Program 263
Dispensationalism: Its errors & assumptions

Dispensationalism is a popular doctrine among many Christians, but it makes 10 assumptions that are inconsistent with Scripture.

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Are you a dispensationalist? Do you even know what that means?

There are a number of non-denominational Bible churches that teach dispensationalism. Baptist and Pentecostal churches as well as various charismatic groups all teach dispensationalism.

But what is it? Is it Biblical? If not, why not?

Hello, I’m Miles Robey and you’re listening to World’s Last Chance Radio where we cover a variety of topics related to Scripture, prophecy, practical piety, Biblical beliefs, and living in constant readiness for the Savior’s unexpected return. He did warn that his coming would be like a thief in the night so it’s very important to learn how to live in constant readiness for that.

Today, Dave Wright is going to be talking about dispensationalism. As popular as this belief is among many Christians, dispensationalism makes some assumptions that aren’t strictly Biblical. So, we’re going to be digging into that today.

Later, during our daily mailbag, we’ll be looking at what Thomas meant when he met the risen Savior for the first time and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” Is that proof that Yahushua is, in fact, divine? Then, Jane Lamb has a promise focusing on divine love, and what a gift that is.

But first: dispensationalism. Dave? What can you tell us about this doctrine?

Dave Wright: Well, let’s start by explaining what we mean by this term. If this is something your church doesn’t teach, you might not know what it means.

The Oxford Dictionary defines dispensationalism as, quote, “belief in a system of historical progression, as revealed in the Bible, consisting of a series of stages in God's self-revelation and plan of salvation.” Unquote.

Miles: Huh?

Dave: To put it another way, dispensationalism is a method of Biblical interpretation. It teaches that history is divided up into different epochs called “dispensations.” It is believed that Yahuwah interacts with believers in different ways depending upon the specific dispensation. There’s more to it than that, but that’s basically what the belief is.

And that’s one of the problems with this belief system: the assumption that Yahuwah deals differently with people depending upon the dispensation they just happen to be born in.

Miles: How many dispensations do they believe there are?

Dave: There’s a bit of difference of opinion on this, but most dispensationalists believe that there are seven different dispensations. Again, the problem is the assumption that Yahuwah’s plan for our salvation entails dealing with people differently at different times. This isn’t an assumption anyone should make because it says that Yahuwah is unpredictable. You can’t rely on Him to be the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Miles: Yeah, isn’t there a Bible verse to that effect? Yahuwah is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

Dave: You’re thinking of Hebrews 13 verse 8 which says that Yahushua is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. But we know that Yahushua reveals what the Father would be like as a human, so if Yahushua never changes, we can trust that the Father never changes, either.

In fact, turn to Malachi chapter 3 and read verse 6 for us.

Miles: Okay … it says: “I Yahuwah do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”

Dave: To claim that Yahuwah has different ways of dealing with people throughout history is to suggest that Yahuwah has different, unrelated plans. There’s little to no cohesion. You can’t trust that the plan He used in the past is the one He’s operating under now, nor can you trust that the one He’s using now will be the same one He uses in the future. There’s no continuity. But what does Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 tell us? You’ve got that one memorized. Just quote it.

Miles: It says, “Hear, O Israel; Yahuwah is our God. Yahuwah is one.”

Dave: This is such an important verse. Centuries later when Yahushua was asked what’s the greatest commandment, he quoted this verse. He said, in Mark 12 verse 29, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: Yahuwah our God, Yahuwah is one.”

One God means one plan. And because our God never changes, we can know that the plan is consistent throughout all time. We can also know the plan is consistent because of what Yahushua said. In John 14 verse 6, he told Thomas, quote: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” That’s never changed! People before Christ looked forward to the promised Messiah who would save them from their sins. We look back to Christ. But the plan itself remains the same.

Miles: Okay, so if the plan is the same, could you at least say that there are different stages to the one plan?

Dave: Sure! That’s fair to say. Starting at Eden with the fall, believers showed their faith by offering sacrifices. They expressed their faith in a Savior to come. Today, we express our faith in an already completed act by being baptized. But the plan is the same, even if we live at different times. Each stage unfolds Yahuwah’s consistent plan and builds on the stage that went before. This is not the same as dispensationalism that says Yahuwah deals with believers differently.

The second erroneous assumption that dispensationalism makes is that there is more than one way to Yahuwah.

Miles: Really?! How so?

