You may have heard of the teaching from Pastor Mike Schreib on Dispensations 101, that video is highly recommended for those who have no idea about dispensationalism and for people who are questioning why we believe in dispensationalism.
Dispensationalism is the key teaching that would rescue you from a lot of heartache, pain, and problem because dispensationalism rightly divides all those things that people are talking about, that:
– You have to endure to the end.
– Make sure you don’t take the vaccine shot because that is the mark of the beast or you’re going to miss the rapture or go to hell.
– We’re all going to face the tribulation.
– There are so many verses in the Bible that talk about if you fail in serving God as much as you should, you’re not really saved.
Because of that, dispensationalism rightly divides those things, saying those things are for different time periods and for different groups of people. Bible verses do not always doctrinally apply to us.
Timeline of Dispensationalism
Here, we will divide it into 4 different timelines. You can get more specific than that, but we’re just going to simplify it so that people can get it.
- The first timeline is Old Testament, where you go from Genesis all the way to Jesus Christ when He died on the cross. New Testament could not begin until the death of a testator, Jesus Christ. That’s found in the book of Hebrews. So during Jesus Christ’s ministry and before, all the way to Genesis, that’s Old Testament. Until He died on the cross, that’s when He can give that salvation by faith by His death on the cross.
- After that is New Testament Christianity, which we are in today. That’s the second timeline.
- The third timeline is the tribulation. Christians will not go through the tribulation, they’re in a different timeline. There is a tribulation timeline because what divides the tribulation timeline and the Christian church age is the rapture. That’s why Christians believe we will be raptured before the tribulation and we’re not in danger of taking the mark of the beast.
- After the tribulation timeline, there are 1,000 years where Jesus reigns on earth and that’s the Millennial timeline.
Objective of Teaching
Here, we will be covering arguments that attack dispensationalism. A lot of people have been questioning dispensationalism and they’ve been watching a lot of things online. You can’t trust the information of what you watch and hear on Youtube, Twitter, etc. There has been too much stuff online that many are so confused and wondering what’s true anymore and why is everyone fighting each other. God is not the author of confusion on the Internet. The Bible says God is not the author of confusion at 1 Corinthians 14. If God is not, then who is the author of confusion that you’re looking at the internet? That’s Satan.
Then where do you find the truth? The truth is in the Bible. Don’t dabble with all kinds of stuff that pop up on the internet where you watch different teachers and you get more confused. Why? Because you don’t look at the Bible. People aren’t studying the Bible, they’re lazy and they want to watch something online that they like or that they find interesting to watch. When you keep doing that, then the devil will appeal to that fleshly lust and put a lot of different teachings where you’re going to be confused and deceived by lots of wrong doctrine.
That’s why a lot of people have been deceived and now worry that ‘the vaccine is the mark of the beast, don’t take it or you’ll burn in hell’ or ‘because of the congress passing a bill that’s 666, they’re going to storm inside our house and make us take it’, ‘what if they make me take it and I burn in hell’ or ‘there are so many verses in the Bible that talked about if I don’t endure to the end then I’m going to miss the rapture and burn in hell’. That’s the confusing fruit that the devil put on you online, so why don’t we look at the Bible today and if you want to check if the teaching is right or wrong, don’t be lazy and don’t let your feelings overrun, take your Bibles now and let’s look at the scriptures together.
We will be covering arguments against dispensationalism.
Fundamental
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
If you want to find the truth, you have to rightly divide the word.
That’s what dispensationalism is, it’s dividing verses to the right group of people at the right time period.
That’s why we have to divide and realize that verses do not always apply to me, it applies to somebody else in the timeline, it could be either the Old Testament, Christian church age, the tribulation or Millennium. That’s how you find the truth, it’s not by all the stuff you watch online, no matter how appealing those facts may be to you, because they’re not dividing the Bible. Until they divide the Bible, they’re going to be of the truth. Otherwise, they can teach you one side of the truth that looks right (concerning what’s going on in our country and world current events) but they apply the Bible verses wrongly to the wrong time period and to the wrong person. And it causes you fear and confusion about going through tribulation or if I have to get baptized to get saved. But we don’t believe in that, we believe that those verses are applying to different people at different time periods, not to the Christian church.
