 by
H.C.Heffren
PLEASE NOTE:
The following is my present
understanding after forty years of study and
consideration. Now, I present it to you, dear
reader, but only for your consideration. It
certainly is different than what is commonly
taught 'today.' However, it is my 'burden' to
encourage as many as will, to consider with an
honest, open heart and mind...then, trusting the
Holy Spirit to teach each reader as He wills.
Do you know whether the
Millennium is the next event in Divine history
or do you think there will never be a
millennium? This is an important question. Some
people confidently assure us that a glorious
earthly millennium is about to break upon this
troubled world, while others are equally
confident that the Bible teaches no such thing.
Only one faction can be right because the views
are based on entirely different interpretations
of the Bible. Therefore, one must be an error.
Only one can be truth. Are you positive you know
which is right?
Some people say it doesn't matter
which way you believe because this doctrine does
not affect your salvation anyway. This is only
partly true. The Jehovah's Witnesses and many
Dispensationalists do teach a form of salvation
AFTER the coming of the Lord and the so-called
rapture of the believers. A theological
controversy rages among professed Christians
concerning which is the right interpretation of
the Kingdom of God. Dispensationalists
confidently assure us that the millennium is
next. Amilennialists affirm with equal
conviction that there will never be a
millennium. You must decide which is right. Our
task will be made easier if we know exactly what
the basic issue is. This we shall proceed to
reveal.
The Question
Stated...
To begin with, there are two
questions that must be asked and answered. The
first is, "Where and when did Dispensationalism
originate? The second is, "How will it end?" The
first question directs us to the foundation on
which the doctrine rests. The second causes us
to ask what conditions entitle one to
participate in its blessings, and what
ultimately happens to the millennium itself. It
should not be difficult to find a satisfactory
answer to these valid questions.
Dispensationalism originated in
England about the year 1840. Several prominent
names such as Irving, Maitland and J. N. Darby
were among the first ones to preach and publish
articles and books on the subject. In America it
engaged such outstanding men as C. I.
Scofield, James M. Gray and Harry Ironside, all
of whom were connected with Moody Bible
Institute and who contributed tremendous
influence to its propagation. A natural question
at this point is, "Where did J. N. Darby and his
group discover the doctrine?" Dispensationalists
would have us believe that it came as a result
of discovering new light on the Bible itself,
but the facts lead us elsewhere.
The real source of the doctrine
came from a book that was written much earlier
by two Jesuit Priests by the names of Ribera and
Alcaser. These men were commissioned by the Pope
to publish a teaching that would counter-act the
prevalent Protestant belief that proclaimed the
Pope as the Antichrist. Eventually this book
fell into the hands of Irving and from its
interpretation of the Bible Dispensationalism
was born.
The
Antichrist of the Reformation...
History makes it very clear that
the very heart of the Reformation preaching
attacked papal claims of supremacy and as a
result of this onslaught they rocked Catholicism
to its very foundation. Luther, Zwingli and
Calvin, as well as countless other Reformation
preachers opened up the Word of God and
fearlessly proclaimed that the Pope was the
Antichrist of prophecy, the Beast that overcame
the saints mentioned in Revelation. As a result
the strangle hold of Papal authority was
gradually weakened and Papal power began to
topple and crumble as multitudes embraced this
liberating truth.
It is interesting to note the
meaning of Antichrist in Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary. It is described as: "pretender to
Christhood; a false Christ." Webster also
mentions the fact of history that Wycliffe and
Luther identified the Pope as the Antichrist and
that the real meaning of Antichrist is, "an
OTHER Christ." In view of the fact that the Pope
assumes the title of "Vicar of the Son of God,"
it gives further evidence that the Antichrist is
a false Christ. Webster's meaning of Vicar is:
"A substitute, a proxy or representative." He
adds this illuminating information that "The
Pope is the Man of Sin heralded by the
Reformation preachers." The Antichrist not only
means a false Christ, and an OTHER Christ, but
also as one "Who takes the place of Christ as
Head of the church."
It is easy to see the task that
confronted Ribera and Alcaser. However, they
cunningly conceived a plot to rival the
interpretation by the Protestants. They sought
to prove that Luther was wrong about the
Antichrist being the Pope. To accomplish this
they speculated on a future Antichrist who would
oppose Christ with all the infernal powers under
his control. Dispensationalism adopted the
Futurist theory with its future Antichrist and
future millennium. It should be pointed out that
there is nothing in Dispensationalism that in
any way identifies Catholicism with its place in
prophecy. History labels their long tyranny over
man as the Dark Ages. The Bible says "They made
war on the saints." The Reformation was born
with the proclamation of the Papal Antichrist.
