Welcome to the For the Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and today I want to walk you through dispensationalism as part of our study of eschatology. Now, up to this point, we have been through some excellent content, including my buddy Jeff Durbin coming on and talking eschatology. And I hope you've listened to every episode in the series up to this point, because if you haven't, this episode's not going to have as much context as I would like it to have for you. We've covered the essentials, four millennial views, which by the way, I printed this up for you to see if you're watching on video, but we have this chart. I made it, it's not a weird dispensational prediction of the end of the world chart. It's a comparison chart of all four views. And I know a lot of you thought it was hilarious, actually, on social media. There's no typos in the chart, but on social media, the For the Gospel account, uh, we ended up with a typo on the all millennial view. And I said, you know, that was just to show you all that you are in error. Uh, that was me joking. My Aw Mil friends thought it was hilarious. They took exception, and we had some good razzing each other back and forth on texts and DMs. But that chart's available on our website, under the blog, or you can go to that post and just send us a comment, write comparison, and they'll DM you the chart. Also, watch it through a case for premillennialism. So you wouldn't just understand the four views, but the view that I hold, and it's my podcast, so I wanted to teach on that. But then we had a conversation with Jeff Durbin, my postmail bro here in Arizona, and we talked through some of the concerns that we have in our own camps. We didn't debate or throw grenades at each other. We just talked through some concerns, and I think that was so unifying and so helpful. So did he. And then last episode, I walked you through what would be a biblical argument for the rapture, the tribulation, and the church and all of that. So, with that in your arsenal, whether you've agreed or not, you at least understand, I want to talk about a discerning dispensationalism, not the weird extremist teaching, some man-made system that's held up as inerrant scripture, but a thoughtful, biblical, purposeful understanding of God's plan for redemption and fulfillment. Whether you agree or not, I hope you find this to be helpful and encouraging. To begin with, there are three extremes within dispensationalism, just like there can be extremes within the Reformed, Arminian, or charismatic camps. Number one, some dispensationalists believe in two ways of salvation. Here's the misconception. Some assume that dispensationalism teaches that the Old Testament saints were saved by works and law-keeping, while New Testament believers are saved by grace. That's not true. The truth is, salvation has always been by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone. And Old Testament believers looked forward to the promises of Messiah and they had faith in God. New Testament believers look back to the finished work of Christ and were saved. Everyone's looking in faith to God, and the biblical backing for this is Genesis 15, 6. Abraham believed the Lord, the Bible says, Yahweh, and he counted it to him as righteousness. What was righteousness found in? Faith. How did it come about in Abraham's life? Faith, because he believed in what? The law? No, the Lord. Romans 4.3. Paul uses Abraham as the model of justification by faith. Hebrews 11, the great chapter of faith. You have all of the Old Testament saints that trusted God's promises by faith and not works. So, number one, it's a bit of a caricature when people say dispensationalists teach two types of ways of salvation. And then the dispigure preaches Hebrews 11 as it stands and says, it's always been by faith. Look at the heroes of old, it's by faith. Dispensationalism simply recognizes different administrations of God's redemptive plan, not different methods of salvation. And I'll explain what that means shortly. Number two, some dispensationalists think that part of the New Testament is not for today. And by that I mean specific parts. Here's the misconception. Extreme, and I mean hyper dispensationalists, would claim that only Paul's letters apply directly to the church, like Romans to Jude, although most would, in the extremists of in the extremist camp, uh, not just Romans to Jude, they're going to leave out James and that the Gosels are not necessarily for us. This is crazy. And I've heard some of that taught before. I've been around some of it or noticed some of it in different camps or circles where you know you can't preach Matthew 24, 25, can't preach the parable of the talents to the church because it's not church age, or the book of Hebrews, uh the book of uh James is super Jewish and it's not to us, it's to for a different dispensation. And you're like, what are you talking? You're you're ruining it for everyone. What are you doing? We shouldn't be, that's crazy. So, no, that's not the view. Classic dispensationalism affirms the whole New Testament is for the church, though distinctions must be made between direct application and historical context. All scripture, 2 Timothy 3.16, is God-breathed and profitable. So we believe that and would hold to it. The biblical backing for this is Romans 15 4, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. And so all of Scripture should be preached