Does the Bible Suggest, Support, or Allow The Idea of Dispensations Such as Dr. C.I. Scofield Describes?
Dispensationalism is that system of Bible interpretation presented in the writings of J. N. Darby and in the footnotes of the Scofield Reference Bible, herein after referred to as SRB. The SRB Bible was first published in 1909. A second edition appeared in 1917, and in 1967 THE NEW SRB was published. Many footnotes in the NEW SRB of 1967 have been enlarged and in some instances the wording drastically changed to come more in line with Orthodox Theology. DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY has been promulgated and popularized by the SRB and worked out systematically by Lewis Sperry Chafer (successor of C.I. Scofield) in his apologetic work entitled SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY (8 vols.) and in the writings of John F. Walvoord, currently president of Dallas Theological Seminary, the citadel of PREMILLENNIAL DISPENSATIONALISM in the U.S.A. It is taught at the Moody Bible Institute (Chicago) and in an estimatd two hundred Bible Institutes in the U.S.A. The dispensationalist magazine BIBLIOTHECA SACRA was inherited by Dallas Theological Seminary in 1934. The claim of an ardent and militant Harry A. Ironside (deceased) that Darby's teaching was "scarcely to be found in a single book or sermon through the period of sixteen hundred years" calls for critical investigation.
FIRST PRINCIPLE. No doctrine
concerning Scripture is of more practical importance than that which affirms
its UNITY and HARMONY. The Philadelphia Article I, section 9 states the
following: "The INFALLIBLE RULE OF INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE is the
Scripture itself; and therefore when there is a question about the true and
full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one) it must be
searched by other places that speak more clearly."
The importance of this
INFALLIBLE RULE has been well stated by Charles Hodge in Systematic Theology,
Vol. 1, p. 187): "If the Scriptures be what they claim to be, the Word of
God, they are the work of one mind, and that mind Divine. From this it follows
that Scripture cannot contradict Scripture. God cannot teach in one place
anything which is inconsistent with what He teaches in another. Hence Scripture
must explain Scripture. If a passage admits of different interpretations, that
only can be the true one which agrees with what the Bible teaches elsewhere on
the same subject."
SECOND PRICIPLE. "It is sound exegesis to harmonize the Old Testament with the higher light of the New Testament and not vice versa. WHATEVER CHRIST TAUGHT BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT THROUGH THE APOSTLES is FINAL, AUTHORITATIVE, AND INFALLIBLE. Therefore, we cannot go first hand to the prophecies in order to explain the New Testament by them. We must enter the prophecies with the New Testament key, by which they are opened to us either by express quotations, the history of fact, or by doctrine, consequently, the prophecies in general will not admit of a strict and natural interpretation, when applying them to the affairs of the New Testament. This would lead us into the very error of the Jews, and Judaizing professors, who minded earthly things and expected a worldly kingdom (Acts 3:27). Hence, the necessity of attending diligently and adhering strictly to the apostles' application of the prophecies, as well as types of the Old Testament. As the apostles were the able ministers of the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:6), so they had the INFALLIBLE INSPIRATION OF THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, whereby they were sufficiently qualified to explain and apply the prophetic word according to its true intent and meaning. "(Dr. T.T. Shields).
In a footnote on Gen. 2:28, the SRB defines the word
"dispensation" thus: "A dispensation is a PERIOD OF TIME during which
man is tested in respect to his obedience to some specific revelation of the
will of God." The word dispensation (Greek - IOKONOMIA, which is made up
of OILOS. "house" and NOMOS, "law") is a compound word
meaning "The management of a household, a stewardship. W.C. Vine in
Expository Dictionary of New Testament words gives the following definition:
"A dispensation is NOT a period or epock (a common, but ERRONEOUS use of
the word), but a mode of dealing, an arrangement, or administration of
affairs."
Seven dispensations are given
in the 1967 edition of the SRB as follows: (1) INNOCENCE, before the Fall of
man; (2) CONSCIENCE, from Adam to Noah;
(3) HUMAN GOVERNMENT, from
Noah to Abraham; (4) PROMISE, from Abraham to Moses; (5) LAW, from Moses to
Christ; (6) GRACE, from Christ to the Rapture of the Church, and (7) KINGDOM,
from Christ's Return to the end of the world.
There is no evidence in
Scripture for this notion of repeated testing: "The Bible teaches that mankind
went through ONE PROBATION ONLY - that in which Adam was under the test of the
Covenant of Works ... Orthodox theology holds that the various periods of
sacred history differ in circumstances, modes of administration, and the like,
but that beneath these superficial differences there is an underlying UNITY and
CONTINUITY, which is more basic than the differences. Dispensationalism, on the
other hand, denies the UNITY and EMPHASIZES the differences." (J.G. Vos).
According to our modern
"dispensational" interpretation, the Jews are expected to have full
possession of Palestine for at least 1000 years after the 2nd coming of Christ.
Believing that such a view is unscriptural and
dangerous teaching, we desire to draw attention to some Scriptures which
plainly state that God has fulfilled all that He promised Abraham concerning
the land of Palestine.
Here is the promise. "In
the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river
Euphrates" Gen. 15:18.
Now for the fulfillment. In
Deut 1:7, 8 Moses said to the children of Israel — "Turn you, and take
your journey, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in all the plain, in the
hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the seaside, to the land of
the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river the river Euphrates.
Behold I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which he
sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to
their seed after them."
Also in chapter eleven, verse
24, "Every place, whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be
yours; from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates,
even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be."
After the death of Moses, the
same promise was given to Joshua. "Every place that the sole of your foot
shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the
wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all
the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the
sun, shall be your coast" (Joshua 1:2,4).
