Tuesday, February 26, 2013

A Simple Explanation of C.I. Scofield's (non-biblical) Dispensationalism Theory by Rev Ted Pike


A SIMPLE EXPLANATION OF SCOFIELD DISPENSATIONALISM
By Rev. Ted Pike
26 Feb 13

Editor's note:
There can be no understanding of Christian Zionism without recognition of how Calvinism and Scofield Dispensationalism have influenced countless evangelicals toward unconditional support of Zionism for the last century. In this reprint of my April 10, 2012, article, I briefly explain how this alliance has made possible the state of Israel and international Jewish control.
At Truthtellers.org my Bible study on Scofield Dispensationalism and subsequent discussion by our members expands this article. It is our most popular Bible study this month, and we invite you and your group to enjoy it also. (Listen to it here.)

A flawed foundation lies under most evangelicals’ understanding of God's moral dealings with humanity and particularly Jews. This foundation drives their support of the Jewish state. It is called “Scofield Dispensationalism.” It says that throughout successive epics, or "dispensations," of time God has revealed Himself through extremely different moral standards. The law given before the Flood was different from the law after. The law given to Moses is completely different from what we now observe in the millennia after Christ. Cyrus Scofield lived at the turn of the 20th century and created an annotated Bible which claimed to lay out each dispensation's unique requirements.
Scofield's commentaries have greatly influenced evangelicals to this day. Written at the dawn of the modern Zionist movement, they suggested a nation of suffering and persecuted Jews, though Christ-rejecting, had a divine right to return and occupy Palestine.  This idea was virtually absent from Christianity before the mid-1800s. How did such permission gain so great a foothold that it’s now unquestioned dogma for most evangelicals?
It starts with a defect in the King James Bible. King James scholars mistranslated 2 Thess. 2:7.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth [restrains] will let, until He be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming…
The actual New Testament Greek says the one who restrains, the Holy Spirit, isnot passively removed. Instead He "gets out of the way" or "steps aside" (ek meseu genetai). The Holy Spirit is never going to be taken out of this world. God owns the world. He is not about to be removed by a mere satanically inhabited man, Anti-Christ.
For hundreds of years Christians were unbothered by the King James Bible's error. Yet in the first half of the 19th century, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, Edward Irving, seized on the mistranslated passage. He saw its profound prophetic implications. He said that since the Holy Spirit would be removed from this world just prior to revealing of Anti-Christ, so Christ's church must also be removed, for Christians cannot function without the Holy Spirit. That removal is described, they said, in 1 Thess. 4:16.
For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. . ."
Clearly, said Irving and his later disciple, John Nelson Darby, these passages from II Thessalonians suggest two second comings of Christ: the first, when Christ descends and removes the Holy Spirit and all believers, both dead and living unto Himself. Then, three and half, He comes a second time. In His final second coming He converts remnant Jews, judges the nations, and begins His thousand-year reign on earth from Jerusalem.
The Beginnings of "Pre-Tribulationism"
Irving and Darby's "prophetic breakthrough" had an electric appeal to evangelical Christians, particularly in the British Isles and North America. It assured Christians that, “raptured,” they would not have to endure the suffering that follows revealing of Anti-Christ. Thus began the "pre-tribulationist" interpretation of Bible prophecy. It started with a mistranslation of one verse by King James scholars. Incredibly, that disastrous mistranslation is repeated in most modern translations of the Bible.
Enter Cyrus Scofield.  He did not originate the pre-tribulationist rapture craze that has enthralled evangelicals and made millionaires of "prophecy experts” such as Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye. Yet Scofield did something far more damaging: he laid the keel of Christian Zionism. He taught that, under the dispensation Abraham was in, God gave the patriarch and his physical descendants unconditional rights as God's chosen people. They were guaranteed the Promised Land and rights of occupation, even without obedience. Scofield said Israelites automatically receive “all blessings” by just being there.
Yet Scofield said Jacob and his sons, during world famine, unwisely left security in Palestine and went to Egypt. In doing so, he claims, they lost their ability to please God by simply staying in the Holy Land. Scofield contends that, even worse, they foolishly accepted the Mosaic Law at Sinai 400 years later. The Law imposed on them an onerous obligation to obey God on penalty of exile. Such conditional terms of occupation, Scofield said, didn’t exist under the "pure grace" that Abraham and his descendants enjoyed while in Palestine. (See, List of Conditional Salvation/Occupation Verses)
Scofield said of the dispensation and covenant Abraham enjoyed:
