Whomever Hillclimber quoted:
"I cannot think of any books written before 1800
which address dispensationalism, can you?"
Hillclimber: "No I cannot, but I'm not a history buff.
I was even unaware of Darby
and his work before coming on this board."
I find it very strange that the main advocates of
dispensationalism are the anti-dispensationalists???
Why is it all we on the Baptist Board seem to know about
dispensationalism came from anti-dispensationalists???
I also find that the anti-dispensationalists, in building
their strawmen appear to be more prone to make easy to burn
strawmen than accurate representations.
Chemnitz on Dispensational flaws:
//1. Dispensationalism teaches that the Messiah and His kingdom
promised in the Old Testament are essentially political in nature. In this respect it
takes a position which resembles the Messianic expectation of first-century
Judaism. Christ's atoning work on the cross is not central in God's plan according
to this view. Rather, He is wrongly perceived as, coming to set up a this-worldly
kingdom, and when rejected, as postponing it.//
A dispensationalist said, and I agree:
//Christ's atoning work is central to all of His saints. He did
come and they (Israel) recieved Him not. He returned to heaven.
He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, ready to return in judgement.//
This also distorts all the dispensationalism i've ever looked at.
Chemnitz on Dispensational flaws:
//2. The view regards the Messianic age as only a future reality. It tends to
exchange the "now" for a "not yet," thereby depriving people of the comforting
promises of the Gospel in the present. In truth, Christ inaugurated the kingdom of
heaven at His first advent, a kingdom which is now ours by faith even while it is
yet hidden under the cross until its consummation at Christ's second advent.//
Utter nonsense. I find three kingdoms of God:
1. the kingdom of God that dwells within us NOW
2. the future physical Kingdom of God on earth AKA: Millinnial Kingdom of Christ
3. the eternal Kingdom of God (i.e. heaven or the New Jerusalem)
Actually this seems more of an attack on Futurism than on
Dispensationalism. I wish the anti-dispensationalism could figure out
what it is they are attacking
Chemnitz on Dispensational flaws:
//3. Dispensational premillennialism tends to regard the glory of God as the center
of theology, rather than the mercy of God revealed, and yet hidden, in the
suffering and death of Jesus on the cross for the sins of the world. The visible
manifestations of God's power at the end of history and obedience to the will of
God become the primary foci, instead of the grace of God revealed in the cross not at all
of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 2:2)--which by faith the Christian regards and accepts as
the place of God's definitive triumph over sin and every evil (in Lutheran
theology, the "theology of the cross" as opposed to a "theology of glory").//
The mercy of God revealed in Jesus is the Glory of God.
So this is a mischaracterisation of dispensationalism.
Chemnitz on Dispensational flaws:
//4. Dispensational premillennialism underestimates, and even ignores, the
significance of Biblical typology. All prophecy points to Jesus Christ as the
fulfillment. He is the antitype of the Old Testament types. When the reality to
which the Old Testament points does come, one cannot revert back to the
"shadows," such as the Old Testament temple (Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 10:1).//
Typology is more prevelant in dispensationalism than among
anti-dispensational doctrines.
Chemnitz on Dispensational flaws:
//5. The compartmentalization of Scripture into distinct dispensations seriously
overlooks the Law/Gospel unity of the Old and New Testaments. For example, it
makes a radical distinction between the Mosaic "law" period and the church age
of "grace." The relationship between the Old and New Testaments is that of
promise and fulfillment, not one of distinct dispensations.//
I like what a dispensationalist said to this:
//Yes it does...To His glory and our benefit.//
Amen, Brother whomever -- Preach it!
