Dispensationalism

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The dispensationalism is a healing historically oriented form of Bibelauslegung associated with a particular theory of the end time is associated. Based on the doctrine of early church theologians (Irenaeus, Augustine), it is assumed that salvation history must be understood as a sequence of different “households” (dispensations) or ages. Specific episodes of divine revelation or divine trials of mankind are assigned to each of these. A sharp dividing line is usually drawn between Israel and the (Christian) church. A mass conversion of the Jews to Jesus as their Messiah is expected for the end of time .

The biblical texts are usually considered by dispensationalists to be error-free , and their interpretation is based on the principle of verbal inspiration . The biblical text understood in this way is intended to explain the past, present and future of humanity. Correspondences are also sought for biblical prophecies in recent historical developments. For example, the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 is often understood as the fulfillment of the prophecy that God would gather his people back together.

Dispensationalism emerged around 1830 in the context of the Brethren movement and today represents “one of the most popular school currents in theology and biblical interpretation among conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants ”.

term

Dispensation is the Latin-English translation of the Greek word oikonomia ("house law"), which in the New Testament among other things in Col 1,25  ELB ("administration of God"), Eph 3,2  ELB ("administration of the grace of God") and Eph 1:10  ELB (“administration of the fulness of times”) occurs. A dispensation is defined as a period of time in God's plan of salvation during which a certain characteristic spiritual purpose can be recognized that sets it apart from others. It gives the people of this time certain gifts, blessings and goods that have not existed or will not exist at other times, and at the same time places them before a certain responsibility. Above all, the distinction between the two salvation bodies Israel and the community is central . One or more dispensations together form an aeon .

Many dispensationalists refer to 2 Tim 2:15  ELB , where Timothy is asked to "be a worker who cuts the word of truth right" (Greek ortho-tomeo ). They understand this as assigning the individual books of the Bible to the appropriate dispensation and recipients. Failure to do this would lead to confusion and contradictions, because God gives different instructions depending on the salvation phase. Any Christian who does not adhere to the sacrificial rules and dietary laws of the Old Testament , for example , is already a dispensationalist in this sense, even if he is not aware of it.

Scheme of the dispensationalist-premillenarian view of the millennial empire

Dispensationalism usually includes a premillennialist eschatology . However, the exact dating of future events is rejected by most dispensationalists as an unbiblical speculation. This is justified both with the warnings in Mt 24.36  ELB and Acts 1.7  ELB as well as with the reference that prophecies (of the Old Testament ) basically only concern Israel, not the duration of the current salvation time of the community as an insert in the Bible and therefore always remains an unknown quantity. Exact calculations are therefore not possible.

Precursors and reference authors of modern dispensationalism

Old church

The beginnings of a periodization in the history of salvation can already be found in some church fathers . According to them, the special gifts of the Holy Spirit were declining. From this they concluded that another age in salvation history had dawned. They explained this with the fact that although special charisms were necessary in the times of Jesus and the Apostle Paul in order to convince people, this was no longer necessary in the following times, since the Bible was already available and the Spirit of God especially in the Work inside man.

Irenaeus of Lyon (135-202) concluded in his writings against the heresies (II, XI. 8) from the quadriformity of the gospel four covenants, the Adamite before the flood, the second under Noah, the third under Moses (law), the fourth under Jesus for the complete restoration of man. Clement of Alexandria (150–215) distinguished three patriarchal periods: Adam , Noah and Abraham and the Mosaic period. In his work "Vom Gottesstaat" (413–427), Augustine of Hippo developed a plan of seven world ages: 1. Adam to Noah, 2. Noah to Abraham, 3. Abraham to David , 4. David to exile , 5. Exile to Incarnation , 6th incarnation to Parousia , 7th millennium . Like others after him, he related the week of creation together with the statement in the Bible that 1000 years are like one day for God ( Ps 90 : 4  ELB ; 2 Peter 3 : 8), to the entire history of mankind. Until the incarnation (birth of Jesus) Augustine assumed 5000 years. Also Isidore of Seville (560-636) and the Venerable Bede (673-735), this opinion joined.

middle Ages

Joachim von Fiore (1135–1202) saw in the seven seals of Revelation seven ages of church history and divided human history into three epochs: Time of the Father (Old Testament), Time of the Son (New Testament) and Time of the Holy Spirit (Renewal ).

