Some Preliminary Thoughts to the Reader

I’m not a person who goes out of the way to look for controversy. If you ask those who know me best, they’ll confirm that I tend to be more of a “people-pleaser.” Under most circumstances, if it means making somebody else happy or avoiding conflict, I’m willing to set aside my personal preferences/desires to do everything in my power to cater to others. There are few things in this world that I dislike more than being at odds with somebody else. Especially when interacting with those in the household of faith, division is the last thing that I ever want to cause amongst my brothers and sisters in Christ (Gal. 6:10). And yet, here I am beginning a written series on arguably the most controversial subject in Christian theology. I wouldn’t be surprised if the series title, Dismantling Dispensationalism, has already caused a division of opinions amongst some readers.

For readers who adhere to Covenant Theology (regardless of variety), Dispensationalism has likely been seen as a gross deviation from the Reformed tradition.[1] It may even be perceived as a poison that has seeped into the realm of broader Christendom, a byproduct of anti-supernatural presuppositions that were popularized throughout the Modern era.[2] On the other hand, for some readers who hold to Dispensationalism, Covenant Theology is regarded as the necessary fruit of employing an inconsistent hermeneutic on the Word of God.[3] It can be pointed to as an example of the fact that the Reformation isn’t over, and indicates how loosely the Bible can be interpreted by those who stray from a literal-grammatical-historical method of interpretation.[4] In my personal experience, it tends to be difficult for individuals holding to these two opposing systems of doctrine to engage in charitable discussions with each other.[5] The unity that all Christians enjoy as members of God’s kingdom can be easily forgotten when surveying the corpus of literature, lectures, and sermons that have been produced on this polarizing debate.[6] Want to discuss the contours of Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology? Buckle up for heated interactions and, sadly, ad hominem methods of argumentation.[7]

For the sake of the reader, I want to begin this article and this series with a word of exhortation: please do not let your zeal for theology detract from your propensity of showing the love of Christ to other believers who disagree with you on secondary or tertiary areas of doctrine. I recognize that doctrine divides and theological ideas have significant consequences for our piety and practice. Nevertheless, my prayer is that the church (myself included) would grow in its ability to extend the graciousness that we owe to one another as fellow co-heirs in Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-27). Throughout this series, I am going to be making critiques of Godly men who I dearly respect and love. I am going to be making critiques of a doctrinal system that is embraced by the vast majority of those who self-identify with American Christendom.[8] Bearing this all in mind, it is my sincere objective to write in such a way that carefully balances doctrinal fidelity with a genuine love for those who I share disagreements with.

Although I am not a man who enjoys controversy, conflict, or division, it is absolutely necessary to divide over our theological convictions. When the truth of God’s Word is at stake, Christians are called to passionately discern the most accurate way of understanding it and applying it to their lives (2 Tim. 2:15). Although not every area of doctrine is an “essential issue” with regards to Christian orthodoxy, all doctrine must be regarded as “essential” in that there is nothing of more value than rightly understanding God’s Word (John 6:68). Nevertheless, as Christians discuss their differences of opinions, their division over doctrinal convictions ought not to necessitate a break of fellowship or a severing of relational ties. One of the strongest ways that the people of God can witness to a watching world is in how they can strongly disagree on a point of doctrine, and yet, continue to love one another and serve alongside each other for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God (John 13:34-35). May the Lord give His people the grace to model this approach to theology and ministry, and may He allow me to portray this disposition throughout this series. Soli Deo Gloria!

My Background in Dispensationalism

In 2015, I received a baseball scholarship to play at The Master’s University (TMU). At the time, I had been a Christian for about 3 years and was convinced that God had called me to devote my life to vocational ministry. Looking back, a good way of describing myself was “possessing zeal without knowledge.” I was 20 years old, in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, and wanted to share the Gospel with anybody that I had the chance to do so with. The extent of my theological knowledge was whatever Billy Graham embraced, as I would devour any of his sermons or literature that I could get my hands on. When I arrived on campus, I had no idea what to expect. I was just ecstatic to major in Biblical studies and have the privilege of growing in my understanding of God’s Word.

My first semester at TMU changed my life. I was able to attend Grace Community Church (GCC) and sit under the expository preaching ministry of Dr. John MacArthur weekly. I also attended a Fundamentals of the Faith mid-week study at GCC, enabling me to begin to make better sense of how the Bible fits together as a whole. Within weeks of being on campus, I became a member of the TMU Evangelism Society. I joined a group of classmates in weekly street evangelism efforts throughout the city of Santa Clarita, California. My baseball coach and the majority of my teammates were also solid followers of Jesus Christ. It seemed like every one of our practices would feature rigorous discussions of Scripture and theological concepts that we were learning at school. My roommate at TMU quickly became one of my best friends, and there were many nights in which we would literally not get any sleep as a result of discussing the deep truths of God. Some of my favorite memories of being a student at TMU include my roommate and I debating other students in our dorm on the extent of Christ’s atonement. And of course, by the middle of my first semester on campus, I was devoting countless hours to memorizing the intricate charts of Dispensationalism.

