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Heresies Of Dispensationalism
Posted by Lev/Christopher on November 24, 2008 at 12:40pm
in Theology
Two major theological heresies lie submerged in the teachings of popular dispensational premillennialism of which every Bible-believing Christian should beware.
The first is the projection of a so-called "Church age" that is something other than Christ's messianic kingdom; the second is infatuation with a proliferation of disassociated future end-time judgment events that distract from the solemn biblical presentation of a unified and universal last great Judgment Day.
The New Testament knows nothing of a "church age" that is not indeed qualified as Christ's messianic kingdom. The "kingdom" of the messianic dispensation, furthermore, is nothing more or less than all inward and outward holiness of both heart and life. Scriptural holiness—entire sanctification by faith--as understood by historic Methodism, was both an accomplished messianic ideal, and the central idea of the new covenant, per se. Thus, the Wesleyan conception of the very nature of New Testament Christianity, itself, stands in logical antithesis to the non-messianic, antinomian projection of Christianity that is dispensationalism's parenthetical church age--an unscriptural, fictitious age, which, in all reality, is but an "age of antinomianism," in which believers sin in thought word and deed every day.
Jesus said the messianic age he came to inaugurate would end, not with a golden, political, millennial era of peace and prosperity on earth, but with a unified and universal "harvest" judgment (Matt. 13:36-43), whose just sentencing will be contingent solely on the appropriation, or non-appropriation, of those revelatory realities that have, in fact, qualified the period of mortal probation all along (Matt. 25:31:46).
Deflating John Wesley's expectation of a final "Great Assize" in which every man will be judged according to his works, Darbyism dissipates the awesome of the last great Judgment Day by its devious method of fragmenting the biblical, universal judgment scene into separate and distinct events that allow the believer's moral accountability to evaporate in the ideational spray.
Dispensationalism, generally, denies the universality of the Last Judgment. It says that believers are not among the judged of Rev. 20:11-15, nor does Matt. 25:31-46 have reference to that same event. John Nelson Darby started the now popular theory that Matt. 25:31-46 refers to a judgment of Gentile nations as a pre-condition for their entering the dispensationally-conceived Jewish millennium kingdom. On one occasion Dr. Daniel Steele confronted Darby face to face concerning his novel interpretation of the Matthew 24:31-46 text. Darby, Steele says, got very red-faced. He had no answer to the refutation of his error by that great Methodist theologian!
Contrary to what dispensationalism teaches, Christians, too, will be held morally accountable when the Bible judgment day comes. Are you living a "Bible-standards" Christian life in the light of the last great Judgment Day? Antinomian counterfeits for true holiness of heart and life will not pass there.
http://www.rapturerevival.org/Heresies%20Of%20Dispensationalism.htm
Why Daniel Steele So Strongly Opposed Dispensationalism
One preacher wrote to me accusing me of "wasting my time" in what I am attempting to do in this ministry. He should have addressed his sentiments to the great nineteenth century Methodist theologian Dr. Daniel Steele, as well.
Evidently Steele thought it was important enough to deal with the emerging influence of Darbyite dispensational theology on the Holiness Movement of his day that he took the time and effort to assemble a book of 350 pages directed to the matter—and that before the days of computers and desktop publishing!
Daniel Steele was a man passionate about about Wesleyan Methodist theology. He clearly recognized in John Nelson Darby's novel hyper-Calvinistic anti- Christian perfectionist dispensational theory the insidious head of vilifying antinomian heresy, and that it was his Christian duty, and in the best interest of the cause that he so dearly loved, to oppose it strenuously.
Antinomianism we define as "election without obedience theology." It finds vivid expression in the popular state/standing teachings of the neo-Calvinistic majority branches of the evangelical movement of our day. Quite simply, this is the teaching that a believer may have an imputational standing in Christ (eternal security) that may divorced from his actual moral state, or condition (the sinning in thought, word, and deed every day mentality).
Antinomianism not only permeates the theology of such major American denominations as the Southern Baptist, but far too much of the Wesleyan Holiness Movement as well, which, at the grassroots level, has accepted the antinomian theology of dispensational premillennialism, and, in its educated echelons, the antinomian ideology of the neo-orthodox existentialists.
Though nearly universally UNRECOGNIZED by the established holiness ministry of the day, antinomianism is the number one killer stalking the contemporary Wesleyan Holiness movement going into the twenty-first century.
Well, then, that we should return to a perusal of Daniel Steele's A Substitute for Holiness, or Antinomianism Revived: the Theology of the Plymouth Brethren Examined and Refuted, and to John Fletcher's famous Checks.
http://www.rapturerevival.org/why_daniel_steele_so_strongly_opposed...
The Carnal Christian Misnomer
Distorted understandings of Romans 6-7 and I Corinthians 1-3 are fertile breeding grounds for popular antinomianism--the Christian living a "carnal" experience of pity-patty rebelliousness and self will, without clear-cut victory over the life of sin.
The Bible does not justify a "carnal" experience of Christianity, friends, nor do carnal Christians need to "get entirely sanctified" to cure their problem of carnality; they need, rather, to get biblically saved, for the Bible standard of holiness is the same for every Christian, whatever stage in the process of God's wonderful grace he/she is presently experiencing.
