Does that mean you're leaving us? I'll miss you.
No, this means that while a believer is still alive, they have an opportunity to return to God on His grounds and study from the pastor-teacher with a spiritual gift to communicate the Word of God to that believer. Then for the believer to receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their human spirit while in fellowship with Him, so that the Word becomes gnosis in their mind, and again through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that same gnosis becomes epignosis in their heart. While remaining filled with the Holy Spirit, and circulating the Word of God through their consciousness the believer will be better equipped to handle problems in life without becoming frustrated and remain in fellowship with Him in all things.
The doctrine of the Rapture is for mature believers, not for those still developing in the basics. If a believer hasn’t mastered the ability to respect the volition of his fellow believers who are in fellowship with God through faith in Christ, then there are strong indicators that other obstacles are in the believer’s life which need to be addressed before advancing to eschatology, although for each believer God still has a plan for particular development.
Lewis Sperry Chafer is identified with dispensationalism.
He was President of Dallas Theological Seminary and Professor of Systematic Theology at the same institution. Prior to founding that seminary, he had graduated from Auborn Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian/Congregational institution in New York.
Lewis was an interim pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Lewiston, New York and later begun a 2-yr ministry as assistant pastor of the First Congregationalist Church of Buffalo and formal ordination as minister in the Congregational Church in April of 1900.
By 1909, Chafer was president of the Southland Bible Conferences after years of association with both Northfield and Southland Conferences. These welcomed a number of prominent evangelists such as G. Campbell Morgan, F. B. Meyer, A. C. Gaebelei (another highly recommended author of some outstanding studies), James M. Gray, and W. H. Griffith Thomas.
Chafer then associated with Cyrus Ingerson Scofield. Pastor of Trinitarian Congregational Church, Scofield was pastor of Moody’s church in Northfield. In 1906 he left the Congregationalist community, joining the Troy Presbytery, Synod of New York, Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1913, he assisted Scofield in founding the Philidelphia School of the Bible. He joined the Orange Presbytery of the Presbyterian Chruch (U.S.A.) in 1912 and published fro 1906 -1921 at least 6 major theological texts.
Chafer moved to Dallas, Texas in 1922 following Scofield’s declining health and assumed his duties as pastor of the First Congregationalist Church, which had been founded in 1882 by Scofield. He further became the general secretary of the Central American Mission, a missionary society founded by Scofield in 1890. He transferred his ministerial credentials to the Dallas Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1923.
Chafer founded the Evangelical Theological College (later Dallas Theological Seminary) in 1923 and served as its president and professor of systematic theology until his death in 1952.
(Sidenote: it is interesting to note that during this period, the US is probably best observed as a client-nation to God throughout the world, and began declining about 2 decades after Chafer’s death, carrying the to victory the world system of government in two major world wars, and then declining after his death.)
Both Scofield’s Reference Bible and Chafer’s Systematic Theology are considered basics of dispensational perspectives in theology.
Chafer’s theology is associated with three diverse traditions. Augustianism, Keswick Theology, and (Plymoth) Brethrenism. Chafer’s systemics is Reformed or Calvinistic in soteriology and antropology.
His major legacy is his emphasis on the centrality of Christ and the grace of God. The motto of the seminary he founded was “Preach the Word” (2Tim 2:2)
Now consider the theme of this thread. The original article and comments posted allege ‘dispensationalism’ is not Scriptural. It goes further to imply postmillenialism is the only possible true interpretation of Scripture. It also attempts to associate all reformed theology to only acknowledge postmillenialism as sound doctrine.
Which really leaves one to wonder, where has the Presbyterian Church been for a century when it so richly associated with premillenialism, only to disassociate itself with it after the death of Scofield and Chafer. Of course, maybe the entire Reformed Church is more influenced by a csomic system of worldly control rather than devotion to truth through faith in Christ, when for over a century it has been unable to come forth so rigorously in opposition to what they now percieve to be blasphemy.
Interestingly, the same heretics they now disavow, are the same pastors who lead the US in its status as clint nation to God for half a century, and endured victoriously in two World Wars.
Isn’t it interesting that the same opponents to Dispensationalism now prefer to pay homage to the Pope of Geneva who murdered his opponents, rather than simply place faith in God’s Grace, which is the major theme of the leader in dispensational though they so quickly disdain?