Hermeneutics in Eschatology pt 2

Dispensational Premillennialism

Disclaimer: 

Remember my intention is not to promote one view over another, these posts are intended to prepare you for the discussion and to help you form your own position. 

Definition: 

Dispensational premillennialists hold that Christ will come BEFORE a seven-year period of intense trials and tribulation where the cup of God's wrath is poured out upon the earth, to take His church (living and dead) into heaven. 

After this period of fulfillment of divine wrath, Christ returns to rule from a holy city (i.e., the New Jerusalem) over the earthly nations for one thousand years. 

After the thousand years, Satan, who was bound by chains in the bottomless pit during Christ's earthly reign, will be set loose once again to deceive the nations, gather an army, and start a literal war with the Lord. This final battle called Armageddon will end in both the judgment of the wicked and Satan and the entrance into the eternal state of glory by the righteous. 

This view is called premillennialism because it places the return of Christ before the millennium and it is called dispensational because it is founded in the doctrines of dispensationalism. 

A dispensation is a way of ordering things—an administration, a system, or management. In theology, a dispensation is the divine administration of a period of time; each dispensation is a divinely appointed age. Dispensationalism is a theological system that recognizes these ages ordained by God to order the affairs of the world. 

Dispensationalists understand the Bible to be organized into seven dispensations: Innocence (Genesis 1:1—3:7), Conscience (Genesis 3:8—8:22), Human Government (Genesis 9:1—11:32), Promise (Genesis 12:1—Exodus 19:25), Law (Exodus 20:1—Acts 2:4), Grace (Acts 2:4—Revelation 20:3), and the Millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:4–6). These dispensations are not paths to salvation, but manners in which God relates to man.

Distinctions:

• The favored method of interpretation is a strict literal.
  
  
• Key passages are interpreted through this dispensational framework.
  
  
• Israel and the church: views church and Israel as two distinct identities with two individual redemptive plans.
  
  
• The rapture of the Church: The church is raptured before a seven-year tribulation (the seventieth week of Daniel - Daniel 9:24-27). 
  
  
• The tribulation period contains the reign of the AntiChrist. 
  
  
• Millennium Understanding: Christ will return at the end of the great tribulation to institute a thousand-year rule from a holy city (the New Jerusalem). Those who come to believe in Christ during the seventieth week of Daniel (including the 144,000 Jews) and survive will go on to populate the earth during this time. Those who were raptured or raised previous to the tribulation period will reign with Christ over the millennial population.
  
  
• Major proponents: John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, Louis Sperry Chafer, J. Dwight Pentecost, Norman Geisler, Charles Stanley, Hal Lindsey, John MacArthur, Chuck Smith, and Chuck Missler.

Synopsis:

A strictly literal hermeneutic is foundational to the dispensational premillennialist viewpoint. Interpreting Scripture in this manner will in fact demand such perspectives unique to dispensationalism as:

• an earthly kingdom of God from which Christ will reign
• a future redemptive plan for national Israel
• a seven-year period of great tribulation
• the rejection of prophetic idiom

Dispensational premillennialism holds that a seven-year tribulation (foreseen in Daniel 9:27) will precede a thousand-year period (Revelation 20:1-6) during which time, Christ will reign on the throne of David (Luke 1:32).

Prior to the time of great tribulation, all the dead saints will rise from their graves and all the living members of the church shall be caught up with them to meet Christ in the clouds (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17); this is known as "the rapture." 

During this time of tribulation, there will be three-and-a-half years of world peace under an AntiChrist figure (Daniel 7:8; Revelation 13:1-8) who will establish a one-world-church (Revelation 17:1-15), followed by three-and-a-half years of greater suffering (Revelation 6-18).

At the end of the seven years, Christ will return (Matthew 24:27-31; Revelation 19:11-21), judge the world (Ezekiel 20:33-38; Matthew 25:31; Jude 1:14-15), bind Satan for one thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3), and raise the Old Testament and tribulation saints from the dead (Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:4).

At this time, the millennial reign will begin and Christ will reign politically over the earth at this time from His capital in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3). Throughout His reign, there will be no war (Isaiah 2:4) and even the natures of animals will dwell in harmony (Isaiah 11:6-9). At the end of this era of peace, Satan will be released and instigate a colossal (but futile) rebellion against God (Revelation 20:7-9). After this fated battle, Satan and the wicked are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10), while the righteous proceed into their eternal state in the realm of the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1).

The Role of Satan: 

Very much like historic premillennialism, dispensationalism argues that Satan is actively at work to resist the Church and to undermine God’s people. He will be bound for the duration of the millennium and only released for a final confrontation following his 1,000-year captivity.

Bibliography:

• Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978. (ISBN 0310308909)
• Ryrie, Charles. The Basis for Premillennial Faith. New York: The Loizeaux Brothers, 1953. (ISBN 0872137414)
• Walvoord, John. Every Prophecy of the Bible. Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor Publishing, 1999. (ISBN 1-56476-758-2)
• Walvoord, John. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Chicago: Moody Press, 1966. (ISBN 0-8024-7310-5)
• Blaising, Craig A. "Premillennialism." Three Views of the Millennium and Beyond. Ed. Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House,1999. (ISBN 0-310-20143-8)