irc.christian-chat.net
#Zola_Levitt_Ministries
04/11/2001 9:11 PM CT



9:11 PM:      Philo: we will be teaching tonight on dispensationalism
9:11 PM:      Philo: I hope to be able to bring a 3 or more part series
9:11 PM:      Philo: but tonight we are just in overview.
9:11 PM:      Philo: questions should be written down
9:12 PM:      Philo: and discussed after the teaching. Here we go....

9:12 PM:      Philo: A STUDY OF DISPENSATIONALISM
9:13 PM:      Philo: 1. Definition: Dispensationalism is a system of prophetic theology.
9:13 PM:      Philo: 2. Dispensationalists are usually those who believe in the pre-tribulational rapture of the church.
9:13 PM:      Philo: 3. Dispensationalists emphasis the teaching of prophecy and the imminent,
9:14 PM:      Philo: at any moment, return of Christ in the air to secretly catch away his bride
9:14 PM:      Philo: in fulfillment of the Jewish wedding analogy.
9:14 PM:      Philo: Many ministries who hold dispensational beliefs also emphasize the "soon" return of Christ.
9:14 PM:      Philo: They believe that the generation that has seen the restoration of the nation
9:14 PM:      Philo: Israel to the land is the last generation before the return of Christ.
9:15 PM:      Philo: Of course the trick then is to determine the starting date for the last generation. Note: we are not given such a date in the Bible. So to pick 1948 as the year seems somewhat arbitrary.
9:15 PM:      Philo: These added beliefs, however, are not a part of dispensational teaching.
9:15 PM:      Philo: In fact serious dispensational scholars reject all forms of date setting.
9:15 PM:      Philo: They believe that Christ can return at any moment to catch away His church
9:15 PM:      Philo: made up of every individual who has been "born from above"
9:16 PM:      Philo: and has been placed into the invisible body of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
9:16 PM:      Philo: 4. The main points of dispensationalism (1) are:
9:16 PM:      Philo: 1A. A consistently literal principle of interpretation -- particularly of Bible prophecy.
9:17 PM:      Philo: 2A. The recognition of a distinction between Israel and the Church.
9:17 PM:      Philo: 3A. A basic working and conception of the purpose of God as His
9:17 PM:      Philo: own glory rather than as the single purpose of salvation
9:17 PM:      Philo: 5. Some of the beliefs that are derived from these principles:
9:18 PM:      Philo: 1A. The O.T. prophecies of the restoration of national Israel to the land in the last days will be literally fulfilled.
9:18 PM:      Philo: 2A. The millennial kingdom mentioned in Revelation will be literally fulfilled at Christ's return
9:18 PM:      Philo: after which Christ will reign on the earth for 1000 years. (Pre-millennialism)
9:18 PM:      Philo: 3A. The 70 weeks of Daniel spoken of in Daniel 9:24-27 refers to a period of 490 years and apply only to Israel.
9:18 PM:      Philo: The first 69 weeks have been fulfilled historically, ending at the first coming of Christ
9:19 PM:      Philo: When the Jews rejected the
9:19 PM:      Philo: Messiah, the 70 weeks were suspended and a new age or dispensation called the Church age began.
9:19 PM:      Philo: The Last or 70th week of Daniel, the last seven years, has yet to be fulfilled.
9:19 PM:      Philo: This last week will immediately precede the second coming of Christ.
9:19 PM:      Philo: 4A. The book of Revelation after the letters to the seven churches is a prophecy
9:19 PM:      Philo: concerning events that will occur during the last seven years before the second coming
9:19 PM:      Philo: or 70th week. (Futurist) This 70th week is called the tribulation period.
9:20 PM:      Philo: It is also called the time of Jacob' trouble.
9:20 PM:      Philo: The last half of this week (the last 3.5 years) is the Great Tribulation spoken of in Dan. 9
9:20 PM:      Philo: and in the Olivet discourse (Matt. 24:3-51).
9:20 PM:      Philo: This tribulation period is a time when God will pour out his wrath
9:20 PM:      Philo: on a sinful world especially on those who refuse to repent of their idolatry and immorality.
9:20 PM:      Philo: 5A. The coming (Parousia) of Christ will occur in two phases.
9:21 PM:      Philo: The first phase will occur at the start of the seventh week. This will be Christ's imminent return for his saints to
9:21 PM:      Philo: "rapture" his church as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
9:21 PM:      Philo: All of the Christians (in some cases only overcoming Christians--this is the doctrine of a partial rapture)
9:21 PM:      Philo: will be resurrected and taken to the heavenly dwelling places Christ has prepared for his bride.
