Dr. Couch, I've been told that dispensationalism comes from the charismatic movement. Is this so?
ANSWER: Oh my word! Of course this is a bald-faced lie! Dispensationalism is not a "theological movement." The Bible IS DISPENSATIONAL! But up until around 1840 in England silly Covenant theology ruled along with amillennialism and allegorical interpretation. Some of the most intellectual and spiritual Calvinistic Bible teachers and pastors in the land began to ask questions about Israel. They had been told that the church was the "new Israel." They knew that was not right but sought out the Scriptures to see what the truth was. They held Bible studies and conferences and hammered out the truth that was so clear in the Bible but that had been coated over with Reformed allegorical thinking.
Dispensationalism exploded! It has been estimated that at one time during the nineteenth century fifty percent of English pastors were dispensational. I don't know how it can be but charismatics and Pentecostals can be dispensational; and many of them are! Their Arminianism should but does not seem to clash with dispensatonalism.
Some years back all of the great Bible colleges and seminaries in this country were dispensational. I was privileged to graduate from some of them. But today, things are changing rapidly. Leaders are cutting their ties from the truth. Psychology, the culture, and our evil society, are re-molding our Christianity and re-shaping it away from the truth.
If I wanted to give a short list on the clear biblical issues driving dispensationalism, it would read something like this:
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
ANSWER: Oh my word! Of course this is a bald-faced lie! Dispensationalism is not a "theological movement." The Bible IS DISPENSATIONAL! But up until around 1840 in England silly Covenant theology ruled along with amillennialism and allegorical interpretation. Some of the most intellectual and spiritual Calvinistic Bible teachers and pastors in the land began to ask questions about Israel. They had been told that the church was the "new Israel." They knew that was not right but sought out the Scriptures to see what the truth was. They held Bible studies and conferences and hammered out the truth that was so clear in the Bible but that had been coated over with Reformed allegorical thinking.
Dispensationalism exploded! It has been estimated that at one time during the nineteenth century fifty percent of English pastors were dispensational. I don't know how it can be but charismatics and Pentecostals can be dispensational; and many of them are! Their Arminianism should but does not seem to clash with dispensatonalism.
Some years back all of the great Bible colleges and seminaries in this country were dispensational. I was privileged to graduate from some of them. But today, things are changing rapidly. Leaders are cutting their ties from the truth. Psychology, the culture, and our evil society, are re-molding our Christianity and re-shaping it away from the truth.
If I wanted to give a short list on the clear biblical issues driving dispensationalism, it would read something like this:
- A literal and normal interpretation of the Bible.
- A literal and normal reading of Bible prophecy. Christ's first coming was literal and His second coming will be literal.
- God is clearly not through with Israel and the Jewish people. The church is not Israel!
- The rapture of the church, the coming apostasy, the worldwide tribulation, and the coming kingdom reign of Christ in Jerusalem are going to take place "actually" and literally, and, these great truths are easily defensible in Scripture.
- Progressive revelation. The Bible progressively unfolds a plan from Genesis to Revelation. Not everything is revealed all at once!
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
