Dispensationalism seeks to address what many see as opposing theologies between the Old Testament and New Testament

Dispensationalism is a theological movement within evangelicalism stressing an apocalyptic understanding of history. Its peculiarities arise from an inter­pretation of the history of redemption which sees the Old and New Testaments united eschatologically in a way that is consistent with a historical-grammatical (sometimes referred to as 'literal') interpretation of Old and New Testaments, and consistent with the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises to national Israel of an earthly kingdom ruled personally by the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is a philosophy of history, adherence to which encompasses diverse theologies in the evangelical tradition, [107] including the Calvinistic, Arminian, Pentecostal and charismatic.

Terminology

1 Dispensation (from the Greek oikonomia: management of a household): a distinguishable administration in the fulfilment of the divine purpose of creation, operative within history, during which God administers the world in a particular manner. The dispensations corre­spond historically to the successive stages of progressive revelation.

2 Imminence: the doctrine that Jesus Christ can return at any moment. No prophetic event must intervene before that return.

3 The rapture (Latin rapio: snatch, catch away): the church's expectation of being 'caught up in the clouds' to meet Christ at his return (1 Thess. 4: 15-17). The rapture is most commonly believed to be imminent (pre-tribulational), although some theologians argue that imminence need not necessarily imply a pre-tribulational rapture. Of these, some would place its timing at the middle of the tribulation, and a small but growing number see the rapture as post-tribulational.

4 The tribulation: a seven-year apocalyptic period of divine judgement upon the earth, delineated in the Books of Daniel and Revela­tion (interpreted futuristically). This period is also referred to as the seventieth week of Daniel. (This is based upon the prophecy of the seventy heptads ('weeks' in the Authorized Version) of Daniel 9: 24-7. The first sixty-nine heptads (interpreting each 'day' as signifying a literal year) are understood as having been completed at the first advent of Jesus Christ; the final heptad is viewed as being in the future, beginning when the Antichrist (the Beast of Revelation) signs a protective covenant with the nation of Israel, and culminating with the battle of Armageddon and the personal return of Jesus Christ).

5 Premillennialism: the teaching that Jesus Christ will return before the millennium and establish and reign over an earthly kingdom which will endure for one thousand years (Rev. 20: 1-6) in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, after which will occur the resurrec­tion of the wicked and the final judgement of the present order, followed by the eternal state.

6 The church as a 'parenthesis' (or 'intercalation') in God's prophetic programme: earlier dispensationalists viewed the church as a complete mystery, that is, not revealed in any way in the Old Testament. The prophetic material of the Old Testament dealing with national Israel is yet to be literally fulfilled. As taught historically, Israel's rejection of the Messiah caused God to put his 'prophetic clock' on hold until the end of the church age at the rapture, at which time his programme for Israel will again start 'ticking'. This teaching implied that the church age was unrelated to God's primary design for history. Although holding to a sense of newness in the mystery character of the church, most contemporary dispensational scholars see the church age as the next step forward in the working out of the divine plan rather than understand it as an interruption in the divine plan for human history, unrelated to the rest of the historical process.

7 Israel: Israel is understood as always having reference biblically to national Israel, ethnic Jews, never to the church or Gentiles.

8 Church: the church is seen as the spiritual body of Christ consisting of all those who since Pentecost have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Stress is placed upon the overarching unity of the body of Christ, while the practical manifestation is seen in ways which do not conflict with the concept of the local church.

Origins and development

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a former priest in the Irish church, abandoned its ranks due to the apostasy he perceived therein. Forsaking the established church, Darby joined the movement later known as the Plymouth Brethren, where he developed a distinctive ecclesiology. He believed that the church was not to be identified with any institution but was a spiritual fellowship. Darby's ecclesiology became the catalyst for dispensationalism as a system. He posited radical discontinuity be­tween the church and Israel, asserting that God had two separate peoples and two separate programmes which he was working out in history. This discontinuity made it incumbent to 'rightly divide the Word of truth' discerning which passages were addressed to Israel and which to the church. These features, coupled [108] with a futurist view of biblical prophecy and the doctrine of the pre-tribulational rapture of the church, gave coherence to incipient dispensationalism.

