LIVE: "Dispensationalism Justifies the Crucifixion!" Part 1/4

If you’ve ever been told that a literal 1,000-year kingdom on earth is simply “what the Bible says,” we want you to slow down and look at the assumptions underneath that claim. We start with one detail all four Gospels record: the sign above Jesus on the cross declaring him King of the Jews. We ask what that kingship means biblically, and why that inscription does not automatically translate into a future political program centered in Jerusalem. 

From there, we trace a core dispensational teaching back to John Nelson Darby and the Scofield Reference Bible: the postponement theory. The claim is blunt, even if people soften it today: Jesus allegedly came to offer Israel a literal earthly Davidic kingdom, Israel rejected it, and the kingdom was delayed until the second coming. We explain why that logic changes the meaning of Matthew 4:17 (“the kingdom of heaven is at hand”), why it suggests a “Plan B” view of the cross, and why it collapses the moment you take seriously Jesus’ words that his kingdom is not of this world. 

We also dig into the broader dispensational framework of “dispensations” and why it often implies multiple ways of being saved across history. We argue for one gospel, one Redeemer, and one consistent pattern of salvation by faith from Abraham to the present, and we point out the downstream effects this debate has on rapture teaching, the church age concept, and how people read Revelation 20 and the millennium. 

If you care about biblical doctrine, biblical theology, and testing popular end times charts against Scripture, listen through and weigh the texts with us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves prophecy, and leave a review with the verse you think is most decisive.

