jews to misunderstand Christ and to reject him as their Messiah because he did not come as the king which their method of interpretation predicted.

36. Despite the dispensationalists’ claim to interpret all of the Bible “literally”, Dr. O.T. Allis correctly observed, "While Dispensationalists are extreme literalists, they are very inconsistent ones. They are literalists in interpreting prophecy. But in the interpreting of history, they carry the principle of typical interpretation to an extreme which has rarely been exceeded even by the most ardent of allegorizers."

94. "Despite dispensationalism’s affirmation of “genuine and wholesome spirituality” (Charles Ryrie), it actually encourages antinomianism by denying the role of God’s law as the God-ordained standard of righteousness, deeming God’s law (including the Ten Commandments) to be only for the Jews in another dispensation. Dispensationalists reject the Ten Commandments because “the law was never given to Gentiles and is expressly done away for the Christian” (Charles Ryrie)—even though the New Testament teaches that all men “are under the Law” so “that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God” (Rom 3:19)."

(Excerpt) Read more at againstdispensationalism.com ...


TOPICS: Theology
KEYWORDS: dispensationalism; eschatology
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“…dispensationalists have followed the course of “end times” events with the consuming fascination of a betting man at a race track. In so doing they have virtually turned their backs on the world in which they live.” Os Guinness, Fit Bodies Fat Minds (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994), p. 67

“…[the] Plymouth Brethren who follow Mr. Darby. As on all hands, with a diligence never exceeded, and a subtlety never equaled, they are laboring to seduce the members of our churches to the subversion of the truth and the overthrow of the needful order and discipline…” Charles H. Spurgeon, author and Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle

1 posted on 11/07/2008 8:07:15 AM PST by topcat54
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To: ItsOurTimeNow; HarleyD; suzyjaruki; nobdysfool; jkl1122; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Dr. Eckleburg; ...
Reformed Eschatology Ping List (REPL)
Biblically Optimistic and Gospel-Based

"For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22)

2 posted on 11/07/2008 8:08:05 AM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: topcat54

I love these learned religion posts — I can’t really follow them, but I love them!


3 posted on 11/07/2008 8:09:33 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Der neuen Fuhrer: AKA the Murdering Messiah: Keep your power dry, folks)
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To: topcat54
TO ALL THE WATCHMEN ON THE WALL – SOUND THE ALERT!

Consecrate yourselves.
Get your households in order.
Purify yourselves and the Church – casting out apostates, wolves in sheep clothing, and those living in unrepentant sin in your midst.
Wake up – Bride of Christ – cease living as though tomorrow is just the same as yesterday.
Tell everyone of the coming wrath. If they will not listen, shake the dust off your sandals and move on quickly. Leave the “calling out” to the LORD.
Do not fear; be of great courage and boldness.
Pray for there to be ears to hear and eyes to see….the Truth. Thy Word is Truth.
Prepare the way of the LORD.
Praise the Worthy Lamb, for His Kingdom is near.

4 posted on 11/07/2008 8:12:09 AM PST by anniegetyourgun
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To: topcat54
..since you brought up J. Dwight Pentecost, it would be a good study to read "Things To Come", especially the chapters dealing with side by side analysis of the different modes of hermeneutics

Being from an Historical-Grammatical (literal) point of view with strong Dispensational leanings, I haven't heard one argument in 30 years that would change that.

But time will tell--watch the Middle East and see...

5 posted on 11/07/2008 8:41:12 AM PST by WalterSkinner ( In Memory of My Father--WWII Vet and Patriot 1926-2007)
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To: freedumb2003

You, I love these religious posts as well, and this election has really dragged them out all over the place.


6 posted on 11/07/2008 9:01:14 AM PST by TheGeezer
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To: WalterSkinner
since you brought up J. Dwight Pentecost, it would be a good study to read "Things To Come",

Since Tuesday I have honestly thought we are seeing the beginning of The End Times.

7 posted on 11/07/2008 9:03:40 AM PST by freedumb2003 (Der neuen Fuhrer: AKA the Murdering Messiah: Keep your power dry, folks)
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To: WalterSkinner

“22. Despite the dispensationalists’ claim to be following “the principle of grammatical-historical interpretation” (Charles Ryrie), they have redefined the method in a way that is rejected by the majority of non-dispensational evangelicals (and even “progressive dispensationalists”) who see that the Bible, while true in all its parts, often speaks in figures and types—e.g., most evangelicals interpret the prophecy in Isaiah and Micah of “the mountain of the house of the Lord being established as the chief of the mountains” (Isa 2:2b, Mic. 4:1b) to refer to the exaltation of God’s people; whereas dispensationalism claims this text is referring to actual geological, tectonic, and volcanic mountain-building whereby “the Temple mount would be lifted up and exalted over all the other mountains” (John Sailhammer) during the millennium.”


8 posted on 11/07/2008 9:15:34 AM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: topcat54
Oh, boy, this will set them off.

Y-all go read the whole thing.

9 posted on 11/07/2008 9:15:55 AM PST by Lee N. Field ("I for one welcome our new Chicago overlords")
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To: freedumb2003; topcat54; WalterSkinner

Exactly what I heard the Dispies say when Clinton was elected in the ever changing world of trying to make current events fit their interpretation. Oh, well, at least the sign seekers have something to do.


10 posted on 11/07/2008 9:17:07 AM PST by Lord_Calvinus
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To: topcat54
The argument - as I understand it - is not factual.
You might compare the gift of the land to conditions existing in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were allowed to eat from all the trees in the Garden save one. That tree, God reserved for himself.

