Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a system of interpretation of the Bible which divides the history and future of the world into (usually) seven periods or dispensations. It distorts the truth by imposing upon the Bible a man-made method of understanding God’s dealings with the world. Dispensationalists claim that without their system the Bible is largely unintelligible. The majority view of the seven dispensations include:
- Innocence – The time of Adam and Eve prior to the Fall.
- Conscience – From the Fall to the Noah’s Flood.
- Human Government – From the Flood to the Tower of Babel.
- Promise – From Abraham to Moses.
- Law – From Moses to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
- Grace – From the cross to the secret rapture of the church (i.e. Christians would all suddenly and miraculously disappear from the earth). The rapture occurs before (although some teach in the middle of) the Great Tribulation (a seven-year period of troubled times upon the earth, when the whole earth is ruled by a single leader – the ‘antichrist’).
- Millennial Kingdom – A 1000 year reign of Christ centred in Jerusalem, who returns to the earth during the battle of Armageddon (which occurs when a coalition of armies invade the land of Israel), to rule with Israel. It ends with God’s judgement when the nations of the earth rise up against Christ in one final rebellion.
The father of Dispensationalism was a Calvinist, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). (See Calvinism .) Essentially, Darby took two core ideas – both falsehoods – and modified and amalgamated them, to form the key elements of his system:
1) The Calvinist belief in God’s elect people was reinvented to have a two-fold application. First and foremost, God had chosen the nation of Israel, and most of the Bible related to God’s dealings solely and specifically with Israel. Second was the church elect, which effectively was an interruption (called in the Dispensationalist system “the great parenthesis”) in God’s plan and purposes for Israel and the world at large.
2) The Futurist view of end-time prophecy (i.e. a Jesuit interpretation of what the Bible says will happen in the world just before Jesus returns). He was caught up amongst a group of people who were fervent about the Bible’s end-time prophecies and their fulfilment in their own time, given the state of the church and the world as they saw it. One of Darby’s associates was Edward Irving. Irving discovered a book written by a Jesuit priest Manuel De Lacunza (who wrote under the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra, claiming to be a Jew who had converted to Christianity), which was a remake of the Jesuit Ribera’s Futurist interpretation, and Irving translated it into English from Spanish adding his own lengthy introduction. The Futurist view was modified by Irving to include the secret rapture, and this all dovetailed nicely into Darby’s idea of the future role for Israel.
See also Clarence Larkin
and see The-Historicists-Approach-2024 update for an alternate to Futurism
(The Historicist interpretation of the Bible’s end-time prophecies is virtually unknown amongst present Evangelical churches. However, this ignorance is not representative of the whole of the Christian era. The Futurist view – which is the current orthodoxy – gained acceptance only last century.* Prior to that, the Historicist view was an essential doctrine of the Protestant churches. It was an indispensable element of the Reformation period, and the Futurist view was repudiated absolutely. All of the modern “fathers of faith” were adherents of the Historicist approach.
The Historicist school believes that the major end-time prophecies of the Bible – the little horn of the fourth beast of Daniel 7; the seventieth week of Daniel 9; the Olivet Discourse recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21; and the Book of Revelation – have had a progressive fulfilment down through history. This school emphasizes the symbolic nature of the images described in these passages.
This contrasts with the Futurist school which believes that the major end-time prophecies are yet to have a future fulfilment, and emphasizes a literal interpretation (but adopts a symbolic interpretation when deemed appropriate). See A-Historicists-Approach-To-The-Major-Endtime-Prophecies-Of-The-Bible-2021
*There are other systems of interpretation including the Praetorist school – that all of the major end-time prophecies were fulfilled long ago – and Spiritual school – that these ‘prophecies’ merely teach principles and in no way make predictions of actual future events.
Darby’s novel ideas were largely criticised and rejected at the time in England. They were seen to be a distortion of biblical truth and a radical departure from historic Christianity. The church movement with which he was instrumental in creating, which became known as the “Plymouth Brethren”, was itself split in two forming the “Closed Brethren” which alone stayed loyal to his views, and the “Open Brethren” (of which George Mueller was a key figure), which rejected in particular his interpretation of end-time prophecy. Mueller said:
“… I am a constant reader of my Bible, and I soon found that what I was taught to believe did not always agree with what my Bible said. I came to see that I must either part company with John Darby, or my precious Bible, and I chose to cling to my Bible and part from Mr. Darby.”
(R. Cameron, Scriptural Truth About the Lord’s Return, pp 146-147)
(Mueller is famous as a pioneer of orphanages and for funding these purely by faith and answered prayer – with many extraordinary accounts recorded – and not through solicited funds.)
