Dispensationalism

Charles Whitaker:  Deuteronomy 29:29 contains one of the final thoughts of Moses before he went up Mount Nebo to die and before Israel crossed the River Jordan into the Promised Land: "The secret things belong to the LORD ..."

Charles Whitaker:  One of the ways the "unlearned and unstable wrest" Scripture (II Peter 3:16) is to misapply the meaning of a word they find there. Wrongly understanding some word's denotation ...

John Ritenbaugh, suggesting that much of Protestantism shares more of an approach to Deism (that is, God establishes His laws and then abandons His creation to their machinations) than to Theism (that is, God maintains watchful control on His Creation), takes issue with the Dispensationalist views of John Darby and Cyrus Scofield, both of whom believed that God, like an absent-minded inventor, continually changed His approach, in the process dumbing down the process for salvation. In reality, God has had the same plan from the beginning, creating godly seed in His image, having His inner character. From the beginning, God has set certain individuals apart, putting them through an intensive sanctifying process, purifying, cleaning, and perfecting their character until they reflect His image like a mirror. From the line of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God has called individuals who demonstrated blamelessness in their dealings, providing them grace, giving them tools to perform tasks He ordained for them, continually proving their faithfulness. Sanctification requires that we clean up our act, from our physical lives to our spiritual lives, having clean and wholesome thoughts as we wear clean garments. As we, the descendants of Seth, Noah, and Abraham, progress in the sanctifying (sanitizing and cleaning) process, we can expect antagonism and enmity from the seed of Satan, that is, the descendants of Cain, those who, under Satan, move and shake to this present evil generation), those who hate and reject God's Law and His covenants.

Charles Whitaker takes aim at several destructive heresies which have crept into western religious (Puritan-Protestant) culture, including the rapture lie (espoused by Edward Irving 1825 and Margaret McDonald 1830) and the so-called dispensationalist theory (espoused by John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield-author of the Scofield Reference Bible). David McPherson, in his book, The Rapture Plot, exposes the intellectual dishonesty of the world's churchmen, who consistently engage in plagiarism, alteration of text, and suppression of other documents, pushing the rapture heresy as the immortality of the soul and heaven as the reward for the saved. The destructive dispensationalist theory, guided by the study guides in the Scofield Bible, savagely denigrates God's Law, claiming that grace does away with the necessity to obey God's Law. Darby's and Scofield's dispensationalist doctrines have knocked the moral props out of God fearing Puritans and Protestants, totally ignoring the reality that God's spiritual and holy Law spans covenants, spans history, and is not connected with only one covenant, the Mosaic.

John Ritenbaugh reflecting on the curse imposed upon Satan and the enmity created between the serpent's seed and Eve, asserts that, paradoxically, this curse could be considered a blessing for those called of God, providing a practical means by which God creates character in those whom He called out before the foundation of the world. This understanding runs counter to the faulty dispensationalist theory which assumes that God, as a somewhat absent-minded tinker, must continually adjust His method of giving salvation (moving away from works to grace), making it easier and more inclusive. Dispensationalism assumes too much randomness or chance in God's plan, overlooking the intense purpose and planning of God's mind, having pre-planned or pre-destined all of us individually before the foundation of the world. Christ has full control of the church. Everything of consequence, including the development of our character, is engineered by Him; we did not find God by ourselves, but were chosen. The mystery of His plan, hidden from the world, has been revealed to the saints. The God who designed complex cells, molecules, and atoms certainly has the savvy to design a viable plan of salvation. God has had the same plan from the beginning of the world, having chosen us as the weak of the world so that no flesh could glory. The called-out church was not a passing fancy of God, but an entity which has been on His mind from the very beginning. Nothing happens randomly; God is in total control; the death of a sparrow (a rather insignificant and drab creature) does not occur without His full attention. We, like the sparrow, are undistinguished and drab by the world's standards, but given a glimpse of the mystery that God is reproducing Himself, bringing us altogether into one family in His Eternal Kingdom, at which time mother Eve's seed, from the line of Seth to the present, will be glorified.

