I don't usually reply to tirades against people. Nor am I doing so in this case. But for the sake of others, I just want to point out that it is ludicrous to assume that this exchange is limited to disagreement between dispensationalists and preterists, and that eveyone who disagrees with the foolish and Anti-Christian stance of dispensationalists must be "Steve Gregg cronies" and "Steve Gregg Mavericks".Thank you Crusader.
I'll be sure and check that [website] out. These Steve Gregg cronies would do good to check it out as well. I actually got tangled up in this garbage until I started researching the dispensational understanding of it and began to realizt that the Steve Gregg Mavericks on here are just wanting to be different and cannot accept that their position is non-sense. Gregg is smooth with his explanations but they are really just his way of trying to stand out.
I, who held to dispensationalism in my late teens and early twenties, rejected this falsity many decades ago --- long before I ever heard of Steve Gregg or this forum.
Nor am I a preterist with reference to Matthew 24 (at least not with reference to any of it except the destruction of the temple). I am a historic pre-millenialist. So there are positions other than preterism or even a-millenialism which have seen the falsity of dispensationalism.
I call the dispensationalist position "Anti-Christian" in both senses of the Greek preposition "anti". The position is both against Christianity, and it replaces Christianity. I'm not talking about the mere invention of the pre-trib rapture view, or the proposal of seven imaginary dispensations. One could hold to these, and still be a disciple of Christ.
I am speaking of the evil doctrines which often accompany dispensationalism, at least in its most extreme form. For example, C.I. Scofield in his notes on Matthew 5, in his Scofield Bible, states the following concerning "the sermon on the mount":
"... the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privelege nor the duty of the Church." We in the church not only do not have the duty to literally obey Christ's words as He gave them in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, but we do not even have the privilege of doing so.
How contrary to the teaching of the Lord Jesus!
At the conclusion of "the sermon on the mount", Jesus gave this warning:
"Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’ Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."
Matthew 7:21-27 RSV
What a warning our Lord gives in these words! Clearly there will be many when Christ comes, who will call Him "Lord", and will have even done miracles in His name, but who will be rejected because they have not done the Father's will. Obviously, Jesus, in this passage, also linked obedience to His words with those who "do the will of His Father."
And, perhaps even more powerful in indicating the supreme importance of literally carrying out His commandments, is the fact the He included them in His last commandment to spread the gospel throughout the world. Obedience to Christ is part of "the Great Commission"!
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.
Matthew 28:19,20 RSV
So we need to do more than "get them to accept Christ as their personal Saviour". We need to make disciples, those who have died to self, and who live their lives in submission to Christ. We need to baptize them.
And we need to teach them to literally obey the commandments of Christ (most of which are found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7).
But for such as C. I. Scofield (and I think Arno C. Gabelein also in his "Our Hope" magazines), obeying the commandments of Christ are "neither the duty nor the privilege of the Church." If this is not the spirit of Antichrist, what is?
The ultra-dispensationalists go even further. No part of the gospels, nor any of the letters of Peter, James, etc. apply to the Christian, because they were not addressed to Christians, but to the Jews. Even many of Paul's letters are supposed to be in this category.
So the only instruction we, as Christians, have in the Bible, are certain letters of Paul which were addressed to the Church. Ultra-dispensationalists have a name for the procedure of recognizing which writings are for the Church, and which for the Jews. This procedure is called "rightly dividing the word of truth." Practically, there doesn't seem to be any difference between this procedure, and that of stating that the parts of the New Testament which we don't want to follow, are not "inspired."
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