DISPENSATIONALISM'S
MISSING LINK
- Miles J. Stanford
- November 1991
THREE TYPES -- The primary purpose of this Paper is to consider three types of Dispensationalism, and the relationship of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America to them. These several Dispensationalisms to be addressed are Classic Pauline (vertical), Traditional (horizontal), and Progressive (inclined).
| Classic Pauline | Traditional | Progressive |
| The
primary characteristic of Pauline Dispensationalism is its vertical,
heavenly aspect. The Christian is now positionally in Christ, in
heaven; the millennial Jew will be under the reign of Christ, on
earth. The Church will be His heavenly Bride; Israel will be His
earthly nation in the coming kingdom. The Church in grace; Israel
under theocratic law. The Church in the New Heaven; Israel on the
New Earth. Eternal separation--the Church in Christ, all
else outside of Christ.
Much of divine blessing is determined for Israel, all of which is anticipated in her covenants and prophecies; but no covenant or prophecy brings that nation into heavenly citizenship, or makes her the Bride of Christ (L. S. Chafer - Systematic Theology IV:142). |
This
is the Darby, Scofield, Chafer Dispensationalism, without the primary
Pauline aspect that they held. It is horizontal, seeking to
maintain the several rightly-divided economies of the Word, without
fully centering in Paul's Church Epistles. As a result there has
been a steady deterioration from the rightly divided aspects of the Word
of truth. [Click here to see Dispensational Persons Chart] |
Dallas
Theological Seminary is the base of this movement from the Traditional
horizontal to a declining plane. It is advocating
"doctrinal development," and "progression," but no
amount of doctrinal development will compensate for
"progression" away from Paul, Darby, Scofield and
Chafer! This Contemporary progression is on a crash-course
incline, sliding down to Israel's earthly level, into the legal realm of
Israel's Synoptics, Sermon, and Kingdom.
Dallas Seminary has been covertly collaborating with Covenant theology, a fact to which her many Covenant-oriented graduates attest. Her faculty has admittedly forsaken Dr. Chafer's explicit division of the Word, hence the Seminary is unable to produce a worthy-of-the-name dispensational product. |
THREE LEADERS -- There are three key leaders whose combined work has given us the best Dispensationalism that we have today.
| John Nelson (J.N.) Darby | Cyris Ingram (C.I.) Scofield | Lewis Sperry (L.S.) Chafer |
| This
theological giant recovered and formulated Pauline vertical
Dispensationalism. His life and ministry were positionally
established in heaven. He scripturally taught that the Church is
heavenly, and Israel earthly, plus the total incompatibility of Israel's
Law and the Church's Grace. He was centered in the ascended Head
of the Church--Christ, who is our Life.
For a number of reasons, the vertical aspect of Darby's dispensational teaching has been obscured to the Church in general. As Darby said of himself, "My writings are my course of arrival at truth, not my exposition of it when attained." And as a dear French brother wrote: I know of nothing more spiritual than the writings of the early Plymouth Brethren leaders. When one considers the writings, the meditations, the sermons of believers of other churches, one finds an astounding superficiality alongside the works of a Darby. It is just regrettable that his style is so heavy, laborious to read, diffused. It is true that many of Darby's colleagues published similar teaching in a much more readable manner--writers such as Kelly, Mackintosh, Coates, and Stoney, to name but a few. However, these writings are not usually available in Christian bookstores, and they call for hungry-hearted spiritual discernment--something often lacking in the dispensational realm. |
His vertical Dispensationalism was gained primarily under the tutelage of K.L. Brooks, with Darby in the background. It is all there in the Notes of his Reference Bible. The necessary brevity of the Notes precluded adequate elaboration of the identification truths of vertical Dispensationalism--but the foundation has been set forth there for some 75 years, for all to see. | He
followed both Darby and Scofield as to vertical Dispensationalism.
