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That God uses the church to teach does not negate that the actually understanding comes from the spirit-filled life. Those that walk according to the Spirit are taught by the Spirit. He can use Scripture. He can use the church. But it is His work, not the church's.

You make it sound like it's an either/or situation. It's not.

I see. Guess the Reformers are in the same boat then.

A silly argument. You took my sentence out of the context of the rest of my point, which you insufficiently answered with this:

You show no respect for our ability to do our own research. I am a dispensationalist because I see it is scripture, not because Clarence Larkin taught it.

But you didn't come up with the dispensations on your own. You didn't read the Bible from cover to cover and say, "Hey! This is how God has dispensed His Grace to His Chosen people over the years! This is how He has fulfilled His promises! Wow! This is how God has revealed His millenial kingdom! Here is the rapture and here is how and when it's going to happen!"

The point is, neither you nor any other dispensationalist make up dispensationalism on your own. You affirm what you learn from dispensational scholars as you see fit. If not, if you did it all on your own, you ought to write a book.

There is no doubt what our church believes and teaches. It is Calvinistic but evangelistic.

A simple statement that makes me wonder if you do know what your church believes and teaches, because it's obvious you don't know Calvinism. "Calvinistic but evangelistic" makes no sense. Calvinism is evangelistic.

Try this - argue the Scripture with me. I don't look to those folks as authorities for my belief. So why would you point to them?

So, we're arguing with a privately held interpretation that may or may not be in tune with any church teachings. OK, fine, I can do that, but do me a favor... start the conversation. You haven't wrote a book yet (that I know of) to refer to.

Me:That God uses the church to teach does not negate that the actually understanding comes from the spirit-filled life. Those that walk according to the Spirit are taught by the Spirit. He can use Scripture. He can use the church. But it is His work, not the church's.

Raynearhood: You make it sound like it's an either/or situation. It's not.

Uh, yes it is. Either it is the teaching of the Spirit or it is not. The Spirit can teach through the church, but the church can not hope to maintain solid doctrinal teaching without the work of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is not truly understood outside of the Spirit's work. It is HIS work!

A silly argument.
I didn't think so. It just showed the absurdness of your point.

But you didn't come up with the dispensations on your own.
No. And truthfully, I am not sitting here stewing over how many dispensations there are. It is not central to my belief. I know that there was an age prior to Christ's coming where God interacted with man a little different. Salvation was the same, by grace through faith. But, you see God's revelation of Himself through the history of Israel as being a bit different than after the cross. After the cross, we have the New Testament Scriptures. We have the Holy Spirit left as Comforter and Teacher. His operations are just different. They will be different in the Tribulation still. Same plan of Salvation. Different modus operandi. Different still in the Millenium. And so on. The only way anyone ever got saved, however, was by grace through faith. That's the only way that anyone will ever be saved.

You didn't read the Bible from cover to cover and say, "Hey! This is how God has dispensed His Grace to His Chosen people over the years! This is how He has fulfilled His promises! Wow! This is how God has revealed His millenial kingdom! Here is the rapture and here is how and when it's going to happen!"
I could have. Someone did. After the Catholic church espoused Augustines point of view for so many centuries, someone saw that in Scripture. Non-dispensationalists like to think that this was also a new doctrine Darby made up. No. It is found in Scripture - the same Scripture that led to Luther's "discovery" of salvation by grace through faith after so many years of it being hidden. Nobody sat there and told Luther - you must believe this because the church says it. The church at the time was saying the opposite. The Holy Spirit taught Luther and He teaches us.

The point is, neither you nor any other dispensationalist make up dispensationalism on your own. You affirm what you learn from dispensational scholars as you see fit. If not, if you did it all on your own, you ought to write a book.
While I may affirm what someone says as Scriptural, I am a digger. I make sure of what I believe MYSELF through studying Scripture and I have rejected what several dispensational teachers have said when they stray from Scripture. There is no doubt what our church believes and teaches. It is Calvinistic but evangelistic. A simple statement that makes me wonder if you do know what your church believes and teaches, because it's obvious you don't know Calvinism. "Calvinistic but evangelistic" makes no sense. Calvinism is evangelistic. Try this - argue the Scripture with me. I don't look to those folks as authorities for my belief. So why would you point to them? So, we're arguing with a privately held interpretation that may or may not be in tune with any church teachings. OK, fine, I can do that, but do me a favor... start the conversation. You haven't wrote a book yet (that I know of) to refer to.