Transcript

Dispen­sationalism Branded As Heresy

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm going to be laying out additional proofs of the fact of the heretical teachings that we observe in dispensationalism. I am fully one hundred percent convinced with sufficient, more than sufficient foundation, that dispensationalism through and through is heretical. Just lies. All of it. All of it. None of it is true. And I often hear about how, well, the people at these churches, they are just um growing, and we have to have room and show love. This has nothing to do about showing love. This has to do with about expounding God's truth in his word and the way that it is. It's all about that. We can love our enemies, we can love other believers, we can love our family. All of this is what we should do. But what we will not do is acquiesce and to say that those who are in their spiritual youth are allowed an amnesty, so to speak, when it comes to biblical truth, we have to tell the truth, and with that, that is how people, men, women, children, men elevate their minds into a proper way of thinking when it comes to the word of God. And this is something that must be done. It must be done. Excuse me, putting together my notes on this, there's so many different ways that you can go. It can almost be confusing. Not confusing in terms of understanding the doctrines, but confusing in terms of where do I begin the lies of so many. But I decided that I'm going to start by citing something in the Word of God that is listed in all four Gospels. There are certain things that we see occur in all of the gospel, in all of the gospel. And if you see something that is in all gospels, we should really pay attention to it. Not to say that if it's only in one, you shouldn't. But if it's in all four, it should be with extra measure understood and believed to be of significant importance. And it needs to be understood. And that's where we're going to start. Four verses, one for each of the gospels. In Matthew 27, it says this in verse 37. And it was set up over the head of Jesus when he was on the cross. The accusation that was written, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Matthew 27, verse 37. In Mark 15, 26, and the superscription of his accusation was written over, which said, The king of the Jews. John nineteen, verse 19. It says this, and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. And in Luke, it says, in verse 23, chapter 23, verse 38, went out of order here. It says, and the superscription was also written over him in the letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrews for the whole world. Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, which said, This is the king of the Jews. Now I want you to notice the underlying theme here is that Jesus is the king of the Jews. And what I want to point out is very clear. Jesus himself never once said he was the king of the Jews. Jesus never said that. Nor did any of his accusers say that he was king of the Jews. And we're going to get into what his accusers did say. So, but what we do need to understand is this it was put over the head of Jesus Christ on his cross that he is the king of the Jews. And when the Jews complained to Pilate, they wanted him, as if they were in charge, to change what was written on the placard from he is the king of the Jews, which he in fact is to this very day. But they wanted it to be changed to, no, he's not king of the Jews, but that he said he was the king of the Jews. Now, we have a problem. Christians, we have a problem. And the problem is with dispensationalists. These folks who are purveyors of falsehood. All of these people. Philip Anthony Mitchell, Joel Osteen, Copeland, Hagee, Benny Hinn, most non-denominational churches. I don't know a non-denominational church that does not embrace this falsehood that I'm about to lay out. Because it is a dispensational doctrine. And this dispensational doctrine that I am going to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt is false, was originated with John Nelson Darby and C.I. Schofield. C.I. Schofield. Now, and C.I. Schofield and John Darby are the ones who fomented this lie that has become so predominant, so inbred in the thinking of modern-day Christians, that they think that you are heretical if you don't believe it. And yet there is nothing in the Bible that says what I'm going to tell you, they say. Now, if you remember, if you remember, and I'm sure all of you do, one of the major tenets of the biblical teaching has to do with how you handle the Word of God in Revelation 20 when it talks about a coming millennium, a millennium, a 1000-year period, where Jesus Christ is going to come here in the future to be an earthly king in Jerusalem, ruling and reigning in his glorified body, governing a world that consists of glorified saints and wicked sinners all at the same time. And I'm going to tell you something. And some of my friends, people that I know, they don't like when I say this, but I have to say this, and I'm going to say it anyway. The idea that there is a future-coming kingdom where Jesus Christ is going to come back to earth and rule on earth as an earthly king in Jerusalem, and we are going to be rendering and paying homage to him while he's in his glorified body, ruling and reigning over glorified saints and sinners. Unrepentant, impenitent folks. That is categorically foolish. Stupid. It is a doctrine that has bewitched Christianity. It has bewitched Christianity. But let's get to how we got here. Let's get to why I have to explain something like this to my brethren. And I'm sure that a great many of you understand this, and some of you may even still be a little bit confused about it. Some of you may say it doesn't matter. But it does matter. And I'm going to explain why. I'm going to explain why. Because if you are a true, consistent dispensationalist, dispensationalist, and you embrace the doctrines of dispensationalism, up to and including all this pre-rapture stuff, pre-tribulation rapture stuff, all of it falls down on what I'm going to talk about tonight. And this is not the only way to present the fragility of this foolish teaching. This is just one of the ways to prove that the whole system is fraught with error and cannot hold up with the word of God. It is a lie, it is false. And there's no way to substantiate such ridiculousness from the word of God. And this is what I intend to convey. So keep in mind, those who embrace dispensationalism, they say that there's a literal 1,000-year period coming on earth where the Lord Jesus Christ, when he returns for the second time, he's going to rule and reign here. Let me explain where that teaching came from. C.I. Schofield makes this one of his central arguments. And this is what his argument is. In the Schofield Reference Bible, and if you're a dispensationalist, you must believe this to be a dispensationalist and to be consistent. And if you are a dispensationalist and you don't believe this, you're worse than the people who invented these lies. You're worse because you believe it and you don't even know why. But what we're going to talk about is why is knowing, not just knowing what we believe, but you need to know why you believe it. And I'm going to tell you, dispensationalists, and my brethren and sisters who aren't dispensationalists, I'm going to tell you why they believe that nonsense. C.I. Schofield, he said that when Jesus Christ came the first time, and I need you all to follow me. I mean, follow along with me, but here's the thing. As I go on, I have no doubt that people are going to have comments and questions and uh uh um and want to present support proofs for what we're talking about. And I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. All I'm asking is that tonight, tonight, especially, what