| The
Attack on Dispensationalism
To
Honor Jesus Christ, Glorify
God, Encourage Believers, & Warn All This
information is offered with the hope that YOU can come to KNOW the Lord
personally. "Dispensationalists" are under attack from virtually every quarter. The attacks consist mostly of half truths, innuendo, and outright misrepresentation of traditional dispensationalism. In short, "dispensationalism" is really being used today in the public forum as a code word to represent a supposed cultic (the critics' word, not mine) group who is responsible for the promotion of misguided U.S. political policies vis-a-vis Israel, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, and the Islamic middle-east. I will put the word dispensationalists in italics to indicate the propaganda that is being fomented solely for the purpose of labelling believers (in the literal truth of the Bible) as extremists. When we talk about true dispensationalism, the word will be printed without italics. The "experts" claim that the "cultic dispensationalists" support Israel at all costs (regardless of what Israel does wrong). The "experts" do this to agitate the Moslems and the general public against the "dispensationalists." Yet, at the same time, the "experts" claim that the dispensationalists are insistent upon another holocaust for Israel. The "experts" do this to agitate "normal Christians" against the cultic dispensationalists. Both of these lies about dispensationalists are being told because dispensationalists are said to be "promoting" an Armageddon. If you believe I am exaggerating, do an internet search on "dispensational extremists" and see what appears. Some of the people that are telling these lies are religious, "godly", and "good." These "experts" are purportedly "protecting" the public's interests against such "extremism." In reality, the "experts" themselves are going to make the tribulation per se the fault of Bible believers who supposedly "promoted" the tribulation. In so doing, the "experts" are going to promote the martyrdom of the tribulation saints. It is going to be the unbelievers who actually bring about the tribulation events (while they insist that such Bible events are mere superstition). God will use the events for His purposes and He will use the unbelievers to bring His Word to pass. Meanwhile, the unbelievers will be insisting that a literal interpretation of Bible prophecy is absurd. The unbelievers have already begun. They now have a war of "good" versus "evil." One of the "evil" groups is the dispensationalists. This makes those who oppose the dispensationalists "good." How far this nation has fallen from being a nation of constitutional law with respect for freedom of religion. Where will this eventually lead? They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. John 16:2 We discussed previously a context for this particular line of thought. The logic of the "experts" goes somewhat like this. Bush is a Bible believer. Bush and his extremist dispensational supporters want to promote Armageddon so that their hopes for the return of Jesus Christ and Israeli Zionism may be met. This website itself has been accused of promoting Armageddon along with Bush's dead-end followers. What is at the root of the critics' logic? The critics know that dispensationalists believe in a literal second coming of Jesus Christ. What the critics can not understand is that dispensationalists do not believe they can or should do anything to promote the second coming. The God of Abraham, the author of the Abrahamic Covenant and the Davidic Covenant, does not need our assistance to bring His promises to pass. In fact, God help the man whose works proceed from anything other than Waiting on the Lord. Our goal is to Rest in the Lord, not invade and destroy sovereign nations, nor promote the bombing of civilians, nor launch a crusade against an entire religion, nor promote "imperialism" or globalization. Dispensationalists believe that God has made certain promises (and given certain literal prophecies) and that He will bring these to pass without any assistance from dispensationalists. Since the nature of the tribulation period is evil, God will use unbelievers to bring it to pass. While the unbelievers rid the world of "extremists," they will bring the prophecies to pass. So far from it being the dispensationalists, it will be those that mock God and His Word (or ignore His Word) which will bring about Armageddon. Do I exaggerate? http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dispensationalism In an article entitled Dispensationalism (emphasis added) Few
Americans
understand the real reasons for the alliance between
Christian fundamentalism and the most
extreme segments of right wing
Israeli political life...
During two of Jerry Falwell’s Holy Land tours, the author interviewed fundamentalist members of the Moral Majority, all of whom believed that the biblical prophecy of fighting World War 3 must be fulfilled before Christ can return to earth. This
strain of
fundamentalism is known as "dispensationalism".
