Dispensational Theology is Dangerous

I'll try to keep this brief, but you need to understand all of this - at least at a basic level.

Dispensational Theology is not only dangerous but irresponsible.  It's a teaching that is irresponsible towards Christians sitting in the pews each week, but also an irresponsible twisting of Scripture... the Holy Words of Yahweh.

My main gripe with it is found in their teaching of a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church and rigid stance on the differences between Israel and the Church.

Most don't realize that the pre-trib view wasn't even a discussion until around the 14th century (brother Dolcino).  None of the ECF (Early Church Father's) taught, believed in, or even discussed a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church.

Pre-tribbers will try to say that the early church taught this but they are flat out wrong and often intentionally deceptive.  It's not even closely worthy of debate - it is hands down un-debatable... debunked!  Their views are so easily debunked, I find it hard to believe that anyone would buy into their arguments.  I would use the word "shocked" but sadly most Christians don't dig in and study... they just sit in the pews and absorb the words of these "scholars" as being the truth.  I may create another post on the views of the ECF later, but will move forward with the main point of this post.

Pre-tribulation Dispensationalism is a very common stance within Western Theology as is commonly taught from the pulpit.  It is a system of Theology that is embraced by the Church today but is an extremely dangerous Theology.

"Why fix the brakes?  We'll be out of this vehicle before it reaches the cliff!"

A very simple view of dispensationalism can be viewed as:  the age we're currently living in, and the age to come.

There are many different "ages" defined as to the history of the world.  We are living in this current age.  Most call it the Church age.  Dispensationalists often refer to it as a paranthetical age.  This age is fallen, corrupt, difficult, etc. but... there is an age to come!  We're moving forward through history towards the next age: The Messianic Age... the Millennial Kingdom.  After that will come the New Heaven New Earth Age.  All of history is barreling forward towards a very specific day... a theme that you'll find splattered all throughout Scripture - The Day of the Lord.

This is the history of all of Scripture.  Israel was endowed to Yahweh at Sinai.  Those ten commandments, that Moses brought down as written in stone, were the marriage certificate for Israel.  They are His chosen people.  The Day of the Lord is the expectation of Israel.  As an example, look at a NT passage from Luke.  These are the words of Zechariah - the father of John the Baptist.  This is the expectation of all Jews as written in the OT prophecies.

[Luk 1:67-79 LSB]  And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: [68]  “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He visited and accomplished redemption for His people, [69]  And raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant— [70]  As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old— [71]  Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US, [72]  To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, [73]  The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, [74]  To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, [75]  In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. [76]  “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO MAKE READY HIS WAYS, [77]  To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, [78]  Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, [79]  TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To direct our feet into the way of peace.”

Zechariah speaks of this as if it has come - but only in the sense of "this has been spoken so you can take it to the bank!".  The throne of David will be established and Israel will be restored in the age to come.  This has been promised from the Ancient of Days.  This is the hope and expectation of what all of history has been, and is, moving toward!

God is coming to comfort Israel (and all of us) and He will pour out His wrath on our enemies.

[Isa 66:13-16 LSB]  "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.” [14]  Then you will see this, and your heart will be joyful, And your bones will flourish like the new grass; And the hand of Yahweh will be made known to His slaves, But He will be indignant toward His enemies. [15]  For behold, Yahweh will come in fire And His chariots like the whirlwind, To return His anger with wrath, And His rebuke with flames of fire. [16]  For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire And by His sword on all flesh, And those slain by Yahweh will be many.

This is The Day of the Lord - the turning point of world history when we enter into the next age.  He is coming back to judge the wicked and to redeem His people.  This is coming, and it will happen in the very near future.  Some do not believe this very basic tenet.  They claim it is all allegorical, it's a spiritual meaning, or it has occurred at some point in the past, blah, blah, blah.

The problem the Jews have is... they believe in their apocalyptical dispensation, but they're waiting on His first appearance.  They didn't believe Yeshua was their Messiah.  

[2Co 3:12-16 LSB]  Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness,

[13]  and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the consequence of what was being brought to an end. [14]  But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is brought to an end in Christ. [15]  But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, [16]  but WHENEVER a person TURNS TO THE LORD, THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY.

Yeshua has come once, and He is coming again!

The early Church dominantly believed, and taught, of a historic premillennialism for the first 300 years of the new "Church age".  This was the teaching of the Apostles, and those who came shortly after the Apostles (ECF), for the first 300'ish years of the Church.

If this was the case, then how did the Church get off track?

Personally, I believe that during the Jerusalem persecution, or Jerusalem dispersion, of the early Apostolic church, they were scattered all over the world.  From that point forward, change started creeping in.  Gentile leaders started taking over the churches.  They were not versed in OT Theology as were the Jews and/or Apostles.  They were reading, and teaching, NT letters without any OT background on these teachings.  Quite often, they would bring in their Greek philosophical views into teachings that were in no need of those pagan views to solve their riddles.

This is where replacement Theology comes in.  This view that the NT church was not needing any of the OT teachings to understand the NT letters, and hence... the Church has replaced the blind, non-believing Jews.  In other words, God is now done with Israel and He has moved on to a new people... the "NT Church".  

