Exposing a Delusion
By
Gary Ray Branscome
“We have not written
anything to you, other than what you read. // If they do not speak
according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (2Corinthians
Many
who read the title to this essay may be puzzled or even shocked by it.
If you have
been led to faith by someone who held dispensational views you may even
feel
angry or defensive. However, be assured that my disagreement is not
with the gospel,
but with a “theology” that mixes the truth of the gospel with error,
that mixes
God’s Word with man’s word, while contradicting and explaining away
what the
Bible actually says.
Let
me begin by pointing out that “Dispensational Theology” is far from
uniform.
While most tend to agree on certain basic ideas, the differences are
great. For
example: The book “Full Assurance” by
H. A. Ironside is (except for a few
statements) in
full accord with Lutheran Theology. And, that is saying something,
because
Lutheran Theology is very precise. However, the same cannot be said for
all of
his writings, and there are other Dispensationalists who garble the
message of
Scripture so badly that some of their views are cultic.
How,
you might ask, can this be? How can some who claim to trust in Christ
get so
far from the truth? The answer to that question is to be found in the
way they
read unscriptural ideas into the text while explaining away any
statements of
Scripture that do not square with their ideas. For example, let us
begin with
their claim that believers will not be present at the final judgment.
The
problem lies in the fact that the Bible says the opposite. Not only
does every description
of the final judgment in Scripture mention both the saved and the lost,
but the
Bible specifically says that believers will be judged (John
First
of all, they add to Scripture by claiming that there will be more than
one
judgment. Then, when we point out that the Bible explicitly says that
believers
will be judged, they take away from Scripture by claiming that it will
not be a
place of punishment, but only of reward. Again, the Bible says no such
thing!
On the contrary, it says “that each may receive the things done in the
body,
according to everything he has done, whether good or evil”
(2Corinthians
Why
are they so eager to deny that believer will be at the last judgment?
The
answer is simple. They do not understand the proper relationship of Law
and
Gospel. If they did, they would realize that the passages that say we
will be
judged are Law. And, because they are law, their purpose is not to tell
us how
to be saved, but to show us our need for forgiveness. In other words,
the Bible
warns us of the coming judgment so that we will repent and look to
Christ for
forgiveness. And, the reason we will not be condemned when we are
judged is not
because we will not be present at the final judgment, but because our
sins have
been washed away by the blood of the Lamb (John
If you fail to see the
seriousness of what they are doing, let me remind you that when the
Pharisees
explained away what the Law said Christ warned them that they were
making the
Word of God of “no effect” (Mark 7:13). Now, you might not think that
is
important. I did not think it was either until I had a language teacher
who had
studied to be a rabbi. He told me that the Pharisees decided that no
one could
keep the Law if it was interpreted in the strictest sense, so they
decided that
the most lenient interpretation was all God required. And, the rabbis
they
acclaimed most highly were those who were most adept at finding
“loopholes” in
the Law.
Before
he told me that, I had thought of the Pharisees as being very strict.
After
all, Paul called them, “the strictest sect”
(Acts
26:5). However, even though they made a big show of following some
rules, they
watered down the Law so that they could keep it, and in so doing made
the Word
of God “of no effect” (Matthew 15:6). That is what Christ was referring
to when
He said, “you load men down with burdens they can hardly bear, and you
yourselves do not touch those burdens with one of your fingers” (Luke
Just
as the Law was given to show the Jews their need for God’s grace, the
warning
that we will be judged and will have to account to God for all that we
have
done, has been given to show us our need for God’s grace. Therefore,
instead of
explaining it away like the Pharisees did, we should confess our sins
to God
and look to His promise to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John
1:7-9).
If we do that we will have no need to fear God’s judgment. Not because
we will
not be judged, but because there is “no condemnation for those who are
in
Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
If
you fail to see the harm in explaining away what God says about the
Judgment
you need to take off your blinders and consider the sin which is
rampant in
evangelical churches. Just off the top of
my head I
can think of a Deacon who had an affair with a woman half his age, and
a music
minister who ran off with another man’s wife. That is not normal! And,
it would
not be so common if we were not making the Word of God of no effect.
That
also holds true for the doctrine, “once saved always saved”. Don’t get me wrong. I firmly believe that
just as we are saved by grace, we are kept by grace. Or, as the Apostle
Peter
put it, we “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation”
(1Peter
1:5). However, there are many passages of Scripture that warn us of the
danger
of losing our salvation, and we should never explain them away. Because
those
warnings are Law, their purpose is not to tell us how to be saved but
to show
us our need for God’s grace. Therefore, instead of explaining them away
(thereby
making the Word of God of no effect), we need point people to Christ by
assuring
them that God is able to keep them from falling. (John 10:27-29, Jude
1:24,
2Thessalonians 3:3, 1Peter 1:5).
