DISPENSATIONALISM AND ITS ERRORS, from a Catholic perspective.
SUMMARY OF DISPENSATIONAL BELIEFS:
• Literal interpretation of the Sacred Scripture; specifically, a
literal and physical fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies
in regard to Israel.
• The “Kingdom Offer”
• Distinction between Israel and the Church
• A pretribulation “rapture” and a literal, futurist view of the
Book of Revelation.
This essay examines the peculiar beliefs of Dispensationalism and what is wrong with this doctrinal system. It is the hope of the author that a better understanding of this movement will help Catholics to dialogue with Dispensationalists and to help correct the various erroneous views that they hold. This in turn, it is hoped, will lead to Dispensationalists coming more easily to an understanding of the Catholic Church as the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel in Scripture. .
Modern proponents of Dispensationalism include Moody Bible Institute, Dallas Theological Seminary, Hal Lindsey, Jerry Falwell, and Dave Hunt. So the reader can see that this movement is quite well established.
DISPENSATIONAL BELIEFS
Dispensationalism teaches that God has dealt with man through various successive “dispensations” or stewardships and that on each occasion, man has failed in his duties. Dispensation claims to focus on God’s glory in showing how man is incapable of reaching God’s standards.
Scofield’s definition of a dispensation (or stewardship) was: “A period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God” (Scofield Reference Sacred Scripture, p. 5). It is a distinguishable era in the overall plan of God. Dispensationalists look at the model of Luke 16:1-2 and Luke 12:45 as a model for God’s relationship to man in the various dispensations. In this model there are two parties, with the steward being accountable, and the conditions change with time.
According to traditional dispensational belief, these dispensations or stewardships totaled seven and were as follows:
• Dispensation 1: Adam – Noah
• Dispensation 2: Noah – Moses
• Dispensation 3: Moses – David
• Dispensation 4: David – Christ
• Dispensation 5: Church Age
• Dispensation 6: Millennium kingdom
• Dispensation 7: Eternity
There are other ways of dividing up the dispensations, for example:
• Dispensation 1: Innocence. Creation – Fall
• Dispensation 2: Conscience. Fall – Noah.
• Dispensation 3: Human Government. Noah – Abraham.
• Dispensation 4: Promise. Abraham – Moses.
• Dispensation 5: Law. Moses – Church.
• Dispensation 6: Church – Tribulation
• Dispensation 7: Kingdom or Millennium, when Christ will be a literal king on the literal throne of David for 1000 literal years. (Note: Eternity is not categorized as a dispensation.)
Yet another list could be:
• Adam – Noah
• Noah – Abraham
• Abraham – Mount Sinai
• Mount Sinai – Pentecost
• Pentecost – Great Tribulation (the Church Age)
• Tribulation – Great White Throne (Millennium)
In each dispensation, man fails in his responsibilities to God. So of course the Church age dispensation , according to this belief system, has to fail as well. The reader will no doubt note that the fact that there is more than one way of defining the dispensations, especially with regard to the earlier ones, is an indication of the poor Scriptural support for this system.
HISTORY
Dispensationalism as a religious belief system has it’s origins in the 1830s in England, when one Mr. John Nelson Darby (1800-1880) developed the ideas of various dispensations under which God tested man through human history. Side by side with the development of this system was a revelation give to 20-year-old Margaret MacDonald at a prayer meeting, in Port Glasgow Scotland, where she had a vision of the “rapture”. Dispensationalism and the “rapture” were to become intimately connected in an erroneous and novel teaching, unknown in the history of Christianity. The doctrines of Dispensationalism were systematized by Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921) is his “Scofield Reference Sacred Scripture” (Oxford University Press, 1909). We shall see that this work produced an interpretation of Scripture totally at odds with historical interpretation and antithetical to the Catholic faith.
