The CDH will continue as planned for this coming Wednesday and Thursday according to the published schedule, just not in the Houston area. We had planned to be at Sugar Land Bible Church (Andy Woods as lead pastor), but the incoming storm which is unpredictable right now is making us change our plans. A link to the Zoom meetings is provided at the website for the Council: dispensationalcouncil.org.
Archive for category Dispensationalism
Here is the third presentation from the Pinter Lectures at Appalachian Bible College given in Janaury 2021.
Here is the second presentation from the Pinter Lectures at Appalachian Bible College in January 2021. It is entitled “The Believer and Biblical Justice.”
Here is a video of the message I gave at the Pinter Lectures at Appalachian Bible College back in late January 2021. I will provide three of them. The first presentation is entitled “Myths About Dispensationalism.”
September 11 Remembered
Sep 11
Nineteen years ago today, the USA was attacked by those who hate both the United States and Israel. The Islamists who killed around 3000 souls hoped to do much more damage. They are still enemies today and they do not stand alone as recent events within the United States demonstrate. The craziness of American politics right now scares the entire world. Many in the world are worried about those of us in the States. On September 16-17 (Wednesday and Thursday next week), the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics will deliberate on the topic of “Dispensationalism, Politics, and Culture.” Join us as we attempt to think biblically about a polarized nation in these alarming days. To join the meeting, use the following Zoom link:
Today is my 46th spiritual birthday. It was on this day (it was a Sunday), my twin brother Jimmy and I came to Christ at the West Huntsville Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama.I did two things this morning to honor the memory. First, I listened to the recording of the worship service from that day (had it on cassette tape). The choir sang John W. Peterson’s song “Lost in the Night.” Then Pastor Sam Wolfe preached a message from Exodus 25 on the Tabernacle in the wilderness. However, he spent a lot of time on the doctrine of salvation and who Jesus was. During a gospel Billy Graham kind of invitation, Jimmy and I went forward trusting Christ for forgiveness.
Second, I reread my sermon notes from the funeral sermon for my brother Jimmy (March 16, 2018). It reviews this experience where we trusted God together.I will never get over August 18, 1974. It was the single most life-changing event — more than my marriage and birth of my children. The entire course of my life’s journey was altered as well as my eternal destiny. I thank the Lord for dying for me on the cross and being raised from the dead so I could go free from the penalty of my sin. I am reminded of the Stuart Hamblen song “It is No Secret What God Can Do.” The line continues — what He has done for others He’ll do for you. God will save anyone who calls upon him, even a young man from Alabama.
One other thing I did today that Jimmy would have approved. I printed out the just announced schedule for the 2020 Alabama football season.
We are keeping our eye on the developments of the cornavirus, but at the present time, we are still planning on meeting for our CDH meeting on Sept. 16-17, 2020 at the Crowne Plaza hotel in the Philadelphia area. Below is the “Call for Papers” that was distributed through the Council website. Plan on joining us. If you are a traditional dispensationalist who would like to give a paper, we would love to consider your proposal.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Thirteenth Annual Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics
Crowne Plaza Hotel Conference Center, Claymont, Delaware (Philadelphia Area)
September 16-17, 2020
“Dispensationalism, Politics, and Culture”
This is a call for papers for the 2020 Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics. The Council is an academic study group for traditional dispensationalists although observers from other theological traditions are welcome to attend. This year’s focus is on the dispensational understanding of politics and culture. This is a follow-up to last year’s discussions on social justice and race. If my read on last year’s work is correct, many of us preferred the term biblical justice to social justice. This year we expand our talks at a time when politics and culture appear to be at a boiling point in the United States. Our hope is to bring the Bible to bear on the polarization that confronts all of us. As usual, we desire not simply a theological debate but an attempt to evaluate the hermeneutical and methodological positions involved as we engage in interaction about politics and culture. We want to answer “why” we hold the views we affirm.
We may be asking specific individuals to do various topics as well as receiving your proposals. Off-topic proposals will be considered but those concerning politics and culture will be reviewed first. All proposals with full title and descriptions (not more than 200 words) should be emailed to the Executive Director, Dr. Mike Stallard, at mstallard@foi.org. The deadline for topic proposals to be turned in is June 1, 2020. The entire Steering Committee of the Council will decide collectively which papers are accepted. This process usually does not take long. The deadline for presentation papers to be turned in is September 1, 2020 in order to be posted at the Council website.
