Dispensationalism

==Theology==

=== Purpose of God in the world ===
According to John Walvoord, God's purpose in the world is to manifest his glory.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walvoord |first=John F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2aTJCiHoxfsC |title=The Millennial Kingdom |date=1983 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0-310-34091-1 |language=en |author-link=John Walvoord}}</ref>{{Rp|page=92}} Charles Ryrie writes that dispensational [[soteriology]] focuses on man's salvation as the means God uses to glorify himself.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=40}}

=== Biblical literalism ===
{{Main|Historical-grammatical method}}

A key element of dispensationalism is the use of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic to apply a consistent, literal interpretation of the text.<ref name=":19">{{Cite book |last=Buschart |first=W. David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QzyMCsh4CaUC |title=Exploring Protestant Traditions: An Invitation to Theological Hospitality |date=2009-09-20 |publisher=InterVarsity Press |isbn=978-0-8308-7514-6 |pages=216, 218 |language=en}}</ref> Scripture is to be interpreted according to the normal rules of human language in its entirety.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=80}} This leads dispensationalists to take eschatological passages of the bible literally. Charles Ryrie suggests that a non-literal hermeneutic is the reason that amillennialists apply the Old Testament promises to Israel "spiritually" to the church and covenant premillennialists see some prophecies as fulfilled and others are not.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=90}}

===Progressive revelation===
{{main|Progressive revelation (Christianity)}}

Progressive revelation is the doctrine that each successive book of the [[Bible]] provides further [[revelation]] of God and his program. Theologian [[Charles Hodge]] wrote that the progressive character of divine revelation is gradually unfolded until the fullness of truth is revealed.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hodge |first=Charles |title=Systematic Theology |url=https://archive.org/details/systematicth200301hodg/page/446 |volume=1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/systematicth200301hodg/page/446 446] |year=2003 |place=Peabody |publisher=Hendrickson |isbn=1-56563-459-4}} (also available as {{Citation |last=Hodge |title=Systematic Theology |date=May 1997 |publisher=P & R |editor-last=Gross |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=abridged |isbn=0-87552-224-6}})</ref> Charles Ryrie wrote that the Bible is not viewed as a textbook on theology, but rather as a continually unfolding revelation of God through successive ages where there are distinguishable stages in which God introduces new things for which man becomes responsible.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=33}}

Disagreement exists between [[covenant theology]] and dispensationalism regarding the meaning of revelation. Covenant theology views the [[New Testament]] as the key to interpreting the [[Old Testament]].<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=32}} For dispensationalists, the Old Testament is interpreted on its own and that the New Testament contains new information which can build on the Old Testament but cannot change its meaning.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Toussaint |first1=Stanley D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELPsd0kf6UkC |title=Three Central Issues in Contemporary Dispensationalism: A Comparison of Traditional and Progressive Views |last2=Burns |first2=J. Lanier |publisher=Kregel Academic |isbn=978-0-8254-9881-7 |pages=124 |language=en}}</ref> Each stands alone, rather than the Old Testament being reread through the lens of the New Testament.<ref name=":19" />

===Distinction between Israel and the Church===
Dispensationalists profess that there exists a historic and demographic distinction between Israel and the [[Christian Church]]. For them, Israel is an ethnic nation consisting of Hebrews ([[Israelites]]), beginning with [[Abraham]].<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=127}} The Church, on the other hand, consists of all [[salvation|saved]] individuals from the "birth of the Church" in Acts until the time of the [[rapture]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.gotothebible.com/HTML/notwrath.html | title = Not Wrath, but Rapture | first = Harry A | last = Ironside | author-link = Harry A. Ironside | quote = The prophetic clock stopped at Calvary; it will not start again until 'the fullness of the Gentiles be come in'. | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160203075745/http://www.gotothebible.com/HTML/notwrath.html | archive-date = 2016-02-03 }}</ref> Classic dispensationalists refer to this period as a "parenthesis" or temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history when God has paused his dealing with Israel and is dealing with his Church.<ref name="parenthesis">{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9yfBGAAACAAJ
|last=Ironside
|first=Harry A.
|author-link=Harry A. Ironside
|title=The Great Parenthesis
|publisher=[[Zondervan]]
|date=1943
|page=4
|quote=It is the author's fervent conviction that the failure to understand what is revealed in Scripture concerning the Great Parenthesis between Messiah's rejection, with the consequent setting aside of Israel nationally, and the regathering of God's earthly people and recognition by the Lord in the last days, is the fundamental cause for many conflicting and unscriptural prophetic teachings. Once this parenthetical period is understood and the present work of God during this age is apprehended, the whole prophetic program unfolds with amazing clearness.}}</ref><ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=134,177}}<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=DeMar |first=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tii3ulwqzW0C |title=Last Days Madness: Obsession of the Modern Church |publisher=American Vision |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-915815-35-7 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=410}}