Dave: Jews that are of the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are seen as Yahuwah’s special people who are saved due to their genetics, not because of Yahushua’s atoning sacrifice on the cross.

Some dispensationalists go so far as to suggest that if the Jews had accepted Christ instead of rejecting him, the cross wouldn’t have even been necessary.

Miles: Wow. That’s not what Scripture says.

Dave: No, it’s not. Turn to Hebrews 9 and read verses 19 to 22.

Miles:

For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that [Elohim] commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Dave: The blood, of course, symbolized Christ’s blood, just as the sacrificial animals were types pointing forward to the great anti-type: Yahushua. But the point is that without the shedding of blood … “there is no forgiveness of sins.” And that holds true whether you’re descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob … or Hrothgar the Mighty or Mùchén [沐宸] the Wise, or whomever you can trace your personal genetics back to. It’s not genetics that saves us. It’s the blood of the Lamb of Yah that takes away the sins of the world.

Miles: Well, Yahushua himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”

Dave: Further proof that there is no difference in how Yahuwah treats people, and the way by which every single individual is saved is the same, is found in Revelation 13. Would you please turn there and read verse 8 for us? Revelation 13 verse 8.

Miles: “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Dave: There has always been only one plan should the emergency of sin ever arise. And that plan has never changed, never deviated. It was the plan decided upon before the Creation of our world.

Miles: That’s really encouraging. It shows that Yahuwah did not plan out the human race, giving us free will, without also planning out a way to save us should we use that free will to rebel. That’s beautiful.

Dave: It really is. And that’s lost with dispensationalism.

Another problematic point with dispensationalism is that it assumes Yahuwah’s promise to Abraham of having a land of his own is yet future. They don’t believe that promise has been fulfilled yet.

Let’s look at the original promise, and then we’ll look at another passage of Scripture that shows the promise has, actually, already been fulfilled.

Turn to Genesis 12 and read verse 7, please.

Miles: “Yahuwah appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’ So he built an altar there to Yahuwah, who had appeared to him.”

Dave: So, sure. The promise was not fulfilled in Abraham’s day. The promise was that his descendants would receive the land.

Now, I want you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10 and read verse 11.

Miles: “And Yahuwah said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’”

Dave: The children of Israel, crossing into Canaan and taking possession of the land, was the fulfillment of that promise. It says so right here! This fact is repeated in Joshua 21 verse 43. Would you read that next, please?

Miles: “Thus Yahuwah gave to Israel all the land that He swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.”

Dave: That is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. And, just in case someone wants to come along and claim that the promise hasn’t been fulfilled yet—Ahem! Dispensationalists: this is for you—Solomon reiterated that the promise had been fulfilled. Read 1 Kings 8 verses 54 to 56. This was when the ark of the covenant was brought to Solomon’s temple. What did he say?

Miles:

When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to Yahuwah, he … stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

“Praise be to Yahuwah, who has given rest to His people Israel just as He promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through His servant Moses.”

Dave: So for dispensationalists to come along and say that Yahuwah still needs to fulfill that promise to Abraham, is to contradict these very clear statements from Scripture. Yahuwah kept His promises to Abraham. The Bible says so.

There’s a fourth assumption dispensationalists make, and this one is rather weird. You remember Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a giant image in Daniel 2?

Miles: Yeah. It was a symbol of history, starting with Babylon as the head of gold, followed by Medo-Persia, Greece, and then Rome as the legs of iron.

Dave: Ending with feet that were a weak mixture of part iron and part clay. Right. It reaches clear to the return of Christ.

Well, dispensationalists claim there is a gap in the image.

Miles: Where?

Dave: The feet. They say there’s a time-gap between the legs and the feet.

Miles laughs: So the image is balanced there on two skinny ankles while the feet are neatly set to one side.

Dave: Well, I’m sure they wouldn’t present it quite like that, but they do believe there is a time gap there. But that’s not what Daniel saw when he was shown the vision, too. He saw a complete image.

In fact, let’s read it: Daniel 2 verses 31 through 35.

Miles: Okay, uh …

Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

Dave: There is no gap in Daniel’s explanation. He saw a complete statute and his interpretation is one smooth monologue from his day clear down to the set up of Yahuwah’s kingdom on earth, as symbolized by the stone that smashed the image and then grew until it filled the whole earth.

Miles: So why would dispensationalists try and stick a gap in there?