Darby was greatly disillusioned with the established Church of England of his time and this fact helped him towards a theology of dispensations, or stewardships, where God was testing man in each “stewardship” and man was failing each time. Naturally, the Church age would also have to fail also, according to Darby. Consequent to this, Darby believed that the current Church Age could not be the kingdom described in the New Testament and promised by the Old Testament prophets. Instead he concluded that the church age(i.e. the present) is a period unknown to the OT prophets, and that it is inserted into the “70 weeks” prophetic “clock” of Daniel 9: 26-27, which he thought should have been fulfilled by Jesus’ ascending to the literal throne of David at His first Coming (see the “Kingdom Offer” below).
In 1833 at the Powerscourt conference in Dublin, Ireland, Darby presented his view of the parenthetic model of the Church in the prophetic fulfillment of the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel 9:26-27.
The rapture, or removal of the church to heaven preceding the Tribulation period, when the stopped prophetic “clock” begins ticking for Israel again with the “Seventieth Week of Daniel”, was Darby’s innovation. Darby, with no basis for his interpretation, inserted this “parenthesis” into his understanding of Daniel 9:26-27. We shall see in a later essay why this whole approach is mistaken from the very start.
Darby broke not only from previous millenarian teaching but from all of church history by asserting that Christ’s second coming would occur, not in one, but in two stages. The first, an invisible “secret rapture” of true believers could happen at any time, ending the great “parenthesis” or church age which began when the Jews rejected Christ.
Darby sought to legitimize his new rapture and its two “Second Comings” so he divided the Sacred Scripture up into passages for Israel and passages for the Church. According to traditional Dispensationalism Jesus came to deliver the Kingdom to the Jews, (the so-called “Kingdom Offer”) but the Jews rejected Him and caused Him to die on the cross. Thus, Christ’s death on the cross was not part of God’s plan (at least not His plan for that time). As a result, the coming of the kingdom was postponed until the Second Coming of Christ and is not present today except in “mystery” form. The rejection of Christ led to a stopping of the prophetic clock (see especially the Book of Daniel) and a “parenthesis” was introduced, which the Dispensationalists call the Church Age. In other words, God created the Church as a plan B in response to the Jews’ rejection of the Messiah, which the Dispensationalists say was totally unanticipated even by the Old Testament prophets (including Daniel, of course).
KEY DISPENSATIONAL VERSES:
Jer. 31:31-37 – God’s promise of the New Covenant for Israel (not just for the Church) will be fulfilled.
The refutation of this verse is found in the words of the Letter to the Hebrews. This prophecy is fulfilled in Hebrews 10:16,17.
Another verse cited by Dispensationalists is ROM. 11:29 – God’s promises to national Israel are irrevocable. So Dispensationalists think they must be given to the physical entity of Israel at some point in the future. However, under Dispensationalism, God’s promise to Abraham will last only 1,000 years, but God said it would be for ever.
As mentioned above, Darby divided Scripture up into passages which he thought applied to Israel and passages which he thought applied to the Church. This is a fundamental basis for dispensational belief, the basis for which lies in their interpretation of the verse 2 TIM 2:15 which in the KJV reads: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
This word “dividing” is found only in the KJV:
• Douay-Rhiems: “rightly handling the word of truth.”
• NAS: “handling accurately the word of truth”.
• NIV: “who correctly handles the word of truth”.
• RSV: “rightly handling the word of truth”.
So there is no idea of dividing up the Scriptures in this verse, the idea comes from the poor KJV translation.
In the Vulgate, the word used is tractantem, while the Greek is orthomounta which means “properly use as one thing”. So there is no justification for using the word “dividing” here.
Another verse used by Dispensationalists to justify dividing up God’s Word to different ages is Luke 12:42 Master dividing the food. However, a study of Matthew 7:6, John 16:12 and 1 Corinthians 3:2, sheds light on the actual meaning of this verse: The teacher is to be diligent in giving the different classes of hearer “their portion of meat in due season” (Luke 12:42).
Another focus of dispensational belief is the claim that their view of Scripture focuses on the glory of God, rather on the sinfulness of man. But is the central issue of the dispensational interpretation really God’s glory and not man’s salvation?
