Given the continued steady readership of last week's posts (August 6-13) on the controversy surrounding dispensationalism (per Tucker Carlson's recent podcast interview with evangelical pastor J.D. Hall on 'Christian Zionism'), I found this outtake from Richard Jordan at Shorewood Bible Church's 2018 summer Bible conference to be too apropos not to write up:
The (sent in) argument I like the most and the one that I think is the silliest: "So apparently no one was a Bible student until 1830. Dispensationalism originated in the 1800s. What evidence do you have that other people interpreted the text in that way prior to the 1800s?"
Well, the first answer is, "What evidence do you have that they didn't?" You know everybody that taught everything? Where do you think you and I are going to show up in the pages of church history? You think church history is going to have a blazing page: "BIBLE CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO IN 2018"?
You're not even going to be a little bitty blip of a footnote, because the people who write church history are Roman Catholics and Roman Catholic sympathizing Protestants and they don't put us in it.
Go read church history. God read contemporary church history from the last century, and if you get mentioned, you get mentioned with a "Ugh-eww."
Have you ever gone into church history and read about the "Paulicians" who started in about 600 and go to about 1200? I wrote an article in the Grace Journal about the Paulicians and I got letters from grace preachers and from college professors saying the Paulicians were heretics. That's what Rome said. They're in agreement with them; of course they weren't heretics.
Everything you know about the Paulicians come from their enemies. They said, "Oh, these dreaded Paulicians, they followed Paul and nobody else in the Bible."
Anybody said that about you? Well, you know, see. The Paulicians didn't worship relics, they didn't baptize, they didn't keep sacraments. I say, "Boy, who are those people, I need to know them; sounds like some people I . . ."
They said about them, "They didn't believe anything was inspired before Paul's epistles." Now, I've had people say that about me. It's not true, but you begin to realize, "Boy, there's some things going on . . ."
Pastor Bryan Ross did a study during our men's meeting about the Paulicians and you look at them and you think "Woah," and you begin to realize why the people writing church history didn't like them.
They were a key element of the preservation of God's Word through the Dark Ages. And you know who they were? They were little groups of people just like you and me all through that period of time that believed in salvation through grace plus nothing.
They had an understanding of the Bible dispensationally. They might not have had all the light that you and I have, but God help us if we don't stand on their shoulders and learn more than they knew. Shame on us if we don't.
But, you know, church history is not where you get this stuff. You know where it started? Paul. It started in your Bible.
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Now, I love this criticism: "Even dispensationalists like Dr. Thomas Ice readily admit that dispensationalism came about in the 1930s with John Nelson Darby. It's just a fact."
Now it is true that the use of the term "dispensationalism" really got popular approach in the 1930s with Darby, but what Darby did is just put a modern name to something that's gone on all through the Bible.
One of the most maligned, most misunderstood concepts in the church today is dispensationalism. Many abandoned it, used to be there, aren't there anymore. Others seek to redefine it in "progressiveness" and so forth.
You have people like R.C. Sproul who call it and label it "heresy." J.C. O'Hair's statement was right. When you abandon it, you see the results; the craziness that you get.
Look at Ephesians 3: [2] If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to youward:
[3] How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
[4] Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)I want you to understand how important it is what we do when we stand for God's Word "rightly divided." When we stand for the clarity of the distinctive ministry of the Apostle Paul, what people have identified as "Mid-Acts Dispensationalism."
I don't really like that term because Acts 9 is not "mid-Acts," but it's not Acts 2 and it's not Acts 28 and you want to be between those two things.
The point is, with the distinct ministry of the Apostle Paul, understanding that there came--listen, it's important to teach and understand and maintain that and we may be apparently small, but you don't know everybody who's out there.
We meet in our meetings constantly people we never heard of. A pastor just recently from out West (we never heard of him and he never heard of us) came to understand God's Word "rightly divided" and has a church where he's teaching right division and he just ran across one of our YouTube videos and saw, "Hey, there's somebody else teaching this stuff!"
A pastor down in Florida who led his Baptist church out of being Baptist, quit water baptizing, didn't know there was another soul in the world who did that and he did that based on studying Romans 6.
There are people out there that you don't know and I don't know--don't just think you know everything there is to know. God has His people.
Jesus Christ can take care of the Body of Christ. I'm glad I learned that years ago. It's not my job; my job is to take care of where I'm at in the Body, but the Body of Christ belongs to Him and He can take care of it and He does, thank God.
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Here's another post on the subject:
From the 6th century to the 12th century, there were followers of the Apostle Paul, i.e., preachers of Paul’s truth, who were completely unplugged from the religious system and dubbed by their enemies as “Paulicians.”
“They accused them of pretty much the exact same things they accuse us of, but the wonderful thing is it’s not about us; it’s His inheritance and we get to participate in what God’s has for Himself,” explained Richard Jordan in a Sunday morning sermon.
“If you just relax and see that, it will blow your mind. We’re ‘fellowheirs,’ equal participants in this inheritance in which God’s forming a spiritual body of Believers through whom the Lord Jesus Christ MANIFESTS Himself.
“We’re fellow partakers of His promise, meaning ALL that He’s planned to do in His Son, it’s ALL by the gospel, and that’s why Paul says in Romans 16:25, ‘Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.’
“Everything God does today is based upon the Crosswork of the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul says in Ephesians 3, ‘Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.’
