The Reformation is over. The day the English parliament beheaded the English King they sealed the Reformation in its tomb. It was on that day that the children of the Reformation were exiled to Babylon and there they have remained to this day. Leaving behind the glories of Zion, those of the Reformation were silenced and subdued. Jeremiah’s words can be heard echoing in the halls of the vacant church, saying How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! When the Reformation’s rise was abruptly ended, it was at that time that innumerable hideous doctrines, errors, and heresies arose in the ruins of the Reformation church. These errors were fertilized by the tolerant policies of Cromwell during the decade of his indiscreet leniencies and have continued to rise and advance ever since.
It was then that innumerable corrupt teachings flourished and multiplied without restraint. Perhaps no other doctrine was more perilous, more deformed, and treacherous, than that dreamed up in the feeble and unlearned mind of John Nelson Darby. His baseless noxious seed was incubated within the womb of hell, birthed by godless imaginations, and thereafter scattered with furious effect by that diabolic fiend C. I. Scofield, who scattered it devilishly far and wide with fatal consequences. A harvest of deadly ideas grew like weeds without restraint, from which were raised poisonous gourds of error; these were reaped, cooked, and dined upon throughout Western Europe and the Americas. Eventually becoming known as Dispensationalism, this heresy has become synonymous with American Christian Evangelical faith.
It is far past the time that the children of the Reformation arose and decried the errors of Dispensationalism. The efforts of men like Richard Gaffin have not gone far enough; we cannot be cordial any longer. It is time to finally call Dispensationalism by the name which it should rightfully be known, heresy. “There is poison in the pot!” The following article will demonstrate the dangers and errors of Dispensationalism. The hope is that clarity will be given and the debate can be finally settled, so that the word of God will be as a sword unsheathed, severing the fiendish head of John Nelson Darby and C. I. Scofield’s foul teachings.
Consider then these evidences of the danger of Dispensationalism:
1. Dispensationalism is but the original heresy of Galatia resurrected. For natural birth to have any claim upon election or the grace of God is to deny the gospel. Galatia was overrun by Jews claiming their right according to the flesh. Israel of the flesh has never been and shall never be synonymous with the true Israel of God. The central error of Dispensationalism is its assertion of the right of physical Israel as God’s people. Their central tenant is that the true elect of God are those that claim physical descent from Abraham. They claim that Jews have always been the true people of God and they will always be His chosen people. To them, the church is but a parenthesis and lesser class of people, who but fill the interim until God continues His true plan of salvation with Israel of the flesh. Yet, this is not what scripture teaches.
The Bible teaches clearly, without equivocation, that Israel of the flesh has no claim upon the promise of God. It has never had a claim upon the promise of God and never shall have a claim upon promise of God. Israel of the flesh has never been the people of God according to the promise. Even though those of the past age were predominantly Israelites of physical descent from Abraham, still they were never one and the same. The fact that those of the promise in the previous age came from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, does not equivocate their participation in the promise of God to the claims of the flesh. Such claims were never made according to the flesh. This is where Dispensationalists are clearly errant, resurrecting the Pharisaicalism of Judaism, and doing violence to the glory of the true gospel itself.
Paul clearly states in Romans 9 that, “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.” It can be no clearer; Israel of the flesh are not the children of God because of the flesh. As John says, As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The right to the claim of God’s children is not, has never been, nor ever shall be on account of birth. There is no claim by one’s lineage or any work of the flesh upon God’s promises. Only those of the promise, of the Spirit and not of the flesh, are the true children of God; the elect.
Dispensationalism is equivalent to Ishmael claiming right to the promise of God because he was born a son of Abraham in the flesh. Ishmael could lay no claim to God’s promise because he was the firstborn son of Abraham. Ishmael never was of the promise, though he was circumcised as Abraham’s firstborn son, he was always the son of the flesh and not of the promise. As scripture says, They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Ishmael was never of the promise. As Paul says, 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. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. Dispensationalism, to be consistent, would have to claim the rights of Ishmael and Esau as children of the promise. Yet, scripture clearly says, 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. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Dispensationalists are Ishmael’s advocates, those that champion the flesh and not the promise, demeaning the very gospel they profess to proclaim.