That covenant is wholly gracious and unconditional. The descendants of Abraham had but to abide in their own land to inherit every blessing. In Egypt they lost their blessings, but not their covenant. The dispensation of promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the Law (Ex. 19:8). Grace had prepared a deliverer (Moses), provided a sacrifice for the guilty, and by divine power had brought them out of bondage (Ex. 19:4); but at Sinai they exchanged grace for law. (Scofield Reference Bible, 1909, page 20)
Scofield conveniently omits the biblical record that God powerfully delivered Jacob and his sons from death by famine, providing safe haven for them under Joseph's protection in Egypt. Similarly, God commanded the Hebrews at Sinai to obey the Mosaic Law. Scofield's idea that simply staying in Canaan guaranteed to Hebrews "every blessing" is an affront to God's timeless moral standards which say that in every age we are justified by trusting and obeying God. Only through such faith do we inherit "every blessing" from Him. Scofield's view of the sanctifying power of the Holy Land, even for reprobate Jews, powerfully anticipated the teachings of the most extreme present day Israel-firsters who believe Jews to be so morally advantaged that they have a separate covenant of salvation and land rights without obedience to Christ.
Yet, Scofield said, when Jesus came and died at Calvary, God returned to a dispensation entirely of grace. This, by inference, means to millions of evangelical readers of the Scofield Bible that our present “age of grace” does away with the requirement of dozens of Old Testament verses demanding obedience for Jews to occupy Palestine.
Scofield, as no other figure, legitimized Christian participation in a Jewish political movement: Zionism. Evangelicals then united pretribulationism and its “rapture escapism” with Zionism. The new prophetic script for Christians read like this:
The right of God’s dispersed and persecuted chosen people to the Promised Land is covenanted to them by God unconditionally, forever. It is the duty of every Christian to honor God’s great last day’s regathering of His people, bidding them godspeed by any possible means. If any nation or person refuses to stand by God and the Jewish nation, he is in league with Satan.
Satan desires above all things to obscure the fact that Israel makes possible fulfillment of biblical prophecy that empowers Jesus to return as predicted. Without Israel’s existence and the hundreds of prophecies it fulfills, Christ cannot return. Christ stated clearly that “it must needs be that Scripture be fulfilled” before He could go forward with God’s plan.
Criticizing the state of Israel is thus to oppose the Almighty. It is to curse the Jewish people, incurring dire judgment. “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you…” (Genesis 12:3)  
In accordance with an end-times storyline created by Darby, Irving and Scofield, Zionist evangelicals now keenly watch Israel for necessary fulfillment of the following Scriptural predictions:
  1. Rebuilding a Jewish temple. The new temple is necessary because Scripture says anti-Christ must profane it and sit in it proclaiming himself to be god. Without such a temple and its defilement, Christ cannot return as He predicted.
  2. Israel enters a “covenant” or peace treaty with Anti-Christ.Once such a covenant has taken place, Daniel’s prophetic “clock” of a “week” or seven years leading to Christ’s second second coming will begin to tick.
The problem, however, for pretribulationists is this: If the church is to be raptured when the anti-Christ is “revealed,” what does Scripture mean by that term? Does it mean “revealed” as in anti-Christ signing a peace treaty with Israel or “revealed” such as occurs in the middle of Daniel’s week when anti-Christ manifests himself as the enemy of the Jews, bringing his armies against Jerusalem (Ez. 38). At that time, he desecrates the temple, kills two thirds of Jerusalem’s inhabitants, and exiles the remainder to the nations. Also, since most evangelicals believe Christ could come in his first second coming and rapture us out without preconditons, perhaps we will not even have to wait for the “revealing” of Anti-Christ at all.
Clearly, the Zionist evangelical prophetic scenario at this point becomes very clouded. But it is not at all clouded up to that point. The pretribulationist view point could not be simpler in its obligations: Dark as the world may become, if the church above all things makes sure to bless Israel, it will be blessed and kept safe. Jesus will be faithful to take out true believers before anything resembling great tribulation begins. In reality, nothing could be more unbiblical, corruptive to the church and the Jewish people, and ultimately dangerous to Christianity than building up that Zionist one-world system of oppression Scripture calls Babylon the Great. (See, 'Babylon the Great' is Israel)
Pre-tribulationism is thus escapism. Calvinists also very largely adhere to this idea.  It fits well with their belief that once we are soundly “born again” we are always saved, even if committing the grossest sin. If we as citizens fail in our duty to occupy and resist evil, this Calvinist/pretribulationist theology says Jesus understands. He will not require us to bear the consequences of our neglect. We will soon be gone. The consequences will be passed on to those of our children who are not born again, not fortunate enough to be raptured.
Of course, Scripture does promise a first resurrection or “rapture” of the dead and living of Christ at His second coming. Yet a high percentage of evangelicals actually believe the rapture will occur within several years. What’s the point of knocking ourselves out opposing evil, especially as Jewish big media corrupts our children…because very soon we’ll be in heaven? (See, Jews Confirm Big Media is Jewish)

