FLAWS OF PRO-ISRAEL
RAPTURISM
By Dave Haigler, Dave@Haigler.info - November 2004
Because
of the perceived influence of dispensational rapturism upon
We
will discuss four aspects of dispensational rapturism:
(1) Its definition and history;
(2) Its treatment of God's law and grace,
contrasted with prior post-Reformation Christianity;
(3) Its beliefs concerning the
relationship of the Christian church to
(4) Its distinctive view of the
end-times, sometimes called the "preTribulational rapture."
In
researching this piece, I started out with the hope that I could explain a few
Bible verses and contrast them with dispensationalism, rather than indulge in
excessive theological quibbling, for there is a lot of that in the
bibliography, and a good example is found in "CALVINISM EX CATHEDRA: A
REVIEW OF JOHN H. GERSTNER'S WRONGLY DIVIDING
THE WORD OF TRUTH: A CRITIQUE OF
DISPENSATIONALISM by ZANE C. HODGES, at website:
http://www.faithalone.org/journal/1991b/Calvin.html
I. Dispensationalism - Its
Nature & Origins
The
first challenge is defining what dispensationalism stands for (including the
belief in a rapture, the theory that Christians will be raptured or taken out
of the earth, leaving all their troubles and all unbelievers behind). It would seem easy enough to research
whomever is the leading spokesperson for the view and summarize his/her
explanation. However, there is an
ominous warning in the published dispensational literature that says there are
three distinct phases of dispensationalism from 1909 through the end of that
century, and any skeptic should beware of criticizing something that has been
revised:
] If
you are a skeptic, detractor, or critic of dispensationalism, you might want to
find out and make clear just what you are critiquing: Is it one of the
dispensational expressions from the centuries before Darby, Scofield and
Chafer? Is it the systematized Darby, Scofield, Chafer Classical versions
from before the 1950s? Is it the Revised school of thought from before
the 1990s? Or is it the presently rising Progressive Dispensationalism?
If all your training and opposition is geared to something from the 1800s, or
even the first half of the 1900s it may come as an embarrassing shock for you
to find out in the 2000s that what you are trained to oppose isn’t what a huge
percent of today’s (and tomorrow’s) dispensationalists even believe.
(emphasis
mine, to note the 3 phases and the erroneous implication that dispensationalism
had origins prior to 1800). Rev. Robert
Gillette, "WELCOME TO THE PROGRESSIVE DISPENSATIONALISM
To
keep this article manageable, we will focus on Gillette's middle position, as
articulated in the leading treatise on the subject, Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1965), republished as Dispensationalism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995).
Dispensationalism
is a subset of premillennialism originating among the Plymouth Brethren in the
early 1830's, with traces of it in the prior decade found in the writings of
three charismatic women missionaries living in the
One
of the key subjects on which dispensationalism has evolved through its various
phases is its treatment of law vs. grace.
At first, different plans of salvation were
found in the earlier edition of the Scofield
Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909, 1927), page 1115,
note 1(2), footnoted to John 1:17, where Scofield contrasted the dispensation
of law with that of grace. "The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but
acceptance or rejection of Christ..." (emphasis added.) This statement unambiguously says that
In contrast with Scofield's earlier view that between the fall of
man and the sacrifice of Christ, "legal obedience [was] the condition of
salvation," which the 1967 edition masked, the core of post-Reformation
Christianity for over 350 years has believed that the covenant of works as a
means of securing eternal life, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience to God,
applied only prior to the fall of Adam,
but was superceded by the covenant of grace thereafter, but long before Jesus
Christ was incarnated. This standard of
orthodox belief is seen in Chapter 7 of the Westminster Confession of Faith of
1641-46 and the Scriptures supporting it, as follows:
] 7:2 The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works Gal_3:12), wherein life was promised to Adam,
and in him to his posterity (Rom_5:12-20;
Rom_10:5), upon condition of perfect
and personal obedience (Gen_2:17; Gal_3:10).
] 7:3 Man, by his fall having made himself incapable of life by
that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second (Gen_3:15; Isa_42:6;
Rom_3:20, Rom_3:21;
Rom_8:3; Gal_3:21),
commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offereth unto sinners
life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him that they
may be saved (Mar_16:15, Mar_16:16; Joh_3:16;
Rom_10:6, Rom_10:9;
Gal_3:11), and promising to give unto all
those that are ordained unto life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and
able to believe (Eze_36:26, Eze_36:27; Joh_6:44,
Joh_6:45).