9:21 PM:      Philo: (John 14:1-3 Here we notice the wedding imagery and language familiar to Judaism)
9:22 PM:      Philo: The church will not be here during the tribulation period because God has ended the Church age and resumed
9:22 PM:      Philo: dealing with Israel. The church is also raptured to keep the Christians from
9:22 PM:      Philo: the wrath of God which according to Romans 5:9 and 1 Thessalonians 1:10 Christians will not experience.
9:22 PM:      Philo: To get around the force of these verses the pre-wrath rapture doctrine pioneered by Marv Rosenthal has
9:22 PM:      Philo: developed in recent years. (In my opinion, Dr. Rosenthal is wrong is his understanding of the
9:22 PM:      Philo: Olivet Discourse but let me address that at another time)
9:23 PM:      Philo: The second phase of the coming (Parousia) is Christ's second coming
9:23 PM:      Philo: at the end of the tribulation with his saints to begin the Kingdom age dispensation.
9:23 PM:      Philo: 6A. The tribulation period will see a restoration of the fourth worldly kingdom spoken of in Daniel.
9:23 PM:      Philo: The fourth kingdom was represented by the legs of iron in the image of Nebuchadnezzer's dream in Dan. 2.
9:23 PM:      Philo: The latter phase of the kingdom is represented by the feet or iron and clay.
9:23 PM:      Philo: This kingdom is also represented by the terrible beast of Dan. 7.
9:23 PM:      Philo: This fourth kingdom was the Roman Empire.
9:24 PM:      Philo: The Roman empire will be restored in time for the tribulation
9:24 PM:      Philo: and will consist of a confederation of 10 kings or kingdoms.
9:24 PM:      Philo: This confederation will be in existence at the beginning of the seven year period.
9:24 PM:      Philo: One of the 10 kings will make a treaty with the nation of Israel
9:24 PM:      Philo: to allow them to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and reestablish temple worship.
9:24 PM:      Philo: At the mid point of the above mentioned 7 year period one of the ten kings
9:24 PM:      Philo: will destroy 3 kings and take over the leadership of the confederacy.
9:25 PM:      Philo: He will also move into Jerusalem, terminate temple worship and demand worship himself.
9:25 PM:      Philo: In this endeavor he will be assisted by a character called the false prophet.
9:25 PM:      Philo: He will be resisted by orthodox Jewish believers whom he will then try to eradicate.
9:25 PM:      Philo: He will be destroyed by the Lord at His coming to establish His earthly kingdom
9:25 PM:      Philo: and temple worship for 1000 years.
9:26 PM:      Philo: 7A. Sacred history consists of different dispensations or 'economies'.
9:26 PM:      Philo: The Greek word is oikonomia.
9:26 PM:      Philo: It is used seven times in the New Testament. (I Corinthians. 9:17, Ephesians 1:10; 3:2; Colossians 1:25, Luke
9:26 PM:      Philo: 16:2,3,4)
9:26 PM:      Philo: As you can see it is made up of two Greek words oikos=household and nomos=law.
9:26 PM:      Philo: A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience
9:26 PM:      Philo: to some specific revelation of the will of God.
9:27 PM:      Philo: Usually every dispensation ends in some sort of judgment.
9:27 PM:      Philo: Dispensational schemes will vary slightly from one author to the next.
9:27 PM:      Philo: One of the most popular schemes is that found in the Scofield Reference Bible
9:27 PM:      Philo: (one of the sources that helped popularize dispensationalism). It is:
9:27 PM:      Philo: Creation to fall Innocence
9:28 PM:      Philo: Fall to flood Conscience
9:28 PM:      Philo: Flood to Abraham ....... Human Government
9:29 PM:      Philo: Abraham to Moses ........... Promise
9:29 PM:      Philo: Moses to Christ .......... Law
9:29 PM:      Philo: Church Age .......... Grace
9:30 PM:      Philo: Millennium .............. Kingdom
9:30 PM:      Philo: 8A. A new period or dispensation begins when God introduces a change
9:30 PM:      Philo: in the principles or ordinances valid up to that time.
9:30 PM:      Philo: For example a number of ordinances are introduced at the time of Noah.
9:30 PM:      Philo: At the coming of Christ many of the Mosaic Laws or ordinances are annulled.
9:30 PM:      Philo: The purpose of God in each dispensation is his own glory.
9:31 PM:      Philo: (Note: In my own thinking, it should be noted that every
9:31 PM:      Philo: dispensation is in some way related to God's covenants in the Bible.
