Why Dispensationalism is Wrong, Unbiblical & Deceptive!

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Many people today believe or are influenced by dispensationalist theology when it comes to their views on the end times, but are these teachings correct? Today I want to give you 10 reasons (in no particular order) why dispensationalism is not only unbiblical, but flat out wrong and deceptive.

#1: Future Revival Among the Jews

Dispensationalism teaches that the Jews will have their special window of revival during the end times. This is because they believe in a literal, 7 year tribulation, a rapture and that God still has a separate and special purpose for Israel after the cross. We will examine all of these points, but first it is important to remember that the bible warns of apostasy, not revival, in the end times:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:1–5)

The truth is that the bible warns there will be great deception and apostasy in the final days before Christ’s return, not great revival. Those who believe dispensationalist teachings are ignoring the trajectory of history and bible prophecy, and also content to leave countless generations of Jews to die in their sins because their “time” hasn’t come yet to awaken to the gospel.

But is this what the bible says we should do? Should we wait for some kind of revival in Israel or actively work to spread the gospel to this nation just like every other nation on the Earth?

“And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.’” (Mark 16:15)

The Great Commission of spreading the gospel is given to us for all of creation. Does this include the modern day state of Israel and the Jewish people? The answer is yes, because the gospel has always included them just as it has included the rest of the world.

#2: The Rapture

One of the hallmarks of dispensationalism is the belief in a rapture, that Jesus will come secretly to rescue the church before a 7 year period of tribulation where the antichrist rules and persecutes those who have not believed. This time gives the Jews a chance to repent and find the gospel and also those who haven’t repented a chance to be saved. But are these things based in scripture or are they teachings of men?

Revelation 16, which describes the final judgments God proclaims on the unrepentant world, says otherwise:

“The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.” (Revelation 16:8–10)

Although the book of Revelation is the most symbolic book in the bible, one thing that is abundantly clear is that when the final series of judgments come upon the Earth nobody repents but rather hardens in their hatred of God. Nowhere in Revelation does it say that God’s judgments lead to a revival, a Jewish awakening or more people coming to the gospel. This is because that by the time these judgments are issued, everyone who was going to be saved has been saved (or sealed, as the metaphor of the 144,000 sealed with the seal of God indicates in Revelation 7).

Another important point against the teaching of the rapture is that all verses of Jesus’ return describe a bold and fiery event that nobody will miss, not a secret arrival and then another return in glory. In Matthew 24:27 Jesus says that this return will be visible as lightning flashing across the entire sky, and Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 that Jesus’ return will be bright and consume all wickedness. Peter says in 2 Peter 3:10 the heavens will disappear like a scroll rolling up and that the world will burn at the return of Christ.

There is nothing anywhere in scripture about a secret return of Jesus, and any of the verses discussing how the existing believers who remain alive at that time are caught up actually describe angels doing the job — not Christ. In Matthew 24:31 Jesus tells us that He will send out His angels to gather all those who remain alive and whisk them into the air to meet Him. This isn’t a secret rapture, but rather one of the many supernatural events accompanying the glorious and powerful return of Christ to the Earth.

Along with the worldwide resurrection spoken about in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, and many judgments proclaimed upon the Earth, the return of Christ is a bold, unmistakable and supernatural event like nothing in history.

A final point to consider is very simple. All churches in history have had to endure persecution. It is widely accepted that the first 200 years of the church was the “purest” form of Christianity before Constantine, Catholicism and many other things polluted the faith with paganism and heresies. This early group of Christians were persecuted beyond anything we can understand today, and yet Christ’s advice to them throughout the book of Revelation was to endure.

Throughout the bible the message has always been to endure and place our faith and hope in Jesus. If some of the most faithful and courageous Christians in history were not spared, why would the final, lukewarm church of the end times be whisked away and avoid tribulation? It is a nice thought, but ultimately it is not based in scripture and it puts one’s hope in escape rather than in the strength of Christ to endure. Perhaps when many realize that the rapture will not happen and that they will be persecuted this is what will contribute to the great apostasy prophesied at the end of days.

