Is Dispensationalism Orthodox?

Last updated on: August 3, 2022 at 4:19 pm by Roger E. Olson

Is Dispensationalism Orthodox? 2022-08-03T16:19:23-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

*Note: If you choose to comment, be sure to keep it brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, civil and respectful (not argumentative or hostile), and void of any links or photos.*

Over the years of my journey through American evangelical Christianity of many types I have discerned that dispensationalism has become “taken for granted” as biblical and orthodox, perhaps even essential to a robust biblicism and orthodoxy, by many, many conservative Protestants.

I am aware of numerous conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist preachers, teachers, speakers, and writers who are extremely popular, who are influencers among conservative Protestant Christians, especially older ones (!), who “specialize” in themes related to dispensational biblical hermeneutics, especially with regard to eschatology “end times” and “biblical prophecy.”

I will refrain from mentioning their names here, but if you “in the know” about conservative American evangelicalism and fundamentalism, you probably know some of them. Their books crowd the shelves of Christian bookstores and church libraries. They are extremely popular on Youtube and Christian television.

What I am getting at is something like this. These people and their dispensational approach to the Bible and theology is for older conservative American Christians, evangelicals and fundamentalists, what the “new Calvinism” has been for younger conservative American Christians for several decades.

Some of these “Bible teachers’” books sell by the millions and they have millions of followers among especially older American Christian men of an especially conservative ideological and theological posture. Included in their messages are: Christian Zionism (rarely mentioned by that label), the pretribulational rapture, the Antichrist identified (or at least strongly hinted at), biblical apocalyptic literature literally interpreted (but sometimes imaginatively so!), emphasis on the “great tribulation,” the “mark of the beast,” the “battle of Armageddon,” etc.

There is very little that is new in these messages except some of the details such as that “the Antichrist will be European” or “Iran is prophesied in the Bible,” or “the mark of the beast is being prepared by the secretly emerging one world government.”

When I was a young man, one of these “Bible prophecy teachers” was named Willard Cantelon and I heard him speak several times and read some of his books such as “The Day the Dollar Died.” His popularity was relatively short-lived as far as I know, but he specialized in doom and gloom predications about the coming European Union and how the United States’ currency would be cancelled and replaced by something like what later came to be called the “Euro.” What all that had to do with Christianity I struggled to understand. But I was almost forced to listen to him and read him because of his popularity within “my Christian circles”—back then (1970s).

What I am discovering is that very few of the older conservative Christian men (and some women) who are almost obsessed with these wildly popular dispensational “Bible teachers” realize or know anything about the dispensational “iceberg” lying beneath the “tip” showing above the surface. Or they know about it but don’t really realize that it is relatively new in church history, having been either discovered or invented by men like John Nelson Darby in the mid-19th century.

Some of these popular “Bible teachers” seem to assume that the dispensationalism they were taught at institutions like Dallas Theological Seminary is part and parcel of biblical orthodoxy such that anyone who rejects it is at best ignorant and at worst “lacking in biblical fidelity” (the accusation hurled at me by a professor of dispensationalism when asked to endorse one of my books).

So what is the most debatable aspect of dispensationalism? It’s not the pre-tribulational rapture but the notion that the gentile church is a kind of “Plan B” in God’s overall plan of redemption with Israel having been and remaining “Plan A.” This is really the main reason for the “rapture”—the removal of the gentile church, true Christians, SO THAT God can redeem Israel, bringing her to accept her messiah Jesus—during the “great tribulation.” Then, when Jesus returns at the end of the great tribulation, he will rule and reign over the world from Jerusalem, possibly even from a restored temple.

Why is the gentile church secondary to Israel in God’s plan of redemption? Because God’s promises to Abraham have not yet been fulfilled and that partly because Israel rejected Jesus who was and is her true messiah. But, “in the end times,” God will return to saving Israel apart from the gentile church which will be removed in the rapture. Some dispensationalists even go so far as to believe that God has two plans of salvation, one for Jews and one for gentiles. Both “merge,” as it were, in Jesus Christ, but during the “age of the gentiles,” Jews do not have to accept Jesus to be saved if they live faithful to the covenant God established with them through Moses and the prophets.

My concern is that many conservative, evangelical Protestant Christians in America and perhaps around the world are buying into dispensationalism without being fully informed or fully understanding what it entails. What it entails differs, in certain details, from one “Bible prophecy teacher” to another one, but the basics remain the same—especially the pre-tribulational rapture and the non-supercessionist view of the church and Israel. Dispensationalists radically reject any idea of the church as “the new Israel.” The gentile church is almost a footnote or sidebar in God’s overall plan of redemption which centers around Israel, Abraham and his descendants.

Recently someone asked me if it is possible to be Reformed and dispensationalist. It certainly is—in a hybrid, some would say distortion—of Reformed theology. One such creative Reformed dispensationalist or dispensational Reformed “Bible teacher” was Donald Grey Barnhouse, long-time pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. In spite of the fact that he was a Calvinist, because he was a dispensationalist, he was a huge influence in the Bible college I attended and from which I graduated; it was anything BUT Calvinist.

In my experience, dispensationalism has become so much a part of the fabric of conservative, fundamentalist, evangelical Protestant Christianity in America that it is hardly ever mentioned as such, as “dispensationalist.” When I am among them and I explain what dispensationalism is and why I’m not dispensational, the reaction I often get is that I might be in danger of denying the Bible. Dispensationalism is often considered “the doctrine of the Bible” even where it is not known by that name.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 1, 2022

Without a Doubt?

Next Post

August 6, 2022 A New Book about Calvinism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Revelation, what is the correct sequence of events in the End Times?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Dragon cast to earth, beast rises from sea, false prophet rises from earth, mark of the beast given False prophet rises, dragon cast to earth, beast rises from sea, mark of the beast given Mark of the beast given, dragon cast to earth, beast rises, false prophet rises Beast rises from sea, dragon cast to earth, mark of the beast given, false prophet rises