Halsell writes that these fundamentalists believe the world will soon
be destroyed:... The cult of Dispensationalism spread throughout
America largely through
the efforts of Cyrus
Ingerson Scofield, born in 1843. His belief system
originates with John Nelson
Darby, a 19th-century Irishman and one-time
priest in the Church of England. Dispensationalists believe that in the
Old Testament God promised the Jewish people an earthly kingdom ruled
by Messiah ben David, and that when Christ came He offered this
prophesied kingdom to the Jews. When the Jews of the time rejected
Christ and the earthly kingdom, the promise was postponed, and the
"mystery form" of the kingdom - the church - was established.
The church, according to dispensational doctrine, was unforeseen in the Old Testament and constitutes a "parenthesis" in God's plan for Israel. In the future, the distinction between Jew and Gentile will be reestablished and will continue throughout all eternity. The "parenthesis", or church age, will end at the Rapture when Christ comes invisibly to take all believers (excepting OT saints) to heaven to celebrate the "marriage feast of the Lamb" with Christ for a period of seven years. On one occasion, Scofield reminded his audience that year after year he had sounded the same warning: our world will end "in disaster, in ruin, in the great, final world-catastrophe." But, he said, "born-again Christians should welcome such a catastrophe because once the final battle has begun Christ will lift them up into the clouds." While most rational human beings understand the foregoing to be superstitious nonsense, it is important to remember that we have a great capacity for profound but irrational belief sytems. Grace
Halsell
became a participant in two of Jerry Falwell's sponsored
journeys to Israel, where she
mingled with many dispensationalists.
One
of them, Owen, explained his belief system, which entailed the need
to
destroy Jerusalem’s most holy Islamic shrine, and the necessity of
waging a nuclear war [Armegeddon] to destroy the world.
The author quotes Walvoord (a dispensationalist professor and long time president of Dallas Theological Seminary), As
for destroying
planet earth, we can do nothing. Peace, for us, is not in God’s book … .
I wonder what the question was that Walvoord was answering? Peace is in God's book (Isa 11:6). Man's peace, however, will end in disaster. The
Dispensationalists
believe that they
will go straight to Heaven
without the pain of dying, while the rest of the human race - including
Jews who don't convert - will soon be wiped out with great suffering.
In their passion for the return of Christ, or the Rapture, these
people
forsake the most fundamental Christian principles of humanity toward
other human beings (and
even
Christians) in the Middle East and they
humiliate Muslims anywhere and everywhere.
Any policies
that promote
conflict and misery in the Middle East are "good" for their own ends,
because the more misery there is in the world then the sooner they
believe that Christ will return and deliver them from evil.
I guess we understand how the God of dispensationalism works now. He waits, no, He encourages (no, He agitates) His own people to "promote conflict and misery" so that He can come and deliver us. The dispensationalist God is dependent upon us to create conflict and misery!! [Note: "conflict and misery" refer to Daniel's 70th week and the events of the book of Revelation (chap 6 and forward), for the most part the same events.] The real dispensational belief system (pre-millennialism) consists of the idea that the Kingdom of God comes after the King returns to restore the Kingdom. The chief theological opposition to dispensational thought is the idea that those on earth prepare the Kingdom and then He comes (post millennialism). The sourcewatch.org description of dispensationalism is actually more in agreement with post millennialism than dispensational pre-millennialism. And we shall see that it is indeed the post millennialists (I use the term loosely here; elaboration to