His entire ministry was founded and built upon the positional aspects of
the believer's life, and hence that of the Church. He was very
clear and uncompromising concerning the identification truths throughout
his writings. All of the components are there, although he did not
emphasize the connection--he did not actually integrate identification
and Dispensationalism. But who has? The above leaders had
the makings, but the nomenclature was not clearly assembled.
"INSTANT SPIRITUALITY" -- It is lamentable concerning Dr. Chafer's application of the identifcation truths in relation to the Christian life. And it may well be because of this failure that there has been a reluctance to take up this peculiar teaching of his, causing an omission of the vertical in the Dispensationalism he so faithfully taught and stood for. [For more on this subject, click here.] Strangely enough, the level-headed and doctrinally-governed Dr. Chafer insisted upon adult spiritual maturity from the spiritually immature. Admittedly a Christian child can be "spiritual," but it will be childish spirituality. One would not expect eldership material quite so soon. Note carefully what Dr. Chafer wrote, and see how you, or any precocious one, might fare under these stipulations! Continued below. |
At the moment of regeneration, the believer, being born of God and therefore the legitimate offspring of God, is advanced in relationship and responsibility to the position of adult son.
All childhood and adolescent years, which are normal in human experience, are excluded in spiritual sonship, and the newly-born believer is at once in possession of freedom from tutors and governors--who symbolize the law principle--and is responsible to live the full-orbed spiritual life of an adult son in the Father's household. No period of irresponsible childhood is recognized.
There is no body of Scripture which undertakes to direct the conduct of beginners in the Christian life in distinction to those who are mature. Whatever God says to the old and established saint, He says to every believer--including the most recently regenerated. There should be no misunderstanding respecting the "babe in Christ," mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3:1, who is a babe because of carnality and not because of immaturity of years in the Christian life (Systematic Theology III:243).
A venerable saint, who might act carnally, would then be classed as a babe? Covenant theologians would tend to go even beyond that, possibly declaring him to be unregenerate. To them there can be no such thing as a carnal believer. But to continue with Dr. Chafer's ill-founded deductions pertaining to the Christian life:
Christian growth is undoubtedly a process of development under the determined purpose of God which will end, with the certainty of the Infinite, in a complete likeness to Christ; but spirituality is the present state of blessing and power of the believer who, at the same time, may be very immature.
A Christian can and should be spiritual from the moment he is saved. Spirituality, which is the unhindered manifestation of the Spirit in the life, is provided to the full for all believers who "confess" their sins, "yield" to God, and "walk" not in the flesh, but "after the Spirit." When these conditions are complied with, the results are immediate; for no process is indicated. Jacob, an Old Testament type, was completely changed in one night (He That is Spiritual, p. 80).
Jacob, not being a Christian, may have been an Old Testament type for Israel, but hardly for a member of the Body of Christ. One wonders just how much of this "instant spirituality" Dr. Chafer encountered through the years!
CHARLES RYRIE -- Dr. Charles C. Ryrie repudiated Dr. Chafer's spiritual extremity, in his book, Balancing the Christian Life. But his thesis therein as to spiritual growth and maturity is hinged upon the condition of "dedication"--which is far short of the scriptural grace-answer to growth.
Further, he in no way related the vertical identification truths to the horizontal Dispensationalism so well delineated in his Dispensationalism Today. He is not to be blamed; neither did the Fathers of Dispensationalism, who knew and stood for the vertical identification truths, but did not clearly relate them to the horizontal aspects of the successive economies of their Traditional Dispensationalism.
Traditional Dispensationalism valiantly sought to maintain the all-important distinction between Israel and the Church, Law and grace. But as is so often the case with succeeding generations inheriting that which others fought to establish, what has been taken freely and for granted is being taken from them.
COVENANT INFLUENCE -- Even those front-line dispensationalists are at a disadvantage before the frontal attack of Covenant theology. This attack has been aided and abetted by the backdoor infiltration of anti-dispensational, law-oriented Puritan literature. You might check your pastor's library, the church library (help!) and, what about your own five-foot shelf? There they are, and not all that dusty--writers such as Jay Adams, Andrew Bonar, Charles Hodge, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, James Packer, Arthur Pink, Francis Schaeffer, John Stott, and Benjamin Warfield.