Reformation and modern times

Thomas Brightman (1557–1607), on the other hand, indicated the seven churches in Revelation to seven ages in church history. Robert Pont (1524-1606), a Scottish theologian, combined prophecies from Daniel and Revelation and also came up with seven ages of mankind, with the sixth age said to have started as early as 1056 according to him. The Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmin (1542–1621) and Francisco Ribera (1537–1591) advocated in their publications that the great tribulation ( Dan 9.26–27  ELB ) would last 1260 days (instead of years, as others claimed) and in the future be.

The English cleric Thomas Brightman (1557 / 62–1607) determined the church ages as follows: Ephesus: time of the apostles to Constantine (from 325); Smyrna: Constantine to Gratian (around 382); Pergamon: expansion of the papacy's power (382-1300); Thyatira: Struggle of the true Church against Catholicism (1300-1520); Sardis: Reformation in Germany; Philadelphia: Reformation in Switzerland ; Laodicea: Anglican Church . He already drew a clear separation between the church and a literal Jewish kingdom that was to be expected and laid his interpretation in the works Apocalypsis Apocalypseos (1585) and A Most Comfortable Exposition of the last and most difficult parts of the Prophecie of Daniel (London 1644) represent.

Pierre Poiret (1546–1719), John Edwards (1637 / 1639–1716), Isaac Watts (1674–1748) are other early exponents of dispensationalist designs.

Development of modern dispensationalism

The first more modern system of dispensationalism arose around 1830 in the Brethren Churches in England and Ireland . It was developed by John Nelson Darby and quickly spread throughout the Brethren movement. In Germany it was above all Carl Brockhaus , Rudolf Brockhaus and Emil Dönges who adopted Darby's model and represented it in their writings. Erich Sauer later developed a modified form of dispensationalism .

Darby made his plan of "dispensations", in which, in contrast to earlier systems of salvation history, no information about the length of the ages are given, also through trips to the USA. He met with open ears, especially among Presbyterians and Baptists . Evangelists like Dwight L. Moody and Cyrus I. Scofield became staunch advocates of this view. This teaching was carried further through some Bible conferences (Niagara conferences 1870–1900; Bible and prophecy conferences 1878–1914); as a result, it also established itself in the theology of Bible schools ( The Nyack Bible Institute 1882, The Boston Missionary Training School 1889, The Moody Bible Institute 1889, Dallas Theological Seminary 1924). In 1909, Scofield published an annotated edition of the Bible in which he further developed and systematized Darby's dispensationalism (the so-called " Scofield Bible "). This became one of the most popular study Bible editions in the Anglo-Saxon area. Ethelbert William Bullinger (1837–1913) developed a form of dispensationalism (often called ultradispensationalism) that further differentiated the New Testament period .

Christian Zionism, brought into being by William Hechler in 1896, is also dispensationally oriented .

In 1899 the theologian Ernst Ferdinand Ströter returned to Germany from a lengthy stay in the USA, during which he had come into contact with dispensationalism, and spread this view, combined with the idea of universal reconciliation . In the work Dispensational Truth, Or God's Plan and Purpose in the Ages by the Baptist pastor Clarence Larkin , published in 1918 , the doctrine of dispensationalism was graphically depicted and illustrated on folding cards and blackboards, which greatly promoted the spread of dispensationalism. In 1946 the Christian Alliance was founded, which taught in the Langensteinbacherhöhe conference center and in writings by members that appeared, for example, in the Christian publishing house Karl Geyer, God's plan of salvation, which was dispensational and universal in Germany.

Gertrud Wasserzug , the former head of the Beatenberg Bible School (today Beatenberg's Seminar for Biblical Theology ) translated the dispensationalist Scofield comments into German and published them together with the text of the Luther Bible from 1912. Since 1993 they have been published with the revised Elberfeld Bible by the evangelical R. Brockhaus Verlag . Dispensationalism is also taught in the Brake Bible School and the Breckerfeld Bible Center . The seminar for biblical theology Beatenberg, however, no longer teaches uniformly dispensationalism.

