Church heresies that Encourage American socio-political dysfunction – Part 2, Dispensationalism

This is the second part of a series showing how several widely accepted false teachings in the Church have helped to create the current political situation in America – that is, being on the verge of accepting fascism. The teachings being examined largely contradict the most fundamental commandment of scripture - to love your neighbor as yourself. Mat 22:37

What is dispensationalism?

Dispensationalism is one of the core doctrines of the American right-wing political church. As such, it has had a far-reaching impact on the American political landscape. Many of the “end-time” apocalyptic beliefs that many American Christians have come to accept as indisputable truths were only conceived after 1830 by the inventor of dispensationalism, John Nelson Darby.

Definition

The word dispensation (to dispense) means to give, provide, or distribute goods / services to people. Darby arbitrarily divided the BIBLE timeline into 7 eras or dispensations; claiming that GOD had a different way of dispensing salvation to people during each era. His bottom line being that the Jews don’t need to accept JESUS to be saved. One BIBLE verse, lamely taken out of context, was/is used to legitimize the whole scheme: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Tim 2:15 The original verse means to study the word and interpret it correctly – it has nothing to do with breaking history down into arbitrary divisions.

Scofield’s “Bible”

Dispensationalism was popularized and became part and parcel of American fundamentalist Christianity upon the release of C.I. Scofield’s Scofield Reference Bible Notes in 1909.

Scofield’s “Bible” was/is a King James Bible that added commentary notes written in plain English. The notes promoted fundamentalism and dispensationalism at a time when conservative Christians felt that their values were under attack by modernism. Unfortunately, for many Americans, those “values” included anti-black racism expressed through segregation and disenfranchisement – thus keeping America’s long history of christianized hypocrisy intact.  *See the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Report on Slavery and Racism for a shocking description of the racist values held by many conservative “Christian” theologians in the early 1900’s.  

Heresy

There is so much wrong with dispensationalism – so many specifics that contradict the BIBLE – that I can only realistically address a few of the most egregiously heretical aspects.

Uninspired commentary

Scofield’s bible was the first Bible that had been published in over 300 years that had uninspired commentary notes presented on the same pages as inspired scripture. At the time, many considered this to be blasphemous because it encouraged readers to accept Scofield’s twisted interpretations as being equal to scripture.

The Gospel not meant for the Church (?!!)

Scofield claimed that the Gospel, as taught by JESUS, was (mostly) not meant for the Christian Church (!) IMO, this is the most outrageous claim ever made by dispensationalists. The original dispensational teaching was/is that JESUS’ ministry and teaching was to the Jews – that the doctrines meant for the church are only outlined in the letters of Paul. IOW, classical dispensationalism claims that JESUS and Paul are teaching two different gospels. This is a blasphemous contradiction of scripture.

Scofield intimates that the Sermon on the Mount (where JESUS outlines what it is to be a true Christian) is Old Testament law. He says that JESUS’ commandments will not be in effect again until it is the law for a supposed (exclusively) Jewish millennial kingdom on earth – after the Christians have been raptured to their kingdom in heaven! Note that this doctrine was widely denounced by mainline churches as an outright rejection of JESUS’ commandments.

Scofield’s note at Mat 5:2 discusses the Sermon on the Mount and then states:

“…For these reasons, the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These (commandments to the church) are found in the Epistles.”

IOW, it doesn’t apply to the modern Christian church. In his notes for Ephesians 3, after a somewhat self-contradictory interpretation of Eph 3:6 - where he has to talk around the fact that Paul says that the church is one body of people composed of Jews and Gentiles, Scofield goes on to say:

“In his (Paul’s) writings alone we find the doctrine, position, walk, and destiny of the Church.”  

