Dispensationalism and Scriptures: Parts One and Two

Bernard Pyron

Dispensationalism is the dominant man-made theology within American

Christianity, and American evangelists have exported it to many

foreign countries. It is a pervasive theology. It influences almost

every spiritual area of the thinking of those it influences. And

those who have come under its influence leave that influence largely

unexamined. Many cannot connect what they believe about end time

Bible prophecy, for example, with the word "dispensationalism."

Because dispensationalism has such a widespread influence on the

Scripture interpretation of Christians, it is difficult to deal with

in "byte speak," or in brief discussions.

I am going to present some of the Old and New Testament Scriptures

that do not support the basic teachings of dispensationalism. In

this way a better understanding of what this theology is and how it

contradicts Scripture can be found.

In addition, the issue of authority can be dealt with more clearly by

stressing what the Bible says. For a huge percentage of Christians,

dispensationalism rather than Scripture is their authority. And

dispensationalists, especially those who have become celebrities, are

in part the authority for Christians, though many Christians can't

name the big name dispensationalists who have influenced their Bible

interpretations.

If you Google the word "dispensationalism" you come up with

this "Results 1 - 10 of about 233,000 for dispensationalism." Google

as of March 6, 2008 lists 233,000 links for the subject of

dispensationalism.

Dispensationalists say that Christ came to set up a Jewish kingdom

but the Jews rejected him. So God created the Christian Church as a

"parenthesis" to last until the Tribulation when the Church would be

raptured off the earth and then God would turn to the Jews and bring

in the long wanted Jewish kingdom. To dispensationalists Old

Testament end time prophecy cannot be applied to Christians in the

end time because the Old Testament prophets knew nothing of the

Christian Church.

On the web site

http://www.reformationtheology.com/2007/08/dispensationalism_categoriz

ed.php

they say dispensationalism teaches that "The Church is not the

continuation of God's Old Testament people, but

a distinct body born on the Day of Pentecost.

The Church is never equated with Israel in the New Testament, and

Christians are not Jews, true Israel, etc.

The prophecies made to Israel in the Old Testament are not being

fulfilled in the Church, nor will they ever be.

The Church does not participate in the New Covenant prophesied in the

Old Testament; it is for ethnic Israel, and will be established in a

future millennial kingdom...

The Old Testament saints did not know of the coming "Church Age," of

the resurrection of Christ, or basically, of what we today call the

gospel.

When Jesus came to earth, he offered the Jews a physical kingdom, but

they rejected him...

After the Jews rejected Jesus' kingdom offer, he inaugurated a

parenthetical "Church Age", which will be concluded immediately before

God again takes up his dealings with his national people, ethnic

Israel...

At some unspecified but imminent time, Jesus will return (but not all

the way to earth, just to the air) and rapture his Church, also called

his Bride; for the following seven years, they will feast with him at

the marriage supper of the Lamb; meanwhile, on earth, he will begin to

deal with his national people, ethnic Israel, again, calling them to

himself and preserving them in the midst of seven years of great

tribulation; at the midpoint of which, the Antichrist will set himself

up as god in the rebuilt Jewish temple, and demand worship from the

world. After these seven years, Christ will return, this time all the way to

earth. He will defeat the forces of evil, bind Satan and cast him into

a pit, and inaugurate the physical Jewish Kingdom that he had offered

during his life on earth."

What Did the Classical Dispensationalists Say?

Charles C. Ryrie (born 1925) says:

"basic promise of Dispensationalism is two purposes of God expressed

in the formation of two peoples who maintain their distinction

throughout eternity." Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today,

1966, pp.44-45.

The classical dispensationalists - John Darby, C.I. Scofield, Lewis

S. Chafer and Charles C. Ryrie - insist that "Israel" in the Old

Testament

always means physical Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob. With that interpretation of Israel, they then go on to say

that the Christian Church is not found in Old Testament prophecy.

In part their view that "Israel" must always refer to Old testament

physical Israel, both the faithful and the unfaithful Children of

Israel, comes out of their belief that Scripture should always be

interpreted literally.

In his book, Dispensationalism (1966), Charles Ryrie says "The

essence of Dispensationalism, then, is the distinction between Israel

and the church."

(page 3, "Dispensationalism")

"The nature of the church is a crucial point of difference between

classic, or normative, dispensationalism and other doctrinal systems.

Indeed, ecclesiology, or the doctrine of the church, is the touchstone

of dispensationalism(and also of pretribulationalism)."

