An Old Hope and a Newer System
Every teaching Christians hold has a history: the people who studied it, stated it, argued over it, and passed it on. Dispensationalism is no exception. As an organized system it took shape in the nineteenth century, through John Nelson Darby and the Brethren, the Bible conferences, and the Scofield Reference Bible. But the hope it carries, and many of the convictions it gathers together, are far older.
A way of reading the whole Bible that interprets Scripture plainly, distinguishes God's program for Israel from His program for the church, sees history unfolding in successive stewardships, or dispensations, and holds that the glory of God is the goal of all His works. See What Is Dispensationalism?
Critics sometimes say dispensationalism is too new to be true. Friends sometimes answer that the first Christians after the apostles held the whole system. Neither claim is careful. This study tells the story as plainly as the sources allow, names what is uncertain, and then asks the only question that finally matters: does Scripture teach it?
If a teaching was first stated clearly in 1830, does that make it wrong? If it was first stated in AD 150, does that make it right?
The Bereans were called more noble because they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). They did not ask how old Paul's message was. They asked whether it was in the Book. History serves that search. It shows us how believers before us read the Bible, where they saw clearly, and where they went wrong.
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For Deeper Study
- DispensationalismAmazon Charles C. RyrieRyrie's revised and expanded form (2007) of *Dispensationalism Today* (1965), setting out the three essentials and answering the system's critics.
- Dispensationalism Before DarbyAmazon William C. WatsonA historian's study (2015) of dispensational ideas, including Israel's future and a gathering of the saints before the Tribulation, in English writers of the 1600s and 1700s.
- The Scofield Bible: Its History and Impact on the Evangelical ChurchAmazon R. Todd Mangum and Mark S. SweetnamA balanced history (2009) of Scofield's life and his study Bible's influence, written with both appreciation and criticism; Mangum writes from outside the dispensational camp.
- Dispensational TruthAmazon Clarence LarkinThe Baptist pastor's famous charts of God's plan of the ages (1918, enlarged 1920), still in print.
- Progressive DispensationalismAmazon Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. BockThe 1993 statement of the progressive view, which sees more continuity between the ages and holds that Christ's Davidic reign has begun. A different view from ours.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Is Dispensationalism?
Dispensationalism is a way of reading the whole Bible that takes God's words in their plain sense, sees Him ordering His household through distinct stewardships, keeps His program for Israel distinct from His program for the church, and trusts Him to keep every promise as He gave it.
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