When I was a teenager, an uncle of mine frequently called upon me whenever he needed help digging a footer for an addition to one of his rental houses. I always dreaded to hear his voice on the phone: “Donnie, I need you to come help me dig.” Of all the jobs I’ve ever done, I believe I hate digging the most. Yet, I learned from working with my uncle that you can’t build anything unless you dig first. 

 

We all get excited about new houses and buildings. Who doesn’t appreciate an architectural masterpiece like India’s Taj Mahal? Still, when it comes to shovels and digging, no one gets excited. We all prefer to keep our hands unsoiled and dirt out from under our fingernails. But without some sweat on someone’s brow and a shovel in someone’s hand there would be no houses, buildings or Taj Mahal. 

 

To build a study of prophecy, we must begin by digging. In this edition of Time4Truth magazine, we’ll roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. It is only by doing this dirty work first that we will be able to lay a solid foundation for all that follows. Each term discussed in this issue will serve as a block in the bedrock of what we hope will eventually prove to be a scripturally sound understanding of prophecy. 

 

Prophecy 

Obviously, the first term one needs to define in a study of prophecy is the term prophecy itself. As we have already noted in a previous issue, prophecy may be defined as history prewritten. The word “prophecy” literally means “to speak forth.”  The biblical prophets were both forth-tellers and foretellers. They were forth-tellers in that they spoke forth God’s message to the people of their own day. They were foretellers in that they also predicted the future for those who would live in latter days. Prophecy may therefore be defined as prewritten history past down to us by the biblical prophets who spoke forth the Word of God under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). 

 

Dual Prophecy 

While you may not be familiar with the term “dual prophecy,” a proper understanding of it is imperative to all who take up the study of prophecy itself. Any ignorance over this important term will prove to be a serious impediment to any investigation of Bible prophecy. 

 

A dual prophecy is a prophecy that has both an imminent and an ultimate fulfillment. At the time it was prophesied by a biblical prophet, it had an imminent fulfillment in the near future. At the same time, however, it had an additional and ultimate fulfillment in the distant future. Whereas the imminent fulfillment of a dual prophecy may have been literal and physical, the ultimate fulfillment of a dual prophecy may prove to be symbolic and spiritual.

 

In order to illustrate a dual prophecy, I propose that we set sail from the dock for a short excursion into the study of prophecy itself. Now, we’re not going to be gone very long; in fact, we’ll be right back, since we’ve much preparatory work to do before attempting to navigate the vast sea of scriptural prophecy. Still, this quick excursion will illustrate a couple of important things. It will provide you with an excellent example of a dual prophecy, as well as illustrate for you the difficulties with which the study of prophecy is 

fraught.

 

An Example of a Dual Prophecy: The Prophet Joel’s Predicted Plague of Locus 

Although tradition suggests that Joel was one of the earliest prophets of Judah, possibly prophesying during the reign of Joash (830 BC) or the reign of Uzziah (750 BC), the date of his prophecy is uncertain. Suggested dates for the book range widely from a time shortly after 836 BC to an untenable time subsequent to the Babylonian Captivity, sometime around 500 BC. 

 

Since we’re unsure of the actual date of Joel’s prophecy, we’re unsure of when his predicted plague of locusts took place. Some have suggested that it was actually occurring while Joel prophesied; in which case, Joel was not predicting what was about to happen, but merely describing what was happening (Joel 1:1-12). In any event, the occurring or ominous plague of literal locusts was but a foreshadowing of a far greater judgment soon to befall the people of Judah if they continued to be unrepentant in their rebellion against God (Joel 1:14-15). 

 

Unlike the literal locusts Joel speaks of in chapter one, the locust of Joel 2:1-11 appear to be symbolic, representing an invading enemy army. In the Old Testament, God often used enemy armies as an instrument of judgment against His unrepentant people. If Judah failed to repent and return to God, Joel predicted that a far worse fate than a mere plague of locusts would eventually befall the nation in the coming “day of the Lord” (Joel 2:12-17).