Essentially, Dispensationalism is nothing more than a revival of the Galatian heresy, the bewitching gospel of the Jews and Pharisees, which claimed right to the promise of God according to the flesh. Its pompous boast in God that is based upon the flesh is that old repulsive error of Galatia. What should be the church’s assessment of Dispensationalism? A rejection of Dispensationalism, as it is a false gospel, a legal gospel, which is accursed, We should rightly say to the Dispensationalist, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? Dispensationalism is not truth.
The true gospel has no claim upon the flesh. Those that are the true children of God, the true Israel of God, has nothing on account of the flesh. As Paul writes, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 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. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Dispensationalism is more than just another scheme or idea to consider, it is a dangerous heresy. Scofield and Darby have merely repackaged the oldest and ugliest heresy in new wrappings. True Israel, the Israel of the promise, the Israel of the Spirit, the circumcised of the heart, are the true children of God, comprised now of both Jews and Gentiles of the flesh. I, a gentile in the flesh, am more an Israelite than any natural born child of Israel dwelling in a place now bearing the name Israel, as Paul said, [In Christ], 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. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Thus, Paul could say, All Israel shall be saved. Israel of the promise, not of the flesh. Dispensationalism is a dangerous error, the old Galatian heresy, condemnable, and to be rejected by all the true children. Dispensationalism is the Galatian heresy reborn.
2. Further, Dispensationalism is the invention of one man and his unlearned and unsound compilations. Any teaching that has its inception in the mind of a single man is beyond suspect. The history of Dispensationalism necessitates it being denied and condemned. It is the offspring of the bastard children of the Radical Reformation, those offspring of the flesh, who like Ishmael are not of the promise. They are not of the hand of God, but of the imagination and folly of devious minds. Dispensationalists are the Devil’s own offspring, sprung with a multitude of heresies, birthed from the deformed children of the Reformation. John Nelson Darby should have, like a physician, heeded his own warning, when he was heard to say, “"The church is in ruins". How sad that he further contributed to her great ruin. Darby, who served a short time as an Anglican Irish priest, remarkably has the same dangerous pedigree as a vast number of idlers and musers of our day that have no solid biblical education in the word of God, but have studied the philosophy of men, economics, and other tertiary disciplines; Darby studied law. One should always give great pause to attribute the title theologian to any man that has no solid foundation, education, or pedigree in the study of the bible and its theological truth.
Darby, having no sound education or foundation in God’s word, merely entertained the musings of his fertile fallen mind, going down a wayward path to destruction, while leading multitudes to perish in the flames afar. What dangers! The man, having no biblical upbringing and scriptural education, merely took the musings and imaginations of his mind and paved a new and perilous path to hell itself. Finding in the Plymouth Brethren a group like unto himself, Darby and the Brethren were all ignorant of God’s word and its proper explication, easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. As one man writes, “He joined a group of similarly disillusioned Christians who called themselves simply "Brethren." The group had no professional, seminary trained ministers. Rejecting denominationalism, they believed the Holy Spirit would lead them in worship and truth, so they focused their meetings on simple communion services, served by a different individual each week.”[i] Their frivolous ways were akin to opening a trapdoor to hell itself, thus allowing demons with their feverish lies loose upon the church.
3. The principal truth of the Reformation so guards against such dangers, for what is bread in the imaginations and emotive impulses of the fallen mind, especially a single mind, is sure to be a snare of hell itself. The heretical lies of Dispensationalism are bred in the most dangerous of historic inception, the imagination and foolish musings of a lone fallen mind. If that is not proof itself of the damnable design of Dispensationalism, birthed in an unlearned, unbiblical mind, consider that most errors of the post-Reformation age have been bred in the lies of Eschatology. The Devil found fertile soil for poising vast multitudes, by drawing their fascinations and excitations with tales of demons, dreams, wars, and earthly tales. Darby did what so many other fools of their own imagined doctrine, they found a friend in fantasies of end times and imagined dates. Always beware of doctrines created in the imaginations of a single, unlearned man, who delights in fantastical tales and myths of end times.