Nevertheless, Darby was warmly received in the United States by some Reformed (i.e. Calvinist) churches making numerous visits there. Out of his U.S. connections he influenced Cyrus Ingersoll Scofield who published a hugely popular reference Bible which was eventually to largely commandeer the evangelical churches thinking throughout America, crossing over from Calvinist churches. (Curiously, despite its Calvinist beginnings, Dispensationalism is largely rejected by present-day Calvinists.[1])
The line of Dispensationalist authors, since Darby to the present, is characterised by taking their current world events and interpreting them to be the pending fulfilment of Biblical prophecy. Their sensational claims about the ‘end of the world’ attract an audience because they prey upon people’s fears and ignorance. Naturally, as their ‘prophecies’ do not come to pass, they conveniently alter them to fit the change in world circumstances.
Dispensationalism in the U.S. and other Western countries is dominated by the following beliefs:
- The return of Christ will occur in “this generation”. (Darby thought it was his generation as each and every teacher of Futurism believes. The current cohort of teachers generally promoted ‘this generation’ to be 40 years after 1948 when Israel was reconstituted as a nation State in the land of Palestine or after 1967 when Israel took control of Jerusalem. Since 1988 and 2007 have long gone, the period of ‘this generation’ has been reset to a period of 60 – 70 years, and the start date of 1948 abandoned.)
- A new temple must be built in Jerusalem (the vast majority believe on the site of the Dome of the Rock) and the Jewish priesthood and sacrifices reinstated.
- Israel is to be unconditionally supported – financially, politically and militarily – and Israel’s expansionist polices to embrace control over the whole land of Palestine are to be actively endorsed and encouraged. (This support for Israel in Western churches is known as “Christian Zionism”. [2]) This belief is based upon the claim that Israel remains the chosen people of God. And that God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants (i.e. the modern State of Israel) are unconditional. Consequently, those that ‘bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed’.
- The Great Tribulation is imminent. It will last for a period of seven years. With the onslaught of this period, conditions upon the earth rapidly deteriorate; physically – with earthquakes, famines and pestilences – and politically – with the rise of the antichrist who takes control of the world and sets up his power-base in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. He will force everyone to receive the “mark of the beast”.
Speculation amongst Futurists identifying a current leader who might be the antichrist is ever-present. Past candidates include Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Gorbachev and Saddam Hussein. Some promote the New Age “Maitreya” as the candidate for the antichrist . (In Buddhist tradition, Maitreya is a future Buddha who will descend to earth to preach anew the dharma (i.e. Buddhist law) when the teachings of Gautama Buddha have been completely forgotten and abandoned. Benjamin Creme, a New Age leader, took the Theosophist concept of Maitreya taught by Alice Bailey and declared that the omniscient and omnipresent Maitreya was present living in London in 1977! And that Maitreya would present himself to the world at the appropriate moment to be revealed as the “World Teacher” and “Awaited One” looked to by all of the major religions of the world – the Christ to the Christians, the Mahdi to the Muslims, the Messiah to the Jews, and the Maitreya to the Buddhists – and that he would effectively become the ruler of the entire world at that time.)
As to what this ‘mark’ actually is has evolved amongst Futurists with the dramatic advancements in technology in the last 50 years from a tattoo to a barcode to a credit card to an implanted microchip to altered dna.
- Christians escape this terrible time because they have been raptured, i.e. secretly, miraculously and instantaneously removed from the earth and taken into heaven, as Christ first appears for the church in His second-coming. (Futurists teach that Christ’s second-coming is split over two advents. First he comes for the church at the ‘rapture’ and afterwards he comes secondly to assume control of the world. Some Futurists teach the rapture happens in the middle of this seven year period of tribulation, not at the beginning.)
- The battle of “Armageddon” in which a coalition of forces (believed now to comprise Russian, Chinese and Islamic forces) will invade the land of Israel at the end of the seven years, during which Christ will appear to all the world in His ‘second coming’ to rule for a period of 1000 years (the ‘millennium’) as King of Israel.
Popular Dispensationalist teachers/authors include Hal Lindsey, Tim Lahaye, Jerry Jenkins, Charles Ryrie, Chuck Missler, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, David Jeremiah, John Walvoord, Thomas Ice, Chuck Swindoll, Derek Prince, David Pawson, Lance Lambert, Walter Riggans, Jerry Falwell, Mike Evans, Charles Dyer, Dave Hunt, Merrill Tenney, Harry Ironside, Walter Kaiser Jr., David Cloud and Basilea Schlink. (The principal Bible colleges in the U.S. which hold to Futurism are the Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary. Many of the church leaders who promote Futurism are graduates from these institutions.)
