The Bible and the Future by Anthony A. Hoekema

Author:Anthony A. Hoekema
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion, Prophecy, Theology, Eschatology, Biblical Studies
ISBN: 9780802808516
Publisher: William B Eerdmans Publishing Co
Published: 1979-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

A Critique of Dispensational Premillennialism

ALTHOUGH THE MAIN BURDEN OF THIS CHAPTER WILL BE TO give a critique of dispensational premillennialism, we may begin by mentioning some aspects of dispensational teaching which we appreciate. We appreciate the acceptance by dispensationalists of the verbal inspiration and infallibility of the Bible. We are gratified to note that dispensationalists look for a visible, personal return of Christ. We gratefully acknowledge their insistence that in every age salvation is only through grace, on the basis of the merits of Christ. We further agree with dispensationalists in looking for a future phase of the kingdom of God which will involve the earth, in which Christ will reign and God will be all in all. Though we expect to see that kingdom in the final state, and though our understanding of the future kingdom differs from theirs, we do agree that there will be such a future earthly kingdom.

Two aspects of dispensational premillennialism have already been critically dealt with and will therefore not be taken up again: the two-phase Second Coming,407 and the dispensationalist understanding of the rapture of the church.408

Needless to say, the critique which follows will not be exhaustive. During the last forty years a number of books have appeared which contain more thorough criticisms of dispensational theology and eschatology than will be offered here.409 What follows is a critique under eight major points of the type of dispensationalism which has been described in the previous chapter.410

(1) Dispensationalism fails to do full justice to the basic unity of biblical revelation. Earlier we saw that the New Scofield Bible divides biblical history into seven distinct dispensations. The definition of a dispensation found in this Bible is as follows: “A period of time during which man is tested in respect to his obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.”411 We appreciate the insistence of the editors of the New Scofield Bible that in each dispensation there is only one basis for salvation: by God’s grace through the work of Christ accomplished on the cross and vindicated in his resurrection. We are also grateful for their assertion that the differences between the dispensations do not concern the way of salvation.

If it is true, however, that man in every dispensation needs to be saved by grace, does this not imply that man is in every dispensation utterly unable to obey God’s will perfectly and thus to save himself through his own efforts? Why then does man need to be tested anew in every dispensation (according to the definition of a dispensation quoted above)? Was man not tested by God at the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden? Did he not fail that test? And is it not for that reason that salvation through grace is now his only hope? Instead of needing to be repeatedly retested, as the dispensationalist theology implies, does man not rather need to be shown in every era of his existence how he can be delivered from his spiritual impotence and saved by grace?

As a matter of fact, this is what we do find in the Bible.

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