Monday, May 2, 2011

Dissing dispensationalism

Shalom.  Last month’s blog on KJV Facts was such fun that I’d like to fact-find another matter, dispensationalism.  Also called replacement theology, dispensationalism is the relatively new doctrine of the law either having been done away with by the death and resurrection of Yahushua or being something just for the Jews.  Since I briefly touched on how He didn’t come to annul His Father’s Torah in my blogs on James and Galatians recently, I’ll only answer a couple of the most common objections.  Firstly, this sentence at the end of Mark 7:19 saying “And thus He declared all food clean” was added at a much later time and some translations even admit this in their footnotes.  Secondly, the three sheets of unclean animals in Kepha’s Acts 10 dream represent three Gentile converts that soon come to visit him as he explains himself later.  Now moving on…    

Exodus 12:49: “One law shall be to him that is native, and to the stranger that sojourns among you”.  Who is being spoken of here?  Israel (more accurately Yisrael).  So who then is Israel?  Israel is a country in the Middle East and so much more, it’s the nation (people group) that Yahuah chose to covenant with.  There are Israelites all over the world, not to be confused with Israelis; those who are born in the land of Israel.  Israel consists of twelve tribes, the Jews being but one.  In other words, all Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are Jews.  Since the letter J is barely 500 years old, the actual term for them is Yahudim, from the tribe of Yahudah or “Judah”.  I personally believe in the two house teaching, that most former Gentiles are either engrafting into Israel or returning ancestors of the Israelites who were dispersed across the earth during the Assyrian raids of 722 BC.  Only the southern tribes remained, Yahudah and Benyamin.  These are historical facts, not theories or errors.  Yah has repeatedly promised His prophets to exile/restore these lost Israelites to their covenant (Isaiah 11-49, Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 4-37), thus we have the true Messianic/Nazarene Israelite movement taking its hold.  There’s only one way for all believers to live, it’s Torah and not Noahide Laws. 

If that’s just a little too “Old Testament” then don’t worry, the lost sheep of Israel are also alluded to in the gospels (Matthew 15 and John 10).  People hear that the two house teaching is a controversial thing, which is due to the false doctrines that various extremists seek to attach to it.  Some like to claim that their long-lost Israelite blood will be what saves them, in which case the Messiah died in vain; heresy indeed.  Others like to solely lay claim to being these lost Israelites, shutting out everyone else.  Mormons, Black Israelite and White Ephraimite groups would be the main examples.  This is elitist at best and racist at worst, and has no place in the law.  I think it would be cool if I found out I had some Israelite ancestry in my heritage, but that’s all it would be.  He mercifully accepts all who repent and we don’t need the approval of a “rabbi” or their congregation.

Often times when I try to explain my beliefs to others I’m asked if I’m somehow “trying to be a Jew.”  Sigh, a Messianic can be a Jew who finds Yahushua but also a Gentile who finds His Torah.  It’s a harsh reality, but it’s the twelve tribes of Israel that will have gates into the coming kingdom and not the twelve denominations of dispensationalism as we read in Revelation 21:12: “And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.”  Nowhere in Scriptures is Israel replaced with some new entity called the “Church”, and all promises made to Israel by the Master are still valid.  The goal as outlined in Romans 11 is to engraft into Israel if we’re not already and many people say they understand this, just as long as you don’t remind them that being in the family of Israel includes obeying the family rules.  If you do then you may be told that they’re “spiritual Israelites”.  Sounds good on the surface but no such thing exists in Scripture, we’re either Israelites or we’re not.  The prodigal son is returning to Elohim after some lawless living and wasted riches.  At any rate, here are some facts our dispensationalist friends won’t dig.  Oh well, the truth can only set us free.  Let’s begin:


The early church father Marcion was so anti-Semitic that he wanted to do away with all things Jewish and even wanted to have a “Christian Bible” made up.  Fortunately his contemporaries disagreed and the idea received minor attention before dying out.

It wasn’t until the 1800’s that John Darby of the Plymouth Brethren picked up on Marcionism and expounded on it, thus garnering the title “Father of dispensationalism”.

In 1827 he came up with the “secret rapture” doctrine, being that there would be two second comings.  This was challenged, so he came to “new revelation” that the only way it could work was if the Scriptures were divided into categories for Jews and Christians.

He used 2 Timothy 2:15 as his justification: “Study to show yourself approved by Yahuah, a worker that needs not to be ashamed; rightly dividing the word of truth”.

If Darby was the father of it, then surely Mr. Scofield was dispensationalism’s agent.  He claimed that the Our Father in Matthew 6 was a Jewish prayer that shouldn’t be recited by Christians.  Odd, seeing as Judaism doesn’t recognize the Renewed Testament.

It was his 1909 publication of the Scofield Reference Bible that carried the message to people in a way that made it popular.  It too was challenged, sadly to no effect though.


- For more info on the 2 house teaching please see http://www.1shepherd1flock.webs.com/ and http://thismessage.webstarts.com/ .