Other religious communities in Germany, such as For example, many Baptist churches, the Free Bible Students , the Laity Home Mission Movement , the Seventh-day Adventists, and the Pietists , represent similar step models in the human history of salvation.

Principles of modern dispensationalism

Dispensationalists apply a literal ( English literal ) interpretation of the Bible, whereby literary genres are taken into account according to their obvious use (i.e. a parable also as a parable). Arbitrary allegorization, however, is rejected. Old Testament prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled to representatives of the people of Israel are therefore expected for the future, especially the earthly kingdom promised to them, the Millennium .

Dispensationalists differentiate between the expectations and thus the Gospels (messages of God) for Israel and the church. Old Testament Israel had earthly expectations, while the church (consisting of all believers in the current dispensation, including Israelites) had heavenly expectations. Like all futuristic premillennialists, the dispensationalists expect the rule of the Antichrist and the rapture of the church into heaven ( 1 Thess 4 : 13–18  ELB , 1 Cor 15,51–52  ELB ) before the millennium. There are different theories about the process in detail, even among dispensationalists: The majority is of the opinion that the rule of the Antichrist cannot affect the church, but only the unsaved members of the people of Israel and the nations. Even before the arrival of the Antichrist, Christians would be raptured into heaven by a first invisible return of Christ for the saints ( Rom 5.9  ELB , 1 Thess 1.10  ELB , 1 Thess 5.9  ELB ; pre-tribulationism). These followers of dispensationalism are counting on their rapture at any time and without further evidence. Other directions see the rapture of Christians only in the middle (mediotribulationism) or at the end (post-tribulationism) of the rule of the Antichrist.
The second, visible return of Jesus Christ will end the rule of the Antichrist. The Millennium then followed, when Christ and his church would rule the earth. Then Satan will be untied again; there followed one last great battle Armageddon and the Last Judgment. The new earth and the new heavens join as the last aeon ( Rev 21  EU ).

Darby dispensations

Darby's concept of dispensation is still quite flexible and less schematic than that of his successors. For him, the difference between Israel and the church stands in the foreground ; a systematic overview of salvation history can hardly be found in his writings. From the synopsis of his scattered utterances, a model comprising nine ages can be reconstructed, in which, however, only five ages have the character of a dispensation in the narrower sense (including the rule of God and man's obligation of loyalty). Two of these dispensations (Israel and Nations) run parallel in time:

  1. Paradise (no dispensation)
  2. before the flood (no dispensation)
  2. Noah
  3. Abraham
  4. Israel
  5. Nations
  2. Parish (no dispensation)
  2. millennium
  2. Eternity (no dispensation)

This version is based on Adolph Ernst Knoch , who developed a comparable plan for aeons.

Scofield dispensations

  1. Innocence: from the creation of man to the fall of man
  2. Conscience or moral responsibility: from the Fall to the Flood
  3. Human government: from the flood to the calling of Abraham
  4. Promise: from the calling of Abraham to the exodus from Egypt
  5. Law: from Sinai to Jesus Christ
  6. Grace: from Pentecost to the rapture
  7. Kingdom: from the rapture to eternity

Bullinger dispensations

Ethelbert William Bullinger (1837–1913) took a different approach in his work The Foundations of Dispensational Truth . He assigned the books of the Bible to dispensations according to the way God spoke to the recipients of his message. He comes to the following result:

  1. God speaks directly to individual people (from Adam to Moses)
  2. God speaks to Israel through prophets (from Moses to John)
  3. God speaks to Israel through his Son Jesus (from John to the Ascension: the four Gospels)
  4. God speaks through those who have heard him (including Peter, James: until Israel finally rejects national repentance in Acts 28.25  EU , approx. 62 AD)
  5. God speaks to the nations through Paul (captivity letters and pastoral letters from Paul: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon)
  6. God speaks to Israel through John (Revelation)

It is important to recognize that “Paul recorded the precious teachings that were hitherto hidden and could not be disclosed until Christ's suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension actually took place; because they have all this as a prerequisite. These doctrines are found exclusively in the letters from captivity (Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians), and here also belong the letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon ”. Bullinger hopes to be cured of "an unconscious and biblical kleptomania" by which "all promises of blessings have been taken from Israel and given to the church."