The cruelest and most devastating blow of all dealt to the Church has been the covert defection from Traditional Dispensationalism by the leading dispensational seminaries.
STEP OVER -- Traditional Dispensationalism requires no doctrinal change in order to survive and thrive. She is solidly based upon the rightly-divided Word of truth. But she has not advanced far enough; she has stopped at the center of Romans, and therefore lacks Pauline vertical truth. Remaining on the horizontal level, she is little better off than the descending Progressive, and has no adequate defense against sublevel Covenantism.
Progressive Dispensationalism is spawned from the weakness of the Traditional. If this defection continues, both will die, since neither includes the vertical. They may continue on, but in name only--she being dead while she yet liveth as dispensational.
Actually, the Traditional Dispensationalism of the IFCA and others is being beneficially purged. Let the Progressives go down to the land of Israel! The life-saving move for the Traditional is to pick up her rightly-divided doctrine just as it is, and step across the Great Divide of Romans 5:11-12. That will position her on the heavenly Pauline ground, there to mature as Classic Pauline Dispensationalism.
This preliminary step alone will immediately stanch the bleeding, and the pitiable fawning. There will be no more loss to the Progressives, and there will be no more fawning before Covenantism. Instead, Covenantism will be stopped dead in her tracks. She cannot follow across the Doctrinal Divide--her grip on the Law, and the Law's grip upon her, will bar her from the heavenly ground of Pauline Grace! The years have proven that!
WARFIELD ATTACK -- Covenant theologians for a century have been attacking and attempting to refute Traditional Dispensationalism--all to no avail. Those who fail to divide the Word of God are unable to understand, let alone refute, those who do so.
Back in 1918, when I was preparing for "kinnergarden," the Covenant theologian, Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield, then professor of Polemic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, presented a series of articles against "Victorious Life" teaching, in the Princeton Theological Review. The dispensational Dr. Griffith Thomas easily refuted the Warfield attack via a number of articles in Bib Sac the following year. Later, Dr. Thomas was associated with Dr. Chafer in the founding of Dallas Theological Seminary.
Dr. Chafer published He That is Spiritual in 1918, to which Dr. Warfield responded with a highly critical review in the Princeton Theological Review, 1919. Dr. Chafer's reply to the Warfield criticism has been included in subsequent editions of his book, where he scripturally upheld his teaching of the identification truths.
CRENSHAW & GUNN ATTACK -- More recently, these two disgruntled ex-Dallas students published their diatribe of frustration titled, Dispensationalism Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow, 1985. Nothing gained.
BAHNSEN & GENTRY ATTACK -- In 1989, these super-Covenant (theonomic) theologians wrote House Divided--the Break-up of Dispensational Theology. The book was unaided and unabetted by the ludicrous lamentations of Gary North's Publisher's Foreword. Again, all are well off target in their myopic aim at Dispensationalism.
GERSTNER ATTACK -- Just six months ago, in May of 191, a top Covenant theologian, Dr. John H. Gerstner, wrote his virulent Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth--A Critique of Dispensationalism. The Foreword is by R. C. Sproul, and the dust jacket includes a high recommendation by J. I. Packer--both leading Covenant theologians.
It is simply astounding to see how these high-ranking theologians flounder in the face of scriptural identification, and rightly-divided Dispensationalism. If you would like a free copy of our critique of the Gerstner critique, click here.
CIVIL WAR! -- At present, Covenantism has been forced to divert her attacks upon Dispensationalism, to enter into civil war. Her Westminster Theological Seminary has leveled her big guns upon her brash and bold step-child, Theonomy/Basilian/Reconstructionism. The barrage has been fired by means of the 400-page tome, titled Theonomy--A Reformed Critique.
