Dispensationalism and the Anti-Christ

Dispensationalists hold that the appearance and reign of the Anti-Christ takes place during the seven year period after the Rapture. At the end of the seven years Christ returns with His saints, defeats and destroys the Anti-Christ and his armies in the battle of Armaggedon, and sets up an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem over which He rules in person for 1000 years. The reign of Christ on earth at that time according to Scofield, will be a sitting on the throne of David, as King of the Jews, literally, strictly andpolitically understood.

This Futuristic theory of the Anti-Christ propagated by Dr. Scofield is the Popish view. "Alarmed by the fact that the Reformers were pointing to the Pope as the Anti-Christ, the Jesuit Ribera at the end of the sixteenth century, invented or at least propagated futuristic views of the Anti-Christ, and pointed to a solitary Infidel Anti-Christ who would appear in the dim future. Ribera’s view soon infected the High Church party. J. N. Darby caught the contagion, and finally Dr. D. L. Scofield swallowed the Jesuit’s pill. Thus Ribera succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, for the attention of thousands of Protestants became deflected from the Papacy, a future Infidel Anti-Christ was looked for, and the historic Protestant view handed down by the Reformers was despised by many. These are the hard facts of history. A Protestantism saturated with Ribera’s Futurism is not the Protestantism of the Reformers, nor is it feared by the Papacy." (The Roman Anti-Christ by Rev. F. S. Leahy).

In the days of the Apostle John there were many antichrists, heretics who denied either the divinity of Christ or His actual incarnation. "Even now" he writes "are there many antichrists." He also says, "Little children, it is the last time: and ye have heard that Antichrist shall come." (1 John 2:18). According to Matthew Henry the generality of Christians had been informed of the coming of the Antichrist. Paul’s 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians Ch. 2:8-10 made it clear to them. He is called the Antichrist as though there were none but he, because he was so eminently above all others. He is, therefore, called "the man of sin" and "the son of perdition" and the system of which he is the head "the mystery of iniquity."

Will the Temple be Rebuilt?

Dispensationalists insist that Chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel are to be taken literally, that their fulfilment will be in the millennial kingdom, that the temple will be rebuilt and animal sacrifices are again to be offered. "Doubtless these offerings," says Scofield, "will be memorial, looking back to the cross, as the offerings under the old covenant were anticipatory, looking forward to the cross." (p. 890).

In connection with the crass carnality of such views, the Rev. Harold Dekker writes, "It is one of the plainest universal teachings of the New Testament that the sacrifices of the Mosaic economy were fulfilled in Christ and were taken away as vanishing shadows that prefigured the substance.

Paul’s warnings against a return to them are cited: "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, where unto ye desire again to be in bondage." "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ bath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Gal. 4:9 & 5:1).

"The Epistle to the Hebrews" says Dr. J. H. Snowden is one long and conclusive argument that the old ordinances are fulfilled and done away in Christ, "who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s; for this he did once, when he offered up himself." (7:27) (The Coming of the Lord).

There will be no further "memorial looking back to the cross" but the memorial which the Lord Jesus instituted the night in which He was betrayed and which He commanded His disciples to observe "till He come."

The glorious temple detailed in Ezekiel, chapter 40, etc., is a symbolic representation of the New Testament Church in her millennial glory, described in Old Testament language. It is not a literal temple, any more than the words " this is my body" and "this is my blood" are to be taken literally. This is the view held by the godly and eminent divines of the past. Jonathan Edwards says, " A very great and clear evidence, that the city of Jerusalem, the holy city and the temple in all its parts and measures, and its various appendages and utensils, with all its officers, services, sacrifices and ceremonies, and so all things pertaining to the ceremonial law, were typical of things appertaining to the Messiah and His church and kingdom, is that these things are evidently made use of as such, in a very particular manner in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel: that we have an account of in the nine last chapters of his prophecy. These there mentioned which are the same which were in Israel under the law, are mentioned as resemblances, figures. or symbolical representations of spiritual things. So that God has in these chapters determined, that these things are figures, symbols, or types representing the things of the Messiah’s kingdom, because here he plainly makes use of them as such." (Vol. 2, p. 674).

Is it any wonder that Dispensationalism has been described as among the sorriest in the whole history of freak exegesis?