 

Joel’s prophecy of an invading enemy army was partially fulfilled when the Assyrian army, which destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, invaded the Southern Kingdom of Judah shortly thereafter. Were it not for King Hezekiah’s petitioning of Heaven for deliverance from the threatening Assyrian foe and Heaven’s intervening response, which resulted in the angel of the Lord striking dead 185,000 sleeping Assyrian solders in a single night, Judah, like Israel, would have fallen to the invading Assyrians (see: 2 Kings 18-19; 2 Chronicles 32:1-23; Isaiah 36-37).

 

Despite God’s miraculous deliverance of Judah from Assyria, Judah soon forgot about God’s intervention on their behalf and forsook Him by returning to their idolatrous ways. As a consequence, the prophecy of Joel was finally fulfilled when the Babylonians invaded Judah and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BC. 

 

Although one would think that Joel’s prophecy had definitely run its course with its initial fulfillment by a literal plague of locusts, its partial fulfillment by the invading Assyrian army and its final fulfillment by the invading Babylonians, the Scripture signals that there yet remains a further future fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy in the final “day of the Lord”—God’s ultimate judgment upon this Christ rejecting world. According to Revelation 9:1-11, a passage containing glaring similarities to Joel’s ancient prophecy that are anything but coincidental, the consummate fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy will not be an invading army of locusts, Assyrians or Babylonians upon an unrepentant Judah. Instead, it will be an unprecedented demonic invasion upon an unrepentant world. 

 

This multilayered prophecy of the ancient prophet Joel serves as an excellent example of a dual prophecy. It has both imminent and ultimate fulfillments. It is fulfilled literally (locusts), symbolically (Assyrians and Babylonians), and spiritually (demonic entities released from the Abyss who are ruled over by Abaddon). Only by understanding the diverse applications of this dual prophecy can one hope to rightly divide Joel’s ancient predictions and arrive at pertinent present-day truths. To mistakenly conclude that Joel’s prophecy spoke exclusively of an imminent and literal invasion of locusts upon yesterday’s unrepentant Judah, would result in us missing the prophecy’s true spiritual relevance for us today; namely, its dire warning of an ultimate and unprecedented demonic invasion upon the whole earth at the end of time. 

 

The Day of the Lord 

I’ve always found it interesting that many of the prevalent terms employed by today’s prophecy wonks are either not found in the Bible at all or appear only once or twice in all of Scripture. On the other hand, a term like the “day of the Lord,” which is strewn throughout the pages of sacred Scripture, is seldom mentioned or penned by prophecy’s most popular present-day pundits. One cannot help but ask the question: “Why?” After all, shouldn’t the study of prophecy be centered around what the Bible actually says and not around terms that are foreign to the Scripture or scarcely found within it? This is not to say that terms concocted and made fashionable by men in their continual commentary on Bible prophecy can never prove to be constructive. It is to say, however, that such man-made terms should never be substituted for or given supremacy over biblical terms themselves, especially those found most frequently in the Scriptures. 

 

When the Bible speaks of “the day of the Lord,” as it often does, it is talking about a day of approaching judgment. It is normally speaking of an impending judgment of a particular people at a particular time that points to the ultimate judgment of all people at the end of time. Thus, all “days of the Lord” are a foreshadowing of Christ’s climatic and cataclysmic judgment upon the whole earth at His Second Coming, which will prove to be the consummate “day of the Lord.”

 

Although every reference in the Bible to the “day of the Lord” is not speaking specifically of Christ’s Second Coming, each reference does serve as a harbinger of it. While a particular reference may be speaking of a past judgment of God on a particular people, it also serves as a foreshadowing of the catastrophic judgment awaiting this Christ rejecting world when Christ returns to pour out His wrath upon it in great power and glory (Revelation 6:12-17). 

 

Eschatology 

Eschatology is just a big word that simply means the study of last things or the end times. To study prophecy is to study eschatology.

