DISPENSATIONAL PREMILLENNIALISM
PART I - The Land Promise

There is probably no area of the Bible study that is receiving as much attention today as is the area of eschatology. Eschatology is simply the study of end times - what is going to happen when the Lord Jesus Christ returns. You do not have to listen to religious broadcasting very long, either television or radio, before you will hear something about the Lord's return. There are entire ministries today that are set up and based upon a particular view of what will happen surrounding the return of Christ. I would like to deal with the view that is currently receiving the most attention, the view that it seems just about everybody is talking about and in which entire denominations have been caught up. I would like to discuss Dispensational Premillennialism.

First, let's define "Dispensational Premillennialism." What does this doctrine teaches? Look at the term itself What makes Dispensational Premillennialism "Dispensational" is the view that there will be seven periods of history in the existence of man when time is finally completed on earth. These periods are innocency, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, and the kingdom. According to the theory, we are now in the sixth dispensation, or the dispensation of grace. In the next and final dispensation, the kingdom of God will be established on earth and Christ will reign in Jerusalem on the throne of David for 1,000 years.

Premillennialism is a word that is derived from two Latin words. There is the prefix "pre" which means "before," and the root word "millennium" which means "1,000." So the idea is that Jesus will return to earth before He begins a literal 1,000-year reign. After this 1,000-year reign on earth by Jesus, the saints will go to heaven for eternity with Him, and the wicked will be consigned to an eternity in hell.

The theory is arrived at in the following manner. It begins with the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12. God promised Abraham that his descendants (the Jews) would inherit the land known as Palestine and that it would belong to them forever. The Dispensational Premillennialists teach that this promise was never fulfilled and that the Jews will be nationally restored to their land. They teach that the Old Testament prophecies concerning the blessings to be bestowed upon physical Israel would have been fulfilled at the first coming of the Lord if the Jews had not rejected and crucified Him. However, their rejection of the Lord made a postponement of the prophetic fulfillment necessary until the Second Coming. Some of these folks have even gone so far as to say that the prophetic clock quit ticking when Jesus was rejected by the Jews, and that it will not start again until about seven years before the Lord's return. They make a rigid distinction between the church age (in which we are now living, also called the dispensation of grace) and the millennia] kingdom age, which will not begin until the Lord returns. They say that none of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the kingdom have anything to do with the church.

In addition, it is taught by those who hold to this theory that during the dispensation of grace - and again, according to the theory that is what we are in now - two things will begin to happen. The Jews will begin to gather in Palestine and the Jewish temple will be rebuilt, or at least start to be rebuilt. At the end of the grace dispensation signs will begin to appear that will indicate that the rapture of the saints is near. These are sometimes referred to as the "signs of the times," and Matthew 24 is used by them as the primary proof-text. They believe that there will be wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, and all kinds of social unrest, all of which will happen to an unusually great degree.

Now, we mentioned the rapture, and here is what that is supposed to be. Dispensational Premillennialists teach that there will be a seven-year period of terrible tribulation on earth at the end of the grace dispensation. It will be so bad that Jesus will take the saints off of the earth so that they will not have to suffer through it. This process of being caught up to meet the Lord is called the "rapture," which is the Latin term for "caught up" found in I Thessalonians 4:17. This rapture will take place at the "presence" of the Lord, His "parousia" when He comes for His saints (consisting of the church and the righteous dead). This is all supposed to occur immediately before the tribulation.

During this period of tribulation the gospel is to be spread throughout the world, and at the end of the seven years there will be a great battle between the forces of Satan and the forces of righteousness. According to the theory this will be an actual, physical battle called Armageddon. The Dispensational Premillennialists theorize that during the battle of Armageddon, Jesus will return to the earth in flaming fire with His saints (this is His revelation, the epiphany), and He will destroy the forces of Satan. Our Lord's feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives. Then Satan will be bound and the millennial reign will begin with the Lord reigning in the literal city of Jerusalem, sitting on the literal throne of David, ruling over a physical, earthly kingdom.

