Would Both Scofield/Ryrie Been Seen as Calvinist Bibles?

I'm fairly certain that I am not agreeing with you on all points, for some of what you propose are incompatible. One cannot "see" dispensationalism in the Scriptures and at the same time "see" Doctrines of Grace. The two are widely separated in several areas, one being more anthropological in nature and the other more directed at seeing God's total sovereignty in action.

I would hold, however, that one can indeed hold to the Doctrines of Grace while not also holding to some of Calvin's other doctrines, baptism for instance.

Also, I should be up front here, I am neither a dispensationalist nor a covenantalist. I see divine election as the proper way to hinge and center Scripture, which is utterly consistent with the view of God's sovereignty that is offered in the Reformed tradition. Why no one has really developed this view as yet is beyond me, but I know that several are working on it at high levels and I predict a shaking about of the greater theological world as we introduce for the first time in any serious way a new and more biblically-centered doctrine that takes into account all of God's actions throughout history.

 

Something along those lines, yes, but also a bit different. Kaiser based his central theme on "Echatological Hope" which is present, but not the actual central theme of Scripture. It fails in a number of ways, Proverbs and some of the wisdom literature, for instance.

I've found that election is a better central theme, but even there can be found a few difficulties -- not as many as other themes, but some nevertheless.

Election does feature the sovereignty of God versus the actions of His creation, which makes it a non-starter for a good many people who would rather see the actions of humankind as the theme of Scripture than the utter and absolute sovereignty of God. I find that God is the subject of virtually every pericope of Scripture (cannot just say pasage for a good many "verses" are divisions of a paragraph in the original languages and do damage to the continuity of the text in such a manner as to change the ultimate subject and action of any given sentence). God's elective actions are seen everywhere -- so much so that most readers of Scripture take them for granted and even fail to see them at all, attributing actions instead to the ones to whom the action is directed, i.e., David looked over the roof top, etc.

A read of Scripture with an eye toward God's election will cause a great many discoveries to come to light that may not have been seen before when or if one read looking for a dispensation or a covenant. Both are there as well, but neither adequately deals with the larger theme of God exercising His rights as Sovereign King of EVERYTHING.

 

Unless one is Pelagian I do not see why viewing Scripture while looking for God's sovereign election would be a problem... Especially when it is found on almost every page.

 

Yes... :thumbsup: