The Six Biggest Errors of Dispensationalism

1. CHURCH AGE. Dispensationalists would have us believe that the church age is but a parenthesis in history. In other words, the church age constituted an “interruption” in the fulfilment of the kingdom promises to Israel. This doctrine teaches that the gospel will ultimately fail and Christ will have to return to earth to set up a theocratic POLITICAL kingdom. “Jerusalem will be the center of a world government system, national Israel will be exalted, and the Gentile nations will be subordinated as Israel’s servants. This is the millennial situation as described by Dr. John F. Walvoord and Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost.” ¹ But, Christ and his gospel were not a side show. That idea is an abomination and an affront to our Lord Jesus Christ.
   
   The kingdom of Christ (that is, the new covenant/Christian age) is in effect now (Matthew 16:19; Colossians 1:13). Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords NOW (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16). And contrary to dispensationalism, his kingdom has NO END. There are numerous passages which prove that: 2 Samuel 7:13; 1 Chronicles 17:11-12; Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:26; Daniel 2:44; 4:3, 34; 7:14, 18, 27; Luke 1:31-33; Ephesians 3:21; Hebrews 1:1-12; 5:6; 6:20; 7:16-28; 2 Peter 1:11; Revelation 1:6; 5:13; 11:15. Furthermore, the New Covenant and the gospel are eternal (Hebrews 12:28; 13:20; Revelation 14:6) and has universal application (John 3:16; Romans 1:16; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 1:21; Titus 2:11; 1 John 4:14; Revelation 5:9; 7:9). And remember, Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, not a physical one (Luke 17:20-21; John 18:36).
   
2. DUALISM. John Hagee said: “Trying to convert Jews is a waste  of time. . . . Jews already have a covenant with God and that has never been replaced by Christianity.” ² Dispensationalists think that Israel is distinct from the church in both destiny and covenant―and that Israel will re-emerge as pre-eminent among nations. They will again be God’s people in a unique sense. But, this conception was obliterated with the teachings of Paul that all distinctions between Jew and Gentile have been broken down (Ephesians 3:6) by the gospel (Galatians 3:28-29). Acts 2:36-39 is clear that in the New Covenant the gospel is the same for both Jews and Gentiles through repentance and faith in Jesus (Acts 20:21-24; Romans 3:30). The New Testament declares that all of God’s covenant promises were fulfilled in Jesus (Luke 1:54-55, 69-75; 2 Corinthians 1:20), the ultimate offspring of Abraham (Matthew 1:1; Galatians 3:16).
   
   The promises to Israel were contingent on obedience (Deuteronomy 28), but she failed the test (Matthew 23:29-24:3) and had a finite end (Mathew 21:18-19; Romans 11:11-24; Hebrews 8:13; 10:8-10; etc.). The kingdom was taken from the Jews and given to another group, namely the church (Matthew 21:33-45)―melding a remnant of faithful, believing Jews with believers in Christ into a single body (Romans 9:27; 11:1-24; Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 2:13-16; Colossians 3:11, 15).  The new Israel of God is no longer fleshly, natural Israel, but rather are those who have faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13; 8:31-47; Romans 2:28-29; 9:6-8; Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29; 6:14-16; 1 Peter 2:4-10; etc.). The modern state of Israel is a secular state that has nothing to do with biblical Israel.
   
   What about the eternal state after the millennium, according to dispensationalists? Gunn said, “The New Testament church is God’s heavenly people and millennial Israel is God’s earthly people. According to Dr. C. I. Scofield and Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, leading dispensationalists in an earlier generation, 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 this dualism throughout eternity by eternally excluding Old Testament saints, tribulation saints, and millennial saints from the Body and Bride of Christ.” ³
   
3. MISUNDERSTANDING THE LAST DAYS/END TIMES. There are 19 specific mentions of the last days or end times in the New Testament. Without exception, the writers of the New Testament declared that THEY were living in the last days (Acts 2:14-21; 1 Corinthians 7:19-21; 10:11; Hebrews 1:1-2; 9:26; 1 Peter 1:20; 4:7; 1 John 2:18; etc.) Indeed, certain of these texts declare the soon CULMINATION of the last days (Hebrews 3:14; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 John 2:17-18). Thus, the last days/end times marked the end of the old covenant order, not the end of time or the end of the Christian Age. The year 1948 did not mark the beginning of the biblical last days!
   
