Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Spring Edition 1998
Dispensationalism: A Calvinistic Viewpoint?
Dispensationalism has been widely equated with Calvinism by scholars of the Wesleyan tradition in recent years. The records tell us that John Nelson Darby, the nineteenth century Anglican dissenter who originated many of the modern dispensational distinctives, was indeed a hyper-Calvinist in his general theology.
More importantly, however, was
Darby's personal antagonism toward, and opposition to, the Wesleyan message of
entire sanctification by faith as full cleansing of the heart from inbred sin.
Darby was a strong advocate of the two natures theory of Christian holiness,
that is, that the believer must struggle with the carnal nature as long as he is
in this life.
Nazarene theologian H. Orton Wiley classified Darby's
Plymouth Brethren Movement as "antinomians of the strictest sect" (2:462-463). And Purkiser's Exploring Our Christian Faith, pp. 424-425,
remarks how strange it is that the architects of dispensationalism, who had so
strongly opposed the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification, should have had
such influence in the Holiness movement.
Aside from that, it is not fair to say that Darby and his
dispensational theory are in any sense representative of Reformed, or
Calvinistic, theology, which was decidedly cast, historically speaking, in the
covenant theology tradition. Rather, quite ironically, friends, the theology
that dispensationalism represents is pure and simple antinomianism, not historic
Calvinism, which, like Wesleyan-Arminianism, has built-in safeguards against the
theological and practical fallacies of antinomianism.
Our point? Sir Robert Anderson's "Roman Antichrist"
identification of the covenant-maker in Daniel 9:27--so germane to the whole
logical structure of popular dispensational premillennial end-time Bible
prophecy theory—so said John Calvin in his commentary on the book of Daniel--is
"trifling." And so agreed John Wesley, Adam Clarke, and the greater body of the
Church's exegetes for eighteen hundred years.
Now here is our catch-line: dispensationalism is based on a
fraudulent interpretation of Daniel's prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, and on the
back of this impressive system of interpretational fraud a gigantic hoax of
end-time Bible prophecy expectations has been erected.
Now that hoax is logically imploded in our book Biblical Foundations Of The Amillennial Faith. The penetrating logic in this book completely
delivers the rational mind from all lingering, deceptive enamorations with
popular Darbyism--I challenge you to try it.
Friends, there is a strength in KNOWING, much more than in
ASSUMING. And you can KNOW the truth if you are willing to go beyond the shallow
thinking of much popular end-time Bible prophecy hearsay of today, plumb the depths of
Daniel 9:27, and then think logically straight on from there.
So, if even good logically-consistent Calvinists, including John Calvin himself, would, by their own writings, reject the
maverick invention of modern dispensationalism, then why should any Wesleyan-Arminian
want to cling to it? The ignorance, naivety, and blindness therein is truly
amazing!
Dispensationalism is not a "denomination," for it cuts across
many otherwise dividing ecclesiastical barriers. Not unlike the message of heart
holiness, it is, in that sense, truly non-sectarian. If it were the truth, it
would be a wonderful unifying influence on the modern church.
The disunity among
the sectarian groups calling themselves the Wesleyan Holiness movement today,
however is proof that the Darbyite system of ideology which so many of these
sects have embraced, has had the opposite effect. That effect, in our opinion,
has brought us to the quagmire of legalistic divisiveness over "conservativism,"
that so many are so haplessly mired in today.
Though the symptomatic issues may change over time (from
radio and TV to the internet, for example) the polarizing divisiveness will
never end until we return to a more unifying theology. True Bible Holiness is
just such an ideology. And it still has the effect of producing the unity among
God's people for which it was originally designed (John.17:21-23).
When will we ever learn that dispensationalism is not true
Bible Holiness! Rather, it is exactly what Dr. Daniel Steel said it was: "a
substitute for holiness: or antinomianism revived."
Learn that lesson well, and you are already
far ahead of most!
Related Article Links
Artificial Distinctions Of Dispensationalism
Heresies Of Dispensationalism
Eleven Common End-time Imaginations