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Why Read About Dispensationalism?

Why read a book on Dispensationalism? I recommend that you read these books so that you know what you are arguing about or against, even if you don't agree. Also you can avoid asking rhetorical questions as if the reader had never thought of them. And you can avoid talking past dispensationalists.

Dispensational interpretation is a necessary hermeneutic which is almost universally accepted by Biblicists, even if they don't like the term or don't agree with its application by "Dispensationalists." This principle has been around a lot longer than 200 years. The basic principle is accepting the fact that some scripture is not of universal application, but applies only to some certain persons or periods of time. For example, Adam was told to be a gardener and Noah to build an ark. That does not mean that you or I should do the same. Israel was told to offer animal sacrifices, but this is not applicable to the Church. There was a time when Israelites could not be clean after touching a dead body unless they had a ceremony that used the ashes of a Red Hefer. Would you apply that to yourself?

The Lord Jesus used the dispensational principle shortly before His death in Luke 22 in the CONTEXT of his directive that persons were to buy a sword:

{22:35}
And he said unto them, When I sent you forth without purse, and wallet,
and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. {22:36} And he
said unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and
likewise a wallet; and he that hath none, let him sell his cloak, and
buy a sword. {22:37} For I say unto you, that this which is written
must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with transgressors: for
that which concerneth me hath fulfilment. {22:38} And they said, Lord,
behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.


Paul uses the dispensational principle in Galatians when he contrasts the believer's situation under the Law with the current status in the Church:
{4:1} But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth
nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; {4:2} but is under
guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. {4:3} So
we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the
rudiments of the world: {4:4} but when the fulness of the time came,
God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, {4:5} that
he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons. {4:6} And because ye are sons, God sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. {4:7} So that
thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir
through God.


Also specifically in Romans 9-11 he uses a dispensational principle in considering the future of Israel.

The disagreement between Christians is really not over the dispensational principle of interpretation, but where to apply it. Specifically there is a difference in opinion among Christians over whether or not the Christian is obligated to follow the Law of Moses. Some want to say that the Christian is not and never was under the Law of Moses; others claim that there is a ceremonial law vs. a moral law, and that the Christian is not under the former but under the latter.

Also, there is a disagreement between Christians over the extent to which the teaching of the Lord Jesus on earth before His death is applicable to the Christian in the age after Pentecost.

But the basic dispensational principle is generally used by most Christians. Some want the Church to observe the Sabbath, ever the 7th Day, never the 1st in the Bible. Some want the Church to even observe the Feast of Israel. I don't know any that want to observe the sabbatical year, however. There could be some somewhere. If one rejects the practice of these ancient practices, he must resort to dispensational interpretation.

The frequency of occurrence of the English word "dispensation" is also not an issue. No English words occur in the Bible, since it actually exists in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. "Trinity" is not found in scripture either, though the concept is.

If you seriously want to interact with this topic with your brethren who disagree with you, again, I recommend the short bibliography. Take the time to examine the content of the theory before you argue against it.