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61-669: The ESV Study Bible features the work of "95 evangelical Christian scholars and teachers." The list of contributors found in the ESVSB contains the following notable biblical scholars: The ESV Study Bible was first published in October 2008, having been supported by a $ 1 million campaign. The first printing of the ESVSB, consisting of 100,000 copies, sold out prior to completion. Within the first six months of availability, 300,000 copies had been printed in total. The ESVSB eventually went on to sell over 1 million copies. Andy Naselli, writing in

122-542: A dispensation as "a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God's purpose". He further suggests that the defining characteristics of a dispensation are the distinct governing relationship in which God interacts with mankind during that period, and the resulting responsibility placed upon mankind in that period. Evangelical Christians generally agree that there are distinct periods in God's plan for humanity. Dispensationalist theologians tend to hold "a particular view of

183-429: A dispensation as "a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God". Charles Ryrie took issue with Scofield's definition as too simple, stating that such a definition opened the system to attack from nondispensationalists. Ryrie separates the term age from dispensation, stating that the two terms are not synonymous in meaning while defining

244-783: A belief in two resurrections, the rise of the Antichrist, and the nation of Israel being regathered, restored and converted. Poiret divided history into seven dispensations: early childhood (ended in the Flood), childhood (ended in Moses's ministry), boyhood (ended in Malachi), youth (ended in Christ), manhood (most of the Church era), old age ("human decay", meaning the last hour of the Church), and

305-474: A historic and demographic distinction between Israel and the Christian Church . For them, Israel is an ethnic nation consisting of Hebrews ( Israelites ), beginning with Abraham . The Church, on the other hand, consists of all saved individuals from the "birth of the Church" in the book of Acts until the time of the rapture . Classic dispensationalists refer to this period as a "parenthesis",

366-632: A host of Bible conferences and other missionary and evangelistic efforts. They also gave the dispensationalist philosophy institutional permanence by assuming leadership of new independent Bible institutes, such as the Moody Bible Institute in 1886, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University ) in 1908, and Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University , formerly Philadelphia Biblical University ) in 1913. The network of related institutes that soon developed became

427-673: A literal 1,000 year reign of his kingdom on earth. Israel and the Church being distinct in this view, the rapture must remove the Church before remnant Israel can be gathered. Advocates of dispensationalism have sought to find similar views of dispensations in Church history , referencing theologians or groups such as Francisco Ribera , the Taborites , Joachim of Fiore , Denis the Carthusian and others. Joachim's theory of three stages of human history has been argued to have anticipated

488-629: A period of tribulation . Dispensationalism was systematized and promoted by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren in the mid-19th century. It began its spread in the United States during the late 19th century through the efforts of evangelists such as James Inglis , James Hall Brookes and Dwight L. Moody , the programs of the Niagara Bible Conference, and the establishment of Bible institutes. With

549-504: A premillennial position, and it took over the evangelical movement in the course of several decades. The American church denominations rejected Darby's ecclesiology but accepted his eschatology. Many of these churches were Baptist and Old School Presbyterian; they retained Darby's Calvinistic soteriology . After Inglis's death, James H. Brookes (1830–1898), pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri, organized

610-431: A pretribulational rapture. Christian mystic and philosopher Pierre Poiret (1646–1719) is said by some to have been the first theologian to develop a dispensationalist system, writing a book titled The Divine Economy. Poiret taught that history should be organized into multiple dispensations in which God works with humans in different ways, including the millennium as a future dispensation. Poiret's eschatology includes

671-451: A temporary interlude in the progress of Israel's prophesied history when God has paused his dealing with Israel and is dealing with his Church. There are differing views within dispensationalism as to when the church age began. Classic dispensationalism considers Pentecost in Acts 2 to be the beginning of the Church as distinct from Israel. Charles Finney wrote in 1839 that Pentecost

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732-674: Is a refereed theological journal published by the Evangelical Theological Society . It was first published in 1958 as the Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society , and was given its present name in 1969. It is a "major journal of conservative American theology." The journal has been published continuously since 1958. The first issue of the Bulletin contained a single article, Ned B. Stonehouse 's presidential address to

793-465: Is composed of Christians who affirm the inerrancy of the Bible . The journal is focused predominantly on biblical studies . In its early years, it provided a venue for evangelicals questioning dispensationalism . While at first sympathetic to neo-orthodoxy and the work of Karl Barth , it turned sharply against Barth in the mid-1960s. Editors without a direct reference were compiled by referencing

