Traditional dispensationalism denies the contemporary presence of Christ’s kingdom. Wayne House and Thomas Ice write that: “Whatever dynamic God has given believers today does not mean that the Messianic kingdom is here. We see it as totally future.” (H. Wayne House and Thomas D. Ice, Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse? [Portland, Ore.: Multnomah, 1988], 220.)
The dispensational view requires Christ’s physical presence on earth to rule over His kingdom. Dispensationalists do not accept the Reformed notion that Christ’s kingdom and kingship are both spiritual. They often complain: “You cannot have the kingdom present when the king is absent.” This argument has a persuasive impact upon first hearing. But an immediate problem with this statement is that Satan has an evil kingdom present (Matthew 12:26; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), even though he is only spiritually present (Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:12).
But a more serious problem is that Christ clearly taught that He established His kingdom when He came to earth. Let us survey some of the evidence.
In Mark 1:14-15, early in His ministry, Christ said: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” Notice that the prophetically decreed time had come; the kingdom was declared near at hand — not 2000 (or more!) years away. A little later in His ministry, as he exercised power over Satan, the Lord noted: “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you” (Matthew 12:28). And we know that He did cast out devils by the Spirit of God, so then by logical deduction Christ Himself declares that His kingdom has come.
Christ even prophesied that the kingdom coming with great power would be witnessed by His hearers: “And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1).
Dispensationalist Dr. Robert Thomas argues that it is necessarily required upon exegetes interpret the words of Scripture according to the standard of “normal usage.” So if one even uses Dr. Thomas’ own hermeneutic there seems no way around the fact that some who literally stood in Jesus’ presence would live (“not taste death”) until that time, although by that very expression it is implied that some would, in fact, taste death before that event. Consequently, Christ teaches that the kingdom’s coming “with power” would occur in that generation, even though it would be somewhat later than when Jesus spoke.
In Colossians 1:13 Paul writes of our present salvation: “He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” John agrees in Revelation 1:6-9: “And He hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. . . I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in the tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” In fact, we are now ruling with Christ, for Paul says in Ephesians 2:6: He “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (cp. Romans 6:5; 8:17: Colossians 2:13; 3:1-3; Revelation 20:4).
Dispensationalism distorts Christ’s teaching about the coming of His kingdom, which was the dramatic point of His entire ministry. In other words, a major reason for Christ’s first coming — to be gloriously enthroned as Messianic king (Isaiah 9:6,7; Luke 24:26: John 12:23; 17:5; 18:37; Acts 2:30-34; 1 Peter 1:11) — is lost in dispensationalism!
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
Jason said:
In other words, a major reason for Christ’s first coming — to be gloriously enthroned as Messianic king (Isaiah 9:6,7; Luke 24:26: John 12:23; 17:5; 18:37; Acts 2:30-34; 1 Peter 1:11) — is lost in dispensationalism!
Not on the “Progressive Dispensationalist”–we believe in the “Now” of the Davidic Kingdom, and the “Not Yet”–when He will physically express what He has spiritually inaugurated, i.e. the Davidic kingdom.
Jason,
when you say that the amil position is as simple as taking the apostles literally, I think you are over-simplifying. For example how did the apostles interpret Is. 2, or 11:11ff, or Ez. 37, etc.? They didn’t, so we’re left with an hermeneutic based solely on “inference”–inference on how they (apostles) “might” have interpreted those passages–but they never did. The amil position does not give an accounting for many of the OT prophetic passages (except by inference)–since it does not provide a robust hermeneutic that deals with the authorial intentionality of the other half of the Bible.