Since I was a relatively new Christian and was completely unfamiliar with any opposing systems of theology, I just assumed that everything I was being taught was the most faithful approach to understanding Scripture. Hearing the authority in which Dr. MacArthur explained the Bible every week at church was unlike anything I had ever heard in my entire life. I remember thinking to myself on more than one occasion, “this pastor quotes all of these verses in his sermons and is such a powerful preacher. He has got to be the most intelligent Christian alive today, and I need to learn all of his viewpoints so I can make sure I know the truth of God’s Word for myself.” It wasn’t too long into my time at TMU that I embraced what I like to call “MacArthurism”: the mindset that any theology that deviates from the teaching of John MacArthur is fundamentally unbiblical.

I do not use the designation “MacArthurism” pejoratively. When I was a resident student at TMU and attended GCC, the shared consensus by seemingly all of my peers was this: “John MacArthur is the most faithful teacher of God’s Word alive today.” To question any of Dr. MacArthur’s views or disagree with him on any doctrine was extremely taboo. In fact, when a theologian was discovered to disagree with Dr. MacArthur on something, the immediate response from my fellow classmates at TMU was typically one of disapproval. For example, I remember sitting in a hermeneutics class in 2015 and hearing from the professor that Dr. R.C. Sproul was going to be attending GCC for a Lord’s Day service. Shortly after this announcement was made, a student leaned over to me and muttered, “be careful with R.C. Sproul. He’s not the best theologian to look to for Biblical insight. He holds to Amillennialism.” At the time, I had never even heard the term Amillennialism used, much less studied it for myself. Nevertheless, I vividly remember making a mental note: “Stay away from that Sproul guy, because he’s an Amillennialist. He’s dangerous!”

Looking back, I recognize the foolishness of my ways for not being a Berean and doing my own research on theological topics (Acts 17:11). I was a spiritually immature and highly impressionable young man, who simply desired to know what the Bible taught without necessarily having to do the hard work of arriving to convictions on my own. Truth be told, it took me a while before I even came to realize and appreciate for myself just how much hard work it takes for somebody to deeply understand the richness of God’s Word (Ps. 119:14). As a student at TMU and a regular attendee of GCC, I was able to see firsthand what it looked like to take the Bible seriously. Up to that point in my life, I had never seen, so many Christians not only spend countless hours studying Scripture but diligently devote themselves towards seeking to apply what they were learning from God’s Word to their lives. In a very real sense, my time at TMU showed me what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus Christ. To this day, I continue to praise God for enabling me to have the privilege of spending time in that Christ-centered environment.

In God’s providence, I wound up tearing my ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the Spring of 2015. At the time, I was convinced that God had called me to pursue vocational ministry, which would involve attending seminary after completing my undergraduate degree. TMU had just implemented its fully online degree program in Christian Ministries. After a season of intense prayer, I decided to end my baseball career and return home to complete the rest of my degree online. Over the next two years, I would go on to complete my undergraduate degree from TMU while working various jobs to help me save up money for future seminary training. Shortly after returning home to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (Texas), I was connected with Dr. Steven Lawson’s Men’s Bible Study. To this day, I cannot believe how blessed I am to have been able to develop a friendship with Dr. Lawson and with some of the Godly men who attended his Bible study. The Lord was abundantly gracious to surround me with excellent contexts for discipleship from the moment that I returned home from TMU to the present date.

In 2016, I would go on to join a church that is a close affiliate of GCC. By God’s grace, it was at that church where I met the woman who would become my wife, and to my delight, I discovered that both her father and grandfather served on the Board of Directors at TMU. As I completed my undergraduate degree from TMU in the summer of 2017, I decided to enroll in TMU’s online Master of Arts degree program in Biblical Studies. With my sights set on marriage and someday completing the Doctor of Ministry program under Dr. Steven Lawson at The Master’s Seminary (TMS), things were looking very promising (and clear-cut) for my future. However, in the early Fall of 2017, upon stumbling across a random Ligonier Ministries round table discussion, my life and theological convictions would be forever changed.[9]

I was in the car driving home from work one day, listening to a Ligonier Ministries conversation between Drs. Robert Godfrey, Sinclair Ferguson, Steven Lawson, R.C. Sproul, and R.C. Sproul Jr. Although I had been warned to be wary of R.C. Sproul while I was an on-campus student at TMU, it wasn’t long after returning home that I began to study his plethora of resources made available through Ligonier Ministries. In fact, it is R.C. Sproul, who I credit with having had the most impact on my theological development as a Christian. There are few men who I hold in higher esteem than R.C. Sproul, and I praise God for the tremendous work that He has accomplished through Dr. Sproul’s life and ministry.