Jews don’t need JESUS

Dispensationalism teaches that modern unbelieving Jews do not have to accept JESUS to be saved. Dispensationalism claims that non-believing Jews will be saved in eternity according to OT covenant promises that are supposedly still in effect from their “dispensation.” Again, this is a direct contradiction of scripture – which says that the only way to GOD is through JESUS. Joh 14:6 Dispensationalism teaches that Christians will be saved in heaven while the Jews will be segregated to an earthly kingdom. The BIBLE actually says that the church is one “new man” composed of Jew and Gentile; that the combined church body is Israel.

The Rapture will be a secret

Dispensationalists teach a secret / pre-tribulation rapture and more than one “second coming.” According to dispensational doctrine, Christians will be taken away suddenly (raptured) without warning, and no one will know what happened to them. The BIBLE does not teach either a secret rapture or a pre-tribulation rapture. (At Rev 4:1, Scofield adds a note that is erroneously related to the rapture of the church – i.e., “come up here".) The BIBLE actually says that there will be unmistakable signs worldwide before the second coming of JESUS - that HE will appear like lightening; lighting up the sky from east to west. IOW not secret.

Dispensationalism’s highly speculative and unreasonably specific outline of the end-time scenario has led large factions of the church to accept the eisegesis represented in popular fiction like the Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind Series as being representative of Biblical truth. Some dispensational thought demands that secular Jews populate Israel in order to be slaughtered in the end time battle of Armageddon; where only a small number of Jews will supposedly survive to populate a segregated millennial kingdom on earth – with all Christians having been conveniently transported to heaven. Matthew 24:27

Slavery and Racism were and are justified

Scofield’s bible notes justify anti-black racism and support white supremacy. Scofield’s note at Gen 9 boldly restates a pre-civil war false interpretation that was used to justify chattel slavery.

According to the false interpretation, Noah (the father of all the races) curses his son Ham (who according to the BIBLE is the father/ancestor of the races that initially inhabited parts of the middle east and Africa. Slavers and racists falsely claimed that this curse gave them biblical justification to use Africans as slaves because all Africans had supposedly been cursed through Ham. In his note at Gen 9, Scofield claims that (my additions in parentheses):

(5) A prophetic declaration is made that from Ham will descend an inferior and servile posterity Gen_9:24; Gen_9:25. (He means the enslaved Africans in America and their descendants.)

(7) A prophetic declaration is made that from Japheth (supposedly the white northern European races) will descend the "enlarged" races Gen_9:27. Government, science, and art, speaking broadly, are and have been Japhetic, so that history is the indisputable record of the exact fulfilment of these declarations. (Note that this could only be considered to be true from a historically and geographically ignorant Eurocentric viewpoint.)

The actual story in the BIBLE can be summarized thus: Noah got drunk. Noah’s son Ham saw him passed out, naked in his tent. For an unstated reason, this led to Noah proclaiming a curse against Canaan, Ham’s son. Noah said that Canaan would be a servant to his brothers, Shem and Japheth. The GOD of Shem was blessed (inferring that Shem was blessed). GOD would make space for Japheth (enlarge) and Japheth would live in the tents of Shem.

·      Note that Ham had three other sons who were not cursed.

·      The word translated as “slave” here is often shown as “servant” in the OT. Throughout the BIBLE, the words for slave and servant are often interchangeable.

·      No one really knows what the word translated as “enlarged” actually infers in this context.

Why Gen 9 has nothing to do with modern chattel slavery

The following is an (incomplete) outline of reasons why Gen 9:20-27 has nothing to do with modern chattel slavery and in no way justifies or excuses the horrific (satanic) evils of the trans-Atlantic slave trade:

1.   First and foremost, Ham was not cursed and neither were his other three sons. Lazy (or malicious) commentators often repeat the phrase: “GOD cursed Ham.” GOD did not curse Ham. Noah did not curse Ham either. In fact, it can be deduced from Gen 9 that Noah couldn’t have cursed Ham because GOD had already blessed him. 

2.   No one knows what Ham and/or Canaan did that caused Noah to curse Canaan. The actual offense and who committed it is so vague that the meaning of this episode has been a source of (often wild) speculation since ancient times. The Rabbis had many theories, but often ended up just blaming Noah for getting pass-out drunk in the first place.