(page 123, Charles Ryrie Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press,

[1966], 1995)

J. Dwight Pentecost is another dispensationalist theologian who in

his book Things To Come ( 1965) says "The church

and Israel are two distinct groups with whom God has a divine plan.

The church is a mystery, unrevealed in the Old Testament. This mystery

program must be completed before God can resume His program with

Israel and bring it to completion. These considerations all arise from

a literal method of interpretation."

(page 193, J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, Zondervan, 1965).

For dispensationalists the Christian Church cannot be spiritual

Israel.

The Scriptures That Do Not Support Dispensationalism

Deuteronomy 7: 6 does say that Israel is a chosen people. "For thou

art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath

chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that

are upon the face of the earth."

But there are a lot more Scripture to come after Deuteronomy 7: 6

which do not support the dispensationalist claim that physical,

unsaved Israel, the Jews, are still God's chosen people.

I Peter 2: 9 says "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal

priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew

forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his

marvellous light." Who are "ye?" Is it just Jewish Christians Peter

is saying are a chosen generation. I do not think so.

There are many Old Testament Scriptures which say that Gentiles will

be added to God's people. Isaiah 11: 10 says "And in that day there

shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the

people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be

glorious."

Isaiah 42: 6 says "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and

will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a

covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." Isaiah 49: 6

repeats this in saying "I will also give thee for a light to the

gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."

Then Isaiah 60: 2-3 says "For, behold, the darkness shall cover the

earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon

thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the

brightness of thy rising." Isaiah 66: 12 says "For thus saith the

LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory

of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall

be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees."

Isaiah 66: 8 talks about Zion and verse 10 identifies Jerusalem, but

this is spiritual Zion and spiritual Jerusalem to which God will

extend peace to like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a

flowing stream.

The classical dispensationalists do not make a distinction between

the Children of Israel who were faithful to God, and those who went

off into false doctrines and practices, and into Talmudic Judaism.

The dispensationalists would have us believe that the Gentiles in

these Old Testament prophecies are predicted to join national,

physical apostate Israel. But it is not Talmudic Judaism which is

expanded by the enter into it of the Gentiles.

No, it is spiritual Jerusalem into which the Gentiles are predicted

to enter. Talmudic Judaism is of the spirit of antichrist (I John

4:3). Christ totally rejected Talmudic Judaism, saying to its

leaders of his time, the Pharisees, in John 8: 44 "Ye are of your

father

the devil..."

Hosea 2: 23 says "And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will

have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to

them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall

say, Thou art my God." In Zechariah 2: 11 God promises that "And

many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my

people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know

that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee."

Malachi 1: 11 affirms that "For from the rising of the sun even unto

the going down of the same my name shall be great among he

Gentiles...for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the

Lord of hosts."

In Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel there is a great deal of discussion

about the apostasy of physical Israel, and of prophecy about its

judgment by God. Isaiah 50: 1 says "Thus saith the LORD, Where is

the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which

of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your

iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is

your mother put away."

The covenant with God at Sinai was conditional upon the obedience of

Israel to it. Exodus 19: 5 says "Now therefore, if ye will obey my

voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar

treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:"

God did have mercy on the people of Israel and gave them a

restoration at the time of Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel. But they

went into apostasy again and into Talmudic Judaism by the time of

Christ. God sent destruction on Jerusalem in 70 A.D. as judgment on

physical Israel. In rejecting Christ, physical Israel took on the

spirit of antichrist. This is a vitally important point the

dispensationalists miss and which will get them into trouble.

The dispensationalists do not seem to like parables and metaphors,

but metaphoric language is found in a great many end time prophecies.

Christ in a parable of the vineyard of Matthew 21: 33-41 says a

householder let out his vineyard to husbandmen, who beat and killed

his servants, and finally killed his son. Christ then asked what the

lord of the vineyard should do to these husbandmen. The answer came

that the lord of the vineyard should destroy these husbandmen and let

out his vineyard to other husbandmen which will render him the fruits

in their season. The first husbandmen represent physical and apostate

Israel. The other husbandmen are Christians. But this parable might

be interpreted by saying the Christian Church replaced physical

Israel.

Jeremiah 18: 2-7 is a very important parable about the transition

from physical Israel to spiritual Israel. "Arise, and go down to the

potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then

I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on

the wheels.

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the

potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the

potter to make it.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the

LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine

hand, O house of Israel.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a

kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;"

The Lord first made a vessel on his potter's wheel which was marred.

