Gentry and Johnson have an online article titled, “Ninety-five Theses Against Dispensationalism.” See here. I have selected three that I will touch on here and speak on at our conference, May 19-22.
- Dispensationalism is new and is inconsistent with Christian scholarship (Thesis 1).
- Imminency is contradicted by Matt 25:1-9, Luke 19:13, & Acts 1:6-7 (Thesis 53).
- There is no such thing as a carnal Christian (Thesis 95).
My responses are:
- Maybe. But, so what? We do not have the writings of Evangelicals from AD 100 to 1517. Those writings were destroyed. And we do not have recordings of all the messages given between 100 and 1517. And even if dispensationalism did not start until the 1800s, that would not prove that it is not true. The Reformation did not come until the 1500s. Are these Calvinists disproving their own position? Is Catholicism true because it is ancient and consistent with Catholic scholarship?
- Matthew 25:1-9 concerns the Tribulation, not the church age. The break between Luke 19:26 and 27 in the Parable of the Minas clearly supports dispensationalism. And Acts 1:6-7 says nothing about imminence, just the fact that the Lord Jesus is coming like a thief in the night. Compare Matt 24:40-44, 1 Thess 5:2, Jas 5:9, 2 Pet 3:10, and 1 John 2:18.
- In 1 Cor 3:1-4, Paul said there were carnal Christians, hence, there are carnal Christians. See this recent blog by me on carnal Christians.
Objections to dispensationalism are weak sauce. The weakness of these objections serves to drive people to dispensationalism, not away from it.
Dispensationalism is a system of thought that understands the Bible to teach that Israel and the church are, and forever will be, distinct groups. It also suggests that the future will involve three new dispensations: the Tribulation, the Millennium, and the Eternal State on the new earth.
Dispensationalism is the historic position of the following:
- Dallas Theological Seminary
- Moody Bible Institute and Multnomah School of the Bible
- The Scofield Reference Bible
- Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series
- Hal Lindsay, author of The Late Great Planet Earth
- The Bible church movement
- Many of the founders of the modern missionary movement
- Most of the leaders in the Free Grace Movement (e.g., Chafer, Ryrie, Hodges, Radmacher, Evans, Bing, Thieme, Meisinger, Niemela, Woods, Dean, Doc Latham, A. Ray Stanford)
The fact that dispensationalism has a rich heritage does not prove that it is true. But it should strongly encourage a person to investigate it.
The key to dispensationalism is its correspondence to the Word of God. Dispensationalism is the only system of thought that accurately teaches God’s Word.
Come to the May 19-22 GES annual conference on dispensationalism—or watch it on the GES YouTube channel—and you will be aided in keeping grace in focus.
