Proto-dispensationalism Advocates of dispensationalism have sought to find similar views of dispensations in
Church history, referencing theologians or groups such as
Francisco Ribera, the
Taborites,
Joachim of Fiore,
Denis the Carthusian and others. Joachim's theory of three stages of human history has been argued to have anticipated the later dispensationalist view of organizing history into different dispensations. However, the source is an anonymous 1316 Latin text titled
The History of Brother Dolcino, so it is uncertain whether Dolcino actually taught it. Christian mystic and philosopher
Pierre Poiret (1646–1719) is said by some to have been the first theologian to develop a dispensationalist system, writing a book titled
The Divine Economy. Poiret taught that history should be organized into multiple dispensations in which God works with humans in different ways, including the millennium as a future dispensation. Poiret's eschatology includes a belief in two resurrections, the rise of the Antichrist, and the nation of Israel being regathered, restored and converted. Charles Ryrie states that Scofield's outline of dispensationalism, with the exception of the millennium, is exactly that of Watts, and not Darby.
Formalization by Darby systematized and promoted dispensationalism. Dispensationalism developed as a system from the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800–1882), considered by many to be the father of dispensationalism. In Darby's conception, dispensations relate exclusively to the divine government of the earth. The Mosaic dispensation continues as a divine administration over Earth up until the return of Christ, and the church, being a heavenly designated assembly, is not associated with any dispensations. Darby's Brethren
ecclesiology failed to catch on in America, but his
eschatological doctrine became widely popular, especially among
Baptists and
Old School Presbyterians.
Expansion and growth James Inglis (1813–1872) introduced dispensationalism to North America through the monthly magazine
Waymarks in the Wilderness, published intermittently between 1854 and 1872. In 1866, Inglis organized the Believers' Meeting for Bible Study, which introduced dispensationalist ideas to a small but influential circle of American
evangelicals. who reached very large audiences with his powerful preaching in the latter half of the 19th century. Moody worked with Brookes and other dispensationalists, and encouraged the spread of dispensationalism. It also marked a shift in dispensational theology under evangelists like Moody, from Darby's Calvinism and doctrinal rigor to a non-Calvinist view of human freedom in personal salvation. Other prominent dispensationalists in this period include
Reuben Archer Torrey (1856–1928),
James M. Gray (1851–1925),
William J. Erdman (1833–1923),
A. C. Dixon (1854–1925),
A. J. Gordon (1836–1895), and
William Eugene Blackstone (1841–1935). These men were active evangelists who promoted a host of Bible conferences and other missionary and evangelistic efforts. They also gave the dispensationalist philosophy institutional permanence by assuming leadership of new independent Bible institutes, such as the
Moody Bible Institute in 1886, the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now
Biola University) in 1908, and Philadelphia College of Bible (now
Cairn University, formerly
Philadelphia Biblical University) in 1913. The network of related institutes that soon developed became the nucleus for the spread of American dispensationalism. When the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute) formally opened in 1889, Torrey served as its first superintendent. Revivalist evangelicals such as Moody and Torrey did not believe the
gift of tongues continued past the
Apostolic age, but their emphasis on the baptism of the Holy Spirit merged well with
holiness ideas. This encouraged the spread of dispensationalism within the
Pentecostal movement. The
Baptist Bible Seminary now located in
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, became another dispensationalist school.
The Fundamentals , co-founder of
Union Oil In the 1910s, another publication took hold within American evangelicalism. Known as
The Fundamentals, its twelve volumes were published in quarterly installments between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company. Funded by
Union Oil co-founder
Lyman Stewart (1840–1923) and managed by an executive committee of dispensationalists that included Clarence Dixon and Reuben Torrey,
The Fundamentals helped solidify dispensationalist views within American Christian fundamentalism and the evangelical movement. All five of these men either studied or taught at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). Televangelist
Jack Van Impe covered current events in light of Bible prophecy with a dispensational premillennialist spin.
Emergence of the Christian Right The late 20th century marked a shift from the
separatism practiced earlier in the century to more political engagement. This era saw emergence of the
Christian Right, rooted in the dispensational theology that places Israel at the center of God's purpose in the world. Falwell listed Feinberg, Pentecost, Hoyt, and Walvoord as his most important influences. The Moral Majority also provided a platform for
political activism. LaHaye, a lifelong fundamentalist and dispensationalist, became a prominent figure in the Christian Right. Influenced by dispensational premillennialism, the Moral Majority lobbied for pro-Israel
U.S. foreign policy positions, including protection of the
Jewish people in Israel and continuing
U.S. aid to the state of Israel. Opposed to
Jimmy Carter's affirmation of a
Palestinian homeland, the Moral Majority endorsed
Ronald Reagan for President in 1980. In Reagan, they found a candidate who shared their
apocalypticism. Reagan had read Hal Lindsey's
The Late Great Planet Earth, and it has been suggested that this eschatological view drove his
Middle East policies. In an interview with televangelist
Jim Bakker, Reagan said "[w]e may be the generation that sees
Armageddon." Dispensational theology affected more than the Reagan administration's Middle East
foreign policy.
James G. Watt, a member of the Assemblies of God and Reagan's first
Secretary of the Interior, told Congress that preservation of the
environment was made irrelevant by the imminent return of Christ. In 1980, Hal Lindsey wrote a follow-up to his book
The Late Great Planet Earth. Lindsey had not previously drawn a connection from a Christian's personal obligations to a responsibility for social change, but this changed with his new book,
The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon. He began encouraging his readers to elect moral leaders who would reflect that morality within government, an agenda closely aligned with Ronald Reagan's administration. As with Reagan in the 1980s, the New Christian Right helped elect another '
born again' president,
George W. Bush. Like Reagan, Bush spoke in terms of prophecies being fulfilled in a way that had meaning to dispensationalists. Dispensational ideas were experiencing political and commercial success, but Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye, who had become the public standard-bearers of dispensationalism, were different from their academic predecessors John Walvoord, Dwight Pentecost, and Charles Ryrie. Although dispensationalism had collapsed in academic areas, its cultural influence remained. Dispensationalist ideas have persisted in popular culture. A 2004
Newsweek poll indicated that 55 percent of Americans believe Christians will be taken up in the Rapture. By the turn of the 21st century, the term
dispensationalism had become synonymous with "sectarian fundamentalism", and had come to be more of a
political identity than a theological
doctrine. The majority of those associated with the Free Grace Alliance support dispensationalism and it is taught by the
Grace Evangelical Society. == Criticism ==