Watch out there! Don't you know it is heresy to dispute the new-age doctrine of Dispensationalism? LOL! I have been labeled a heretic twice in the past week: once by Cynical Bear: a dispensationalist; and once by af_vet_1981: a Catholic (those are their own, self-proclaimed labels, not mine.) AF_Vet laid out this brilliant, but veiled deduction (no pun intended: )
"I would say I'm on the fence as to whether to view Replacement Theology/Preterism as an outright cult or heresy as it does not deny the basics. It does seem a poisonous fruit. It is notable that the Catholic Church, the Fundamentalists, and most Evangelicals deny it."
Note that AF_Vet considers Fundamentalists and most Evangelicals as allies to the Catholics in this matter. You would never know it with all the cat-fights they have on FR.
Cynical Bear was even more blunt: no beating-around-the-bush on his part:
"Take your Preterist heresy somewhere else. It isn’t received well here."
I tried to explain to him (and AF-Vet) that I was not a preterist, but a postmillennialist: but to no avail. Only later did I realize that a "preterist" to Cynical Bear is any protestant who is not a dispensationalist, or it appears that way.
Cynical Bear did virtually the same to you in his reply to this post; but in a veiled sorta way (no pun intended: )
"It’s sort of like the believer and the unbeliever. The unbeliever thinks the believer is wasting his time. The believer can simply counter with all the positive aspects of being a believer but the believer really has nothing to lose if he is wrong. The unbeliever on the other hand most certainly does."
What is he trying to say? Is this what Pentecostal's call "speaking in tongues?" I think what Cynical Bear is trying to say is, you are an unbeliever if you don't believe all the positive aspects of dispensationalism, such as:
1. the Church was an afterthought, created after the Jews rejected Christ (Isaiah 53 and Eph 5:25-27 not withstanding).
2. a third of the trees will be destroyed.
3. a third of mankind will be killed.
4. all green grass will be burnt up.
5. there are dual plans of salvation. One mentioned in the New Testament for Christians (believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,) and another created out of thin air for Jews. If you don't believe the "thin air" one, your are a heretic (or, in my case both a heretic and a self-hating Jew, according to AF_Vet.)
Numbers #2-4 leads me to believe that a hidden tenet of dispensationalism was the foundation for G.W.'s brilliant statement in 2008:
"I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system."
The hidden tenet of dispensationalism in question is:
"Jesus must destroy the earth to save it."
That is a difficult concept for me to grasp, considering Eccl 1:4, Ps 104:1-5, John 3:17 and Rev 11:18. But I am just an old heretic: what do I know? (I know that question set me up for a snide remark, but you only go around once. LOL!)
By the way, I took the "What's Your Eschatology" test you linked on your profile, and I was 100% Amillennialist, 75% Postmillennialist, and 75% Preterist. I thought I was a Postmillennialist?
For the record, I didn't realize it until recently, but it truly is a badge of honor (as some postmillennialists have implied in the past) to be labeled a heretic or preterist by a dispensationalist.
Philip
What is he trying to say? Is this what Pentecostal's call "speaking in tongues?" I think what Cynical Bear is trying to say is, you are an unbeliever if you don't believe all the positive aspects of dispensationalism, such as:
The reasoning appears to go, you don't believe (insert dispensational distinctive here), therefore you don't believe the bible. There seems to be no recognition that there is an interpretive step between the text of scripture and their scheme.
Geerhardus Vos, I think, must have run into folks like that in his day. The paragraph opening his chapter "The Question of Chiliasm in Paul" in his Pauline Eschatology where he pretty much nails that mindset.
1. the Church was an afterthought, created after the Jews rejected Christ (Isaiah 53 and Eph 5:25-27 not withstanding).
2. a third of the trees will be destroyed.
3. a third of mankind will be killed.
4. all green grass will be burnt up.
5. there are dual plans of salvation. One mentioned in the New Testament for Christians (believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,) and another created out of thin air for Jews. If you don't believe the "thin air" one, your are a heretic (or, in my case both a heretic and a self-hating Jew, according to AF_Vet.)
I've got no problem with 2, 3 & 4. 1 and 5, of course, are denied.
"Take your Preterist heresy somewhere else. It isn’t received well here."
It's ironic, that those who pride themselves on "rightly dividing" this or that, can't make accurate distinctions among those they disagree with.