Dispensationalism: Help or Hindrance?

I would love to do a post based on personal experience of the doubt, and apostasy that I was brought up into in a non-dispensational church. I am sure I could fill a page or two packed with emotionally charged rhetoric of the dangers and follies of the ecumenical movement and the utter disrespect and disregard she has for the Bible. The Bible is the one Book I have come to love and defend as the only rule and authority for my life. A Book I recognize, as it is, the Word of God. This is due by and large to a system of thought that has helped me make sense of the Word of God as a whole. This system is known as Dispensationalism. Irrespective of the way the ecumenical movement has disputed and despised precious doctrines that are central to biblical Christianity, and since I am not set (in this post) to warn against the creeping crud of liberalism… I refrain. Instead my focus will be on Dispensationalism: Help or Hindrance?

In many ways my allegiance is to this system of thought is due to its adherence of the foundational teaching of the Scriptures: A high view of the Bible, the deity of Christ, His saving death, His bodily resurrection, and His second coming. Many of you have heard all of this before. Perhaps some have gotten bored of hearing the same tired tomes; the dusty doctrines have become dormant. The accolades of the ancients lull you asleep. So off you go into the wonderful world of modern exploration. “Did God really say…?”, the dull of hearing may ask. Being dry and dreary in our faith is directly related to a lack of doing. What good is a hearer of the Word who is unwilling to do the work of the Word?

It was through dispensational teaching and teachers that I came to know Jesus Christ my Lord in a personal, intimate relationship. The Bible was opened up to me in a manner which I have never considered. Of course I was not born again; I was still dead in sin. Now I am alive in Christ, instead of a book to decorate my shelf it is my link to hear the very voice of the Creator. Here are other considerations of dispensational thought that have been a great help to me and I am sure to countless others.

One is the Doxological approach to Scripture: finding God’s glory in every text.

The next is the consistent hermeneutic (interpretation), the plain and normal interpretation to discover the intent or meaning, “It means what it says…” One does not need to be a Greek scholar to read the Bible with some level of intelligence. Read it plainly without imagining hidden codes and meanings, there is enough there to satisfy any truth thirsty soul. The Protestant reformer and scholar William Tyndale (1494-1536) declared, “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, I will cause the boy that drives the plow in England to know more of the Scriptures than the Pope himself!” The Scriptures are now before our eyes in our own language we may read them and grow in the Lord.

Thirdly, and once again, insofar as salvation, (in the dispensational system I have come to love) there has always been and always will be one way to be saved from our sin, from the Scriptures alone by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Authentic Dispensationalism is a great help and hinders none of the great fundamental themes of the Bible. One need not be bashful about being in this helpful assembly of faithful Bible proclaimers.

In His fellowship,
Brother John