Why Dispensationalism is not Consistent with Calvinism:
It has been rightly said that Covenant Theology flows from the trinitarian life and work of God. God’s covenant communion with us is modeled on and a reflection of the intra-trinitarian relationships. The shared life, the fellowship of the persons of the Holy Trinity, what theologians call perichoresis or circumincessio, is the archetype of the relationship the gracious covenant God shares with His elect and redeemed people. God’s commitments in the eternal covenant of redemptive find space-time realization in the covenant of grace. [1. J. Ligon Duncan III, PhD, Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS.]
Any theological system that does not flow from the life and nature of God is illegitimate because it is man-centered. For example, notice how that much of what happens within the Dispensational system of theology is predicated on what man does and not who God is.
Tweet
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.
My pastor is Calvinistic but also dispensational. What’s a good way to introduce him to covenant theology?
I have notice that the first thing that pastors do when they are confronted with CT is to stop studying the writings of CT’ers and begin reading the critiques of CT written by Dispy’s. It is a terrible thing because it is the “poison the well” with false information before someone has time to really understand.
So, Doug, be careful. Find out if your pastor already respects a certain author or preacher who is CT, but they like him for other reasons. For example, he may like Mark Dever because of a variety of reasons but doesn’t realize that Dever is CT. Or maybe he likes Dr. Samuel E. Waldron. If your pastor is Baptist, it would probably be easier if you avoid Presbyterians at first so that you don’t have to deal with the who paedobaptism error of Presbyterianism.
Once you find that author/preacher, then ask your pastor to consider studying that man’s CT. Ask your pastor to not read the Dispensational websites that attack CT and give it a fair chance. If you get that far, let me know and we will go from there.
Excellent! This is perhaps the best summation of what’s wrong with Dispensationalism.
Jason, is this quote from Duncan part of a longer article? If so, do you have a link or source? Thanks!
I believe this quote can be found in this series of lectures.
Here are some questions: when Christ died on the Cross did he die for anyone in particular? Who? The elect? Who is that: is it Israel or the Church? If these two are not the same then what is your definition of the elect and is it unconditional? If these two are the same and election is unconditional then welcome to Calvinism and realize there is no way that Dispensationalism is consistently Calvinistic.
Furthermore, if God’s grace is irresistible and effectual then what is this talk of Israel being replaced by the Church like Dispensationalism teaches. It seems to me from reading John 6 and the Book of Acts that all True Israelites come into the fold just like all elect Gentile. Maybe this is what Paul meant in the first few chapters of Romans, whether you have the law or not, salvation is still by grace. Welcome to Calvinism; say goodbye to any theological system that teaches that God’s grace has been rejected by His chosen people. Such theology makes man sovereign.
Would it not be easier to say that Jesus is the True Israel, the only son of God and all those found in Him are a part of true Israel which is the Church for all time including the saints of Hebrews 11 and all who trust God in the same way, trusting in God’s promises to redeem and that that redeemer is Jesus who is the Christ? And that after Christ came we now have the privilege of worshiping the Messiah by name. Jesus!
Chris, that was well said.
Jeremy, I am grateful that you follow FIDE-O. Blogging here has been a true blessing, allowing me the venue to work through my theological studies in an environment that keeps me challenged and honest.
I was a Dispy for most of my life, including nearly twenty years of ministry. I was never “caught up” in all of the end times frenzy that so many are caught up in, but I preached the same type of sermons everybody else did. For a long time, my sermon series through the Book of Revelation was posted on Sermonaudio — it was identical to Dr. MacArthur’s because I relied heavily on the same sources as he does (e.g. Robert Thomas).
But there came a time in my studies that I left Dispensationalism, studied Amil, and became solid Postmil. It was a difficult journey, but worth everything.
Concering Romans 11, I have written some on it on the original FIDE-O, and have studied it even more since those days. Soon (and very soon) I will post my undated notes on this text.
My belief is that the pre-trib rapture is a fantasy and that the historic view of the Church is that we will go through the tribulation.More than that, I believe that is what Scripture teaches us.My need at the moment is for an analysis of the dispensational teaching of “rightly dividing the word”.Where they decide that certain of the Gospels are for Isreal and not the church,and so carve up scripture to suit their assumptions.
Dispensationalism is totally based upon the believe that God’s elect is divided between elect Jews and elect Gentiles. Dispy ignores the fact the both Christ and the Apostle Paul addressed this issue and explained that there is no distinction. (See Gospel of John, Acts, Romans, and Galatians)
Furthermore, Dispy then divides Israel according Jews who lived during the times of the Old Testament and Jews who are in the Church (for proof see Scott C.’s comments above). So if you are following closely the elect is divided into OT Jews, Jews in the Church and Gentiles Church.
Then Dispys take the promises of God and divide them between the three groups.
I contend that all of this is inconsistent with Calvinism that affirms that God has one united elect, unconditionally elected, all of whom are in Christ as members of His body (also called the Church), effectually called, and none of them have been lost or ever will be lost.
Done (go here) and I will be moving a lot of those old articles here to the new site.