The views and ideas of the Brethren move­ment spread to North America. Darby and Brethren expositors and evangelists gained a wide hearing, particularly among Presbyterians and Baptists, significant numbers of which adopted the dispensational historiography although few left their established denomina­tional affiliations. In 1876 a group of prominent Presbyterian and Baptist preachers and educa­tors organized the annual Niagara Bible Con­ferences for prophetic study, which continued for a quarter of a century.

The Bible Conference movement, following the pattern of the Niagara Conferences, spread dispensationalism widely. Working out of this context, C.I. Scofield in 1909 published the Scofield Reference Bible, which became the largest single force in spreading dispensational teaching.

In the wake of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the early twentieth century (see fundamentalism), fundamentalists (most of whom were dispensationalists) found that they had lost control of their denominations and seminaries. In response, a plethora of new theological institutions dedicated to preserving orthodoxy arose. The dispensational perspective of the Scofield Reference Bible became the traditional framework of instruction in many of these institutions.

In succeeding decades the movement re­tained its apocalyptic perspective but a historicism, reminiscent of nineteenth-century adventism, modified the strict futurism of early dispensationalism in certain sections of the movement. Although strictly this historicist emphasis is not to be identified with dispensa­tionalism, in the minds of many it has been, due to best-selling popular works. The historicist emphasis has had its greatest impact in Pentecostal and charismatic circles, which from their inceptions have been characterized by vivid apocalyptic expectations.

Major representatives

Apart from John Nelson Darby (see above), the leading figures in the movement have been the following.

1 C.I. Scofield (1843-1921): his Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth set the agenda for much of American fundamentalism. Scofield's The Comprehensive Bible Correspondence Course, first issued in 1896, became the foundational curriculum for churches and Bible institutes. His most important work. The Scofield Reference Bible (1909), put dispensational teaching in the hands of the layman. Over two million copies of the Scofield Bible have been sold. A revised edition, The New Scofield Reference Bible, was published in 1967.

2 Lewis Sperry Chafer (1872-1952): Chafer was the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary. His eight-volume Systematic Theol­ogy of 1947 became the standard theology of the 'Scofieldian' period of dispensationalism.

3 Alva J. McClain (1888-1968): president of Grace Theological Seminary, he contributed The Greatness of the Kingdom of 1959, a major dispensational study of the kingdom of God.

4 John F. Walvoord (b. 1910): as second president of Dallas Seminary and author of numerous works, including The Millennial Kingdom of 1959, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation of 1976, Israel in Prophecy of 1962, Darnel of 1971 and The Revelation of 1966, Walvoord has been a leading spokesman for dispensational eschatology.

5 J. Dwight Pentecost (b. 1915): professor at Dallas Seminary, he penned Things to Come of 1958, a massive study of dispensational eschatology from the 'Scofieldian' perspective.

6 Charles C. Ryrie (b. 1925): a prolific writer, his major contributions to dispensational thought are Dispensalionalism Today (1965), which traced significant refinements in dispen­sational thinking since the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, and the Ryrie Study Bible of 1978, which has replaced The Scofield and The New Scofield Bibles as the study Bible of choice among many dispensationalists. Ryrie's work marked the beginning of the attempt to define the essence of dispensational teaching, and also set the direction for dispensational self-definition over the last decades of the twentieth century.

Major institutions

1 Moody Bible Institute (independent): founded in 1886 before the fundamentalist-modernist controversies, it was led from the first [109] by dispensational leaders and publishes the Scofield Bible Correspondence Course.

2 Biola University/Talbot School of Theol­ogy (independent): founded in 1907 as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, it published until the 1970s the periodical The King's Business, the successor to The Fundamentals.