#3: Tribulation

We touched on this point previously, but tribulation has been going on for the last 2,000 years. When John wrote to the seven churches of his time, he said:

“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9)

If Christians getting fed to lions, crucified and tortured to death doesn’t count as tribulation then what does, exactly? Christians have been persecuted by both pagans and their own kind, like through the Catholic Church, over the last 2,000 years more so than any other faith. The 20th century alone saw the death of millions upon millions of Christians because of communism, yet dispensationalism teaches that the tribulation will only be 7 years and at some point in the future. Clearly, these millions of Christian lives do not count for dispensationalists in their evaluation of what tribulation really is.

#4: Abraham’s Land Promises

Dispensationalism insists that modern day Israel will obtain the land of Canaan and become a glorious nation. This is actually a Zionist paradigm, and Zionism is an extremist Israeli nationalist view that strives for Jewish superiority and political supremacy. But what does the bible have to say about these things?

“Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” (Joshua 21:43–45)

According to scripture God fulfilled all of His promises to Abraham, as is clearly seen in the glorious empire that Solomon ruled over before a string of Israelite apostasies and judgments took away that glory. 1 Kings 4:21 delineates the boundaries of Solomon’s great empire from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and Egypt — something that today’s modern Zionist movement is actively seeking to re-create.

But lest we forget a critical part of history and of God’s word, here it is again. The covenant with the Israelites was a bi-lateral covenant. In other words, it was a two-way covenant where God was responsible for certain things and the Jews were responsible for others, namely obedience. We know very clearly that the Jews did not obey the Lord fully and whored after other gods over and over again, which is why God brought upon them the judgments He had warned about over and over again when establishing their covenant.

The Jews lost their glorious empire because they lost their relationship with God, yet God used it all for the good because the ultimate promise, that Abraham would be a blessing to all nations, was actually fulfilled in Christ. The gospel, which reconciles all humanity back to God, is the ultimate promise. The bible is not about lineage, race or political status. It is about the ultimate relationship mankind can have which is through Jesus Christ.

Those who are focused on fleshly, worldly things will stumble over and over again because the bible testifies of spiritual things. This is why dispensationalism is more in alignment with Zionism and Judaism than it is with Christianity. The messianic idea, according to Jewish philosopher Gershom Scholem is:

“…totally different in Judaism and in Christianity; Judaism in all its forms and manifestations has always maintained a concept of redemption as an event which takes place publicly, on the stage of history, and within the community. . . . In contrast Christianity conceives of redemption as an event in the spiritual and unseen realm; an event which is reflected in the soul, in the private world of each individual, and which affects an inner transformation which need not correspond to anything outside.” (Auschwitz, p.218)

Throughout the Old Testament and into the life of Jesus, Jews lusted after signs and a physical redemption. The apostles thought Jesus was the conqueror who came to liberate Israel from its Roman oppression and usher in an age of glory again. The apostle Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians 1:22–23:

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Note that in this verse the Jews stumbled against the cross because they expected a worldly, military and political salvation — which to this day is still the case. Yet those whom God had chosen to save and regenerate saw the truth, and this was the case with both Jews and Gentiles. In the end what does this prove? First it proves that dispensationalism aligns with Judaism and not Christianity, and second it proves that it is not about your DNA but rather about God’s sovereign electing choice and His plan of salvation, which includes all nations.

#5: It Divides Where Scripture Unites

Through and through we see that the cross was what brought unity back to mankind. First and foremost it brought unity with God, because the separating power of sin and death had been rendered useless. This was signified by the tearing of the veil of the temple, and ultimately by that very temple being destroyed a few decades later because geography had ceased to be a key factor in man’s relationship to God.

Today sadly people still believe that geography is important, as is clearly seen from the many pilgrimages people take to various holy sites thinking they are getting closer to God, who is present everywhere and in our hearts. This is especially true in the building of the 3rd temple in Jerusalem, which dispensationalists are avidly supporting as a fulfillment of bible prophecy, but again — are these things based solidly on the word of God or are they deceptions?