Dave: It’s just twisting Scripture to fit a preconceived belief, rather than letting Scripture mold and shape the beliefs. We always want to let Scripture mold our beliefs, not use our beliefs to mold our interpretation of Scripture.

* * *

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* * *Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Dave: As we said in our last segment, dispensationalists assume there’s a gap in the timeline represented by the image of Daniel 2. But that’s not the only gap their assumptions insert. Inexplicably, they also believe there is a gap in the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9.

Miles: Really? Where?

Dave: Well, let’s look at it. Would you please read Daniel 9 verse 24?

Miles:

Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.

Dave: Notice there’s no gap! Yahuwah certainly knows how to count. He said that 70 weeks were determined or set apart for the Jewish people. Now, most Christians agree that 69 weeks brings us to the start of Christ’s public ministry. The last week—

Miles: That’s prophetic time, right? A day equals a year?

Dave: Correct. So, a week in prophetic time is 7 years. The last “week” stretches from the start of Christ’s public ministry to the stoning of Stephen when the gospel went to the gentiles.

Miles: So where do they get this idea that there’s a gap?

Dave: Probably from the phrasing in verse 25. Why don’t you go ahead and read verses 25 to 27?

Miles:

Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.

And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.

Dave: Sixty-two plus seven equals 69. But, again, there’s no gap there. Seventy immediately follows 69. When you give a timeline, you have to account for all the time involved. Otherwise, you lose the entire point of having a timeline to follow.

Miles: That’s true.

Dave: A prophetic timeline only works if all the time is accounted for. You can’t just stick in a gap and have the count come out right.

Another erroneous assumption dispensationalism makes is that verses 26 and 27 that you just read are referring to a yet-future antichrist.

Miles: Where do they get that?

Dave: Go ahead and read it again. Verses 26 and 27. Notice that this passage does refer to a “prince.” This is who they believe to be the antichrist that is yet future.

Miles: Sooo … another gap.

Dave: Yes. Because this prophecy is a timeline that reaches to the start of the Messiah’s public ministry and ends when the gospel went to the gentiles. It’s already been fulfilled in its entirety. Go ahead and read verses 26 and 27 again.

Miles:

And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate.

Dave: Here’s the problem: dispensationalists assume that the “he” refers to the prince. The problem with that assumption is that pronouns always refer back to the subject of a sentence. What’s the subject of the previous sentence?

Miles: Uhhh … the prince?

No. “Prince” is in a prepositional phrase. The subject is the Messiah.

Dave: Yes! He—the Messiah—shall confirm the covenant. He—the Messiah—shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, et cetera. Grammatically, there’s no way for the pronoun “he” to refer to the prince. It just doesn’t work.

Now, when you look at these verses, it makes logical sense that the “he” refers to the Messiah. Yahushua was the one who confirmed the covenant. In Matthew 15:23 he says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Furthermore, in the middle of the week—the middle of that last seven-year time period—he brought an end to the system of sacrifices and offerings when he was crucified. This was the work the Messiah came to do! And to take that immensely important work, the work done for our salvation, and claim that it will be done in the future by some antichrist? That’s—that’s, that’s just terrible. It’s incredibly disrespectful to Yahushua and what he accomplished for us.

Miles: So why do they interpret this passage that way?

Dave: Because it’s the only way they can make their interpretation of prophecy work. Without making this prophecy about a future antichrist, you’ve got no seven-year period of tribulation. And that’s a huge part of their prophetic interpretation.

Miles: Ohhh. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. It’s not correct, but it makes sense why they’d have to twist it that way.

Dave: But we’re not supposed to twist Scripture to fit our interpretation. We’re to let Scripture shape our interpretation.

Another very problematic and incorrect assumption that dispensationalism makes is that there is more than one Second Coming.

Miles laughs: How can you have more than one Second Coming? You mean they say there are actually three comings?

Dave: No. They assume there are two Second Comings.

Miles: How do they do that?

Dave: They make a big deal about an assumed difference. The difference is Yahushua coming with the saints versus Yahushua coming for the saints.

Miles: Ohhhh. Okay. Fair enough.

Dave: Yes, but it’s not biblical. And, to be fair, some dispensationalists see the problem with this. The way they try to work around it is by saying that there are two stages to the Second Coming.

But that’s just playing with semantics. If you’ve got the first Second Coming … and then seven years later you’ve got another Second Coming, can that accurately be called the second stage of the Second Coming? Or is it a third coming?

