Dispensationalism

What is dispensationalism? It is defined in one of our favorite verses 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.” It is rightly dividing the word of truth. Part of rightly dividing the word of truth is to know who is speaking, who is being spoken to, what is the context of the scripture and does the scripture apply to everyone or a subset of people.

Hyper/Ultra dispensationalism takes dividing the Bible to the extreme. In simple terms, anything that Paul did not write does not apply to the church and therefore is almost irrelevant. The flip side to this is not believing in any dispensationalism which means everything in the Bible was written to everyone and applies to everyone. Both views do not lead to the truth. Correct dispensationalism is required to understand scripture which for ease of conversation is somewhere in the middle.

A good illustration of correct dispensationalism was discussed in our podcast on the Law. The Law was in the Old Testament. As we discussed, the morality of the Law applies to everyone which includes the church. Paul did not write any of the Old Testament. However, Paul often quotes it which validates its relevance. Another illustration is Matthew 17:20 “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” This verse is often misused. Jesus was only talking to his disciples. He was referencing the power they (and only they) had if they had the faith to exercise their power. This verse is not talking to the church and is not meant to show how little faith we all have because we cannot move a spoon in the name of Jesus let alone a mountain. However, when this verse is preached, it is done in such a way that people question their faith and salvation. We can all have greater faith but I believe to be saved, it takes more than the faith of a grain of a mustard seed. Therefore, as Christians, our faith is greater but we are not moving any mountains by talking to them.

Let us take a more extreme example. I am confident that almost every Christian would say that what Jesus did and said was important and much of it would apply to them. That being said, Jesus never spoke to the church during his ministry. The church didn’t exist in his time on earth. Does that mean the church doesn’t have to listen to Jesus? Of course not. It is important however to understand the context of what He says and with whom He is speaking as in the illustration above.

Many pastors view the term dispensationalism in a negative way although they utilize it a great deal. Christians will use dispensationalism to say parts of the Bible do not apply to them. Although this is true, it is not true for many of the excuses I have heard for not doing something the Bible clearly says to do. Also, people that want to say the Bible has errors or contradictions will say dispensationalism is used only to disprove the discrepancy.

Who said what to whom and in what context is extremely important if we are to understand the Bible. We are told to rightly divide the word of truth. To do this, some level of dispensationalism is required.