The Heresy of Hyper-Dispensationalism

[PrisonerOfHope]

There's a young man named Keegan Fernandez who has thousands of followers on Telegram and elsewhere; he's also very visible in the chats of good prophecy teachers.  Right now, at the top of his Telegram channel he has a pinned message that says the following:

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are in the very final seconds of this dispensation known as the Age Of Grace and on the cusp of the Rapture of the Church!



This dispensation of the Age of Grace as it began though Paul on the road Damascus, could very well end in our Rapture in conjunction with the destruction of Damascus (Isaiah 17:1) and the explosion of the Psalm 83 Multifront war anyday now!

This is heresy, as the following posts will prove. The error stems largely from a misunderstanding of the book of Acts; Hyper-dispensationalists, Pentecostals, and Charismatics make the same error: The view Acts as as being prescriptive, whereas it's actually descriptive - it's simply a history book! 

What is ultra-dispensationalism?


Ultra-dispensationalism, also known as hyper-dispensationalism/hyperdispensationalism (although some theologians draw fine distinctions between these terms), is the teaching that Paul’s message was unique from the other apostles’ and that the church did not begin until Acts 28 or later. For this reason, ultra-dispensationalism is sometimes called “post-Acts dispensationalism.”



To better understand what ultra-dispensationalism is, we should define dispensationalism. The word dispensation means “stewardship or administration,” and dispensationalism is simply a system of biblical interpretation that recognizes a distinction between the church (i.e., the body of Christ) and Israel. Dispensationalism carries with it the idea that, throughout the history of redemption, God has given man specific revelation and commands and that man is tested with respect to his response to God’s revelation. Therefore, dispensations are different administrations in the eternal outworking of God’s purpose and plan. However, it is important to know that classic dispensationalism views the means of salvation—by grace through faith—as the same in every dispensation. Generally, classic dispensationalists recognize seven dispensations: Innocence (Genesis 1:1—3:7), Conscience (Genesis 3:8—8:22), Human Government (Genesis 9:1—11:32), Promise (Genesis 12:1—Exodus 19:25), Law (Exodus 20:1—Acts 2:4), Grace (Acts 2:4—Revelation 20:3), and the Millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:4—20:6). Again, these dispensations are not different ways of salvation, but manners in which God relates to man.



Ultra- or hyper-dispensationalism takes the basic tenets of dispensationalism to an extreme, resulting in unbiblical teachings. Another movement, known as mid-Acts dispensationalism, the Grace Movement, Acts 9 dispensationalism, or Acts 13 dispensationalism, takes a half-way position between classic dispensationalism and ultra-dispensationalism.



Instead of recognizing that the church began in Acts 2 when the disciples received the promised Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the ultra-dispensationalist inserts another dispensation and holds that the church did not begin until Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. Specifically, the seed of the church is found in Acts 28:28 when Paul says to the Jews in Rome who rejected the gospel, “I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” This was the view of one of the first ultra-dispensationalists, Ethelbert W. Bullinger of the Church of England.



Because ultra-dispensationalists believe in a late start to the church, they view the church in Acts as a “Hebrew” or “Jewish” church, separate from the “mystery” church to which Paul wrote his Prison Epistles. They believe that the books of Peter, James, Jude, Hebrews, and the epistles of John are all addressed to the Hebrew church, which is different from the “body of Christ.” This Jewish church, which was built on Kingdom promises, will be reestablished during the millennium and will worship at the rebuilt temple with atoning sacrifices.



According to ultra-dispensationalism, the four Gospels are for Jews only and have no bearing on the church. The book of Acts deals with a different “church” and not the body of Christ. Only the Prison Epistles of Paul are directed to the body of Christ or “mystery” church. Not even the book of Revelation addresses the church—the letters to the seven churches are written to the “Jewish” church of the tribulation. Also, most ultra-dispensationalists reject the ordinances of the church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper were for the “Hebrew” church.



The greatest problem with ultra-dispensationalism is not its teaching about when the church began but the many other errors that come from its approach to Scripture. For example, at the heart of most forms of ultra-dispensationalism is the belief that Paul preached a different gospel from what the other apostles taught. Other false doctrines common in some forms of ultra-dispensationalism include soul sleep and annihilationism. Still others proclaim a brand of universalism that grants salvation even to Satan himself. Without a doubt, whatever name ultra-dispensationalism goes by, it is a dangerous error that almost always leads to other, even worse errors.