Simplified dispensationalism

In practice, only a simplified form of dispensationalism is usually used:

  • Age of Israel (= the Old Covenant, described in the Old Testament and in the Gospels - this epoch begins with Genesis 12 and ends with Acts 1)
  • Age of the worldwide church (the current dispensation of grace (Eph. 3: 1-11) described in the New Testament letters - this period begins with Acts 2)
  • Millennium, New Earth (= the New Covenant with Israel (Heb.8,8), coming eons , 1000-year Kingdom (Rev. 20), afterwards creation of a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21), announced by Jesus in the Gospels and the Revelation of John)

To make a distinction, one should pay attention to who is addressed in the biblical books, e.g. B. “His disciples”, “Jews”, “Hebrews” on the one hand (Gospels, spoken in the age of Israel) or the nations on the other (New Testament letters for the present age of nations).

History of impact and reception

Dispensationalist literalism exerted a strong influence on later manifestations of evangelicalism.

Fiction

There are numerous novels in the United States that describe the end times from a dispensationalist-apocalyptic perspective. For example, the novel series Finale (English Left Behind ) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins became a bestseller in the United States. Many readers consider the stories to be real and see them as a roadmap for the "end times", which significantly influences their view of the world and political attitudes.

Feature films

  • The 1972 by Russell S. Doughten feature film shot A Thief in the Night is the first and most famous film of a four-part series about the end times and the rapture. The series of novels Left Behind is also inspired by this genre-defining film, which uses elements of the psychological thriller and horror film for the first time in an evangelical missionary film.
  • The feature film The Seventh Sign , shot in 1988 , also goes through seven end-time phases with an apocalyptic character, fed by both Jewish and Christian dispensationalism.
  • Three feature films were made for the first two volumes of the series Finale (see fiction above ):
Left Behind (2000), Left Behind: Tribulation Force (2002) and Finale - Die Welt im Krieg (2006). Also under the title Left Behind , the first of these three feature films was remade in 2014.

Criticism of dispensationalism

The Anglican New Testament scholar and Bishop NT Wright criticizes the eschatology of dispensationalism in his book "Surprised by Hope". He rejects the system as escapist and turned away from the world, since it teaches the rapture and salvation from this earth instead of following the biblical hope for the kingdom of God, which comes 'in heaven as on earth'.

Some critics suggest that the lines between the dispensations were drawn arbitrarily. In the Bible a “dispensation ( oikonomia ) of grace” ( Eph 1,1–11  ELB ) and the millennium ( Rev 20,2–7  ELB ) are mentioned, but no other terms. “Human government”, for example, as the title of the third dispensation is, there is also before and after.

Other critics interpret dispensationalism as an embarrassing solution by the Church Fathers, who also overemphasize the difference between “ordinary” and “special” gifts of the Holy Spirit. The thesis is "the outflow of stereotyped thinking that ultimately goes back to the unresolved legacy of the schism between Jews and Greeks".

The British Reformation pastor and founder of the Banner of Truth Trust in Edinburgh , Iain H. Murray, points out in his biography of John F. MacArthur , the prominent and influential pastor of the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California that dispensationalism does not recognize the importance of God's law in the Ten Commandments . According to Murray, "law" means for the dispensationalist in principle personal effort and thus salvation from works. MacArthur himself said that he neither rejected nor intended to dispensationalism.

