"And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ' These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: "I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. "Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 'Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Revelation 2:13-16
The Word of God tells us that God hates man made doctrines such as the doctrine of Nicolaitans and the doctrine of dispensationalism. One of the main problems with dispensationalism is that it permits its adherents to interpret the writings of Paul in opposition to the commandments of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, for the Gospels only apply to the Kingdom, and the writings of Paul "the Gospel of Grace" apply to the Church. This is why when you try to discuss the Scriptures with those in the modern sects, they are either bewildered by the commandments of Jesus Christ in the Gospels or they simply dismiss them as irrelevant.
This rejection of the commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels as irrelevant to the church permits the dispensationalist to claim that apostles, prophets, gifts of the Spirit including miracles and tongues have ceased to exist. Many have rejected the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements on dispensational grounds. That is, they believed that the gifts of the Holy Spirit passed away in the first century, during that dispensation of time after all the original apostles were gone. Pentecostals and charismatics have battled this dispensational theology, saying that the gifts were not just for an early dispensation in the church, but for us today. However, having their own form of dispensational theology, many of these same Pentecostals and charismatics reject preterism (covenant theology) and the understanding that we are living in the kingdom of God today. They say that the kingdom is for a future dispensation and not now. Their current form of dispensationalism places us in a parenthetical church age that will end when Jesus returns and brings in the kingdom.
We’ve been empowered by the Holy Spirit to experience His supernatural transformation of people’s lives, cultures, and nations. The gifts of the Spirit (tongues, prophesy, divine healing, etc.) have been given to us for practical victorious living in Christ. Preterists and dispensationalists need to open up to the Holy Spirit’s supernatural working and His giftings for people today in order to practically live out the kingdom we preach and change our culture. Only by the supernatural direction and experience of God’s Holy Spirit can we fulfill our calling in this “world without end.”
The dispensational teaching in the Left Behind books has made many rich. Most television and radio preachers today are proclaiming some form of dispensationalism but many are breaking free from this erroneous doctrine. While there are many different versions of Dispensationalism, it generally proposes the work of God is divided into "dispensations" with respect to time and claiming that God changed something in dealing with men. To quote the New Scofield Reference Bible, a Bible version whose erroneous translation promotes dispensationalism:
The purpose of each dispensation, then, is to place man under a specific rule of conduct, but such stewardship is not a condition of salvation. In every past dispensation unregenerate man has failed, and he has failed in this present dispensation and will in the future. But salvation has been and will continue to be available to him by God's grace through faith.
Dr. C. I. Scofield, one of the most influential proponents of dispensationalism, defined a dispensation as “a period of time during which man is tested in respect to obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.” Scofield categorized the dispensations as Innocence, Conscience, Human Government, Promise, Law, Grace, and Kingdom. He claimed that we are presently in the church age of Grace, and we will go into the Kingdom age after the second coming of Christ. Dispensationalism denies that the spiritual identity of Israel is the Church, and it tends to set “Grace” and “Law” against each other as mutually exclusive principles. It was a very erroneous system of Bible interpretation. The dispensations that supposedly applied to our time were:
The Kingdom. This dispensation begins with Christ's public ministry and ends with either His Resurrection or Pentecost. The rule of conduct in the kingdom dispensation is defined as the "Gospel of the Kingdom."
The Church. This dispensation begins with Pentecost and ends with an event that the dispensationalists refer to as "the rapture" The rule of conduct for the church dispensation is defined as another gospel - "the gospel of grace."
The Kingdom Restored. This dispensation is a continuation of the kingdom dispensation. It begins with "the rapture" and after the second coming of Jesus Christ; he will establish an earthly kingdom, which will be eternal. Apparently, this return of the kingdom dispensation is necessary to keep the dispensationalism teachings even remotely consistent with the Sacred Scriptures.
With the establishment of Israel as a nation on May 14, 1948, dispensationalists taught that there would be only one more generation of the Church. God would rapture it out and the tribulation would begin, according to their view of Matthew 24:34. All this was to occur within one forty year "generation." While dispensationalists have never agreed among themselves as to whether the rapture was to be partial, pre-tribulational, mid-trib, or post-trib, time has proven them all to be wrong. The year 1988 ended with an awkward silence from their scholars. If Israel was "God's prophetic clock," then dispensationalists did not know how to tell time. Yet God’s word is unchanging:
As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God." Romans 9:25-26
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: Behold…I will make a new covenant…(Heb. 8:7-8).
The culmination of God’s divorce with old covenant Israel as a nation was prophesied again by Jesus in Matthew chapters 21-24. He stated His generation would see the finalization of the divorce in the destruction of the Jewish temple forever and the end of its old covenant ways (Matt. 24:2, 14, 34). That prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD when the Roman army took Jerusalem, destroyed its temple, and ended the Jewish religion of sacrifices and offerings. Simply said, the significance of the old covenant nation of Israel was destroyed forever, and the nation that currently exists in the Middle East is a non-biblical nation. It is no longer connected to Bible prophecy!
The good news is that God has remarried the new covenant spiritual Israel, His church. (Rev. 19:7, 9, 22:17). The church is the nation that is fulfilling Bible prophecy today as a “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). She is the bride of Christ and has the laws of God written in her heart and mind. She has inherited all the promises that God made to Israel. God’s Holy Spirit dwells in her to cause her to always be faithful to Him (Ezek. 36:25-27). To all who are in the Middle East, and to all who are not in the Middle East, “the Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come! God’s word is unchanging:
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. Titus 2:11-15
Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God." And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still." "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
"I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star." And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:8-17
WALTER KAMBULOW
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