Here's a great summary, fresh off the relays, by nostr:nprofile1qqstwf6d9r37nqalwgxmfd9p9gclt3l0yc3jp5zuyhkfqjy6extz3jcpz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezumrpdejz7qg3waehxw309ahx7um5wgh8w6twv5hszhrhwden5te0wpex77re9ehx7um5wgkhyetvv9ujuctswqhnxdmyx33nxvmzxejxgvf3v5cn2dfnvvekgdmpv93xyetyxg6xycm989sn2vrxvvmnye3hxy6rvdryxvukvwrxx5exxefcxd3x2cmx8qmz5u8q:
Discussion
I literally just scrolled a bit more on my feed and saw this at the same time you shared 🤦🏼♂️ haha my bad! Thanks for sharing though! Will check it out 🤙
No worries! Most evangelicals believe this without knowing what it's called, where it came from, or how recent it is. I did, too, for (too) many years. It's why I bost about it quite a bit (or at least point to it). Our foreign policy (in the U.S.) has been captured by it.
I think dispensationalism became so popular in evangelicalism here in the states predominantly because the issue of the day was the authority, inspiration, and inerrancy of Scripture, which the dispensationals, to their credit, fought vehemently to defend, and therefore other aspects of their teaching were more readily and uncritically accepted by those who wanted to defend a high view of Scripture.
I even found Catholics here with some form of it.
It is pervasive, to be sure.
A small but relevant part of the story:
A "pretty OK" recently-written book on it:
Robert McKenzie, [Identifying the Seed: An Examination and Evaluation of the Differences between Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology](https://a.co/d/76C9Lxc)
Best thing to read "contra" it would be, in my opinion, -- Paul's Epistles. Especially Galatians.
Thanks for sharing all this! I understand a lot better now, especially the Biblical and modern historical context.
That movie or series that promoted it probably helped popularize it as well.
Yeah, the Rapture craze really hit in the 70s low-budget films too. Televangelists laveraged this be able to comment on how every headline was aCkShUaLlY a fulfillment of some obscure prophesy. The grift has been enormous. We in the U.S. have been a modern-day Corinth.
Pretty much, if not worse.
The two main tenets of Dispensationalism, in my view, are:
1. There are two peoples of God (ethnic Jews and Gentile Christians), with different destinies, purposes, and (in some flavors) different Messiahs
2. An 'overly literal' way of reading Scripture, particularly the prophetic books
Oversimplification, but those are the main things.
nostr:npub1kun5628raxpm7usdkj62z2337hr77f3ryrg9cf0vjpyf4jvk9r9smv3lhe - good point. It was also very well-funded. But we probably don't need to go there in today's climate (iykyk).