This represents physical Israel in apostasy, not the small Remnant of

Israel in Old Testament times that was faithful to the Lord. Then the

Lord made that same lump of clay into a different vessel as seemed

good to him to make it. A potter who does not like the pot he has

thrown on the wheel can take it off, mix it with dry clay kneed it

again, put it back on the wheel and throw a different pot with that

same lump of clay. In the past I did this when I was a potter.

This parable says that God was to remake physical Israel into a new

more spiritual Israel where entry is not by blood lines but by being

born again. Its the same lump, but remade. This is important to

understand. What the dispensationalists call the Christian Church in

the "Church Age" is not something different and entirely separate

from physical Israel under the Old Covenant.

Its the same lump of clay, but translated into a more spiritual

Israel. Christ told Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee, that to enter the

kingdom of God he had to be born again (John 3: 3). God was to take

away the stony heart of the apostate children of Israel and replace

it with a heart in which he would put his truth which would be loved.

In a second part of this series I want to go into New Testament

Scriptures, especially Paul in Romans and Galatians.

Dispensationalism and Scripture: Part Two

Those who are under the influence of dispensationalism say that

in the Bible the Christian Church is never said to be a continuation

of physical Old Testament Israel. Dispensationalists say the Church

is a totally different body of God's people that came into being on

the Day of Pentecost. This is theology. But what does Scripture say?

We know that the parable of the potter who made a vessel that was

marred and then remade it in Jeremiah 18: 2-7 suggests God

transformed Old Israel into New Israel. The New Israel is not the

exact same thing as Old Israel; Christianity after Pentecost is not

just a continuation of Old Physical Israel. It was transformed. It

became spiritual Jerusalem (Isaiah 66: 8-12). As spiritual Jerusalem,

it was to be added to by Gentiles (Isaiah 2: 1-3, Isaiah 11: 9-16,

Isaiah 19: 23-25, Isaiah 24: 13-15, Isaiah 42: 4-12, Isaiah 49: 1-12,

Isaiah 51: 5, Isaiah 60: 1-9, Isaiah 66: 8-24, Hosea 2: 23, Zechariah

2: 10-13 and Malachi 1: 11). In the transformation of Old Israel

into New Israel, the Lord put a new spirit in New Israel, and took

away their stony heart, replacing it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel

11: 19). God would put his law in their hearts (Jeremiah 31: 33),

meaning also God would put his truth and love of that truth in their

hearts. One must be born again spiritually to enter New Israel (John

3: 3). Entry into New Israel is not by blood lines, that is, by

race. If Jews need not to be born again to enter New Israel, then why

did Christ say to the Pharisee Nicodemus that he must be born again

to enter the kingdom of God?

New Israel grew in part from the small Remnant of Old Israel, not

from apostate Old Israel, which by the time of Christ was Talmudic

Judaism, of the spirit of antichrist (I John 4: 3). The Remnant of

Israel is seen in several Old Testament Scriptures (Isaiah 37: 32,

Isaiah 46: 3, Micah 4: 7, Zephaniah 3: 13). David represents New

Israel in Christ, while King Saul represents old apostate Israel, or

Israel after the flesh. The prophets represent New Israel in part,

especially Isaiah.

The Bible does not teach that God has two separate and very different

peoples, the Jews and the Christians, that he accepts as being his

peoples.

Paul teaches in the New Testament that there is only one true Israel,

which he represents as the olive tree of Romans 11: 17.

He says in Romans 11: 13-20 "For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as

I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

14. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my

flesh, and might save some of them.

15. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world,

what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

16. For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the

root be holy, so are the branches.

17. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a

wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest

of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18. Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest

not the root, but the root thee.

19. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might

be graffed in.

20. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou

standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:"

Being a Jew himself of the tribe of Benjamin, Paul wants Jews to

accept Christ and be saved. But he knows the truth, which he states

in verse 20. Many Jews are broken off the olive tree because they

did not believe. Nowhere in Romans 11 do we see two distinct peoples

of God, the Church and the Jews. There is only one olive tree, which

is now New Israel, or as Paul puts it in Galatians 6: 16 the Israel

of God. If Christians are not Israel, then we have to throw the Book

of Romans out, because Paul would be teaching false doctrine.

In Romans 9: 4-8 Paul says "Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth

the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the

law, and the service of God, and the promises;

5. Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ

came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

6. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they

are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all

children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not

the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for

the seed."