Another Gospel
Dispensationalism maintains that there are two covenants in force, or two ways to be saved. The Old Covenant remains in operation for Jews, a remnant of Abraham’s descendants, and will continue even when Jesus returns to the earth. The New Covenant is only for the Gentile church (i.e. all non-Jewish believers) and effectively is set aside when the church is raptured into heaven. As such Dispensationalism is a false gospel. It denies the necessity of the new birth for Jews to be saved, in contradiction to all of the Bible both Old and New Testaments teach.
The writer of Hebrews 8:7-13, in the New Testament, quotes from the Old Testament Jeremiah 31:31-34, explaining that the Old Covenant has been displaced by the New Covenant:
“For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said:
“The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”
There could be no clearer statement of the dissolution of the Old Covenant. With the establishment of the New Covenant, in and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Old Covenant was now “obsolete” and so now made ineffective.
Jesus announced at the last Passover meal that His death would establish the New Covenant, and thus He was to be the sacrificial Lamb of God initiating a new order (upon which the old order with its regulations and continual animal sacrifices would cease – they did indeed “soon disappear” with the destruction of the temple in 70AD):
Luke 22:20-21
“…after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
The Old Covenant is no longer in effect; it has been annulled by God specifically for “the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Hebrews 8:8)! Upon His death, Jesus “abolish(ed) in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations” (Ephesians 2:15). And He established the New Covenant offered to both Israel and Gentile nations – “… through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:5-6). God removed the customs and practices which identified the Jews as a nation distinct from the Gentiles in order to make a new people for Himself out of the two:
Ephesians 2:11-19
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away [the Gentiles] and peace to those who were near [the Jews]. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household…”
When Jesus died the curtain in the temple which separated the room in which God’s presence dwelt (called the Holy of Holies) was torn in two by Him from top to bottom. God left that temple of stone and made His people (the church comprising both Jews and Gentiles), individually and collectively, His “temple”:
1 Corinthians 6:19
“…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God…”
2 Corinthians 6:16
“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
The temple building that remained in Jerusalem was destroyed by the armies that God sent as judgement upon the Jews in 70A.D. and the sacrificial system ceased at that time, and has never been reinstated. Just as predicted in the book of Hebrews “By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”
(Note 1: Jesus was instituted as the new High Priest with the overturning of the old Levitical priesthood – which officiated the sacrificial system – upon the cessation of the Old Covenant and institution of the New Covenant (see Hebrews 3:1-6, 5:4-10 & 8:13).
Note2: It would be an offence against Christ and His blood to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and reinstate the priesthood and sacrificial system – but this is exactly what Dispensationalists believe must happen and that it will continue during the Millennium when Christ rules the earth! This is an affront to the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ. It is an attack upon the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.)
The New Testament explains that the promises and prophecies of blessing in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus (not Israel):
Galatians 3:16
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:20
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.
Those who are born again are regarded as the descendants of Abraham and heirs of the promises. God’s chosen people, His beloved, are those who have entered into a covenant relationship with Him by faith – just as Abraham did. The natural descendants of Abraham who remain outside of faith, i.e. who reject Jesus as the Messiah and are not born again, are not “children of Abraham” by the Bible’s own definition.
Who are God’s Chosen People?
Galatians 3:6-14
Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
Abraham’s ‘spiritual’ descendants, those who believe by faith in the atoning work of Jesus, are God’s chosen people and are therefore “blessed along with Abraham” – both Jew and Gentile. The promises of blessings that were given to Abraham were specifically to flow through “one person“, i.e. the Christ (Galatians 3:16), who would be a future descendant of Abraham and, therefore, only to those who believe in Him.
Contrary to what Dispensationalism teaches, Jews who remain faithful to the Mosaic Law i.e. the Old Covenant (as they interpret it to be) and who reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of God, are indeed under a curse, not blessing. They do not inherit the blessings of Abraham because they do not accept “his seed” who is Jesus Christ.
This truth, that those who are regarded by God as Abraham’s children is by faith and not blood-line, is confirmed in the book of Romans:
Romans 2:28-29
A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
Romans 9:6-9
For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
Abraham’s children are reckoned as only those who are in Christ – whatever their nationality or blood lineage. Therefore, those who are not in Christ – though they might claim to be Abraham’s descendants by birth and nationality – are not Abraham’s children nor God’s children:
Galatians 3:26-4:1
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
When the Jews claimed before Jesus that both Abraham and God were their father, Jesus denounced them in no uncertain terms:
John 8:39-44
“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.
