Why Traditional Dispensationalism
The "only way to understand the Bible"? Yes!
The second key doctrinal distinctive I wrTraditional dispensationalism - this is wordy phrase, what does it mean? It refers to an essential belief for me that includes key methods in how I interpret the Bible as a revelation from God. Most essentially, traditional dispensationalism believes that there are two peoples in God’s plan - the nation of Israel and the Christian church - and that the kingdom of God, centered on the nation of Israel with Jesus as its king, is entirely future (”not yet”). However, much more can be said about these two things. I agree with Charles Ryrie who summarized dispensationalism as consisting of (1) a distinction between Israel and the church, (2) literal interpretation of the Bible, and (3) a doxological purpose of God for human history beyond just individual salvation (Dispensationalism, Revised and Expanded, pages 45-48).
The Culture and Dispensationalism
The easiest cultural expression for millennials who lived in the 90s to connect with traditional dispensationalism is the Left Behind series. I have always thought that the twelve book series at its heart was simply mainstream beliefs of dispensationalists and not idle speculation. The books tell a story based on what the Bible teaches will happen when the true church is taken up to meet Jesus Christ in the same way he left (Acts 1:9-11). The world “left behind” faces the judgment of God for seven years while the nation of Israel faces a final reckoning in which it comes to faith in Jesus Christ as her Messiah.
The present cultural moment has experienced a resurgence of criticism for dispensationalists. Significant critiques of the “fall” of dispensationalism have been written. It does feel that way as a popular movement blew through evangelicalism during my adult lifetime sometimes called “The Young, Restless, and Reformed” which was explicitly anti-dispensationalist (with few exceptions). The criticisms have recently even come to include people on the Far Right such as Tucker Carlson, blaming dispensationalism for his perceived faults in our approach to policy in the Middle East concerning Israel.
While dispensationalism did at a time influence popular concepts of “the world is coming to an end soon,” such is not the primary goal of dispensationalism. If you are one who has been taught to be critical of this viewpoint, I ask you to give me a chance. Listen to an actual person who holds it rather than others.
What is Traditional Dispensationalism
Recall the two key beliefs I mentioned that are at the heart of traditional dispensationalism. First, there are two peoples of God - the nation of Israel and the Christian church. Second, there is a firm belief in the future kingdom of God. Why are these two beliefs true? I would explain three areas to explain dispensationalism more fully.
Consistent Literal Interpretation of the Bible
It is certainly the legacy of the Protestant Reformation that there was a return from allegorical means of the interpreting Bible to the literal sense of Scripture. This means that the words of Scripture are interpreted using the standard ways we all use language. Just because the Bible is about spiritual topics does not mean we make everything mystical. However, traditional dispensationalists believe we uniquely use a distinctive approach to interpreting the Bible that is consistent. We uphold the author’s intended meaning of Scripture in all passages. We resist the impulse, unlike the Reformers at times, to try to find Christ in every text of Scripture or to read the New Testament in a way that allows it to change earlier parts of the Old Testament. We emphasize that even prophecy must be interpreted according to the intended meaning of the author of the Scripture as expressed in the words given. The use of human voices means that normal means of language must be used. Now, the authors may not have known all the implications that they wrote about or the actual historical fulfillment. However, they did not affirm one thing and have the fulfillment something entirely different. 1 Peter 1:10-11 describes the tension of this: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated. 11 They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”
I believe that if we are to do proper service to the Bible’s claim of divine inspiration, we must affirm literal interpretation in the way that traditional dispensationalists do. If we allow a later text to re-interpret an earlier one, we lose the tight connection that is found between the Author (big A, referring to God) and the author (little a, referring to the humans God used to reveal Scripture). This puts the entire claim to divine inspiration at risk. Traditional dispensationalists emphasis a consistent literal interpretation, and in this way, they are unique even against a type of dispensationalism called progressive dispensationalism.