854-439: Is divided into multiple ages called "dispensations" in which God interacts with his chosen people in different ways. It is often distinguished from covenant theology . These are two competing frameworks of Biblical theology that attempt to explain overall continuity in the Bible. Coining of the term "dispensationalism" has been attributed to Philip Mauro , a critic of the system's teachings, in his 1928 book The Gospel of

915-416: Is explicitly premillennial , in that it affirms the return of Christ prior to a literal 1,000-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. This millennial kingdom will be theocratic in nature, and not mainly soteriological in the way George Eldon Ladd and others with a non-dispensational form of premillennialism have viewed it. It will be distinctly Jewish, with

976-636: Is the doctrine that each successive book of the Bible provides further revelation of God and his program. Theologian Charles Hodge wrote that the progressive character of divine revelation is gradually unfolded until the fullness of truth is revealed. Charles Ryrie wrote that the Bible is not viewed as a textbook on theology, but rather as a continually unfolding revelation of God through successive ages where there are distinguishable stages in which God introduces mankind to new responsibilities. Covenant theology and dispensationalist theology disagree regarding

1037-454: Is uncertain whether Dolcino actually taught it. William C. Watson has argued that multiple 17th century Puritan theologians anticipated dispensational views. In his book Dispensationalism Before Darby (2015), he argues that Ephraim Huit (1595–1644) and John Birchensa (in his book The History of Scripture published in 1660) taught that God has differing plans for Jews and Gentiles. Watson also argues that Nathaniel Holmes (1599–1678) taught

1098-702: The Chinese Union Version with New Punctuation (CUVNP) for its Bible text. The CSB sold more than 6,500 copies on its first day of publication. In 2012, the United Bible Societies (UBS) arranged for Fu Xianwei, chairman of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement , to visit Crossway . After seeing the content and presentation of the ESV Study Bible , Xianwei sought to publish a Chinese edition. In 2017,

1159-520: The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society , praised the ESV Study Bible : An impressive list of evangelical pastors and teachers enthusiastically endorse the ESVSB, but the main reason it is so popular is its outstanding quality.   ... No other study Bible matches the ESVSB in quantity or quality.   ... It is difficult to think of a better comprehensive tool that benefits non-Christians, young Christians, and mature Christians." In 2009,

1220-543: The British and Foreign Bible Society , in collaboration with Crossway, published the Chinese Study Bible . Led by UBS Global Translation Adviser Simon Wong, "a team of local reviewers, who included seminary lecturers and experienced pastors, was formed to rigorously review and adapt the content for a Chinese readership." Wong served as chief editor of the project. In 2022, Crossway published a hardback edition of

1281-564: The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association named the ESV Study Bible as Christian Book of the Year. This was the first time in the award's 30-year history to be given to a study Bible . In the same year, World named the ESV Study Bible as Book of the Year. The Chinese Study Bible ( CSB ) is a study Bible edition adapted from the study notes found in the ESV Study Bible . The CSB uses

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1342-761: The Niagara Bible Conference (1876–1897) to continue dissemination of dispensationalist ideas. Brookes was well known within millenarian circles, both as a prominent speaker at the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study conferences and for having written articles published in Inglis's Waymarks in the Wilderness . Brethren theologian C. H. Mackintosh (1820–1896) had a profound influence on American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899), who reached very large audiences with his powerful preaching in

1403-579: The 1930s and 1940s, leading to permanent divisions that shaped the fundamentalist movement. By the mid 20th century, evangelicals such as Charles Feinberg , J. Dwight Pentecost , Herman Hoyt , Charles Ryrie , and John Walvoord were promoting dispensationalism. All five of these men either studied or taught at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Pentecost taught there for more than 60 years, and published an influential work on dispensational eschatology, Things to Come (1956). A decade later, Ryrie published Dispensationalism Today (1965), which has become

1464-706: The CSB. As of 2023, the CSB is the only study Bible available in China . In 2022, Wong stated, "If we had started the Study Bible project two years later, I don’t know if it would ever be finished   ... The situation in mainland China has progressively tightened, especially in the past two to three years." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society ( JETS )

1525-468: The JETS archives. This article about an academic journal on Christianity studies is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about academic journals . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . Dispensationalism Dispensationalism is a theological framework for interpreting the Bible which maintains that history

1586-666: The Jewish faith, and Christians of Jewish ethnicity who held varying opinions on compliance with Mosaic law, like Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle . Progressive dispensationalism "softens" the Church/Israel distinction by seeing some Old Testament promises as expanded by the New Testament to include the Church without replacing the promises to its original audience, Israel. Dispensationalists believe that Christ abolished