4. LITERALISM. Thomas Ice declared, “In order to be a dispensationalist, one has to hold to a literal approach to interpreting the Bible.” ⁴ Just some questions: Does God literally have hands and arms (Psalm 89:13; Isaiah 41:10; 48:13; 49:16 Luke 22:69)? Should we literally hate our mother and father so that we can be Jesus’ disciple (Luke 14:26)? If your eye causes you to sin, should you literally pluck it out (Mark 9:47)? Is it necessary to literally eat Christ’s body in order to have life (John 6:53)? Did the mountains and the hills really break into song and the trees clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12)? When God judged Babylon according to Isaiah’s prophecy, an event fulfilled in actual history in 539 BC, did the stars and sun literally stop giving their light (Isaiah 13:10) and the heavens literally tremble (Isaiah 13:13)? When God judged Edom in 583 BC, did the sky literally roll up like a scroll (Isaiah 34:4)? Why do you insist on a literal earthly kingdom when Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36)? Is the New Jerusalem literally a future city 1400 miles square that will hover over the Middle East like a space ship? Geeze. Especially this literal millennial stuff, if it wasn’t being taught in Christian churches, it would be considered science fiction! We should interpret the Bible as the author intended. Sometimes this is literal; sometimes it is metaphoric.
   
5. FUTURIZING DANIEL’S 70 WEEKS. Here are things that cannot be found in the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27: the Antichrist, a covenant being made with the Jews by Antichrist (then broken), a gap of 2,000 years between the 69^th and 70^th weeks, a post AD 70 rebuilt temple. If these things are not found in Daniel 9, dispensationalism crumbles. Daniel 9:27 is clear that the prophecy ended with the “end to sacrifice and offering” and the Abomination of Desolation (which Jesus told his first-century followers they would witness per Matthew 24:15). These things happened in real time in AD 70 when the temple was destroyed (Matthew 24:2, 34).
   
6. READING PRESUPPOSITIONS INTO THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. The New Testament speaks not a word about there being a need to fulfill the land promises, about a new physical temple, circumcision, animal sacrifices, a literal future throne of David, or the antichrist making a covenant with anyone. And there is not a single verse in the New Testament to support a  pre-tribulation rapture.
   

Any one of these six points means the end of dispensationalism. It has failed on all six.

“The very idea of a God that planned and predicted the establishment of the kingdom, at a given time in history, and sent His Son to accomplish that, only to see him fail, is surely one of the most shameful theological concepts ever invented. . . . Are we supposed to believe that Jesus ‘did not envision’―the establishment of the church, even though he came to die to purchase it?” ⁵

“Dispensationalism is a theological house of cards. The main reason that it remains the eschatology of choice among fundamentalists is its sensationalism factor. With its parenthesis view of history and a return to the Old Covenant rites of circumcision and animal sacrifices, it is beyond me how anyone can claim that dispensationalism is orthodox Christianity.” ⁶

Recommended books:

Dispensationalism: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow by Crenshaw and Gunn

A Study of Dispensationalism and the Ninety-five Theses Against Dispensationalism by A. W. Pink

Prophecy and the Church by Oswald T. Allis

Here’s a helpful article Sevenfold Errors of Dispensationalism

This video series by Rev. James Gallagher is very well done: The True Israel of God

See also Prophecy Questions for Dispensationalists

1. Gunn, Grover E. III, Dispensationalism: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow, pg. 120. ↩︎
2. “Houston Chronicle” April 30, 1988, section 6, pg. 1 ↩︎
3. Gunn, Grover E. III, Dispensationalism: Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow, pg. 123. Observation: This sounds a lot like Jehovah’s Witness eschatology, which teaches that only the 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14 spend eternity in heaven, while other faithful spend eternity on earth. ↩︎
4. A Short History of Dispensationalism ↩︎
5. Preston, Don K., Seal Up Vision and Prophecy, pgs. 93, 96 ↩︎
6. DeMar, Gary, 10 Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered, pg. 102 ↩︎