 

The End Times 

If eschatology is the study of the end times, then how should we define the end times? To many people today, the end times are comprised of a short span of time that occurs just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. To them, the end times are the very last days of the last days. To the authors of the New Testament, however, the end times commenced with the First Advent of Christ (the Incarnation) and will continue until consummated at the Second Advent of Christ (the Second Coming). Thus, everyone living between the two Advents of Christ, including you and me, are living in the end times.

 

The Three Major Interpretive Views of Eschatology 

In the summer edition of this magazine, we dealt with the important issue of whether Bible prophecy should be interpreted literally or figuratively. As we pointed out at that time, there is probably no more determinative factor in your understanding of prophecy than whether you interpret it literally or figuratively. 

 

In this issue, however, we’re not dealing with how to interpret the prophetic Scriptures, but with the three major interpretive views of eschatology. Now, there may be a thousand and one different schools of eschatology within these three major interpretive views, but there are only three major interpretive views of eschatology. Rather than getting into all of the different schools found within each major interpretive view, which would undoubtedly leave us as confused as drunken cowboys in a cattle stampede, we will limit ourselves at this point to a discussion of the three major interpretive views. 

 

A little later in this issue, we’ll take up and elaborate upon today’s three most prominent schools of eschatology. In doing so, we’ll avoid like the plague the plethora of other schools, lest this magazine become thicker than the New York phone directory and you, the reader, drowned in a bottomless sea of endless theories and speculations. 

 

1. Preterist 

The first of the three major interpretive views of eschatology is called preterism. The word “preterist” means “past in fulfillment.” Preterists are people who interpret Bible prophecy to be past in fulfillment. For instance, the preterist interprets the prophecies of the Book of Revelation as having been fulfilled in the early years of the church, a period which culminated in Titus the Roman’s destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

 

Since John the Revelator could not have possibly been predicting what had previously happened, the preterist argues against the traditional dating of the Book of Revelation (95/96 AD) and for a much earlier date (68/69 AD). Preterism’s viability as a tenable interpretive view of eschatology is therefore wholly dependent upon an earlier dating of the Apostle John’s penning of the Apocalypse.

  

2. Historicist 

The second of the three major interpretive views of eschatology is called historicism. The historicist is someone who interprets Bible prophecy as being fulfilled throughout history. Some prophecy has been fulfilled in the past; some is now being fulfilled in the present; and some awaits fulfillment in the future.

 

3. Futurist 

The final major interpretive view of eschatology is called futurism. The futurist is someone who interprets Bible prophecy as awaiting fulfillment in the future. According to the futurist, all prophecies relating to the “last days,” such as those found in the books of Daniel and Revelation, will be fulfilled in a short period of time prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

 

Millennium 

Since it forms the centerpiece of today’s three most prominent schools of eschatology, not to mention the fact that all three also derive their names from it, the term “millennium” is one of major importance to all contemporary students of Bible prophecy. Though the term is placed on the loftiest of pedestals by present-day prophecy pundits, it is a term not found on the pages of sacred Scripture. 

 

The word “millennium” comes from two Latin words. The first, “mille,” means “thousand,” and the second, “annus,” means “years.” Thus, the word “millennium” literally means “a thousand years” or “a thousand year period.”

 

In eschatology, the word “millennium” refers to Christ’s biblically predicted thousand year reign upon the earth. Although it may come as quite a surprise, this prediction of a specific “thousand year” reign of Christ upon the earth occurs only once in all of Scripture. In this one instance, Revelation 20:1-10, the phrase “thousand years” appears six times in ten verses.

 

Granted, it may be easily and evidently argued that the Bible is riddled with references to Christ’s millennial reign upon the earth. While Revelation 20:1-10 may be the only specific reference to a “thousand years,” there are obviously other references within Scripture that become inexplicable if applied to anything other than Christ’s millennial reign upon the earth; such as those that speak of paradisiacal conditions on earth (Isaiah 2:1-5; 11:1-10; 35:1-10; 65:17-25), of the kingdom being restored to Israel (Acts 1:6-7; 3:19-21), and of Christians reigning with Christ upon the earth (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 5:9-10).