Philip Munro says, Dispensationalism may be fascinating as a work of art, but as a revelation it rests on a foundation of sand. The entire system of dispensational teaching is modernistic in the strictest sense; it is modernism, moreover of a very pernicious sort, such that it must have a Bible of its own (i.e., the Scofield Reference Bible) for the propaganda of its peculiar doctrines since they are not in the Word of God."

In connection with the Scofield Bible it has been said; "It is a matter of great concern to many Christians that a book should exist, and be offered for sale, wherein corrupt words of mortal men are printed and set as positive statements in the midst of the Holy Word of God Almighty. Is not this an affront before God Himself? ‘Let God be true and every man a liar’ (Rom. 3:4)"

THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS

"With the destiny of Israel has always been linked that of the universal race of man. The casting away of them hath been the reconciling of the world, and the receiving of them will be life from the dead." So said the saintly Rev. John Duncan, LL.D., in one of his addresses on the subject of the evangelisation of the Jews at the Free Church General Assembly in Edinburgh in May 1860. His profound knowledge of Hebrew and of oriental languages of which he was professor, and his love for the Jews, earned him the title of "Rabbi" Duncan.

The conversion of the Jews to Christ their Messiah is recorded and set forth in both the Old and New Testaments. "For I would not, brethren," writes the Apostle Paul in Romans 11, "that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved" etc. (v. 25, 26).

"By all Israel here we are not to understand the whole Church of God, all the elect consisting of Jews and Gentiles. It is true that in Gal. 6:16 and elsewhere, the word Israel is applied in that general sense to the Church of God. But in this chapter Israel means the nation and people of the Jews. ‘All’ is used as in many other instances in a general way and here indicates a very great number, and in a manner the whole Jewish nation in a full body." So writes the eminent Netherlands divine, Hermann Witsius D.D. (1636-1708), Professor of Divinity in the Universities of Utrecht and Leyden.

"They depart from the apostle’s meaning" he continues, "who by ‘all Israel’ understand the mystical Israel, or the people of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, without admitting the conversion of the whole Jewish nation to Christ, in the sense we here mentioned. Notwithstanding this may be confirmed by the following arguments. First, the apostle speaks of the Israel, to whom he ascribes his own pedigree v.1. whom he calls his flesh, that is, his kindred, v.14, and the natural branches v.21, whom he constantly distinguishes from the Gentiles; to whom he testifies, blindness has happened. All this is applicable to Israel properly so called. Secondly, he lays before us a mystery, but it was no mystery, that a very few Jews were converted to Christ together with the Gentiles; for we have daily instances of that. Thirdly, he reminds the Gentiles not to exalt over, or despise the Jews, from this argument, that, as they themselves were now taken in among the people of God, so, in like manner, the Jews were in due time to be taken in again. But if the apostle meant that the body of the Jewish nation was to continue in their hardness; and but a few of them to be saved, who, joined to the Gentiles would form a mystical Israel, the whole of the discourse would be more adapted to the commendation of the Gentiles, than of the Israelites; and encourage rather than depress the pride of the Gentiles. Fourthly, as the fall and diminishing of Israel, v.12, and their casting away, v.15, are to be understood; so likewise the receiving and saving them, for here the rules of a just opposition must be observed. But the fall, diminishing and casting away of Israel are to be understood of the generality of the Jewish nation; therefore the receiving and saving of Israel in like manner.

"To this restoration of Israel shall be joined the riches of the whole church, and as it were, life from the dead (Rom. 11:12) "Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?" and v.15 "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" The apostle intimates that much greater and more extensive benefits shall redound to the Christian Church from the fullness and restoration of the Jews, than did to the Gentiles from their fall and diminution; greater, I say intensely, or with respect to degrees, and larger with respect to extent.

As to in tenseness or degrees, it is supposed that about the time of the conversion of the Jews, the Gentile world will be like a dead person, in a manner almost as Christ describes the church of Sardis, Rev. 3:1,2, namely, both that light of saving knowledge, and that fervent piety, and that lively and vigorous simplicity of ancient Christianity, will in a course of years be very much impaired. Many nations, which had formerly embraced the gospel with much zeal afterwards almost to be extinguished by the venom of Mahommedanism, Popery, Libertinism and Atheism would verify this prophecy; but upon the restoration of the Jews these will suddenly arise, as out of the grave; a new light will shine upon them, a new zeal be kindled up; the life of Christ be again manifested in His mystical body, more lively, perhaps, and vigorous than ever. - - -

Agreeably to which James has said, Act 15:15-17 "And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things." The reparation of the fallen tabernacle of David signifies the restoration of true and spiritual worship among the Israelites. And when that shall come to pass, the rest of mankind, who never gave up their names to Christ. and the nations, upon which His name was formerly called. but which by their falling away lost the benefit of the Gospel will then with emulation seek the Lord.