This incident strikes down the belief amongst Dispensationalists that present-day Israel is God’s chosen and beloved. The claim by the Jews, here in this passage of scripture, of being both Abraham’s and God’s sons was their justification of being acceptable to God; His chosen and beloved. But as they stood there rejecting Jesus, He revealed their true heart and identity. They were of their father the devil because they rejected Him. The consequence for them was their destruction, as pronounced by the Lord Himself:
Matthew 23:37-38
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.”
In 70A.D., God sent His then sword of judgement, the Roman armies under the command of Titus, to destroy Israel and in particular Jerusalem – and only a remnant survived. (c.f. Matthew 22:7 “The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”)
Whilst present-day Israel, as a nation, continues to reject Jesus – like that generation and historically every generation since – they are not God’s beloved nor His people. Unless there is a national repentance that has never once occurred since that time – to date – Israel remains an enemy of God.
The Kingdom of God
The original promise given to Israel that they would be God’s chosen people, a kingdom with Him as their Sovereign, as His unique protectorate in all of the world:
Exodus 19:5-6
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
was annulled by their disobedience and their breaking of covenant. (The rest of the Old Testament and the history of God’s judgements upon Israel confirms this to us.)
The exact same promise made ineffective by Israel’s disobedience, was given to those who would obey God through the New Covenant (both Jews and Gentiles together) established by the blood of Jesus Christ, and entered into by faith in Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 2:4-10
As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” and,
“A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message — which is also what they were destined for.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
This is confirmed again by the Revelation that Jesus gave to the apostle John:
Revelation 1:5-6, 5:9-10
“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father — to him be glory and power for ever and ever…
And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.””
Jesus declared that Israel was to lose its identity as God’s kingdom, and that God would give His kingdom to another people i.e. that He would be identified and work through another people, not through Israel as He had done:
Matthew 21:43-45
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.”
The people who were given the kingdom were the people of the New Covenant. He addressed his disciples, the apostles of the New Covenant, saying:
Luke 22:29
“And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me…”
And again, via the apostle Paul:
Colossians 1:13
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…”
The Claim that God’s Election of Israel is Unconditional
The chief claim by Dispensationalists that the State of Israel today is God’s chosen people and under God’s blessing, pertain to their selective quoting of the promises given to Abraham, and those offered to Abraham’s descendants, with the claim that the blessings are unconditional; supporting this view with their interpretation of Romans 11 (discussed later). However, the scriptures clearly demonstrate that the promises of God’s blessing are conditional. Abraham was himself required by God under the terms of the covenant he entered into “to walk before me and be blameless” (Genesis 17:1) Blood covenant principles require the keeping of covenant. The breaking of covenant has a most severe penalty attached to it – literally death. Covenant required of Abraham that he give to God anything that God asked of him. And Abraham remained a faithful covenant friend of God and obeyed the covenant fully his whole life long; even to the point of the giving up of his son Isaac.
If ever there is a claim to God’s blessing upon present-day Israel -i.e. that they are is chosen and beloved, by God’s election irrespective of their obedience to Him – Deuteronomy should be full of evidence of his unconditional (rather than conditional) blessing. (The book of Deuteronomy contains the Old Covenant law which God delivered to Israel via Moses.) It is through Moses that Israel was effectively made by God into a nation state with communal laws and code of conduct.
The fact is that conditionality is emphasised and repeated again and again throughout Deuteronomy. For example:
Deuteronomy 8:19-9:1
“If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.”
Deuteronomy 11:26-29
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse — the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.”
Deuteronomy 28:9-10
“The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.”
Deuteronomy 28:58-68
“If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name — the LORD your God — the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the LORD your God. Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.
Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods — gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!” — because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see. The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
Deuteronomy 29:25-28
“It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
Deuteronomy 30:1-3, 17-18
“When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you…
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”
Deuteronomy 31:24-32:1, 5-6 15b-27
“After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God. There it will remain as a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the LORD while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officials, so that I can speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to testify against them. For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall upon you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and provoke him to anger by what your hands have made.”
And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel….
They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?….
He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Saviour. They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God — gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.
You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
“I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding. For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below.
“I will heap calamities upon them and spend my arrows against them. I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust. In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. Young men and young women will perish, infants and gray-haired men. I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind, but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.'”
Despite all of God’s warnings in Deuteronomy, Israel continued in its rebellious ways. Despite God’s momentary deliverances from their enemies by Judges and Kings, Israel still did not repent and continued in its rebellious ways. Despite God promising and then sending them a Deliverer who would change their heart so that they could obey Him, Israel continued in its rebellious ways – even killing the One who could save them.