follow.) who are precisely the ones responsible for the coming "conflict and misery." [Other alternatives to the dispensational system are that of preterism (the "conflict and misery" has already literally happened in 70AD) and historicism (the "conflict and misery" do not happen in a literal cataclysmic sense, but are symptomatic of the historical development of the kingdom over the centuries).] In the sourcewatch.org article we note that a swipe is taken at Jerry Falwell, Darby (the supposed founder of dispensationalism), and Scofield (the promoter of dispensationalism). Elsewhere on the net, you find similar attacks against Pat Robertson. The sourcewatch.org author apparently believes that if Scofield and Darby were alive they would be neo-con Zionists supporting the occupation of Iraq, the bombing of Lebanon, preemptive strikes against Iran, the depiction of Islam as terrorism per se, and humiliating Muslims vis-a-vis the Clash of Civilizations. I can see it now - Charles Nelson Darby, an advocate of invading Iraq on 9-12-2001, and eventual president of the World Bank. Can you picture Cyrus I Scofield spending his time looking for WMDs in Iraq and blaming Saddam for 9-11? Here's one for you - Scofield is the head of the CIA and he is collaborating with Darby who is head of the Pakistani ISI. What are they doing? They are creating the Taliban and the al-Qaeda. Their eventual plan is to blame the dispensationalists. As ludicrous as this sounds, it is closer to the truth than the sourcewatch.org misrepresentations. Now as to attacks on the "dispensationalist" Pat Robertson, see this as an example- http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2006/01/pat_roberston_o.html 700
Club founder,
author, and "Bible prophecy" analyist Pat Robertson has created another
furor with his comments yesterday about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, who recently suffered a stroke and is apparently near
death:...Robertson's
view are based, of course, in his "end times" beliefs about
the role that Israel will play in fast-approaching global events. These
views are, according to Anglican author Stephen Sizer, part of a larger
movement of "Christian Zionism," a topic that Sizer, who is vicar of
Christ Church in Virginia Water (Surrey), has written about
extensively. InterVarsity Press has just released a new edition of
Sizer's Christian
Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon,
a detailed critique of the support accorded by some Evanglical
Protestants (especially those fascinated with "end times" scenarios) to
the Israeli state — not on political ground alone, but on theological
assumptions and premises.
The difficulty here is that Pat Robertson is a blatant post-millennialist, not a premilliennial dispensationalist. In a book authored by Robertson, he says "If
you are concerned
about your world and the
one your children and grandchildren will inherit, this book is a must
read." The New World Order,
1991, World Publishing, cover.
Does the
question by Pat
Robertson sound like he wants you active in creating the Kingdom?
Certainly. If you have any doubts, read the following (from a
speech Pat made to the CFR, of all people) in which Pat proposes-"a
NEW ORGANIZATION of
NATIONS to supersede and
replace the United Nations...[called] the Community of Democratic
Nations..."
[in order that] "international institutional dynamics ... be superseded
by
the new realities of the twenty-first century." (Ibid., p 56)
Pat says his idea is- "the
beginning of a new
era of realism [in?] the
struggle of freedom against totalitarian tyranny." (Ibid., p 57)
The god of
this world, Satan,
is in charge of the world until the Lord returns. However, Pat
wants to propose a different form of government, a Community of
Democratic Nations, over which Satan can rule now. Sounded like Pat was
"solving" the War on Terror before it started (1991). According
to Paul Boyer in an article entitled "A Brief History of the End of
Time" in The New Republic of
May 17, 1993, Pat is"fully
believ[ing] in
the apocalyptic
scriptures."
