Left Behind? Describing "Premillenial Dispensationalism"

I have just finished "Speaking My Mind," by Tony Campolo. For those of you unfamiliar with Campolo, he is a self-styled evangelical progressive, committed a personal relationship with Jesus, the infallibility of the Bible, and – more unusually – to social justice.

I’ll probably write more about Campolo later, but his chapter on dispensationalism – the fundamentalist framework for understanding history – was an eye-opener for me. Doctrines of dispensationalism lie behind everything from the "Left Behind" series to conservative evangelicals’ support for Israel. Journalist Bill Moyers recently gave a speech (a version of which has been widely circulated on the Internet) linking some evangelicals’ disregard for the environment to their dispensationalist beliefs.

Because dispensationalism is so powerful, yet understood by so few (including many evangelicals I know), I thought I’d outline its basic structure here. Later, I will explain why dispensationalism has major political implications.

The following account relies on Campolo (who is NOT a dispensationalist but a critic), as well as on my Christian history courses. A warning: this is long.

Dispensationalism is an eschatology, which is an account of the "eschaton," or the end of history. It begin in the mid-19th century with John Nelson Darby, a leader of a conservative British sect called the Plymouth Brethren. Darby’s doctrine first gained widespread acceptance among American fundamentalists through one major vehicle: the Scofield Reference Bible. Originally published in 1909, the wildly popular Scofield Bible supported (and supports – it still circulates) a dispensationalist theology in its study notes. That theology eventually gained widespread acceptance in fundamentalist and conservative Bible schools such as Moody Bible Institute and Fuller Theological Seminary -- institutions that, in turn, spread it further. Today, Dallas Theological Seminary, among others, is a leading proponent of dispensationalist thinking.

Dispensationlism claims that the Bible divides history into seven dispensations, each one characterized by a different relationship between humanity and God, each one ended by humanity’s failure disobedience. These dispensations are:

1) The Dispensation of Innocence: This dispensation begins at creation and end when God expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were, of course, innocent until they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

2) The Dispensation of Conscience: Having acquired the knowledge of good and evil, people may achieve salvation by following the dictates of conscience. Of course, they fail. The dispensation ends when God destroys wicked humanity with the great flood.

3) The Dispensation of Human Government: God now requires humans to create a government that will ensure righteous living. We don’t. The dispensation ends with the "confusion of tongues" at the Tower of Babel.

4) The Dispensation of Promise: This 400-year period begins with the call of Abraham into the land that God eventually promises to his descendants. It ends when Moses receives the Law on Mount Sinai, after the Exodus. Here, Campolo says, "salvation belongs to the Jews and is contingent upon God’s chosen people living according to the covenant to ‘walk before the Lord.’"

5) The Dispensation of Law: Beginning when Moses received the Law at Sinai and ending at the crucifixion of Jesus, this period allowed Jews to achieve salvation by keeping the Law, or Torah. For sinful people, keeping the law proves impossible.

6) The Dispensation of Grace: We live in this dispensation, a period in which salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and his saving act on the cross. According to Campolo, "this is considered a parenthetical period and was unanticipated in the broad scheme of history as understood by the ancient Hebrew writers of Scripture." In other words, the Hebrews expected the messiah to immediately usher in the "end times." The messiah came (but we still await) the reign of Christ.

7) The Dispensation of Kingdom: This dispensation begins when Christ returns to Earth, where he will reign for 1,000 years.

Sound complicated? There’s more. The parenthetical period – our current dispensation of grace – is subdivided into 7 smaller eras. These reflect seven distinct periods of church history, a division that Darby found in the seven churches described in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation. According to Campolo’s description, these subdivisions within our current, parenthetical dispensation are:

1) "Ephesus: The second generation of Christians, following the early church described in Acts 2."

2) Smyrna: The period of persecution under Rome.

3) Pergamum: The period when the church allied with Constantine (who made Christianity the Roman Empire’s religion).

4) Thyatira: The "apostate" church of the Middle Ages, who supposedly worshiped Mary.

5) Sardis: The post-Reformation church, characterized by "spiritual deadness."

6 and 7) Philadelphia and Laodicea: The churches of the last days. Philadelphia refers to the faithful remnant of true Christians. Laodicea refers to churches that are rich but spiritually bankrupt.

According to the dispensationalists, we are in the era of Philadelphia and Laodicea. This means that the end times are imminent. But what happens at the end times?

Dispensationalists agree that there will be seven years of widespread suffering, followed by the final return of Christ. This unpleasant period is referred to as the Tribulation. Many, but not all, dispensationalists believe that true Christians will be "raptured" before the Tribulation, and that non-believers will be "left behind" – hence the setting for the best-selling series of the same name.

After the Tribulation, Christ will inaugurate his 1,000 year reign on earth. Then, after a brief Satanic uprising, the demonic powers will be destroyed forever and the faithful brought into a new heaven and earth for eternity.

As Campolo points out, this belief system has major implications for political belief, which I will detail soon. A teaser: For some, prophecy reveals that the rapture can't occur until Solomon's Temple is rebuilt on Mt. Zion. There is, however, one small problem with this reconstruction project: it would involve removing a mosque. Get the idea?