Understanding Dispensationalists, 2nd ed.
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Vern Poythress believes that dialogue is possible between dispensationalists and covenant theologians. This second edition adds a postscript in which Poythress responds to feedback from dispensational readers.
- Provides profitable dialogue to advance the understanding of dispensational theology
- Explores opportunities for growth in mutual understanding between covenantal and dispensational theology
- Surveys some of the past and present forms of dispensationalism
- Getting Dispensationalists and Nondispensationalists to Listen to Each Other
- Characteristcs of Scofield Dispensationalism
- Variations of Dispensationalism
- Developments in Covenant Theology
- The Near Impossibility of Simple Refutations
- Strategy for Dialog With Dispensationalist
- The Last Trumpet
- What Is Literal Interpretation?
- Dispensationalist Expositions of Literalness
- Interpretive Viewpoint in Old Testament Israel
- The Challenge of Typology
- Hebrews 12:22-24
- The Fulfillment of Israel in Christ
- Other Areas for Potential Exploration
Top Highlights
“There is a dichotomy here, a dichotomy of ‘before’ and ‘after.’ Christ’s work made a real and lasting difference. God’s relation to human beings can never be the same afterwards because now redemption has been accomplished. There is, then, a very great distinction between Israel and the church. But the distinction is basically a historical one, not a metaphysical one. It is the distinction between before and after Christ’s resurrection, not a distinction between heavenly and earthly.” (Page 43)
“A third point of distinctiveness is the precise scheme for dividing the history of the world into epochs or dispensations.” (Page 21)
“A fourth and final point of distinctiveness is the belief in a pretribulational rapture.” (Page 22)
“Third, there is the issue of how the Bible itself is to be used in the controversy.” (Page 69)
“Darby construed the difference as primarily a ‘vertical,’ static distinction between heaven and earth and between two peoples inhabiting the two realms. He did not entertain the possibility that the difference was primarily a historical one, a ‘horizontal’ one, between the language of promise, couched in earthly typological terms, and the language of fulfillment, couched in terms of final reality, the reality of God’s presence, the coming of heaven to human beings in Jesus Christ. Darby was reacting against a dehistoricized understanding of the Bible that had little appreciation for the differences between redemptive epochs.” (Pages 16–17)
. . . a fair, irenic evaluation. . . . Poythress should be thanked for helping to open up healthy dialogue among brothers and sisters in Christ.
—Darrell L. Bock, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
. . . poses some searching questions for dispensationalists. . . . should lead to improved understanding and greater mutual respect.
—David L. Turner, Grace Theological Journal