In any case, during that conversation, the topic shifted to discussions on eschatology and the topic of what it meant for Jesus to be the King of kings and Lord of lords. At one point in that exchange, with a grin from ear to ear, R.C. Sproul made the following comment: “I’ve been studying the Bible for 50 years, and I can’t come up with a single verse anywhere in the Bible that teaches a pre-Tribulation rapture; can any of you help me with that?” As a committed “leaky Dispensationalist” at the time, I immediately expected Dr. Lawson to respond to Dr. Sproul’s snide remark with Biblical insight offered from a Dispensational perspective. To my shock, Dr. Lawson just sat there and laughed alongside the other men who were present for the discussion, as if to say, “who on earth would be foolish enough to believe in a pre-Tribulation rapture?”

It was at that moment when it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t even know where the Bible supposedly taught a pre-Tribulation rapture of the church. Shortly after arriving home from work, I delved into a deep Google search to see where the Bible taught a pre-Tribulation rapture of the church.[10] I was soon directed to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 but was immediately puzzled as to how that passage was teaching a pre-Tribulation rapture.[11] The description of the “rapture” in that passage seemed to be public and final. It looked nothing remotely close to being “secret,” and it certainly didn’t indicate that there would be a Tribulation taking place immediately after it.

Moreover, during that preliminary Google search, I also discovered that the predominant interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 throughout church history was for it to be about the second coming of Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead.[12] As a 22-year-old man who was firmly committed to “MacArthurism,” these revelations were shocking to uncover. Little did I know that over the upcoming months and years, I would be awakened to several facts about Dispensationalism that I had never encountered as a student at TMU. Whether out of ignorance or in an effort to turn a blind eye, I was largely shielded from several key theological distinctives of Dispensationalism as an undergraduate student and churchman. It is my personal conviction that once a Christian observes the theological and historical issues of Dispensationalism, they cannot embrace the system as being the best representation of Biblical truth in good conscience.

As will be outlined below, the remainder of this forthcoming series will be focused on delineating the key theological inconsistencies that undergird Dispensationalism as a whole. It is my personal prayer that upon working through each installment of this series, the reader will come to reject Dispensationalism as a viable approach to interpreting God’s Word. I want to be absolutely clear: there is no doubt in my mind that there are many Godly people and gifted Bible teachers who self-identify with the Dispensational theological tradition. The Lord took me on a remarkable journey from 2015-2017, allowing me to meet some incredible people within the realm of Dispensationalism. In fact, most of my family continues to subscribe to Dispensationalism to this day, and they are wonderful followers of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, my qualms with Dispensationalism still remain and will be further developed throughout this series in the months to come.

Much has changed since that fateful day in 2017. I am now married and am continuing to establish my own Biblical/theological convictions as the head of my household. I am a Pastor at a Southern Baptist Church who subscribes to the theology espoused in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith. As such, I believe the covenant theology of the 16th-18th century Particular Baptist tradition (1689 Federalism) to be the most consistent way of understanding how Scripture fits together. I have abandoned all variations of futuristic eschatology, embracing for myself the partial preterism that was championed by Dr. R.C. Sproul and others.[13] I still have aspirations to pursue doctoral work, but instead of a DMin, I desire to obtain a Ph.D. from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary under the supervision of Dr. Joel Beeke. Only time will tell where God will ultimately lead me for His glory and the edification of His people. Nevertheless, regardless of what my future journey has in store, I pray that this written series will serve as a helpful resource for many years to come. May God grant His people with clarity as to how they can best interpret His Holy Word!

An Overview of Future Articles

In each of the forthcoming installments in this series, it will be demonstrated that a Baptistic covenant theology (1689 Federalism) is the most faithful synthesis of Scripture available in the history of Christendom. Broadly speaking, all versions of covenant theology are more consistent in making sense of the Biblical witness than Dispensationalism. Nevertheless, I want to make it clear from the outset of this series that I will be critiquing Dispensationalism from a distinct version of covenant theology. While I have benefited greatly from studying the covenant theology of the Reformed tradition, I believe 1689 Federalism offers Christians with the best available framework for understanding Scripture holistically. As such, I recognize that many readers will not be familiar with the intricacies of 1689 Federalism, Reformed covenant theology, or how these systems ought to be distinguished from one another. Moreover, I also recognize that some readers may not be aware of the alternative systems that are available for interpreting the entirety of the Bible.