There are differing views within dispensationalism as to when the church age began. Classic dispensationalism considers [[Pentecost]] in [[Acts 2]] as the beginning of the Church as distinct from Israel.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Enns |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hlIAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22dispensationalism%22%2B%22church+age%22%2B%22Acts+2%22&pg=PT745 |title=The Moody Handbook of Theology |date=2014-03-27 |publisher=Moody Publishers |isbn=978-0-8024-9115-2 |language=en}}</ref> Charles Finney noted in 1839 that Pentecost was "the commencement of a new dispensation", emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit as a distinction.<ref name=":17" />{{Rp|page=87}} [[C. I. Scofield]] did not make Pentecost itself the turning point but did emphasize its role in dividing the dispensations of "Law" and "Grace".<ref name=":17" />{{Rp|page=88}} In contrast, [[Hyperdispensationalism|hyperdispensationalists]] suggest that the church started later in Acts ("Mid-Acts") with the ministry of Paul, identifying the start of the church as occurring between the salvation of Saul in [[Acts 9]] and the Holy Spirit's commissioning of Paul in [[Acts 13]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Brock |first=Robert C. |title=The Teachings of Christ |url=http://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/articles/1017958318.html |quote=The ministry of Christ did not stop with His ascension in the first chapter of the book of Acts. Christians have failed to realize that when Saul is saved in Acts 9, a NEW ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ is begun by God, and this NEW ministry ushers in this present age of grace. Saul's name is changed to Paul, and he is designated as the Apostle of the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). He is given revelations from the risen Christ, and these are the revelations embracing Christianity.}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Couch |first=Mal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPeo38M2d9UC |title=Dictionary of Premillennial Theology |publisher=Kregel Publications |isbn=978-0-8254-9464-2 |pages=98 |language=en}}</ref> [[E. W. Bullinger]] and the ultradispensationalists taught that the church began in [[Acts 28]].<ref name=":12" />  According to [[progressive dispensationalism]], the distinction between Israel and the Church is not mutually exclusive, as there is a recognized overlap between the two.<ref name="blaising">{{Cite book |last1=Blaising |first1=Craig A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xsumJRsOWVMC |title=Progressive Dispensationalism |last2=Bock |first2=Darrell L. |publisher=BridgePoint |year=1993 |isbn=1-56476-138-X |location=Wheaton, Illinois |language=en-us}}</ref>{{rp|295}} The overlap includes [[Jewish Christian]]s like [[James, brother of Jesus]], who integrated Jesus's teachings into the Jewish faith, and Christians of Jewish ethnicity who held varying opinions on compliance with Mosaic law, like [[Saint Peter]] and [[Paul the Apostle]]. Progressive dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church. However, progressives never view this expansion as replacing promises to its original audience, Israel.<ref>{{cite web
 |title       = Progressive Dispensationalism
 |first       = Mike
 |last        = Stallard
 |url         = http://faculty.bbc.edu/mstallard/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/PDChallenge.pdf
 |quote       = some OT promises can be expanded by the NT. However, this expansion is never viewed as replacing or undoing the implications of that OT promise to its original audience, Israel. For example, the Church's participation in the New Covenant taught in the NT can add the Church to the list of recipients of the New Covenant promises made in the OT. However, such participation does not rule out the future fulfillment of the OT New Covenant promises to Israel at the beginning of the Millennium. Thus, the promise can have a coinciding or overlapping fulfillment through NT expansions of the promise.
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110719142144/http://faculty.bbc.edu/mstallard/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/PDChallenge.pdf
 |archive-date = 2011-07-19
}}</ref>

