Search -
Darby, Dualism, and the Decline of Dispensationalism: Reassessing the Nineteenth-Century Roots of a Twentieth-Century Prophetic Movement for the Twenty-First Century
Darby Dualism and the Decline of Dispensationalism Reassessing the NineteenthCentury Roots of a TwentiethCentury Prophetic Movement for the TwentyFirst Century Author:Ronald M. Henzel While books such as Left Behind and The Late Great Planet Earth have been best-selling successes, the theological foundation on which theyre built has been in trouble since the mid-1980s. Some of the very academic institutions founded to promote Dispensationalism have moved away from unqualified allegiance to that hermeneutical and eschato... more »logical system. Over the objections of traditional Dispensationalists, many scholars have embraced a new variety known as Progressive Dispensationalism, while others have defected to Covenant Theology. If this trend continues, we may witness a return to the situation that prevailed in the nineteenth century, when traditional Dispensationalism had only a meager presence and little or no voice among evangelical Christians. In Darby, Dualism, and the Decline of Dispensationalism, Ron Henzel argues that traditional Dispensationalisms current plight can be traced back to its founder, John Nelson Darby (18001882), although not for the reasons that non-Dispensationalists have generally assumed. Dispensationalisms critics have tended to focus on Darbys excessively literal approach to the interpretation of biblical prophecy, but Henzel offers a new paradigm for understanding Darby, one that has far-reaching consequences for those who would attempt to understand both Dispensationalism and its problems without first consulting the writings of its primary architect.« less