Two Kingdoms?

The doctrine of the pre-tribulation ascension ("rapture") of the believers in Christ came as a "revelation" in the last century. In order to give this doctrine respectability (according to our understanding of what took place) it was included as part of a system of biblical interpretation termed "Dispensationalism." Dispensationalism is destructive of sound, defensible interpretation of the Scriptures and is one of the reasons for the spiritually impoverished condition of the Christian churches of our day.

Dispensationalism teaches that God, from time to time, changes His way of dealing with men. Our position is that God never changes nor does His eternal purpose vary. God always has desired that people please Him by faith, that they practice justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

History has been witnessing a progressive unfolding of God's eternal plan in Christ, not a series of starts and stops, fits and jerks due to God's inability to understand human nature. Christ was crucified, and we were chosen in Him, from the creation of the world. In the mind of God, and therefore in reality, all has been finished from the beginning. The new Jerusalem has been completed already.

Dispensationalism teaches that God's ways with the Christian Church are a special "mystery"; that God now is dealing with people differently from what has been true in the past. The God of the Hebrew Prophets no longer requires righteous, holy, obedient behavior—especially from Gentiles who profess belief in Christ. The Furnace of Israel has decided that people cannot obey His laws. Therefore He has issued a new covenant of "grace." The new covenant of grace acts as an eternal amnesty for everyone who chooses to believe God is willing to receive him into Paradise apart from a radical change in his personality and behavior. No new creation is necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of God.

Whether intentionally or not, Dispensationalism, as it is applied by numerous Christian teachers and preachers of our day, has given the impression that God does not require righteous living on the part of Christian believers as He has of every previous generation of people.

It is said that Christians are exempt from the Kingdom principle of sowing and reaping. Belief in Christ is the Christian's "ticket to Heaven." As a result, the main business in life of the Christian is not to be growing in godly living but persuading other people to accept the free ride to Paradise.

We are not implying that believers should not be sincerely interested in the salvation of the souls of men. We should be. However, the perpetual repetition of this obligation (that every believer is to persuade as many people as possible to accept the free ride to Paradise), in place of feeding God's sheep, is not always of God but may come from a human desire to gain members. When they are not continually fed the Word of God, believers do not grow in Christ, in the ability to distinguish between good and evil and to choose the good and resist the evil.

To be continued.