Argument 1: 2 Timothy 2:15 meant comparing scripture with scripture
Argument: One of the arguments against dispensationalism is this current verse. They claim that 2 Timothy 2:15 is not talking about rightly dividing verses to the right group of people and the right time period, they claim that rightly dividing verses are referring to comparing scripture with scripture. They claim that when you compare one scripture in the Old Testament that seems to contradict with a verse in the New Testament, you combine those verses together, comparing scripture with scripture, and add a few more verses where you combine them all together, and that’s how you find the truth.
Response: Did you notice how dumb that argument was? The verse says divide, not combine. When they talk about comparing scripture with scripture, they’re talking about adding verses together and combining it all together to give you teaching. That’s wrong. Comparing scripture with scripture is different from rightly dividing scripture. Divide means to separate. The first rule is Genesis 1, God divided the light from the darkness. Did God take the light and the darkness, combined them together like yin and yang? No. So, the verse means as it says, to divide means to separate.
Argument 2: Dispensationalism was taught by evil people
Some may say ‘Isn’t dispensationalism a creation from Darby? Darby’s a wicked person’ or ‘Didn’t you know that Scofield had ties to the Illuminati?’ or ‘Didn’t you know that the rapture before the tribulation is something that the Jesuits taught?’.
It’s easy to debunk those arguments, the simple answer is that they weren’t the ones who taught dispensationalism. There were plenty of people who taught dispensationalism before Darby, Scofield, or the Jesuit who came up with that idea. There are 2 books that are highly recommended, ‘Dispensationalism before Darby’ by William Watson. He’s going to pull up nearly the first to early centuries down to the church fathers. There were so many people during the early ADs who taught dispensationalism before Darby, before the Roman Catholic church. The other book is ‘Ancient Dispensational Truth’ by James Morris. This book proves that there are ancient sources that prove dispensationalism long before Darby in an ancient timeline.
Jehovah’s Witnesses ask ‘Do you believe that Jesus is God?’ and Christians obviously believe that, and they would reply ‘Didn’t you know that the Catholic church teaches that Jesus is God?’. So the Jehovah’s Witnesses accuse Christians that are teaching about Jesus is God comes from the Roman Catholic church because they claim that the Catholic church was the one that taught that. Did you notice that this logic of Jehovah’s Witnesses is very similar to anti dispensationalists?
Look, among a list of all your right teachings, are you thinking that Satan’s people are not going to agree with one of them somewhere? It’s obvious they did not create it because there are too many historical pieces of evidence that point out that there were plenty of people before evil men who taught dispensational truth.
Not only that, if you can pull up dirt in Darby or Scofield’s life, it’s very obvious you can do that with God’s men anywhere. Didn’t David commit murder and adultery? Why don’t you reject the writings of David if you’re going to reject the writings of Scofield based on his wrong actions? What about Solomon? Solomon is known as a preacher and yet he worshipped idols. That’s even more extreme than Darby. Are you going to reject 3 or 4 books that Solomon wrote?
Do you know what the key difference is? The key difference is we’re not looking at men; we’re not looking at Solomon, Darby, Scofield, David, or even the 12 disciples of Jesus who are sinners themselves. We are looking at the Bible, the Word of God is where we find the truth.
So open up your Bible and let’s look at what the Bible says. Ready? Let’s go.
Argument 3: Salvation was the same ever since Old Testament
Was salvation in the Old Testament different from the New Testament? A lot of people try to combine the teachings together where Old Testament people were saved the same way as people in the New Testament. What’s very dangerous about that is that there are cults out there who try to find verses about good works for salvation and they try to mingle that with our salvation today because they think salvation has been the same from Old Testament to New Testament Christianity. No, the Bible shows that salvation by the works of the law was in Old Testament is different from New Testament salvation by the Christian church, which is by faith.
Galatians 3:23 “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.”
Paul wrote that we, New Testament Christians, are saved by faith but before that, we were all under the Old Testament law.
‘The people in the Old Testament law had the same salvation as we did’. No wrong, the faith was shut up, that’s what the verse said.
The Bible shows that when people were saved according to Old Testament law, it was a different timeline from Jesus when He died on the cross and give us salvation by grace, not by works.
John 1:17 “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
Salvation under the law was before salvation by grace. There are different salvations and that’s dispensationalism, plain as a nose on your face.