9:31 PM:      Philo: A new dispensation cannot start unless a covenant is in place.
9:31 PM:      Philo: I hesitate to say that since covenantal theology is distinctly different from
9:31 PM:      Philo: dispensationalism and the names are kept to avoid confusion.
9:31 PM:      Philo: But the fact that dispensations are tied to Biblical covenants I think is important to understand.)
9:31 PM:      Philo: 9A. This system of dispensational teaching including the concept of the pre-tribulational rapture
9:31 PM:      Philo: was first developed among the Plymouth Brethren in the early 19th century in England and Ireland.
9:31 PM:      Philo: John N. Darby in particular is credited with forming much of this theology.
9:32 PM:      Philo: Dispensational theology was popularized more widely in evangelical and fundamentalist
9:32 PM:      Philo: circles in North America through a series of Bible Conferences
9:32 PM:      Philo: beginning in the late 1870's
9:32 PM:      Philo: By the early 20th century about the time
9:32 PM:      Philo: of the writing of _The Fundamentals_ (from which the term fundamentalist is derived)
9:32 PM:      Philo: dispensationalism became the most popular prophetic theology in fundamentalist
9:32 PM:      Philo: schools and Bible Institutes in America.
9:32 PM:      Philo: Here is a comparison of dispensational versus historic or classical views as given by Bob and Gretchen Passantino:
9:32 PM:      Philo: Since these contrast are given in a table format I am not sure how they will print out on screen.
9:33 PM:      Philo: Differences Concerning Israel and the Church
9:33 PM:      Philo: (Classic or Dispensational)
9:33 PM:      Philo: Classic Dispensational
9:33 PM:      Philo: God has always had but one God has two bodies -- Israel and
9:33 PM:      Philo: spiritual people, represented the church.
9:33 PM:      Philo: by the remnant in every generation.
9:33 PM:      Philo: 
9:34 PM:      Philo: God's promises to Israel were God's promises to Israel were
9:34 PM:      Philo: conditional. unconditional, and therefore are
9:34 PM:      Philo: still binding.
9:34 PM:      Philo: All earthly promises to Israel God's promises concerning the
9:34 PM:      Philo: have been either fulfilled or return to the land, rebuilding
9:34 PM:      Philo: invalidated through disobedience the temple, etc., were never
9:34 PM:      Philo: and unbelief.fulfilled. They are therefore
9:34 PM:      Philo: still future.
9:35 PM:      Philo: Israel was a type of the church Although Israel was a type of
9:35 PM:      Philo: and was superseded by the church, they will always
9:35 PM:      Philo: church. (notice this is where replacement remain separate.
9:35 PM:      Philo: Theology originates.
9:35 PM:      Philo: The church was prophesied in Christ instituted the church as
9:35 PM:      Philo: the Old Testament, in Olda "parenthesis."
9:35 PM:      Philo: Testament language.
9:35 PM:      Philo: 
9:36 PM:      Philo: Christ was, and is, the only Christ came the first time to
9:36 PM:      Philo: Hope of Israel. And Israelites establish an earthly millennial
9:36 PM:      Philo: (Jews) will be saved only if kingdom with Israel.
9:36 PM:      Philo: they accept him during this age.
9:36 PM:      Philo: The first advent of Christ Israel rejected Christ, then God
9:36 PM:      Philo: completed Israel's redemption, postponed this plan until the
9:36 PM:      Philo: and manifested the Israel of second advent. The Israel of God in
9:36 PM:      Philo: God (the church) referred to in Galatians refers to believing Jews in
9:36 PM:      Philo: Galatians 6:16. the church.
9:36 PM:      Philo: Christ instituted a Jewish-Gentile
9:36 PM:      Philo: Gentile church.
9:37 PM:      Philo: All unfulfilled spiritual Israel is God's earthly people, (sands of the sea
9:37 PM:      Philo: promises to Israel are being the church is God's heavenly
9:37 PM:      Philo: fulfilled through the Christian people. (stars of the sky)
9:37 PM:      Philo: church.
9:37 PM:      Philo: This does not represent a change Israel's destiny is to remain o
9:37 PM:      Philo: in God's plans, but evidence searth forever, the destiny of
9:37 PM:      Philo: progressive (continually the church is to spend eternity
9:37 PM:      Philo: unfolding) revelation.in heaven.
9:37 PM:      Philo: This presentation as a general overview was developed by Answers in Action of Costa Mesa, California.
9:37 PM:      Philo: I have adapted it and changed it where I thought appropriate. This ends the teaching for tonight.
9:37 PM:      Philo: Philo

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