Does
this evidence of "different plans of salvation
[as] found in the earlier edition of the Scofield Reference Bible" show up
in other dispensational writings? Yes it
does.
Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary,
and thus a leading dispensationalist, also teaches two different plans of
salvation, in his assertion of a complete separation of the New Testament
dispensation from that of other dispensations.
In Dispensationalism (Dallas:
Seminary Press, 1936), p. 416, he says:
] The essential
elements of a grace administration -- faith as the sole basis of acceptance
with God, unmerited acceptance through a perfect standing in Christ, the
present possession of eternal life, an absolute security from all condemnation,
and the enabling power of the indwelling Spirit -- are not found in the kingdom
administration. On the other hand, it is declared to be the fulfilling of the
law and the prophets (Matt.
This statement alludes to the dispensational
"parenthesis theory," under which the church age is sandwiched
between the dispensation of law (old testament) and the dispensation of the
kingdom (after the rapture of the church), and in which the dispensations of
law and kingdom use the same standard, "the
fulfilling of the law and the prophets," for achieving salvation.
A third dispensationalist, William Evans (Outline Studies of the Bible, p. 34), also states more than one
plan of salvation based upon a distinct separation of the church age from other
dispensations:
] This is sometimes called the Age of
the Church, or the Church period. The characteristic of this age is that
salvation is no longer by legal obedience, but by the personal acceptance of
the finished work of Jesus Christ, who by his meritorious ministry has procured
for us a righteousness of God.
Thus Evans clearly argues that, during this present Church age,
salvation is through personal acceptance of the meritorious ministry of Christ,
while in the age prior to this one, the people of
The "different plans of salvation" taught by
dispensationists have been recognized by non-dispensationalists as in contrast
with the traditional Christian gospel, as the core of post-Reformation
believers have viewed it (in keeping with chapters 7.2 and 7.3 of the
Confession of Faith quoted above). An
example of this contrast is seen in a report of the 1944 General Assembly of
the Presbyterian Church in the
] Dispensationalism rejects the doctrine
that God has, since the Fall, but one plan of salvation for all mankind and
affirms that God has been through the ages administering various and diverse
plans of salvation for various groups...
This dispensational distinction, between "plans
of salvation" in the old testament vs. the new testament, would also seem
at odds with Romans 4, (
Rom 4:1 What then
shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
Rom 4:2 For if
Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before
God.
Rom 4:3 For what
does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD,
Rom 4:4 Now to the
one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.
Rom 4:5 But to the
one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith
is credited as righteousness,
Rom 4:6 just as
David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness
apart from works:
Rom 4:7
"BLESSED
Rom 4:8
"BLESSED IS THE
Rom 4:9 Is this
blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say,
"FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Rom
Rom 4:11 and he
received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who
believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to
them,
Rom
Rom
Dispensationalists
believe God is pursuing two distinct purposes throughout history, one focusing
on an earthly goal and people (Jews), the other on heavenly goals and people
(the church). Charles Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1965), 45, citing Chafer, op. cit., p. 107.
It thus
appears that a core doctrine of dispensationalism is the separation between
Darby,
the founder of dispensationalism, states this separation very starkly:
"The Jewish nation is never to enter the church." J.N. Darby, The Hopes of the Church of God (
In
contrast, the core of post-Reformation Christianity has believed that the
church was "grafted into" the family tree of
It is very important to decide whether, in Scriptures such
as those, this continuity exists between
Well,
are there any promises in the Bible to
1. Promise to be called "sons of the Living
God:"
] a. Promised to
] b. Fulfilled in the church - What
if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He
might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had
prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles? As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My
people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved."
"And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You
are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God."
-Romans 9:22-26.
2.
Promise to rebuild the tabernacle of David:
] a. Promised to Israel - "On
that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And
repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of
old;" -Amos 9:11.
] b. Fulfilled in the church -
"Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out
of them a people for His name. And with
this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: 'After this I will
return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will
rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek
the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who
does all these things.' Known to God from eternity are all His works."
-Acts
3.
Becoming the people of God:
] a. Promised to
] b. Fulfilled in the church -
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now
the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained
mercy." -1 Peter 2:9-10.
Besides
these promises made to
1.
The promise of God in Amos 2:28-32, "I will pour out of My Spirit on all
flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see
visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
This was fulfilled in the church at Pentecost as shown in Acts
2:1,16-21.
2. The promise of God to his people that they would
be a priesthood and a holy nation, given to
3. God's placing his tabernacle or temple among his
people, promised to
4.