Dispensationalists have relegated all the
Scriptures relating to the Antichrist to a
mysterious creature of horror in some unknown
future. When a substantial segment of the
Protestant faith accepted this interpretation,
the Jesuits accomplished their purpose far
beyond their fondest hopes.
Dispensationalists maintain that
God divided His government of the world into
seven dispensations, each of approximately 1000
years duration. Five, they say, are already
past. We are now in the sixth, namely the age of
grace. According to their theory the millennium
is next. However, there is no place in the
Bible, or even in the Scofield notes, that
Scripturally indicates seven dispensations. Try
to find them! Jesus Christ made no reference to
seven dispensations. The Bible says there are
two, namely the Old Testament and the New
Testament. Where then did the teaching of seven
dispensations originate? The first proponents of
this novel interpretation came from these two
Jesuit priests. Their purpose was to blunt the
attack of the Reformers on the Papacy and direct
it to some future mysterious Antichrist. In this
subtle manner Satan accomplished his objective
by infiltrating the ranks of Protestantism with
the doctrine that offers a glorious earthly
millennium filled with carnal delights and the
possibility of getting saved under more
favorable conditions, leaving a purgatory as an
escape from hell for the Catholics.
The Acid Test
of Truth...
Any doctrine based on an
erroneous foundation cannot support its ultimate
conclusions. The farther error is pursued, the
more difficult it is to maintain. This is one
reason for the multiplicity of different
interpretations among Dispensationalists
themselves. It also accounts for the necessity
of introducing plural resurrections and
judgments, and many other complications such as
restoring the ancient animal sacrifices during
the millennial age as well as the racial barrier
between Jew and Gentile. Even a causal Bible
reader will be well aware of these distinctions
having been removed by the Cross. Truth is
simple and profound. Error is complicated and
mysterious. As we deal with the second question
this will become more apparent.
Who Will
Inhabit the Millennium?
Some years ago I posed the
question, "Who will inherit the millennium?" to
the editor of Our Hope Magazine. The answer
given will be found on page 557 of the March
1957 issue and reads as follows: "The question
doubtless concerns the people who will inhabit
the earth during the millennial reign of Christ.
The Scriptures clearly teach, we believe, that
when the Lord returns in glory to this earth,
THEN Israel as a nation WILL BE SAVED. (Caps
mine). Rom. 11:25-27. Preceding this, as the
result of the preaching of the Jewish remnant
saved at the beginning of the tribulation
period, a great number of Gentiles will have
been saved and will manifest that salvation by
befriending the Jewish remnant, our Lord's
brethren according to the flesh. Matt. 25:31-46.
This same passage shows that when the Lord
returns, He will judge the nations then living
upon the earth, and only the saved from among
them will enter the kingdom, though, of course,
children will be born to the inhabitants of the
earth throughout Christ's thousand year reign.
These, in order to be saved must be "born
again," just as is the case in the present age.
Now all of those born into the world during the
millennium will receive the Lord Jesus, though
fear of swift judgment will keep them from
openly manifesting their hatred of the King. At
the end of the thousand year reign of Christ,
when Satan is loosed for a litter season, he
will find a great multitude ready to follow
him." (End of quote).
It is difficult to understand how
this learned writer could impose so many errors
in such a small compass of words. First, he
misquotes Rom. 11:26, by saying that it teaches
at the Lord's return, THEN, all Israel will be
saved. The passage reads, "SO" shall all Israel
be saved. "Then" is an adverb of time, but "SO"
is an adverb of manner. Rom. 11:26 does not
offer fleshly Israel a future salvation. "Then,"
by the ushering in of a glorious earthly
millennium, but clearly says she will be saved
"SO," as the context amplifies by being grafted
into the true olive tree, which is Christ. On
this basis of saving faith "So all Israel will
be saved." While this writer has asserted that
only saved Jews and Gentiles will enter the
millennial kingdom, it should be observed that
both classes get saved AFTER Christ's return to
earth.