"And what is more evident than that prophecy in Isaiah? The prophet in Ch. 59:20, 21, having foretold the restoration of Israel, according to the apostle’s commentary, immediately, in Ch. 60:1 exclaims, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," and in v.3 "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" etc. (The Economy of the Covenants Book 4, ch. 15).

Dispensationalism and the 70th Week of Daniel’s Prophecy

Dispensationalists hold that after the secret Rapture, the saints will be with Christ in the sky for seven years. At the end of this period He shall return visibly with His saints to the earth (commonly called the Revelation). "This theory," writes Dr. Fletcher, "is a perversion of Second Coming truth, a delusion of the last days, widely held. Nowhere does the New Testament teach two future comings of Christ, first for His saints, and then with His saints. Those who hold this view seek to harmonise it with the New Testament teaching on the Second Coming of Christ by asserting that the coming for and with His saints several years later are not two comings, but two stages of the Second Coming of Christ. This attempt to justify the theory cannot overthrow the testimony of the senses that the coming for the saints is a FIRST second coming, and the subsequent coming with the saints is a SECOND coming. But this cannot be. He came once, and He will come once more — and only once more: ‘the second time without sin unto salvation’ (Heb. 9: 28)."

If it be asked, where in Scripture is there authority for a seven year period such as Dispensationalism sets forth as elapsing between the Rapture and the Revelation, the answer must be: there is none. It is a period of time imported by inference from Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks, it being assumed that the 70th week has not yet been fulfilled, that it is the 7th week or the seven years between the Rapture and the Revelation and that during that time a number of predicted events — such as the apostasy, the appearance and reign of the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, the return of the Jews to Palestine and their conversion are to occur.

"But there are no grounds" writes Dr. Boettner "either in reason or in Scripture for inserting a parenthesis of many centuries duration between the 69th and the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy, a parenthesis which strangely has already extended nearly four times as long as the entire period of the 70 weeks themselves. In this prophecy it is quite evident that the weeks refer to years. The Jews had just completed 70 years captivity in Babylon — years that had run consecutively. Daniel understood from the prophecies that the time was at an end, and he besought God earnestly in prayer for their deliverance. It was revealed to him that 7 times 70 were determined to complete God’s dealings with Israel as a nation — for their return to their own land, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple, and until Messiah should come and accomplish His work of redemption. Certainly the natural inference is that in this prophecy time runs concurrently as it does in any other prophecy. Nowhere in Scripture is a specified number of time-units, making up a described period of time set forth as meaning anything but continuous and consecutive time. Likewise the 70 weeks in Daniel’s prophecy are 70 links in a chain, each holding to the others, a definite measure of the remaining time allotted to the nation of Israel before the coming of the Messiah.

The correct interpretation of Daniel’s prophecy is, we believe, that the events of the 70th week were fulfilled during the public ministry of Christ in Palestine including the completion and abolition of the Old Covenant. After a further period of grace, some 37 years later, the final break-up of the Jewish economy came with the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem and the final dispersion of the Jews." (The Millennium).

"Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people" etc. (Daniel 9:24). The seventy weeks, weeks of years are 490 years. These 490 years are to the death of Christ as the remainder of the verse makes clear. It was by His death that He finished transgression, made an end of sin by His complete Atonement for it and brought in an everlasting righteousness. His death is mentioned first as it was to this end that He came into the world.

"And to seal up the vision and prophecy. He came to seal up the vision and prophecy, all the prophetical visions of the Old Testament, which had reference to the Messiah. He sealed them up, that is He accomplished them, answered to them to a tittle; all the things that were written in the law, the prophets and the psalms concerning the Messiah, were fulfilled in Him. Thus He confirmed the truth of them as well as His own mission. He sealed them up, that is He put an end to that method of God’s discovering His mind and will, and took another course by completing the Scripture-canon in the New Testament, which is the more sure word of prophecy than by vision." (Matthew Henry).

