Due to the success of books like The Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind series, a couple of generations of Christians hold to dispensationalist prophetic views, e.g. pre-tribulation rapture, without understanding the theology they are derived from.

In this book, Alistair Donaldson (a lecturer at Laidlaw College, Christchurch), outlines the origins and beliefs of dispensationalist thought. He then examines the biblical basis for the view that when the Jews rejected Christ as Messiah there commenced a dispensation (period of history) during which God built his church, but after the conclusion of this period, marked by the rapture, he will commence a new dispensation in which he will fulfill his promises to Israel. This leads dispensationalists to divide biblical content into sections relevant to Israel and sections relevant to the church.

He argues that rather than this being the case, the teachings of Christ and the New Testament writers show that God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled in the true Israel, the descendants of Abraham by faith i.e. the church. Thus most dispensationalist prophetic teachings are unnecessary and incorrect interpretations of Scripture.

Apart from, in my opinion, a few unbalanced comments about the current state of Israel (dispensationalists are accused of uncritically supporting current Israel, while non-dispensationalist seem to slip into uncritical support for Palestine) this book is any easy read that clarifies the implications of holding to dispensationalism.

– David McLeod