Understanding Dispensationalism
8 comments | PermalinkTable of Contents
Chapter 1: Getting Dispensationalists and Nondispensationalists to Listen to Each Another
Chapter 2: Characteristics of Scofield Dispensationalism
Chapter 3: Variations of Dispensationalism
Chapter 4: Developments in Covenant Theology
Chapter 5: The Near Impossibility of Simple Refutations
Chapter 6: Strategy for Dialogue With Dispensationalists
Chapter 7: The Last Trumpet
Chapter 8: What is Literal Interpretation?
Chapter 9: Dispensational Expositions of Liternalness
Chapter 10: Interpretive Viewpoint in Old Testament Israel
Chapter 11: The Challenge of Typology
Chapter 12: Hebrews 12:22-24
Chapter 13: The Fulfillment of Israel in Chris
Chapter 14: Other Areas for Potential Exploration
Postscript
Bibliography
posted by JT at Monday, December 24, 2007
8 Comments:
the fulfillment of Israel in Chris? haha
This is a GREAT book. Fantastically argued and being a reformed baptist, dispensationalism is something encountered quite often here in the south. I HIGHLY recommend this and a Reformed Baptist Manifesto by Richard Barcellos and Sam Waldron.
PEACE
It probably was a "GREAT book" when it was written, but it's now badly outdated. Poythress presents a clear and fair picture of classic dispensationlism, to be sure. The trouble is that there are relatively few classic dispensationlists left in scholarship these days.
Progressive dispensationalism is effectively moving dispensationalism away from many of the (copious) pitfalls of the classic dispensational position. My concern is that covenant folks will read it and ostensibly straw man all dispensationalism without giving progressive a fair shot.
If you want to understand dispensationalism today, at least where the most significant scholarship is going, try Bock and Blaising's Progressive Dispensationalism or Saucy's The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism . I've only read the latter (in Saucy's class actually) and thought it was alright, but I've heard the former is far superior. It's on my to-read list.
Poythress is still useful, just don't stop there. It never gets past the old views (which no doubt are still present in places like the south), but it's good on those. Just make sure to keep reading and don't make too many assumptions when you finish it is all. The changes in progressive dispensationalism are significant and worthy of consideration.
I would also recommend Continuity and Discontinuity, edited by the Feinberg's.
>The trouble is that there are relatively few classic dispensationlists left in scholarship these days.
Maybe not in scholarship, but the old classic dispensationalism that Oswald Allis wrote against 60 years ago is still quite alive and well out in the churches.
In a 1992 article in BibSac, John A. Witmer notes that the 1989 meeting of the Dispensational Study Group of the Evangelical Theological Society "considered Understanding Dispensationalists by Poythress, who was present and responded to the two papers evaluating his book and also participated in the general discussion that followed. The proceedings are published in Grace Theological Journal," V10#2:123-164.
In the GTJ, Paul Karleen offers "Understanding Covenant Theologians: A Study in Presuppositions" and Robert L. Saucy presents "Response to Understanding Dispensationalists, by Vern S. Poythress." Poythress responds to each individually.
Here is an excerpt from Karleen's paper, to whet one's appetite:
"In this study I have two main goals: 1) to answer in part the question of whether or not in his Understanding Dispensationalists Vern Poythress has read dispensationalism accurately and 2) to offer some contributions to the ongoing investigation of dispensationalism by contrasting it with a competing system.
"Since my assigned topic is a single book, it would be very easy to single out for attack the author and the system he represents. However, my purpose is not to criticize Poythress, or covenant theology, but to use the book to help define the two systems. Since I cannot possibly cover in detail all the relevant passages that Poythress deals with, or even a portion of them, I want to attempt to show that covenant theology and dispensationalism are different for some reasons that are not usually dealt with.
"While I believe that the book constitutes a valuable contribution to the dialogue between covenant and dispensational theologians, I am also convinced that the book is more about covenant theology than dispensationalism. So I want to try to learn about dispensationalism from what we see about covenant theology" - pp 126-127.
Dispensationalism is alive and well. Classic, that is. Read some of the writings of Charles Feinberg, who was a mentor of John MacArthur. If you do, their will be no need to spiritualize Scripture as covenant theologians must do. The first century church was dispensational. If you read and interpret the Bible correctly in context you could only come to one conclusion, classic dispensationalism.
Whether dispensational or covenantal, it's been a problem in the church for years and years: anonymous members.
I'm dispensational but I don't appreciate arrogance or dogmatism wherever they show their faces - which is something the author won't do. It is simply not true that Chafer or Calvin or Arminius or Augustine had it all correct and anyone who disagreed had it all wrong.
Whatever our doctrinal predispositions or predilections - something I suspect is far more driven by diagnosis than exegesis, or by psychology more than theology - we all would do well to have a healthy dose of humility to temper our knowledge.
dubtron,
Dr. Waldron and I tried to interact with both Class. Disp. and Progressive Disp., especially in the footnotes, though briefly. I wrote most of the notes and tried to show that we are aware of the development of Disp. in the last 20 years.
Classic Disp. is alive and well in many churches, as someone has pointed out.
Andrew, I took Dr. Saucey's course as well. He is a dear, dear man. I read his book when it was still in lecture notes form.
Dr. MacArthur seems to be somewhere between Classic. Disp. and Progressive. You can read Waldron's critique of MacArthur here: http://www.mctsowensboro.org/blog/?cat=9&paged=2
Press on!
Rich B.
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