4. It is a late teaching in the history of the church. Any idea that was principally absent sent the apostolic age is not only suspect, but also to be discarded out of hand. For the word of God alone is our rule of faith. It alone is fully revealed in Christ. This is not the age of shadows and mysteries; that was the age before. Ours is the age of revelation and truth. We should be unwilling to entertain any teaching that has no foundation in the history of the church. How simple a truth this is to understand; simply look at the design of the New Testament; it is not a canon of types and shadows. It is a book of revealed truth, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, made known in four distinct views of His completed work. Add to this the single historic book of Acts and the remainder of letters in the New Testament, and apart from a few chapters addressing error and Christ’s return in the gospels and letters, Revelation alone stands forth in the category of prophecy. Yet, even Revelation is a letter, with the first three chapters addressed to the first century church, and the last nineteen addressing what should ‘shortly come to pass’ in that called ‘hereafter.’ The Spirit of God insured that so little was left in this age to the imaginations of men. So, we should always beware of a teaching that novel, steeped in mystery and supposed hidden truths only lately discovered. Dispensationalism falls into the category of those post-Reformation incitements of unlearned men. Dispensationalism is a bastard child of the Reformation and its demise, lately bred in the foolish imaginings of men. So many erroneous teachings were spawned by the Devil in the days of the demise of the truth; Seventh Day Adventism, Mormonism, and Dispensationalism all fall right in line to hell’s door.
5. It robs the church of God’s word. Like all errors and heresies Dispensationalism draws the visible church away from God’s word. Though claiming a ‘literal,’ ‘biblical,’ form, it is nothing of the sort. It denies the covenantal framework of scripture. It ignores context and perspicuity, doing great violence to the biblical hermeneutic taught by the apostolic authors. Further, Dispensationalism makes a majority of God’s word obsolete. Since it is primarily believed that the primary interest of God in redemption are the physical descendants of Abraham, and that God is essentially concerned with saving Israel of the flesh, it has little use for the true Israel of God. Dispensationalism succeeds in merely rebuilding the outer wall of partition that was abolished in Christ. Thus, scripture becomes of little use to the predominant gentile population of Israel in this age. Ignorantly calling us ‘replacement theologians,’ Dispensationalists rebuild the barriers Christ tore down, therefore placing most of God’s word out of our reach. The prophetic books of scripture are in their system obsolete to our day. Dispensationalism then sets the book of Revelation, a book central to the church and its perseverance in this age, on a shelf for some imagined future, teaching that the prophets and Revelation deals mostly with the coming imagined end days of Israel restored in the flesh. Couple this error with the anti-intellectualism of Dispensationalism, and Dispensationalism is made the handmaiden of the Second Great Awakening and its call for untrained ministers and any imagination birthed in the minds of fallen men. Sola Scriptura is not a Dispensational ideal. God’s word is misunderstood, misapplied, of no use for our day, it is a book of little relevance to Israel of our day. All Dispensationalism needs is an altar call, a repetitive preaching of the simple, scaled down gospel, and fancies of future battles and mythological creatures. What use does it have for the remarkable redemptive historic truths of God’s word? None, and it is so impoverished because of it.
6. It demeans the glory of the kingdom and the King. In Dispensationalism the kingdom of God is subordinated to Israel in the flesh. It becomes a mere afterthought to the supremacy of Israel. The kingdom is not for today in this faulty scheme. Thus, there is little thought given to the glorious advance and conquest of the risen, enthroned Lamb, who goes forth to conquer, conquering. So much of the glory due to God is tarnished and called common by the Dispensational scheme. When one considers how wondrous it is to behold how Christ is seen sending forth in His sovereign dispatch of the eternal decrees of His Father through the administration of the Spirit the subduing of the serpent, what embarrassment is it for those claiming to be of Christ to make so little of His glory. See how Revelation shows His glorious deliverance of His elect from every corner of the earth, in the midst of the most vehement dangers and tribulations of this age. See how He subdues the nations as beasts and the dragon that fuels their fury, confounding them with His glory and strength. See how the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world raised up judgment against the visible church and her heresies and delivers His chosen ones by faith alone from the dying hatred of the Devil and His lies. Dispensationalism sadly knows nothing of this story. The church is merely in their mind and annoying interlude. Those of faith and persecution in our day are to them but foul Gentiles that have no place with the Israel of the flesh. Dispensationalism is the vomit of Galatia. The lies of the Devil.