Then shortly before Joshua died, he said - "And
the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their
fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein . . . There failed not ought
of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came
to pass" (Josh.21:34, 45).
In the 9th chapter of Nehemiah we have the same statement.
Verse 7 says, "Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and
broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees and gavest him the name of
Abraham; and foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant
with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and
the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it I say, to
his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous." And verse
24 says - "So the children went in and possessed the land."
THE SRB lists eight covenants as follows (footnote,
Gen. 2:16): (1) The EDENIC; (2) The ADAMIC; (3)NOAHIC; (4) ABRAHAMIC;
(5)MOSAIC; (6) PALESTINIAN^) DAVIDIC; and (8) The NEW COVENANT and states
"a covenant of one category may overlap others."
Instead of setting forth God's dealing with many
under seven dispensations and eight covenants, the Bible sets forth TWO
COVENANTS — The Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace. One is typical of
the other; one is TEMPORARY, the other PERMANENT; one is MOSAIC, the other
MESSIANIC; one represents JUDAISM, the other CHRISTIANITY; one lasts to the
TIME OF REFORMATION (Heb. 9:7-12), the other to ENDURE FOREVER (Heb. 13:20,
21).
The TWO COVENANTS are termed
FIRST and SECOND (Heb. 8:7). When Christ delivered the NEW He took away the
OLD: "He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second (Heb.
10:9). "In that He saith, a NEW COVENANT, He hath made the first OLD. Now
that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to VANISH AWAY (Heb. 8:13). The NEW
and SECOND COVENANT is a Better Covenant, (Heb. 3:6), has a BETTER MEDIATOR
(Heb. 3:6), established on BET TER Promises (Heb. 8:6), a BETTER Priesthood
(Heb. 7:11-16), a BETTER Sacrifice (Heb.9:13, 14; 10:11-14). The FIRST Covenant
with its Sabbaths, Temple, blood sacrifices, priesthood, etc. has VANISHED AWAY
and that FOREVER, while the NEW Covenant is the EVERLASTING COVENANT of Heb.
13:20, and abideth FOREVERMORE.
Never will the OLD Covenant of carnal Israel with its
worldly sanctuary, carnal ordinances, weak and beggarly elements, divers
washings be restored sometime in the future. Never will the MIDDLE WALL OF
PARTITION be rebuilt, or the RENT VEIL be sewed up and put in place in a
so-called millennial rebuilt Temple, and animal sacrifices be offered as
memorials of Christ's finished work of atonement (e.g. consult footnote,
Ezekial 43:19). Their restoration would carry us back from the antitypes to the
types, from Jesus Christ to Moses, from the church to the nation of fleshly
Israel, from the blood of Christ to the blood of bulls and goats, from the
Melchisedec priesthood to the Aaronic priesthood, from the New Covenant to the
OLD Covenant, from believer's baptism to the ablutions of the OLD Covenant,
from the Lord's Day to the Jewish Sabbath. This would be the world's most
horrible anti-climax and blasphemy. Such would be contrary to the Divine
procedure. In God's plan, the superior is never suplanted by the inferior. The
law is always "first that which is natural, THEN that which is spiritual"
(1 Cor. 15:46). Now that the Sun (Son) of righteousness has risen (Mal. 4:2),
we will never go back to the dim light of the candlestick of the Mosaic economy
of things. God's order is good, better, best. The OLD Covenant was glorious,
but the NEW Covenant excelleth in glory (2 Cor. 3:9-11). The truth of the whole
matter is that the FIRST ADAM failed miserably, but the SECOND ADAM (Christ)
has TRIUMPHED GLORIOUSLY and by the once for all offering of that infinite
sacrifice has made it possible for a holy God to release the powers of His
grace and make us NEW CREATURES in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). "For until
this very day, at the reading of the OLD Covenant the same veil remaineth, it
not being revealed to them that it (i.e. the OLD Covenant is done away in Christ"
(2 Cor. 3:14). - R.V.
" The heresy of
dispensationalism results from the lack of proper understanding of the nature
of the old Covenant and its relationship to the NEW Covenant. The
dispensationalists have never properly evaluated the change of the covenant at
Calvary" (Dr. Cecil J. Lowry, - WHITHER ISRAEL).
Now turn to Jeremiah chapter
32, verse 21 - "And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land
of Egypt with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm,
and with great terror. And hast given them this land which thou didst swear to
give to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey; and they came in,
and possessed it."
King David's
"border" was "at the river Euphrates" (2nd Samuel 8:3).
Solomon also "reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of
the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt...For he had dominion over all
the region on this side of the river" (1 Kings 4:21, 24).
In
the face of all this, how can it be said that Genesis 15:18 has never been
fulfilled? We believe that God certainly did fulfill all that He promised
concerning the land, and that neither Revelation 20, nor any of the Old
Testament prophets have one word to say about a thousand years reign in
Palestine in a further "millennium."
I am
convinced that this "Millennium" doctrine is a very serious error
that needs exposing.
For one thing, among many
others, it is today helping to encourage and deceive Jewish people with a false
hope of salvation. And unless I am greatly mistaken it will shortly plunge them
into a day of grief and desperate sorrow. (Isa. 17:11).
It cannot be denied that the
situation in Palestine now is very serious, and we may well ask "What
ought Israel to do," (1 Chron. 12:32).
There is but one Scriptural
answer. They must call on the name of the Lord and be saved by grace before He
comes, or they will surely perish with all who obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:8)
And what about Palestine?
Surely no clearer answer can be found than this -"The earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10) when the Lord
comes to judge the world in righteousness. "Behold, He cometh with clouds;
and
every eye shall see Him."
|
Page 1 of 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous Article Fall 2003 Front Page Next Article