In Romans 2: 28-29 Paul teaches that " For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

He says they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. He makes this

distinction clearer in I Corinthians 10: 18 where he says "Behold

Israel after the flesh..." By implication there must also be an

Israel which is not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. There is

then an Israel after the flesh, which is all those who claim to be

the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and an Israel

after the Spirit who are born again in Christ, made up of all races

on the earth. There is no Church as another accepted people of God in Romans.

In Romans 2: 28-29 Paul teaches that " For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."

He is a Jew who is one inwardly. This implies a Gentile can be a spiritual Jew. And a person who is a Jew by physical descent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but is not in Christ and has rejected the Gospel of Christ, is not a spiritual Jew. How then can God have two different peoples that he accepts, the physical descendants of Abraham, most of whom are now in Talmudic Judaism, and the Christian Church?

In Galatians 3: 6-9 Paul teaches that "Even as Abraham believed God,

and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the

children of Abraham.

8. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen

through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In

thee shall all nations be blessed.

9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

Having faith, Abraham is the spiritual father of the Israel of God,

that is, Israel after the Spirit. Faith is given by the Holy Spirit.

Then in Galatians 3: 13-14 he tells us "Christ hath redeemed us from

the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,

Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

14. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through

Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through

faith."

Finally, in Galatians 3: 28-29 Paul says " There is neither Jew nor

Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor

female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs

according to the promise."

Here Paul says clearly that Jews and Gentiles who are the spiritual

seed of Abraham are united in one body in Christ. How do you

interpret Galatians 28-29 to say that God has two distinct peoples

and that the Christian Church is never seen as being Israel in the

New Testament? Again, either dispensationalism is right and Paul

wrong or Paul is right and dispensationalism is wrong.

Philippians 3: 2-3 says "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,

beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship

God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no

confidence in the flesh."

The concision is the Jews who Paul is saying have confidence in the

flesh. Christians, on the other hand, are of the Spirit and have no

confidence in the flesh.

Paul is saying there has been a change from Old Israel to the Israel

of God, and this change involves moving away from confidence in the

flesh to confidence in the Spirit and in worship of Christ.

Then in Galatians 4: 22-27 Paul says this: " For it is written,

that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a

freewoman.

23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he

of the freewoman was by promise.

24. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants;

the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is

Agar.

25. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to

Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us

all.

27. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break

forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many

more children than she which hath an husband.

28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that

was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

30. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman

and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the

son of the freewoman."

Israel in Christ is represented here by the freewoman, wife of

Abraham, Sarah, who has fewer children than does Agar or Hagar the

bondwoman or slave. Paul also represents Hagar with the Old Covenant

at Mount Sinai, but in Christ we are in free Jerusalem, or spiritual

Jerusalem which is above Mount Sinai and the Old Covenant. Again,

Paul is getting at changes that have taken place from Old Israel to

the Israel of God in Christ Jesus.

There is still only one olive tree but it has been changed into a

more spiritual tree.

What about the claim of the dispensationalists that in the

Tribulation God is going to turn to the Jews after the Church has

been raptured off the earth and create a Jewish Kingdom? There are

some Old Testament texts which dispensationalists have interpreted to

say that in the end times God will create or restore a Jewish

kingdom.

Amos 9: 11-12 is one of these Scriptures and it is quoted in Acts 15:

16 by James. It says "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of

David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will

raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

12. That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the

heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this."

Hosea 3: 5 also says "Afterward shall the children of Israel return,

and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the

LORD and his goodness in the latter days."

Micah 5: 2 is listed in my Reference Bible for Acts 15: 16, which

says " But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the

thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that

is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old,

from everlasting."

But lets look at Amos 9: 11-12 and Hosea 3: 5 and what James says in

Acts 15: 14-17. In this conference Peter had said in Acts 15: 9 that

God "...put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts

by faith." Peter is saying God had put no difference between Jews

and Gentiles as Christians.

In response to Peter, James then says in Acts 15: 14-17 that "Simeon

hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take

out of them a people for his name.

15. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

16. After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of

David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins

thereof, and I will set it up:

17. That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the

Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all

these things."

James interprets Amos 9: 11-12, which he quotes, as agreeing that God

has put no difference between Jews and Gentiles in Christ, as Peter

said in Acts 15: 9. Where is the promise that God will restore and

create a kingdom only for the Jews in the end times in Amos 9: 11-12,

since the Holy Spirit had inspired James to tell us that Amos 9: 11-

12 agrees with what Peter had said about God putting no difference

between Jews and Gentiles? Jews can still come individually to

Christ, but in Amos 9: 11-12 and in similar texts the promise of a

restoration of Old Israel in mass is not found. Bernard