We clearly see such apathy right now as ABC gores the church through its Christian-bashing sitcom “Good Christian Bitches.” But there is a virtual absence of Christian willingness to publicly oppose it. This largely originates in the ingrained belief that, if the power of evil proves too great, Christ no longer expects us to be the salt of the earth, resisting evil with all that is within us. Instead, we should buckle up for heavenly removal.
Yet Jesus said that the church would not be taken out of tribulation. Instead, He said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” (John 16:33) In China before 1949 a highly evangelized Chinese population also accepted pre-tribulationism, believing the church had little to fear from “anti-Christ” Mao Tse Tung and his armies. They would be raptured before great tribulation came. Yet deliverance for millions of pre-tribulationist Chinese came not through rapture, but death.
One of the paramount reasons Christians must understand how the church has gone so far astray is so we may marshal ourselves to hold back anti-Christian offensives leading to persecution. “Good Christian Bitches” is one such offensive that simply must not remain unopposed. If it is, it will only beget worse attacks, leading to outright persecution. Someday, if the church remains apathetic and pre-tribulationist like the Chinese Christians, American Christians will be standing in front of firing squads. They are about to be taken out of this world, not out of the mercy of the rapture, but the "mercy" of a bullet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.
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Sunday, February 10, 2013

"It Must Be The Money!"


Ahhhh! Money! 

So much has been said about the topic of money that I can't really add much too it; other than, money will probably the biggest reason why many will not enter the kingdom of God.

Since we were kids, the main topic has been money and how we can gain as much of it as possible. We are told we must work hard, exercise, study and learn about life as much as possible in order to achieve success. For the most part, success is measure by the amount of money we can earn or attain.

Sadly, as we get closer to the return of Jesus Christ (we are told in the Bible), life will become more difficult than we can imagine. Already, doomsday prophets (both Christian and secular) are saying (on the Internet, television and from the pulpits) that humanity is headed towards the worst time in history. They quote from MSN news reports, connecting many of those news stories to particular scripture. And many of these folks are actually making tons and tons of money by selling their books and life-saving paraphernalia through fear-mongering techniques. We really can't argue too much about these reports, because (as we can clearly see by the plethora of earthquakes in diverse places, wars and rumors of wars and natural catastrophes such Hurricane Sandy and Katrina, and most recently the frozen spear in the Northeast as we witnessed Nemo do its thing.

However, my concern is not so much about those anomalies, but the negative affect that money (or lack thereof) is having on millions of individuals and families throughout the world. Obviously, there are many that have barely enough to feed their children, and probably tens of millions that have none at all.