"He came to anoint the most holy," that is Himself, the Holy One who was anointed (that is appointed to His work and qualified for it) by the Holy Ghost, that oil of gladness which He received without measure above His fellows: or to "anoint" the gospel-church, His spiritual temple or holy place, to sanctify and cleanse it and appropriate it to Himself, (Eph. 5:26), or to consecrate for us ‘a new and living way into the holiest,’ by His own blood (Heb. 10:20) as the sanctuary was anointed (Exodus 30:25 etc.). He is called Messiah (v. 25, 26) which signifies Christ — Anointed (John 1:41) because He received the unction both for Himself and for all that are His. In order to do all this Messiah must be cut off, must die a violent death, and so be cut off from the land of the living as was foretold in Isaiah 53:8." (Matthew Henry).

v. 25. "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times."

The seven weeks or 49 years are from the publication of the edict to restore and to build Jerusalem. The restoring and building of Jerusalem took place "in troublous times." The troubles encountered in connection with the work are narrated for us in the Book of Nehemiah. The 49 weeks ended at the end of Nehemiah’s reformation. Then 62 weeks are mentioned. The 7 weeks and the 62 weeks making 69 weeks or 483 years, are said to be "unto Messiah the Prince" unto the time of His public manifestation through the ministry and baptism of John the Baptist the forerunner of the Messiah, the Prince and King of the kingdom. "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it." (Luke 16:16).

v. 26. "And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself" etc. That is AFTER the 483 years or 69 weeks, that is in the 70th week — the week embracing the ministry of John the Baptist which lasted for about 30 years and Christ’s own ministry for 30 years. The 70 weeks or the 490 years as stated in v. 24 are to the death of Christ. There is therefore no foundation whatsoever in the Word of God for the Dispensational fantasy that the final week of seven years is still future, the period between the Rapture and the Revelation. "This theory" as quoted above by Dr. Fletcher "is a perversion of the Second Coming truth, a delusion of the last days widely held."

In verse 26 we read that after Messiah had been cut off but not for Himself, "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." The learned Dr. Gill, the noted 18th century commentator, takes this to be a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple by the Romans under the Emperor Titus and to the desolations which ensued.

v. 27. "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease" etc. In the midst of the week must be therefore about 70 A.D. the date of the destruction of the city and the temple. With the destruction of the temple an end was put to the sacrifice and the oblation, as sacrifices could only be offered in the temple.

"The Romans spoken of in the latter part of verse 26," writes Dr. Gill, "in order to accomplish their design to destroy the city and temple of Jerusalem, made peace with many nations, entered into covenant and alliance with them, particularly the Medes, Parthians and Arminians for the space of one week or seven years; as it appears they did at the beginning of this week; "and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease"; the daily sacrifice of the Jews and all their offerings; and which was literally fulfilled "in the half-part" of this week, as it may be rendered, towards the latter half of it when the city of Jerusalem being closely besieged by Titus, what through the closeness of the siege, the divisions of the people and the want both of time and men, and beasts to offer, the daily sacrifice ceased as Josephus says, to the great grief of the people; nor have the Jews since the destruction of their city and temple offered any sacrifice, esteeming it unlawful to do so in a strange land."

Dr. Gill points out that the "week" spoken of here did not immediately follow the 70 weeks at the end of which the Messiah was cut off. It was 30 or 40 years after this. "The reason" as Dr. Gill observes, "was the long-suffering and forbearance of God towards the Jews, who gave them as to the old world space to repent; but His grace and goodness being slighted, things began to work at the beginning of this week towards their final ruin, which in the close of it, was fully accomplished."

"And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate" or as it is in the margin "with abominable armies," the Roman armies being abominable to the Jews.

Even until the consummation, until the time appointed by God for their return to the land, Jerusalem was to be trodden under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

"And that determined shall be poured upon the desolate" or desolator (margin) — the vengeance will continue upon the Jews until the time determined when the wrath shall be turned upon those who made them desolate.

The Final Apostasy and the ‘Second Resurrection.’

A little before the end of the world, a great part of the world shall fall away from Christ and His Church. Accordingly we are told that when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison to go forth to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. Gog and Magog indicate a resurgence of evil powers, hostile to the church of God. We also read, "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." (Rev. 20:5).