As we have already explained there is a difference between the pre-millennial dispensationalists and the post-millennialists. Pat is an example of activist post millennialist. Christ will return after we "fix" the world. The truth of the situation is this - Religious Kingdom Promoters, Social Do-Gooders, and Globalists (RKP-SDG-G) can not understand why dispensationalists do not think like they do. The RKP-SDG-G are going to bring about "God's Kingdom" on earth. [They may not invoke God's name in so doing, but they are kingdom building nonetheless. Kingdom building can become an international umbrella that includes everyone except the Bible literalists.] Since the RKP-SDG-Gers think like men, they believe that the dispensationalists think like men also. What the RKP-SDG-G do not understand is that God is sovereign, not us and not them. We do not have to do anything. Now as to our forsaking the most fundamental Christian principles of humanity and humiliating Muslims anywhere and everywhere, true believers do no such thing. This website has warned repeatedly about the Clash of Civilizations paradigm. Only the ignorant are doing these things and that is because there is a full scale propaganda campaign to convince the citizens of the US of the need to do such things. To say those responsible for such propaganda are dispensationalists is a political strategy. These kinds of attacks on dispensationalists did not start yesterday. The second coming of Jesus Christ is a widely held belief in the United States says the New Republic article by Boyer. Consequently, an attack on those who believe in a literal second coming may be broadly construed as an attack on the country itself (Boyer said this). That is what the "war on terror" ultimately accomplishes - an eventual destruction of the constitutional republic. In the aforementioned May 17, 1993 New Republic article by Boyer "A Brief History of the End of Time" you would never imagine the subtitle of this article. The American Roots of the Branch Davidians. So, it seems, the whole country of America is full of extremist dispensationalists. David Koresh was the "proof." To mitigate against this "extremism", we needed a strategy then (1993) and we need the same stratgey now, the mediation of Rome. The same solution strategy was being offered in 1993. (Waco happened April 19, 1993.) Rush
Limbaugh, the spokesman TO the "right", on May 18, 1993 (the day after
the Boyer article) said the media
is viewing "us"
as all being
"religious
weirdos". To whom is Rush referring if not the
conservative citizenry of the US? (At the same time that
Rush was saying this there were ads on his radio program selling "making
a little
extra income" or
"possibly having a business of your own."
The ads were by
Pat Robertson. ) The
Boyer article may
explain what
President Clinton
meant when he said, after Waco, that we need to be prepared to do this
again. "This" is action
against the religious element which Clinton was told is his
enemy. The enemy was not David Koresh or his
"cult," though Clinton might have thought so. The strategy was to
make literal Bible believers a target for public condemnation.
This
strategy continues. In fact, Rush Limbaugh of May 18, 1993
promoted "universal
truths and standards." The same type of phrase "foundation
of time
honored principles" is used by
Robertson on page 56 of The
New World Order. In the same book, Robertson says
that Pope Pius XI is a "person
of such esteem
[that he] must be given
great credence [when speaking of the establishment of a new
world order]." (p
72)
So, there are religious political activists
who want to affect national
policies and they have been around for some time, but, they are not
dispensationalists. The "universal truths
and standards" and the "foundation
of time
honored principles" were offered to solve
the problems of
"extremism." Behind the political solution and the "universal truths
and standards" is Rome. The profound Catholic libertarian philosopher, Dr. Leonard Liggio, once remarked how surprised he was that Americans who lived overseas nearly always came to the same conclusion, that American foreign policy is generally misguided. Today most Dispensationalists are very insular and know very little about the outside world, however they are a major factor in US foreign policy under Bush. As an example of Dispensationalism in the Bush administration, NSC Near East and North African Affairs director Elliot Abrams sat down with the Christian fundamentalist Apostolic Congress in an attempt to massage their theological concerns. Claiming to be "the Christian Voice in the Nation's Capital," the members vociferously oppose the idea of a Palestinian state. They fear an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza may enable just that, and they object on the grounds that all of Old Testament Israel belongs to the Jews. Until Israel is intact and Solomon's temple rebuilt, they believe, Christ won't come back to earth. True dispensationalists do not need a massage of their theological concerns. LOL. Personally, I have no "theological concerns." The notion of "theological concerns" is hilarious to me. I just believe God is going to do what He said He was going to do. The sovereignty of God is an impossible topic for mortal men to grasp. Dispensationalists are notorious for their suspicions toward earthly governments. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism we read-Dispensationalism
teaches that Christians should not expect spiritual
good from earthly governments, and should expect social conditions to
decline as the end times draw nearer.