 

The Three Major Schools of Eschatology 

Just as there are three major interpretive views of eschatology, there are also three major schools of eschatology. Now, as we’ve already alluded, there is a plethora of schools, theories and speculations on how the biblically predicted end-times will unfold. To attempt a thorough examination of all of these would result in a volume too heavy to lift, in a manuscript being perpetually penned, due to the incessant spawning of new schools of thought, and in further confusion over Bible prophecy, rather than any clarification of it. Thus, we will carefully keep the lid on this Pandora’s Box by restraining ourselves at this point from delving into anything other than today’s three most popular schools of eschatology.

 

1. Amillennialism 

The word “amillennial” literally means “no-millennium.” However, this title misrepresents both amillennialism and amillennialists, since amillennialists do not believe that there is no millennium. They only believe that the millennium is to be interpreted figuratively or symbolically, rather than literally.

 

An important distinguishing distinctive of amillennialism is its insistence that there is no trenchant differentiation between Israel and the church. Amillennialists see the promises made to national Israel in the Old Testament as figurative promises to the “New Israel”—the church—in the New Testament.

 

To the amillennialists, the millennium is actually occurring right now. It is to be figuratively understood as the Church Age, a time within which the reign of Christ is to be found in the hearts of Christians. The millennium is not to be understood as a literal thousand year period, but to be understood symbolically as the period between Christ’s First and Second Advents, a period which will conclude with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory.

 

According to amillennialists, when Christ returns there will be a general resurrection of the dead and a final judgment of all mankind. All who have received Christ will be assigned to eternal bliss and all who have rejected Him to eternal punishment. Afterward, the earth will be destroyed by fire and new heavens and a new earth will be created within which righteousness alone will dwell.

 

Although there is much more to amillennialism, this is amillennialism in a nutshell. As a major school of eschatology, I find that it has much to commend it. I believe it does work some of the prophetic puzzle. Yet, its strained interpretations of some prophetic passages simply can’t be forced into the prophetic puzzle where amillennialists try to fit them. For this reason, I’m not an amillennialist, despite the fact that I agree with amillennialists on several important points.

   

2. Postmillennialism 

The word “postmillennialism” literally means “after the millennium.” Postmillennialism teaches that Christ will come back after the millennium. The Postmillennialist believes that the church will actually convert the whole world, Christianize the whole planet, and conquer the whole earth through its faithful and Spirit-anointed preaching of the Gospel. By doing so, the church will usher in the millennium, which the postmillennialist defines as a Golden Age of Christianity. After the millennium, Jesus will come back to a world that is prepared not only for His coming, but also for His coronation. 

 

Of the three major schools of eschatology, I believe this one has the least to commend it. Never mind that the world is getting worse and worse rather than better and better, and that the church’s influence in the world is rapidly diminishing rather than ever-increasing, there is simply nothing in the Scripture that even hints at such an end-time scenario as the one painted for us by postmillennialists. Still, postmillennialism survives today as a major school of eschatology thanks to the social gospel being promoted by liberals in mainline denominations and to other postmillennial proponents, particularly those found in Charismatics circles who have both resuscitated and relabeled postmillennialism as Dominionism, Reconstructionism, and the “Kingdom Now” Movement.

 

3. Premillennialism 

The word “premillennial” literally means “before the millennium.” Premillennialism teaches that Christ will return before the millennium and personally inaugurate His millennial kingdom. While there are multiple schools of premillennialism today, some of which are relatively new and highly questionable, the premillennial view of Christ’s Second Coming was undoubtedly the view of the early church. It is also the only modern-day millennial view that dates back to Apostolic Times.

 

Although there are many different types of premillennialists, all premillennialists fall into one of two camps. They are either historicists or futurists, none are preterists. The premillennial historicist believes that prophecy, even that pertaining to the last days and end times, is being fulfilled throughout history. Some prophecy was fulfilled at Christ’s First Advent. Some is being fulfilled now, between the two Advents of Christ. And all will finally be fulfilled at the Second Advent of Christ.

