Dispensationalism

Review: After Dispensationalism

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After Dispensationalism, Brian P. Irwin with Tim Perry. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2023.

Summary: A study of the history, key beliefs, and teachers of dispensationalism with an assessment of the movement’s strengths and weaknesses along with a treatment discussing reading prophetic and apocalyptic books within their context.

Dispensationalism has been an influential movement within American Christianity, influencing presidents and shaping policy on everything from Israel to the environment. Dispensational readings of scripture for many is understood as Christian orthodoxy, even though much of the theology is of relatively recent origin, and by no means accepted through much of church history or by much of the global church.

Brian P. Irwin, with Tim Perry, provide a text that is at once an orientation to the history, teachers, key beliefs of dispensationalism and a critical assessment, framed against a backdrop of how we ought read prophetic and apocalyptic writing. They argue that our starting place must not be today’s newspaper but rather that context and worldview of the intended recipients of these works–how they would read these works.

The first part offers a study of dispensationalism on its own terms. The authors explain and illustrate with charts the idea of dispensations. They trace history of end-times predictions throughout church history, offering these conclusions:

  • Don’t make a prediction about the end of the world.
  • Remember that the books of the Bible were not given to us first.
  • Read a biblical book as a whole for its meaning.
  • Remember that Jesus himself told us not to bother.

Irwin and Perry then discuss the key teachers of dispensationalism: J. N. Darby, C. I. Schofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, J. Dwight Pentecost, John Walvoord, Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, and Tim LaHaye, and their distinctive emphases. They offer an extended summary of the dispensational end-times story including the restoration of Israel to the promised land, the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple, the rapture including the pre-tribulation belief of many, the judgment of the saved, the marriage feast, the great tribulation, the false prophet and dragon, the 144,000 and the two witnesses, Armageddon, and the return of Christ, the millennium and great white throne judgment, the new heaven, earth, and Jerusalem. They show the key passages for these beliefs, which helps make the case for how these are often used in isolation of their context in the books of which they are a part.

The final chapter in this section offers an assessment, both positively and negatively. They focus on the literalism that fails to read literarily, failing to recognize poetic speech and symbol, even while fostering dedication to Bible reading and study. They note the somewhat arbitrary character of “dispensations.” While the Israel/church distinction has protected the movement from anti-Semitism it has led to forms of Christian Zionism and an uncritical support of modern Israel, though it is both secular and often has unjustly treated Palestinians (including Palestinian Christians who seem invisible to much of the American church). On the one hand, this movement has fostered vibrant evangelism because of the belief in a pre-tribulation rapture. On the other hand, it has been suspicious of creation care, development, justice, and peace efforts.

Part Two focuses on how we read prophetic and apocalyptic literature. They show the connection between prophecy and the covenantal blessings and curses in the Pentateuch. Many warn Israel, in its idolatry and injustices, that God is both withdrawing blessing and bringing promised curses. They also offer material on apocalyptic passages, such as those found in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation. (It should be noted that the writers accept recent scholarship on Daniel as a second century work, referencing both sixth century and near future events.)

Part Three offers three chapters of more extended studies (not commentaries) on Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation. The writers show the structure of each book (including a chiasmic structure for Revelation 4-19). They treat key passages cited by dispensationalists in their larger contexts, refusing to “daisy chain” references. With Revelation, they discuss historicist, preterist, futurist, idealist and their own eclectic approach to the book.

The book concludes with “thirteen theses for encountering the end of the world” encompassing both their critiques of dispensationalists approaches and their own positive approach. This is too lengthy to list here but I would particularly single out numbers 11 and 12:

11. To live in expectation of Christ’s return does not require knowing when Christ will return.

12. Questioning the idea of the rapture or other dispensational teaching is not to question the hope of Christ’s promised return in glory to a creation made fit for eternal life.