7. It is the handmaiden of Arminius. How best to see the danger of Dispensationalism than to see how well it has partnered with Arminius and his heretical followers. It is one thing for a doctrine or system of theology to be adopted and employed in the schemes of error, but this relationship far exceeds such an association. Dispensationalism most naturally finds Arminius as his brother. These two together are so properly wed that it is nearly impossible to separate them. Dispensationalism has built a system of dispensations, which necessitates the freedom of man’s will. For their explanation of the coming millennial age is to demonstrate that man without the Devil cannot succeed. Sovereign grace, salvation by faith alone, cannot easily wed with a system of Dispensationalism. They go well with the contiguities of the covenant of God’s eternal grace, but not with ages of test and trial of man and his will. Those that lay claim to the doctrines of grace, who cling to Dispensational schemes, like those of New Covenant theology, end up having to dissect, dismember, pick and choose, and meld together doctrines that have no continuity and place with the Arminian tendencies and structures of Dispensationalism. Again, perhaps the greatest warning for any claiming Dispensationalism as truth is the fact that it so seamlessly and appropriately finds Arminius its truly beloved. For centuries they have been common bedfellows, who have wed together as perfectly as the Devil and lies.
8. It partners with that ungodly practice of believer’s baptism, also a late conception of the radical branch of the Reformation. Once more, just as comfortably as Dispensationalism weds with Arminius, it even more so finds believers baptism as its friend. One cannot deny that the Reformers from beginning to the end of Reformation condemned the aberrant teachings and practices of the Radical Reformation, the sorts of with are those of Dispensationalism, Arminius, Antinomians, and Baptists. Dispensationalism is in the end but an outgrowth of the unbiblical imaginations of the mystics of the Radical Reformation. It is to be out of hand condemned by the Reformed church as unbiblical, dangerous, and heresy as it clearly is found.
In sum, Dispensationalism is a dangerous heresy that needs to be refuted by the true church. It has resurrected the Galatian heresy of old. It is the bastard child of the Devil. It is the bedfellow of Arminius. It has done as much to stifle and silence God’s word as Rome and the Vulgate did for ages of darkness. There is nothing redeemable in it. Those of it need be called out of it, just as once the Reformers called forth those from Rome. We have no common fellowship and should have no common communion. Arminius, Darby, Joseph Mormon, Charles Finney, and John Wesley, all men driven by the inspiration of hell, who need to be buried along with their errors. It is time for the true church that once rose from the ashes of Rome to again shake off the evils of Dispensationalsim and its bedfellow Arminius. It is time for a new Reformation of the truth, and when it comes, Dispensationalism and Arminius will be left in the ashes of hell.
Dispensationalism: Who has bewitched you?
The Reformation is over. The day the English parliament beheaded the English King they sealed the Reformation in its tomb. It was on that day that the children of the Reformation were exiled to Babylon and there they have remained to this day. Leaving behind the glories of Zion, those of the Reformation were silenced and subdued. Jeremiah’s words can be heard echoing in the halls of the vacant church, saying How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! When the Reformation’s rise was abruptly ended, it was at that time that innumerable hideous doctrines, errors, and heresies arose in the ruins of the Reformation church. These errors were fertilized by the tolerant policies of Cromwell during the decade of his indiscreet leniencies and have continued to rise and advance ever since.
It was then that innumerable corrupt teachings flourished and multiplied without restraint. Perhaps no other doctrine was more perilous, more deformed, and treacherous, than that dreamed up in the feeble and unlearned mind of John Nelson Darby. His baseless noxious seed was incubated within the womb of hell, birthed by godless imaginations, and thereafter scattered with furious effect by that diabolic fiend C. I. Scofield, who scattered it devilishly far and wide with fatal consequences. A harvest of deadly ideas grew like weeds without restraint, from which were raised poisonous gourds of error; these were reaped, cooked, and dined upon throughout Western Europe and the Americas. Eventually becoming known as Dispensationalism, this heresy has become synonymous with American Christian Evangelical faith.
It is far past the time that the children of the Reformation arose and decried the errors of Dispensationalism. The efforts of men like Richard Gaffin have not gone far enough; we cannot be cordial any longer. It is time to finally call Dispensationalism by the name which it should rightfully be known, heresy. “There is poison in the pot!” The following article will demonstrate the dangers and errors of Dispensationalism. The hope is that clarity will be given and the debate can be finally settled, so that the word of God will be as a sword unsheathed, severing the fiendish head of John Nelson Darby and C. I. Scofield’s foul teachings.
Consider then these evidences of the danger of Dispensationalism:
1. Dispensationalism is but the original heresy of Galatia resurrected. For natural birth to have any claim upon election or the grace of God is to deny the gospel. Galatia was overrun by Jews claiming their right according to the flesh. Israel of the flesh has never been and shall never be synonymous with the true Israel of God. The central error of Dispensationalism is its assertion of the right of physical Israel as God’s people. Their central tenant is that the true elect of God are those that claim physical descent from Abraham. They claim that Jews have always been the true people of God and they will always be His chosen people. To them, the church is but a parenthesis and lesser class of people, who but fill the interim until God continues His true plan of salvation with Israel of the flesh. Yet, this is not what scripture teaches.