Manning the guns are a baker's dozen of faculty members, such well-known polemicists as: R.D. Knudsen, Bruce K. Waltke, J. Frame, Vern S. Poythress, Moise's Silva, and S.B. Ferguson. Crossfire, sans Cross.
HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE -- Classic Pauline Dispensationalism, nee Traditional Dispensationalism, will be free to pursue her priceless positional privileges. There, in the Pauline grace-land of Romans 6-8, she will begin to realize her freedom from the power and domination of sin, self, and the law (which is the strength of sin), and the seduction of Covenantism.
She will progressively exchange the self-life for the heavenly Christ-life of Ephesians and Colossians, and find herself "hidden with Christ in God." She will henceforth set her affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Her vertical heavenly position will break the horizontal plane. The total difference between her heavenly Christ-life and Israel's earthly kingdom-life will become obvious--and never the twain shall meet.
From her heavenly positional perspective she will clearly see the Jewish plane of Moses' Law, David's Psalms, Apostolic Synoptics, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and Israel's earthly Millennial and Eternal kingdom--forever in subjection to the King and His Beloved Bride.
WHO NEEDS IT? -- Since the Father has blessed the Church with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, what part does she need in Israel's New Covenant, earthly kingdom "spiritual blessings?" Dr. Chafer agrees:
There is no scholarly reason for applying the Scriptures which bear upon the past, the present, or the future of Israel to any other people than that nation of which the Scriptures speak. The real unity of the Bible is preserved only by those who observe with care the divine program for Gentiles, for Jews, and for Christians in their individual and unchanging continuity.
With the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the door of Gospel privilege was opened unto the Gentiles, and out of them God is now calling an elect company, the Church.
Their new proffered blessings in this dispensation do not consist in being permitted to share Israel's earthly covenant, which even Israel is not now enjoying; but rather, through the riches of grace in Christ Jesus, they are privileged to be partakers of a heavenly citizenship and glory.
Those who would intrude the Mosaic system of merit into the Church's heaven-high divine administration of super-abounding grace either have no conception of the character of that merit which the law required, or are lacking in the comprehension of the glories of divine grace (Systematic Theology IV:14,19).
HORIZONTALLY OBJECTIVE -- Traditional (horizontal) Dispensationalism is viable, but vulnerable. Her link with invulnerable heavenly life is still missing (actually, but not positionally). For her it is still a matter of objective economies, rightly divided but unrelated to the practical life of the dispensationalist himself. Hence it can all be taken for granted, or adjusted (accommodated) to ease the pressure of alien influences. It can even be left to lie fallow, neglected as a peripheral element.
VERTICALLY PERSONAL -- But when the missing link of Life in Christ is forged by faith in the Pauline facts, all becomes personal, a living Dispensationalism positioned in the glorified Lord Jesus Christ above. The Bride in the heart of the heavenly Bridegroom is exclusive of all others--complete in Him, forever differentiated.
There are those in the IFCA and elsewhere, the "little flock," who understand and agree with every word of this Pauline identification truth. And they rest in their position in Christ above, at the right hand of the Father. There is no question as to their clear-cut and complete division of the Word --they know the Life-difference between the Church and Israel.
Still, as those before them of similar convictions, they have not yet brought their Traditional Dispensationalism up to their personal heavenly position. They have perceived, but have not yet conceived. Nevertheless, the anomaly between the horizontal and the vertical is becoming far too obvious for further toleration.
THE COLLECTORS -- Then there is the vast number of those in and outside the IFCA, who are still, for whatever reason, behind the Great Divide between Romans 5:11 and 12. Consequently, they know little or nothing of the Pauline identification truths, and their relationship to them. But substitution is no substitute for identification!
- Some of these may begin to realize the need for the vertical link in their rightly-divided Traditional Dispensationalism, and be tempted to say, "Letteth us ariseth, and leapeth upon this bandwagon, and joineth the Pauline parade!" Cease and desist immediately; one cannot afford to make a fatal error at the first step!