This book takes on an ambitious agenda. The writers offer both an overview and critique of dispensationalism and an alternative approach to prophetic and apocalyptic books. Each would warrant its own book. What they offer is a readable and usable resource for pastors and teachers in the church who may not have roots in dispensationalism who are confronted by those immersed in such teaching who want more teaching on “the end times.” This work helps people understand both what may be meant by this and offers approaches to favored texts in their contexts that address both our hope for Christ’s return and how early readers may have read these texts. It’s a book that matches the passion of dispensationalists for Bible study while grounding that study in sound interpretive practices that guard us from reading the newspaper into scripture while helping us read our times in light of scripture.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism

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The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, Daniel G. Hummel (Foreword by Mark A. Noll). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023.

Summary: A history of the origins, rise, and eventual decline of dispensationalism within American evangelicalism, and its impact on the wider American culture.

When all of us were talking about The Late, Great Planet Earth and prophecies of the end times during my Jesus movement days, I had no idea how this connected with a movement that began in the early 1800’s in England, spread to the United States and became the dominant way of thinking about the end times among much of Protestant fundamentalism and evangelicalism. In this work, Daniel G. Hummel sets this moment in time within the much longer history of this theological movement. What is more, he examines the influence this movement had not only on the church but our wider society.

His account begins with the premillenialism of J. N. Darby among the Exclusive Brethren of England (I wish the author had distinguished this group from Brethren churches in the U.S. that arose out of the German pietist and Anabaptist tradition who were not associated with Darby’s movement). He traces Darby’s work in the region spanning New England and the Great Lakes Basin of the country. He chronicles Darby’s influential successors, James H. Brooks and Joseph A. Seiss, and the emergence of new premillenialism out of old, with its focus on the church-Israel distinction, the idea of dispensational time, and the imminent rapture. Particularly, he elucidates the interpretive structures for studying scripture that these men developed and their appeal to those who wanted to understand the Bible.

He also explains the expansion of this movement through Moody’s revivalism, and the interlaced structures of Bible conferences, Bible institutes, mission agencies (to hasten the imminent coming of Jesus), and publications like Blackstone’s Jesus is Coming. As the movement entered the twentieth century, it expanded both its geographic boundaries to the South and to the West Coast, and also embraced pentecostalism. A key to this was the embrace of sectional reconciliation, downplaying the persistence of racism. Hummel considers the important role of the Scofield Bible in nurturing the new premillenialist movement in this period.

With World War 1, Hummel sees various factions developing between denominational fundamentalists, nationalist fundamentalists, and Philip Mauro’s dispensationalism (a term he coined). One of the most fascinating developments out of what had been a more populist movement is the rise of Lewis Sperry Chafer, scholastic dispensationalism, and Dallas Theological Seminary. In succeeding years, as fundamentalism morphs into neo-evangelicalism, the divisions multiply and harden between the Covenantalists, the Dispensationalists, and those like Harold J, Ockenga, Carl Henry, and George Eldon Ladd.

This is also the era where dispensationalism begins to forge political alliances around concerns for the nation of Israel, opposition to godless, perhaps “Beastly” atheism. Much of this reflected literalist interpretation, that in matters of science advanced young earth creationism, flood geology, and skepticism toward science. By and large, this movement left the Black church and its concerns about persisting racism behind. In light of an imminent rapture, social justice concerns could be seen as “rearranging desk chairs on the Titanic.”

Hal Lindsey and The Late, Great Planet Earth, in Hummel’s analysis represents both media success and broad influence combined with the beginnings of the decline of scholastic dispensationalism, and indeed the whole movement, even while dispensationalist and apocalyptic ideas entered the American cultural and political consciousness showing up in everything from Christian nationalism and the writings of QAnon to apocalyptic films and literature.

