Thank you for sharing your experience. I too for many years took Dispensationalism and pretribulationism as unchallengeable Gospel truth. Then I finally looked at the biblical passages objectively and concluded that it had no basis in Scripture.
A quarter of a century ago I would dismiss any criticisms of Dispensationalism as ignorance of true biblical teaching. Lest anyone dismiss me as “not properly grounded in Scripture” I might mention that I have an earned doctorate in theology, have taught on the college level, and have published writings on the subject.
I advise anyone seriously interested in biblical prophecy to clear their bookshelves of the sensationalist prophecy books and take an unbiased look at what the Bible actually says.
Thank you. I wasn't my personal experience, though, it was that of Don Matzat, a Luthern pastor.
"I advise anyone seriously interested in biblical prophecy to clear their bookshelves of the sensationalist prophecy books and take an unbiased look at what the Bible actually says."
I agree. For instance: [...] Daniel 7:13-14: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
With this passage we return to the main subject of our eschatology project. We know that the Son of Man envisioned here is Christ.
What should be especially noted for our purposes is the Son of Man's mode of transportation, and the direction he is going in.
The Son of Man is riding with "the clouds of heaven" (the LXX has the Son of Man actually "on" the clouds) and heading towards the Ancient of Days to be enthroned.
[...]
Daniel 7:27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
We believe that this refers to the established rule of Christ in 70 AD and will address this matter, again, in our Olivet study.
With this Daniel 7 comes to a close, but there are a few more verses we need to consider. Our study continues in Daniel 9, with part of the "70 weeks" prophecy. Daniel 9:24-27 is of concern:
[....]
The dispensational paradigm holds that this 70th week is on hold until a future time called the Tribulation. I disagree. ...
..Gerhard Hasel in a study for Andrews University Seminary Studies titled "The Hebrew Masculine Plural For 'Weeks'..." notes that the grammar of the verse is done in a way that is "purposeful and by design so as to stress the unitary whole, the totality, and the completeness" of the 70 week block. The weeks "cannot be split apart in such a way as to separate the final 'one week' " as dispensationalists require. [....]