H. A. Ironside, a strong dispensationalist himself, wrote a good booklet outlining some of the dangers of ultra-dispensationalism. In it he says that he has “no hesitancy in saying that [ultra-dispensationalism’s] fruits are evil. It has produced a tremendous crop of heresies throughout the length and breadth of this and other lands; it has divided Christians and wrecked churches and assemblies without number; it has lifted up its votaries in intellectual and spiritual pride to an appalling extent, so that they look with supreme contempt upon Christians who do not accept their peculiar views; and in most instances where it has been long tolerated, it has absolutely throttled Gospel effort at home and sown discord on missionary fields abroad. So true are these things of this system that I have no hesitancy in saying it is an absolutely Satanic perversion of the truth” (Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth, chapter 1, Loizeaux Brothers, 1938).

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[PrisonerOfHope]

What is mid-Acts dispensationalism?


Dispensationalism is a theological system that recognizes various ages, or dispensations, ordained by God to instruct mankind on how to rightly relate to Him. Classic dispensationalism typically sees seven dispensations, starting with the age of innocence in the Garden of Eden and ending with the age of the millennial kingdom. The current age, called the age of grace or the church age, is held by most dispensationalists to have begun in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. At that time, the Holy Spirit came upon the believers and empowered them to fulfill the Great Commission, and the church age began. However, mid-Acts dispensationalism sees that event as still part of the dispensation of Law; the “church” in the first part of Acts was a Jewish congregation under Jewish rules, not the church of the church age. According to mid-Acts dispensationalism, or Pauline dispensationalism, the church began with the ministry of the apostle Paul in either Acts 9 (Paul’s conversion) or Acts 13 (Paul’s first missionary journey).



Classical dispensationalism sees a biblical distinction between Israel and the church; mid-Acts dispensationalism moves the dividing line to Acts 9. Before that time, what we might call the “church” was still a Jewish congregation under the law and distinct from what came later: the Gentile church (the body of Christ) under grace.



Mid-Acts dispensationalism or the Grace Movement sees the apostles Peter, James, John, and the rest as still operating under the Old Covenant in Acts 1—8. They were still dutifully keeping the Law and still meeting as a Jewish body in Jerusalem. Peter and the other apostles preached repentance to Israel, but the church age had not yet begun. It was Paul, the “apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13), to whom the doctrine of the church—and the doctrine of grace—was revealed. It was only after Paul began to minister that the church age actually began. Thus, the only parts of the New Testament that are specifically for the church are the Pauline Epistles. The rest of the New Testament is only directly applicable to Christian living in the way that the Old Testament is. Truth can be learned from it, but it was not written to Christians.



Mid-Acts dispensationalism makes a distinction between a “gospel of circumcision,” taught by Peter, and a “gospel of uncircumcision,” taught by Paul, based on Galatians 2:7. In our view, Paul is referring to different audiences in that passage, not different gospels. The Jews whom Peter ministered to were saved by grace through faith, just as the Gentiles to whom Paul ministered.



Mid-Acts dispensationalism also takes a different view of the Gentiles who were part of the early church before Paul was converted. Acts 2:10–11 makes it clear that the crowd listening to Peter preach on the Day of Pentecost included Gentile proselytes to Judaism. And Acts 8 shows how Samaritans and an Ethiopian were baptized into Christ before Paul ever started preaching the doctrine of the church or of grace. Thus, there was a joint church body of Jews and Gentiles before Paul began his ministry. The mid-Acts dispensationalist would acknowledge a mixture of Jews and Gentiles in Acts 2—8 but would specify that the Gentiles were Jewish proselytes and living under Jewish law. The Acts 2 dispensationalist would point out that there is no indication that the Gentiles saved in Acts 8 were ever required to be circumcised.



Most mid-Acts dispensationalists deny the need for water baptism today. The Grace Movement teaches that water baptism was a Jewish rite and that Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 is not for the church. They exclude water baptism on the basis that the only baptism needed today is the baptism of the Spirit, which occurs at salvation.



Most importantly, mid-Acts dispensationalism or the Grace Movement implies there are different gospels, a gospel of the kingdom taught by Peter and a gospel of grace taught by Paul. Under the law, works were required, but with the coming of Paul’s doctrine, it is all by grace. However, the Old Testament (and the first part of the New Testament) does not teach justification by works (Romans 4:1–3); being justified before God has always been by grace through faith, and the Jews in Galilee were not saved a different way from the Gentiles in Achaia.



Mid-Acts dispensationalism is a particular flavor of dispensationalism that carefully distinguishes Israel from the church. While we disagree with them on water baptism, the role of the law before the church age, and the exact start of the church age, we consider mid-Acts dispensationalists to be our brothers and sisters in Christ.

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[PrisonerOfHope]

When the Church Began - Hyperdispensationalism: Why It Is Wrong