All Articles For The Millennium of Dispensationalism

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: April 15, 2008, p. 325. Central to dispensationalism is their distinction between Israel and the church. God is said to promise one thing to Israel, and another thing to the church. And He does this, they say, because He has one goal with Israel, and another goal with the church. Two different goals for two different groups of people who receive two different promises. This idea is at the heart of dispensationalism. By making this unbiblical distinction, they wrongly divide not only God’s...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: November 1, 2008, p. 61. Central to dispensationalism is the dispensationalists’ view of unfulfilled prophecy. They insist that many of God’s covenant promises made to Israel in the old dispensation have yet to be fulfilled. These promises, the dispensationalists argue, will not be fulfilled unless Christ returns to earth, sits on David’s throne, and reigns in Palestine over Israel for many years prior to the final judgment. In their view, if God’s covenant promises are literally true—and dispensationalists insist that they are—then such a carnal...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Previous article in this series: January 15, 2009, p. 176. Dispensationalists maintain that, prior to the final judgment, the Israelis must rule on earth for a thousand years. This millennial reign, they insist, must take place for the covenant promises made in the Old Testament to be fulfilled. In their mind, if there is no earthly millennium in the future, then God will be going back on His word. We often refute this idea by pointing out that God promised Abraham a heavenly land, not an earthly...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Chruch in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Previous article in this series: December 1, 2008, p. 110. Eschatology is all about God’s covenant promises. Wrong views of God’s covenant will manifest themselves in wrong views of eschatology. Dispensational eschatology is based on an erroneous view of God’s covenant, and specifically of the covenant promises made to God’s people in the old dispensation. As was pointed out last time, dispensationalists commonly refer to four covenants that they say are unconditional: The Abrahamic Covenant, the Palestinian Covenant¹, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant. Dispensationalists view...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: August 2008, p. 447. The articles so far in this series have been intended to provide a historical introduction to dispensationalism. The first few articles provided an overview of some of the current teachings of the movement, showing how dispensationalists capitalized on current events to promote their system, and pointing out some of the foolish ideas that man comes to when he takes dispensational theology to its logical conclusion. Now I have been turning the focus more toward the origin of dispensationalism, in...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: June 2008, p. 391. The first four articles in this series were to give an overview of certain aspects of dispensationalism, by summarizing what they predict is going to happen in the near future, demonstrating how they have capitalized on recent world events to promote their system, pointing out some of the folly to which dispensationalism ultimately leads, and showing how their central distinction between Israel and the church ends up effectively dividing the Scriptures into two different books to two different groups...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: March 15, 2008, p. 276. The seriousness of an error is manifested by the folly to which it leads. By considering where some dispensationalists are today, we begin to see more clearly how serious are the errors that underlie the movement. Therefore, before going through the dispensational system one aspect at a time, I thought it would be good to have one more overview article—this one looking specifically at the folly into which dispensationalists have been plunged by their erroneous views on the...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: February 15, 2008, p. 234. Of all the factors that have affected the rise of dispensationalism, one of the chief is the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. After years of predicting that this would happen, dispensationalists became euphoric when it did. In the mind of a dispensationalist, the establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 was proof to the world that dispensational eschatology is correct. Then about twenty years later, when the Israelis were victorious in battle, taking control of...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. With this article we move on to the subject of eschatology—the study of the last things. Lord willing, Rev. Key will be going through the subjects that are normally covered in this locus of theology, while I plan to do a more in-depth study of a few erroneous eschatological systems. This article marks the beginning of a series of articles on dispensational eschatology. Dispensationalism is an erroneous theological system that promotes the idea that Israel is the earthly people of God and the church is the heavenly people...

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Chruch in Walker, Michigan. Previous article in this series: September 1, 2008, p. 474. False teachers often take advantage of other false teachings to promote themselves. They start by pointing out what is unbiblical about what others are saying, and this prepares their listeners or readers to listen to them when they suggest their own theological system as an alternative. With this in mind we turn to consider some of the false teachings that were on the rise at the same time that dispensationalism became popular. More people began listening to the...