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Does Dispensationalism Hurt the Church?
The Bible Sojourner ^ | 2022 | Peter Goeman

Posted on 10/09/2025 7:27:22 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

“Wherever dispensationalism has gained ground, Christian culture has lost ground.”

Although the claim that dispensationalism has hurt the church is not new, it was interesting to see how much agreement the post garnered in the comments. Some commenters labeled dispensationalism as the worst heresy the church has seen. Others said dispensationalism is a damnable heresy which has single-handedly lost the American culture war. In this post I would like to analyze the argument that dispensationalism itself is dangerous and responsible for the cultural loss we see in Western culture today…

Setting aside exegetical and interpretive arguments about Scripture for a moment, how would one prove or disprove the above argumentation? Perhaps we could look at other countries, like the UK or Germany, which have very limited dispensational influence, and compare them to America. Both the UK and Germany have robust Christian histories, yet both have secularized dramatically without the alleged dastardly influence of dispensational theology.

Rather than comparing dispensational and non-dispensational countries, we could just analyze the moral shifts in America itself.

…Because dispensationalists “know” the world is going to get worse anyway, they are said to embrace shallow Christianity, only focusing on “getting people saved” without seeing any need for growth or fortitude. According to this characterization, depth of conviction and discipleship have little value to the dispensationalist since the church will be removed from the world soon.

Thus, dispensationalists either don’t care about the culture, or else are motivated to focus elsewhere because they believe they are fighting an unwinnable war…

(Excerpt) Read more at petergoeman.com ...


TOPICS: Ministry/Outreach; Theology
KEYWORDS: church; culture; dispensationalism; endtimes
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A dispensationalist believes:

that the Old Testament must be interpreted within its own context.
there is a distinction between Israel and the Church.
there is a future for ethnic Israel.
that the promises made to ethnic Israel will have a literal, future fulfillment in the Millennial Kingdom.

1 posted on 10/09/2025 7:27:22 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Dispensationalism itself doesn’t hurt the church. But what does hurt the church is arguing over dispensationalism more than teaching people to stick to the Lord like glue in this ever increasing hedonistic world that needs to hear Jesus and see us be real enough to live it like we mean it.


2 posted on 10/09/2025 7:30:53 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

All these statements line up with scripture. Not seeing a problem.


3 posted on 10/09/2025 7:36:32 AM PDT by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

What hurts the Church is many do not teach the truth and muddle the message of Christ’s love and what a Sinful life will get you...They fear it will burn People’s ears with the truth and many People today do not like the truth...


4 posted on 10/09/2025 7:39:40 AM PDT by dpetty121263
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

No. It gives hope. Replacement theology is wrong and breeds division, preterism and anti semitism. Church of Thyatira and Sardis.


5 posted on 10/09/2025 7:47:09 AM PDT by Karliner (Heb 4:12 Rom 8:28 Rev 3, "...This is the end of the beginning." Churchill)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

In today’s World the day the Church is Raptured out before Christ’s return many Churches will not notice a noticeable drop in attendance as most Churches are like the Church of Laodicea.


6 posted on 10/09/2025 7:47:22 AM PDT by dpetty121263
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Since Hebrew thought is circular. What happens today will repeat in its season. “Dispensationalism’ is incompatible with the Bible. A clearer view would use cycles of seven. So, the question should be, where are we in that cycle of seven, and when does it end.


7 posted on 10/09/2025 7:49:36 AM PDT by zeke37
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
…Because dispensationalists “know” the world is going to get worse anyway, they are said to embrace shallow Christianity, only focusing on “getting people saved” without seeing any need for growth or fortitude.

The opposite is historically true.

8 posted on 10/09/2025 8:03:58 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (🦅 MAGADONIAN ⚔️ LIFE )
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To: dpetty121263
What hurts the Church is many do not teach the truth and muddle the message of Christ’s love and what a Sinful life will get you...They fear it will burn People’s ears with the truth and many People today do not like the truth...