Hummel’s work makes the point that American religious history is simply American history. It cannot be kept in a silo to itself–the wider cultural influences are too great. He not only traces a theological genealogy of dispensationalism, he helps us understand the interlacing dynamics that explain the growth, spread, and influences of this movement. Along the way he includes figures that reproduce examples of key documents, including interpretive schemes and timelines and charts. Rather than offering us one more screed against dispensationalism, he offers an even-handed account of this theological movement and the factors that contributed to its decline. Much of American religious history has considered the early Puritan influences, the rise of frontier religion, the period of revivalism, or even the growth of pentecostalism. This work offers a similar account of dispensationalism that perhaps has received less attention. Hummel makes the case that dispensationalism deserves greater attention for both its influence upon American Christianity, and the American culture with which the church has always been entwined.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Eschatology

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eschatology

Eschatology, D. Jeffrey Bingham and Glenn R. Kreider (eds.). Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2016.

Summary: A compendium of essays on the future hope of Christians reflecting a dispensational premillenialist perspective.

Craig A. Blaising is a biblical theologian whose roots are in the Baptist tradition. He has taught at three southern seminaries in the U.S. and is known for his work in what is called “progressive dispensationalism.” This volume of essays, a survey of scholarship around the “last things” was compiled in honor of his 65th birthday and certainly reflects this theological tradition at its best.

Discerning what theological persuasion the writers were coming from, I thought, “O.K. here we go, prophecy charts and predictions that our conflict with ISIS is the prelude to Armageddon.” There is none of that in this book. Instead, what I found was good scholarship seeking to be faithful to scripture and relatively wide-ranging in discussing the history of eschatology through church history and the implications of this all for the church, organized into a comprehensive survey that I would suggest reflects the best of dispensational premillenialism.

After introductory essays that include a biography and curriculum vita of Blaising, the book is organized into four sections:

  1. The Doctrine of the Future and Its Foundations
  2. The Doctrine of the Future in the Bible
  3. The Doctrine of the Future in the History of Christian Thought
  4. The Doctrine of the Future and Christian Ministry.

Hence, the collection moves from theological foundations to biblical theology, to historical theology, and to pastoral and practical theology.

The first section includes a fine essay by Stanley D. Toussaint on the concept of hope and the profound basis the prophetic passages offer for hope that sustains endurance and joy. Then Charles C. Ryrie and John D. and Stefana Dan Laing address the eclipse of attention to the prophetic scriptures having to do with our future hope and the impact this has in the life of the church.

The next section explores the doctrine of the future in each part of scripture, essentially doing the spade work to construct a biblical theology from the whole of scripture about our future hope. It was interesting to see the historical books in scripture discussed by Gregory Smith, exploring the implications of the Davidic covenant and its statements about David’s, and Israel’s, distant future hope. If you want to find arguments for a future hope for Israel as a national entity, you will find it among this and other articles in this section.

Section three turns to historical theology with articles beginning with the early fathers and concluding with contemporary European theology, capped off by David Dockery’s article on Millenialism in Contemporary Evangelical Theology, which gives one of the best explanations I have seen of a-, post-, and pre-millenial positions. It was interesting that while several essays concerned Reformed, Anabaptist, and Baptist theology, there was no treatment of eschatology in Wesleyan theology, and a mere subsection of the Contemporary European Theology devoted to Catholic theology.

The final section turns to pastoral and practical concerns. J. Denny Autry discusses the place of eschatological concerns in both preaching and pastoral care. For my money, the book should have ended with R. Albert Mohler’s essay of contemporary challenges. Stephen Blaising’s contribution on the doctrine of the future and the marketplace felt like an add-in to include Blaising’s son in the collection. Mohler concluded his essay with these words, that should have ended the book:

     “The rapid disappearance of cultural Christianity in our own time will mean that Christians may soon find themselves in a situation similar to that of the early church in Rome. Preaching the Lordship of Christ and biblical eschatology rooted in the arrival of God’s kingdom will be considered culturally and politically subversive. Proclaiming a biblical eschatology that heralds the message “Jesus Christ is Lord” will lead to direct confrontation with the culture.