Argument 4: There were people who found grace at Old Testament
Some people would act smart and say ‘Weren’t there people who found grace at the Old Testament? For example, in Genesis 6, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. If you look at other passages in the Old Testament, grace is mentioned several times over there. So you can’t say that grace started over there.’
What does grace mean? Grace means something that we don’t deserve yet God gives it, so in other words, we don’t deserve God’s goodness or benefit but there are times that God would grant it nevertheless. That’s undoubtedly in the Old Testament, from the beginning of Genesis all the way to the end, everybody has experienced some time in their life where they don’t deserve anything good from God yet God would give it to them.
John 1:16 “And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.”
This verse explains that the grace of Jesus Christ is something different. This is a fullness of His grace, not just little bits of grace that God gave throughout the Old Testament. This grace by Jesus Christ is a full grace by His death on the cross where we don’t have to do anything in the law on our part, where He fulfilled the law for us.
This grace by Jesus Christ was definitely different from back then in the Old Testament. This was a more complete, full part of His grace and it was a grace for grace. This was a very special grace undoubtedly. The scripture is very clear about the distinction.
Argument 5: Why would Jesus talk about believing on Him for salvation before He died on the cross?
Some people might argue that if you believe that salvation by trusting in the shed sacrifice of Jesus Christ did not begin until Jesus died on the cross, then why did Jesus talked about believing in Him for salvation before He died on the cross.
The reason why He preached it before was to give them a heads up so that after He died on the cross, they can have access to it.
John 7:38 “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
If they believe in Him, then they’re going to receive this water which is symbolizing the Holy Spirit coming inside them, regenerates their dead state where they are born again and saved.
John 7:39 “(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”
This is proof that Jesus told them ahead of time, gave them a heads up ‘If you believe in Me, then the Holy Spirit will regenerate you, make you born again.’ You will get that salvation by believing in Jesus Christ, but when He preached that, He said the Holy Ghost could not start that yet until after His death, burial, and resurrection.
Argument 6: Jesus believes in dispensationalism
Jesus Christ believes in dispensationalism, He believes in dividing a verse to the right group of people at the right time period.
Luke 4:17-21 “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
Notice where Jesus ended, ‘To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’. In verse 20 He closed the book. When Jesus was reading a part of Isaiah, He said this passage applies right now. Did He divide that? Yes, He certainly did.
Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”
Notice where did Jesus stop, up until the middle of verse 2, and then He closed the book and said it was fulfilled. But He didn’t finish reading the latter part of verse 2, He didn’t complete it. Why? Because the second half of verse 2 is for the future tribulation timeline, that’s when it applied. His vengeance did not come down yet against this world where He’ll rule as king. It’s the opposite, God mentioned loving your enemies, not taking vengeance on our enemies but blessing them. That’s today because vengeance will happen in the future.
So why do we believe in dispensationalism? Because my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a dispensationalist.
Argument 7: Throughout all time, salvation is only by grace, no work involved
Some people will claim that Ephesians 2:8-9 says that salvation is by grace no matter what, there cannot be work involved.
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Those people would argue that the verse says you can’t be saved by works, it’s only by grace through faith because verse 9 says if salvation is by works, then anyone can boast that they got saved by their works. That’s an argument that they use against different salvations and dispensationalism. They will say that if you claim that in Old Testament there was faith and works for salvation, that would contradict Ephesians 2:8-9 because if they were saved by works, then they could boast to the Lord.
Notice how cleverly they apply that to every timeline. They did not rightly divide Ephesians 2, that verse only applies for today, it’s not applying to Old Testament back then.
Look at verse 8, which says that ‘by grace ye are saved‘. What timeline was that based on? Look at verse 4:
Ephesias 2:4-5 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
Verse 5 says ‘by grace ye are saved’, that matches with verse 8 and 9. When did that happen? Verse 4 and 5 is the answer: when God commendeth His love towards us and when He offered that sacrifice. Just like Romans 5:8 documented His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You cannot get that salvation by grace until Jesus died on the cross.
How can people for thousands of years in the Old Testament ever put faith in Jesus’s blood for their salvation when He did not even die to shed His blood yet?
A lot of people are going to claim that people are saved by grace and there absolutely have no works whatsoever using Romans 11:6. They pull up people in the Bible like Noah who found grace in the eyes of the Lord at Genesis 6.