Indeed but as non-baby boomer millennial, I see that the dispensational hype of recent decades has produced rotten fruit within the American church complex and a toxic cultural psyche overall…It provides a horrible basis for leaving a lasting legacy of faith and cultural renewal.

9 posted on 10/09/2025 8:07:11 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: Karliner
Replacement theology is wrong and breeds division, preterism and anti semitism.

Replacement Theology does not breed "anti-Semitism" (i.e., hatred of Jews because of their race). Christians who follow RT have no hatred for the Apostles, nor for the OT Prophets, nor for people with Jewish or other DNA.

RT does say that people who follow Judaism are no better off than those who follow Islam or Buddhism or atheism. That Jewish DNA is not an alternate path to salvation.

If that's "divisive," I suppose Christianity itself is divisive, in that Christianity says that all non-Christians won't make it to Heaven.

Should Christians preach that Jews and Muslims, atheists, Hindus, pagans and everyone else, will all be saved, in order not to be "divisive"?

10 posted on 10/09/2025 8:09:25 AM PDT by Angelino97
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Oh look

ANOTHER thread,,, in the bash dispensational Christians series.

Must be a day ending in a y.

Obsessive compulsive maliciousness.

Sad really.


11 posted on 10/09/2025 8:11:20 AM PDT by cuz1961
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To: dpetty121263; cuz1961

Yep


12 posted on 10/09/2025 8:14:31 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

I thought that dispensationalists believe the manifestations of the Holy Spirit (II Cor. 12) are not available today, a doctrine that is incorrect.


13 posted on 10/09/2025 8:15:48 AM PDT by thepoodlebites (and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
Indeed but as non-baby boomer millennial, I see that the dispensational hype of recent decades has produced rotten fruit within the American church complex and a toxic cultural psyche overall…It provides a horrible basis for leaving a lasting legacy of faith and cultural renewal.

That's quite the generalization there. You can't make such a claim without some evidence or at least a rationalization for such an unloving view of your fellow Christians. And while your at it tell us what theology we should be believing.

14 posted on 10/09/2025 8:21:10 AM PDT by Pres Raygun (Repent America!)
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To: thepoodlebites

I think you are confusing it with cessasionism.


15 posted on 10/09/2025 8:24:05 AM PDT by GMThrust
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

“It provides a horrible basis for leaving a lasting legacy of faith and cultural renewal.” How? And what do you mean by cultural renewal? Stop with all the lofty wording and just speak plane English please.


16 posted on 10/09/2025 8:28:23 AM PDT by GMThrust
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To: thepoodlebites
Dispensationalism can be found in most Baptist and independent Bible churches, which believe that direct manifestations of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, ended with the Apostolic Age, and in many charismatic and Pentecostal churches, which believe that these gifts continue throughout the church age. Roman Catholic, eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed churches, whether liberal or conservative, reject dispensationalism, are generally amillennial, and believe in covenantal, or replacement, theology.
17 posted on 10/09/2025 8:28:57 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

CP, The article ultimately says that Dispensationalism in the U.S. is not actively doing harm, but that there are much larger issues afoot in America.

As support for this assertion, the author points out the fact that more than half of self-identified Christians, even more than half of so-called Evangelical Christians, are not aware that Jesus the Christ was not a created being. Which of course amounts to an horrific denial of Christ’s divinity.


18 posted on 10/09/2025 8:32:52 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
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To: GMThrust

Compare middle American architecture in the Bible Belt to….the great cities of European Christendom…Or art from prior centuries to goopy Christian media slop of today.

Some of this has due to with the stripped down, anti-art legacy of pragmatic Puritans who settled New England — but the point remains that there remains zero incentive or inspiration within modern day US Evangelicalism to say: BEAUTIFY our surroundings and cities for the greater glory of God and reflecting of His Kingdom *on earth.*


19 posted on 10/09/2025 8:33:19 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

The Six Biggest Errors of Dispensationalism

https://prophecyquestions.com/the-six-biggest-errors-of-dispensationalism/In


20 posted on 10/09/2025 8:34:11 AM PDT by grumpa
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