Tag: Dispensationalism

This is the second section to what I am currently writing. In the final pdf I will footnote the various references, for ease of reading and tidyness I am not doing so in these posts.

---

Theology and practice

As with all theology there is a practical outworking to what we believe.

A belief in the Rapture, namely that one day (and very soon) the church will be raptured out of this world, and there are those who are in danger of being left behind is a hope / belief in escapism.

• Such a mentality will not help us be committed to transformation of the world as we have it.
• It will also mean that any increase in darkness will only confirm our viewpoint, and rather than challenge the darkness we will tend to accept it as a ‘sign of the times’.
• I consider that perhaps there is little that has been more destructive to an expectation of transformation than this teaching.
• Also such teaching on eschatology produces fear rather than faith – a fear of being left behind.
• It also lends itself to an abandoning of this world to the devil.
• There can also be an over-focus on signs of the end, seeking to interpret what is happening in the world in the light of supposed prophetic Scriptures.
• There can be more of an interest – and a passive interest at that – in the rise of evil than in the prayer for the kingdom of God to come. Maranatha being the prayer of the New Testament.
  

How did Dispensationalism develop?

An important element is the historical socio-political context. The predominant eschatological view during the 17th and 18th centuries was that of post-millennialism. Post-millennialism is the belief that the spread of the Gospel will bring in a golden age, i.e. the millennial / 1000 year rule by Jesus on earth will take place after there has been great success through the preaching of the gospel. The rule of Christ will be manifest after (post) the work of evangelism. So in the 17th and 18th centuries there was an optimism that prevailed concerning the prospective success of world-evangelisation. The writings of the revivalists Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were prominent in spreading the belief that the millennium (this golden age for the gospel) was arriving. The gospel was expected to soon prevail and it would not be long before there would also be a conversion of the Jews to Christ.

There is however a shift that began to take place as the optimism was challenged by world events. In a short space of time there were three significant wars in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that brought a reality check.

• The war of independence (1775-84)
• The French revolution (1789-93)
• The Napoleonic wars (1809-15).

In this period there were also a number of major changes within a number of the European monarchies; there was widespread unrest in Britain, and the wider socio-political arena was equally unstable.

Napoleon was setting family members on various thrones in Europe – his vision was to become ‘supreme king of kings and sovereign of the Roman Empire’. A number of ‘students’ of prophecy speculated that he could indeed be the antiChrist and that there would be a revived Roman Empire in fulfilment of Daniel 2. All of this unrest fuelled interest in things prophetic and brought a revival of pre-millennial expectation. (The pre-millennial understanding that Jesus would return to set up his kingdom on earth as the spread of the gospel was failing and darkness was visibly increasing.)

‘Pre-’ meaning before: Jesus would have to come before there would be any real manifestation of his kingdom on earth. So we are entering a period of new interest in eschatology and the return of Christ: it is during this period that:

• Adventism arose with Joseph Miller saying that Christ was to return on March 21, 1843; and,
• Jehovah’s Witnesses also developed with Charles Russell saying that Christ would set up his ‘heavenly kingdom’ in 1914.
• So there is a shift from the optimism of the triumph of the Gospel to a pessimistic view that the last times had arrived and the powers of darkness were prevailing.

This is the context in which two early figures that are at the root of Dispensationalism come on the scene.

One is a controversial Scottish minister and the other one of the main influences within the Plymouth Brethren movement. As we look at this again note that – relatively speaking – Dispensationalism and a belief in the Rapture is a very recent phenomenon. Edward Irving (1792-1834), licensed as a church of Scotland minister in 1815, came to London to Caledonian Chapel in Hatton Gardens in 1822. He was both controversial and popular. In 1825 he addressed an audience with the title of ‘Babylon and Infidelity Foredoomed’. In that he challenged the post-millennial optimism and spoke of a ‘series of thick-coming judgements and fearful perplexities before the return of Jesus Christ.’ He was disparaging about the success of mission work on many lands, including Southern Europe as judgements were about to fall there. Irving was in no doubt that the Gentile Church had failed, seeing the judgements of Matthew 24 applying to the church. There was though an expectation of a Jewish Dispensation that would soon come:

When the Lord shall have finished the taking of witness against the Gentiles… he will begin to prepare another ark of testimony… and to that end will turn his Holy Spirit unto his ancient people, the Jews, and bring them unto those days of refreshing… This outpouring of the Spirit is known in Scripture by ‘the latter rain’. (Edward Irving, preliminary discourse, “on Ben Ezra”, The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty, by Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra a converted Jew, Translated from the Spanish, with a Preliminary Discourse (London, L.B. Seeley & Sons, 1827), pp. 5-6.).)