In actual fact, no. God is seen to be playing a game with man, putting him through lots of tests and waiting for him to fail. It does not show God’s love for man. Note that a God who makes an offer (like the kingdom offer) that he has no intention of honouring is not exactly filling Himself in glory. So the central issue of dispensational theology isn’t God’s glory, though it is claimed to be.
THE DISPENSATIONAL VIEW OF THE END TIMES
As mentioned above, the “millennium” proposed by Darby (and supposedly based on Revelation 20:7) is fundamentally Jewish in nature and a time when the Jews will be exalted above the Gentiles. The Gentiles will be on the lowest level in Christ’s rule (the saints will have been raptured, of course). In addition, and here is where Dispensationalism must ask itself questions about it’s Christian outlook, the sacrificial system of the Old Law will be restored, so Jesus as the Lamb of God will not be the focus of their worship. Note that Dispensationalism is “futurist” as it regards the Book of Revelation as a description of future events. They also believe that the seven churches of Revelation 2-3 are Jewish churches which give witness during the seven year tribulation.
The millennium (of Revelation 20) will be a period of earthly paradise and worldwide peace in which the supposedly unfulfilled promises to Israel will be literally and physically fulfilled. The millennium is when certain Old Testament prophecies and promises made to Israel will be fulfilled which Dispensationalists see as not yet fulfilled. In contrast, Catholic teaching (and traditional Protestant teaching also) says that these promises and prophecies have been and are being fulfilled in the Church.
Dispensationalists think the millennium is necessary because the Old Testament prophecies have to be fulfilled in a literal and a physical manner, i.e. they must relate to the physical land of Israel, and not it’s spiritual heir. This is a mistaken viewpoint, as we shall see later, when we consider the Church as the new Israel. Also note that the dispensationalists make the mistake of thinking a “literal” fulfillment must mean a “physical”, and not “spiritual”, fulfillment . Again, we shall see what the New Testament says in this regard.
The “parenthesis” or Church Age, which Darby inserted into Daniel 9:26-27, will end when Jesus comes invisibly at the rapture to take all believers (except OT saints) up to heaven (NOTE this requires an invisible coming of Christ, mentioned nowhere in Scripture) to celebrate the “Marriage feast of the Lamb” with Christ for seven years, the length of the Tribulation.
God then is supposed to focus once again on the Jewish people. The tribulation, Antichrist, bowls of wrath (Rev. 15 and 16) come next. A Jewish remnant of 144,000 preaching the gospel of the Kingdom (Matt 24:14) (it’s at this point the Church is supposedly “raptured”), and Armageddon (Rev. 16:16). Then the Second (or Third!) Coming, the instant conversion of the entire nation of Israel, the resurrection of the tribulation and Old Testament saints, and the “sheep and goats” judgement (Matt. 25:31-33). The goats will be cast into hell, the sheep and the believing Jews will enter the Millennium in their natural human bodies. Israel, gathered from it’s worldwide dispersion to Christ, will accept their King, and so will begin the millennium age as, once again, God’s covenant people (see George E. Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God, pp. 50,51). The “mystery church” and the resurrected tribulation and old testament saints will live in the heavenly Jerusalem suspended above the earthly city. After 1,000 years Satan will be released from the chain with which he had been bound at the beginning of the millennium (Rev. 20:4) and many of the children born to the “sheep” and the Israelites will follow him into revolt against Christ. Christ will again destroy His enemies, followed by another resurrection of the glorious, another resurrection of the unrighteous, a final judgment (the “white throne judgment”), and at last a new heavens and a new earth (Rev. 21-22). At the very heart of the Dispensational belief is the idea that Israel and the Church are two peoples who maintain their distinction throughout eternity.”
Needless to say, this view of the end times is completely contradictory to the idea of the Church as the spiritual heir of Israel and the Kingdom of God on Earth. In actual fact, the Catholic Church’s position (and in fact, the position of other covenant-based churches – Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian etc) are in agreement in this regard. The reader is recommended to look up the Catechism of the Catholic Church for further information.