“While the disappearance of cultural Christianity is a cultural disaster, it is also a theological gain. It is disastrous for society because it will destroy a worldview most conducive to human flourishing. A post-Christian culture will be a very inconvenient place to raise your children, minister the gospel, or speak in the public square. Yet, at the same time, the evaporation of cultural Christianity may prove a theological gain for the church. Our lives and beliefs will only make sense if indeed Jesus Christ is Lord and our hope is not bound up in the city of man, but in a city to come. From a gospel witness perspective, that is a very convenient place to be.”

This quibble with the order and selection of these last essays aside, I would commend this collection, along with Dr. Blaising’s own work if you seriously wish to take the measure of dispensational premillenialist eschatological thinking today. This probably could be used as a basic textbook, or at least supplemental text in theology courses in Christian colleges and seminaries sympathetic with the dispensational premillenialist position. Rather than being about prophecy charts and sensational predictions, it is about the substance of Christian hope concerning the future of every believer, the church, Israel, and the world.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: The Last Days According to Jesus

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The Last DaysThe Last Days According to Jesus, R. C. Sproul. Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2015 (originally published in 1998).

Summary: R.C. Sproul takes on the time-frame issues of the New Testament that seem to reflect an expectation of an imminent return of Christ and gives serious consideration to the preterist position that all or most of the predictions concerning the Last Days were fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

Understanding the “Last Days” predictions made in the gospels by Jesus as well as in the epistles and in the Revelation to John is among the most challenging areas of Bible study for most Christians. Furthermore, skeptical scholars take the statements of Jesus and others about the nearness of his return at face value and contend that on this, Jesus and the New Testament writers were mistaken.

In this work, R. C. Sproul takes on this question and challenges both the skeptics and those who believe most of the Last Days prophecies concern the future by considering the work of J. Stuart Russell and Kenneth L. Gentry,  preterist scholars. In fact, he gives these scholars such consideration that I thought at one point that he was going to announce that he had adopted their position, which would mean arguing that the rapture of the church, the resurrection of the dead and the return of Christ all occurred in the events of 70 AD, which requires spiritualizing these events. Sproul does not, but he does take up the cause of moderate preterism in arguing that much of what Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24 and parallels) was fulfilled with the fall of Jerusalem. He also seems to endorse Gentry’s contentions that Revelation was written prior to 70 AD, a view that even most evangelical scholars would not accept.

What weighs heavily for Sproul are the time frame references that say such things as “Behold, I come quickly” or “the time is near”. These make the most sense if one takes at least a moderate preterist view. He, at the same time, refuses to take a full preterist view because he cannot accept the “spiritualized” versions of the rapture of the church, the resurrection and a return of Christ that was hidden, all of which go against the biblical evidence.

The last two chapters take on other questions often of concern in Last Days discussions. One is the identity of the Antichrist and the other concerns the different millenial views. Sproul does propose an identification for the Antichrist while not, in this volume, identifying his millenial views.

I particularly appreciated Sproul’s careful study of Matthew 24, to which he devotes several chapters. His study of both the epistles and Revelation seemed a bit more cursory but still dealt with the relevant texts. I felt he didn’t seriously engage the scholarship that argues for a later date for Revelation.

It did seem to me a curious choice that he devoted so much of the book to the views of Russell, a nineteenth century scholar who would not be familiar to most. Much of this had to do with his serious consideration of the preterist view for which Russell argued, perhaps at the very time when dispensationalism was gaining its initial head of steam.

What I think of greatest value in this book is Sproul’s serious consideration of the time-frame references of Jesus and also his arguments that we must understand much of the “last days” fulfillment to have occurred with the fall of the temple and of Jerusalem. Sproul also provides very clear explanations of the various millenial positions and the model of a scholar who takes the Bible seriously as the final authority in these discussions. Whether you agree with Sproul’s moderate preterism or not, you might, as did I, find that Sproul gives you some new things to consider.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”