As Christians, we have been taught what money represents in the world, and that we should be good stewards of what money we do have. Meaning, how do we use those funds and the impact (both positive and or negatively) if not measured out judiciously. We are first told that the love of money is the root of all evil, and (more importantly) to keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have. This is great advice!

Unfortunately, many Christians are not good stewards of the money they earn (or win or inherit) and find themselves foolishly using money and its power on acts that actually go against God's will. Most certainly, many folks do have a natural IQ and have been trained for handling funds. Many have inbred traits that sees them spending money like it was going out of style, never taking into consideration that although we have been blessed with good jobs and/or have married someone who contributes greatly to the family household, God's will requires a good steward to manage the household income. 
What is a good steward? He or she is the manager of household or of household affairs, to whom the head of the house or proprietor (actually God, who is completely responsible for our source of income) has entrusted the management of those affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children not yet of age. There are many wise stewards among most families. However, there are also many unwise stewards who may not be aware they are handling the family income in a wayward fashion, one who does not expend funds in a manner that is not only not pleasing to God, but actually abnegates the formula that God has put in place. That formula has been given to us when God stated in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man (or woman) reaps what he sows!" Some folks call it Karma! Either meaning, God's most immutable law deals with reaping what we sow. 

Let me say it this point in time, I am not speaking a "prosperity gospel" doctrine here, where many preachers put pressure on their flock that the more you give to the church the more you will get in return. I'm dealing specifically with using the money God gives you to bless those who are truly in need, which could mean your next door neighbor! We are told in more exact detail and in explicit context in the first ten verses of Galatians 6, therefore, we cannot apply any another meaning to this group of scripture:

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers,(
Galatians 6:1-10). 
Now, whereas verse six above addresses that we should share all good things with their Bible instructor, the good steward knows that there are more immediate needs among the poor in their own neighborhood. The good pastor is one that factors the needs of those folks and should thereby have a church program in place that provides food and shelter for the poor in their respective communities, not just in missions across the world.

But, again, we are primarily dealing with the stewards in our own homes. I speak of the man of the house who finds himself using his funds to buy that new set of golf clubs, rather using those funds to feed and care for the poor. I speak of the father who gives in to the pressure by his children to buy them that new electronic toy of the day, rather than taking his kids to a local homeless shelter and showing them the need that exists in their community and thereby showing them one of the main principles of God. 
Sadly, too often we see where parents spend an over abundance of money on things of beauty such as flashy cars, beautiful homes, clothing, jewelry, etc. And then there are those who dole out enormous funds on their kids solely to ingratiate themselves to their children, which, to a degree, means they in essence are committing the sin of idolatry, putting them even above God who provided them with the talent, ability and opportunity to earn the money they have been entrusted with. Too often, parents forget that our role as parents means to train a child in the ways of the Lord, and fail to take advantage of an opportunity to share with them how God's sowing and reaping formula works. The lesson they should learn is not to use God's formula to gain more money, but that God does bless the happy giver!

I suspect there will be many doubters concerning this message; but God does not lie; it's simply that we do not have the faith that can move mountains, nor do we handle our funds based and motivated more so by the fruit of the Holy Spirit:

" But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other, (Galatians 5:22-26)."

Remember, we will not be judged for our sins because we now have access to the Holy Spirit by virtue of believing that Christ paid the price for our salvation. Many will claim they have attained monetary success by virtue of fame, fortune and material gains they have made. God's words tell us otherwise:

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames,
(1 Corinthians 3:10-15)."

Therefore, to seek first the Kingdom of God (knowing that all things will be added to us) will result in greater reward than those we expend on ourselves. While we feel the need to manage our funds on those things that bring instant pleasure and praise, we not only miss out on the daily blessings God provides His good stewards, we also will miss out on the greater rewards when we place others before ourselves, as we fulfill His will to take care of the less fortunate. What is God's formula for being a good steward, the true formula for gaining success with the funds He provides you with?

6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:

They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.”

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift, (2 Corinthians 9:6-15)!"

Click here to see it, "Must Be The Money"
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