=== The Law ===
Dispensationalists believe that Christ abolished the Mosaic law, and thus it does not apply to the Christian. Instead, the Christian is under the [[Law of Christ]], which embodies the moral principles of God which are in both codes.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Blaising |first1=Craig A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AfjEVa9ChmoC |title=Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church: The Search for Definition |last2=Bock |first2=Darrell L. |date=2010-08-10 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |isbn=978-0-310-87740-0 |pages=116 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=S. Lewis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDcs7yoX8EkC |title=Continuity and Discontinuity: Perspectives on the Relationship Between the Old and New Testaments : Essays in Honor of S. Lewis Johnson, Jr |last2=Feinberg |first2=John S. |date=1988 |publisher=Crossway |isbn=978-0-89107-468-7 |pages= |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=71}} In this view, although many commandments of the Old Testament are re-established in the New Testament, only the commandments that are explicitly affirmed are to be kept, which excludes the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic law.<ref name=":22" />{{Rp|page=71}}

=== Eschatology ===
{{Further|Premillennialism|Rapture}}
Dispensationalism teaches an [[eschatology]] that is specifically [[Premillennialism|premillennial]] in that it affirms the [[return of Christ]] prior to a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|pages=147–148}} This [[Millennial Kingdom|millennial kingdom]] will be [[theocratic]] in nature and not mainly soteriological, as it is considered by [[George Eldon Ladd]] and others with a non-dispensational form of premillennialism.<ref name=":4" /> It will be distinctly Jewish, with the throne of David restored.<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|page=31}}

The majority of dispensationalists profess a [[Rapture#Pre-tribulational premillennialism|pretribulation rapture]], while [[Rapture#Mid-tribulational premillennialism|mid-tribulation]], or [[post-tribulation rapture]] are minority views.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Hoekema |first= Anthony A. |author-link= Anthony A. Hoekema |title= The Bible and the Future |year=1994 |edition= revised |orig-year= 1979 |publisher= [[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Eerdmans]] |location= Grand Rapids, Michigan |url= https://archive.org/details/biblefuture0000hoek/page/164 |isbn= 0-85364-624-4 |page= [https://archive.org/details/biblefuture0000hoek/page/164 164] }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Walvoord |first=John F. |title=Blessed hope and the tribulation |publisher=Contemporary Evangelical |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-310-34041-6 |pages=13}}</ref> Pre-tribulational rapture doctrine is what separates dispensationalism from other forms of premillennialism and other millennial views.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=409}}

Dispensational eschatology was popularized in [[Hal Lindsey|Hal Lindsey's]] book, ''[[The Late Great Planet Earth]]''. In Lindsey's version, the unfolding of events includes the establishment of Israel in 1948, Jews regaining control of Jerusalem's sacred sites in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the rebuilding of the Temple which has yet to occur, an Antichrist will come to power, Christians will be removed from the earth in a rapture of the Church, and there will be seven years of tribulation (Daniel's seventieth week) culminating in a great battle of Armageddon in which Christ will triumph over evil and establish a literal 1,000 year reign of his kingdom on earth.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Erin A. |date=Winter 2017 |title=The Late Great Planet Earth Made the Apocalypse a Popular Concern |url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/feature/the-late-great-planet-earth-made-the-apocalypse-popular-concern |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=The National Endowment for the Humanities |language=en}}</ref> The necessity of the rapture is that, with the Church and Israel being distinct, the Church must be removed before remnant Israel can be gathered.<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|page=42}}