The significance for this approach to reading the Bible empowers you to read the Bible for yourself without being subservient as much to the “Bible experts.” You can read the Bible in its context, and fit it together understanding the historical development as you read. Dispensationalists are the champions of what used to be called Inductive Bible study.
Different Arrangements for Human Eras
Now the word dispensationalism comes from a word that is used in the Scriptural languages to refer to the economoics of the household. This is one of the areas were we are described as loving charts (prophecy time maps are also a chart area for us). At a minimum, dispensationalists have emphasized a dispensation for the ancient Jewish period (”law”), the dispensation of today for the church (”grace”), and the dispensation of the coming kingdom. Often, these dispensations are tied to the explicitly described covenants of Scripture - especially the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3), the Mosaic Covenant and its related material (Exodus 20-24), and the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7). However, that is not always the case - most dispensationalists observe four dispensations in the early period of Genesis—calling them Innocence, Conscience, Human Government, and Patrichal or sometimes Promise. Briefly, I will note that calling the present era as a dispensation of grace can be criticzed even among dispensationalists because most recognize there was grace for the Jews in their dispensation in the past. However, I don’t believe the term can be entirely thrown out in light of John 1:17: “[For] the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The aspect of the future kingdom of God is found in that the dispensational of the kingdom is future--it is not now. While progressive dispensationalists and most other Christians affirm a concept that the kingdom is “already and not yet,” traditional dispensationalists see the Bible teaching a sharper distinction. We will be citizes of that future kingdom since we will be living eternally. But we do not have to say that the Davidic Kingdom of Christ has begun, since when it was promised in the Davidic Covenant it was an earthly kingdom. Christ has never reigned in Jerusalem, but he will in the future.
The most important thing these arrangements give to you is that they show that not every command applies to you personally. You live in the dispensation of grace. You have obligations under this dispensation - trust in Christ alone for salvation if you are not saved, and live according to especially the precepts of the New Testament epistles for how to live your Christian life. But you do not, for example, have to live according to the Jewish dietary laws or even the obligations of Adam and Eve to not eat animals after they left the garden.
A Multi-Faceted Plan for the World
The final point I want draw out is that traditional dispensationalism especially emphasizes that God’s purposes are more than just the individual salvation of souls. I believe that gospel-centric theology is a misreading of the Bible, though it is certainly a personally important category. We must allow God’s plan for the church, Israel, angels, and the nations emerge from the Bible and not read everything through a gospel-centric lens. When it concerns you and me, we rightly might favor emphasizing our personal salvation. However, the world is not merely about us. The church will serve as the bride of Christ, being co-heirs with him as He rules over Israel and the earth during the Millennium and into the eternal kingdom after the 1,000 years. He has a plan for Israel as they will be the vehicle of blessing on the nations during the Millennium. The nations will have a purpose in learning of God during the Millennium, bringing blessing to Israel at the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. Even the lost, God has a purpose for them though they are not saved. They will bring God glory and honor through the expression of His righteous judgment on them.
The Reformed string of theology affirms that all is to be to the glory of God alone (soli deo gloria), but the Bible teaches that this glory is not manifested through individual salvation alone. I believe traditional dispensationalism better presents the glory of God through the multi-faceted nature of what He is doing.
What this means for you is that when you read the Bible, don’t just assume that the only thing you will find in the Old Testament is things related to your individual salvation. You can read the texts in the way the Israelites would have understood them. You can apply them to your life today, drawing parallels but recognize that you live in a different era and that God may have differences in what he plans to do in your life or in the future of the world.
Summary
The two most important ideas that summarize the traditional dispensational approach to the Bible is that God has a plan for two separate peoples and that the promised kingdom is entirely future. These two ideas are supported by three key ideas of dispensationalism - consistent literal interpretation, different arrangements for God’s will for people, and the multi-faceted plan of God to magnify himself. Several other areas are results of dispensationalism that warrant brief description.
The Results of Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is based on consistent literal grammatical-historical hermeneutics. It leads to a recognition of different arrangements in how God governs His people and the understanding that God has a plan for the church, Israel, the nations, and the lost. In light of these basic ideas, what are some of the other results?