Next we shall see why the distinction between Israel and the Church is not correct view to take. Basically the fundamental error is that Dispensationalists seek a consistently literal approach to Sacred Scripture (hence their expectation of a physical fulfillment of prophecy) but they fail to note that a literal fulfillment doesn’t have to be a physical fulfillment; it can also be a spiritual one.
THE DISPENSATIONAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH, AND WHY IT IS WRONG
First we shall look to see if the supposedly unfulfilled prophesies of Zechariah are fulfilled in the First Coming of Christ. If they are, we ask “are they fulfilled in a spiritual way in the Church, or must the be fulfilled literally?”
Zechariah 2:10,11 “For, lo I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee”
Zechariah 3:3,4. “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe the with change of raiment”
Zechariah 3:8,9.”behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua”
Zechariah 6:12-15 “the Man whose name is The BRANCH,”shall build the temple of the Lord………He shall bear the glory, and He shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne.”
All these passages are fulfilled in Heb. 2:9; 8:1
Continuing with Zechariah 9:9”Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion… behold, thy King cometh unto thee”
This prophecy is fulfilled in Luke 19:38 when Christ come to Jerusalem to die for the salvation of mankind.
Continuing, Zechariah 13:7-9 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered”
This prophecy is fulfilled in the death of Christ and especially in Matt. 26:31.
Finally, from Zechariah: Zechariah 14:8 ”And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem”
This prophecy is fulfilled in John 7:37,38 “Jesus stood and cried saying, If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink, he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”.
As further evidence to the effect that these prophecies were to be fulfilled in a spiritual, and not physical, manner, we see the very well-kown example of John 2:19ff: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”…But He spoke of the Temple of His Body.”
What else can be said about this supposed separation between Israel and the Church? We have seen that the prophecies of Zechariah are fulfilled in the First Coming of Christ, and so do not wait a literal physical fulfillment. The reader is asked to bear in mind also that in the history of the Church, none of the early Church Fathers made a distinction between Israel and the Church as two separate peoples of God. In fact St. Justin Martyr in “Dialogues with Trypho” (chapters 123-125, 135) shows he regards the Church as being the true Israel. Saint Augustine saw the period of the millennium as being fulfilled spiritually in the Church, the binding of Satan having taken place during the earthly ministry of Our Lord. The new birth of the believer was the first resurrection in Rev. 20. Verses 1-6 are a recapitulation of the preceding chapters. (He did however think the 1000 years to be literal, representing the inter-adventual period.)
Next, we shall look at some other prophecies of the Old Testament, and see if their fulfillment is in the Church or the people of Israel. By showing their fulfillment to be in the Church, we shall demonstrate the essential continuity of Israel and the Church, with God having one people, with one destiny, saved by One Saviour. A selection from the Preterist archive website follows.
Promise to Israel –
“Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,” There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’“ -Hosea 1:10
Fulfilled in the Church – “What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.” “And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” -Romans :22-26
Promise to Israel – “On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old” -Amos 9:11
Fulfillment in the Church – Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. “And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: ‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.’ “Known to God from eternity are all His works. -Acts 15:14-18
And there are many other Old Testament passages referring to Israel that are in the New Testament applied directly to the Catholic Church.
Spoken to Israel – “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, As the LORD has said, Among the remnant whom the LORD calls.” -Joel 2:28-32
Applied to the church – When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place…”But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.” -Acts 2:1,16-21
A VERY INTERESTING CASE: THE “NEW COVENANT” OF JEREMIAH:
Spoken to Israel – “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” Jeremiah 31:31
Obviously, this prophecy is directed to Israel. But if the church is fulfilling the promise given to Israel as contained in the New Covenant, dispensationalism, and dispensationalist premillennialism, is dead.