The impossibility of being a carnal Christian is clearly taught in Romans 8:7-8. Listen carefully to the logic of these verses: "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
Here is Paul's argument: (1) all true Christians have the Holy Spirit; and, (2) those having the Holy Spirit are not in the flesh, or carnal mind.
Friends, the carnal mind is NOT the same as inbred sin! The first characterizes the unregenerate; the second is a disorganized, defiling and destabilizing remains that stays in the believer until purged by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.
In the saved experience the power of sin is broken, and the principle of obedience is implanted in the heart--surely such is not the heady, full-strength "carnal mind" encounter described in Romans 8:7-8!
Too many have preached holiness from the Scofield Reference Bible and taught "the carnal Christian"--an antinomian construction that allows for a double standard in the Christian life. God has no double standard that permits of willful sin. All Christians are called to live a radiant, victorious, holy life. Genuine repentance will cure many a so-called "struggle with carnality." Total surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is no option for the believer, it is the essence of his Christian faith--without it there is no scriptural first work of grace.
The essence of the carnal mind, furthermore, is stated in Romans 8:7-8 to be that of enmity, meaning animosity, or hateful rebellion against the law of God. Nothing is said about the carnal mind being a subjective reflexive emotional state here. The carnal mind is, rather, evidenced more objectively in one's having a problem with God and his laws. Thus, it more deeply manifests itself in belief systems that are at variance with, and a substitute for, divine revelation.
The preference for false religion, friends, is just as much, or more, a manifestation of carnality, than is some variant "feeling" of a passing subjective emotional state. Too many of we modern holiness preachers have tried to "preach against carnality" by condemning reflexive states of feeling, while we ourselves have been clinging to the false ideological system of dispensational premillennialism that runs counter to the revealed salvation history plan of God. When any one dares to intrude upon THAT false belief system, moreover, then we notice how quickly the "old man" deep in the heart of such lopsided preachers begins to get stirred.
The authentic holiness preacher preaches often, strong, and hard against carnality, biblically defined. At the heart of his message is the truth about the whole revelation of God that touches definitely and fully upon the eschatological (last things) issue. Falsehood here means untruth everywhere else, for at the eschaton God intends to fully vindicate His ways to man (Acts 17:31).
It is the truth that sanctifies us wholly. The carnal mind hates and opposes the truth. No one in that condition of carnality, of animosity toward the truth can rightfully be called a Christian.
Cults of false doctrine everywhere today, as always, oppose the truth. How can anyone truly "die out" to carnality, then, in these days of unfettered religious pluralism?
Desire truth; seek truth. God's Word is truth. Sanctification comes--the death of the old man of the carnal nature happens--through "thy truth" (John 17:17).
Carnality is not wholly subjective, as many think, friends, neither is the work of entire sanctification wholly subjective, either. It comes, rather, through a form of doctrine received (Romans 6:17-17), a word taken heed to (Psalm 119:9); a God of truth "obeyed" (Acts 5:32).
When the "truth line" is broken--and the false teachings of dispensational premillennialism (as only one example of a cult of false doctrine) does dissolve the truth line--everything else falls apart. It is impossible to be delivered from the carnal mind under those circumstances. Why? because although the emotional reflexive states may indeed be placid, the old man has his way in striking back at the Almighty in the article of our clinging to false doctrines that displace His truth. The old man is very happy with our commitment to those comfortable substitutes for divine truth that he hates so much. And he will be content with us in these cults of false doctrine until someone begins to "rock the boat," as it were, upon our false belief system. Then you will hear from the old man downstairs, loud and clear.
The carnal mind is enmity. Never forget it. And you cannot love and hate at the same time. That is why "perfect love" is the "perfect cure" for the old man carnality. The Methodist hymn writer once pinned it this way: "Love only can the strength of sin subdue, come Oh my Savior, cast out sin, and make my heart anew"!
How does this happen? It happen when, again as the hymn writer so ably pinned it: "Thy truth I now no more blaspheme, they truth I lovingly receive."
There are no "carnal" Christians friends, there are only those who are walking toward, or away from, the God of truth. Those who are walking away form the God of truth are the unevangelized, the backsliders, and the apostates. Those who are walking toward the God of truth are the awakened, the convicted, the repentant, and the Christians, though they may not all, as yet, be entirely sanctified.
All who keep on walking in the light may face the glorious prospects, in a moment of time, in this present life, of being "filled with all the fullness of God."
Desire; truth. These are the keys. The carnal mind has no use for either one. He is perfectly content for you to go through life comfortably believing some false doctrine. Feelings and emotions he can handle. Ideology, Christian ideology, he is afraid of. Why? Because it exposes him. Preach subjectively only on the feelings and reflexive emotional states, friends, and the old carnal nature will evade detection and death every time. Preach objectively the truth of divine revelation, however, and he is soon brought, trembling and convulsing, before the execution bar.
Let the old man die! Let the old carnal nature be put to death!
Preach the objective truth, brother, preach the objective truth about the revelation of God, and soon he will.
http://www.rapturerevival.org/the_carnal_christian_misnomer.htm
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Reply by Timothy L. Cottle on December 15, 2008 at 4:36am
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on December 15, 2008 at 4:49am
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Updated on 5 May 2010
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