Miles: Oh, I see. They believe the first Second Coming is the secret rapture, followed by seven years of tribulation, followed by the second Second Coming.

Dave: Right. But, again, that’s not biblical. Now, when you study the New Testament passages that deal with Christ’s return, sure! Some passages deal with one aspect or another of his return, while other passages take it from another angle. But when you take a step back and look at all of those passages in context, you’ve still only got one Second Coming. And it happens all at once. Not in stages separated by seven years.

Okay. Next incorrect assumption. Turn to Matthew 24. Here, we have Yahushua leaving the temple for the last time before his crucifixion. The disciples, of course, didn’t know that and were calling his attention to the beautiful buildings that made up the temple complex. Let’s read it. It’s important to get it in context. Matthew 24, verses 1 and 2.

Miles:

Yahushua left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Dave: Naturally, this was shocking to the disciples. So some of them came to him later and said, “When is this going to happen?? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” They were sure that this could only happen at the end of the world.

So the rest of the chapter is Yahushua answering their questions. Now, contrary to what many Christians assume—and what I used to believe, too—Christ did not conflate the two events in his answer. Most of the chapter deals with the destruction of Jerusalem. Only at the very end did he say a little bit about his return and the end of the world. But most of the chapter deals with signs to watch for regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple that occurred in 70 CE. The Savior wanted believers to know the signs to watch for.

And they did!

Miles: I read once that not a single believer lost his or her life in the destruction of Jerusalem. Is that true?

Dave: That’s correct. His words were repeated and no believers’ lives were lost in the destruction of Jerusalem. They all watched for and recognized the signs he gave and got out.

Drop down now to verse, uh … read verses 32 to 35. This is Yahushua’s summation of his warning about the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s just before he shifts to answering their question about his return and the end of the age.

Go ahead.

Miles:

Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Dave: Do you hear the urgency in his words? “When you see these signs, know that it’s near—right at the door!” Then he says, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” This generation!

Dispensationalism teaches that the “this generation” was not actually the generation he was speaking to: first century believers.

Miles: Yeah, you read it in context, and that doesn’t really make sense, does it?

Dave: Thomas Ice is an American theologian. He’s written a number of books on Bible prophecy. With Tim LaHaye, the evangelical behind the popular Left Behind series, he co-founded the Pre-Trib Research Center on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. The purpose of the center is to research, teach, and defend pre-tribulation theology.

Miles: So, very much a dispensationalist.

Dave: You can’t get any more dispensationalist than Thomas Ice. Now what’s interesting is that, according to Ice, every time the word “generation” is used in the gospel of Matthew, it refers to the people living at that time … with one exception. Care to guess that exception?

Miles: Matthew 24:34?

Dave: You got it. But where is the consistency in that? He acknowledges every other use of the word “generation” refers to those living at that time, but all of sudden, you can just arbitrarily decide that this one instance refers to some other generation 2,000 years or more in the future?

Again, that’s not consistent. Furthermore, Yahushua had the vocabulary to express that thought, if indeed that’s what he meant. He could have said, “In the future, the generation that beholds these signs begin to come to pass will also be the generation that sees me return.” But he didn’t. Because he didn’t mean that. He said what he meant, and what he meant was the generation of people then living.

Miles: And the early 30s to 70 CE. That’s less than 40 years. There were adults living in, say, 1933 that were still alive in 1970.

Dave: Right. It’s not an impossible timespan.

This same flexible definition is seen in the dispensationalist interpretation of Revelation. There are several places in Revelation where words like “quickly” and “soon” are used. But dispensationalism would have you believe that the events referred to as “soon” and “quickly” happen quickly and soon once they begin to happen. But, again, that’s not what the text actually says.

The Bible writers weren’t idiots. They had a full working vocabulary. If that was what they’d wanted to express, they certainly had the ability to say so. But they didn’t.

Miles: It’s assuming we know what they meant rather than taking it just as it reads.

Dave: Worse, it’s imposing an unbiblical interpretation on it, twisting it to fit our interpretation, rather than letting the text be what defines our beliefs. We can’t do that, folks! We can’t do that. We must take Scripture just as it reads and let that determine our beliefs.

Miles: Up next: our daily mailbag. Stay tuned.

* * *

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* * *Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Miles: All right! Denise from Cork in Ireland has a question for our Daily Mailbag. Hey, did you know that some of the best surfing in Europe is off the coast of Ireland?