I need to also mention that the period of tribulation will be marked by two separate and distinct resurrections. At the rapture there is the general resurrection of the righteous. At the revelation of Christ (the end of the tribulation), there will be a resurrection of what they call "the tribulation saints." These will be the people who were converted during the tribulation period and who died before the Lord's epiphany. Also during this tribulation period, the Anti-Christ shall be revealed.

This is the theory of Dispensational Premillennialism in a nutshell. We will be looking at certain major tenets of this theory. We will look at the Land Promise. We will look at the kingdom in prophecy and its nature. We will discuss the "throne of David," the Rapture, and certain consequences of this theory that I don't believe most who hold it have ever really considered.

Let's turn our attention to the Land Promise - a promise that the Dispensational Premillennialists say has never been fulfilled and has a future fulfillment. The original promise is found in Genesis 12:6-7. There we read, "And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him."

Move now just one chapter over, to Genesis 13:14-15, where it says, "And the Lord said onto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seeest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever."

Continuing on tracing this promise, let's go to Genesis 1:15-18. There we find, "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." We go now to another statement of the Land Promise in Genesis 17:7- 8. There the Bible tells us, "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." And then finally, Exodus 6:4 & 8. Verse 4 says, "And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers." Verse 8 reads as follows, "And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord." That then is the promise made to Abraham and to his seed concerning the possession of the land of Palestine. For Dispensational Premillennialism to be true, this promise cannot have been fulfilled. We have to ask these questions: 1. Was this promise fulfilled? 2. If it was, when did the fulfillment occur? 3. Was the continued possession of the land by the Jews conditional or unconditional?

The promise made to Abraham was not fulfilled immediately. There was a great deal that took place between the giving of the promise and its fulfillment. The children of Israel would eventually settle in Egypt through the work of Joseph and at the invitation of Pharaoh. After a time a new Pharaoh came to the throne who did not know Joseph or the works that he had done for Egypt. He placed the children of Israel under cruel and harsh bondage. God heard the cry of His people and delivered them from the Egyptian bondage under the leadership of Moses, who would eventually bring them to the boundaries of the Promised Land. Moses himself was not permitted to enter into the land, but Joshua, the leader of the people after Moses, was. He led the conquest of the Promised Land, and after numerous battles with inhabitants of the land, Joshua wrote the following in Joshua 21:43-45, "And the Lord gave unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he swore unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." All that God had promised had come to pass. The Dispensational Premillennialists must say that that promise was never fulfilled. Joshua, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, "There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." The question is, "Which do we believe?"

For those who still might not be convinced, look at Nehemiah 9:7-8. He wrote, again under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "Thou art the Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous." What did Nehemiah say? He said that God had performed his covenant related to the land. Now, how can that be, if what the Dispensational Premillennialists say is true? One of them is wrong, and it is not Nehemiah.

Was the continued keeping of the land conditional or not? The Dispensational Premillennialist has to say that the keeping of the land was unconditional. But what does the Bible say? Let's go back to Joshua, this time chapter 23, and read verses 11-16. The passage says, "Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you. And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one good thing bath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing bath failed thereof Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God bath given you. When ye have transgressed the covenant of the Lord you God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them: then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you."

Friends, if that is not a condition, then I don't know what is. Obey, remain separate from the heathen people among you, or you will perish from off this good land. This is a condition that makes the land promise conditional.

Interestingly enough, we read in 2 Samuel 8:3 of David "recovering his border at the river Euphrates." In 2 Kings 14:25, "He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain..." You have to wonder how he could recover and restore things which, according to Dispensational Premillennialism, were never possessed in the first place. The "recovering" of the land was not a fulfillment of the promise; Israel had already inherited and possessed the land. It was because they did not fulfill the conditions that a "recovering" was necessary at any time.

The land promise has been fulfilled. Do not be deceived and confused by those who would tell you that its fulfillment is yet in the future. The Bible says, "There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass."

Dispensational Premillennialism - Part 2