One of the most obvious is that there is a future for national Israel. Closely related to this is that traditional dispensationalists are Christian Zionists. This means we believe in Israel’s ultimate right, even present right, to live in the land of Israel that they were given by God so long ago. For dispensationalists, this is crucial issue because God’s truthfulness is at stake. Understood literally, God promised Israel through Abraham that they would receive an eternal inheritance in the land. Since they are not dwelling there eternally yet, we view a future for national Israel as one in which the promises of God are at stake. It is true non-dispensationalists interpret these promises differently, seeing Jesus as the true Israel or in other means to show that God is not going back on His Word. However, we view that a future of Israel is necessary for the absolute truthfulness of Scripture.
The pre-tribulation rapture is another result. This just means that truly Jesus can come back at any moment to take the true believers to heaven. It is pre-tribulation because there the tribulation is an expression of the righteous wrath of God on the earth, and believers who have been saved by the blood of Christ alone are not subject to that wrath.
Traditional dispensationalists also believe in the pre-millennial return of Jesus. This means that Jesus returns before a literal 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth from Jerusalem. Some non-dispensationalists would believe in this kind of reign of Christ (e.g. Albert Mohler), but dispensationalists affirm that it has a uniquely Jewish element. It is a fulfillment of God’s promises to the Jews in the Old Testament.
It also believes in the futurist understanding of the book of Revelation. In no other book of the Bible is it necessary to recognize that figures of speech are found, but that they have a literal referent grounded in the author’s original intent. The book of Revelation can be taken in a more “present” reading rather than a futuristic one. However, as dispensationalists understand it, the book of Revelation after chapter 3 is focused on what will happen in the future rather than anything happening now.
Most of these things are the kind of eschatological areas that people assume are at the heart of dispensationalism. However, note that these are results of it more than the assumptions we bring to the Bible. They emerge from the proper interpretation of the Bible in the way outlined earlier.
Conclusion
Why does dispensationalism matter? One of the things that Thomas Aquinas (as well as many older interpreters) are criticized for is using a method in interpreting the Bible that just reads the Bible looking for hidden meanings in the text. Traditional dispensationalism answers this by insisting on consistent literal interpretation.
Thomistic philosophy lays the foundation for God and revelation. Traditional dispensationalism’s interpretive commitments lay the foundation for properly interpreting the Bible. It also lays the foundation for classic free grace theology. The beliefs and practices of fundamentalism and of Baptist theology align very well with traditional dispensationalism. While many books are available from non-dispensational publishers, I urge you to read my works other works from a dispensational perspective for considering the possibility that traditional dispensationalism is the truth taught by Scripture.
In conclusion, I like Charles Ryrie believe “dispensational premillennialism [is] the only way to understand the Bible.” (Dispensationalism, page 10) What we mean when we say that is that it is the only way that makes sense when one considers the entirety of Scripture. You may not agree, and that is okay. But I would encourage you to seriously consider it as a viable option.
Books on Traditional Dispensationalism
Amazon links are affiliate links. Purchasing with them helps support The New York Theologian
Basic: Renald E. Showers, There Really Is a Difference! A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology (Amazon: Paperback).
Mid-range: Charles C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism, Revised and Expanded (Amazon: Paperback and Kindle)
Advanced:
Cory M. Marsh and James I. Fazio, editors, Discovering Dispensationalism: Tracing the Development of Dispensational Thought From the First to the Twenty-First Century (Amazon: Hardback and Kindle)
Christopher Cone and James I. Fazio, editors, Forged From Reformation: How Dispensational Thought Advances the Reformed Legacy (Amazon: Paperback and Kindle).
Mark A. Snoeberger, “Traditional Dispensationalism,” in Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies: Four Views on the Continuity of Scripture, Brent E. Parker and Richard J. Lucas, editors (Amazon: Paperback and Kindle).