“Paul says, ‘That’s what I’M made a minister of.’ Kind of an odd thing when you read through the passage is how Paul keeps returning to this PERSONAL issue.
“He talked about it back in verses 1 and 2. He addresses HIS place in this ministry, and how he’s been placed INTO the ministry of this great truth.
“Verses 7 and 8 are sort of like a personal moment for Paul. He’s talking about this great stuff and then he says, ‘And you know what He did? He made ME the one to tell people about it!’
“Paul writes, [8] Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
“When I read that, I go, ‘Wow, God took a proud, religious, scholarly, rabbinical rabbi and turned Him into a servant! You talk about a change of mind!’
“By the way, he didn’t say, ‘Unto me who am less than the least of all apostles.' He would never say that! In II Corinthians 12 Paul states, ‘I don’t come one whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles.’
“Paul would NEVER say that about his office. He said, ‘I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my office,’ meaning this POSITION Christ gave him to proclaim this new message. Paul never minimized that. Whenever he thought about himself, he had what he calls that ‘humility of mind,’ because he knew it wasn’t anything about him.
“In Philippians 3:4, Paul says, ‘[4] Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: [5] Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
[6] Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. [7] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
“Paul’s saying, ‘Listen, I can strut my stuff. I can be a high-minded rabbinical scholar and tell you all of my pedigree.’ But, he says, ‘I counted loss all those things that I could brag about--that I spent my life pursuing so that I could have status.’
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“He tells you in Galatians 1:14 that he ‘profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.’
“ ‘They were gain,’ he said, ‘but I counted them loss for Christ. I found something in the Lord Jesus Christ that was far more to be treasured than all those things.’ He says in Philippians 3:8, ‘Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.’
“When he says,‘Yea, doubtless, and I COUNT,’ he’s saying, ‘I didn’t just meet Christ on the Road to Damascus and realize, There’s reality! I’ve learned day by day to count all those things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffer the loss of all things.’
“When I read verse 8, I’m conscious of the fact we’re getting to look into the heart of the Apostle Paul here. That’s the only time he ever uses that terminology.
"The Lord Jesus Christ had captivated his heart, and when Paul got a good look at Him, it gave him a good look at himself, and he realized he had someone, not in himself, but in Christ, to treasure. He came away from there with a ‘humility of mind,’ as he calls it--a thinking process that could only say, ‘It’s not I, it’s Him.’
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“When he talks about being a minister, look at what he writes in I Corinthians 4: ‘1] Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
“Paul says, ‘When you think about me, don’t think about my pedigree, all my standing. Don’t go around telling people I got my Ph.D. at the feet of Gamaliel; tell them I’m a minister of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God.’
“The he writes, ‘Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.’ You see it doesn’t say ‘successful’? Doesn’t say ‘popular.’ It doesn’t say ‘the crowd’s hanging on my words.’ It says ‘faithful.’
“The ministry of Christ and the ‘steward of the mystery’ are two ways of describing the same thing. So, what’s a steward?
"In Luke 12:42 Jesus told a parable about a steward. It says, [42] And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?’
“Notice what a steward is. They don’t own anything. A steward is a servant of his master and he takes his master’s goods and gives it out to others. He’s not the owner, he’s not the boss. He takes the orders from the boss, the master, and goes and gives that . . . he doesn’t decide, ‘I think I’ll give you this, I like you better; I’ll give you that.’
“He says, ‘The master says you get this, and the master says you get that.’ He’s saying, ‘I’m just the guy handing out the stuff.’ That’s why he’s got to be faithful. He’s got to be faithful to what the master said.
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“I Thessalonians 2:4 says, [4] But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.
“He says, ‘I’ve been allowed of God.’ Grace is an underserved favor. Paul’s saying, ‘I’ve been given by God this undeserved privilege to preach this. I’ve been allowed of God to be put in trust; He’s taken His goods and entrusted them to me, and then I give them out as a wise steward. I’m just a minister. I’m just a servant. I’m just the pipeline. I’m not the issue; HE’S the issue! The message is the issue.’
“Ephesians 4: 7-8 says, [7] But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
[8] Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
“Paul’s not talking about salvation; he’s talking about his ministry that was given to him as a gift of grace. He’s saying there’s a ministry privilege that’s given to YOU and ME! Every one of us has this grace! We have the privilege of being part of a ministry of the truth of God.
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“In Galatians 2:9 Paul reports, [9] And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
“These men saw the special privilege given to Paul to preach this special message to the Gentiles. That’s what Galatians 2 is all about, by the way.
“Paul went to Jerusalem and communicated the gospel, which he was preaching among the Gentiles to the Jerusalem saints who didn’t know it. He brought them up-to-date and they PERCEIVED that unto Paul ‘who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.’
“There’s two ways to take the word ‘unsearchable.’ The word means ‘untraceable.’ When you can’t trace something, you can’t search it out. Jesus said, ‘Search the scriptures for they are they which testify of me.’
“Here’s a truth you can’t search the Scriptures and find. That’s interesting. But when it’s unsearchable, it means you can’t find it; it’s too wide, too deep; it’s too broad. You go on down in chapter 3 and it says it ‘passes understanding.’ You can’t get your mind around . . . He prays that you’d comprehend it because it’s just so big. It’s as big as God.
“Paul says, ‘I’ve got this message and I’ve been given the privilege of preaching it,’ and that changed his whole thinking process.’ ”