Applied to the church – “Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” -LUKE 22:20
Dispensationalism has used various arguments to get around this insurmountable problem. Consistent Dispensationalists have long recognized the problem. E. W. Bullinger noted that the cup of the Lord’s Supper was indeed the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-33, but that it was directed to Israel and not to the church, and for that very reason the “mystery” church should not administer it. Other dispensationalists have sought a soluton in the notion of a second “new covenant”. John F. Walvoord, who became the president of Dallas Theological Seminary, is one proponent of this view. However, it cannot be supported from Sacred Scripture, because the Dispensationalists, as we have seen, look at some verses, devise their theology around them, then try to invent new and groundless theories to explain the verses (such as Luke 22:20) which demolish their whole theological base.
In the Old Testament, Israel is called “beloved of God” (Deut. 33:3), “children of God” (Is. 2:2,4, Is 63:8), the “house of God” (Num. 12:7), the “kingdom of God” (Exod. 19:6), the “people of God” (Deut. 27:9), the “vineyard of God” (Is. 5:3-7), the “bride of God” (Hos. 1:2, Ez. 16:32), the “children of Abraham” (Isa. 41:8), the “chosen people” (Deut. 7:7; 10:15; 14:2) , the “circumcised” (Gen. 17:10), the “new covenant” (Jer. 32:31-33), the “olive tree” (Jer. 11:16, Hos. 14:6)
In the New Testament, Christians are called “beloved of God” (Col. 3:12, 1 John 3:1), “children of God” (John 1:12, John 11:52, Rom. 8:14,16 John 3:1), the “house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15, Heb. 3:2,5,6,), the “kingdom of God” (Rom. 14:17, 1 Cor. 4:20), the “people of God” (2 Cor. 6:16, Eph. 4:12, Eph. 5:3, 2), the “vineyard of God” (Luke 20:16), the “bride of God” (2 Cor. 11:2, Eph. 5:31,32), the “children of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7,29, Gal. 4:23,28,31), the “chosen people” (Col. 3:12, 1 Pet. 2:9), the “circumcised” (Rom. 2:29; Phil. 3:3; Col. 2:11), the “new covenant” (Luke 22:20, 1 Cor. 11:25, 2 Cor. 3:6), the “olive tree” (Rom. 11:24) Similarly in the new Testament, Christians are called Israel: in John 11:50, 51, 52, 1 Cor. 10:1, Gal. 6:15, 16, Eph. 2:12, 19 and they are called Jews in Rom. 2:29.
Now we shall briefly take a look at some verses from Scripture which do not fit with the Dispensational outlook and which are therefore NOT taken literally and are distorted to fit into the Dispensationalist viewpoint. The Preterist Archive provides several examples, among which are the following.
Isaiah 9:7
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Dispensationalists don’t believe this. They believe there will be a 2,000 year pause for the Church Age.
Daniel 2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Dispensationalists don’t believe this Scripture is to be taken literally. They believe the stone “became a great mountain” after a 2,000 year pause.
Matt. 3:2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (also Matt. 4:17; 10:7)
Dispensationalists don’t believe this Scripture is to be taken literally. They believe “the kingdom is heaven is at hand- during the millennium”.
Daniel 4:34: “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose kingdom is from generation to generation”.
Dispensationalists don’t believe this either. Instead, they believe the most High’s dominion will be established thousands of years into the future, at the end of the “Church age” parenthesis. So His Kingdom will not be from generation to generation until then, apparently.
Matt. 21:43: “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
Once again, dispensationalists don’t believe this. Instead they believe all the promises to Israel were unconditional and the Gentiles would never get them.
THE “KINGDOM OFFER”
Dispensationalism teaches that the purpose of the (first) Coming of Christ was to establish an earthly political kingdom. With His chosen people, Israel, over which Christ would have ruled from the literal throne of David, and in which all Old Testament prophecies were to be literally and physically fulfilled. This kingdom would have been a perfected continuation of the Davidic kingdom of the Old Testament with David’s Son, Jesus, ruling in his place for one thousand years.
This view is in obvious stark contrast to the traditional teaching of the catholic Church (and many Protestant denominations) which teaches that Our Lord came at the appointed time to be crucified for the salvation on humanity.
