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Podcast
Progressive Dispensationalism
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Transcript
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt and today I want to talk about progressive dispensationalism.
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First I'm going to tell you some of the basics of dispensationalism and then how progressive
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dispensationalism changes the dispensational message.
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If you were personally given the gospel message, personally discipled, taught the Bible personally,
0:27
or taught biblical prophecy at all, it was probably by a dispensationalist, someone from
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a dispensational church, or a dispensational campus group, or someone who was themselves
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taught by a dispensationalist.
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Dispensationalism sees a distinction between Israel and the church.
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Romans 11 would be a key passage on that.
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He sees the church as a mystery unknown to the Old Testament prophets, Ephesians 3, 3-9
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addresses that.
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Therefore, none of the prophecies to Israel flow over into the church because Israel is
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a nation and the church is individuals indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
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Both are part of the kingdom of God, but with different earthly commands and promises.
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Dispensationalism is just a theological system that should be developed.
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It should not be defended as absolute truth.
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Nonetheless, it seems to be generally a biblical idea.
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Most dispensationalists are also premillennialists.
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Premillennialism sees the church ages beginning in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 2 and ending
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at the rapture described in John 14, 1-3 and 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18.
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The rapture is followed by a seven-year tribulation on earth, followed by the second coming of
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Christ, followed by a millennial kingdom, where Israel returns to the land, Daniel 9,
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Matthew 24, Revelation 6-20.
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Progressive dispensationalism is the creation of theologians Craig A. Blazing, Western Theological
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Seminary in Fort Worth, Daryl R. Bach, Dallas Theological Seminary, and Robert L. Saussure,
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Talbot Seminary.
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They call for a discussion between those who take biblical prophecy literally, traditional
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dispensationalists, and those who do not, which is covenant on millennialists.
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Progressive dispensationalism is a premillennial.
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So it argues that there is a future for Israel and maintains the same future timeline as
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the traditional dispensationalists.
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But progressive dispensationalists believe many of these promises, although they will
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not literally be fulfilled for Israel, are progressively fulfilled in the church, even
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though there's no biblical passage that says anything like that.
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Progressive dispensationalism does not take anything away from Israel.
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It adds to the church.
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So it adds the church to the blessings of Israel, blending Israel's promises into the
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church.
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Progressive dispensationalism believes one dispensation flows over into another because
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the New Testament authors often added a layer of new meaning to Old Testament quotes.
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In their book, Progressive Dispensationalism, Bach and Blazing claim, quote, the subsequent
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text can develop the meaning of the original text.
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To reuse a text to discuss an original event is to bring that text into a new context and
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thus add to its meaning.
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That's a close quote from that, but here's a blog from Daryl Bach, quote, the opening
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of blessing through the seed to the world, as indicated in the promises made to Abraham
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in Genesis 12, means that God's program always had the nations in view as coming into blessing
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as the people of God.
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Israel was to be a means through which such blessing came, which is precisely what happened
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through Jesus.
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God can add to his promises without taking away from those promises he made earlier.
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All right, that was a quote from a blog from Daryl Bach, but the fact that God can add
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to his promises does not mean we can say God added promises not stated in the Bible.
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Of course, God used progressive revelation.
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He didn't say everything all at once.
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Christ and the apostles made applications from the Old Testament to the church, which
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we would not otherwise know.
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The apostles were giving new revelation from God, but the apostles never said the promises
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for Israel were carried over into the church.
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And Bach goes even further.
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He claims that we can, quote, bring that, that is Old Testament text, into the new context
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and thus add to its meaning.
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One might ask, what gives us the right to add to the meaning of the text of Scripture?
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There are several basic problems with the progressive dispensational position.
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I'll list four of them.
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Number one, at no time does the Bible ever extend the promises of Israel to the Gentiles.
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Number two, progressive dispensationalists deny that the church is a mystery, something
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unknown to the Old Testament.
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But that's precisely the point of Ephesians 3, 3-9, Colossians 1, 26, and Romans 16, 25.