I want you to do is that when you want to respond or ask a question or whatever, please, for this particular topic, make sure that all your comments, questions, or whatever it is you want to say, which is fine, as much as you want, but let it be relevant to what we are talking about. Nothing else. I'm asking this tonight especially because this is a complex discussion, and I don't want to go down any rabbit holes, so I don't want to have to tell you we're not talking about that. Stop. So I'm asking, stick to the stick to what we're talking about tonight, especially, because it's a it's a hard one to get through, and I don't want to lose my train of thought. Now, Schofield teaches this. This is what dispensation dispensationalism teaches. That when the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, when he came to earth the first time, his first advent, when he became incarnate, he says in the Schofield Reference Bible, that Jesus Christ came here, and when he came, it says, listen, it says that he offered the literal earthly Davidic kingdom to Israel when he came the first time. Notice, let me say this again. Dispensationalism teaches in the Schofield Reference Bible, it teaches emphatically, unequivocally, that when Jesus Christ came here the first time, that he came here not just to save us from our sins, in fact, not to save us from our sins at all. Some of them may argue one way or the other, but the reality is they say Jesus Christ came here to set up an earthly kingdom. You don't believe me? Go check it out. Don't listen to anybody in the comments, don't listen to anybody anywhere. I'm telling you what the Schofield Reference Bible teaches, and that is dispensationalism. Don't let anybody tell you different. Because if they're dispensationalists and don't believe this, then they don't even know what they're talking about as far as their own belief system. And they're more ignorant than the ones who believe it and pretend to be systematic at proving it. The reason why there's an expectation of a coming earthly 1,000-year period where Jesus Christ rules on earth as a literal king on earthly king on earth is because Jesus came here the first time to set up one, to set up a kingdom. But because the Jewish people, because the Jews rejected him, the establish, the establishment of that kingdom was delayed until his second coming. So here's the picture. Here's the picture. He came here to set up an earthly kingdom, and because the Jews did not accept him, and they rejected him, that he went to plan B. Now, before some clown comes up here and tells me, where in the Bible does it says, that it does it say that they rejected and all this kind of stuff. Listen, I'm telling you what they believe. I'm telling you what they what they have cataloged, categorically written, and caused people to believe that Jesus Christ came here to set up a kingdom. That was what he came to do. Now I read you the first four verses, the first verses out of the each of the gospels, where it talks about Christ having over his head King of the Jews. King of the Jews in each gospel. But here's the thing. Christ himself never said it. No one ever said that that's what he did when he came here. There is no indication whatsoever in the Word of God that Jesus Christ, when he came here the first time, was trying to set up an earthly Davidic-like kingdom. He only said, My kingdom is not of this world. It is not a worldly kingdom. It is an otherworldly kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns and rules right now. How? In the hearts of his people. That's where his dominion lies. In individuals, not in a worldly societal context. They say that he wanted to commit, he wanted to build a kingdom here on earth. And because the Jews rejected it, because they rejected it, he said, Oh gosh, they didn't accept me to be their Lord and Savior. Well, I guess I'm going to do something different. I guess what I'll do now is I'll just instead of trying to set up a kingdom, I'm going to go to the cross instead. This is what they believe. Going to the cross was plan B. That was his secondary, secondary offering. If the Jews didn't accept him as king, as if they need, as if he needed their approval to be a king. You need to understand how stupid and heretical this is. It is crazy. And we need to stop this foolishness. We need to stop it. The church of God, his people, we need to stop these lies. This teaching that Schofield taught is called the postponement theory. We call it a theory because that's all it is. It's a silly one, but nonetheless, a theory. And it is blasphemous. Like my sister Evie says, like Mariah says, it is heretical. It's a lie. Imagine Jesus coming here saying, hey guys, I want to be your king. And they go, nope, that's not going to happen. And so he goes, Oh, gosh darn, I'm going to go to the cross now instead. That's what happened. My language for it might be a little bit more flowery and maybe a little condescending to those who embrace it. I don't care. It's the truth. It's nuts. This is the word, this is God's words that we're talking about. Now here's the thing. We go to Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew chapter 4. For those of you who have the word of God, I want to read something here and I want to show you the foundation of Schofield's argument. Now notice in Matthew 4, verse 16. The people which sat in darkness saw great light. And to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. Notice this in verse 17. Notice verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach and say that the kingdom of heaven is At hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is a big deal. Because what Schofield says, this verse is saying in Matthew 4, 17, from that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of God of heaven, or the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What Schofield and dispensationalists are saying, and this is what they said, not what I'm interpreting them saying. This is what is in the Schofield reference Bible. They said that what he came to do was at hand, and setting up his kingdom of heaven is what was at hand, meaning that it was expected to happen at this moment, at this time, while Jesus was here. But because the Jews did not accept it, did not accept Christ as king, then the kingdom of heaven, the offer, was retracted. It was withdrawn. The offer was taken off the table because the Jews rejected him. And then he had to go with his secondary option, which was to go to the cross. The rejection by Jews, Schofield posits that that rejection of the kingdom was the specific cause for a postponement of the establishment of his kingdom on earth. I don't care. I'm telling you, Christians, if you want to investigate it, go get a reference Bible or go look it up online somewhere, you will find it. You will find exactly what Schofield says. This is what he says, and this is what dispensationalists believe. Keep in mind, Christ came here to set up a kingdom, a kingdom of earthly orientation, like David, like the kings. But when the Jews rejected him as their king, then he went to plan B and post, which was to go to the cross and to introduce an age of grace, which is what we're in right now, and he postponed the rule and reigning part to come later. And that is what is talked about when it comes to the 1,000-year period. Sister Mariah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Yeah, I just had a quick question on um was not the old testament taken into consideration when it said that he would go to the cross.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Oh yeah. What they do is they argue that that was factored into Christ's rejection by the Jews. But some of them will argue different.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