The Bible teaches clearly, without equivocation, that Israel of the flesh has no claim upon the promise of God. It has never had a claim upon the promise of God and never shall have a claim upon promise of God. Israel of the flesh has never been the people of God according to the promise. Even though those of the past age were predominantly Israelites of physical descent from Abraham, still they were never one and the same. The fact that those of the promise in the previous age came from the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, does not equivocate their participation in the promise of God to the claims of the flesh. Such claims were never made according to the flesh. This is where Dispensationalists are clearly errant, resurrecting the Pharisaicalism of Judaism, and doing violence to the glory of the true gospel itself.
Paul clearly states in Romans 9 that, “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.” It can be no clearer; Israel of the flesh are not the children of God because of the flesh. As John says, As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The right to the claim of God’s children is not, has never been, nor ever shall be on account of birth. There is no claim by one’s lineage or any work of the flesh upon God’s promises. Only those of the promise, of the Spirit and not of the flesh, are the true children of God; the elect.
Dispensationalism is equivalent to Ishmael claiming right to the promise of God because he was born a son of Abraham in the flesh. Ishmael could lay no claim to God’s promise because he was the firstborn son of Abraham. Ishmael never was of the promise, though he was circumcised as Abraham’s firstborn son, he was always the son of the flesh and not of the promise. As scripture says, They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Ishmael was never of the promise. As Paul says, 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. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. Dispensationalism, to be consistent, would have to claim the rights of Ishmael and Esau as children of the promise. Yet, scripture clearly says, 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. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Dispensationalists are Ishmael’s advocates, those that champion the flesh and not the promise, demeaning the very gospel they profess to proclaim.
Essentially, Dispensationalism is nothing more than a revival of the Galatian heresy, the bewitching gospel of the Jews and Pharisees, which claimed right to the promise of God according to the flesh. Its pompous boast in God that is based upon the flesh is that old repulsive error of Galatia. What should be the church’s assessment of Dispensationalism? A rejection of Dispensationalism, as it is a false gospel, a legal gospel, which is accursed, We should rightly say to the Dispensationalist, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? Dispensationalism is not truth.
The true gospel has no claim upon the flesh. Those that are the true children of God, the true Israel of God, has nothing on account of the flesh. As Paul writes, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 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. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Dispensationalism is more than just another scheme or idea to consider, it is a dangerous heresy. Scofield and Darby have merely repackaged the oldest and ugliest heresy in new wrappings. True Israel, the Israel of the promise, the Israel of the Spirit, the circumcised of the heart, are the true children of God, comprised now of both Jews and Gentiles of the flesh. I, a gentile in the flesh, am more an Israelite than any natural born child of Israel dwelling in a place now bearing the name Israel, as Paul said, [In Christ], 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. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Thus, Paul could say, All Israel shall be saved. Israel of the promise, not of the flesh. Dispensationalism is a dangerous error, the old Galatian heresy, condemnable, and to be rejected by all the true children. Dispensationalism is the Galatian heresy reborn.
2. Further, Dispensationalism is the invention of one man and his unlearned and unsound compilations. Any teaching that has its inception in the mind of a single man is beyond suspect. The history of Dispensationalism necessitates it being denied and condemned. It is the offspring of the bastard children of the Radical Reformation, those offspring of the flesh, who like Ishmael are not of the promise. They are not of the hand of God, but of the imagination and folly of devious minds. Dispensationalists are the Devil’s own offspring, sprung with a multitude of heresies, birthed from the deformed children of the Reformation. John Nelson Darby should have, like a physician, heeded his own warning, when he was heard to say, “"The church is in ruins". How sad that he further contributed to her great ruin. Darby, who served a short time as an Anglican Irish priest, remarkably has the same dangerous pedigree as a vast number of idlers and musers of our day that have no solid biblical education in the word of God, but have studied the philosophy of men, economics, and other tertiary disciplines; Darby studied law. One should always give great pause to attribute the title theologian to any man that has no solid foundation, education, or pedigree in the study of the bible and its theological truth.