God gave the earth to human kind, but one small portion of it He reserved for His chosen people, the Jews . This was not an absolute gift but one conditional upon obedience to the Law. Disobedience did not cancel God's gift itself but did mean loss of the land temporarily. His love remained and remains on His people - for the sake of His servants Abraham, Moses, and David, if for no other reason.

The coming of Messiah did not mean the gift was canceled but merely that the relationship between God and His people(and through His people to the whole world) had to change. Since it was obvious the Law could not be kept to any degree, the relationship had to be transformed into one based on acceptance of Jesus as the Lamb of God. When this did not happen, when the Jews were disobedient again, they forfeited the land - again.

God's love for the Jews remains. He has a plan for them. And this is certain: anyone who opposes God's plan will face destruction, whether that be Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, the new EU, the Islamic world, or preachers in this country or elsewhere.

11 posted on 11/07/2008 9:34:56 AM PST by quadrant (1o)
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To: quadrant
The argument - as I understand it - is not factual.

What part, specifically, is not factual?

God's love for the Jews remains. He has a plan for them.

God indeed has an elect remnant from among the Jewish people chosen before the foundation of the world. The dispensationalist error comes from confusing modern, secular Israel with this divine election.

12 posted on 11/07/2008 9:40:52 AM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: Lord_Calvinus; freedumb2003; WalterSkinner
Exactly what I heard the Dispies say when Clinton was elected in the ever changing world of trying to make current events fit their interpretation. Oh, well, at least the sign seekers have something to do.

And recall that Jimmy Carter was setting the stage for the rapture in 1980.

13 posted on 11/07/2008 9:43:03 AM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: Lord_Calvinus
..you didn't hear that from me--there are nuts in every camp who take two verse of Bible and try to fit a square peg in a round hole...

I'm probably as Calvinistic as anyone here--except in the area of eschatology

Israel is God's timepiece--watch and see which one of us is in error...

14 posted on 11/07/2008 9:43:07 AM PST by WalterSkinner ( In Memory of My Father--WWII Vet and Patriot 1926-2007)
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To: topcat54
..Jimmy Carter--that famous liberal Baptist

His social views alone reveal his contempt for Scripture...

15 posted on 11/07/2008 9:45:02 AM PST by WalterSkinner ( In Memory of My Father--WWII Vet and Patriot 1926-2007)
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To: WalterSkinner
His social views alone reveal his contempt for Scripture...

And thus he was the perfect persona for dispensational date-suggesters in the 70s, setting the political stage as it were for rapture/antichrist.

16 posted on 11/07/2008 10:10:21 AM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: WalterSkinner; Lord_Calvinus
Israel is God's timepiece--watch and see which one of us is in error...

Why, and what exactly are we supposed to be looking for?

According to the 70s-style futurists, it was a matter of simple math. Just add 40 years (one biblical generation) to 1948 (founding of modern, secular Israel) and the date of Jesus’ Second Coming was obvious -- 1988.

When that one didn’t pan out they decided to redefine the start date to 1967 coinciding with the Six Day War and the unification of old Jerusalem. That means the Second Coming was now set for 2007. Oops. We missed that one.

Then they started redefining what the term "generation" means to make all the date-suggesting a bit more flexible.

Other dates included Y2K … the disruption of all things would be a perfect opportunity for antichrist to rise and set things straight. And don't forget 1844 or 1914. Other futurist perdictions.

The futurist haven't gotten one call right yet. The track record is abysmal.

17 posted on 11/07/2008 10:19:10 AM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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To: topcat54; WalterSkinner

Perhaps the Dispensationalists should have observed the coming of the kingdom to Israel “God’s timepiece” a few thousand years ago.

Dispensationalists are simply a few days late according to how God tells time. ;^)


18 posted on 11/07/2008 12:27:31 PM PST by Lord_Calvinus
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To: topcat54
Perhaps I should have said that the arguments put forward in the article contains conclusions that other scholars, equally renowned and learned, have questioned.

If an omniscient God chose the Jews before the foundation of the world, then He would have known that He planned to reserve a small corner of the earth for them.
I'll grant you that the modern state of Israel is secular, but I argue that by the time of the exile of Israel and then Judah both those states were pretty secular as well.

19 posted on 11/07/2008 12:41:20 PM PST by quadrant (1o)
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To: quadrant
Perhaps I should have said that the arguments put forward in the article contains conclusions that other scholars, equally renowned and learned, have questioned.

So they are not factual errors, merely disagreements in interpretation.

If an omniscient God chose the Jews before the foundation of the world, then He would have known that He planned to reserve a small corner of the earth for them. I'll grant you that the modern state of Israel is secular, but I argue that by the time of the exile of Israel and then Judah both those states were pretty secular as well.

It is quite possible, in fact it fits with Scripture, that God merely intended to give them the land for a time as a typological representation that one day His wpopel woul dinherit the whole earth. That is the undeniable perspective of the New Testament. See Matthew 5:5, Romans 4:13, and Hebrews 11:9,10,16.

The typological day is past. The new covenant has arrived when the new covenant people, Jews and gentiles together, are receiving the promise by virtue of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and children of Abraham (Gal. 3:28,29).

20 posted on 11/07/2008 2:54:48 PM PST by topcat54 ("The selling of bad beer is a crime against Christian love.")
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