 

As far as we can tell, the premillennial historicist’s view of Bible prophecy appears to have been the commonly held view in the early church. It is also the only contemporary view of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ that is traceable back to the Apostolic Age. This, is of no little significance! If the commonly held view of Christ’s Second Coming among the divinely inspired authors of the New Testament, their contemporaries and the church of the first century was premillennial historicism, then, this alone lends great credence to this particular view of eschatology.

 

Unlike the premillennial historicist, the premillennial futurist believes that all prophecy relating to the last days or end times awaits fulfillment in the future. They believe it will be fulfilled in a very short span of time just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This futurist view of prophecy is relatively new. In fact, its history can be traced back no further than the first half of the nineteenth century. Before the year 1830, premillennial futurism was literally unknown and unheard of in all of the annals of Christian history.

 

Just as all premillennialists fall into one of two camps—historicists or futurists—all premillennial futurists fall into one of four camps. They are either pretribulationists, midtribulationists, posttribulationists, or pre-wrath tribulationists. In order to understand these terms and their respective camps we must familiarize ourselves with two other important terms.    

 

The Tribulation 

In the vernacular of premillennial futurism, “the Tribulation” is a seven-year period of unprecedented tribulation immediately preceding Christ’s return to the earth to establish His millennial kingdom. Although the Bible unquestionably speaks of “tribulation” and even of “great tribulation” prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, nowhere does it specify a seven-year period as “the Tribulation” or the last three and a half years of that seven-year period as “the Great Tribulation.” 

 

As any serious student of the Bible knows, the number seven has great significance in the Scripture. Therefore, Scripture’s failure to specify anywhere on its sacred pages a seven-year period as “the Tribulation” should create serious questions about this major proponent of premillennial futurists’ end-time scenario. Not even the Book of Revelation, which is a book of sevens, mentions a seven-year period. It mentions seven Spirits (1:4), seven churches (1:11), seven golden candlesticks (1:12), seven stars (1:16), seven seals (5:1), seven horns (5:6), seven eyes (5:6), seven angels (8:2), seven trumpets (8:2), seven thunders (10:3), seven thousand slain (11:13), seven heads (12: 3; 13:1; 17:3), seven crowns (12:3), seven plagues (15:1), seven bowls (15:7), seven mountains (17:9), and even seven kings (17:10). Yet, it never mentions seven years.

 

In light of this, one cannot help but ask what biblical basis premillennial futurists have for their supposed seven-year tribulation period. The answer is one solitary passage of Scripture; namely, Daniel’s incredible prophecy of the Seventy Weeks (Daniel 9:24-27). Without this one passage and their peculiar interpretation of it, premillennial futurists have no Scriptural peg to hang their “tribulational” hat on. In a coming issue of Time4Truth Magazine, we’ll take up this incredible prophecy, refute the premillennial futurist’s interpretation of it, and watch as their seven-year “Tribulation” falls to the floor of unscriptural supposition.

 

The Rapture 

According to premillennial futurism, the Rapture is the secret return of Christ to snatch His church out of the world. The word “rapture” does not appear anywhere in the Bible. It comes from the Latin Vulgate. The Vulgate was a fifth century translation of the Bible into Latin by Jerome. It served as the main Bible of the Latin speaking medieval Western Church until the time of the Reformation. In the Vulgate, the Greek word for “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is translated into the Latin word “rapere.” It is from this Latin word that we get our English word “rapture.”

 

Whereas all Bible-believing Christians—there is no other kind of Christian than a Bible-believing one—believe in the “catching up” of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, there is much disagreement among Christians as to the timing of this event. All Christians should be able to honestly agree, however, that before the nineteenth century, in particularly before the year 1830, all premillennial views of our Lord’s return had 

two things in common.

 

First, the “catching up” or “rapture” of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 was not held to be distinct from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Instead, it was viewed synonymously with Christ’s Second Coming. 