- Others have mounted the bandwagon of Pauline identification, taking on board with them all of their coveted erroneous accouterments. Many have been caused thereby to fall off the wagon of Grace.
- Some have commandeered the identification truths in a futile effort to integrate them with their law-oriented foundation.
- A number have sought to include the identification truths in their devastating "deliverance" ministries of dealing with "demons" in Christians.
- There are those who grasp at the growth truths in a desperate attempt to shore up their faltering ministry--a failing life and work because of foundational errors.
THE CROSS -- Be warned of those who would adopt the identification truths while teaching the eradication of the old Adamic man, who are anti-dispensational and anti-positional, who eliminate the Cross in the life of the believer, or dispense with the confession of sins, etc.
Walk softly, dear Horizontal Dispensationalist, and the Holy Spirit will lead you into Paul's heavenly Homeland. There your first encounter will be with the Cross; the Cross upon which you died in Christ--the Cross in the life of the believer (Gal. 2:20). If that Cross is conveniently "eliminated," or if the Adamic life is "eradicated," the indwelling self-life will flourish.
COGENT COMMENTS -- Word came today from an IFCA leader, touching upon this self-subject:
"I have been doing some arbitration work in troubled [IFCA] churches--mostly personality problems, rather than doctrinal or moral.
How tragic! Nevertheless, there are grave doctrinal problems in the IFCA. Her sound Doctrinal Statement is being "stretched" to accommodate serious aberrations, held and promoted by John MacArthur and his numerous adherents within the membership of this fellowship of churches. Herein, the fellowship is out of fellowship. In defense of these errors, executive leaders are actually utilizing such traitorous terms as "interpretive freedom," and "diversity of interpretation." [[We arrived....in the postmodern world!]]
This faithful leader went on to say in his letter:
I have chafed at the books and writings of men who should know better, and who classify themselves as "dispensationalists," but who consistently, to some extent at least, mix Israel and the Church. I believe it is largely because of having missed the heart of the dispensational hermeneutic.
LIFE OUT OF DEATH -- It is essential for us to consider very briefly a key identification truth concerning the missing link throughout the IFCA, Dispensationalism in general, and the entire Church. Identification has a dual aspect, i.e., new-creation life, that is based upon and emerges from death.
Not a few fainting fits from time to time, but "we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:11). "Being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3:10). "Not I, but Christ" (Gal. 2:20).
First, our positional death in Christ unto sin, the law, the world, and the old Adamic life within, must be established. Similar to forgiveness of our sins at Calvary, it is non-experiential--a positional finished work that is true of us, to be believed, reckoned upon.
Most of those in Covenant theology, and many influenced by them, do not understand positional truth as set forth by Paul. Hence they consider Romans 6:1-10 to be experiential. Therefore they reason that since the old Adamic man has been "crucified with Him," it is therefore "dead and gone," "eradicated," "non-existent."
But they still have to account for sin in the life of the believer. For them, all that remains of the "old way of life" are "old sinful habits," [to be replaced by "new righteous habits"], "residual sin" [with no source], or "the grave clothes of the old way of life." Such phantom "residuary" leaves the indwelling old man free to carry on his sinful and carnal activities. The inevitable result is the "Oh, wretched man that I am!" life.
ROMANS 6:6 -- (1) "Knowing this, (2) that our old man (3) was crucified with Him, (4) that the body of sin (5) might be destroyed [rendered inoperative, via faith] (Romans 6:6).
1. "Knowing this." The great justification and identification truths of the Word are objective; they are to be known, and then believed--they are not a matter of experience.
As an example, we came to know, scripturally, that the penalty of our sins had been paid by the Saviour, on the Cross. We believed that wonderful objective fact, put our trust in and received the One who accomplished the saving work on our behalf. We were instantly born again, re-created in Christ Jesus, to say nothing of the 30 other things that became positionally true of us--none of which were experienced at the time.
