Testament text concerning fulfillment of OT kingdom promises. While I accept some
"already/not yet" theological conclusions in areas like individual soteriology, dispensationalists
of all stripes must be careful not to make the mistake of turning this perspective into a
theological grid by which the entire Bible is read and our whole theological system is built.
Bible through the glasses of the covenant of grace. In addition, I remain unconvinced that the
coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is automatically the coming of the eschaton and that Jesus is
reigning today on the throne of David.
be quite right in asking all of us to get past the "dominion atmosphere" we are currently
breathing.
quickly on the insights of Charles Ryrie concerning literal interpretation and the Israel/Church
distinction as the heart of dispensationalism. John does what many do in diminishing these
features when he points out the difficulties of defining literal interpretation and when he points
out the fact that many on both sides share viewpoints about Israel and the Church. However,
sharing, whether it is the sharing of perspectives by various theological viewpoints or whether it
is the overlap of fulfillment of promises to Israel and the Church, does not tell the whole story. It
seems that when we point out, for example, that some amillennialists have incorporated post-
Second Coming earthly features in their theology, we go too far when we then assume that
earlier ways of describing distinctions between premillennialism and amillennialism no longer
have the same value in the theological debate. It seems that we sometimes have crafted most of
the current discussions based upon the exceptions and not the mainstream of the traditions
involved. Such an approach may have its advantages for dispensational-covenantal dialogue
since the exceptions are points of commonality, but better theology and self-understanding does
not necessarily follow.
viewpoint in exactly the same terms that Ryrie uses over a century later to assess the entire
tradition (i.e., literalism and Israel/Church distinction).
Hermeneutics and the Early Church" [Unpublished paper, Baptist Bible Seminary, Spring 2002]).
available: Émile Guers, Israel in the Last Days of the Present Economy; or, An Essay on the Coming Restoration of
this People. Also, a Fragment on Millenarianism, trans. with a preface by Aubrey C. Price, (London: Wertheim,
Macintosh, and Hunt, 1862). Guers was a disciple of John Nelson Darby as early as the 1830s. For a more complete
discussion of this early Darbyite anticipation of the later Ryrie synthesis, see Michael D. Stallard, The Early