They taught that Israel has been rejected and the Church is now the recipient of His blessings and favor.  This view is called Replacement Theology, or super-sessionism.  This view was taught very early on in our history and created a hatred for Jews and Judaism.  It was extremely dangerous... it is this view that played a part in Hitler's holocaust.

If you research pagan Greek philosophy and teachings, of which was, early on, creeping into these early church teachings, you'll find that this is where all kinds of issues arise.  I won't go into a lesson about this now, but can elaborate later if you need.

In short, the teaching that Yeshua was going to return to earth, and rule and reign here on earth, deeply conflicts with Greek philosophy.  In fact, so much so that if you ask any Christian today... "what happens when we die?", or "where will we spend eternity?"... they will ALL say - "well... we're going to Heaven!"  Wrong!  BUUUZZZZZZ!!!  This is a teaching based on pagan Greek philosophy!

Yeshua was preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom for a reason... we are to rule and reign with Christ HERE ON EARTH until the the New Heavens and New Earth are brought in at the end of His Millennial Reign.

The Greeks are responsible for the dominant amillennialism (no millennium) theology that reigned supreme for centuries (until ~16th century).  I'm not gonna get into that now... it's basically the belief that there will be no Millennial Reign - we're currently living in a spiritualized millennium.

Then - the Reformation begins to kick in around the 15th century... Martin Luther, etc.  This is when the reformation leaders started returning to the Scriptures - in their entirety... including the OT.  Bibles started getting printed, etc., etc.  Christian's start reading Bibles, and go... "wait a sec... amillennialism is un-Biblical!".  "The Scriptures are full of references to a Millennial Reign!".  This is when they started studying and heading back to a sound Biblical view of the Millennial Reign.

This is when all sorts of crazy ideas started forming new ideas and theologies... as they were studying and heading back to a Biblical view there was a period of almost a mass theological confusion - chaos.

Then came along John Nelson Darby (Ireland in the 1830's)... he was the first to form a system for Theology.  Meaning, a series of beliefs which are all interconnected, forming a specific Biblical Theology - which is called:  

(... we finally made it to) Dispensationalism.

One of Dispensationalism's basic tenets is: Pre-Millennialism.  With which I agree.  In fact, most of dispensationalism is a return to Apostolic teaching... a return to Biblical Truths.

I could even say that I am partially Dispensationalist... almost.  

One of their basic tenets is a pre-tribulation rapture.  We will be caught up in the air to meet Yeshua, and then seven years later He will make a U-turn and come back to reign on earth.  Once again... Wrong!

Dispensationalism is basically a belief that God deals differently, with different people, during different "dispensations" or (ages).  There are different ages in world history and they teach that God deals differently with those people of each age (or, dispensation).  Since Darby, there have been birthed several different versions of dispensationalism (C.I. Scofield, Charles Ryrie, John Feinberg, Michael Vlack, etc.).

You know that I worked construction for a long time.  When we built a house, you always start with the foundation, then move on to the floor, the walls, etc. and finally the roof.  You don't start building a house by building the roof first.  I think you'll all agree with me on this.

The problem is, most Christians start learning from the Bible by reading the "roof" first.  They start with the NT and then work backwards letting the "roof" define and dictate the rules for the "foundation"... which is, of course - the OT.

Yeshua, the Apostles, Paul, etc. all came along and built the roof... elaborating on, filling in the blanks, clarifying, etc. of everything already explained by the foundation, floor, and wall builders... Moses, Isaiah, the major and minor prophets, etc.

God does not change... the NT does not replace, override, or supersede the OT.  It expands upon it - it opens it up for us.  The NT is completely working in harmony with the OT.

Now, we're getting to the problem I have with Dispensationalism.  While it does kind of reject replacement theology (as mentioned above), it still edicts a very rigid distinction between Israel and the Church.  

Yes, there are some clear distinctions between the two but there are also some even more clear overlaps between the two.  The overlaps are profound and some have referred to these overlaps as Olive Tree Theology.  We've been grafted into God's previous project (i.e., John 15:1-6 & Romans 11).

Because Dispensationalists feel so strongly about the difference between the Jews and the Church, they believe that the NT is broken up and portioned out passages.   Some passages deal with Jews only, and some passages deal with the Church only.  

In fact (crazy as this may sound!), they teach that the Gospels are all for Israel only... why?  Because those writings (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) came before the Church (Acts).  

This is where all of the crazy lunatic teachings come from... for example:

What about the Olivet Discourse though?

"oh, well... we don't have to worry about that.  That's not for us... that's for the Jews".

They do this throughout the entire NT - dictate what is meant for the Jew, and what is meant for the Church.  Some will even tell you that almost none of the NT is meant for us (E.W. Bullinger, "Scholar", Super-Dispensationalist,  for example).

This is the "Theology" from which the pre-trib rapture comes from...

"Oh, well... the tribulation period isn't for us - it's for the Jews."

Nowhere, in all of Scripture is a pre-trib rapture explicitly taught.  Not one verse.  

Yet, they'll say:

"Oh, well - it's inferred.  You have to understand Dispensationalism."

They had to remove the Church from the tribulation in order to make their dispensational system work.  Removing the Church created a pre-trib rapture so that they could create, and pat themselves on the back, for their new dispensational system of Theology.

That's it in a nutshell... and yes, I use the term "nut" intentionally.