There may be some dispensationalists who want to influence the Bush Administration, but there are no true dispensationalists who want to do this. If there are some religious influences on the Bush Administration, they are properly understood as post-millennialists. If one conducts a survey of contemporary political society, there are some interesting "post-millennialists", broadly defined as kingdom makers. A short list (in no particular order) includes neo-cons, Rome, Jesuits, communists, socialists, Republicans, Democrats, religionists, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, (I quit watching network TV news 30 years ago), think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation and so forth (there are plenty of them), Zionism, CFR, Trilateral Commission, globalization and terrorism, free trade, NAFTA, CAFTA, illegal immigration, the US educational system (particularly social sciences), ad nauseum. The difference between the dispensationalists and everyone on the above list is that all those on the list believe THEY are going to do it. The dispensationalists believe God is going to do it. Attacks on dispensationalism are not limited to the political realm. They are from the "conservative" theological realm as well. 01-19-2008 Recently I received the following email: Hello Russell, I hope to see you there
that we may engage in a one on one discussion. This is perhaps
one of the best forums I’ve encountered without the biased controls of
certain moderator’s that try to place limits on the opposing sides
discussions. We are also a peaceful forum, and rarely does anyone
lose their composure. Most importantly, I believe you would have
much to contribute in debating eschatology. Please Russell, we are looking for more Futurist / Dispensationalist to test the waters with us. Come take a plunge friend; the water is fine. Sincerely,JR P.S. My screen name
is __ and __ along with his lovely wife, is __. Both
are the moderator’s for this forum, and they are wanting more
Futurist’s to join. God bless. Come join us at the
Biblewheel.com After I read the link above, I replied as follows (quotes from the linked page are in italics)- J- I am not trying to be
argumentative here, but...
Your quotes [the first in regards to dispensationalist being attacked]- No,
I wouldn’t quite put it like that. Rather, Dispensationalist are being correctly
refuted. Obviously, you did not
carefully read my article and the references to the attackers. These attackers are not
post Mil Bible believers. They are political
operatives. They have no desire to present Bible truths in
any form.
Their message has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible. They have no desire whatsoever to make a Biblical refutation. Why would they? They do not believe the Bible is true, period. Ergo, there is no Biblical refutation, which is the only way to refute anything. My article is about
people who promote the nonsense that "Darbyists" promote
How can anyone come to a conclusion like this? (regarding Satan being the god of this world) If Jesus can, I can. I guess when Jesus was tempted by Satan with the Kingdoms of this world it must have been a joke and thus Jesus was not tempted. [Note- see 2 Cor 4:4] blaming Post Mil’s for the attacks Futurists are enduring today Once again, you must not have read my article carefully. Quoting my article- And
we shall see that
it is indeed the post
millennialists (I use the term loosely here;
elaboration to follow.) who are precisely the ones responsible for the
coming "conflict and misery."
Again, I am not talking
about Bible believers here. My loose usage of the term
"post millennialists" is eventually defined in the article. If one conducts a survey
of contemporary political society,
there are some interesting "post-millennialists",
broadly defined as kingdom makers.
A short list (in no particular order) includes neo-cons, Rome, Jesuits,
communists, socialists, Republicans, Democrats, religionists, Fox News,
MSNBC, CNN, (I quit watching network TV news 30 years ago), think
tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation and
so forth (there are plenty of them), Zionism, CFR, Trilateral
Commission, globalization and terrorism,
free trade, NAFTA, CAFTA, illegal immigration, the US educational
system (particularly social sciences), ad nauseum. The difference
between the dispensationalists and everyone on the above list is that
all those on the list believe THEY are going to do it. The
dispensationalists believe God is going to do it.
However, I can not help
it if your Bible doctrine agrees in principle (and dovetails) with the
political activities of the above list of Kingdom builders.
Since I believe what I
write on my website to be true, I do not have any time to waste.
Smile.
If you want to be a
post-millennialist, preterist, historicist or anything else; it is a
free country (at least for now).
Suffice it to say: there
will be plenty of religious people murdering true believers during the
trib.
Those killed will be
vilified for believing in a literal trib, mark, AC, rapture, "peace
treaty", 2nd coming etc.
[Note: John 16:2] My
message is to
those future martyrs and others who will believe before the
trib (and I can not afford to be sidetracked).
Russell A discussion of dispensationalism is found here (read all the way through the end of 01-02-2005, part B) and this discussion and especially this. End 01-19-2008 How Is A Man Saved? Home Page Please e-mail us with questions or comments today. I may be wrong, but, the Bible is never wrong. Jesus-is-the-Way
|
|||||