Galatians 3:28 says that with the advent of the cross there is no longer Jew nor Greek but rather unity in Christ through the gospel. Galatians 6:15 says that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but rather whether one is born again or not. In Romans 2:29 Paul says that “a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.”

Throughout the New Testament we see the unifying power of the gospel to cross all boundaries, all races, all creeds and all peoples. Yet dispensationalism insists that the Jews have a special and distinct place in God’s plan apart from Gentiles. Is this consistent with scripture? The answer is no, it is not, and by making a distinction where the bible doesn’t it means dispensationalism is actually contrary to the gospel.

#6: One Bride, Not Two

In Revelation 12 we see a classic picture of the body of believers through the woman giving birth to the Messiah. This woman is not Mary, like the Catholics insist, but rather Israel because they were the chosen people to bring about the Messiah. Yet an important point is overlooked here that deserves discernment and attention.

After the birth of the Messiah the woman flees from the dragon, which is a reference to the persecution the body of believers experienced at the hand of Satan through the Roman empire and later through the Roman Catholic System. The important thing to grasp here is that the woman is the same person before the birth of the Messiah and after the birth of Messiah: she is the body of believers.

Throughout the Old Testament Israel is referred to as a virgin, yet also a whore because of her apostasy. A notable example is Ezekiel 23. A woman has always symbolized the body of believers, and what this means is very important in the context of Revelation 12. The body of believers in the Old Testament was limited mostly to the nation of Israel, because God had separated that nation from the others. Yet because of the cross, that body of believers expanded to include every nation on the Earth. It has always been one body of believers, one bride for Christ.

Yet dispensationalism insists that there is a church, which is the body of believers, and another special group called the Jews. Does this mean Christ has two brides? Or one bride and a friend? A mistress? What do we make of these things when scripture clearly testifies of the unity of believers under the cross? What we make is that dispensationalism is unbiblical, wrong and deceptive.

#7: Spiritual, Not Physical

Dispensationalism ignores spiritual truths in the bible because it is too focused on literal, physical realities. Fleshly circumcision was a physical type and shadow for circumcision of the heart, which simply means to be born again. Animal sacrifices all pointed to the ultimate sacrifice, which was in Christ. Physical birth pointed to the necessity of spiritual birth and physical warfare was a shadow of the true spiritual warfare that has been waging throughout time. The high priestly and kingly roles of the Old Testament were there to point and shape out the character of the ultimate King and Priest who is Jesus. The sanctuary the Jews had in the wilderness pointed to Christ and to the gospel. The physical chosen people were a prototype and shadow for the ultimate reality of a chosen people through Christ, which is the body of believers who are redeemed from sin and death because of their faith in Him.

All of the apostles, as well as Jesus Himself, taught spiritual things and taught that the temple of God was a spiritual reality. The bible speaks of Christ as the cornerstone, with believers as “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) and “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1) making it up. The body of Christ is equated on many occasions to the kingdom, the Church, the Lord’s table and the temple of God. It is all one reality, which is the communion we have with God as a result of Christ’s perfect work.

What all of this means is that Israel as a chosen nation was a prototype and shadow for the ultimate reality that God would fulfill through Christ — a reality of union and communion under one creed, one body, one understanding.

In Matthew 16:18–19 Jesus famously tells Peter that He will build His church on the rock, which is Himself, (not the pope as Catholics erroneously believe), and that He will give Peter the keys to this kingdom. The church and the kingdom are equated by Jesus as the same thing here. How do you become part of the church? You are born again. How do you become part of the kingdom? You are born again. The church and the kingdom have the same head, which is Jesus. But now if the church is the kingdom and the other way around, what do we make of the Jews? Are they a separate kingdom? A separate body? A separate bride?

The truth is that none of it makes any sense if one is honest with scripture and honest with the gospel.