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Number three, John the Baptist, Christ, the Twelve, and the Seventy all said, repent,
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for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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Although Christ's disciples repented, the nation of Israel did not repent.
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If the kingdom of Israel progressively came anyway, as the progressive dispensationalists
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claim, with Jesus currently on the throne of David, then God conditioned the kingdom
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upon repentance.
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But when they did not repent, he gave it to them anyway.
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It makes a repentance optional.
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More important, number four, progressive dispensationalists must abandon a literal interpretation to maintain
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its view.
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Progressive dispensationalism is not simply a modification of dispensationalism.
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It's a change in how to interpret the Bible.
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Dispensationalism is a product of determining the meaning from the author's intended meaning
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through the context.
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It's called grammatical historical, or simply literal interpretation, where literal means
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the author's intended meaning.
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This is how every single written text or audible message like this podcast is rightly interpreted.
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There is simply no other accurate way to understand anything.
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But progressive dispensationalists say the Bible needs a complementary interpretation.
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Robert L. Thomas, a New Testament professor at Master's Seminary, wrote a paper evaluating
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the interpretation method of progressive dispensationalism, which in my opinion every Christian should read.
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He concludes this, quote, a choice between the two systems amounts to a choice between
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two systems of interpretation.
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If one endorses recent trends in evangelical hermeneutics, that person may very easily
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fit into the camp of progressive dispensationalism, or perhaps even into the theological system
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that was decidedly non-dispensational.
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On the other hand, a choice of grammatical historical interpretation must lead to dispensational
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conclusions.
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Why abandon literal interpretation to establish progressive dispensationalism?
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The motives are unknown.
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We do know much of this was developed in the context of finding better answers for covenant
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theology.
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But this evolution of meaning is comparable to what the Roman Catholic sacred tradition
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has done for centuries.
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It's what the ecumenical church does to arrive at its universalism.
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It's what the New Apostolic Reformation does in claiming modern-day apostles.
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All of these are about establishing a more powerful, influential church on earth instead
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of presenting them the narrow gate of eternal life.
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For example, Israel was promised prosperity if they were obedient.
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The churches promised obedience would lead to persecution.
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Israel was promised national security for national faithfulness.
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Faithful churches promised persecution among the nations.
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Israel was an ordained institution of God.
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The church is a fellowship of believer individuals filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Israel had a sanctuary, a tabernacle, then a temple specified by God as a place for worship.
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In the church, the believers are the temple of God, and they gathered in one another's
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homes.
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Israel had a specific designated priesthood.
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In the church, all the believers are priests.
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But if progressive dispensationalism is allowed to say one dispensation flows into the next,
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and we do not need to take the Bible as its authors intended, if we can bring a biblical
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text into a new context, thus add to the meaning, then first of all, the church can progressively
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have more prosperity on earth.
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Second, the church can progressively have more national and political prominence.
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Three, the church can progressively become an ordained institution of God.
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Four, the church can progressively become a sanctified place rather than a holy people.
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And five, the church can progressively develop a professional clergy.
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The result of progressive dispensationalism is a church with a national institutional
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prosperity of Israel and a Bible which cannot be understood sufficiently by seeking the
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author's intended meaning.
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As a conclusion, I want you to notice that if you take the Bible literally, there's no
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positive future for the church on earth.
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Antichrist gradually takes over with a godless, blasphemous system judged by Christ catastrophically
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at his second coming.
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But this means there is no command for the church to fix the world.
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The church is here to spread the gospel and disciple its converts, preparing them for
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a heavenly kingdom.
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But it's hard to recruit people for that.
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It's easier to get people involved in trying to make this world a better place, and progressive
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dispensationalism gives them a foundation for doing that.
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But to do that, you must have to abandon the literal interpretation of Scripture based
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on the author's intended meaning.
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Well, thanks for listening.
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If you're interested in my paper on the subject, it's available on our website, relationalconcepts.org.
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And I'll see you next time.
