Greetings,
In the name of Christ the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth I greet thee my brothers and sisters in blogging. It has been too long since my last post and I must repent and recant of this great error.
The Next post I plan on making will be on "Pain and the Christian". I have been working on it for a few days and I have began to write it. Therefore, it should follow much faster.
Today I wish to talk Dispensationalism, a topic that I hardly speak against (I say this with a hint of Sarcasm). There is a common theme among the "Old Guard" of Dispensationalism (Chaffer and C.I. Scofield) that there is a diffrence between the two terms "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God". This is not only a theological blunder of immanent proportions, but leads to a horrible system of terrorizing Scripture. Two verses will be considered to thwart this foolish distinction between the terms Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God.
Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. (Mat 4:12)
And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,
so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
"The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles--
the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned."
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mat 4:12-17)
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
(Mar 1:14-15)
When one reads this the general idea that the same thing is being spoken of in the terms Kingdom of God and kingdom of Heaven is apparent with any simple reading of the text. Yet, the Dispensationalist would tell us that these are two completely separate concepts. The Kingdom of Heaven, a term used only by Matthew, is when the Messiah was going to bring political autonomy and domination to the state of Israel. If the Jews had accepted this Kingdom the Lord would have started the Millennial Kingdom and sat on the thrown of His father David and reigned. When the Jews rejected this God produced the Church. The Church, that "Mystery" unforeseen in the Old Testament, is in the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of Heaven. To place the Church in the Kingdom of Heaven would be to destroy the deliberate dichotomy between the Old and New Testament and the division between the Church and Israel. My question in all of this is how can this be true in light of the two Scriptures above? Both verses speak of the beginning of Jesus' ministry and they can not be said to be in different places. They must be the same, but the Dispensationalist still says they are different.
If you were to use this same method of treating Scripture in all aspects of the Scripture you could come up with anything your depraved mind could conger up. The fact is that these are not the only two Scriptures that use the terms Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God Synonymously. There is a large list, look it up in a concordance.
The real problem is not just this error of interpretation, but how this system will affect other doctrines. If the church is totally separate from Israel, How can people in both parties be saved by Grace through Faith? They can't. The whole point of Dispensationalism is that the Old and New Testament, the Church and Israel, Mount Sinia and Mount Calvary, are so separate that they should not be saved in the same manner. If you read the systematic Theology of Lewis Sperry Chaffer you will see that he knows this fact. If the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are to be separated the the rest of the Bible must be separated too. This is the fatal error and heresy of Dispensationalism: that it divides the precious Word of God when it should look to unite.
I hope this study helps you understand my hatred of Dispensationalism. for a more in depth study go to
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/topic/dispensationalism.html
I will be doing more detailed analysis of Dispensationalism in the future. I hope this is helpful.
Sola Gratia
Reformation Man