 

Prior to 1830, the Second Coming was seen by every saint as a single event. There was no belief in a two-staged Second Coming. No one believed in a secret coming of Christ to snatch His saints out of the world and then a later visible coming of Christ with His saints to judge the world. The contemporary distinctions made between the “Rapture” and the “Revelation” of Christ or between Christ’s “Epiphany” and His “Parousia” were absolutely unheard of. No such distinctions had ever been made.

  

Second, prior to 1830, all premillennialists believed that the Second Coming of Christ and our being “caught up” to Him in the air would take place after the biblically predicted tribulation of the last days. This biblically predicted tribulation was understood, not as a specific seven year period, but simply as a time of unprecedented troubles divinely predestined to befall our world before the end of the age.

 

Pretribulationism  

Now that we understand what premillennial futurists believe about “the Tribulation” and “the Rapture,” we can define and explain each of the four camps of premillennial futurism. The first is pretribulationism. The pretribulationist believes that Christ will rapture His church before the seven-year tribulation period begins, sparing His saints from suffering any end-time trouble. 

 

Midtribulationism 

The second camp of premillennial futurists is midtribulationism. The midtribulationist believes that Christ will rapture His church in the middle of the seven-year tribulation period, sparing His saints from the “Great Tribulation,” which is the last three and a half years of the seven years and the most perilous part of the tribulation period.

 

Pre-wrath Tribulationism 

The third camp of premillennial futurists is pre-wrath tribulationism. The pre-wrath tribulationist believes that Christ will rapture His church just before the end of the seven-year tribulation period, sparing the saints from the wrath of God that will be poured out on a Christ-rejecting world. This belief is in accordance with the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:9: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Posttribulationism 

The fourth and final camp of premillennial futurists is posttribulationism. The posttribulationist believes that Christ will rapture the church after the seven-year tribulation period, not sparing His saints from any of the end-time tribulation.

 

Dispensationalism 

Before concluding this article, we need to define two other important terms in the modern-day debate on eschatology. The first is “dispensationalism” and the second is “premillennial dispensationalism.” Both of these terms are associated with today’s most popular school of eschatology, a school of premillennial futurists’ from the pretribulationists’ camp that is so popular with evangelicals that many evangelicals 

now equate it with doctrinal orthodoxy. In other words, any disagreement with this widely accepted school of eschatology is paramount in the minds of many evangelicals to heresy on the part of all dissenters.

 

Dispensationalism is the belief that history should be divided into separate dispensations or ages. In each dispensation, man is tested by God as to his obedience to God’s revealed will for that particular period of time. According to dispensationalism, there are at least seven dispensations: 

 

(1) THE AGE OF INNOCENCE – Creation to the Fall 

(2) THE AGE OF CONSCIENCE – The Fall to the Flood 

(3) THE AGE OF GOVERNMENT – Noah to Abraham 

(4) THE AGE OF PROMISE OR PATRIARCHS – Abraham to Moses 

(5) THE AGE OF LAW – Moses to Jesus 

(6) THE AGE OF GRACE OR THE CHURCH AGE – The Incarnation to the Second Coming 

(7) THE KINGDOM OR MILLENNIAL AGE – The Millennial Reign of Christ, which commences at Christ’s Second Coming. 

 

Adherence to dispensationalism necessitates a “rightly divided” interpretation of God’s Word. All Scripture must be exclusively applied to its dispensation alone. In the dispensationalist’s mind, some Scripture speaks exclusively to one age, other Scripture speaks exclusively to other ages, and no Scripture speaks to all ages. Thus, what God says to Israel has no application to the church and what God says to the 

church has no application to Israel. The twain shall never meet; if they should, dispensationalism would be blown to smithereens.

 

This Israel/church dichotomy is of paramount importance to dispensationalists, not to mention the most important brick in the foundation of today’s most popular school of eschatology—premillennial dispensationalism. To the premillennial dispensationalist, God’s plans for Israel (His earthly people) and the church (His heavenly people) are totally different and must be kept separate at all times. In addition, these separate plans can never operate concurrently upon the earth, since an eternal God limits Himself to working in only one dispensation at a time.