In 1826 Henry Drummond had opened up his home at Albury Park to a group of 20 invited guests to discuss issues concerning the immediate fulfilment of prophecy. Irving had already developed a ‘Society for the Investigation of Prophecy’ and that society was soon subsumed under the conferences that were taking place at Albury. The conferences became an annual event from 1826-30 and became increasingly more speculative on issues of prophecy and the interpretation of Scripture. Alongside the conferences a publication came forth: The Morning Watch. Irving died in 1834 otherwise he might have become the main continuing voice in developing Dispensationalism. This however was to become the task of J.N. Darby (1800-82). In closing this section I quote the main text that is used as a claim for a rapture. I suggest that you read the text and note the question that Paul is being asked and the total absence of comfort along the lines of ‘heaven’ as he centres on the historical hope of those who are aligned to the God of hope, ending with how that hope is what will bring encouragement to one another.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

I am currently writing and will produce a pdf of around 10,000 words on Dispensationalism and so over the next days (hopefully not weeks!) I will post in bite-size pieces as I write. I will try to take on board any comments into it and who knows… might just affect what I write… though as will become clear I consider the whole framework to be something that is without biblical foundations. I am aware of ‘Progressive Dispensationalism’ (Craig Blaising and Darrell Block) but have never read what they have written. As I understand it they are bringing an adjustment to the hard lines between the ‘dispensations’ and allow for an overlap. They still hold to a ‘rapture’ a ‘millennial rule’ and the ongoing nature of the former covenant with Israel (maybe read what I wrote on ‘all Israel will be saved’ to get my take on that). Anyway here is the first part of what I have written – probably with some spelling mistakes that I hope to pick up… and some grammatical mistakes that will probably remain!).

---

‘Dispensationalism’: a big word that describes a recent approach to eschatology (by ‘recent’ I mean in the theological scheme of things, dating only from around 1830). For those unfamiliar with this term, please do not be put off by the word. Let me first greatly simplify it so that we know what lies at its core. At the core is the belief that the church will escape an end-time persecution through what is called the ‘Rapture’, often called the ‘Secret Rapture’.This core element holds that the the church of true believers will be taken from the earth to heaven while everyone else is ‘left behind’ and suffer great tribulation. There is much more to Dispensationalism than this one core belief and in due course I will seek to explain other elements. We can also note that there are those who believe in a Rapture who are not Dispensationalists, but virtually all who believe in a Rapture have been influenced by Dispensationalism.

The overall popularity of this viewpoint in the Western evangelical / pentecostal churches and inevitably the spread of this viewpoint around the world wherever missionaries have travelled means it is not simply a fringe view but deeply influential. The view is also popular because of the sheer amount of popularist literature, such as the ‘Left Behind’ series of books and DVDs, that has been published. And as we will cover later the publishing of the Scofield Bible greatly furthered the cause. It is worth noting that it is not at all popular though at an academic level (perhaps the ‘Progressive Dispensationalist’ school can be seen as having academic credibility)..

I consider the presence of this view is such that it can obscure the centre of eschatology, namely that of the return of Christ and the inauguration of ‘a new heaven and a new earth’. In Dispensationalism that central event gives way to a series of ‘end-time’ events. Dispensationalism is a relative newcomer to the field of theology – this does not make it intrinsically wrong; but it does mean that it should be viewed with the right level of suspicion. This claim that it is only found as far back as 1830, has been challenged in the recent years, with a number of more ancient writings being presented in order to claim that the rapture was taught previously in history.

I will look at three of those writings in what follows but perhaps two aspects, if noted, will weaken this claim to the greater level of historical credibility:

• If (and I will disagree with this claim) the rapture has a level of historical credibility it still remains clear that Dispensationalism as taught from the 1830s has no prior place in theology. The ‘escape’ of the saints can be read into the ancient texts but Dispensationalism cannot be.
• And a major second point is that there is no mention of a rapture or anything alluding to it in any of what might be considered foundational creeds and historical statements of faith. Not to be found in the Nicene Creed (325), the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381), nor the Chalcedonian Creed (451), and the Athanasian Creed (500). It cannot be found in the Augsburg Confession (1530), the Canons of Dort (1618-1619), the Baptist Confession of Faith (1644), the Westminster Confession (1646), nor the Methodist Articles of Religion (1784). It is not recorded in any document that shaped Christian understanding.