3 Dallas Theological Seminary (independ­ent): founded in 1924, Dallas Seminary became synonymous with dispensationalism since its presidents and numerous faculty members published widely read volumes which cham­pioned dispensational themes. Its faculty have been major contributors to the development of dispensationalism from the older 'Scofieldian' perspective into the contemporary era of 'progressive dispensationalism'. Additionally, Bibliotheca Sacra, the oldest continuous theolo­gical journal in the USA, was acquired by Dallas Seminary in the 1930s and has functioned as the scholarly organ for the movement.

4 Grace Theological Seminary (Grace Brethren): founded in 1937, it publishes Grace Theological Journal, which has recently begun publishing the annual dispensational papers presented in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society, making available to the scholarly world current dispensational discus­sions.

5 Mission organizations: numerous mission organizations have arisen from the dispensa­tional tradition, including: Campus Crusade for Christ, Jews for Jesus, Friends of Israel, SIM (Sudan Interior Mission), CAM Int'l (formerly Central American Mission), AIM Int'l (formerly Africa Inland Mission), Africa Evangelical Fellowship, Baptist Mid-Missions.

Issues and tensions

Hermeneutics Earlier dispensationalists insisted upon a consistent literal interpretation of prophecy. This insistence upon a literal interpretation did not imply a denial of figurative language or symbols. Rather, the term 'literal' has been employed to insist that all Scripture is to be interpreted in accordance with received linguistic conventions. In par­ticular, the term is used in opposition to (1) older Covenant theologians' denial of a literal future fulfilment of the Old Testament prophe­cies concerning national Israel and the messianic kingdom; (2) the spiritual appropriation of those prophecies/promises by the church; and (3) the theologians' fusion of Israel and the church into one virtually indistinguishable entity.

Founded upon the epistemological presup­positions of Scottish common sense and employing Baconian inductivism as a method, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century dispensationalists approached the Bible as scientists, arranging the 'facts' in a literal fashion. Operating upon the assumption that the Bible teaches a single system, dispensationalism claimed to present the Bible's own view of itself.

A naive literalism seen in such slogans as 'if the plain sense makes sense seek no other sense' often characterized the earlier movement, particularly on the popular level. Such literal­ism often led early dispensational writers to see sharp distinctions between concepts such as the 'kingdom of God' and the 'kingdom of heaven', distinctions which contemporary dispensational scholars disavow. Early spokesman R.A. Torrey insisted, 'in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases the meaning the plain man gets out of the Bible is the correct one.' This insistence arose from the conviction that the Bible was God's message to the common man rather than to the scholar. Insistence on the 'literal' meaning of the text and upon common-sense interpretation opened the door for viewing the text apart from its historical context. In recent decades the Scottish common-sense epistemology has been supplanted by a critical realism, while the plain literal interpretation of earlier generations has been progressively supplanted by thorough­going historical-grammatical interpretation and coupled with increasing critical interaction and sensitivity to contemporary hermeneutical con­cerns, including the historical limitations of the interpreter.

Historiography Prior to the nineteenth century, Covenant theology had in practice denied the concepts of development and progressive revela­tion in Scripture. These issues of development and change in the Scriptures which gave birth to dispensationalism were the same issues which engaged higher criticism in the nineteenth century. In many respects dispensationalism represents the mirror opposite of higher criticism, confronting the same issues but solving them on totally different bases. Whereas modernism was optimistic concerning [110] the improvement of the human condition through the development of culture, dispensationalism was thoroughly pessimistic. Both focused upon an understanding of the relation of the Bible to history. But while modernism viewed biblical history through the evolutionary lens of universal history, with naturalistic forces at work in the development of religion, dispensationalism contemplated human history exclusively through the lens of the Bible and answered the problem of change by appealing to divine intervention in human affairs.

Dispensational historiography views the world as a stage upon which the drama of cosmic redemption is fought between the divine forces and those of Satan. Each dispensation functions as an act in that drama. Development in the modern sense of the term may take place within dispensations, but not between. Hope for improvement of the human plight is Christological, posited in the return of Christ, rather than anthropological, in progressive human development in history. The unifying principle of history is eschatological, with God revealing his character and glory in successive dispensa­tions.

