Job 36: Kings in Fetters (Part 10)
We continue from Part 9 of our series “Kings in Fetters”, where I stopped at the questions: “How do I know? Where do we see that happening in our churches today?” For some of my readers who may not be familiar with what dispensationalism is about, it is a system of doctrine which artificially divides the history of God’s dealings with the world into seven periods of time, coined “dispensations”. An essential tenet of this system is that in each dispensation God deals with man based upon a plan which is radically different from the plan of the other dispensations. Each dispensation is a thing entirely apart from the others, and when one period succeeds another, there is a very drastic change in the character and governing principles from the previous dispensation.
For example, we are told that the present age is the “dispensation of Grace”, and the last before this age was the “dispensation of Law”. According to the doctrine of dispensationalism, there was no grace during the dispensation of Law, and in the present dispensation of Grace, the law has been nullified. Dispensationalism also teaches that the current age is a “mystery”, a gap of unmeasured length intervening between the past era of ancient Israel, and a future era in which natural Israel will be reconstituted and its earthly glories will be restored and enhanced. At this point, a spiritually discerning eye may have already recognised this system of doctrine as a revival of ancient Rabbinism, the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees.
A cardinal doctrine of the scribes and the Pharisees of Christ’s day was that the purpose and result of the Messiah’s mission would be the reconstituting of the Jewish nation, the setting up again of the earthly throne of David, and the exaltation of the people of Israel to the place of supremacy. To this, Jesus responded in the trial leading to his crucifixion:
John 18:36 "... My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence."
Jesus said it plainly in this verse that the kingdom of God is NOT of this world, for it be of this world, then the citizens of the kingdom of God would fight when they saw their Lord being put to death. This is opposed to the scribes’ and the Pharisee’s version of the kingdom of God was: an earthly Jewish kingdom where their messiah (from the line of David) reigns, and the earthly Jews would be exalted to a place of supremacy. In another passage of scripture, Jesus said:
Luke 17:20-21 "¶ And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
The kingdom of God is within the earthen vessel of every born again believer. These are the true citizens of the kingdom of God, and they will fight for their Lord (Jesus Christ) and a kingdom that “cometh not with observation.” So, when Jesus had answered them thus, telling them plainly that he is not their king, they rejected him and caused him to be put to death. False religious systems and false bibles usually go hand in hand. In dispensationalism, they teach that the heir to Abraham's covenant is NOT spiritual Israel, but natural Israel. Using modern bible versions (NIV, NKJV, ESV, NASB, etc), they are quite able to justify their erroneous doctrine. For example, in:
Genesis 12:7 NKJV “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.”
The 1611 King James Bible uses the word “seed” in the same verse, and “seed” is a reference to Jesus Christ and the body of Christ. It is not to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that the promise was made. Moreover, Paul also made it clear in:
Romans 4:13 "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."
The promise is not to the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but to spiritual Israel. Therefore, the hidden agenda of dispensationalism is to promote a multi-gospel pro-Jewish agenda that accommodates natural Israel, excuses their rejection of the Messiah, and eventually secures to them an earthly kingdom when the “dispensation of the Kingdom” comes.
Today, dispensationalism is taught in almost every church as the dominant eschatology, alongside with modern bible versions that are doctrinally compatible with it. These things did not happen by accident, but according as it has been prophesied in the word of God that this should eventually happen. Dispensationalism is a necessary step in revival of ancient Rabbinism. You might have come across the “Friends of Israel” movement. This movement goes alongside with the system of doctrine of dispensationalism to brainwash millions of Christians worldwide into a belief system that requires them to bless ethnic Israel.
It is common knowledge that many such churches have organised annual tours to the Bible land in the name of blessing Israel. Some of the pastors of these churches even went as far as to tell the congregation that they must bless USA because USA is a close friend of modern day Israel. In very subtle ways, the system of doctrine in dispensationalism have turned the church to the adoration of physical Israel. Central to the Christian Zionist belief system is CI Scofield’s commentary on:
Genesis 12:3 "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Many Christians have been deceived by CI Scofield who was famous for the Scofield Study Bible, which included a gospel add-on that focuses on ethnic Israel.
The birth of modern day Israel is not a coincidence. Before the conception of dispensationalism, there was no modern-day Israel. When dispensationalism was first formalised in the late 1800s, modern Israel has yet to become a nation. It was during the next several tumultuous decades between the introduction of Dispensationalism and the birth of modern Israel as a nation that the whole world had undergone tremendous upheavals. Two world wars were fought in a span of 30+ years or so, and those two world wars did not happen by chance. They were designed for a purpose. The holocaust which took place in WW2 provided the impetus for a modern nation of Israel in 1947, and that was in the plan of the Illuminati.
Was it just coincidence that modern Israel happened to be born at the time when dispensationalism became popular and took over Covenant Theology as the dominant eschatology taught in churches all over the world? Dispensationalism asserts that the world will experience a period of worsening tribulations until Christ comes. John Darby has also added several unique features to the system of doctrine including the doctrine of “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” whereby Christians would be literally removed from the earth and transferred to heaven just before the Antichrist makes his appearance. In another words, Christians would never get to see the Antichrist or suffer from the Great Tribulation because they would have been raptured to be with Christ when the “dispensation of Grace” ended at the onset of the next dispensation.
This doctrine goes hand in gloves with the Charismatic church in helping them establish confidence in their version of the gospel which teaches that God’s will is for Christians to receive health and wealth the moment they prayed the sinner’s prayer to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. That is the “grace of God” according to their gospel. Christians in these churches do not believe in suffering for Christ or for the word’s sake. On the contrary, they believe that Christ suffered once to make them healthy and wealthy for ever. That is the prosperity gospel in a nutshell that they are teaching to the countless millions worldwide. They do not see themselves as potential candidates of the “falling away”, as in:
2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;"
In fact, the same term is also found in:
Luke 8:13 "They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."
For the Charismatic Church, the sinner’s prayer they prayed is their guarantee that they will never fall away. They will never have to endure tribulation or persecution because it is not the will of God for them to suffer for the gospel’s sake according to the “gospel” that they have received. Moreover, their doctrine is also underpinned by the system of doctrine of dispensationalism which teaches that now is the “dispensation of Grace”, and at the end of this dispensation is the rapture so that they will not have to endure the great tribulation which is to come. That will be in another dispensation and has nothing, whatsoever, to do with them - it is for the Jews, they said. We will discuss more on this in Part 11.