In an interview on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, former President Jimmy Carter waded into the current American cultural and political debate on homosexuality. ...

David C. Grabbe:  Ephesians 4:11-14 gives instruction on how God gifts some more than others in the church: "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints ..."

David C. Grabbe:  John Darby, Bible translator and dispensationalist, preached far and wide, including numerous tours throughout North America. He left an indelible mark on Evangelical Protestantism through his teachings ...

David C. Grabbe:  To help in understanding one of the great controversies among those who have left the Worldwide Church of God, consider the story and legacy of a man whose ideas have had more influence in Evangelical Protestantism than perhaps any other in the last 200 years...

Many prophecy watchers have made their guesses about who the Two Witness of Revelation 11 are, but not all of their ideas have solid, biblical foundations. Charles Whitaker tackles a common view among interpreters, explaining that Scripture precludes it on very solid grounds.

Richard Ritenbaugh suggests that the churches of God do not follow the nefarious Protestant doctrine of dispensationalism—an era of time during which man is tested against an aspect of God's judgment. Each dispensation or era allows people to be saved by different criteria. The doctrine suggests that Moses and his followers were saved by the law and Abraham was saved by faith, while today people are supposedly justified only by grace. If this doctrine is true, God is made to look inconsistent and arbitrary through history. In I Peter 1:10-12, Peter said the prophets were saved by grace.

Since God has authorized no day other than the Sabbath, John Ritenbaugh observes that Sunday worship is a pagan deviation, perpetuated by Hellenistic Gnosticism, a multi-faceted movement that despises Yahweh, the Sabbath, and God's laws. Though Constantine enforced Sunday-keeping (the counterfeit Sabbath) on Western culture, the ugly tentacles of Gnosticism had already surfaced in Paul's warning to the Colossians about "rudiments of the world," angel worship (actually demon worship), and "white" magic. Gnostics have incorporated Neo-Platonic notions of real (supposedly appearing in the Pleroma) and corporeal (corrupt, earthly, physical forms) to counterfeit the shadow and reality concept as described by Paul. Christ, not angels, is the reality and the fullness of God. Antinomianism, Dispensationalism, eternal security, and irresistible grace—all assimilated into evangelical Protestantism—have all derived from Hellenistic Gnosticism.

John Ritenbaugh, exploring the invasion of the early apostolic church by Gnostics(interlopers who savagely denigrated the "enslavement to Yahweh, His Law, and the Jewish Sabbath," replacing it with 'enlightened' Greek philosophy- the immortality of the soul, eternal security, irresistible grace, and predestination) traces its development within mainstream 'Christianity.' An early source of Gnostic thought into mainstream 'Christianity' was Augustine, originally saturated in Manichean religion, later transferring Gnostic thought into the Catholic Church. The Protestant reformers Luther and Calvin, both heavily influenced by Augustine, taught the doctrines of eternal security, irresistible grace, and predestination. Modern evangelical leaders, continuing in this Gnostic tradition, promulgate "once saved always saved" and "unconditional love" — tolerating the most hideous abominable sins - allowing 'Christ's blood' to give license to this lawless behavior.

John Ritenbaugh, focusing upon the seemingly innocent but subtle and pernicious doctrine of Dispensationalism, attacks the assumed yet unbiblical adversarial relationship between law and grace. Modern "Christianity" totally rejects the Bible in its eclectic, pick-and-choose religious hybrids, instead following Gnostic Docetism, which leads to vile, fleshly perversions. Hatred for Yahweh (Jesus Christ), the law, Israel, and the Sabbath, along with endorsing lawlessness, serves as common denominators for all Gnostic practitioners. Modern "Christianity," twisting Paul's writings to turn the grace of God into license to sin (by blurring the distinction between justification and sanctification) is totally derived from Gnosticism.