So what am I getting at? Dispensationalists also believe that they can project future fulfillments upon certain texts in both the Old and New Testaments. They believe that they are accurately interpreting the Scriptures. Oftentimes, I think that they are misunderstanding the context of certain passages, as well as just projecting ideas into the text which are not originally there. However, did not the apostles do the same thing? Did not the biblically literate Jews scoff at some of the supposed fulfillments of prophecy that the apostles referred to?
I'm not necessarily defending dispensationalism here. The reason I'm not is because I see a distinct difference between the method of the apostles and the method of the dispensationalist. The apostles were applying fulfillments to prophecies which already occurred, whereas dispensationalists are projecting future fulfillments which have not yet occurred. The other consideration is that we cannot know for sure whether the dispensationalists (specifically Darby, and any other progenitors of the doctrine) have God-given apostolic authority, which we know the apostles clearly had.
I remember, while being at Steve's school, that he mentioned the following verse in regards to prophecy:
Here Jesus assures the apostles that they will be able to recognize His prophecies when they see that they have come to pass. Therefore, the reason for prophecy is not to appease our curiosity about the future, but rather to comfort us and encourage us in faith when a prophecy truly comes to pass.
The reason I bring this up is because dispensationalists have also made predictions about the future. If they come to pass, I have no problem accepting their predictions and thereby accepting their bad hermeneutic (since God can clearly use bad hermeneutics, as He has in the past). But I will not accept their prophetic predictions until they do come to pass.
Now, the whole idea of Israel coming back into the land in the last days used to be impressive to me when I was a pre-tribber, but I have since learned that it may have been a self-fulfilled prophecy (since Israel was aided by Christian Dispensational Zionist groups who funded their return to the land). But in reference to other future fulfillments, like a one-world dictator, or of the mark of the beast, or of the tribulation, or of Gog and Magog being Iran and Russia, or even of the return of Christ within the generation of those who entered the land... these are future predictions which may or may not come to pass. I personally suspect that they all won't come to pass (although some of them may end up coming to pass by coincidence). But the one that seems to need the most urgent attention is the claim that "this generation [of Jews who entered the land] will not pass away until all these things take place". I think I heard it was Hal Lindsey who predicted that Christ would come within the generation of those who entered the land in 1948, and then he extended it to include the generation of those who entered Jerusalem in 1967 (I've also heard Jon Courson and other popular Calvary Chapel pastors echo this interpretation). This gives us a prophetic timetable, according to the dispensational interpretation: If Christ does not return by the time all those people die off (I will be generous and give them 100 years after 1967; 2067 AD), I think we can be quite certain that dispensationalism is false and that those who insisted these things are false prophets. This really comes down to Matthew 24:34, because it is the last straw for dispensational futurism. If their interpretation of "this generation" falls through, will they be able to still claim a future fulfillment? I guess I'll wait until I'm 80 years old to find out!
To conclude, I suppose I have become more undecided on this issue. I'm open-minded to the possibility that God could have revealed the future progressively to people like Darby (could He not have done it?)... although I'm not going to anxiously look or expect him to necessarily be accurate in his predictions. If they come to pass, then I will gladly recognize dispensationalism as true. However, if they do not come to pass, I hope the Church will have the sense in the future to recognize this framework of interpretation as heresy promoted by false prophets. (This also brings into question the whole idea of false prophets... if dispensationalists make false predictions about the future, are they not false prophets? But also, do they not love Jesus? Can false prophets be saved despite their bad predictions? I assume they would since most dispensationalists sincerely believe that they interpret the passages accurately).