So the option B was always there if they didn't.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Okay.

Why This Would Reshape Revelation

Seven Dispensations Versus One Salvation

SPEAKER_02 25:15

It was it was always there. But here's the thing: nowhere in the scripture, now the Bible talks about Christ being a king. It talks about him being a king. But it was never a king as a king the way the Jews thought about it. See, this is the problem that the Jews had with the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted an earthly king. This is the weird conundrum that we're dealing with. Is that he would come here to be a king, but just not the way or not the type of king that they were expecting. He was coming here to do something different. His kingdom would be different. The nature of his rule and dominance in the hearts of his people would be different. And the and the and the the unique aspect of this is that the kingdom is like my brother Nathan says, it is spiritual in nature. Christ seizes and takes captive the hearts and souls and minds of his people. And therein lies the realm of his reign. He said, If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. And this is why Romans didn't care. They're like, this guy is either beside himself, like people thought. And in their minds, he might be a little cuckoo, but this is not a threat to Caesar. What he's saying is not a threat to Caesar. And Pilate and Herod, as I'm going to show you later, they all knew it. They all knew it. Now, as I said a couple of days ago, Christ was condemned by two separate tribunals. One, the ecclesiastical, two, the civil or political. Rome being the political and civil side, the Jewish, the Jews being the ecclesiastical side, the religious side. But it was them. Listen, it was those who were supposed to be the believers of God, the sons of of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their sons, their offspring. These are the ones who said, Send this man to the cross. We have no use for him. They were the ones. It wasn't even Rome. They tried to do everything that they could to avoid crucifying this man because they said, We have found no fault in this man. Get this. They preferred to continue their oppression under Roman rule. They rather pursue that and keep that than to have Jesus Christ, their Messiah, rule over them. And boy, aren't we glad. Because now he rules to the cross and he rules over us, and we are thankful for our king. Now, so because the Jews rejected him, according to Schofield, according to dispensationalism, they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to them and said, Hey, I want to be your king. They said, No, don't think so. So he goes, Okay, well, I'll just go to the cross and lay down my life for my people, for the very people that rejected him. So this would also mean that the reason that we have any, you gotta you have to keep this in mind, because this narrative that Schofield and dispensationalism presents as it pertains to Matthew 4.17 about the kingdom of God being at hand, a kingdom which was rejected by the Jews, that forced Christ to bypass that that effort that he didn't see coming somehow, and therefore that kingdom is going to be postponed to the future. Now keep in mind, Matthew was written before Revelation. It was written before Revelation. So this means that when John received the vision in Revelation chapter 20, it had to take into account the fact that Schofield says that Jesus, because he was rejected, he had to go to the cross instead. So now Revelation, its writing, would have to be affected by this rejection by the Jews of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're following along with me, you have to understand how crazy this is. That means that the book of Revelation had to have been contingent in what was going to be contained in that particular volume, based on Christ coming here, wanting to set up a kingdom, being rejected by the Jews, then deciding to go to the cross, then to usher in an age of grace, which is not considered kingdom. And all of that had to be in Revelation about the millennial reign, had to be contemplated or had to be an alternative vision based on the outcome of what happened when Christ was here on earth. So Schofield continues to describe this current age that we live in right now. This is what Schofieldism and dispensationalism, this is what they call the church age. In the church age, the age part is another word for dispensation. Age and dispensation are more or less synonymous synonymous terms. And according to the Schofield Reference Bible, there are seven different dispensations. And the church age, which is the age they say we live in right now, is a dispensation of grace. And in each one of these seven different dispensations, there is an alternative way by which those who are saved come to that salvation. In other words, under Adam's time, men were saved one way. In other words, Cain, or not Cain, but Abel, and perhaps Adam and Eve were all saved a different way. Under Moses, men were saved a different way. Under Abraham, men were saved a different way. And now, during this church age, we're saved a different way. Herein is the next problem, and a significant problem: that there are multiple ways of being saved. There is only one way to be saved. One way. And that way of being saved is the way Abraham was saved. Does anyone want to render a guess as to what that one way is? Anybody?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

By faith.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

By faith. By faith. Lori T says I'm wrong. Well, then you should find another lie to be in. Because we're going to talk the truth. We're going to talk the truth tonight. Salvation is by faith and nothing else. Salvation has always been the same from Adam's time till now and until our Lord Jesus Christ comes back. Faith has always been the same. And faith has always been faith in the one Lord and Savior to them who was to come and to us, though Him who has already come and who yet lives on high. Salvation is by faith. Anyone who tells you different, you tell them, I say it, if you don't want to use my words, they're lying. Because that's what they're doing. They're lying. Whether they realize it or not, it's a lie. Salvation comes by faith. Jesus told the Pharisees of this day, if you, he said that Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he did and was glad. Abraham looked for him. Job, as those of us who have been part of our study, we know what did Job say in Job 19, verse 25? Anybody. For I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that my Redeemer lives. Abraham had faith, therefore, in whom? Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only Redeemer God has ever given to man. And he was our Redeemer before he was incarnate. He was our Redeemer at the cross. He was our Redeemer when he ascended on high. And he is our Redeemer right now, advocating and interceding for all of us to this very day. My sister Lori, she says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. That is absolutely the truth. Absolutely the truth. So Schofield says that the church age, this is what was not revealed. He says that this church age that we're in right now was not revealed. So what he does is this. Here's what he does: he tells you something that he expects you to assume to be true, which is that the church age is an actual thing. No, it's not.