1647-577: The Kingdom . Dispensationalists use a literal interpretation of the Bible and believe that divine revelation unfolds throughout the Bible. They believe that there is a distinction between Israel and the Church , and that Christians are not bound by Mosaic law . They maintain beliefs in premillennialism , Christian Zionism , and a rapture of the Church that will happen before the Second Coming of Christ, generally seen as happening before

1708-687: The Mosaic law, and thus it does not apply to the Christian. Instead, the Christian is under the Law of Christ , which embodies moral principles from God that are in both codes. In this view, although many commandments of the Old Testament are re-established in the New Testament, only the commandments explicitly affirmed there are to be kept; this excludes the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic law. Dispensationalism teaches an eschatology that

1769-496: The New Testament church as a separate program not related to that kingdom. Thus arose a prophetic earthly kingdom program for Israel and a separate "mystery" heavenly program for the church. In order to not conflate the two programs, the prophetic program had to be put on hold to allow for the church to come into existence. Then the church would need to be raptured away before prophecy could resume its earthly program for Israel. In Darby's conception, dispensations relate exclusively to

1830-670: The Niagara conferences and became an advocate of premillennialism, specifically pre-tribulationism. After several years of work, Scofield introduced dispensationalism to a wider audience in America through his Scofield Reference Bible . Published in 1909 by the Oxford University Press , the Scofield Reference Bible was the first Bible to display overtly dispensationalist notes on the same pages as

1891-464: The Old Testament, and called 'the church' under the New." Philip Mauro , a critic of the system's teachings in his 1928 book The Gospel of the Kingdom , is considered to be the first to coin the term "dispensationalism" to describe the theological framework that had made inroads into fundamentalism , calling it "a subtle form of modernism". The number of dispensations may vary from three to eight, but

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1952-523: The Sanctuary (1973) and Raptured (1975). In 1972, Iowa filmmakers Russell Doughten and Donald W. Thompson released A Thief in the Night , a fictional film about the aftermath of the rapture that has been seen by an estimated 300 million people. Televangelist Jack Van Impe covered current events in light of Bible prophecy with a dispensational premillennialist spin. The late 20th century marked

2013-589: The Scots Presbyterians. Dispensationalism developed as a system from the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), considered by many to be the father of dispensationalism. Darby strongly influenced the Plymouth Brethren of the 1830s in Ireland and England. The original concept came when Darby considered the implications of Isaiah 32 for Israel. He concluded that prophecy required a future fulfillment and realization of Israel's kingdom. He saw

2074-525: The biblical text. Use of the Scofield Bible became popular among independent Evangelicals in the United States. Its premillennialism led to a pessimistic social view within evangelicalism, to "not polish the brass rails on the sinking social ship", so that evangelism came to be focused on saving the lost rather than expanding Christendom. The Scofield Reference Bible came out at the peak of Bullinger's influence. Scofield's Bible confronted some of

2135-561: The church as occurring between the salvation of Saul in Acts 9 and the Holy Spirit's commissioning of Paul in Acts 13 . E. W. Bullinger and the ultradispensationalists taught that the church began in Acts 28 . According to progressive dispensationalism , the distinction between Israel and the Church is not mutually exclusive, as there is a recognized overlap between the two. The overlap includes Jewish Christians like James, brother of Jesus , who integrated Jesus's teachings into

2196-581: The dawn of the 20th century, Cyrus Scofield introduced the Scofield Reference Bible , which crystalized dispensationalism in the United States. Dispensationalism has become popular within American evangelicalism. It is commonly found in nondenominational Bible churches , as well as Baptist , Pentecostal , and Charismatic groups. Protestant denominations that embrace covenant theology tend to reject dispensationalism. According to

2257-503: The divine government of the earth. The Mosaic dispensation continues as a divine administration over Earth up until the return of Christ, and the church, being a heavenly designated assembly, is not associated with any dispensations. Darby's Brethren ecclesiology failed to catch on in America, but his eschatological doctrine became widely popular, especially among Baptists and Old School Presbyterians . James Inglis (1813–1872) introduced dispensationalism to North America through

2318-478: The evangelical movement. The Scopes trial in 1925 served to unify fundamentalists, but the movement began to decline soon after the trial. Scopes trial prosecutor and public face of the fundamentalist movement William Jennings Bryan died a week after the verdict, and journalist H. L. Mencken portrayed supporters of that anti-evolution verdict as uneducated and ignorant. The fundamentalist movement began to decentralize after it lost Bryan. Dispensationalism's fate

