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Thanks for the ping.
This controversy is something I’ve very seldom encountered so I am not as familiar with the topic as others.
But I don’t see that there’s a need for nastiness in disagreeing over it.
>>Darby taught that God has two special groups of people (or two Brides) and a separate plan for each of them.<<
The church is the bride of Christ and Israel is the bride of the Father.
>>This meant Christ would have to return twice.<<
He does not “return twice”. We go to meet Him in the air in the rapture and then He returns to the earth at the end of the tribulation. Only one more “returning”.
I think that the simple answer to the charge that dispensationalism is too new to be correct lies in the fact that from Luthers time to Darby no one actually questioned Covenant Theology from a Biblical perspective. Then came the day when Darby decided to take the teachings of Covenant Theology which had been assumed to be correct and checked them line by line against the Scriptures. The result was the discovery that Covenant Theology is not supported by the teachings of the Bible.
To quote dispensationalist Michael Vlach “in an ironic way, dispensationalism is more desirving of the title covenant theology since it is based on covenants Abrahamic, Davidic, New that are actually found in the Bible while covenant theology is based on the covenants of works, redemption and grace which are not found in the Bible”.
GREAT ARTICLE.
THANKS.
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