Prophecy Questions Specifically for Dispensationalists

Dispensationalism is an offshoot of premillennialism that is relatively new among eschatological theories. John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) is usually credited with its invention, or at least its popularization. Its teachings include:  (1) A physical rapture of the church will occur before a future Great Tribulation, near the beginning of the millennium; (2) At the Second Coming, Christ will establish a literal utopian thousand-year period on earth, (3) Israel and the church are distinct entities. Israel will be re-born and once again become God’s people. This is usually thought to have begun when Israel became a nation in 1948. (4)The temple in Jerusalem will be re-built in which sacrifices  rituals will be re-instituted, implying that the Jews have a different path to heaven via temple rituals, even though some say the animal sacrifices will be only symbolic.

I HAVE SOME IMPORTANT QUESTIONS FOR DISPENSATIONALISTS:

A. Haven’t dispensationalists been consistently wrong about prophecy? — All of these men and many more have made false prophecies: Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Chuck Smith, Pat Robertson, Edgar Whisenant, Benny Hinn, Harold Camping, etc. etc.  1948 and False Prophecies – Prophecy Questions

B. Questions about the church ―

1. Do you believe that Israel and the church are different bodies, even though the Bible teaches that they are the same body (Ephesians 2:15; 3:6)―and that there is no distinction between Jew and Greek? (Acts 15:9; Romans 2:28-29; 10:12; Galatians 3:28-29; Colossians 3:11)
2. If the church age is only a parenthesis, why do so many passages teach that Jesus reigns from heaven as King of Kings now (Isaiah 66:1; Matthew 28:18; John 5:22; Ephesians 1:20-22; 1 Timothy 6:15-16; Hebrews 1:1-12; 7:25; 8:1-4; Revelation 1:6) and forever? (2 Samuel 7:13; Isaiah 9:6-7; Daniel 2:44; 4:3, 34; 7:14, 18, 27; Luke 1:33; John 5:22; Acts 7:48-50; 10:36; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 3:21; Hebrews 1:12; 5:6; 6:20; 7:24; 8:1-4; 2 Peter 1:11; Revelation 1:5; 3:21; 5:13; 11:15) Further, the New Covenant is forever (Ezekiel 37:26; Hebrews 13:20) and the gospel is eternal (Revelation 14:6). World without end, Amen (Ephesians 3:21).

C. Questions about the temple ―

1. Doesn’t the New Testament explain that while the physical temple was about to be destroyed (Matthew 24:2; 34), Christ became the spiritual temple and cornerstone, while Christians are the living stones built on the foundation of the apostles? (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-8; Revelation 21:14, 22)
2. If there is to be a re-built temple with animal sacrifices and rituals, wouldn’t that be denigrating to Christ’s ONCE-FOR-ALL sacrifice? (Hebrews 10:10)
3. Dispensationalists think that Ezekiel’s temple (Ezekiel 40-48) is literal, but also say that bloody sacrifices in the rebuilt temple will be only a memorial. However, Ezekiel’s vision refers to these sacrifices as literally making atonement (Ezekiel 45:15, 17, 20). How is it that the dispensational position is not  contradictory?
4. Can you find a single verse in the New Testament that says anything about the need for a re-built temple?
5. Why does Scripture say God does not dwell in temples made by hands anymore? (Acts 7:48; 17:24)
6. If we are in the New Covenant era, which Scripture says is FOREVER (Hebrews 13:20; Revelation 14:6), why would God go back to a temple system of the Old Covenant which Paul called bondage (Galatians 4)?