Dave: Really? Now, see, surfing and Ireland are not two things I’d naturally equate.

Miles: It’s true. In fact, the largest wave surfed in Ireland was—get this—sixty feet tall. That’s over 18 meters tall.

Dave: That’s incredible! I’m assuming that’s on the west side of Ireland, facing the Atlantic?

Miles: Probably. I can’t see waves getting that tall in the Irish sea between Ireland and England. But can you imagine? That’s gargantuan.

Dave: Yes, I can imagine, which is precisely why I’m happy to stay on dry land.

Miles: Aw, come one, Dave! Live a little. Like the kids today say, “You only live once!”

Dave: Precisely, which is why I see no need to prematurely end it by surfing 60-foot waves!

Anyway. What’s our question today?

Miles: It’s an interesting one. Denise writes: “I’ve been making my way through your articles and videos about the true nature of Yahuwah and how Yahushua was fully human. You’ve really provided compelling evidence for the trinity doctrine being adopted much later from paganism. One thing that confuses me, though, is what Thomas said to Christ after his resurrection. Thomas said, ‘My Lord and my God!’ I understand the evidence to support the idea that Yahuwah alone is God, and Yahushua is fully human, so what are we to make of Thomas’s statement? Was it a mistranslation?”

Dave: This is such a great question. It shows she’s really studying out every angle of this truth.

Miles: Well, when you learn a new truth, it takes time to reconcile all the apparent contradictions. I say “apparent” because truth never contradicts itself, but yeah. It can take a while to see how a new understanding impacts every other area.

Dave: To understand what Thomas meant, we first have to get the context in which he made that statement. Thomas did not mean that Yahushua was divine. Rather, he was referring back to a lesson Yahushua had taught on the night he was betrayed. This was after the last supper, while they were walking to Gethsemane.

Let’s read it. Would you please turn to John 14 and … go ahead and start with verse 1.

Miles:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Yahushua said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Yahushua said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” [John 14:1-9]

Dave: So what we glean from this passage are two very important points:

1. Whoever has seen Yahushua has seen the Father, because the Savior’s life revealed what the Father would do, how He would act, what He would say if He were human. And …
2. We know that Thomas was right there hearing Yahushua tell Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

That’s the lesson Thomas finally learned. We know from the gospels that Thomas was the last disciple to see the risen lord. When others tried to tell him that Yahushua had indeed been resurrected, Thomas obstinately insisted, “Unless I can see him for myself, unless I can touch the nail scars in his hands and put my hand into his side where the spear thrust in, I won’t believe.”

Turn to John 20 and let’s read it. John 20, verses 26 to 28.

Miles:

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Yahushua came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Dave: In the New Testament, Yahushua is referred to as “Lord.” It’s a title of respect. But he’s never referred to as “God.” Only Yahuwah is ever referred to by that title. Thomas wasn’t saying that Yahushua was divine. Instead, he was saying, “I get it. I understand now. When I see you, I am seeing Yahuwah. I see. Yahuwah … in you.” This statement is a reference back to the lesson Yahushua taught when he told Philip in Thomas’s hearing, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

Okay. Keep your finger there in John 20 and flip back to John 14 again. I want you to read what Yahushua said after he told them, “Whoever’s seen me has seen the Father.” What did he say next? Verses 10 and 11.

Miles: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

Dave: What we have missed when reading this through trinitarian lenses is that for the Father to be “in” Yahushua, and Yahushua to be “in” the Father necessitates two separate individuals. By definition, they can’t be one and the same entity if Yahushua is “in” the Father, and the Father is “in” Yahushua. That statement only makes sense if they are separate entities.

Miles: Hm, that’s true. Otherwise, that statement’s redundant.

Dave: When the other disciples told Thomas that Yahushua had been resurrected, he didn’t believe them. Once he’d seen Christ, though, he believed. Why? Because he finally believed that the Father was in Yahushua, just as Yahushua was in the Father.

Miles: Where do you get that from?

Dave: Flip back to John 20. Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” – verse 28 – and what was Yahushua’s response in verse 29?

Miles: “Yahushua said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”

Dave: Thomas was saying: “I believe now. I see the Father in you.” And Yahushua was pronouncing a blessing on those who believe without seeing with physical sight. Because if everyone who ever heard the gospel message demanded the same physical evidence that Thomas wanted, the gospel message wouldn’t have spread very far!