The promise of the "new covenant," given to
] If the church does not have a new covenant, then
she is fulfilling Israel's promises, for it has been clearly shown that the Old
Testament teaching on the new covenant is that it is for Israel. If the church
is fulfilling
Research
has shown little dispensational treatment of Romans 9, especially verses
6-8. In contrast with the
dispensationalist view that "Israel" refers to a physical lineage of
Jews as children of Abraham, it is hard to imagine a passage that so clearly
says the opposite: The Apostle Paul, in speaking of his grief and anguish over
the fact that many of his fellow Jews had not believed in Jesus Christ, said,
in Rom 9:6, "But it is not as though the word of God has failed.
For they are not all
IV. Support of
Despite
the dispensational view explained in the prior section that the Christian
church and
The word "
Could
it be that the concept of
The
inability to find supporting new testament verses for the alleged duty to
support
The word "
What about a Biblical incentive to “bless
Eph 6:1 Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Eph 6:2 HONOR YOUR
FATHER
Eph 6:3 SO THAT IT
On that same covenant-expansion point, Gen 17:5 says:
"No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be
Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” Note: not the father of the one nation
There are 13 old testament verses containing
the words “bless
Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, …
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age."
This is consistent with the Joshua 1:8 principle
that God’s word is the roadmap for success:
Jos 1:8 "This
book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it
day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is
written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will
have success.
What about the idea of “peace” for “
Support for
The comparatively recent
millennial view of the pretribulational rapture is a core teaching of
dispensationalism. The evacuation of the church to heaven prior to the
tribulation period, in the rapture view, causes the previously-stopped
prophetic clock to begin ticking for Israel again with what is prophetically
called the "Seventieth Week of Daniel", a meaning drawn from Daniel 9:24: "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to
finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for
iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the most holy place."
The idea that this referred to the great tribulation was Darby's
innovation.
] Darby
broke not only from previous millenarian teaching but from all of church
history by asserting that Christ's second coming would occur in two stages. The
first, an invisible "secret rapture" of true believers could happen
at any moment, ending the great "parenthesis" or church age which
began when the Jews rejected Christ.
W.A. Hoffecker, Evangelical
Dictionary of Theology, "Darby, John Nelson," pp. 292-3.
Scofield also defended this
rapture view along with Chafer, Ryrie, Walvoord, etc. At least through around
1990, the dispensational seminaries, and especially Dallas Theological
Seminary, insisted that their students and professors hold steadfastly to the
doctrine of the pretribulational rapture or face the consequences.
]...the
doctrine of a pretribulational rapture of the church seems to be a litmus test
of orthodoxy. To "outsiders," including classic premillennialists,
this doctrine is not crucial, if it is believed at all. But not only is it
vigorously maintained in Dallas Dispensationalism, but deviation from it causes
a person to be suspect and institutions to shake and sometimes split.
John H. Gerstner, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth: A
Critique of Dispensationalism (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991),
47.
But the question remains
whether a pretribulational rapture conflicts with the Bible. This distinctively dispensational rapture
doctrine is another issue on which dispensational theology stands or falls.
Thus a comparison between pretribulational rapture's teachings and the Bible is
in order.
Many arguments against a
pretribulation rapture have focused upon showing that the doctrine is a new
development in theology and cannot be found in the scriptures. Various sound
non-dispensational commentators and theologians, from the ranks of each of the
other millennial views, have presented this argument with clear
persuasiveness. Alexander Reese
(premill.), O.T. Allis (amill.), W.E. Cox (amill.), Greg Bahnsen & Kenneth
Gentry (postmill.) are examples, among others.
What is the rapture position
then? Many earlier dispensational
scholars believed that the Old Testament saints would be resurrected along
with the church in the pretribulational rapture. Alexander Reese, a classic
(nondispensational) premillennialist, deftly contradicted this position with
strong scriptural arguments timing the resurrection of the Old Testament saints
at the Day of the Lord at the end of the Tribulation. Alexander Reese, The Approaching Advent of Christ (Marshall, Morgan and Scott,
London, 1937; reprint, Grand Rapids MI: Grand Rapids International
Publications, 1975), 328 p., citing Daniel 12:1-2 and Daniel 12:8-13. Dispensationalists
would not argue that the "time of trouble such as never was since
there was a nation", the "abomination of desolation", and the taking
away of the daily sacrifice are not references to the great tribulation.
Yet, Daniel is told that the general
resurrection (including old testament believers) follows these
events.
In response to such
criticism, many dispensationalists then amended their position to separate the
general resurrection from the rapture.