Those who are trusting in
God’s promise to keep them from falling have no reason to explain away
the
passages that warn of losing salvation. After all, without God’s help
none of
us could keep ourselves saved. But, it does not depend on us. Just as
God saved
us by His grace, He keeps us by His grace! However, if instead of
trusting God
to keep us by His grace, we deny our need for His help by claiming that
we
cannot lose our salvation, we will feel compelled to explain away any
passage
that says otherwise. Passages such as Luke 8:13, “They believe for a
while, but
in time of temptation fall away,” or Galatians 5:4, “Christ is of no
benefit to
those of you, who seek righteousness by the law; you are fallen from
grace.” And,
those who explain such passages away hinder the work of salvation by
making the
Word of God “of no effect”. [See Galatians 1:6, 1Timothy
If
you fail to see the harm in explaining away what God says about losing
salvation, you need to take off your blinders and consider the
hardening of the
heart that results from making the Word of God of no effect. I know of
a man
who, after being offended, left the church and joined a cult. I know of
a young
man who, when confronted because he was being immoral, said, “When I
went
forward in camp to accept Christ, I was told that I could not lose my
salvation
no matter what I did”. I have also been told of a woman who, after
three years
of marriage, divorced her husband, and when questioned said, “God told
me to
divorce him, because He wants me to be happy”. I also know of one
person, and
have heard of others, who stopped attending church because they saw no
need for
attending church after they were saved.
Now,
I have pointed out that the passages that warn of the danger of losing
salvation are law. And, the words, “the law is not meant for a
righteous man,
but for those who are lawless and rebellious,” tell us that the people
who
commit sins such as those I have already mentioned are the very people
who need
to hear that law (1Timothy 1:9). The law is not made for believers,
because
believers are righteous in the sight of God. Not righteous because of
their
efforts, but righteous because every sin has been washed away by the
blood of
Christ (1John 1:7). But, those who are unrepentant need God’s warning.
And, if
we fail to warn them we are giving them a false gospel by giving them a
false
assurance of salvation.
Mutilating the Salvation
Message
Before
looking at how the dispensational practice of making up explanations of
some
passages while explaining away others subverts the gospel, I want to
stress the
fact that God wants us to teach exactly what He has said, without
adding our
own ideas to it or explaining anything away (Revelation 22:18-19). God
does not
need or want our explanations. On the contrary! The
only doctrine that can honestly be called God’s doctrine is nothing
“other than
what you read” (2Corinthians
God wants us to teach what He has
said, not what men say! And, to learn what He says we begin with those
doctrinal truths that are so clearly stated in Scripture that they need
no
explanation. Everything else that the Bible says is to be interpreted
in the
light of those passages. However, dispensationalists do the opposite.
They
begin with what men say and explain away any statement of Scripture
that does
not agree with their ideas. That is a refusal to accept sound doctrine
[i.e.
what the Bible says] while believing fables [i.e. man made explanations
of
Scripture] (2Timothy 4:3-4).
To begin with, the very claim that
that there are seven dispensations is a fable. The Bible says no such
thing!
Although the King James translation does use that word in connection
with the
gospel, it never uses it in connection with the law or any other period
of
history. That is all man made conjecture. However, they not only fail
to
recognize it as conjecture, they twist everything the Bible says to fit
that
conjecture, and in so doing fail to rightly divide the Word of truth.
In the third chapter of Galatians, the
Apostle Paul divides Scripture into the law and the promises. He then
goes on
to explain that the law never saved anyone. On the contrary, “all who
trust in the
law are under a curse” (Galatians
In contrast to what the Bible says, Cyrus
Scofield – whose perverted Bible did much
to
popularize dispensationalism – claimed (in
his
footnote to John 1:17) that Jews were saved by the law. And, even
though I have
been told that that footnote has been removed from some of the newer
editions
of his Bible, that false doctrine continues
to be
taught by many of his followers. Worse yet, some of his followers have
gone to
such extremes with their unbiblical conjecture that other
dispensationalists
(Harry Ironside being one) have felt it
necessary to
denounce their wild ideas. One of those ideas
being the claim
that nothing written in the Four Gospels or the book of Acts applies to
believers. If you think that such extremes are rare, let me
assure you
that I have personally dealt with dispensationalists who are today
teaching
that very thing. Why, I had one dispensationalist tell me that John
All
of the dispensationalists whom I have encountered claim that God will raise up and rapture believers before the last
day, and that
seven years of tribulation will follow that event. Yet, the Bible says
no such
thing. Oh, they interpret passages to support that doctrine, but they
are
reading their own ideas into those passages instead of interpreting
them in the
light of passages so clear that they need no explanation.