Miles: That’s true.

Dave: The resurrection of Yahushua from the dead was primary evidence that the Father was “in” the son. It’s this belief that Yahushua was commending.

John 14: “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”

John 20: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So when the disciples spread the gospel message, what they preached was the death and resurrection of Yahushua, not that he was divine.

Miles: Hmmm. Yeah. You’d think if he were divine, that would be the heart of their message, but it wasn’t.

Dave: No. Their focus was his death and resurrection which established that Yahuwah was “in” him. Read 1 Corinthians 1 verse 23.

Miles: “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”

Dave: And chapter 2 verse 2?

Miles: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Dave: And 1 Peter 1:21?

Miles: Uhhh … “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”

Dave: Once you understand the context of Thomas’s statement, you see that the “God” he was referring to was Yahuwah, not Yahushua.

Miles: Yeah. And here’s another thing I just thought of: if Thomas had been referring to Yahushua as “God,” then we’ve got the messy problem of God Yahushua having a God.

Just a few verses earlier in John 20 when Yahushua was speaking to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb he said, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” [John 20:17]

Soooo … we’re supposed to believe that Yahushua was both God and had a God?

Dave: Well, and right there, he refers to the disciples as his brothers. If Yahushua is God, and Thomas is Yahushua’s brother, does that mean Thomas is divine, too?

Drop down now to the very end of that chapter. Read verses 30 and 31, please. John is going to tell us why he wrote what he did. This is his purpose for writing his gospel.

Miles: “Now Yahushua did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Yahushua is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Dave: Notice he doesn’t say that he wrote out the stories of the miracles so that we’d believe Yahushua is “God,” but that we would believe Yahushua is the Messiah, the son of God.

This is actually a theme that’s developed through Scripture: that we should be able to recognize Yahuwah at work in and through humans.

The ancient Israelites were to recognize Yahuwah through the miracles wrought by Moses. In Joshua 9, when the Gibeonites deceived Israel, it was because they’d seen what Yahuwah—through the Israelites—had done to the two kings of the Amorites.

The Queen of Sheba. She recognized that it was “Yahuwah your God” that had made Solomon so great. So then when Yahushua comes along, it was not a foreign concept to comprehend that Yahuwah was working in and through Yahushua as the Messiah. This was a concept they understood. But it didn’t make him divine any more than it made Solomon, or the Israelite armies, or Joshua, or Moses divine.

Miles: Are there any verses that explicitly spell this out?

Dave: Absolutely. Turn to Matthew 9. This is when a paralyzed man was carried to Yahushua and he healed him. What was the response of the onlooking crowd? Verse 8.

Miles: “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”

Dave: Matthew knew Yahuwah’s personal name, but he chose to use the title “God,” instead. He’s clearly not referring to Yahushua. Why? Because he knew Yahushua wasn’t divine.

When Yahushua raised the widow of Nain’s son, what was the response of the people? Luke 7:16.

Miles: “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’”

Dave: The Jews were strict unitarians. They believed only Yahuwah was divine. They were seeing and recognizing Him in the miracles done by Yahushua. And that’s why, John says, he recorded the stories he did: so that people could recognize Yahuwah in Yahushua. And that wouldn’t even make sense if they were the same entity as the trinity doctrine teaches.

Miles: It’s amazing how we twist things without even realizing it when we view Scripture through faulty lenses.

I want to just add that we actually recently had a program on this that goes into a lot more depth on this question. It was Program 260. You can find it on our website if you missed that. Just go to WorldsLastChance.com and look for Program 260. It’s called “My Lord and My God!”

* * *Daily Promise:

Hello! This is Jane Lamb with your Daily Promise from Yah’s Word.

During the American Revolution, there was a Baptist minister by the name of Peter Miller who lived in Pennsylvania. Pastor Miller was a personal friend of General George Washington.

But not everyone liked Pastor Miller. A man by the name of Michael Whitman detested Miller and did everything in his power to frustrate and humiliate him.

One day, Michael Whitman was arrested and charged with treason. At his trial, Whitman was found guilty and sentenced to death.

When Pastor Miller heard what had happened to his enemy, he might have been forgiven for feeling, if not glee, at least a sense of relief, knowing the man would no longer be around to harass him.

