Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Dispensationalism--A New Paradygm

     I have recently posted a series of eight blogs at my blogsite exposing the theologically corrupted Scofield Reference Bible.  The information in those postings begins to reveal the background and origins of dispensational theology the dominant paradigm for today’s Christian Zionism.  A brief review is necessary here to avoid confusion for those who have not read the blogs or studied the issues to any significant degree.  As with any other discipline, theological systems originate through the initiatives of men who pursue the study of appropriate source materials.  In the case of theology the source must be the Scriptures themselves with little reliance on outside sources such as commentaries which may or may not be accurate. The reason for this is simply that the content of the Word of God must be spiritually discerned and the verification of accuracy must be supported by the content of various texts of Scripture. Every conclusion reached must meet the test of verification through the entire content of Scripture and not just from isolated verses. Taken out of context many things can allegedly be ‘proved’ with the use of Scripture. This is illustrated with the enemy’s temptation of Jesus at Matthew 4:6.  Jesus responded to his quotation of Psalms 91:11-12 with a higher principle of truth, i.e. ‘Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.’ (Deut. 6:16)
      With that having been said let us review the relatively recent emergence of dispensational theology as a dominant paradygm in much of evangelicalism. John Darby (1800-1882) developed his theological concepts at a young age. By 1830 or shortly thereafter he had promulgated his dispensational theory.  It consisted of dividing the progression of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation into seven distinct dispensations (eras or economies) in which God’s dealings with man was allegedly progressively changing. We will name those divisions here: Innocence(before the fall of Adam); Conscience (from the fall of Adam to Noah); Human Government(from Noah after the flood to Abraham); Promise (from Abraham’s calling to the Exodus from Egypt); Law (from the giving of the law at Mount Sinai to Christ); Grace(alleging to cover the period of the church up until the insertion of a total rapture of the church); Kingdom (allegedly restoring the kingdom to the natural posterity of Abraham, i.e., the Jews) . The seventh phase of his scheme was to encompass the millennium in which he asserted Israel will dominate the world for 1000 years with Christ reigning on his throne from earthly Jerusalem. The basic tenets of his theology required a removal of the church from the earth at the occurrence of a pretribulational ‘rapture ‘.  This was a necessary event for the establishment of a kingdom on the earth for he saw the Scriptures as projecting two kingdoms; one in heaven for the church and one on the earth for Israel.  He proceeded to spread this teaching in England, Western Europe and also through several trips to America. It became known as ‘Darbyism’ and was the foundation for the Plymouth Brethren movement. This was derived from its home base in Plymouth, England. Darby was very academic and a prolific writer even translating his own version of the Bible. He was also a gifted speaker and was able to convince many concerning his brand new system of theology. 
      It was completely adopted and popularized within a few decades by C. I. Scofield in the Scofield Reference Bible (first edition 1909). From this early edition containing numerous footnotes, chapter headings and insertions it was very Zionist friendly. That is to say the concept of a future kingdom dispensation (the millennium) was promised and promoted as sure for Israel.  The dividing of the church from Israel was made dominant throughout the Old Testament through various ‘covenants’ and consummated in Revelation at the end of the age. Scofield received the endorsement for publication through a Zionist Jewish attorney in New York who had connections with Oxford University Press in London.  Oxford was owned by Zionist Jews and they sought to gain an inroad within Christian America. They financed and promoted the Scofield Reference Bible and owned all publication rights. C. I. Scofield was handsomely rewarded financially and his reference bible was launched. With the backing of unlimited financial resources it went through several revisions at least three of which were after he died in 1922 while still showing each time that C. I. Scofield was its editor. it sold multiplied millions of copies and was introduced into most of the major conservative seminaries and Bible schools in America affecting literally tens of millions of people who would hold the Bible to be the inspired and infallible Word of God. The preachers and teachers that were the students in these institutions became very effective in spreading dispensational theology throughout America and even Europe. The 1967 revision contained 6500 word changes in the original text of the King James Version.  Along with the massive Zionist friendly notes it was thus completely transformed and corrupted both in the text as well as interpretation by application of the notes. This became the new paradygm for understanding the Scriptures throughout most of evangelical Christianity and it has endured for over one hundred years. It is a system of theology which had no president in church history from the time of Christ up until about one hundred and fifty years ago when John Darby introduced Dispensationalism. Obtain my books The Israel Deception and more recently Christian Zionism and the Scofield Reference Bible              
   
 David Lance Dean


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