O. Palmer Robertson, a lecturer at various Reformation-influenced theological seminars in the United States, believes that federal theologians and dispensationalists stand side by side in witnessing the essential teachings of Scripture. In his judgment, these two groups fended off attacks by modernism, neo-evangelicalism and emotionally charged Christianity.

literature

Primary literature
  • Dirk Schürmann, Stephan Isenberg: The forgotten wealth. The heart of dispensational truth. Daniel-Verlag, Lychen 2009, ISBN 978-3-935955-56-0 .
  • Alfred Thompson Eade: Bible Panorama. The seven ages of the path of salvation in twelve colored illustrations with explanations for studying the Bible. (Translation: Gerhard Giesler, Richard Müller). 18th edition. Christliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Dillenburg 2002, ISBN 3-89436-336-3 .
  • Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum : Handbook of Biblical Prophecy. 2nd paperback edition. Schulte and Gerth, Asslar 1995, ISBN 3-89437-266-4 .
  • John H. Gerstner: Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth. A Critique of Dispensationalism. 2nd edition, corrected and expanded. Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Morgan PA 2000, ISBN 1-57358-068-6 .
  • Karl Fr. Hering: The Biblical Show. God's plan for this age and the position and task of the church in it in contrast to Israel and the peoples (= Una Sancta. H. 3, ZDB -ID 518916-0 ). R. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 1947.
  • Adolf E. Knoch: The calendar of God (= concordant series of publications. No. 218, ZDB -ID 2294568-4 ). Konkordanter Verlag, Pforzheim 1978.
  • Albertus Pieters, John H. Gerstner: ... rightly divide the word of truth. Scofield and the doctrine of the times of salvation put to the test (= Reformatory Paperbacks. Vol. 4). Reformatorischer Verlag Beese, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-928936-07-7 (critical).
  • Wilhelm Prolingheuer: Israel - A Holy Remnant - and we (= Concordant series of publications. No. 226). Konkordanter Verlag, Pforzheim 1977. See here .
  • Oliver Rau: No respect for the person. Christian dogmatics versus fundamentalism. Defense of the Faith against Dispensationalism. A biblical-theological treatise. 2nd, improved edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-2009-0 .
  • Heinz Schumacher: The plan of the ages (eons) of God. An attempt at an overview. Paulus-Verlag Karl Geyer, Heilbronn 1984, ISBN 3-87618-083-X . See here ( Memento from September 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  • Cyrus I. Scofield : Scofield Bible . Revised Elberfeld translation. With introductions, explanations and chain information. (Authorized German translation: Gertrud Wasserzug-Traeder ). 6th edition. R. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 2001, ISBN 3-417-25822-7 .
  • Helge Stadelmann , Berthold Schwarz: Understanding salvation history. Why one should think in terms of salvation history if one does not want to misunderstand the Bible. Christliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Dillenburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89436-575-2 .
  • Max S. Weremchuk, Did we miss the end times? , St. Alcuin Of York Anglican Publishers, Norderstedt 2015
Secondary literature
  • Clarence B. Bass: Backgrounds to Dispensationalism. Its Historical Genesis and Ecclesiastic Implications. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids MI 1960, (Wipf & Stock, Eugene OR 2005, ISBN 1-59752-081-0 ).