While there is no universally agreed scheme of dispensations, the most commonly recog­nized scheme is that of C.I. Scofield: (1) innocence (encompassing humanity's pre-fall condition); (2) conscience (to the flood); (3) human government (until the call of Abraham); (4) promise (until Moses); (5) law (until the death of Christ); (6) church (the present post-Pentecost age); (7) the millennium. Each of these dispensations is inaugurated by God establishing a covenant with humanity which creates a relationship of responsibility between the covenanting parties. Normally the covenants are unconditional, based upon grace, whereby God binds himself to accomplish certain purposes despite any failure on the part of covenanted humanity. The significant exception is the conditional, bilateral Mosaic covenant which is replaced by the New Covenant.

The dispensational periodization of history has frequently been misunderstood as teaching different bases of salvation in different ages. This charge is vehemently denied. Salvation is always by grace and founded upon the atonement of Christ. The content of the revelation to be trusted by the individual in the various ages is what changes, not the means or basis of salvation.

Dispensational historiography has proved to have practical political implications. Dispensationalists have had a political bias towards the nation of Israel based upon God's promise to Abraham (Gen. 12: 3). A creeping historicism has led many dispensationalists to identify the founding of the nation of Israel in 1948 as a fulfilment of prophecy. This, in turn, has led to an often uncritical support for Israel, lest one be found working against the purposes of God.

Sine qua non Many regard the essence of dispensationalism as the periodization of his­tory. There have however been many through­out the centuries who have recognized such a need, but who cannot be considered dispensa­tionalists. Ryrie (1965) argued that the sine qua non of dispensationalism was its distinction between the church and Israel. As originally taught, dispensationalism posited a radical distinction between the church and Israel as two separate peoples with two radically separate destinies. The church was God's heavenly people; Israel, God's earthly people. The hope of the church was heaven; the hope of Israel, an eternal kingdom on the renewed earth. The radical distinction between Israel and the church has in recent decades been repudiated as most contemporary dispensational scholars argue for one eternal people of God but two distinct institutional organizations in history. Most contemporary dispensational scholars find Ryrie's sine qua non inadequate. While main­taining a distinction between the church and Israel, contemporary dispensationalists see so much continuity between Israel and the church that one critic has charged that on this issue dispensationalism and contemporary Covenant theology have become virtually indistinguish­able.

Cessation of the charismata? There is widespread confusion as to the dispensational position with reference to the charismatic renewal. Classical Pentecostalism is thoroughly dispensational, while representatives of non-Pentecostal dis­pensationalism have argued against the con­tinuation of the charismata. This opposition to the charismata however is not endemic to the dispensational system, but rather reflects an affinity of non-Pentecostal dispensationalists to the Calvinisric attitudes exemplified in B.B. [111] Warfield's Counterfeit Miracles of 1918.

Contributions of dispensationalism

Historically, in the USA it was a coalition of dispensational preachers, teachers and laymen that actively fought the modernistic attacks upon historic orthodoxy by (1) publishing works such as The Fundamentals, a twelve-volume paperback series of 1910-15 mailed to every pastor, missionary, theological professor, Bible teacher, Bible College and seminary student in the English-speaking world (over three million copies were distributed); (2) founding Bible institutes, colleges and semin­aries out of which has arisen contemporary American evangelicalism.

Theologically, in the USA dispensational ecclesiology de-institutionalized grace by its emphasis upon the church as the spiritual body of Christ. This attitude played a major role in fostering an evangelical ecumenism which spread far beyond cooperation in the revivals of nineteenth-century American evan­gelicalism. This recognition of spiritual broth­erhood de-emphasized denominational loyalties and gave cohesion to the evangelical world view. It has been suggested that the striking success of parachurch movements in the USA is due in measure to this de-institutionalization of grace which has characterized dispensationalism.