The above statements are too
vital to go unchallenged. You must remember that
the church is raptured to be with
Christ--"Forever with the Lord," prior to the
millennial age. Only unbelieving Jews and
unbelieving Gentiles are left. Now, if the
righteous dead are resurrected in their
glorified bodies, and if, the living are changed
in the twinkling of an eye to their glorified
bodies to be forever with the Lord, then the
only way anyone can inhabit the millennium is to
be an unbeliever when the Lord comes. This is
crystal clear. The editor just quoted, is a
leading exponent of Dispensationalism and he
asserts that the unbelieving Jews are Christ's
brethren according to the flesh. The Bible says
the "Flesh profiteth nothing." "God is able of
these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."
"Wherefore henceforth (from now until all future
time) know we no man after the flesh: yea,
though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet
now HENCEFORTH, know we Him no more." 2 Cor.
5:16. An abundance of texts will confirm this
relationship and the severing of fleshly ties in
Christ. Common human decency will cause a person
to manifest friendship to Jewish people and does
not indicate the fruit of salvation. A further
statement from the quotation claims that the
children born during the millennium will not all
get saved--in fact the unbelievers are described
as a great multitude ready to follow Satan when
He is loosed. This is an understatement for the
Bible says the number is as the sands of the
sea. Rev. 20:8. A millennium filled with
unbelievers to this degree could scarcely be as
glorious as some people would lead us to
believe.
The Chosen
People Are All Believers...
Quite obviously, this poses more
questions than it does answers. In the first
place, God has no CHOSEN people in UNBELIEF. The
fate of unbelievers in the Bible is too well
determined to require further substantiation.
Furthermore, God has no special salvation for
anyone except the atonement made on Calvary.
"God who at sundry times and in divers manners
spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, (The Old Testament Covenant), hath in
these last days spoken unto us by His Son…" (The
New Testament Covenant) Heb. 1:1. This is final.
How could the Jews conduct such a successful
worldwide revival without the aid of the Holy
Sprit Who is taken out of the world with the
church? Before the Holy Sprit came on the day of
Pentecost the disciples all fled even with Jesus
amongst them. If the devil is bound during the
thousand years, how are the children born during
that time tempted and deceived in such colossal
numbers? Millennialists tell us that people will
live to a great age, but some will die during
that time.
If only those who are saved from
"among the nations" enter into the millennial
kingdom, what becomes of those still living, but
have rejected this overture? Since the judgment
of the wicked is deferred until after the
millennial reign, what will these people do
during that thousand years? Did not Christ say
that those who do His will, are His brothers and
sisters, rather than earthly kinship? Matt.
12:48-50. Did not Christ assert that the
unbelieving Jews were of their Father, the
Devil? John 8:44.
Dismal
Prospects for the Millennium...
Dispensationalists portray a very
bleak millennium after all their efforts to make
us believe in one. According to the writer just
quoted, it will contain unsaved individuals who
only subdue their hatred because of fear of
swift judgment. There will be sickness for some
and even death for the advanced in age according
to their writers. Imagine if you can, Christ
officiating at a funeral! To what lengths must
error go? At the end of the millennium we are
told that Satan will be loosed again and will
marshall the enemies of the Lord who are
described "as a great multitude ready to follow
the Devil," even though they have been in the
millennium for a thousand years under Christ's
rule. To cope with this futile uprising,
Dispensationalists portray Christ riding a white
steed and plunging His unsheathed sword into
human bodies until the blood reaches the horse's
bridle. This blood-curdling horror, which is to
cause swirling rivers of blood, cannot be the
act of the Christ Who said, "For all they that
take the sword shall perish with the sword."
Matt. 26:52. It merely shows the extreme to
which error is driven to sustain its false
interpretations. The Second Person in the Divine
Trinity, does not have to rely on a carnal sword
to achieve His victories. Did He not explicitly
say, He had twelve legions of angels at His
command? Is not the silent sleep of death to the
armies of Sennacherib sufficient evidence of His
power? Christ's triumph came at Calvary where He
said, "It is finished."
The Simple
Gospel of Christ's Kingdom...
Jesus gave us a simple gospel
that even a child can understand. His kingdom
requires the new birth in order to pass its
portals. Then follows our walk of obedience and
eventually the call of death or the Coming of
the Lord, which will usher in eternity and the
Judgment. None of the earliest creeds contain
even a hint of a millennium. Without exception
they state simply that: "Christ rose from the
dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father, Almighty, from
whence He shall come to judge the quick and the
dead…" Since the Apostle Paul expounded the
Scriptures to the Jews continually wherever he
went, and heralded the message of God's kingdom
all over the Roman Empire, does it not seem
strange that the Dispensational interpretation
only came to light more that eighteen hundred
years later?