To
start with, Christ plainly said that he would raise
up
believers “on the last day,” not before (John
Worse
yet, in order to have the anti-Christ cause sacrifice to cease, they
claim that
after believers are raptured God will reinstate Judaism complete with
temple
and sacrifices. In making this claim they not only blind themselves to
the fact
that salvation has always been and always will be through faith in
God’s
promise, but they wind up teaching the very heresy that Paul’s letter
to the
Galatians was written to condemn. The only difference is that they
teach it as
God’s plan for the future rather than the present.
Mangling Bible
Prophesy
Although
dispensationalists brag about how literally they interpret Scripture,
they only
make themselves appear like fools in the eyes of the world. Do not
misunderstand me. I believe in taking what the Bible says literally.
But, they
do not seem to be able to tell the difference between the words of
Scripture
and dreams or visions. For example, the book of Genesis tells us about
a dream
that Pharaoh had. It then goes on to give us a plain literal
description of
what he saw in that dream. And, his dream had to do with events which
were
going to take place. However, that does not mean that his dream was a
literal
description of those events.
The
same holds true for the book of Revelation. Just because the Bible
gives us a
literal description of what John saw in his vision, does not mean that
his
vision is a literal description of what will transpire. For example: in
chapter
twelve we are told that John saw a woman clothed with the sun who was
giving
birth to Christ. However, that is not what the people living in
For
example: In chapter twenty John saw the souls of saints who “lived and
reigned
with Christ for a thousand years” (verse 4). However, instead of
looking at
what the Bible plainly says, dispensationalists assume that Christ will
be
physically present on earth during this reign. They then twist passage
after
passage to fit that assumption even though chapter twenty says nothing
about
Christ being present on earth. In fact, Christ plainly said, “My
kingdom is not
of this world” (John
That
same passage of Scripture also speaks of a “first resurrection”. And,
we are
told that all who have part in that resurrection will reign with Christ
“a
thousand years” (verse 6). But, here again, they just assume that it
will be a
physical resurrection and then make up a story about Christ raising up
believers sometime before His visible return to judge the living and
the dead. Not
only does the Bible say no such thing, but as I have already pointed
out,
Christ plainly said that He would raise up believers on the “last day,”
not
before (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54). They just ignore the words of Christ
and let
their imagination run wild.
If
we interpret John’s reference to a “first resurrection” in the light of
what
the Bible plainly says, we find that the Bible tells us that although
we were
by nature “dead in trespasses and sins,” when we came to faith in
Christ God “raised
us up together with Him” (Ephesians 2:1 & 6, Colossians 3:1). That
is the
first resurrection! And, because Christ is presently reigning in
Heaven, when
our physical bodies die, all who have part in that first resurrection
will
reign with Him in heaven (1Corinthians 15:25, Acts 5:31, Philippians
2;9,
2corinthians 5:6-8).
Conclusion
For a
long time I wondered how people who seem to know the Lord and trust in
His
grace could be under such a delusion. Then I slowly began to see that
even
though they look to Christ for salvation they are
not
trusting Him for righteousness. Now I know that some of them
will take
issue with me on this and insist that they do trust Him for
righteousness. But,
if you look closer you will find that they are probably just calling
what they
are trying to attain by their works by a different name. Perhaps they
are
calling it holiness or obedience, but if they are looking to their own
efforts
to bring them God’s favor, then they are trusting in what they do
rather than
what Christ did.
On
one hand they promote easy believism,
giving those
who are unrepentant, those who have never really understood the gospel,
and
those who have never really trusted in Christ a false assurance of
salvation by
leading them to think that they are saved, not by what Christ did, but
by what
they did when they prayed the “sinner’s prayer”. Then, when the lives
of those
people show no evidence of salvation, they go to the opposite extreme,
telling
them that in order to be happy in Jesus [i.e. have God’s favor or
blessing]
they need to “obey,” pursue holiness, or try to earn “crowns”. In all
of this
they fail to understand the power of the Holy Spirit that is available
to those
who believe not only that Christ has saved them, but that the blood
that washes
away their sin makes them righteous, holy, perfect and obedient in the
sight of
God (Hebrews 10:10 & 14, Galatians 5:16-17).
Whatever the reason, the problem
is so serious that
the Spiritual Counterfeits Project has devoted one entire issue of its
Journal
to it. The title of that issue is, “Strong Delusion Enters By Stealth”
(Volume
37:3 – 37:4 2014).
Although I know little about the Spiritual Counterfeits Project, or
what other
positions they may take, what they have to say about Dispensationalism
is right on the mark, and I urge every pastor to get, and read, a copy
of that
issue. Their Web Site address is www.scp-inc.org