2379-671: The later dispensationalist view of organizing history into different dispensations. Joachim's stages were divided into the "Age of the Father" which was under the Law, the "Age of the Son" which was a period of tribulation, and the "Age of the Spirit" which was a period of bliss on earth. Fra Dolcino (c. 1250 – 1307) taught Fiore's theory of the stages of history, and dispensationalists Mark Hitchcock and Thomas Ice have suggested that Dolcino's teaching

2440-744: The latter half of the 19th century. Moody worked with Brookes and other dispensationalists, and encouraged the spread of dispensationalism. It was during this time that dispensational doctrine became widely accepted among American evangelicals. It also marked a shift in dispensational theology under evangelists like Moody, from Darby's Calvinism and doctrinal rigor to a non-Calvinist view of human freedom in personal salvation. Other prominent dispensationalists in this period include Reuben Archer Torrey (1856–1928), James M. Gray (1851–1925), William J. Erdman (1833–1923), A. C. Dixon (1854–1925), A. J. Gordon (1836–1895), and William Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935). These men were active evangelists who promoted

2501-885: The main dispensationalist institution in America. The Baptist Bible Seminary now located in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania became another dispensationalist school. In the 1910s, another publication took hold within American evangelicalism. Known as The Fundamentals , its twelve volumes were published in quarterly installments between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company. Funded by Union Oil co-founder Lyman Stewart (1840–1923) and managed by an executive committee of dispensationalists that included Clarence Dixon and Reuben Torrey, The Fundamentals helped solidify dispensationalist views within American Christian fundamentalism and

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2562-555: The meaning of revelation. Covenant theology views the New Testament as the key to interpreting the Old Testament . For dispensationalists, the Old Testament is interpreted on its own and the New Testament contains new information which can build on the Old Testament but cannot change its meaning. Each stands alone, rather than the Old Testament being reread through the lens of the New Testament. Dispensationalists see

2623-445: The millennium, is exactly that of Watts, and not Darby. Edward Irving (1792–1834) in some ways anticipated dispensationalism. He used a literal approach to prophetic interpretation, he believed in a restoration of Israel as a nation, and he believed there would be a great apostasy and Christ would return to establish a literal earthly kingdom. But he also preached that Christ had a fallen nature, which led to him being defrocked by

2684-406: The monthly magazine Waymarks in the Wilderness , published intermittently between 1854 and 1872. In 1866, Inglis organized the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, which introduced dispensationalist ideas to a small but influential circle of American evangelicals . They were disturbed by the growth of religious liberalism and saw premillennialism as an answer. Dispensationalism was introduced as

2745-587: The nucleus for the spread of American dispensationalism. When the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute) formally opened in 1889, Torrey served as its first superintendent. Revivalist evangelicals such as Moody and Torrey did not believe the gift of tongues continued past the Apostolic age , but their emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit merged well with holiness ideas. This encouraged

2806-488: The parallel-but-separate roles and destinies of Israel and the [Christian] church ", with a "careful separation ... between what is addressed to Israel and what is addressed to the church. What is addressed to Israel is 'earthly' in character and is to be interpreted 'literally'." This view is distinct from covenant theology , which holds that rather than having separate plans, "God has one people, one people of God throughout redemptive history, called 'Israel' under

2867-829: The primary introduction to dispensational theology. Furthering the rift with covenant theology, Ryrie wrote in Bibliotheca Sacra in 1957 that dispensationalism is "the only valid system of Biblical interpretation". In 1959, Walvoord stated that no non-dispensationalists (including Catholics and mainline Protestants) offered any defense against modernism , and that they were all under the influence of hermeneutical and theological errors. Dallas Theological Seminary's influence grew as other schools and seminaries hired its graduates as faculty. In 1970, DTS graduate Hal Lindsey published The Late Great Planet Earth , which launched dispensationalist eschatology into pop culture. His book sold 10 million copies and made " rapture " and "

2928-553: The restoration of all things (the Millennium, including a literal earthly reign of Christ with Israel restored). Isaac Watts (1674–1748) presented a dispensational view in a forty-page essay titled "The Harmony of All the Religions Which God Ever Prescribed to Men and All His Dispensations Towards Them". Charles Ryrie states that Scofield's outline of dispensationalism, with the exception of

2989-444: The society's annual meeting, entitled "The Infallibility of Scripture and Evangelical Progress." In 1969 the publication attained its present title. In 1988 the circulation was approximately 2500; by 2016 it had increased to 5000. The society provides free online access to digitized back issues. For 22 years until 2021, the editor was Andreas J. Köstenberger ; Dorian Coover-Cox succeeded him. The Evangelical Theological Society