We take issue with
Dispensationalism because they maintain that
unbelievers, that is, the unbelieving Jews, are
God's chosen people. Jesus said, "The kingdom
shall be taken from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof." Matt. 21:43.
The Pharisees made no mistake of His meaning. V.
44. No one has the right to offer a kingdom
different in kind or on different terms than
what Jesus specified. Only Christ has the
authority to establish a doctrine that is
binding upon His Church. His words shall judge
us in the last day. No one has the right to
propound a doctrine that offers salvation AFTER
Christ comes. His last will and testament was
sealed at Calvary and the terms are clear. It is
a mistake to suggest that Christ only partially
fulfilled the promises in His first coming. The
only way Christ could be the Messiah foretold in
the Old Testament was to fulfill every prophecy
concerning Himself. To have failed in any
particular would have convicted Him as an
imposter. Even a postponement of the promises
would invalidate His claim according to Deut.
18:22. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of
the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to
pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not
spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it
presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of
him." Invariably Christ substantiated His claims
to being the Messiah by referring to how
Scripture was fulfilled in His ministry. It is
possible to conceive the hatred and persecution
unto death against Christ and Paul if they were
preaching a kingdom of Jewish pre-eminence with
all the earthly carnal delights of
Dispensationalism? Was not the opposition
generated because Jesus said, "My kingdom is not
of this world?" Has the Christ Who is "the same,
yesterday, today and forever," changed?
The millennium is not next. Why
was Christ silent about such a kingdom in His
messages? Why is there no hint of a thousand
year reign from Genesis to Jude? Why was
something so important as this interpretation of
the kingdom discovered until 1840? Revelation 20
is the only place in the Bible that mentions a
thousand year reign and it does not say it will
be on earth, but that souls of the martyrs will
be with Christ. There is no reference to the
Jews in this passage; nor, to an earthly
millennium. Then what is next? Peter removes all
doubt when he said, "Looking for and hastening
unto the coming of the day of God…" The entire
third chapter of Second Peter should be read to
get the full impact of coming events. These
include the Coming of the Lord, the resurrection
of the dead, the Day of Judgment and the eternal
rewards meted out to both believers and
unbelievers. Then, eternity in the place to
which Jesus has gone to prepare.
Surely this truth is more
attractive than a temporary millennium that ends
in such terrifying carnage as Dispensationalists
propound. "Jesus came and spake unto them,
saying, ALL power is given unto Me in heaven AND
IN EARTH." Matt. 28:18. Jesus reigns now at the
right hand of God over the universe. Instead of
a band of unbelieving Jews receiving the kingdom
when Jesus comes, our Lord's final irrevocable
ultimatium was, "Therefore say I unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken FROM you…" Matt
21:43. Instead of God regarding them as the
Chosen People marked for Divine favors we read,
"Behold your house is left unto you desolate."
Matt. 23:38. To be desolate means to be forsaken
by God. Far from the bright future prospects
which Dispensationalists anticipate, Paul said,
"They please NOT God and are contrary to all
men…For WRATH is come upon them to the
UTTERMOST," meaning to the end of time. 1 Thess.
2:15, 16b.
Instead of Jesus postponing His
kingdom to some mysterious future under more
favorable circumstances, He said, "Fear not
little flock (of believers) it is your Father's
good pleasure to GIVE YOU the kingdom." Luke
12:32. We need to be born again to SEE it and to
ENTER it. John 3:3, 5. Jesus said His kingdom
comes NOT with observation and that it is NOT of
this world. How can you reconcile these plain
statements with the type of kingdom portrayed by
Millennialists? Jesus has a kingdom NOW. When He
comes again it is not to SET up His kingdom but
to DELIVER it up to God the Father. 1 Cor.
15:24. Dispensationsalists say the Millennium is
next. The Lord Jesus Christ said He is coming
again to JUDGE the world and take His own to the
place He has gone to prepare. Jesus offers us
heaven. He commissioned His followers to "Go
into all the world and preach the GOSPEL." The
urgency of this evangel is stressed by these
words, "Behold now is the accepted time, behold,
now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. 6:2b. This
is the last time and it will end on the LAST day
with the sound of the LAST trump. There is no
day after the LAST day. God offers salvation
today and eternity next. Millennium?
NEVER!
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