The Damnable Presuppositions of Dispensationalism
By Richard Bennett
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2 PETER 2:1
In 2011, Richard Bennett exposed contemporary and ongoing threats to the five solas of the Reformation. His original article, “Five Biblical Principles of Reformation”, covers a spectrum of issues that have been assaulting these basic principles. You may recall the “five solas” have been the bulwark in the defense of the true Biblical gospel. The majority of the article deals with the dangerous presupposition of Dispensational theology and their attack on Sola Scriptura and Sola Gratia. The following is an excerpt from that article.
Dispensationalism and Sola Scriptura
A most serious assault on Sola Scriptura comes also from a system that quite often boasts about holding to that principle. The assault here spoken of comes from those who hold to the presuppositions of Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism in general holds for seven dispensations, the fifth of which is the dispensation of the law, from Mt. Sinai to the cross of Christ and the sixth of which is the dispensation of grace, from the cross of Christ to the Second Advent. Numerous charts print these dispensations.
A first major presupposition in dispensationalism is, therefore, the antithesis between law and grace. The dispensationalist interpretation of the Bible sets up an antithesis which says that the dispensation of grace, in which we live, is antithetical to the dispensation of law. The underlying implication is that we are not now under God’s law but rather under His grace.
Old Testament saints saved by grace alone (sola gratia)
Salvation by grace alone is evidenced right through the Old Testament. Genesis 6:8 states, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” The same grace is now greatly magnified in the New Testament, “Know ye therefore that those who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached beforehand the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham Gal 3:8. Paul writes in Romans 4:3-4, “For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, his reward is reckoned not according to grace, but according to debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
This same righteousness in God only was that on which the Old Testament saints trusted as, for example, Isaiah 45:24 writes, “In the Lord, have I righteousness and strength” and as the psalmist declares, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Thy righteousness even of Thine only” 71:16, or as Jeremiah writes 23:6, “the Lord, our righteousness.” Unequivocally, these passages and many others show that these OT saints were counting on Who God is in His righteousness rather than on anything that they themselves did in their sacrificial system or in keeping the law. Their writing shows that it was because of God’s grace and in God’s grace that they could cry out “my God”, “my rock”, “my salvation”, “my high tower”, “the One in Whom I trust”, as the Psalms continually say. A result of wrongheaded understanding of the Bible re law and grace is seen in numerous tracts and sermons which declare loudly that “God loves you and has a plan for your life”. Seen from the perspective of the dispensational presupposition with its seriously flawed understanding of law and grace, the basis for Christ’s death on the cross quite easily becomes God’s love for all of humanity. But the stated reason in the Bible is in Romans 3:26, “that He [God] might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”. This is often missing in the tracts and sermons of those who follow the dispensational theological system.
The presuppositions of the system itself are rarely measured according to God’s Word.
Thus to those who espouse it, the theological system itself and its presuppositions easily becomes the absolute authority. It must be noted, however, that not all dispensationalists live out dispensationalism as the system itself is written and there is a wide variety among dispensationalists. Nevertheless, what is said here generally applies.
To correct the presupposition that the present time is the dispensation of grace over and against the time from Mt. Sinai to the cross, it must be stated Biblically that the Law of God always stands as normative and absolute in the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. In fact, the Law is a synonym for the whole written word of God in many places (e.g., Ps. 1 and 119). Sin in the Bible from cover to cover “is the transgression of the Law.” (I Jn. 3:4) Every departure from God’s written word, whether great or small, known or unknown, intended or accidental, is sin. “I had not known sin, but by the Law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (Rom. 7:7) For “Christians” to declare the death of Christ solely as an exhibition of God’s love to mankind is to hold a theological system as normative rather than God’s law which is His written Word, as normative.