 

It is easy to understand from the above why all classical premillennial dispensationalists are pretribulationists. They believe that God cannot turn back to His plan for Israel until the church is removed from the world, bringing to an end this current dispensation—the Church Age. Only then can God fulfill His literal promises to the physical descendants of Abraham. If the premillennial dispensationalist cannot keep God’s plans for the church and Israel separate from one another at all times, then the rug is pulled out from under his futurist feet and dispensationalism’s house of cards comes crashing down.

 

Premillennial Dispensationalism  

Premillennial dispensationalism is undoubtedly the most popular school of eschatology in the world today. Many of today’ s most popular preachers and Christian authors are premillennial dispensationalists. As stated above, this widely accepted view of the end-times is equated with doctrinal orthodoxy in many evangelical circles. In other words, to disagree with premillennial dispensationalists is to run the risk of being accused of heresy, a potentially ruinous accusation that has a very chilling effect on all honest debate.

 

Premillennial dispensationalism is the belief that God’s New Covenant with the church—His heavenly people—is a mere parenthesis or footnote in His ultimate plan to fulfill His Old Covenant promises to Israel—His chosen and earthly people. This belief exalts Jewry so much in the minds of premillennial dispensationalists that many of them equate any disagreement with them over God’s favoring of the Jewish people over all other people as anti-Semitism. In spite of the fact that the Apostle Peter plainly declared in the Gentile home of Cornelius, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), premillennial dispensationalists insist that God is a respecter of persons, making such a huge distinction between Jews and Gentiles that His plan for the former is primary and for the latter only secondary.

 

To illustrate the inordinately high pedestal that premillennial dispensationalists have erected for the exaltation of the Jewish people, permit me to share a couple of quotes from one of their foremost proponents. In a 2006 newsletter, Dave Hunt, a prolific author and popular premillennial dispensationalist apologist, wrote, “Unquestionably, Israel is the major subject of God’s Holy Word.” I find Hunt’s statement to be far from unquestionable; in fact, I find it to be indefensible, especially in light of the fact that Jesus plainly declared Himself to be the major subject of God’s Holy Word. In John 5:39, Christ clearly states, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” The whole purpose of the Scripture is to testify of Christ, so that all men, both Jews and Gentiles, will come to Him. 

 

In Hunt’s August 2006 newsletter, he went so far as to suggest that Christ “is coming in power and glory to punish the world for its abuse of His people Israel.” I thought Christ was coming back to judge the world for its rejection of Him. Isn’t our eternal destinies determined by what we do with Jesus, rather than by how we treat Jewish people? Don’t get me wrong, the mistreatment of Jewish people, just like the mistreatment of any people, is an inexcusable crime against God and humanity. Like all forms of racism and fascism, anti-Semitism is equally deplorable. Nevertheless, it is not the reason for God’s impending judgment upon our world. It is our world’s rejection of Jesus Christ alone that has put us in the crosshairs of divine retribution.

 

Sometime ago, my administrative assistant shared an email with me from a retired Baptist minister. Although I was unfamiliar with the man, I was able to easily discern that he was a member of the premillennial dispensationalist’s camp. In his email, he alleged the “primary reason the United States has been so blessed by God is that it has been a safe haven for God’s people, the Jews.” He went on to add, “That’s about the only thing left that stays God’s wrath from coming big time on [our] country.” Now, I don’t know about you, but to suggest that a nation’s treatment of Jewish people, regardless of how it treats other people, is the determining factor in whether it is blessed by God or judged by God is way over the top to me.

 

No one who believes the Bible can deny that Israel plays a special role in God’s plans and purposes. Furthermore, as Paul indicates in Romans 9-11, Israel’s role in God’s plan is not yet played out. Still, in spite of the undeniable importance of Israel in the plans and purposes of God, there is no justification for the preferential status and inflated importance that premillennial dispensationalists assign to the Jewish people in the divine program. 