2. "That our old man." Here it is no longer a matter of the penalty of our sins, but our old Adamic man, the source of those sins--the principle of sin itself. God does not apply band aids, He does not work by fits and starts. Rather, He has positionally dealt with the cause.
THE TWO MEN -- Just who is this "old man"? It is very simple. In God's economy there are just two men--one the head of the lost human race, the other the Head of the new-creation, heavenly race. The latter half of Romans Five deals with these two Adams: "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). There is the old man of death, and the New Man of Life. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ [all those who are in Him] shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22).
As unsaved, we were identified with Adam, he was the source of our death/ life--born "dead in trespasses and sins." We were in him, he was our old man. He is still our old man, indwelling us, although we as Christians are no longer in him--we were positionally separated from him by our death on the Cross. "Ye are not in the [Adamic] flesh but in the Spirit [of Christ]" (Rom. 8:9). Although we are not responsible for his indwelling, we are responsible for his ever sinful activities.
3. "Was crucified with Him." The old Adamic man (old nature, flesh) was the source of sin in our unsaved life, and he is the source of sin in our saved life. God forgave Adamic sins, but He did not forgive sin, their source. A forgiven sin-source would remain the source of sins still.
The wages of sin being death, and we being identified with sin's source, fallen Adam, God condemned sin and us in Christ on the Cross-He having been made sin for us. "I have been crucified with Christ." "God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:3).
4. "That the body of sin." The body of sin is not our physical body, which is neutral, and not sinful. The body of sin within us is the Adamic life, the old man, the totality, the embodiment, of sin. This sin-source was positionally condemned and crucified on the Cross.
5. "Might be destroyed." This means that the indwelling source of sin was "annulled," "put out of action," its power broken, via faith. In our death with Christ on the Cross, God separated us from the first Adam, recreating us in the Last Adam. Freeing us from Adam via death and burial, He identified us with Christ in His resurrection and ascended Life. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).
POSITIONAL SEPARATION -- Positionally identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, we are now seated, in spirit, at the right hand of the Father. "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:4-6).
These are but some of the basic truths of our identification with Christ that the Father gives us to know and reckon upon in the rightly-divided Word of truth. They are positional, long-ago completed facts concerning us a members of the Body of Christ, the Church. They are all exclusively ours, and will never have anything to do with Israel.
ROMANS 6:11 -- (1) "Likewise, (2) reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin, (3) but (to be) alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11).
1. "Likewise." The previous verse (10) states, "For in that He died, He died unto [not "for sins," here] sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God." In that we were identified with Him in His death, resurrection and ascension, it is "likewise" with us. What happened to Him, likewise happened to us, positionally.
2. "Reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin." We are to count ourselves, as new creations in Christ, to have died unto sin, the Adamic sin-source within us. We are to consider our death on the Cross to be between us and the indwelling old man. The Christian life being a life of faith, as we count upon our positional death unto sin, the Holy Spirit applies that finished work to the old man within, and we are progressively freed from its reign and power.
With Christ, the believer has positionally died to sin; he is one with Him, in the likeness of His death. And as the knowledge that Christ died for our sins as our atonement is indispensable to our justification, so the knowledge that Christ, and we with Him on the Cross, have died to sin, is indispensable to our growth, our sanctification. --Andrew Murray
If the difference between "Christ dying for us," and "our dying with Him," has not been recognized, acknowledged, and counted upon, it may be safely said that the old man is still the dominating factor in the life. --Selected
3. "But alive unto God in Christ Jesus." Freedom from the power of the old man is but the foundation for what the Christian life is all about. That liberation is to give us the freedom to focus upon the New--"alive unto God in Christ." As John Darby said, "When the heart is made full with the rich blessings of the Lord Jesus, it will not turn back to gnaw upon itself."
LIFE VERSUS LAW -- Paul's admonition is, "If ye, then, be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (Col. 3:1,2). It is There that we can, in spirit, look upon and fellowship with the One who is our very Christian life.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:17,18).