Before God’s law, sin and sins must be paid for to meet the demands of God’s perfect holiness and justice. So it was that Christ Jesus was “made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law”. According to the perfection of His character portrayed in Scripture, God will not and cannot save one sinner outside of fulfilling the Law. What Paul keeps proclaiming in his Biblical teaching needs to be understood: the cross is first and foremost to declare “His righteousness for the remission of sins. . . “ (Rom. 3:25) “To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (Rom. 3:26)
Repent and believe the Gospel is the message of the New Testament, “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:21) Repentance acknowledges the final authority of God’s law and acknowledges that God’s law must be fulfilled. No individual is saved by repentance; rather it is by bringing the words of the Law to bear on an individual that the Holy Spirit convicts him of his sin, of the righteousness of Christ Jesus, and of the judgment of God. (John 16) A major reason why there is so little conviction of sin in the modern world of Evangelicals is that many have accepted a system of interpretation of the Bible that in fact sets up grace in antithesis to the Law in a false antithesis.
Romans 3:31 states, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish the law.” The whole law–all that justice requires of each individual–is fulfilled in Christ. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:4) If a system is accepted that does void the law, it must be rejected as implicitly denying Sola Scriptura. Generally speaking, in Dispensationalism the presupposition of the antithesis between law and grace nullifies the authority of the Bible.
Identity of Israel and Church unscriptural
A second major presupposition of Dispensationalism is that there is an absolute difference between Israel and the church. Dispensationalism holds that the essence of the message in the Old Testament and in the Gospels is that the earthly kingdom was offered only to Israel. According to this interpretation of Scripture, when the offer was rejected by Israel, the dispensation of grace came in as a parenthesis until the kingdom of Israel is finally to be brought in the second coming of the Lord. The presupposition on which this system is based is that God has two peoples with two separate destinies, Israel (earthly) and the church (heavenly).
Biblically, such a presupposition is groundless. The Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) is in Christ Jesus where “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth”; rather, the new creature is in Him (Galatians 6:15) The believers all are Christ’s. These are the heirs of the Old Testament promise. This doctrine is clearly taught in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then ye are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:28-29).
The Judaizers of Paul’s time claimed special recognition for those who were physically Jews by circumcision. Paul answered them when he writes, Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the Circumcision who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)
In a similar way, he answers those boasting of being Jews when he writes, He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Romans 2:28-29)
In Romans Chapter Three, the same question arises. Paul, as a Jew, asks, “Are we better than they?” He then goes on to show that there is no difference (v. 22) between Jew and Gentile before God’s Holy law, that all have sinned, both Jew and Gentile (v. 23). The good news of the propitiation through faith in Christ Jesus’ blood (v.24) is to Jew and to Gentile alike. It is the same Gospel to both.
The central message of Ephesians Chapter Two is that both Jew and Gentile are saved by grace through faith, that both are one new man in Christ (v. 15) for the partition that separated Jew and Gentile has been broken down, But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, Who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; (Ephesians 2:13-14)
In the same way, Peter answered the Judaizers when the Apostles and elders came together to discuss circumcision and the law of Moses at Jerusalem. Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. (Acts 15:7-11)
Further, when Christ spoke to the Jews as recorded in John 6:29, He informed them, “This is the work of God: that ye believe in Him Whom He has sent.” Likewise to the Jews, Christ said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24) Everlasting life is not an everlasting earthly kingdom but rather to be with Him as He is with the Father.
Traditions or the Bible
Just as Rome sets up her Magisterium over and above the authority of the Bible, it appears that Dispensationalism has placed ultimate authority in its own magisterium, declaring a separation of Israel from the church and a gospel of the kingdom for one set of people with the gospel of grace for others. To leave believers open to revival in our own day, as at the time of the Reformation, Roman Catholicism must be seen Biblically to be doing what the Pharisees did in the Lord’s own time. It must be equally and clearly denounced as did the Lord the Pharisees and their tradition. Likewise, Dispensationalism and its presuppositions must be strictly analyzed to the absolute measure of God’s written Word and not visa versa. Both systems are making their traditions superior to the absolute authority of the Bible.
The entire article, “Five Biblical Principles of Reformation”, can be read online.