After Dispensationalism

What God wants his people to know about the end times. Christians' fixation on the end times is not new. While eschatological speculation has sometimes resulted in distraction or despair, Scripture does speak about the end. So what does God most want us to know and do with prophecy? In After Dispensationalism, Brian P. Irwin and Tim Perry sympathetically yet critically sketch the history, beliefs, and concerns of dispensationalism. Though a minority view in the sweep of church history and tradition, dispensationalism is one of the most influential end-times systems today, and there is much to learn from it. And yet, sometimes it gets sidetracked by overlooking the prophets' main concerns. Irwin and Perry reexamine the key texts and show that Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation primarily give a word of hope to God's people.

Dispensationalism continues to provoke heated debate within the Christian world. Highly acclaimed theologian, Dr. Charles C. Ryrie, addresses this crucial issue from the perspective of classic dispensationalism. He confronts the views of covenant theology, historical premillennialism, ultradispensationalism, and, in this revised edition, the increasingly popular progressive dispensationalism. In his best-selling book, Dispensationalism Today, written more than thirty years ago, Dr. Ryrie made this complex subject more understandable for thousands worldwide. This revised and expanded version of that book will prove to be an invaluable reference tool for your library.

Debate abounds on the future of Israel and Israel's relation to the church, not only between dispensationalists and non-dispensationalists, but among dispensationalists themselves. In the past that debate has sometimes been acrimonious, and proponents of the differing viewpoints have found little common ground. In recent years, however, views have been modified and developed so that the dialogue is increasingly by cooperation and a mutual exploration of diverse ideas. The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism is intended to enlighten the debate in that same irenic spirit. The book is solidly dispensational in perspective in affirming that the Old Testament prophecies are completely fulfilled in the future, that the nation of Israel has a prophetic future, and that Israel is not the church. Dr. Saucy departs from classic dispensationalism, however, in showing that (1) the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy begins in the present church age, and (2) the church is not a parenthesis in God's program but represents a continuity with the Old Testament messianic program. This modified dispensationalism seeks to satisfy many of the objections of non-dispensational approaches to eschatology while retaining the crucial elements of biblical interpretation that characterize dispensational thought.

Covenantal Dispensationalism reviews the history and development of Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism, along the way highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each hermeneutical system. This work illustrates how the two sides have grown apart, and seeks to reconcile the two by appealing to common theological concepts the two schools share, as well as providing critique where one side has better evidence for a particular point of doctrine.

John Nelson Darby is best known as the architect of the most influential system of end-times thinking among the world's half-a-billion evangelicals. This book re-examines Darby's thought and argues that claims that Darby is the father of dispensationalism may need to be revised.

Dispensationalism emerged in the twentieth century as a hugely influential force in American religion and soon became one of America's most significant religious exports. By the close of the century it had developed into a global religious phenomenon claiming millions of adherents. As the most common form of contemporary prophecy belief, dispensationalism has played a major role in transforming religion, politics, and pop culture in the U.S. and throughout the world. Despite its importance and continuing appeal, scholars often reduce dispensationalism to an anti-modern, apocalyptic, and literalist branch of Protestant fundamentalism. In Dispensational Modernism, B. M. Pietsch argues that, on the contrary, the allure of dispensational thinking can best be understood through the lens of technological modernism. Pietsch shows that between 1870 and 1920 dispensationalism grew out of the popular fascination with applying engineering methods -- such as quantification and classification -- to the interpretation of texts and time. At the heart of this new network of texts, scholars, institutions, and practices was the lightning-rod Bible teacher C. I. Scofield, whose best-selling Scofield Reference Bible became the canonical formulation of dispensational thought. The first book to contextualize dispensationalism in this provocative way, Dispensational Modernism shows how mainstream Protestant clergy of this time developed new "scientific" methods for interpreting the Bible, and thus new grounds for confidence in religious understandings of time itself.

The relationship between Israel and the church is a crucial reference point in theology, especially in distinguishing between dispensational and nondispensational schools of thought. The writers of this book view Israel and the church as distinct theological institutions within the historical progress of divine revelation. But they are also related as successive phases of a redemptive program that is historically progressive and eschatologically converging. The goal of the book is a convergence of ideas among evangelical scholars in recognizing both continuity and discontinuity in the Israel-church relationship. - Back cover.