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Martyred for the Gospel

Martyred for the Gospel
The burning of Tharchbishop of Cant. D. Tho. Cranmer in the town dich at Oxford, with his hand first thrust into the fyre, wherwith he subscribed before. [Click on the picture to see Cranmer's last words.]

Daily Bible Verse

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Against Dispensationalism

4 comments:

Tim said...

Could one be a dispensationalist and a paedobaptist? Also, in your experience, how is dispensationalism viewed in the Anglican Church?

Charlie J. Ray said...

Dispensationalism is a mixed bag. Most Dispensationalists are credo-baptists. However, at one time the Reformed Episcopal Church was dispensationalist. In fact, W.H. Griffith Thomas, was a low church Anglican in Canada and a dispensationalist. His commentary on the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion is still used as a textbook in the REC seminaries.

Some dispensationalists like John MacArthur and maybe Erwin Lutzer (Moody Church Chicago) are also Calvinists. The problem is many dispensationalists are Amyraldians or even Arminian. The Christian Missionary Alliance, for example, is Arminian but also very dispensationalist.

The main problem with dispensationalism is that it imposes dispensations on the text that are not there. My preference is covenantal theology which recognizes the covenants that are actually described in the texts. Also, it is obvious to most Christians that there are two major covenants: the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

If one considers the decrees of God, one might say that there three dispensations in Scripture: Creation, Fall, and Redemption. However, this is not the same theology espoused by dispensationalists.

I personally oppose dispensationalism because it isn't strictly Scriptural. Some theonomists wrongly accuse most dispensationalists of antinomianism. However, I think this is not true of most dispensationalist though some might tend in that direction.

Peace,

Charlie

Charlie J. Ray said...

I forgot to mention that dispensationalism is not generally accepted in Anglicanism. W. H. Griffith Thomas is something of an anomaly.

Charlie J. Ray said...

BTW, I removed the link to the website in this video because I found out that it is operated by theonomists. Theonomy, like dispensationalism, is a theology that is read into Scripture and is unjustified.

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