Dispensationalism

Reposted from The Cripplegate.

Here are three reasons why I teach that Christians are not under the Sabbath law of the Old Testament, and that it is unwise to call Sunday “the Christian Sabbath.”

Posted with permission from Dispensational Publishing House.

One of the wonderful privileges that I have in my role with Dispensational Publishing House is the opportunity to interact with great Bible teachers, pastors and other authors. One such man is Dr. Robert Lightner. I have heard of him for many years, as he was a seminary professor to my own teachers, and I was also acquainted with the wealth of his written materials. We share a common heritage in the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. I am so grateful for the faithful testimony of this man over many decades. And I am pleased to announce that Dispensational Publishing House will be publishing two new books from him: Christ: His Church, His Cross, His Crown and Heaven and Hell. How blessed we are to introduce him to you here, first, in this interview article, where we are able to profit from Dr. Lightner’s observations regarding dispensational theology across the decades of his ministry.

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:32)

Dr. Robert Lightner has been a fixture at Dallas Theological Seminary for nearly 50 years. Doubtless like many of his own students, he traces his understanding of dispensational theology to some very influential professors.

This is a small excerpt from an article by Gordon Fee, “Preaching Apocolypse? You’ve Got to be Kidding Me!?” in Calvin Theological Journal 41 (2006).

From Dispensational Publishing House; used with permission.

Last time, we began this series by considering the difference between dispensational and covenantal theology. We thought about some basic things that we must understand in order to deal properly with that issue. We begin this article with a brief review.

Covenantalism in a Nutshell

The terms covenantal and Reformed are often used interchangeably. There are dispensationalists who speak of being Reformed, yet the way they use the term Reformed is in respect to salvation, referring to the doctrines of grace. Another might refer to himself as a Calvinist-dispensationalist, but this is a rather awkward phrase, since Calvinism is typically used in the discipline of soteriology, not eschatology. This designation would be used to refer to men like John MacArthur and faculty from his school, The Master’s University,¹ and others who have embraced the doctrines of grace and who apply a consistently literal hermeneutic, especially in the prophets, while not reading Jesus into every Old Testament verse or giving the New Testament priority.²