Irenaeus (bishop of Lyon, 130-202)

Tradition holds that he was a ‘disciple’ of Polycarp who was a ‘disciple of John, the disciple of Jesus. He wrote,

And therefore, in the end when the Church is suddenly caught up from this, it is said, ‘There shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither shall be.’ For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when they overcome, they are crowned with incorruption (Against Heresies, 5:29).

The church is ‘suddenly caught up from this’ (tribulation) sounds as if he could be propounding an escape, a rapture of the church prior to the tribulation. If he did mean a rapture, such a view is in distinct contrast to what he wrote three chapters earlier in the same writing. There he wrote,

And they shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to flight.

In that passage, commenting on his understanding of Daniel and Revelation, he clearly indicates that the church is present in and through what he understands to be the tribulation. Perhaps he contradicted himself, but more likely (in the first passage quoted above) he sees the church present through the tribulation for he calls it the last contest and that they overcome, not that the Lord ‘rescues’ them! The ‘caught up’ is not something that occurs before the tribulation but takes place, as he writes, ‘in the end’.

His language in that isolated text could be colonised to suggest he believes in a rapture, but a wider reading of Irenaeus shows that he held to the historic pre-millennial understanding of eschatology. (This is not my position but one that has historical credibility.)

Cyprian (200-258, bishop of Carthage)

Here are two quotes that have been registered as Cyprian’s support for a rapture,

We who see that terrible things have begun, and know that still more terrible things are imminent, may regard it as the greatest advantage to depart from it as quickly as possible. … Do you not give God thanks, do you not congratulate yourself, that by an earlier departure you are taken away, and delivered from the shipwrecks and disasters that are imminent?

Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us hence, and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to paradise and the kingdom (Treatise 7: On the Mortality).

These, I consider, are easily refuted when placed in the historical context. He is writing during a time of plague and persecution. He comforts Christians who feared death; in that context dying in Christ was a blessing, sparing them from the various hardships. Far from being rapture-affirming statements they are affirming that the last enemy, death, has been overcome.

Ephraem the Syrian (4th Century)

The writing that is quoted is in different forms and is now held to be pseudepigrapha and dating from the 6th or 8th century, hence now often referred to as being the work of Pseudo-Ephraem.

The report of these things does not disturb us, nor the spectacle itself. For the elect shall be gathered prior to the tribulation, so they shall not see the confusion and the great tribulation coming upon the unrighteous world.

Again the isolated text could be taken to support a rapturist interpretation, but when read in the wider context of this writing it is clear that the escape is through death, not rapture! Here are quotations from the wider work (emphases added – any comments inside square brackets:

Nation will rise up against nation, And kingdom against kingdom. Lawlessness will be sovereign on earth. And the defiled will pursue after the saints. People will openly apostatize and augment the left side; the righteous ones will suffer indignities from those who belong to the side of the sinners [no escape].

Here we have death as an escape from the persecution; that saints are not raptured away but they suffer while the devil is active on earth persecuting and killing Christians during tribulation is clear in the writings. The writing as a whole and not an isolated text needs to be considered. Here are a few quotes that indicate the presence of believers during the tribulation.

Pronouncing the good fortune of the deceased who had avoided the calamity: ‘Blessed are you for you were borne away [evidently to the grave]) And hence you escaped [by death] from the afflictions!

Then the Evil One will become enraged with the saints at that time; he will draw his terrible sword and sever the necks of the righteous ones {no escape and the saints are persecuted and killed]..

In those days [during the tribulation] people shall not be buried, neither Christian, nor heretic, neither Jew, nor pagan, because of fear and dread there is not one who buries them; because all people, while they are fleeing, ignore them.

There of course could have been writers who believed in some form of rapture (they might have been influenced by texts reflating to Enoch, Elijah or Moses) but there are no mainline writers who held those views and there is no Dispensationalist structure prior to the one developed by J.N. Darby (1800-1882).

Scripture is not focused on an escape but on resurrection:

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day (John 7:37-40).

No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day (John 6:44).

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day (John 6:54).

Resurrection – the hope that is within us. Resurrection was the theological answer to how God will be faithful. If the restoration of all things is the bringing of created things and persons to their fitted conclusion (not their destruction) then a question remains. That question was related to the destiny of those who had departed but were righteous – how will they be rewarded? The belief of the restoration of creation raised the issue of ‘but what about those who have died’ (the very same question that Paul answers in the supposedly core-passage on the rapture!). The resounding answer was that God is faithful and those departed saints will be raised on the last day. Resurrection, not rapture, was and is the hope.