Darby, having no sound education or foundation in God’s word, merely entertained the musings of his fertile fallen mind, going down a wayward path to destruction, while leading multitudes to perish in the flames afar. What dangers! The man, having no biblical upbringing and scriptural education, merely took the musings and imaginations of his mind and paved a new and perilous path to hell itself. Finding in the Plymouth Brethren a group like unto himself, Darby and the Brethren were all ignorant of God’s word and its proper explication, easily tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. As one man writes, “He joined a group of similarly disillusioned Christians who called themselves simply "Brethren." The group had no professional, seminary trained ministers. Rejecting denominationalism, they believed the Holy Spirit would lead them in worship and truth, so they focused their meetings on simple communion services, served by a different individual each week.”[i] Their frivolous ways were akin to opening a trapdoor to hell itself, thus allowing demons with their feverish lies loose upon the church.
3. The principal truth of the Reformation so guards against such dangers, for what is bread in the imaginations and emotive impulses of the fallen mind, especially a single mind, is sure to be a snare of hell itself. The heretical lies of Dispensationalism are bred in the most dangerous of historic inception, the imagination and foolish musings of a lone fallen mind. If that is not proof itself of the damnable design of Dispensationalism, birthed in an unlearned, unbiblical mind, consider that most errors of the post-Reformation age have been bred in the lies of Eschatology. The Devil found fertile soil for poising vast multitudes, by drawing their fascinations and excitations with tales of demons, dreams, wars, and earthly tales. Darby did what so many other fools of their own imagined doctrine, they found a friend in fantasies of end times and imagined dates. Always beware of doctrines created in the imaginations of a single, unlearned man, who delights in fantastical tales and myths of end times.
4. It is a late teaching in the history of the church. Any idea that was principally absent sent the apostolic age is not only suspect, but also to be discarded out of hand. For the word of God alone is our rule of faith. It alone is fully revealed in Christ. This is not the age of shadows and mysteries; that was the age before. Ours is the age of revelation and truth. We should be unwilling to entertain any teaching that has no foundation in the history of the church. How simple a truth this is to understand; simply look at the design of the New Testament; it is not a canon of types and shadows. It is a book of revealed truth, the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, made known in four distinct views of His completed work. Add to this the single historic book of Acts and the remainder of letters in the New Testament, and apart from a few chapters addressing error and Christ’s return in the gospels and letters, Revelation alone stands forth in the category of prophecy. Yet, even Revelation is a letter, with the first three chapters addressed to the first century church, and the last nineteen addressing what should ‘shortly come to pass’ in that called ‘hereafter.’ The Spirit of God insured that so little was left in this age to the imaginations of men. So, we should always beware of a teaching that novel, steeped in mystery and supposed hidden truths only lately discovered. Dispensationalism falls into the category of those post-Reformation incitements of unlearned men. Dispensationalism is a bastard child of the Reformation and its demise, lately bred in the foolish imaginings of men. So many erroneous teachings were spawned by the Devil in the days of the demise of the truth; Seventh Day Adventism, Mormonism, and Dispensationalism all fall right in line to hell’s door.
5. It robs the church of God’s word. Like all errors and heresies Dispensationalism draws the visible church away from God’s word. Though claiming a ‘literal,’ ‘biblical,’ form, it is nothing of the sort. It denies the covenantal framework of scripture. It ignores context and perspicuity, doing great violence to the biblical hermeneutic taught by the apostolic authors. Further, Dispensationalism makes a majority of God’s word obsolete. Since it is primarily believed that the primary interest of God in redemption are the physical descendants of Abraham, and that God is essentially concerned with saving Israel of the flesh, it has little use for the true Israel of God. Dispensationalism succeeds in merely rebuilding the outer wall of partition that was abolished in Christ. Thus, scripture becomes of little use to the predominant gentile population of Israel in this age. Ignorantly calling us ‘replacement theologians,’ Dispensationalists rebuild the barriers Christ tore down, therefore placing most of God’s word out of our reach. The prophetic books of scripture are in their system obsolete to our day. Dispensationalism then sets the book of Revelation, a book central to the church and its perseverance in this age, on a shelf for some imagined future, teaching that the prophets and Revelation deals mostly with the coming imagined end days of Israel restored in the flesh. Couple this error with the anti-intellectualism of Dispensationalism, and Dispensationalism is made the handmaiden of the Second Great Awakening and its call for untrained ministers and any imagination birthed in the minds of fallen men. Sola Scriptura is not a Dispensational ideal. God’s word is misunderstood, misapplied, of no use for our day, it is a book of little relevance to Israel of our day. All Dispensationalism needs is an altar call, a repetitive preaching of the simple, scaled down gospel, and fancies of future battles and mythological creatures. What use does it have for the remarkable redemptive historic truths of God’s word? None, and it is so impoverished because of it.