  • Paul S. Boyer: Dispensationalism. In: Charles H. Lippy, Peter W. Williams (Eds.): Encyclopedia of religion in America. Volume 1. CQ Press / Sage, Washington DC 2010, ISBN 978-0-87289-580-5 , pp. 564-569.
  • Arnold D. Ehlert: A Bibliographic History of Dispensationalism (= BCH Bibliographic Series. No. 2). Baker Book House, Grand Rapids MI 1965.
  • Erich Geldbach : The dispensationalism. In: Theological Contributions . Vol. 42, 2011, pp. 191–210, digital version (PDF; 117.10 kB) .
  • Barry Hankins: American Evangelicals. A Contemporary History of a Mainstream Religious Movement. Rowman & Littlefield, Landham MD et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-7425-4989-0 , pp. 86-97 et passim.
  • Harriet A. Harris: Fundamentalism and Evangelicals. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. 1998, ISBN 0-19-826960-9 , esp. Pp. 20-25, 84f. et passim.
  • Paul Hinschius :  Dispensation . In: Realencyklopadie for Protestant Theology and Church (RE). 3. Edition. Volume 4, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1898, pp. 708-710.
  • Robert H. Krapohl, Charles H. Lippy: The evangelicals. A historical, thematic, and biographical guide. Greenwood Press, Westport CT 1999, ISBN 0-313-30103-4 , pp. 35 f., 43-45, 67 f., 228 f., 245 f., 228 f., 245 f., 267 f. et passim.
  • C. Norman Kraus: Dispensationalism in America. Its rise and development. John Knox Press, Richmond VA 1958.
  • Independent Fundamentalist Family. In: J. Gordon Melton , James Beverley, Constance Jones, Pamela S. Nadell: Dies. (Ed.): Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions. 8th edition. Gale - Cengage Learning, Detroit MI et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-7876-9696-2 , pp. 517-526.
  • Martien Parmentier: The untenability of dispensationalism. In: International Church Journal. Vol. 86, No. 415, 1996, ISSN  0020-9252 , pp. 147-160.
  • Mark Patterson, Andrew Walker: Out Unspeakable Comfort. Irving, Albury, and the Origins of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. In: Stephen Hunt (Ed.): Christian Millenarianism. From the Early Church to Waco. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN et al. 2001, ISBN 0-253-34013-6 , pp. 98-115.
  • Richard R. Reiter, Gleason L. Archer Jr. , Paul D. Feinberg, Douglas J. Moo: The Rapture: Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Tribulational? Academic Books, Grand Rapids MI 1984, ISBN 0-310-44741-0 .
  • Ernest R. Sandeen: The Roots of Fundamentalism. British and American Millenarianism, 1800-1930 . University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL 1970, ISBN 0-226-73467-6 .
  • Heinrich Schäfer: Protestantism in Central America. Christian witness in the area of ​​tension between American fundamentalism, oppression and revival of “Indian” culture (= studies on the intercultural history of Christianity. Vol. 84). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1992, ISBN 3-631-44655-1 , pp. 52-57 et passim, (at the same time: Bochum, Universität, dissertation, 1991).
  • Wilburn T. Stancil: Dispensational Theology. In: New Catholic Encyclopedia . Volume 4: Com - Dyn. 2nd edition. Gale / Thomson, Detroit MI et al. 2003, ISBN 0-7876-4008-5 , p. 776.
  • Timothy P. Weber: Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming. American Premillennialism (1875-1975). Oxford University Press, New York NY 1979, ISBN 0-19-502494-X .
  • Jon Zens: Dispensationalism. A Reformed Inquiry into Its Leading Figures and Features. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 1980, ISBN 0-87552-575-X .