However, that’s not what happened. Pastor Miller walked over 100 miles to plead for the life of the traitor. General Washington did not want to disappoint his friend but felt the crime of treason was too great to forgive. General Washington told Pastor Miller that he was sorry, but that his friendship with Miller was not enough to spare the life of Miller’s friend, Michael Whitman.

“My friend!” Pastor Miller exclaimed. “He’s not my friend! He’s my worst enemy!”

When General Washington realized that Pastor Miller had walked over 100 miles to offer practical assistance to an enemy, he granted the pardon.

John 15, verse 13 says: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” That is the greatest love any man can give.

And yet there is a love that is still greater. That is divine love.

Romans five describes the wonderful opportunities available to believers because of this indescribable gift of infinite love. It says:

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But Yahuwah demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to Yahuwah through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in Yah through our Lord Yahushua the Anointed, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” [Romans 5:6-11]

That is how great is the Father’s love for you.

We’ve been given great and precious promises. Go, and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Dave: Before we close, there’s one final assumption that dispensationalists make that I want to address and that is the role they see the Jews playing in Yahuwah’s plan. The assumption is that the genetic descendants of Jacob and the national state of Israel are central to Yahuwah’s plan of salvation. In fact, if you look at some of their charts, you’ll see that their beliefs center around the Jews. It’s all about them. Yahushua is tangential. He’s not all that important.

Now, of course, Yahuwah does love the Jews. But His plan doesn’t hinge upon them.

Miles: Yeah. I remember how shocked I was when you pointed out just how long ago the Jews rejected Yahuwah. It was clear back when they demanded a king so they could be like other nations.

Here … give me just a second to find it …

Here it is. It’s 1 Samuel 8, verses 7 and 8. It says:

And Yahuwah told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.”

So, by their own choice, they rejected being Yahuwah’s people literally millennia ago.

Dave: Now, of course, Yahuwah—being the loving Father He is—continued to try to woo them, but eventually He let them go their own obstinate way. Paul is very clear that believers are Yahuwah’s people. It’s not about genetics, folks. Never has been. It’s all about faith and who believes.

Miles: I remember, as a kid, growing up and thinking of the Jews as soooo special and gentiles as so awful. I still remember the mini crisis of identity I had when I discovered that I was … a gentile!

Dave laughs: Oh, the horror!

Miles: It was for me!

Dave: Well, the good news is that Yahuwah is not racist. Yes, the seed of Abraham was His chosen people: to do what? To be the ones through whom the Messiah would come.

Now you look at the so-called “Promised Land.” It’s a desert! It’s dry and rocky. Hardly a land “flowing with milk and honey.” And yet, Yahuwah deliberately chose to put them there. Do you know why?

Miles: Like the realtors say: “Location! Location! Location!”

Dave: That’s exactly right. When you look at a map of the Levant, Israel was an all-important corridor. To the east was inhospitable desert; to the west, the Mediterranean Sea. Anyone who wanted to travel from north to south passed through Canaan. It was the safest, most direct route. By placing the Jews there, Yahuwah created an opportunity for them to share the truth with all who passed through. They were, in a very real sense, placed optimally to be the “light of the world.”

Now, when they neglected and rejected the honor given them, that honor passed to believers of whatever race. Yes, some believers are of Jewish descent, but they’re Yahuwah’s people because they’re believers, not because of their genetics.

Turn to Romans 11, would you please? Paul here is talking about this very subject. Read verses 17 to 24.

Miles:

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if [Yahuwah] did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of [Yahuwah]: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for [Yahuwah] is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

Dave: Paul shows that believers of all races are Yahuwah’s chosen people.

Now this isn’t to say that dispensationalists are not sincere. They are. And they love Yahuwah, too. But when you closely examine their beliefs, dispensationalism says some problematic things about Yahuwah, His dependability, and it devalues Yahushua and his death on the cross.

Miles: That’s why it’s so very important to always make sure that our beliefs are fully consistent with all of Scripture. You can’t cherry pick your beliefs and twist Scripture to fit your paradigm. Instead, we must conform our beliefs to Scripture.

Thanks, Dave. This has been an enlightening discussion.

For those of you who’d like to share this program with others, you can find it uploaded on our website. Just go to WorldsLastChance.com and look for program 263 called “Dispensationalism: its errors and assumptions.” Again, that’s Program 263: “Dispensationalism: its errors and assumptions.”

We hope you can join us again tomorrow and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

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This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage.

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

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