and taught. Dispensationalism, proper, biblically minded dispensationalism, the type that faithful, reputable scholars like Dr. Michael Vlock, does not cut out parts of the Bible. Dispensational scholarship seeks to read each passage in light of its covenantal or dispensational setting while applying the whole council of God. Number three, some dispensationalists wrongly divide Israel and the church. So the misconception is that some dispensationalists create two peoples of God, Israel and the church, making the church kind of a parenthesis in God's plan. Like we're the second-class citizen, sort of the adopted stepchild that's like not really in the plan, but now we're in, and oh, you just better be thankful. But man, Israel and the Jews, whoo, those are God's chosen people. They are like super blessed. And then when they get saved and messianic Jews come, we meet them, it's like, wow, you're like twice as good as me. Not only are you a Jew, but now you're a messianic Jew. No, that's not biblical thinking when it comes to this. The truth is, the Bible speaks of one plan of salvation, one savior and one body. It does distinguish between Israel and the church as unique instruments in God's purposes. And Israel is true Israel, a covenant people with promises yet to be fulfilled, Romans chapter 11, and the church is a multi-ethnic body of Christ, united in the Spirit, Ephesians 3, both find their hope in Christ. And so if I'm with a messianic Jew, we are one. We're not the two peoples. We're one. But in the Bible, even when Paul makes distinctions between Jews and Gentiles in the church, is he aware that these people have come to an understanding of God from two different contexts? Absolutely. The Jew having a foundation of the Torah and the law and knowledge of Yahweh, but now must believe on Christ to be saved, and the Gentile coming from ignorance, paganism, and completely separated from God in the Old Testament as well, not being marked as Israel, now comes to faith in Christ, and they are one. This is not crazy, and it's certainly not the caricature that many reputable dispensational scholars get labeled with. So, what do you have going on with Israel? Well, their hardening, according to Romans 11, verses 25 to 29, is partial and it's temporary, and then eventually, quote, all Israel will be saved. In the Bible, it makes it clear prophetically that one day, during the tribulation, there will be great revival and renewal, and many at that time in Israel will come to faith and turn to Yahweh. And also in the millennial kingdom, former predictions and prophecies and promises and covenants made to the people of Israel will be fulfilled then. Not to every Jew who's ever lived, not to everybody who claims to be Jewish, not to everybody who lives in Israel right now or in Jerusalem, and they just say, well, you know, I'm automatically good. No, that's Phariseaism and it's total heresy because those who are in Christ belong to Christ because they have faith in Christ, not because of their ethnicity. Very important that we can make those distinctions interpretively. Ephesians 3, verses 4 to 6 was very helpful. That the mystery reveal is Gentiles are now fellow heirs, united into one body. So any of this talk of, you know, overdoing the distinction between Israel and the church is not helpful. At the same time, dispensationalism would hold to a distinction between Israel and the church, but not a divided one within the body of Christ. And so dispensationalism is not about two salvations. It's not about rejecting Scripture. It is not about creating competing peoples of God. It's about taking God's promises at face value, recognizing the progressive revelation of Scripture, and honoring both the unity of God's plan and the diversity of how he carries it out. So, with that clear, I want to lay out six tenets of classic dispensationalism that whether you agree or disagree, you can know what it is and see through the caricatures of those who haven't quite grown out of their kind of reformed boyhood and into maturity with these discussions. And that's something I really appreciated about Jeff Durbin and I in our discussion is we both recognize good, godly, scholarly men are dispensational, postmillennial, covenantal, premillennial, amillennial, and they love Christ. And that's something that in these discussions, our generation desperately needs. I want to begin with a quote. Dr. Michael Vlock, renowned dispensational scholar and professor at Shepherd's Theological Seminary, says this dispensationalism is a way of reading the Bible that emphasizes the glory of God as the ultimate purpose of history, a consistent literal interpretation of scripture, and a distinction between Israel and the church while affirming the unity of God's plan of salvation in Christ. Very helpful, very simple. Some key points then to understand. Number one, God's glory is the ultimate goal. In dispensationalism, God's glory is the ultimate goal. Disby teaching is that history isn't centered on the primacy of man or on man's salvation, but on God's glory. Salvation is part of that glory, but so is judgment, so is the restoration of Israel, so is the character of God and keeping all his promises, and so is Christ's future reign. It's not about charts and timelines and obsessing over the, it's about the glory of God being seen throughout the world and him tying off every single promise he's made. Two, dispensationalism