Like all other nations, Israel today is at enmity with God. Israel, together with all other Western nations, is falling headlong into gross sin and debauchery: c.f. Israel is the centre of homosexual acceptance, activity and promotion in the Middle East.
Of course, individual Jews do accept Jesus, as they did in the book of Acts. But just like in the time of Acts, as Stephen himself proclaimed, the Jews as a nation remained stiff-necked and rebellious (which they were called in Deuteronomy) always resisting and opposing the Holy Spirit:
Acts 7:51-53
“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”
And therefore God’s judgement fell upon the nation some thirty years later after the stoning of Stephen when God used the Roman army as His sword of vengeance upon Israel. If Israel was dealt with by God in this way, should we not stand on God’s side and agree with His judgement?
(Note: God’s judgements against Israel, as recorded in the Bible, using the Assyrian, Babylonian and (prophesied) Roman empires – all idolatress, ruthless, wicked and corrupt peoples – as His sword of judgement against Israel!)
We have to see present-day Israel through the lens of the whole of scripture and not follow the error of Dispensationalism selecting certain verses and distorting their meaning.
What about Romans 11?
A favourite passage of scripture quoted by Dispensationalists is Romans 11 – especially v29 “…they [Israel] are loved on account of the patriarchs for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.” as proof of their belief concerning Israel. Careful examination of Romans 11, however, reveals otherwise:
Romans 11:25-29
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”
We must be careful to interpret “they [Israel] are loved on account of the patriarchs for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” within the context of the passage, and in keeping with all other scripture.
The key point – in order for Israel to be saved they must repent of their sin and turn to their “deliverer” who is Christ. They must acknowledge that the Old Covenant has been revoked and replaced with the New Covenant – “my covenant” – which “take(s) away their sin”. The Old Covenant never took away sin; it only provided a covering of temporal forgiveness through continuing sacrifices. The Jews must, therefore, enter into a New Covenant relationship with God through the blood of Jesus, in order for their sins to be taken away. They cannot be saved through observing Old Testament law; which is the error that Dispensationalism teaches. Those that persist in keeping the law are, as explained above, cursed of God: “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” ” (Galatians 3:10-11)
As a nation, since the time of Christ, every generation of Israel has remained unrepentant, rejecting Jesus Christ as their promised Messiah. This remains sadly true – at this point of time – for present-day Israel.
And until there is a national repentance and all Israel is saved (Note: we should always tread cautiously in our interpretation of the fulfilment of future prophecy) the nation of Israel today remains an “enem(y)” of the gospel and the church of Jesus Christ and, therefore, of God Himself: c.f. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”. Only when they accept the true gospel and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Messiah that they rejected and killed, in an unprecedented moment of national repentance, Israel remains under God’s wrath.
To interpret “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” as meaning that they are God’s beloved and blessed people without repentance is simply wrong. Israel has a prophetic role to play, that is separate from the need to invoke the belief that they are God’s people of promise outside of Christ. The “time of the Gentiles” of the control of Jerusalem has been fulfilled and the remnant of Israel has again taken possession of the land of Palestine. And God is still willing to receive them back, if they will repent and put their trust in Jesus as their Messiah.
The fact that “they are loved, because of the patriarchs” does not mean that they are automatically justified. Any more than “God so loved the world that He gave His Son…” (John 3:16) means the gospel is universal and everyone in the whole world is justified. His love for Israel means His forbearance that the remnant He preserved – after His multiple judgements upon them – might still have an opportunity to repent and believe on Jesus.
So what should be our attitude towards Israel? We should love them as we are commanded even to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us; and of course not persecute them nor hate them. Which means first and foremost to communicate to them the true gospel of Jesus Christ, declaring them to be – in their unrepentant and unbelieving state – enemies of God and under His wrath; just as Jesus Himself did. And that their only hope is found only in Jesus Christ. If we tell them, as Dispensationalists do, that they are God’s beloved because they are children of Abraham, irrespective of their need for repentance and faith in Christ, then we fail them and we fail God; we have made the blood of Christ of no effect and insulted the Spirit of grace.
Footnotes:
[1]Thomas Ice “The Calvinistic Heritage of Dispensationalism” (2009). https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/pretrib_arch/11/
[2] Stephen Sizer “Christian Zionism: Its History,Theology and Politics” AAARGH Internet Editions 2005. http://aaargh.vho.org/fran/livres2/SIZERchriszion.pdf