This year there is a modest registration fee of $25 for the Council to help cover the costs of the meeting. Registration will be online at the Council website: www.dispensationalcouncil.org. Please make sure to register online as information becomes available if possible. You may also register in person at the conference.
Topics that we are requesting members to consider are the following:
- The contribution of a particular
section or book of the Bible to issues of politics and culture — examples
- Should all Ten Commandments (vertical) be enforced in society today?
- Should only the last six (horizontal) of the Ten Commandments be enforced today?
- Application of the book of Proverbs to issues today
- The contributions of Jesus’ teaching on issues of politics and culture during his earthly ministry
- The contributions of Paul’s teaching on issues of politics and culture in his epistles
- Empire criticism and the book of Revelation
- Is there a form of government that is more biblical than other forms of government? (monarchy, democracy, democratic republicanism, etc.)
- Is there an economic system that is more biblical than other approaches to the economy of a nation or the world (e.g., capitalism, socialism, communism)?
- As a corollary to the previous question, what does the Bible teach about private property?
- What is the biblical role of government? Does this change through the panorama of the ages? Is it different in dispensationalism than in other theological systems?
- What is a biblical approach to understanding and interacting with culture in general?
- Do Niebuhr’s classical categories (Christ and Culture) have validity for our theological thinking today? (Note D. A. Carson’s Christ & Culture Revisited)
- An evaluation of various forms of liberation theology and how culture is impacted by such teachings (e.g., Latin American liberation theology, feminist or womanist theology, black theology, Christian Palestinianism, Jürgen Moltmann, etc.)
- A defense or refutation of just war theory — does dispensationalism differ from other theological systems on this issue? To what extent can dispensationalists embrace pacifism?
- To what extent can a Christian get involved in politics – running for office or working for politicians?
- How should Christians respond to recent advancements of immoral and unethical behavior in society at large (i.e., homosexuality, transgenderism, etc.)?
- What is the relationship of nations today (including the United States) to the kingdom of God?
- Analysis of various views in church history of politics, government, and culture. Some examples would be (1) is postmillennialism given over to the advancement of political means to advance the kingdom?; (2) Christian attempts to bring in the kingdom during the time of the English Civil War (Cromwell, 17th century); (3) Augustine’s City of God; (4) changes brought in by Constantine in the early 4th century, (5) views on social engagement in progressive dispensationalism.
- Does the distinction between Israel and the Church, a doctrine championed by traditional dispensationalism, affect one’s view of how believers interact with politics and culture?
- How does dispensationalism affect one’s view of political engagement on the issue of Zionism and Israel as a nation today?
- An analysis of a specific Christian’s approach to political engagement (John Nelson Darby, Wilbur Wilberforce, Francis Schaeffer, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye, etc.)
- Is there a necessary correlation between liberal theology and liberal politics? Between conservative theology and conservative politics?
Other topics related to the theme are welcome as well. These are suggestions to help us think about the issues.
As always, we will attempt to have an appropriate pastor’s panel to make sure our discussions stay grounded in concern for the local church.
Again, final papers are to be submitted to Dr. Stallard by September 1, 2020 at the email listed earlier. There will be no remuneration for presentation of papers. Council attendees need to provide their own transportation to the Council site. Those who are speaking at the Council must also register for the conference similar to what takes place at the Evangelical Theological Society and the Pre-Trib Study Group.
Information on area hotels will be provided on the Council website. The Crowne Plaza hotel that is hosting the Council this year has some relatively good prices. If you stay there, make sure to tell them you are with our group. The Crowne Plaza is at the corner of Interstate-95 and Highway 92 (address is 630 Naamans Road, Claymont, Delaware). It is about 13 miles southwest of the Philadelphia International Airport, a straight shot down I-95.
There is much emphasis on “gospel-centered” in the evangelical culture and scholarship of our day. I have written here and in other forums that this is not where I am. I have suggested that “Jesus-centered” is a better way to go since such an approach encompasses all that Jesus does, past-present-future, on our behalf. While the gospel of eternal life serves as a foundational truth for past accomplishment, present experience, and future blessing, it is not broad enough to integrate all that Jesus is and all that He does, from the creation of the world, provision of salvation in the Cross and Resurrection, setting up of a kingdom when He comes again, and the ushering in of a new heavens and new earth in the end – all of which combined offer more breadth than the simple gospel. This should not be taken to minimize the strategic role the gospel plays in history or in our theology.