E.g.:
] ...
many careful students of premillennial truth have come to the conclusion that
the opinion that
John
F. Walvoord, Israel in Prophesy
(1962; reprint,
This
change delaying believing
That is, we see that the
faithful dead are raised first, and then those believers who are alive and
remain are immediately thereafter translated into incorruptable bodies and
gathered unto Christ. What is the dispensationalist
rationale for the idea of the Old
Testament believers being raised at some later point in time? Here is one example:
] Some
people are startled by the thought that the Old Testament saints will not be
resurrected until the end of the Tribulation. But keep in mind that the rapture
is a promise to the Church, and the Church only.
David R. Reagan, The Master Plan: Making Sense of the
Controversies Surrounding Bible Prophecy Today (Eugene OR: Harvest House,
1993), 123.
Thus, the root of this
argument is the dispensational distinction between
]
According to dispensationalists, the Old Testament people are not the heirs of
the Holy Spirit, are not regenerated by Him, and are not grafted by Him into
Christ in the same way that the New Testament people are.
John
H. Gerstner, Wrongly Dividing the Word of
Truth: A Critique of Dispensationalism (Brentwood TN:Wolgemuth & Hyatt,
1991), 206. The problem is further explained away by the dispensational
argument that scriptures like 1 Cor 15:50-55; 1 Thes
]...
that the dead in Christ will precede
the living in Christ in the rapture. If you are saying that Daniel would be
included in "the dead", then
you have to show that Daniel is "in
Christ". If you will study the NT you will see that "in Christ"
refers to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. "For we were all baptized by one
Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink...."
There is no way that Daniel was part of the body of Christ. This verse
in 1 Thess
"Resurrection
Apart from Christ?" Bill Barton, Armageddon, FamilyNet,
] The
technical term for the Church is those who are "in Christ." 1 Thess.
speaks of those who have died "in Christ" being resurrected at the
time of His coming IN THE
"Rapture,"
Gary Nystrom, Armageddon, FamilyNet,
This
rapture distinction would clearly seem to be at odds with Hebrews 11, where the
writer refers to the faithful old testament patriarchs and says of them: "And
all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the
promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be
made perfect apart from us." Hebrews 11:39-40. Yet the dispensational rapture theory
says the old testament faithful will be made perfect apart from us, in
an entirely different resurrection, which will occur 7 years later.
Thus we see that the rapture
theory is not consistent with either the Bible or earlier post-Reformation
beliefs. But this theory is nevertheless
the foundation of the dispensational drive to be friends of
Dispensationalists being
allegedly friends of
Rather, it seems clear that
=======
Partial Bibliograpy:
Allis, Oswald T., Prophecy and the Church (Phillipsburg,
NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1945)
Bahnsen, Greg L., and Kenneth
L. Gentry, Jr., House Divided, The
Break-Up of Dispensational Theology (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian
Economics, 1989)
Chafer, Lewis
Sperry, Dispensationalism
Darby, J.N., The Hopes of the
Gerstner, John, Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Critique of Dispensationalism (Brentwood:
Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1991)
Gillette, Rev. Robert ,
"WELCOME TO THE PROGRESSIVE DISPENSATIONALISM
HODGES, ZANE C.,
"CALVINISM EX CATHEDRA: A REVIEW OF JOHN H. GERSTNER'S WRONGLY
DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH: A CRITIQUE OF DISPENSATIONALISM , at website:
http://www.faithalone.org/journal/1991b/Calvin.html (accessed
Hoffecker, W.A., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology,
"Darby, John Nelson"
Mathison, Keith A., Dispensationalism: Rightly Dividing the
People of God? (Philipsburg: R&R, 1995)
New Scofield
Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967)
North, Gary, Rapture Fever - Why Dispensationalism is
Paralyzed (Ft. Worth: Dominion Press, 1993)
Nystrom, Gary,
"Rapture," Armageddon, FamilyNet,
Poythress, Vern S., Understanding Dispensationalists
Presbyterian
Church in the
Reagan, David R., The Master Plan: Making Sense of the
Controversies Surrounding Bible Prophecy Today (Eugene OR: Harvest House,
1993)
Alexander Reese, The Approaching Advent of Christ
(Marshall, Morgan and Scott, London, 1937; reprint, Grand Rapids MI: Grand
Rapids International Publications, 1975)
Ryrie, Charles, Dispensationalism Today (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1965)
Ryrie, Charles, THE
RELATIONSHIP OF THE
Scofield, Cyrus Ingerson,
ed., New
Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967)