Dispensationalism is a movement that arose in the 1800s, so it’s relatively new in the 2,000 years of Church history. There are different forms of dispensationalism, but all agree on a significant divide between Israel and the Church. They see two distinct ages: first God works with Israel, then he stops that project to work with the Church, and later—after the Rapture —God returns to working with Israel again during the Great Tribulation. This view believes that Jesus’ teachings (and thus the Gospels) were still part of the Israel age, and that the Church age only began with Paul’s conversion in the book of Acts. Because of this, dispensationalists believe we only find the true gospel of the Church in Paul’s letters, etc.
At Woodland, we consider dispensationalism to be a fairly serious misinterpretation of the Bible as it serves to point Christians away from the teachings of Jesus, which is disastrous for Christianity.
