Dispensationalism

=== Proto-Dispensationalism ===
Advocates of dispensationalism have sought to find similar views of dispensations in [[Church history]], referencing theologians or groups such as [[Francisco Ribera]], the [[Taborites]], [[Joachim of Fiore]], [[Denis the Carthusian]] and others.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pietsch |first=B. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ANPCQAAQBAJ&dq=Francisco+Ribera+dispensationalism&pg=PT229 |title=Dispensational Modernism |date=2015-07-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-027307-1 |language=en |quote=}}</ref> Joachim's theory of three stages of human history has been argued to have anticipated the later dispensationalist view of organizing history into different dispensations.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=65}} Joachim's stages were divided into the "Age of the Father" which was under the Law, the "Age of the Son" which was a period of tribulation, and the "Age of the Spirit" which was a period of bliss on earth.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=155}} [[Fra Dolcino]] taught Fiore's theory of the stages of history, and dispensationalists Mark Hitchcock and Thomas Ice have suggested that Dolcino's teaching was of a pretribulational rapture.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=157}} The relevant teaching was that when Antichrist appears, Dolcino and his followers would be taken away and preserved from Antichrist, and that following the death of Antichrist, Dolcino and his followers would return to Earth to convert those then living to the true faith.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Bennett |first=David Malcolm |date=2008-04-30 |title=Raptured or not raptured? That is the question. |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/27725472-08002004 |journal=Evangelical Quarterly: An International Review of Bible and Theology |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=143–161 |doi=10.1163/27725472-08002004 |issn=0014-3367 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>  However, this actually comes from an anonymous 1316 Latin text titled ''The History of Brother Dolcino'' and it is uncertain as to whether this came directly from Dolcino.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=158-159}}

William C. Watson argued that multiple 17th century theologians anticipated dispensational views, he argued that Ephraim Huit and John Birchensa in his ''The History of Scripture'' published in 1660 taught that God has differing plans for Jews and Gentiles. He also argued that [[Nathaniel Holmes (theologian)|Nathaniel Holmes]] taught a pretribulational rapture.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Watson |first=William C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1mryrQEACAAJ |title=Dispensationalism Before Darby: Seventeenth-century and Eighteenth-century English Apocalypticism |date=2015 |publisher=Lampion Press, LLC |isbn=978-1-942614-03-6 |language=en}}</ref>[[File:Portret van Pierre Poiret, RP-P-BI-4877.jpg|thumb|Pierre Poiret is seen as a forerunner of Dispensationalism.]][[Pierre Poiret]] has been said to have been the first theologian to develop a dispensationalist system, writing a book titled''The Divine Economy.'' Poiret taught that history should be organized into multiple dispensations in which God works with humans in different ways, including the millennium as a future dispensation.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Pierre Poiret's Sober Mysticism |url=https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/pierre-poirets-sober-mysticism-11630201.html |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=Christianity.com |language=en}}</ref> Poiret's eschatology includes a belief in two resurrections, the rise of the Antichrist and the nation of Israel being regathered, restored and converted.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> Poiret divided history into seven dispensations, early childhood (ended in the Flood), childhood (ended in Moses's ministry), boyhood (ended in Malachi), youth (ended in Christ), manhood (most of the Church), old age ("human decay", meaning the last hour of the Church), and the restoration of all things (the Millennium, includes literal earthly reign of Christ with Israel restored).<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=65}}

[[Isaac Watts]] presented a dispensational view in a forty-page essay titled ''The Harmony of All the Religions Which God Ever Prescribed to Men and All His Dispensations Towards Them.''<ref>{{cite book |last=Watts |first=Isaac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xsUOAAAAIAAJ&q=pentecost&pg=PA327 |title=The Harmony of all the Religions which God ever Prescribed to Men and all his Dispensations towards them |year=1812 |quote=The kingdom of Christ, therefore, or the christian dispensation was not properly set up in all its forms, doctrines and duties, till the following ''day of [[Pentecost]]'', and the pouring down of the Spirit upon the Apostles}}</ref> Charles Ryrie points out that Scofield's outline of dispensationalism, with the exception of the millennium, is exactly that of Watts, and not Darby.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=67}}

[[Edward Irving]] in some ways anticipated dispensationalism. He used a literal approach to prophetic interpretation, he believed in a restoration of national Israel, he believed there would be a great apostasy and that Christ would return to establish a literal earthly kingdom.<ref name=":4" /> However, he also preached that Christ had a fallen nature, which led to him being [[Defrocking|defrocked]] by the Scots Presbyterians.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bennett |first=David Malcolm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CRBNBQAAQBAJ&dq=dispensationalism+forerunners&pg=PA176 |title=Edward Irving Reconsidered: The Man, His Controversies, and the Pentecostal Movement |date=2014-11-04 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-62564-865-5 |pages=176 |language=en}}</ref>