Another major contribution of the movement lies in its insistence upon an apocalyptic perspective, not only in understanding the Scriptures but also in accomplishing the present theological task. Ernst Käsemann has noted, 'Apocalyptic . . . was the mother of all Christian theology.' But institutional Anglo-American theology prior to the late nineteenth century was decidedly anti-apocalyptic in its perspective. George Ladd admitted, 'We must recognize our debt to dispensationalism ... to all intents and purposes it revived the doctrine of the second advent of Christ and made it meaningful in the churches.'

Biblically, with its emphasis upon progressive revelation and the discontinuity of the church and Israel, dispensationalism anticipated the conclusions of contemporary scholarship with reference to Paul and the law, recognizing a significant discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments regarding the Christ event. On this issue, dispensational scholarship is closer to contemporary critical conclusions than to the conclusions of Covenant theology.

Practically, from the earlier advocacy of a 'literal hermeneutic' to the contemporary insistence upon historical-grammatical interpre­tation, dispensationalism has asserted the primacy of the Scriptures and the ability of the layman to interpret and understand them. Its common-sense hermeneutic opened the Scriptures for the layman and fostered compre­hensive knowledge of and love for the Bible.

Due to apocalyptic expectations, a large number of early dispensationalists urged with­drawal from worldly occupations, politics and institutions, emphasizing instead evangelism and missions with the hope of saving as many as possible before the rapture. Thus, dispensa­tionalism provided an impetus to the explosion of missionary activity of the twentieth century. At the same time it largely abandoned the public forum to secularism, viewing such involvement as 'polishing brass on a sinking ship'. Many contemporary dispensational theologians have rejected the narrow interpretation of salvation/ redemption implicit in this mentality and its accompanying pessimism concerning the world, encouraging instead creative engagement with the social and political structures of society.

A tradition in transition

Since the 1970s a new era of development in dispensational thought has been underway. In recent decades its scholars have moved from the defensive posture of earlier years. Dispensa­tional exegesis has moved beyond the naive literalism of earlier years to a more consistent application of the historical-grammatical meth­od of interpretation. Contemporary dispensa­tional scholars are critically re-evaluating the system and significant development is occur­ring. Eschatologically, a significant and growing number are comfortable with an inaugurated eschatology as opposed to the strict futurism of previous generations, seeing the kingdom of God as having been already inaugurated at Pentecost but not yet fully manifested. Since the Scofield Bible has lost the confessional status it enjoyed earlier in the century, it is more accurate to speak of contemporary dispensa­tionalism as a tradition bound together by shared presuppositions (futurist premillennialism, a temporal distinction between the church and Israel with an accompanying national future for Israel in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, and historical-grammatical interpre­tation) rather than a system.

Bibliography

Bass, Clarence [1960] 1977: Backgrounds to Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids: Baker reprint.

Blaising, Craig A., and Bock, Darrell, eds 1992: Israel and the Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Breshears, Gerry 1991: Dispensationalism bibliogra­phy, 1965-1990. Portland, Or.: Western Conser­vative Baptist Seminary.

Ehlert, Arnold D. 1965: A Bibliographic History of Dispensationalism. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

Fuller, Daniel P. 1980: Gospel and Law. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Johnson, Elliot E. 1990: Expository Hermeneutics: An Introduction. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Kraus, C. Norman 1958: Dispensationalism in America. Richmond: John Knox Press.

McClain, Alva J. [19591 1968: The Greatness of the Kingdom. Chicago: Moody Press.

Marsden, George M. 1980: Fundamentalism and American Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Poythress, Vern 1987: Understanding Dispensationalists. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Radmacher, Earl D. 1972: The Nature of the Church. Chicago: Moody Press.

Ryrie, Charles C. 1965: Dispensationalism Today. Chicago: Moody Press.

Sandeen, Ernest R. [1970] 1978: The Knots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800-1930. Grand Rapids: Baker reprint.

Weber, Timothy P. 1983: Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism 1875-1982, enlarged edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Source: McGrath, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought, pp. 106-112.