centers on consistent literal interpretation. So prophecies and promises, especially regarding Israel and the kingdom, are taken at face value unless the text clearly indicates symbolism, which of course, even a literal view acknowledges symbolism, metaphor, all these things. For example, Israel's land promises in Genesis 15, 18 to 21, and the thousand years in Revelation 20 are understood literally. Does that mean that we say, well, Israel better get their land now? Or 1948 was wow. No, they they could get obliterated and there could be no more Israel and it could go back to being Palestine or you can call it Kentucky. What we're saying is at the time that Christ returns, and certainly the setup leading to that moment in the tribulation and during the Millennial Kingdom, it's gonna happen. What God has promised to do, he will do. And he will preserve a remnant, a people, and a place for his purposes. Number three, dispensationalism would uphold the unity of salvation and diversity of administrations. Now you say, Costi, I'm gonna need you to explain that. Absolutely. These are big words and these are theological words, but dispensationalists reject the idea of two ways of salvation. Instead, they affirm one plan of redemption by grace through faith in Christ. And what changes across dispensations, when I say that word even, it's just ages and time, is how God administers his will and reveals his purposes in history. And that's Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 and 2 makes that really clear. And this is where some people get hung up. So let me explain when dispensational teachers use words like diversity of administrations or the way God is administering his plan. First, salvation's always been by grace through faith in God's promised Messiah. Abraham justified by faith. We are today justified by faith. And the object of saving faith is Christ, and that's the same in every era. What changes as progressive revelation unfolds is the way God administers his plan in different times, and that's dispensations, different times. Think of it like different chapters in the same story. The author doesn't change, the storyline doesn't change, but the way he unfolds the plot to the characters does. When I explain this, I think some of you are gonna be like, okay, I totally understand that. First example, Old Covenant Israel, okay? Let's just look at that as a dispensation or a time in God's plan. God gives Israel the law at Sinai, not as a means of salvation, but as a means to reveal his holiness, restrain sin, and point them to their need for the coming Messiah. Galatians 3.24 makes that really clear. So you have God operating in that way at that time with a people called Israel, and he gives his law. Salvation is still by faith, and it's his grace that he even chooses them. But are they told, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved? No. Are they given epistles and letters from the disciples and apostles? No. Are they even given the revelation of the mystery of the church? No. God is operating in that dispensation very simply and very clearly. He gives his law. They must obey, they must believe, they must follow. And what is their salvation in? Faith in Yahweh. The second example of another dispensation would be the church age. So different than the dispensation of law or that age with Israel and the old covenant, you have the church since Pentecost. What is God doing? Well, it's kind of different than what it looked like in the book of Exodus. God is building the church with Jew and Gentile in one body. We're in a different age or a different dispensation, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a unique blessing in the new covenant. That's different. In the Old Testament, he primarily came upon. In the New Testament, now the Holy Spirit comes in. In the Old Testament, there was a physical temple. They had to go, and the presence of God resided in the Ark of the Covenant. And now, who's the temple? We are. Where is his presence? Within us. Different dispensations. Is God changing the game on salvation? No. Is anyone saying there's two different ways of salvation? No. There's just different ways that God operated. And when you interpret the text that way, you just have more understanding. Example number three, the kingdom. You can look at the future millennial kingdom as another dispensation, another age. It's going to be different. The lion and the lamb get along. The child plays by the viper's den. Christ is with us bodily, physically, ruling and reigning, and he's going to reign physically on the earth. Is that different than what he's doing right now? Yes. Even though he's ruling and reigning, he's not reigning physically on the earth, on the throne of David. He's going to fulfill promises of justice, peace, restoration, and there'll be a new administration of God's rule. That's Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 to 6. So you got to think of parents with their kids here. It's a good illustration. The love that parents have does not change. The goal of raising them to maturity does not change. But the way they govern the home shifts. The five-year-old gets bedtime rules and hand holding, you know, across the street when they're going where they're going, and it's different. The 20-year-old doesn't. Same family, same love, different administration of quote, the rules for the stage they're in. For example, there