Last week we had our annual Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics. The topic was “Dispensationalism and the Glory of God.” Much profitable discussion centered on a doxological unifying theme of the Bible (Ryrie). The Niagara Conference men of an earlier generation said the same thing but would be comfortable with the words “doxological purpose or purposes for biblical history.” I think the presentation is legitimately biblical. However, the Niagara Conference men also treated this doxological purpose for history as focused on Christology. That is, it was “Jesus-centered” as I have mentioned above. My paper on Arno C. Gaebelein at the Council was the illustration I used for this point of view.
When we ask if the Bible or biblical history or Christian life (or however we word it) is primarily soteriological (gospel-centered), Christological (Jesus-centered), theological (God-centered), or doxological (glory-centered), we are in danger of skewing the truth if we are not careful. All of these things are so tightly intertwined that to diminish one may be to diminish the others in our theological discourse. But if I had to choose, I would believe in a doxological purpose to biblical history with a Christological center. Jesus-centered to the glory of God.
The 10th annual meeting of the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics is being held in Jackson Hall on the campus of Clarks Summit University and Baptist Bible Seminary. The dates are September 13-14, 2017. Our group is a discussion group for traditional dispensationalists who try in an irenic way to discuss hermeneutical and theological issues among ourselves. It is a discussion group more than a presenter group although papers are, of course, the basis of our discussions. The meetings are primarily for Bible college and Seminary professors and pastors but others interested in what we are doing may attend. There is no charge to attend but all travel, lodging, and meal costs are up to the attenders. The theme this year is “Dispensationalism and the Glory of God.” The schedule is below. Read the rest of this entry »
Word has traveled widely about the home going of Dr. Charles Ryrie. As someone whom he befriended and who has defended his overall approach to the Bible, I thought it appropriate for me to share my thoughts here.
I came to Christ in 1974 partly through the ministry of a local church – West Huntsville Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama. It was that church and the pastor of that church, Dr. Sam Wolfe, who pointed me in the direction of reading books by “Dallas Seminary men.” Dr. Ryrie was of course one of them.
Early in my Christian life, I was an aerospace engineer/computer programmer who shared an office with a Reformed Presbyterian friend Mark Scot. We swapped resources. He gave me a copy of G. I. Williamson’s Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith and I gave him a copy of Ryrie’s Dispensationalism Today.
I have never left my traditional dispensational roots although I have grown in my faith and in understanding the Scriptures. When I went into ministry and eventually became a pastor, seminary professor and then Dean, I found increasing opportunities to use some of Dr. Ryrie’s insights in my teaching. I have for over 20 years used his book on dispensationalism as a text in a course I teach on dispensational premillennialism. I have defended some of Ryrie’s points (such as the famous sine qua non) at conferences, in sermons, in print, to my students, and in conversation with other Bible scholars.
I had the wonderful honor to be a speaker at conferences where he also spoke. He came to our Baptist Bible Seminary on at least three occasions to do lecture week or special conferences. When we started the Council on Dispensational Hermeneutics in 2008, he came to help support our beginning steps. He was gracious and humble and always let us know that he was not a pastor but a lay teacher.
He graced me with his presence in my office and let me pester him with theology questions. While some of the scholarly world viewed him as oversimplifying biblical truth, I found him committed to the Reformation cry to get the Bible in the hands of the common man so he can understand it for himself. He wrote and spoke so people could understand him. His approach was, in a word, refreshing.
In my presence, I never heard Dr. Ryrie make a disparaging mark about anybody. Disagreement, yes. Disparagement, no. He was a quiet and unassuming man. He was flawed like all of us are, but not fatally flawed since he had trusted in Christ as payment for his sin. He was in love with Christ and His Word. He has helped many of us find the Bible more approachable through his teaching.
Dr. Ryrie supported my school financially from time to time as he did many ministries across the world. But that large heart also cared for individuals like my own children who still remember the humor he showed in a lunch we all had together. It is hard to think of him gone from us. It is easier to think of him as with his Lord. The world has lost a great man. It is a loss for me personally. “Dispensationalism today” will never be the same. But many of us believe in the literal promises of the Bible like Dr. Ryrie did – promises for both Israel and the Church. And as long as there are folks like us who do, Dr. Ryrie’s legacy will continue.