3.   At Gen 10 the BIBLE shows how the sons and grandsons of Shem, Ham and Japheth became the progenitors of the various nations around the Mediterranean and south into Africa.

4.   Ham’s descendants are shown as settling to the east in Iraq and Arabia, in Palestine, west across Mediterranean Africa, and south into Egypt and Ethiopia. Canaan’s descendants were the people living in Palestine who the Israelites displaced when they escaped slavery in Egypt. The Israelites had already mixed with the Hamite Egyptians – e.g., Moses’ second wife was an African. Num 12:1

5.   Many commentators over the centuries have contended that the displacement of the Canaanites was the final fulfillment of the curse against Canaan. The OT treats the rest of Ham’s descendants in the same way it treats the other nations. Note that individuals and groups from all the Mediterranean nations had been enslaved at one time or another.

6.   When Noah blesses Japheth, saying that GOD will make a place for him, can any reasonable person actually believe (as Scofield implies) that it means that 3500 years later, northern Europeans will be justified in using any means necessary to rape the world of its material goods?

 7.   Here are a series of quotes from an article posted at conservative, reformed TGC about the false interpretations about the “curse of Ham.” It provides mainstream denominational agreement with all that I have written above:

 …there is no curse of Ham in Genesis 9 or anywhere else in the Bible.

 …the “biblical” doctrine used to justify the enslavement of dark-skinned peoples is completely fabricated and has no exegetical warrant. (I.e., it is not taught in the BIBLE.)

…prior to 1865 …The curse served as a prooftext for pro-slavery preachers, enabling them to make heavenly sounding justifications for the hellish enslavement of dark-skinned image-bearers (of GOD).

…Patrick Mell (1814–1888), the fourth president of the Southern Baptist Convention, proposed: “From Ham were descended the nations that occupied the land of Canaan and those that now constitute the African or Negro race. Their inheritance, according to prophecy, has been and will continue to be slavery . . . [and] so long as we have the Bible . . . we expect to maintain it.”

…Satan is a master of Scripture-twisting (Matt. 4:1–11). He is the deceiver behind false teachers who serve his purposes by “disguising themselves as . . . servants of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:13–15). Given both its lack of exegetical warrant and its evil fruit, “the curse of Ham” interpretation can only be described as a “doctrine of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1–3).

…(Although) slavery was abolished in 1865, echoes of this false doctrine continued to reverberate throughout America’s culture and churches. Prominent pastors used it to support segregation, and its sentiments fuel modern-day white supremacist theology.

What would JESUS Say?

The Europeans, who like all conquers attacked people in order to steal their stuff, decided that their success meant that they were not only destined to rule but were justified in their conquests, regardless of the utterly anti-Christian methods that they used. Methods which, as we see from this episode, included the blasphemous and hypocritical misuse of BIBLE texts to justify themselves.

The heretical misinterpretation of Gen 9 contradicts everything that JESUS commands in the New Testament – it deviously attempts to use an obscure OT passage to justify actions that are deadly soul-destroying sins – especially according to the NT.

Americans had the BIBLE to tell them that it was wrong when they decided to use chattel slavery and genocide to get rich. There is no excuse – then or now. People who today are getting their sense of self-worth from racism and nationalism still have the option to repent before it is too late.

Conclusion

Dispensationalism is so internally contradictory, that it has been revised over the years to try to bring some of its more heretical teachings in line with the mainstream. (I say this to anticipate the arguments from modern dispensationalists who claim that they have corrected many of the errors of the classical dispensationalists.)

My question however is this: Why stay loyal to a system that you acknowledge was faulty from its origin?

Dispensational doctrine has had a far-reaching impact on the world view of many fundamentalist Christian denominations – continuing to encourage them to ignore the main commandment of the NT – to love your neighbor as yourself.