Romans 11:6 “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”
Because of Romans 11:6, if they receive that grace from God like Noah at Genesis 6, then they should not have a single work involved for salvation. That’s their argument to prove that Noah had the same salvation by grace like us Christians, he had no works involved.
Notice that clever tactic: when they use a verse, they automatically assume that’s for every timeline. The number one thing how you can find wrong doctrine and heresy easily is if they pull up a verse and there’s an unconscious automatic assumption that the verse applies to every timeline. When a dispensationalist takes a verse, they first think about which timeline and to what group of people does the verse applies.
Look at Romans 11:5:
Romans 11:5 “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”
The verse says ‘at this present time’, that’s the Christian church, today’s timeline. That’s when we get that grace in verses 5 and 6. It’s not the timeline in the Old Testament where Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Plus, use some common sense, let’s assume that in Genesis 6 Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Did they read the remaining part of the passages? No, in the latter parts of Genesis 6, Noah had to build an ark.
If Noah was saved by grace at Genesis 6, then when God asked him to build the ark, what if Noah said that he doesn’t want to build the ark? Then he drowns out with the rest of the lost world. The book of Peter said that everybody went to hell when they died in the flood. Noah would have joined them, dying in the flood, he would have lost his salvation if he didn’t build that ark.
A lot of people piously say that because he was truly saved by grace, truly saved by faith, that’s why he will build an ark. Do you really think that building an ark is not work? What if a pastor asks you to build a huge ark that is the size of a football field and then you’re saved, you’d be very upset because that’s a lot of work involved there.
There are so many easy examples that prove other different timelines, that it’s not salvation by grace without works like Christians.
If you are saved by faith, not by works, then why are you scared of missing the rapture? Why are you scared of losing your salvation if the government pass that ‘666’ bill and forcibly put that vaccine on you which you believe to be the mark of the beast? If you’re saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and you’re going to heaven, you should be fine.
Unless you believe you can lose it, there’s some part of work that you have to do to avoid losing your salvation, some work, and effort on your part to dodge damnation. No, remember Romans 11:6 says for us today, at this time period. Not Old Testament, not tribulation, not Millennium. Romans 11:6 says that you’re not supposed to think that there’s something you have to do on your part plus believing in the grace of Jesus Christ. You cannot mingle the two. If you mingle grace and works together, then you get rid of the meaning of grace. Better still, you even get rid of the meaning of works. What is work then, if you mingle works and grace together?
If you mingle works and grace together and claim that this is salvation by grace, then what is salvation by works?
A lot of people claim that people in the tribulation are saved by faith alone, not by works. That’s not true.
We’re not talking about the past 2,000 years of history like the Holocaust or Adolf Hitler, the kind of torture and persecution in the tribulation is the Antichrist of evil itself. That’s going to take a lot of effort on your part to not give in and resist that kind of persecution. That’s works for salvation in the tribulation, but some people amazingly don’t believe that.
Revelation 14:11 “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
If you receive the mark of the beast, you go to hell. So you got to avoid that. Is that defined as faith alone for salvation if you avoid the mark of the beast, it’s not by works at all? No! Look at verse 12:
Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
‘patience of the saints:‘, this is not Christ’s effort, that’s your effort.
‘keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.’, that is works and faith for salvation. That is not faith, grace alone, not by works.
So when people talk about you’re saved by faith and grace, but there are these works that you have to do on your part, that’s the wrong time period. Revelation 14:12 shows you, that’s the tribulation time period.
Why is this not for us? Because of Romans 11:6 again, that’s for us at this present church age timeline.
Argument 8: Jesus Christ did not do different things at different timelines, He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever
That’s what they use to deny dispensationalism.
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
Bible-believing dispensationalists hold to the fact that our God is unchanging, that’s who He is. He does not change, He’s not the God who will take back His word or change His mind and let you down. He’s not like other people who promise to do something but they take back their word.
God is unchanging in that we can rely on, but when He gives things to us, He divides them differently to different groups of people.
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.”
God is the same, He’s unchanging but He gives things differently and ministers things differently to different people. That’s undeniable.
We believe that our God is unchanging, always the same, and when He’s dividing and giving things, He’s going to do it at His amazing divine plan.