D. Questions about Israel —

1. If the land promise to Israel is forever and unconditional, why did God say his promises were conditional on obedience in Deuteronomy 28 (cf. Exodus 19:5)? How is a 2,000-year gap forever?
2. Didn’t Israel receive all the land promised to Abraham per the book of Joshua (21:43-45; 23:14-15)? Didn’t Christ fulfill all the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:20; Galatians 3:16)?
3. If Israel and the church are separate groups, why is the gospel for everyone who believes—both Jew and Gentile? (Romans 1:16)
4. Wasn’t the kingdom taken from the Jews (Matthew 21:33-45) and given to another group, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16)―those individuals, either Jew or Gentile, who believe? (Matthew 3:7-12; 22:1-8; 23:29-24:2; Romans 2:28-29; 10:1-4; 11:17-21; Galatians 3:28-29, 4:24-31; Hebrews 8:13; 12:22-29)
5. Don’t the New Testament texts comparing Israel to a fig tree (ref. Jeremiah 24) point to Israel/Jerusalem’s destruction rather than its restoration (Matthew 21:19; Luke 13:6-9; 21:29-32)?
6. At least some dispensationalists teach that salvation in the Old Testament was by works of the law only, while salvation in the New Testament is by grace only. Doesn’t dispensationalism wrongly divide justification by law and grace? Aren’t both law and grace (gospel) present in both the Old Testament and New Testament? Didn’t Paul in Romans 4, 5 teach that even the Old Testament saints were saved through faith? Didn’t God preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham (Galatians 3:8)? On the other hand, aren’t there plenty of statements in the New Testament about the necessity of Christians obeying the moral law (Matthew 5:19; Matthew 7:16-20; Matthew 13:36-43; Matthew 25:31-46; John 15:10; Romans 2:13; 3:31; Galatians 5:19-21; James 2:10-24)?
7. When Jesus says in John 14:6 that no man comes to the Father but through Him, doesn’t Jesus mean what he says? “No man” would include Jew or Gentile, doesn’t it?
8. Do you believe that two-thirds of the Jews will be slaughtered in a Holocaust II (John Walvoord’s book Israel in Prophecy, see also DeMar)? If so, how can you call yourself pro-Israel? When you pray for Jesus to come soon, or the supposed imminent rapture, aren’t you preaching or even asking for a near term slaughter of the Jews? Isn’t this teaching based almost entirely on one verse—Zechariah 13:8—yet the New Testament places the previous verse (13:7) squarely in the time of Christ (Mark 14:27; Hebrews 13:20)? Isn’t it clear enough that Zechariah 14:2 must refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70? Isn’t it true that there is no prediction in the book of Revelation about the annihilation of two-thirds of all Jews living in Israel by the Antichrist?
9. When it says in Romans 11:26 that “all Israel will be saved” doesn’t this have to mean, according to your doctrine, that “all Israel left after the two-thirds are slaughtered will be saved”? Isn’t the Israel of God now believers in Christ along with a remnant of the faithful of old (Luke 1:67-79; Romans 9:5-8; 11:5-24; Galatians 3:23-29; 6:14-16)?

E. Questions about hermeneutics (biblical interpretive method) —

1. Dispensationalists say that you interpret the Bible literally. (Thomas Ice said, “In order to be a dispensationalist, one has to hold to a literal approach of interpreting the Bible.”) But do you do so consistently? For example, when Isaiah 55:12 describes the mountains and the hills breaking into song and the trees clapping their hands, is this to be taken this literally? When Isaiah 13:9-13 describes God shaking the earth from its place and making the stars not show their light (predicting doom on Babylon, which all scholars agree was fulfilled in the past)―wasn’t this intended to be understood non-literally via Hebraic apocalyptic language?
2. If the Bible is to be interpreted 100% literally, why are the terms like “must shortly take place,” “at hand,” “quickly,” “before some standing here taste death.” “the time is near,” etc. not read literally?
3. If “soon” means “2000 years or longer,” does that mean it was going to take Timothy 2000 years to be sent to the Philippians by Paul? (Philippians 2:19) If a “day is as a thousand years” does that mean that Christ was in the grave 3,000 years?
4. If the Bible is to be interpreted literally, why do some dispensationalists say the seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1-3) are “church ages” and not “literal” churches?
5. If you think 2 Timothy 2:15 in the KJV (“rightly dividing the word of truth) refers to dividing biblical history into different divine economies, how do other translations affect your understanding? For example, the ESV reads, “rightly handling the word of truth.”

F. Questions about the “End of the Age” and “Last Days” —

1. In such passages as Matthew 13:39-40; 13:49; 24:3; 28:20; etc., isn’t Jesus referring to the end of an age (Greek aion) rather than the end of the world (Greek kosmos)? In other words, if the author was talking about the end of the world, wouldn’t he have used kosmos when he actually used aion?
2. The “time of the end” mentioned in Daniel 12:1-13 was to be when the burnt offering was taken away. Since burnt offerings ended in AD 70, must not this be the timeline, thus the “last days” of which the Bible speaks?
3. Doesn’t every mention of the last days in the New Testament refer to the first century, thus the last days of the old covenant rather than the end of the physical universe? (Matthew 24:3, 14, 34; Acts 2:14-20; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; 10:11; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Hebrews 1:2; 9:26; James 5:3-9; 1 Peter 1:5, 20; 4:7; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 John 2:18; Jude 18).