3050-644: The spread of dispensationalism within the Pentecostal movement. During this time, Anglican clergyman E. W. Bullinger (1837–1913) began teaching what became known as "ultradispensationalism" or "Bullingerism". Bullinger taught that the Church did not begin until Acts 28, that the Lord's Supper and water baptism were for Jewish believers, and that Paul's epistles were written to the Jews. A disciple of James Brookes, Cyrus Scofield (1843–1921) began attending

3111-450: The system's critics, most theologians acknowledge that there is no specific sequence of end-times events defined in the Bible. The Scofield Bible has been called "the most dangerous heresy currently to be found within Christian circles". Dispensationalism is a theological framework that views history as divided into distinct periods in which God interacts with mankind in specific ways. Scofield, in his Scofield Reference Bible , defined

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3172-481: The text. In this method, scripture is to be interpreted according to the normal rules of human language in its entirety. This leads dispensationalists to take eschatological passages in the Bible literally. Charles Ryrie suggests that a non-literal hermeneutic is the reason amillennialists apply Old Testament promises made to Israel "spiritually" to the church, and covenant premillennialists see some prophecies as fulfilled and others as not. Progressive revelation

3233-506: The throne of David restored. The majority of dispensationalists profess a pretribulation rapture . Mid-tribulation and post-tribulation rapture are minority views. Pre-tribulational rapture doctrine is what separates dispensationalism from other forms of premillennialism and other millennial views. Dispensational eschatology was popularized in Hal Lindsey's book, The Late Great Planet Earth (1970). In Lindsey's version,

3294-486: The tribulation " household words. The commercial success of The Late Great Planet Earth triggered a flood of books that featured dispensationalism's rapture theology. Lindsey published Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (1972), There's a New World Coming (1973), and The Liberation of Planet Earth (1974) . Other books included The Beginning of the End (1972) by Tim LaHaye, and DTS graduate Thomas McCall's Satan in

3355-409: The typical seven-dispensation scheme is as follows: According to John Walvoord , God's purpose in the world is to manifest his glory. Charles Ryrie writes that dispensational soteriology focuses on man's salvation as the means God uses to glorify himself. A key element of dispensationalism is its use of the historical-grammatical hermeneutic to obtain a consistent, literal interpretation of

3416-531: The ultradispensationalists' (Bullingerites') positions, including their divisions of dispensational time. As the Scofield Bible became popular among dispensationalists, it marginalized the hyperdispensationalist position in the United States. Influenced by Scofield, evangelist and Bible teacher Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871–1952) and his brother Rollin Chafer founded Evangelical Theological College in 1924. The school would eventually become Dallas Theological Seminary ,

3477-530: The unfolding of events includes the establishment of modern Israel in 1948, Jews regaining control of Jerusalem's sacred sites in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War , a rebuilding of the Temple which has yet to occur, an Antichrist who will come to power, Christians to be removed from the earth in a rapture of the Church, and seven years of tribulation ( Daniel's seventieth week) culminating in a great battle of Armageddon in which Christ will triumph over evil and establish

3538-464: The venerable theological journal Bibliotheca Sacra (first published in 1844). Lewis Chafer's first public declaration that he was a dispensationalist appeared in that journal's pages. In 1936, he published a 60-page response to criticism from Mauro and other fundamentalists, entitled "Dispensationalism". That same year, Chafer renamed his school Dallas Theological Seminary. The conflict between dispensationalists and covenantalists continued through

3599-453: Was "the commencement of a new dispensation", emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit as a distinction. Cyrus Scofield did not make Pentecost itself the turning point, but did emphasize its role in dividing the dispensations of "Law" and "Grace". In contrast, hyperdispensationalists suggest that the church started later in Acts ("Mid-Acts") with the ministry of Paul, identifying the start of

3660-410: Was of a pretribulational rapture. The relevant teaching was that when Antichrist appears, Dolcino and his followers would be taken away and preserved from Antichrist, and that following the death of Antichrist, Dolcino and his followers would return to Earth to convert those then living to the true faith. However, the source is an anonymous 1316 Latin text titled The History of Brother Dolcino , so it

3721-442: Was tied to that breakdown. In 1928, Philip Mauro , seeking to re-invigorate the fundamentalist movement, pointed a finger at dispensationalism and in the process coined the term. Singling it out as the source of division within the larger fundamentalist movement, he wrote that the dispensationalist view was more recent than Darwinism and it eroded fundamental truths of scripture. In 1934, Evangelical Theological College acquired

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