 

God has a special plan for your life and mine, but this doesn’t mean that he favors you and me over other people. Neither does it mean that our need of Christ is any less than anyone else’s or that God sees our standing in Christ as superior to any other Christians. Likewise, God’s special plan for the Jews should not be misinterpreted into some kind of divine discrimination against Gentiles. Neither should we erroneously 

conclude that Jewish people somehow need Christ less than others or that Jewish Christians are somehow given a superior standing in Christ.

 

Along with condemning everyone as being anti-Semitic who disagrees with them over God’s preferential treatment of the Jews, many premillennial dispensationalists also condemn everyone as being a heretic who refuses to elevate Old Testament shadows over New Testament substance. Despite the fact that the Book of Hebrews teaches that the New Covenant is a “better covenant” with “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6), premillennial dispensationalists insist that the Old Covenant with its inferior promises actually takes precedence over the New. In fact, many suggest that God just threw in the church and the New Covenant until the time comes for Him to turn back to Israel and the Old Covenant.

 

This explains the premillennial dispensationalist’s preoccupation with: 

 

(1) National Israel, instead of the church, which Paul calls “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) 

(2) The naturally born physical seed of Abraham, instead of the supernaturally born spiritual seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:29) 

(3) Middle Eastern real estate, instead of a “better” and “heavenly” country (Hebrews 11:16) 

(4) The earthly city of Jerusalem, instead of the “heavenly Jerusalem,” a city “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10, 12:22) 

(5) A rebuilt Jewish temple, instead of the church, which is the “holy temple” and “spiritual habitation” of God in the world today (Ephesians 2:19-22) 

(6) Reestablished animal sacrifices, instead of the once and for all sacrifice of Christ upon the cross of Calvary, which has done away with all other sacrifices for sin (Hebrews 10:10, 26) 

(7) A reinstituted Levitical priesthood comprised of Levites alone, instead of the “royal priesthood” comprised of all believers in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9). 

(8) And, whether Jews or Gentiles are governing Palestine, instead of whether Jews and Gentiles are going to Heaven!

 

As the above clearly illustrates, premillennial dispensationalism does great violence to the progression of Bible prophecy. Instead of going from the shadows of the Old Testament’s types-of-Christ to the substance of Christ Himself in the New Testament, and then from the New Testament substance to the spiritual realities that are ours in Christ today, premillennial dispensationalism teaches that the ultimate fulfillment of Bible prophecy is found in a return to Old Testament types and shadows. Such a hypothesis flies in the face of Scripture and shifts the divine text into reverse. It is tantamount to telling someone with an earned PhD that a repeat of preschool will prove to be their ultimate educational experience.

 

Other glowing problems with this widely accepted modern-day school of eschatology will be enumerated in future issues of this magazine. Permit me at this point, however, to conclude this present issue with a simple timetable of how premillennial dispensationalists paint up the playing out of the end times. 

 

Premillennial Dispensationalist's Timetable:

 

(1)   THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES – The Church Age – (Luke 21:24) 

(2)   THE RAPTURE – The First Part of the Second Coming of Christ – (1Thessalonians 4:17) 

(3) THE TRIBULATION – The Seventieth Week of Daniel – (Daniel 9:24-27) 

(4) THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION – The Antichrist’s Desecration of a Rebuilt Jewish Temple – (Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14) 

(5)   THE GREAT TRIBULATION – The Last Three and a Half Years of the Seven Year Tribulation Period – (Matthew 24:21) 

(6)   THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON – The Gathering Together of the World’s Forces Against God and His Anointed – (Revelation 16:16) 

(7)  THE REVELATION – The Second Part of the Second Coming of Christ – (Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26) 

(8)   THE BEAST AND THE FALSE PROPHET THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE – (Revelation 19:20) 

(9)   THE MILLENNIUM – Satan Bound – (Revelation 20:1-6) 

(10) GOG AND MAGOG – Satan Loosed – (Revelation 20:7-9) 

(11) SATAN THROWN INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE – (Revelation 20:10) 

(12) THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT – The Judgment of the Lost –  (Revelation 20:11-15) 

(13) THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH – The Eternal State – (Revelation 21:1-5)