Dr. Couch, was Graham W. Scroggie a dispensationalist?
Scroggie (1877-1958) had been an English pastor; and was trained at
Spurgeon’s Pastors’ College. He taught throughout the English-speaking
world. He was well known at the well-attended Keswick Conferences. His
best known work in America was The Unfolding Plan of Redemption.
Scroggie had a good grasp of Bible history
past but did little in unfolding the plan for the future. Whether he was
a dispensationalist—I am sure he was not—after I reviewed his published
material. He did make some positive premillennial statements such as:
“Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones is the
graveyard of the Jewish nation. They will be returned to the land and
restored to favor with God and have a restored national unity as if
resurrected from the dead.” He added that Ezekiel and the book of
Revelation were working towards the same center. He said, “There are
many references to the Messiah King who is yet to come, and who will
establish a kingdom which shall be universal and abiding.”
Yet on the book of Revelation he seemed
confused. He saw what he wrongly thought was truth “in the preterist,
historicist, and future positions.” This is of course impossible and an
intellectual compromise as to how Revelation goes together. He came down
on a historicist position when he wrote: “It may be that prophecy being
slowly unfolded in the long course of history will be, in all its
essential features, rapidly fulfilled within a strictly limited period
at the end of the age.”—whatever that means!
You can read more in my article on Scroggie in
my award winning The Dictionary of Premillennial Theology (450 pages,
hardback, Kregel). You can have it sent to you and signed by me by
sending a $19 donation to Scofield Ministries. It contains hundreds of
articles on key Bible teachers, premillennial/dispensation subjects, and
historic analyses on issues of theology and prophecy. Some fifty-six
outstanding prophecy scholars contributed to this volume. Do not order
this book if you are an allegorist and make mushy all of the great
passages of Scripture that point to a literal rapture of the church,
worldwide tribulation, and 1,000 year earthly reign of Christ in
Jerusalem. You will end up a premillennialist!
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