"But who are the ‘rest of the dead’? They are the wicked dead who lived not again until the thousand years were finished. They did not live in that time. Their views and customs during the thousand years were not triumphant. They are to live again when the thousand years are past. Their principles, etc., are to have a resurrection — this is the second resurrection, but there is no blessing pronounced upon those who have a part in this resurrection such as is pronounced upon those who have a part in the first resurrection. The wicked dead now live and reign with Satan. Here again the resurrection is figurative. Neither the first nor secondresurrection is of the body — they are of souls. There is not a word in these verses (4-6) which says anything about the coming of Christ nor about a bodily resurrection." (Rev. D. Beaton, Free Presbyterian Magazine, Vol. 39, p. 10).

‘They compassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city.’ (v. 9). "The Church is likened to a military camp. This is a figure borrowed from the time of Moses and Joshua when the church even externally presented the form of a military camp. The twelve tribes with their banners surrounded the tabernacle on four sides. The camp was in the form of a square; of which the four sides were to be placed toward the four quarters of the compass. This was a type of the heavenly city as seen by Ezekiel 48:20 and the city foursquare of Revelation 21:16. The camp and the city are but different figures of speech to describe the church upon earth. The Church in heaven will never be surrounded by enemies such as are pictured to us in Revelation 20 (Revelation Twentyby Rev. I. Marcellus Kik). Commenting on the statement that fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them, Mr. Kik says, "Since nothing more is written in this prophecy concerning an intervening period and the resurrection of the just and the unjust at the last day, this must be the final destructive blow. It is the revealing of Christ as described in 2 Thessalonians 1: 7-9, "with His mighty angels, in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" etc. The chapter closes with an account of the resurrection of the dead and the judgment of the great day.

Dispensationalism and the ‘First Resurrection’

Dispensationalists and Pre-Millennialists hold that the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20 is to be understood as a literal physical resurrection. "This notion that the resurrection of the righteous is to occur a thousand years before the end of the world is contradicted by Jesus who on four different occasions, said He would raise up those who believe in Him at the last day. (John 6:39, 40,44, 54). Clearly there can be no other days after the last day." (The Millennium p. 169).

"The glory and happiness of this thousand years reign of the saints is to be understood, not literally but spiritually and figuratively according to the common style of the book. It could not consist with the happiness of the saints to leave the heavenly mansions and live in bodies needing meat and drink, nor if their bodies were raised spiritual and incorruptible would they need any such thing. The dead in Christ are also represented as all rising together at the last day. And a proper resurrection is never in Scripture represented as a reviving or living again of the soul but of the body. The resurrection of the martyrs’ and confessors’ souls here spoken of must therefore mean, not the resurrection of these deceased persons, but the remarkable reformation, deliverance, comfort and activity of the church in their successors. As Elijah is represented living in John the Baptist and Anti-Christian Rome is called in the Revelation. Sodom, Egypt and Babylon on account of her likeness to them in luxury. cruelty, pride and idolatry, so the ancient martyrs will live in the Christians of this period, being united to the same Head, members of the same body and of the same temper, faith, patience, zeal and fortitude and professing the same Gospel truths." (Prof. John Brown of Haddington).

"The visible kingdom of satan shall be overthrown, and the kingdom of Christ set up in the ruins of it, everywhere throughout the whole habitable globe. Now shall the promise made to Abraham be fulfilled that ‘in him and in his seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed’; and Christ now shall become the desire of all nations, agreeable to Haggai 2:7. Now the kingdom of Christ shall in the most strict and literal sense be extended to all nations, and the whole earth. There are many passages in Scripture that can be understood in no other sense. What can be more universal than that in Isaiah 11:9 ‘For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’ As much as to say, as there is no part of the channel or cavity of the sea anywhere, but what is covered with water; so there shall be no part of the world of mankind but what shall be covered with the knowledge of God. It is foretold in Isaiah 45:22, that all ends of the earth shall look to Christ, and be saved. And to show that the words are to be understood in the most universal sense, it is said in the next verse, ‘I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.’ So the most universal expression is used (Daniel 7:27) ‘And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High God.’ You see the expression includes all under the whole heaven." (Jonathan Edwards)