In North America alone, there are an estimated 107 million evangelical Christians.[14] Within that conglomerate of self-identifying evangelicals, many largely assume some variation of Dispensationalism to simply be “the way the Bible is to be understood.”[15] To even write a series that is dedicated to critiquing Dispensationalism is to go against the grain of North American Christianity seriously. As compared to North American Evangelicals, there are an estimated 500,000 confessionally Reformed Christians and even less who identify as Particular Baptists.[16] Confessional Christians, whether Presbyterian or Baptist, are a dwindling minority in the sphere of North American Christianity. I share this information with the reader to point out that much of what will be shared in this series is not going to be promoted or endorsed in “mainstream Christianity.” Readers who are not familiar with the issues being discussed throughout this series will likely have to do additional research for their own clarification.

Regardless of where the reader currently stands on the theological spectrum, I pray that the material introduced throughout this series is profitable for further growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). While these issues are not always popular to discuss amongst contemporary North American Evangelicals, they are certainly worthy of deep consideration. With this being said, here is the anticipated layout of future articles in the Dismantling Dispensationalism series-

Part 2- Examining the Historical Origins of Dispensationalism

This installment will demonstrate how Dispensationalism has roots in Seventh Day Adventism, the Plymouth Brethren Movement, and the Godfathers of the twentieth century Charismatic Movement. Moreover, the rise of Dispensationalism in the twentieth century Independent/Fundamentalist movement will be analyzed in detail.

Part 3- Examining the Inconsistent Hermeneutics of Dispensationalism

This installment will highlight how Dispensationalism rejects a New Testament interpretive priority in theory but arbitrarily embraces one in practice. The rigid literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic of Dispensationalism will also be evaluated against confessional alternatives.

Part 4- Examining Dispensationalism’s Defunct Covenant Theology

This installment will build off of part 3, demonstrating the Biblicism that undergirds Dispensationalism. The Biblicism of Dispensationalism will be examined in light of its rejection of the covenants of redemption, works, and grace. Moreover, this article will provide selected studies of the doctrinal statements associated with prominent Dispensational churches to demonstrate the insufficiency of anti-Confessional biases.

Part 5- Are There Two Peoples of God in Dispensationalism?

This installment will detail how classic Dispensationalism presupposes that God has separate redemptive plans for a physical/national people (theocratic Israel), and for a spiritual/heavenly people (the Church). This glaring inconsistency will be examined against Dispensationalism’s failure to accurately account for the progressive nature of revelation in Scripture and in history.

Part 6- Examining Dispensationalism’s Two-Rapture Theory

This installment will analyze Dispensationalism’s “secret rapture” theory of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, and how that relates to the return of Jesus Christ before His earthly, millennial reign. The Dispensational understanding of the “rapture” will be examined against the prevailing understanding of this eschatological event in church history.

Part 7- Examining Dispensationalism’s Gap Theory

This installment will discuss the 2000+ year gap between the 69th and 70th week in Daniel 9:24-27. Various Dispensational understandings of the Great Tribulation will be featured in this article, as well as the eschatological ramifications that come with holding to the Dispensational view of Daniel 9:24-27.

Part 8- Examining Dispensationalism’s Future Golden Age

This installment will outline the Dispensational conception of the future, 1000 year, Israel-centered, earthly reign of Jesus Christ. This article will consider the theological repercussions that come with embracing the idea of a rebuilt temple and the reinstitution of animal sacrifices during the future millennium. Alternative approaches to understanding Revelation 20 will also be provided for the benefit of the reader.

Part 9- A Charge to the Church to Abandon Dispensationalism

This installment will offer the reader with concluding thoughts in light of each subject that was discussed throughout the series. Additional resources will be recommended to the reader to aid in any supplemental studies done on the topics discussed in the series.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Wrongly-Dividing-Word-Truth-Dispensationalism/dp/0977851699

[2] https://sbts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/equip/uploads/2020/02/SBJT-23.2-Will-the-Son-Rise-on-a-Fourth-Horizon-Barrett-1.pdf

[3] https://tms.edu/msj/hermeneutical-evaluation-christocentric-hermeneutic/

[4] https://www.tms.edu/m/msj29.1.pdf

[5] http://kimriddlebarger.squarespace.com/a-reply-to-john-macarthur/

[6] https://heidelblog.net/2016/02/three-things-dispensational-apologists-should-stop-saying-1/

[7] https://twitter.com/5pointsupermom/status/1070386348937371654?s=21

[8] https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-61/dispensational-premillennialism-dispensationalist-era.html

[9] https://www.ligonier.org/blog/watch-now-qa-sproul-ligonier-teaching-fellows/

[10] https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1117&context=pretrib_arch

[11]  https://tms.edu/msj/why-a-pretribulational-rapture/

[12] https://heidelblog.net/2014/10/two-points-on-left-behind-and-the-secret-rapture-1/

[13] https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/last_days_according_to_jesus/

[14] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.christianpost.com/amp/most-evangelical-christians-live-outside-of-north-america-and-europe-researcher-says.html

[15] http://www.reformedreader.org/hda.htm

[16] https://heidelblog.net/2013/02/lamenting-decline-questioning-premises/