The indwelling Spirit of Christ produces the fruit, the very life of Christ, in us--His "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22, 23). The indwelling Spirit of God will write the law upon the heart of the millennial kingdom Jew--another infinite difference between the Church and Israel. "He who measured our distance is the One who is the measure of our nearness."
MORE COGENCY -- Just last week, a dispensational brother wrote:
In my Bible class at church we are spending time on the two natures vs. one-naturism. Have been teaching the doctrine of the two men, the two Adams, and explaining that both creations are complete in themselves. No admixture--all rightly and completely divided.
A few weeks ago, another dispensational brother wrote:
As I have been studying Newell's Romans (again), I am amazed at how his Pauline theology differs from what I have been hearing from our [IFCA] pastor. I never feel right when he shouts at us to "die to your self-life," and to "take up your cross daily and surrender yourself."
It is evident that he is using the wrong tense, and that makes me tense! It is not "die to yourself," but you have died in Christ; not "crucify yourself," but "I have been crucified with Christ." The way he has it, it amounts to nothing more than the old cycle of self struggling to crucify and cast out self!
So much of dispensational leadership remains back in the undivided pre-identification, "do" realm. This makes for incomplete Dispensationalism, it subjects believers to legal effort from which they have already been positionally delivered, and fails to glorify the Lord Jesus, who is our Life.
In August another dispensationalist wrote:
Our senior pastor [Dallas] said he is going to start a series of messages on Self. He touched upon the subject briefly Sunday evening; alas, it seems that we are to put self to death!
I later asked him how one is to do that? He responded by asking me, "Well, how do you do it?" I am not sure that he understood my answer, that it has already been done, positionally; and that experientially my responsibility and privilege is to reckon upon the fact. I pray that I am wrong, but he seems to be leading to reformation of the old man, via more church attendance, more Bible study, more prayer.
NONPAREIL NEWELL -- Heed Newell here--William. R. Newell, who more fully integrated clear-cut Dispensationalism with the positionally-based Christian life than Darby, Scofield, Chafer, or any other, to our knowledge:
Paul does not ask a thing of the saints in Ephesians 1-3 [or elsewhere] , but just to listen while he proclaims that wondrous series of great and eternal facts concerning them; and not until he has completed this catalogue of positional realities about them does he ask them to do anything at all!
And when he does open his plea for their high walk as saints, everything is based on the revelation before given of the truths of their high character and destiny as saints: "I therefore ... beseech you that ye walk worthy of the high calling wherewith ye were called" (Eph. 4:1).
Let us cease laying down to the saints long lists of "conditions" of entering into the blessed life of the Lord Jesus: and instead, as the primal preparation for leading them into the experience of this blessed life, show them what their position, possessions, and privileges in Christ already are! Thus we shall truly work with the Holy Spirit; and thus shall we have more, and much more, abiding fruit of our labors among the people of God.
A Dispensationalism which fails to establish the dispensationalist's life in the Pauline Church Epistles, may just as well be dispensed with. What is the point of holding dispensational rightly-divided doctrine, while producing anti-dispensational results? There are far too many dispensationalists, saved by grace, yet wandering about in Covenant law-land: Mosaic, Davidic, Apostolic, Sermonic, and "Kingdomic."
Covenantism certainly has no intention of becoming dispensational in any way, while far too much Dispensationalism is taking on a definite Covenant complexion. The following statement by Newell is true whether the term "Reformed" is retained, or replaced by the term "Dispensational":
To anyone who has examined their writings, there is an inescapable conclusion that the Reformed theologians have kept the vision of believers confused generally to the propitiatory work of Christ, not seeing the end of our history in Adam through our identification with Christ in His death on the Cross; thus freeing us from the power of sin, the grip of the law, and the old Adam creation, and setting us at liberty on resurrection and ascension ground above, in Christ Jesus.
The theological teaching since the Reformation has never set forth clearly our utter end in death with the Lord Jesus on the Cross. The fatal result of this error is to leave the Law claimant over those in Christ: for "law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth" (Rom. 7:1).
