Featured Opinions on Dispensationalism

That's what I was getting at.

Darby never invented dispensationalism.

Paul was a dispensationalist (Eph. 3:2).

"Dispensation" literally means:

"Dispensation
DISPENSATION, n. [L. See Dispense.]

1. Distribution; the act of dealing out to different persons or places; as the dispensation of water indifferently to all parts of the earth.

2. The dealing of God to his creatures; the distribution of good and evil, natural or moral, in the divine government.

Neither are Gods methods or intentions different in his dispensations to each private man.

3. The granting of a license, or the license itself, to do what is forbidden by laws or canons, or to omit something which is commanded; that is, the dispensing with a law or canon, or the exemption of a particular person from the obligation to comply with its injunctions. The pope has power to dispense with the canons of the church, but has no right to grant dispensations to the injury of a third person."

Webster's 1828 Dictionary​

And so, a dispensation is a (divine) time of dealing or "administration" with mankind. This doctrine (of different times of divine dealing with mankind) is found in the scriptures.

Now, though it is not explicitly stated in scriptures, a failure on the part of man in dispensations can be seen.

A Dispensation, as Darby would define it,

"It is not my intention to enter into any great detail, but to shew simply how, in every instance, there was total and immediate failure as regarded man, however the patience of God might tolerate and carry on by grace the dispensation in which man has thus failed in the outset; and further, that there is no instance of the restoration of a dispensation afforded us, though there might be partial revivals of it through faith."

- Underline emphasis mine.
John Darby, Apostasy of the successive dispensations, para. 4​

Darby never invented the "failure" concept. This concept goes way back to before Clement of Alexandria, though this doctrine can be found in his book "Book 5, Elucidations, III" (150-215AD), where it speaks of his instructor Dr. Jarvis as mentioning the "failure" concept in a dispensation.

This doctrine (of man failing throughout dispensations) is found in the scriptures.

Personally, with Darby and Clement's instructor, Dr. Jarvis' "failure" definition, there are two dispensations that I question (to be scripturally consistent with their theory). One being the dispensation of promise, and how man failed with this dispensation. I also question our present dispensation, and how man is to fail in this dispensation.

 

Where Darby's doctrine becomes highly controversial is where the pre-trib rapture and premillennial doctrines come in, because these are two dispensations that are in conflict with present-day amillennialists and post-tribulational premillennialists.

"Too traditional to admit that biblical authors might have contradicted each other, and too rationalist to admit that the prophetic maze defied penetration, Darby attempted a resolution of his exegetical dilemma by distinguishing between Scripture intended for the Church and Scripture intended for Israel...

The task of the expositor of the Bible was, in a phrase that became the hallmark of dispensationalism, 'rightly dividing the word of truth'."

From "The Roots of Fundamentalism:
British and American Millenarianism 1800-1930" (1970)
by Ernest R. Sandeen, University of Chicago Press
ISBN 0-22-73467-6, p. 65-67​

- In this quote here I do acknowledge that it says "dispensationalism" in the sense which I am disproving.
Nevertheless, my point remains.

 

...Even covenantalists will agree that there are dispensations.

Check the Westminster Confession (Chapters 5 and 8).

 

Think that there as 'classical" Dispy, in the traditions of Scofield...

Think there are Mainstream ones, such as Charles Ryrie..

Think there are progressive ones such as Dr Bock...

Also think that the fact that it has evolved and change somewhat is a good thing, as in my opinion, a more progressive viewpoint does get us away from what was the hardest issue for non Dispy to see...

That concept of there actually being 2 Copvenants God still used to save jews/gentiles on today, that some saw isreal as saved by being still under the law!

Also would say that darby did NOT invent the doctrines, its just that he saw them once again, rediscovered fresh and anew, much as calvin/Luthor did the real Gospel of Grace!

 

FYI its also interesting to note that Charles Taize Russell founder of JW wrote a book about the structure of the Pyramid to support his dispensationalist point of view as well just before he died.

 

More likely the Great Pyramid was built under the supervision of space aliens as a power source. <G>

 

Like L. Ron Hubbard.... the crazier the better... IE, Scientology.