According to dispensationalism, when the Jews rejected Christ’s legitimate offer of the kingdom, which was supposedly predicted by the prophets) that kingdom was then postponed , and entered a “mystery” form, i.e. the Church Age (see Matt 13) until the second coming of Christ. In this Church Age, supposedly, the kingdom of heaven is embodied in Christendom and “God is now ruling on the earth insofar as the parables of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven require. In this mystery phase of the kingdom, good and evil mingle together and are to grow together until Christ returns” (this quote is from Lewis Sperry Chafer’s Systematic Theology). Then the same earthly Davidic kingdom which they are supposed to have refused will be established in the form of the millennium (see earlier). During the millennium all the plans which were supposedly foiled by the Jews at the first advent will be fulfilled literally (and physically).
What this means in essence is that Our Lord, who occupies the throne of heaven, is expected to take over a throne once occupied by an earthly king! This is one of the very highpoints in dispensational teaching on the end times. What an idea, but Peter shows in Acts 2:29-36 that Our Lord has for nearly two thousand years occupied the throne of which David’s throne was a mere type:
“Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not asend to heaven, and yet he said
“The Lord said to my Lord:
Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
In refutation of the point regarding the kingdom entering a “mystery” form in Matt 13, it can be said that In Matthew, Christ is presented first as the Son of David. Then when He is rejected by the Jews He is presented as the Son of Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. The break with the leaders of the nation comes in chapter 12, where the Jews commit blasphemy by ascribing the works of the Holy Spirit to the devil.
In Matt. 13, the Lord opens up a new ministry, the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, revealing things that had been kept secret from the foundation of the world, NAMELY the unexpected form that the kingdom would have on earth after Israel had rejected the King. This is set forth in the seven parables of that chapter, and tells us what the Christian life will be like on this earth. This kingdom of Heaven on earth is the Catholic Church.
The dispensationalists, unable to deal with these parables, push them out to the time after the Tribulation era.
WHAT IF THE JEWS HAD ACCEPTED JESUS’ OFFER TO ESTABLISH AN EARTHLY DAVIDIC KINGDOM AT HIS FIRST ADVENT? According to (at least hard-line) dispensationalist teaching, people would then have been saved by legal obedience. The big problem here is that it means people could be saved by some other means than by the death of Christ on the cross. S. D. Gordon (Quiet Talks About Jesus, p. 114) says:
“It can be said at once that His dying was not God’s own plan. It was conceived somewhere else and yielded to by God. God has a plan of atonement by which men who were willing could be saved from sin and its effect. That plan is given in the Old Hebrew code. To the tabernacle or temple, under prescribed regulations, a man could bring some animal which he owned. The man brought that which was his own. It represented him.”
S. D. Gordon makes the fatal mistake of thinking that the Old Testament sacrifices were meant as a method of salvation. However this is not true: the Old Testament sacrifices were put in place after to teach the Israelites never to worship the idols of Egypt again. Remember that these sacrifices were commanded by God after Israel had fallen into idolatry in this way. These sacrifices were never in themselves meant as a means of salvation.
Here is the big problem, Christ made an earthly Kingdom offer knowing that the Jews would refuse, therefore the offer could not have been redeemed. An offer that is impossible to honor is not a sincere offer but a fraud. Does the dispensationalist really say that God makes insincere offers?
THE ALLEGED DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD: DOES IT REALLY EXIST? NO.
An important feature of Dispensational thought is the idea that the kingdom of Heaven is distinct from the kingdom of God. this distinction is used by dispensationalists to claim the kingdom promised by Jesus has not yet arrived. We shall see, however, that the kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of God are one and the same, as spoken by the New Testament writers.
Consider at the outset, Matt 11:12 and Luke 16:16. In the first passage, our Lord referred to that kingdom as the kingdom of heaven, while in the second passage, – while speaking of the same man, same time, and same message – He referred to that same kingdom as the kingdom of God.