‘The Jews at the Old Testament, here’s My plan for them. The people at the church age, this is all I’m going to give to them. Then the tribulation and the Millennium.’
He divides and gifts differently to different people.
Think about a lot of verses that people will pull up to you to scare you about your salvation.
For example, they say in Matthew 24, endure to the end you shall be saved. When they look at a verse, they automatically assume that’s for everybody at every timeline. You can’t do that. Look at the whole chapter and think about what time period is this and for what group of people. If you look at Matthew 24 before Jesus even said that, the disciples asked him ‘What shall be at the end of the world?’. That’s the tribulation. Jesus says in Matthew 24 this is what’s going to happen at the tribulation, there shall be great tribulation, that’s why ‘he that endures to the end the same shall be saved.’
That kind of endurance is for the tribulation timeline, which matches with Revelation 14:12 on ‘the patience of the saints’ and ‘enduring to the end’.
A lot of people use Matthew 25 which talks about the virgins who fail to have enough oil (the Holy Spirit) in them which is when Jesus Christ was coming, and they missed that rapture. So a lot of people are worried about missing the rapture.
See, there’s the automatic assumption again that it applies to all time periods. No. Look at the whole chapter and see what timeline it is and to what group of people.
Matthew 25 is a continuation of Jesus talking about the tribulation at Matthew 24. Matthew 25’s virgin developing enough oil, or the Holy Spirit, so that they don’t miss their rapture, that one is referring to tribulation saints, not Christian saints. Tribulation saints have to have works, where they develop the Holy Spirit, so that they don’t miss out on the rapture.
Here’s another one at Acts 2:38, repent and be baptized so that you can receive the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. How many of you are worried that you got to get baptized for your salvation? No, read the 2 verses before and after the verse. It says the man of Israel, Jews, are asking Peter what should they do. In the 2 verses after it, Peter said ‘This is what you Jews need to do’. This is not for Christians today, this is for Jews during the timeline where they denied and crucified their Messiah. Israel’s timeline for their salvation was different from non-Jewish people.
So what happened? Well, obviously we know that God did not restore the Messianic kingdom with the Jews because even though in Acts 2:38 they did get baptized, the greater majority continued to reject it. So God says ‘Okay, I’m done with the nation of Israel’. So that baptism for salvation, that faith and works for salvation that He did in the Old Testament with the Jews, like John the Baptist where you have to make sure you get baptized and repent so that you can get saved in preparation for the Messiah, all these was Jewish. When God was finished with Jews, the operations that He dealt with the Jews is done and He’s going to administer and operate differently with the non-Jews.
That’s why when you read Romans to Philemon, that’s not for Jewish people, that’s for the Christian church. That’s the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, not by works. All the other books in your Bible, Genesis through Malachi are going to apply to the Old Testament. Matthew through Acts is going to apply to the Old Testament and a transitional time where God was still dealing with Jews but He was transitioning towards non-Jews, where the Christian church was moving. That’s why you’ll see in Matthew through Acts, a mingling of Jewish doctrine and Christian doctrine. When you read Hebrews through Revelation, there’s going to be a mingling of Jewish and Christian doctrine as well. But Romans through Philemon, that’s for Gentiles. The Lord God was moving towards the Gentiles, that’s where our basis is on.
If they pull up another book, Hebrews 4 and 6 that you need to make sure that you repent really well otherwise your words are going to fail. They also mention another passage in Hebrews that you disgrace the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ so make sure you do works and repentance really well. The title of that book is Hebrews, those are not for you right now.
Did we mention a rapture before the tribulation for the church? Yes. Did we mention there’s a rapture for tribulation saints? Yes. What does that mean? Two different raptures divided into the right group of people at the right time period.
The proof is in 1 Corinthians 15 where it talks about the rapture, God divides it, one for the church, they that are in Christ, and another for the end times, tribulation.
Ephesians 1:13-14 and Romans 8 and Ephesians 4:30 show you that if you believe in Jesus Christ for your salvation and not a single work on your part, you are sealed with the Holy Ghost no matter what you do, all the way to the rapture. Those verses definitely prove you cannot miss the rapture once you believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.
So don’t worry about the mark of the beast or missing the rapture or what you have to do to fight the tribulation. Christians will be raptured no matter what beforehand as long as they trust in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.