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Dispensationalism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Primary literature
Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See for example William V. Trollinger, Jr .: Protestantism and Fundamentalism. In: Alister E. McGrath, Darren C. Marks (Eds.): The Blackwell Companion to Protestantism. Blackwell, Malden MA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-631-23278-8 , pp. 344-356, here p. 346: "if read literally - hence the importance of inerrancy - the Bible (particularly the books of Daniel and Revelation) provides a sure guide to the past, present, and future of human history. ”Representative of much of dispensationalism is the influential view of Charles C. Ryrie that dispensationalism is based on three principles: (1) a distinction between Israel and the Church , (2) a literalistic (Biblical) hermeneutics, (3) the view that the glory of God is the purpose of God underlying the world, cf. Charles C. Ryrie: Dispensationalism. Revised and expanded. Moody Press, Chicago IL 1995, ISBN 0-8024-2187-3 , pp. 38-40. However, some recent adaptations modify or dispense with one or more of these principles.
  2. ↑ WT Stancil: Dispensational Theology. In: New Catholic Encyclopedia. Volume 4. 2nd edition. 2003, p. 776. On the subject of Israel in dispensationalism and related currents in detail Paul Boyer: The Middle East in Modern American Popular Prophetic Belief. In: Abbas Amanat, Magnus Bernhardsson (Ed.): Imagining the End. Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America. IB Tauris, London et al. 2002, ISBN 1-86064-724-3 , pp. 312-335. Particularly well-known examples are the new editions of the Scofield Reference Bible since 1967 (cf. Shalom Goldman: Zeal for Zion. Christians, Jews, and the Idea of ​​the Promised Land. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC 2009, ISBN 978-0- 8078-3344-5 , p. 35) or Harold L. Lindsey , whose book The Late Great Planet Earth from 1970 was the best-selling non-fictional book of the 1970s with 7.5 million copies (see Thomas D. Ice: Harold L. Lindsey. In: Mal Couch (ed.): Dictionary of premillennial theology. Kregel, Grand Rapids MI 1996, ISBN 0-8254-2351-1 , pp. 241 f., Here 241; Crawford Gribben: Writing the Rapture. Prophecy Fiction in Evangelical America. Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-532660-4 , p. 8).
  3. ^ J. Gordon Melton: Dispensationalism. In: J. Gordon Melton (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Protestantism. Facts On File, New York NY 2005, ISBN 0-8160-5456-8 , pp. 188-190, here p. 188.
  4. ^ A b Charles C. Ryrie: Dispensationalism. Revised and expanded. Moody Publishers, Chicago IL 2007, ISBN 978-0-8024-2189-0 , p. 72.
  5. ↑ Max S. Weremchuk, Did we miss the end times? , St. Alcuin Of York Anglican Publishers, Norderstedt 2015, page 201
  6. ↑ Max S. Weremchuk (2015), p. 202
  7. ^ Charles C. Ryrie: Dispensationalism. Revised and expanded. Moody Publishers, Chicago IL 2007, ISBN 978-0-8024-2189-0 , p. 81.
  8. ↑ Max S. Weremchuk, John Nelson Darby and the beginnings of a movement , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 1988, p 125ff
  9. ↑ His teaching is internationally known as Darbysm or Darbyism, with the different endings corresponding to the respective language
  10. ↑ Clarence Larkin, Dispensational Truth, Or God's Plan and Purpose in the Ages (1918), Cosmo Inc., New York 2010
  11. ^ Bill J. Leonard, Encyclopedia of Religious Controversies in the United States : Volume One: AL, ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara CA, 2nd Edition (2013), 250
  12. ↑ AE Knoch: The Calendar of God (=  Concordant series of publications . No. 218 ). 3. Edition. Konkordanter Verlag, Pforzheim 1980.
  13. ^ Mark A. Noll: The Future of Protestantism: Evangelicalism. In: Alister E. McGrath, Darren C. Marks (Eds.): The Blackwell Companion to Protestantism. Blackwell, Malden MA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-631-23278-8 , pp. 421-438. Quote: "The hermeneutics of dispensationalism has done much to influence later evangelicals in interpreting the first book of the Bible (Genesis) as a literal account of creation and the last (Revelation) as an equally literal account of the return of Christ." P. 431)
  14. ↑ Hans-Werner Deppe: Review of the book Die Entrückung (CV Dillenburg 2004)
  15. ↑ Blog Pilgrims March 24, 2010
  16. ↑ Jürgen Moltmann: The end times have begun. Why many Americans read the Bible as an encrypted road map of world history . In: Die Zeit , No. 51/2002
  17. ↑ Florian Niedlich: Facets of Pop Culture: About the aesthetic and political power of the popular. Transscript, Bielefeld 2012, p. 212
  18. ^ Nicholas T. Wright: Surprised by Hope. Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. HarperCollins, New York NY 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-155182-6 , pp. 118 f. and 128-134.
  19. ↑ Martien Parmentier: The untenability of dispensationalism. In: International Church Journal. Vol. 86, No. 415, 1996, pp. 147-160, here p. 149.
  20. ^ Iain H. Murray: John MacArthur. Service to the word and to the flock. Betanien, Oerlinghausen 2012, ISBN 978-3-935558-48-8 , p. 126.
  21. ^ Iain H. Murray: John MacArthur. Service to the word and to the flock. Betanien, Oerlinghausen 2012, ISBN 978-3-935558-48-8 , p. 207.
  22. ^ Palmer Robertson: The Christ of the Covenants. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co, Phillipsberg NJ 1981, ISBN 0-87552-418-4 , pp. 201-202. In: Iain H. Murray: John MacArthur. Service to the word and to the flock. Betanien, Oerlinghausen 2012, ISBN 978-3-935558-48-8 , pp. 210-211.