#8: Jesus is King Right Now

A foundational premise of dispensational theology is that Jesus has to rule as king sometime in the future when He returns, on the physical throne of David in physical Jerusalem for 1,000 literal years. There are so many problems with this teaching that it is difficult to know where to begin, but the most important one to address is that if Jesus is not king right now then He is also not High Priest and therefore we have no gospel.

In Matthew 28:18, Christ told the apostles that all authority had been given to Him. In Colossians 2:10, Paul writes that Christ is head over all rule and authority, and in Revelation 1:5 John writes that Jesus is the ruler of the Kings of the Earth. Do these bible verses, which are a few out of many about Christ’s kingship and supremacy, testify that He is king right now or in the future? The truth is obvious for anyone honest with themselves and honest with the word of God.

Even more important is that the Old Testament prophesied the Messiah would be both an intercessor and a ruler simultaneously. Psalm 110:4 and Zechariah 6:13 are a few examples where we see the necessity for the Messiah to be a high priest while also being king. You cannot have one without the other, but by insisting Christ has to be king in the future dispensationalists unwittingly deny that Jesus is king now — which means they also deny He is high priest right now and therefore cannot intercede on behalf of humanity.

No kingship, no priesthood, no gospel.

Even more ironic is that when Jesus does return to supposedly assume His kingship in Jerusalem, there will be no more need for a priestly function. So dispensationalism doesn’t have a priest right now and never will. Yet Jesus is king now, and another proof of that fact is that scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:24–26 that He must rule with His enemies under His feet (i.e. now) and that when He returns He does so to deliver the kingdom back to the Father so that God (as the triune Godhead) can rule through Christ in eternity. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, which is what happens when Christ returns and everyone is resurrected, meaning there is no room for a future reign of Christ in Jerusalem, let alone one where supposedly there will be sin and death despite God’s very glorious and physical presence being on the Earth again.

#9: Not All Jews are God’s People

The bible clearly teaches that not everyone who is part of the group of believers is a true believer. In the Old Testament we see most of Israel being apostate, with a remnant who were faithful to God. In the New Testament we see this through false converts, false teachers and false apostles from the very beginning. There are many parables that deal with these things, like the parable of the sower or the wise and foolish virgins, and ultimately they remind us that our status is not based on what we say or do or where our lineage comes from — but rather what God has already chosen to do through His sovereign, electing purpose.

God has reserved throughout history those who He would share the truth with and has also decided to pass over others. Romans 8 and 9 are practically a treatise on this topic and I encourage anyone to revisit these valuable teachings, because if God does have a sovereign electing choice (which He does), then it is not based on one’s lineage or DNA but rather on His giving of the Holy Spirit to bring life where there was once death. This is taught clearly in Romans 9:6–8:

“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

We must also remember the pride of the Pharisees when they boasted to Christ of their lineage to Abraham, yet Christ called their father the devil because they weren’t truly children of God. (John 8:44) If the bible shows that it is consistently against identity politics, why does dispensationalism fight this truth? The answer is because dispensationalism is a deceptive teaching and deceptive teachings are not from God.

#10: Replacement Theology is Not Anti-Semitic

When there’s nothing left to argue, many who still cling to dispensationalist teachings pull out their final trump card: that replacement theology is anti-semitic. In a world where buzzwords such as these are thrown out gratuitously to manipulate social perceptions we must be careful of using them in context of biblical studies, lest we let the world decide what we believe instead of the bible.

Replacement theology is the teaching that the Church replaced Israel’s role in the plan of salvation, which is true, but it is much more profound than that. Revelation 12 tells us that the same woman (body of believers) that birthed the Messiah is the one running from the dragon. What’s the point? The body of believers has always been the same. It has always been about those who have faith in God and trust in Him for salvation, just as the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11 reminds us.

