A Summary And A Way Forward

Catching Our Breath

Discussion of the various forms of eschatology reveals complications; but it can also reveal major points of difference that can help us to make greater sense of the field of study about our major topic, The One People of God. 

However, like many areas of scholarship when beginning to try to understand them it is as if one is learning a new language. In some ways that is what is happening. One is learning a new language!

Furthermore, we can feel as if others have been having an intense conversation in that language for many years. 

That metaphor in effect does sum up why we can feel lost in the middle of a forest.

Moreover, because we have been absent much of that time we don't really understand why other people fuss over the various issues I have referred to briefly in earlier posts.

Some people just enjoy learning about such issues for their own sake. (People enjoy all sorts of knowledge with which I don't interest myself. For example, I can't understand why people love learning about and studying spiders but some people do!) Others like the order that man-made¹ systems give to what appears initially to be complicated. However, others see that eschatology issues have implications for the national policies of countries today. (I've referred to this reason in my first post.)

What We Have Covered

I am interested in dispensationalism because it 'discovered' the idea of a radical difference between cultural Israel and the Church. Dispensationalism is a child of the 19th century and the Irishman, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was its major early systematiser. 

His views were given more permanent form in The Scofield Reference Bible and by that means gained a significant foothold in the evangelical world.That meant that Christians in the Plymouth Brethren along with Baptists and even Pentecostals adopted variations of a Darby-Scofield dispensationalism.

Second, this orthodox and traditional dispensationalism was somewhat revised in the important work of C. C. Ryrie who identified three cardinal, defining issues of dispensationalism as being: 1) the important distinction between cultural Israel and the Church; 2) a commitment to a consistent adherence to a literal interpretation of the Scriptures; and 3) the view that the  glory of God is paramount in the plan of God (as opposed to the salvation of mankind).

Finally, this revision was challenged by Progressive Dispensationalism (which we covered in an earlier post), that moved much further away from Darby's original ideas.

And Therefore?

It is certainly the case that Darby's ideas and particularly his American descendants Cyrus I. Scofield, Lewis Sperry Chafer, J Dwight Pentecost, and C C Ryrie that have widespread influence in Evangelicalism today and continue to do so.

Hence, it will be the dispensationalist beliefs as summarised by C C Ryrie and the tradition of associated teaching, that the continuing discussion on this blog will focus.

1. It is important to realise that all human constructions placed on the Scriptures are created by flawed, limited human beings and though reflective of the truth in some measure cannot be said to be infallible.