Unless you are able to believe in your heart that you died to the law in Him, and that you were buried, and that your history before God in Adam the first came to a complete end at Calvary, you will never get free from the claims of the law upon your life and conscience (Romans, Verse by Verse, p. 255).
The Church today is woefully in need of an encouraging stand against Covenantism, as well as other types of error. She is equally in need of an exemplary stand upon the heavenly ground of the Pauline Church Epistles. She certainly does not need the IFCA contributing to, and compounding, these problems!
THE MISSING LINK -- If the IFCA were to unequivocally stand upon her fine Doctrinal Statement, she would soon purge herself of the one-man cluster of error that she has held to her bosom for years. But even with this necessity, she would still be nothing bettered! She would continue in her former condition: horizontally dispensational, doctrinally sound, static, susceptible.
MacArthurism, within the IFCA membership, does not have the distinction of being the problem--it is but a symptom.
The problem within the IFCA is sound doctrine, a rightly-divided Dispensationalism, but all on the horizontal plane. She must yet cross the Great Doctrinal Divide of Romans Five, and make her permanent heavenly home in Pauline Church-Epistle land.
Granted, she takes excursions there at times, but she does not live and abide There! When she knows who and where she is in her glorified Lord Jesus Christ, she will then draw a law- and earth-bound Church up to the One who is her Head and Life. This is her Missing Link!
The great secret of blessing is to come from the Lord above. Every Christian goes to Him. Few are restful enough to ascend from earth to heaven, and therefore there are so few who can descend from heaven to earth to manifest the Lord Jesus and to share His mind and thought as regards things here. --J.B. Stoney
BENEFICIAL BRETHREN -- Let the Plymouth Brethren leaders tell it like it used to be...back in the "good ol' dispensational days":
We do need to be taught of the Father, to enter, more deeply than we have done, into what He has already given us in His Eternal Son. If we do not, some difficulty will arise which will demand the knowledge of that which we do not yet have, and there will be weakness, there will be the consulting of and resorting to flesh and blood, instead of going forward in the strength of the Father, with the eye of faith fixed upon the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. --C.A. Coates
"Where do You dwell?" "Come, and see. They came... and abode with Him." The highest satisfaction He can have is that we should be at Home with Himself, now. He has removed all the distance from His own side via the Cross.
If you believe that, you say, "I will rise and approach my Father." That is one thing. The next thing is, His love is so great that He delights to have your company, worship, and fellowship. It is not that you will feel yourself out of position There--you are There in all the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is your Life.
I cannot conceive of anything more satisfying or edifying to the heart than the consciousness that I may not only draw near, but that I draw nigh in answer to the thought and interest that the Lord Jesus has about me (Heb. 10:19-22). It is then my heart goes out in acknowledgement of Him in answer to His deep, gracious, and everlasting love. --J.B. Stoney
It is to be feared that there is a tendency abroad [1875] to exaggerate the standing and state of Old Testament saints in order to make less difference between the Church and Israel, and thus our heavenly distinctiveness is weakened and lost.
The aim of the enemy from a very early date was to draw Christians from their heavenly calling (see Hebrews). Once heaven as a present position and portion is surrendered, the great position and privileges of the Church, the totally unique Body of Christ, are drained away. --J.B. Stoney
In the one case, that of the earthly or millennial family, the law will be written on their hearts (Jer. 31:33), the inclination to do evil will be superseded. In the other family, the heavenly, the Lord Jesus Christ is written in the Christian's heart by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. This is a great and important distinction, indicating that the Christian blessings are in association with the Lord Jesus Christ who has gone within the veil. --J.B. Stoney
"And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither" (Rev. 11:12)! Abide above, Pauline dispensationalist!
Resting in Him,
Miles
DISPENSATIONALISM, Pauline, Classic, Traditional, Neo-, Progressive, Post-Acts 2, etc. Here is a collection of resources for anyone interested in understanding what dispensationalism is and what it isn't.