6. It demeans the glory of the kingdom and the King. In Dispensationalism the kingdom of God is subordinated to Israel in the flesh. It becomes a mere afterthought to the supremacy of Israel. The kingdom is not for today in this faulty scheme. Thus, there is little thought given to the glorious advance and conquest of the risen, enthroned Lamb, who goes forth to conquer, conquering. So much of the glory due to God is tarnished and called common by the Dispensational scheme. When one considers how wondrous it is to behold how Christ is seen sending forth in His sovereign dispatch of the eternal decrees of His Father through the administration of the Spirit the subduing of the serpent, what embarrassment is it for those claiming to be of Christ to make so little of His glory. See how Revelation shows His glorious deliverance of His elect from every corner of the earth, in the midst of the most vehement dangers and tribulations of this age. See how He subdues the nations as beasts and the dragon that fuels their fury, confounding them with His glory and strength. See how the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world raised up judgment against the visible church and her heresies and delivers His chosen ones by faith alone from the dying hatred of the Devil and His lies. Dispensationalism sadly knows nothing of this story. The church is merely in their mind and annoying interlude. Those of faith and persecution in our day are to them but foul Gentiles that have no place with the Israel of the flesh. Dispensationalism is the vomit of Galatia. The lies of the Devil.
7. It is the handmaiden of Arminius. How best to see the danger of Dispensationalism than to see how well it has partnered with Arminius and his heretical followers. It is one thing for a doctrine or system of theology to be adopted and employed in the schemes of error, but this relationship far exceeds such an association. Dispensationalism most naturally finds Arminius as his brother. These two together are so properly wed that it is nearly impossible to separate them. Dispensationalism has built a system of dispensations, which necessitates the freedom of man’s will. For their explanation of the coming millennial age is to demonstrate that man without the Devil cannot succeed. Sovereign grace, salvation by faith alone, cannot easily wed with a system of Dispensationalism. They go well with the contiguities of the covenant of God’s eternal grace, but not with ages of test and trial of man and his will. Those that lay claim to the doctrines of grace, who cling to Dispensational schemes, like those of New Covenant theology, end up having to dissect, dismember, pick and choose, and meld together doctrines that have no continuity and place with the Arminian tendencies and structures of Dispensationalism. Again, perhaps the greatest warning for any claiming Dispensationalism as truth is the fact that it so seamlessly and appropriately finds Arminius its truly beloved. For centuries they have been common bedfellows, who have wed together as perfectly as the Devil and lies.
8. It partners with that ungodly practice of believer’s baptism, also a late conception of the radical branch of the Reformation. Once more, just as comfortably as Dispensationalism weds with Arminius, it even more so finds believers baptism as its friend. One cannot deny that the Reformers from beginning to the end of Reformation condemned the aberrant teachings and practices of the Radical Reformation, the sorts of with are those of Dispensationalism, Arminius, Antinomians, and Baptists. Dispensationalism is in the end but an outgrowth of the unbiblical imaginations of the mystics of the Radical Reformation. It is to be out of hand condemned by the Reformed church as unbiblical, dangerous, and heresy as it clearly is found.
In sum, Dispensationalism is a dangerous heresy that needs to be refuted by the true church. It has resurrected the Galatian heresy of old. It is the bastard child of the Devil. It is the bedfellow of Arminius. It has done as much to stifle and silence God’s word as Rome and the Vulgate did for ages of darkness. There is nothing redeemable in it. Those of it need be called out of it, just as once the Reformers called forth those from Rome. We have no common fellowship and should have no common communion. Arminius, Darby, Joseph Mormon, Charles Finney, and John Wesley, all men driven by the inspiration of hell, who need to be buried along with their errors. It is time for the true church that once rose from the ashes of Rome to again shake off the evils of Dispensationalsim and its bedfellow Arminius. It is time for a new Reformation of the truth, and when it comes, Dispensationalism and Arminius will be left in the ashes of hell.
1. [i] (https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/pastorsandpreachers/john-nelson-darby.html).”