Israel’s role was to model what the future reality of communion with God would be like. In 1 Corinthians 15:46 Paul reminds us that it is the physical the precedes the spiritual, which is a commentary on the greater unfolding of the bible as a whole. The sanctuary in the wilderness represented the plan of salvation and pointed to Christ. The various heroes in the bible all pointed to Christ, such as David, Abraham, Moses, Aaron and many others. Even the bronze serpent in the wilderness pointed to Christ, as did Adam and Eve with the latter representing the body of believers, or Christ’s bride.

There are countless studies on typology in the bible and it is one of the most fulfilling topics to explore because it proves God’s genius in creating reality as well as being sovereign over all things. With that in mind we must expand our thinking. The Church replaced Israel, but the church is also called the “Israel of God” in Galatians 6:16, and what this means is much more interesting and important.

Israel was a physical nation with a physical temple and physical sacrifices. It was the prototype, the real-life example that would picture and point to the ultimate example which was spiritual in nature. The Church by contrast is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:9) where members are living stones (1 Peter 2:5) that are offering themselves up as living sacrifices. (Romans 12:1) We have a circumcision made without hands (Colossians 2:11) and to be a Jew in this new reality means to be one inwardly, by the work of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 2:29)

Should we miss that the “physical comes before the spiritual” then we will miss the entire point of the New Testament. The Church did much more than just replace Israel, it fulfilled Israel. The ultimate reality of communion with God without the need for physical things like lineage, a temple, geography, purifying rituals or a specific nation is exactly what the bible was leading up to for thousands of years. Yet dispensationalists see this new, glorious reality as anti-semitic. How does that figure?

What is truly anti-semitic is believing that the Jews will have a short time window of a few years to repent at some unknown point in the future, which means that dispensationalists are more concerned with Jews building a physical 3rd temple and ushering in an antichrist then they are with spreading the gospel to the state of Israel. As a result countless Jews die without knowing Christ because of this false eschatology and this, right here, is the most anti-semitic thing there is.

The Old Testament is full of shadows and types that predict a spiritual reality we have thanks to Christ’s work on the cross. It is communion with one another and God without the binding burden of the law and ceremonies of the past, yet dispensationalists insist on holding this burden by insisting on a place for the physical nation of Israel where history and scripture are very clear: that place has been fulfilled in the new reality of the Church.

Conclusion

Dispensationalism is a false teaching that deceives you into reading the bible with fleshly eyes. It aligns more with Zionism and Judaism than it does with Christianity because of its heavy focus on the identity politics of the modern state of Israel rather than our identity as one body of Christians in Jesus. Nevertheless, dispensationalism is not supported by the teachings of the apostles nor Christ Himself, and we must remember that these ideas are only about 200 years old and arose during the same time period where history produced Mormonism, Charles Darwin, Theosophy, Communism, Seventh-Day Adventism and many other antichrist and erroneous belief systems.

We must also remember that it was the intent of the Catholic Church to reshape people’s understanding of the end times by creating an alternative way of interpreting the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. All of the Reformers unilaterally identified the Catholic system as the beast prophesied that would make the sanctuary (plan of salvation) desolate and trod over the saints, proclaiming itself to be God on Earth. As a result the Counter Reformation was initiated and one of its fruits has been the proliferation of futurism, which dispensationalism belongs to as a teaching and which furthers the agenda by blinding people to the true antichrist power on the Earth.

The gospel leaves no room for nationalism, identity politics or Jewish pride just like it leaves no room for American pride or African pride or Asian pride or any pride whatsoever. Christ said that He would draw all people to Himself (John 12:32) and that includes both Jew and Gentile, man and woman, black and white. To insist otherwise despite ample evidence to the contrary is not only dishonest, but foolish. Those who teach these things are blinding the eyes of the flock to the real truths of bible prophecy while also preparing them for apostasy by putting their hopes in a rapture where the bible preaches endurance unto the resurrection.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timoth 4:3–4)

Life can sometimes be overwhelming and the journey we walk with God is often filled with difficulties, setbacks and discouragement. It is during these times we need to lean into prayer, build a habit of gratitude and meditate on the words of scripture which remind us of God’s glory, promises and love.

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