G. Questions about the Rapture and the Tribulation —

1. What verse of Scripture do you find that Christ will come for his saints to take them to heaven prior to a 7-year period of tribulation?
2. Is there any verse in the Bible that even teaches a “seven-year tribulation?”
3. If Jesus is going to rapture the church out of the world, why does Jesus pray for the exact opposite thing to happen—that the church would NOT be taken out of the world—in John 17:15?
4. Is eschatology so confusing that God would have us bounce around between somewhere (hades/”temporary abode”), heaven, earth, new heaven and new earth? Wouldn’t you want to stay in heaven when you get there?
5. Doesn’t the Jewish War of 66-70 AD qualify as a great tribulation, given that that over a million Jews were killed, their nation was dissolved, their temple decimated, and along with it went their whole world order and the centerpiece of their religion—the centuries old system of animal sacrifices for sin?
6. DIDN’T JESUS SPECIFICALLY SAY THE TRIBULATION WOULD HAPPEN IN HIS GENERATION (Matthew 24:9, 21, 29, 34)? Isn’t every time the phrase “this generation” used in the New Testament outside of the Oliver Discourse, the meaning is clearly those living in the first century (Matthew 11:16; 12:38-45; 23:36; Mark 8:12; 8:38-9:1; Luke 7:31; 11:29-32, 49-51; 17:25).
7. If the great tribulation (Matthew 24:21) is global, why did Jesus tell those living in Judea to flee to the mountains to avoid the tribulation (Matthew 24:16)?
8. Doesn’t Daniel tell us exactly when the time of distress (12:1), the resurrection (12:2), the time of the end (12:9), and the abomination of desolation (12:11)—all occur when the power of the holy people has finally been broken (12:7) and the burnt offering taken away (12:11)? Can there be ANY doubt that this was AD 70?

H. Questions about the Kingdom of God and the Millennium —

1. How can Jesus’ kingdom have not yet come, when John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and the apostles all declared the “kingdom of God is at hand”? (Matthew 3:2, 4:17, 10:7; Mark 1:15; Acts 28:31)
2. Indeed, didn’t Paul teach that believers had already been transferred to the Kingdom? (Colossians 1:13)
3. Why would Jesus’ kingdom be set up in earthly Jerusalem, even though Paul said earthly Jerusalem was bondage and the old covenant (Galatians 4:24-25) was passing away (Hebrews 8:13)?
4. How can Jesus’ kingdom be physical/earthly when Jesus rejected a physical kingdom in Luke 17:20-21 and John 18:36?
5. Do you agree with Walvoord and Pentecost that in the millennial kingdom: “Jerusalem will be the center of a world government system, national Israel will be exalted, and Gentile nations will be subordinated as Israel’s servants.”? ¹
6. Do you agree with Scofield and Chafer, leading dispensationalists in an earlier generation, that the earthly seed Israel is to spend eternity on the new earth, and the heavenly seed, the church, is to spend eternity in [the new] heaven. In other words, the dichotomy between Israel and the church even lasts throughout eternity? (More recent dispensationalists have put the saints of all ages together on the new earth but maintaining their dichotomy throughout eternity by eternally excluding Old Testament saints, tribulation saints, and millennial saints from the Body and Bride of Christ.) ²
7. How can the “millennial” kingdom of God be of the Jews when Jesus himself said that he took the kingdom away from them and gave it to another group who would produce its fruit (Matthew 21:43)? If Jesus took the kingdom from the Jews and gave it to the church, why is there no scripture to show another transfer back to the Jews?
8. Isn’t the dispensational idea of separating the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven arbitrary, since the terms are used interchangeably in Scripture (Matthew 3:1-2; Mark 1:14-15)?
9. Where does it say in the Bible that Jesus will leave his throne and exit heaven to come to earth to establish and earthly rule from another throne in Jerusalem?
10. If the millennium is literal, why is the number one thousand usually not literal, such as the number of generations to which God keeps his covenants (Deuteronomy 7:9), the number of hills upon which God owns cattle (Psalm 50:10), the number of troops that one Israelite shall chase (Joshua 23:10), etc.?

I. More Questions for Dispensationalists —

1. Is there a single verse that explicitly teaches that the antichrist will make a covenant with the Jews and then break it?
2. Didn’t John teach that the antichrist was already in the world when he was writing (1 John 4:4)?
3. Is there a single verse that explicitly teaches that Jesus will reign on earth for a literal thousand years, or that Jesus will sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem during the millennium?
4. Is there any explicit teaching that animal sacrifices and circumcision will be reinstated during the millennium of Revelation 20?
5. How can the New Heaven and New Earth be a utopia when there is still sin therein (Isaiah 65:20; Revelation 21:8; 22:15)?
6. Is the New Jerusalem really to be taken literally, as a literal city sitting just above the earth, 1500 miles square, with one street, etc.? Isn’t the New Jerusalem better understood as the church, since it is described as having the twelve apostles as the foundation stones (Revelation 21:14) and is the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:2; ref. Matthew 22:1-14; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27)?

Here is a helpful video about the foundations of dispensationalism:

1. Gunn, Gover E. III, Dispensationalism Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow, pg. 120 ↩︎
2. Ibid, page 123. Observation: This sounds a lot like Jehovah’s Witness theology, which teaches that only the 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14 spend eternity in heaven, while other faithful spend eternity on earth. ↩︎