are aspects of the law we are no longer under. And there are aspects of what we experience that Israel wasn't privy to. And so what you're just understanding in a dispensational framework is interpreting the Bible as God's progressive revelation is unfolding. And it just helps you make sense of his plan. I think people make it a lot weirder than they ought to. Certainly caricatures do from those who don't agree, if they're playing by a more cheeky set of rules and not being gracious to one another like we ought to. Here's the key truth salvation is the same in every age, by grace through faith in Christ. What changes is how God governs, reveals, and organizes his plan throughout history. Okay, another tenet, distinction between Israel and the church. Israel is an ethnic national people with covenants that still stand, Romans 11, 28 and 29. And the church is a multi-ethnic body formed at Pentecost, distinct yet included in God's overarching plan, and both find their fulfillment in Christ, but they're not collapsed into one. Different, of course, than covenantalism. Next, there's a future for national Israel. And again, this isn't blind Zionism. Classic dispensationalism insists that God's promises to Israel, which are land, a kingdom, and restoration, will be literally fulfilled in the future. Jeremiah 31, verses 35 to 37, Zechariah chapters 12 to 14, those need to be dealt with by those who would differ from this view. You gotta do something with those texts. Romans 11 affirms a coming salvation of Israel that coincides with the return of Christ. And so it's not crazy Zionism to believe in this stuff. It's just looking at the Bible and saying, okay, I'm not gonna swing to this extreme of Zionism. I'm also not gonna swing to this extreme of anti-Semitism. I'm just gonna look and say, yeah, there's some things that are gonna be fulfilled. And finally, premillennial hope. Dispensationalism in the classic form consistently affirms a premillennial view. Christ will return before the millennium. He's gonna reign physically on the earth, and he's going to fulfill promises made to Israel and to the nations, by the way. And that is all seen in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 6. In all of these things, friends, dispensationalism is less about crazy left-behind nightmares and simply declares this: God's glory is the ultimate goal. His promises are trustworthy, his word can be taken at face value. Israel and the church are distinct yet unified in God's plan, and Christ will reign on the earth as a real, literal king here, even though we acknowledge he's reigning now in the heavenlies. Not everyone has to agree with the finer points, but to the biblically minded person with a charitable spirit, we should never come to the conclusion, erroneously at that, perhaps pridefully, that scripturally minded, faithful, humble scholars who are dispensational are building their theology on the caricatures being presented, that it's loser theology, that it's just boomer theology, that, you know, it's just escapist theology. No. We believe that God's victorious plan is unfolding throughout every age until the end. We know that God has made promises he will one day fulfill, and until then we trust him. And there's no escape hatch for us when it comes to living all out for the sake of the gospel. Believing in things like a pre-tribulation rapture should make us more zealous to change the world before judgment comes. Now, so much more. Can be said on this subject, but I hope that that is a bit of a primer for you and leads you to deeper discussion. One particular book I would really encourage you to read if you're either trying to understand dispensational theology or you don't agree with it, but you'd like a real fair look at it, Dispensational Hermeneutics by Dr. Michael Vlock is an excellent place to start. It's a short, accessible, readable book, and it will help you with interpretation and understanding of these things. Next week, I'm going to finish out the series by answering the question: what will the Millennial Kingdom be like? And then all of this study of the end times has got me all fired up. And so I want to kick off a new series about heaven and what eternal life will be like. And in that series, I'll talk about hell as well because I really just can't contain myself. In the digging through these eschatological truths, it's all this curiosity has stirred up. And I have all these things I keep thinking of, like, well, it's hard to talk about the millennial kingdom without talking about what it will be like in an era of peace. And then, well, what about the eternal state? And when Christ establishes it, oh, and then I want to answer all these questions. And so my curiosity is stirred. I can't wait to study it all and share everything I discover with you, including what happens when you die, what your body will be like, whether or not we're going to recognize our loved ones, whether or not we're going to remember our life on earth, and so much more. Can't wait for the road ahead. Let's keep growing in God's word together. Thanks for listening and for sharing for the gospel's teaching content with others. Again, if you'd like to join our gospel patron community and help us raise our 2026 budget before the end of the year, we'd love for you to partner with us in that and keep seeing God grow this ministry for his glory. 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